For those new to this blog, I and a bunch of other tweethletes embarked upon this year’s 10in10 challenge, with the outcome goal to lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks. This report covers progress through week 3 of 10.

How’d I do? (The Outcome Goal) During week 3, I succeeded in losing .75 pounds and am now at 214 lbs, and overall I’m down 2 lbs from my starting weight.

Peter Gabriel, No Self Control

I use three levels of performance measures. Less than Expected, Met Expectations and Exceeded Expectations.

Less than Expected Overall, for week 3 of 10 I gave myself a self assessment of Less than Expected, sliding back from all of the good work I did in the first two weeks because of a complete #failwhale related to portion control. The Peter Gabriel video above says it all! I ate two full pizza’s this week without even knowing it in two different days. Well of course I knew that I did it, but it’s back to the addictive personality. Being back in NY this week, I found myself out at lunches and dinners with friends and got caught up in that all too easy self convincing attitude of “It’s only one time”. For me, my nutrition and “feeding” needs to be a stand alone event where I get the food, eat the food and finish, separate and apart from other distractions or activities.  It’s far too easy to get caught up in the moment and then realize that I consumed the gross national product of Uganda before the evening was complete. The result is that all of my great routine built up during the prior two weeks is snapped and I’m forced to go back to the beginning. I lied where I had gotten to, that place where my body tells, me “Hey idiot, you’ve eaten enough and if you eat any more I’m going to make you feel sick.” But if you keep piling on, your body won’t be able to tell you. Just like a muscle, it adapts to the behavior you impute on it. Major need for a quick refresh to get back on track. Only seven weeks left.

Why am I rating myself Less than Expected when I still lost weight? Just like in Week 1 when I actually gained weight, the outcome goal does not always reflect what really matters and that is my behavior in executing on and achieiving the process goals I’ve set forth for myself. Yes, I lost .75 pounds, but in reality, that’s just blind luck, or more likely a timing issue. I know from practice that what I do nutritionally on one day doesn’t show up in my weight for five to seven days. All this means that my work is REALLY cut out for me this week, just to stay even.

Report Card – Week 3

January 18 – January 24:

Caloric Intake/Nutrition = Less than Expected

Portion size: Horrible. As described in my preamble. Enough said. Cut the portions down to levels not required by Attila the Hun!

Eat Healthy Breakfast: Healthy but I allowed the portion size to creep up here as well.

Eat light every three hours: Not even close. I ate every three hours on some days, skipped meals on others and ate light then heavcy, then even heavier then light. Yuck!

Eat fresh whole foods: Probably the positive side of the nutritional elements. I did eat a lot of whole fresh foods, just too much of it. The one change this week is living off of Carolyn’s juicer. Each morning, we’ve been playing “Guess what’s in the juice?” So far she and Cindy haven’t tried to put in my athletic socks. Brett Blankner and Christine Lynch would be really proud, as they also have been on the smoothie kick, but we’ve gone one better because we’re using Carolyn’s heavy duty auger.

Avoid junk food and sugar: Not too bad with sugar this week. None of Aunt Duck’s oatmeal raisin cookies to graze on.

Eat protein first: Kind of a mix here. I can still be much better. Who am I kidding? I didn’t eat protein first, yet again. No self control, cue the Peter Gabriel song.

Stop eating 60 mins. before going to sleep: Average at best with a number of late nights grazing.

Caloric Expenditure/Positive Stress = Met Expectations

January 18 – January 24:

Workout early: Got out early on the weekend but still not regularly starting my days out by working out or running. I know how important this is because it really does set the tone for the rest of the day and allows me the flexibility of getting in a second workout later in the day or evening if my schedule allows.

Min 45 mins of Cardio: No problems here, and was happy that the issue in my left calf didn’t rear its ugly head again, even with me getting in 48 miles of running this week including a 19-mile long run on Saturday followed by a 10-mile run at Rockefeller Park on Sunday. Total time training for cardio and resistance was 11 hours.

Resistance training: As you can see from my Joe’s Goals report above, I only lifted two days this week. So important! Need to do even better.

Recovery/Adaptation = Met Expectations

Sleep min of 7 hours per night: Not much to say here. I slept a lot.

Conclusion: Stop being such a glutton! Not much more to say than that. Keep up the good work on getting in my runs (I’m only a few weeks away from the Los Angeles Marathon) lift even more and drop this BS weight. Do the things I know I need to do. Results from all of the other great folks participating in this challenge can be found at the 10 in 10 blog. Have a great week.

For those new to this blog, I and a bunch of other tweethletes embarked upon this year’s 10in10 challenge, with the outcome goal to lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks. This report covers progress through week 2 of 10.

How’d I do? During week 2, I succeeded in losing 4.75 pounds and am now at 214.75 lbs, and overall I’m down 1.75 lbs from my starting weight.

Below is my report card from the past week. I use three levels of performance measures. Less then Expected, Met Expectations and Exceeded Expectations. Overall, for week 2 of 10 I gave myself a self assessment of Met Expectations, building on the good start from week one and working even harder in a few areas. Recall that in week one I actually gained 3 pounds but knowing that I was doing what I needed to do, I persevered and the results this week have been positive. That said, I still have plenty of room for improvement.

Report Card – Week 2

Caloric Intake/Nutrition = Met Expectations

Portion size: Better. But still have a lot of work to do here! I definitely had a few slip ups but I consciously recall walking away from food when I otherwise would have continued to eat. And wouldn’t you know it, I didn’t starve in the process.

Eat Healthy Breakfast: Continued my breakfasts of cottage cheese although I threw in a bit of cereal on occasion.

Eat light every three hours: Still a work in process, but eating frequently did help with the typical hunger I might otherwise feel.

Eat fresh whole foods: Probably still my weakest link. Still a slave to too many processed foods. Trying to hit the salad bar immediately after working out to avoid last minute convenience choices.

Avoid junk food and sugar: Good except for an indulgence in Aunt Duck’s oatmeal raisin cookies that were irresistible. Continued to avoid chocolate and it’s getting easier.

Eat protein first: This one is most difficult because protein is hard to come by at every meal around here. Need to get more creative.

Stop eating 60 mins. before going to sleep: Better as well, only having some dried apricots at the one hour mark.

Caloric Expenditure/Positive Stress = Met Expectations

Workout early: Still not getting into the gym as soon as I wake up. I think this is because there is still so many moving pieces in the other parts of my life and I’m trying to attack those first thing in the morning as well. I did get out and run on Saturday and Sunday before seven am, so its getting better.

Min 45 mins of Cardio: No problems here, and was able to return to running after my lay off due to the calf injury, including an 18-mile long run on Saturday.

Resistance training: Unfortunately the return to running also meant that I slacked off on the resistance training which I know is absolutely critical to building lean body tissue.

Recovery/Adaptation = Met Expectations

Sleep min of 7 hours per night: Pretty good about going to sleep early this past week, which also allowed me to get up early feeling much more energized..

Need to continue what went well and work even harder on what didn’t as I move into week 3. Love seeing all of the great results being posted on the 10 in 10 blog. Keep up the great work and don’t be discouraged about any lack of expected progress in the outcome goal, keep focusing on those process goals and the outcome goal will take care of itself.

Week 1 of 10 – Gained 3 Pounds

Some of you already know that I decided to jump into the public mix and join this years 10in10 challenge, essentially the Biggest Loser without the threat of getting kicked off the show and without the ability to win a lot of money. This community/challenge was started by our Twitter and podcasting friend Nigel. The objective is really simple. Lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks.

On Monday January 4th, we all weighed ourselves and posted our weights on a Google Docs spreadsheet. I weighed in at the gym just before working out. I came in at a NFL Quarterback svelte 216.5 lbs, except that I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of the NFL Quarterback fraternity. Blacklisted from that as well. I wasn’t surprised by the 216.5 weight; after all, it isn’t a good or a bad number, it’s just a number, a benchmark from which to measure performance and change. Now with an outcome goal of 10 pounds in 10 weeks firmly in place, I set out to develop the process goals that if implemented would positively affect that number. Note: I acknowledge that weight management is materially affected by stress, emotions and psychology, those elements that fall into the Spiritual, Mental and Emotional dimensions of human performance, however the process goals I chose for this endeavor are exclusive to the Physical dimension, as I felt the physical foundation needed to be solidified first or the desired accomplishments in the other dimensions would equally fail. I placed these Physical process goals into the following categories:

• Caloric Intake/Nutrition
• Caloric Expenditure/Positive Stress
• Recovery/Adaptation

How’d I do? During week 1, I succeeded in gaining three pounds and am now up to 219.5. So why am I not freaking out? Well, for a couple of reasons. The first is that I was on meds for my head cold when I did my initial weigh in which may have had me dehydrated aqnd therefore lighter than I really am. Case in point is that I did my weigh in yesterday before my workout and came up with 219.5. I did another weigh in after my workout and weighed in at 215.5, that’s a 4 pound swing in under two hours, all of it related to hydration. But being conservative, I’ll use the observation from before the workout and will hope to see improvement in the coming weeks from doing one thing, executing ruthlessly on the process goals I’ve set out for myself.

Below is my report card from the past week. I use three levels of performance measures. Less then Expected, Met Expectations and Exceeded Expectations. It doesn’t make much sense to get more granular than that, although I recognize that there are valid reasons for gradation. Overall, for week 1 of 10 I gave myself a self assessment of Met Expectations, a good start with plenty of room for improvement.

Report Card – Week 1

Caloric Intake/Nutrition = Below Expectations

Portion size: Clearly I still fall into the trappings of being a child of depression parents and still feel the need to clean my plate

Eat Healthy Breakfast: For the most part I now eat cottage cheese for breakfast which also helps with the eat protein first process goal

Eat light every three hours: Not sure I’m eating light and trying to eat regularly but not exactly hitting the every three hour mark

Avoid junk food and sugar: I’ve been off chocolate since January 1st, which is my biggest sugar vice, but I’m still eating too much bread and carbs

Eat protein first: Starts of really well with breakfast but I know I ate Mexican a few times and did fall into the trappings of the chips on the table

Stop eating 60 mins. before going to sleep: Just failed at this one.

Caloric Expenditure/Postive Stress = Met Expectations

Hit the gym early: Been going to gym but usually around lunch time, not first thing in the morning as I’d planned on doing. Lots of good excuses but no matter, I still haven’t been getting it done. I also missed two days this week due to other commitments.

Min 45 mins of Cardio: I pulled the muscle in my left calf on Tuesday on the treadmill but didn’t let it deter me. I quickly switched to more hours on the bike and walking steep inclines on the treadmill to keep up the routine. Would have been a higher grade but I missed Monday and Sunday due to other commitments.

Resistance training: Lifted weights Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for a total of three days this week. Also given that Wednesday was the first time I’d done squats and lunges in ages, it took me until Saturday to recover functional ability in my ass and hamstrings again.

Recovery/Adaptation = Met Expectations

Sleep min of 7 hours per night: For the most part I’m getting more sleep now than I ordinarily do, but I still need to work on reducing the negative stress in my day to day life. Obviously my career has a lot to do with this at the moment. I still need to do a lot more on this front.

Now it’s on to do even better in week two. Best of luck to all of my friends who are engaged in pursuing their own 10 in 10 objectives. Wishing you all continued success.