I skipped a week of progress reports, but this seems to be the way it will go as everything ramps up (school, work). Progress continues – which is great because the week was not stellar in terms of activity.

Lots going on this week, including a week long business planning session that included a night at a Brazilian steak house. If you have not been to one of these, think all you can eat salad bar and all you can eat meat. The meat consists of 10-12 types including beef, chicken, lamb, sausage, pork – cooked to perfection. There are a few restaurants of this style, we went to Boi Na Braza. I am pretty happy with how I did, First of all, never go to a buffet style restaurant. – the human mind struggles to make sense of all the sights and smells. Combined with the need to “get your money’s worth” this rarely results in a positive experience. However, if you do go, be sure to eat a good salad upfront and then go lightly on the rest. This is what I did, took advantage of the awesome salad bar before diving into the meat. Since there is plenty to like, I tried 4 different type of meat – which was too much. This was better than 10 helpings, but to be better, I could have eaten less of each type rather than polish it all off. Good lesson from experience.

The rest of the week consisted of a baseball game (a hotdog, Coke Zero and a few peanuts), but not much walking. Things picked back up later in the week, but the chart above serves as a great reminder that I need to Keep Moving!

Nutrition Update

This week looks a little better on the ratio’s. One other item to track is when I consume the calories. The chart below shows when they were eaten. A general guideline is to eat less than 30% of your calories at and after dinner.

One other item that I am looking into relates to pesticides used on fruits and vegetables. Many of my top food items are those that will absorb pesticides – awesome news. Must go organic.

Weight Update

I am still on track with regards to losing weight. I lost about 5 this week, a little higher than I would have expected. It looks like my range is somewhere between 3 and 5 pounds per week.

Next Milestone – Weight=204, BMI=34 (class-1 obesity): target date = 05-SEP-2010

I moved up the projection date a bit, may be aggressive, but based on the last few weeks seems like a reasonably aggressive date.

I got the results from my blood work this week and was very pleased and not a little surprised. Recall, I made my eating and exercise modifications at the beginning of July, so these results were influenced by one month. From September 2009 through June 2010, I made no effort to curb my eating and did no exercise. In some ways, those months were probably worse in terms of poor food choices.

That is quite a turn-around. Granted, I made drastic changes to what I eat. Focusing heavily on fruits and vegetables, very little red meat and virtually no chips and other junk food. I still would have expected this to be a more gradual shift, but will take and enjoy these results. All the numbers are in the “just fine” range, except HDL (good cholesterol). And you can see it hasn’t move much in the last several years. Ideally it needs to be above 40, but the higher the value, the better. So this will be a focus item as I consider the rest of the nutrition challenge.

My doctor told me to get exercise and omega-3 to help improve HDL. I’ve been exercising for the last month and started taking fish oil a few weeks back. These seem like things that will take some time to show results. I did some research on what else you can do to boost your HDL and came up with the following list.

• Aerobic Exercise (duration may be the key to higher HDL vs. intensity)
• Lose Weight
• Stop Smoking
• Cut out trans fatty acids (no partially hydrogenated vegetable oils)
• Alcohol (Men: 1-2 drinks per day can significantly increase HDL)
• Increase monounsaturated fats (canola, avocado & olive oil and fats in peanut butter)
• Add soluble fiber to diet

The good news is that I am doing most of these things already. Will need to check ingredients more closely in addition to the nutrition labels to avoid the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Not too sure about the booze. There is a bit of playing the odds with that one. These are empty calories and the Heart Association strongly discourages drinking.

In any event, seeing results from making good choices feels fantastic. It is a strong motivator.

A short week because I changed my check-in date. Not too bad, this is probably what things will be like going forward if I continue to stick to the plan. I dropped a few pounds and slide the BMI to the left a smidge. I’m doing pretty well eating the right kinds of food, but need to

continue to work on getting the carb/protein.fat ratio down. The week ended with Carbs: 55%, Protein: 22%, Fat: 23%. Work will continue here. I do a pretty good job of tracking what I eat and drink. This table shows the top foods I’ve been eating. Peach count was driven by a visit to a farmers market last Sunday – they were awesome. The red for oatmeal means it was the highest calorie count for the week. Lots of fruit, pickles (low cal plus a bit of salt and crunch) and chicken. I’ve been looking at fruit to make sure I get the best kind – at the end of the day sugar is sugar and carbs are carbs. Still goodness as this is the best kind to eat. From an activity standpoint, I am working on a constantly increasing level. This week I exceeded my goals and will continue to do this week over week. The good news is that this will require a steady increase and variety of things keeping me out of a chair. This week I still did some swimming, a bit of walking, mini-tramp time but added some basketball practice and some basic soccer running and shooting. Basically stuff to keep things interesting. I think the numbers get a bit falsely elevated when I am on the mini-tramp, so I need to keep that in mind, but the numbers for Saturday are pure walking, I took advantage of times that I would normally stand around and walked. Walked, walked and walked. I logged more than 19,000 steps – pretty happy with that.

Next Milestone – Weight=204, BMI=34 (class-1 obesity)

Wrapping up my third week continues with some weight loss and movement left on the BMI map. I think progress is going well. I am learning, generally making good decisions and continuing to be active. I’ve found ways to get some walking in at work and to take advantage of TV time by getting on the mini-tramp (also helps curb the desire to snack).

I will be moving the Progress Report to Sundays as that maps to the start of the week for the FitBit reporting. There are some great reports on activity and food. The chart below shows my step count relative to everyone else in the FitBit system.

Still need to focus on the carbs/protein/fat ratios – but it will come! That is one of the key things about doing this without a program that will, in the long run, benefit me more than getting specific meals etc. That is the theory anyway. As my manager at work says, “I reserve the right to wake up a little smarter tomorrow.” The chart below shows a summary of my activity for the week. This is a cool view and as long as I maintain it, I’ll know how much I tend to get out of the various activities I complete. Last week, swimming was where I spent most of my time, but I think that mix will shift this week.

Anyway, lots of information to help keep me on the right path.

Actions

• Continue activity by utilizing the FitBit Training Guide.
• Continue to make good choices for food by amount and type.
• Continue to learn about the contents of food (carbs, fat, protein).

Next Milestone – Weight=204, BMI=34 (class-1 obesity)

P.S.  Logged some pool time today. I think I have pretty good form from the waist up, but tend to let my legs follow (arms do all the work). I made the effort to use my legs and it adds a few new dimensions to the workout. First, it helps even out my stroke and thus make the whole thing less choppy. Second, it makes for a better workout. It made me work my abs a bit, which I don’t recall from my college swimming days (no competition, but a year in swim PE). Going forward will work to make that more natural.

First of all, I don’t envision doing this every week. The good news is that things are heading in the right direction without a bunch of “pain and suffering” on my part. As I described in prior posts, I’ve been really paying attention to what I eat (i.e. no junk food, good fast food choices etc.). Second, portion control – when I start to get full then stop eating. Also, take smaller portions initially. This goes back to my childhood, but I still feel the need to eat what is on my plate and if I take bigger portions I would still eat even when full. The third element is activity. You’ve just got to keep moving! So, I’ve been swimming, walking and hitting the mini-tramp when the other two are just not options.

Part 1 – Weight & BMI

My weight has dropped from 250lbs to 234lbs. Along with that, my BMI has dropped from 41.6 to 39. Now the BMI drop may not seem like a lot, but it takes me out of the class-3 obesity. The more common name for that is “morbid obesity”. I know the first bit of weight loss can be easier than the road ahead, but this is a nice little milestone. Class-2 still has the nice common name of “obese” thus acting as a motivator. Wondering about the rest of the BMI scale – take a look at the table and chart below.

Part 2 – Physical Change

The biggest change with all of this is that I am thinking about activity. I think about the next round of walking, swimming, stair climbing I will be doing. In the past, I would get absorbed in whatever I was doing and give no thought to activity. Some days I would take stairs, the others the elevator. Again, for just getting started these things are becoming nice habits. As I get into a bit better shape and ramp up the exercise and training, I’ll need to keep these habits I am developing right now. My hope is that I will train my body to expect it and want it.

Part 3 – Mental Change

This is a big deal. There is a difference between going through the motions and trying to make good choices and maybe some exercise. But my “flipped bit” has allow me to really dig into all aspects of accomplishing my goal of Getting into Hiking Shape. This includes taking a little bit more time in the morning to pack healthy snacks and lunch additions to doing research on how much sodium I should be consuming. Using the FitBit website to track my food choices is really eye opening. Knowing what you are eating makes a difference. One other element relates to Part 2 above – the change to get up and take action. Getting away from the “in a minute” and excuse generation to go do something. Attitude play a big part in this as well. My wife has been trying to get me to walk regularly for awhile and I have resisted. In some cases to the point of being a real ass. Granted, I don’t like walking (prefer running), but that was just an excuse.

All these little changes add up to a budding new lifestyle.

Next Milestone – Weight=204, BMI=34 (class-1 obesity)

I had a pretty good day today, though no swim. Ate pretty well, though I did go out for dinner. The salad with grilled chicken wasn’t too bad. Ok, it had some cheese and guacamole (which was all avocado so that should be reasonable). My step count was pretty low when I got home, not a lot of foot traffic at work today. I did make a few extra runs up and down the stairs. I made up for it on the mini-tramp earlier this evening.

I’ve decided to make Tuesday my check in day. I’m not really interested in tracking daily weight. Weekly is likely the bare minimum that makes sense.

I did update my profile with relevant statistics and measurements. I will probably keep that the same over time and track monthly or quarterly progress on another page or a blog entry. I will continue with this program and do a check in with my doctor in a month or two. Curious to see what real work will do to my blood work.

Education

I’ve found a bunch of good websites (Mayo Clinic quality) and have discovered a lot of good information. I need to capture it and think about it. More urgently, I need to keep reading “The Way to Eat” by David L. Katz. I’ll refer back to my initial post, I don’t want a diet that offers short term wins, I want to understand how all this stuff works and then have the ability to make great decisions all the time.

Progress: Page 0 (just re-read the Introduction). Needs work.

Here is the result of my first night trying the sleep function on fitbit.

No wonder I’m a little tired, need to get to bed earlier. Smart eating is tough. Trying to get some protein mixed in and sodium skyrockets. Not sure all the numbers for food nutrition are completely accurate, but they give a good estimate (checked a few other sites) and really open your eyes to the hidden junk.

This was a typical work day (didn’t get a morning swim – will save the stray dog story for another day and need to get some sleep so no walk either). 7200 steps seems pretty good for just “walking around”. I did make sure to take the stairs every time today. Got a friend who has has not ridden an elevator for 3 or 4 years – this is a good next practice.

My calorie count seems a bit low, but keep in mind some of those are estimates. In any event, I am working on portion control as well (um, except for the buffet the other day). I find my self hungry more times a day than I can recall experiencing in a long time. Also adding no eating after 8p. No need to make the body work harder instead of getting good sleep.

Daily Summary
Walk a lot (park far away at work) and always take the stairs
Portion control – stop eating when first sign of “full” hits
Eat breakfast and then snack on fruits and veggies during the day
  – I’ve got to make sure I understand sugar in fruits as well.  *sigh*
Don’t snack in the evening
Go to bed such that you get a good nights rest (7 hours minimum)