Belts, Shirts, & Missing Meals

Sometimes, when you're trying to lose weight, you get all kinds of little signs or indications things are going well.

I got a couple of those today.

This morning I noticed my pants were kind of loose around the waist and hanging funny. Mind you, these are the pants I couldn't wear two weeks ago. Anyway, I soon figured out it was my belt -- it was too loose! That means...I'm down to hole 3!

(For those of you who may not understand the significance of that, or you don't realize how lucky you are I'm not breaking out a snippet of an old 80s movie, see my posts Mr. Miyagi Was Wrong, It IS About The Belt and Eventually, Even Mr. Miyagi Agrees...The Belt DOES Matter).

Just a quick recap: When I started this five weeks ago, I couldn't wear my belt. Couldn't even come close to buckling that thing. Over the past five weeks I've managed to squeeze into it, then tighten it down to the second hole, and today I comfortably fit on the third hole!

Then, near the end of my day at the gym, I was taking a quick little breather between sets and I noticed my shirt was kinda loose. This shirt I could wear when I started, but it was quite snug. Now, it's actually hanging on me loosely.

So, yeah, I had a good day.

Except I missed another meal. I'm finding this idea of eating every 2-1/2 to 3 hours getting difficult to do, especially when the meals are larger than I have grown accustomed to. I had my lunch at noon, and at 2:30 I just didn't feel like eating again, so I put it off a bit, got really busy at work, and next thing I knew it was a few minutes after 4;30. So, I was eating what should have been my 3 o'clock snack at 4:30, and I sure as heck didn't feel like eating again at 6. That meant I was running low on calories and protein, and allowed myself to get far too hungry, so I probably ate a little much for my last meal -- though it was still all well within the "clean" eating category. 

Here's what I did today:

Cardio

Stationary Bike 55 minutes (47 minutes at level 5, the rest at level 4).

19 miles

610 calories.

Weight Training -- today should have been a back and bicep day, but I'm still taking it easy on the forearms. It's much easier to do a full chest, shoulder, and triceps workout without straining the forearms -- most of those lifts are pushing-type lifts, when you really don't have to grip the weights too tightly. With back and biceps, you're doing a lot more pulling and curling motions, requiring a harder grip and more strain on the forearms. As a result, I went a little lighter on weight and reps for the back work, and didn't do any bicep work today to avoid that.

So, my workout for the day was:

Back

Seated rows

130 pounds - 1 set, 10 reps

200 pounds - 2 sets, 8 reps each

180 pounds - 2 sets, 8 reps each

Lat Pulldown on the Nautilus (which is easier on the forearms than the regular lat pulldowns)

125 pounds, 2 sets, 10 reps

Straight-arm pulldowns

100 pounds, 2 sets, 10 reps each

Abs

Seated machine crunch

110 pounds - 2 sets, 15 reps each

And that's about all folks. Without the curls, it was pretty short,so much so I felt guilty about not doing more.

Now for my eating today

Breakfast

Coffee

Eggs (1 whole, 2 whites)

Oatmeal (1/3 cup dry)

Lunch

Lean pork -- 5 ounces

Baked sweet potato -- 7 ounces

Snack

Half a protein bar (left over from last night)

Fat free Greek Yogurt

Dinner

Ground chicken breast, flavored with cumin and peppers -- 4.5 ounces

Tortilla wraps -- 1 corn, 1 flour, 1 flatbread (no, it wasn't some screwy taste test)

Mozzarella -- 1/4 cup

Salsa -- 3 tablespoons

Totals for the day

1,485 calories

45 grams fat

153 grams protein (a little low)

Water 95 ounces

Diet soda -- 12 ounces (so that balances out yesterday!).

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be glad to answer any comments or questions you leave behind.