A Lost Month? Maybe...

Well folks, it's been a while since I wrote, and things haven't been going nearly as well as when I was writing every day.

I don't mean to suggest I've dropped off this fitness plan entirely, but I've been far from consistent over the past month, especially with the eating.

For a quick recap, on May 11 I weighed 238.2 pounds. Now, for a guy my height -- 5'10" -- with a generally medium-sized build, that's way, way, way overweight. However, it represented a 41-pound loss in just 9 weeks (well, okay, 9 weeks and 2 days). I recently went to see my doctor and she was amazed (my normal disclaimer goes here: for my family, who believe every time I mention the word "doctor" I must be suffering from a dozen different diseases and be on the list for a quadruple organ transplant, this was a regularly scheduled check-up).

Heck, the nurse kept asking me question after question after question about my eating, my exercise -- not out of professional curiosity either, she simply said whatever I was doing, she needed to do as well.

Over these past four weeks, though, I've not been eating terribly healthy, at least not with any consistency. I've fallen back into my old habits of eating badly for a few days, or eating healthy at work then eating bad at night. I went two weeks between cardio sessions at one point.

The long and short of it is I've gained back a bit of weight. I stepped on the scales this morning and was surprised at how much I'd put back on -- I weight 250.2 pounds. Yep, I've gained 12 pounds in four-and-a-half weeks.

Remember all those times I said I was the king of yo-yo dieting? THIS is what I was talking about. It's just so easy to fall back into old habits, and those old habits don't take long to wreck everything.

What frustrates me most is not just the fact that I'm 12 pounds heavier, but I'm 20 pounds heavier than I could have been at this point. Maybe more.

If I had just stayed the course, even with an off day every week, at the rate I was going I think it's safe to assume I would have continued losing 2 pounds a week or so, maybe more. It's not unreasonable to think I could be sitting here talking about being 230, 228, even 226 pounds at this point, That's still a fair bit off my goal of 199, but at that point it's within sight -- almost within reach.

Instead, I've still got 51 pounds to go. Heck, I'm closer to where I started (279 pounds) than my goal.

The news isn't all dire. I did get back in the gym last week for three full weight workouts, and two cardio sessions on Thursday and Friday. I played a little basketball yesterday and felt pretty good. Heck, I even managed a nice little acrobatic lawnmower maneuver yesterday that would put some Cirque Du Soleil performers to shame (and I discovered my mower turns a lot faster on sharp corners than I had anticipated). None of which I could have done three months ago.

So it's not as if I've fallen all the way back to where I started.

But I could, easily enough, I suppose, though that might be harder this time. I've said before one of the things that inspired me to do this blog as I make another attempt at losing weight and getting in shape was the Dude Who Ate Like The Rock for a month, Mark Webster. I thought it would be kind of fun to chronicle my successes -- and failures -- along the way.

I also thought that if I put this out there, writing most every day, it would be more difficult to fail because people would know who I am, know what I was doing, and know if I fell short. You know, it's not the failure that bothers us sometimes, but the idea that everyone knows we failed is most troublesome.

And guess what? It's kind of worked. Over the past week I think I've had about a dozen people who asked me what was up, what was happening, why haven't I been blogging. Even Mark, The Dude, sent me a tweet to check on how I was doing. The director of our gym, who follows my blog, ran into me the other day and asked. One of my sisters called me to see what was up with the missing blog. Several others, most of whom only know me from this blog, have done the same.

So, you know, if I'm not going to have to look down in shame every time I see these people, it's time to get back to it, which I started today. I've finally made it all the way through a whole day on my healthy eating plan, and I think one good, solid day will get me back on track. Now my goal is to see how fast I can get back to where I was at 238, and then charge on back toward my original goal.

Can I get back to that 238 in a week? Two?

We'll see.

But for now, here's what I did today.

Workout
(No cardio -- back's still a little sore from the lawnmower acrobatics)

Chest/shoulders/triceps

Chest
Dumbbell Bench Press
60 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
85 pounds -- 2 sets, 8 reps each

Flat Bench Barbell Bench Press
185 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
195 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps (If we'd known the bench was going to be open so soon, we wouldn't have done the dumbbells).

Incline Barbell Bench Press
105 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
115 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps

Flat bench dumbbell flys
40 pounds, 1 set, 10 reps

Shoulders
Seated Barbell Shoulder Press
95 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
105 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps

Machine rear delt flyes
125 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each

Machine seated side raises
110 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each

Triceps
Tricep cable pressdown
150 pounds -- 1 set, 12 reps
140 pounds -- 1 set, 12 reps

Seated Tricep Machine Dips
255 pounds -- 1 set, 15 reps

Machine Crunches
110 pounds -- 1 set, 20 reps

Eating for the day

Breakfast
Eggs -- 1 whole jumbo, 2 regular whites
Lean ham -- 1 ounce
1/2 cup blueberries

Lunch
Boiled chicken breast -- 4.5 ounces
Rice -- 1/2 cup
Mixed Veggies -- 1/2 cup
Sesame Seed Oil -- 1 teaspoon
Reduced Sodium Soy -- 1 tablespoon
Fat Free Greek Yogurt

Snack
1 cup red grapes

First dinner
Boiled chicken breast -- 4 ounces
Rice -- 1./2 cup
Mixed Veggies -- 1/2 cup
Sesame Seed Oil -- 1 teaspoon
Reduced Sodium Soy -- 1 tablespoon

Second Dinner
Lean ground turkey -- 4 ounces
Mixed veggies -- 1 cup

Snack
Raisin Bran -- 1 cup
Almond Milk (unsweetened) -- 3/4 cup

Totals for the day
1,380 calories
40 grams fat
132 grams protein

Water -- 74 ounces
Diet soda -- 24 ounces

That's it for the day! Thanks for stopping by, and I'll be back to this every day for a while now, so come on back!