2nd Annual April Fool's Day Challenge

The next AIM Challenge:  2nd Annual April Fool's Day.  What amount of weight loss can you commit to between now and April 1, 2009?  We have more than 12 weeks to burn the fat, increase strength, and prove the commitment to change started earlier in the year.  How do you want to start 2009?  This is your chance to make good on the resolution you started.  Who is up for the challenge?

Consider your goal, commit to the process, be accoutable, and realize the goals you have for a healthy life. 

Weigh ins begin Wednesday December 10th, 2008

Want your current BMR?  check out Phord's BMR page

ww - I thought it best to get something posted. Can always correct later.

thanks excal!  my weight loss seems to fluctuate quite a bit.  some weeks its little or nothing, the next its double or triple the week before and I'm rarely doing much (if anything) differently, so go figure.  I've been aiming for a steady 2 lb. per week loss, with an approximate 7000 calore deficit each week (1000 cal deficit per day), but as you can see from last weeks I only lost 1.6, but this week it was 3......who knows.  All I do know is that I continue to see the number on the scale get smaller and feel my clothes get looser, so I'm happy!

Unfortunately for me, the new work schedule isn't going to help my wallet all that much.  I just graduated from law school and started working for a small law firm in NY.  between school loans, food, clothing, rent, etc. and the fact that despite popular belief, having a law degree does not instantly grant you a 6 figure salary, I'm pretty poor (and probably will be for a while).  But, being busy definitely keeps my mind off of food and hunger, so that's a plus!

You look like you had a good week yourself, congrats!  And yes, I too have noticed that if I get on the scale on a daily basis things look much bleaker, but at the end of the week I always seem to be down, so yeah, definitely "A watched kettle never boils" situation.

Just wanted to make a few comments and responses here:

rk1--the date for the Boston Marathon in 2014 will be April 21, so you will be 44 and will still need to run 3:20:59 or faster to qualify. Lucky for you is that we're just entering a new age category, so we have 5 years to get down to that time.

bobev--as always, your improvements and progress always amaze and impress this "fast guy up front". My dad is about your age (he turns 60 in December)--I wish he were even half as committed and focused as you are about your health and fitness.

Great weeks, excal301 and dybo70!! Along with countbrian, it looks like you three are all within striking distance of reaching your AFC goal (within 5 pounds).

Munrori, where are you?? I'm hoping that your training for Boston is continuing to go well. Your big race is about 30 days away!!

With two more weigh-ins remaining, what is everyone planning to do to make the best of the time that remains?? And though it's probably a bit premature, who's up for the 2nd Annual July 4th Challenge?? (J4C)

Original Post by wrm2105:

With two more weigh-ins remaining, what is everyone planning to do to make the best of the time that remains?? And though it's probably a bit premature, who's up for the 2nd Annual July 4th Challenge?? (J4C)

Well I plan on doing what I have been doing so far, but maybe a little bit more. Although next week will take lots of disciple, I have free lunches 4 out of 5 days next week as I'm away on a training course.

I'm definitely up for the 2nd Annual July 4th Challenge.

Probably do a more mileage (run or cycling) driven goal, rather than weight. As Ive learnt that I'm already hovering around my ideal weight.

Start Weight (mid-July): 273.5
Weight at start of challenge: 237.1
GW: 210 by April 1st

Weigh-Ins

Dec 12, 2008:  237.1
Dec 17, 2008: 233.3
Dec 24 - mid-Feb: Slackerville. Weight up as high as 243. Have been pretty good at exercising since mid-January, but obviously not good at posting.
Feb 26, 2009:  233.1

March 23, 2009:  235

Gained a bit more back recovering from pneumonia than I'd hoped, and certainly am not anywhere near pace to meet my goal by April 1.  Guess I'll try again for the July 4 challenge.

However, in spite of the fact that the weight loss has stalled badly, my conditioning is better than it's been in many years, as I've been exercising routinely on a bicycle - rode about 110 miles this last week.

LW: 194
TW: 194 (Though I did see 193 once this week)
GW: 185

So yes I am still alive.  My compliments to all of you who have been keeping this thread alive and on topic.  My extended absence has had everything to do with many personal issues during the first three months of this year.  I hope to continue with everyone onto the next challenge.  My goal weight has remained unchanged as has my current weight.  This weekend I ran in and completed my second marathon.  I learned many lessons along the way and am planning carefully for the next long distance attempt. 

ww

I'm very happy to hear from both of you, ledgehanger and wiliwigi!! And I'm excited to hear that the two of you have been keeping up with your fitness goals despite life's challenges.

110 miles on the bike, ledgehanger, impressive!!

And congrats, ww, on becoming a multiple marathoner!!

WW,

Good job ... Did not know you had been training for marathon.  Which race did you run in, unforetunately us northerners are still 6 - 8 weeks away from any local marathons.

WW - welcome back. Now all we need is to hear from munrori and phord! Fill us in on the race results. I'm still hoping to be able to do at least a half marathon one of these days. Although with the weather getting warmer in North Texas I'll take a Jan/Feb run anyday! 68 and humid this morning was tiresome!

Let's get this weigh-in started.

AFC Start: 171.8
AFC Goal: 159.9
LW: 164.0
TW: 161.6
CW Progress: - 2.4
AFC Progress: - 10.2
Pounds to go:  1.7

I don't know how the heck I pulled that number this week, given my struggles with shedding weight in February. I had figured that I would just fall short of my AFC goal, but now I'm actually within striking distance of making it. Then again, this could be yet another "fluke".

Last week was my highest volume mileage week YET, running 90 miles, including 19.5 miles on Saturday. With an 8K race on Sunday, I'm aiming to cut back this week to no more than 60 miles. Hopefully this much of a "taper" will prove to be helpful out on the course this weekend.

AFC Start: 197

LW: 186.8

CW: 185

CW Loss: 1.8 (2 weeks)

AFC Loss: 12 

GW: 175

lbs to Goal: 10

Needle heading in right direction ... Slow but steady.  With 8 weeks till marathon looks like reasonable goal weight probably 180 lbs.

Training going well and ran a pretty good 5 mile tempo run yesterday after sunday long run and legs feel good.  Went out with 2 fast miles (8:45 pace); 2 miles @ 9:15 pace; last mile back around 8:45 with 1 min walk/water breaks at mile 2, 3, 4.  Overall time time of 46:38 - 9:15 overall pace was actually faster than last 5 mile race in fla on vacation last December.  First time I think I had a training run faster than fairly recent race time.

Also ran 2 additional miles as my 10  yr old son also wants to run a 5K in may so we did a couple walk/run laps on a 1 mile trail loop.  He did pretty darn good with an overall 12:30 pace with walks and 2nd lap we actually maintained faster run segments @ 11:30 pace.  Shooting for us to run together @ 5/2 -- 5K at local minor league park as get to finish on the field and team mascots, etc will make for kid friendly experience.  Glad kids are into the running but may be tricky down the road when Dad actually wants to "Run" a 5K to see what the PR can be.

Original Post by countbrian:

198lbs :-( , oh well at least I'm under 200.

 Brian please post weigh ins to appropriate thread and do not start a new thread.

Thanks

CW: 164.5 (n/c)
LW: 164.5
GW:155 by April 1st - not gonna make it!
Starting Weight: 169 (7/10, peak: 222 in 1999)
1st Goal: 165 - met on 8/2 at 164.6
2nd Goal: 160
Longer Term Goal:150-154 - Normal BMI & HS, Military, Marriage until 1979!
Fitness Goals for 2009:
*Run 600 mi; Complete a 10k (Completed 15 min faster than trained for!)
*Improve 5k pace – beat 12:07 (10k GPS pace exceeded by a minute)
*Get clearance from cardiologist to train for a half marathon (delayed until July stress test)

My big fat chihuahua is funny. She loves going out with me in the mornings. In fact she jumps up from under the covers when she realizes I am letting my wife know I am going out. She claws at me to take her! its so funny. She hasn't gotten very far with me yet, and tries to spend a lot of time sniffing. I tried to find out how far a small dog like a chi can run but there's no information other than building their distance gradually, same as a person. I know we tired her out walking all around the Round Rock Premium Outlets Sunday on the way home from Austin. She drank a lot of water and immediately fell asleep when we got back into the car and drove home.

I think I figured out the shin splints as being a combo of the tight stabilized knee brace and orthodic I had inserted into the Saucony Progrid Guide shoes. I ran almost 4 mi Tues w/o problem. Am planning to start rotating the Saucony's with the Mizuno's going forward. I switched to time based running to see how that goes. Am aiming for 45 min easy runs and will inc lsd to 2 hrs this Sun. 2 hrs should generate more than 8mi covered. Will increase 10 minutes every two weeks until 2 1/2 hrs - which is probably the longest I can get away with on Sun mornings. Longer than that and I'll miss breakfast with friends. Will do tempo's, speedwork, and hill repeats based on distance when I re-introduce next week. May run another 10k in May, so want to get base built up again to get ready. I continue to follow Jeff Galloway's Run-Walk-Run approach currently with current 5/2 running/walking time for all runs. Yesterday's easy run came in at 13:11 overall pace for 3.8 mi, even with a phone call stopping me in the middle of a run.

I liked the house my daughter is buying. My wife was so-so on it. She likes new, not quirky or retro which the 1971 house is. Older daughter is in town on business and I will see if she will run with me the rest of the week. Hope she goes for it. Wife is training to walk the Victory over Violence 5k with me on 4/4. I would have run it, but agreed to stay with her so no pb coming up.

rk1 - I don't think my wife is going to start running races with me, so I may not be repeating your challenge! Although for a women who doesn't like to sweat she have been doing a lot of walks on the treadmill lately. Did 3.5 mi in 60 min this morning.

motto: Never Give UP, Never Turn Back!, Can Do!

AFC Start: 167.2
AFC Goal: 157.0
LW: 161.6
TW: 162.2
CW Progress: +0.8
AFC Progress: - 4.8
Pounds to go: 5.4

Pretty much not going to make the goal, but all things considered, and taking into consideration the winter is traditionally the season to put on weight (for me anyway). I am quite happy to have stayed in shape and not put on any weight. With the on season fast approacing I feel confident that things can only get better.

AFC Start: 266.6

LW: 248.6

CW: 248.2

CW Loss:  .4

AFC Loss: 18.4

GW: 245

lbs to Goal: 3.2

Sorry for not posting yesterday, but i had one of those "late" mornings and forgot to weigh in before I ran out of the house.  It seems that it didn't make much of a difference anyway though as I only lost .4 pounds.  That's a little disappointing as I've been pretty vigilant with my dieting, but as I said last week, I seem to have major high's and lows lately, not a constant loss as I did in the beginning, so maybe this week I lose that final 3.2 (or more) and hit my goal by next weeks deadline, who knows.  If I don't make it, i'll just have to try that much harder during the 4th of July challenege!

I'm posting it here, since this is for the last weigh-in of the challenge.

AFC Start: 171.8
AFC Goal: 159.9
LW: 161.6
TW: 162.2
CW Progress: gained 0.6
AFC Progress: lost 9.6
Pounds from goal: 2.3

Slightly disappointed with this week's gain, but only because I really wanted to get closer to my challenge goal. Daily weights fluctuated this week from a high of 164.4 (the day after a huge dinner with a few drinks to wash it down) to a low of 161.4 (oddly enough, the following day). All in all, however, I won't complain (too much). I feel like I made a great deal of progress during this challenge, and I suspect that my minor gain is due to some intramuscular fluid in my very sore quads as they recover from Sunday's 8K effort and Tuesday's challenging run.

I cut back my mileage last week to 55 miles to give my legs a bit of rest leading into Sunday's race, but I hope to be back up in the 85 mpw range for the next several weeks. The cutback seemed to help with my race on Sunday (you can read more about it in the Race Reports section, just in case), so I plan to continue to implement a similar plan in the future for any race shorter than the marathon. Finished the month of March with just under 332 miles, a new monthly PR.

Definitely looking forward to getting my weight to the 150s during the next challenge!

AFC Start: 197

LW: 185

CW: 184.4

CW Loss: .6

AFC Loss: 12.6 

GW: 175

lbs to Goal: 9.4

Well its been like watching paint dry but weight and more importantly fat has come off very slowly but at least at a steady slow rate.

Overall very pleased with challenge progress as 12.6 lbs while in mist of training for the marathon has been a tough balance.  On one hand being lighter would obviously make the race easier but when you are ramping up the miles and body is constantly trying to recover/rebuild you just cant cut too much.  This week after 15 mile LR sunday weight actually shot up like 3 lbs the next day despite running for 2.5 hrs and burning > 2000 calories (heck that is a whole extra days calorie burn almost) .... Body must hang on to everything it can until it feels reparied.

Fitness side doing well and have increased milage to hit 30 mpw now (still light in grand scheme of things) and will try to get to 35 - 40 mpw over next month prior to taper.  Also running more days and trying to smooth out the max high mile days across the week.  Last week ran 5 days (last year afraid to run more than 3 - 4 days and/or back to back due to knee).  Actually have run 4 consecutive days (will be 5 today) all be it 3 of 4 were very short and/or easy (Sat 2 mile temp @ 9:00 pace to gage daughter on 5K pace; Sunday 15 miles @ 10:15; Monday 2 mile recovery @ 11:00 pace which although still sore at beginning felt better at end; Tue 3 miles @ 9:20 pace -- planned easy but was mix tempo/easy as felt good).  Reason to front load this week is to get 1 -2 days rest for Saturday Half Marathon (Goal < 1:55:00).

WRM,

Great job on the challenge in regards to both weight and fitness goals .... just be careful not too burn yourself out over the summer with those 85 - 95 mpw goals before you even begin training for Fall race .... Its a marathon not a sprint right?? 

See Everyone on the July Fourth Challenge (Well at least Eleven of us)

For the record:

AFC Start: 195
AFC Goal: 180
CW: 195

So this challenge I managed to maintain.  I have kept the orignial 60lb loss now for more than 1 year.  The fat man is no longer on my shoulder.  I still want the next 15 lbs.  Thus, the JFC is right on time. 

Physically, I was able to maintain some discipline in a running program and was able to complete my second marathon.  This has given me new goals for fitness, distance, and speed.  I am looking forward to new progress.

wrm

Great job on your achievement during this challenge, seems you are on a similar path as me, and facing similar obstacles.

AFC Start: 167.2
AFC Goal: 157.0
LW: 162.2
TW: 161.0
CW Progress: -1.2
AFC Progress: - 6.2
Pounds to go:4.0

The scale has been doing the usual fluctuating all week, you know the +/-2lb here and there. But this morning when I stepped on the scale to my surprise I set a new all time low of 161.0. I have not been this weight since leaving the Royal Air Force in 1991, I am really pleased with how far I have come in a year, dropped 8 inches from my waistline and lost 49lb, that means I have lost one small child, incredible.

Although when I found the "Men Taking A.I.M" group I was doing OK by myself, I have found that extra motivation needed during the not so good moments of this journey. I mean I started this challenge at 167lb, to all intense purposes this is a good weight for someone of my build, not perfect, but certainly not overweight. So how the heck did I lose 6 more lb, what kept me focused during the most difficult weight loss stage there is (the last 10lb's), this group did, so thanks all for giving me the push during those tough moments.

One thing that I have learned and will be taking with me into the next challenge is not to set unrealistic goals.

Keep up the good work everyone, and I look forward to even bigger and better challenges in 2009.