My weight loss progress this month....

Today's Post: Monday, 5-17-2010

As many of you know, in late December I decided to make a strong and focused effort to lose the 14 pounds I’d gained back of the 30 pounds that I initially lost.

So, my New Year’s Resolution and main health goal for 2010 was to do that by the end of the year.

I also wanted to do this to make progress towards a goal I knew might take longer which was to lose 4 inches off my waist.

So, I set up a plan with over 10 small strategies to cut calories without increasing my hunger or reducing my nutrition -- each of which would help a bit in my loss of that many pounds of fat. I also decided on another 4 or 5 other strategies to help add muscle, burn calories, and remove more belly fat.

I’ve followed the calorie restrictions faithfully. And, I’ve built up to about 25% of my goal in the jump rope sessions I added for just a few minutes twice a week. But I’ve not yet gotten to the other 3 or 4 added exercise goals.

Here’s how I’ve done so far.

Since I lost another 2 pounds since last month, I’ve done great on my fat loss goal as shown by the weight on the scale. I’ve lost 13 of the 14 pounds already in just 5 months. So, when I lose one pound or more by next month, I will have reached my weight loss goal for the whole year in just six months.

Last week was Mother’s Day. Our daughter was really great to her Mom. But my wife initially was upset with me. I was able to turn that around by the end of the day. But it was more than a bit stressful. So, although I restrained my wine consumption some and was sure to eat plenty of the raw vegetable snacks, I did wind up consuming enough more wine than I planned and ate enough more, I likely gave up losing between half a pound and a pound I would otherwise have lost.

BUT, there were two pieces of good news this month anyway.

Because my multipart program was still in place every other day of the month and even part of Mother’s Day, I still lost two pounds.

The other news is better, I lost a whole inch off my waist since last month!

(Now, I’ve lost 1.75 inches of the 4 off my waist that I set out to lose.

That IS very encouraging. So, I may even have a shot at losing the whole 4 inches by the end of the year after all.

The only bad news is that the way my belly looks, I may need to lose 4 inches from here to really get rid of my pot belly -- for a total of 6.25 inches from where I began.)

I think much of that inch off my waist was from my gradual improvement in my jump rope sessions. My initial start was one set of 14 that it took me a few tries to do.

Now, I do four sets each time: 49, 42, 35, & 28. Even better, I now do all or most of each set without a miss. Last time, if I remember correctly, the set of 49 was 41 without a miss and then 8 more; I did the 42 set without a miss; I did the 35 set as 33 without a miss and then the last two; & I did the 28 set without a miss.

My hope, goal, and intention is to build up to 6 sets of 98 at each of my two sessions a week by the end of the year.

Between the jump rope sessions and the loss of 13 pounds, I can tell my power to weight ratio is better. When I want to walk fast, it takes about a third of the mental energy to do than it did at the start of the year.

The really nice thing is that this new jump rope program only takes 10 to 12 minutes twice a week now. And, it will only take 15 to 18 minutes twice a week at the end of the year when I do more at each session.

(This is in addition to the other exercises I’ve been doing the other days of the week before I added the jump rope. So I started out lighter and less fat than many people who haven’t yet begun any exercises at all.)

I also follow virtually all the fat loss tips I posted last time with much the same result.

I’m posting these monthly results for two reasons. It helps me stay motivated. And, I hope many of my readers will be encouraged by my good results and do likewise.