I’m still here…

And I’m still walking!

I’ve hit a few roadbumps, so I haven’t been walking as much. But today I walked more than seven miles!

We’re moving to a place where we’ll be within walking distance to everything. And only a few miles to several state parks with hiking trails.

I’ve seemed to have plateaued as far as weight loss is concerned, but I’m okay with that because I feel a million times better than I have just five months ago!

I’m hoping to ramp up the walking this summer, and get back on track to making my goal of 500 miles this year.

P.S. I took the Joe’s Goals marker down, as I was only doing that for the weight loss challenge, and that went under back in March.

Cool, I won…

I won January’s portion of the FWJ/WP weight loss challenge. Very nice.

However, if I want to even come close to January’s output I’ll have to step it up a few notches. Last night was the first time I’ve been able to walk since Feb 1st, the weather has just been nasty lately, with wind chills well into the negative numbers.

Because of this, instead of one hour of exercise a day I’ve only been getting 1/2 hour.

But it’s supposed to be mild enough for the next few days to where I can get back into the swing in things.

Incidentally, I’ve been maintaining my weight at around what I was when I graduated the academy ten years ago. In fact, this is the lowest I’ve been since around June of 1997. I went shopping with my wife on Feb third, and for the first time in a long time I was able to buy jeans in a “normal” store as opposed to a “big and tall” shop.

And it felt good.

Ugh, Im stuck!

Well, not really.

But I haven’t walked since Thursday night, and proable won’t have a chance until Monday. Why?

Weather.

Last night was my birthday, so I spent the night with my wife. Can’t blame me for that, can you?

Tonight we’re going out to dinner, and it’s supposed to drop to the low teens, with a windchill into the negative numbers.

Tomorrow is more of the same.

I’m down to my lowest weight since Jan of 1997…. I’m hoping to increase my exercise a lot once the weather starts warming up. I REALLY want to be down to my high school weight (to start.. I’m not finishing there!)… To get there I have 67 lbs to lose…. to get to where I want to be, I have 118 lbs to drop.

I’m not expecting miracles… I’m hoping to be there by my 37 birthday.

I’ve tallied up my FWJ/WP weight loss challenge points (from Joe’s Goals) and I had 51 points this month. Not sure how that will measure up with the group, but I’m glad to have a little extra motivation to get it in gear!

If you’re interested, click on one of the links by my Joes’ Goals widget. It’s not too late to join!

How are you doing?

Joe’s Goals…

As part of the Weight Loss Challenge, you may have noticed the “Joes Goals” widget on the right. It measures the amount of exercise and weight loss (exercise in 30 minute intervals, weight loss in one pound increments.) I’ve decided that the only way for me to keep track of weight loss is if I only weigh myself once a week– so since I last weighed myself on Wednesday, I have designated Wednesdays to be weigh in days. I don’t know how everyone else is doing it, but I plan to weigh every Wed, if my weight goes done I’ll add to the list, if it stayed the say I’ll do nothing, and if I gained weight I will subtract it from my previous weeks net loss. Seems to be the only way.

And if I get to the point where I’ve gained more than I lost, I’m doing something wrong.

Oh, and I added three more miles to my total– 33 miles out of 500.

Hit 30 miles..

Last night I hit the 30 mile mark and still going strong. I ‘m thinking about increasing my walk to 3.5 or 4 miles, I haven’t yet because the weather has been less than cooperative.

I’ve been listening to podcasts on my walk, I’ve found them to be more enjoyable than music. While I love music, sometimes my musical mood changes between the time I put fresh music on my mp3 player to the time I walk. Then you spend a lot of time skipping files and folders and getting annoyed because the music isn’t right. And that makes the walk far less enjoyable.

The podcasts I’ve been listening to have been about home brewing, a hobby of mine. I get them from Basic Brewing, and they’re very informative.

I’ll be looking to find some baseball podcasts, and probably a hockey one or two.

Holy Crap Batman…

Okay, so I never had a scale. Why? Because I never found one that went up to my weight. I typically never knew what I weighed, just know if I were gaining/losing based on how my clothes fit.

When we take the kids to the doctor I’d hop up on his scale just to get an idea of where I’m at– for the past three years that’s been in the range of 329-345.

And when I went to the nutritionist in November I got weighed. (hence the weigh loss/gain in the right hand column is “since 11/—”.

So when I signed up for the Challenge I decided to go out and get a scale so I can track weight loss. That was on Tuesday. I weighed myself and the scale read 322. That’s about 12 pounds lighter than I was in late November.

So this morning I jump up on the scale for sh*ts and giggles. 318. What? How is it possible to lose 4 pounds in two days. I must say that I’ve been eating normally, I’m not on a starvation diet. In fact, I’m not on any fad diet. I’m just eating more consciously— I’m not mindlessly shoveling food in anymore, I make it a conscious effort to chew everything completely, and to savor what I had in my mouth instead of instantly looking towards the next bite like I was before.

But still… 4 pounds? Is it possible to lose that much water weight? I’m plenty hydrated (I make it a point to drink lots of water!!).

I’m not complaining, just baffled.

I’ve been walking three miles daily for the past two weeks (except for a few days) and I’m at the point where I feel I can increase the distance slightly. So tonight I’m going to go for at least 3.5 miles. We’ll see how I feel after that.

I joined a Challenge today!

I was on one of the message boards I read and saw a post about the FWJ/WP Challenge. It’s simple; (so simple, I’m going to cut/paste from the site! )

Welcome to the Freelance Writing Jobs/Write Path Weight Loss Challenge.

How does it work?
It’s simple. Visit Joe’s Goals and create your own weight loss goals tracker. Get the code and place the widget on your blog along with the “Take the FWJ/WP Weight Loss Challenge” Code. At the end of each month, we’ll check each participant’s goal tracker. The person with the most weight loss and exercise points at the end of each month wins the monthly prize. At the end of 2007, the biggest winner will be awarded the grand prize.

Rules and Regs:
1. Your Joe’s Goal’s widget must be posted on your blog. Don’t worry, it won’t list your weight. Your name and blog will also be added to our FWJ/WP Weight Loss Challenge blogroll.

2. To be fair, only list the following on your Joe’s Goals widget:
*Lose 1 pound
*Exercise 30 minutes

3. Post the “Take the FWJ/WP Weight Loss Challenge” code above the widget on your blog.

/cut

I encourage you to go to the site yourself, read, and join! The two sites are:

Freelance Writing Jobs

and

The Write Path

And no, you don’t have to be a writer to join! Good luck!