One of the set backs from falling off the wagon is that I lost my progress on my weight loss goals. I went back 5 goals to be exact. I lost the following goals as I gained some weight back:
- 70% of goal
- 125 lbs lost
- 75% of goal
- 80% of goal
- BMI < 30
Well today I have crossed one of those off the list and I am only 4 away from getting back to where I was. I have now lost 70% of my goal, 120lbs! Weight is starting to come off again after a week of it being slow, so I am getting excited over this again. Keep following to see me reach my ultimate goal.
Yes, I know that I have not posted in a long time. Ever since switching jobs back in Summer 2012 I have been very bad at posting, and consequently, not losing weight. Back in August I was able to get down to my lowest weight so far, right around 205. Ever since then though I have gained some weight back and fell into my bad habits. I put on around 25 pounds, all due to no structured workout schedule and bad eating habits.
The problem is that eating bad is just so easy. When you are working an 11 hour day you don’t want to cook meals, you just want to eat something easy. And that something easy usually is horrible for you, and even worse when you eat too much of it. I need to get back into my better habits, and I feel like I am finally in a situation where I can do this again, and here is how.
Back in Janurary I started a new job, one that is much better suited for my lifestyle. I now work as an Event Production Specialist for a local event production and timing company. I now work to put on those very races that I used to lose all my weight. This is a much more active job, and I work with a bunch of people who are already fit who should keep my fit.
I also have my girlfriend of 6 months to support me getting back on track. Since she lost 100 pounds in the same way that I did, she knows what I went through to get where I am. She knows about where I was and all the struggles along the way. We both fell off the wagon a bit, but we caught each other before it went to far. She is keeping an eye on everything that I do to make sure that I stay on track. She is also pushing me to do certain things different than what I have been doing since I started dating her. Soon, I will have her posting on here as well so that she can stay motivated like I do.
So here I am, I have started posting everything on LoseIt! again to keep myself in check diet wise. I am again posting all workouts on Fitocracy to show everyone all of my workouts. And I am also weighing in weekly again, good or bad, to track my progress and keep my in check. I hope that you will follow me again as I try to get back on track.
After a long 4 month hiatus of not posting and falling off the weight loss bandwagon, I AM BACK! After losing my job back in June, and getting a new job which keeps me very busy I fell off the wagon. I didn’t work out nearly as often, hardly anymore these days. I also started eating a lot worse than I had been, not caring what went in to my body. Surprisingly, and thankfully, I didn’t gain all that much weight back. I will have an official weigh in soon which will be up for everyone to see, but from the looks up it I gained about 15 pounds back.
Enough about the past, on to the future and what it hold for me and what I will do to get back on track and be better than before. While I was on hiatus, I met an amazing girl, the love of my life. A girl who herself has been through an amazing journey and lost almost 100 pounds. I am proud of her and she is behind me 101% to get back on the horse and kick some weight loss butt. I will start doing regular weigh ins again, and no more waiting to weigh in so that it shows as less. These will be real weigh ins. I am going to get back on the workout track, though a bit different this time around. I currently do not have money for a regular gym membership, so I am currently developing a body weight workout plan, with the help from James, to build my strength back up. I will also be getting back into my running, most likely sticking to a structured running plan for a specific distance, though I don’t know yet. I am also getting back to recording all of my food.
All the workout plans are currently in the planning stages and I don’t have anything decided as of yet. I am working on that and will post as soon as I have set information. Hopefully I am able to continue the success that I had last time around.
Lets kick off my anniversary week by gathering any number I can find relating to this last year. Without further ado, here you go.
Number of blog posts: 83 (1.5/week)
Goals Reached: 19 (1.5/month)
Goals Left: 10
Starting Pants Size: 48
Current Pants Size: 36
Pants Size Change: 12 (1/month)
Shirt Size Change: 3 sizes (.25/month)
Races Run: 6 (.5/month)
Miles Ran: 314 (.86/day)
Miles Cycled: 644 (1.76/day)
Time Running: 76:44:45
Time Cycling: 49:49:23
Fastest Average Running Pace: 10:17
Calories Burned: 175,000 (479/day)
Calories Consumed: 503,000 (1378/day)
Starting Calorie Budget: 2741 calories
Current Calorie Budget: 1915 calories
Calorie Budget Change: 826 calories (68/month)
Starting Weight: 345.9
Current Weight: 221.2
Pounds Lost: 124.7 (10.4/month)
Inches Lost: 34.5 inches (2.8/month)
Starting BMI: 49.6
Current BMI: 31.7
BMI Change: 17.9 (1.5/month)
% of weight lost: 36% (3%/month)
% of goal reached: 73% (6%/month)
Starting Body Fat %: 49%
Current Body Fat %: 24%
Body Fat % Lost: 25% (2%/month)
I have been very quiet for the past few weeks, due to working out like crazy, and just taking a rest from the whole website. I am ready to break that silence though. This week is my anniversary week, the week leading up to my 1 year anniversary of making a huge life change and losing weight. That is why I am celebrating this week and posting a series of articles all week. I am going to look back on this year and see what has changed, who I have met, and what I have done. I will start today with a post in a tiny bit (have to write it up still), and will continue throughout the week until Monday (June 25th). Thanks you all for following me this past year! Here is to another year in the books.
Tonight I am running in the Chase Corporate Challenge at RIT for the first time. The distance is a bit weird for a race, 3.5 miles, so my goals are a bit tough to make. So I am basing all my goals on what pace I want to run at, not on my previous runs. Like always, I am setting goals on an ABC system, so without further ado, here they are.
A. Less than 40:00
B. Less than 38:30
C. Less than 35:00
I am currently signed up to ride in the Tour de Cure in Rochester, NY on June 10th. I originally signed up to ride in the metric century (~62 miles) on my hybrid bike. Then on Wednesday of last week I finally purchased a road bike, and have since upped my distance for the Tour de Cure to the full century (100 miles).
Now, you all might not know this, but diabetes is a cause close to my hear, right along side Livestrong. This is because before I started losing weight, I was most likely very close to having diabetes. That is what actually scared me into finally making a lifestyle change. Though I never actually had the issue, I am very glad I made a change and now won’t have to worry about it. So I ride for the people who make the change too late, but now need help to reverse it.
I am doing the hard part. I am taking my body to hell and back and riding 100 miles straight. That is why I ask you to help in a much easier way, by sponsoring me and donating to the cause. I have already hit the minimum amount needed to actually ride, but I would like to raise as much as I can for this ride. It would be real cool if I could hit $500 and Tour de Cure jersey. Any amount will help.
Here is the link you can use to sponsor me and donate to stop diabetes.
http://main.diabetes.org/goto/natefinch
The time has come. The decision has been made whether or not to train for the Rochester Marathon, and the decision is YES. The half marathon was such a success based just on the fact that I trained for it and was able to complete it. That is why I finally decided that I want to run the marathon. I want the challenge. I want to be able to say that I did it. Just like any other race I enter, I am not doing it to win, I am doing it just to finish. For training, I am using a modified version of Hal Higdons Novice 2 program, modified mainly in the fact of moving my long runs from Saturday to Sunday to fit into my schedule. Below I will copy in Hal’s training program. I have yet to choose any goal times for this race since I don’t want to base it on previous runs, as this race is no where close to those. I will keep you all up to date to the progress of my training.
| WEEK | MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SUN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rest | 3 m run | 5 m pace | 3 m run | Rest | 8 | Cross |
| 2 | Rest | 3 m run | 5 m run | 3 m run | Rest | 9 | Cross |
| 3 | Rest | 3 m run | 5 m pace | 3 m run | Rest | 6 | Cross |
| 4 | Rest | 3 m run | 6 m pace | 3 m run | Rest | 11 | Cross |
| 5 | Rest | 3 m run | 6 m run | 3 m run | Rest | 12 | Cross |
| 6 | Rest | 3 m run | 6 m pace | 3 m run | Rest | 9 | Cross |
| 7 | Rest | 4 m run | 7 m pace | 4 m run | Rest | 14 | Cross |
| 8 | Rest | 4 m run | 7 m run | 4 m run | Rest | 15 | Cross |
| 9 | Rest | 4 m run | 7 m pace | 4 m run | Rest | Rest | Half Marathon |
| 10 | Rest | 4 m run | 8 m pace | 4 m run | Rest | 17 | Cross |
| 11 | Rest | 5 m run | 8 m run | 5 m run | Rest | 18 | Cross |
| 12 | Rest | 5 m run | 8 m pace | 5 m run | Rest | 13 | Cross |
| 13 | Rest | 5 m run | 5 m pace | 5 m run | Rest | 19 | Cross |
| 14 | Rest | 5 m run | 8 m run | 5 m run | Rest | 12 | Cross |
| 15 | Rest | 5 m run | 5 m pace | 5 m run | Rest | 20 | Cross |
| 16 | Rest | 5 m run | 4 m pace | 5 m run | Rest | 12 | Cross |
| 17 | Rest | 4 m run | 3 m run | 4 m run | Rest | 8 | Cross |
| 18 | Rest | 3 m run | 2 m run | Rest | Rest | 2 m run | Marathon |
As of Sunday, my official weigh in day, I have lost 120 pounds, on the dot. And by hitting 120 pounds, I have hit the 70% mark of my goal. If you can do the math, which I hope you can, that means I have 30% of my goal left to go. I am in the final stretch. 50 pounds to go.
Next two goals which should be completed in a 1-2 punch pretty soon are 125 pounds down and 75% of my goal. The big one I am waiting for is when I get my BMI below 30, which will mean, for the first time in probably 10+ years, I will no longer be obese. It will be a big time in my life.
Sorry for the delay on this post, I have both been busy and recovering from the half marathon. I will say, this race really took it out of me, much more than I expected. I couldn’t walk for about 6 hours after the race. My legs were demolished. I was still in pain for about 2 days after. Finally on Wednesday I was able to get back on the bike, and back to both the bike and running today. I might not have all the power back in my legs, but it is almost there.
Now for my time in the race. I went in with an ABC set of goals. The goals were as follows:
A. Sub 3 hour time
B. 2:55:00
C. 2:50:00
The ultimate time I ran it in was 2:46:49, beating my hardest goal by over 3 minutes. I am ecstatic by this, as I didn’t even know if I could beat my easy goal. I also did not finish last, which is always my goal, and I never had to walk.
Because I was able to complete this half marathon, and did much better than I thought I could, I have decided that I will in fact train and run in the Rochester Marathon this fall. It will be a long and tough race, but it is a once in a lifetime thing to do. Something I can always look back on and know I did something good for my health.
If you learn anything from this, it is that anyone can do this. You don’t have to start at a half marathon, but if you push hard and up the distance, sooner or later you can run a half marathon.
