Well, I'm back in the great state of Minnesota (and man does it feel good to be back here with my family and just generally to be out of crazyland) as of last night and my workouts on the road were limited to two. That puts me at 8 for the month with 15 days to go. If I can squeeze 12 more in, I will make my goal and I will get six more while I'm home, for sure. That means I will need to get five in next trip. I will try to do that. I slipped into a pattern (man it is easy) but when I finally got around to doing the workouts it felt pretty good.
As for my weight, well, that's another story. I stepped on the scale this morning and I was at 209.0, which is a full six pounds down from the start of this Resolution Month and represents the entirety of my goal. You may recall that I wanted to lose 14 pounds of fat in 2013. As of this morning, I've lost 6 pounds of fat in 2013. So, half my yearly goal is achieved in the first 30 days. One of the things that I enjoy during the weight loss is to see the middle number in my weight go down. I started with an "8" and now I'm at "0" The goal weight is 200, but I'm absolutely going to get below that to see the "9".
My wife says I'm too skinny. I point to my mid-section, which is greatly reduced but still includes a little paunch. I told her the goal has always been 200 pounds. -And then what. -Build muscle. That's why we are in strength classes. -Oh, okay.
If she only realized the extent to which I think about goals and how to move toward them in this and other aspects of my life. My daughter is full of ideas and plans and such stuff. My wife wonders where this comes from. I DON'T wonder where it comes from.
Congrats! I'm not quite so focused as you. Nor have I been as immediately successful in dropping weight. But last night was the first time my scale was closer to 205 than 210. I don't know what it actually is, but it's clear it's a little lower. And that feels good. I won't have access to the gym next week, and I was wondering how I'd sustain, but having that improvement is really motivating.
It is amazing what slipping into those patterns can do. There have been times over the last year (since I started concentrating on getting healthy) that I've skipped a few weeks of working out and didn't think twice about it. But when I'm on I exercise every night and feel great about it. I had to convince myself to take last night off because my body needed a rest (I've worked out 26 days in January). That's the better pattern.
The rest days are really good. I bet after a rest day, you'll come back great. The problem is when rest day becomes rest days.
I'm on a rest day today because I start with my strength coach tomorrow.
I should add that I weighed 213.3 on Dec. 31st, so six pounds of fat lost is more than the actual weight loss. 🙂
Going to spinning again tonight. This will be my eighth class in the last three weeks. I've also managed to consume just one can of Coke the entire month of January. In the past, I was probably drinking at least a can a day, so that would be at least 4200 calories I didn't consume. Awesome.
I will be going to spinning tonight, too. I kind of dread it because I know I'm going to suffer. I only drink diet soda, but even that consumption is way down. Coffee in the morning and then water the rest of the day. Maybe, maybe a couple of cans of soda a week.
That's one thing that I haven't been able to curb in my healthier life style. I don't drink soda with sugar anymore, but I do have two or three cans of diet a day. I don't drink coffee but as a computer programmer I believe I'm legally obligated to maintain a caffeine high all day.
I try to stick to one can of diet soda a day, usually at lunch. And caffeine-free, if possible. I don't need no programming-PEDs to maintain my high levels of code throughput!
It has helped me to cut back on my Diet Coke consumption. I still probably drink more than I should--I'll have one when I go to a game and I'll have one when I'm driving someplace--but I rarely drink it at the office any more, and I can tell a difference.