Stuck

I weighed in this morning: right back to 220. I just can't stay under it, it's very frustrating.

No exercise last night. Started to run, but there was enough lightning to come back right away - really after we had just gotten started. That blackberry cobbler is almost out of the house so that will be one less thing to worry about soon.

I've got to get, and stay, below 220. Goal for the month is 215 and it's looking very unlikely right now given I can't stay under and I've only lost 4 lbs this month.

Gaining while losing

So I pop on the scale yesterday morning after several days of not weighing and I was so excited to see....

Gain of 2.5lbs. Excellent!

I know I was eating bad a couple of days there - but I didn't eat 10k calories extra! I know it's a bumpy ride with a lot of variability on the way down but that sucked. Ate ok yesterday (that stupid blackberry cobbler needs to get out of the house immediately) and ran a slow 6mi. Left ankle is a bit sore this morning, probably need to back off a bit and go to 5.5 or so.

Marinated the Seitan last night for lunch today - so that should be good too.

Weighed in at 219 this morning - so not far from the recent "low". Looking forward to running tonight. Need to get on track for 215 by the end of the month.

Going Slow

After I saw that my heart rate was running far too fast in the last 4.5mi run, I decided to back off the pace (focusing mainly on not pushing up the hills, which I tend to do) and see what happened. I didn't wear the HRM this time to measure the difference, but I felt a lot different and had a lot more "gas in the tank" than I usually do after the second "big" hill. I felt good enough to go ahead and tack on another 0.5mi to make it a good 5 miler day.

Didn't eat great but not as bad as Monday. Didn't have the heart to weigh in either of the last two days but I definitely will again tomorrow.

Bad Days...

Yesterday I just couldn't stop eating. Nothing was particularly bad, I just couldn't stop. I kept rationalizing it wasn't going to be so bad - i was going to run 5mi last night to help offset it. NOPE! Forgot we had dinner plans with an out of town friend... So - more food was to to be eaten. Ugh. Had a good time, I just couldn't stop feeling crappy about eating all day without moving.

Tonight I'm running no matter what.

Monitoring Progress

I've been running with my Garmin Forerunner 305 350 most days as it allows me to run any route in the set of neighborhoods over here and keep good track of distance. This has worked well and gives me an idea of pace, etc...

Last night I added the Heart Rate Monitor to the setup. (The instructor at the Y the other day stressed how important it was to keep within you aerobic range when exercising) I've had it all along but never used it. Most worrying is that even though I'm a very slow runner (11-12min/mi) it says my HR was clearly in the anaerobic zone. I don't want to basically walk to keep it in that "weight loss" range at the same time I don't want to use that hour each night ineffectively.

For now, I guess I will just keep running the way I have. I'm not going fast enough to think I ought to slow down very much. I may drop the pace a bit to see if that helps.

Summary for yesterday: Slogged 4.5mi and ate about 2k calories. Weighed in this morning at 219. Nice to break that 220 barrier for now.

How time flies

It's been a year since my last update. In the meantime we've ramped up the new business, I've gotten married, and worked a lot on the house.

In all that time - I've lost 0 lbs. The plan to lose a bunch before the wedding just never happened and the pictures of that glorious day show it. Ugh.

So about 6 weeks ago I started getting serious and now I'm in a reasonably good flow eating and moving about.

Goals now:

• Weight 185 before November vacation (this is going to be tough)
• Run 20-25mi/week and take several classes at the Y
  
• Run the half marathon on Thanksgiving 2010
  

Where're we starting? Weighed in at 220lbs today - first time in a long time my driver's license isn't a lie. So there are 35lbs more to go. (Lost 20 or so since I started getting back on the scale)