40 pounds in 40 weeks

I hit the 10 pound milestone midweek this past week. It felt great to make it this far and made the goal of 40 pounds seem actually possible. I am still tracking to loose the weight well before next June.

Some things have not gotten easier especially not eating candy at work. I still want a piece every time I walk by – but thankfully I have resisted for 35 days now. I asked Judy, or secretary, to slap my hands if I ever go for some – she said I must have willpower. That’s easy for her to say she is well into the normal range. All in all things are still going well and the 10 pound mark seemed to keep me going.

Looking at my weight loss chart I am amazed at how linear my loss has been. I expected many more ups and downs. We still have Halloween, Thanks Giving and all the winter holidays to come and it will be interesting to see what effect they will have.

I have successfully made it through a month of weight loss. I will consider it a very successful one. As of today I have lost a total of 9 pounds. This is much more than I thought I would have by this point. Using a little math if I keep up at this current rate I will hit normal BMI on November 26th 2006. Well ahead of schedule. Beth has been talking some mumbo jumbo about fat stores in the liver being easier to loose, and how my weight loss will likely slow down. So I am not holding my breath or planning any celebrations for meeting my goal just yet.

I think there are two lessons that I have learned thus far:
1. You can not overcome a bad diet with exercise. Looking at the possible number of calories in food and the amount of exercise that is physically possible, it is way easier to watch what I put in my pie hole then attempt to run it off.
2. Juice is bad. Just because it acts like a serving of fruits or vegetables does not mean it is good for you. It has too many calories and sugar to be good for you. (A fact that received some press last week in the Star Tribune)

This past week, I added basketball to my exercise repertoire. While I make no claim to being the next Jordan (I missed every single shot I took during the game), I did get a couple good swats on a friend we will call JW. The only thing that took a bigger beating than JW’s pride, after being shut down by a hack like me, were my feet. After playing it felt as if I had been walking on hot coals on night long.

I counted calories this week for the first time. I figured that I needed to be below 2000 net calories (food calories – exercise calories) to continue to loose weight. I averaged 1835 Calories. I found that I could keep my calories to that level easily if I paid attention – but with out close attention the calories just added up. I think it was helpful to put numbers on the foods that I am eating, and I plan to do it periodically.

I continue to loose weight this week with a total of 2.5 pounds lost this past week. To date that makes approximately 7 pounds lost. I did not make my exercise goal. So this week that is going to be what I concentrate on I would like to put in at least 9 miles of running. I still feel hungry often – but I am happy with the results

I have updated my weight loss graph to include a trend line with an equation expressing my rate of loss. For you math geeks out there the slope of that line is equivalent to my rate of loss in pounds per day. Currently that number is 0.185 pounds per day. To meet my goal I need at least 0.125 pounds per day. So I am well on my way!

These are the actual Nutrition Facts Labels off of my: orange juice, grape juice, and Classic Coke. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

If you normalize them all to a 12 oz serving (my normal serving size) it gives you: orange juice 180 calories per glass, grape juice 225 calories, and (at the bottom) Classic Coke 140 calories per glass!

I did have a major disappointment this week; Orange Juice and really all other fruit juices. I really like fruit juice, Orange Juice in particular, but reading the label it has more calories then a Classic Coke and some brands have a lot more. With my typical two 12-14 oz glasses a day, that is around 400 to 500 calories just from juice. Who would have thought? It makes the juice glasses that I have that used to appear ridiculously small appropriate.

In week two I faced a different challenge than week one – Work Travel. Typically work travel has allowed me to eat what ever I wanted and allowed down time to do so. I have been able to pick up a Cinnabon in the airport when I fly commercial, free food in the company planes, or a snack or two when I travel by car. This week I traveled by car and this snack time was easier to cut out then I thought it would be. Of course this was just week two and I am still motivated. As I frequent many restraints still when I am at home I do not find that portion to be more difficult. Maybe travel will not be so bad?

This is Sunday and I will not way myself again for the chart until Monday (I need to use the shipping scale at work to get the same weight). I did just way myself at home and my scale read 216 so I am hopeful that I am on track. I ran a total of 6 miles last week (three two mile runs). I hope to get up to 9 miles by next week. The first runs were difficult but the great thing about running is if you push yourself you can build up endurance relatively quickly.

For week three I plan to:
Log Calories ( the orange juice blows my mind)
Up the running
Place a trend line on the weight loss ( at the current rate of loss / gain where will I be)