69th & 70th weigh-in

69th 222.0 lb

70th 221.5 lb

I did a Golds Gym corporate wellness fitness test yesterday and here were my stats:

Flexibility test: 15 in (ranking: Average, 20 is Excellent)
Three minute stair step test: 84 beats per minute (ranking: Good, <81 is Excellent)
One minute push up test: 41 (ranking: Good, >45 is Excellent)

Today I ran 3.55 miles in 30 minutes, it kicked my butt.

67th Tuesday weigh-in

221.0 lb

Down 3 lbs. Worked out the whole week and was careful my food. A very good week for me.

62nd Tuesday weigh-in

222.0 lb

Yay I am down again. I have a monthly weigh-in next week with with my impersonal trainer so I hope to post some good numbers there. I also did check my bodyfat at the annual Lehi legacy center fitness expo: it was 23.1 % which is less than it was back in January of 2009 but not by much, only about 0.4% lower. However this year I did the fitness test as well. I did 25 push-ups in 30 seconds which I am pretty confident I would not have been able to do last January.

60th Tuesday weigh-in

222.0 lbs

Yay, down 3.5 lbs.

58th Tuesday weigh-in

222.5 lb

Down 1.0 lbs last Tuesday. Now for tomorrow's Tuesday weigh-in.. I think I have bad news. I may be back up +3 lbs.. due to some over eating on Christmas Eve, and a game night. I have been good about working out, only missed on Christmas day in the past week.

57th Tuesday weigh-in

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dptr/ / CC BY 2.0

223.5 lb

No change from last week. I hit the gym all 6 days and tracked my food during the week. Sometimes the scale is just a jerk.

56th Tuesday weigh-in

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdickert/ / CC BY 2.0

223.5 lb

Down 1.5 lbs! Three weeks in a row with a loss to report. I think tracking food on the daily plate is a great way to keep me from overeating, it is really the only thing different I have been doing lately (well I have not been eating lots of candy and snacks either.)

55th Tuesday weigh-in

225.0 lb

Loss of 0.5 lb, and this over Thanksgiving! I am so proud of that. I jogged/ran 3 laps around Nathan's house in Cedar City to work off some of that pecan pie, they said one lap was 1.5 miles, on the last lap some neighbor dogs chased me down the street, it really got the blood pumping running for my life!

Tracking my daily food intake on the daily plate is working well. My personal trainer visit was this week, I was about the same as last month on body fat (23%) and weight. That is better than being 5 lbs heavier but I was hoping for a loss on body fat. On average Americans gain 8lbs over the November - December holiday season. Let's see if I can bring that average down a tick by losing that much. Negative 8 pounds by January 1st, 2010!

54th Tuesday weigh-in

225.5 lb

Oops, forgot to post this. I even eeked out a loss. Go me.

51st Tuesday weigh-in

223.0 lb

Loss of 0.5 lb, yay. Tracking food on thedailyplate again helped, Halloween candy and carmel apples did not help. Exercised as usual.

50th Tuesday weigh-in

http://www.flickr.com/photos/peasap/ / CC BY 2.0

223.5 lb

Loss of 1.0 lb from last week. I still hate cold mornings.. but I am so glad to post another loss! I love thedailyplate.com it is so awesome and just the right price. Rebecca finds the coolest sites. Two more weeks will make a year of weekly weigh-ins. I think tracking my food on thedailyplate.com is a key component of losing weight because I still do not have the hang of portion control such that I know when to stop eating intuitively.

49th Tuesday weigh-in

http://www.flickr.com/photos/devious_madness/ / CC BY 2.0

224.5 lb

Down 0.5 lb. I pushed pretty hard this last week and I hate cold mornings...

Mon: Eliptical X 30min @ Golds
Tues: Weights (single sets X 12 reps) @ Golds
Wed: StairStep X 30min @ legacy center gym
Thur: Weights (6 sets on chest only) @ Golds
Fri: Treadmill X 30min @ Golds
Sat: Weights (single sets X 12 reps) @ legacy center gym
Sun: I lay in bed tired and sick
Mon: Stationary recumbent bike @ legacy center (everything else was in use)
Tues: Weights @ legacy center gym

48th Tuesday weigh-in

225.0 lb

Loss of 1.5 lb from last week. YAY! Rebecca's sticky rice and mango dessert was awesome (I had two servings of that.) She also made some cinnamon rolls which were delicious. Rebecca took me to Cafe Rio as well on Monday and I was able to try a Banbury Cross donut, and, oh my... those are good!

So with all that happening, I have still kept up on my goal to stop eating after 8 pm, drink gallon of water per day, exercise six days per week. A landscaping project on Saturday and Fast Sunday probably helped me a little as well.

46th Tuesday weigh-in

source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7438870@N04/ / CC BY 2.0

225.0 lb

I did all my exercises (3 cardio 3 weight lifting) and watched my food intake carefully. I have had some major pain in my ankle this last weekend, so much that walking was excruciating. So I met with a physical therapist this week. It would have been easy to just let the ankle injury pain keep me away from the gym, but instead I turned it around and made it into something I plan to beat rather than be beaten by it. I made a mistake once before of taking time off from the gym to rest a painful heel, but a week turned to a month and I was off track for a long time after. The physical therapist informed me that my left leg is 1 cm shorter than my right leg, and I am a severe over-pronator. My feet are tight and have very little flexibility and it appears my lack of flexibility is a mechanical issue from short Achilles tendons. He put a shoe insert under just my left heel and walking is much nicer for me with it in. I also need to switch out my running shoes more frequently than I have been, every 6 months, going forward. I have a set of exercises I need to do to strengthen my ankle and leg muscles as well. Things like balance on one foot for one minute three times. If I do all this, I will be broke from buying shoes, and look goofy at the gym doing the flamingo, but I will able to run/walk comfortably. So I plan to go for it.

45th Tuesday weigh-in

225.0 lb

That's more like it, down 1.5 lb. It's good to show a loss today as I have a health assessment with the trainee-trainer on Thursday. I do need to make a correction from last week, Rebecca is skinnier and looks even better now than when we were first engaged and married. So she is not as attractive as when we married, she is even more attractive to me. However, I do have to correct her from time to time, because she sometimes says, "- back when we were dating..." and I have to remind her that we haven't stopped dating by taking her out. If you have ideas for fun dates I could take her on, then please let me know. If the idea is really good, I will surprise her with it.

43rd Tuesday weigh-in

Image: flickr owner D Sharon Pruitt

225 lb

Down 0.5 lb. I worked out all week in Austin and didn't let jet lag stop me from going on Saturday either. When I ran the neighborhood 5K earlier this year a neighbor commented to me after, "Harley, you're an animal." And they meant it, that felt good to hear; I wish I had a video of it to watch to help me stay motivated.

I asked Rebecca to look at the photo I posted last week and compare it to me now. She could not tell if I looked much different now than in the photo at Halloween in 2008, all I can say to that is: ouch.. I can tell you I lift a lot more weight now than I did in 2008. Exercises that were tough at 100 lbs, I do now at 135 lbs. I have been able to do lifts heavier than I ever recorded or can remember doing them. I do more cardio now than in Oct 2008 also. My blood pressure is lower, cholesterol is at a healthier level, I have less body fat too. But the truth is the truth, I do not look much different on the outside and have not lost much weight in almost 12 months. Some of my pants are still snug which I was hoping would be loose by now, at least I am not afraid they will tear open when bending over or the button fall off taking a deep breath. I didn't have a personal trainer in Oct 2008 or any real clear goals for my health. Yes I could have crash dieted and suffered and struggled against myself and pushed myself much harder, but I have no regrets. I am happy with the progress.

I guess I am just saying I have changed and continue to change whether is shows on the outside or not, whether the numbers on the scale are good or not, I am changing slowly and the change is from the inside out. One day the outside will catch up to the inside. The inscription on my iPod Rebecca gave me says: Be the change... which is part of a favorite quote of mine: Be the change you want to see in the world. Good motto to live by if you ask me.

41st Tuesday weigh-in

225.5 lb

Loss of 0.5 lb from last week. I have been drinking a gallon of water per day for a few weeks as well as hitting the gym all six planned days. I think drinking lots water helps me feel better and I am always well hydrated. I still have days where I am totally wiped out of all energy, usually Sunday after gaming on Saturday... Also finally had my monthly weigh-in with the personal trainer and I was down 1% body fat from last month.

As the above picture illustrates: we have an overflow of zucchini from our garden, tomatoes go as fast as they're ready. Joeseph and Sue came by our house recently and I got to serve them up some of my garden tomatoes which were promptly devoured and then gushed over. Tomatoes are so good raw with a little salt, but an open-faced tomato-mayo sandwich on homemade dutch-oven bread is fantastic. Store-bought tomatoes are painful to eat once you have had the real deal. We don't keep up with the yellow summer squash either but have some zucchini and squash two or three times a week at minimum. My mom says I should make ratatouille with all this stuff... I just need eggplant. Rebecca freezes and gives away some zucchini to try and use all that the garden is producing.

40th Tuesday weigh-in

source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericmcgregor/346990046/

226.0 lb

Down 0.5 lb from last Tuesday. Yay a loss. The camping trip did not "trip" me up.