Day 4 of juicing and it's a time warp...

I was so anxious to jump on the scale this morning. Was it going to be the day I was going to break 200 lbs and finally see a 19. I'm so done with being in the 200's. It's been about 9 months in the 200's and I'm done with it.

Monday afternoon was my fasting start date and it seems like yesterday. It kind of surprised me it was Thursday morning already. You have no idea how much I want the days to pass buy quickly. I do want to get back to eating solid foods. There is something about chewing and grazing that I like.

Since March 1st I've been listening to hypnosis every day and I've come to learn to chew my food slowly and really enjoying it. The juicing has taken that pleasure away from me.

Yesterday was a tough day. The toughest so far. It was the day that I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing.

What kept me going is two things. The first is I bought all this fruit and vegetables, $80 worth and I can't let it go to waste. It would crush me for it to go to waste. The second reason I'm sticking with it is I totally want to get back to my ideal weight. I can no longer look at myself in the mirror without asking "what happened to me?"

When I think back I swear I must have had one of those mirrors that made me look "not overweight". One Monday I did my first Insanity workout and it was the day that I really noticed how much I'd gained weight. Between the mirror and the Go Pro video I made it was a total eye opener. There was no denying that I slide more than I thought.

It's kind of daunting to think that over a 4 year period I had gained 30 lbs and in only 3 months I had gained 15 lbs. I remember being at around 181 lbs and when I got up to 183 lbs I was worried. Then it became 185 lbs, then 187 lbs and then it was so long as I stay under 190 lbs I'm okay. It's amazing how quickly you can lower the bar over time and before you know it you step on the scale and see a 210 lbs.

14 months ago - Big Difference

210 lbs is a damn scary number to see on the scale. It was that moment that I near wanted to cry and realized at that point I HAD to do something. My pants were getting tight, my T-shirts where getting tight and I actually tried to put on one pair of pants and there was no chance I could do them up. I think it was about 4 or 5 inches was the closest I could come to try and do them up.

Now here is where is gets even worse. I'm down 10 lbs from the high, which is a positive. Now I'm starting to look fatter. The way I lose weight is from the out to in. It starts and the feet and head and works itself to the middle. The side effect is this makes the stomach look much fatter as you start to lose weight. It looks worse before it gets better.

I'm still 20 lbs away from my ideal weight. When I think about it I realize how much discipline and sacrifice I'm going to need to make and sometimes it feels overwhelming. If I could snap my finger and lose at least 10 lbs really quick and it would seem more attainable to lose those last 10 lbs.

I keep telling myself not to think about losing 20 lbs and not to think about it at all. Just take it day to day. I'm not going to lie, it's hard and mentally tough. Mind you if I could even get down to 193 - 195 and I can start to see some noticeable losses and get into the pants I couldn't, I'm sure it would give me a mental boost to get to the next level.

This morning I was the exact same weight as the day before. It was somewhat depressing. The only thing I tried to tell myself was that I worked out so hard I was retaining water. I also took some preworkout C4 and it was probably retaining water.

Tomorrow will be the moment of truth. I haven't had much juice today and have drank a lot of water and coffee. Mentally I need a win tomorrow. Will I finally break the 200 barrier and will it mentally give me a lift.

I haven't set a date to stop the juicing. I want it to end immediately, but I have all these fruits and vegetables. I've told myself the fast will end when I finish eating all those fruits and vegetables. I really hope they are gone by Sunday, which would be 7 days of juicing.

Tonight was better than yesterday, but still really tough. It's a mental struggle to keep up the discipline. Today was also a very busy day with meetings, I had 8 and for some reason it made the day last longer and I seemed more hungry. Yet at the same time it took my mind a little off the juicing and forced me not to take in that many calories. I sure hope tomorrow I can get into the 190's. I've damn been working hard at it.

Training wise I was able to slip in a 30 minute Insanity workout. This one was cardio recovery so I don't think I got my heart rate up past 130 bpm. I was thinking of running but ran out of sunlight and some days you just don't feel like running in the dark. I think if I did run in the dark it would have taken my mind into a dark place.

Dinner wise I had a green juice. Alice on the other hand made homemade tasty smelling and looking burgers. It was weird in that I wanted some and yet I didn't. The juicing is taking away those cravings.

My number one motivation is just to burn through the days. The faster the days past the faster I'll be off this juicing diet. The sad part is that I'm on this damn juicing diet because I have to get down to 198 lbs or lose $600. I so wish I didn't make that bet and just stay on my weight watchers plan and lose 1 lb a week and enjoy life.

Mentally I felt so balanced and life was good on weight watchers. What was I thinking making these bets. I feel like I signed up for an Ironman and now I have to train and I'm thinking, "why the hell did I sign up to torture myself".

Anyways I really hope tomorrow is a good day. If I'm not in the 190's it's going to be a very long and hard day for me.

Insanity workout - 30 minutes
200.4 lbs

Riding the line...

Day 2 of my juicing fast and was pretty excited about doing my morning weigh in.

It's kind of an immediate reward to see the weight down and makes the personal sacrifice and discipline required worth while. Today I was done another 1 lbs. That means in 2 days juicing I'm done 2.6 lbs.

Best part is I'm on the edge of dropping under 200 lbs. As of this mornings weigh in I'm 200.4 lbs.

For the two weeks prior I followed the weight watchers plan religiously and lost about 3 - 4 lbs. I didn't go over my allowance and I trained. I really worked hard to get those pounds off. Some days the weight would go up, other days it would go down.

To see a 2.6 lb weight loss in only 2 days is just an awesome feeling. I know it's not sustainable. I know it's probably water weight and I've read that it's common to gain a couple pounds back when you start eating solid foods.

Regardless, I'm happy and my plan is to use this as a kick start and in 7 - 10 days I'll get back to regular food following weight watchers.  I plan on following weight watchers even after my goal is hit, just to maintain. I really like the weight watchers point system.

My fear is losing muscle during this juicing period. I've supplemented the juicing with whey protein and I want to keep up my weight training. Mid-morning I slipped away to the gym and did a killer workout.

Before going I took some C4 supplement which I find jacks you up and for some reason I can do more weight. My plan today was to push the weight hard. In all cases I increased the weight a minimum of 10 % and most of the time it was up to 30% more weight.

Right off the bat I knew I was working out. I do two sets of 12 reps and do super circuits. One set of upper body, then lower body and then back to upper body. I do no recovery. Actually my upper body recovery is when I'm doing lower body. It's a very efficient way to get a 90 minute weight training session done in 45 minutes.

By the 6th rep on most all sets I was hurting. I forced myself and was grunting and groaning for those last 6 reps. I had my headphones on listening to music and I'm sure it was super load. I know some gyms don't allow grunting. I rarely hear it in our gym. As a kid I went to the YMCA where the serious body builders went and all you heard was them grunting out their sets.

The only time that was a little scary and hard was doing lunges. I do it at the squat rack and after the 1st set I felt light headed and my heart was racing. I actually had to sit down. That was a first. Then I did the second set and same thing, I had to sit down.

It was a tough session and very gratifying. The weight was higher than normal and I felt sore afterwards. It's still not as much as I was doing 6 months ago, but I'm getting there. At my age weight training is probably one of the most important things I can do. The older you get the quicker you lose muscle.

Again this morning my back was tight. I'm not sure if it's from stress or being at that 200 lb which is the point my back normally gets sore. If I get a few pounds lower or higher it's okay.

There is always work stress. It's less and controlled now but I know what I do now in the planning is going to have a big effect on our future. We are currently showing key features of our app to qualified early adopters and getting feedback. Very valuable process. Tomorrow and Friday is lined up with about 10 more. 

Juicing is tough, at least today it is. I had a lot of hunger pangs today. They say day 2 to day 4 is the toughest. It is. The tough part of juicing is the cleaning up. It's kind of a hassle and it really makes you question if you need juice right now or could wait.

To switch it up tonight I had some consume soup. I read that some people that do juicing also do bullion soup. So I had some. It was so tasty. Amazing something like soup would be such a treat. 

I find myself going to the washroom and pee ever 45 minutes to hour. It started a little yesterday, today it's in full swing. It's a good sign. Every time in the past that I've lost weight I've peed a lot. I often think that it's a way that my fat is exiting my body. I don't think that's true, I think I read it comes out of your pores and breathing, but I've convinced myself it's dispelled through pee.

Tonight I was thinking of doing an Insanity workout. I didn't. I was still super sore from today's weight training and didn't want to over do it. After today's session my hips were sore. Yes, my hips. Never had that before.

Aside from being at the sub 200 lb level, my pants are getting a little loose. I had to start wearing a belt again and at one point was able to get to my regular loop. It was a little tight and I let it out a loop, but it was close. It won't take long to get to that loop if things keep up.

Weights - 45 min
200.4 lbs.

Immediate results...

Yesterday I started my juicing diet. I ate in the morning. My last meal was a lunch of left over Steak, mushrooms and corn from Sunday nights dinner. My juicing began after that.

When I woke up today I was anxious to weight myself. To see if there was any difference. I weighed myself before I went to bed and was at 203.2 lbs and this morning I weighed in at 201.6 lbs. I always find it amazing how you can lose 1.6 lbs during your sleep. Where does that weight go? I'm assuming it's in the breathing or threw the pores.

Surprisingly I wasn't hungry when I woke up. Not at all. All I was craving was my coffee. Even though I'm on a juice diet I'm not giving up my coffee. I love coffee with half & half cream.

It was my 17th straight day of listening to my weight loss hypnosis tape. Just before lunch I was craving a run. I'm sure it's from the hypnosis. I think about it and think that years past when I was training like a mad man I must have hypnotized myself to be focused without even knowing it.

The run was great. It was slow but I noticed that my heart rate stayed lower than normal. Today was the first day I noticed some real gains with respect to my fitness as it relates to heart rate.

I did have a tight lower back just before and at the start of my run. I'm not sure what it is but when I get around the 200 lb mark my back tightens up. I'm not sure why, perhaps its my weight shifting and my body off balance at that weight. It seems consistent. In the past it was when I got up to 198 plus and this is the first time I'm seeing it happen again on the way down.

It must have looked funny if you were watching me start up on my run. It was a shuffle and I'm sure it looked like I had a pole up my butt or something. Many people I'm sure would have quit and turned around. My breathing was off and everything. I just know that if you run through it it will loosen up.

I was right. It took about 4 or 5 minutes until it was near non existent and I could just enjoy the run. The slow run. Mind you my body doesn't feel the difference other than my knees. For the first time ever it feels like my knees are looking to be moving less weight. I keep telling my knees not to worry, the 180's will be coming soon.

Today was St Patrick's day. The last one Alice and I celebrated was in Toronto in 2011. We drove downtown, had a great time, I almost got beat up by some young guys and if it wasn't for Alice getting in the middle it probably would have been young guys beating up old man. We stayed at a hotel in Downtown and work up feeling it the next morning. Ah...St Patricks day. Why do we do this to ourselves?

Instead of doing that again this year I went for a run. I'm so uber focused getting the weight down I'm not going to sabotage myself. Being so close to breaking the 200 lb mark is a real motivator to me.

After the run I recovered with whey protein, banana and strawberry and blueberry smoothie. Even though I'm on a fruit diet I don't want to lose muscle. I figured taking whey and raw fruit can't do much harm in the scheme of things.

Tonight for dinner I ran out and picked up some more fruits and vegetables. From yesterdays run and today's I'm into this juicing for $86. I don't know how long I'm going to fast. I told Alice I'm going to do it until I get rid of all the fruit and vegetables I bought. Our fridge is totally full of fruit and vegetables and the ones that couldn't fit are on the counter.

My dinner was primarily vegetables and it was a tough night getting it all down. It took me about 1.5 - 2 hours of watching TV and sipping it.

As I was drinking my dinner I was looking at the rice and pork chops the rest of the family was eating. The pork chops didn't get me but the rice did. I had this vision of eating rice with carrots and peas in it. We never do rice with carrots and peas. I've noticed that in a short order the juicing is pulling me in a direction that I want to eat vegetable prepared foods.

Even though I'm juicing I'm still getting a lot of calories. I counted them up today and it was over 1500 calories of juicing.

I also notice that I'm going pee a lot. I"m drinking lots of liquids, I don't want to just lose water weight.

I'm very curious to see what I'll weigh tomorrow.

 Run - 1:03:25 / 9.88 km
201.6 lbs

On the juice...

So I woke up today and didn't know if it was a Sunday or Monday. It took me a bit to get my bearings. I realized it was Monday.

I got up at 8 am, a little later than normal and didn't have time to listen to my hypnosis right away. It was a morning of meetings until noon and then I decided to head out and get a juicer.

There is this really good deal at Sears, a juicer for $71 and it has a great rating. For the past 5 months I've worked on raising money for my new business and haven't been getting paid and I can tell you without a doubt it has made me appreciate money much more than it had prior. In the past I would have bought the machine for double the money.

Even thinking about registration fees for half Ironman's at $200 plus seems crazy. It was a beautiful day today and I saw a guy on a bike and thought I should go out for a ride, until I remember I broke my aero bars and it will cost me money to fix. Like I said I've become cheap, these past 5 months have traumatized me.

After I picked up the juicer I needed to get some fruit and vegetables. I have no idea how to juice or what you should juice with. I know for sure you need kale, spinach, carrots, apples and other than that I wasn't sure so I just picked up a bunch of stuff without even looking at the recipes beforehand.

When I got home I made a grape and apple juice drink. It was really tasty and really sweet. I was amazed how sweet it was. Almost too much. I haven't drank anything that sweet in a long while. As I was drinking it I was thinking this would be an excellent recovery drink or substitute for Gatorade on the bike.

Later today I watched another juicing documentary for inspiration and did googling of recipes that I should use.

I found one and had my first dinner. It had beets, apples, pineapple, carrots and spinach. It too was really sweet and it took me about an hour of sipping on it to finish it.

There is mixed feelings I have about juicing. I woke up this morning and did my regular Monday morning weigh in for weight watchers and was down another pound from last week. I then did body measurements and had some really good inch losses from when I measured myself in February. Weight Watchers is working and I'm enjoying the diet. It's just not peeling off the weight fast enough.

I want if off faster for two reason. The first is I have a bet and I need to be at 198 lb or less by the end of the month and I don't think the weight watchers diet will do it. The second reason is I'm just dying to get out of the 200 lb level. It's been over 6 months that I've been in the 200's and I'm ready to get back to the 190's to begin and then into the 180's.

There is all these people that do juicing and drop weight quick. I know it's a fad and unsustainable and I get that. My plan is to drop as much as quickly as possible and then get back to weight watchers. I can see myself on weight watchers for the rest of my life as a baseline.

I have this dream that I could drop 10 lbs in 10 days. I doubt it's going to happen but it would be a dream to be down to 193 lbs in 10 days.

About 2 hours after  I drank my dinner, around 9 pm I was starting to get some headaches. I was detoxing. They say it takes about 3 days until you detox and in that time you will feel sluggish and tired and irritable. I was hoping that it would be too severe since I've been following weight watchers.

As the night went on I was debating with myself if I was going to do any training tonight. I had the excuse in my back pocket that I've worked out 7 days straight and a recovery day is in order. On the other hand I was thinking that if I'm going to do a fast I may as well do it right and combine it with exercise.

Prior to dinner I did do my hypnosis and I think that helped on motivating me to do a training session. It was between weight training and the Insanity workout. Insanity workout won out. I find these workouts really had and really have to self talk myself to do them. I did enough self talk to get me off the couch and do it.

This session was a little easier than the last one I found. It's still tough. It's also amazing how good of a workout you can get with nothing but your body. No weights, no nothing. By the end of it I'm dripping wet.

I decided to GoPro this session. As I'm getting on this journey I'm figured doing some VLOGing would be fun. I also thought it would be cool for people to see what's involved.

After I did the session and reviewed the video it really hit me how much weight I gained over the last year. The camera doesn't lie, I looked huge in my mind. Mind you these say the camera adds 10 lbs but just my body shape and how much energy and power I had was on film and I could not deny that in no way did I look like a 12 time Ironman.

It basically looks like I'm starting over. It was an eye opener. I look like the farthest thing from an athlete. Until tonight looking at that video I didn't fully realize how far I slid.

But I'm undeterred. I know I can reverse this and that is my plan. Mentally I'm ready and super focused. It's just a matter of staying the course. I've done it in the past, I'm planning to do it again.

My only fear about juicing is that it will derail me mentally. Oh, and one other fear I have is that I will lose muscle.

So I've pulled an audible. I've decided to not go totally juicing only. I am going to do liquid diet but I'm going to supplement my juicing with whey protein after training sessions to help with muscle recovery. Will it effect my weight loss? I'm not sure. I also love bananas so I'm adding the banana's to my whey protein post workout drink. Oh...and I'm also not giving up coffee.

The day turned out well and post workout I feel pretty good. I don't feel hungry. I don't have headaches and if anything the only thing I miss is chewing on something. I think that's more based on habit than craving. I'm thinking that by just staying the course that feeling will go away. It is tough thinking that juice will do it and I'll be satisfied but who knows, time will tell.

Insanity - 40 minutes
203 lbs

To juice or not to juice...

So last night I watched the documentary "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" on Netflix. It's about the benefits of juicing and it follows the journey of two guys, one who loses near 100 lbs in 60 days and another than lost over 200 lbs in 10 months.

Each of these guys basically juiced the entire time. No solid foods, just juicing fruits and vegetables. By the end of the documentary both guys had major physical transformations.

It was so good that it got me thinking that maybe I should do a juice diet.

Why?

Truth be told it's just that I want to rush the weight loss and I want to make sure I'm down under 198 lbs by March 30th or I lose $600. Wouldn't it be great to be down to where I want to be in less than 30 days. The program I'm on is the slow way but sure way.

This morning I woke up on the fence. Should I do it or not?

I play what it might look like in my mind. Of course I'd lose weight quick and then I think back to that time I went on a water fast diet for 7 days. It was hell. Total deprivation. It's the kind of deprivation that hurts. It's like doing an Ironman, at points you just want to quit and you wonder why you are putting yourself through the pain and suffering.

So instead of deciding I listen to my hypnosis tape thinking it will guide me. Nope, not really, it talks about just eating good, healthy foods.

Next thing I think about is the cost of buying a juicer. It's not like I really want to spend the money. Then I found one for $71 that had a good online review. Then I started reading that it's expensive to buy all the vegetables, one said it's about $28 per day.

I kept thinking about it and then envisioned myself having to juice daily and the preparation and cleaning of the machine.

The one thing I know on these types of fat that you think about 24/7 is one thing, food. The only thing even keeping me even thinking about it was the rapid weight loss.

Then I start thinking about my current progress on Weight Watchers. It's been slow, steady and I have not felt deprived. It feels like I'm eating very balanced and even my daily life feels more balanced. Most of all I don't feel like I'm sacrificing in anyway.

To put it in perspective on this current diet, which is really much more than that, it's a guide to proper portion control and allows you to eat any food I ate Pizza last night. Yes pizza, and it was awesome. I also had a couple of chicken wings.

Best part was it was in a controlled fashion, it was within my daily points allowance AND I even woke up this morning and weighed in at 202.8 lbs, a .2 lb loss.

So when I think of doing juicing I keep thinking about screwing up a good thing that I have going right now. It's working and I don't feel I'm depriving myself at all. I also like that I'm getting real food and that it helps gives me the energy I need to train and recover.

Hence my hesitation to change my plans. Now where do I go from here? Do I juice or don't I?

Before I decided I went for a nice Sunday run. It's starting to warm up, the snow is melting and the puddles on the sidewalks are getting smaller and fewer.

It was a good run and slower than I have been used to in years past, much slower. To put it in perspective at the top of my game I could run 5 minutes per km at a 135 bpm heart rate, today it was 6:22 per km barely keeping it under 140 bpm.

Although it's an improvement. Before my run I noticed my sitting heart rate was 46 bpm. Not bad. My standing is still high, but getting into the high 60's. My running heart rate is getting better on the run everyday. Today I only had to walk about 5 or so times at various points to keep it under 140 bpm.

There is something about running that I just love. It's something that I truly enjoy. I think it's because it puts me into some sort of hypnotic state, perhaps its the endorphins and definitely listening to my favourite 70's music is great. I even have one main route I run that I never get bored of.

As I was running I was thinking I definitely need to remember to stretch every time I finish my runs. It's injury prevention at it's finest. I don't think I've had a running injury in 5 or more years. Prior to my stretching routine I had IT band issues and planters fasciitis and calf issues at various points.

There is also something about stretching that is very spiritual. The feeling of muscles stretching to where there is a dull level of pain and breathing through it is a cool feeling.

When I got home I started talking to the kids and told them I was thinking about going on a juice diet. Both Reid and Alyssa think I'm crazy. Basically the feeling they had was there is no short cuts and it seems like a fad type diet and those type of diets are never good. Their opinion is to just eat good healthy food.

It was also evident that I needed food after my run. I was starving. All I had in the morning was some grapefruit and kiwi and it wasn't enough.

It helped me make my decision. I decided that if I'm going to get into juicing I should walk before I run. I should try juicing as a snack and see how I like it first. I don't even know if it's going to taste good or not.

I'm also hanging on to the idea that even on my current diet I'll get down another 5 lbs before the end of the month, over the next 15 days. The only thing that could derail it is that we are going to a Three Dog Night concert on March 27th and I may have beer and I can't afford to have that derail things. That's why a week long fast and an accelerated 5 - 10 lb loss would give me an insurance policy.

Here's my hope at this point. The first 15 days of this diet I'm down about 3 lbs so far, which doesn't seem like much until I put it in perspective that I have also gained muscle. I've trained over 12 hours in the past 15 days including 4 weight training sessions. If I was to guess the true loss I would think it's closer to 5 lbs.

Who knows I may change my mind tomorrow or sometime this week on the idea to juice. I can't express how much I want to get into the 190's badly.

Run - 1:12:25 / 11.19 km
202.8 lbs.

Feeling it...

The one great thing of eating healthy and getting a good night's rest and no partying is that Saturday mornings you feel so awesome.

My morning started with a couple of meetings that took me from 9 am - 12:30 pm. For some reason I find that weekends are really great work days for me. I'm not sure why other than it's very quiet time or I just feel I'm getting ahead of the game for the following week.

After those calls I headed to the gym. Something was pulling me to go work out. It's like I have my old training work ethic back.

I do know one of the motivations is to gain more muscle as it helps get your metabolism up and help burns fat.

Today's weight training session was the hardest I've had in a long time from memory. This would be my 4th session this month and I had no strength. Right from the beginning on the lat pull downs with my normal weight settings it felt heavy.

It was a struggle. Not that I didn't mind it. I knew when you really have to work through it you are getting great benefit. My upper body was not the only struggle, it was lower body too. It was a whole body struggle.

After this session I felt I really did something. I felt sore. My body felt like it had a good workout. There was no mailing it in on this one. Even for the rest of the day and night my body felt like I worked out hard.

I really like that feeling. I'm getting used to it again. I feel like an athlete again. There is something about shuffling a little around the house or feeling the burn a bit as I walk up or down the stairs. It's a feeling that makes you feel like you still alive.

There was moment today that it just popped into my mind as I was shuffling to the kitchen that I know others my age are not feeling be after affects of a good workout. I was thinking that it wasn't that long ago that I had all but lost the memory of this feels and how gratifying it is to feel like you are doing something physically good for you.

When I got home my next stop was to do my weight loss hypnosis. I had no time before my meetings today and I didn't want to procrastinate going to the gym. I figured it would be a great post workout thing to do.

I was right. It was the most relaxing hypnosis session I've had since I started. At one point I almost drifted into a sleep. I think it was from not having to think about work, or my workout and doing it post workout my body was ready for the rest. It was really an enjoyable session.

My weight has been coming down slowly and to keep motivated I went to the web to see what does 3 pounds of fat look like? I've basically lost 3 pounds since on weight watchers. If I look at my high in early February I've lost about 7 lbs. But the 3 pounds I've lost in the last two weeks I'm most proud off. I earned every ounce of weight loss.

When I saw what three pounds looks like I had two thoughts. The first was that losing 3 pounds is a decent amount of fat. My second through was holy crap, I've gained 20 lbs, that's a lot of weight to have gained.

Mentally I know I'm going to be getting down to my old weight. It's certain in my mind. The question is not if it will happen, the question is how long will it take to happen. I'd really like to see it happen in less than 2 months but I think it may take 3 months.

The biggest reason it takes so long is my age. I was reading articles about weight loss as you get older and most say it's near impossible. You lose muscle, you lose testosterone and you metabolism slows down.

I remember dropping weight for Ironman Cozumel. I got down to 188 lbs and it was the toughest thing I ever did. It took about 66 hours of training, no beer and total eating healthy for 30 days to drop 12 lbs. I vowed I wouldn't gain that weight back because I didn't think I ever had it in me again to dedicate myself to work that hard to lose weight.

Now not only did I gain the weight back, I gained even more. When I think about it. I got to 210 lbs and if I can get down to 180 lbs that would be a 30 lb weight loss. That's insane. How did I let myself go that far.

This time around it's not as painful. I'm learning to eat properly and with portion control. I'm not going to bed hungry and I'm not beating the hell out of myself with tons of training. This is just a slow steady process. It's a stay the course. It's kind of a reverse to gaining weight. You gain weight slowly and steady and now I'm losing weight slowly and steady.

Even though I'm down only about 3 pounds in 2 weeks I am most proud of these three pounds than any other weight loss I've ever had. Strange but true. It's like I value my weight loss more than I ever have because I'm really earning it.

As a final comment it was the first time I really realized my body is a little bigger than it was. I tried on one of my favorite t-shirts today and the minute I put it on it felt like I had it on backwards. It didn't hang like it once did. I give it another 30 days and it will feel much better.

Weights - 40 minutes
203.2 lbs.

Warming up...

Today is day 13 of my diet and for each of those days I've eaten absolutely perfectly. I have not deviated from the Weight Watchers program and I have not missed a day of hypnosis. I'm on a roll.

Mind you it does seem longer than 13 days. Not that it's been hard, it just seems longer for some reason.

When you think about it 13 days is not very long. It's just under 2 weeks. It's the length of a vacation. When I put the time into perspective I think that I've had some major gains in a relatively short period of time.

First off I'm losing weight. I'm not sure where it will be on Monday my weigh in day but I can say I'm down anywhere between 2 - 3 lbs of real weight, not just water weight. At this pace I'd be down about 18 lbs in 3 months.

Mind you 3 months is way too long to lose 20 lbs. I was hoping 2 months max. My dream would be down to 195 lbs by the end of March.

Training wise I've been going strong as well. In 13 days I've done 11 workout for a total of 11 hours.

I ran today and it was the first time I was able to keep my heart rate under 140 bpm for most of the run. I did have to walk at the end to keep it down but it is a start of seeing some training progress.

For me I had a small window between meetings so jumped out for a short 40 minute run. The weather is finally starting to get a little better. I even traded in my toque to a running cap.

The added length of the day and sunshine has been uplifting as well. It's great to see winter coming to an end and I realized that Spring officially begins March 20th, a week from now.

Last year my goal was to lose weight and get in great shape as we were creating and launching Salmon Social. It didn't happen. In fact the opposite happened. I got out of shape and gained 20 lbs.

To be exact I weighed in on January 12 at 189 lbs and returned from Boise on May 31st at 204.4 lbs. That's a 15 lb weight gain in 4 months. The numbers don't lie, my plan to eat well and train just didn't happen. I think back and I feel that being trapped in that dreary condo and all the roommate drama it felt like I was in prison.

This year it feels different. Just being in my own house in my own neighbourhood being around my family that a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

Tonight I was watching a documentary on Ultra Runners. These guys that do 100 mile plus runs through the dessert and crazy conditions.

I have no desire to do one of those races. I know I can do one without question. I just have no desire. I see the guys doing it and all I see is guys putting themselves through torture. Not just the torture of the race but the torture of the training.

When I watch them I think I'd rather just be at my goal weight, fit, and sitting at a patio at a nice restaurant sipping on beers on a hot Saturday afternoon. Or out on my deck doing the same. That to me seems so much more enjoyable than doing an Ultra race.

I've said it many times and I mean it. If you do more than one Ironman you have issues you are working through. No joke. For me it took 12 Ironman's for me to work through my issues where I no longer need to do Ironman's to address my demons. I think it would be fair enough to say the same thing for Ultras, again if you do more than one.

One of my demons was staying thin while still being able to party and I used Ironman as my weight loss program. I remember doing many a race and in the toughest parts I would say to myself "there has to be an easier weight loss program".

I'm going to sound like a broken record but I'm really liking Weight Watchers. Tonight I had some wings and pizza. Not a lot. Three wings and I slice. It was great. Didn't feel deprived and stayed within my point allowance for the day.

I've moved my office down to the basement, otherwise known as the Pig & Whistle. And when I say I moved my office that means that I'm bringing my laptop downstairs and working from the bar. I decided to go downstairs to give Alice a break from having me cramp her style.

What I'm loving about being downstairs is I have all the man cave toys and with some of the meetings I've been having lately I just need to be an active listener. The past couple of days earlier I rode my bike. Today I shot some pool and threw some darts. As I was looking outside I was looking at my backyard targets and can hardly wait until it warms up and I can work out side and shoot the pellet guns at the targets I bought last year.

It's basic Silicon Valley in my house. Once I get my pinball machines serviced and working, along with my Kegerator which broke, I'll be back in Nirvana.

Run - 45:00 / 6.96 km