It's been a while........

since my last post. I wanted to change some of the settings for this blog and have been so busy at work that I haven't had the energy or inclination to tinker with it. As you can see, my weight has been bouncing around between 182 and 185 pounds for several weeks now. On the weeks that it bounced up to 185 I can pretty much identify the reason. The good news is I have made much progress getting re-acclimated to the Calorie King online food log and am now doing a pretty good job of recording everything I eat. Even better news is I seem to have at least tamed the night time snacking problem. At this point, I am planning ahead and noting a night time snack on my food log prior to going to bed so if I do get up and go foraging in the kitchen, I know what the planned snack is in advance.

I've also done some interesting reading recently about body fat/weight set point theory. The theory being that the body develops or establishes a body weight or % of fat set point and will actually "defend" this set point when we try to reduce it. This is part of what makes lasting weight/fat loss so difficult. I frankly wish my body would do a better job of defending its set point when the darn thing is increasing.!!!

I have had a couple times in the past week or so that I felt "out of gas". This feeling actually caused me to throw in the towel on my weight workout yesterday at the gym. I think this feeling may be a result of actually doing a better job of calorie restriction lately and maybe running low on fuel.

So the battle rages on. I go to the gym to lift weights, I get my cardio, I watch what I eat and try to record every bite. I weigh myself every week and look for interesting articles and books that I think may give me the upper hand on controlling my body weight. Heck, I even blog about it.

I do these things because I've learned these are the things I need to do to maintain a health body weight. When I do encounter people that are morbidly obese I have to think "but for the grace of god go I". I know how difficult it can be to maintain a healthy body weight but my message is that it can be done.

The week of July 10th.......

This week I weighed myself on Saturday morning instead of Friday. My exercise since my previous weigh in was a leisurely bike ride with a couple neighbors last Sunday, 3 pretty good lunchtime weight workouts and about 37 miles of cycling to and from work on Friday. 

My food consumption and record keeping for the week was not as good as I would have liked. My old nemesis “night time snacking” returned and I only got about 3 days of food intake adequately recorded on Calorie King.  

This week I will try to maintain a good level of physical activity and improve on my consumption and record keeping.  I know that what really matters is how I eat most of the time.  An occasional food item or meal that isn’t normally part of my food plan is not the end of the world. I just try to keep these instances to a minimum.

Insidious bad doctoring…….

Well, I learned this week that a bad doctor is a lot harder to spot than a bad haircut. I know, with my hair line, you would think anything would be harder to spot than a bad haircut.

Debbie is now recovering from an overdose of a very toxic drug. She has been on this medication for 12 years and all of a sudden, due to a flare up of some symptoms, a doctor suggested at his 1^st meeting with her that she double the dose of this medication.  It took us almost a month to figure out the problem and we have now located a new doctor that we hope to have more success with.

As noted to the right, my weight on Friday morning was up a little over a half a pound from the week prior. I did not log my food intake on calorie king and my only workout was on Thursday at noon. With all the other worry, I was just happy to get through the week without a large loss or gain. I intend to get right back on my program tomorrow morning. I will make an effort to keep a fairly complete log of my food intake for the week and get several workouts in.

A number of years ago an exercise physiologist friend of mine said “if you want to stay healthy, stay away from doctors”. At the time I thought it was a fairly strange thing to say but over the years I have come to appreciate the comment. I now know that the real essence of the comment was that I need to make healthy lifestyle choices that help me avoid as many preventable illnesses as possible. Of course, after I quit smoking, the number one thing I can do to avoid doctors is maintain a healthy weight.  I know this from experience because in the past, when my body weight would go up, I would start having problems with blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

So the battle rages on. While the scale in my bathroom is a worthy adversary, I shall not be deterred. I will get up tomorrow morning and start anew. I will make an effort to keep an accurate record of my food consumption on Calorie King because I know it helps me control my calorie consumption. I will also make an effort to get some exercise 4 or 5 days of the week because it makes me feel better, I enjoy it and it is FUN.

A pretty tough week......

As I indicated last week, I am back to keeping my food and exercise diary on Calorie King. Since I am going back to using this program after a few months away, I knew I wouldn’t get every bite recorded but wanted to have a few or more days with a good record.

Well, as you can see in the column to the right, on Friday my weight was down 6.4 lbs from the previous week. That is more weight than I want to lose in a week. I had a very stressful week due to some health problems of Debbie’s and I think I was actually so worried at times, I forgot to eat. In the past I have found that I would eat during stressful situations but this time it was different. Also, I got no gym sessions in during the week so I built no muscle to account for that lost along with the fat in the pounds that disappeared.

We are hoping to have Debbie back on track real soon and I am hoping I can slow the weight loss to a pound or a pound and a half per week.

No more Fuzzy Math.........

Ah…well, last week, I said that when my weight goes up, I try to figure out why so it doesn’t happen 2 or more weeks in a row.  I apparently did not figure out why before Friday’s weigh in because my weight went up again during the week as noted in the column to the right. I have been thinking about it and think I have now determined why my weight went up 2 weeks in a row.  The answer is too much food crosses my lips. I know I am responsible for what I eat and have apparently been overdoing it.

So, back to what works. I had gotten away from keeping a food diary as I tinkered around with a couple different food plans.  I think a food diary has always worked for me because I know I will make a decision to not consume a food item or limit the portion because I don’t want to have to record it on my diary.  I have chosen to go back to using the Calorie King online program because I am familiar with it and can also record my exercise which is then figured into my calorie goal for the day.

I am continuing to try to limit my use of flour and sugar. I have added bananas back into my food plan for the potassium and also V8 juice at the suggestion of a trainer. My intention is to start an “Off the Bean” program in a couple weeks to eliminate caffeine. I am going to try to eliminate caffeine for 4 months and see if I feel any health differences.

I am taking a break from running until at least the end of July so my exercise is limited to the ARC trainer at the gym or cycling to work for cardio and weight lifting.

I am hoping that these changes show some positive results when I step on the scale next Friday.

What Happened?

Well, things were going along so well, on Wednesday and Thursday my slacks felt loose, surely a sign that my weight was heading in the right direction. On Wednesday I did a cardio workout on the Arc Trainer at lunch and Thursday I did an upper body weight workout. I was pretty confident that my weight would be at least a pound lower when I stepped on the scale on Friday morning.  Wrong!!!

On Friday, I got up and went right to the scale and as noted in the column to the right, it read a full 5 pounds heavier than the week before. Not only that, it was just 2 weeks earlier that I set a goal of keeping my weight in a range of 165 to 183 for the next 12 months and here I am at 183.8, out of my goal range already with 50 more weeks to go.

Well, these things happen, I have learned that success is not determined by what I do when things are going my way, it is dependent on the actions taken when things are going against my wishes. 

First let’s look at the numbers to try to figure out what happened. On June 10^th, I weighed 178.8 lbs with 17.7% body fat or 31.65 lbs of fat. Though not reported to the right, on that day my body water percentage was 52.8 % or 94.41 lbs. On June 17^th I weighed 183.8 lbs with 16% body fat or 29.41 lbs of fat. On the 17^th my body water percentage was 54 or 99.25 lbs. So if my Tanita body composition scale is to be believed, I actually lost fat during the week but for some reason had nearly 5 more pounds of water as part of my body weight.

As I have said previously, I believe my biggest food issue these days is night snacking. I now have to wonder if the bag of pretzels I got into at 10PM on Thursday night might have had an effect on the percentage of water in my body on Friday morning. What do you think? I say likely so.

I was thinking about this on my bike ride home from work on Friday and think I need to stick more diligently to my food plan during the work week. That means if I do snack in the evening to do so on foods acceptable to my food plan. I can then let up a little on the weekend when we dine out some.

Additionally, I know that my weight will fluctuate some from week to week.  If my weight does bump up I try to figure out why and then make sure it does not happen 2, 3 or 4 weeks in a row.

Another good week

Well, I am a little tardy in getting this weigh in posted since I was out of town over the weekend for a little personal Chi Running instruction from a friend that has been practicing this method of running for about 3 years.

My weigh in this past Friday morning is noted in the column to the right. The loss of 2.2 lbs is very satisfactory since I was not getting as much exercise as normal due to a muscle pull in my right calf. 

I do want to comment on the percentage of body fat numbers that are reported in the column just to the right of the weight.  It is the opinion of the most recent trainer that I have worked with that these numbers are artificially low. I accept that they may be lower than reality but look at them really just for the trend of this portion of my overall body weight.

Over the past several years the one issue that has dogged me regarding weight control is night snacking. I have struggled to figure out if my trip to the kitchen to forage at 11 PM is hunger or habit. I think on some nights it may be hunger and on others I may be heading for the peanut butter out of habit.  I bring this up now because during the last week, I did snack late at night a couple times and still showed a nice weight loss. Of course, I have to wonder if it will be maintained through this week.

I do think weekly weigh ins are important as a way of keeping track of progress, although, more importantly are the trends over 3 or 6 months. That is why I looked at my weight range for the past year before setting a goal for the coming year.

This week looks to be a bit of a challenge since we were traveling over the past weekend which always limits control of food choices and my right calf is still keeping me from going out for a run. After my Chi Running instruction this past weekend and since I am still dealing with a sore calf, I have decided to revise my running goals for the coming year which will be detailed on my "Allan Running" blog in the next day or so.

Heading in the right direction!!!

Well, as you can see in the list at the right, my weigh in yesterday morning at 181.0 lbs was 1.6 lbs lower than the Friday before.  I had actually taken some time off of my exercise program in May and also relaxed some of my food choices and you can see how my weight climbed about 5 lbs in a very short time.  I was of course happy to see that I was able to get the weight going back in the right direction.

I had mentioned in my original post that I have enjoyed setting goals and training for running events. I am actually a big believer in goals and use them in many areas of my life.

My weight has ranged from about 175 to 193 lbs in the past year as displayed in the column to the right and I think it could go a little lower.  I have now made a goal that my weight range for the coming year be 10 lbs lower without losing muscle mass.  I have learned that every pound I lose contains part fat and part muscle which is why I now have a body composition scale and regularly do resistance training to keep from losing muscle mass.

So my goal for the next year will be to keep my weight in the range of 165 to 183 lbs which will of course be aided by my running program that is detailed on my “Allan Running” blog. In fact, I just set a new goal for October 8^th, 2011 on that blog.