Another week goes by

My dear horde of loyal followers, I have not been idle. I started running in earnest this week and it was pretty good. My legs hurt like heck afterwards because I haven't really run in a long time, but it was good. I didn't swim Thursday because of some dumb excuse, but I ran that evening.

I weighed myself Sunday morning and I was down to 166.2. That's pretty sweet but I hadn't eaten much the day before and I think my inside parts were pretty empty.

So running is going good and swimming is going good. Unfortunately the weather has been great. This weather is good for my running habits but terrible for future generations of humans who will have to fight with scavenging animals for scraps of food on the burnt husk of a planet they will be forced to inhabit. At least they won't be fat, which is what this blog is about.

Humans are crazy. We like going places the easiest way possible. Not only do we destroy our planet, but we get fat at the same time. We need to embrace the hard way. I'm going to take a small step towards going places the hard way by cancelling my C-Train parking. This will force me to either ride my bike to work at the huge oil producer I work for or walk the 20 minute walk to the train. I could also take the bus, but it is fortunately very inconvenient so it's nicer to just walk. I'll also save $80 a month. I'm going to hate myself this coming winter when it's -30C and I'm walking to the train in my skinny jeans, freezing the whole way because I don't have any fat on my bones, but it will be worth it.

You are so dead, little buddy. Enjoy it while you can.

Another thing we do because we love being fat and destroying our planet at the same time is eating stupid food. We eat processed food made by huge corporations that cut down rainforests and use plastic packaging that winds up in our oceans killing whales. That food tastes really good, but it makes us so fat.

It's kind of sweet that if we started getting from A to B in a more responsible way, we not only get thin but we save the whales too. It's a win/win.

I'm signing off for this week, but be assured that I will check in later with some updates.

Dustin's Sunday Night Check-In

Look people, you can stop the clamouring. I'm here and I'm ready to rumble. Especially if "rumble" means "write in this blog". I've had some ups and downs over the last few weeks with regards to my fitness but I'm ready to keep this party going.

Here are my excuses for not exercising much:

1. Bad weather
2. A cold

I've been swimming twice a week and the swim workouts have been really good. The weather finally got nice this weekend so I went for a run yesterday. It was only 4km but I want to start running more regularly. Once the weather gets better I'll ride my bike to work too.

The weather excuse really is a good one. When it's -20C out there I can barely muster up the courage to walk to my car, let alone to go for a run. It's very slippery out too.

But none of this is why I sat down and put my proverbial pen to paper today. I am here is to tell you about an exciting new idea that I've thought of that might help me to lose weight. It's a radical departure from what I've been doing, but I'm feeling confident that if I can pull it off I will reap many benefits. 

Here is the idea: eat less.

I will now share a bit of personal history: I used to eat less, and then I got bored of eating less and I started to eat more. It was around that same time that I stopped exercising. Eating more and not exercising. Those two things combined into a perfect storm of metabolic catastrophe that caused me to arrive at this sad point in my life - 20 lbs heavier and unable to fit into my favourite trousers. So my new plan is to not eat the thing, instead of eating the thing. 

In sort of related news, I'm hoping to compete in a triathlon in July. I need to be able to swim and bike and run for a sustained length of time. I'm not going to get too excited because I get all kinds of injuries from these activities and I don't want to be too disappointed, but doing this race is my general plan.

Mike's Monday Night Check In

Like Dustin's, my week wasn't great.  I drank too much beer on Friday and then shoved a pizza down my gullet on Saturday.  By some miracle I still managed to average 1822 net calories per day.

That's what I'm enjoying about this fitness extravaganza -- even though I have some pretty bad days I am still doing better than if I weren't trying.

I was pretty bummed out yesterday because I didn't meet any of my goals except for the 300+ minutes of walking, but I'm back on track today and am ready for a solid performance this week.

Thanks for reading.

Dustin's Sunday Night Check-In

This week wasn't great. I swam twice, and they were great workouts, but I didn't get my runs in. It snowed and then our water heater died so there's no hot water after exercise to shower.

I brought my lunch every day but Friday, so that's good.

I'm not going to post my weight. Sunday nights are the worst time and Superbowl Sunday night is double worst. I weigh practically 400lbs.

D+ or whatever.

Mike's Sunday Night Check In

I upset a large portion of the reader base last week by not meeting my net calorie goal. Well it turns out that I did meet the goal!  I just misunderstood the myfitnesspal numbers.

There's some bad news, though.  I failed for real this week.  I averaged 1910 net calories per day instead of 1800.  I mostly did okay but one or two really bad days pushed me over.

Otherwise I did alright.  I walked for more than 300 minutes, ran 4 km yesterday, did pilates today, and stretched 5 times.

I weighed in at 180.2 lbs which is up from last week (179.6 lbs) but that might just be due to my poop patterns.

My goals this week are: walk 300+ mins, run 4 km or bike for 45 minutes, stretch 6 times, and keep the net calories to 1800.

(Image of poop pattern from Kandi Patterns)

Dustin's Sunday Night Check-In (169lbs)

I was just reaching to turn off my light to go to sleep when I remembered that I had forgotten to write my Sunday night check-in.  The thought of my army of loyal readers not having their weekly update caused me to collect my computer off of it's perch and open it up.

This was a pretty solid week. My goals were achievable, and I can proudly report that I achieved them.

This swim workout was intense

Swimming on Tuesday? Yep. Swimming on Thursday? That's affirmatory. A run on Saturday? You got it, Pontiac!

The running parts of my body are tired because it's been a while since I've actually run. I ran 4.3km. It felt good to run and I wanted to keep going but I need to be careful not to do too much too soon.

I weighed 166 lbs this morning which seemed good. I just got up to weigh myself now on Sunday night and I am at 169 lbs. I ate like a starving man locked in a hot dog factory tonight at my mom and dad's place, including 3 helpings of ice cream. This means the 169 lbs can be fairly compared to last week's 172 lbs after a similar binge.

I brought my lunch to work every day this past week except Friday (my friend Scott owed me a lunch) so my caloric intake was pretty reasonable.

My goals this week are to run 4km on Monday and swim on Tuesday and Thursday. I plan to run again on Saturday. Next week I'll bump the running kms up to 6 and start making weekly kilometre goals.

Dustin's Sunday Night Check In

Loyal readers, the internet doesn't lie. It's actually Monday evening. I was very tired last night and plopped down into bed and had a great night's sleep. Mike, my blogging partner, immediately forgave me and even found a way to look at the bright side of my slothfulness: he reminded me that a good night's sleep is refreshing and helpful to the body.

I can't even remember what I did last week. I didn't do most of the things I promised to. I did swim on Tuesday, and it was a very hard swim so there's that.

A huge improvement I made, however, is the bringing of the lunch. I started bringing my lunch to work and I'm both eating more healthily and saving valuable money. I'm really happy about that. I also walked to the train today which involves a very long hill. It's a 20 minute walk. So that's nice. Good for me.

My weigh-in this morning was 168.5. That seems like an improvement but I think it's just because it's morning and I had peed.

My goals this week are to swim Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I should probably run on Saturday too. I will also bring my lunch all week. It's already packed and ready to go for tomorrow.

I'm actually really optimistic about this whole "eat well AND exercise" idea instead of just one or the other. I'm awfully hungry by the time I get home, and that's just perfect.

The best part about this blog will be later this year or maybe at Christmas when Mike and I get together and get someone to take a picture of us in our skinny clothes. We're going to look so hip and skinny.

I need to hit the sack because my swimming lane partner, also named Mike, isn't going to slow down for me tomorrow morning just because I'm feeling tired. He's going to give 'er.