Finance and Fat

I created a new page with charts tracking my weight, BMI, and body fat percentage. The charts make a nice way to track my progress over the long term and I actually find the chart view to be a little extra inspiration- it feels really good to see the lines trend down (and it hurts more to see them climb). Visit the page to see how I’m doing and maybe find a little inspiration for your own health and fitness efforts.

I also added comments at certain points on the charts where significant events occurred that may affect my fitness progress. For example, my weight seemed to start trending down nicely when I quit playing World of Warcraft in October ‘07.  Sadly, my fitness seemed to level off and start moving in the other direction after I started playing again in January ‘08 (I knew that would be a mistake).

Of course I’m (mostly) joking about World of Warcraft being evil. It is entirely possible to play the game and still make time for fitness. The only problem is, the game demands huge amounts of time to make any decent progress and it can be highly addictive. Quitting again would likely be a wise move. I have a pre-paid subscription until October, so I’ll have the game on my computer, but I need to do my best to avoid it and make sure I never play before I have done some exercise.

Anyway, take a look at the charts and let me know what you think. At the very least, I think this will be a nice long term view of my fitness progress and the comments will make for some interesting analysis as I look back at how I’m doing.

It has been two weeks since I hit the scale and I’m happy to see I have lost 1.2 pounds, though I know I could have worked much harder  so I can’t get too excited about the weight lost.

The week before my vacation was a good one, I met my goal of 3 days of 30 minutes of cardio exercise and I started day 1 of the 100 push ups challenge. However, the week after my vacation turned into a lazy one as I didn’t do any more exercise. I had some good excuses and some lame ones, but that is in the past now and I need to focus on working harder this week.

This week’s exercise goals: 4 days of 30 minutes of cardio exercise; 3 days of the 100 push ups challenge week 1.

*Note about this weight loss chart. When I started this blog I weighed 266 pounds and I was only tracking my pounds lost each week. On November 28, 2007 I started using a new scale that tracks body fat and more (the numbers you see above). I report the figures from that scale in these weekly posts and I still track my total pounds lost in the Weight Loss Goals section in the sidebar on my site.

I’m skipping the  scale this week because my wife and I took a long weekend vacation to Northern Arizona.  Here is a picture from the center of town in Sedona.

Sedona is probably best known for its ‘red rocks’ but I didn’t get any good pictures of those. I guess we’ve been there too many times to take notice.  :)  You can see some more pictures at the Visit Sedona website.

Last week was a good one for me and my exercise goals. I did 3 days of cardio, 30 minutes per day and I started day 1 of the 100 pushups challenge. I didn’t make the best food choices on vacation, but I did do a decent amount of walking so I hope that made up for it. I need to get back on track now and get some cardio and pushups done with only about half a week left, but I think I can make it. I will be back on the scale next Monday.

I started off last week by realizing I had gained 5 pounds. That motivated me to eat better last week and exercise, but now that I look back I only exercised one day- not good! I did a lot better with my diet…until the weekend. Fortunately, my weight did go down, but only by .08 pounds.

I need to do better this week. I’m putting my exercise schedule here and on my calendar. I need to schedule the time and plan ahead and make sure I don’t have another week like last week. My plan is 3 days of cardio and 1 day of weightlifting.

The plan- Tue, Wed, Sat will be 30 minutes of cardio exercise. Friday will be a weightlifting workout.  This is on my calendar and I have email reminders set up. I’m going to treat this just like I schedule my job or anything else important. I hope this works better than last week!

*Note about this weight loss chart. When I started this blog I weighed 266 pounds and I was only tracking my pounds lost each week. On November 28, 2007 I started using a new scale that tracks body fat and more (the numbers you see above). I report the figures from that scale in these weekly posts and I still track my total pounds lost in the Weight Loss Goals section in the sidebar on my site.

The title sums up the last few weeks of my life pretty well- I’ve been eating junk food, rarely exercising, and getting a bit frivolous with my spending. I’m not sure what exactly my problem is- lack of motivation and discipline I guess.

I really hate seeing my weight in the 250s again, so this is a wake up call to get back on track right away. My thought right now is to try to simplify the process, cut down the number of goals that I’m worrying about and the different things I’m trying to do this year with my fitness, and just focus on losing some weight right now. So, my new fitness goal as of today is to lose 10 pounds in 8 weeks.

I’m going to mostly use the Body for Life exercise plan and Eating For Life plan. I do not plan to follow these plans 100% because I have learned over the years that I just can’t do that. I think 80-90% of the plans will be good enough for what I want to accomplish right now.

A quick note on my spending- I’m not getting too crazy, certainly not using credit cards or anything, I’ve just been spending a more on food and non-necessities than I have for a while. I need to try to tighten up the wallet a bit as well.

Current weight: 251.8 pounds

Weight lost since starting the blog: -14.2 pounds

Progress since starting with the new scale: -2.2 pounds, -1.4% body fat, -0.3 BMI

Last week’s diet: My diet was bad for just about the whole week. I ate a lot of junk food and didn’t make much of an effort to cut calories or make wise choices.

Last week’s exercise: I worked out once and I pulled weeds one morning- that’s it! I hate looking back on the week and seeing all of the missed opportunities to exercise- even just 20 or 30 minutes of walking thrown in for a few more days would make a big difference for me right now.

*Note about this weight loss chart. When I started this blog I weighed 266 pounds and I was only tracking my pounds lost each week. On November 28, 2007 I started using a new scale that tracks body fat and more (the numbers you see above). I report the figures from that scale in these weekly posts and I still track my total pounds lost in the Weight Loss Goals section in the sidebar on my site.