Marathon 15 was a success.

The marathon/training run went very well.  I got up at 3 a.m., ate my food, had my coffee and then headed out for my first 10 miles for the day.  Right after I finished my 10 miler I went over to the starting line to wait for the official start.  There were around 180 something people running the marathon and a multitude were participating in the half-marathon and half-ironman distance triathlon.

I paced very well throughout.  I did a 4:1 run/walk ratio with 10 minute miles for running portions and easy walking for the walking portions.  This was very manageable for the 36 mile distance.  I finished the marathon in 4:34 and my pace for the entire 36 miles was in the mid 10’s.  I was very pleased.  I ate about 300 calories per hour, took 3 electrolyte tablets per hour, and drank around 21 ounces of wate per hour.  This intake allowed me to do the last 2 miles at a 7:11 pace.

It was in the mid 80’s temperature wise when I finished.  THe heat did not bother me much although I could “feel” it. HAHAHAHAHA  After the marathon my sister and I went to the town of Bend and went shopping for a couple of hours before hitting the couch to watch movies and eat for the rest of the evening.  It was a wonderful weekend and the marathon organization and course were just perfect.  I would recommend this as a destination marathon for anyone interested.  Great race.

I will be skipping my WW meeting because my mom has had her hip replaced and I am going to go visit her in the hospital instead.

Gaining weight, WW, and …………

Enjoying the first fire in our new fire pit. Chowing some watermelon.

I am doing great and I am doing bad and I am doing ok.  In general I have been doing great.  I have been having a great time with my wife over the past month doing fun things.  I had a horrible time at work for awhile as I crept up onto a huge audit that I was going to have at the end of may.  Now it’s over and I ACED the audit without any problems and got a very very high score.    I have been doing really well at my running too until this weekend that is.  My training is going on as intended and I have been improving nicely.  I have been enjoying it a lot too.

WHAT ABOUT WEIGHT WATCHERS!!!

I don’t want to be honest. 🙂  I don’t want to tell it like it is. 🙂  I have to thought because you guys are cool.  I have to because I am going to weigh-in tomorrow regardless of what I want.

I swear I have probably had the hardest stretch of time on Weight Watchers in the last month.  It has been more difficult than any other stretch of time since I started program on December 13th, 2007.  I am not lying either.  Not even one day has been as hard or bad as the last month.  I just have not been doing that well with my eating and planning.  THE PROBLEM IS THAT I HAVE STILL BEEN LOSING WEIGHT AT EVERY WEIGH-IN THAT I GO TO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  At first I thought that this was great but in reality it is not.  Not in my opinion at least.  Why?  Because to be doing not so good on program and still be losing weight is a sub-conscious license to keep doing not so good.  Permission to eat junk.  Permission to not count because “it’s working”!  I know for a fact that it is going to catch up with me.  I know for a fact that it is going to bring a significant gain at the scale.  It might even be this week I don’t know.

I DON’T LIKE IT ANYWAY!

I don’t like how not doing so good on Weight Watchers makes me feel.  I feel more tired.  I feel more guilty.  I feel more nervous about failing in the journey.  I feel more helpless against the fat mind.  I feel like I am not healthy anymore.  I am still very healthy of course but I am walking the line.  I need to step away from the line.  I don’t even want to see the line in fact.  I want the line to be so far away that it and it’s danger non-existent to me.

I never weigh at home but this morning I did.  I weighed 190.  That was without clothes.  This was very discouraging.  This was very enlightening.  This was reality.  This was fact that disolved the deceptive power of my justifications to not do so well on program.

Basically I feel like pooooooooo about how I have been eating since the 40 miler.  I know I will get back on track (Starting today) but I still don’t like how it has been going.

Having an up hill battle!!

I feel like my eating is a constant up hill climb lately.  Not that I have been eating horribly but I have just had such a hard time getting going with my WW counting.  Since I am a bit gung ho about the things I do, I have been more focused on the landscaping than the eating.  This is not such a bad thing though, it is good to get the obsession of my mind off of food and dieting for a while.  I think it is part of a healthy balance in life but it is also scary at the same time.  I don’t like it I guess. 

So I eat great at work and I go home on Mondays to work in the yard.  It get a lot done but by the time I go in it is to late to really do a full dinner so I have to eat something quick.  Then I go to bed.  Maybe it is because I am not doing my normal little routine I don’t know.  All I do know is that I hope I do ok at my weigh in this week by staying within my 180-185 range.    I would be happy with that.  I know that I have not been eating that great when I come to weigh-in not knowing what the results will be.  It is just a guess which my means I have been guessing with my points to much also. HAHAH

I am sooo sore!

My neck, back, arms, legs, everything is just sore.  Since Saturday I have been sore.  I moved all of the flagstone and put it in place.  I have not “planted” it but I had a friend there to help me lift them on to a wheel barrow.  These were some very heavy pieces.  That was on Saturday.  On Friday I had a speed work out that when great but left me a bit sore on Saturday morning before I moved the stone.  I worked my legs a lot pushing the stone in the cart.  Then on Sunday I had a long run of 15 miles at race pace which furthered my soreness.  Now Monday and Tuesday come and I am still sore. HAHA  Guess I have been working hard.

Weigh-in results and last night’s biggest loser

100 lbs of fat Image credit: mypetfat.typepad.com

One hundred and twenty four pounds.  That is my weight loss since I started weight watchers.  I gained 3 pounds since my last meeting two weeks ago.  I was hoping to not gain more than 3 pounds so I hit exactly where I thought I would on the scale.  Of course I hate to gain but when I am in maintenance I have to gain because you just never stay the same every week.  Still don’t like it though.  The meeting was about points values for certain things and what we can have that would be more filling.  Pretty good meeting overall.  I did not feel too guilty about the gain. 

As usual, I went to my sisters to watch the biggest loser.  I was disappointed in the make-over episode.  Usually it is very awesome and emotional but this time it just didn’t touch me like normal.  They did look wonderful.  Tara is going to be a skinny Minni at the finale.  I liked Ron without the beard.  I got all paranoid about hurting my leg bones after watching how Laura hurt her hip.  I got afraid that I would mess myself up running these ultra-marathons but I guess if I do I will just have to stop doing them.  As for now I will just train properly and wisely to ensure a reduction in injury risk. 

I stand firm on who I like still.  I want Kristen or Mike to win it. 

Come back later to read my post on my struggle and issue regarding my goal weight.  I need your advice I just don’t have time to do the post right now.  It will be up around 1 am pacific time.

My weigh-in results and a botched fire pit job!!

As most of you know, yesterday was my day to weigh-in at weight watchers.  I didn’t want to go but I remembered what happened the last time I did not go to my meeting.  I compromised with myself and decided to go the meeting and just weigh-in but not stay.  I wanted to get home to work on my fire pit area really really bad.  I also did not watch the biggest loser this week.

Anyways, I went to my meeting hoping that I would at least stay the same since I have not been real great on program as far as counting goes but I have been eating healthy foods and exercising in significant amounts.  I stepped on the scale and it read 181.4 lbs.  I lost 3 pounds since my last weigh-in.  I was shocked, happy, and in a bit of disbelief.   Maybe I did good or maybe the scale was messed up.  HAHAHA.  Who knows!

After the weigh-in I went home to build the fire pit.  This was fun for me but somehow my 5 foot wide pit ended up only being 2 feet wide when I was finished.  Now I am going to dig it completely up and redo it all.  I wanted it to be 4 feet wide on the inside of the fire pit.  This made me extremely disappointed and overwhelmed with the amount of work I did and would have to do to redo it.  So I am pissed about my fire pit situation right now.  I am just glad that one day I will be sitting there enjoying the fruits of my labor without remembrance of putting it in and then digging it up.  Here are some pictures of the present fire pit before I dig it up.

This is the finished product and now I am digging it all up

Weigh-in results and Biggest loser talk. Biggest loser top pics.

Bwaaaaa hahahahaha!!  OOOHh oh hohoh heheheheh!  I can’t believe it.  I stayed exactly the same.  184.4 pounds on the WW scale.  What a freakin relief.  Although I was ready for any type of result, I was so happy to see that no gain had occurred over this last two weeks of weight watchers mania.  Since last Tuesday, I have been very very naughty.  I did great for 4 days and did horribly for 3 days.  That usually does not add up to a good weigh-in. 

Last Tuesday my fat mind went on auto-pilot and I ate 4 donuts, 3 peperoni’s, and a bag of chips before dinner.  I skipped my meeting on that day.  Bad idea I guess.  So I got back on track but had to go to Sunriver, Oregon for my mom’s B-day over the weekend.  My stupid WW points calculator broke down and went kuput!!  I just gave up on counting points for the rest of the weekend.  I went skiing.  At the lodge I ate the “NACHOS GRANDE” and it probably weighed like 3 pounds.  It was huuuuuge.  I almost finished it all.  I got home from skiing and ran my booty off with a full stomach for 7.5 miles or so.  Then I ate dinner and topped it off with large amounts of chips, cookies and strawberry shortcake.  Now you can see why I feel that this is a miracle of God to stay the same.  I did good on Monday and Tuesday without my points calculator.  I just did core for those two days.  Not proud of my giving up.  I guess my running save me by the skin of my chinny chin chin.  At my meetings I bought a new points calculator and a points clicker.  I am back running smooth on program now.  Feels good to be home because on program now feels like home to me. 

BIGGEST LOSER TALK TIME

Last night’s show was somewhat unemotional for me.  Just was not moved by it like I normally am.  I think it is Tara.  Although she is a fighter and a woman of strength, I just can’t stand her attitude sometimes.  She is so competitive that she tends to talk bad about other contestants and she has no respect for her teammate.  This disappoints me and I was upset that she won the challenge.  I just didn’t want the mean person to win and she is the mean person on the show right now in my opinion.  Everyone on the show is really starting to show results now.  It is funny how at some point in the show they just tend to have a vastly different physical appearance.  It all happens at once it seems like.

As far as who got voted off, I think I would have voted Philpe off.  I love that dude too but he is more of a threat but it appears that he has some “issues” at home that we don’t know about considering what his cousin said while he was begging to keep him on the ranch.  Aubrey has her work cut out for her to be sure but she will make it to her goal regardless.

Who do I want to win the show?

I have two favorites on the show.  I would love either of them to win.  They are Kristen (the girl who has now lost 105 lbs) and Mike.  These two display the utmost courage and compassion.  They seem to have their hearts in the right place and that is why I want them to win.

Who do you guys want to see win?

Another biggest loser episode and my weigh-in results

Well, well, well; today is a new day isn’t it.  Today I move on with the rest of my life.  I am going to be healthy today.  As you all know, I had my weight watchers weigh-in last night.  The meeting was great and we talked about being active and had a good old time laughing it up.  It really is a fun meeting to go to.  After looking over my stats for the week you all voted on whether I would lose weight or not.  You can see the pole here.  You can also see the results from previous weigh-ins here, here, and here. 

I lost exactly 1 pound this week.  I went from 185.4 to 184.4.  I was relieved and happy to see a loss.  It just goes to show me that how I feel does not necessarily accurately determine what my weigh-in results will be.  I have felt nice and thin and empty, but then gained.  And like last night, I felt bloated and fat but I lost.  Go figure eh?  So there you have it.

To stay in the loop on my weigh-in results and the biggest loser show, subscribe to my blog here.

The biggest loser last night was interesting to say the least.  With my new perspective of the show after the Bane of Dane has changed how I watch it.  I seem to see areas where they script it and it is not real.  Like when the cousins yelled at Jillian and then went to the gym alone.  OMG, Bob just happened to be standing in the gym by himself.  Now why would that be.  His blue team wasn’t there, he was in regular like clothes.  I don’t trust the show like I did before the marathon scandal.  I still love it though.  I was sorely disappointed that the blue team lost the weigh-in.  I am really tired of the boastful attitude of the black team when they win challenges.  There is just no need for that kind of celebration in front of the losing team.  There is no honor in that.  Also I did not like how the Philippe made the excuse for not losing much weight on Jillian.  He has been there for some time now and I don’t think he can make the excuse that he does not know what he needs to do to lose weight.  He also didn’t blame one thing on himself in regards to eating and drinking on their night of luxury.  It was a good show and I will be back next week for more.

Ya’ll have a great day now ya hear.  I’m fixin to get back to work. (For all Texas people. HHAHAHAHAA)

Weight watchers meeting tonight. What will happen? Put in your vote!!

Me after running in the snow/freezing rain

I have to admit that I am worried about my weigh-in yet again.  I made the gigantic mistake of weighing myself last night and I was back up two lbs and that was when I was naked.  I never weigh myself at home for this specific reason but I have started to monitor my body fat %.  I usually close my eyes or just not consider the weight but this time I did.

I am going to tell you what I did for this week and they you get to predict what will happen tonight using the poll.  Just take a gander at my weekly over-view and put in your vote.

 

• I ate all of my daily maintenance points (35 per day)
• I ate all of my weekly points
• Here is what my daily intakes were:  Wed- 40 pts. Thur- 46 pts., Fri- 35 pts., Sat- 50 pts., Sun- 45 pts., Mon- 35 pts., and today I have eaten 20 points.
• I earned 54 activity points and have 48 left over (approximately 4800 calories)
• I ran for a total of 7 hours and 47 minutes.
• I burned 5,758 calories

So there you have it.  That is my intake and exercise for the week.  Now it is time to leave your vote.  I will let you know what happens of course some time tomorrow.

Biggest loser and my weigh-in last night

Last nights weigh-in was a good one.  I did my normal routine: Weigh-in, dinner, and then biggest loser.  I love my little WI day routine.  I have done it now for over two years straight.  I take joy and comfort in the routines of life.

For this WW week, I ate all my daily maintenance points (35 per day), all my weekly 35 points (5 per day), and about 15 of my activity points leaving me with a points deficit of 40-45 points.  This brought me to a two pound loss for my weigh-in.  I am back down to 185.2 lbs.  The same weight I was two weeks ago.  HAHAHA . At least I know that WW and my efforts work right.  Don’t do the plan and gain, do the plan and lose.  That is how it works. Last week I did not count as well therefore had a gain of 2 lbs.

All was well yesterday but I almost lost it.

The weekend ended up a good one.  I had a wonderful time skiing, hanging out with my wife, and running my 25 mile long run.  I was happy with that.  I had a very difficult time control my eating yesterday though.  I counted all my food pretty good but estimated quite a bit too though.  I am hoping that I did alright as far as calories in and calories out. 

I know I ran 25 miles and during that run I burned like 2800 calories, but I also ate quite a few points while I ran.  No perfectly sure how to deal with the fuel that I eat during the run.  I used to never count it but it seems that I have to be more and more precise the longer I am on maintenance.  I don’t like that part about it.  Maintenance is a lot harder for me compared to trying to lose the weight. I think it is in my mind because I feel that I have so much more room to fudge and eat more without counting.  Then I get everyone telling me that I just ran so much that I can eat whatever I want.  It is all a bit confusing.  I just hope that I do well at my weigh in this Tuesday.

Pictorial post: Long run, skiing, and my beautiful weekend

I had a great weekend.  The whole company had Saturday off so I did too.  This never happens and I am so thankful for it.  I had a great weekend.  I have been doing great so far on my eating and exercising.  I brought all my food with me to our ski trip and counted everything perfectly.  I did have some m&m’s last night but I counted them all up.  We stayed at the mountain pretty much until our lift tickets expirered.  What a beautiful day it was and I got so much activity in.

I did a 25 mile long run this morning.  I did very well and had no problems finishing the run at all.  Even after a day of skiing I was able to finish great.  I am looking forward to two days off of exercise.  I am going to post pictures of my weekend.  So enjoy.

 

Here I am at mile 14 as Audrey joins in on my run with me.

 

This is the typical view I have during runs on this running route. Beautiful outdoor concert seating and Mt. St. Helens in the background

View from parking lot just before opening. The lift that you see just a little left in the picture is the one we when on the most.

 

On the first run of the day the snow was perfect, the sun was out, and my wife was in full force with the cam

 

 

The former fat man himself. HAHAHAHA

It just wouldn't be much fun without my LOVE :). She is the best part about going skiing. I fall in love with her a new every time I see her coming down the mountain.

Weight watchers weigh-in results, biggest loser, and I’m doing fine.

So last night I weighed-in.  I just stepped on that scale with bravery and courage.  But when I saw a 2.2 lb gain my heart sunk a little.  I figured I would gain and I knew that there was a possibility of gaining back the three pounds that I had lost, but I was still in denial.  Now I don’t think that I actually gained 2 pounds of fat but nevertheless, I gained.  I took it pretty hard for about 10 minutes until my WW leader started the meeting and made me laugh.  Then I popped out of my little funk and said, “Oh well, it is what it is.  There is no changing that number right now so I will move on with my life.  I know what I need to do”.  The best part of about this gain is that I know why I gained and it is no where near being a mystery.  That means it is easily remedied.  Amen to that.  I weigh 187.2 again.

Stay updated on my weigh-ins every week by subscribing to my blog.  You can subscribe via email or feed.

I still did not count my point yesterday but this week is a new week.  I did not eat bad food at all but I just did not count and not counting is a bad habit to get into.  I am right back to counting and journaling today.  It’s not hard to count and journal, it is just that I have to make myself do it.  The old way of life tells me I don’t need to but the new me says I will and I have to in order to keep the weight off.  I am thankful for my WW meeting as it is a great source of help and strength whether I am gaining or losing.  Going to meetings is essential for me.

Results to last night’s weigh in!!

It is amazing (and sick) how much the numbers on a scale make a difference in how I feel.  Last night was my weigh in.  I know that so many of the WW members at the meeting think I am crazy because to them it seems like I shouldn’t even be there.  This is a new meeting for me so none of these people saw me when I was heavy.  If they only knew.  They actually don’t really even listen to anything I say because to them it is coming from a skinny guy who wants to lose 7 more lbs.  HAHAHA  So far from the truth eh?  So how did my weigh in go you ask?

Weight loss at last! This week’s weigh in.

I almost got kicked out of Weight Watchers yesterday.  I talked to the leader when my meeting was over to ask for her advice on how I should proceed with my program to lose weight.  She saw that my doctors goal was 210 pounds and she had a small panic attack.  She told me that I was not allowed to be more tha 5 lbs under my doctors goal.  I found this amusing.  I ended up losing one pound last night and was relieved to finally get a loss.  Here is what she recommend that I do:

One more thing that got me down

I watched the show last night.  After my weigh-in I sat there and pigged out on these bready chip things and watched the show.  I was feeling like poop from my gain.  Yes, I ate because I was mad about it and I gave in to the thought that I will start tomorrow.  I probably didn’t even gain because I was doing bad but who knows.  During the show there was a point where a sister who was at home weighed in and lost only 2 lbs.  She started talking about gaining muscle, being stronger, working hard, etc.  The trainers blasted her for making excuses.  They basically went on to say that it was bull s… that she was saying that stuff because 2 lbs is 2 lbs and that is all the fat that she lost.  Nothing else.

Well, this really crushed me in a way.  At this point I was trying to tell myself that I had retained water because I usually don’t lose ever when I have a long hard run.  I had my own thoughts on why I gained even though I was doing everything right.  So this comment by the trainers really hurt my feelings or hit home.  Not sure exactly which one.  Maybe I am just making excuses and maybe I am really not doing my program very well.  Maybe not.  Oh well.  BYE BYE NOW.

Weigh-in: Not a very positive post. Sorry!

I am feeling a bit depressed today.  Not horribly, but I am confused and frustrated with my weigh-in results.  I gained 3.2 lbs this week.  I weigh 188.2 now.  My goal is to stay below 185.  Last week my weigh-in was canceled and the week before that I also had a gain.  So in the last several weeksI think I have gained like 5 lbs or so.  This really pisses me off.  I reset all my info. on my WW online tracker so that my week would be new.  Today is the first day of my WW week now.  Here is what I “think” I have been doing for the last three weeks:

Agonizing Sunday: Difficult long run but some goooood eatin’

I had an agonizingly difficult long run on Sunday.  I really had to battle it out within my mind to get the job done.  At mile 2 my legs began to feel sore again so I had to go another 21 miles with the thought, “I can’t believe I have to go for so long on sore legs.  Man I have a ways to go!!”  That is par for the course though.  This is what long runs are for in the first place.  They get you out there to train your muscles AND mind.  These runs are supposed to mentally tax you a little.  I made it all 23 miles though and was happy to be finished.  I hit 23 miles at the end of my road that leads to my house and had a nice 1/2 mile walk home.

The week is over now and I want to put my intake and output on the blog today.  I ate all my daily points, all my 35 extra points, and all but about 20 or so of my activity points.  I earned 69 activity points all together for the week and 36 of those I earned yesterday during my long run.  So guess what that meant?  Goooood eatin’ for Sunday afternoon.  I went out to eat at the place that I will post about later this week.  I had the same thing and it was good.  I enjoyed it thoroughly.  Later on in the day I got a personal sized bag of the salt and pepper chips to share with my wife and pumpkin bread thing from Starbucks.  It was all pretty good but my stomach felt upset by the time I went to bed.  To much rich food I guess. 

On the grand scheme of things I did well this week again.  I should hopefully lose a litte on my weigh-in Tuesday.  I have not weighed for two weeks now so I am looking forward to seeing what happens.  I also may do a marathon this Sunday at this park that is about an hour away.  It is a laid back marathon with around 50 participants at the most.  They are usually pretty fun though.

Hear more about my agonizing long runs and weight loss blunders by subscribing HERE

Next week, Coming right up!

Image credit: photos.anthonyordille.org

As this week comes to an end, I am feeling tired.  Just plain tired.  Not to bad, but pretty good.  I appreciate all of your support so much.  You are all so kind to comment on my dorky posts.  Ya’ll are great.  I have tried to plan a pretty good week for us next week.  Remember, it will be a contest week all week.  You will need to submit you contest idea HERE, in the comment section of the contest post.    So in just over a week we will have a winner who gets a nice writting journal to use for whatever purpose they want to.  Below you will find what dorky things you get to look forward too.

• Monday you get to see pics. of me in my eight grade graduation shirt. HAHAHA
• Tuesday we will talk about never cheating on our weight loss program again!!
• Wednesday is a special session on dealing with the loooooooooong road ahead.
• Thursday I testify to how I survived an unplanned dinner invitation.
• Friday I am going to share 7 weird things about me.  I was inspired by another great blogger with this idea.

Hope to see you all.  Be there or be square. HAHA.  Have a great week on your journey.

Last nights weigh-in and the biggest loser

Unfortunately, my weigh-in was cancelled last night.  We had some snow yesterday and I guess that is why.  I went to the meeting and all the lights were off and nobody was around.  Bummer.  It was ok though, although the first thought that went into my mind was “Ewh, now I can go get kettle chips.”  I didn’t, it was a very short lived thought that I put out of my mind very quickly. 

I just went home and cooked dinner.  My wifeworks late on Tuesday so I like to try and make dinner for her on that night.  I cooked Tilapia, cheesy broccoli, sweet potatoes, and some rice for her.  She always appreciates it I think and I enjoy doing it.  It was a nice evening.

Get more biggest loser and my own weigh in updates by subscribing!! 

I also got to watch the biggest loser.  I am a week behind because I don’t have TV.  We either buy it on itunes or go to my moms/sisters house.  Last night we bought it.  I just love that show.  It always makes me feel so good.  I love to see them do far more than they thought they were capable of because that is what we all can do.  Anyways, I was surprised to see the guy get voted off and not the lady.  They all dislike the lady so much but I can see that the guy at this point in the show is a far bigger threat to them.  I was interesting.

Pretty good week last week. Hope to have another

I ended up with about 30 something activity points left over.  That should mean a small loss at the scale on Tuesday.  I have decided that I don’t care that much about losing weight for the 40 miler.  I hope too, but if I don’t and end up only maintaining, that is fine with me.  I really feel good about last week.  I had a lot of temptations that I overcame and I really did good on my points.  I hope to do it again this week. 

I started my new running program yesterday.  I did a 15 mile run in the snow at a little faster pace.  The faster pace sure makes it harder though, that is for sure.  I kept the walk breaks.  I love those.  There were so many really steep hills on this run and the steepest of all of them was at the end of the run.  I had to walk up that one.  That alright though.

On a side note, my lunch weighed 5 lbs on Friday.  I forgot to post about it.  I thought that that was interesting.  See you guys later and have a great day.