Start of Week 8

This week is terrifying. It's the week after Christmas and the week before New Years. Let me explain. Christmas went well, overall. We had three parties to attend. The first party was with friends, the second and third with family. When I was with friends, I stayed away from all appetizers, with the exception of one chip in a layered bean dip kind of thing. I had a couple of drinks and ate a reasonably healthy dinner. In fact, I stayed within my calorie limit. Part of my success there was that I used a small plate for dinner and I brought a healthy side dish so I could eat it with confidence. I made a lentil salad. It was pretty good. We also had panini's for dinner that night, but we got to create our own. Luckily that group is a pretty healthy group, so most of the choices were really good.

On Christmas Eve, we had brunch with my dad, step mom and in-laws. I knew I would bust my calories this day, but tried to keep my food within reason for brunch. I had a bagel and some breakfast casserole which had eggs, broccoli, cheese, and potatoes from what I could tell. I stayed away from the bacon (which I don't really like all that much anyway, luckily) and had less than a quarter of a sticky bun... just to taste it.

That night we went to my mom's and saw that side of the family for dinner. There were lots of appetizers. I stuck mostly to the veggie tray, had a few drinks, and ate one plate of food for dinner with a little extra pineapple stuffing (it's one of my favorite parts of Christmas Eve dinner).

We got some presents on Christmas Eve because we wouldn't be seeing family for Christmas Day. We got some great presents, but we also got a lot of candy. My wife came home with about 10 pounds of chocolate, and I'm pretty sure I'm not exaggerating too much. Luckily people know I'm trying to be more healthy, so I got some sugar free candies and a few fruity candies, but no chocolate, which is great. My aunt gave us our usual plate of cookies.

So Christmas morning comes, my wife and I exchange presents, and I end up with a little more candy. Some of my favorite kinds, but still stuff that's not too bad and I can control myself with it. For breakfast we made our own gluten free breakfast casserole. Gluten free bread, eggs, sausage, almond milk, and cheese. No, it's not healthy, but yes, it is delicious. I was planning the day as another calorie buster, but tried to maintain control.

Unfortunately, I didn't try hard enough. I had some drinks, I ate half my plate of cookies, and had a quarter of the breakfast casserole. For dinner we did ham, sweet potatoes, and green beans. The ham was very lean. For dinner we did pretty well, and we're having leftovers tonight, but those damn cookies got me. I just love them. Not having the calorie restriction made it more difficult to resist.

Despite all of that, I still managed to lose some weight. 239 this morning. I'm finally into the 230's and I'm really happy about it!

Let me get to why this week is so terrifying though. We still have tons of tempting food around the house. We got sent home with mashed potatoes and ham. I still have half a plate of cookies. I have about 5 pounds of candy. On top of it all, I can drink whatever I want this week if I stay in my calories because I know I'm going to bust my calorie goal on New Years Eve. Here's the cherry. I'm on a rest week for p90x. Not that I won't be doing difficult workouts. I still have yoga, core, and kenpo, but I've got two off days this week.

I'm going to flip this whole thing on it's head with this statement. I'm aware of the challenges ahead, and therefore I have the ability to set myself up for success. And that's what I intend on doing. Expect some more weight loss next week.

Of course, no post would be complete without a few doggy pictures.

On Christmas morning, we sat on the porch near our tree and did our presents.

 

Yahtzee sat by the door and looked outside. Later we gave her a toy from my dad which took her about 6 hours to break. We called him Santa balls. She ate his foot off.

We let her open her stocking after we were done with all of our presents. She got a stuffed penguin from Santa, and took about 5 minutes to chew his tag off and create a gaping hole in his butt. I didn't realize that she was chewing his tag off, of course, you can totally tell in the picture. I saw her chewing the tag once it came off of Mr. Penguin, but didn't get to it in time. She ate it.

My mom gave her a moose with a squeaker also. She broke the squeaker within 15 minutes and put a hole in it, but she still likes it, so we let her keep it. For now.

Start of Week 7

There are temptations EVERYWHERE. I knew getting into this that it would be hard to go out to eat. I know how to order appropriately if I want to, but I worked "cheat days" into my goals so that I could take a day or two off every week.

So this week was challenging for me for a few reasons. I was tempted to go off of my eating plan a few times. My wife had an event at a bar that I went to with her. While there, we had to go up to the bar to talk to the bartender to find the manager. My wife ordered a beer while we waited and when the bartender asked me what I wanted, it took everything I had to order a Diet Coke.

I'm certainly not upset with my wife for ordering a beer. I want her to do whatever she wants. She's skinny and certainly doesn't need to diet with me. If she wants a beer, she can have one. I'm better off for having resisted the temptation to drink and fill myself with those calories.

On Friday, we went out to dinner for my cheat day. I had done relatively well all day, then we went to one of our favorite restaurants. I got a half pound burger, because that's what was on the menu. It came with fried onions and bacon. Delicious? Yes. Good for me? Definitely not. It also came with a bunch of fries. The temptation here was to do what I normally do and eat all the fries. I decided to pass on at least half of them. Mostly because they weren't the best fries I'd ever had, but I also could see the grease shining off of them. Yuck.

Another problem I had this week was that I felt exhausted all week. I was concerned that I was getting drained from over training. My legs felt like Jello and my upper body was sore most of the week. I didn't feel sick, though.

I decided to adapt my workout routine. The cold weather is difficult to run in, mostly because of the wind that's blowing, and the dog that's hanging on the other end of the leash. I also am struggling to complete two intense cardio sessions on some days. For instance, after doing an  hour and a half of insanely intense Yoga, I'm supposed to run 6 miles. Yeah right. Who made this schedule? Oh right...

What I decided to do was run on the days that I don't have cardio. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They're lifting days. And even though Friday is a legs day, I do my running first so I can still do the cardio. I'm doing 3 miles at a time right now. It's freezing outside and windy, but also, my dog won't run much farther than 3 miles right now. She gets tired after about a mile and a half, maybe two miles, then trots along with me for the rest of the run. I'm going to work her up, though. I think eventually she'll be able to do 6-8 with me. On days where the weather wont allow me to run outside, I'll do Cardio X. It's intense, and I enjoy it. I would even think about doing it in addition to the run if I don't feel like the run was any good.

This morning, I weighed 240.5. I lost a pound from last week. I'm disappointed because I wanted to be in the 230's, but here's what I'm thinking happened... not that I'm trying to make excuses. I said before that I felt drained all week. I don't think I trained as hard as I could some days. I also know that I trained insanely hard on some days. What I think my body did, was freak out. I think the muscle soreness is holding some liquid, but I also think my body was holding on to what it could this week because I'm over training a little bit. So to compromise, I'm cutting back the cardio some days. I meticulously track my calories, so I know that wasn't the problem this week. There's no way that the burger I ate contained 3500 calories (1 pound of fat). I'm just going to have to keep on going, despite Christmas coming up this weekend. That's gonna be challenging, but I'm gonna try my best.

I also had my wife take my measurements this morning. The loss numbers on the right will be since Week 1.

Chest: 45 inches (loss of 2.25 inches)
Shoulders: 52.75 inches (loss of 1.25 inches)
Bicep: 15.5 inches (no change)
Waist: 38.5 inches (loss of 2 inches)
Hips: 43.25 inches (gain of 0.25 inches)
Belly: 42 inches (loss of 3.75 inches)


I'm happy with the loss numbers. I don't understand the gain in the hips, but I do understand that there is some variation in the measurements. Because my body is changing, it's hard to find the same exact spot to measure. Also, with my bicep, I'm not upset about no change, because I'd like it to get bigger. I'm hoping that it's growing, but my fat is shrinking, so it's staying the same.

Dog Update
 
Because I know everyone's interested... here are some dog stories for the week.

Yahtzee was playing with her tennis ball the other day. It rolled under the sofa, so she went in after it. Our sofa's are about 6 inches off the ground. Yahtzee weighs over 50 pounds. She squeezed under the sofa... and got stuck.

I had to lift the sofa off of her so she could come out. It was pretty funny.

We also did some brushing yesterday. Yahtzee decided she was a lap dog. We were sitting on the ground brushing her, and she decided to literally crawl onto our laps. It was really cute. Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures of her, but I do have a picture of the hairball that we brushed out of her.

It was huge. And we weren't done... we just got bored after 20 minutes of brushing.

Start of Week 6

I love that I am doing this for myself. There are days when I get up and dread that I have 2+ hours of working out to do, but when I am finished with it, I feel accomplished. There are moments when all I want to do is open a bag of Doritos and go nuts on it, but I resist and pop some popcorn instead. What it all boils down to, though, is that I'm losing weight, and I'm really getting healthy. I'm continuing to change my lifestyle.

Since I started this 90 day cycle, I'm more aware of a lot of things. Food intake, making my workouts worth it, and really concentrating on my alcohol consumption. Since I started, although I've had a few cheat days on my alcohol so far, I'm not going overboard. When I'm planning out my drinks for the weekend, I'm drinking two at a time so I can still stay within my calorie limit rather than going over because I wanted an extra drink.

I'm really proud of what I'm accomplishing. Even though I didn't manage to lose weight last week, I managed to drop a few pounds this week.

From 246 to 241.5 this morning. I knew that the plateau last week wasn't for real. I lost all the weight I was supposed to lose last week and this week combined. I've also lost over 10 pounds since I started this cycle.

When I drop 10 pounds, I like to do my side by side pictures because 10 pounds is when you can really see a difference.

 

I'm certainly proud of myself.

This week, things are going to change in my workout schedule. For one, I have decided that I really need to run Yahtzee a little more often. She's got a lot of energy because she's still a puppy, and taking her for a run really chills her out quite a bit. She was able to do 3 miles with me the other day, so I'm hoping to continue at 3 miles with her.

Beyond that, my wife wants to do some of my p90x workouts with me. Mostly the strength ones. Since she's working all day, we'll be doing the workouts in the evening instead of doing them in the morning like I used to. I'm hoping that I will have the chance to be more productive for work as a result.

Time to get back to it! WOO WOO!

Yahtzee update

So we're getting to know Yahtzee a little better now. We're finding out what she likes, what she doesn't, where she's comfortable and all that stuff. She's learning how to walk nicely on the leash. She's also learning Sit, Down, Shake, and Stand.

The most impressive thing I found out is that she can run on a leash pretty darn well. I ran with her for 2.25 miles the other day, and she was right next to me the whole way. Although she can't run my distances yet, I'm very happy to know that she's willing to try.

Here are some pictures and some quirks that we love about her.

First, we don't have a picture of this, but she can't sit on our floors. Our house is all hardwood downstairs, so she slides backward until she lays down.

This first picture is Yahtzee laying on one of the beds I made her. She was totally scared of both beds. I had to pick her up and put her on them. Individually. Once she was on, she layed down and was totally fine. Now she gets on and off as she pleases.

For some reason, Yahtzee doesn't like to just sit on the floor. She's more comfortable under the sofa.

Also, we got her a stuffed elephant with a squeaky toy in it. She loves it. I need to give my wife credit for it, though... she picked it out. Yahtzee doesn't like most of the toys I picked out for her.

She's doing very well and she's learning quickly. I'm proud of her and couldn't be happier with our decision to adopt her. She's so great!

Day 30 Update

Today is NOT Day 30, but yesterday was. I forgot to ask my wife to take my p90x pictures, so we took them tonight after dinner. I'm a little bloated from the meal, but who cares. Here are the side by sides... Day 1 are the hat pictures.

 

 

 

 I can see a little change. Mostly in the bicep/shoulder area. My wife says she sees a difference in my silhouette. As long as she sees a change, I'm happy with that.

I'll be posting some doggy updates soon.

Start of Week 5

Starting this week, I've got lots of great things going on in my life. We got our new dog. We've met a few new people (Thanks to Yahtzee). I'm enjoying what I'm doing as a self-employed person (can you call it that if you're not making any money yet?). I also accomplished most of my goals this week. I missed a day on food and one on water. Same day.

I was on my calorie goal every day this week except Saturday. My cheat day on food was bad. I know that I made a mistake and went overboard. But I was down to 242 mid-week. This morning? 246. I'm bummed about it, not shocked. I imagine that my cheat day had something to do with it. The cheat day also coincided with the day that we picked Yahtzee up. I slept about 5 hours on Friday night and didn't get to bed until 10 on Saturday night. I was up for around 17-18 hours. That's more than I'm used to. With the car travel (5 hours) and dealing with the stress of a dog that's scared... I'm just surprised that I held on to my alcohol goal for the week.

 

 This morning I took Yahtzee over to the beach for a long walk/run. I wanted to get some energy out of her. While there, we met a guy and his dog. He had a Golden Retriever that was about two and a half. Yahtzee and the Golden jumped around and played with each other, wrestling and what not. It was fun to watch, not so much fun to clean all of the sand out of her fur. At least the contrast of her black fur and the white sand made it easy to see.

The guy said he worked for a local hotel and he worked at the Chamber of Commerce. What a great connection for me, seeing as I'm starting my own business. His name was John, so I'm hoping to remember that next time I see him. He gave me some pointers for Yahtzee and we talked for a little about what I wanted to do for my business. He also gave me some suggestions for who to talk to and where to go for marketing and local connections. Really, a great guy.

Yahtzee and I ran probably half a mile together. I have to say, she's much better on the leash when running than she is while walking. She keeps pace with me very well and doesn't tug on the leash at all. She does cross my path a little, and I can't say I enjoy running with a bag of poo in my hand, but we'll figure this whole running thing out sooner or later.

We're going to the Vet tomorrow to get a check-up. I'm hoping they tell me I can build her up to my distances and that I've got a healthy new running partner!

Yahtzee!!!

Yesterday was a wonderful day. We got our new dog, Yahtzee!

We arranged to pick her up at 8am in northern NJ, so we had to get up at 4:45 to make the 2.5 hour drive. I can tell you that it was worth it, though.

When we met the transporter, she was very scared. She cuddled up next to my leg for a minute and was breathing very heavily. She also seemed cold. She refused to get into the car with us, so the transporter picked her up and put her in next to me in the back seat. For the ride home, she laid next to me, put her head in my lap, and slept.

When we got home, she was scared and curious at the same time. We let her walk around outside for a while, then brought her in to explore the house and gave her some water.

She drank 3 entire bowls. I guess she was thirsty. She's also a messy drinker, but that might have been because she was so thirsty! I swear, I thought the downstairs was going to flood. If you look close at the picture above, she has water dripping off her face. I think she tried to swim in her water bowl.

Later we took her over to the beach. She seems very motivated by going outside. If she thinks there's a chance to go out, she runs over and jumps at the door. We're working with her on sitting before she goes out or comes in.

She certainly seemed to enjoy the beach.

I took her for a little jog to get some energy out. She'd spent most of the day sitting in a dog crate in a van, then sitting next to me in the car. Time to stretch those legs!

She was a little scared of the waves rolling in, but wasn't afraid to get close to the water. She sniffed around a lot, but didn't go in.

She's been pretty pleasant so far, just hanging around. She LOVES attention! She's still a puppy, so she jumps around and pulls on the leash a little because she's so curious about everything. Overall, though, she's got a pretty calm demeanor.

Last night we took her to the Christmas Parade in Cape May. I brought some chew treats with me so she could have something to do. She was fine for the first hour and a half or so, then it was time to leave. She was cold and bored, but she did pretty well. To be honest, it was kind of nice to have an excuse to go home. Not because the parade wasn't awesome, but because I was freezing!

She barked at some of the other dogs at the parade. We're pretty sure the barking was because they weren't paying attention to her.

This morning at the beach, though, she barked at a couple of PEOPLE. I didn't like that, but she seemed scared by them. We're going to work that out of her, though.

I'm going to be working with her this week on clicker training. I want to teach her a lot of basic obedience commands and see if I can't get her playing fetch. She's not showing much interest in balls, but I want to get her running around to get some exercise. I can't let her off the leash, so the only freedom she's got to run is in the house or at the dog park. We'll make sure she gets plenty of exercise regardless!

Adaptations

I know that many of my readers check in here to just see how I'm doing because they know me personally. I also know that there are others who look here for inspiration and guidance. They can learn from my mistakes and from my successes. For that reason, I like to make sure that when I make a realization or change my plan up, I want to talk about why I'm doing it and what made me do it.

This morning I woke up at 6:15am. Remember that I'm unemployed at the moment. I have work to do, but it's not like I have to be anywhere at any given time. I watched the sun come up as I gave my wife a goodbye hug and kiss as she went off to work. Also, as she walked out the door, I felt the wind come in. It was cold.

I checked the temperature and noticed that it was only 35 degrees outside with 20mph winds. So immediately I checked my workout schedule for today. I skipped Kenpo yesterday because my shoulder was bothering me, so I have to make that up today. I ran yesterday to make up for a run I skipped on Tuesday because I was sick. I'm shifting workouts this week so that I can still meet my goal.

P90x has a stretch session that is optional. Today is that session on my schedule. I'll skip it and do my Kenpo today. But I also have a 5 mile run scheduled. Not in 35 degrees I don't. I thought about waiting until this afternoon, but by the time it's 2pm, it will only be 50. I ran in that yesterday and felt like crap. Maybe because I was/am still sick, maybe because it was super windy. Either way, I don't want to run in sub 40 degree weather if I don't have to.

As I looked over the workout schedule, I noticed that there are no days on my schedule that are "Cardio X" days. But I know I saw a "Cardio X" in my stack of p90x DVD's. I found that it's 43 minutes long. That's just slightly less than the amount of time it would take me to run 5 miles. I decided to adapt my workout and make the cardio X option my run for today.

I'm not a fast runner, and I doubt that my heartbeat gets up as high as it would in the Cardio X DVD. I figured I'd start with my normal Kenpo, then throw in the Cardio X option immediately after. I'm going to have one hell of a calorie burn doing an hour and 45 minutes straight of high intensity exercise.

After doing the first workout, I felt fine. I felt like I could do it all over again. I also wasn't watching the clock nearly as much as I do in a normal workout... maybe because I knew I was doing twice as much today.

Either way, I jumped right into the second workout. It was a little different than I expected. It was a mix of yoga, kenpo, plyometrics, and core exercises. Because it was chunked up so much, it went really fast. By the end of it, though, I was TOAST.

So if you're working through a program, know that it's ok to adapt your workouts to meet your needs at that time. If you're injured, do something different or do that workout another time and move up a different workout to earlier in the week. You can still get it all done.