HOW-IM-LOSING-WEIGHT.COM

my weigh-in pic for 10-31-08:

My older cat’s cancer has kept me busy, and messed up my exercise routine some, but I’ve managed to keep making progress, though not as fast as I’d like of course. This was the photo taken very early 11-17. Sorry for the lack of weekly photos, but between caring for my sick cat and some relatives in from california to visit, a lot of my normal routines have been thrown off. I’ll just do my best to stay on track health-wise and with updates. Oh! I almost forgot one good sign of my progress, I finally fit into my old waist size 38 Jeans again. I had been in size 40 for the last few years at least, but am glad I never got rid of my 38 and even a few older 36 waist jeans.

my weigh-in pic for 10-31-08:

sorry for the delay on this and my october exercise chart. my older cat has a serious health issue which has kept me busy and actually threw off my exercise routine the last couple days as well. This was the photo taken late 10-31, early morning 11-1. My sunday photo probably won’t show much, if any progress from this with the missed workouts over the weekend/early this week.

my weigh-in pic for 10-26-08:

The twice a day walks seem to be working well, though i did take Sunday off, only walking in the morning. So i’m doing about 7 miles Monday-Saturday and 4 miles on Sunday. I won’t quite manage 225lbs before October ends, but hopefully will hit that level in early November.

i didn’t bother putting up a weigh-in photo from 10-19 because i was the same as the previous weigh-in. i hit another of those evil plateau’s that week. i changed up my workout a couple days ago, and that got me past the plateau, so i will have a new weigh-in photo for the 26th.

As my October exercise chart will show, i’d gotten to where i was walking 5 miles every morning. But on that 5th lap my back would start to ache a bit, so i couldn’t push it to 6. But a couple days ago i changed my routine, i began doing 4 miles in the morning and another 3 in the evening. i am left with no back pain at all during or after the walks, but i’m getting a good bit more actual exercise each day.

i’ll be back on Sunday/Monday with a weigh-in pic and any updates.

my weigh-in pic for 10-12-08:

I took the photo then promptly forgot to upload it, sorry about that. I’m doing 5 miles on my walks now, and I’ve added a 30 minute stretching/light areobic routine to my day also to try and increase my over all flexibility.

I don’t think you can see much difference yet, and I haven’t gone down a size in clothing yet, but my jeans and jean shorts do all fit much better now.  I think I’ll need to get down in the 230 and under area before I can fit into my 38 waist pants. I don’t know if I still have any 36 waist clothes left, it’s been a looong time since I could wear 36 waist. But as my goal is to lose in the area of 75 pounds, I’m not going to be buying a lot of new clothes until I get down near my goal weight, 180 or so.

Facing to the left:

Facing to the right:

Facing forward:

i’ll be adding the month of September work out program. You will see a jump in time and distance late in the month. On 9-26 I began walking in a local indoor mall instead of around the neighborhood and ever since my weightloss has gotten back on track. I know that walking up inclines provides a better muscular workout, but until I get to a lower weight, it was getting too hard on my lower legs. In the period from 9-19 up to 9-25, I was extending my distance, but slowing my pace, but at the end of my walks and later in the day, my calves and achilles tendons were incredibly sore and I had a horrid time going up and down stairs.

However, since I moved my walks to the mall, which is flat of course, I’ve been able to walk a minimum of 3 miles in 50 minutes (purposely pacing myself out to that time range). The prolonged time has been the main kickstart I think for the weightloss. And most importantly, my legs are only feeling an acceptable level of soreness, and I can walk up and downstairs again without constant twinges of pain.

I would have been moving it inside soon anyway with temperatures dropping, but until I drop another 20 or so pounds I think I’ll be staying with this workout, just adding another lap around the mall (which is 1 mile all the way around once) when I feel up to it. So the weigh-in pic is below, and I’ll have to get someone to take the progress pics in the morning and add those tomorrow.

So, the weigh-in photo for 9-30-08:

Sorry about the gap in updates. This is my weigh-in for 9-14-08, as you can see I only dropped 1 pound. The second photo is from a few minutes ago, so the evening of 9-24-08 and I’m at just under 240lb.

Basically for the last couple weeks I’d plateaued, not able to get back to 240 or below. These do happen I know, and I should have updated with the status, but not having much to report, I allowed myself to get sidetracked with a new work project.

Over this last weekend I decided to change up my exercise some. I had built up enough endurance with my walking program, which I had up to 1.5 miles in as fast a time as I could manage, around 21 minutes.

So for this week so far I’ve been walking a few different, longer routes, but a slower pace, so my walking time was around 40 minutes for approx. 2 miles. I know the ideal for continued weightloss is the length of time spent exercising more than the actual pace. So I will be aiming to do at least 30 minutes daily, but stretching it out over time, aiming for a full 60 minutes.

Once winter hits I’ll be walking in the mall, so longer walks should be easier there, going 60 minutes at a time or more, because the mall is all level, even ground, no slopes up or down. My outdoor routes provide a more intense muscular workout though because of the many inclines I have to travel up along the way.

I’ll be adding a full set of progress pics the end of september along with my exercise chart for the month. Anyway, on to the photos now. my 9-14-08 weigh-in:

And my 9-24-08 weigh-in:

This is my weigh-in for sunday, Sept. 7th. As you can see below I’m sitting at 241lbs at that point, so a bit under 3 pounds lost in the last week. I also managed to get the new route measured and my guess was right, it’s just a bit under 1.5 miles. So I’ll be sticking with that route for a week or two at least and see how I handle it. So far I’m doing it in 23 to 24 minutes. By the way, if you’re wondering, my walking route is typically around my nieghborhood using public sidewalks. It’s a semi-hilly area, not San Francisco hilly, but the route is a good mixture of uphill, flat and downhill at various spots along the way, so provides a good workout. Lately I’ve been starting in one particular direction that goes up a decently steep incline, so I get my heart beating nicely right off the bat, and the rest of the walk is enough to keep the heart rate from dropping down too low.

but I just wanted to give a bit of update on what’s been going on. My right calf was feeling a bit tight, not injured exactly but it did slow me down for a couple days, so my time was slower one day, and I only did .75 mile another. But After applying an icy/hot patch to it after my walk, it’s felt fine ever since. Good enough that I extended my distance, though I still need to get a measurement of how much. The last 2 days I’ve done at least 1.25 miles, possibly up to 1.5 miles. I’ll have to get a better measure of the added distance early this week. It’s taking me 23-24 minutes, but I’m walking slower too, taking the extra distance into account. My weigh in yesterday had me at just over 241lbs, but i haven’t done my weigh-in yet for today, hopefully I’ll be about 240lbs.

I’m keeping to my eating habits still , smaller meals/snacks, 4-6 a day, lots of fruit, yogurt, cottage cheese and salads, but making sure to add in enough meat and fish and chicken and so on to satisfy my cravings and nutritional needs. And sticking to my one reasonable dessert a week to keep my sweet tooth in check. I’ve had good, steady progress so far so I’m very pleased with my results to this point.

I’m sure, if I cut out all meat, or all carbs or whatever, I might manage to lose weight faster, but I’d be far more prone to setbacks like splurging on sweets or something else bad for me.