What has happened in the four months since I made an effort to lose weight? I’ll tell you what’s happened, I have lost 16 pounds. 4 pounds a month, 1 pound a week on average.

I didn’t think it would go that way. My thinking was more along the lines that I would lose most of the weight I wanted to in the first few months (maybe I am still in the first few months?), then the weight loss would slow down. Hasn’t happened yet.

I set a goal of losing 23 pounds (hence, the name of this site), in 13 months. By the end of December 2007, I wanted to weigh 23 pounds less than what I weighed at the end of November 2006. If my four pounds per month rate keeps up, it looks like I will hit my target before the summer of 2007.

What have a I done to make this weight loss goal a reality? Not much recently. For the past few weeks, my wife and I have been painting the house we are selling. This has detracted from getting much if any exercise for me during the work week. I come home from work, eat dinner, and then head out for a few hours with a paint brush or roller in my hands.

What I have done consistently is to keep going with my 30 day goals. The first 30 day goal was to not eat anything after dinner. This goal is probably the one that has had the biggest impact on my weight loss goal. Two reasons I think this, one, it is the goal I have stuck to the longest - more than 120 days and two, think of how much less food I am consuming by restricting a certain time of the day to not eating. I think that going to bed with a full stomach is not a good idea. No medical proof from me since I am not a medical professional.

This past month I didn’t miss a day of doing 100 sit ups. And for this month, April, I am doing 50 push ups per day. Today’s pushups along with sit ups were tough. I did ten pushups, followed by 25 situps and repeated that sequence. Then I added the last 10 pushups at the very end. I was getting shaky arms by the last couple of sets of pushups. By the end of the month, I should be able to do 50 pushups without taking a break.

Technorati Tags: weight loss, sit ups, pushups, 30 day goal

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Went running today. Went for a long run, a very long run along the Boise Greenbelt. This training run was and will be the longest run I do for the Robie Creek Half Marathon coming up on April 21 2007. I ran for 2:29:28.41 - how’s that for detail (cough*anal retentive*cough)?

Awhile back I wrote about losing 2 pounds in 2 hours by running for 2 hours. I weighed in bofore and after today’s run and lost 4 pounds from my two and a half hour run, from 175.2 lbs. to 171.2 lbs. As I have mentioned before, this type of weight loss isn’t expected to “stick”. I can alomost guarantee that today’s weight loss won’t last long, I have already drank 30+ ounces of water and eaten a decent sized lunch.

Getting back to the title of this little blurb, restless leg syndrome. Often times after an extreme exercise effort like today’s long run, my muscles will twitch when I am just sitting down or at night when I am sleeping. My verison of RLS includes the calf muscle being “sucked” in when I touch in. It’s a wierd sentation when I touch the back of my calf muscle and my leg responses by pulling in the muscle. Like I said, this is my version of restless leg syndrome and not the official version which is actually a neurological disorder.

Technorati Tags: restless leg syndrome, rls, robie creek half marathon, running

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I Think I Know Why Crash Diets Don’t Work

Or yesterday for that matter. We are have moved from one house to another. Our transition to the new house has been sloooooow. Why? Because our new house is less than a kilometer away from the old house. We didn’t have to move everything out at once.

This has made me think about weight loss in general and why we (you and I) don’t always do what’s best for us when we have ample opportunity to do so.

Until late November of 2006, I never really thought about losing weight. Why should I, I could lose weight whenever I wanted to. I would just need to change my diet a little, get some more exercise, and presto - weight loss.

That didn’t happen for years and in the last decade I gained about 30+ pounds. Did you read that - 30 pounds in ten years!!! B.C. (that “before children” for all of the childless folks out there), I was in very good shape since I lived a very active lifestyle that including teaching skiing in the winter and bicycle racing in the summer. My diet was never really good or bad in that time. It didn’t matter - I could eat whatever I wanted and stay in good shape. Ah, the good old days on my youthful 20’s.

Then came the end of “that” decade (my 20’s). By the end of the decade my first son was in our lives and things seem to shift. Nothing dramatic at first. I spent more time at home taking care of my newborn son with my wife. There was more holding the baby, walking the kid around in his stroller, changing diapers, feeding him - less time exercising. Once our second son came around a couple of years later, we were busy with two young children and all of the details that go along with such a responsibility.

It was at that time, that my wife and I figured out that if we were going to do this right, i.e. - raise our kids, then we might need some more money. I’ve got to tell you, that while skiing is great and teaching skiing is fun, the moolah isn’t so great. Turns out kids take money. Write that down. If you are mathematically inclined, here’s the formula:

KIDS = MONEY

For clarification, MORE KIDS = MORE MONEY. Make sense?

As a side note, we never received the instruction manual when we left the hospital - not for either child. If you have an extra copy lying around, maybe you might just want to send one over …

So we moved. We moved from the high desert of Taos New Mexico to even drier environment of Boise Idaho. Our choice was determined in part by the location, close to skiing (can’t get that out of our blood), to the size of the city (my wife thinks Boise is a large city, “largest city I ever lived in” - I laugh having lived in Seattle for awhile), to the apparent “kid friendly” environment (yes, this is a kid/family friendly city - shhh, this will be our little secret).

Eventually, I landed myself a job that involves sitting at a desk for an extended period of time. Guess what happens if you sit at a desk for long stretches of time? That’s right, you get the “spread”.

For those of you not familiar with the “spread” let me fill you in on some details. As you age, gravity plans an ever increasing importance in your life. This impact may show up in different forms. For some, they can’t jump as high. For instance, in the old days, the really old days, I could jump up and touch the basketball rim. Not too shabby for a 5′10″ guy who ran long distance event in high school and college. Now, I can barely touch the net.

Getting back to the “spread”. Very simply, it is when you sit on a chair for an extended period of time; minutes, hours, days, weeks, years, and you ass gets wider. And no, I don’t have a picture to show you.  Maybe I should get myself on a treadmill.

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“Want to go for a run?” That’s music to my dog’s ears. She knows exactly what that means.

“Who’s a good girl?” (Tail wags)

“Want to go for a run?” (Tail wags even more)

“Alright, lets go!” (Tail starts beating the floor)

And we are off.  Not really off running just yet.  We are heading out the door for the truck.

I hope you find it ironic that we are going to the truck to go for a run.  One thing about having a dog is that I am exercising more than I was before, but I am also driving more to go exercising.

Pre dog, runs would normally commence at the doorstep and eventually lead to the Boise foothills and the trails that abound.  Now, I usually hop in the truck, drive over to the foothills and start from there with the dog.  It’s not really that fun running through Boise with a dog on a leash.  I know she loves getting out regardless of whether she is wearing a leash or not, but she really likes the “no leash” exercise that she gets when we go for a run in the foothills.

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Running For Weight Loss

I Gained 2 Pounds

3 x 1 mile

Hot And Tired From Running Intervals

I’m still gaining weight after the 2 hour run I did a couple of days ago.  I am now up to 178.4.

Am I worried, no sirreeee.  Why would I worry about gaining a few pounds back when I am in this for the long haul?  A few pounds up or down within a few days is not a big concern.  Remember I plan on losing 23 pounds by the end of 2007.  In the last three months I have lost about 12 pounds and only need to lose 10 pounds over the next 10 months to hit my goal.  Losing a pound a month is very do-able.

I also didn’t exercise yesterday and that is a good enough reason to have more weight then I did a few days ago.  I am going outside for a run very soon - spring fever is here in Boise Idaho.  I’m going to get home, put on the running clothes I meant to bring to work with me this morning, leash the dog and go for a run in the Boise foothills.

This one is for JScott - don’t you dare spam my blog.

Technorati Tags: exercise, weight gain

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