Moving the number

Let's see, it's been a few weeks since my last post. A little over a month. I'm down 24 lbs over my starting weight and 35 below my all-time high. Last week I weighed 211 and with all the work I've done this week I should come in around 207-8. Getting closer to going below 2 bills, and when I do, I plan on having a party because I'm never going to see a 2 in the hudred column again.

I'm still working out and the eating plan has been going well. I average about 1800-2000 calories a day and try to excercise at least 1000 calories away a day. I shoot for a calorie deficiet of at least 1,000 calories a day and I usually achieve it. It takes about 1.5 hours to burn that many calories. I track it on my HR monitor. Which has become my most favorite piece of equipment. My average weight loss has been about 1.75 lbs a week. although my tracking reports say that it should be more, I'm happy with the overall progress. I only get on the scale once a week, Saturday mornings, sometimes I'm up, sometimes down, usually not as much as I would like.

I added up my XC ski trips the other day and now I'm up to 24 - with new snow over the past week, I will probably get in a few more trips before we pack away the skis. Speaking of skis, I bought a new pair of backcountry skis the other day from BackCountry.com, some Atomic Chatugh. I'm excited to try them out, but need to upgrade my boots and bindings before that happens, I fear it will be next season before I get them on the snow.

Kim, my wife is also losing weight. she is down nearly 50 lbs. halfway to her goal. she looks and feels awesome. I'm very proud of her. She's been doing very well on her diet and has been working with a doctor to get help.

I've got my eye on the Ghost town century ride, May 5th and will be training toward that goal. I find it helps to have a goal or an event to help focus my training. And I may look into a few sprint triathlons as well. I know I want to do the Stansbury Days Tri again - I want to return the trophy I got last year, so that someone else can use it as motivation.

The trophy, you see, was for last place. When I competed I weighted 230 and although I'd been exercising, I really wasn't in shape and didn't know what I was doing. The openwater swim was longer and colder than expected and I wore a rented wetsuit, and I felt like I couldn't move. I did OK on the bike, but the run was more like a walk. Hey, well at least I tried and didn't quit (although the idea certainly crossed my mind during the swim) Not this year. I'll be ready. And I'll return the trophy so that someone else may have the pleasure of viewing it for a year. who knows, it could become a traveling trophy of sorts for this event.

Project 185

So, Thanksgiving week, I started a plan to lose the extra fat that I've been packing around. I call it Project 185, because that is my target weight. The weight I played football at in HighSchool many years ago. Now I know that this may not seem like the best week to start a diet, or maybe it was - what better time of year to take it off, instead of putting it on. Basically, I started to track what I eat again - mostly the calories and to excercise even more. I checked out the Biggest Loser book from the library and liked what I read in there. As a fan of the show - I was amazed and encouraged by the progress the contestants showed. In the book, they suggest you reduce your calories to 7x your weight. My starting weight was 235. so 1,645 was the target. I also started to eat 5 to 6 mini meals a day of approximately 200-300 calories. I also excercise - mostly indoors during the week and XC ski on the weekends.

That was 10 weeks ago. My goal was to lose 2lbs a week and to do that I need a calorie deficit of 1,000 a day. So far I'm down 17.5 lbs. I try to workout 6 days a week. I looked back at my weekly journal and see that I've only missed 5 days of excercise for 10 weeks - and that's over the holidays. I like a lot of different activities - I mix cardio including, spinning, eliptical, XC skiing and a little running with lifting at least three days a week. I've even attended a few yoga classes - harder than I thought they would be. I really like cycling - it's great to get in a HR zone and just hold it there. Feels good and burns a lot of calories. I'm buying a road bike to go with my mountain bike so when spring comes I'll be ready.

One of my goals is an upcoming century ride (100miles) near my home in mid April. So, I'm training to build my aerobic base in zones 1-2 right now. Keeping my HR below 156 bpm through February - and losing fat in the process.

I had been using the 220-age to calculate my heart rate zones, but recently switched to using the Karvonen method, which uses the difference between your resting HR and your max. I was very surprised at the difference in the zones. For example under the 220 method my 60% rate was 109 bpm, using the Karvonen method it is 134 bpm. My research says this method is more accurate - I just know that it means I have to work harder, but judging by my own perceived exhertion I think that is keeps me working harder. BTW, a HR monitor is a great tool and I find it very motivational - especially if it calculates calories burned - I have a goal of 1000 a day minimum and the HR helps me know how hard I'm working and how that equates to calories.

I thought I'd try and write a bit about my weekly workouts and how I'm feeling about things to help keep me motivated.