Weight update - May 31

288.0 pounds, accourding to Not So Evil, Slowly Becoming My Friend Digital Scale. That puts me at a double-digit loss after five weeks (yay!).

Today I get back on track after a rough day yesterday. I felt pretty miserable waking up, and ended up not eating breakfast at home OR taking my lunch to work. I did both of those things today, and I have a cardio workout planned for this evening.

This is getting exciting.

Good and bad

90 percent of life is just showing up.
--Woody Allen

I thought of this quote Friday night at the gym. It turned out that, despite having no excuses to skip the gym, I still didn't want to go. I actually didn't think I was going to go, so strong was my apathy. (Can you have strong apathy? Whatever.)

I knew though, that just showing up at the gym would be winning the battle, because once I got to the gym, working out would be easy. So I made up something to overcome my inertia and get me out of the house -- namely, a trip to Athlete's World for a new pair of workout shorts, because one of the pairs I bought in the States was 2X, despite saying 1X on the hanger. (Thankfully, I'm not THAT big.) All the way to the store, I kept thinking, "I'm never getting to the gym."

I bought the shorts -- a really cheap, really nice pair of Adidas shorts -- and left the mall, still thinking I'd never get to the gym.

I drove around aimlessly for a bit. "Not happening."

I turned around and started for the gym. "You'll never make it."

I pulled into the gym parking lot. "You honestly think you're getting out of the car?"

I walked into the gym and completed a nice workout. "Show-off."

The bad news is, I seem to have plantar fasciitis. So it looks like my running regimen is on hold for awhile. I hope to make it to the sports medicine clinic sometime soon to get it looked at, although I don't really know what they can do about it.

Curses!

I'm getting infuriated with the sports networks around here. How is it that, with three major sports networks in Canada, Blue Jays fans like myself can go EIGHT DAYS without seeing but one game on television?

Oh well...it leaves me with no excuses for not going to the gym tonight. Not that I was planning not to.

Running

And I ran
I ran so far away
--A Flock Of Seagulls

I never thought I would be a runner. I'd heard all the horror stories -- running kills your knees, your feet, your shins, etc. Having a heavy frame, I didn't think I was cut out to be a runner. And running scared the hell out of me, just because of the feeling of utter exhaustion I always got when I ran somewhere, thanks to my complete lack of conditioning.

I still may not be a runner...but running doesn't scare me like it used to.

During this past month, I never felt like I was getting all I could out of my cardio training. I could do the machines I was on without too much trouble, and my heart rate was up to where it should have been for cardio, but I never felt like I was pushing myself. I wondered if I needed to try something more intense. And with all the walking I've been doing, I started to think that maybe I could run after all.

I got a book two weeks ago called The Beginning Runner's Handbook, which describes a 13-week program designed to get anyone to be able to run a 5-K or 10-K run by the end of it. I read the program, and immediately thought, "I can do this." So today, I went out to try the first step:

Run one minute. Walk two minutes. Do this 12 times.

How simple is that? You don't have to run any kind of distance. Just run for one minute. Then walk off the laboured breathing. Then run one more minute.

And you know something? I did it. (Well, almost -- I miscalculated, and got back to my building after the tenth repetition. I know I could have done all 12, though, even if I was getting jelly-legged after the 10th run.) It was challenging, but not super-difficult. And at no point during the run/walk did I think I couldn't finish.

Can I do this for 13 weeks? Do I want to do this for 13 weeks? I don't know. But I want to do it again on Monday, and that's what matters.

Weight update - May 24

Getting-Less-Evil-With-Each-Passing-Day Digital Scale has me at 290.8, down 3.2 pounds from last week. Most of that weight came off in the first three days, and I stayed pretty even for the rest of the week -- excellent news, considering my weekend meals included stops at McDonald's, Arby's and Denny's.

I'm hoping this week will be a big week, since I don't have anything that would have me eating away from home for an extended period like this past week did, and it looks like it's going to be sunny for awhile, so I can walk to work without needing to carry the big giant umbrella, and then eventually getting driven to work because I HATE carrying the big giant umbrella for a half hour.

Wow, that was quite the run-on sentence.

Road trip

My wife and I decided to go to Syracuse this weekend. With the Canadian dollar at over 90 cents US, shopping across the border is amazing. We're saving at least 20% on everything we buy just by being in the States!

Even better, we went to a big outlet mall about a half hour west of Syracuse and saved even more. I'd say we got about $750 worth of clothes for $400. I went to the Reebok store and got some awesome new workout clothes, plus some new summer wear. Incredibly, I've already used the workout clothes -- I got up early, on a SUNDAY, to work out on the recumbent bike in the fitness centre. I swear, I don't even recognize myself sometimes.

I haven't been eating at the greatest places, but I'm not eating as much. Plus, all of the walking we've done through shopping centres (probably about 7 hours worth) helps me keep things in balance as well.

On the down side, Syracuse is quite a dreary little city.

Small victory

I realized just now that I managed to eat breakfast at home and bring lunch to work every day this week. I haven't done this in...well, ever. It seems like such a simple thing, but it makes such an incredible difference in my sense of well-being. Last week, when I bought breakfast at work twice (oatmeal muffin) and lunch three times (grilled cheese and bacon sandwich w/fries), I felt like crawling under my desk for a nap in the middle of the afternoon nearly every day.

Exercise has suffered, though, thanks to the constant threat of rain that got me driven to work every day this week and kept me from the gym every day but one. I'm such a wuss.

Weight update - May 17

Evil Digital Scale had good news this morning -- I'm down 0.2 pounds to 294. Any decrease is a good decrease, especially when it hasn't been a great week since my last weigh-in.

This week should be better. The only times I'll be eating away from home are Friday night at my niece's birthday (and that shouldn't be too bad, given the food at my Portuguese sister-in-law's gatherings generally isn't that good), and a Monday afternoon BBQ at my parents' place to celebrate the long weekend. I'm determined to make it to the gym five times this week, since the weather is likely going to be crappy enough that I won't be walking to work much, if at all.

I got a good tip for using the elliptical machine yesterday. Loosening my shoes before getting on the machine kept my feet from falling asleep as they normally do. If you have tight shoes, your feet won't move at all while on the machine, and will fall asleep halfway through the workout. Loosening them causes your feet to rise slightly on each stride, and keeps the blood circulating enough to maintain the feeling in them.

Fearing the scale

I'm not looking forward to weighing myself tomorrow. I had a pretty bad week, at least as far as eating went.

My exercise was OK, although not up to expectations. I walked six miles, did one round of weight training, and tried the ill-fated BodyPump class on Sunday. Other than that class, though, I haven't had any exercise since Friday, and haven't been to the gym since last Wednesday. I have plans to go tonight to work out on either the elliptical trainer or the treadmill.

Eating is what's killed me, though. I failed to bring my lunch to work twice last week. I had two Mother's Day meals out on the weekend, neither of which you could really consider particularly healthy (although they weren't super-high in calories, either). Last night was the killer, though -- I was feeling a bit tired and low, so my wife and I went out to the local BBQ restaurant, where I had the rib platter, followed by a wonderful brownie sundae. Well, at least it was wonderful while I was eating it.

I'm getting better at making meals at home, but I still have a ways to go before it becomes a habit.

Exercising and work

One of the real perks about my new job is the proximity. I left my old job for good because they moved to a place that would take me over an hour each way by bus. (It was 20 minutes each way at the original location.) My current commute is half an hour...on foot:



(I love Google Maps.)

So I save $70 a month on public transit, plus I get the added benefit of walking four miles every day. And the neighbourhood on the bottom part of the map is very pleasant to walk through. It almost makes up for having to cross two busy highway on-ramps in the other half of the walk.

My legs have gone from feeling like jelly to screaming with pain, so I may not do the walk home today.

Near-death experience

SCALE UPDATE: My parents' scale had me at around 291. That's only 4 pounds lower than my digital scale, but over 10 pounds higher than the rotary scale. Looks like evil digital scale wins.

One of the problems I have while exercising is that I often overestimate my abilities. I'll try too high a setting on the elliptical trainer, or I'll try and lift too much weight, or I'll try and go for too long on the bike. Normally, this isn't much of a problem, as I'll just adjust a bit, or cut a workout short.

This morning, though...well, read the title of this post.

I decided to try one of the BodyPump classes at my gym. It's basically high reps of light weights at a quick pace set to music. Think "weight training meets aerobics class". I'd been doing strength training twice a week for the last month or so, and my cardio was improving, so I decided to give it a shot. It started out OK, doing a warmup with a 5 lb. barbell. But -- and this was my critical error -- I put too much weight on the bar (20 lbs.) for the first real set of exercises. LEG exercises. I managed to make my way through the set with some difficulty. I then did OK with the next set, which were bench presses, done lying down. When I went to get back up for the next set (back and hamstrings), I knew my legs were totally done. I had completely burned them out with the quad exercises.

I went for the water bottle, but I didn't have anything with sugar in it, so I had no chance of getting any energy back. I started to feel queasy. I sat through the next two sets, then left the studio to take a walk. BIG mistake. I should have stayed right where I was. Getting up just made my queasiness worse, and I quickly ended up in the washroom riding the porcelain bus.

As I write this, I'm still a bit jelly-legged. I think I'm just going to go back to my regular routine for the time being. I'm still proud of myself for at least giving it a shot, though.

Kicking the coke habit

No, not THAT coke.

It's now been five weeks -- 35 whole days! -- since I had my last can of Coke. Or any other soft drink, for that matter. Nothing fancy, I just decided I wasn't going to drink pop anymore, and I haven't since. And I have seven sets of tally marks on my refrigerator as a nice reminder.

I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure that's the longest I've ever gone in my adult life without pop. Maybe my first crack at Atkins in 1999, but that's definitely it. I'm not even drinking diet pop, because I don't like the aftertaste, and it usually gives me a headache.

The great part about it? I can honestly say that I don't miss it. Me discovering Mr. Pibb on a trip to Las Vegas at the end of February and craving it for the rest of the trip seems a lifetime ago.

And we're off

Actually, I've been going at this for a couple of weeks now, but I haven't been keeping records because of scale issues.

I bought a new digital scale a couple of weeks ago because I'd had my little old rotary-dial Ikea scale for about 10 years now -- Do scales go bad? Can you tell? It's not like it was moldy or anything -- and I wanted to get something a little more precise. THAT scale (the Ikea one) told me I weighed about 283 the last time I stepped on it. And the one at the gym, also an Ikea scale (although a different model), confirmed it. When I stepped on the digital scale, I nearly fainted when I saw it settle on a number starting with 3.

300.6 lbs., to be exact.

Which to believe? My old faithful Ikea scale that's been with me through thick and thin (mostly thick)? Or this new evil scale telling me I've been lied to all these years?

I decided to break the tie this weekend, when I visit my parents. Their scale is doctor's office quality. It'll tell me the truth.

In the meantime, I weighed myself this morning, two weeks after getting that scale. I'm down to 294.2. Just for kicks, I got on the Ikea scale, and it came in at 277. Any way you slice it, I'm down 6 pounds in two weeks. Huzzah!

Introducing Chris

Welcome, one and all, to my new Google-powered blog. If all goes well, I intend for this to be a chronicle of my weight-loss journey (destination: 199 pounds!). If all doesn't go well...well, hopefully someone will find this and give me a good kick in the ass.

I'm 31 years old, married nearly two years, and living in Ottawa, Canada. In an incredible stroke of irony, I just started a new job last week, as senior statistician for nutrition data at Health Canada. Hey, if I'm going to be counting everyone else's calories, the least I could do is keep track of my own, right?

I've had trouble with my weight for pretty much the entire time since leaving university. I used to be thin. Really thin. My wife looks at my grad photo from university and can't believe it's the same person. Back in university, I was broke more often than not. This had two beneficial effects on my health: I couldn't eat a lot, and my main form of transportation was my bike.

I used to ride everywhere. I went to school in Waterloo, Ontario, which is one of what are called the Tri-Cities, Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge. Waterloo was in the north part of the area, and it was a long ride to get anywhere in Kitchener. Getting to Cambridge was even further. As a result, I logged hundreds of miles on my bike in those years. I even did a couple of really long rides, one to Guelph for a surprise visit to my aunt and uncle, and another to Hamilton, just because I was bored one day and wanted something to do. Go to Yahoo! Maps and look at the distance between the two cities, and you'll see how in shape I must have been (and how nuts, as well - it's not exactly flat when you get near Hamilton, as the main road goes straight down the Niagara Escarpment).

Now? Well, I still love the idea of biking, even though I haven't been on a serious ride in years. After I got my first full-time job with the government, and more specifically after I broke up with my live-in girlfriend of two years, I became interested in a lot more sedentary pursuits, like gambling, or sitting in front of the TV and/or computer for hours (sometimes days) at a time. My eating habits became much worse. I travelled everywhere by bus, and later by car, instead of on my bike. Of course, I put on weight, and the more weight I put on, the more sedentary I became. It was a truly vicious circle.

My only real experiences with dieting were two bouts with the Atkins Diet. The first time, I entered a weight-loss bet with two colleagues from work right around the same time as Atkins was starting to gain momentum. Three months later, I'd lost around 40 pounds, and won the bet with ease. Of course, immediately after I went off the diet, I ballooned right back up. The second time, I went on it for two weeks, and got off right after meeting my future wife.

Right now, I'm somewhere between 280 and 300 lbs., depending on which scale you believe. I'm trying to get somewhere under 200. Even one pound -- one OUNCE, even -- and I'd be ecstatic. I don't have a date in mind to achieve this goal, but one mini-goal I've set is to be wearing a tuxedo at my sister's wedding in October that's smaller than the size-46 I wore to my own wedding two Augusts ago.