Back from vacation/meetings

I was in Seattle for a week, and then had 12+ hour work meetings all last week, so my workout and eating has been less then.. um.. optimal :)

Saying that, I'm doing ok - basically breaking even over that two week period. All in the red until today: Weight is 242.8, trend is 242.5. So I've sorta consolidated my weight loss, to the point where I've lost 10 pounds, both Trend and Real.

I did SOME lifting over the last two weeks, but not a lot. Did a MaxOT yesterday, and a 35 cardio today.

Last Day of Break

Wow! Hit 239 yesterday, and was at 239 today. 1422 cals monday, 2k yesterday (which is amazing, as I made prime rib for dinner!)

Trend is at 243.5 and variance is -4.0. I'm kinda amazed - I was supposed to hit trend/"meanigful" weight of 243.5 on 2/15... which I've done EXACTLY

Just need to keep this up - it's the best I've done with food since 2 years ago when I lost 40.

I've lost 12.5 pounds in 1.5 weeks (8.5 trend), so am doing good, even though I've had a few set backs.

I had the longest break I've ever taken - 2 weeks. Going to start lifting Saturday, light.

Wow!

I actually did it - got through the weekend without messing up!!

@241.4/Trend 244.5/Variance of -3.1. My Trend is supposed to be at 243.5 on the 15th, and if I keep at this I should be VERY close.

Going to start up light weights again on Thursday, which I'm really looking foward to!

2/12/06

Good day Yesterday - went out to dinner (Fish Bone!) but kept it reasonable. A little up today, but mostly 'cause I ate a bit late I think. At 242.4/244.9 Trend/-2.5 Variance. VERY low cals, @853 for the day.


Actually, doing shocking well as it's the weekend. If I can get through tonight without messing up, this will be one of my best weeks ever, as I haven't messed up since Monday - and got through an entire weekend.

I have a art show starting in two weeks at Cool Beans - so B and I are going to go there to scope it out, and have a light dinner.

Doing good

Ate very well this week. Did another 30 min running cardio last night, and I'm still at 241.4 (trend 245.1, var -3.7). Muscle-wise feeling pretty recovered from the HST cycle. Would love to go lift today, but need to wait until the end of next week.

I think I'm going to do a round of BoF - Still have that side thing, which is going to be looked at if it's not better by next week, and I haven't done BoF for a while, so might be a nice change.

Catch UP

Obviously off on my blog - work got (Very very) busy. Interestingly enough, instead of having some weight gain because of that, I've gone the other way. I guess it's SO much work, that I haven't been eating :)

I'm at 241.4 today, variance of -4.1 and a trend of 245.5. So schedule-wise, I'm fairly close to where I want to be. I've never gone off of Trend weight before, so this is going to be interesting - it takes a looong time for that time move, in comparison to actually weight (which is, of course, why I'm now using it).

I finished up HST last week, and am now on a 2 week break from lifting. I'm doing cardio at least every other night - Running, which is unusual for me, and the bike. I did 50 mins last night, and an hour on Tuesday.

Cal's have been low -1000 on wed, and 1254 yesterday.

2/5/06

Did a 30 mins run today - first time I've done that in a LONG time, already getting sore!

Kept it low cal today.

I got off food on Fri/Sat, and didn't track cals, so I'm guessing I'll have a spike tomorrow...

Today's Stats
Lifting:	Off
Sit-ups	00
Push-ups	00
Cardio:	30 minutes
Weight:	246 pounds
Calories:	1256 total
Protein:	107 grams
% Protein:	34%
% Carb:	26%
% Fat:	17%

1/2/06

Taking the day off today. Feeling pretty decent, except the thing in my side (hope that's not a prob... gonna wait a few days and see what happens).

Did ok with food, stayed within my limit. Hope to back on a red trend tommorow (at a +.5 right now, and a trend weight at 246.5

Oh, and I'm 38 tomorrow :)

Today's Stats
Lifting:	HST - DONE!
Sit-ups	00
Push-ups	00
Cardio:	00 minutes
Weight:	247 pounds
Calories:	1918 total
Protein:	136 grams
% Protein:	28%
% Carb:	47%
% Fat:	17%

One note on weight - I was going by actual before. On the new schedule I will be going by "real" (trend weight). This will be a big change, as I won't be able to go real light on food to "adjust" weight before a weigh-in day. Which is good, as that is meaninless and counter-productive, as the starvation ends up making me eat more.

Last Day of HST!

Finished Day #6 of HST Heavy's. So I'm done!

Over-all, I liked the program. Kind of wierd, but decent.

I will probably do something else for a bit, as I want to focus on loosing some fat, but I may go back to HST at some point.

Today's Stats
Lifting:	HST - Heavy #6
Sit-ups	00
Push-ups	00
Cardio:	00 minutes
Weight:	248.8 pounds
Calories:	1751 total
Protein:	140 grams
% Protein:	32%
% Carb:	39%
% Fat:	19%

2006 - Goals and the Plan

My stated goal:

Today, 2/1/2006, I weigh 246 pounds.

On Nov 29nd, 2006, I will weigh 196 pounds.

That's a total of 49 pounds in 44 weeks. 1.5 pounds a week average, w/ break point every three weeks - 4.5 pounds a month loss.

Whew! Lofty Goals! :) I was originally going to go for 3.5 pounds a week average, tried for 2.7 and had problems with it. 4 Pounds is considered the healthy max, but I want to be very careful about loosing this hard earned muscle, so am still shooting for 1.5 pounds a week - but knowing about plateau and such, I have built in a break every 4th week, where I can hit NO weight loss for that week - that is, no GAIN, but try to just weigh the same at the end of the week. I will likely allow myself the ONLY "pig-out" days during that time.

Now the next "little" bit:

How am I going to do this? - The Plan

First, I'm going to continue to use the tools of the Hackers Diet to track progress. This includes daily weigh-ins and tracking averages.

Using those tools, I calculate to loose 49 pounds in 44 weeks, I will need to have a daily calorie deficit of 640 calories (Spread over the entire period -slightly less on loss weeks, more on non). As my burn rate is at least 2800 a day, that's around 2160 calories I can eat a day - call it 2000. My burn rate was calculated 2 years ago when I lost the first 45 pounds (see the Hackers Diet for more info on doing this). I will track running average loss and total calories per day, so may adjust that number up or down.

I will continue to lift weights. This will be a mix of Max-OT, HST (HST cycle is done tonight!), and Body for Life. I will likely go back to a 10 week cycle of Max-OT, depending on how HST goes - I find lifting gets me to the gym, so the 6 days a week part of Max-OT is a really good idea, at least for me.

I will push cardio HARD! Looking back at the first 45, I know that the main part of weight loss is eating less than you burn. A vast majority of that is all about cals in - But a 40 mile, 2 hour bike ride a day will really help that a LOT. So I will do a min of 30 mins of cardio 6 days a week, and will push that up as much as possible.

I will continue this blog - having to keep it up and tracking my progress here will help me to keep focused.

I know this is a really big goal - but I lost almost that amount in 4 months before, and managed to keep most of it off - so I CAN, and WILL, do this! One thing I've learned - it really doesn't take that much time to do this. While 9 months may SEEM like a damn long time, I have doing this for a few years now (lifting, cardio, and a over-all good diet) - in the total scheme of things, that 9 months will be gone before I know it. And I DO know that I CAN and WILL be able to keep that weight off!

Here's a detail chart of my milestones over the next 44 weeks. The italic lines are "break even weeks":

Week	Date	Target Weight	Total Loss	Per Week
1	01/01/06	246.00	0	1.5
2	01/08/06	244.50	1.50	1.5
3	01/15/06	243.00	3.00	1.5
4	01/22/06	241.50	4.50	1.5
5	01/29/06	240.00	6.00	0
6	02/05/06	240.00	6.00	1.5
7	02/12/06	238.50	7.50	1.5
8	02/19/06	237.00	9.00	1.5
9	02/26/06	235.50	10.50	0
10	03/05/06	235.50	10.50	1.5
11	03/12/06	234.00	12.00	1.5
12	03/19/06	232.50	13.50	1.5
13	03/26/06	231.00	15.00	0
14	04/02/06	231.00	15.00	1.5
15	04/09/06	229.50	16.50	1.5
16	04/16/06	228.00	18.00	1.5
17	04/23/06	226.50	19.50	0
18	04/30/06	226.50	19.50	1.5
19	05/07/06	225.00	21.00	1.5
20	05/14/06	223.50	22.50	1.5
21	05/21/06	222.00	24.00	0
22	05/28/06	222.00	24.00	1.5
23	06/04/06	220.50	25.50	1.5
24	06/11/06	219.00	27.00	1.5
25	06/18/06	217.50	28.50	0
26	06/25/06	217.50	28.50	1.5
27	07/02/06	216.00	30.00	1.5
28	07/09/06	214.50	31.50	1.5
29	07/16/06	213.00	33.00	0
30	07/23/06	213.00	33.00	1.5
31	07/30/06	211.50	34.50	1.5
32	08/06/06	210.00	36.00	1.5
33	08/13/06	208.50	37.50	0
34	08/20/06	208.50	37.50	1.5
35	08/27/06	207.00	39.00	1.5
36	09/03/06	205.50	40.50	1.5
37	09/10/06	204.00	42.00	0
38	09/17/06	204.00	42.00	1.5
39	09/24/06	202.50	43.50	1.5
40	10/01/06	201.00	45.00	1.5
41	10/08/06	199.50	46.50	0
42	10/15/06	199.50	46.50	1.5
43	10/22/06	198.00	48.00	1.5
44	10/29/06	196.50	49.50	1.5