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.