1 Month Progress Report

Well, it hasn't quite been a full month since I began this blog, but it is February and I returned to running and eating healthy close to four weeks ago, so here's the one month progress report.

This morning was a perfect day for running. I've started taking my Saturday morning runs during Elliot's first nap of the day, so it was about 9 am when I left the house. It was about 60 degrees and sunny, with a slight, refreshing wind. It's days like today that keep a runner going during those really tough, hot summer runs. I'm really excited about the improvement I'm already seeing in my 6 mile run times. This graph is from today when I ran a 10k at about a 10:08/mi pace.



That's a 0:41/mi pace improvement over where I was only a few weeks ago. Here is the graph of my first 6 mi. run this year.



I'm really starting to feel momentum when it comes to exercising and eating right. The first few weeks are usually the hardest. That's when you're changing habits, changing what your body is used to, and just being different. I think the body and the mind have a tendency to fight that. But now that I'm 4 weeks into it, I'm almost craving the road and not wanting to eat something that's set me back.

Though, it also helps that I'm not completely restricting myself either. Like yesterday we went to my favorite pizza place with Violi's family. Usually I would cram as much pizza as possible in my face and then maybe one more for goodwill. Instead, I ordered a greek salad and one slice of pizza. There was a lot of pizza left over, but I had my fill already. You get a sense of empowerment when you do something like that. It also makes it easier to say no the next time, because you did it before already.

Now, for the weight loss issue. I started out at a whopping 244 lbs. and I'm pretty pleased to report that I'm down to about 229 lbs. That's about 15 pounds in four weeks. I did weigh myself following my run today, and the scale said 225.5, but it'll be back to the 228-229 area tomorrow morning, if I were to weigh. I'm not expecting these kind of numbers in the future. I'm hoping to lose a pound a week or every 2 weeks in the future.

All in all, I'm feeling really good and I have a good outlook for keeping up my regimen of running and eating well for the forseeable future.