Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope you have a good weekend.

Last week was another good week. I hit the 20 lbs lost mark! I'm now 216 lbs. That's a pretty good feeling and a cool milestone. All of the work and sacrifice is paying off.

What nice to know is that I can still have a few bad things throughout the week and still keep on pace. That helps to know that once I get to my target, I can maintain that weight and still enjoy some of the foods that are "not on the diet."

I'll keep it short for the holiday weekend. Happy 4th and thanks again for the support!!!

2 months in the books!

This is the end of week 8. For just about 2 months now, I've been on this adventure to transform the way that I live my life. I've learned to not give into the temptations to eat all of the things that taste SOOOOOOO good, but are of almost no nutritional value. I've found ways to keep exercise fun and I've seen some great changes in the way I feel and look. I've achieve a new milestone this week. I'm in the 2-teens now! 218 lbs! It feels good to be able to say that again.

I'm now 2 lbs away from having lost 20 lbs. I'm really going to try and achieve that this week. Leslie will be out of town, so it's going to be hard not to munch while I'm by myself with the pups this week. But I should be able to get my work outs in without too many worries. I just have to remember not to leave my goggles at the pool after I swim like I did yesterday ;)

Thanks again for all of the support and I look forward to sharing the next achievement with you!

Disapointing end to week 7

So this was not a great week. I'll admit I was getting a bit cocky. I was feeling good. I was thinking I'm finally starting to look better. I had several people tell me this week that they thought I looked like I had lost weight. That made me feel good. But I think the vanity came back to bite me in the ass.

I got on the scale this morning, and to my shock, I had not lost any weight. I was really looking forward to being in the 2-teens. I had been good about what I was eating, I was swimming at night and all for a big fat zero in weight change. I guess this is about the time when my body will get used to what I have been doing and has found out how to manage with my calorie in take and the amount that I'm burning with my work outs. I guess this is the next hurdle I have to get over. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but this one hurt.

I guess there's not much else to say but to get back out there, work hard, eat smarter and push through to the 2-teens. I'll let you know how it goes.

End of Week 6

This has been some kind of a week. It's been very stressful at work. We have a lot of great opportunities in front of us, but deciding on how best to be good stewards of those opportunities seems to be a daunting task right now. On top of that, I didn't exercise like I should have and strayed from my diet with Mexican food for lunch one day and was really bad with the beer yesterday. All of these things lead me to believe I might have even gained a pound this week.

Much to my surprise, the unbiased scale says I lost 4 more lbs! I do think that it's not really true though. With the timing of the weigh in last Sunday being in the evening (after I had had breakfast, lunch and dinner), I think I probably lost 2-3 lbs the week before and really only losing 1-2 lbs this week to get my 2 week total to 5 lbs. I'm extremely excited to have lost 15 lbs since I started this journey.

I'm now 221 lbs and very excited to cross the 220 mark this week (hopefully). I got a pair of goggles so that I can swim laps now that the pool is open and that's been a lot of fun. I like being able to change up what I'm doing so that I can continue to keep it interesting. That's what seems to be the hard part right now. We also got a medicine ball to help with the ab exercises. I hope to see some big changes in the gut region now that I can add some weight to the exercise mix.

My face is definitely less bloated and I my gut doesn't feel quite so out there. I'm starting to feel good about being close to that -20 lbs loss mark. I hope that the second 20 comes off just easily as the 1st seem to have. (Yes I know I just jinxed myself) I'll keep you posted!

End of Week 5

Leslie and I went to Summerville this weekend to see the in-laws and her grand parents. We were pretty good while we were down there with the diet. I was going to do my weekly weigh-in and I had stepped on my mother-in-law's scale; it said I was 223 lbs! I was excited that I had lost another 3 lbs last week. But, I knew that it wasn't the same scale that I had been using, so I was pretty skeptical about the number. Plus, having lost 4 lbs the week before, I didn't think I could come up with another big number like that. When we got home, I got on the scale that I have been using since the start and it said I had only lost 1 lb.

So, -1 is better than 0 or +1, but I would have liked to have had -3 lbs. I'm excited about this week and I'm ready to put in some good work because I think just the diet along is not going to get me there any more. So it's time to kick it in gear and get to work! Wish me luck!

Slacking Off

In the first posting, I said that this wasn't going to be an easy process. Well, I stumbled today. I got up, I planned to workout and then 1/2 ass-ed my workout. I just did some sit-up's (maybe 50), some push-up's (maybe 20) and used the elastic bands. Hind sight being 20/20, I regret that decision. I've been doing so well, but today was the day I didn't give my best. I've also been bad this week with the beer consumption. I had 3 beers on Wednesday night and then last night, I just grabbed one like I had never tried to change my behaviors over the last month.

I'm getting back on the horse this afternoon! I'll let you know how my penance goes.

Mid Week Update

With having Monday off of work, the whole week feels a little out of whack. I'm on the M-W-F-S exercise kick this week. I thought I had good workouts both on Monday and this morning and I'm still being pretty good about my diet. I'll admit though that I was bad on Monday night. Leslie and I did go and try the new Chick-fil-a Spicy Chicken Sandwich. It was really good! Too bad it's deep fried. I'll make sure I really put in a good work out on Saturday.

On a good note, I put on a pair of suit pants I had not worn in a couple of weeks and I had to move up a notch on my belt. That felt really good this morning. I think the more I find the little successes, the more it keeps me motivated to keep going. The little accomplishments feel good along the way.

Other than that, thanks again for all the kind words. I'll let you know what happens later this week.