So it’s not going to be 10×10 in 2010.  More like 5×10.

The point is that perseverence is probably the most important single quality in changing your life.  Having a great plan is fine, reading blogs, printing eating charts, finding recipes, those are great activities.  But unless your heart and mind are decided in favor of being healthy, no amount of lifestyle trappings will solve the problem. (Hint: I’m my own problem.)

So this morning marks the start of my “Week About Revitalizing”, or WAR.  I’m starting this WAR against being obese, and about getting back on track even when life hands you a few lemons.  This week’s daily calorie limit is 1,00 calories per day (Yes, that’s low, but it’s a good way to remind the body what work it’s supposed to be about once in a while.  For the ascetics in the crowd, this week might be considered a FAST.)

To spare the tender lower back, this morning’s workout was a lumbar-supported crunch, dumbbell flyes, and dumbbell bench press.  It went pretty well, and oddly enough the back felt better afterward.  Anyone know a good reference for reading about how to manage lower back pain through exercise?

Current Stats

• Original Weight: 328 lbs.
• Current Weight: 285 lbs.
• Total Weight Lost: 43 lbs.

He conquers who endures.
– Persius

We’re in it now.  39% of the way to the goal, and the water weight is gone.  Having past 12 weeks of progress, the midpoint is coming up, and enduring the painfully slow progress is becoming both a habit and a trial.

Observations on the Week

• Running – it’s harder to get started than stop.
• Morning exercise – need to switch up the program to keep it fresh. I’ll be doing this for the next cycle.
• Sword exercises – moved up to the “heavy” practice sword – probably 10 pounds or so.  Excellent exercise.
• Business suit fits – comfortably!  Going to wear it a lot while it still fits.  Was also told this week that I look great in my suit (paraphrasing slightly, I think I blushed at the original wording).
• Still feel (ok, am) horrifically fat, but it’s a year long project.  Patience is a hard-won virtue.

Down 39 overall.

Week 12 Results

• Starting Weight: 328 lbs.
• Last Week: 290 lbs.
• This Week: 289 lbs.
• Weight Lost: 1 lb. (39 pounds overall)

Some quick updates, because I’m already late for my (Tuesday Morning) workout…

New Format - Bar Chart!

Heather made a great bean, pasta and vegetable dish from a recipe in Runners World.  It was excellent, particularly with some sliced pepperoni and spaghetti sauce.  Two cups of it was 2 fats, 2 carbs, 2 proteins and a vegetable square.  Great stuff!

Progress Report

• Starting Weight: 328 lbs.
• Last Week: 292 lbs.
• This Week: 290 lbs.
• Weight Lost 2 lbs. (38 pounds TOTAL)

Having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all cost of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labor is immense.
– Arnold Bennett

Phrased another way, sometimes you just have to slog through the day to get to tomorrow.  This week’s been a long one – came down with a cold on Wednesday, and did stand-up training sessions on Thursday and Friday as things deepened.

Observations on the Week

• Having a cold really dampens my appetite.  It was hard to eat all of the 1,800 calories on the eating card each day.  I’m sorry to confess that there were several days where 1,600 was probably the upper limit.
• Running on Monday was great – it’s still slow and ugly, but running a mile non-stop feels FANTASTIC.  Heather seems to think I can run the Applefest 10k with her this fall – talk about Big Hairy Audacious Goals!
• This may be wishful thinking, but having some protein at dinner also seems to keep me from getting as cold at bedtime – perhaps the metabolic thing?
• This week’s big victory – exercising every day, even the days where work needed me there at 7am, and I had a cold.  Three cheers for developing self-discipline!

Week 10 Results

Week 10 - 36 pounds overall weight loss

• Starting Weight: 328 lbs.
• Last Week: 296 lbs.
• This Week: 292 lbs.
• Weight Lost: 4 lbs. (36 pounds overall)

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
– Henry Ford

For a captain of industry, Henry Ford was remarkably pithy.  This week’s comment makes a lot of sense to me though.  Goals are critical to our success – without them, our entire day can seem like an obstacle.  With them, though, each day that passes is a step closer to reaching that goal.

Observations on the Week

• Not only can I see the veins on the back of my hand, but they’re starting to surface.  Haven’t seen that in many years.
• I ran TWICE this week – First Run, and Second Run.  Second run was even better – didn’t stop at all for that mile.
• Adding protein to each meal to keep my metabolism running higher seems to be working – 5 pounds this week, and the only real differences were running and shifting when I eat protein. (Running a mile is supposed to be 117 calories, so that alone wouldn’t account for the additional weight loss)

Week 9 Results

Week 9 - 32 pounds overall weight loss

• Starting Weight: 328 lbs.
• Last Week: 301 lbs.
• This Week: 296 lbs.
• Weight Lost: 5 lbs. (32 pounds overall)
• Whoo hoo!

This week also marked the first attempt at a run.  It was a run-walk-run for just over a mile, and although it was rocky (the mineral, not the movie), it got done.

Progress this week was: 2 pounds, right on target.  And I fought for every ounce.  After doing some reading, I think I’m going to try balancing out my protein intake to keep the metabolism a bit higher.  The results should be visible at the end of the week, right?

A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder – a waif, a nothing, a no man. Have a purpose in life and having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you.
– Thomas Carlyle

Observations on the Week

• Sunday may be “free eating” day, but it’s not a lot of fun working to overcome the extra pounds from a day of binge eating.  It’s like filling in the hole after it’s dug, just to dig it out again – makes no sense.
• Review goals & motivations daily, but don’t let them become rote.
• Just noticed that there’s a vein visible on the back of my hand that I haven’t seen for years.  Hello evidence of weight loss!
• Weigh in daily, record weekly.  Originally was only weighing in once a week. Stepping on the scale every morning is a more consistent reminder of progress made and progress that needs to be made.
• Just over six weeks into the project, and as the weight comes off and the muscles tone up, it feels like the body wants MORE.  Trying to find a balance between doing more, and doing so much that the body takes an injury.
• Have found a new eating pattern that feels pretty good:
  • Breakfast: Heavy on the protein, carbs, dairy and fat.  (still within eating card, of course)
  • Lunch: Finish all but one protein box, more carbs, some fat, a fruit
  • Dinner: Almost all vegetables, a fat for dressing, and perhaps a protein
  • Why I like it: the heavy breakfast carries me through from 5am to 12pm when I eat lunch.  Used to get ravenous, but with a solid base and a continuous bottle of water, I just don’t feel as hungry.  The mid-weight lunch carries enough energy through 6pm+ when I get home.  A dinner of vegetables (fiber) is fairly low-calories, filling, and seems to be helping me sleep better.

Week 7 - 25 pounds overall weight loss

Week 7 Results

• Starting Weight: 328 lbs.
• Last Week: 305 lbs.
• This Week: 303 lbs.
• Weight Lost: 2 lbs. (25 pounds overall)

The project is 25% of the way to completion, but only 13.5% of duration – we’re ahead of schedule!

Climb! (photo courtesy of Flickr)

After a dismal week of progress (no pounds lost), I got to thinking about motivation.  Clearly it’s possible to lose weight, to alter one’s lifestyle, and to move toward a better life. Why is it that we fail and fall in our journeys?

A spiritual answer might be the concept of concupiscence – that we humans “walk with a limp” as a result of original sin (Adam & Eve).  I’ll set that answer aside for now, as it requires more intellectual horsepower than I can muster at 4am.

I think the truth might be closer to “lack of vision”.  Starting a new project is exciting! Visually it’s like setting out on a journey.  At first, the road is clear and wide, there are lots of excited people happy to see you on your journey, and you can ride that natural excitement out of town and onto the plains.

Once you’ve been on a the road a while, though, it starts to head into the hills, and the journey takes you up and down.  At the top of the hills, you can still see your destination in the distance. That vision powers you through the next valley and up the hill on the other side.

A little further along the road, you get into a forest.  Now the hills are there, but the sky is blanketed in the boughs of trees, and it’s hard to see the destination – your goal – at the crest of the hills.

It’s at this point that I think a lot of us start to get lost.  The road ahead is either unknown (for the lifetime-unhealthy) or overgrown (for those who have been unhealthy for a long time).  It seems easier to turn around and retreat to a place where we can see our vision again, even though you’ve gone backwards.

The challenge is to climb a tree.  Wherever you are in your journey, when the forest gets thick, and the valleys seem dark, and deep, take a moment (a day, or a week), and mentally climb a tree to get your bearings back.  This is recommitment – to find again the direction and purpose for starting this journey in the first place.

This is week 7 of 10×10 in 2010, and I’m climbing a tree.

Image Courtesy of Flickr

It’s been a rocky week.  Several very long days and a series of evening commitments conspired to pull me this way and that.  There were two key things that stalled progress this week:

1. Exercise.  Although I did the exercises every day, at 5 (now 6) weeks into the project, the body is starting to crave a bit more challenge.  I’m not looking for a marathon here, but it seems that stepping up the level of effort will help.
2. Diet.  Eat healthy, then add:
   • A Bavarian Inn Chicken Dinner, with all the trimmings.  Tasty, but probably enough in that one meal to undo several days worth of effort. (3 chicken breasts, scoop of potatoes, scoop of stuffing, bowl of peas (likely dripping in butter, I’m blocking it out at the moment).
   • A generous slice of chocolate layer cake for Bob’s birthday.  Not overly large, but containing enough sugar to manufacture a quart of vodka, I suspect.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – this isn’t rocket science.  This week was rocky, next week will be better.

Results Thus Far – Week 6

• Starting Weight: 328 lbs.
• Last Week: 305 lbs.
• This Week: 305 lbs.
• Weight Lost: zero. zilch. nada. goose egg. (23 lbs. overall)
  

  Week 6 - No Progress