Hits & misses
2005-03-23, 9:22 a.m.

Still catching up . . .

Day 212 � Missed appointments and an anniversary

Well, the wif got messed up on when her appointment at the Y was and ended up being a no show. I was a little concerned when I saw her gym bag still by the hutch in the family room when I got home � a half hour before her appointment. I called her work office but got no answer. Didn�t call her cell. If she was driving, she wouldn�t (or at least shouldn�t � it the law here in NY) answer it.

When her appointment time rolled around, I figured she�d just be going to her app�t in what ever she was wearing � not like it�s a real intense work out or anything.

Finally, around 6:00 the wif got home. Kinda early I thought. Asked her how her thing at the Y went � she said she was just headed over, her app�t wasn�t till 6:30. Then I showed her the app�t card I left on the counter, right next to her Daytimer where she�d have to see it in the morning. Clearly said her app�t was at 5:30. Oooopps.

Turns out she couldn�t have made the 5:30 anyhow � she was stuck at work with some kids getting written up for detention, suspension, something. Cops, the principal, parents, students bloodied up from a fight � nice afternoon.

Today (Tuesday 3/22 as I write this) also marks my 7 month anniversary of being smoke free. The urges to smoke are now very few and far between, but do still pop up. It�s also much easier to beat them down. Now it�s more like it�s only having to make the logical decision to not smoke. There�s no real frantic impulse or just plain �shit, I gotta smoke or I�ll kill something� thoughts to fight off. That is a huge relief, and really makes things easier to deal with.

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Wednesday morning now � day 213

Been having trouble getting through to get an entry posted, so I�ll just keep writing this drivel down and post when possible.

Got in another aerobics class Tues. evening (7 in a row now). Something good must be happening inside me. When I first started this class I struggled to complete the hour. The instructor had us check our pulse at about the 35 � 40 minute mark to see how we were doing. For the first 3 weeks, my heart rate was consistently @ 156 bpm � a wee bit high for a 46 year old. Recommended max for my age is 148 bpm (0.85*(220 � age)). Last night I was actually only at 126bpm, which is down to about 70% of max for my age. That�s compared to the over 85% max I started at. So it looks like all this treadmill work and aerobics stuff is starting to rebuild my innards to tolerate the work a little better. That has GOT to be a good thing.

Hmmmm � just checked D-land for news. Looks like there�s more hardware problems and there won�t be any posting for us non-gold members for a while. Guess the drivel will just have to keep piling up.

Slept in this morning instead of going in to do a work out. Mostly cuz I snuck in the upper body portion last night before step class. No need to go overstressing my poor overworked muscles by asking them for another lifting session less than 12 hours after the last one.

Skipping this morning means adding another day to when I hit the first milestone with the FitLinxx points system. Apparently, at that milestone you are �awarded � a really nice 1 quart Nalgene water bottle with the Y�s logo on it. Kinda cool really, and way better than the water bottle I�ve been using. That particular milestone is at 15,000 points. Will take me about 6 weeks to get there. Next award level is at 30K. No clue what the actual award is. Third one is at 50K, then 75K I think, then 125K, 200K, 300k, 400k and last is 500k. At some point, one of the awards is a fleece vest. I just hope that�s not the 500K level. Even at my current rate, it would take 5 years to get there. Don�t even want to think that far ahead.

Progress report on weight & BP:

Date BP Weight
1/13 150/85 265.0 (the start)
2/21 136/86 252.5
3/3 127/83 251.0
3/14 125/86 246.5
3/21 121/82 243.5

Pretty steady progress. Now down over 20lb overall. Rate of weight drop is kind of fast in March � must be the exercise kicking in. The �diet� I�m on is attempting to establish a gap between burned & consumed of 875 calories per day. That puts me at eating about 2400 calories per day on average when not counting in exercise. That means my typical daily energy usage is around 3200 � 3300 calories. Except when I hit the gym. Can burn up to 570 calories on the tread mill, another 200 lifting weights and nearly 800 at step class. Some weeks I average almost 4000 calories burned a day. All the while, my daily calorie consumption averages less than 2400 calories. There�s the occasional high consumption day, but not often.

What that leads to is a caloric gap of 1600 calories on exercise days, and an average daily gap of 1200 or more calories. That adds up to 8400 calories per week, or up to 2.4 pounds lost per week. Depending on who you listen to, that may or may not be ok. Some places advise against losing more than 2 lbs per week. Other places claim dropping 1% of your body weight per week is safe. In my case, 2.4 lbs per week would be too much under one system, but ok in another. Since I really don�t feel overly hungry at the end of the day, I�m not going to fret it too much. I also asked my doctor about whether or not I should try to consume some of the calories I�m burning off in exercise. Her advice was basically to listen to my gut. If I�m hungry, eat, but try to maintain that 875 calorie gap. Anything beyond that is just progress. We�ll see what she says at my appointment in May, when I think I�ll be down to maybe 225. If she doesn�t mind 40 lbs in 4 months, cool. If she says take it a little easier, I can do that too. Still ought to make under 200 by the end of the year. I just hope my skin figures out how to un-stretch as this weight comes off. Otherwise I can see me needing a little trim on the love handles just to get the excess skin under control.

213 days and 21.5 pounds down. A gazillion days and 45 pounds to go.

Hope D-land gets doctored up soon.

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