Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - So, I need big overriding goals and structure to accomplish things

With the wedding over, I thought I'd be able to focus on weight loss. But it seemed I needed to get caught up on work first before I could relax and slow down my life enough to get in the right place to really start losing weight.

My workouts have been generally good but my food willpower has been generally piss poor (at best). I'll have days where it's good, but I wind up blowing it at dinner. Or like this weekend, where I had a FANTASTIC day (ran a 10k saturday), only to have pizza and beer on sunday. And my portion control is in the tank for the most part. So I have to work on that too.

I had a really solid year when it came to competitive goals:

- walked my 2nd half-marathon. Set a PR by 1 minute LOL
- Completed 4 sprint triathlons, improving enough to set a PR in every race.
- Began running
- Ran the entirity of a 3 mile race
- Ran all but half a mile of the nike human race 10k

But I actually GAINED weight so far this year. I've gained about 12 pounds since this time last year. Meaning I am about 30 (give or take, didn't check this morning) lbs over my first intermediate goal weight.

Time to change that.

1. Set the intermediate goal weight, and a date to hit it by (12/25/09).

2. Implement food structure:

pack lunch all days except every other friday
use Weight Watchers system to track food and desired intake
hydrate properly (back on the water bandwagon)
3. Implement workout structure

exercise every day but friday
alternate exercises to maintain interest
set competitive goals to maximize effort
engage wife to assist with planning and implementation of workouts

I don't have any excuses NOT to do this.

My wife is in excellent shape, ultra athletic and competitive, is willing (and loves it) when we work out together (aka drag the other one to the gym on one of their bad days)

I have a SUPERB gym that I am already a member of for just $30/month, less than 1 mile from home, with a huge pool, and plenty of equipment. I can even take a train to it when I dont want to drive in bad weather. I have unlimited use, and it has expansive hours.

I live right by the Charles River in Boston. There is a very long MUP for both cycling and running. I have excellent cool weather gear.

I just got married. We're going to have a family in the next couple of years, and I need to be able to chase little rugrats around.

I want to play hockey again. I want to be able to do that at a level where I'm not going to be the worst guy in my league (especially here in boston). I have good hands, but my weight and cardio used to have me trailing the play a lot of the time.

I want to win my division of some race this year. Since I'm not walking anymore that's going to mean a real uptick in my competitive capabilities (or entering a REALLY small triathlon!)

And now my sister, who has weight problems as well is in the hospital with a kidney and liver problems. They think a stone is blocking her bile duct. My mom had laproscopy to remove a stone a couple years ago. Mom's a bit heavy too.

This is more motivation to work out even more.

Good luck on your goals. You have some specific things to work on, that is a good start. You can do it!

All sounds good in checking out your plan. Best of luck with it, and remember not to deny yourself the foods that you like (in reasonable portions) as a reward system for sticking to your plans.
The worst I've ever done was a typical crash diet where I didn't eat anything enjoyable, and specifically denied myself even the slightest amount of any of my usual treats. Hit my goal weight and pretty rapidly gained back a lot of the weight as all those denied foods crept their way back into my diet again.

hey TechKnowGN, I hope you realize you live right by the finishing miles right up Beacon St. of the Boston Marathon in April. That's a big party, lots of fun!

My personal downfall is always having large detailed exercise plans. They never survive contact with the enemy, i.e. the rest of my life. heck, I haven't even touched my bike in 2 weeks since I've been so overwhelmed by work (it's filling nights and weekends until mid-Nov. stupid grant proposals.) So I'm not sweating it right now, although I am signing up for a charity century ride in the spring with a friend as motivation for those winter cycling days.

Good luck! I just got married about a month ago and my wife and I have joked about the "Thompson Challenge", i.e. which one of us can gain 30 pounds faster! For me, that's more motivation than anything...well, other than my general health and well being. So many people that I've known just gained so much right after getting married, and I just don't want to be that guy.

I don't have a real structured workout plan...just to walk my dogs for four to five miles a day and ride as much as I can. Unfortunately, I'm coming up on the time of year where I don't think I'll be riding as much until the spring. My main goal is to start eating healthier without starving myself.

Anyway, good luck!

I can't help but notice that you started off by mentioning all the things that have taken priority over your health and fitness- work and marriage.

The only way I've ever made a healthy lifestyle work for me is to make it a top priority. Skip work if I have to. Tell friends I can't hang out with them unless they want to go bike riding...

(This might explain why I'm not even close to married though...)

I used to feel sort of guilty skipping out on work to go skiing or something, but I've found being healthy makes me happy, and being happy makes me a much better worker, friend, etc.

My wife is highly athletic, so it was about the work of the wedding, not the being married part. She's currently training for an upcoming 1/2 marathon, and she's running 8:30/mi or so right now.

cod.peace, yeah, I am actually working slowly on a novel where the marathon is essentially a silent character. Im taking patriot day off to watch, and next year im going to do the BAA half mary. My wifes dream is to qualify for Boston.

I usually do a pretty good job of watching my treats and fun foods. Following the weight watchers points concept, you basically get an extra days worth of carloies to eat each week. That friday morning trip to mcdonalds and dinner out saturday are the best rewards for a good week of training and a good race day saturday.

Visit to the doctors yesterday netted the following results:

1. Resting heartrate: ~50 BPM.
2. Blood Pressure: 110/70.
3. Tests scheduled to check cholesterol and sugar.
4. CLEARED FOR HALF-IRONMAN TRAINING

Dr said as long as I keep with in the 10% mileage growth per week in running, she sees no reason why i can't go ahead with it. Obviously, there will be a low threshold for looking further at any knee or joint point that persists while I'm running.

The cycling she said unless it's icy I can do pretty much as many miles as i can possibly handle.