Fitness Update -- 40 pounds!

Starting Weight: 314
Current Weight: 274

It's been two months, a little longer than I wanted, but now I've finally hit 40. Looking up items to compare that weight loss to, the closest I could think to relate it to is one of those 5 gallon water jugs that everyone hates to replace on the water cooler! Those things are heavy and it's crazy to think that's how much lighter I am from the beginning of the year.

With the new baby I was unsure about how my weight loss would continue. But surprisingly, the first week or so of the new baby it came off quickly. I was down to about 278. Then after a weekend of eating Chinese food three times, I suddenly bounced back up to 283 then 284. I thought maybe it was water retention from all the salt in the Chinese food, but I somehow got stuck at 282 for about two weeks until it finally started to come down again. It's weird how the body works. I have no idea how it's possible to gain 5 pounds in a single day and have to work it all back off again.  Then I got stuck right at the border of 275 again for another couple weeks until I finally hit 274 today! 

Still got a belly, but shrinking.

Most of my exercise still consists of running at least three times a week, regular use of my stationary bike and elliptical. My poor treadmill has been left mostly abandoned since I have found I prefer running outside. Maybe when it gets colder, I'll stay inside a bit more.

I recently started talking with a health coach as a service provided by my company with a call every four weeks. She suggested I use more variation in my exercise particularly in introducing more high-intensity intervals. Rather than just jogging at a regular speed, try and vary speed and intensity to keep the body guessing. As a result, I have restarted the Couch-to-5K program which starts with intervals, but rather than walking/jogging intervals, I'm jogging/running. We'll see if that will help bring my 5k run time down. I'm still running the 3 miles in about 50 minutes and my goal is to get it to around 30. But hey, I'm running 3 miles--I've never been able to say that before.

I've now reintroduced clothes back into my wardrobe that I'd pretty much retired years ago. Maria also insisted we go clothes shopping for me because my regular pants are way to baggy on me now. This is the first time I bought pants to "grow into" that are smaller than my current pair.

By the way, now that Maria's been given the all clear from her doctor, and we've gotten a bit more used to the baby's schedule, she's getting ready to join me in my weight loss efforts. So any encouragement from any of you out there on her behalf would be welcome. :)