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.

However, that is no excuse for not working out. So, with me being a little more lax on the number of calories I took in, drinking a few beers, and burning a lot less calories – I ended up only losing 1 pound this week. I now weigh in at 204lbs.

I’m not completely upset. A loss is a loss. But I really didn’t want to have “a bad week” on this round of the diet but here it is. I hope this is my worst week as I want to make up for this past week during this next one. My goal remains 3lbs. per week and, on average, I’m still above that at just above 4+lbs. per week so far. But that could quickly fade away.

So, no more resting. I’m planning to have my best week of exercise yet and plan on being down 3lbs. next week. Maybe I’ll even get to 200? We’ll see.

Don’t forget to check in with everyone else on The Diet!

My exercise routine was very thin this week. I need to make it a goal to do something active for at least 30 minutes every single day. I can’t always count on the weather cooperating, especially in the winter, with me wanting to get outside. The only exercise I got this week was 1 session of basketball and 1 session of P90X. My goal for this week is to fill in the gaps of my week with a little something active each day.

I’ve lost 2lbs. this week which means I now weigh 208lbs. I’m happy with this number. I’m not happy I missed my goal but last week I said I wanted to be 207 and I’m 208 – no reason to cry over a pound or to get discouraged. Instead, I’ll make a plan of attack for this week to reach my goal of losing 3.3lbs per week.

You see, each pound I lose represents about 3,500 calories burned or simply not consumed during the course of the week. That is, if my metabolism is working correctly. Right now my body is reacting to the fact that I’m eating less and on a schedule. When my weight began to drop my body through up an alarm tell it to store some fat because obviously food isn’t coming by as easily as it had before. So, my metabolism is slower this week than it was last week (in theory I’m no doctor).

So what is my plan? Besides the 30 minutes (at least) per day of something active I need to jump start my metabolism again. For the first few weeks on this diet I’ve been eating at a regular schedule – 8am, 12pm, and 5pm. This week I’m going to double the amount of times I eat (but eat only small amounts). This will make my body think that I have a ready supply of food and that there is no need to store fat. I hope.

A few other tactics that I’m going to try is to increase my water intake. By drinking the right amount of water every day you actually burn more calories. I think it has something to do with your cells being able to take in energy and getting rid of energy easier if they have the right amount of water. Also, getting enough sleep can help you to lose weight. My sleep schedule this week wasn’t great. I’m going to see if I can get 8hrs. a night this week.

With all of these small adjustments combined: eat more often but the same number of calories, do something active for at least 30 minutes per day, drink the right amount of water, and get a good night’s rest – I know I’ll meet or beat my goal for next week. That is, to be at 205lbs.

The results for this week are very, very good. The first pounds of any diet are the “easiest” to lose – in my experience. It isn’t that it is easy to turn away temptations of food and beer the entire week, or the temptation to sit back on the couch and snack, or to just continually raid the fridge from the time I get up until I go to sleep. However, the first week is generally always a decent amount of weight loss. In 2006 I lost 7 pounds in the first week. So, how much did I lose this time?

I’m happy to report that I’ve lost 10 pounds in the first week on The Diet. I now weigh exactly 210lbs. This is extremely motivating but also I take this weigh in with a small grain of salt. Weight fluctuates and the first week is always a good week if you do well on your diet – so I expect next week’s weigh in to not be nearly as dramatic.

My goal for this week is to be down 3.3lbs or to weigh in at 207 pounds next week. During this first week I did very little exercise (2 sessions of playing basketball and one 3-mile walk in the freezing cold with Eliza). I’m going to try to work out at least 3 times this week, in addition to my normal basketball schedule, and to jog at least 3 miles. I’ll try to bring all of these numbers up each week going forward.

How does this week’s weight loss work into my goal? My goal was to lose 40 pounds in 12 weeks. This week I had the goal of only losing 3.3lbs (which is a good, solid week of weight loss on any diet) but I’ve managed to drop 10lbs. Since it took me 16 weeks to lose 40 pounds the last time I dieted I figure I just dropped 2 weeks off of that number in the first week. So, I’m on track to beat the 16 weeks. Can I make 12?

Lets get this out of the way; I’m currently 220 pounds. The last time I did The Diet in 2006 I was able to get to my goal weight in 16 weeks. After going through my weigh-ins I realized that I didn’t lose any weight a few of those weeks due to bad behavior. So my goal for this time around is to get to my goal weight in less than 16 weeks. My actual goal is 12 weeks but we’ll see how it goes. With that goal in mind it means I’d need to lose 3.3 pounds per week. That means burning or simply not taking in about 10,000 calories per week. Not impossible but not that easy with a desk job either. I’ll need to be super good.

So my goal for next week is to be at 216.something pounds.

I think it is interesting to look back at my mental state in 2006 and compare it to my mental state right now. An example of this would be my anxiety about running. In 2006 it took me three months, or 12 weeks into The Diet, before I could run 1 mile. This time around I can run a mile without even thinking about it. In fact, I’m going to begin my running routine at 3 and 6 mile runs a few times a week. In 2006 it was all my mental state holding me back. I had been fat for about 6 years at that point and didn’t think I could run. Now I know that even if you are a little bit overweight running isn’t all that hard to do. In fact, it is easy.

So I’m looking forward to this round on The Diet for many reasons and one of them is that I’m in a much better mental state to take this challenge on and chances are I’ll be able to meet or beat my goals with ease. And that will be very motivating.

As always with The Diet I’m inviting others to join me. So if you want to participate simply weigh in every Tuesday in some way – Twitter, Facebook, your blog. You don’t have to tell the world your actual weight if you’re sensitive about that (though I recommend it) but it would be nice to share how much you’ve lost or gained to keep yourself accountable to the group.

This is what I said were my goals for the week were last week.

“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.”

How did I do? I’m a little under the weather today so I won’t be weighing in today (illness notoriously forces your body to hold water, weighing in may not be accurate). So I’ll find out next week how I really did, but my guess is that I made my goal for this week’s weigh in. I ate a lot better (more often, less calories). I drank two nights instead of one but that is better than four. I jogged just over 9 miles for the week so I was one shy of my goal, however I said I wanted to do “one other active thing this week” but I managed to do four (two P90X routines, basketball, furniture moving).

Overall a fantastic week regardless of how much I actually weigh. Weight isn’t everything.

So, goals for next week: 201 pounds (though I’d love to be under 200), jog 12 miles (an extra 5K), two P90X routines, drink only 1 beer total, less sweets (as I eat a brownie), and basketball.

In other words, you have to cause yourself pain before you get healthier, stronger, faster.

I was thinking about this as I was dealing with soreness during some recent runs. As I was running I thought how odd it was that I had to put myself through pain in order to get healthier. You have to push through pain to force your muscles to heal stronger.

Friend and fellow Viddler team member Jeff Johns, who has run the New York Marathon, has an interesting approach to hills which I think is a great example of dealing with pain to get stronger. He says “I go as fast as I can and slow down on the downhill. I love hills, they present a challenge and the faster I run up them the better I feel. No matter what mile the hill comes at, I run as fast as I can up it.”

This may seem insane, Jeff says he likes the dentist too so maybe he is, but think about how our body is made. Our body is made to adjust and fit our lifestyle (within reason). For example, if you’ve never done 50 pushups in a row you’ll find it is pretty hard. However, you’ll also find that after trying to do 50 pushups in a row for a little while – you’ll be able to do them with little problem in a short amount of time. Running is no exception. That very first mile seems impossible and you may actually feel like you’re going do pass out. But, try it again two days later and you’ll be wondering what all the fuss was about. Within 1 day your body adjusts to running and is actually ready to run a bit further than the first time. Within two or three weeks you’ll be running longer distances than you ever thought possible.

This ability to adjust extends beyond pushups and running. Our metabolism also adjusts to fit our life style. Eat smaller meals more often and your metabolism sores and fat drops. Eat bigger meals less often and your body stores fat for the period of time between meals. Your body tries to do exactly what you ask it to do and then sets itself up better for the next time you ask for the same thing.

The point is, your body adjusts and very quickly.

When you’re running, even for the very first time, think of the pain as a sure sign that your body is working hard to adjust to what you are asking it to do. Obviously you want to be conscience of any injuries you could cause – and your body will tell you very quickly if you’ve injured yourself – but in general a little pain goes a long way. Waking up sore in the morning? That is your body healing itself not just back to what it was but better than it was the day before.

Within 4 runs my body is no longer sore and I’m back up to 6 mile runs at a time without thinking about it. It may take you a few more than that, and that is ok, but remember that when you feel pain you have to learn to hate yourself a bit. Push yourself through that pain knowing that tomorrow that pain will not be there and you’ll be able to do more than you did today. If you push yourself until you feel sore every time you run or exercise you will see dramatic progress.

Now, if you’ll excuse me – I have to go hurt myself. A little.

When I began to jog again last week it took only 1K or so before my lungs were back in stride. I’ve had almost no pain in my lungs since that first 1K (of a 5K run) and I’ve run about 20K since then.

What your lungs remember your legs quickly forget, it would seem. My legs ached after the first jog. For my first jog I went along my usual 5K course, except I did it in reverse. By doing this it sets me up for success because the beginning of the jog is slightly downhill and then it levels out for at least 2.5K straight. This builds my confidence in jogging for a duration of time rather than just distance. Sometimes simply jogging for 15, 20, or 30 minutes straight can be the mental challenge that people face in the beginning. However, the end of the jog is slightly uphill and so that is probably what caused the soreness.

During my second jog my legs were a little sore (three days later) but the soreness really began when I played football on Sunday. Both yesterday and today my legs have been very, very achy. So it will come as no surprise that I did not want to jog today. Well, my head did but my legs didn’t.

However, I’ve recently begun to do something I think is rather novel – whenever I feel uncomfortable about something or don’t want to do something – I do one better, I force myself to do more than I would have otherwise. Have trouble getting up early for work? Get up really early. Have trouble talking in front of a lot of people? Do a presentation in front of hundreds. Don’t want to jog because your legs are a little sore and you’re being a baby about it? Then jog double the distance you had planned on.

So that is what I did. I jogged 10K instead of the 5K I had planned on doing. I knew I could do it because I had done it before but it was still a major mental and physical battle. I almost took a shortcut home 3 separate times. Instead of taking the shortcuts I simply kept going. That is all you can do when you are at that point in a jog and you want to give up, just keep putting one foot in front of the other. With that out of the way, though, I can now focus on improving my 10K time and continue onto 15K within the next few weeks.

By then my legs should remember.

The Diet has been a huge success for me personally and not just on the scale. I don’t know what my general health would be like today if it wasn’t for the support I received. I know more about dieting than I ever have. I have seen many people lose weight and get healthy. And I’ve been able to share a lot of what I’ve learned with others both through this site and in conversation.

But it has also been an immense challenge for me and I have been unable to keep the weight off for more than a few weeks or a month at a time. I’ve never been as heavy as I was at the first weigh in but I have fluctuated between being about the weight I’d like to be and being a lot heavier than I’d like to be.

Over the weekend I did something that I had always wanted to do but I never took the time to do it. I entered all of my weigh in data into a spreadsheet so that I could track my weight over time. This enabled me to create a chart of all 50+ weigh ins that I’ve done on this site. Here is what it looks like.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned by really drilling down into the data found in this chart.

I lose weight pretty consistently when I want to. If you look at the beginning 25% of that chart (from left to right) you will see that I lost a consistent amount of weight over a fairly long period of time. I did it again towards the middle of the chart and then again nearer to the end. So, I’m able to focus on losing weight for a period but I somehow lose focus and gain some back.

Another thing I’ve learned is that I only lose weight when I’m writing about it each and every week. Weighing in, for me, is obviously paramount to my losing weight on a consistent basis. Any big jumps in weight over the last three years has been due to the fact that I didn’t take the time to weigh in each week. The three biggest spikes in the chart are the result of a lapse of time between public updates on my weight. In late fall 2006 I began to let my weigh ins slide. One or two a month rather than 4 or 5 a month. Then, in mid-Winter 2007 I attacked my weight again bringing it down to reasonable levels before Spring hit. I managed to keep it at a reasonable level through all of Summer 2007 and then BAM!, in Winter 2008 I completely forgot what I was doing and only weighed in once!

I made a huge mistake in 2008 by only weighing in a twice.

Earlier this year I got back up on the horse and began to focus on running rather than only weight. I lost twenty pounds in less than three months. And, for much of the Spring and Summer months, I kept that weight because I was running so much. Then I forgot how much I was enjoying running.

Now it is Fall. And I’m very disappointed to report that I’m back to where I was so many times before. I’m 207 pounds again. I was 207 pounds in March 2009, June 2008, and in July 2006. Each time I’ve been at this weight it has taken me about three months to get near where I want to be. So, today marks day one of that three month period. My goal, as of now, is to get to 180 pounds. This means I want to lose 27 pounds in three months.

My next goal will be to somehow figure out the ultimate solution to keeping the weight off forever. FOREVER. And if that means weighing in each week here on my blog, so be it.

So, as I have said so many times before, see you next week when I’ll be 205 pounds or less. I hope.

Made Fit TV‘s Jennifer DiDonato is an expert in the field of fitness. She recently a no-brainer video and blog post about losing a single pound in a week, rather than promising to lose 10 pounds or something ridiculous. I love seeing level-headed people that are willing to give out some of the best advice you will ever see, for free.

“Last night Chris and I went for a run, and while he had no trouble with the effort at all, I had absolutely no desire to run the entire mile. My lungs didn’t burn, my legs didn’t give out, nor did my heart ache – rather I simply gave up. Call it a lack of motivation.

…

So I’ve decided to set the goal of being able to run (read: jog) an entire mile without letup before my 7th wedding anniversary (August 27th). Where I’ll go from there, who knows.”

A very important lesson lies within this post. The act of giving up due to lack of motivation is probably the main culprit to my challenge with weight and stamina. Keeping yourself motivated and constantly thinking “yes I can” instead of “no I can’t” will eventually allow you to achieve any goal. I believe that as much as I believe anything, especially now.

Well, my anniversary came that year and guess what? I did it. I ran an entire mile nonstop for the first time in my life (outside of High School) on August 27th 2006.

Since then I haven’t really tried to improve my running until this year. I ran now and then both outside and at the gym. I would always run about a mile or just a bit further. I remember running at the gym for a mile (12 laps on the indoor track) and I felt like there was nothing worse than that run. I play enough basketball to keep my cardio-abilities in fair shape. This year, however, I really wanted to start getting better at running longer distances.

Running an entire mile almost three years ago was a great goal. But I’ve come a long way since then and I needed new goals. My first goal was to get back into jogging at least a few miles. There is a trail near our apartment that runs about 1.5 miles. I did that a few times a week to get myself comfortable. But, I was getting into a rut. The run was a little too easy and deep down I knew it wasn’t challenging me anymore after a few weeks. So, one morning I woke up and decided to attempt a 5K (which is 3.1 miles). I didn’t do so great but I tried really hard. I had the exact same problem I did back in 2006. About 2.5 miles into the run I’d simply give up and start walking. My legs would feel okay, my lungs okay, but I just decided I didn’t want to run anymore. I have no idea why I’d stop.

This went on for a few more runs. Finally I decided to ask my friend Sam to run with me. Sam is a machine. I have no idea where his motivation comes from but it is a much deeper place than my motivation does. Time and time again he has surprised me with his stamina. He’s also doing great on the diet. Anyway – that 5K was the best 5K ever. Since then I’ve been able to run 5K without even thinking about stopping. I even find them satisfying to run. In my mind the 5K distance is the runners stroll. Some people walk next to a lake or river to calm down. Runners take an easy jog for 5K next to a lake or river to calm down. Perhaps my perception will change, but that is how I feel now.

My 5K time wasn’t so hot when I compared it to the abilities of others (something I know I shouldn’t do but I can’t help it). I asked Jeff, someone who has ran the New York Marathon, what I should do to help improve my time. He suggested running a bit further will help shorter run results. The next day, Sam and I ran 6 miles, double that of my previous distance record. We both felt incredible (our feet didn’t though). I couldn’t believe that I had jogged 6 miles without stopping. Looking back at the challenge it was to push my body to 1 mile made me think of how many other people go through the same breakthroughs. The same challenges. The same mental fights. If you’re one of those people – stick with it and know that time and effort are needed to break down those mental barriers. There is no silver bullet solution. Just wake up every-other morning and jog as far as you can – oh, and bring a friend because it helps a lot.

This morning we pushed a little harder. Sam knew of a nice spot to run on a trail in our area that wouldn’t hurt our feet as much as the asphalt did. Chris decided he’d join us. Turns out the distance for that run this morning was 9 miles! Tacking on another 3 miles onto my furthest distance ever run without stopping. Running for nine miles was both mentally and physically challenging for me. By the end I didn’t want to give up in my head, but my body didn’t want to run anymore. So I think my limit for the time being is running 9 miles. I think I’m going to bring my distance down to something manageable (like 5 miles) and just stay consistent until I feel I’m able to push the distance again. By year’s end I’d like to run a half marathon (or 13+ miles). Where I’ll go from there, who knows.

Today I weighed in at 189 lbs. which is down three pounds since I weighed in 15 days ago. I was hoping I’d be 188 or even 187 (which would have meant that I’d have finally beaten Pat Dryburgh in our little challenge) but I’m willing to wait for next week for that to happen. And it will happen.

Overall I had two fairly good weeks full of activity, a decent food diet, and no major setbacks. Even though I missed basketball last week I still managed to run over 9 miles that week and 6 the last week with basketball on that Monday. I’m currently working on bringing my 5K (or a 3.1 mile run) time down. My current goal is 28 minutes. I’m hoping to hit that this week.

Today Chris Fehnel and I did the Plyometrics portion of P90X, an exercise routine that he’s been doing since we re-started the diet, and it was intense. Fun. But intense. It is definitely a much harder workout than I would ever put together for myself. I’m considering doing this workout either every-now-and-then or even each week. We’ll see.

Next week will, more than likely, end the competition between Pat and I but I’m not going to stop there. I’ve decided to make other goals, besides actual weight, for myself. My 5K in under 28 minutes is my first goal, and perhaps “bringing it” to an entire PlyoX routine would be my second (since while I managed to make it through the routine I definitely didn’t “bring it”).

I know that Eliza, Chris, and I are doing great on our diets. How about all of you?

It has been a great week. I ate very well this week. I don’t remember missing a single meal, I ate enough calories every day, and most of the food I ate per-day was well balanced. And this showed in my weigh in, and also in the results I’ve seen in my workout routines.

My exercise this week went very, very well. I played, as per usual, about 4 hours of basketball on Monday, jogged on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday and did three core workout routines. For me this is a fair amount of exercise, but I plan on doing even better this week. Longer jogs, same amount of basketball, and more workouts.

This morning I weighed in at 192 pounds, that is a loss of two pounds this week. I’m feeling great, my clothes are fitting better, and I’m excited to come down the home stretch towards my goal. Losing 15 pounds in 6 weeks is fantastic. Five pounds until I beat Dryburgh, seven pounds to reach my initial goal of 185 and reassess where I am at – and make new goals.

I hope everyone else had a great week. Lets keep going!

I know, I play basketball a lot. But it is the sport that I could play every single day and not tire of it.

I had one ‘bad day’ on Saturday (for reasons I’ll leave out for now, but suffice to say the day consisted of not very good food, although it tasted great, and a lot of couch time). I’m going to try to avoid this type of day this week.

This morning I weighed in at 194.something pounds. My scale consists of a rotating dial with small numbers that are hard to read from 6′ 1″ above it. That is a loss of 2 pounds for this week. I’m feeling very good, fitting into clothes better, and ready to have an active summer. This brings me down 13 pounds in 1 month and 1 week. I’m looking forward to shedding this last 7 pounds, to beat Pat, before mid-May.

The interview is very laid back and provides some enlightening information about the show, what happens after the show is over, and some really great information about keeping yourself motivated to keep your weight and health maintained even after you’ve lost the weight.

Excellent job Jennifer & Co.

I hope he took it.

This week I’m going to try very hard to make the entire week one of a balanced diet. It seems that each week I’ve either done well at the beginning of the week and struggled toward the end, or vice-versa. I’m hoping to buck that trend this week.

Just to be clear, I’m still 196 pounds for a loss and gain of 0 pounds. I fully attribute this to eating too much. I didn’t eat anything I’d be ashamed to admit. I didn’t drink much of any alcohol (a glass or two of wine for the entire week). I didn’t snack. I didn’t eat very late. So I just ate too much and maintained my weight. Not the worst thing in the world.

Looking forward to owning it this week though. My goal is to lose three pounds.

This adversely affected my weigh in. The good news is that I had a really great week and so did many people on The Diet this week. I played basketball once, ran three times (all very good runs) and generally ate very well and stayed away from junk food of any sort.

Since I had to head to Viddler HQ yesterday I forgot to weigh in. Today I weighed in at 196 lbs. for a loss of three pounds this week. I’m very satisfied with this number although I know it could have been a little better if I didn’t overeat two meals on the weekend. This brings me to 11 pounds lost in three weeks. A great accomplishment to be sure.

My goals for this week, which I wrote about last week, were to watch my carbs more. I didn’t do this again. Maybe I just don’t have it in me to really watch the specifics of what I eat. This week my goal remains simple: lose two more pounds. I’m also going to do a little more to build some muscle this week instead of just running. Lets see how it all pans out.

Congratulations to everyone that lost weight this week. Lets keep it going!

• Installing a new habit and breaking an old one – an essay by Dr. Stephanie A. Burns
• 18 tricks to make new habits stick – A simple list of good reminders

For my diet I am hoping to rid myself of several eating habits: eating late, over-eating at any meal, not eating breakfast, and forgetting to drink enough water. I’d like to create new habits of: jogging regularly, drinking more water, adding a few exercises to my daily routine (like push-ups, core workouts, sit-ups, etc.), and keeping track of things like carbs, proteins, and fats.

These won’t all come at once. I’m hoping to tackle one at a time during the course of this diet sprint until I get them all. This week, as I said, is mainly diet and carb counting.

My goals, as stated last week, were: “… to cut down on carbs, eat more fruits and vegetables as snacks, go completely beer and wine free for the week, and lose two more pounds.” I did pretty well with trying to stick to these goals but I was far from perfect. While I didn’t drink any beer this week I did have some homemade pear wine last night that was given to us. I didn’t do very well on trying to cut down on the number of carbs I’ve had for the week. In fact, I didn’t measure the number of carbs I had at all. I didn’t play any basketball and only ran twice. I did, however, eat more fruit and vegetables as snacks and did well with not eating too much.

One of the things I find most challenging during the second week is getting over the “make it a habit hump.” It is said that you have to do something 7 times (I think?) in order to make it a habit. I don’t know how this philosophy fits in with the complexities surrounding diets, but I know that for me to truly change my eating and exercising habits I need to get through the second week. If you look at the arc of my dieting last time, you can see that from the second week on it was a landslide towards the finish. I was totally committed to my diet, did really well with exercising on a regular basis, and kept up with my weekly goals. I’m hoping the same is true this time around.

I’m glad to have this second week over with and to have a decent weight loss. Now I’m ready to really ratchet up my commitment to the diet until I get to my goal.

My goals for this week include: drinking more water, trying to measure the number of carbs I eat, playing basketball twice, running three times, and having only one glass of wine. (I don’t want to cut out wine completely but I’ll probably have it earlier in the week this time.) Also, I’d like to lose two pounds this week.

I hope everyone else on the diet had as good or better a second week as I had and that we all continue on to reach our goals.

Last week I weighed in at 207 pounds. I was able to play basketball twice, do some light jogging once, walking twice, and a little “yard work” once. As far as eating is concerned I did good with temporary lapses in judgement on Saturday and Sunday night (I had beer). But overall I think I did great this week.

As of this morning I weigh 203 pounds for a loss of four pounds this week. Since my goal is an average of two pounds per week this is obviously better than expected.

My goals for this week are to cut down on carbs, eat more fruits and vegetables as snacks, go completely beer and wine free for the week, and lose two more pounds.

How did you do? And what are your goals for this week?

This approach, it would seem, usually escapes new dieters (which Pat is not). Many people approach a diet by “not eating”. This is horrible. Pat’s approach to only eliminate the amount of calories per day that help him to reach his goal in a healthy way – is the perfect approach to dieting.

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.)

Here are a few videos that I have seen on Viddler recently to help those of us that work at an office, or at least at our desks, and would like to do something to help ourselves during the day.

The office workout

Jennifer DiDonato, whom I interviewed on the Viddler blog several months ago about her Brides Made Fit show, has an excellent episode of Made Fit TV that relates to this very problem. The office workout, as she calls it, involves a few exercises that you can do without leaving your desk and – even better – without the need of special equipment.

Fat loss tips with Marc Lebert

Even though Viddler Adam Toohey calls this a Fat Loss Tips video I think these are more just great exercises you can do with or without The Equalizer. I use chairs to do these exercises (until I can afford an Equalizer because I think it looks like a really simple and great piece of workout equipment).

However, Marc makes a great point in the video that I think many people are really, really confused about that try to lose weight. Eating. Your metabolism is the #1 weapon against weight gain and your #1 solution for losing weight. It is, in a sense, the silver bullet for dieters. Anything you can do to restore your metabolism and to keep your metabolism working at a high rate will both help you lose weight and help you keep it off. (More on this in a future post.)

So there are two quick videos that I think will help all of you office workers. Like me.

Oh, and I’m back on the diet. I’ll be posting screenshots of my own progress once I get at least 14 days worth of data recorded into Weightbot. At which time I’ll be sharing my method for weight-loss this time around as well.

If you have an iPhone and want to track your weight; get Weightbot.

Source: Weightbot by Tapbots.
Additional resources: How to calculate your own BMI.

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.

My messed up hair amplified by my elongated head due to iPhone stretching.

Oh, and wearing my now pretty old Loch Ness Imposter Threadless tee.

Jesse, a copyrighter from Chicago, has been doing really great on his diet for over a year and a half. For those wondering he’s doing Weight Watchers Online while I tend to do my own thing.  But as we’ve all said before on the diet, it doesn’t matter what diet you choose just that you start doing one.

Jesse’s statistics from the last 18-months have been very impressive.  He mentions in his blog post that he lost “1 Colin Devroe” because he lost 197.2lbs in those 18-months.  This just so happened to be the amount I weighed on Week Ten of my diet ((Which was 2 years ago.)).

Congratulations Jesse. Thanks for the inspiration to stick with it!

Source: What I’ve Lost: 18 Months On Weight Watchers.

I know what you might be thinking, especially if you follow me on Twitter.  How can he play so much basketball and still need to get back on his diet?  It is because I like food and booze too much.  It isn’t due to lack of exercise really, because I get a fair amount of that considering that my day job is in front of a computer.

Today I weighed in at 207 pounds.  My goal for next week is 205.  Pretty simple.

I’m going to be trying to achieve this goal by watching what I eat, cutting down on alcohol consumption to only 2 ounces (or a beer and a glass of wine) per week, and keeping my same routine for sports and exercise.

Two factors spurred me to get back on the diet. The first was a trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with some friends to see a Monday-night Steelers vs. Dolphins game (you may have seen it on TV, it being perhaps, the worst Monday-night game in history). While in Pittsburgh we enjoyed going to a few restaurants where they seem to serve fries with everything. Have you ever been to Pittsburgh? Trust me on the fries thing, never order a side of fries with your meal. After a weekend of eating, drinking, and football, we all decided we need to shed a few pounds.

When I got home from Pittsburgh I jumped on the scale and I was 212.2 pounds. I weight I hadn’t read on the scale since July of 2006. So, I got right back into being on the diet by increasing my exercise and lowering my calories. The same simple plan I’ve had so much success with in the past.

Fast forward about a month. I began to slow down on the diet again, though I wasn’t gaining any weight, and my brother calls me up and we get to talking about challenging each other to get rid of the last few pounds. We chose 15 pounds, though in hindsight I should have picked a little less (more on this in a second).

So, now it is the 26th of February, have I made any progress since November 28th? Today I weighed in at 195.2 pounds, for a loss of 0.8 pounds since last week, and loss of 17 pounds overall since the trip to Pittsburgh.

My new challenge is to stay between 190-195 for 3 months. I’m going to attempt to lose another pound or two this week, and then maintain it for 3 straight months (all while building a little muscle and hopefully losing a little fat around the edges). It seems I never really have trouble losing weight, but I do have trouble keeping it off and staying focused. I’m charting new territory for myself here, I’m not sure what I need to do to stay motivated, to lose body fat (I assume I need to cut carbs a little and increase protein intake) – but I’m up for the challenge. I never want to see the scale read 200+ again.

An update on “the diet”

One of the things that continues to surprise me is the number of hits, google searches, links, and people in general that end up coming to my site to find information on the diet. A lot of times people find the BMI calculator post, or just the diet page, but there are still people picking up the reigns and beginning their weight loss journey as recently as a few days ago.

One person that comes to mind is Doug Meade, who wrote Becoming less repulsive wherein he states that he’s starting on the diet. Another one is David Meade (are these guys related?), where he’s already posted a few updates on his progress. Keep it up fellas, I can’t wait to see you two progress.

Every single week I get emails from people asking about information on the diet, or to be put on the list as participants. Over the next week or so I’ll be updating that list, but I’ll only be including people that have documented real, tangible, results. “Good examples”, if you will. By the way, this doesn’t mean you have to be losing weight to be on the diet, this just means you have to be documenting it – whether you lose or gain.

There is no time like the present to get on-board, so don’t hesitate to contact me if you would like to begin your road to health. There have been many that have benefitted from this public display of goals, reaching them, striving for them, and even failing just to get back up and try again. Particularly me. I have benefitted a lot from it, and I’m looking forward to the next three months – and trying out my new goal.

What is your goal?

When I’m away from home and unable to retain my focus on my food intake, I definitely suffer. Pizza, hoagies, greasy things, beer, etc. are the norm when I’m away from home so I really need to start keeping myself in check when I’m away (which is more and more frequent sadly).

I’ll be away this weekend so I’m hoping to do better this week than last and get back on track on Monday. Oh, and I haven’t played basketball in far too long!

This week I weighed in at 193 pounds which means I’m on track for my goal that I set last week.

My goals for this week are to hit at least 191 by getting out to exercise more this week than I have in previous weeks. I should be able to visit the gym tonight, basketball should also be possible tomorrow and perhaps Friday.

This weekend I’ll be in Philadelphia (on Saturday only) for Viddler’s MealToday contest – so I’m hoping to get outdoors on Sunday for frisbee or something.

A note to James Mathias: You and I have been part of this “diet thing” since the very beginning and you have been a major inspiration on myself and many of the dieters that have been on this journey with us. I wanted to reply to a comment you left on my MealToday where you said: “No worries bro, I got the hint, I’ll back off. Just leave you with this thought. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. I think you know what I mean. Sorry for bugging you in any case.”. I strongly believe you take me far too seriously. I think if you watch the video again you will hear sarcasm in my voice. I have always, and will continue, to value your input on my dieting habits as I know that you have far more knowledge than I in the areas of food and health in general. Please, please, please, never stop trying to help me succeed! Sorry if I came across as though I didn’t want you to call me out and help keep me on track.

Side note about eating healthy: I don’t know if I will ever, ever be able to live up to “eating healthy”. I try. But frankly I believe that there is a balance between being a food nazi and simply trying to change your diet and exercising more. I take the simple, fun approach to my health which is to try to keep my calories in check (while still eating what I enjoy) and being active. I do not believe I’d ever enjoy life living to the strictest of food rules. I realize there is great value in eating the best of foods with no preservatives, the best ingredients, etc. etc. – I’m just not that guy. If it means that my life is shortened by 2-months because I like Perkin’s Peanut Butter Silk Pie than by golly I think it is worth the sacrifice.

Thanks James – keep bugging me!

That’s it from me… see you next week (I like these much looser weigh in posts).

Sometime last week we’ve finally made final preparations for our upcoming vacation and, as these types of things always seem to do, this spurred me to hop back up on the horse.

My weigh in today does not reflect my exact weight currently. It reflects my weight when I weighed in at the time I decided to start dieting again and when I set my new goal.

I weighed in at 196 pounds the other day. I’m certain my weight gain has more to do with me simply not keeping track of it than anything else at this point. I’ve proven my abilities to lose and maintain as long as I continue to monitor my weight. So that is what I am going to try to do – continuously weigh in.

My goal is to weigh in at 185 pounds on September 18th. Four Tuesdays from today. Eleven pounds in a single month is not out of the realm of possibility, especially considering I’ve already lost a little weight over the weekend.

This morning I awoke to seeing this comment on my week fifty nine weigh in:

“So… It’s 5 weeks later, Mr. “I’m a bad, bad dieter!” (”Hello, Pot.” “Hi, Kettle.”) How’s the diet going? I lost 2.6 pounds over the last week, since I finally decided to get serious about it after a string of bad weeks. How about you?” commented – Wally Hartshorn

This is exactly the type of “calling out” I need from all of you. Probably just as much as you need the very same from me! So lets try to keep better tabs on each other again. It worked for us before and it can help us all again (including me).

Thanks for calling me out Wally. Congratulations on losing a few pounds last week. Let’s chat again next Tuesday to check in on each other.

Here is where my excuses come flying in. I rolled my ankle really, really badly a few weeks ago and it is actually still pretty tender. This, in part, is why I haven’t played basketball in a few weeks for any extended period of time, I haven’t ran, and I haven’t been to the gym. I’m bad. I know.

The worst part about the entire thing, is that I haven’t changed my diet. I know better. I know that when my exercise schedule gets put aside that I need to change my eating habits. But I didn’t. So here I am, slowly gaining weight.

Time for a shift back to doing well with regards to food and hopefully I can get back to my normal exercise routine very soon. My goal for next week is to be down 2 pounds.

I believe it is time to quit making excuses about scheduling problems and start doing things on my own. I’m going to start running, by myself, starting tomorrow. As for the gym I’ll have to create my own schedule (most likely Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday). I’d love to go in the mornings but that just doesn’t seem possible – I am not a morning workout person.

This week I weighed in within a few ounces of last week’s weigh in. Which is fine because I fully expect to be around 185 pounds for the rest of my life – so being 187 works just as well.

I hope everyone else had a great week on their diets.

This week I lost 2.6 pounds and weighed in at 187.4 pounds. I’m very happy with these results considering the weekend of eating rather heartily. Although I was able to play a little frisbee and play some basketball I really need to get my workout and exercise routine back on track for this week.

Yea, this weigh in is short and sweet. Hope everyone had a good week!

Usually if I do not eat well my exercise routine makes up for it. As I’ve seen in previous weigh ins I won’t normally gain even though I decided to eat a bunch of food. However, when I don’t workout and I eat like crap – this generally leads to me gaining a few pounds. A no-brainer, I know.

So this week I’m up 5 pounds from last week, weighing in at 190.00 pounds. At first I was mad, almost disgusted, with myself. But, after waiting a day I see my levels are already beginning to balance out and it is nothing to get mad about since as long as I focus on getting my diet and exercise back on track – I’ll be just fine in a few days.

Ebbs and flows happen on diets and usually they can be calculated, but even when they can’t, I’ve learned to keep my head up and focus on the next goal. Keep moving forward.

Here’s to a great weigh in this coming Tuesday. Oh, and it will be the start of WWDC so there will be two reasons to be excited!

Over the last few weeks I’ve had hundreds of ideas for how I’d write my one year weigh in. And I think the most important thing for me to do is to say thank you to all of those who’ve helped me over the course of the last year to be as successful as I have been.

Thank you Eliza for being my original inspiration for starting the diet. You’ve helped me on numerous occasions over the last year to stick to my goals. You’ve been amazingly supportive!

Thanks to Chris for pushing me during our workouts. I can always count on you to be my exercise partner which has definitely had an impact on me. Many people are not as privileged as I am to have someone to work out with consistently.

Thanks to James for showing me that this diet isn’t just about losing weight or that it isn’t a temporary action but this is a life-change and one that will last forever. You truly are an inspiration to many. (see James’ latest photo showing off his success on his diet, awesome!)

Thanks to Mike for being supportive as a friend and fellow dieter. Your unceasing schedule of getting to the gym every single morning has been inspiring. Hope you find a place in California to settle into and get that schedule back on track!

Thanks to Scott who has shown me that sometimes we need to do whatever it takes to stay on the diet even if it means doing things that we don’t like (like running or going to the gym).

Thanks to Larry who has, via our conversations, really given me great tips and inspiration for setting goals and sticking to them. I know Larry will be making his personal goals and I know how hard he is trying to do so – which inspires me to try as hard as he does.

And thanks to everyone else on the diet, those that read my weigh in entries, and those that congratulate me on my successes and pick me up when I “fail”, all of you have been a part of this last year and I can’t thank you enough for that.

Oh, I almost forgot – I weighed in at 185 again this morning which is no change from last week. For those that are unaware, I am not longer trying to lose weight but I’m trying very hard to maintain my current weight, gain muscle, and lose fat.

I can has cramp

Last week was the normal exercise and workout activities but near the end of the week Chris and I, via my good friend Larry, discovered HIIT running. The photo on your right is the result of my first HIIT session wherein I got a cramp and Chris nearly showed his lunchables. HIIT running is addictive and a little bit insane. Once you’ve done it and the pain along with the throbbing head veins subside, you crave it. You are constantly thinking about your next session and how you need to add another cycle. Like I said, insane.

This weekend we hit a few wineries, as we tend to love doing so much, and enjoyed a massive amount of great food and wine. Picnics in vineyards people! Naturally I thought I’d overdone it. Come to find out I didn’t gain an ounce over the weekend. So just like last week I’m sittin’ pretty at 185.

Yesterday was our third round of HIIT running. However, since Chris and I are insane (as mentioned before), we decided to go to the gym for biceps, triceps, and forearm workouts before heading out to play basketball for a few more hours. But boy did it feel good (at the time). This morning I’m a little sore and a few of my joints are cursing me – but overall I’m in good shape.

I’m looking forward to making this a great week to end the first of many years on the diet.

So, this morning I weighed in at 185lbs. which is a loss of 1.6 pounds from last week putting me at an overall loss of 40.6 pounds! This also sets my BMI, according to this BMI formula, at 24.4 which is within the “healthy” range. So I’m really happy to have achieved this goal.

This BMI business is probably not the best “scale” to base goals off of but at least it is something that says I’m headed in the right direction. Being within the healthy range is a good feeling but I’m barely inside of that range. Does this mean I should set a new goal for weight loss or remain where I am? I’m hoping that getting my food diet under control will actually help me to shed some more fat while allowing me to build some muscle. But this won’t change my BMI since it only takes weight and height into consideration.

So I am not sure what my next goal should be. Being a goal oriented person I think I’m going to have to figure out something to stay focused on. Perhaps body-fat percentage?

No matter what, I’m extremely pleased with my progress and incredibly happy that I’ve been able to stick to this diet as long as I have.

[tags]weigh-in, diet, the-diet, bmi, goal[/tags]

This past weekend Eliza and I and a few friends headed to the Finger Lakes region in New York to try and buy some wine. As is typical with vacations my “diet” went from eating specific amounts of specific foods to eating “whatever was available” in quantities that were chosen for me. With most of our meals the food was delicious – in fact – I did want to make sure I mentioned that if you ever have the chance to eat at the Seneca Harbor Station, do it. Every single dish that we ordered (of which there were seven of us), was excellent.

We managed to play a bit of frisbee, football, and the age-old classic hacky sack while we were in New York so that helped a bit with burning off a few of the calories from the food and wine.

All in all a good week – and I’m looking forward to getting back on track and getting to my goal.

[tags]diet, weigh-in, the-diet, finger lakes, vacation, new york[/tags]

Even though I only got to play a little basketball and managed to hit the gym only once this week, I did what I think was a great job in the “food intake” department.

This week I weighed in at 186.4 pounds which is a loss of 2 pounds since last week. I’m hoping to reach my goal of 185.0 by the time the full one-year mark rolls around and I’d love to maintain that weight for the foreseeable future.

My trips to the gym have obviously caused me to gain a few pounds in muscle and if I can continue that trend hopefully I’ll stay around the same weight while only gaining weight from muscle and losing fat. I know that to pull this off I’ll have to change the foods that I eat pretty dramatically – which is something that I’d love to do but feel might be one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced on my diet yet.

To gain muscle, and subsequently strength, I have to start eating a lot more protein and just generally healthier foods and leave the junk food and carbohydrates behind. Being that my current food diet is not even close to what it should be in this regard, I think it will be a big thing if I can pull this off. It begins with the food I actually have in the house – so shopping with the mindset that I want to only have good food in the house is probably the first step.

Can any recommend a shopping list for someone in my situation?

Update: I just wanted to thank everyone that sent me suggestions – especially James who wrote a great comment on this post with his suggestions and insight. James is definitely a great resource and friend to have – be sure to check out his site to monitor his progress which has been inspirational for me and my diet thus far.

I hope everyone is doing just as well on their diets as I’ve been able to do lately. Obviously I’ve had my bumps in the road but overall I could not be more happy with the results of deciding to diet. As this first year passes me by I look forward to continuing this new lifestyle for the rest of my life.

[tags]diet, the-diet, weigh-in, basketball, food, muscle, protein[/tags]

While in California for six days I actually ate pretty well. And by well I mean a decent amount of food. When I went to Texas on business it seemed that I was skipping meals because I was far too busy. However, having the entire Viddler team in California made my job much, much easier so I was able to relax a little and eat normally.

Since I’ve been back I’ve been pretty active. I’ve been playing frisbee and basketball quite a bit over the last few days and it feels great to finally be outside again. Winter here in northeastern Pennsylvania is simply far too long.

This week I weighed in at 188.4 pounds, for a loss of exactly 1 pound from two weeks ago. I’m looking forward to getting back to the gym starting tonight, since I’ve missed the last week or so being away. I’m not sure my muscles are looking forward to it, but they’ll just have to live with it.

Something I definitely need to work on is being consistent with workouts even while away. Finding a few minutes for a jog or time in the weight room of a hotel shouldn’t be too difficult and the only thing holding me back from that is laziness. I’m always excited to get back into my routine though, and now that the weather is actually enjoyable – I don’t think I’ll have much trouble sticking to an active routine for the next few months.

[tags]diet, weigh-in, the-diet, california, texas, exercise, basketball, frisbee, ultimate, weather, gym, pennsylvania, viddler[/tags]

I was able to get to the gym when I wanted to this week – besides last night which is typically basketball night. However, not being able to breathe properly would have probably made playing impossible. I hate when I miss basketball.

The outdoor activities have been at right about nil this week. The current temperature outside is hovering in the mid-30s. Not exactly the type of weather that makes you want to go outside.

I am not sure if I’ll get to the gym tonight, it will depend on how I feel later – but I would certainly like to. No running, just hittin’ the weights.

Overall, a good week.

[tags]weigh-in, diet, the-diet, gym, basketball, sick[/tags]

So instead of just covering the amount of gain/loss each week I’ll also toss in some of my other goals that I am working on at the gym, on the court, or on the field. However, just to keep up-to-date I weighed in at 189.2 pounds for a loss of .8 pounds from last week. The amount of weight that I lost does not reflect well to how good of a week I had on the diet.

At the gym

I was able to cover a few goals that I had for myself at the gym for this week. The first was actually timing out a sub-10 minute mile. Although I had never timed myself running prior to this week, I already knew going in that I should be able to accomplish this. So, this I accomplished pretty easily (and by easy I mean sweating like a pig).

My next goal was to be able to run 2-miles, since that was something I had not tried to do before. For those of you that do not know, running and I do not get along, in fact – I loathe it. But, I have goals and I am going to make them. So I ran two miles but I added the goal of making it in less than 20-minutes which I just barely made it. I actually had the opportunity to do this twice this week and the second time I came in at 19:20. I’m looking forward to giving this another try and coming in under 19 minutes before moving onto my next goal.

In my I ran one mile post I said: “So, what is my next goal? I’m going to run a mile in the seven-minute range.” Well, that is kinda what I am working on right now. I’m slowly building up my stamina for longer distances while simultaneously going a little bit faster each time. My new goal is 1 mile in 8-minutes and 2 miles in 18 minutes. I’ll let you know how this goal goes.

In the field and on the court

A small group of us went to the park this weekend to play frisbee, a little tennis (I am absolutely horrible at tennis, and I do mean horrible), and basketball. The weather was great (though we’re expecting bad weather this weekend, ugh).

Andrew and I playing frisbee – March 2007 – Photo credit: Eliza Devroe

It was nice to play at least a little frisbee again for the first time this season. One of my goals is to be able to play competitive ultimate this year sometime. I may have to find a local team or something since I don’t know enough people that would like to do this to create my own team. If anyone knows the best way to do this, hook me up.

Tennis seems like a pile of fun but I’m just horrible at it. Obviously it is because I’ve only played like 30-minutes worth of tennis in my entire life – but maybe I could try to play with Andrew a little this year.

The first game of basketball was a game of 21 with Andrew, Paul, and I. And I was shooting really, really well. Then, when we hopped into a larger game – my shot went into outer space for some reason. I was having trouble getting any type of rhythm back and I was starting to get frustrated – which is the worst thing to do. But I had a great time and it was good exercise. I love basketball.

That was my week of activity. Running, working out, some sports, and a fairly decent diet. The change in weather definitely helps me to keep on top of things and I’m looking forward to making and setting new goals on the scale, at the gym, in the field, and on the court.

[tags]weigh-in, diet, the-diet, andrew nelson, paul kozlansky, running, 2-miles, gym, ultimate frisbee, basketball, tennis, goals[/tags]

This week I weighed in at 190.0 pounds which is down 2.2 pounds from last week. Being active is definitely the key to the success of my diet. I was regular at the gym this week, and able to play basketball once (though it was supposed to be twice) – and now with the weather finally breaking, my activity level is bound to rise once again.

Winter was definitely hard on me and I hope to find ways to avoid these “down times” during the next winter. Any suggestions for this would help.

Oh, and for reasons that many of you reading this already know – and for reasons that I will be disclosing in a near future post – I’m almost entirely off of coffee and diet soda. So we’ll see how this affects my diet, I’m hoping in a positive way.

[tags]diet, the-diet, weigh in, gym, basketball[/tags]

This week I weigh 192.2 pounds which is a loss of 1.9 pounds from last week. Obviously by going away I got knocked off my goal by one week, but I’m actually just happy that I didn’t gain any weight while eating at random restaurants and bars.

I also wanted to take the time to acknowledge James Mathias‘ recent Weighed Down By Numbers entry. In it James says:

“Why am I telling you this? To make a point. Weight in numbers is the last thing in the world that you should be paying attention to when in process.” … “Weighing yourself is, unfortunately, going to be a necessary evil overall, but it should be done less and given less “weight” in terms of a measure of progress.”

James was doing a single post per month, and I am not sure if that coincides with when he actually got onto the scale, but obviously that is what works for him. Then we have the people that weigh themselves every single moment of everyday, and then I fit somewhere in the middle. I try to weigh myself once per week. It allows me to practice what I preach in my Five questions for successful dieters entry. One of my tips was that you set small, and large goals. I set a healthy goal of about two pounds per week, but I set monthly goals of eight pounds per month or so. This way I do not get discouraged if I miss a small goal because I have a large goal to aim for still.

Point is: I think all of these methods work for different people but James’ words still ring true. If you are completely focused on the numbers you may allow them to begin to take over and make you feel a certain way about yourself – and that will never be a motivating factor.

Thanks for your wise words James – you’re an inspiration to many.

[tags]diet, the-diet, james mathias, weigh in[/tags]