Healthy Lifestyle Update: 34 Pounds Lighter

As August draws closer to an end, I’m nearing three months with my healthy lifestyle change. I’ve had a couple of hiccups along the way, the most recent of which made last week tough. Despite the challenges, I stepped on the scale this morning and was down a grand total of 34 pounds.

The interesting thing in all of this is that the healthy changes are beginning to become routine, even when things aren’t going so well. I’m a creature of habit and tend to struggle when my routine is disrupted too much.

Last week I had to get a filling fixed at my dentist’s office right after work. Due to limited time, I had to trade off going to the gym to fit the dental appointment into my schedule (I should say our schedule, my wife is very busy with school and I’m trying to be as supportive and helpful as I can). So I missed hitting the gym and lost out on the ~500 calories I would have burned doing cardio work after strength training.

I wasn’t thrilled about taking the day off but I thought I’d just make up for it the next morning when I went for a run. I woke up to a thunderstorm and had to put off the run I typically do before starting work. To make matters worse, the weekend before was pretty slow.

Putting all of this together, I was getting close to a solid week of missed running and gym time. My enthusiasm dropped and I was beginning to feel deflated. The silver lining to all of this was that even while this was going on, I was keeping my calories in check.

I hit the gym for a quick workout on Wednesday (this is the one day throughout the week where I’m pressed hardest for time). I missed my run on Thursday and, to be honest, I can’t think of why that was. I hit the gym again on Friday for strength training and cardio.

Even though I was getting back into the groove of things, I had a slow weekend. I shot a USPSA Match on Saturday and burned a fair amount of calories, estimated by my Jawbone UP. On Sunday I went out in the rain to setup my new bow sight but didn’t do a whole lot else besides run errands.

This didn’t do much for my spirits but I was determined to start this week strong. I did just that on Monday at the gym. Yesterday I ran farther than I planned and I’m going to push hard at the gym after work.

One last thing worth noting is that I’ve basically given up on the Labor Day Challenge. While I think it was a solid workout and something to strive for, it wasn’t working well with my current gym routine. The lack of rest days had me sore and tired all the time. I began going backwards at the gym and didn’t have it in me to meet my minimum reps.

Perhaps part of my issue last week was just being drained from the challenge. Whatever the case, now that I’m back to my normal routine, and not overdoing it, I’m feeling a whole lot better (and I made progress in the gym on Monday – which is something I hadn’t really done since the challenge).