Week 22 of Weight Training: Tremors And Hurricanes And MTA Shutdowns, Oh My!

As the title of this blog entry suggests, this week has been rather atypical. There’s been rain, false alarms of forecasted rain, tremors resulting from an earthquake down in Virginia, Hurricane Irene and, of course, consequently all MTA service was  shutdown this weekend (probably the first time in history if not the first time in my lifetime). This of course made the week a little unpredictable. Plans had to be changed and adapted which cut into my exercise routine (which resulted in running only once this week). To top all of that, I fell back into all habits thanks to rationalization and ate a lot of junk I shouldn’t have.

Despite all of these obstacles, when I weighed myself, I only gain a half pound this week. Not bad at all considering all of the above. I also started a new job with a different schedule from my last temp job so once again I have to change my whole routine. Not hard by any means but as all habits go, change is sometimes hard to do. You really have to push yourself mentally. I intend to do that this following week.

My plateau definitely seems to be around 223-225 pounds (right now I weight 224.5 lbs). This just means I really have to take this a little more serious than I have been, obstacles aside. Definitely doable but still easier said than done. Overall, I just got to keep a positive frame of mind and not let the setbacks get me down. Feeling energetic and in the best shape that I have felt in a long while definitely helps keep me going.

Week 21 of Weight Training: Rain Got The Best Of Me

This week’s run schedule was thwarted by rain. I think I only really got to run once this week and I wasn’t at all pleased with myself. I’m going to have to repeat that weeks cycle as I still need to build my stamina. I also fell into some bad eating habits and ate more than I should’ve of. But that’s why I didn’t put a timeline on myself. I’m giving myself reasonable goals and am trying my darndest to see this as a marathon and not a sprint. The good news is that I didn’t gain any more weight. Sure I didn’t lose any either, but the way I was eating this week I was expecting another dip in the wrong direction. Hopefully, weather permitting I’ll be back to my normal running schedule.

Week 20 of Weight Training: Still Slow And Steady

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been upping my workout regime and moderating my eating. Well, I’m still a little inconsistent with the eating. I actually have gone over a few times this past week. Regardless, the exercising is paying off and I dropped another pound. I’m back to 224 pounds (my lowest was 223.5 lbs). I’m still 2 pounds shy of my quota of losing a pound a week (I’ve only lost 18 so far because of the setbacks), but seeing as the weight is going in the right direction I’m OK with that. I will be upping my running this week of course as the schedule in the last post dictates and I’m sure that will help burn even more calories. Here’s to another successful report of weight loss next week.

Week 19 of Weight Training: Back On The Right Track

This week I tried to transition to 5 smaller meals instead of my usual 3. It was as hard as I thought it would be but I did add yogurt to my diet at least. I also kept up with my regular exercise and am still enjoying my morning runs. I hoped that this would yield positive results this time around and I wasn’t disappointed.

I lost 2 pounds this week and am back down 225 pounds.  Of course this means that I’ve only lost 17 pounds in 19 weeks and am 2 pounds off my quota of 1 pound a week. But that’s fine by me. I keep reminding myself that this is a lifestyle not a trend. This process is a marathon and not a sprint. If I keep up with the exercise and eating better I will make it to my goal of 185 pounds. It’s just a matter of time.

Week 18 of Weight Training: Reassessment Time

Another week came and went. As promised I exercised more regularly this time around. I even started running (I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I am enjoying it despite how tired I feel on my rest days). I also stayed within my calorie budget. But to no avail.

Despite my best efforts I gained another 1/2 pound and am back up at 227 pounds. So for 18 weeks I’m 3 pounds behind my quota. Obviously I’ve plateaued and need to change something else. Which leads me to the recourse I’ve been trying to avoid. It seems I may have to break up my meals from 3 normal size ones to 5 smaller ones and add yogurt to the diet. Supposedly this helps speed up my metabolism and I think it has worked in the past when I did do this.

The only problem I have with doing 5 smaller meals a day vs. the normal 3 is that this method leaves me in a perpetual state of hunger. I can’t tell apart my cravings from my hunger pangs when I do the 5 meal routine. It’s very distressing and there are days when I get migraines because I can’t stop thinking about eating. I’m going to slowly transition to this phase and see what happens in week 19.