I'm back and I'm heading towards the goal.
Last week, I was in several impossible situations, eating wise, so I just said, don't worry about it this week, and on Monday, start repairing the damage. My last hurrah was on Saturday night. My wife and I went out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary and I had, count 'em, two martinis. They were good. But, OMG, I have no alcohol tolerance left at all, or something. I had a massive hangover on Sunday and was decimated for the entire day. I did not feel well until 4:45 AM on Monday morning, which is when I got up to go to the gym. I had my first 1800 calorie day in a very long time yesterday. This morning, I was up at 4:45 AM and at the gym again. I want to lose this weight that I've gained back and get to the goal weight, and beyond. I was sitting in the sauna after my workout this morning and I thought about the work I'd done and how I backslid and how quickly I backslid. I know who I am; I know that if I lose interest in the gym, I will be 285 pounds. I know that I don't consciously plan what I eat, whether it's 1800 calories or 2500 calories, I will soon be eating every bad thing that drags me back down.
As for the workout this morning, we did "speed play", which was some kind of hell. Sprinting, sprinting, sprinting. I really concentrated on form, trying to minimize extraneous movement and focus on churning my legs. I was very tired and worn out when I got done, but also I felt good -- I felt my muscles fatiguing and I kept pushing through until the end. Our instructor ended a little early, but I burned 755 calories, yesterday it was 791. So, feeling good.
Pretty awesome. I had pretty much the same goal of jumping hard back into it on Monday, but then my kids got sick Sunday night (and are still sick), which took away that option.
There's no pop in the house, at least! With not being to work out, I've been watching what I eat a little more carefully, making sure I'm getting lots of water, and looking for little opportunities - walks with the family, etc. I'm maintaining a little above 200 right now, which feels good. Maybe I can make it to the gym a few times still this week, though today is out again.
Thanks for the post - just having a place to talk about this stuff helps.
My weight has crept up over the last month (JazzFest didn't help), but I had a good 18 mile bike ride yesterday. I need to get in serious shape for the MS 150 (donations accepted here) next month.
My Saturday ride was 68 miles this last weekend. It felt better than the 55 mile ride the week before. there was less elevation gain, but I think staying better hydrated made a bigger difference. Averaged 12.9 mph, a little slower than some of our other rides. I have to say, these long rides can get awfully boring. We have gotten to the point where I spend more time on the bike on the long ride than I do in the gym the rest of the week (4-5 hours). I think I need to up my eating to recover properly.
The other highlight of the week was testing 1RM weighted chins in the gym yesterday. I got up to BW + 26 pounds, which is a PR.
I got back to the gym two weekends ago, and was there again this last weekend for two workouts. Saturday, I did a mile-plus on the treadmill, 12+ minutes on the bike (6 minutes of warmup, 6 minutes of intervals, cool-down), lat pulleys (with about 2 lbs, mostly working ROM), various leg machines, then my usual routine of "kickboxing" leg stuff, core work and stretching. Sunday, rinse and repeat, but with 15 minutes of easy biking instead of the intervals. And I moved up from 1-lb dumbbell for my rehab exercises to 2-lb dumbbell.
Intervals kick butt. And they definitely kicked mine.
Went out on Sunday AM and did 12 miles with my training partner. I think I slow her down but she said I started out too fast. At either rate, running/talking with someone else sure helps burn the miles away.
Have been using Body Glide, but I think sometimes you can sweat it away - I still got nailed with several 'ahem' delicate areas of chafing where my Tri-shorts chamois were rubbing 'gainst my legs.
I may need to move to this as I have read its better for long distance in the saddle as well.