FatBloggers.net A little push to lose the tush.

I’m proud to say that my weight loss efforts have grabbed the attention one of the local podcasts!

Much of my weight loss has been through the fun and addicting outdoor activity of geocaching. Geocaching got the ball rolling so to speak for me. C’mon, tell me that even as a grown person you still wouldn’t love a scavenger hunt.

So recently a caching related podcast approached me about an interview and I was more than happy to share my story. The most recent installment of The Maine Podcache features me discussing working caching into a weight loss plan and the things that follow once you get started participating in healthful outdoor activities. Find the audio here.

Hi fellow fatbloggers and everyone who visits this blog.

I hope you all had a nice weekend.   Mine was pretty busy. I thought I would have a peaceful weekend, or at least that I deserved one, but things often don’t work out as you expect.  It’s true about life and it’s doubly true about diets.

This past week was a week from hell:  lots of pain in my knees and battling with my internal demons.  At least the week is over and now I feel more prepared to confront the challenges ahead.

The good news is that I started to use my new/old gadget which is a polar watch.  I call it new/old because I’ve had this watch for almost 5 years but I’ve barely used it.  A little over a week ago, I changed the batteries and I’ve been using it ever since.  It lets me track the amount of calories that I burn from my exercise.

My exercise plan isn’t very elaborate:  I walk 10.000 steps 5 times a week and I do some strength exercises 3 times a week.  I don’t want to push too hard because consistency is the key, in my opinion, and this level of exercise is challenging enough for now.  My results prove that it’s working.

So, I wish everybody a good week, stay focused on your plan, pay attention to what you’re eating and train hard.

I almost forgot, here are my results:

216.8! That’s what it said on the scale this morning. A gain of .8

Not bad considering how bad I thought it was going to be.

I’m sure the big run I made yesterday helped.

I am in training  for my first 10K and yesterday I completed my first 5 mile run. I made it in 46 minutes on the treadmill. It was also my first speed work workout. I burned nearly 900 calories during the run and probably sweated out 4 gallons of water.

This Sunday is supposed to be my first 6-mile run. Even two months ago 6-miles would have seemed impossible to me…now it just seems scary, but doable. It’s not going to be fast, but I plan on finishing.

Wish me luck.

Have a great weekend everybody.

Tony
08/14 216.8 lbs
NEW GOAL: 208
8.8 lbs. to go

Hey out there. I’m Ryan, the new kid on the block. I’m only 17, but I need to lose this weight while it’s still easier. (I’ve heard it gets harder as you get older.) Calorie Count says I’m just a few pounds away from Obese, and I’m going to try and keep that from happening. I’ll be using Calorie Count to track my weight and calorie intake.

Starting Weigh-In: 217.8 lbs
First Goal: 200 lbs by 8/26/08. Going to a swimming party, and want to be down to the weight I was at when I last saw them.
Final Goal Weight: 177 lbs
Goal Date: May 1st. It was originally 2/14, but calorie count was WAY off on the estimation. I’d rather have a more realistic goal.

I’m fairly comfortable with jogging (small amounts) and geocaching (as much as I can) for exercise, I just need to get out there and do it. I’m also thinking about taking up swimming after hearing how much Michael Phelps can eat and still be that skinny! Anyway, I’ll see ya’ round!

going to try something new here. lets see how long it lasts.

i am going to attempt to post daily my exercise regimen and dinner selection. i suppose i could post all meals, but frankly the one most people who are dieting worry about most is dinner. it’s generally the “biggest” meal and people always want to know some good ideas for a low calorie meal.

the title of this project comes from what my personal trainer tells me. that losing weight is 90% about what you eat, and 10% about exercise.

lets get it started.

>exercise (cardio-only day)
where: wolf creek ymca, 9am
what: three and a half miles on “weight loss” mode on bike. one mile on treadmill.

>diet
what: honey soy marinated grouper, steamed broccoli, slice of whole wheat bread
note: going out on a limb with fish for dinner tonight, also grilling chicken as a backup.
total dinner calories: 368
main course recipe: as found on sparkrecipes.com…

2 Grouper Filets (works well with mahi mahi & tilapia also)
3 T Honey
3 T Soy Sauce
3T Balsamic Vinegar
1 Clove Garlic minced

Mix last four ingredients in a shallow dish. Add fish filets, and let marinade in fridge for at least 20 min. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until fish flakes. Serves 2

[cross-published at loveisgreaterthan.com]

…and a new Personal Record!

I beat my previous 5K best by 32 seconds. My official time was 26:23, but by my watch it was 26:20!

And that new PR was set on the worlds hilliest 5K course* the day after I was attacked by a goat!

That’s right attacked by a goat.

We took the girls to the Zoo on Saturday and I got caught in the middle of a goat feeding frenzy inside the petting Zoo.

While I was holding my daughter Ellie, a giant goat jumped up onto my chest to get at the food I was holding. The goat knocked me backwards into a little kid (real kid, not goat kid) which caused me to trip and go down hard against the fence.

Thank goodness Ellie was OK.

I got some pretty good cuts on my knee, elbow and hand…and ended up with one black-n-blue and very sore big toe. All of which makes my new personal 5K record even more impressive…at least in my mind.

All-in-all a pretty eventful weekend!

Tony
08/11 216 lbs
NEW GOAL: 208
8 lbs. to go

*Technically, I am sure this course was not the hilliest 5K course in the world…although it was extremely hilly…By far the hilliest 5K I have ever run.

The hilliest race course in the world may be the The Volcano Challenge in New Zealand in which racers are required to run up to the top of 5 of Auckland’s Volcanoes.

Andrew over at Andrew Is Getting Fit did the race this weekend and I am seriously jealous…not so much of the running up hills but of the breathtaking views he had along the way. Check out his race report.

216! That’s what it said on the scale this morning. A loss of 1.4 pounds!

It feels like I am finally getting back on track.
The other big news this week is 10K training. I officially started my 10k training on Tues. and I am realizing this is going to be a great challenge. I think the 10K itself will come a lot easier than I thought. Don’t get me wrong a lot easier than I thought is still a lot of hard work… but it is not impossible work, which is what my initial impression was.

There are parts of the training though that look like they are going to be killers. Some of the speed work has me a little nervous and the long runs actually stretch out to 9-miles towards the end of the training! That is a lot farther than I ever expected to run in my life.

You can see the whole training schedule here.

I had a great training day yesterday. I ran 4 miles in 37 minutes! As part of that run I ran 3.16 miles in 27:15. A pace right around 8:30/Mile. That is the fastest I have done a 5K in a long time.

Which hopefully bodes well for my 5K race on Sunday. My best official time in a race so far is 26:55. I am secretly hoping to beat that time this weekend. I haven’t been training for speed or distance these last few months so beating my time is a long shot, but yesterdays run gives me hope.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Tony
08/7 216 lbs
NEW GOAL: 208
8 lbs. to go

In my last post, I mentioned my wife had bought me a $50 Wal-Mart gift card. Well, after some considerate responses and doing a little scanning through Wal-Mart’s website, I found what I wanted. However, let me first present to you the rejected choices:

• Mini Fridge for my home office (nice, but tends to encourage bad behavior)
• Billy Blanks Taebo 5-DVD pack (yeah, right)
• Transformer Lunch Box (almost stayed on the list)
• New Weight Scale (wait, there’s nothing wrong with the current one… if you ignore the screaming it makes)
• Inline Skates (actually, the fall on Monday reminds me that I would probably really hurt myself with these)
• Padded Weight Bench (this sounded good, but there’s not much room at home for this)
• 5 lbs of Dove Dark Chocolate squares (um… no… yeah… no… please?… no)

My final choices ended up being the following:

• MIO Sport Select Heart Rate Monitor Watch
  - $34.82
• Foster Grant Sunglasses - $9.84
• Speed Racer pullback car (reliving my childhood and getting something I never could get then.. it was on clearance) - $1.50
• Reese’s Whoppers (my one anti-weightloss splurge) - $0.96

This was a grand total of $50.46 so I only had to dig out 50 cents and get four pennies in return.  I’m really looking forward to using the watch because of the stopwatch (now I can get real times tracked on my runs and can monitor my heart rate).   It was very difficult to see the tiny time on my tiny MP3 player hanging from my neck.  The sunglasses will be my new running sunglasses too.

Thanks for all the suggestions.  I managed to make the gifts I chose fit the purpose of the gift card.  Thanks most of all to my wife, Amy.  I can’t wait to get the $100 gift card.

BAM!

Yeah, picture Emeril saying that if you want, but that’s what I thought I heard when I weighed in tonight and saw my week’s loss and the total loss. I lost an unbelievable 6.2 pounds (disclaimer in following paragraph) and made it to my first LifeGoal, lose 50 pounds. In fact, I just realized that I’ve also completed one of my other LifeGoals recently by leaving the country for the first time and going to Canada back on Memorial Day weekend.

Disclaimer: Based on the events of yesterday, I ended up staying home today because the wrist was really sensitive this morning. When I spend the day at home, if I don’t get bored (and I didn’t), I end up not eating very much at all. Such was the case today, but I hardly believe that what I missed eating would added up to 6.2 pounds (though it might be the case when I only had one glass of water instead of several if I had gone to work). Therefore, we may have a gain next week just based on this, but I plan on working even harder to make this loss stick.

Amy surprised me with a card when we got home. She had set aside a $50 Wal-Mart gift card for me a few months ago because she knew I was gonna hit it any week now. I hated to disappoint her for these past few months, but it finally happened. Any suggestions on what I should buy with it? Post your suggestions in the comments.

Whoo!!!!

Starting weight: 319.0 lb
Previous weight: 274.4 lb
Current weight: 268.2 lb
Current loss/gain: -6.2 lb
Total loss/gain: -50.8 lb
Distance to 55: 4.2 lb
Distance to WW Goal: 18.2 lb

Cross-posted to WebCudgel.com