Exercising Discipline

After I began working at the NRC, I realized that I needed to lose some weight. The frustration and negative habits I had picked up at Carderock had ballooned me to a peak of 265 lbs. My NRC ID picture looks pretty bad. On the first day at NRC I went down to the on-site gym and signed up.

For the previous two years I had focused on weight training with limited cardio sporadically thrown into my workout. My alcohol consumption was at an all-time high the last year at Carderock, and my eating habits were pretty inconsistent and unhealthy. Though I had reached my goal of benching 300 lbs while working at Carderock, I had gotten out of shape in the cardio department.

Phase I

Not long after I started at NRC, I got into a weight loss pool competition with a couple of my roomies. I had already started my diet, but figured a competition would be a good motivator to add on top. Phase I of my diet involved going to the gym for cardio workouts three times a week, doing elliptical for 30-45 minutes each workout. In addition, I modified my diet to eating a healthy lunch, no breakfast, and a normal dinner. On weekends, I would eat normally.

I added additional stipulations. I could eat a meal replacement bar for lunch except for the occasional bagel deli sandwich in the cafeteria. I worked in two sets of lifting to my exercise regimen. When it came time for Lent, I gave up everything to drink except water and unsweetened ice tea and desserts. In the meantime I upped the elliptical workouts to 5 times a week.

At the beginning of February, I switched the cardio to the treadmill. I began running 10:00 minute miles for two miles, which at a weight of 256 seemed like a long way and it wore me out. I did this three times a week for a couple of weeks, then added another day of running to do 8 miles per week. I was slowly increasing the speed by a tenth of a mile per hour each week. I added a mile run and/or a bike ride to bring the cardio back up to 5 times a week.

In early March, near the weight deadline for the competition, I began running in increments of 3 miles 3 times a week. I went back to 10:00 minute miles. My first goal was a 5k in 30 minutes, which I accomplished pretty quickly. After a few weeks of ramping up the speed slowly, I got the 5k time down to 27:30. The new goal is a 25:00 minute 5k, which I am working toward now. I added 1.5 mile runs, as fast as possible, to the workout to bring it back up to 5 days of cardio per week, and have now made it 2 miles on the off days. On the compressed weeks, I do 4 mile runs to make up the difference, and am now averaging 13 -14 miles per week. In addition to the running, I have added two weight workouts and a cross training day on Wednesday (run 2 miles as fast as possible, perform weight lifting workout, run 1 mile as fast as possible). My weight is hovering around 242, which is approximately 53% of my weight loss goal. My weight vs. time since I started losing is given in the chart below:

Phase II:

My ultimate goal is currently 225, and I will re-evaluate once reaching that goal and stabilizing. However, to reach that goal, I must implement a rather drastic Phase II effort. There are several issues, including my desire to retain most of my upper body strength and a missing thyroid gland, so I will have to push myself farther and farther to keep losing weight.

Here is the plan:

Keep the current running and lifting schedule:

Day	M	T	W	Th	F	S	S
Exercise	3-4 mile run	2 mile run as fast as possible Bench and Back workout	Cross training: 2 mile run Arm-centric Weightlift 1 mile run	2 mile run as fast as possible Squats, Abs, and Dips	3-4 mile run	Climbing or bike riding – 30 minutes minimum	Swimming or bike-riding

In addition to the above exercise regimen, I must add dietary restrictions. This is where self-control is really going to be in effect and enhanced.

Phase II: Eating Rules.

1. No dessert
2. No snacks
3. No alcohol, unless it is replacing a meal (2 drink limit for meal replacement)
4. Lunch is limited to a meal replacement bar.
5. Breakfast is not allowed unless aforementioned replacement bar is consumed and lunch is foregone.
6. Dinner must be limited to a minimal portion. If eating out, eat half and take the rest home.
7. To combat post-workout fatigue, 1 teaspoon of peanut butter may be ingested only to prevent fainting.

I plan to start this phase next week. Once I reach the goal of 225 lbs I can ramp up cardio workouts to compensate for an increased energy level intake and stabilize the weight. After all, running at 242 is very noticeably easier than running at a weight of 265. I can’t wait to see what 225 feels like.

Wish me luck,

J