Surviving December

My goal was to survive December and keep my weight below 250.  So far so good but it has not been easy.  The cold and early darkness are beginning to make me lazy.   The cookies laying around and all the Christmas snacks are torture but just a few days left.  I started a new job this month that is really is going to make it tough to follow a healthy diet. The days are 14 hours long and if lucky allow you to squeeze in a 30 minute lunch break and requires a lot of walking throughout the day.  My hope is that by relaxing the diet during December it will help shock my body in January when I begin to hit it full force again.

Day 23-25 and beyond

well it came and went and I ran the 5K Thanksgiving morning in 29:40 which beat my goal of 30 minutes.  It really felt good to run before stuffing the turkey and we had almost 20 family members show up to run with us.  Last year there were 28 runners and this year there were 288 runners.  I have not been doing real good since it has been cold, dark and gloomy and the winter makes me want to cook but my weight is holding steady.  I plan on trying to keep my weight around the 245 mark until the new year and then begin my weight loss progress again.  I have been working hard during the day trying to burn some cals to make up for the laziness at night.

Day17-22

Well I used to think that stress was my biggest weakness when it comes to eating right but now I have added another, being busy.  When we go to work and then stay late, 2 funerals, running the kids all over the place, etc, etc.   It's an absolute killer. I am discouraged because I have trained for this 5k more so than all of the others but I feel like I am in worse shape now and I am not sure why.  My diet may be the biggest factor but I am also going to try to squeeze in a visit to the chiropractor because sometime this affects my breathing. with 2 days left my goal is far from being met but all I can do is keep trying.

Day 16 challenge

Today I had my physical for my new job.  I was pretty excited about it but was disappointed when I received my cholesterol results back.  My total cholesterol was good and my glucose levels as well but my HDL and LDL were pretty bad.  I really do not feel like I consume that much fat and cholesterol in my foods.  The only bad thing was I just finished up our anniversary weekend and ate worse than I usually do but I am unsure if one weekend can really effect the results that much.  Me and my daughter ran 3.2 miles tonight in a disappointing 34 minutes.  I really want to run the Thanksgiving 5K in less than 30 minutes but I have a lot of work ahead of me to accomplish this goal.

Day 11-14

Finally feeling better and had a new challenge to overcome for the weekend but I feel I was pretty successful at the challenge.  I took my wife to Kansas City for the weekend and was unsure how to balance eating out with my wife on our anniversary weekend and still meeting the challenge.  We were very careful and ended up eating really good while on our trip.  I enjoyed not having that stuffed feeling after leaving a restaurant.  Saturday morning I awoke early and got in the best run I may have ever had.  I have no idea the time or the distance but I ran a steady pace for a solid 30 minutes and then walked another 15.  Then this morning I biked in the gym for 30 minutes and added to the walking we did throughout the day several miles at least I covered the exercise well.  I have no idea what it did to the scale but I gave it a great shot.

Day 9 and 10 challenge

Well these two days were a bust as sickness decided to run its course.  Started as a cold and turned into a stomach virus. Not only could I not exercise but I couldn't eat.  The scale will probably prove this later but I have learned any weight I ever lose while sick comes right back on immediately.  Hopefully day 11 I will feel much better and get a few miles in on the road.

Day 7 and 8

Yesterday wasn't a bad Sunday as we enjoyed a morning Bible study and a trip to Lone Elk Park.  Tried to keep the eating under control and didn't do to bad with it.  Had a biscuit for breakfast and smoked boston butt for lunch/dinner.  I woke up on Monday morning and have dropped 5 pounds so far on the challenge.  I had and egg sandwich for breakfast, smoked butt for lunch and dinner.  So far I have avoided the snacking today and then when I got home from work I raced my daughter in a 3 mile run.  Yes I got my butt kicked but it kept me moving towards my goal.  I know I am going to have to get really serious to lose 10 more pounds but I have 16 days before the race to see what I can do.