196.8...and 34

Well I'm down some more weight and over halfway to the weight goal of 190. The size 34 is what the waist of my pants are at now. My size 36 jeans were literally falling off the other day at work so I pulled out the pants I had from the BFL days and they fit perfectly.

I did another 3.76 miles yesterday and dropped the times a bit. The running mechanics are getting a lot better. It's very empowering to feel my knees actually responding positively to running correctly by the pain going away. It's really strange because when I run correctly I feel very smooth and aerodynamic. Much the same way I feel in the water when my stroke is working like I want it to. The only thing keeping me from running more is...well...my aerobic shape :) I'm happy to report that my run/walk 5k is now under 50 minutes so I guess I'm going to have to start looking at 5k races sometime soon!

198.6

No that's not my temperature. That's my weight! I've managed to lose about 8 pounds in about 17 days so I'm pretty darn happy about that. Again I think it's due to the shock to my system of getting rid of bad eating habits, eating well portioned meals and exercising again...but I'm not going to complain. So I'm nearly halfway to my goal of 190 lbs! How kick ass is that?

Also went for another run/walk today using the new mechanics. 14 minutes of running, however, I did 3.76 miles in about 59 minutes. I did a few calculations and that tells me that is about a 49 minute 5k. If I can get that under 40 minutes just doing the running and walking I think I'll enter a race soon!

I hope everyone is well!

All Around Success

Well I started at around 207 pounds on Day 1 and it's now about Day 14 and I'm hovering around 200 pounds. Overall I think this is just the "fast" fat that tends to come off after you change your eating and activity habits so I have no reason to believe that this trend will continue at this pace. However, I'm not going to let the spoil how ecstatic that I am. The running is still a little frustrating because of the change in mechanics because it requires my constant attention to make sure that I'm not falling back into old habits again. Still, I'm very happy that I'm making strides there. The home, work and finances are part of these goals as well and all seem to well under control. I'm finally learning to juggle at the age of 34!

Portion Control

Well that's the new watchword for me these days. That's the one thing I think I had a problem with during most of my attempts at curbing my bad eating habits. I've been making a concerted effort to actually watch my portions and see if that helps. Additionally someone told me about an experiment in which one night they presented plates to people and let them eat. To a tee they all cleaned their plates and got second helpings. The next night they were presented full plates of food, however, this time they were blindfolded. Each one of them become "full" before they finished the plate. Made me think of the old phrase of my eyes being bigger than my stomach. Now that I've started limiting my portions but spreading out my meals a little better I definitely feel less bloated and more active.

In other news I'm sitting at work trying to figure out a way to break my habit of Diet Coke intake :)

What I've been up to...

So I've been out of touch...terribly sorry about that. Work has been busy but on the flip side...so have I!

- I've decided to stay in my apartment for the time being, but in order to do that I had to get some stuff rearranged and make better use of what I had. So I went ahead and made a lot of changes that opened up a lot of room to breathe. Needless to say I've made the place a lot more harmonious and livable.

- Work is getting better and I'm starting to get a handle on the responsibilities of my new job. It's not remotely easy but it is becoming more manageable to be sure. Overall it's going to take a lot more patience and time on my end to feel like I've mastered the position so I'm not going to stress on that anymore.

- I've started a daily journal which is keeping me in check. It's a little too boring for public consumption but I'll probably just starting putting the abridged versions on here about once a week. I've started a few financial and fitness goals and I've been keeping the journal about a week now and it's really keeping me honest!

- I've started running again with the aid of a friend who runs. She is teaching me hot to improve my stride and basically helping me understand that my running ability needs to be reworked from the ground up. She explained that a lot of my mechanics were what caused my injuries and frustrations in the past. She said it's going to take a while to get me where I need to get but I'm happy for the hands on training. I'm paying her back by adjusting her swim technique as well.

- No I'm not dating her nor will I date her :)