This year I am once again the captain of my company's Biggest Winner team as part of the Corporate Challenge here in the City of Las Vegas. Basically we have a 5 member team and the goal is to lose the highest total percentage of weight over the next 10 weeks. Our final weigh in is on May 12. Having participated in this challenge in the past I understood how easy it might be to "stack the deck" a bit in our favor by gaining a bit of easily loseable weight. One of the easiest things to do is to drink as much water as possible the day of the initial weigh in to increase your starting weight. Eating like a pig for a couple of days before and the day of prior to weighing in helps too.
I'm here to let you know I was very successful in this regard. My Friday weight was 429 lbs. and my official weigh in weight was 440 lbs. I got on the scale this morning at home and it showed 436.4 lbs. My goal over the next 10 weeks is to lose one percentage of my starting weight each week for a total of 10 % for the competition. Do I know this is faster than recommended as a good, steady amount to lose? Sure I do, but it is a competition and not a lifestyle. I do hope that the change will carry forward, though.
So, 4.4 lbs per week between now and May 12. I know I can do it by staying focused, eating right and getting my butt moving!
Showing posts with label calories counting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label calories counting. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
it's 4:00 AM...
and I just got out of bed. My alarm went off to let me know my time for sleeping was done and now I had to make good on my commitment to get back to doing what I need to do. In the dark I find my cycling clothes and get dressed by feel. I head downstairs and grab my Garmin Forerunner, take a long drink of water and get my last stick of gum from the pack. You might wonder why I would get a stick of gum. Well its pretty dry here in the desert southwest and a friend of mine (thanks Mary!) told me how chewing a stick of gum can keep your mouth from going as dry as the desert while you are working out.
I head into the garage and pump up my tires to the recommended max of 83 PSI, grab my helmet and gloves, switch on my Garmin and open the garage door. I roll out to the end of the driveway where I turn on my head and taillight, put on my helmet, slip my hands into my gloves and get ready to go. I notice that while its not exactly cool, its not baking hot either A check of the temp shows its 79 degrees.
I mount my bike, hit start on my Garmin and off I go. My goal for the morning is just to put in some relatively easy miles to ease back into the regular riding routine. The first lap around my 1 mile loop is uneventful aside from the number of cars driving on the street. Normally I'll see 2 or 3 cars in an entire morning ride. This morning, everyone seems to be up trying to beat the heat as there were 5 cars in my first lap. Not a lot by any means, but each is its own cause for concern as I know they aren't expecting anyone riding at this time of day.
I get into a pretty good rhythm for the first 3 or 4 laps, but I notice that my left knee is starting to hurt. Not sure what that's about but I keep on going. At lap 5 I realize that only riding 10 miles in the last 6 weeks has taken a toll on my endurance and my legs are starting to feel it. I keep pushing, knowing that I'm not breaking any speed records but also knowing that all of the effort will make me stronger.
On lap 6 my hands are tingling on the bars. This is where I really start to understand how regular riding does condition your body. Laps 7 and 8 were my slowest and were work, but not insurmountable I decided a nice 8 mile ride was a good place to start on rolled into the driveway at the end of the 8th lap. Looking at my Garmin, I had travelled 8.28 miles in 37 minutes for a 13.3 mph pace. Not Bad.
This is the restart of getting myself into a better place physically.
Keep on riding!
I head into the garage and pump up my tires to the recommended max of 83 PSI, grab my helmet and gloves, switch on my Garmin and open the garage door. I roll out to the end of the driveway where I turn on my head and taillight, put on my helmet, slip my hands into my gloves and get ready to go. I notice that while its not exactly cool, its not baking hot either A check of the temp shows its 79 degrees.
I mount my bike, hit start on my Garmin and off I go. My goal for the morning is just to put in some relatively easy miles to ease back into the regular riding routine. The first lap around my 1 mile loop is uneventful aside from the number of cars driving on the street. Normally I'll see 2 or 3 cars in an entire morning ride. This morning, everyone seems to be up trying to beat the heat as there were 5 cars in my first lap. Not a lot by any means, but each is its own cause for concern as I know they aren't expecting anyone riding at this time of day.
I get into a pretty good rhythm for the first 3 or 4 laps, but I notice that my left knee is starting to hurt. Not sure what that's about but I keep on going. At lap 5 I realize that only riding 10 miles in the last 6 weeks has taken a toll on my endurance and my legs are starting to feel it. I keep pushing, knowing that I'm not breaking any speed records but also knowing that all of the effort will make me stronger.
On lap 6 my hands are tingling on the bars. This is where I really start to understand how regular riding does condition your body. Laps 7 and 8 were my slowest and were work, but not insurmountable I decided a nice 8 mile ride was a good place to start on rolled into the driveway at the end of the 8th lap. Looking at my Garmin, I had travelled 8.28 miles in 37 minutes for a 13.3 mph pace. Not Bad.
This is the restart of getting myself into a better place physically.
Keep on riding!
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
It truly is an adventure...
When I decided to start this blog over 3 years ago, I was trying to decide what to call it. I knew that a lot of what I would write about was riding my bike as I had fallen in love with riding again after many, many years. I also knew that this blog would be more than that. In order to ride more and enjoy it more I needed to lose weight and get healthier than I was. There just was no 2 ways about it. In order to ride more, and as a side effect of riding more, I knew that my weight had to change. It has, but not nearly as much as it should.
Its truly been an adventure over these last 3 1/2 years in that I've had my ups and downs in both achievements and in my weight and fitness levels.
Unfortunately I've been on a bit of a down lately. I haven't been watching what I eat as I should. I haven't been riding and being as active as I should and my current weight shows it. I have not been on a scale since I completed the Biggest Winner challenge back in May, but I know my weight has gone up by how my clothes are fitting, by how I look in the mirror and how I can feel the extra weight walking up the stairs.
Am I back to my heaviest, no. Have I gained 15 or 20 lbs? Probably. There has been a real lack of motivation to get up at 4:00 am and get on my bike. I like to kid myself and say I'll do it later, but later never comes. I've told myself every excuse in the book - I'm tired, its too hot, its too windy, I'll do it tomorrow, my back is sore, I don't feel good... on and on and on. the reality is these are all just excuses for me to stay in bed or to stay in my chair with my feet up, watching TV or playing on my computer.
The irony is I spend a good deal of time reading about other's adventures and accomplishments on the bike or getting fit and healthy while not doing it myself. That has to change. not tomorrow, not next week but today.
I know from experience that huge changes all at once don't work for me and are not sustainable in the long run. I've drastically changed my diet and it usually last 4 to 6 weeks or so and then I get bored and feel too restricts and just go back to overeating unhealthy foods. I've started rigorous, daily exercise regimens for them to fall apart after a week or two.
My goal for the next week is to start tracking my foods again and limit my portion sizes to stay withing a 2300 calorie a day allotment. I'm also going to wear my fitbit daily and increase my steps to at least 5000 per day for the next week. Along the way I plan on getting more miles in on my bike, going back to my goal of at least 3 days per week and hopefully more.
I am not getting younger, nor am I getting healthier with my current routine so now its time to apply myself and do what I need to do to get it done.
Its truly been an adventure over these last 3 1/2 years in that I've had my ups and downs in both achievements and in my weight and fitness levels.
Unfortunately I've been on a bit of a down lately. I haven't been watching what I eat as I should. I haven't been riding and being as active as I should and my current weight shows it. I have not been on a scale since I completed the Biggest Winner challenge back in May, but I know my weight has gone up by how my clothes are fitting, by how I look in the mirror and how I can feel the extra weight walking up the stairs.
Am I back to my heaviest, no. Have I gained 15 or 20 lbs? Probably. There has been a real lack of motivation to get up at 4:00 am and get on my bike. I like to kid myself and say I'll do it later, but later never comes. I've told myself every excuse in the book - I'm tired, its too hot, its too windy, I'll do it tomorrow, my back is sore, I don't feel good... on and on and on. the reality is these are all just excuses for me to stay in bed or to stay in my chair with my feet up, watching TV or playing on my computer.
The irony is I spend a good deal of time reading about other's adventures and accomplishments on the bike or getting fit and healthy while not doing it myself. That has to change. not tomorrow, not next week but today.
I know from experience that huge changes all at once don't work for me and are not sustainable in the long run. I've drastically changed my diet and it usually last 4 to 6 weeks or so and then I get bored and feel too restricts and just go back to overeating unhealthy foods. I've started rigorous, daily exercise regimens for them to fall apart after a week or two.
My goal for the next week is to start tracking my foods again and limit my portion sizes to stay withing a 2300 calorie a day allotment. I'm also going to wear my fitbit daily and increase my steps to at least 5000 per day for the next week. Along the way I plan on getting more miles in on my bike, going back to my goal of at least 3 days per week and hopefully more.
I am not getting younger, nor am I getting healthier with my current routine so now its time to apply myself and do what I need to do to get it done.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
May Ride #9
Got up and got out there for the 4th morning in a row and it felt good. I'm finally getting into a groove. No mechanical issues, no weather issues, just getting out there and putting in a few miles every morning.
This morning it was another 22 laps around the block for a total of 10.48 miles. I even did it faster than yesterday by 37 seconds! That actually gave me an average speed of 14.8 mph! It also got me over the 300 mile mark so far for the year.
As with yesterday's ride, I could have gone farther, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't too late to upload the data and put up my post this morning.
Hope everyone has a great day and is able to get out and enjoy the outdoors in some way!
This morning it was another 22 laps around the block for a total of 10.48 miles. I even did it faster than yesterday by 37 seconds! That actually gave me an average speed of 14.8 mph! It also got me over the 300 mile mark so far for the year.
As with yesterday's ride, I could have gone farther, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't too late to upload the data and put up my post this morning.
Hope everyone has a great day and is able to get out and enjoy the outdoors in some way!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Its simple, really...
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about my weight loss and fitness journey. I’ve been
reading many different blogs and articles on such topics as Metabolic Efficiency, vegan lifestyle, and countless miracle diets and exercise plans. I was trying to wrap my head around all of this very diverse information and figure out which of these was “the” plan for me. I then happened on a blog written by Shawn Tyler Weeks titled 344 pounds.
reading many different blogs and articles on such topics as Metabolic Efficiency, vegan lifestyle, and countless miracle diets and exercise plans. I was trying to wrap my head around all of this very diverse information and figure out which of these was “the” plan for me. I then happened on a blog written by Shawn Tyler Weeks titled 344 pounds.
It was like a light bulb went off. There are no miracle diets, no special foods nor specific exercise routines to lose the weight. It’s a simple formula really – consume less calories than you burn and lose weight. It really is that simple. Shawn has lost over 130 pounds doing just that.
One of the hardest things to do is to identify exactly how many calories you are consuming. This is
where an awesome, free site can help. Its called My Fitness Pal. It’s a free site that allows you to enter the foods you eat and track calories and fat and carbs. It also allows you to track the calories you burn through exercise.
where an awesome, free site can help. Its called My Fitness Pal. It’s a free site that allows you to enter the foods you eat and track calories and fat and carbs. It also allows you to track the calories you burn through exercise.
That’s the second part of the simple equation – if you want to lose more weight then you have to get off your ass and move – be active. It really doesn’t matter what the activity is, as long as you are up and moving you are burning calories.
I’ve started tracking my calories, both consumed and burned, and have come to a conclusion that really isn’t much of a revelation if you know me – I have a problem with portion sizes.
I have always been a big eater and have conditioned myself over decades to grab massive portions of food when I eat. I have been complimented in the past on how much I could consume. Obviously if I’m consuming that much then the equation is out of balance and the surplus calories are adding weight on. So, one of my biggest areas of work is to make sure that I watch my portion sizes and keep them reasonable.
Here's to a new simple lifestyle change - watch the calories and get moving. Let's see what a powerful combination these 2 things can be.
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