Play it again, Crook…

3.5lbs again this week.  Total lost is 44lbs.  I was a little worried because I was very busy this week and only got to the gym 2 days.  Although, I made sure to maintain my healthy diet, so it was a nice surprise to see on weigh-in day!

My shins are doing better, so I was able to run both days I got to the gym, which was nice.

3.5lbs lost this week! So, I’m at 40.5lbs lost and into week 13 of my quest to drop all my excess weight. I think I’m getting close to when the weight loss is going to start tapering off (?) and I’ll start losing less per week. I thought it would be in the 240’s, but it hasn’t stopped yet and I’m at 245.5lbs so I guess we’ll see!

I had to modify my workout this week because my shins were starting to bother me from running so much. Not a big deal, I just worked hard on the eliptical and biked instead. There are a few things I can do to work on my shins (calf raises to start with) Once I hit the 230’s I will start incorporating weight training into my workouts and not focus exclusively on cardio. I wanted to focus on sheer weight loss until that point.

I’m changing up my workout days as well. I was working pretty much 4 days a week (sun/mon and weds/thurs). I’m going to start going Sun-Thurs and including Wednesdays going forward. That’ll give me a full 2 days off to rest and recoup (Fri/Sat).

Oh and one more thing - I decided to quit smoking. It doesn’t make sense to be doing something so unhealthy while at the same time working my ass off to lose weight. So, we’ll see how it goes. I’m taking Bupropion which RULES and completely removes the cravings. It’s only been a few days and it’s been fine so far.

4.5lbs this week (37lbs total lost)!  I usally spot check my weight during the week and I thought it was starting off slow, so this was a nice surprise!

Running was MUCH better this week.  I really pushed myself since I got through the “pain period” after about a week and a half.  The knee, hip, lower back and groin pain have all subsided.  I thought it might last longer, but thankfully it passed.  I just kept at it and made sure to focus on stretching those areas.

My workouts this week consisted of 1 mile runs to start with (Sunday-Tuesday) then bike 20 minutes, then I took Wednesday off to rest.  Thursday I pushed a 1 mile run, walked 2 laps, and then did 1 lap sprint / 1 lap rest (walk) until I hit 2 miles.  Then, I biked for 20 minutes.  I thought I would be dead tired after that, but I still had plenty of energy.  I have noticed that my heartrate is decreasing as I am getting more and more used to running.  This workout on Thursday, my avgHR was 138.

I hit another really big milestone this week, which was getting into the 240’s for weight (249 lbs) for the first time - and I can’t remember the last time I weighed that.  I’m guessing it was in the mid-1990’s.

I rest Friday and Saturday with no workouts.  I eat whatever I want on Friday nights (usually a high fat meal and some beer…hehe) to shock the system - which actually helps your metabolism out by ensuring it doesn’t go into a “starvation” mode if you aren’t getting enough calories during the week.

I’m down another 4lbs this week! So, that makes my total lost weight thus far 32.5lbs! I’m really running out of clothes. Even my winter coats are too big and looking a little clown-like…heh Although, I’m ok with that! Time to go shopping soon!

Running was much better by the end of the week. I was running 2 laps and walking 1 for 45 minutes (avg HR 144). So I ended up getting a couple miles in. Although, I’m not digging the corners of the track of the gym, they are hard on the knees. I wish it would warm up and I could just run outside or bike. Soon!

I incorporated running on the track as part of my workout today!  Since I started this program at the beginning of January I’ve only been either walking, eliptical trainer, or biking.  So, I wanted to see how running was going to be after 2 months of doing the above.  It was a bit rough at first, but ended up being better than I thought it would be.  I would run 1 lap and then walk 1 lap.  I didn’t keep track of the distance, but did that for 45 minutes.  My heart rate averaged at 152, which is 80-90% of my maxHR (184).