The answer is: more than you probably expected and far more complicated.

Day one: My heels are hurting some, knees hurt some, and I find myself leaning on my desk every now and then.  Not when I’m completely focused on what I’m doing but when I’m watching a video, reading email, or otherwise doing a passive task.

Day two: Because I worked for the morning at Zummo’s Cafe, while I was waiting for my car to be repaired, I stood for only about 4 hours in the afternoon. Which was a really great balance I think.  So, no soreness today really and not much leaning either.

Day three: I stood for most of the morning and then had some errands to run in the afternoon. I’m finding that while I don’t mind standing and, in fact, I feel good about standing – I’m noticing that I am able to focus less. An interesting side effect to standing is that, at the end of the day when I’m finished working, it feels really good to sit. Almost as good as it feels to sit after a workout or mowing the lawn. Feels good.

Day four: Standing is nearly second nature now. (Wow, that is an odd sentence, isn’t it?) I’m not leaning and my overall alertness for the day is higher than it used to be. Typically I have an daily alertness and productivity curve. I start off on fire early in the morning, lull around lunch time, and really pick up again right before stopping for the day. During this standing experiment I’m finding that my overall alertness stays at a much more steady height with no lulls.

Day five: I think I’ve found that there are times when I like standing and times I’d rather sit. An example of when I’d like to sit is when I’m tasked with fixing a bug in some bit of software I support. When I really need to “hunker down” and dig into the application to find out what could be happening – for whatever reason it feels more natural for me to sit down and focus on the problem-at-hand. I can’t seem to get the same level of focus, the same level of “digging” while standing. I don’t know why.

I’m back to sitting this week and I really think it is all because of this focus issue. I do find it much easier to focus on code (and I don’t code too much at work anymore) when I am sitting. If I had a desk that could raise and lower at the touch of a button (rather than using a series of allen wrenches like I need to use now) I’d probably stand in the morning while doing email, conference calls, and web browsing and sit in the mid-morning or after lunch while I’m really trying to concentrate.

I see Shawn Blanc is grabbing the torch from me (whether he knows it or not) and so I recommend subscribing to his blog to see how it works out for him.

A few steps backward, a few steps forward. The last two weeks have been pretty much a wash – but I’m glad that I’m back on track and headed in the right direction – down.

This week I weighed in, again, at 200lbs. The same as I did on January 18th. So I’ve lost the 2 pounds that I had gained. However, this week is Super Bowl week (and my favorite team the Pittsburgh Steelers are in it). So while my expectations for weight loss this week are low my motivation is high to have a good week (besides Sunday). I’m also traveling to Florida for MagicRuby but I’m a veteran of traveling while on a diet and should do just fine.

Oh, and just for posterity I’m not doing very well on the exercise front at all. I have all of these aspirations to be doing more in that area and I’m simply not. I have a few excuses like time and weather but really, when it comes down to it, I just need to find the motivation to start – as that is the hardest part.

What really matters is the long term goal. Having a week setback can really mess with people’s heads. I’ve seen it tons of times. Someone gains weight during their diets, even only a few pounds, and they panic. There is no need to panic. You will have a bad week here and there during what should be a long process of losing weight and maintaining your goal weight. The way to dig out of it is to focus on the long term goal and on your successes. Here’s how.

I gained 2lbs. this week and so now I weigh 202lbs. However, I’m down a total of 18 pounds since I started (6 of those pounds were lost in January alone). I’m feeling great. And I’m back on track to be down 3 pounds this week and could weigh under 200 pounds for the first time since May 2009 next Tuesday. I’m really excited about that.

See, focus on the long term goal and the successes you’ve had. Then, when things are in perspective, you can truly evaluate your progress. Overall I’m doing really, really well and this 2 pound weight gain for the week is almost meaningless in the scheme of things.

Today I weigh 200lbs. for a loss this week of 4 pounds. The second best week on this second-round of The Diet since the first! I couldn’t be more happy with this result. I’ve been very good on my diet this week and – due to a little snow – got a few extra “workouts” in the form of shoveling. Hey, I count everything and every little bit helps.

I feel great. Dropping 20 pounds in 35 days makes me feel like I have actually put a 20 pound weight down and simply continued on with my day. Especially on the basketball court. I play basketball for about 4 hours every Monday night. Even when I was at my heaviest I did this. However, when I was over 220 pounds I would be able to give “OK” energy for the first 2 hours and then it went downhill from there. But now, even only half way to my goal, I am able to be at high-energy nearly the entire time. Last night I think only my last two games my legs felt like they were finished for the evening.

I do not expect the next 20 pounds to come off as “easily” as these first 20 pounds have. So I’m going to be doing three P90X routines per week to help increase my cardio and my calorie burn. Oh, and I secretly hope for a bit of snow so that I can shovel and burn even more.

Don’t forget to check in to see how the other dieters did.

I did well with beginning my exercise routine again though. I ran on Tuesday, Friday, and played football on Sunday. I ran two 5Ks, or 6.2 miles, and had “ok” times for both runs. I have no idea how much exercise I got playing football but I’d be willing to guess it was a much better workout than simply jogging. It was a lot more fun too.

My current weight is, as my goal was, 205 pounds for a loss of two pounds this week. Next week I’d like to be 203 or below. My goal, per week, will continue to be 2 pounds or more (but not much more).

My goals for this week, besides being under 203 pounds, are that I eat much better, drink only 1 night, jog at least 10 miles total for the week, and doing one other active thing this week.

Guess who’s back? Back again! The Diet is back, tell some friends!

You read that right. The Diet is back. And, like a Phoenix, it is back in a whole new way once again. Sort of like last time, what started out as a friendly challenge between a few ended up becoming something much larger, so too has The Diet this time. Last week I got an email from a guy name Pat Dryburgh who wanted to get on The Diet. We setup a challenge to see who could lose 20 pounds in the shortest amount of time. I asked him to write a little something for us here on the blog.

“There’s this guy who hangs around these parts that goes by the name of “Colin.” “Colin” invited me to check out his blog after seeing how über awesome I am over on my own blog. As I was poking around, I came across a cobweb-infested page simply titled “The Diet.” It was refreshing to see someone who spends their life behind a computer screen who had taken an interest in getting active. A year or so ago, I weighed about 270 lb., and today weigh in around 225 lb. However, I’ve been at this weight for the past few months. I was looking for encouragement, for direction, for guidance. With excitement filling my heart I scrolled down to see Colin’s most recent weigh-in…

June. 2008. 207 lb.

I realized then and there that something needed to be done. Colin has clearly neglected the Pudge 2.0 that’s formed between himself and his Mac for too long, and it was time to take action. So I wrote to Colin “hey, Colin. I know we don’t really know each other. In fact, we’ve barely made it through two emails back and forth. But seriously, we have a problem. You and me, we’ve got belly’s. And they ain’t pretty.

This is an intervention.

Think of your wife.

Think of your children.

We need to do this now.”

And so, with that the challenge was made. First one to lose 20 pounds wins. Loser buys the winner an online gift worth $21 USD (which is about $70 Canadian dollars).

Colin’s an American. He basically gets McDonalds delivered to his door every morning. Starbucks is part of his daily medication. I, on the other hand, was born with a hockey stick in my hands.

This will be a cake walk.

(Especially if I can convince Colin cake is part of a balanced breakfast).

Colin, it’s on like donkey kong.”

It is definitely on!  However, since we exchanged emails others had expressed interest in doing some dieting as well. Since most of them are my friends here in the local area – you can say I have my own support group – and I’m looking forward to following their journeys of weight loss.  I’ll let them tell their story in the comments.

My weigh-in for today, March 23, 2009: So we’re going to weigh-in every Monday. If you want to make your weight public, that’s cool, if you don’t that is fine too. My current weight is 207lbs.

Want to join us?

Like last time, this is an open invitation for anyone that would like to lose weight, get healthy, and have some support doing it. It can be hard to lose weight on your own. Hard to get motivated. Hard to stay on track. This is why we do this diet. We’re here to help each other.

So, whether you have 1 pound or 100 pounds to lose – please leave a comment below and let us know you’re in this for the long hall. Pat and I are going to race to 20, but then we’re going to be sticking around to keep each other and everyone else motivated to lose the weight and keep it off.  Third time’s a charm?

Reminder note: All photos, blog posts, AND Twitter messages should be tagged with ‘the-diet’ so that we can keep track of this thing. (For Twitter/Facebook, you can write #the-diet in your post.)

There are so many money-quotes in this write up that I wish I could just quote the entire thing.  Here are some of the extra-specially good bits.

“The point is: you need goals. You need to define a state you want to achieve. Otherwise you won’t know where you are and you will feel bad about it. Setting goals is therapeutic in itself – you aren’t taking on the whole universe anymore.”

[...]

“Compare yourself to you, not to other people. There is always someone who can run faster, lose more weight, be more one with the all. Measure your progress against your own goals.”

Seriously, if you are trying to lose weight, run a marathon, or just trying to improve your overall health, you need to read Mr. Gustow’s advice.

Source: Getting to happy.

There was a fairly long stretch from about 19 years old until 25 that I actually didn’t play as often as I now wish I had. Maybe it was discovering the world of programming that stopped me from getting onto the court. Maybe it was getting married at an early age, and dealing with the responsibilities that brought, that gave me the excuses I needed not to take the time to play. Or, perhaps as I gained more and more weight I just didn’t feel up to it.

But I’ve come to realize something I consider very important. After gaining, then losing, gaining a little, and now on my way to getting back to my goal weight again – I’ve learned that basketball is an essential part of my healthy lifestyle.

When I play basketball regularly I’m able to stay in pretty good shape. I feel good. I’ve got energy. My outlook on my own health, and my goals for good health, remains high. When I do not play basketball very regularly, I keep my same eating habits, and end up gaining weight. Put simply, basketball is one of the very few forms of exercise that I truly enjoy doing.

I suppose that ultimate frisbee could also be a supplemental form of exercise for me, but I don’t get the chance to play that nearly as often, and I’ve only just started playing it a few summers ago. Ultimate, as it is often called, is a really fun sport and a great way to get cardio exercise – if you haven’t tried it, I recommend it. You can see how frisbee helped me during my diet. While you’re at it, you might as well see how basketball helped me on my diet too.

Now, at 27 years old, I’m playing basketball at least a few times a week when I’m in my normal routine. I’m loving it. Sometimes I really do not feel like playing but I always feel so much better after I’ve done so. I’m looking forward to losing a few more pounds, maybe gaining a few centimeters on my vertical jump, and playing some of the best basketball of my life.

Do you have a sport you love?