Sunday, October 16, 2016

272 - joined a gym again

With winter approaching, and needing to keep up the momentum of increased activity and weight loss, I joined the gym here in Sidney a couple of days ago. This morning (after delivering newspapers at 6.30 am, and before working at the grocery store at 1.00 pm) I went there for the first time. It was a good first session, with a few minutes on an elliptical trainer and the rest of the hour spent getting used to the tension equipment (training leg, arm and back muscles). I was careful not to overdo it on this first occasion - after all, I keep telling people, "slow and steady wins the race". It doesn't require a single Herculean effort but, rather, a consistent application of small steps.

I also found a second set of scales (at the gym) on which to confirm what my home bathroom scales had been telling me. I've managed to get down to 272 lbs this morning, the lowest I've been in a very long time. As I begin to get used to my new routine, I think we'll see the pounds starting to drop off again soon.

Friday, October 07, 2016

Losing inches, not pounds, for now

It's been more than three weeks since I last blogged about my progress, and tomorrow it will be two weeks since I moved to Sidney, MT. In some ways it feels like I've been here longer than that - it's been so busy.

I'm still hovering around the mid-270s pound mark, the same as two weeks ago. The big change that I've noticed is that my new pants (trousers) are fitting better than when I bought them seven weeks ago.

In terms of diet and exercise, I know I'm burning way more energy now than I ever did before. I'm working two jobs at the moment - both requiring a lot more physical exercise than I've been used to for a few years. At the moment, I don't have an accurate way to capture all the daily steps, but I'll estimate that I'm easily exceeding 12,000 steps a day at the grocery store, and my newspaper delivery route easily adds 8,000 steps to the tally. I'm also riding my bike half a dozen times a week, which is good too. I know I'm eating a lot more than I used to, and that a greater proportion of what I eat is carbohydrates. I'm trying really hard to stick to salads and green vegetables.