Working on the weight

20. February 2013 · Write a comment · Categories: contest, weight, work

Today I headed to the gym at the office to get in a weigh in for the five pounds in six weeks contest at work. I started at more than I really weighed, but at a known amount. Today was four weeks in and I decided I needed a good weigh in. So far, I am down eight pounds, only needing five total. A few tricks used include weighing in after a tough run at the gym. I ran four and a half miles on the treadmill this morning. I was soaked in the way home, then didn’t eat before weighing in. I was very pleased, considering we have another two weeks until the final weigh in for our team.

As team captain, I sent a quick email to my team today, urging them to weigh in at the most opportune time for them next week. I will likely weigh in on Wednesday morning, after all a fantastic workout and little water. It should be an easy weigh in after that. Then, it’ll be time for a fantastic breakfast!

Biggest Winner – Year 2

18. February 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: cycling, weight

On Monday, my company’s Biggest Winner contest kicked off. What this means is six weeks of tracking everything I eat and every bit of exercise. I’m on a team with three gals that I haven’t met, so I’m really in this myself. As I said previously, I am now weighing myself daily, tracking weight, body fat and so on. The results have been interesting but not overly so in the past 16 days. I have peaks of weight, swinging by as much as 5 pounds from my low, but mostly staying within a pound or two daily. My goal for this year’s Biggest Winner contest is to drop my body fat percentage down from the current high 20’s to at least the mid 20‘s. BMI will, of course, follow the downward movement.

As far as activity goes, I have been doing nothing but shoveling and spinning. Lots of shoveling and twice a week spinning. Today’s spinning was one of my favorites classes, and the second time we did a 10 lap repeat. 90 seconds of position 1 to 2 jumps, 30 seconds of speed work, followed by 90 seconds of a hard hill climb in position 3. Repeat for a total of 10 laps. It is both fun and totally exhausting. At the end, my legs were spent.

This weekend, I am also purchasing bike shoes that clip into the pedals of the spin bikes. This is not a significant cash outlay, but from what everyone has told me, will be well worth the efficiency increases and decreased knee pressure during the intense spin classes. This means that I will also need to change out the pedals on my actual bike, but will wait to do that until after the weather warms up and I get out there riding for real.

So with the huge snow piles on every corner and the melting snow on every trail, you’ll find me inside at one of my two gyms somewhere between the cycling studio and the row of treadmills.

A new view of myself

07. February 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: weight

Last weekend, I bought my first scale ever. I have always counted on sneaking in a view of my weight in the locker room at work, the one in the hall near the gym, or the scary views at the occasional visits to the doctor’s office. None are consistent and except for the one in the locker room, none allow myself to take that true, naked weight.

I purchased a Conair brand Weight Watcher’s WW52 model on sale at Target. Not only do I get weight, but it adds pounds of body fat, calculates body fat percentage, bone density, pounds of body water, and finally, the dreaded BMI. Of course, I had to set up my age and height so it could perform the appropriate calculations. There is room for four profiles but is likely I’ll be the only one to set myself up for regular calculations. The scale is set up in the basement bathroom, the one used for my daily showers and prep, and the one with ceramic tile to provide a nice and level platform for consistent daily measurements.

After setting up my profile, I have been weighing myself daily and recording each of the available metrics shown. While I won’t keep this daily ritual up for long, it allows me to look at the variables to see if time of day or other items make a difference to get accurate readings. Over the first week, I don’t have many findings, but the initial readings have shown that my weight can vary by as much as 1.5 pounds during the day (morning and afternoon measurements today). It will be interesting to see what I can learn after the full 28 days of February.

Apparently, I’ve been busy…

19. December 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: running, vacation, weight
So, I haven’t posted in a long while. I have been blogging on my running blog (http://neversitstill.com), but that is mostly about the running I have done in the past year. As a very high level review, I completed two half marathons. They were completed within 5 weeks of each other, and all of the training was by myself on the back roads of northern Connecticut – plus a couple of runs at the gym at work.Speaking of work – it’s been a difficult year, but the year is almost done with a single day of work standing between me and the new year. I am taking the longest break from work I have ever taken, but feel that it is both deserved and very much needed. I’ll mostly be offline for the duration, although will be trying to keep up my blogs and email while offline. Work, however, will not be touched for the entire break other than during one of the trips and only to break up the drive (and of course, when I am NOT driving!).

One other event that happened this year was that I lost 25 lbs between August and October. While the majority of that was due to cranking up my distance, but also watching what I was eating thanks to my wife following the biggest loser quick start diet for dinners. There were a number of really delicious meals, so it has expanded our array of meal choices while reducing our waistlines!