Day 1: The Start of Something Little

Welcome to the Day 1 post of my February Fitness challenge.  If you aren't sure what the hell I'm talking about, go back and read Wednesday's post to catch up with the rest of the team.  I'm hoping that we as a team can do something amazing and use the power of social networking to do what it should be used for: community. Very few people in life aren't conscious of their health in well-being, whether it is trying to drop weight, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, or figuring out why everything hurts.  I've been struggling with weight for the better part of three decades, so I know how it came sometimes feel like a hopeless battle.  The only real way to make a difference is to be aware, be realistic, and be humble.  Deciding to lose 100 lbs on your own is a remarkable goal, but without using every resource available to you and every shoulder to lean on that you can find, I don't believe it is a result you'll ever get to.  So, for the next 28 days, I challenge us all to put our pride aside and use one another to make a real difference in our lives, whether it is health, nutrition, or emotional well-being.  Again, you be as specific as you want to be.  If you're comfortable telling everyone how much weight you've lost or how much you ran today, then share your successes so that we might all learn something from you.  If you aren't quite to that point yet, then just check in with your simple, "Check!"  Watch Molly and Shelbi as an example because they've been doing it for months.  As the month goes on, ask questions, create opportunities for growth, and see how much better you eventually feel.

In my latest leg of this journey (we'll consider it from the beginning of the Mondays blog, or two years and two months ago), I've managed to lose almost 60 lbs.  In my very first post on the Mondays blog, I said I'd be ecstatic if I ever lost 50 lbs.  Well, over the last month, I managed to hit that ecstatic point and, as it turns out, ecstatic wasn't the exact word I was feeling.  The truth is that if you add up all the weight that I've lost over the past two years and two month after you also add in all the weight I've regained, I've managed to lose over 150 lbs.  150 lbs?!  Why do I have to keep gaining to lose?  Anyway, until I can say I've lost 90 consecutive pounds and officially weigh in at 199, I'm going to withhold that ecstatic adjective.  Instead, let's say that I'm content and optimistic.  Let's look at the results of how I did since the last time I checked in (12/11/12).

Then
Weight: 237.6 lb 

BMI: 34.1

BMR: 2233 kcal

Fat %: 33.8%

Fat Mass: 80.4 lb

FFM: 157.2 lb

TBW: 115 lb

Now

Weight: 229.6 lb (-8 lb, total of -31.8)

BMI: 33.1 (-1, total of -4.4)

BMR: 2198 kcal (-35, total of  -178)

Fat %: 38.5% (+4.7%, net loss of 3.5%)

Fat Mass: 88.3 lb (+7.9, net loss of 21.7 lbs of man boobs)

Fat Free Muscle: 141.3 lb (- 15.9 lb, net loss of 10.5 lb)

TBW: 104.4 lb (-10.6 lb, net loss of  4.7 lb)

I'm not sure what to make of these results.  Let's not forget that at some point, I gained about 10 lbs back as of January 1, so I am down closer to 18 since then.  Long story short, my morning basketball routine ended the day the blog ended in December because our athletic director (a.k.a. our access to the gym and fancy scale) blew out his knee in our morning game.  Everything just stopped cold.  I had no way to monitor my fat and muscle numbers, something I used to find incredibly helpful.  I also was back to just working out once a day at lunch, something that I also didn't do as regularly due to all of the days off of school over the holiday season.  Still, something doesn't quite feel right about the numbers.  One factor is that I used to weigh-in every Tuesday morning immediately after playing basketball pretty hard for over an hour, which skewed all the numbers towards healthy (although I would think the Total Body Water would have been lower then).  I've been on a no red meat, no carb diet for the past couple of weeks, which I know for a fact cuts my protein intake, something I was focusing pretty hard on up to that December date.  I still don't trust the 8 lb gain of fat nor the nearly 15 lbs in lost water.  Don't get me wrong, super stoked that I hit my 229 end of January timeline goal.  I just need to make sure I'm doing it in a healthy way and these numbers don't look healthy.  I'm going to take it as a fluke reading and see what comes up over the next couple of weeks, but it is definitely something that I need to keep an eye on.  I only set a goal of losing five pounds over the course of the next 28 days to keep on my realistic path for 199 by the wedding day, so that gives me some wiggle room to play with my diet a little bit to see if I can't get those numbers right again.  

I hope you're able to jump off in the right direction today.  Don't forget to check in on the Facebook group.  I'm earning my check mark today in the mental and spiritual well-being categories by hoping that I'm helping some friends, exercising my creative energy through writing, and enjoying the camaraderie on an ice fishing trip with a couple of my pals from work (don't worry, I've already got my daily posts for the weekend ready to go).  I haven't enjoyed fresh air (even if it is -20) in what seems like forever, so I'm hoping that I can breathe a little life into my winter weary body.  Good luck to all of you.  We can do this!

Day 1, Check!

Jeff