aidanpryde

Hey everyone, I am back again and this time I am about ready to cry. I did pretty well all summer. I did a new record bike ride of 72 miles, ran a 5k and did a couple of adventure races, but then October struck. Oh god what a shitty month. I'm a federal employee and I got furloughed throughout the shutdown. I took this as an opportunity to stay up all night, eat a bunch of crappy food and generally suck at life. I'm to the point now that hardly any of my clothes fit. I went out shopping tonight and found that I am perfectly between sizes. XL stuff was tight around my stomach and XXL stuff is still a trashbag on me. I realized that I have two choices. I can give up and gain another 20 lbs. or I can get myself in gear and drop the weight I need to so that I can fit back into my closet. Since I'm not going to give up any more of my hard-fought weight loss, I figured I would see what you all are up to. Call it serendipity but I'm just in time for a new challenge to start. Thanks for reading this vent. I'll see y'all in the challenge. Hopefully I can lose 10-15 lbs so that my clothes will fit again. I'll post my challenge thread tomorrow since I like to weigh in and take measurements on Fridays. Later, Aidan

Sorry for the lateness, but I had a pretty alcohol soaked weekend and I wanted to let myself flush that from my system before weighing and measuring. It was another good week besides that though. Here are the numbers. Starting Numbers Current Weight: 230.2 Total Measure: 202.45 BF%: 32 Week 2 Current Weight: 227.4 -2.8 lbs. Total Measure: 199.05 -3.4 in. BF%: 30.98 -1.02% Week 3 Current Weight: 224.0 -6.2 lbs. Total Measure: 198.95 -3.5 in. BF%: 31.32 -0.68% Lost 3.4 lbs. from last week. Measurements didn't really change and BF% went up a bit according to the calculator I use. I'm now just .8 from where I finished the last challenge. Hopefully I can lose the .8 by Monday so I'll have 2 weeks to make some forward progress.

Thanks 18ck. I'm having another good week so hopefully I'll have more good news next Monday as well. I found a good solution for a cheap, keto lunch that I have been eating and it has helped a lot with cravings during the day. It also allows me to eat dinner with my non-keto wife without worrying too much about macros. I Haven't been exercising enough this week, but I have been doing my home routine to make sure I don't lose my gains.

Well, It was a good week this week. I believe that I did 5 days worth of some excercise, four of which were either HIIT on the bike or a dumbbell complex. Starting Numbers Current Weight: 230.2 Total Measure: 202.45 BF%: 32 Today Current Weight: 227.4 -2.8 lbs. Total Measure: 199.05 -3.4 in. BF%: 30.98 -1.02% On to the next week, Good luck everyone!

Thanks, I just get really frustrated. I've been stuck at ~230 for a couple of years now. I just can't quite clear the hurdle. I've gotten as low as 215 but I just can't hold onto the loss. I think this is the hardest part of weight loss. When I was 315 and the numbers just started flying off, it was all gravy. Now, 85 lbs. later, I don't think about them much, I focus on the 30 that I still need to lose. Thinking of it like that, 5 lbs. a month and I'm good by August.

Well, I went on vacation a couple of weeks ago to visit my dad and I am back. I didn't practice any control for the entire two weeks that I was gone and so I have erased most of the gains that I made on the last 6 week challenge. Current Weight: 230.2 Total Measure: 202.45 BF%: 32 My goals for the next five weeks are: Weight: 220 Diet: I want to practice keto as much as possible given my budget limitations. I will not have carbs for breakfast or lunch and try to minimize the amount that I eat at dinner. Most days will be protein shakes for lunch. Exercise: I want to do some form of exercise every day. Worst case scenario, I want to do a couple of sets of pushups and planks in the evenings. I have been doing HIIT on the stationary bike and my dumbbell complex at work at lunch for most of my exercise. Personal Goal: Paying off debt is still my overarching goal right now. We just had another good month so I am on track with this, I just need to continue to control my spending, especially frivolous purchases.

Well, I went on vacation a couple of weeks ago to visit my dad and I am back. I didn't practice any control for the entire two weeks that I was gone and so I have erased most of the gains that I made on the last 6 week challenge. Current Weight: 230.2 Total Measure: 202.45 BF%: 32 My goals for the next five weeks are: Weight: 220 Diet: I want to practice keto as much as possible given my budget limitations. I will not have carbs for breakfast or lunch and try to minimize the amount that I eat at dinner. Most days will be protein shakes for lunch. Exercise: I want to do some form of exercise every day. Worst case scenario, I want to do a couple of sets of pushups and planks in the evenings. I have been doing HIIT on the stationary bike and my dumbbell complex at work at lunch for most of my exercise. Personal Goal: Paying off debt is still my overarching goal right now. We just had another good month so I am on track with this, I just need to continue to control my spending, especially frivolous purchases.

Week 5 Check In Another good week in Aidan-land. I didn't do much in the way of exercise this week. I was busy and tired most of the week and it just slipped to the back of my mind. I started this week off well though, I did my upper body complex and followed it up with a HIIT sprint on the stationary bike. I was going to do the sprints on the treadmill but I seem to have broken it. I was running along, completed my first sprint, then when I went to start my second sprint the treadmill went haywire. It would speed up and slow down on its own. Eventually it just stopped and an error message came up on the readout. I guess I'm just too powerful for that treadmill Weigh-in this week was excellent. I weighed in at 223.4 which is a 2 lb. loss from last week. I am now in the range that I wanted to be at the end of this challenge. As long as I don't screw up majorly, I will be happy about my progress. Measurements went down again this week. I lost an inch overall. I lost 1/4 in. in some places but the big drop was 1/2 in. from my chest. The budget has been going well, we are in the process of moving our checking accounts to a credit union. Our previous bank decided to get cute with their service charges so we moved to a local place that actually pays a decent amount of interest on a checking account. Double win. Also, we just got our refund back and that it going straight toward our credit cards. This challenge has been perfect as far as my life goal is concerned. This is going to be a short week for me, I think. I am going down to Florida to visit my Dad for 10 days. I leave on Saturday and I'm not 100% sure he has a scale. I am going to weigh-in Saturday morning before I leave and use that as my final weigh-in. Good luck everyone, Billy

I know the feeling.

No, it's a character from the Battletech series of Sci-Fi. That series basically consumed my teenage years and he was always my favorite character. He fought tooth and nail for every inch of progress and recognition he received. He failed and redeemed himself a number of times but in the end he was a hero that would be remembered forever for his sacrifice. It's a pretty common archetype but his story was the first one that really connected for me. I would recommend picking it up and reading it, you can pick up the first book "Way of the Clans" on half.com for 75 cents plus shipping.If you like it, the other books are Bloodname and Falcon Guard. Both also 75 cents on Half.com.

Thanks for that, 220 is getting away from me a little bit, but if I would much prefer to build muscle and lose weight at the same time than have inflated weight loss numbers because I'm losing muscle and fat at the same time.

Really late for my check-in, but here it is. I had a really good week last week. I hit all of my exercise objectives, and we finished our first month of the budget right on target! I ate well for the most part. I had one cheat day early in the week and I had to fight to make up for it the rest of the week. I did a lot better on the weekend than I have in previous weeks though, which allowed me to post a weight loss this week. Starting Weight: 236.4 Last Week: 226.2 This Week: 225.4 Lost .8 lbs. from last week and 11 lbs. since the beginning of the challenge. My measurement total stayed the same, but I lost some in my waist and hips, but gained a little in my chest to even it out. I think the upper body work is having some effect. It seems like I'm doing a bit of recomping. That sucks when I get on the scale, but it's nice when I look at the measurements. Two more weeks, Billy

Haha, That would have been great. Thankfully though, I did well. I had a bowl of chili, a hot dog, some pop chips and a small piece of cake. I know it is still more than I would eat on a regular day, but before I would have at least doubled that, so I take it as a win.

Ya, we got our W-2s and such pretty quickly this year, and my step-father is an accountant so he does our taxes for us. Of course, I provide a lot of his home tech support so it's pretty equitable. Ya, thankfully it was just the forum that I slacked off about. I did have a binge night in the middle of the week, but I think I can overcome it. I did pretty well with eating tonight so I just have to make it through the Super Bowl tomorrow and I should be home free.

Wow, this week really got away from me forum-wise. I was pretty busy at work this week, but I have been able to get 2 runs in anyways. I am almost able to run at a 5 mph run the whole way through, but the sprints to evade zombies still knock me out. I only needed 1 90sec. break during my last run. I haven't been doing my dumbbell complexes but I have done two nights of pushups and planks to get some upper-body work in. My goal now is to eat well this weekend. After the last two, I'd like to finish a week strong by not overdoing it with alcohol and fast food.

Nice job. In addition to weighing myself, I measure weekly as well. I have been in your shoes where the weight isn't really moving but the inches are dropping. The scale is definitely a liar sometimes. Congrats as well on the two-mile accomplishment. It's cool how quickly the distance increases. Once the strength is there, the biggest part of it is learning to read your body and know when you are pushing too hard. I've always thought that if you can run a mile straight, you can run a 5k, at that point it's all mental.

Check in time boys and girls, Goal 1: I finally put in the buds and went for a Z,R run this week. In the end I did 2 Missions. I've been doing some in Accelerometer mode on the treadmill. It is nice to knock them out at lunch and have my evenings free. Especially on the cold nights. Once spring comes around, I will try to run outside more. A Goal 2: I have fully switched from CC to dumbbell complexes. I ended up doing two upper-body complexes last week. I am going to try to do another full-body complex this week since my muscles have loosened up from running. B Goal 3: I did well again during the weekdays, but my wife and I just seem to find ourselves watching a band in a bar every Saturday night. A few too many High Life's followed by some White Castle hangover cure was not great, but it was my only real cheat this week so I can't chide myself too much. B Life Goal: We are coming to the end of the month and the budget has held out pretty damn well. I'm very happy since it looks like we'll be right on target for the amount that we want to pay off every month. On top of that, we got our tax info pretty quickly this year so out refund should be coming soon. A As far as the numbers go: Last week I weighed in at 227.6 This week's weigh-in is 226.2. I lost 1.4 lbs. 3 weeks to go and I need to lose 6.2 lbs. That will be a tough row to hoe, but as I said at my first weigh-in, anything under 225 is good, whatever weight I lose on top of that is a bonus. 222 is what I'm shooting for, we'll see how it goes. Billy

Dude, nice DL number. Way to pick things up and put them down!

Ya, Socratic Method acting never really translated well to Kung Fu films.

Ya, I agree. I guess I give him the benefit of the doubt though. When I'm in the middle of a run, my sentences tend to clip to the essential point and it can sound terse. I figure he was pushing himself and that's what came out. Later on, after the run is over, he's got more time and energy to clarify the statement. That's my justification at least. It is still one of my all-time favorite motivators though, especially for running, because it is so easy to just say "That's good enough, I think I'll stop now." My other favorite quote is attributed to Socrates. "What a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable."

Did my strength workout for the day. I'm working on creating an upper-body dumbbell complex since, at least for right now, the running is doing enough for strengthening my legs. I think have worked up a quick, simple complex. 5 rounds, 6 reps per round DB Bench Press Bentover Row Curl and OH Press in one move Not quite as fluid as other complexes because of switching positions, but I can definitely feel it in my upper body and my abs as well as being out of breath at the end. That's two days in a row of hitting my workout targets. I think this is going to be a good week.

Upp'ing reps is good, but after a certain point it becomes a case of diminishing returns. At some point(say 20 reps or so) it becomes a cardio workout moreso than a strength workout. If you can easily polish off 3 sets of 8-10 reps, I would add weight. Or if you are wanting to do body weight only, I would look into a progression workout where instead of regular squats, you work your way up to doing single-leg squats.

Congrats on doing so well with everything after coming off the flu! Milk is one of those borderline Paleo foods. Depending on who you ask it is either verboten, or ok in moderation. I liked the view that Mark's Daily Apple had on it. "As long as your body can process milk without any negative effects, it is ok to consume every once in a while." That's what I have gone with, because milk does not seem to cause me any issues.

How did the run go? I had a bit too much of the drink Saturday as well. Unfortunately, I didn't have the dancing exercise to balance it out like you did.

Way to go! As for the cold weather gear, you are right, it is a huge balancing act. My preference is to be a bit cold at first because once I start running my body heat gets trapped in the insulation and I'm good. Too much and I over heat. Keep trying different combos and you'll find what works for you.