Astonishingly, engineers at Kroll Ontrack were able to recover 90% of the data on a 400MB HDD after the crash of the Spaceshuttle Columbia in 2003! How in the world is that even possible? Take a look at a picture of the HDD on the link below!
Yesterday, I found that I could comfortably move to the next hole on my belt! This is the second in about 1.25 weeks and is probably equal to 2 inches off of my waist. Wow, it is so exciting to see results!
I guess it is now an addiction because I am now jogging even when I’m not at home. This morning, I got out and ran 3.36 miles in the countryside near Roseburg Country Club. Here is a link, which is also found in my Fitness Links at the right: http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/?l=mapit,2090169989 . I wasn’t really feeling it this morning, perhaps due to the 3.5 mile hike I took with the kids yesterday on the North Umpqua River, but I got the job done.
Maybe the scale will be a little more kind to me on Monday…
I have lost 4.3 pounds since Monday with a grand total of nearly 20 pounds lost! My self-induced regimen appears to be working pretty good for me. Below are my numbers for the week (sorry if the formatting is horrible, a link to a better version is the Weightloss Chart posted at right):
Date Weight Wt Lost %
4/28/2008 210.5 15.5 6.86
4/29/2008 208.4 17.6 7.79
5/1/2008 208.2 17.8 7.88
5/2/2008 206.2 19.8 8.76
These results are a bit skewed, I think, because Monday was particularly heavy and out of the trend. Still, I am happy.
As my newly found Weight Loss Guru, Alwyn Cosgrove, said, “you can’t out train a crappy diet” and I think that is panning out here. Last weekend was not particularly stellar for me (caloric intake wise), so then we have Monday… but the rest of the week, I have worked hard and I have eaten well. I am so close to Goal #1 of 200 pounds! I am now feeling a little apprehensive for my wife’s Birthday BBQ this weekend. My numbers next Monday will surely let you know how I did.
Have a good weekend! I’ll be chasing the 3500!
On Saturday, Grant and I watched the Oregon Ducks in their annual Spring Game. This was the first football game that Grant has ever been to and he had a great time. He asked lots of questions… which, to me, showed a lot of interest. The weather was absolutely perfect, although I did end up with a sun burn on the top of my head (despite sun block and a hat… don’t ask.)
It was great to see that there is some hope for the upcoming season. Justin Roper, in my opinion, will definitely be the starting QB in the fall, despite to the reports that Costa will be the signal caller for the Ducks. Blount was awesome as RB, too. Don’t count the Ducks out next year!
Grant and I had a great time spending Father-Son time watching his first football game. Thank you, University of Oregon for the fun Spring day!
Today was soccer practice for Grant. One of the major differences for him this season (as opposed to the previous 3) is that he is now able to keep up with the other kids while running around. Previously, everyone else would run circles around him. Now, he runs like he is practically jet propelled! After practice, his coach came up to us to say that Grant is quite a runner… and then… he said that Grant is a VERY good Goalie! As a matter of fact, he said that Grant does things as Goalie that he would expect of 5th or 6th graders and he said that he should know because HE is a goalie in an adult league. Wow!
I just wanted to quickly share with you that I just ran 5 miles. Here’s the link: http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/?l=mapit,680855896 . Cool, huh?
“Chasing the 3500″ is my internal phrase (feel free to use the term, if you like) to describe my weight loss and exercise plan. This comes from the fact that 1 pound is about equal to 3500 calories. Why is this important? Every time that I have a calorie deficit of 3500, this equals 1 more pound less of me! If you’ve been keeping an eye on my Weight Loss Spreadsheet (on the right column), you’ll notice that over the past couple of weeks I have been closely monitoring my calories (using FitDay.com, link also at right) and it has been taking only a couple of days to lose a pound! This makes sense because I have been trying to stick to eating 2000 calories and I have been expending between 3500 and 4000 calories.
Today, I ran the RCCL Down & Back (again… link at right). I find that I really enjoy running now. I continue to be amazed that 3 miles is easy for me at 6MPH. Obviously, that would change if I ran faster, though.
Today, my weight was 209.0. 0.3 lost… I think bad mojo is catching up with me and I have delayed reaching my 3500. Back to work!
Hmmm… I think I got my freebie today when I checked my weight. The scale said 2o9.3, which is exactly 1 pound less than yesterday.
Here’s the thing… I didn’t eat the best yesterday (I had a mega-portion of Hawaiian BBQ at lunch which included lots of white rice, about a cup of Kahlua Pork and macaroni salad; plus, for a treat after our hospital walkthrough, we took Grant to DQ for his good behavior during the tour and I had a small M&M Blizzard).
I’m sure I’ll end up regretting/paying for this later…
The good news is I’m now below 210. I have set a goal on FitDay to be at 200 by 7/1/2008 and it says that: To meet your goal you need to lose about 0.943 lb per week. This is what I’m excited about… if I keep up my current rate of weight loss, I could be at 200 in less than a month (I lost an entire pound yesterday alone)! I am excited at the prospect of being 200 before Allie’s birth.
Back to chasing the 3500!
I think that I am not alone in wondering when all of the work in the gym is going to start becoming noticeable to others. Every weekday, I start by sweating, huffing and puffing but I’m not sure if anyone else can tell any difference (with the exception of Natalie, who always says that she “would love me no matter what I looked like”… and my new response is, “well, maybe now you’ll get to love me a little while longer on this planet”). Anyway, to the point of this post, I have subscribed to Alwyn Cosgrove’s blog via RSS and the other day he shared the Paper Towel Theory (which I will copy/paste below):
This is a pretty good explanation of the visual representation of fat loss that was emailed to me recently (And attributed originally to a “Bob White”). Hope you enjoy it..
Let’s assume you go out and buy two rolls of paper towels, each with 112 paper towels on it. You put one aside, and keep it for future reference (your “before” picture). The other one represents you (I’ll call your paper towel “Ed”). The core represents the lean Ed. The towels represent the fat that is covering the lean Ed.
For sake of argument, let’s say that Ed wants to lose 28 pounds of fat, so (112/2
each sheet represents a quarter-pound of fat lost.
Let’s also assume that Ed loses his fat equally during each day of the program.
Each day during the first week, you tear a sheet off of Ed, representing the fat he has lost for the day. Next, you put Ed next to the full roll (“Big Ed”) for comparison.
No noticeable difference! Even at the end of the week!
“This can’t be working for me! This program sucks! “
But, you continue to follow your fat loss program. At the end of weeks two and three, you continue to compare Ed to Big Ed, and still notice very little difference.
But Ed is determined! He continues to work hard!
Three more weeks go by, the sheets peeling off day after day, before Ed gets up the courage to stand next to Big Ed again.
Now there’s a big difference!
By the end of the program (112 days), Ed is down to his lean dream, or somewhere near it. Big Ed is still - well, big.
The lesson to be learned is that fat, like paper towels, comes off in sheets. When you are heavy, you are big around. And when you are big around, that fat is spread over a MUCH larger area – just like that outside towel sheet. The closer you get to the lean you, the more each lost pound of fat shows, because it is spread over a smaller area.
While the outside sheet may only cover one layer of the roll, the inside sheet may go around 4 times. That last sheet looks like it gives you four times the results of the first sheet, but in reality, the results are the same – your perception is just different! And you’ll never see the inside, if you aren’t patient while the outside is coming off!
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Great analogy!
Wow, if you’re trying to lose weight, isn’t that motivating? You’re taking it off right now just as well but you just have to stick with it until you get to the end of the roll when each sheet is VERY noticeable! As Rob Schneider says, “You can do it!”
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