I think I am in the norm for weekly weight lose: 2-3 pounds. I’m ok with that – it seems reasonable and healthy. It definitely sets the tone for the next year to really get into the weight loss and general health I am looking to attain.

I dropped a few pounds this week and continue to move the BMI dial as well. I still need to dial in on the type of food I am eating. As you can see from the chart below, I am high on carbs. Part of this is the fruit I eat and the other thing I need to do is ramp up the protein a bit. I went to a health store today and picked up some flaxseed to add to my oatmeal and some protein for shakes. I’ll give that a shot. A few years (ok, maybe 7) I was doing some lifting and had been doing something similar. I’m going to start slowly and see what it does to the ratio. I did finally get some fish this week (tilapia) that was pretty good and introduced some lean hamburger. I am careful to watch the portions pretty closely. I grilled up a bunch of chicken today as well and will be taking that to work. It will be a good lunch and save some money at the same time.

From an activity standpoint, I am making progress (moving from sedate to very active) and achieved my incremental weekly goal. You can see this is largely due to the high activity at the beginning of the week. Very slow ending to the week. Consistency will be important going forward. Today was a great day; I got a really good swim in the morning and took a 40m walk in the evening. The colors on this chart are interesting. the pink means I made goal for the day and the green means it was a lazy day. A bit strange.

Looking Ahead

July has been a month of getting started, spending lots of time thinking about health, nutrition, activity and it has been great. August will start to get busier as things at work pick up and as school gets closer. Lots of this stuff has to be automatic and at the same time, I need to step up the exercise. Cardio and easing back into an active life is part of what I need to continue to do, but I also need to start doing calisthenics, resistance training and some weights. Looking forward to a good month.

I have made good progress on the book I am reading (The Way to Eat), about 100 pages. I’ve done this between other things and just need to carve out some time to get through it. The beginning talks about common issues and struggles and ways to cope. It has an interesting slant on why we behave the way we do – and why the results are different for different people. He ties the way the body works to our ancestors and how they had to adapt in order to survive. I’m pretty happy that a lot of the things I’ve been doing are recommended ways to stay on track. Some of the later portions of the book look good, so I will keep pushing.

I had my blood taken this last week and expect the results in the next week. The last time I had it checked was September, 2009. At that time I was doing nothing to improve my health. My doctor told me to eat right and get some exercise and come back in 3 months. I think I actually ate worse after that point. It will be interesting to see where I am now. Eight of the last nine months were carefree, eat what I want and let future me worry about exercise. July, the last month is where I really dug in. This should be a good baseline.

Next Milestone – Weight=204, BMI=34 (class-1 obesity): target date = 19-SEP-2010