New Benchmark Photo

I am in a groove now. I rarely feel hungry and certainly don't have to plan my life around food anymore. I usually gain weight in the Fall, but that is not the case this year. This is what 170 looks like on me. Comparatively, the previous photo was about 185. What I am finding to be the most interesting/disturbing now is how many people are saying I should gain weight! Is this strictly an American standard I am breaking here? To me it seems that the 185 was not healthy and I am quite sure the ones "concerned" are not getting numbers like 111/80 and 55bpm resting.

Update

I have been busy working on my Barefoot Run, living Primal and Intermittent Fasting. First, the run is now set for July 17th at Gallup Park. We are working on shirts, sponsors, advertising and volunteers.  I am concentrating on eating more meat and vegetables, less rice and fruit and no carbs. My work outs are Mon-Arms, Tues-Chest, Wed-Legs and Thursday-back. I take Friday off. I try to swim bike and run on the weekends with a couple of runs during the week. The week runs are usually two miles for distance and the weekend runs are one mile warm ups and hard sprints. The philosophy is lift heavy things and sprint. In the past I usually worked on mileage, but now it's just speed. My eating routine is now Mon/Wed/Fri-Lunch and snacks at night, Tue/Thur-Breakfast, shake for lunch and Dinner. The weekends are not structured, but I try to eat brunch and Dinner. I weighed in at 186 today after being at 190 at the beginning of the month! I should be at 175 by August. I actually think 170 is ideal, but figure I will plateau once first.

Update Time

Here is the table of goodies from the party on Saturday. I am including this because it is the same stuff I have had at every party for years. This shows the difficulty of going Primal on your own. I made the Bruschetta so I had to eat a couple of the steak ones to make sure they were good, but mostly stuck to the good cheese, the meat tray and some sushi. I did eat quite a bit of the fatty steak pieces I trimmed off in order to curb my appetite before the party started. I drank hard cider, sake, tequila and wine, but no beer. While I had my own challenges I thought it rather ironic that the rest of the crowd was on weight watchers. The irony being that they brought desserts etc. On Sunday, with a slight hangover, I got out to Kensington for the first outdoor barefoot run of the year. The weather reached 40°, which was actually really nice after wind chills of -25° just a week earlier. I did wear my Vibrams and felt pretty comfortable during the run. However, once I put my socks and shoes back on my toes started to sting as they warmed up. It was worth it. As far as my weight is concerned, I am still at 190. Not sure how much of fat loss is being offset by increased weights, but probably not too much. I turn 45 in 11 days and wanted to be at 180. Guess 185 is going to be more realistic. I am getting pretty excited about Spring being just around the corner. We have a warm up coming and I hope to take advantage of that at least a little bit.

New Years Resolutions

Be more Primal and fast more often. That's about it. I got back to 194 over the Holidays. I am going to get down to 180 by end of January. It helps that I am taking the Primal Challenge from John Durant's site. I think that combined with some fasting will be sufficient. Especially knowing that 5 of those pounds are from this weekend and if I act right away they should drop quickly. I imagine they are water weight and cookie weight. I tried to stay away from non-primal foods, but I went to a few parties in the last few days and it was hard to avoid the carbs even though I was careful and not glutenous, but the alcohol definitely didn't help.

Weight Issues Updated

I am on track again. A few things I am changing are the size of my lunches. I found two lunches which are more Primal and less money. Westgate Thai, as we call it, has Tom Kha Gai (sic), which is a coconut milk soup with chicken and lime juice. It is about $5 and the tea is free. Sabor Latina has the tacos for $1.99 no cheese, but corn tortillas. I can eat two and be good. I have been working out with the increased weights doing lower reps and walking on the treadmill in between sets. I got my first morning run, for weeks, in yesterday. The temp was 40°, which really wasn't that bad in my VFFs. All this has kept the weight steady, but the waist shrinking. I think 175 is a reasonable goal for the end of the month. I will take some pictures and go further in depth on the food next week.

Weight Issues

I have been struggling, in my mind, with the fact that I have not been losing weight. I am doing pretty much the same things that got me to 180 from 200. That took 3 months, but I haven't lost any weight for the last 3 months. However, this morning I was getting dressed and realized I could not find any pants to wear because most were too loose at the waist. A while back I started labeling my pant hangers with the sizes, how anal I know, starting at 36 and working down in 1" increments to 33. Now the 33s don't fit. So I'm thinking that with the increased weights I'm working out with I must be gaining mass and still losing fat. I imagine I might be losing marbling in the muscles or eliminating the fat covering the muscles, since I don't appear to be bulking up much. The message here is that it is so easy to get caught up in the whole weight thing, I get on the scale almost daily, rather than trust in what the Paleo diet is doing for my body. While I am still not content with my body image, as I don't look like Brad Pitt in fight club yet, things are still going in the right direction.

Benchmark Photo

I wanted to add this photo for future comparisons. I will say I am at 185 here. I should be at 180 to make my target of 175 by the end of September, but I am struggling with a need to snack or drink at the end of the night. I find it difficult not to consume something while watching the idiot box, as my father used to call it, and laying down on the couch. It is not a flattering look, but the before pictures are always that way. In addition the angle is low because my photographer was having a rough morning and didn't want to get out of bed to take the picture.

Intermittent Fasting/Weight Loss

Since going Primal I have been able to practice IF. Before I was always soooo hungry every couple hours I thought I was going to pass out. Now I can wake up, work out and still not need to eat a breakfast. I think I actually eat out of habit, rather than actually being hungry. Don't get me wrong, I can tell when I haven't had breakfast, but the hunger does go away after a couple of hours. So, I have just weighed in at 184. When I started this spring I was 202. I have been a little lazy at reaching my goal of 175, so I am going on record as making this a goal for the end of September.