Current Weight: 194.0 Last week: 192.8 Change: +1.2 Goal: 163.0
Whew lad. It has been quite a break. I went for a trip to Europe for two weeks, so that was great. I haven’t been eating well, and that isn’t great. I hurt my groin on May 1 I believe, and that knocked me out of running until two weeks ago, but I have been slowly getting back into it since then. My diet has been terrible, but I haven’t gained that much.
That said, I do feel heavy. Some clothes don’t fit anymore. I went to buy a new wetsuit for surfing, and I had to get the rather bizarre XLS size (extra large small) since I am short but weight nearly 200 pounds. I do want to do a half year check in (I can’t believe we are halfway through 2022). I need a severe recalibration. I think I can do it, but I am annoyed that I let myself go. Yet again. I am exercising though. And I am blogging again. Just a little seven week break. No big deal. But I will go back and revisit my goals sometime in the next week and come up with new goals for the next few weeks as I get my momentum back.
Current Weight: 192.8 Last week: 191.8 Change: +1.0 Goal: 163.0
Another week, another pound up. That’s almost three pounds since April 22. Not good at all. I need a new plan. I need to get my diet under control, I need to get in shape and get over these injuries.
So let’s make a plan starting today. During the week — no sweets or soda or fried foods. Eat clean. Desserts will be yogurt or fruit. On the weekend I will allow myself two (2) sodas and two (2) sweet treats.
I need a plan after Lent and this will be it. What I want is a plan for life, something that I can use forever. I just need some focus and I think I can get my momentum going again. But I don’t like feeling this heavy. It isn’t good for when I play sports, or try to fit into clothes, and it is bad for my digestive system.
I need to impose discipline. I need to start feeling like I have momentum toward progress. Otherwise, I’m just decaying.
Current Weight: 191.8 Last week: 191.2 Change: +0.6 Goal: 163.0
Sorry, super late again this week. I can’t really focus lately. It’s not even that I am overwhelmed or anything. I just can’t focus. I think I am going through some existential doldrums and eating poorly is part of it. I am also dealing with some injuries and a general feeling of being run down. I pulled my groin last week on a run, and then tried to play soccer (I know, bad idea) and then re-aggravated it. So I haven’t been able to run. And my left wrist has been killing me still, so I can’t do anything upper body for fear of aggravating my hands and wrists again. It sucks.
On top of all this, my diet has been complete trash. I have lost my momentum and am giving in to every bad temptation. I need to impose some discipline on my life. I can’t seem to keep any inertia going. I feel like the weight loss may never happen at this point, but I am hoping it is just a bad day and my poor mood talking.
In any event, I will check in again on Friday. I want to have a plan going forward by then. I will have a plan going forward by then.
I have to remember that this is not a practice. This is not a trial run. I get one shot at this life and have to treat my body and mind right.
Current Weight: 191.2 Last week: 190.0 Change: +1.2 Goal: 163.0
Back again — and late once again. Last week was a tough week. The most prominent thing was that Lent is over and I have largely abandoned my Lenten diet. So that means lots of junk food and veering off from the good eating I had been doing. I need to get back on track starting this week and impose some discipline on my eating. When I eat poorly, it impacts not only my weight, but my general health. So adding the 1.2 lbs. was dispiriting but not surprising.
The other thing was that I felt very run-down physically. I ran 10 miles on April 24 (last Sunday) and then had to work my second job that night. I felt like that run took a lot out of me, and I wasn’t able to run again until Friday. This was compounded by two nights of hockey last week. One of the nights had only two substitutes for the game, so it was more wear and tear on my legs.
In addition, for some reason my hands/wrists have been really sore the last few weeks. I’m not sure if it is from doing pushups, or from hockey, but I haven’t done my bodyweight/kettlebell routine in a couple of weeks to try to give my hands/wrists time to heal. They are slightly better the last few days but I may take the rest of this week off from the bodyweight/kettlebell routine. I do have hockey, but it’s only one night and it is a skills workshop, so the skating won’t be very intense.
And lastly, I went for another 10 mile run yesterday and in my final couple of steps, right in front of my house, I tweaked my groin. I don’t think it is a really bad strain, but what didn’t help is that once again I had to work my second job for four hours last night. I was on my feet the whole time and couldn’t get the rest that I wanted.
The reason I am running so much is that I have a half marathon coming up at the end of May and I wanted to get some good miles in before then. I guess I am feeling run down because a) I probably ramped up my miles too quickly and b) I didn’t factor in how much hockey can tire out my legs.
I need to get my eating back under control as well. I’ve made good progress this year in a lot of things, but definitely have a lot of work to do. The plan this week is to largely rest my body. I will do some walks and maybe some core work, but I need to let my heals get stronger and let my groin heal. I also want my hands to recover a bit.
Friday I will have a comprehensive nutrition plan for going forward. I would like to sit with this a bit but this ‘having no plan’ plan is not working.
Sometimes, I feel like I am always two steps behind.
Current Weight: 190.0 Last week: 190.0 Change: 0.0 Goal: 163.0
I am super duper late with this, but this week has been crazy between work and after-work stuff. Nothing bad, it’s just a busy time of year in a lot of ways. And I wanted to get in the week 16 blog post so here we are. I will write more tomorrow or this weekend, so this is a brief one, but I didn’t gain or lose weight this past week. More details on why to come.
Right now, we are Walking on a Thin Line but let’s hope I don’t fall off the edge.
Current Weight: 190.0 Last week: 191.8 Change: -1.8 Goal: 163.0
Well a big week of weight loss, but it came with a cost. I am down 1.8 lbs but it was largely due to a flare up of whatever stomach issue I have (IBS maybe)? But I have been sick with one of the worst flare ups I have had in years with lots of digestive issues, and I haven’t wanted to eat (or do much of anything else) all week. That said, progress is progress. I just don’t have any great insights. I got sick, haven’t wanted to eat, and lost weight. That’s all there is to it.
The one good thing is that exercise does alleviate my symptoms. It’s just one of those situations where you feel so sick and rundown that you want to do anything but exercise. So it takes a lot of wherewithal to get moving, but so far, it’s made me feel better, at least for a little while.
It may be time to see yet another gastroenterologist. I’ve been to a few and I never really have gotten a clear diagnosis, so I am not too optimistic that things will be different this time. But maybe they will find something or offer a treatment that makes a difference. I feel a bit better today, so maybe the latest flareup has run its course.
In any event, other people have it much worse. No choice but to keep moving forward and to take care of my health as best I can.
Current Weight: 191.8 Last week: 192.8 Change: -1.0 Goal: 163.0
Another week dropping some weight, and another week where it was probably due to having bad stomach pain/nausea. Whatever flare-up I am having is one of the worst I’ve had in a couple of years. It is unrelenting. I ran a hard 10K last weekend so I was planning on taking most of this week off from running, but with my stomach problems being so bad, I would have had to have taken this week off anyway. Not fun. Fingers crossed I can start to feel better this week as I ramp up my training for my upcoming half marathon. Usually I feel better once I start moving, but whatever I have makes me feel like garbage and I often don’t even want to get started. It sucks and I need to get it checked out, but for now I will do what I can. I am hoping to get out for a run today, maybe around 5.5 miles or so.
So that’s been it. Not too much news. I was pretty happy with my 10K time last week, I was able to get it around 8:45 on a fairly hilly course. It’s funny that 8:30 used to be my ‘easy’ pace for a race that long, but that was 20 years and 40 pounds ago. We just have to deal with the here and now.
I’m hoping that my stomach issues abate a bit so I can get back to working out hard. I was on a good run until the end of last week.
In any event, we are getting better, step-by-step.
Current Weight: 192.8 Last week: 193.6 Change: -0.8 Goal: 163.0
I can’t believe it, but we are already 1/4 of the way through the year, so I think it would be a good time to check in on my goals. Some of which I actually forgot about!
Before we get to that, I had a second week in a row with a loss in weight! It wasn’t as much as last week, but unlike last week, this week’s weight loss wasn’t driven my constant bouts of diarrhea and nausea and loss of appetite! This week was legitimate. I did overeat a couple of nights. One thing I have been better about but lost track of this week is waiting a bit for a second helping of food. Usually, if I have a meal and still feel hungry, I will wait 30 minutes and see if I am still hungry. This week, I had one night in particular where I just went for the second helping because I still felt hungry. That was a bad decision because I then felt like I overate by a large amount and felt sick for a couple of hours afterward. I hadn’t eaten much that day and was famished by dinner, but then I had chips and hummus followed by two helpings of dinner. It was simply too much.
On a related note, over the last few weeks I have been dealing with a lot of stomach pain, cramping, nausea, and diarrhea. Often this is caused by diet, but not always. This latest bout was not. I have been eating quite cleanly, but my condition flared up badly for 10 days or so. But I took some loperamide one day to slow things down and then have been having a teaspoon of Metamucil daily. So far, so good. My gut has calmed down and I’ve felt the best I have for weeks. Fingers crossed I can continue with a decent amount of time before my next flare up.
The running has been going. I have bonked on a few runs more than I would like, but I wonder if that is because I have been dealing with these stomach issues and my blood sugar is low or something like that? But I had a good run earlier in the week and a 10K on Sunday. My injuries have healed and I don’t feel too sore.
I had a hockey game this week and it was fun! The game is much more tiring than I would have expected and I am terrible at it, but most everyone I have encountered is really nice and encouraging. So far, I have always been the worst player on the ice but I try not to be too self conscious about it. It’s actually a sport you can play until late in life, which is partly why I wanted to try it out. There was a gent at the skate shop the other day I was talking to who was around 70 and was still playing. I figure if I can play into my mid-70s, I will be pretty happy.
Without further ado, let’s get to the goals. Let’s start with the fitness goals first:
Get back to blogging once a week.
This has been a success! I always shoot for Friday posts, but if work is really busy I try to do it by the weekend. But I have been able to maintain the blog every week, so that is a success! Grade: A+
Get down to 163 lbs.
Track my calories on MyFitnessPal through January 15 starting December 15.
I’m obviously still working on the weight loss, but I have been tracking my calories in MyFitnessPal since December 15. I’m not always 100 percent accurate, but I do track every day and log a very high percentage of what I eat. Grade: A-
Cut down on sweets/soda/fried foods.
This was not great the first couple of months of the year. However, Lent started on March 2 and I have not had any soda or sweets since then. And I have greatly diminished my fried foods. I really need to think about how to maintain this post-Easter so I can carry this momentum to 163. Grade: B
Run the Philadelphia Marathon in November in under 4 hours.
I signed up and have been training 3x a week. This will likely go to four days in the late summer as I add more miles to my training. I need to also keep losing weight as that will help my speed greatly. But I am on track here. Grade: Incomplete
Return to Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
This one has been delayed by two things: 1) COVID still lingering has made me a bit wary of doing a martial art that requires very close contact and 2) I have been devoting my time, energy and money to ice hockey. I still would very much like to get back to BJJ, but maybe it won’t be till after the marathon in November if I continue with the hockey. I am doing an adult beginner ice hockey camp beginning in April so that will help me in discerning whether or not it is a sport that I would like to pursue. If I don’t continue with the hockey, then I will move BJJ up in my list of things to do. Grade: I swapped ice hockey for BJJ so let’s give myself an A for starting hockey.
With those out of the way, let’s go to our non-fitness goals:
Surf 10 times (ok this is technically a fitness thing but we’ll deal)
It isn’t surfing season yet so it’s too early to tell! Grade: Incomplete
Read one Shakespeare play a month
This has been a fail. It’s already April and I haven’t read one! There’s still time to get caught up though! I have to do one this April! Grade: F
Read one book in Spanish
Honestly, I totally forgot I put this one down. I really need to work on my Spanish so one book seems like it could happen! Grade: F
Play 100 hours of guitar
This is another one I forgot about. I haven’t played hardly any guitar since the new year, but I would love to get back to it. This is a nice reminder to get back to playing! Grade: F
Apply to new jobs
This is always on my list but I haven’t done any applications since the fall. Time to get back to it. Grade: F
Break 95 in golf
Still a bit too early for this. But I want to sign up for lessons. My partner gave me $300 for golf lessons and I need to use that money! I definitely plateaued hard last year and need help getting to the next level. Grade: Incomplete
52 blog posts
I didn’t realize it, but this goal is on both lists! I guess it is a fitness one and it isn’t at the same time? Grade: A+
OK that is all for now! This is a very long post, but it’s always good to circle back to our goals and see what is working, what needs improvement, and what needs to be adjusted.
We’re a quarter of the way through, let’s rocket to the next level.
Current Weight: 193.6 Last week: 195.2 Change: -1.6 Goal: 163.0
Progress! Finally! I was stuck on the exact same weight for five weeks and was able to lose 1.6 pounds this week. This does come with a caveat, however. At the end of the week last week, I was struck by very bad nausea/diarrhea and I’m sure that is a factor in the weight loss. Your body purging everything for three days and then not having an appetite are sure ways of losing weight. I’m not sure how sustainable it is, but we will see.
The diet was pretty solid though. Since it is Lent, I have been able to stay away from the fried foods and sweets without too much trouble. I am only drinking water, so that is another method to limit calories.
The running has been going ok, but I have been dealing with some little injuries in my right calf/Achilles. I am to run a 10K race this Sunday so I should take it easy this week. I went on a run today and the Achilles really flared up so I need to be careful.
I skipped hockey last week because a) I was told that my skates are too big so I needed to get a smaller size and b) my groin pull still hasn’t healed 100 percent so I didn’t want to take any chances. I am to play tomorrow night but I may just take it easy and have fun with it.
Current Weight: 195.2 Last week: 195.2 Change: +0.0 Goal: 163.0
Welp, for the fifth week in a row I am the same weight, down to the tenth of a pound. I know why — I am eating too much during the week (obviously). I was still hoping to see a bit of progress every week.
At least I am not gaining, but I hope that I can see some progress this week. I had a good weekend where I didn’t overdo it. I had a good start to the week today.
I ran my five mile race with a quicker pace than I thought I would. I ended up averaging 8:46 a mile, well below the 9:30, so that was nice! The day was cold and windy, but wasn’t so bad once I got going.
I had a bad week in hockey. I played like crap, fell badly a couple of times, crashed into the only woman in the game, missed open chances and generally did not enjoy myself. The coup de grace was that I strained my groin muscle in my second-to-last shift, which prevented me from running last week.
This wasn’t the worst thing, I did want to take some days off after my last run to rest my muscles up. But instead of 3-4 days, I ended up taking 7. But it’s fine! I ran today and felt the groin only a little bit. I have another hockey game on Wednesday, so fingers crossed I don’t make it worse.
Fingers crossed this is a better week! Otherwise, it’s the Same Old Situation, Pt. 2:
Late Bloomer Chronicles 