Well, I weighed in this morning at 301.8, which is 56.4 pounds from where I started this time, and 105.2 from my top known weight. It’s been a pretty good month, although the gardening and a bit of a mishap with my foot (much better today) kind of derailed some of my planned exercising.  So, the monthly totals.

• calories per day: 2358, calorie balance: -926 per day
• treadmill: 9h 50m, strength training: 7h 20m
• swimming laps: 2h, pool (various, incl. laps): 1h
• garden work: 12h 15m, walking outside: 3h
• avg daily exercise: 69 mins
• weight lost: 8.2 pounds

I just added them to the stats page if you want to compare to previous months. Now I need to think about goals for next month. I don’t set weight lost goals, as I feel I would be disappointed if I didn’t meet them. I try and set goals that will push me, but I can control if they are attainable. Although you can do certain things to help, you can’t force your body to lose weight on a schedule. So, on to the goals for June.

• Eat within plan every day (2400 exercise days (60 mins of something), 2150 rest days)
• Drink water every day (18 cups min.)
• Exercise (60 mins treadmill Tues&Sat, 60 mins strength training Mo/We/Fr)

I have modified the exercising slightly.  Regardless of food intake I’m just not sure that I’m capable of keeping up a 90min a day exercise cycle 5 days a week.  I have to remember that I’m still carrying a lot of extra weight and some of my joints (knees specifically) don’t take well to that schedule.  So I’ve adjusted the calories down, made a specific rest day number, and will aim for 60 mins a day.  I’m also a little more active on a daily basis (watering, weeding, etc.) so that will help with overall movement.  On the first day of July I’ll take a look at these and see how I’ve done. Wish me luck!

Well, I weighed in this morning at 310.0, which is 48.2 pounds from where I started this time. This wasn’t as good a month as I expected. I have raised my calorie intake slightly over the last couple of weeks, however, I’ve had better weight loss since that point. I think for the moment I’m not going to play around with the calorie levels. As I’m starting to do more in the garden I think I need those few extra calories to keep my energy levels up. If I decide to drop them again I think probably some of the cardio will have to go. Basically I’ve decided no changes for a month. This is assuming I can keep the cardio level up with the outside work. I’ve still got an average loss of 2.31lbs a week since I started so I’m very happy with that. I’m also seeing some definite inch changes that don’t match up with the weight loss, which is also good.  So, the monthly totals.

• calories per day: 2463, calorie balance: -981 per day
• treadmill: 30h 25m, strength training: 6h 30m
• swimming laps: 2h, walking outside: 30m
• avg daily exercise: 79 mins
• weight lost: 6.6 pounds

I just added them to the stats page if you want to compare to previous months. Now I need to think about goals for next month. I don’t set weight lost goals, as I feel I would be disappointed if I didn’t meet them. I try and set goals that will push me, but I can control if they are attainable. Although you can do certain things to help, you can’t force your body to lose weight on a schedule. So, on to the goals for May.

• Eat within plan every day (2400 Tu/Th/Sa/Su & 2800 Mo/We/Fr)
• Drink water every day (18 cups min.)
• Exercise (90 mins treadmill Mon-Fri, 30 mins strength training Mo/We/Fr)

That exercise one is probably going to change slightly. Substituting some of the treadmill for water exercises, just nothing specific. Although if it’s still cold out I may just swim for fun and just work on laps. I’ll also be taking a one week break from my strength training as I finish stage one and get ready for stage two. I haven’t decided if I’m going to increase other exercising, or decrease it. Depending on what I decide I’ll adjust my food intake as well. On the first day of June I’ll take a look at these and see how I’ve done. Wish me luck!

Well, I weighed in this morning at 316.6, which is 41.6 pounds from where I started this time.  This was a much better month than I expected.  I started using the New Lifting Rules for Women as a strength training routine.  I do it three days a week, and raised my calories to kind of a bare minimum that the book suggested.  I know the book is written for women who are addressing fat/muscle percentages,  but it really does warn that weight loss is not to be expected in the first stages.  It’s about reshaping bodies, changing percentages of fat and muscle.  I really just started it to give myself structure in a weight routine.  The bonus seems to be it has kick started me into another round of loss. So, first, the monthly totals.

March 2008

• calories per day: 2246, calorie balance: -1019 per day
• treadmill: 35h 30m, weights: 1h 15m, WATP DVD: 30m,
• ice & snow shoveling: 15m, strength training: 5h
• avg daily exercise: 82 mins
• weight lost: 11.6 pounds

I just added them to the stats page if you want to compare to previous months. Now I need to think about goals for next month. I don’t set weight lost goals, as I feel I would be disappointed if I didn’t meet them. I try and set goals that will push me, but I can control if they are attainable. Although you can do certain things to help, you can’t force your body to lose weight on a schedule. So, on to the goals for April.

• Eat within plan every day (2200 Tu/Th/Sa/Su & 2600 Mo/We/Fr)
• Drink water every day (18 cups min.)
• Exercise (90 mins treadmill Mon-Fri, 30 mins strength training Mo/We/Fr)

That exercise one is probably going to change slightly.  The snow is finally melting and we’re talking about opening the pool sometime after the middle of the month.  So at that point I may substitute some of the treadmill for water exercises.  Although if it’s still cold out I may just swim for fun and just work on laps.  On the first day of May I’ll take a look at these and see how I’ve done. Wish me luck!

Well, I weighed in this morning at 328.2, which is exactly 30 pounds from where I started this time. I admit that I’m a little disappointed in the monthly total, but considering I held the same weight for almost 2 weeks it’s actually pretty good. So, first, the monthly totals.

February 2008

• calories per day: 2045, calorie balance: -1193 per day
• treadmill: 33h 30m, weights: 6h 30m, toning DVD: 2h,
• snow shoveling: 15m, mixed: 30m
• avg daily exercise: 88 mins
• weight lost: 8.2 pounds

I just added them to the stats page if you want to compare to previous months. Now I need to think about goals for next month. I don’t set weight lost goals, as I feel I would be disappointed if I didn’t meet them. I try and set goals that will push me, but I can control if they are attainable. Although you can do certain things to help, you can’t force your body to lose weight on a schedule. And when it comes right down to it, how can I be disappointed with a weight loss that averages 2.47 lbs per week? The answer is - I can’t. So, on to the goals for March.

• Eat within plan every day (1900 - 2100 calories)
• Drink water every day (18 cups min.)
• Exercise (31h treadmill, 8h weights, 4h 30m sculpting DVD - 43h 30m total)

That exercise one is probably going to change slightly. I bought Leslie Sansone’s 5-mile walk set at Costco this morning, so the 8 hours of weights and the 4.5 hours of the sculpting DVD may be lowered to include some of it. I’m more interested in hitting the total overall. It might be harder than I think since there are 5 Sundays in the 31 days, so we’ll see. On the first day of April I’ll take a look at these and see how I’ve done. Wish me luck!

Added: Okay, the 5-mile WATP DVD is brutal.  Although I use the treadmill daily, I use the incline (rather than speed) to get my heart rate up.  The 2nd mile was a 10-min mile, and although I kept up, it pretty much wore me out.  It’s definitely a good substitute for the sculpting DVD (maybe better).  It’s a good thing that tomorrow is a rest day!

Well, it’s snowing and blowing up a storm outside. The neighbour and his daughter were shoveling the walk when we were going out to Costco. His daughter parks in our driveway (in exchange for shoveling the driveway in the winter). They actually lucked out with our last large snowfall as another neighbour had just bought himself a snowblower and must have done three or four other driveways. Costco was pretty empty, in fact, the most empty I’ve ever really seen it. I got more veggies than I usually do and a couple of lunch meats, so we’ll see what I come up with at lunch. It’s amazing though, the smoked turkey my mother buys is 24.50 a kg (kg=2.2lbs). The smoked turkey at Costco was 13(something) for their house brand, and 15(something) for Cuddy. I ended up buying the Cuddy one just because I remember that the Kirkland Lake one was okay, but not great.

So, I did a January wrap-up using this morning’s weight.

• calories per day: 1950, calorie balance: -1237 per day
• treadmill: 35h 30m, calisthenics: 45 mins, weights: 1h 35m
• avg daily exercise: 73 mins
• weight lost: 9.8 pounds

And December was (counting from the 7th only):

• calories per day: 1766, calorie balance: -1371 per day
• treadmill: 6 hours, calisthenics: 30 mins, weights: 20 mins
• avg daily exercise: 16 mins (yikes)
• weight lost: 12.0 pounds (this is typical for a starting period)

It just goes to show you that FitDay is only a reasonable judge of calories burned. For December I should have lost only 9.8 pounds (although the start of the diet is always faster). It also tells me that I should have 11 pounds instead of 9.8 for January. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy with the weight lost as Dec 31/Jan 4 were completely off plan. I just can’t resist looking at the overall numbers. What I’m most interested in is keeping an eye on the calories in (aiming 1800 - 2000) and the exercise mins (73 per day in January). The calories actually ended up higher than I expected because I caught an error partway through the month. I’d been recording 90% lean ground beef and found out that the Costco one is actually only 85% lean ground beef. When I adjusted the recipes using it that bumped my count up. I think that’s why I always tell people to be very careful about counting calories. Guessing usually ends up guessing low. That small difference took a 252 calorie hamburger to 297. It’s not a huge difference, but they add up.

Anyway, that’s enough of the math lesson for the day. I’m off to get some exercise in before lunchtime.

3pm - still snowing….