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!

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

“Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain. Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. Also, most importantly, it is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It’s a state of mind – you could call it character in action.”

– Vince Lombardi

A suitable quote for Superbowl Sunday, and one that highlights some of the key learnings on the project this week.  The ability to deny self (ie, deal with hunger) is critical to any project of self-improvement, and to a well-balanced life.

Observations on the Week

A few observations on the 5th week of this year-long project.

• Making time for exercise and eating healthy means giving up time for other things.
  • There are only 24 hours in a day, and they all get used every day; it’s possible to save a few hours to use later.
• The wise use of time requires as much (or more) self-discipline than waking up and exercising.
  • So many time-wasters are like mosquitos – they suck away time and you don’t feel the itch until after it’s too late!
• It is simultaneously gratifying an frustrating to lose weight.
  • Gratifying, because you’re making progress toward your goal, you feel better, and all the other stuff that’s been written about losing weight.
  • Frustrating, because even though you have a goal (such as the 10×10 in 2010 goal of this project), progress seems…so…painfully…slow.
• Staying busy is something of a blessing, because you don’t notice you’re hungry.

Week 5 Results

• 

  Week 5 - 23 pounds overall weight loss

  Starting Weight: 328 lbs.

• Last Week: 309 lbs.
• This Week: 305 lbs.
• Weight Lost: 4 lbs. (23 pounds overall)

Put another way, the project is 23% of the way toward completion, but is only 10% of the schedule.  As the chart illustrates, the project is substantially ahead of schedule.  If the weight loss were to continue at roughly this pace (it won’t), it would be completed sometime toward the end of July.

Maintaining this pace of weight loss isn’t something I’m chasing.  Unlike the contestants on The Biggest Loser, I’m not medically supervised – this whole project is being done at a reasonable pace, with reasonable effort, integrated into a real daily life.

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. We did not weave the web of life; We are merely a strand in it. What we do with the web, we do to ourselves…
– Chief Seattle

Chief Seattle’s quote might sound like an environmental statement, but that’s not my point.  There’s a corollary:  What we do to ourselves, we do to the web – to those around us.  For anyone who has children this is intuitively obvious – especially after they repeat in public something we said in private, when they were at the other end of the house.  Kids hear everything, they see everything. This is true in a wider sense, though.  The choices we make have similar effects on those around us.

Applied to the 10×10 in 2010 project, I’m trying to be mindful that my decisions impact others.  If I die of a heart attack in the back yard, as my grandfather did when I was younger, I rob my family in a very real sense.  We are all examples, whether good or bad.  Changing my life with this big, hairy audacious goal helps me (I lose weight, get healthy), and hopefully those around me as well.

Day 28, 19 lbs total

The End of the First 4-Week Cycle

The 8 Minutes in the Morning program runs in 4-week cycles.  Jorge Cruise, the author, says to repeat the cycle if you have more weight to lose (I do).  In fact, since this is a year-long project, the cycle will repeat a total of 13 times.

Next week (tomorrow) begins the second cycle, where all of the exercises repeat.  The original 8 Minutes book is designed as a workbook, designed for you to write in each day’s progress and motivational notes, etc.  It’s already well-covered in graffitti from earlier cycles a few years ago, so I created my own packet in Microsoft Word with the exercises and journal entry slots.  Having it in an editable format is useful. I added a morning prayer to the front cover and am slowly changing the daily quotes to other, more personally-meaningful sayings.

Learnings This Week

Here are this weeks’ observations and learnings.  As always, if I did something stupid, it’s not a license for you to follow in my footsteps – let common sense apply.

• It is much easier to exercise in the early morning when the rest of the family is asleep. It’s hard to hear the body’s responses when the kids are swirling around like a desert tornado.
• Even the best recipes get boring if you eat them all the time.  Next time I make black bean burgers, it won’t be a quintuple batch…
• Weighing in on Thursday mornings after breakfast is a GREAT way to inspire the amount of panic necessary to hit 2 lbs by Sunday.
• Sharing your weight loss plans with a wide circle is a great way to get little motivational booster shots at random times.  Thanks to Terry, Dave, Brian and Vince this week for asking how it’s going, it helps keep me on track.
• Finding a smaller piece of clothing you can wear, something that used to fit, then didn’t, and now does again.  Pure Joy!

Have any learnings or comments?  Click the comments link below and let me know what you think! Words of wisdom, encouragement and correction always welcome. (All comments moderated to keep out the riffraff.)

Week 4 Results

• Starting Weight: 328 lbs.
• Last Week: 312 lbs.
• This Week: 309 lbs.
• Weight Lost: 3 lbs. (19 pounds overall)

Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.
–Henry Ford

January’s over half-over, and the project has been under way for a full three weeks now.  Carrying the eating cards is becoming more comfortable, and it’s an opportunity to start a conversation with those curious about the project. Mary at work helped the project along by denying me access to the magical Dove Chocolate dish on the counter.  The card system does provide for a small amount of treats and cravings so it’s not total privation.

The black bean burger recipe got a big workout early in the week – we mixed up a quintuple (5x) batch on Tuesday night; it yielded 27 burgers.  Bagged and frozen, the burgers have served all week as the lunch centerpiece.  They’re not quite as tasty reheated, but the cafeteria at work has Frank’s RedHot.  Poor drowned burgers.

Learnings This Week

Some random educational thoughts for week 3 of the project.  These are personal, anecdotal observations.  If I do something stupid and you follow my example, remember Mom asking “If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you follow?”  Let common sense apply.

• Stretching in the morning after workouts is a great time to listen to your body.  If a stretch hurts, you’re probably pushing it too hard, back off a little.
• It’s better to have a lousy workout than no workout.  Even if you’re not feeling particularly well, do the exercise.  That way when you’re not feeling well later, you can look back at *this* success and remind yourself it can be done.
• The mirror is a poor gauge of weight loss, especially early on when you’re still the size of a beached whale.  A better gauge is the fit of your clothes (my poor wife needs a whole new wardrobe after running for a few months).
• This is going to sound strange, but hunger is your friend. Now, I’m not talking about ravenous starvation.  Walking around feeling stuffed (or even just full) probably means you ate too much.  Having a mild hungry feeling is your body’s way of saying, “Hey, I’m eating into some fat reserves here, just want you know.”

Have any learnings or comments?  Click the comments link below and let me know what you think! Words of wisdom, encouragement and correction always welcome. (All comments moderated to keep out the riffraff.)

Week 3 Results

• Starting Weight: 328 lbs.
• Last Week: 317 lbs.
• This Week: 312 lbs.
• Weight Lost: 5 lbs (16 lbs overall)