The Weigh-In Week 41

213! That is what it said on the scale this morning. A loss of .6 pounds.

Not a bad way to follow up last weeks big accomplishments. Now I just have to behave this weekend...or squeeze in some extra workouts and hopefully I can coast into vacation next weekend as a non-obese guy.

Our big winner this week was Teresa with a last minute guess of .6. Nicely done Teresa. Only 5 votes though, so no prize this week.

As a correction from last week, our winner was Ali, not Butters. Ali I didn't have a chance to pick up a race day souvenir for you. So I'll have to think of something else.

Have a great weekend and a Happy Easter.

Tony
03/21: 216lbs
NEW GOAL: 208
5 lbs. to go

The Wife Weighs In...Week 24

Happy Friday, GHMIW fans!

Quick update for me as I only have a couple of minutes. I'm taking the day off and the girls are still sleeping, so this might be my only chance! (Even though Nana Heather is here today...there is just so much to do!)

I had a little stand-off of my own this week and I stuck to it pretty well. I went back to logging everything I ate and even planned out my days ahead of time. Yesterday was a little more difficult, as my staff threw me a surprise birthday party. Buffalo chicken salad wasn't too bad, but I had a little trouble resisting the blue cheese.

Cardio and weights on Monday, hour on the treadmill on Tuesday, overslept on Wednesday, hour on the treadmill yesterday, cardio and weights this morning.

I hope to continue the stand-off through the Easter weekend (yikes!) and next week as we get ready for vacation.

Have a happy Easter! Don't let the Reese's peanut butter eggs bite you in the backside...
Laura (a.k.a. Elle Tee Jay)

3/14/08: 187.0 pounds
3/14/08: 184.4 pounds (a loss of 2.6 pounds)

Total loss: 44.0 pounds
Next goal: 182.0 pounds

Guess How Much I Weigh Contest - Week 41

It's been another good week of naturally healthy eating. No major cravings, no major binges. Knock on wood.

I ate kind of heavy over the weekend, what with all the race day celebrations and all., so as always it comes down to today to see if I will have a loss or not. Even if I do have a gain, it will be a tiny one. I think I can pull out the loss though.

I have decided to stop logging my food. I have hardly done it since the beginning of the year, and the few weeks that I did do it, the logging was always done at the end of the week instead of as an on going thing. So really it wasn't helping my choose what to eat. I feel like I am at a new phase in this journey. I know what I can and should be eating now. It is simply a matter of being mentally aware. I don't think I need the log for that anymore.

One last bit of house keeping. My lovely wife and I are headed off on Vacation next Friday for some much deserved R and R. I may move the official weigh in to Thursday to accommodate our traveling, which would move the contest to Wednesday. Stay tuned for further details.


Step right up, step right up.
Guess how much I weigh and win a fabulous prize.

To Recap:
Every Thursday I give you my stats for the week and you guess what you think the scale will say on Friday morning. The winner is the first person who guesses my weight / weight loss for the week without going over or the person who is closest without going over. Go ahead and click on comments at the bottom of this post and leave your guess.


I will post the winner when I post my weight on Fri. morning. If we get ten or more guesses I will have a prize for the winner.


Let the guessing begin. Good Luck!


Tony
03/20: 213.6lbs
Goal: 214 lbs. ACCOMPLISHED
NEW GOAL: 208
5.6 lbs. to go

p.s. Don't forget you can subscribe to the e-mail edition of Guess How Much I Weigh . Simply enter your e-mail address in the space to the right.

So What's Next?

When I woke up on Sunday morning I realized I no longer had a goal. For the last few months my energy has been focused a lot more on training for the 5K and less on worrying about my weight. It's just a nice coincidence that training for a 5K is a good way to drop the pounds.

While I am still actively working to get under 200 pounds, it doesn't feel like a mission anymore. The weight loss is kind of a way of life now. Which is the best possible place to be.

Without a mission, I missed the excitement and passion I was feeling everyday. It took just one day for me to go from fired up to feeling a little lost.

So with a little help from a couple of friends I have come up with a new mission... and I am excited and scared!

On July 20th of this year I am going to compete in the 23rd Annual Heart of The Lakes Triathlon!!!


You read that right, I am doing a triathlon!

Are you shocked? I know I am.

My dad was pretty shocked too. But it took all of a day for him to get over the shock and sign up for the race. So once again we will be doing this together. And Dad, I couldn't be happier!

And my friend Teresa will be doing the long race the same day. So I will have plenty of training buddies.

I will be doing what they call a sprint triathlon. A 1/4 Mile Swim, A 9-Mile Bike and a 2.5 Mile Run.

Never in a million years would I have thought this is something I would try. I don't even own a bike.

But now that I have officially signed up I am so excited! I am excited for the thrill of doing something new, excited to stretch beyond my comfort zone and excited to have a mission again.

First things first, I have to get a bike.


Anybody out there own a bike shop or bike manufacturing company? Do you want to sponsor me?

My second new goal is to get down to 208 by my birthday on May 29th. 208 would mean I have lost a total of 80 pounds.

Welcome to part 2 of my journey. Chapter 2 promises to be just as exciting as the first!

Tony
03/18: 213.6lbs
Goal: 214 lbs. ACCOMPLISHED
NEW GOAL: 208
5.6 lbs. to go

Race Day Wrap Up

That is the official "unofficial time". The official time will be closer to 26:55 due to the 5 seconds it took us to get to the starting line after the whistle was blown. Hopefully the official results will be posted later today.

The race went better than I could have ever imagined. The goal was to finish in under 30 minutes. Did that and then some!

26:55 is nearly 2 minutes better than my fastest 5K to date. The adrenalin help some I am sure but what helped even more was having my Dad and my brother-in-law set the pace... and having my Dad right there acting as cheerleader the whole way.

Thanks for the encouragement Dad!

As for the race itself, I felt real good until we finished the second mile. We petty quickly settled into a good pace and passed quite a few people in the first mile and a half. That alone was an awesome feeling, being the one doing the passing instead of the other way around.

At the 1 and 2.5 mile marks there was a huge hill..well it felt huge at the time. I did great coming up the hill the first time around, but that second hill just about killed me.

Luckily just over the top of the hill was all our cheering fans. Seeing everybody there gave me the last little boost I needed to get across the finish line in under 27 minutes.

Thank you guys for coming out and cheering. And thank you to my lovely wife for all her support and encouragement and the lovely sign!

The race was everything I hoped it would be. A celebration of all my accomplishments thus far. A great bonding experience with my dad. A personal achievement I never would have imagined a year ago!

So now the question is, what's next? We'll talk about that tomorrow.

Tony
03/17: 213.6lbs
Goal: 214 lbs. ACCOMPLISHED
NEW GOAL: 208
4.4 lbs. to go