My Weight Loss Blog

[CONTEST CLOSED - Winner Announced!]

As a frequent drinker of Lipton Diet Green Iced Tea I was more than happy to receive an invitation from Lipton to promote their “Free Your Y” campaign around their new White Iced Tea. I have not yet tried the product, but as it is Lipton I am sure it is good. They will be sending me some coupons for free samples - if I don’t hoard them all I may make some available to you guys! (or you could simply enter my contest below to win your own coupons. Oh and a bike too!). I’ll write up a review once I have tried it.

Before I share with you my contest to win a bike, check out Lipton’s Free Your Y Video Contest. Visitors will be asked to submit less-than-2-minute videos showcasing their youthful spirits for the camera. There are three different categories. The contest runs through May 11th with 15 finalists selected on May 17th and a public vote through May 30th. Winners will be announced on June 2nd. Grand prize for best video is $25,000!

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For those of you with no talent or video camera, here is how you can still win. As part of this contest, Lipton has offered one of my lucky readers a new Fuji Crosstown 2.0 bike (retail value $399!). In addition to the bike the winner will receive a check for $75 good for professional assembly, should you need it, and 5 coupons for a free 1.5 liter bottle of Lipton White Ice Tea.

How can you enter my contest to win this bike? Simply link to this post from your blog or other web-enabled content site. That will get you your first entry. Stumble this post to get an additional entry. On May 11th I will use Technorati, Google, StumbleUpon and whatever other tools at my disposal to determine who entered the contest (feel free to comment here letting me know that you did if you want), and I will then use random.org to select the winner. Like I did for my digital pedometer giveaway, I will record a video of the selection.

Your odds of winning this bike are extremely good. For example, FatManUnleashed ran a similar contest recently where the winner needed only post a comment to the article - I think there were a total of about a dozen entries. Because I am asking for something a little more difficult I suspect there will be even fewer entries. Those are pretty good odds for winning a new bike. You can always sell it if you already have a better one too.

Want to give yourself an ever better chance at winning? Check out these fellow bloggers who are also giving away a bike:

Scale Junkie

Finding Flabuless

No More Fat Dad

She Just Walks Around With It

Keep Up With Me

So, check out the Lipton sites and stay tuned for my review of their new White Tea. And good luck on the contests!

The Pepsi/Lipton Partnership will provide a check for $75.00 to be used for professional assembly of all Lipton Fuji bicycles awarded. Neither Pepsi Co. nor Unilever is liable for any injuries, damages or accidents that may result from the receipt, assembly or use of this bicycle.

US Residents Only.

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I lifted weights this morning for the first time in almost two months and for only the second time since February 12th. Forcing myself to get up at 4:00am to workout wasn’t easy, but it is a habit I just have to get back into - I don’t have the luxury of being able to get daily strength training and cardio without doing so.

Previously when I had taken short breaks from weight training I had noticed that if I took a week off that I actually felt stronger when I got back into. This is because I gave my muscles enough time to rest and re-grow the torn tissues that happens when you lift. So I actually had incorporated that into my training schedule where every few weeks I would take a week off. Worked out great.

What doesn’t work out great is taking months off. Then, it’s not so easy. I couldn’t get the same reps in at the weights I had been at previously. And I really noticed it for overhead presses and chest flys - even with reduced weights and reps my arms literally turned to jello each set. By the last rep of my 3rd set I could barely lift the weights, and I am sure my form was absolute crap. I should probably lower the weights even more.

Still, I started the week off how I wanted to - by getting back into the habit of working out.

• Diet starting weight: 295
• Week starting weight: 274
• Today’s weight: 274
• Week weight loss: 0 lbs
• Total weight lost: 21 lbs

This is only my second official weekly weigh-in since February, which is a significant problem, both because I have gained weight since then and because I fear I am losing a grip on my program. So I am forcing myself to get back into the weekly reporting habit. This is one of the best things about documenting the journey in public, there is always that constant reminder of where you are at - and right now where I am at is not where I want to be. One of the most disappointing charts for me is my waist line chart - what previously had been a nice step down chart from 53 inches to 49 inches has now crept back up to 51 inches.

Things I did well this week:

• I brought workout clothes to a business trip in Denver and despite being up late the night before “socializing” I got up early to workout, putting 40 minutes on the treadmill.
• Put in a 4.1 mile walk/run with the dog.

Things I did not so well this week:

• Ate and drank too much.
• No focus on drinking water.
• No strength training.

I am now a dozen pounds heavier than the lowest weight I have seen on my scale during this journey that started last August. August will be here again before I know it and I want to ensure I get back on track well before then.

I want to thank all of my loyal readers who have stuck around despite my obvious dedication problems. Your dedication to me is helpful; I am working towards turning that into dedication to my program.

I have been thinking a bit about inspiration tonight as I read through some of the recent blog comments. What I am realizing is I don’t know that I know what truly inspires me.

Andrew wrote that I have inspired him:

You can get back on the horse John. Back when you posted about running 2 miles in a row you really inspired me. I ran 6 miles in a row the other day and I owe a lot of it to you and this website.

So did Violet:

Thanks for this post, John. It inspired me to go out and do a 2.5 mile run - my old cross country race route. I have been cheating the runner in me by walking a lot - it feels like I’m still doing something, but you’re right, it’s not as effective for weight loss.

In the first case the inspiration was an action that I took, and presumably how I wrote about it. In the second case the inspiration was not a direct action, but rather really calling out to the reader to reflect on themselves.

Metroknow wrote about what inspires him:

One other thing on the “inspiring” thing that JoLynn mentioned — a couple of weekends ago I watched the movie “300″, and although its quite graphic in its depictions of warfare, all of the actors who were the Spartans were pretty ripped, which totally inspired me to get my workout act together. Because I can tell ya, I ain’t no Spartan…

As I read this I realized I don’t get inspired from seeing “ripped” guys, but I suppose that may be because I am not at that point in my journey, I’m still at the losing weight part. So that tends to be what I like to read about, and to see, are dramatic changes like what you see on Biggest Loser, for example.

But does it inspire me? Has it caused me to go out and take action? To stop myself when I go to the pantry to fill up a bowl of Gorp (like I did tonight, for no reason).

No.

I think I need help finding inspiration but then more importantly taking action on it. Knowing your weaknesses is half that battle.

What inspires you? Would you be more inspired by someone who went from obese to normal or normal to totally ripped? Is it only a function of where you are in your own journey?

I took a walk this morning with our new puppy Maddie (I’ll have to write up a post about her later, she’s a real cutie!), an approximate 4 mile loop to a local lake and back, with on occasional jog here and there. I probably only jogged about a half mile out of the four mile walk.

As I have been reminded of before, taking a break from cardio like I have been doing really makes it tough when you try to get back on the horse. So where I had jogged a couple of miles straight back in January, I could not even muster a quarter of a mile today. Granted, I had a 25 pound dog on a leash to contend with, but still, that is not the problem.

The problem is, I have been eating too much, of too poor quality, and not exercising. In the past as I thought about feeling guilty about making a poor food decision I related it directly to the scale. “Those 10 Thin Mints you just ate - that’s going to hurt you on the scale.”

But today as I was running I came to a different conclusion - those 10 Thin Mints had affected my ability to run in the way I want to be able to run. I realized that I had been cheating the runner in me who wants to be able to run that 4 mile loop instead of walking.

I honestly don’t know if this change in mindset is going to work but I am going to give it a try. As I catch myself contemplating poor food choices I am going to focus on the runner I am cheating rather than the scale.

Are you cheating the runner in you?