Back From Vacation

We rolled in last night around midnight from over a week on the road. We spent 7 days in Florida and a few in Chattanooga with Kim's parents on the way.

Let me get to the numbers first. I had a great week of working out. I made all my workouts which included a couple of 2 hour bike rides and a couple of long runs of over an hour. I am very much on course for the triathlon in Chattanooga on July 15. On the eating side of things, I blew it. I ate like I hadnever eaten before and have some work to do to get back on track. But that is the beauty of the maintaince phase of this weight loss program. I know how I gained weight, and I know how to lose it.

The greatest part of vacation was that I was not worried at all about what I looked like with my shirt off. I was glad to hang out in the pool and the ocean and even got a little bit of a tan. I usually stay under the shade with my shirt on and am not much fun. The weight loss over the past year made this the best vacation ever. I will try to talk more about this when I have more time, but this was another experiance that made me ask myself what else I have been missing because of my weight?

DOWN 120 POUNDS!

I have not been arond to wiegh in officially at the hospital in a few weeks (4 to be exact) so I went last night. I have not been too concerned with weigh loss over this time perid because I have been much more involved in training. However I lost 1.8 pounds over the last 4 weeks to bring the total to 120 pounds and some change. I started the program two weeks before Thanksgiving at 355 point something and weighed in at 235 on the dot last night. I have to say this seems like a lot of weight. I hope to lose some more by next Thursday becasue I leave for vacation on next Friday. I am going to allow myslef to enjoy some foods on vacation that I have not had in a while and I hope to not gain a ton, but know I might gain a little. The important thing will be not starting vacation early as far as eating goes (I do that sometimes) and getting back on program the minute I get home or before and not allowing myslef to fall back on old habits. Since we are going to Florida I hope to eat a lot of good seafood (not fried) and we are taking our bikes so I hope to continue my training.

Speaking of training I ran 5 miles yesterday and swam this morning and have a great training plan from Joe Friel's website, www.trainingpeaks.com for the Chattanooga triathlon coming up on July 15. I will try to post a link to it and to the Chicago Marathon.

I am a TRIATHLETE

About two years ago I was in Barns and Noble in Atlanta. I was standing in line to order a quick after dinner snack, a mocha frappacino and piece of Cheesecake Factory cheesecake. I also had two magazines in my hand and was going to pay for it all there in the cafe and just read and eat there. I put my magazines down and ordered my snack and the little girl behind the counter looked at me like I was buying porn. Now I had check out people look at me funny before, but they never just came right out and said anything like this girl. She looked at my magazines and she looked at me and she asked. "do you actually do this stuff?" It was almost like she had never waited on a 380 pound guy buying triathlon magazines and cheesecake. I was taken a back and a little embarassed to tell you the truth. I had to tell her, "well no, not really, but I have swam, and I own a bike and I walk and run some, and someday I am going to do this." She said, "cool" and I took my cheesecake and mocha frappacino, along with my newest issue of Triathlete and Inside Triathlon and now too embarassed to eat and read there, I went to my car and ate there. I even shed a couple of tears in my car that night.

Yesterday I swam 500 meters, biked 13 miles, and ran 3 miles in completing my first triathon. What a difference a couple years make. The journey is far from over and I have more goals to accomplish, but TODAY I AM A TRIATHLETE.