Musings on Lifestyle and Ups and Downs

Today I gained 0.6. By itself, no problem. On the heels of the last 4 weeks of doctor-ordered no-exercise, I'm 3 pounds above where I need to be to maintain lifetime status. I have 11 days to get rid of it in order to keep "free" status.

The thing is, I've been thinking about it, and I am not going to go crazy trying to lose those 3 pounds. I am going to watch some of my choices a bit more closely than normal. But the main thing for me is to just keep on the healthy lifestyle that got me to goal and lifetime in the first place.

Over the last 4 weeks, the only missing element has been the activity. I've continued to eat the same way as I did to get to goal. During the past 4 weeks, I thought often about reducing my points due to the loss of activity, and each time I realized I just wasn't willing to change how I ate for the short-term consequence or benefit. I do NOT want to be on a diet.

So, I kept eating in the way that I have found works for me over the long haul, knowing full well that it would show on the scale. And since I'm a daily weigher, I watched it show up on the scale, so there were no surprises.

Now, I am back to getting regular daily activity, and I love it. I have to work back to the level of fitness I had before the injury. Part of me wants to rush that, but I refuse to rush the healing, or overdo the exercise. Working out till I vomit is not my idea of a lifestyle change either.

Anyway, I wanted to let you all know where I was at, and to express my gratitude to all the Goadies who preached Lifestyle to me when I was new. Thank you!

My First Triathlon!

OK, so this post is about two weeks late, but I was just reminded that I haven't updated my blog. On Super Bowl Sunday, I started the day by participating in my first ever triathlon - this was a "mini indoor" triathlon, so not quite the same deal as what most of us think of. Still, it was a great step towards completing an actual triathlon.

To start with, this triathlon is held in "waves" where you have a start time for swimming in groups of six, then you go to bikes while another group goes swimming, etc... So while lots of folks competed over the course of the day, you didn't have to worry about crowds or bumping into folks. I got there very early, because I figured it would be good to walk through the whole area, check out the transitions, etc... When I checked in, they gave me a bag of goodies, including a free tech T-shirt, free swim cap, and some day passes. Also included was the all important score card that you had to carry from event to event. The kind lady informed me that it was VERY important to keep that with me at all times. She then asked me to sign for a door prize, so I promptly set down the all important scorecard and forgot about it. Seriously.

So, oblivious to the oncoming panic, I walked around the center with my son, Jake, who wanted to watch me compete. The swimming pool and locker rooms are on the first floor, and a spectator's area is on the second floor, as is the aerobics room where they had the stationary bikes and treadmills. I killed a good 40 minutes and never thought to double check if I had the score card. I remembered the card while in the locker room, when I had about 5 minutes before the swim was to start. Arg!!! I raced out to try to find if I left it with my son and the bag of goodies. No such luck. I ran out to see if it was at the check in desk. Not there. And neither was the check in woman. Seriously worried, I ran up to the second floor where I found a volunteer, who asked "Are you Gavin?" YES! She had my scorecard. I sprinted back down to the pool with about 30 seconds to calm my pounding heart. Tri-Lesson #1 - Keep that darned score card.

So, at the pool, they had a bunch of volunteers who count your laps for you, and who keep track of the starting and ending times. I started off the swim just fine. After a lap, I realized Tri-Lesson #2 - Test your equipment pre-race. My old goggles got lost, so I borrowed a pair from the center. And they leaked. Not only that, but I decided to wear an old swim suit that had slicker material than my newer, better fitting ones. Some part of my mind said "slicker will be faster". That part of my mind didn't consider the possibility that with my sleeker frame, the old swim trunks just don't fit right. Instead, they acted like a parachute on a race car. I got so frustrated with them that halfway through the race I stopped to retie them very tight. That decision would come to haunt me. For the swim, each time you complete a lap, the volunteers shout out the amount of time left. You get points for completing 3/4 of a length, but I thought it was for completing 3/4 of a LAP. So when it got to 25 seconds left, I figured I couldn't do close to a full lap, and stopped. But I actually could have gotten in another length and some extra points. That's another lesson for next year.

OK, transitions. They announce the time to get moving, and since I finished early for the laps, I could start moving early. I got in the locker room to change out of the swim trunks and into biking shorts and T-shirt/shoes, etc... That's when I discovered that my hastily retied knot in the pool was a full on "can't get it loose" knot. BLEEP!! I wasted precious time trying to get the knot undone. Argh again! Because of the knot debacle, I started the biking 20 seconds behind the rest of the crowd. With the stationary bike, you can set whatever resistance level you want, and pedal as fast (or as slow) as you want. The machine just was tracking distance, so the higher resistance level made you travel farther given the same speed of pedaling.

My particular group had a wide variety of fitness levels, from a crazy-fit woman in her 30s, to a child about age 10 who was more or less going through the motions. I kept reminding myself to not push too hard, and to just ride my pace. I kept thinking that I'd hit my wall on the bike after all that swimming, but it didn't seem to happen. In fact, I decided to crank up the resistance a couple of times, and I seemed to handle that just fine as well.

I was really worried about transitioning from biking to running. In my training sessions leading up to this, I'd definitely noticed that my legs would get really rubbery after the biking when I started running. But when it was time to transition, I noticed the gal who was crazy-fit started doing all sorts of stretches. Being a quick learner, I decided to do everything she was doing.

That must have been the trick, because I didn't have any problems with rubbery legs. The run part went really well; much better than I had expected. The guy next to me didn't do so well. He seemed to be trying to push himself too fast on the run, and then he stumbled, over-corrected, fell on the treadmill and got shot back off it. He was OK, and says he only hurt his pride. He got back on and finished the race. That was an excellent reminder for me to not push myself "too hard", so I kept my pace at a manageable level the whole way throughout.

All in all, I was thrilled with how it went. I definitely learned some lessons for the next time. And I also learned that I definitely want there to be a next time. I'm hooked! This was also a great training event for folks at any fitness levels. Some of the guys before and after my group were in WAY better shape than I am, and there were also folks who were clearly in worse shape. I loved that one woman completed it with her 10 year old son. I didn't even know kids could sign up for it, and now my son wants to do it with me next year. Now THAT feels great!

GOAL!!

I did it!! At today's WI, I weighed 172.2 pounds, for a total loss of 49.0 pounds since joining WW on 2/2/08. Woo HOO!!!

This has been a really great day, and underscores for me how much I love this new lifestyle. I started my day with weighing myself on my home scale, so I "knew" that I'd made goal even before the meeting. DW and DS decided to come to the meeting to help celebrate with me. At the meeting, I bumped into a guy that I see in the neighborhood where I work, and we chatted about WW for a few minutes before and after the meeting. He still has a way to go, and he was very excited for me and supportive. He uses online tools, but had never checked the message boards, so he may end up joining us one of these days.

After the meeting, DW, DS and I went out for breakfast. It amazes me how HUGE regular sized meals at restaurants seem. I had Eggs benedict and felt stuffed!

After breakfast, DS and I played sword-fighting for a while (with padded swords). I love that I have the energy to goof around with a 12 year old!

I also hit the gym today, where I did today's installment of my training for the 100 pushups challenge. I did 22/22/30/30/24/24/18/18 and 63! It blows me away that I can do that many pushups in a row! While I was working out, I talked with one of the gym staff. He's a young guy (mid-20s) and for the past several weeks, we've talked about weight loss and fitness. I was eager to let him know I'd finally gotten to a healthy weight range of BMI. He is about 20 to 30 pounds above where he wants to be, so he had a number of questions for me about what I've done and how it works for me. It was fun sharing ideas and experiences with him.

Tonight I'm making dinner for my family. (DW cooks during the weekdays, and I cook on weekends.) I have no idea what I'm going to make yet, but I'm eager to look up a recipe and enjoy some healthy cooking!

Thanks to my family, and all the folks at WW and Goad and Family Man who have been such an inspiration and source of support to me!

My First 5K!!

I finished my first 5K today where I was running the entire way. In the past, I've completed some 5K walks, but never anything where I ran the whole way.

My #1 goal was simply to finish without having stopped. I figured to do that, I had to really concentrate on just running my own race at my own pace. I kept my focus on my breathing and my pace, and managed to do wondefully. Goal #1 achieved with no problem.

My #2 goal was to finish in less than 30 minutes. A distant hope goal was to finish in less than 29 minutes, but I didn't really think that would happen. To my surprise, I did! My unofficial time is 28:53ish. We'll see what they post on the official site later.

I was especially happy that I kept to my own pace. Since there are so many runners around, and since there's a part of my mind that always wants to be in the act of passing someone, I kept having to re-set myself to my own pace.

Once I established my pace, I did notice a couple of folks near my pace who I decided I'd set little mini-goals of beating. One was a guy in his 50s/60s who looked like he was in excellent shape. The other was a gal in her 40s who looked like she was in great shape. Both started out ahead of me.

I kept to my pace, and the first to fall behind me was the older guy. The gal stayed in front of me for about 1/3 of the race, then she seemed to tire. I passed her going my regular pace, and that seemed to give her some incentive. She stayed right behind me until about the 2 mile mark, and then she clearly decided that she was going to start kicking it up. I kept myself in check, and just kept running my pace. At about the 2-1/2 mile mark, she was lagging, so I steadily chugged on by her.

My wife, son and friend were all waiting for me at the finish line. We forgot our digital camera, but DW got some decent pics with the cell phone that we'll be downloading onto my blog at a later time.

Thanks to all the GOADs and GOTRs for their inspiration! You guys are awesome!

Today's WI and Fighting the Mind

Today's meeting topic was managing your thoughts, which is especially appropriate for me right now. Looking back, for the past couple months or so, it feels like I've been trying to talk myself into a plateau. So for this post, I've decided to talk about what I've been thinking/doing, and what I'm going to think and do about it now.

THE PAST -

First, in many areas of my life, I have had a tendency to want to "reward" myself with breaks from whatever it is that gives me success. An old girlfriend used to say "It worked so well, I quit doing it." That's me to a T. With WW and daily Goad/Family Man support, I've had awesome success. I feel great, and I look great. And my mind looked at all that, and thought "OK, time for a vacation from all that."

I have read some Goadies who have had long term success, and they talked about going through periods when they felt their body needed time to "get used to the new weight". My mind leapt on that. "A HA! See!! I'm SUPPOSED to take a break!"

So, while I didn't totally dive off plan, I did start getting very lenient with my portions and tracking. And looking back on my weight loss since starting in 2/08, I can see that it has been largely a gradual loosening of my standards over time, rather than a "last month or two" kind of thing.

Here's my monthly progress:
Feb 08 = -11.8 pounds
Mar 08 = - 7.0 pounds
Apr 08 = - 6.4 pounds
May 08 = - 6.2 pounds
June 08 = +1.4 pounds *
July 08 = - 5.0 pounds
Aug 08 = -3.4 pounds
Sep 08 = -1.2 pounds (so far)
Total Loss = 39.6 pounds

(* June was a "tough month" with my sister passing away and a vacation away from home. I give myself a pass on that month.)

THE PRESENT -

Looking at the chart of the past 8 months, it would be easy to buy into my old thinking of "See, it just keeps getting worse. I can't keep up anything long-term." But that's not the belief I'm subscribing to. The belief I'm subscribing to is: "I love this lifestyle! I can do this the rest of my life!!" Here are some things that happened today/recently that support this new belief:

For one thing, when I posted my WI on the online tracker, it suggested I review the materials for dealing with plateaus. Guess what? There is a solution for dealing with plateaus!! Actually, tons of solutions for dealing with plateaus. So, you mean I'm part of a big group of people with solutions for my problems? Sweet!! What a deal!!

For me, two of the suggested solutions really jumped out at me. First, back to basics. As noted, I've gotten pretty slack with tracking and food choices. One of the suggestions was to review your Daily Tracker to see what you were eating & doing when you were losing at a faster pace. So I did that and realized that I've really upped the amount of points I eat for dinner, all the while my DPs dropped along with my weight. Second, the Tools for Living. I don't think I ever spent much time thinking about them until a recent post, when I discovered I'd used many of them without realizing it. But I'd actually gotten pretty sloppy with those mental strategies too, so I'm consciously working on two of them, Motivating Strategies and Story Boarding.

Another thing that happened was simply going to the meeting and seeing all the people who are doing the deal, sharing what works for them, and what doesn't. It was a good meeting, and left me feeling re-energized.

And GOAD. I feel a part of this group, and I want that to continue. Not long ago, I posted a suggestion to a newbie that they share whether things are going well or not. Well, I hadn't been posting about how sloppy my habits had been getting, and I'd been acting like I was fine with losses of 0.2 pounds, when really I knew I could be doing better.

So, right now I'm feeling re-energized and committed to the lifestyle. I love this lifestyle! I can do this for the rest of my life!!

100 Pushups - Update

Well, taking on the 100 pushups challenge, plus 100 crunches, plus 100 leg lifts, all on top of doing the Couch to 5K training program turned out to be a bit more than my body is ready for yet.

My body was feeling tired all the time. I had hoped that was a phase, and that I could "push through it". Instead, I learned to listen to my body only after I suffered a tweaked muscle in my abdomen. Seriously painful!! So, I gave myself a break from the pushups, crunches & leg lifts for about 5 days, and during that time, I reduced my running in favor of walking. I still ran some, but not at the pace I had been.

Well, the time recuperating has paid off. As of Saturday, I'm now back on track with the C25K program, and I ran 25 minutes straight. At the end of my run, I felt wonderful!! I actually felt bouncy, like my legs were being pulled up by strings.

And I've pared the 100 challenge to just pushups and situps for now. Once I've completed those, I'll work on 100 leg lifts.

On that note, today was my day to re-check my progress. I did 45 pushups in a row!! That feels incredible to me!

I also did 50 crunches in a row. For some reason, that doesn't feel like as big an accomplishment. I think it's because I used to be a fanatic for crunches. At one time, I cranked out 200 crunches a day. That, however, was years ago. On the flip side, I don't think I've ever felt happier with how my stomach looks. I mean, when I was in college, my stomach looked much better than it does now, but back then I thought I just looked like a bean pole. But now, looking at my abs, I can actually see some definition starting. That really made me feel great!

I'm looking forward to completing my first 5K race, which is scheduled for October 11th. I'll let you know how it goes!

100 Pushups Challenge - Plus Crunches & Leg Lifts

Someone on the WW GoaD board mentioned a website that had a training program for doing 100 pushups in a row. I've been really happy with the Couch to 5K training program, but I've been wanting to do something with my upper body. So this sounded like a good idea!

I checked out the website, and it seemed like a really good program. It has different stages for different levels of fitness, which suited me just fine. I started as of August 24, 2008.

Since I also want to take good care of my low back, I thought I ought to include crunches and leg lifts, which help build core muscles important for the low back. So I'm using the same routine as a format for doing crunches and leg lifts too. I don't know if I'm taking on too much by doing all three at the same time, but I hope it works out great. If it's too much, I can drop the others and focus on the pushups first.

The program is ideally completed in six weeks, which would put me right at the first week in October. Wish me luck!

My journey so far

So, a little bit about me. I'm 41 years old. I am the husband to my beautiful wife Lara, and the father to our 11 year old son Jake.

I grew up in a big Irish Catholic family as the 10th of 11 children. In my family, food was just one more way to celebrate and enjoy life. I remained skinny through constant activity, whether it was playing basketball in the driveway or kickball in the street. If it was summer we were swimming in the pool or jumping off cliffs into lakes. If it was winter we'd cross-country ski or play tackle football on snowy football fields. I never had to think about "staying active"; we just did. I also never had to think about limiting my food, because I could eat all I wanted, and never got heavy... until college.

Midway through college, a series of injuries over a two year period kept me on the sidelines, so to speak. It never occurred to me that I should start eating less. I started packing on the pounds. Once my injuries healed, I found that I wasn't able to stay as active as I used to be due to my weight and lack of fitness. I told myself I'd get back to being active as soon as I lost the weight, but the weight never really left.

Over the years since then, my weight went up and down. Periodically, I'd get motivated to lose some weight, usually through a combination of a diet I read about and some time at the gym. But then something would happen, I would fail a goal, and then I'd quit and gain back the weight I'd tried to keep off.

About two years ago, my sister joined WW. Without telling her story for her, she truly inspired me that WW could be something that would work for me. My sister Genn, her husband and daughter are all WW Lifers, and they not only look great, but they are healthy, active and happy!

My wife, Lara and I joined WW together and attended our first meeting on February 2, 2008. I weighed in a 221.2 pounds. It was just before the Super Bowl, and I remember our meeting leader suggesting a recipe for 2 point chili and 2 point cheese fries. At the time, I could eat 36 points a day. I quickly figured out that I could have 9 servings a day of chili and cheese fries. That sounded like a lifestyle I could live with!!

Seriously though, one of the keys for me has been finding lots of good food to eat that happens to be healthy. I remember when my wife and I made the Sheperd's Pie recipe. It tasted so wonderful, and we couldn't believe that something that tasted like a comfort food could be low points as well.

From Day 1, I took to heart the suggestion to "Move More". Mostly, I started walking on my lunch hour. At first, I walked for 20 minutes. Soon that went up to 30 minutes. Then it went to 40 minutes. I found that the more I walked, the more active I wanted to be.

Not long after joining, I discovered the message board for Guys on a Diet. I lurked for a while, and I really enjoyed seeing the camaraderie, support and ideas, and the FUN! I dabbled with posting a bit, and was really pleased with the warm welcome and encouragement. I don't recall when I drank the Kool-Aid, but I'm a true-believer in the Lifestyle now.

I've also branched out a bit, and am a regular poster on the Family Man board as well. I love having a group of guys who deal with so many of the same domestic issues as I do, and who are committed to living a healthy lifestyle.

I lost my first 25 pounds April 12, 2008. That also represented a loss of 10% of my starting body weight, and was the first time I'd been below 200 pounds in quite a while.

With the loss in weight, I found I had an increased desire for activity. While I'd never been much into jogging, I was inspired by the many folks on GoaD who took up challenges like the Couch to 5K training Program. On May 31, 2008, I began the Couch to 5K training program. I've had some obstacles along the way, but have been able to follow the program pretty well. As I write this, I can run two miles without stopping, and I don't feel like I'm going to vomit when I'm done. :)

As of the time I'm writing this, I've lost over 32 pounds, and I feel healthier than I have in years.

I'll need another chapter to talk about my wonderful wife and her part in my journey.

Gavin's WW Journey

I joined WW on 2/2/08, weighing in at 221.2 pounds.

I lost my first 25 pounds 4/26/08.

As of today, I weigh 188.6, for a total loss of 32.6 pounds since joining.