Happy New Year!

I’m going to bed momentarily – about three hours shy of midnight, but I think the new year will start fine without me watching.  I’ve enjoyed the holidays but I’m glad the last hurrah food fest is over – I’ve eaten too much crap and enjoyed a bit of rum this evening!

Goals wrap up for the year – I was close on the pull-ups able to knock out two sets of 9 but I was no go for the 10th.  So I’ll carry on that goal for 2007.  I got close on my weight and think I’ll hit goal by February – so I’m carrying that over as well.  I’m way behind on my goal of benching 200 pounds thanks to my departure with the Tabata protocol so I’m carrying over that goal as well.  Also carrying forward the 20 minute 5k goal.  I think this really could be the year.

In spite of meeting only one goal this year (running a half marathon) I feel proud – I’ve lost weight, stayed active and felt healthier in a general sense.  I’m looking forward to 2007 – best of luck to everyone else as well!

29 December 2006

I can’t believe that 2006 is almost over!  Since my last entry on the 23rd I’ve done okay keeping up on my workouts.  I did a shorter run on Christmas Eve – embarassingly enough I don’t remember how long or far I ran.  I didn’t lift on Christmas or run on the day after even though I did intend to.

On Wednesday I lifted and ran 5K in 25 minutes ~ kind of an easy but harder than normal pace. Thursday I ran an hour (~6.25 miles). 

I was on vacation until this morning so I’m finally returning to my schedule – up at 5:30 (which seems very early after sleeping in until 7:00 each day I was off) and I lifted this morning – it went okay, but it was quite a hard work out!  I guess it took so much effort because I was tired. 

My weight has continued its upward drift over the holidays, but I’m confident that I’ll begin dropping weight again this week.  The cakes and cookies are nearly gone and New Years Eve isn’t a big eating event for me so I think I’ll be alright.

I’m going to update my goals for 2007 in the next few days.

Saturday, December 23rd

I did my long run today using a heart rate monitor to try to ensure that I didn’t run too fast.  I did pretty well staying in my “base” zone.  I don’t really know how far I ran I’ll have to try to map it using the Google Pedometer at some point.  My connection at home is so slow that I don’t want to wait that long.

The embarassing part is I was planning to run 70 minutes, thought I ran 70 minutes and later learned that I ran only 60… I had my timer going off every 10 minutes and miscounted.  Oh well.

My cold is getting better – still coughing some but not too bad.  I’m staying pretty true to the WW plan although Jacki is making cookies and I’ve eaten 3 this evening.  I’m going to try to stop there.

Yesterday I only ended up with 7212 steps – I lifted in the morning and did last minute Christmas shopping in my free time.

I Lifted Today

I still have a cold – I don’t think it is ever going away, but I lifted anyway.  Having missed my last two lifting workouts I didn’t want an entire week to go by without lifting.  It went pretty well…

I ate well yesterday staying within my revamped WW point range – Weight Watchers has finally taken gender into consideration for establishing point ranges.  I’m glad because I was about ready to leave the program, but the new range seems about right for me – we’ll see if I continue to lose weight.

I plan to do a longish run tomorrow maybe an hour unless my cold vanishes overnight then I might do 70 -  80 minutes.

I’m reconsidering posting calorie intake just because I really don’t track it closely.  I’m going to resume step counts, but my pedometer was accidentally reset yesterday so I think it was around 17000 steps.

Sick and Tired

I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth or anything, I’ve just come down with a stubborn cold and been extremely busy at work.  I’ve actually missed my last couple lifting sessions and my last couple of runs as well – resting in the hopes I’ll get over my cold more quickly. 

This strategy hasn’t worked and I’ve been miserable just sitting around so I went for a 40 minute run this morning.  I feel a lot better after running – even though I still have a cold.

My weight went up a couple pounds due to lack of exercise and increase of Christmas goodies lying around everywhere.  I’m getting back on track (a nice fresh start) today, and it feels good.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get up a new post in the next day or so.

Quick Post

I’m really busy (still) so just a quick post for today.  This morning I did my situps, pushups, and pullups and a quick 30 minute run (I had to get into work early).

Yesterdays steps:

10463 steps

A Little Late

Its taken a while to get this post up… I haven’t had loads of time today.  I’ll share a weekend wrap up:

Saturday – I ran 50 minutes it was supposed to be my long run but it was frigidly cold.  I wore my Camelbak and the water froze in the tube!  Anyway I was happy to have run the 50 minutes and be done with it.  I then ran 40 minutes on Sunday in addition to washing, folding and putting away umpteen loads of clothes. 

I’m not sure of my calorie intake but it was super high due to an abundance of brownies available all weekend.  I can however recap my steps:

Friday – 4807 steps low because I lifted and didn’t have a lunch break
Saturday – 13840 steps
Sunday – 11498 steps

I lifted this morning and its going well.  I think I’m about to increase weight in several lifts.  I’ll try to get back to the program eating wise – its hard, dinner at my parents Tuesday and Holiday luncheon for work on Wednesday.  I suspect I might have a bit of a weight gain for the week… hopefully not.

Interesting Questions

I have a little research to do.  As regular readers know I’m following the Weight Watchers program – some of which I like and some of which I don’t.  I started counting total calories over the last few days and my total yesterday came in at 1,205.  This strikes me as really low, but its right in line for following the WW program. 

The research I’ll be doing is to find out around how many calories are needed to lose around a pound (or two) a week.  I’d hate to think that WW has put my body into starvation mode.

Lifting went well today.   I do pullups at the end of my lifting session and today I added a little longer break before I did them – I completed 2 sets of 6 – pretty good for doing them after lifting. 

Yesterdays Stats:

17,100 steps
1,205 calories
91 mg cholesterol

Down a little more

At my WW meeting last night I weighed in at 162.8 down 12.2 pounds since I started the program on September 13th.  I can’t wait to get down 5 pounds more because I’ll have hit my 10% goal (losing 10% of my weight at the start) and I’ll only have to lose a couple more pounds to hit my goal weight.

I ran 40 minutes this morning with five 1 minute pickups in the middle.  Not really speed work, but a little something extra.

Yesterday’s stats:

10,380 steps

6 December 2006

Today was a lifting day, and it went well although I continue to underestimate the time it takes to complete my training schedule – it is more than an hour and I always try to cram it into 50 minutes.  I need to free up a little more time.

Good weight news for this week – I’m down to 158 – the lowest weight I’ve seen in over 16 years!  I’m very excited and optimistic about getting down to my goal weight if not in the year then in January.

I’ve also got to say that I think lifting deserves the praise for my weight loss this week.  I’ve been eating more (things like cookies that are omnipresent this time of year) and I still lost weight.  I think my stressed muscles are eating up those extra calories.

To sum it up – I’m feeling good!

Yesterday’s Stats: 

18,470 steps