It's all good so far

Two days of walking on the treadmill. Little over an hour each time. Started with a warm up and then moved to a 3.5 mph pace and worked the elevation up to 10%. 3.75 miles on Monday, 4 miles on Wednesday. Almost 900 calories burned per session. Added Aleve back into the diet to take care of the knees. It is working though. The calorie intake is below the recommended one for weight loss and the exercise knocks the net calories even further. Pleased with the progress.

Today I was able to get to the club right after work. Treadmill first for 45 minutes. With my knees it is only walking but after warming up, I pushed the grade to 5 at 3.5 mph for the first mile and then to 9 at 3.5 for the second. Quick warm down for a total of 2.25 miles

Into the pool – club has a 25 m pool nice & cold
500 swim (felt much better than Saturday’s)
4 x 100 kick IM Order
3 x 100 Free
4 x 50 Breast
100 IM reverse warm down

1500 meters in 35 plus minutes
Neither log quite well into the Livestrong.com website’s daily plate that lets you track calories and exercise. Had to estimate a bit and round down on the total calories burned.

The site helps you set a daily calorie intake. Mine (assuming that I do some walking around during the day and am not a total couch spud) is 2052, which should theoretically put me at a net weight loss of 2.5 lbs\week. I will be weighing in on Thursday mornings.

What was neat was my net calorie count for the day (before dinner) was -55 calories. Even after a slice of Bertolli’s mushroom lasagna and a small slice of pie, the total net count is 830 for the day.

The process still has me looking at menu options and calculating calories per portion. Livestrong and the Daily Plate sites have good databases of both commercial and homemade foods. And yes there is a Livestrong Iphone app for that. Still there are occasions that I have to do some approximating. Overall though it seems that I have been able to keep the intake to ~1800 calories per day or less.

I will never get back down to the college swimming weight but my goal is to get under the Philmont weight guidelines with room to spare.

The diet may not have quite been more than a recurring also ran New Years resolution except for an audio book I was finishing and the comment by the Cardiologist.

The audiobook Wind Up Girl is set in a future where genetic engineering of foods has run amok. Evidently tinkering with the genes of our food stock not only causes variations in the plant but the diseases that attack them causing wide spread famine and calories become the new currency. Treddle powered computers, rickshaw drivers, manual elevators and everyone constantly hungry.

During the read, I became aware of my calorie intake, what it was taking to keep the Fat Man fat. Figuring the number of calories most of the world actually does The double quarter pounder with cheese that was a lunch staple became a lot less appealing to me.

I had already started tracking the calorie intake on www.Livestrong.com when the Cardiologist made the comment about “end of life planning”. I will be 52 on my next birthday. I enjoy life and would like to think that I have almost as many years ahead of me as I have behind me. There are a lot of things I want to do. To be here to do them was going to require change.

While I have been an intermittent masters swimmer and enjoyed working out with the local team this last year, I have allowed travel, volunteering, and general sloth to keep me away from the pool. And while breakfast and dinner where usually balanced thanks to my sweet wife, 1500 calorie lunches were happening.

Changing the diet is part of changing my life. How do I satisfy myself with less? I think I can.

Is part of the change consciously simplifying my life? Perhaps, I still like my toys but now they have to be multipurpose. The Fat Man’s simple post work life will like to be an Airstream parked in the Hill Country. My things are going to have to fit, and so will I.

While I may never be back to my college swimming weight, I will make the Philmont weight requirements and maintain that weight.

I have discovered that soup for lunch is not bad. There might be a finite amount of Panera Bread lunching I can do but so far so good. People might get tired of me touting the Livestrong site, but that is ok too. It is working for the Fat Man.

First direct from the office to the club. Did have to spend a little time in the business office to add the rest of the family on the membership plan.

Got upstairs and found an empty treadmill. 50 minutes 2.5 miles and 500+ calories later I called it quits.

Most of the time was spent at 3 mph after the warm up and at a 6% grade.

Home to a couple of bowls of homemade chicken noodle soup that I made yesterday and the family is willing to eat.

After logging the workout and dinner into my Livestrong.com account I find that I will be almost a 1000 calories under the recommended limit on my weight loss plan even aftery pepperidge farm cookies and milk dessert.