Week 1 Summary

Well folks, 1 week down 13 to go. Here is the tale of the tape so far:

Starting weight: 217.5 lbs
Week 1 end weight: 211 lbs

So I managed to lose 6.5 lbs. Granted it was the first week and that was mostly water weight, I'll take it as a good start. Managed to avoid any alcohol, and kept my pizza intake down to one night as well as only 1 bottle of soda.

I really haven't kicked into any heavy exercise yet. Just my normal league activity, with a few trips to the gym for some cardio "embellishments". I want to try and mix in a combo of weights and plyotmetrics gradually, and hopefully by week 3 I will have a full routine in place. My leagues are winding down, so I will start replace those nights with weight training nights.

Various people have suggested glucosamine chondroitin supplements for my joints. I don't like to take supplements of any kind, but I decided to give this stuff a shot for the duration of this experiment. I don't know if it will have any noticeable effects, but you never know.

Tomorrow I am scheduled to video my first dunk attempts as well as other key measurables such as maximum pushups, situps, and vertical leap. That should be a real hoot to see how far I have fallen over the last few years. The best shape I was ever in was my last year in the Army. I weighed about 175, could do 65 pushups in 2 minutes(w/ no rest), 70 situps in 2 minutes(w/ no rest), ran the 2 mile in about the 10:30 range and had a vertical leap of about 37 inches. I'll be happy to do half of that now.

Day 7

Morning weight:

• 211 lbs

Diet:

1. Total raisin bran w/ fresh strawberries and 1% milk (7:30am)
2. coffee (9am)
3. Turkey sandwich on white roll, asian vegetable medly (broccoli, peppers, carrots) (11:30am)
4. 20oz water (11:30am)
5. 32oz water (1-5pm)
6. pork chop, sauteed asparagus, 1 multi-grain english muffin, 16oz water (7pm)
7. 3 Hershey mini chocolates, 1 mini Resses butter cup (8pm)
8. 16oz water (9pm)

Activity:

• 3 sets each of following knee strengthening exercises:
• balance on one leg and bounce up and down for 1 minute (3 times each leg)
• sitting leg extensions with ankle weights (1 min per set, 3 sets per leg)
• lunges (3 sets per leg)

Sleep:

• up at 7am, bed at 9pm

Notes:

• Day started well enough, but work was a bear and I eventually got home feeling pretty run down. Was going to go to the gym, but instead managed to do PT exercises at home.
• Weight actually went up a half pound today.
• Week 1 done!
  

Day 6

Morning weight:

• 210.5 lbs

Diet:

1. 16oz water (10:30am)
2. 2 eggs, ham, multi-grain english muffin, and 16oz water (11am)
3. coffee (1pm)
4. 2.5 slices of wheat crust(Boboli) pizza with spinach, mushrooms, peppers, tomato sauce, and part-skim milk cheese (6pm)
5. 16oz pepsi (6pm)
6. coffee (7:30pm)
7. 3 16oz waters (8-midnight)
8. bowl of pretzels (10pm)
9. 2 strawberries, 16oz water (12:30am)

Activity:

• 1 hour of volleyball (moderate)
• 15 mins of situps and lying leg raises

Sleep:

• Out of bed at 10:30 am, back to bed at 1:00am

Notes:

• Mmmm. Pizza. I decided that Sundays are pizza day. I made it as healthy as possible by leaving off the pepperoni using a wheat crust. I also treated myself to an ice cold Pepsi. It's so good when it touches your lips...
  
• I also usually rest up on Sundays, but I had to work all day so that didn't happen. Managed to get some volleyball in at 4pm which ended up going well. We played great and won short handed. Got a good sweat up.
• On advice from Renick, I have researched some plyometric exercises that I might want to start doing. I think at this point I will have to restrict myself to light/moderate intensity ones. They are a bit taxing on the old joints, and I wouldn't have the appropriate time to rest them in between volleyball and basketball games during the week. I am taking the next sessions off in all of those leagues, (1 down, 3 to go) so hopefully in the next few weeks I can squeeze some heavy duty plyometrics in. In the meantime I will ramp up the weight training this week and get a good routine in place.
• Work is going to be a pain the next few weeks. This seems to happen every year end for me. My clients all have projects they want to release by the new year, so it looks like I will have to be creative about getting gym time in.
  

Day 5

Morning weight:

• 210.5 lbs

Diet:

1. 2 eggs, ham, 1 multi-grain english muffin, 1 small orange, and 16oz water (11am)
2. 16oz water (11:30am)
3. coffee w/ 2% milk (12pm)
4. 1 small orange and a hand full of whole almonds (5pm)
5. pasta w/ 90-10 ground beef, yellow peppers, mushrooms, and spinach (7pm)
6. 16oz water (7pm)
7. small coffee (9pm)
8. 3 homemade cutout christmas cookies w/ frosting (9-midnight)
9. snacked on carrots, broccoli, and red peppers (9-midnight)
10. 3 8oz bottled waters (9-midnight)
11. 160z water (1am)

Activities:

• 1 hour full court basketball (moderate/intense)
• 10 min on elliptical machine
• 3 sets of a bosu ball exercise where you jump laterally from 1 ball to the other for 1 min at a time
• 3 sets of situps and lying leg raises until failure

Sleep:

• got up at 10:30, went to bed at 1:30am

Notes:

• I felt really good today. Had a basketball game at 2:30 that I played pretty good in (although I was 0 for 8 from 3 point range). I ran very hard and hustled well. On the way home I passed the gym so I decided to stop in and a get a mini workout in. I have seen these ladies using these thing called Bosu balls in aerobic workouts where they have 2 balls about 4 feet apart that they jump back and forth laterally between. It isolates each leg individually nicely. I looked like a monkey jumping on a football for a few minutes until I figured things out. Definitely helps work on your balance as well. It was a great little exercise, similar workout to jumping rope.
• Had our first Christmas party of the year. I managed to get through it without drinking, but I did indulge in some delicious homemade cookies. Damn those things were good. Last year I ate about 10 of them at this same party. I figured 3 was a major improvement.
• As I figured, my weight loss finally slowed down. I stayed at 210.5 for the second day. I knew it wasn't going to be that easy!

Day 4

Morning weight:

• 210.5 lbs

Diet:

1. 1 tblspn crunchy peanut butter (6am)
2. Hot tea (6:45am)
3. Coffee (8am)
4. 16oz water (10am)
5. 6" turkey sub w lettuce, 16oz OJ (2pm)
6. orange (4:30pm)
7. 160z water (6pm)
8. Tilapia filet- baked, 1/2 filet coconut Mahi-Mahi, brown rice pilaf, 2 buttermilk biscuits, fresh salad w/ spinach, mushrooms, cabbage, and broccoli - no dressing (7:30pm)
9. 16oz water (7:30pm)
10. 1 chocolate caramel truffle (8:30pm)
11. orange (11:00pm)
12. 160z water (12:15am)

Activity:

• Not much, did about 5 minutes of leg exercises in my living room that I learned at PT

Sleep:

• Alarm went off at 5am, got out of bed at 6am
• Went to bed at 12:30am

Notes:

• I had a lot of stuff going on at work so I got up early to get a head start. Good thing, because the day was brutal. I gave up on going out to lunch and had our secretary order me a turkey sub at 2pm. Got home at 6:30 and just vegetated for a while. Luckily Megan was kind enough to cook up a tasty fish dinner. The tilapia was excellent!
• Lost another 2lbs, but I am pretty sure that will plateau off now. If I lose anything more than another 2lbs in the next week I will be shocked.
  
• Jesse/Brian: I see you found this site! I hope to post a video soon with my preliminary dunk attempts to demonstrate how far I have to go. That should be a good laugh for everyone :) Thanks for checking in!
  

Day 3

Morning weight:

• 212.5 lbs

Diet:

1. apple & coffee w/ half n half (9:30am)
2. 16oz water (10:30am)
3. asian medly: lemon pepper chicken, mushroom beef, broccoli & green beens (11:30am)
   
4. 16oz bottled water (11:30am)
   
5. banana & 16oz water (2:30pm)
6. coffee w/ 2% milk (4pm)
7. 16oz water (5pm)
8. pork chop, baked sweet potatoe, and 1/2 bowl raw red cabbage (7:20pm)
9. 16oz water (7:20pm)
10. Vitamin water (10:00pm)
11. 16oz water (11:00pm)

Activities:

1. 1 hour of full court basketball (moderate)

Sleep:

• alarm at 6:30am, got up at 8:45am, went to sleep at 11:00pm

Notes:

• I woke up feeling congested and a little run down. The early winter cold is kicking in.
• Wegmans market cafe is the excellent. They are going to be a regular lunch stop for me. They have so many good and healthy selections ranging from fresh turkey sandwiches to asian food.
  
• Baked my first sweet potatoes! Actually came out great. The beauty of the sweet potato is that you don't need to put anything on it once it is cooked. They taste great plain.
• My weight is dropping fast. I'm sure it will level off around 210. It is amazing what happens when I lay off the pizza, soda, and beer.
  
• My body is feeling the residuals of lifting weights yesterday. My hamstrings and inner hip flexors especially hurt.
• Basketball was a good workout, but I was definitely a step slower than usual. It was a combination of sore muscles and having a cold. I usually go a 100 miles an hour when I play, but today I just didn't go as all out as normal.
  

Day 2

Morning weight:

• 214.5 lbs

Diet:

1. Coffee w/ half and half (9am)
2. apple (9am)
3. 160z water (9:30am)
4. 6" turkey sub w/ lettuce on white roll - no mayo or cheese (11:30am)
5. 16oz OJ (11:30am)
6. 10 medium sized strawberries (11:30am)
7. 32oz water (1-5pm)
8. 2 tblspns of crunchy peanut butter (5pm)
9. apple (6pm)
10. 32oz water (6-8pm)
    
11. chicken pita: 1 wheat pita, .5lbs chicken, mushrooms, spinach, & red cabbage (8pm)
12. 32oz water (8-12pm)
13. 2 hershey kisses (12pm)

Activity:

1. Lifted weights on nautilus machines (3 sets each: bench press, shoulder press, seated row, squats, calf raises)
2. Rode stationary bike for 10 mins after weights (maintained heart rate of about 140)
3. 45 mins of bad volleyball, barely even sweat.

Sleep:

• Got up at 7:50am, went to bed at midnight.

Notes:

• I woke up hungry, so I had an apple with my morning coffee. That did the trick.
  
• Did a circuit training thing with the weights, the squats especially kicked by butt.
• It was a screwed up day because I had a 10:30 volleyball game, so I got to bed late.
• I dropped 3 lbs from yesterday, but that was probably just water weight. The first 5 or 6 lbs usually come off easy when I eat right and don't drink any beer or soda. The trick is going to be to keep it going after that. I would love to get down in the 195-200 range. Only 20 more pounds!