This morning, I got up a bit earlier. That allowed me to sit back and enjoy a yogurt before heading into the office. Today’s choice was a tasty pineapple upsidedown cake. At the office, had my standard 2 cups of coffee. Lunch arrived faster than I realized. We ended up going to Weber’s Front Row in Webster Groves. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but Weber is one of my favorite restaurants in the area. Great food and great prices. Usually I’d get a burger, or some of their Cajun Pasta. Once we got our menus, we noticed there were some new items available. One was a 1lb burger, stuffed with jalapenos, and covered with Pepper Jack Cheese. Sounded awesome, but willpower prevailed and I had an awesome Chicken Caesar Salad.

Work went extra late, so I didn’t get a chance to eat till almost 8PM. I decided to finish off the turkey soft tacos from the last few nights. Still tasty, but it opens up the possibility to have something different tomorrow night. Sadly, that looks like it’s going to be a late night as well, so it’ll have to be something quick and simple.

Anyway, I’m exhausted. Gonna sit back and finish up tonight’s episode of The Biggest Loser. G’night everyone!

So, here I am… day 12 of year 2…. 286.3lbs this morning. I started on the 1st at 293.8lbs.. so progress is definitely being made. 3.3 more pounds to lose before I get back to my lowest weight of 283… or 40lbs total lost.

As for fitness, it will be more of the same as before. Eating right.. getting some exercise in… I might even try out some of the “fad diets” and see what kind of progress I can make with those from time to time. I’ve dropped 40 lbs in 6 months time…. that’s no easy feat. It’s great progress no matter which way I look at it. I’ve rebounded a bit, but I’m still very deep in my journey. It’s time to pick up that ball and run with it once again! Over the next few days, I’ll post some updates and discuss some of the recent events. Regular posts will commence on 1/1/2009. I look forward to getting back to the journey and look forward to making 2009 my most financially, physically, and mentally fit year ever!!

Update completed:  Please let me know if you notice anything “strange”.  I am using beta software, so there might be issues.

When I was done with the weight lifting, I moved onto my cardio.  Instead of the elliptical or the treadmill, I hit the one place I’d been looking forward to most… the pool!   I’m not sure how many laps I did in total, but I swam actively for about 30 minutes.  Every so often, I would hang at the side of the pool and just kick and wave my arms through the water as quickly as possible for a minute or two.  I figured that was a great way to get the blood flowing a little harder than normal.  Overall, I felt great after getting out of the pool, and it was a great time overall!

Warmup – 10 minutes – Treadmill – 60 calories

Weight Training – 30 minutes – 226 calories
Abdominal – 15/70, 15/70, 15/70
Back Extension – 10/130, 10/130, 10/130
Torso Rotation – Right – 20/30, 20/30
Torso Rotation – Left – 20/30, 20/30

Cardio – 30 minutes – Swimming Moderate – 400 calories

I used the Calories Burned Calculator to determine the calories burned.  Overall, great workout.  It looks like I’ll be going out with friends tomorrow night, so I’m not sure how that’ll work with my planned workout, though I might just go afterwards.  Same goes with Friday evening… I hope that doesn’t hamper my progress.

10 minutes – Treadmill – 2.8 mph average

Leg Press – 15/50, 15/50, 15/50, 15/70, 15/70, 15/70 (one minute of rest between sets)
Leg Extensions – 10/50, 10/30, 10/30, 10/30 (one minute of rest between sets)

20 minutes – Treadmill – 2.8 mph average

The leg presses weren’t too bad… so I decided to up the weight after the first few sets.  Next time, I’ll start at 70.  As for the Leg Extensions, I tried starting at 50, but it was extremely difficult for me to get through even 10.  I lightened it up to 30 and was able to get through a set, feeling the burn, but not straining.  When using the treadmill, I also used the “Forest” program which randomized the speed and incline…  it was pretty good overall, but I’m not sure if it was because of the weight lifting, or the actual walk, but by the time I got through my 2nd walk, I was exhausted!   I felt like this might have been my most successful gym visit so far!!  Lets see if it shows!

1) During the week, because I’m dining out more and not fixing my own meals, the overall quality of the food is not nearly as good as I should be having, even if the calories overall are down. On the weekend, I “usually” eat most of my meals at home… so that meals less grease and fat overall, much more “controlled”.

2) I’m not getting enough calories during the week, so my body slips into starvation mode by midweek. On Friday, or whenever I have “Free Day”, it slips out of starvation, and for the rest of the weekend, I get results!

3) I’m usually spreading meals out on the weekend. I’ll usually have a decent breakfast, then have something light for a snack a few hours later, followed by lunch, and then dinner. So, 4 meals instead of the 3.

Each seems plausible… and I’m curious to “test” each to see how it works… 1 week, eat everything from home… bring in my lunch everyday… 1 week, beef up the calories… get it to the 2000 – 2200 range. Make sure I get there each day. 1 week, start bringing in 2 snacks to have mid morning and mid afternoon. Then I can see which one had the least or biggest effect. Just not sure if a week would be enough to really call it an accurate “test”.

I discussed this with a friend earlier, and she seemed to think the first one would be the best route overall, also making sure that I do hit my 1800 or so calorie minimums.  So, I think that’s the direction I’m going to go, though I might have to wait until later this week to fully put that into testing.