Day Eleven – Noticing Changes

Today brings me more good news as I stepped on the scale and see another three pounds has melted away! So far that is my largest loss in a single day. It seems I have a nice downward trend going. By the end of my first full week I had lost six pounds. By tomorrow I can report the results of my second full week. But for now, I am down three pounds from last week’s loss.

The first week was nothing but a pleasant down hill slide with every day bringing weight loss. This week has had a few surprises:

• Saturday lost 1 pound
• Sunday lost 1 pound
• Monday gained 2 pounds
• Tuesday gained 2 pounds
• Wednesday lost 2 pounds
• Thursday (today) lost 3 pounds

Net loss for the Week to Date = 3 pounds. I can live with the occasional gain as long as there is a loss for the week!

As a result of losing a total of nine pounds since the beginning, I have noticed a few changes. It seems my pants don’t fit as well. To be honest, when you are overweight, nothing fits well anyway, except coveralls! Even though I have only lost a few pounds, I find it increasingly difficult to keep my shirt tucked in. I wasn’t sure what was causing the problem, maybe my pants or shirts were showing some age, I couldn’t figure it out. Then it dawned on me this morning after I realized I had lost a total of nine pounds! I have read that you will notice the loss of ten pounds so I guess this is what was meant. So, for the first time in recent memory, I cinched up my belt one more notch! I consider that to be a milestone. I had never thought of each whole in my belt that way before but the truth is each time I move to the next “notch” it is reinforcing evidence of progress! I guess I better start a savings account for a new wardrobe.

Looking at my weekly calendar, I have a few days where I will not be able to get a workout. Sunday I plan on getting to the gym when the doors open at 7 a.m. Monday and Tuesday I will schedule my mid-day workout breaks. Then on Wednesday my wife and I attend a Small Group from the church which will make it hard to find time for a workout. But Thursday I can schedule a mid-day workout break again. Friday is our Date Night so I will not be working out that day. And finally I will have plenty of time for a workout on Saturday. So in total, I will be able to schedule workouts on five days of the week. Not bad!

Today’s plan: It is Thursday so I am able to schedule a mid-day workout at 11 a.m. I have to keep the timeframe flexible right up to 11 o’clock. The boss can have a last minute “alteration” to my plans. If that does happen, hopefully I can reschedule it. Once I make it out the door, I am gone until the workout is done.

Day Eight – My Work Out

I wrote my last post Sunday morning before church. I usually wake up at about 6:30 a.m. without an alarm so that gives me time to eat something and drive to the gym by 7:00 a.m. But I ended up sleeping until 7 so I didn’t have time to get to the gym and still have enough time to get ready for church. Gotta keep the spirit healthy too!

However, all is not lost! Sunday is also the day for Volleyball! I am on two teams in our church league: one with the standard six players, called the “fun league” and the other team is a four player team of highly competitive players. Both teams play a set of three games so I got in a full two hours of six games. Volleyball is such a fun way to get some exercise! And it is a good work out for a 53 year old overweight guy…

I have had a great run of weight loss for the past seven days by losing about a pound everyday! That’s even better than some of the Biggest Loser contestants do on some weeks. However, even after the volleyball, I gained two pounds today. I am at 209 pounds as of this morning. But I am not discouraged.

In my last post, (Day Seven - Finding Time To Workout), I explained the difficulty I am having trying to schedule my workout time at the gym. Before work was too early; after work I was too tired. But today I tried my new plan of scheduling time during my day on my Outlook calendar. When I got to work I looked at my email to see if any new meeting requests were pending. Then I look for reasonable time slot where I could schedule the workout. I had no meetings scheduled in the afternoon at all so I scheduled the workout at 1:00 p.m.

That was a great plan but it didn’t work too well. By 10:00 a.m. my boss had an urgent assignment for me that had to be completed ASAP. I could see my scheduled workout was in jeopardy. I did manage to get a 30 minute lunch and then I was back at the task. By the time 1:00 p.m. rolled around I was not ready so I slid the workout to 2:00 p.m. Two o’clock came and went before I finished the task and my boss was very pleased. So at 2:55 p.m. I rolled out for an hour and a half workout, which includes changing clothes and travel. So I now only have to make up 30 minutes and I am good for the day! I feel good physically and I have the rest of the evening free. This “mid day plan” just might work.

Day Seven - Finding Time To Workout

Finding the time to go to the gym seems to be a struggle. I have been told that I need to schedule the time into each day which seems easier said than done.

At the barest minimum I have posted a time slot on my Outlook Calendar at work. I set the time for 5:00 p.m. which is the end of day for me. My hope is that I will see it on the calendar and it will prompt me to move the time slot into any available time during the day.

I tried to get up early and head to the gym for an early morning workout. The problem is I need to add time for a shower which means I will be getting out of bed very early in the morning and that proved to be really difficult. It was very easy to turn on the snooze alarm and then lose the time to workout.

Then I tried to go to the gym after work. The problem is that I often felt tired after a full day on my feet I totally lost interest! I just wanted to go home for the evening.

So I'm now trying to find a time slot during the day (I have a pretty flexible schedule) and use it to break up the day. This is my plan: I have it on my calendar every day at work. First thing in the morning I will move the "workout" into an available time slot indicating I am unavailable for me to be booked for another meeting during that time. I'll take the workout break and get back to work.

The good news is that I have lost weight every day so far. Not much weight but losing any is fine with me!