It occurred to me that tomorrow (or today really since it's past midnight) is seven months from my 45th birthday.

For some reason 45 is bothering me much much more then 40 did.  Maybe it's because time seems to be going past so quickly.  Maybe because it's 5 years later and I feel I've made absolutely no progress toward my lifetime goals.  Maybe it's because I'm just in one of those moods these days.  But it keeps ringing in my head that I'm almost 45 and I'm still overweight, unhappy and at the moment also unemployed.

The unemployed bit will be taken care of shortly, but if I'm ever going to take care of the other two I need to start practicing good habits daily.  EVERY day.  This on again, off again stuff is for the birds.  I'm tired of being tired.  Tired of avoiding the mirrors. Tired of these aches and pains that I KNOW are caused by crappy diet.  I have a plan.  It's a small one.  It's a simple meal plan that I've written for tomorrow.  That's all I can handle focusing on for now... tomorrow.  But it's something at least.

Week one goals:  Plan meals every day
Walk 10000 steps every day

and that's enough for now

Eiyeiyei (is that how you spell that?)

What a year so far.  My big push for change in the beginning of the year seemed to blow up in my face.  I did manage to give up diet soda for a whole 30 days - but that seemed to trigger something and I started eating, and eating and eating...  I allowed diet soda back into my life, and I'm still eating.  Everything.In.Site

I want to stop, I really do  *sigh*

Anyway, I'm trying to get myself wound back up, find my motivation and will, bring my inner brat in line so that I can start doing what's good for me again.  And I'm going to try to do a better job of blogging and being accountable for my actions.

New Start?

Yesterday was the first day of a new start... sorta

2012 wasn't too bad a year for me.  I started working on weight loss in March and dropped about 25 lbs for the year.  I'm happy with that because most of the year I wasn't really focused, but I would drop a few pounds, keep them off, then drop a few more.  It gave me a lot of confidence to be able to maintain like that.

I also started back to the gym in September and I have managed to keep that up fairly consistently this last quarter of the year.  Two things I can attribute that focus to is an awesome website called Fitocracy It a website/app that allows you to track your workouts for points and gain achievements, complete quests.  On top of that, it's got an amazing user group and an active social network of like minded people.

In October I also started training with endurance nation.  This is a tough, focused bunch of people doing long distance triathlon training together (virtually).  The coaches are amazing and I love feeling like I've got solid advice behind my training.  The group there is also very active but I'm not as connected there 'socially' because I just don't have the same endurance 'obsession' as most folks there.  I feel very outclassed - lol.  But love the coaching so I stay.

So, why was yesterday a new start for me?  Well a few things.  1)  I started back with renewed focus on my diet.  I'm doing a three month hyper focused sprint with the goal of losing as much as I can before I get deep, deep, deep into the half iron training.  (Half is scheduled for May).

And, yesterday I quit diet pepsi.  Not quitting caffeine but still feeling the effects of the reduced intake.  Plus diet pepsi is a big crutch for me.  When I'm craving sweets - diet pepsi.  When I'm feeling stressed out - diet pepsi.  It's only been a little over 24 hours and I miss it desperately.  But, I know this is the next big step to a healthy lifestyle.  Getting rid of the constant stream of chemicals and artificial sugars is going to go a long way towards taking me towards my goals.

So, here's to new starts - and to one day completed successfully!

2 mile run? check!

No epic sweat ring today. But I am glistening quite severely after that run. I pushed it just a little but not too much because this is supposed to be an easy day. Still felt great to get my workout in and done!

P. S. This may be TMA but... is licking the sweat off my lips count as electrolyte replacement?

Sexy? No?

1500y swim, 300 warm-up, 300 kick drills, 300 pull drills, 300 cooldown. Got through it despite all the people swim/walking in the swim lanes.

Did it!

Well, I did it - jumped on the stationary bike at work and jumped on the treadmill.  Did 12 miles on the bike and then 20 minutes on the run (1.5 miles).  I felt good and smooth on the run and was able to keep a nice pace.  I felt like I could have kept going for a while.  It was a good feeling to have.

We've actually got a pretty nice setup at work, but this is the first time I've used it - time to start using the resources that are available to me.  Since the weather and time will be changing eventually, I figured the setup at work would be a great way to get my workouts in - no excuses!

And check out the epic sweat ring I had when I finished - yeah, I was working it!

A fantastic dinner with some bacon to replace my salt and I'm ready to get to bed so I can get up tomorrow and start another day (and get my workouts done)

Low Carb'n it

As I said in a previous post I read "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance" and totally clicked with it.  I put it into effect immediately.

It's been over a week and I still feel GREAT.  I've been testing my keytons via a urine test strip every day, but the book recommends using a blood tester, so I bought one - it came on Monday.  I tested my blood on Tuesday morning and today, and what was interesting was that it wasn't necessary for me to take my carbs down as low as I've been doing in order to keep my levels good (above .2).  Having those extra carbs to play with makes things a lot easier, not that keeping them that low was that hard either.  But having room for a bit of dark chocolate or a banana now and then makes me happy.  Funny, now that I know that I can have them, the craving isn't really there.  In fact I haven't been craving much of anything.  Ok I was craving my home made chicken curry, but I cured that Tuesday night by making and eating it.  Sooooo - needless to say I'm feeling grand.

And as far as results.  Well I'm seeing those too.

Starting weight:  225.1
Weight End of Week 1:  222

Loss:  3.1

Even better -- As of today I'm 219.6 - yeah, I BLASTED through the 220 barrier after hanging around it for over a month... HOORAY!!

Anywho - some stats from the first week...

The goal this week is to bring exercise and carbs up while still keeping my ketones above .2.  I got the first in my training done last night when I did a 3 mile run at work on the treadmill.  As soon as I finish typing this I'm going to go do a workout on the bike (followed by a run).  

Let's do this!

P.S. I forgot to mention that I was poking around on LoseIt and figured out I have been using it for about three years - here's my weight graph for those three years.

Yeah - that's not pretty, but I will turn this around!  You'll note that it's turning around right now (and has been looking much better since Feb this year.