Week: 13 the weight loss slows.....

Starting Weight: 320lbs

Last Week: 272.8lbs

This Week: 270.4lbs

Total Weight Loss: 49.6lbs

Man, I really was hoping to hit 50 pounds this week. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. I’m still think that this weight I’ve been at the last three weeks (275ish) was a previous set point for me. I’m expecting now that as I pass through the 270 mark that I’ll get back to 3 or 4 pounds a week.

Of course losing 2 or 2.5lbs a week is not all that bad. 1% of body weight a week is suppose to be the safe and healthy way to lose. With that as a guide line I should feel too bad. Also I’ve been bumping up my calories these last few weeks. Not a huge amount but I’ve been in the mid-1700’s a number of times with 3 or 4 servings of grains per day. My dietician said that the grains will probably slow down my weight loss. I’d like to give them up but we are constantly trying out new items to see if anything triggers strong cravings.

Also today is my birthday. I’m 34 now. In a couple of weeks I’ll re-do on the initial testing that was done at the start of the program and I’m hoping that my ‘body-age’ comes in a lot less then my physical age.

-daryl welsh

"You can do anything for 60 seconds"

Week 13 I think….

Each Friday Emily and I skip our usual routine and do the 6:00am Indoor Cycling class. I’ve written about this below and each time I take the class I find it more fun to do. I attribute 3 things to the increasing fun factor in these classes…..1) I’ve dropped almost 50 pounds and sitting on the bike, even with those tiny seats, doesn’t make my ass sore anymore…… 2) I got a pair of bike shorts with the padding in the appropriate areas which helps even more on the sore butt problem…… 3) Ganelle, the Wed/Fri 6am instructor is awesome.

I’ve gone through sessions now with 4 or 5 different instructors and she is by far the best. She has a great way of making me push myself harder then I would otherwise. One of her favorite lines is “You can do anything for 60 seconds” which she’s usually spouting out as we’re trying to nail a really tough interval. I also enjoy her music selections much more then the other instructor. One reason is that there are lyrics in most of her songs which she grabs for a reason. The wording is often picked to be inspirational or motivating, especially when we are in the toughest parts of the workout.

The other thing I really like about Ganelle is that she tries to train us like bikers. She’s constantly working us through getting the most efficient pedal stroke, and ensuring we’re not wasting energy through our upper bodies. I seem to always forget to leverage my hamstrings during my pedal stroke and depend too much on my quads. This must be a common problem because she somehow senses it and reminds the class about it all the time.

-daryl welsh

Week 12: Gorillas watch out.... I get to have 3 bananas this week.

Starting Weight: 320lbs

Last Week: 275lbs

This Week: 273.8lbs

Not a lot of weight lost this week. I was expecting as much as I kept getting on the scale and not seeing it budge. I’m not going to get too worried about it. I see what my average daily caloric intake is (1540 cals this week) and I’m still working out 5 days a week. The weight loss will catch happen. (At least this is what I keep telling myself.)

I had a couple of firsts on the program this last week. Azusena (my dietician) wanted me to try out some servings of potatoes to see how my body reacted. I decided to add a baked-potatoe to one of my dinners, topping it off with low-fat sour cream and some salsa. I didn’t find myself having any new cravings or anything afterwards, so I’m going to try it again this week. I should mention that everything we’ve added so far has failed to produce any strong reactions or cravings. I think this is because of the multi-tier approach we’re forced to take when eating. I’ve become religious about not eating any carbohydrates unless there is some accompanying protein and/or fats to go along with it. I think this is the real key to success on the program. Any blood-sugar or insulin spike that could occur because of the carb is muted by the protein and fats.

The other first is what we had for dinner on Sunday night. Sunday’s at our house use to be Italian night. We started this when we were heavily engaged in watching The Soprano’s. This last Sunday I decided to fix up a 20/20 friendly Italian dinner and much to my surprise it came out really well. Recipe below:

Start browning 1 lb of low-fat hamburger (or use ground turkey/chicken). Trader Joe’s has a great 4% fat ground hamburger that is only

Add in ½ of a diced onion

Add in 4 or 5 garlic cloves (diced)

Brown till done and drain the fat off.

In a separate sauce pan, add one jar of Low-Fat Marinara sauce (I use the Trader Joe’s Tomato Basil marinara) and everything from the frying pan above.

Add .5 cups of water and bring to a simmer.

Let the sauce simmer for about 30 mins.

In a boiling pan, bring several quarts of water to a rolling boil. Add Whole Wheat Spaghetti (I used the Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat). It’s 2 oz (uncooked) per serving.

Boil for 13 minutes. The package says 10 to 11, but add a couple to make sure it is well done. Al-dente whole wheat pasta can be gritty.

When fully cooked, drain and place a serving on a plate….. add sauce and enjoy.

Calories Per Serving: 440cals (assuming 4 oz of hamburger)

Fat Per Serving: 12g

Protein: 35

We added on the side some grilled asparagus and a tossed green salad.

In today’s work-out Emily decided I was ready to take it up a notch in our strength training. Previously we’d do one set of 20 repetitions on each machine. Today we changed to doing 2 sets of 15 reps, with a 20 sec ‘rest’ period between each rep. This was MUCH harder to do then I would have anticipated. I was sore and dragging ass by the time we were done. The leg presses were the toughest and at one point during the second set my heart-rate was at 170, which is the upper end of my cardio zone.

-daryl welsh

Week 11: 45 pounds have gone

Starting Weight: 320lbs

Last Week: 280lbs

This Week: 275lbs

I’m not sure why, but hitting 275lbs feels like milestone for me. It has been a long time since I’ve been at this level. I can remember back as my weight was in the 280’s/290’s range a few years back that I would try to ‘get back in control’ by dieting till I got back to 275lbs. I was only able to do this a few times before getting back to 275 seemed like an unattainable goal.

Now I can only hope it is just a point in the road and I try to drive down to 190lbs. That is the weight I want to get down to. I don’t think I actually put a numeric value on it so far. But this is a weight I was at in college where I was able to pass the Army’s physical fitness tests and earn a 2.5 year ROTC scholarship (I never took the scholarship by the way, electing instead to drop-out and pursue the life of a broke, out of work college student, scraping by with menial jobs)

This last week I was only able to workout three times (I did Indoor Cycling all three days). I was pretty sick and am still not completely recovered. Today Emily was back and I did a full workout (Cardio and Strength). I’m not sure if it was from still feeling a little sick or not having worked out since last Thursday, but man was I dragging ass. I did all the routines including 30 mins of the StairMaster at level-6, but I was super exhausted. By the time we hit the last few strength machines I was rubber armed, and feeling a little dizzy. I never felt like I was going to pass out or anything, but it was unusual. The protein shake I had after working out made me feel much better, so I think it may have been my lack of calories from the day before (only 1200 on Sunday).

As I’m settling into week 11 the routine of Cardio options has been getting dull. For the most part there are only three or four options at the club (stairmaster, elliptical, treadmill, bikes). I know there is swimming, but I’m just not ready for that yet. Five workouts a week on this limited set of options starts to make things boring. I think I’ll talk to Emily about it on Wednesday. This may just be a sub-conscience desire to stop doing the stairmaster, as I do hate this machine with a passion, and we start all our routines with it.

-daryl welsh

Week 10: Where'd everybody go?

Today is suppose to be the day I meet my dietician to get weighed in and to find out what new foods we’ll add to the list.  Unfortunately Azusena is out sick today.  By my own estimates I’ve lost approx 2 lbs this week.  After 3 weeks in a row of 4+ pound loses, this seems like a bad week, but I know it’s not possible (or healthy) to maintain that much weight loss week over week.

 

Also Emily is out for the week on holiday at DisneyWorld.  So I’m totally on my own this week.  I’m doing the 6am Indoor Cycling class on Mon/Wed/Fri but haven’t figured out yet what to do for Tues/Thur.  Normally I’d do the cycling on those days, but I just don’t think I can take 5 straight days of it.  It is a very tough workout and I usually feel it in my legs the rest of the day.

 

 

It keeps falling off

Starting Weight: 320lbs
Last Week: 286.2 lbs
Current: 282.2lbs
Total Lost: 37.8lbs

I lost another 4 pounds this week.  I really wasn’t expecting that as only a few days before my dietician meeting I looked at the scale and it showed I was about even with the start of the week.  On top of that I had taken Thursday off from exercise as Friday was going to be a 2+ hour long Spinning Class.  Emily and I arrived for the class on Friday only to find out the instructor was down with the Flu. We decided to play racquetball instead.

 

I haven’t played racquetball since my junior year of high-school.  That was like 15 years ago.  For the most part my hear-rate was at the extreme low-end of my aerobic zone during the 90 mins we played.   It was fun though to do something completely different.  A couple of things I noticed the next two days after playing:  you use muscles in RB that you don’t use in any of the other ‘regular’ activities.  Damn, my back, and forearms and even my toes were really feeling it the next 48 hrs.  Don’t wear running shoes to play RB!  Part of my toes hurting was that they kept sliding around as I was constantly changing direction.  

 

I was finally able to yesterday sign-up for the Seattle to Portland (STP) bike ride.  I’ve asked a few buddies to sign-up and do the ride with me.  Hopefully they’ll be able to go or at least start training with me on the weekend.  This is an important event as I’m really looking to figure out a way to stay engaged and motivated for my exercising after the structured part of 20/20 ends.

 

On the diet side, I was allowed one serving a day of CORN.  We are going to treat it like a grain, and see how I react to it.  She gave me the option of Corn, Potatoes or Bananas.  I don’t think I’m ready yet to add in potatoes and frankly I don’t want to slow down the weight loss any.  Week over week I’m still managing to average between 1500 and 1600 calories and my fat has stayed below 50g / day.  I’m slipping a bit in my daily water intake. 

 

Yesterday I blew past my “Theoretical Maximum Heart Rate” while doing intervals on the elliptical.  I’ve mentioned before that we had approached it in previous training sessions.  This time I was pretty determined to see how I would handle going above it and to my surprise it was just fine.  I was surely winded but I was definitely in a euphoric state.  I looked over at Emily and saw a very concerned look on her face.  I’m not sure how many of her clients try to do something like this but I have feeling its not many.