I have three goals for November:

Make a post every day
Document everything I eat every day
Weight loss of 8 pounds

I don't know why I feel like I have to set these grandiose goals when I should just be taking things one day at a time but nonetheless that is what I'm going to do. NaBloPoMo inspired me. It isn't going to be easy. Here are some of the things I have against me:

Thanks to Halloween we now have pounds and pounds of candy sitting around the house, all in easy to consume, bite-sized morsels (of which I normally would be unable to eat only one).

I haven't posted once a day for a week let alone once a day for a month in a very long time. However, as long as I meet my goal of documenting what I eat every day this shouldn't be hard (although it may not be that interesting for you!).

Documenting what I eat every day will be the toughest thing, which seems odd because that should be so easy. But I have tried before and have never been able to go more than a few days with it. So this will be a big challenge. And my goal is to be 100% honest with you (and myself) about what I am eating, so as much as I plan to be very good this month (leading to other good months) if I slip I have to share it.

I'm starting the month at 276, which means my target for December 1st is 268. It's been awhile since I have been in the 260s and it's also been a long time since I lost 8 pounds in a month, in fact I would have to go back and check but I'm not sure if I have even done that before.

So it's all stacking up to be a tough, but important month, on my journey from fat to fit.

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

I'm Going to Kick Ass in November

No excuses but I neglected to post an update on Sunday but I have updated the graphs since I did weigh-in on Sunday. Flatline is not what I want but it's better than going up. I'm going to work hard this week to lose at least a couple of pounds and keep up the good progress. Last week was a bit of a lost week – no exercise including Week 5 of the Hundred Pushups challenge which I "qualified" for beginning of last week – although I'm in column one.

I really noticed how not having specific goals for the week effected my performance. So,

Goals for the week:

Attempt to complete Week Five of the Hundred Pushups Challenge. It looks tough.
Run 10+ miles.
Replace 3 different meals with whey protein shakes.
Lose 2 pounds.

Yes I know the last one is a results goal and not an action goal, but having that goal will drive my adhesion to the plan.

I did my 4.1 mile loop yesterday in a record (for me) time of 59:59. Had to sprint the last 2 steps to make it under 60 minutes. As you can see, I am really on a barnburner pace.

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Start to the Week – Goals Edition

Since we are leaving for Boston this morning and not getting back until Sunday night I thought I would post an update today on my goals for the week since I won't be posting my normal Sunday update (and unless I have the time and a computer in the hotel I probably won't be posting at all).

For this week I had established four goals: Complete Week 4 of the One Hundred Pushups Challenge, run Tuesday night when I was staying over for work, run in Boston and replace 4 meals throughout the week with protein shakes.

I am happy to say that I have completed #1 and #2 and I will complete #4 a little later this morning. I've packed my heart rate monitor, running shoes and gym clothes for Boston so I am on pace for achieving that goal as well. That's a good week! Writing down my specific goals for the week has really helped.

In regards to the protein shakes, while I am planning to have one for breakfast this morning I have found that I prefer to use them as meal replacements for dinner rather than breakfast and going forward after today that is how I plan to use them exclusively. For me they don't give me quite the energy I need in the morning to get through to lunch without being hungry in the same way they can get me to bedtime at night. In addition part of the benefit of having the shakes for dinner is that the satisfy the sweet tooth in me that wants to have some sort of a dessert – and I don't have those same sort of feelings in the morning.

In addition to my run on Tuesday (which was 3.48 miles) I also put in a 2.19 mile run yesterday. I have not done any strength training beyond the pushups, however.

The challenge this weekend is going to be staying away from a tendency to overeat while vacationing. If I can manage that effectively it will be a great week.

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Progress on Goals for the Week

Given the success of my goal setting last week I decided I would try again this week. In yesterday's update I mentioned my schedule was a little turned around this week with a travel day but I was only talking about my work schedule – I completely forgot that my wife and I are going to Boston this Fri, Sat, Sun so this week is going to be a big challenge after all!

Goal #1: I am going to complete week 4 of the One Hundred Pushups Challenge.

Goal #2: I am going to run Tuesday night. Why this goal? Because Tuesday night I'm going to be at work staying in a hotel. Exercising while traveling for work is one thing I need to continue to work on improving.

Goal #3: I am going to run in Boston. First, it's fun to run in a "foreign" city. But most importantly, as in Goal #2 I need to incorporate exercise into my vacation travel as well.

Goal #4: I am going to replace 4 meals with a whey protein shake. I really liked the feeling of doing this last week and believe incorporating these into my diet is going to be a big help for me.

Unlike last week I did not include a "lose X pounds goal." I did this not because I think such short-term achievement goals are not useful (I think they are) but because I will not be doing an official weigh-in this week since I will be out of town on Sunday. However, I am hoping I can continue to push that chart down and in a couple of weeks when I do record my official weight I'm expecting to see it down a couple more pounds.

Here's to a good week!

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Goals For The Week of 7/21/08

Inspired by a reminder of the importance of making small, incremental changes I am going to do something which I haven't done for awhile and that is set some goals for the week.

Goal #1: I am going to record 100% of everything I eat and drink on Monday.

I have always had a hard time doing this but how hard can it be to do it for one day? If I set my mind to it there is no way I can't achieve this goal, it should be easy. In fact, I can make it even easier on myself by limiting the amount of food I eat. Say, there's an idea!

Goal #2: I am going to complete week 3 of the One Hundred Pushups Challenge.

If you are familiar with the challenge you know that at the end of the second week you do a fitness test to see where you start week 3 at. I did 25 pushups on my week 2 fitness test, which means for week 3 I start in the second column and my first day rotation looks like this: 20, 15, 15, 13, > 20. You would be correct in assuming that I could have eked out one more pushup, which would have put me in the hardest column but I weaseled out and stopped at 25. I don't know that I could have done 27 though, so I don't feel too bad about this.

Goal #3: I am going to lose 2 pounds.

I don't usually like to set short term weight loss goals, but I am going to try it. How fun if my effort can pay off in hitting this goal? I chose 2 pounds because I really want to lose a pound a week and I stayed flat this week. I've got ground to make up!

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Goals for the Week