Greg's Running Blog

Today was the first day that I haev actually felt a bit of hunger since I have started my transformation. By dinner time I was pretty darn hungry. The fact that I ate a Philly roll with smoked salmon did not help much with the hunger so I also ate 2 oz of smoked turkey leg and 3/4 cup of steamed vegetables. The vegies put me over the 1,700 limit but I think it was worth it. Considering how my diet has been for the past 8 weeks 23 calories is nothing. For lunch I had some of the leftover mozzarella chicken which I really like. I drank my shake for afternoon snack and had a Clif Bar for morning snack. I hope this hunger thing was just temporary. I need to choose better, more filling dinners than a sushi roll but I really started craving the stuff when I walked by it so I had to get it. Lesson: don’t go shopping hungry!

I finally got 90 minutes of cardio in today. That hasn’t happened in almost a week with all the stuff that has been going on lately. I’m pretty glad I finally got around to doing that much cardio. The bad news is that for some reason my heart rate stayed pretty low at both times which could mean two things. I’m either a) not going as strong as I should or b) my VO2 has improved drastically. Somehow I’m leaning towards answer a) even though I wish it was answer b). I will have to do another fitness test with my heart rate monitor soon to see if my VO2 has improved or not.

Today’s chest exercise went well. It was pretty easy and simple but I think I have noticed that my arms weren’t level when I did butterflies before. So today I have concentrated on fixing that. My bench press went OK, I have used a wider grip and I could feel my shoulders working harder.

Tonight’s photo update was pretty uneventful. I think it shows a bit of an improvement from the last one but probably not enough to make it worth talking about. What is different though is my face. Last time I was under the weather and did not want to take the pictures while today I was feeling pretty good and I was looking forward to see the results. My problem with these pictures is still that every time I look at them I see a really fat guy who needs to lose a lot of weight, which is definitely the truth. But to me I look just as fat as I looked 8 weeks ago. Until I actually look at the pictures from 8 weeks ago. at that point I’m in total shock and I can’t imagine how I managed to let myself go so badly.

In terms of numbers My calf has shrunk another quarter of an inch and so did my hips. My thigh and neck dropped half an inch so I’m definitely seeing more weight falling off of me in terms of measurements. Weight wise I’m down 6.4 lbs from my last photo but I’m sure most of that was water that I have gained back during my sickness last week.

12/21/2009 Transformation Picture

Today’s nutrition was great. The only weak part was the slim breakfast, I only had nonfat yogurt and fruit. I should have had a bit more to go with but it turned out fine. I have hit perfect amounts of protein, carbs and fats, I wish I could eat like this every day. For lunch I just finished my leftover bison burger with some quinoa and veggies and for dinner I ate my wife’s home made chicken baked in mozzarella and spaetzle. You would think that the last two are pretty bad for you, and the refined white flour used in the spaetzle is probably not as good as a cup of brown rice but I felt I could really afford it and I deserved it as well. The chicken was great and I’m really glad that I took the time and figure out the caloric intake once before this way I am free to eat it whenever I feel like it and can fit it into my caloric schedule.

As good as the strength exercise felt that’s how bad the cardio session was. It was a real drag and I was in absolutely no mood to do any of it. But I suffered through the first 60 minutes of G.I. Joe and kept on doing the elliptical. Because of the Christmass errand at lunch I had to skip the 30 minute session at work but tomorrow I’ll just run more errands after work and get the 30 minutes in at lunch as well.

I haven’t lifted since last Thursday as I was sick on Friday and didn’t go to work. Since this is a short week I really have to make every session count at work. I had to run Christmas errands at lunch so I ended up doing strength training after work. I felt pretty weak and tired but the lifting went great. I felt pretty good once I started my exercises. I have upped the weight on my lat pulldown and it was the right thing to do as it felt just right. I have left everything else the same and I think I got a decent workout today.

• Co-worker at gym said "if you lift weights you can eat whaver you want". Oh, how wrong was he! #
• RT this for chance to win $250 @WiseBread http://bit.ly/4t0sDu #
• I'm off to watch the season's final episode of Dexter and do my evening cardio. #
• Cardio is done and so is Dexter. Man, what a sucky cliffhanger ending! I'm really bummed out. I don't know how they will make it better. #
• I'm on the juice! I'll tell you more about it tonight! #
• Lunchtime cardio was awesome! I felt great despite the cold and the ear infection. I'm glad I went to work and worked out. #
• I had to skip lunchtime cardio today due to work lunch. I'll have to try to make it up in the evening. #
• I have gained 3lbs from yesterday. This can't be good… I know it's just water but still… #
• This morning I have weighted in at 208.3 lbs. More stats to come later tonight. #

It is hard to believe that I have been working on my transformation for 8 weeks. I have lost almost 29 lbs so far and based on my BF% change it was still all fat. It is a good thing because the more I lose the more I realize just how wimpy I have been under all that fat. I will look pretty darn skinny with not a whole lot of muscle left when it’s all said and done.

My cold has gotten bad enough during the week that I had to get antibiotics for it. As soon as I started the antibiotics my weight started going in the wrong direction but I think it was just water retention as that all seemed to have leveled off and recovered by the end of the week. You can see it in the graph pretty clearly. It was still pretty disturbing to see 3+ lbs fluctuations in weight from day to day. Due to the cold and having to run errands and attending company lunches on my lunch breaks I had skipped several cardio sessions this week which is not a good thing but I just couldn’t do them. With Christmas right around the corner it is going to be tough to get all my workouts in, I still have a fair amount of Christmas shopping to do and I really don’t care for it.

My week was overall a success with everything considered. Net weight loss for the week: 5.1 lbs (1.7 kg). Fat percentage loss: 1.8%.

Today was pretty uneventful except I didn’t eat morning or afternoon snacks. The morning snacks are totally skipped on weekends with me getting up late and the afternoon one was forgotten due to going to the new Museum Of Science with the kids in the afternoon. It was a fun outing, we got season passes so I’m sure there will be many more visits to come in the next year. As for eating, I did OK, calories were under control, I had leftover bison burger for lunch and went to the Mongolian Grill buffet for dinner. I ate my usual of vegetable shrimp stir fry but I knew that my calories were pretty low for the day I also ate some mushrooms and boneless ribs. The mushrooms were good the ribs not so much. I’ll pass on them next time. For dessert I love the loquats they serve but they were out today so I had to make do with some cantaloupe instead. I really didn’t feel like drinking a protein shake  after dinner so I had a Cliff Bar instead hence the low protein count for the day.