No I didn't Quit

Though it has been a while since I wrote here I haven't quit the program. It is going along swimmingly.

Since I last wrote I am down more than 33 pounds. That is in 10 weeks! I feel better. I have noticed that my pants are looser. My shirts fit better.

Other people are starting to notice. I had one friend ask me if I have been losing weight. I said I had and told her I was doing the Body for Life program. She said it is a good one and she had done it as well. She had a book that she let me borrow. It is called Eating for Life. I have read it already. It was a good book. I am excited to try some of the recipes.

I also had a couple other people last night say something about the weight loss. Today a good friend said to me "I am going to embarrass you". I had no idea what he was going to say. Then he said in a room with co-workers that I had lost weight. He obviously could tell.

When I look at myself I cannot see it so much. I guess that is what happens when you see yourself all the time, but others who don't see you quite as often seem to be able to tell.

Next week is my final week on this 12 week program. Of course I will continue to do the program for a long time to come. I have a ways to go to reach my goal. But finishing this first 12 weeks is one of my first goals in obtaining my ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is 148 pounds. I am about 1/4 of the way there.

Luckily I have not hit a plateau yet. I am sure I will hit one some time along the way. That will be a interesting time period. Because I will have to recognize that I hit one, and then I will have to work to get off of it.

What I have found is that in doing this program I have been going to bed early. Most nights I don't see 11pm let along midnight anymore. That was a nightly occurrence for me.

Early in the program when it stayed dark until around 8 in the morning I really liked the feeling of walking out of the Rec Center having been up for 2 1/2 hours. Feeling like I had accomplished something in the day.

I figured I would keep my early mornings going at least through the first 12 weeks to give it a try. Part of the thing keeping me getting up early is wanting to do the swimming in the morning. The pool closes at 8 in the morning and reopens at 11 in the morning. So I have to hit it early or miss it.

It would be perfect for me to get up around 8 in the morning and workout at 8:30 then swim at 9:30. But I cannot do it that way.

I will have to make the decision on whether I want to continue to do the swimming in the morning or not do it. I think it has been good.

I have seen a ton of improvement in my swimming. I can now swim five laps without a rest. I probably could go even more, but I figure that is a good milestone for now. I do five laps. Rest for about 3 to 4 minutes. Then I swim a second five laps. For a total of 500 yards each day.

I read some of my early posts. It was interesting to read them early on because I was really new with the whole thing. Now it is becoming more of second nature. My shopping trips and my tastes in some food have changed. I now happily eat wheat bread. I also am a fan of tomatoes on my sandwiches.

I also noticed how many calories I had been putting away in some of the things I was eating. One huge example was my breakfasts. I would have around 500 calories in cereal a lot of mornings. With my waffles I would have four at a cost of 440 calories. Then I would put about 100 calories of butter, 150 calories of peanut butter and about 200 calories of syrup. That is about 890 calories for breakfast alone. Now I try to keep my breakfast and lunch to about 300 calories each. My three mid-meals are around 200 calories, with dinner around 450 calories.

My goal right now is to stay around 1600-1800 calories a day. Right now I am really in the weight loss mode.

I can't wait until I have to go see the chief because my turnouts no longer fit.

It is also nice because I am seeing some more definition in my muscles. It is neat to see them forming. But I will have to lose more fat for it to be noticeable for a lot of other people. I feel like I have really gone a long way, but really I am just starting what needs to be and will be a change in life.

I like the fact that Body for Life lets you have a "free day" each week. That is where I can have the treats that I love, in moderation of course. I look forward to having my ice cream or candy bar during that time. Because I haven't had to to totally give them up it makes life easier. Also, I don't have to feel bad about cheating, because I am not cheating when I have it.

So far nothing but positive have come out of the this experience. The only thing I am not sure about when I am done with this 12 weeks if I will keep the same logs that I have been, or only a food journal or what. I guess it is nice to keep track of my weight lifting to see how that is progressing as well. But I could keep track of that once a week and see the changes on a week to week basis.

If I can keep this progress going like I have been doing it, I should be able to be nearing my goal around Christmas of this year. That seems like it is so far away. So I will have to keep my shorter goals in order to keep my mind looking at the short term, in order to see the small gains, in order to keep a positive outlook.

My plan is when I reach my goal I am going to write my next Daily News Town Crier Column to memorialize the reasons why I did it. I will come up with 148 reasons, one for each pound I lost along the way.

New Focus

I had a new focus today. After spending the last few days unable to work out due to hurting my back, I finally made it into the rec center. I did ten laps in the pool. That didn't cause me any pain in the back.

New Outlook

It has been nearly one month since I started my work out regimen. I had started by getting up at 0530 hours. But that was not much fun. The last few days I have been getting up at 0700. I have to say that walking out of the rec center at 0800 felt good. I felt like I got a lot accomplished. I felt like I had a lot of day to use.

But getting to the rec center around 0730 and getting out of there around 0900 makes me feel like I am wasting part of my day. That is a good feeling. It may help me make a permanent change to being a morning person again. But I find that when I am on call for the fire department, I am always worried about getting calls and not being able to wake up early like I would like to do.

I am going to renew my energy to getting up early in the morning again and getting my workout done at the earlier time.

I have come to the conclusion that four pounds a week is not a bad amount of wight to lose a week. If I could keep that up, that would be great.

In some ways I feel like it would be nice to do additional workouts each day in the hopes of losing more weight every week. I don't think I will be moving to that level yet.

Hurting Ankle

My ankle has been hurting since Saturday, so that sucks. It made it so I could not do a fully productive workout of the lower legs. I did some more swimming today and a lot of the swimmers were not there today. I suppose that is due to the bad weather.

I was able to do the length of the pool in one breath again, but I need to do better. I was barely able to make it. But at least I did it. I still need to get more stamina in the pool. It seems that I cannot get a lot of laps back-to-back.

So on an unrelated note, I just had to do a small rant here.

1) if you drive to a fitness place, don't circle the parking lot looking for the closest spot. You look silly when you do that.

2) it seems to me, for instance, if you're doing curls and you have to throw your back into it, you're trying to lift too much. Maybe I am wrong here, but it seems that doing a little less weight with proper form is a much better idea.

Holding my Breath

I was swimming yesterday for my cardio. After spending twenty minutes doing various kinds of swimming laps, I did a few more but with some rest between them. Finally I held my breath and swam the length of the pool. The first time I made it about three-quarters of the length. Then I made it the whole length. That was pretty cool. Now I have to find out from Russell if his class has to go there and back holding their breath.

My Friday Workout

I have been having a hard time getting up at 0530 in the morning. Some of it is going to be so late. I need to start to get to bed earlier in the evening.

I did my upper body work out. I pushed myself more than normal and I started to have a hard time getting all the reps I was supposed to do and I would push as much as I could. I think I am getting closer to where I should be.

Sometimes I look at the weight I am doing and think that I am such a weakling. But it takes time to build muscle. It is not something that is overnight. Sometimes I see guys around me doing a whole bunch more than me. But I figure if I keep at it, I will some day I will be there.

Only Swimming today

I thought the alarm clock was set, but it wasn't. I got up late. I wanted to make sure I got swimming done today. So I made my way to the Rec center and went straight to the swimming pool. I got in and decided to make that my twenty minute cardio. I just swam laps the whole time. I used different kinds of strokes. Some were harder than others. So that made me work harder or less hard. I think I got a pretty good workout and I did laps back to back so I hope that will help.

Tomorrow I plan on swimming as many laps as I can until I just can't go on. To see where I am at with it.