Weekly review - Week 3

The themes for this past week (week 3) have been perseverance and temptation. This was a rough week for me because I had many reasons for why I could have failed, but I didn’t let them get to me and I saw my way through to the end.

It’s funny, I see more people struggling around this time of the month/new year/resolution when I read other weight loss journals and I find it odd. Why, because to me, things seem to be getting easier. Planning meals is becoming second nature, my cravings for sweets and junk have vanished, I’m enjoying how I feel after a workout. All this after three short weeks and I can see and feel noticeable progress. So, if it only gets easier as what was once a forced action becomes habit, why do so many people give up or start falling off the wagon as more time goes by?

Is it unrealistic expectations?

Are they not doing it for the right reasons?

Do they need some extra push from a workout partner that they might not have?

Did they try too much, too fast and burn out?

Whatever the reason, I’m not letting anything stop me this time. And like I said at the start, I had plenty of opportunities to give in and take it easy this week. From traveling and giving a presentation on Monday, to my son’s birthday this week and his two parties to working my church’s donut social where I was standing in front of 1200 donuts for 2+ hours. I could have caved. I could have made excuses. I could have lied to myself. But I didn’t. Actually, the post on the difference between willpower and focus really helped me this week. It is a lot easier to focus on your goals and what you will be able to do instead of fighting your urges with shear willpower.

Overall

Like I said, this could have been an easy week to give in to temptations, stress and the grind of daily life. Instead, I think my success this week has only made me stronger and taught me lessons that will help me as I move forward. It is obvious that planning is the biggest key to success. Without planning, my whole week could have been a mess. With planning and a positive attitude towards the challenges my days were throwing at me, I was able to stay on target and hit my goals from last week.

I have so much energy now, it’s incredible. I can’t believe how I used to walk around each day on auto-pilot without any energy to do even simple things like help my wife around the house. Of course, that caused lots of problems and was the reason for many arguments. But now, I’m getting up early, getting the kids lunches ready, doing some loads of laundry, vacuuming the floors and doing what I’m supposed to do without thinking “ugh, I don’t feel like doing this, I’m too tired”. So now my wife isn’t as stressed with all the work I used to leave for her and things around the house have been getting better.

Food

I’ve been keeping to my plan of eating healthy foods and ditching all the crap I used to stuff into my mouth. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this, but since I’ve given up diet soda (any soda actually) and Little Debbies, my cravings for chocolate and crap have disappeared. I did have 4 chocolate chip cookies from the batch my wife made to send in to school for my son’s birthday (2 on Tuesday and 2 on Wednesday), but I didn’t beat myself up about it. I got to indulge in a sweet treat, but the key was I didn’t over indulge. Two cookies were more than enough (this from a guy who would polish off a whole bag of Double Stuffed Oreos in one sitting) to satisfy my sweet tooth.

We ate out Saturday night at Red Lobster (son picked it for his b-day dinner out). I had blackened Tilapia with asparagus and broccoli. I think I should have asked if the veggies were coated in butter, because they looked like they may have been, but it’s still better than the mashed potatoes covered in cheese sauce option they had.

My final temptation of the week was just yesterday. I worked our donut social at church. I had to keep the boxes of donuts moving and WOW, did they smell good. 1200 donuts sitting there staring me in the face. Watching people eat them right in front of me, sometimes two or three, but it was actually quite easy. I had my bottle of water with me, and I kept a sharp focus on what I was doing and not once did I start to try to justify having one.

Exercise

Work really through a wrench in my workout plans this past week. Travel on Monday made me shift my Workout A and B days to Tuesday & Thursday. I did get Workout A in on Tuesday, but had some meetings on Thursday that kept me from getting to the gym. My wife needed me to help out at home during lunch on Friday, so I couldn’t get to the gym at all this week to finish Workout B. Despite that, I still did intervals on Monday(13), Tuesday(20), Wednesday(13) and Thursday(13).

I hit the pool on Saturday when the family visited the rec center. I did as many laps as I could (I think it was 5 laps (250 yards) and that killed me. My body was still slightly sore on Sunday, but in a good way. I’ve decided to do 30 minutes in the pool each week so I can start working towards my goal of completing the Navy SEAL performance test. I’m counting Saturday towards the number of days I did intervals so all tolled, I did intervals on 5 out of the 7 days. I didn’t hit my goal of 6 days of intervals I put down for last week, but 5 is better than 4 is better than 3…

I did the Bodyweight 200 last night (Sunday) after dinner. I was a bit nervous heading into the Bodyweight 200 because it looked very tough. Sure, I’d done 200 reps last week with the Bodyweight 100×2, but those were sets I’d done the week before. The Bodyweight 200 added new sets that I wasn’t sure how well I’d do on. In the end, I made it through the Bodyweight 200 in just under 12 minutes, which I believe was 1 minute faster than than our goal time. This was huge for me. I just missed hitting the target time last week and didn’t come anywhere close the 1st week. But here it was, my third Bodyweight challenge and I’d done it. Now, my form could have been a bit better on a few of the last reps of some sets, but I made it. Next week is the Bodyweight 200×2, bring it on!

Results

And now for the moment of truth. Did all the temptation and schedule challenges set me back? I’m happy to say it did not. In fact, I have now passed my 1st mini-goal of 200 pounds and cracked the 190’s for the first time in a few years. It’s now time to setup a new mini-goal and work towards that for the next few weeks. I am noticing a trend that my total pounds lost each week is getting smaller so I’ll have to keep track of my food a bit better and throw in a 2nd 20 minute interval during the week. I’m actually very happy with how the weight is coming off. Slow and steady works for me.

When I look in the mirror, I see fantastic changes happening. The two parts of my body that I was most disgusted with, my moobies and my waddle, are disappearing right before my eyes. Sure, my belly was embarassing too, but I hated having at least B cups for a chest and that I had no jaw line or chin. There are moments where my body still disgusts me, but I’m feeling better about how I look. Heck, I didn’t even hesitate to go to the pool where I’d have to show my fat ass in public.

Here are the numbers for this week, with last week’s numbers in parentheses:

• Weight - 199 lbs / 90.26 kg (201/91.17)
• Chest - 39 3/4″ / 100.97 cm (40″/101.6)
• Waist - 39 3/4″ / 100.97 cm (40″/101.6)
• Biceps - 12 1/2″ / 31.75 cm (12 1/2″/31.75)
• Thighs - 23″ / 58.42 cm (22 1/2″/57.15)
• Calves - 14 1/4″ / 36.20 cm (14 1/4″/36.2)

I’ll have the morph video up tonight.

Goals for this week

My goals for this week are to lose another 3 pounds, do intervals 6 days this week and to complete 300 yards swimming in 30 minutes.

My new target weight for my next mini-goal is 195 pounds. That is right around the weight were my snoring goes away (or I at least don’t snore every night and am as loud as a jet taking off). When I reach that goal, I’ll be able to sleep with my wife again after almost 5 years of sleeping in separate rooms.