Week 12

So, another week has come and gone and I was hoping to report that I have lost all of the pounds gained last week and while that is not true, I have lost 1 lb.  I'm a bit perplexed as to the reason for this as my eating hasn't changed significantly from my successful routine of the initial 10 weeks of this journey.  All I can figure is that I've reached a plateau and I need to work through things and stay the course.  I know that changes will come.  The only disappointing thing is that Monday is the final weigh in for the Biggest Winner challenge and I feel bad that I am not performing better for my teammates.

On a positive note, I have gotten in a couple of short rides over the last 2 days for the National Bike Challenge.  I am very happy that I am out and riding.  Now I need to get into a steady routine and increase my daily mileage.  there is a bit of frustration associated with the challenge as they are having big issues reporting the data they are collecting for the challenge.  The post on the site yesterday says it may take up to 3 weeks for them to fix all of the issues.  Seems like a long time to me.  The good news is, though, it has given me the small boost I needed to get my butt on the bike.

My goal is to stay hyper-focused this week and see if I can't make a decent number on the scale for the weigh in on Monday.  I know putting some time in on the bike will certainly help in that regard.

Week 7 Progress

OK, I know I missed last week but that was because I was away at a conference for work.  I left on Sunday and returned on Wednesday evening.  The good news is that I wasn't totally derailed by the conference.  At times it was a challenge to find decent foods to eat following the Paleo diet, but I made it and didn't resort to awful food choices.  I weighed in this morning and the scale showed 431 lbs. That is a loss so far of 27 lbs. since starting this personal challenge 7 weeks ago.  I'm still on track to hit my goal as long as I maintain my progress.

My 2 toughest days during this time were heading to and from the conference as I spent about 6 hours int eh car each way.  I was so tempted to just grab fast food or other snacks to help occupy me while I was driving, but I didn't give into the temptation and made it through.  One highlight of the conference was a special event where we had dinner on the USS Midway which is set up as a living history museum.  While the food choices were scarce, seeing and touching the history was awesome.  I also got in my most steps for the week traipsing around the decks and it didn't feel like exercise at all.  Here is a peek at the flight deck:

With that over, it is now time to buckle down ans really make some progress.  A plus is that within our family we have also started our own competition wherein we are each putting up cash for the next 6 months and the person who loses the highest percentage of weight gets to take home the Prize.  Because of the format of weekly weigh-ins and exemptions for the weekly percentage winners, the purse will be a nice $390.  I'm planning on walking away with it.

Biggest Winner 2016

So, here it is, the start of my 4th Biggest Winner weight loss competition as part of the City of Las Vegas' Corporate Challenge.  The weigh in was yesterday and their scale put me at 438 lbs.  I thought it might have been a couple of pounds light and when I got home and on my scale it showed 440 lbs.  So there it is.  Now this is actually a bit heavier than I was on Tuesday and that was a result of eating some salty foods and drinking a ton of liquids.  I expect that increase to disappear in the next day or two as I flush out my system.

What I find strange is that while we have medaled, taking the bronze last year, and I have lost weight in the competition, it obviously has not 'stuck'.  Let's look back just a single year to last year's competition.  I started the competition with a weight of  448 lbs. and ended at 420 lbs. for a loss of 28 lbs.  You will notice that that is significantly less than yesterday's weight and especially my weight of 458 lbs. back on 2/8 when I started my personal weight loss challenge.

What this tells me is that if I set my sights on a concrete goal, then I am actually pretty good at doing what I need to in order to lose weight, but when there is no target I let my eating slip way out of control.  I see that this is not just a short term change that I need to make in order to meet these short term goals, but it needs to be a lifetime change in my eating behavior. I am working to make that lifetime change a reality.

So, until I get to where I need to be, I am going to keep putting short term goals out there and then striving to meet them.  I have my 6 month goal of losing that 80 lbs. and I am going to hit it, no if's ands or buts, but then I am going to continue on until I reach my ultimate target goal of under 250 lbs.

A great start

Today, I gathered the first week's weigh in results from my Biggest Winner team and I am blown away by how well we are doing as this competition gets rolling.  As a team we have lost a total of 1.67% of our body weight in 6 days.  That is outstanding progress.  Sure I realize that the first week of any weight loss program tends to be a higher level of loss than will be achieved on an ongoing basis, but it is still a great start.  As a group we have lost 23 lbs.  By my calculations, if we can maintain an ongoing rate of loss of just half of the first week's for the next 8 weeks, we should lose about 111 pounds by the end of the competition. This would equal a loss of 8.04%.  Last year's winning team lost 7.02%.

To keep myself on the right track and losing weight I actually got out for a nice bike ride over the weekend.  There really is no excuse not to ride with our beautiful weather of late.  I went 5.85 miles which was a good distance and I certainly felt my lack of riding over the past several months.  Its time to make it more of a habit.  I need to in order to hit my goals for the year.

So, my plan is to get on my bike in the evenings and put in at least some miles every other day, at a minimum.  I also will continue to eat a healthy, low-carb diet and drink lots of water.  I'm hoping my doctor notices an improvement in my BP and blood work next week when I go see him.

Until then,

Get on your bike and ride!!!!!

National Bike Challenge stats

Yesterday was the end of the National Bike Challenge.  The challenge ran from May 1st through September 30 and it was designed to promote cycling across the country.

I was a little late to the party and joined on May 12.  The challenge is the catalyst which spawned my personal challenge to ride 180 days in a row.  To date I have ridden 139 days consecutively.

What is really great about the challenge is how cyclists support and encourage others along the way.  I actually joined the challenge with 47 other riders from my work.  We had a pair of awesome organizers (thanks Keely and Eric) and everyone was motivated to ride.  What I like is that you could see how well you were doing not only on a national scale, but a state local and organizational scale as well.

Let's break down the statistics.

Above is my overall statistics.  I rode 336.5 miles in 140 rides over the course of the challenge.  That earned me 3,136 points which placed me #4,757 out of 47,087 riders nationally.

Locally I was number 23 out of 202 riders.

At my workplace I was #9 of 48 riders.  Not too bad at all!

What I liked about the challenge is that they gave 20 points for getting on the bike and riding at least a mile on a day.  They then awarded a point for each mile ridden. This rewards perseverance which I how I placed so high.

I am certainly glad I participated in the challenge and look forward to it again next year.

Get on your bikes and ride!