My weekly 9 mile mall walk is done.  The rest of the day I will relax.  Today's walk took a lot out of me because I also made the effort to go to 8am Boot Camp yesterday at LEAN Living.  That session worked muscles I didn't know I had, but was well worth it.

My blogging frequency will be reduced to two a week - probably Wednesdays and Sundays for now since I am putting my fitness program on auto-pilot.  By that, I mean the eating will continue as it has for the last three weeks - about 1,800 to 2,000 calories per day of healthy food and the workouts will remain about the same with the addition of the Saturday morning Boot Camp.

My girlfriend and I have decided to add more complicated dishes to our diet since grilled salmon or chicken over spinach is getting a little boring.  Thursday night, she made peppers stuffed with ground turkey, brown rice, and herbs with a low-sodium tomato puree spooned over it.  This was accompanied by sliced tomatoes and avocados.

Similar to the Cabanas healthy menu items, this made a generous, satisfying portion.  To paraphrase the quote from "The Most Interesting Man in the World" (a beer commercial, no less) - "Stay full, my friends".

Occasionally, I am have been treating myself to a glass or two of red wine in the evening.  I have decided to cut back on this since I "discovered"that over 250 calories a day are creeping their way into my life.  This was due entirely to a wrong estimate on my part.

While tinkering online with some of Vitabot's features, I found yet another calculator for Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).  This is the amount of calories burned in a day at full rest.  The Vitabot calculator takes into account "percentage of body fat", which I happen to know from my assessment.  From other online resources, I had estimated my BMR to be 1,885 calories, based only on height and weight.  With my fat percentage considered, Vitabot puts my BMR at 1,634 calories right now - 251 calories less than I thought it was.

We will see where that number is at the next health assessment in two weeks.

Another consideration is that BMR decreases as weight decreases, but INCREASES as fat percentage decreases.  I'm thinking this will make BMR constant throughout the contest because the decrease from weight loss will cancel the increase from lower body fat.   (Don't let your head explode doing the math)

So now, since I have the food part under control, it's the other side of the equation that gets tougher... perhaps longer walks and walks at lunchtime on days I bowl and would otherwise pass.

My progress so far:

22 days

17.8 pounds lost (8.37% of total body weight)

14.8 pounds to lose before start of distance training (running)

121 miles toward 1,000 mile goal

30.5 hours in the gym

(If you followed my other blog entries, you may notice that my gym hours are lower than last time.  This is because I had been including other, less-strenuous activities in the count.  My new formula counts only rigorous "REAL" workout time.)