It has been a busy few weeks. Both work (travelling for a week) and school have complicated my efforts. But that’s what life is all about. The weight loss has slowed down considerably for the last few weeks. This is mainly due to less activity. I have done a pretty good job of eating, even when out of town. There has been a bit more alcohol in the mix, but eating right and in portion is becoming more and more of a habit.

One area that I need to focus on a bit more is fruit consumption. I am seeing higher sugar per day that I would like and it is mostly due to fruit. I will look to push more vegetables and beans into my diet and cut back a bit on the fruit.

You can see in the chart below, the tapering of the loss. This is my first plateau, and even so it is not disheartening. I have stayed flat for a week and dropped 1 and 1.5 pounds for the next two. Eating right in the right way is a major leg of the stool to getting healthy.

I am at the point where I really need to ramp up the physical activity. As it gets cooler, the pool becomes less of an option and cardio will not yield the long-term changes I am seeking.

The above chart shows my activity over the last 12 weeks. The pink bars indicate I am on track, the yellow that I am close and the green that I need to kick it into gear. Finding the balance of work, school and life are the tricky part and where it turns yellow is where they all converge. The right side of the chart is interesting – it shows how many days are in each type of activity level. I am proud to report that the right side of the chart is where I spent the majority of my time – with the largest number of days in the exceeding category. However, if it showed those over time, it would clearly be front-loaded which is not ideal.

I am looking to join a gym. And actually go to the gym. My employer offers reimbursement for this and I will be taking advantage of a membership and likely some personal training time. I am looking at some strength/resistance training as well as Pilates and\or yoga to work on flexibility. I am hoping to nail down the gym and join in the next week. I’ve got a bit more travelling coming up and want to be ready to hit it when I get back.

 

Next Milestone – Weight=180, target date = 05-DEC-2010

After re-calibrating my weight loss over the last several weeks, my target date is a bit more conservative. That said, I am looking to ramp up the activity and get back to a higher level of performance, accelerating this plan.