It’s the holiday season. I have enjoyed taking some time with the family to do the family things that we like to do.

Our family spent a good portion of the last few days outside with the kids, wife, and dog. The weather has been unseasonably warm recently and has melted most of the snow. It is now that sloppy, wet type of weather that is less than inspiring. Getting outside and exercising feels great.

Well, I broke my thirty day goal of not eating anything after dinner. I had a chocolate ice cream, diet coke float with the rest of the family on Christmas Eve. We were all piled up on the couch watching some Christmas show. Oh well, I’ll survive.

It is time for me to get back on the exercise wagon. I’m going to resume running after I get home from work each day. Will need to make an effort to leave work early enough so when I go running it is still light out. I’m also toying with the idea of a “hell week” like I did this year. In January 2006, I committed to running twice a day for seven days straight. Wanted to do it to shock the body into accepting the training effort I was going to put in for the Robie Creek half marathon in Boise. I did run twice a day for seven days. After that, the only half marathon specific training I did was to run every Saturday at a longer distance than the previous Saturday by 15 minutes. The last long Saturday run I did approximately two weeks before the race was for 2 hours and 25 minutes.

My weight has bumped up to 189 for the last few days. This is really no surprise as I have been at home and have enjoyed the food that goes along with the holidays. It doesn’t help that the kids have plenty of chocolate.

My wife bought me a pedometer for Christmas. I have recently thought about getting another pedometer and surprise, I get one for Christmas. I previously owned a pedometer and the motivation to log 10,000 steps in a day got me off my duff every day for a walk ro two. Another great thing about that pedometer was that you could download the daily stats to a website that tracked your results - very cool.

I should tell you that I lost that pedometer. I’ll spare you the details and just say that I accidentally flushed the pedometer down the toilet.

As the month and year draw to a close, it’s time to reflect on the accomplishments and highlights for this year, 2006 and plan ahead for the new year, 2007.

Technorati Tags: robie creek, running, diet, exercise

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The weight loss to date has not been significant.  What has been significant is the effort to lose weight.

I suspect that I will need to increase the effort to accomplish the goal of losing 23 lbs. by the end of December 2007.  December 2006 is really just a “warmup” month.  I have set specific behavior goals, mainly to discipline myself for the effort involved in losing weight.

A recent post of mine said I would cut out the Friday morning office treats.  Yesterday was the first day that goal was testing and I passed.  Actually, it wasn’t that difficult because the person responsible for supplying the goodies was not at work, go figure.

What I can say so far about the goals I have set is that I have gone after-dinner-snack-free for three plus weeks now.  That is a major accomplishment for me.  I still take a peak into the pantry after dinner and I still avoid the temptation to snack.  Like last night, I thought, what the heck, it is Friday, Christmas is just a few days away, let’s have microwave popcorn.  Nope, I passed.

My wife and I watched a television show this week that had two groups of people trying to lose weight.  The weight loss period covered two months and each person in each group had a goal of losing 15 pounds.  What was different about the two groups is that one group used positive reinforcement while the other group used negative reinforcement.

What stood out for me was the negative reinforcement group’s motivation - I use that word loosely.  For this group, the contest started with a photo shoot.  Each person in the group had their picture taken in a undersized bathing suit.  The women were required to wear skimpy bikinis and the men wore the equivalent.  Each person that did NOT lose then 15 pounds in two months would have their picture posted on the “Jumbotron” a large screen at the local baseball field.  By the way, all of these people in this group worked at the baseball field.  The motivation to lose weight was based on humiliation.

The other group was motivated by helping each other to lose weight - not as dramatic as the other group.

Once I understood the idea for each group, I figured the group using the humiliation tactic would be the group most likely to lose weight.

As the show went on, there were hints on how each group was doing - it was of course a teaser to get you to watch to the end of the show.

I’ll save you the hour long show and tell you who won.

In the end, both groups had approximately the same results.  Each group had one or two people that didn’t make the goal.

The television show said they had to follow through with their promise of posting pictures of the people from the negative reinforcement group up on the Jumbotron.  And they did, but they didn’t actually use the embarrassing bikini pictures.  On display was just some regular, fully dressed, pictures of the people who didn’t lose the 15 pounds in two weeks.

This was contrary to my expectations. I thought for certain that the negative reinforcement group would mostly certainly win the contest and that everyone in that group would lose the 15 pounds.  I also thought that a good portion of the people from the positive reinforcement group would not lose the weight.

I have a theory on why the results turned out the way they did.  Both groups had negative reinforcement.  Think about it, both groups were on TV regardless of what group they were in.  Yes, the group that had the threat of showing up on the big screen had even more incentive.  But both groups were in the public eye.

Let me know what your thoughts are on this.

On a related note, I am going to use a little negative reinforcement on myself.  Around the beginning of 2007 I plan on posting a picture of myself.  I’m not going to totally humiliate myself right away, there will be an incentive for me to actually lose the 23 pounds I keep talking about.  Keep reading and watch for the pictures.

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These are my reasons, they can be yours if you want.  Just don’t be offended when the word “I” is used often.

1) More energy. Think about this one. That extra weight I am carrying around, about 21 pounds as of this morning takes more energy to move around. The fact is that I am lazy; I don’t want my body to work harder than it has to. Which leads me to the next reason.

2) Don’t die before my time. I suspect that if I don’t get my weight down, I am going to die earlier than if I might if I wasn’t carrying so much weight around. I know there are examples everywhere of relatively healthy people dying all the time at a young age. The best example I can think of is the runner Jim Fixx. He died at the relatively young age of 52 from a massive heart attack after one of his daily runs. A lot of people thought that running had to do with his death. There is also information that says that cholesterol had blocked a majority of his arteries. I don’t know about his eating habits, but his family history revealed that men in his family had poor health.

3) Look better - for my wife. I look back at some of the pictures we have when we were newlyweds and notice a change. I know, I know, I’m getting older and there are some things I can’t change. But I can do something about my weight and I plan on doing so.

4) Keep up with the kids. I have two teenagers at home - a nine year old and an eleven year old. Both of these two boys are growing. In the not too distant past, my youngest and I went down to the local high school track and we took turns running a lap - 400 meters. My time was 1:36, his time was 1:41. I would like to think that I could run faster than that, and I know I could. But I also realize my son is only going to get faster. It’s not so much about the running and being faster or even keeping up with my children. It’s more about being able to do outdoor, athletic activities with the family. I don’t want to be huffing and puffing on a hike.

5) Get rid of B.O.B. - Belly Over Belt. No offense to the Roberts out there. I just want the old clothes to hang on the frame instead of the old belly hanging over the belt line.

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I have a confession to make.  Friday’s are not a good eating day for me.

What I mean is that Friday’s are donut day at the office.  One person brings in bagels and cream cheese and donuts.  And I sampled all the goodies yesterday.

Now it is time to put that to an end.

On Friday’s, instead on munching on the goodies, I am going to bring an extra piece of fruit to work.  That will be my weekly treat at the office.

So why do I snack at work?  It’s not like I am hungry or anything.  I have the same breakfast on Friday’s that I have on any other work day of the week.  Maybe it is the idea of “free food” - the caveman instinct of eating when food is available in case nothing is available later.  I know that sounds far fetched, but is it?  I don’t now.  All I know is that when the email arrives stating that donuts are available at the normal location I feel this urge to get up and walk over and get something good to eat before everyone else does.

Even better is if I get the scoop on the arrival of treats before someone else does.  Then I feel like I scored big time.

Back to the question, why do I snack at work like this?  I think we can agree, this can’t be good for me.  Maybe I feel like I need to cheat on my efforts to lose weight.  Maybe its an escape clause on why I haven’t lost the weight I expect to.  It makes for a perfectly good reason why I wouldn’t lose 23 pounds in 13 months.

I have recently thought about the 23 pounds I am planning on losing.  Recall that I calculated I needed to lose about 1.77 pounds per month to hit my goal by the end of December 2007.  I also thought that the first few months I had better lose more than 1.77 pounds per month if I am serious about this.  I suspect that as time goes on and I lose weight that losing weight at the same absolute rate while weighing less will be more difficult.  Think of it this way, who do you think could lose one pound easier, a 200 pound person or a 100 pound person.  All things equal, the heavier person would likely be able to shed weight than the lighter person.

Let me let you in on some more personal information.  A couple years ago, I had my cholesterol level checked.  The results were not good.  My total cholesterol was over 220 and my LDL was 162. For reference, the maximum recommended numbers at that time were total cholesterol less than 200 and LDL less than 100.  Right away, I stopped eating any kind of cheese in slice form.  Sure, I still had cheese with a meal, like with a burrito or on a pizza, but I went cold turkey on eating slices of cheese.

I also started exercising more, bought myself a pedometer to keep track of the distance I walked each day - in case you can’t tell, I like gadgets.  Having the meter tell me how many steps and how much distance I covered each day works on motivating me to get a minimum amount of exercise each day.

Finally, I started eating oatmeal more often - as a replacement for breakfast and as an occasional afternoon snack.

Over the course of a year, I had my cholesterol checked four times.  That is an expensive thing to do, getting blood work done every time I visited the doctor.

After about a year, my cholesterol did improve, the total cholesterol dropped from 220+ to 188 and my LDL went from 162 to 124 - still high, but much improved.

I am telling you this because during the year after my first cholesterol test, my cholesterol readings improved every so slightly at each checkup.  To say the least, the marginal improvements were a little bit discouraging.  But I kept on with the cheese elimination diet, an increase in exercise, and oatmeal.  It wasn’t until the last checkup that I say the most improvement.

It won’t be a surprise if these first few months result in just a little weight loss.  My body (or mind) will probably fight me along the, trying to get me to eat some more.  But if I an consistent with my efforts to lose weight, then I see no reason why I won’t meet my weight loss goal of losing 23 pounds.

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I am encouraged by my results to date. Mainly because I have had the will power to stick with what I have started, specifically no more afternoon candy bars - actually no more candy bars period - and no more after dinner snacks.

Of course, I still make a few token passes at the pantry. Poking my head in there in the evenings just to make sure the snacks are safe. A quick mental reminder pops into my head and turns my body right around.

One other behavior that has changed is that I help my wife with dinner more. I am making an effort to make the salad every night. This is all for very selfish reasons. I want to make sure there is enough food to satisfy any food cravings so I don’t go chowing down more food after dinner. If I make sure that salad is available, then I finish dinner with a relatively full stomach. Plus I get the added benefit of connecting with my wife.

With all of this said, I do feel myself slipping a little. Like today, it is 10:30AM in the morning and I have already eaten the two small bagels I have for lunch. This means I might feel the urge to have another complete lunch in the early afternoon. I need to rethink my breakfast. Breakfast is simply a bowl of cereal. Regular Cheerios and honey nut Cheerios combined together. Time to think about “beefing” up breakfast a little more, maybe an egg or oatmeal. Something that sticks to the bones and fills me up.

I have been thinking about what I am doing with this blog here and would like others to benefit from my efforts. If this blog motivates you to make a change in your life than I consider what I am doing a success. I would like nothing more than to hear that the sharing I am doing with you gave you the motivation to reach for your goals and work through them.

Writing this out is a catharsis (edit: I had to look up this word to make sure it was the right word. I had an idea of what it meant, but I wanted to be sure … “the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, esp. through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.”) for me. And for me, there is nothing like a little publicity to make things happen. For whatever reason and often to my wife’s chagrin, I thrive on adversity. If something is too easy, I flounder. I get bored, I lack the motivation to get off my duff and get going. This is an area of my life that I could use a little balance in. With that said, spilling my guts to the world and putting my “reputation” on the line makes me accountable. While this might be perceived as a weakness, I am playing to my own strengths in accomplishing my weight loss goal which I will state again for the umpteenth time. “I plan on losing 23 lbs by the end of December 2007.” There, I said it again so it must be true

Time to get off my soapbox and chill out on the preaching. I invite you dear reader to add you comments. What do you want to accomplish and when? You might be pleasantly surprised by putting your intentions in writing. The world works.

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