Single again - time to regain focus on my weight loss journey!

From its inception, I have regarded this blog as a place for me to track my personal journey from super obesity to fitness. I often measure my progress in pounds lost, but for the past two years, I have been struggling to continue losing weight and even, at times, to maintain my weight loss. I would love to say that I share my ups and downs equally, but that would be a lie. Still, sometimes I realize I must force myself to come clean about where I am when I'm down so I can continue on with my journey leading with my decisions rather than being led by my conditions.

See, for about 18 months at the beginning of my weight loss journey I was super focused on numbers - I lost 165 pounds, going from 420 to 255, dealing only with a few plateaus but never really seeing the numbers on the scale go up once they had gone down. During most of that time I was single, and so it was easy, because I had only to focus on myself. But once I reached 276 pounds I found myself falling in love, and slowly my focus shifted from my journey to my journey with this other person, and I decided I would rather focus on building my relationship with this person rather than continue to focus on losing weight as my primary objective.

While we were happily together, I somehow gained weight, stabilizing at the 276 mark, or what I weighed when we met. But the relationship was not always certain. We broke up or were separated at two points along the way. And during both of these break-ups I was able to lose weight again, getting back down into the 260s both times. Then, each time we we got back together I found I gained the weight back, even getting into the 280s.

Recently, we broke up for the third and - probably - final time. I'm once again losing weight and have lost 10 pounds in the two weeks since our separation. I'm realizing that until I reach my goal weight  of 225 pounds it would be best if I avoid romantic entanglements that will get me off track. This being said, I now find myself at the point where I need to come up with a new game plan. As such, I'm going back to the beginning and focusing on the three basic points that helped me achieve my intermediate goals in the first place. These are:

1. Get at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity per day (walking, hiking, medicine ball, HIIT, etc.).
2. Drink at least 8, 8 oz. glasses of water per day - plus two extra glasses of water to properly hydrate for my current weight and environment (I live in the high desert).
3. Control portion size, eat 6 small meals and consume no more than 2,000 calories per day.

Once these three points are under control I will add more to my regimen, but for now these will suffice in helping me to lose at least 10 pounds per month and maintain my good health. My goal is to reach my goal weight of 225 pounds by June 1, 2013.

Progress pic at 269 pounds - back on track after year off

Every now and then I post progress pics, and the time has come again. On the day this pic was taken (two days ago to be exact) I weighed in at 269 pounds.

This is me at 269 pounds working out at the gym in the complex where I live

One month ago, I weighed 286.  Those who follow my blog may remember that I reached 255 pounds in July of 2011 after having lost 165 pounds in just a year and a half. I took a year off from mindful eating to let my body adjust to the rapid weight loss. I was still exercising and eating healthy, but I often splurged on desserts of frozen yogurt, cake, cookies and the occasional candy bar. As a result, I gained 31 pounds. 

I'm back on track now, and I've lost 17 pounds by focusing once again on mindful eating. I still have 42 pounds to go to beat obesity by being under 30 BMI. Currently, I'm just at about 35 BMI. When I started I was at 56 BMI.

To find out what I'm doing to lose the weight, you can check out previous posts here on my blog. In short, I'm eating healthy and getting lots of exercise - hiking, swimming, medicine ball and resistance training at the gym.

Thanks as always for reading. Please follow me on Twitter @MyFitLife2Day. Also, check out my hiking blog  HikeyHikey and my goals blog Man of Merit.

Cardio à la swimming and hiking power my fit-life routine

First of all, let me just say that swimming is amazing! I know, I've heard that said a million times before. And having been an avid recreational swimmer in my youth is probably what kept me from becoming obese back in the day despite my regular afternoon diet of chocolate donuts, Oreos and pudding.

I just recently started doing a regular swimming workout - I call it my "everyday cardrio" - and I have been working up from one set, to two, and finally today, three. Two weeks ago I could barely do five laps of the crawl stroke. Now, I'm doing 16.5 laps (or 33 lengths of the pool here in my complex) with ease! I mean really, it was nothing. Tomorrow I might do a fourth set or add a lap to each of the five strokes I do within each set.

Plus, I'm still hiking. And today I realized that doing my swim workout followed by an hour or so hike in some hilly terrain - a great local trail that's just two miles from my doorstep - was like adding steroids to my everyday cardio routine.

LOL - It makes me laugh thinking that I'm actually doing cardio on a regular basis and loving it. Hiking was my sneaky way of getting into cardio. I would hike for the views, I would tell myself. I knew it was cardio but I would have NEVER called it that. Now, I'm quite happy to admit. I hike. I swim. I do cardio. And I love it!