By all accounts, a one and a half pound loss week should be a good one.  But I can’t help but be a bit disappointed.  I really worked hard.  I guess I shouldn’t complain.

Working out in the higher altitude was harder.  Since I had a higher heart rate, I wasn’t able to go as fast on the eliptical.  As a result, I showed a lower calorie burn for the time worked.  I hope that the workouts did improve my fitness even though it shows a lower calorie expenditure.

The high altitude also affected my sleeping.  I slept, but I didn’t wake feeling rested.  When I got home yesterday, I went straight to bed and slept for 13 hours.  I also slept well last night (9 hours).  I feel much better today.

While I was in Ecuador, I was pretty good about my eating and alcohol comsumption until my last day.  The group went out for lunch at a very nice Argentine restaurant.  I spent the rest of the evening relaxing in the bar (yes, big mistake).  For the time being, I’m not going to abstain from alcohol, but will work to control my consumption.  I may have to rethink that to reach my goal, but right now I’m losing at the rate I want to and I don’t see a reason to punish myself. 

I am again facing a travel week, leaving for Orlando on Monday, returning on Saturday.  My strategy is as follows:

• Bring food with me (protien bars, almonds, etc.)
• Stop by a market and get some apples, milk and water.
• Continue my cardio workouts in the hotel fitness center or in a local gym with a day pass. 
• I’m going to up my workouts to 90 minutes a day.
• Make good choices at dinner (avoiding breads and fried food).
• Avoid bars and limit alcohol with dinners.

I’m well on my way with my weight loss and fitness challenge.  A little over a month and I’ve lost 8 1/2 pounds.  I know these first pounds are the easiest.  But I feel like I have traction.  I’m more driven now than I was when I started!

Onward!

My Wii Fit was here when I returned from Ecuador.  I was pretty excited about trying it out, so I got it set up this morning.  Set up was fairly easy and I was using it within a few minutes of getting it out of the box.

When you start using the Wii Fit, it lets you pick your Mii and then runs through a few basic tests (that include inputing your date of birth and height).  That is when the Wii Fit got mean.  In a cute little voice it told me that my posture sucks and that I’m obese.  Yes, it is true, but it still could have found a nicer way to say it.  My first assessment has me at a Wii Age of 48 (as compared to my actual age of 42).

My girlfriend, FancyPants, faired much better on the BMI, falling in the normal range.  Her posture was also criticized and she was assessed a Wii Age of 58.  Not a problem, I’ve dated older women before.

I’m going to use the Wii Fit primarily for balance exercises.  So, I went on and performed a few.  They range in difficulty, but I can see how they will work over time to improve my performance.

The Wii Fit also has what is called a Fit Bank.  Each time you do an exercise you Fit Points.  I was earning these at about 1 point per minute.  After ten minutes I opened a new exercise (five were available to me at the start).  I’m going to make a point of using the Wii Fit at least three times a week (when I’m in town).  It might take me a while to open the other exercises, but the ones that are available now are enough to keep me engaged for a while.

I love the Wii Fit even though it is mean to me.  Yes, honesty is hard to hear some times.  Maybe I need some tough love.  I upped my cardio time, and am looking forward to my weigh in tomorrow.  The gloves are off!

Yes, I’m on the road again.  This time to Ecuador.

As it always goes with travel, I’m hit with the diet challenge.  But this place brings a new challenge.  Altitude.

How does that affect me?  Well for one, it makes my workouts harder.  Where I usually have an active heart rate of around 95 bpm, here it is closer to 120.  So, I’m getting to my target heart rate faster, but I also fatigue faster.  I’ve still managed to get a workout in each day except Tuesday.  And I’ll be in there today as well.

Another effect of the altitude is that I’m not sleeping well.  I think it has to do with my breathing.  I feel like I’m breathing more shallow during the day and I imagine that affects my sleep.

Ecuador is also on the Equator.  As a result, the sun is shining directly down.  If I were one to do my workouts outdoors, I’d also have to take that into account and ensure I’m wearing sunscreen.  Even a small amount of exposure here could result in a sunburn.

So far, this week has been relatively good.  I could have eaten better, but I feel like I’m on track.  Weigh in on Sunday.

I did my weigh in on Saturday morning rather than the regular Sunday morning due to my travel schedule.  It was a good weigh in that has me down another pound and a half.  That brings me down by six pounds in the first month.  Not a bad start.  Thirty-four more to go!

Other successes:  I went out for dinner Thursday night and while I selected foods that weren’t the best for me, I stopped at half a plate.  Overall I worked out five of six days.

Failures:  Beer, wine (but then it was in honor of Robert Mondavi’s passing) and some fried foods.

This week I’m traveling, so I’ll have to be careful not to go too far overboard and keep my workouts going.  The hotel has a gym, and I went by the market to pick up some water and nuts and fruit.  I also brought a few protein bars.

Well, today did not start out the way I wanted…

First, I missed my workout yesterday.  My energy level was so low in the morning that I slept later, planning to do my workout after work.  Par for the course, that didn’t happen.  So, this morning, I went to the gym with all the intentions of making up some of the lost time.  But my energy level is still down, it was all I could do to muster 40 minutes of cardio.

I’m very disappointed in myself right now.

I’m sure I’m still on track to lose the pound a week I’m targeting, but I do want to push myself through this faster when possible (and reasonable).  I will be moving my weigh in to Saturday since I’m traveling and will be away from home on Sunday morning.  Wish me luck!

On another note, I’ve started drinking more water (typically on ice).  Quick anatomy lesson.  While it is unclear exactly how big the human badder is, I can tell you that when you drink a gallon of water in a day, you can expect to use the toilet over 12 times.

Food, err, water for thought!

I was struck by this article 308 - Pound Inmate Sues County Over Jail Fare but not for the initial title, but the subtitle, “Murder Suspect Unhappy After Losing More Than 100 Pounds In Ark. Facility. I mean, this is a joke, right? He couldn’t possibly be unhappy losing over 100 pounds (people actually pay money to do just that).

But maybe he is.

I remember when I was in the Army. At 22 years old, my metabolism was screaming! I was muscular and fit. And I ate over 6,000 calories a day just to maintain my weight of 185 pounds.

Every time we would go out in the field for training exercises, I would shed at least a pound a day. Why? Because we received about 3,000 calories a day and I was burning far more than that. But that was the Army, so what is a guy to do?

This is not dissimilar. Mr. Laswell is not in a position to choose what foods he eats or how much he eats. Where these stories are different has to do with general health. It is in his best interest health-wise for him to lose weight, it was not for me.

Which leads me to my initial question, “Is body weight a right?”

The Constitution of the United States says that everyone has the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What about when they conflict? And does the pursuit of happiness include self destruction?

I don’t think so. In Butchers’ Union Co. v. Crescent City Co., 111 U.S. 746 (1884), Associate Justice Samuel Freeman Miller wrote:

Among these inalienable rights, as proclaimed in that great document, is the right of men to pursue their happiness, by which is meant the right to pursue any lawful business or vocation, in any manner not inconsistent with the equal rights of others, which may increase their prosperity or develop their faculties, so as to give to them their highest enjoyment.

So, while I agree that Mr. Laswell should be provided adequate meals, I don’t think allowing him to remain unhealthy is appropriate under the law (or human decency).

When I saw that Robert Downey Jr. was playing the lead role in the movie Ironman I was dumbfounded. How is that possible? What I knew of him prior to this was his role on Ally McBeal and the very public drug arrests.

I figured that he was close to my age. Actually, he was born on April 4, 1965. So he is older than I am.

Yes, having watched the movie I can say, Robert Downey Jr. is Ironman. He looks awesome and is extremely fit for 42.

I am not Ironman. At least not yet. I am using this movie as motivation. By the time Ironman 2 comes out in 2010, I will be!

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised to have lost a pound and a half this week. Yes, I had a plan when I went on my business trip (taking food with me, etc.), but I met a friend out one night (Champps) and had drinks and dinner with a co-worker and her boyfriend (Lupes). I also didn’t get any workouts in from Tuesday through Friday. I figured I had really screwed the pooch this week.

I did better with my eating on Friday and Saturday and spent an hour on the elliptical on Saturday. I am pleasantly surprise. Nothing Fits also had a good weigh in! I’m sure she’ll be posting soon.

When I go to the gym now there are days when I feel like I’m invisible. It wasn’t always that way. I remember when I would get a look, if not a second look and a smile.

Now, I know that I’m older. And that has a lot to do with it. But it really is more than that. Being seen as attractive comes from more than the physical attributes, it comes from confidence. When you’re out of shape and feel bad about it, the confidence is gone. That only emphasizes the negatives. As a result, you become invisible.

I’m enjoying my trips to the gym because I know my effort is building something. Eventually, I’ll begin to see those changes. And with that will come the confidence. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy in my relationship with nothingfits, but it is still nice to be noticed now and then.

I’m headed off for a business trip to Houston today (Tuesday) and will return on Friday. A trip like this would usually wreck any diet and exercise program for me. Below I’m going to outline a typical trip like this before I started this challenge (and changed my lifestyle). Then I’ll spell out my strategy for staying on track.

BEFORE
I’m driving to Houston, which is just over six hours. Not a bad drive. It gives me plenty of time to be by myself and think. It also gives me plenty of opportunities to stop at gas stations and truck stops and eat crap (typical fare would be a box of Fig Newtons, beef jerkey, and a king-sized candy bar).

Once I’m in Houston, I’m going to be in the heart of TexMex country. I would usually eat at one of these places once or twice during a trip like this, eating their large combo plate dinners. Since there isn’t a great selection of restaurants where I live, I’d probably eat at a few of them while there.

Hotel bars are such a cool place to hang out, read and people watch. A normal night in a hotel would have me taking down anywhere from six to twelve beers in an evening. And I might even take one to my room for a night cap.

And when I travel, exercise is practically nonexistent. I might walk to the office I’m working at, but that is never more than a mile away.

So, travel is a hurdle in my weight loss and fitness challenge.

STRATEGY
I am taking food with me.  Lean meats, eggs, fruit, cheerios.  The hotel I selected has a refrigerator in the room, so I will try to stop at a grocery store when I get there.  I’ll make it as easy as possible for me to stay fed so I won’t binge on crap.

I stacked my weight workout into three days (where I was taking five).  This was hard, but for this one trip it made sense.  I went online and found a Golds Gym that isn’t too far from the hotel.  I’m going to try to get a day pass there.  In the event they don’t offer day passes (I’ve been to some gyms that don’t), I will walk/jog around the hotel and try to get back early enough on Friday to get a workout in.

Basically, I’m planning.  That is a big step forward for me.  I hope it shows when I get on the scale on Sunday morning.