Last Thursday night's weigh-in....

I weighed-in last Thursday. Been so busy and haven't had a chance to post....

I lost 1 pound. I'm down 78.5 pounds to 237.5. 37.5 more to go!

Brother came home.... Speech.... Stage managing a play....

I'm really busy and getting ready to leave work for the day, but here's an abbreviated post....

My brother came home Thursday night from Iraq. He was shocked by my weightloss, I think. He knew I was losing, but didn't know how much. They showed the 'reunion' on the 10pm news (he came in at 8:40pm, so they did some quick work!)

My speech went really well Friday at Mercy. They had me listed on the itinerary as Dave Peterson! haha Oh well. I think I had a good story to share and people seemed interested despite it being the end of the day on a Friday! Some people were leaving during each speech, but most stayed.

I got a call the other day asking me to stage manage a show for Theater for a Change. Mike Pace, the Iowa Lottery guy, is in the show. It's Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys. I've never stage managed, so this will be new to me! Yikes! I'm going to be so busy. :(

Workouts are going as good as ever....

My brother is coming home from Iraq tonight.... My speech tomorrow at Mercy....

My brother is coming back from Iraq tonight. He's flying in to Iowa via Mississippi tonight at 8:40. Channel 13 will be there to film it.

My speech is tomorrow afternoon at Mercy. 13 will be filming that as well.

Workouts, busy, etc....

Been too busy at work to post. I don't have internet at home other than on my iPhone, but it's a bit cumbersome posting a blog using that!

The workouts have been pretty much the same. Been incorporating a bit of the treadmill into the workout to switch things up a bit. No running, though, just fast walking.
My trainer finally got back from vacation, so that's good. She said being gone for a while and coming back she really notices the difference in my face and my body. That's cool. :) I've REALLY noticed it a lot in my face lately.
Man, I need new clothes bad, but A) I'm broke and B) I don't want to buy a lot now and have to get more again 38 pounds from now, ya know?

Anyway, still waiting to hear back from my brother when he'll be home. Supposed to be very soon (like this week maybe).

My Mercy speech is this Friday. My trainer may use my digital camcorder and may tape it for me.

Today's workout....

So today we had 'The Big Game' that I spoke of yesterday.
Before the game, I warmed up by shooting baskets and doing some dribbling drills to get the cardio up.
The teams, if you remember, were guys vs. girls. They outnumbered us by 4 women to 3 men. We guys ended up winning by a couple. We got a great workout! We played full court! I took an elbow to the ribs at one point. I was guarding one of the women and she threw an elbow and NAILED me. It took me a moment to catch my breath. Let's just say she hated it when anybody guarded her! Fun game all around, though. Our timeouts were sponsored by Centrum Silver, Ben-Gay, and Geritol!
After the game, I hit the weights on my own since my trainer is still on vacation. I almost called it quits after the game -- I actually headed back to the locker room -- but figured I was just cheating myself if I didn't lift today. I figure I have to start doing it on my own sooner or later as I won't have a trainer soon!

Last night's weigh-in....

So I weighed-in last night, it being Thursday and all. I lost 2 pounds this last week.
I know that they're good numbers and that I'm probably plateauing, but it's just weird to be working out more than ever but pulling smaller numbers. I'm not getting discouraged or disheartened at all. I'm still quite proud of the numbers, just logic says to me that I should be losing more. But with my new boody-sculpting class, I'm probably adding more muscle, which weighs more than fat.
I'm now down to 238.5. I'm now down 77.5 pounds since the end of September! Someone overheard me talking to someone else about it today in the locker room, and he was highly impressed. I'm so proud to know that I've done it through simple, old-fashioned hard work and eating healthy.

Tomorrow's workout.... (funny!)

So since my trainer is on vacation, we have nobody to fill in tomorrow.
Recently before class one day I was shooting baskets and joking around that we needed to play basketball one day for class. Well, when we found out my trainer would be gone this Friday we decided to play men vs. women in a basketball game.
Now, see, my class is made up of me and people in their 40's, 50's, and 60's (mostly 50's and 60's). It's so funny, because we keep talking trash between the 'teams' -- of course jokingly. I keep threatening to call Channel 13 and have them come shoot the game for the Move It Challenge segment.
Now watch, as much trash as I've been talking, I'll end up spraining an ankle or something tomorrow!
Stay tuned for a funny report on the game for tomorrow!

Today's workout....

So today we had step-aerobics class since we did body-sculpting class on Tuesday.
I did 7 1/2 minutes before class on the cross-trainer and 7 1/2 minutes after class so that I got in 45 minutes of cardio.
I still have my bad cold and feel like crap, but I'm dedicated to working out and getting healthy and losing weight. It's really turned into a habit and a lifestyle change!

Today's workout....

Well, despite being sick w/ a nasty cold, I worked out today.
I did 45 minutes on the cross-trainer, keeping a pace of over 7mph. I intended to do interval training again today, and I tried at the first 5 minute point, but afterward I was having a great deal of trouble catching my breath. I kept going at a normal pace and after a few minutes, I was able to catch my breath. I normally don't have any trouble, but I think due to the cold, I was having the trouble. It scared the crap out of me, actually. I think my number one fear is the inability to breathe.
After the cross-trainer, I hit the weights w/ my trainer's stand-in, Abby, since Deb is on vacation. I did better than normal on most every machine despite having this bad cold.

My brother is back in the US from Iraq....

My brother called me last night. He's back in the US from Iraq. He's in Mississippi right now and should be back home sometime next week. It'll be great to have him back!

Yesterday's workout....

We did the body-sculpting class yesterday rather than Thursday as our instructor/trainer didn't feel like step-aerobics. We'll do step tomorrow morning.
Before and after class I did 7 1/2 minutes on the cross-trainer to get 45 minutes of cardio in for the day.

Weightloss milestone....

So I went clothes shopping on Sunday with a couple of friends in order to get a shirt and tie for my speech at Mercy in a couple of weeks. I was looking for a 2X dress shirt at Younkers and was a bit dejected that I couldn't find any. My friend suggested I try a single X and I just knew it wouldn't fit. I tried it on anyway, and what do you know?! It fit! It fit really well, too. I could even button the top collar all of the way without getting choked.
I haven't been in a single X since college or maybe even my senior year of high school.
Great feeling.

Today's workout....

So I worked out alone today since my trainer is on vacation. It was nice listening to music on my iPhone while working out.
I did 45 minutes on the cross-trainer. I did the interval training, too.
I then hit the weights for 30 minutes or so.

Tomorrow will be step-aerobics class.

Weightloss numbers from last night....

Weighed in last night....
I'm not losing as fast as I was and I'm working out two more days a week than I was before. Arg.

I lost 2.5 pounds this week.
I'm down to 240.5. That's like 75.5 pounds or something. Not bad!
40.5 more to go!

Body fat percentage numbers then and now....

So last night they did a body composition test on me to check those numbers.

My body composition at the end of October was:

BMI: 43.5
Body Fat: 54.2%


Now:

BMI 36.6
Body Fat: 29.9%

That's pretty awesome!

Today's workout....

Since my trainer is out of town for the next week, I worked out today with the trainer that does my Tuesday/Thursday classes. With it being Friday, we did the usual calss, but today was a lot like yesterday in that we did kind of a body-sculpting class with weights and cardio together.
I did 7 1/2 minutes on the cross-trainer both before and after class so that I got my 45 minutes of cardio in.
We also did the weights as usual.

Today's workout....

So Thursdays are always body-sculpting class day. That means that we do aerobics with weights.
We did kind of a fun exercise during the class today. We did jabs w/ dumbbells. I used the 7 pound weights. We then did some punching w/ the dumbbells as well. It reminded me of when I was in high school and had a heavy bag and a speed bag in my basement. I used to have fun working out on those. You'd be surprised at how good of a workout you get on a speed bag. It's good for cardio, sure, bu it's also really good for your forearms (and probably upper body in general). The heavy bag, of course, is good for cardio as well as your whole upper body. I wish I'd kept up w/ the weightlifting and boxing workouts after highschool. I had decent muscle structure back then....it's still here now, just under the fat. :)

The coming week's workouts....

My trainer, Deb, whom I work out with M, W, F is going out of town until a week from Friday, so she won't be back until the following Monday (and yes I am trying to see how many commas I can cram into that sentence!).
Tuesday and Thursday classes won't be affected as those are led by someone else. This Friday's class will be led by the Tuesday/Thursday trainer, Abby. I'll then be doing weights with her after class. I'm not sure whom I'm working out with on Monday and Wednesday of next week, but I know they got someone to fill in. Next Friday will be on my own. I'll prbably listen to music while I work out because when I work out with Deb, we always talk, so I don't get a chance to listen to music on my iPhone.

Today's workout....

So today I did 45 minutes on the cross-trainer. We did intervals again; we'd go at normal pace then every 5 minutes we'd kick it up to as fast as we could go for one minute. My heart rate when at normal pace would be in the 130's, but when we kicked it up to as fast as we could go it would get up in the low-160's. A couple of times it took the heart rate more than 5 minutes to get back down to a level low enough that my trainer was comfortable with having me kick it up as fast as we could go. At some points I was going over 15mph!
That's a really good workout; you feel good when you're done, but a bit tired. According to the machine, I knocked out over 550 calories. I went over 5 miles on it as well.
From there, we hit the weights as usual then hit the ab exercises and a little stretching.

Yesterday's workout....

So I did 7.5 minutes on the cross-trainer before my 30 minute step-aerobics class. After class, I did another 7.5 minutes to bring my cardio time to 45 minutes.
It's a good workout, but actually a lot of fun. Who knew a few months ago that I'd be doing step-aerobics and enjoying it! You should see the cool leotard I wear, too! KIDDING! I don't wear a leotard. :)

Today's workout....

I did 5 minutes on one cross-trainer that I rarely use until the one I normally use opened up. I did 40 minutes on that cross-trainer. In that 40 minutes, I burned 500 calories and went over 4.5 miles. We also did the interval training where we would go normal pace for 5 minutes then for 1 minute we'd go as fast as we could.
We then hit the weights for 30 minutes or so and did some ab exercises and stretching.

We're hoping by kicking the cardio up another 15 minutes more than usual that we can maybe jumpstart the weightloss again back up to the numbers that I'd been used to before. We'll see....

My daily menu....

Here's an idea of my daily menu. It generally stays the same. Occasionally I will have a chicken breast instead of salmon; I do that maybe once a week. Sometimes I'll have cooked red lentils instead of cottage cheese for dinner or the lentils in place of edamame at lunch.
This comes to right around 1300 calories:


Breakfast each day

3 Ry Krisp crackers each w/ a tablespoon of all-natural peanut butter from HyVee's dairy area
8oz glass of skim milk
1 Granny Smith apple


Morning Snack each day

1 12oz can of low sodium V8
1 mozzarella string cheese


Lunch each day

1 Flat Out wrap
3 slices of oven roasted turkey breast from HyVee's deli meat counter
1 piece of HyVee fat free American cheese single
Romaine lettuce
4 strips of fresh red bell pepper
1 serving of edamame w/ Mrs. Dash and a small pinch of kosher salt and 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil


Afternoon Snack each day

Fiber One bar


Dinner

3 or 4oz piece of salmon (pinch of kosher salt and Mrs. Dash) *baked in foil in oven for 15 mins with no oil*
broccoli or asparagus (a lot of either; pinch of kosher salt and Mrs. Dash)
1 tablespoon of olive oil on veggies (veggies roasted in oven for 15 mins on foil)
1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese (2%, I think....HyVee brand and comes in green container)
2 tablespoons of ground flax seed (some on cottage cheese and some on veggies)
8oz glass of skim milk


Nightly snack

18 almonds (whole, no added salt, I think)

Last night's weigh-in....

I had my weekly weigh-in last night.
I only lost 2 pounds. I've been working out really hard all week. It's disappointing to a degree. I might be plateauing.
My dietician, Amy, is back from maternity leave now (she's awesome!!!). I ran into her last night and she thinks we may need to up the calories. We probably do because I'm working out more and harder than ever. It's crazy because I feel like I eat enough now. I feel satisfied at every meal.
We'll just have to tweek things and see if we can jumpstart the weightloss a bit.
Again, 2 pounds isn't bad by any means, just not what I'm used to!

I'm now down to 243! I haven't been this weight in a long time. I don't even know when! College, probably.

Saw Spiderwick Chronicles last night....

So some of the rest of the cast of High School Reunion and I went to see Spiderwick Chronicles last night. I went straight from work, so I didn't have a chance to eat dinner. I stayed away from the pop and popcorn and didn't eat a Nathan's hotdog that I wanted to eat. Willpower. Not even so much as willpower as just knowing that none are very nutritious and will do me more harm than good. To me willpower connotates a struggle within to keep myself from eating those things. Instead, it was a simple decision not to eat them.

The movie, by the way was just ok. It felt like you sat down right in the middle of it, though. You never really got a chance to care about the characters. I thought that the acting of the kids was rather poor. Again, maybe that's due to not having a chance to get to know them and care about them. It was somewhat entertaining. I think I more just enjoyed hanging out with the cast.

Today's workout....

I worked out this morning. I did 5 minutes first on the cross-trainer before body sculpting class. I kept a pace of between 7 and 7.5mph. Normally I keep a pace of around 6.5mph. Crazy!

I then went to body sculpting class where we did ab exercises, exercises with dumbbells, and exercises with the big exercise balls. We really get pushed hard!

I then knocked out another 5 minutes on the cross-trainer.

Upcoming speaking engagement....

I must say I am really looking forward to my upcoming speaking engagement at Mercy. I'm not that nervous. I see it as a really great opportunity to speak to doctors, nurses, and dieticians. I'm not sure what I have to tell them that they don't already know, but maybe there's something in my unique perspective that may speak to them.

I'm thinking about buying a new suit for the speech so that I look dapper. The suit that I have from before I started losing weight is much too big now. Hopefully I've got some extra cash soon to spend on a suit. Of course it will only fit me for a little while since I plan to lose another 45 or so.

Today's workout....

So I did 30 minutes on the cross-trainer today.
Every 5 minutes I'd kick it up to between 12 and 14mph for one minute. That really got my heart rate up. Most of the time it went up from around 130-some to over 160.
From there, we moved on to weights. My heart rate stayed up a bit while doing weights, which is good. I pushed myself pretty hard on the weights today, too.
From there, we did the usual ab exercises.

I gotta say, I do feel really good days that I work out. I've gotten to the point where I really enjoy working out. The true test will be when this program is done whether or not I can keep the exercise up on my own. I think I can, but we'll see!
Too bad your doctor has to refer you to Mercy to be able to go there to work out. I like it there and like the people that I've met. I could totally keep it up if I could keep going there when it's done even if I had to pay like others.
Well, I'll figure somewhere out...

Today's workout....

So I worked out today. I went to step aerobics class for 30 minutes. Then I did 12 minutes on the cross-trainer.

Today's workout.... New measurements....

Today's workout....



So we switched the workout up a bit today to try to jumpstart my weightloss after having only lost a pound last week.

We did the usual 30 minutes on the cross-trainer, but we did some interval training. About every 5 minutes we'd go as fast as we could for 60-90 seconds, depending. I normally have a pace of about 6-7mph. When we'd kick it up, I'd go about 9.5mph-12mph, depending. It really got my heart rate going. I hope it pays off!





New measurements....



So my trainer took my measurements today. Below you'll see my measurements from my first ones in October then end of January, then today. Note that there aren't measurements from when I started on my own that first month in September when I lost 30 pounds as I didn't take my measurements.




That's a loss of 14.5". My thighs are getting bigger. Hopefully due to muscle!