Another week of Operation Melt is in the record books and it was one of marginal success at best. I am struggling in some areas but making some progress in others. Overall, on a scale of 1 to 10, I would probably only rate this week a 5 in how well I did in my journey. But, there is always next week.

Losing at losing

Another week of weight struggles this week. After experiencing a major weight fluctuation at the end of last week – 5 pounds in one day! – I spent a portion of this week trying to get back to where I was. Then, Friday through Sunday, I didn’t weigh myself at all because I was at Indian Lake and didn’t take a scale with me. So, who knows where I will be tomorrow morning when I get back into my routine.

My weight rollercoaster is being driven by a few factors, but the biggest of them is my sodium intake. Despite trying to manage my sodium to 1500-2400mg per day, I am frequently seeing 3000+ milligram days and even hit 4000 on Saturday night at the lake. Believe it or not, the biggest problem that drove me to 4000mg was that I had pickles on my burger and a pickle spear on the side. Those 2 things, which are so low in calories that I usually wouldn’t have logged them separately, are over 500mg alone, that is a third of my sodium budget!

Another factor impacting my weight is probably my weight training. I am definitely adding muscle and toning my body. That muscle has weight and is probably having some impact on my body, I just don’t know how much.

I am trying hard not to repeat my previous mistakes with over training and under eating, so I am consuming more calories on the days I workout. But, I am still staying well within my net calorie goal, though I have been really close a couple of times. I am also working hard to get to my protein goal each day, but almost always fall short.

My final factor that is likely impacting my weight is the lack of a routine. I am still in between jobs, so my daily routine tends to be anything but routine. Yes, I have some basic structure to my day, but nothing I would call routine. This means that the timing of my food consumption varies from day to day as does the timing of exercise. This may be confusing my body a bit.

Unfortunately, I am not really on track right now for my next weight loss goal of 25 more pounds by June 15. It is very frustrating, but I am trying not to be too upset about it because I am making lots of progress in other areas.

5k here I come

I am working on training for my first 5k race and just need to figure out which one I want to target as my first. I have plenty to choose from in Columbus because there seems to be one or more every weekend! But, I need to feel ready before I do it. So, I try to make my daily treadmill running and walking achieve at least the 3.1 miles. But, I have never achieved that in running and always have to walk.

For me to feel “ready” for a 5k, I need to have run a full 3.1 miles at least once without stopping to walk. I want to run at 10-minute to 10 and a half minute miles for my pace time. Faster wears me out too fast and slower feels uncomfortable.

This week, I tried to run my first 5k run outside on a nice afternoon. I walked down to the park and did some warm up stretching. Then, I ran. I got jut past a mile before I needed to slow to a walk for 30-60 seconds and then kept running. I repeated this process frequently until I got to 3.1 miles. I would run as long as I could run and then slow to walk for a bit and then run. In all, I would say I ran for at least 70% of the 3.1 miles. My time / pace was the key challenge.

My full 3.1 miles clocked in at an average of around 10:12 per mile. That is great because it is right in my target zone, but that is a challenge. I walked 25% to 30% of the time and still hit my target pace. This means that the time when I am running, I am running way too fast and that is causing me to get exhausted too quickly.

I need to figure out how to really control my running pace on my own or the preparation for a 5k is going to take forever.

Speaking of training

I am now on a weekly cadence with my trainer, I meet with her every Wednesday morning for a session. We usually target a full body workout and it is going great. I have learned a number of new things from her and really enjoy our time. Even when it hurts to walk the next day!

The best part about working with her is that she is helping me start to structure a true gym routine. That has been my top goal with her because I keep doing the same things at the gym and I think I am skipping major parts of my body. She has helped with that.

Lake season has started

This week, Liz and I opened our house at Indian Lake for the season. Every fall, we winterize the house and it stands all cold and lonely until spring. Since the calendar, but not the weather, says it is spring now, we opened and have kicked off the season.

Being back at the lake is exciting and fun, but it brings some fitness challenges. First, there are no gyms up here at all. When the weather is nice, I can go outside for running or just waking if it is chillier. But, if it is really cold or rainy, there are very limited options for exercise. Pair this up with less healthy food options and lots more beer and the lake can be very bad for my journey. It requires lots of discipline to stay successful here.

This weekend, the temperature was above 45 on Friday morning, so I was able to go for a run and did great with it. I ran almost 2 full miles and my pace was pretty good.

But, it was too cold to run all of the other days though I did get some walking in, including a good 5 mile walk around the islands on Saturday.

Yes, I know that some of your diehards will run in 30 degree weather, but I don’t have the proper gear for that and my body is still very sensitive to cold because it needs to acclimate to its new smaller size. So, 45 degrees is my low temperature mark for running.

Check back next week for more!

Last week’s stats (3/26 – 4/1):
Distance walked/run: 47.9 miles
Total calories burnt: 26,330
Total calories consumed: 16,028
Weight change: 5.2 pounds GAINED!