Congratulations to all who advanced to the second half of the contest, especially to those on the bubble who literally busted their butts this past week.  To those who did not advance, please do not get discouraged.  Continue a healthy diet and fitness regimen and reach your goals anyway, even if it takes some time.  If you still don't make the progress you expect and require more motivation, consider entering the contest next year and be sure to take advantage of the great resources that are made available.

This experience has been wonderful.  Personally, I have worked as hard as humanly possible to achieve more than I ever could have imagined.  And we're only half-way home.

Success is my continuing motivation.  The more goals accomplished, the harder I want to work.  My next goal is to get done.  By "done", I mean to reach my wildest, lowest weight target.  What's that?  Marathon weight of about 148.

Can this possibly be reached before the end of the contest?  Who knows.  At 55 years of age, I am already treading in uncharted territory, doing things I haven't been able to do for decades.  This is ridiculous to even think about, but I'm actually there right now.

I will keep running hard and let's see how far this crazy ride will take me.  And i wish that everyone else's ride takes them as far as their wildest dreams can possibly take them.

In my own personal tribute to the Boston Marathon victims, I logged two marathons worth of miles last week, over 52 miles altogether.  But this was only brisk walking, about two hours a night Monday through Friday.  As mentioned in an earlier blog, I decided to snuggle into a comfortable fat-burning mode by walking on the treadmill in lieu of my running, because I felt too heavy to run well, at least as well as I expect.

This week, after losing a few pounds, I felt better.  What a bittersweet situation, because today, I ran into my sadistic track coach.  I saw him in the mirror again.

Needless to say, he looked me over.  He saw some possibilities.  He made me work.  He made me work hard.  Really hard.  Over 11 miles - 6 of which was running.  Intervals of 3 miles plus other runs of two miles and one mile.  I haven't done a 3 mile run since Reagan was president!

After two hours, I was exhausted.  My T-shirt was soaked with sweat.  But my sadistic track coach made me believe tonight that I can run a 10K right now.  Perhaps a half marathon eventually.  Maybe more.

I have a love-hate relationship with my sadistic track coach.  I silently told him when that I saw him in the mirror of the car driving home from the gym.  But I am a lot better off tonight than I was before I ran into him earlier today.

Looks like he may be here to stay.

Saturday was my monthly meeting at the Lake County General Health District.  My body fat percentage stayed about the same, most likely because I hydrate poorly, especially in the mornings.  Cori did remind me that my BMI has lowered since the start of the contest.  I am now "overweight", not "obese".

Put that way, I feel like the results of my IQ test are in.  Great news: my IQ rose from "imbecile" (IQ from 25-50) to "moron" (IQ of 51 to 70).  Wow!  I'm getting lean.  Who says I'm overweight?

Anyway, after my health assessment, I began to plan for two business trips scheduled over the next few weeks.

Now, this lifestyle change thingy gets put to a REAL test.

First, the diet.  It will be almost a full week of meals away from home each trip, but I have this part figured out:

BREAKFAST:  Although most hotels offer a free continental breakfast, the food choices are not the best.  Even the selection of cereal is unhealthy  - sugary and everything but whole grain.  Compared to what I normally eat now, forget it.  I will pack a small box or baggie of my own cereal and use the hotel's skim milk.  Hopefully, the TSA hates Total and leaves my luggage alone.

LUNCH:  I have already scouted out locations of nearby Subways.  All my lunches will be eaten there.  My "go to" favorite is the "Veggie Delite" - 460 calories and low sodium for a foot-long sub on wheat bread with all the veggies, no cheese, and vinegar as the only condiment.  And a bottle of water.

DINNER:  It should not be too difficult to find restaurants that have a salad with either grilled chicken or salmon.  Dressing on the side, of course.  I know there is a Cabanas in Chardon, but is there one in Wyoming?  Or Virginia?

SNACKS:  There will be frequent breaks to call my office and check emails, so these times will be my scheduled snack times.  I will take some fruit from the hotel breakfast buffet - banana for the morning and apple for the afternoon.  I will also pack some bags of trail mix and nuts to eat during the day.  Grocery stores are a good option for fruit and yogurt.  Hopefully, my hotel room will have a fridge.  And no bedbugs.

Second part of the equation is the exercise.  I really did my due diligence here:

NO LONG DAYS:  My trips will not involve long days.  Even on travel days, I made arrangements to arrive early enough to get in a good work-out.  I also depart early enough to make time for a workout at home.  Traveling during the business day, not at night, will help me avoid the temptation to have an adult beverage or two.  Or three.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AT WORK:  My main task for this trip involves surveying a power plant to evaluate the installation of equipment my company builds.  This means lots of walking, both ground level and up-and-down stairs.  There may be some climbing up steel ladders and I may need to climb to the top of 60 foot-high storage silos.  (NOTE TO SELF:  Pack extra bananas)

NO TEMPTATIONS:  When it comes to my job, I travel alone and spend all of my free time alone.  There is no temptation or pressure to go to a place that I myself do not choose.  I do not have morning meetings (with doughnuts) or dinner meetings (with heavy meals, desserts and boring speakers).  My sympathy goes out to the other contestants who travel and need to resist these temptations.  And listen to boring speakers.

PLACES TO WORK OUT:  I learned a lesson from my recent trips to Columbus - don't trust hotel fitness centers to be "gyms".  The hotel had a fitness center, but the equipment operated poorly, if at all.  This was particularly true of my trusty little friend, the treadmill.  The hotel had two - one had an "OUT OF ORDER" sign and the other one had a belt that slipped badly.  Even after my complaints the first time, the next visit a month later saw no improvement with the operation of either treadmill.  To prevent this from happening again, I found a hotel that has a fitness center AND is partnered with a nearby health club.  Surely the health club will have decent equipment and the cost is only 6 bucks a day, should I need to use it.  In the recent past, I would have happily spent that money on a pitcher of beer.  Or two.

For the second weekend in a row, I skipped doing any meaningful physical exercise.  This included all day Saturday and all day Sunday both weekends.

What is this due to?  I admit it.  I am a "Rewards Freak".  This quirky personality trait is partially (or perhaps mostly) responsible for me being in the shape I was in at the start of the contest.  By the way, mathematicians call that shape "round".

You may wonder: "What is a 'Rewards Freak?'"  Simple.  By my definition, it is a person who does something good and then absolutely must receive a reward for it.

I have exhibited this behavior for as long as I can remember.  In its most simple form, there is nothing wrong with it.  In fact, it can be a great motivator for getting things done.  However, it can also grow into a diabolical monster should the reward system fall into the hands of evil.

For example:  Mow the lawn - relax and have a beer as a reward.  That sounds innocent enough.

Clean out the garage - go out to dinner as a reward.  Sounds innocent on the surface, until the actual dinner plan falls into place.  Shall we go to that restaurant famous for its 32-ounce prime rib?  And sundae bar?  It's "5 Dollar Bucket o' Beer" night, too, isn't it?

Now, it's not so innocent.

The obviously bad part of being a Rewards Freak is when the consequences of the reward outweigh (pun intended) the benefits derived from the good deed as in the prime rib dinner example described above.  Lately, I have started to fall into that trap.  I'm not in the trap just yet, just lurking dangerously close to becoming tangled in it again, so I need to watch myself.

The current version of my reward system is based on my success in this contest.  Naturally, I feel entitled to an occasional reward.  So what are my rewards?  Taking days off of exercise.  More specifically, taking too many days off of exercise and doing pretty much nothing on those days.

What am I going to do about it?  Stick to my routine of hard work and think about the importance of completing my workout routine more often.  Five or six days a week needs to be the norm, not slacking off to only three of four days.  I must never forget, there is still a long way to go until I proudly post the blog about me and my new Speedo.



 

When I entered this contest, I had a plan.  A simple plan, very regimented, requiring lots of diligence.  Log as many miles as possible on the treadmill.  Throw in a Boot Camp here and there so my leg muscles aren't lonely.  Most important: adhere to a strict, healthy diet.  No cheating.  None.  Nada.  Zero.  Zilch.  Zip.

Then, like they infer in Saturday morning fitness infomercials, sit back and watch the fat melt away.

After twelve weeks, I have lost a lot of weight - about 35 pounds.  This proves that something worked.  I'm thinking it might be the diet and exercise, because being so busy on the treadmill,  I lost track of time and missed both my liposuction and gastric bypass appointments.  The only people I spent any time with for quite a while, besides my dear girlfriend, were the Produce Manager at Giant Eagle, and the guy who oils the treadmill at the fitness center in my office building.

With some early success, I thought I would be able to run once a certain weight level was reached.  I originally targeted that number at 180 pounds, an educated guess at the time.  As part of the plan, on the afternoon of the day that the scale displayed just under that number, I was off and running - literally.

After spending over a week of running - hard interval work, I discovered I am not quite where I need to be.  Although I surprised myself that I possess every bit of the speed of thirty years ago, I am just not light enough to push the endurance aspect of running yet.  This was evident last Thursday on a sunny, but cool day.  My attempt at running outside was met with tight leg muscles and not enough energy to make it around the block, which is about a mile.  Although I was not particularly out-of-breath, I did feel like I was running while carrying a bowling ball in each hand.

One thing I made clear to myself from the onset of the contest - an all-important part - is to avoid any injuries, so I stopped right there.

A couple of days later was the weigh-in, which went well.  As a token reward to myself, I took this past week easy, at least by my standards, slipping in a day off here and there.  What did this do for me?  Absolutely nothing.  No weight loss, but also no weight gain.  I need to get back to losing some more weight, but know that I can't run as well as I want - at least not quite yet.  It's time for a little shift in strategy to overcome this predicament:

"Dance with who brung you."

What does this mean?  My early success was based on simply putting in time on the treadmill.  Lots of time.  Sometimes over two hours a night.  Time to go back to that - putting the running and outside activities on hold - until about 10 or 15 more pounds are lost.  By then, the weather should be much warmer, perhaps 60 to 70 degrees instead of 40 to 50 degrees.  My body should be a lighter projectile to propel around the block by then, too.  And no bowling balls to carry.

Feet, don't fail me now.

Saturday's weigh-in went pretty well, maybe too well.

Since my car was in the repair shop over the weekend, my dear girlfriend drove me to LEAN Living.  Twelve chuckholes and a wild turkey sighting later, we arrived.

After the weigh-in, I got an epiphany.  At least for that day, I decided that I am tired of trying to be Superman all the time.

Since we were half-way there already, I told my dear girlfriend that we might as well visit Chardon.  There are antique shops and other places that she likes to to walk around that I don't mind visiting.  There are some taverns in that area that I enjoy and she doesn't mind visiting.  A win-win situation.  Especially for the taverns.

As I wandered through the antique shops, I noticed they all had a lot of George Clooney memorabilia.  At least I thought it was George Clooney memorabilia.  My girlfriend told me those were mirrors.  Oh, well.  Honest mistake on my part.

After the browsing, we ended up at Bass Lake Tavern for lunch.  Before we even got there, I decided to have a burger for a change.  And fries.  Although not the greasy consistency typical of fries from a fast-food place, these were french fries all the same.  Since I have done so well so far in this contest, I decided to treat myself and I stand by my decision.  This was the first time since January 18th that I have eaten anything that was fried.  ANYTHING.

Eating the burger and fries took about a minute less than my decision to order them in the first place.  If such a negative time duration is physically or scientifically possible, I am sure Einstein postulated it at some time.

So, if you see a big red "S" on the front of my shirt, I am not Superman anymore.  I am just a slob with the ketchup bottle.

I plan to work off the teenie-weenie weight gain from this welcomed break this upcoming week.  If only an additional pound or two is lost by next weigh-in, too bad.  I will call this "ketchup time".

This little bit of cheating should have been done a long time ago, but as they say, "Heinz-sight is 20/20".  I relish the thought.

This Lighten Up thing is getting to be too much fun.  I can see all the hard work really paying off.  Smooth sailing ahead.

That brings me to the title of today's blog.  The title has nothing to do with ME.  It is entirely about my CLOTHES.

Except for a new belt my girlfriend bought me recently, I am using the innermost notch of every belt I own.

My pants are starting to look ridiculously loose.  Like in an MC Hammer video.

Shirts that fit tight at the start of the contest are fitting nicely now, or perhaps even looking a little loose.

My ring practically falls off of my finger and will need to be re-sized.

Last summer, I bought two new suits for the weddings of my girlfriend's son and her nephew.  (Those were two separate weddings.)   Soon, those suits will need to be altered - big time, if that is even possible.  Maybe they can make a third suit out of the excess material.

It is the start of the Farewell Tour of My Clothes.

After each time I wear something that looks loose, off it goes into the Goodwill hamper.  Little by little, I will start to buy new clothes, but they will no longer be from Omar the Tent Maker.

Soon, it will be time to work on the rough draft of my latest blog: "Hello, Speedo".

Now that I am running every day, my rate of weight loss is slowing down.

Why?  Lots of reasons...

I have increased food consumption to fuel my workouts.  The other day, I ate half of a roasted chicken for dinner.  Had my girlfriend not put up such a fierce fight for her half, I would have eaten the whole thing.  (NOTE TO SELF - Google: "defending against woman's fingernails")

When I do eat larger portions, I try to keep it within the confines of three conditions: (1) my larger meal occurs on a hard workout day, not on an off day, (2) the larger meal is consumed before my workout, not after, and (3) the food is still a healthy choice.

The "easy" pounds, mostly fat, have already been lost, and hopefully for good.  Although I am far from single-digit body fat percentage, there is a lot less fat on my body than just ten weeks ago.

I am eating more carbs which are consumed, then burned right away.

My current workouts are burning lots of calories per hour - more than before.  However, now that I am lighter, I have decided to shorten my daily workouts.  Instead of burning 1,200 calories in 2 hours walking, I am now burning about 1,000 calories alternating walking and running in 90 minutes.  Once my endurance increases, I will burn closer to 900 calories in 60 minutes of running.

Yippee!  More time for yard work!

Since my early progress was so significant, I am also in a position to reach all of my goals on schedule, even at a slower weight loss pace.  If my diabolical plan begins to fail, "I will dance with who brung me here".  In other words, revert to spending 2+ hours a day on the treadmill, but I doubt that will be necessary.

It is disturbing to me that so many of my Lighten Up colleagues openly mention in their blogs the use the chemical "Dihydrogen monoxide".  Not only do they mention it casually, they throw caution to the wind.  With reckless abandon at times, they openly praise the benefits of its heavy usage and urge others to use it heavily.  Are any of them possibly aware of the following?

Dihydrogen monoxide:

• is called "hydroxyl acid", this substance is the major component of acid rain.
• contributes to the "greenhouse effect".
• may cause severe burns.
• is fatal if inhaled.
• contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape.
• accelerates corrosion and rusting of many metals.
• may cause electrical failures and decreased effectiveness of automobile brakes.
• has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.

Despite the danger, dihydrogen monoxide is often used:

• as an industrial solvent and coolant.
• in nuclear power plants.
• in the production of Styrofoam.
• as a fire retardant.
• in many forms of cruel animal research.
• in the distribution of pesticides. Even after washing, produce remains contaminated by this chemical.
• as an additive in certain "junk foods" and other food products.

Happy April Fool's Day, everyone!  If you didn't already figure it out by now, Dihydrogen monoxide is "water" (H2O).