Week Seven & Eight: War of Attrition

Sometimes a goose egg in the pounds lost column is a major win.

Going into week seven I knew there would be a major pause for the cause at the end of that week; a minor medical procedure. The doctor said to ensure the healing process I should avoid working out for five days. Uggh!

From September 21 until September 27 I had to rely on my diet to keep on task. During that period of five days there were a few spot-on 1800 calorie days, but there were also two 2400 calorie days too. This was not my first rodeo on having mid-season work stoppages during a trip down to the sub-200s. Unlike the other times though, I know my workout plan would need to be sharp and dialed-in coming off of the five day lock out. The first day back was only to test the waters... literally! I swam a nice 3000 meter long course work out, but knew my body needed me to ease back on the crazy hard stuff. The weight work outs were solid, which gave me the confidence to run the 20 minutes needed for each of the three remaining strength days of week eight.

With the weekly weigh in a zero loss, I was very happy that my mind took it as a win.

Weekly weigh in: 211.8
Lbs dropped this week: 0.0
To hit 195: 16.8
Weeks to go: 8

Week Six: Dropped the Double Deuce

 

Dropping twenty pounds in the fifth official week of this journey is a huge milestone for me. It's great to fit into clothing that has been a pipe dream for so long. Its great to have the wife say, "DAAAMN! You be looking good honey!" when I take off my shirt. Its great to have a wealth of energy to pull from when my sweet pea Jovi Ann wakes me up at 3:00am and I'm scheduled to leave for the pool at 4:00am. To maximize the energy that is on reserve I have also been living and dying by the plan Krause set in motion six weeks ago. From the simple five to six meals per day to the exact weights and running I'm going to do per week have afforded me the luxury of not having to think about what needs to be done... Shut the brain off and just follow the plan!

 

Krause lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, which is roughly a six hour drive from Las Vegas, (4-1/2 if you want to roll the 100mph dice on I-15). When he is discussing work-out options with prospective clients, he uses this analogy for the fence sitters: Let's race to Nelson, Nevada (a small desert town on the banks of Lake Mojave) from your house along the Salt Lake valley. We'll see who gets there first. But you can't use GPS, Google Maps, or any kind of map. That is what I was doing ever time I set out on my journey toward Destination 195. No freaking GPS! Without a plan that weight goal might as well been a needle buried behind Nelson's abandoned service station, and my metal detector's batteries are dead.

 

Here is what I have been doing for the past five weeks (minus the week my dear baby girl was born) to drop the weight. Remember this is just the stretching of the rubber band, the actual long term life change happens January 1st for six to nine months as my internal set point truly becomes 195.

 

1800 calorie meal plan

Breakfast~ Smoothie or cereal

3-hour snack ~ orange or nuts and raisins

Lunch ~ 6 inch Subway chicken or Club

3-hour snack ~ fruit

Dinner ~ grilled chicken, brown rice and veggies

 

*I attempt to not eat after 7:30, which is 3 hours before I sleep

*Tons of ice water

 

Work out plan

MWF ~ 1 hour swim (3200 - 3400 yards)

T&R ~ 1.5 hour swim (4000 - 5300 yards)

4x per week

Weights and 20 minute run



Week Five: Baby weight?

What a wild week five; temptations at every turn during the three day weekend to celebrate the blue collar workers. Then a half day at work on Tuesday, which my schedule did not permit a lovely 4500 yard swim. Then I was off the balance of the week, spending my waking and semi-conscious hours at Valley Hospital. I was shocked at how good hospital food can be when our insurance company was picking up the bill... Looove taking them health benefits on a joy ride. Today's workout was a compilation of back/bicep/core because of all the craziness. Also, did I mention, Valerie gave birth to our third child on Wednesday.

All in all this was the least amount of cardio I have done since beginning the journey; 60 minutes in total. When taking into account for my regular swimming workouts (4-5 per week) and my 20 minutes on the treadmill every strength day, I am regularly doing seven to eight hours of cardio per week. I knew Jovi's birth would pose an obstacle for Destination 1995, which could only be managed by the number of calories ingested during each hospital day. Looking over the stats from MyFitnessPal, I consumed roughly 2000-2150 calories during the three days we were their. With that said, my weigh in today came as a surprise; down a pound!

Now that I'm approaching the 20 pound mark, which I expect to be hit by week seven's "20! push ups"... Google what the "!" means if you're not a math tech. People are asking me what I'm doing to lose this weight. It is a simple answer every time; burn more, eat less! Of course the conversation gets more detailed with questions on types of food, calorie counting, work out schedule and mix of exercises. However, in the end, it is very easy... limit the calories of crap sucked down the ole pie hole, get your heart rate rocking for twenty or thirty minutes three or four times a week, and enjoy natures greatest combination -- H2O.

Weekly weigh in: 214.5
Lbs dropped this week: 1.0
To hit 195: 19.5
Weeks to go: 12

Week Four: Scheduled Chaos

One thing Krause made clear to me before I started this initial phase of "stretching the rubber band" over sixteen weeks, I had to commit to the training days for the week ahead of time. A great piece of advise! While I swim Monday thru Friday in the A.M. hours -- lifting and running four days a week can be spread out between Monday thru Saturday. There should be no surprise that any given week is a distant relative to prior weeks. The variables of work, a wife, two kids, a side business, and volunteering make for a roulette wheel the size of the London Eye... and my chips are always on double zero. Even with the same DNA an identical week rarely occurs in a row, which makes for proper planning a foundational principal in my goal execution.

Spontaneous life was an idealistic concept forged by the fires of a twenty-something existence; enjoyed because it broke up the mind numbing pattern of wake, work, relax, sleep, repeat. Now my fragile state of structural constraints that seems to be on the verge of going super nova at the slightest hint of a child's major illness, rat faced clients ripping bonuses out of my wallet, or mixing up the pot by adding a third child, avoids randomness like a gasoline sneeze on an open flame. Spontaneity can be my worst enemy during this initial phase of stretching my body's rubber band to the point where I will actually be at the starting line to begin the long race toward truly changing my eating habits and securing the appropriate intake to burn ratio.

Sometimes when life throws you lemons during the day, you have to cop move the produce truck, chastise the driver for allowing a rabid midget to waste good citrus, and then speed off to the gym to beat the rush of six o'clock meat-heads.

Weekly weigh in: 215.4
Lbs dropped this week: 4.0
To hit 195: 20.4
Weeks to go: 13

Week Three: First Challenge

This week did not have a weigh in. I decided to a challenge instead of a Saturday workout... hike to the peak of Mount Charleston; 8.5 miles starting at 7640 feet above sea level to the peak at 11,900 feet.

A few weeks back Robert Avila and I were having lunch to catch up on life. He had forgotten that I asked him in June to make the hike. Even though he'd been running a lot for the December 2011 Las Vegas Half Marathon -- unfortunately, his work life had gotten in the way of his training; so no Robert.

Plan B! My old buddy Dave Schick, also my awesome accountant, has made the climb two other times with me. The last time we set out in 2005 my physical state of being was horrible. Two hours into the hike my heart rate was nearing 200 bpm, so I called an audible at the top of Echo Canyon and turned back (just past the half way point). Note to out of shape desk-jockeys... don't drink an industrial sized Monster Energy drink and then try and hike a 17 mile hellish trek with thirty pounds of fat cells around the gut.

Unfortunately for my adventure this weekend, Dave's roof on his lovely ranch style home nearly got decapitated during the previous week's thunderstorms; so no Dave.

Not to be deterred, this would be a solo mission. Knowing that my Saturday work out usually netted me about 400 calories burnt, I needed to be sure a nine hour hike would result in similar caloric burn. So I consulted the great MyFitnessPal app for the estimated output. Taking in account for the time climbing up and the time for descending the mountain, my little app said I would burn 6400 calories... WTHeck!

So when the alarm chimed at 5:00am I had already been up for an hour. The sun crept over the eastern sky at 6:00; I was on the trail at 6:05. 10:50 I touched the peak of the mountain. Surprisingly the trip down produced the most pain, which escalated during the last 2 miles. I even added some more pain to the game because my water estimates were off by two liters. Things get a bit sketchy during the ninth hour of hiking when the H20 is no more. Nevertheless all was good! Made it to the car around 3:30 in the afternoon, bandaged a few blisters, and then drove the 30 miles back to the casa with a big smile for accomplishing week three's challenge.

Temptation's Minions

The greatest things about America and the civilized Western world are constant opportunities to exercise free agency, embrace personal accountability, and determining a path to take in life. These things that I believe make America the numero uno, are also the toughest things to manage. In a world that resembles a free-for-all circus troop hijacked by a herd of self-righteous hipster tweaked out on their own ironic do-goodness, it is hard not to blame another human for nearly every mistake, blunder or vice to inflect an individual.

If I wanted to double fist chili cheese fries and suck them down like
Coca-Cola on a hot summer day, the fine print on the reverse side of the Declaration of Independence gives me the right. However, when my nine month pregnant wife, of nearly a decade, makes a batch of chocolate chip cookies, I wish the communist had won the Cold War. No half starved, thirty something, self-respecting man on a long weight loss journey should be tempted with the siren's song of molten chocolate nuggets snuggled in a lily pad of sweet cookie dough.

 It would be easier living with single ply toilet paper, machine guns nest in Time Square, and nonstop reruns of the first thirty minutes of Rocky IV..."If he dies, he dies"... then to manage the temptation of mama's afternoon snacky treats for the next fifteen weeks. I nearly folded delivering one to my dear aforementioned nine month pregnant wife, but her lightening quick reaction time ripped it out of my diet-busting tractor beam.

May all things holy save me from the minions of temptation.

Week Two: "Food: a friend or a foe?"

Monday marked the beginning of the 16 week structured diet; 1800-2000 calories per day with one reward day of an additional 500 calories. By keeping a detailed record using the free Android app MyFitnessPal I am able to keep track of my meal by meal progress. I like the ease of use and the quick entry of the meal data.

A key factor in making this thing work over the next four months will be resisting "boredom grazing." Avoiding the after work double-stuff Oreo sniper attack before dinner. Thankfully, Jaron has given me a great list of snacks to eat. I can already see a change in my eating habits by adding in a mid-morning and mid-afternoon healthy snack. Instead of hitting the garbage calories of sweets, it was a simple shift to health snacks like nuts, fruit, raisins, craisins, and stringed cheese.

Weekly weigh in: 221.9
Lbs dropped this week: 4.5
Total dropped: 10
To hit 195: 27
Weeks to go: 15