The Fully Transparent Diet – Down 7lbs. After Seven Weeks

Last Thursday, I made my weight by the skin of my teeth.  I weighed 186.2, down exactly 7 pounds after seven weeks.  Still on pace.

Thumbs Up for Week Seven

I knew I was going to have problems, and I worked my tail off (almost literally) in the days before Wednesday night.  Wednesday night, I took my team out to Maggiano’s for a holiday dinner.  If you’ve been to Maggiano’s, you know what the food is.  You also know that the best deal at Maggiano’s is the all-you-can eat family style meal.  In short, with the family style, you pay a flat amount per person, select some appetizers, salads, entrees and desserts and then eat as much as  you want of each.  Wednesday morning, I weighed 185.2.  Great shape, right?  Well, Thursday morning I was a pound heavier.  Thank goodness for hard work in advance.

The diet, in general is going well.  I’m exercising a lot, and ran 5 miles in 46 minutes on the treadmill yesterday.  Tonight (Monday), I ran 4.4 miles in 44 minutes, but that includes a four-minute cool-down period.  I use the Nike+GPS application on my iPhone when running.  It measures pretty well, even indoors.  What I like, however, are the congratulations you get at the end from people like Lance Armstrong and Tracy Morgan.  Tonight, Tracy told me that I had run more miles this week than last and that he “was proud of me.”  That’s kind of neat.

I continue to believe that losing a pound per week is a perfect pace.  You can enjoy evenings out, not worry at parties, and still lose the weight.  I’m confident that I will hit the weight again this week.

The Fully Transparent Diet – Down 6.7lbs. After Six Weeks

Very good week this week.  I weighed at 186.5 pounds this week, beating my goal of 187.2 by .7 pounds.  I’m doing well.

Thumbs Up for Week Six

This also means that I lost 1.1 pounds this week.  That’s exactly what I want to do, and I’m in good shape, just 0.3 pounds away from my goal of 186.2 pounds this week.

Looking back on the week, it was somewhat uneventful.  No big meals out of the office.  No bat mitzvahs or bar mitzvahs over the weekend.

This week will be a bit more challenging.  I’m taking my team at work out to Maggiano’s for the holidays.   You know, the chain that serves Italian food family-style?  I’ll need to make sure my exercise is in order all week and need to be as careful as I can while out.

No photos this week.  I kept forgetting to take it.  But all is well.  Goal of 180.2 by end of January is well in sight.

The Fully Transparent Diet – Down 5.6lbs. After Five Weeks

This past Thursday, I weighed in at 187.6 pounds.  The bad news is that 187.6 pounds means that I gained 0.1 pounds in week five.  The good news is that I did it despite the fact that the week included Thanksgiving, two Hanukkah parties complete with homemade latkes, and a trip to an NHL game to see the Capitals play the Blues. It’s a bit of a moral victory to only gain 0.1 pounds. I worked hard on days where I could to achieve that.  In fact, on Wednesday morning, I weighed in at 186.5, my low water mark, but then promptly went to the Caps game that night and had chicken fingers and french fries.

Thumbs Up for Week Five

There continues to be very good news on the exercise front.  As promised, I varied the exercise and went over to our local JCC to swim last Tuesday.  As I should have known, the muscles used for swimming must be dramatically different than those used for running.  After 10 minutes of swimming at a slow pace, I was dog-tired. I was swimming so slow, that I thought I was going to drown, but I was still tired!  I haven’t gotten back out there yet, but I plan to on Tuesday.  I’m excited.

The running couldn’t be going better.  Today I ran for 40 minutes.  I ran the first 20 at a 6mph pace, the next 15 at 6.5mph and the final 5 at 7mph.  To make it even better, I wasn’t really gasping for breath at the end.

So, on to this week.  I need to be at 187.2 by Thursday morning, and I’m convinced I can get there.  I have three days of work, with no lunches out of the office, and we have nothing in the evenings.  If I get in three days of exercise, including swimming on Tuesday, and do well in the evenings, I will be fine.

We’ll see.  As always, if you wish to follow my progress, you can do so on Twitter @andymayer13.  You can view photo progress of my weight loss by clicking on the link above.