Week 10 progress

Posting a day late since my scale decided to give up on me. Got a new one and I'm happy to report the results. It said 418 lbs.  this morning which means I've lost 40 pounds in the last 10 weeks. I'm halfway to my 80 lb. goal.

I was actually surprised that I did well this week,as I've been home the last 5 days watching my grandsons and sitting at home is when I have a tendency to snack. Making the snacks healthy fruits a veggies makes a huge difference.

What to write

I have written very little on here of late because not a lot has been happening. At least not in the losing weight and getting fit department. My weight has been fluctuating a few pounds up  and down over the last 3 weeks.  Part of that is a change in medication from my doctor and my body deciding it needed to take a few days to adjust. It wasn't a major adjustment but he was a little concerned about some blood work results that were just outside of normal levels.

I have been getting in some steps with my Fitbit and I must say I have added steps that I wouldn't have taken just because it is in my pocket. Now my weekly totals look small compared to some people's daily totals, but the fact that I'm getting up and moving more is a good thing.  Its just so hard sometimes when your job puts you at a desk, in front of a computer 8 to 10 hours a day.

Unfortunately I have not been riding my bike and so have no stories there.  I have no good reason to not ride, right now. I guess its just laziness. Not to mention the fact that I'm busy, but not that busy. That will be changing as the National Bike Challenge NationalBikeChallenge.orgis coming up starting May 1. I hope to match last year's performance but might not make it every single day as there are a few travel days in there when I won't have access to a bike.  I'm shooting to pass my point total for the entire challenge, though.

2014 Biggest Winner Challenge

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!

May rides #7 & #8 and Weigh in

May ride #7 was a nice little 6 mile ride yesterday after the sun was up.  I started a bit after 8:00 am and it was already in the 80's. In fact our overnight low was only 80.  My objective was to get in a nice little work out and sweat out a bit more weight before my weigh in.  Mission accomplished.  I would have ridden a bit longer, but all of the parents were coming out to get their kids to school and the bus and frankly it didn't feel safe!  It really is a winder there aren't a lot more accidents at that time of the morning.

More on the weigh in in a moment.

May ride #8 was this morning and it felt really good!  I felt strong, the weather was perfect and there was little wind.  The bike performed flawlessly and I was getting back some of the confidence on the cornering.  It was a good morning to be on the bike.  I did the 22 laps I had planned on Monday and netted 10.47 miles.  My average speed was a good 14.6 mph and that was with actually taking a couple of cool down laps.  I didn't push all out, but I did push and it felt awesome.  I actually did most of rht laps staying in my highest gear.  That means I'm getting stronger and I am getting more confident in m ability to accomplish the 100 Miles of Nowhere in 2 1/2 weeks.

Now for the weigh in.  The good news is I lost an average of 1.8 lbs. per week for the last 10 weeks which makes a total of 18 lbs. for the Biggest Winner contest.  The bad news is I think my off the rails eating over the last week probably cost me 4 or 5 lbs. on the contest.  I feel bad because it feels like I let my teammates down.  But it is what it is and its time to move forward.  Now I want to concentrate on eating healthy and riding my bike and let the weight fall where it will.  I'm not under the pressure of a contest, I know what I need to do and I'm just going to do it.

A Long Overdue Update

For anyone who does stop in to read, I must apologize for the time that has lapsed since my last post.  We all know that the best of intentions don't always end up with the best results.  Frankly there hasn't been a lot to talk about.  I haven't been riding, I have been watching my diet, through.

I joined a challenge on FitBit.com to lose 50 lbs.  The challenge is simply - whoever loses 50 lbs. first gets the first place prize, second gets second place, etc.  This challenge started on December 1st so I weighed in for the challenge the evening of November 30, after dinner of course.  I couldn't believe what the scale said: 464.4 lbs!  That's the heaviest I have been in almost 3 years - up 80 lbs from my lowest when I did Pumpkinman 2 years ago.

This was an eye opener for sure.  I was glad I had already decided it was time to get back into the process of getting healthy because this was unacceptable.

That was 2 weeks ago and I have to say that combining a bit more walking with truly watching what I'm eating and going back to the low carb diet has paid off.  As of this morning my weight is 441.8!  That is a 22.6  pound loss in only 2 weeks.  Yes I know this is not truly a sustainable trend and that a large part of the initial loss was fluids, but still it is definite progress in the right direction.  I also has me in first place for the challenge as well by a significant margin.

With this in mind over the next couple of weeks I'm going to try to stick to the every Friday updates and monitor my progress on here for even more accountability   Along the way I'll look back over the year to see what I've managed to accomplish and set the stage for new goals for 2013.

Also, here is a picture of me at the Viva Bike Vegas event back in October:

This is my before picture.  Never again will I be this size.  I am hoping to have another picture from this event in 2013 and there will be a dramatic difference between the pictures.

That said here is my FitBit data for the last week:

Steps:  22670
Miles:  11.28
Calories Eaten:  16009
Calories burned:  24612
Net:  -8603

As you can see, this is not bad, but it can be better.