Week off and sickness sideline progress

Well it has been quite a while since my last post. I am still in the game, just a little misguided. I took a week or two off, and then I contracted some kind of sickness. I think it is just a cold, but it has been with me for at least a week now. I am planning to go to the gym in the morning for the first time in a while. I hope the respiratory system can handle the cardio. It seems that I got sick after I stopped working out for a few weeks. Hmmmm... Go figure...

It has been a hard time re-adjusting to the variable work schedule, and the colder weather making it to the gym. I am doing my best to continue to make the time to get to the gym. I am still getting used to making my meals the night before. I will admit that fast food and soda has wiggled its way back into my diet. I have not been able to get my gallon of water a day in either. I am not allowed to have water at my workstation and most days are very busy. I guess I need to make a better effort to take those water breaks and just get it in. I know it will make me feel better.
I guess a good sign is that I have managed to maintain my weight throughout this layoff. I was down to 142 at one of the last weigh ins. I currently weigh 144. I am still keeping off the 15 pounds that I worked hard to lose. I am proud of that at least.
There are 15 days left until 2010. That is sooo crazy. I have great plans for 2010 that I will unveil on a later post.

Does anyone else have any goals they are setting for the new year?

That is all for now. I am still here and chipping away at my goal.

Weekend workout

Daily Update

Wake Up: 6:30

Total minutes of exercise: 60

Total Calories burned (Approx): 500


Exercise:
Cardio: Elliptical 20 min @ Lvl 7

Strength:
Upper Body Workout


Progress:
Today I was able to get in my workout because I am not going in until 11:30am. The gym opens up at 7am on the weekends. I warmed up with the cardio and then did my first strength training routine in a little while. I felt really good covering the basic muscle groups. I followed it up with a chocolate Instant breakfast with 2 scoops of protein powder. It was a good recovery drink/ meal after a good workout. I am going to try to fit in a small cardio session tomorrow morning. I should be able to do a quick run.

3 Strikes and your OUT!

Final post in Weight Loss Wars journal-----

Well I have been bounced from the Happy New you competition because I missed three Friday weigh ins. I missed two when I was away for my training for my new job and the one this past Friday. This was the competition that spurred my enthusiasm and got me over the exercise hump. It is also kind of weird that the person who started the whole thing for me has been out of the competition for about a month.

I am not mad, just a little disappointed with myself. That will go away soon and then I will concentrate on my next big challenge. I currently am entered into a Holiday challenge on the Transformation.com web site. It is free to join and all the people there are positive and not competitive.

I think that after my experience in this WLW competition I will be staying away from money competitions. There was a lot of money involved here and the people out for the money came out of the wood work. I realize that will happen where ever you go, but people were really brazen about it. They wrote about it and continued to do it in every competition they entered. These are not the people I need to be aligned with during my transformation journey. These people have not "GOT IT" yet. It's a sport to them and not a lifestyle. They will ultimately lose in the end. I hope that it will click for these people someday and they realize exactly what they want. Thanks to all the people I have met on this site and I wish everyone the best of luck in there journeys.

Thanksgiving Magic Moment

Daily Update

Wake Up: 6:30 workout @8:30

Total minutes of exercise: 40

Total Calories burned (Approx): 525



Exercise:
Cardio: elliptical Level 7 for 20 min

Treadmill 20 min lvl. 5.5 and 6.5
Strength:



Progress: Magic Moment

This was another great day for workouing out. i made it to the gym this morning after getting in late from the casino. Success #1. Then during my run portion I was able to make it the whole mile and a half (16.20 min) without stopping. This is a major major success in my running plan. My endurance is getting much better, and it is happening quicker than I anticipated. I have set a new standard for my training. I plan on staying at the 5.5 level for a week or two and continue to get my endurance up then I will increase the speed to lower my time.

This is a great day in my short running career.

Oh by the way, I came out a winner at the casino. Not a Donald Trump winner but winner none the less.

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Birthday Steve

Make your own Glitter Graphics

I am going to the casino tonigh, so wish me luck.

State of the weight REVIEW

Starting weight: 260

Weight to date: 242

Loss to date: 18 lbs

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Things are going well so far, but I think that they could go better. People will look at the 18 pound loss and say that's awesome. It is and don't get me wrong I am totally excited with my progress. I just don't want to get to complacent with all this progress. I have been thinking about how can I make my results better.
I have been reviewing everything and asking myself a few questions that I needed to answer:

• What are you doing well?
• What have you gotten lazy about doing that you need to do daily?

Let's take a look at what i came up with.

What are you doing well?
I am being more conscious of portion control and the drinking of water as a main fluid source. I would even order it when we go out. I am keeping my positive attitude about the entire process and not getting discouraged if I miss a workout of eat something bad. I remain positive about the situation and look at the bigger picture. I have gotten over my problem with having to do everything perfect during a challenge and if I mess up I quit not just the challenge but the weight loss process in general.

What have you gotten lazy about doing?
This is what concerns me the most because these were some of the things that helped me achieve the awesome progress that I have attained so far. I once heard an interview with John Wooden. He was the UCLA basketball coach who won 10 National Championships in his career. He was asked what he did, and he said he stressed the fundamentals. If you do not practice the fundamentals daily you won't have the basic skills ready when that key play has to be made. I have gotten away from the fundamentals of weight loss. I have gotten away from monitoring my calorie intake. I have been eating things that are higher in calories and maybe putting me at a maintenance level instead of a deficit. i need to pay far more attention to this. I have gotten away from my food log. I think these two go hand and hand. If I continue in my food log the calorie thing will come around. The third thing goes right in line with that also. I have been eating a lot more unauthorized foods than before. I really took that hit when I went away for those two weeks. I saw how those choices effected my program, but it did not sink in fully. I have still been losing but I am not getting the nutrition bang out of the food that I am eating. I have been missing gym sessions and not getting up when I am supposed to. I don't have a workout plan anymore. I find myself going to the gym an focusing on cardio primarily. I need to make a schedule to follow again. I need to know what the focus is that day and what exercises I am going to do to achieve the result.

I feel that if I make these few changes I will propel myself into the next stage of my journey. Everyone needs a road map in life. No matter what a guy says, you need a map. The moment you stop looking at the map and trying to guess you are going to get lost.

SO..... Time to pull out the map and get back on the right track!!!!

Daily Update

Wake Up: 6:00 ( to late for the gym )

Total minutes of exercise: 40

Total Calories burned (Approx):


Exercise:
Strength:
Upper body workout (with lighter weight and higher reps)

Progress:
Today I missed my appointment with myself at the gym. My alarm went off and the room was cold so I did not get right up. Well I closed my eyes for another hour and fifteen minutes. My window to go had closed, so I decided that I would use some of my home resources to get the job done.I grabbed my dumbells and did an upper body workout. I did not have the atmosphere but the work got done none the less. I did not get to do any cardio. I kind of feel incomplete in a way. Oh well tomorrow is another day.