Week 2 report

So far, so good. After knocking out the first week, my second week of dieting was much easier to get through. It's so strange how quickly habits can form, and in this case, it's a good thing. I maintained my calorie goal all week, despite slipping up on a few bad nutrition choices. Fortunately, MyFitnessPal has a feature that calculates calories earned through exercise, and that helped me stay in the positive on my net calories consumed.

Dripping sweat off the tip of my nose during last night's stationary bike session. It was a doozy.

There is still a ton of room for improvement, though. My percentage of calories from fat was 37 percent, which is still way too high, but I did manage to improve my percentage of protein from 13 to 18 percent this week. Breakfast is where I've been the weakest, getting the bulk of my fat calories in those meals. I simply haven't been giving myself enough time to get ready, eat and get to work on time in the mornings, so I've been eating quick junk for breakfast. Lunches and snacks have been fairly solid and Jen and I have been vigilant about cooking healthy dinners in the evening.

Here's another product I've been snacking on lately. It has a shit-ton of fiber, is low in fat and only has 130 calories in it. They've been good to eat an hour or so before the gym.

I weighed in this morning at 175.4, which is only a slight loss from last week's weigh-in, but I anticipated that. I dropped much more than I wanted to in the first week, so I'm still on pace for my 12-week goal.

I also locked in a five trips to the gym last week, although I kind of slacked off on one of them, following a piss-poor calorie decision. I really challenged myself in the other workouts, though, mixing it up with cycling, running, treadmill incline walking, and circuit training. And that's just the cardio. I also threw in some weight lifting and ab work and have still been going on walks during my lunch hours on most days. It definitely was a good week in the exercise department, and I hope to crank it up even more this week.

On a side note, I finally surpassed 1,000 miles on the stationary bike since I started logging my distance almost a year and a half ago. Huzzah!

Week 1 report:

Huzzah! Whatever I've been doing this past week seems to be working. My initial goal was to lose anywhere from 1 to 1.5 pounds per week. I figured that was reasonable, considering I'm not trying to drop a drastic amount of weight; just about 15-20 pounds. When I stepped on the scale last Wednesday I weighed in at 179.2 pounds. This morning I tipped the scale at 175.6. Losing 3.6 pounds in one week is quite a bit more than I anticipated. That being said, I did have a light dinner last night, so the one-week result may be skewed a little bit.

These are so good, and there are about four more styles I can try out.

I am on a run of five straight days at Planet Fitness and I haven't been going crazy, either. Usually, I just do anywhere from 30-45 minutes of cardio. I did get in one weightlifting session and one hour-long session on the stationary bike on a day that I went over on my calories. I've also been supplementing my after-work workouts with long walks during my lunch break. The weather has been so nice, so I figured it is a perfect opportunity to burn a few extra calories, giving me a little more leeway on my dinners.

Speaking of dinners, the first few days of my diet were VERY hard. I went over on my calories twice in the first three days, but gradually found a rhythm with healthier choices as the week went on. I've grown fond of the microwave bags of veggie steamers. They are filling, low in calories, low in fat and do a great job of energizing me before I go to the gym after work. My percentages still need improvement, though. I consumed 36 percent of my calories from fat this week, which is still much higher than I want. I want to get that to less than 20 percent. Also, only 13 percent of my calories came from protein, so I plan on eating a few lean turkey choices for dinner this week. That should beef up my protein and keep my fat content down.

So far, so good. I'm still updating my distances on my tracker, but memorizing them for weekly totals is more than I want to do for every blog right now.

The results are in

OK, I know it's been about two weeks since I last posted, but I wanted to wait until I got my full Wellness results back. I finally did, and now I can move forward. Here's what I took from it.

The good

• My blood lipid profile was excellent. My triglycerides, total cholesterol, HDL and LDL cholesterol, glucose and lipoprotein levels were all in optimal ranges.
• My "risk" factors are low, including not smoking, rare drinking, no diabetes, no signs of osteoporosis and somewhat regular physical activity.
• Upper body strength. I scored well on every category. The aide even said my grip strength score was "through the roof," which shocked me. I never thought I had a very strong grip.

The bad

• Nutrition. This comes as no surprise to me. I sorely need to eat more veggies, less red meat and less high-fat foods. The only area I scored particularly well in was my intake of whole-grain and wheat carbs that are low in high-fructose corn syrup and gluten.
• Flexibility. Although I've vastly improved since I lost weight, I still have a long way to go, scoring a little low on my sit-and-reach test.
• Body fat percentage. This is the big one. I scored a whopping 26.8 percent, which stunned me, even though I knew my percentage was going to be high. The charts map me in the "obese" category here, even though my weight (179 pounds) and waist (34 inches) measurements were only slightly high.

With this information, I have formulated a lofty goal with a tentative plan, aided by Gordon Gridley, a friend and fellow swimmer who has undergone an incredible transformation himself. I'll fill you in on that a little more later.

The goal

• To drastically improve my overall health by the time our baby is born. This gives me about 12 weeks, as he is due in early June. I need to set an example for my family, one that will stick and hopefully encourage a healthy lifestyle for both Jen and my son. I would like to drop my weight down to 165 pounds and my body fat percentage to less than 15 percent (eventually to less than 10 percent).

The plan

• Diet right. I've never actually "dieted" before, but I'm going for it. I started last Wednesday and have been using a very helpful tool on my iPad called MyFitnessPal. It's an incredible app that logs my diet and exercise, keeping track of my calories and nutrition with an exhaustive database of millions of foods. I don't have to drop calories drastically, only a little bit. I mostly need to focus on what calories I consume. I should consume less than 20 percent of my calories from fat (less than 10 percent in a perfect world), with a rough balance of 50 percent carbs (the right kind with less bad sugar) and 30 percent protein. The best part is, I don't have to do any friggin math. MyFitnessPal charts those percentages automatically for me as I enter my food after every meal.
• Exercise more often, but not necessarily for longer. I don't need to log hours upon hours of cardio like the people on The Biggest Loser do, but I need to get cardio sessions in more often and every day if possible. I've pretty much slacked off since last November, rarely working out more than 2-3 times per week. I've been at it for four straight days now (including five of the past six days) and I'm gaining steam. Depending on how fast I shed the fat/pounds, I will eventually start doing more weight-bearing and strengthening workouts to add muscle. I set a reasonable goal of about 1-1.5 pounds of weight loss per week for now. Another fun social media app called FourSquare helps keep me motivated. You "check in" on your iPad or iPhone wherever you are at and can try to become the "Mayor" of certain locations by having the most check ins at that spot. My goal is to be the Mayor of Planet Fitness in Roy by the time my son is born, which will be tough, because there are some regulars there that have logged a lot of check-ins.

So, that's the tentative plan. I will fill in more details as I report back every Wednesday for weekly follow-ups, starting tomorrow.

Still waiting ...

It's been a week and I'm still waiting on the results of my fitness test. I really would like to get that back as soon as possible so I can map out some goals.

That being said, I went to the gym twice last week and then just got home from the gym today. I still need to improve on the amount of times I go, but I have improved a bit on my eating habits as of late. Still limiting the amount of carbonation and number of times I eat fast food in a week.

Baby steps... Anyway, today was the first time at Planet Fitness that I've had to wait on a machine. It wasn't too long, though and I was able to get some good stretching in before sitting down on the stationary bike for 30 minutes.

Total distance: 9.5 miles cycling