So What The Hell Happened To Days 38-50?

Eh. The less said about days 38-50, the better. Not that I did too poorly, although days 38 and 39 were bad food days for me (I let other peoples' eating habits influence mine, and made poor choices in what to eat). The past two weeks have been very busy at work, and fast foods worked their way back into the rotation. At my worst over the past 14 days, I was only up to 319, and I've managed to work myself back down to even losing a pound from my day 37 low point. The rubber's meeting the road, though. It's now exactly one month before I head back home for Thanksgiving, and 33 days until the reunion. Thanksgiving will be an interesting test. I tried staying on Medifast while I was home for the 4th of July, and pretty much totally failed. However, I'd only just started Tae Kwon Do, and wasn't seeing much in the way of results yet. Now there's more at stake. I'm 26 pounds lighter than I was almost 2 months ago. My gi fits better, I'm better able to participate in the calisthenics, and I feel better. Preserving that is a motivator.

Speaking of Tae Kwon Do, at the in-school tournament (just a competition between the three schools owned by our Master) I took first in my ring for both weapons and one-step sparring. I totally rocked the weapons form, though I felt bad for R. He could have competed with either Bahng Mahng Ee (stick) or Ssahng Jeol Bong (nunchucks). We'd spent the testing cycle working on a Bahng Mahng Ee form, but he'd been praticing with the chucks. He ended up doing the Bahng Mahng Ee form at the tournament, but decided to embellish it with some hand moves that weren't part of the form we learned. Specifically, he was moving his hand with the strokes at the beginning of the form, where we were taught to keep the empty hand up in a guard position. I think he probably got downscored for the improv, because the rest of his form looked pretty good. About the only thing I did that others didn't was to really emphasize the four slow strikes at the start of the form, trying to demonstrate strength and control. There was also a part of the form most people forgot (rolling the BME backward right after the round kick before rolling it forward, kneeling and smacking the mat with it). So, I'm thinking my pathological attention to detail probably got me the win, because everyone else is much more physically capable (more difficult "special moves", more fluid motion). I guess it's kinda like gymnastics. My program was a 9.6 program, and I nailed it...the others tried 9.8 and 9.9 programs, and flubbed some portion of them, resulting in lost score.

I did okay in the one-steps, but my footwork sucked. Since it was organized more like a full-up sparring competition (each match, the winner goes on to compete with others, loser is eliminated), I had to compete against several people. The final match was against S, who's technique was very strong. He's aggressive, but mostly controlled. In his first match, he ended up misjudging a kick and caught J (yet another J) in the chest with a kick. I don't think it was a damaging kick, just enough to startle J, but I believe S got a little rattled by it (he's aggressive, but he's not out to hurt people). It's worth noting that our ring had 7 competitors, 6 of which were from my school, and one from one of the other schools (there are three in the "chain"). S and J and I (me, not someone whose name starts with 'i') all have a good deal of experience with each others' styles, and we practice against each other all the time. So I know what S is capable of, and the kicks he was throwing at me for the win were not nearly as close as he normally likes to get. Meanwhile, not having hit anyone recently, I was trying to get S to "feel the wind" (which is what we've taken to saying when a punch or kick comes particularly close), and succeeding. My back-fists and punches were coming within a centimeter or two of his face, where his kicks were stopping several inches from my chest. As I said, S' technique was much better, his kicks higher and his footwork surer. If I'd been judging, overall I think he deserved the win. But if the judges were looking for "control" (defined as how quick and strong your move is combined with how close you can get without actually contacting your opponent), then I probably benefitted from S kicking J.

Ironically, I've also accidentally hit J. We're going to give him a complex. :-)

Thanks for putting up with the blather. More blather at some point in the future, but I'm going to try to keep up with the weight log.

Day 51 of 84

Today's Weight: 314 pounds
Delta (day): -1 pounds
Delta (total): -26 pounds
Today's BMI (lb x 0.1319): 41.4
Yesterday's Calories: not measured
Last Night's Sleep: not measured
Yesterday's BP: not measured
Yesterday's Glucose: not measured
Yesterday's Exercise: Tae Kwon Do class (45 min)

Humble pie has no calories

Well, I made it to my Friday goal of 315. Bouyed by my early-week success and good weekend, I was starting to get cocky about how fast I can shed pounds, thinking I'd be 314 or even 313 by today, with maybe 311 being possible by Monday. I'd still like to set a stretch goal of 313 by Monday (sticking with a pound a day), but I'll be happy with 314 by Monday.

Sometimes my own density (mental, not physical) amazes me. In last night's class, we started with a pretty strenuous workout, then went right into doing our testing material (forms, sparring combos, one-steps, and self-defense), following that with slow-kicking drills. By the time we got to one-minute punching and kicking drills, I was drained. We were in groups of three, one holding a heavy bag, one doing the drill, and the third "waiting" by doing sit-ups. I got through the first round of situps okay, but I ended up sitting out the other two rounds of situps. Well, more properly, I ended up gasping for breath while lying on the mat, trying to gather enough energy for the next drill. After the third round of situps, the head instructor made a comment to me about having left a pool of sweat. I sweat. A LOT. If I haven't bitched here about how much fun it is to have a 13-year-old comment incessantly on your sweat output, it's been an oversight. Anyway, I made a remark like, "that's what happens when a body this size moves a lot, sir", and added, "the sweat jokes never get old, sir".

It wasn't until probably two hours after class that I realized that the comment probably wasn't intended as a snarky joke. Most gyms have a fairly strict policy about wiping down the machine after you've used it. Now, granted, I've been going to Tae Kwon Do class for 4.5 months now, and no one's made an issue of it, but the other guy who sweats profusely has brought a towel with him from day one. I'm pretty sure the instructor was trying to subtly(!) tell me that I should wipe up my own sweat from the mat, particularly if it's enough to pool up, for safety reasons, if nothing else. So, it's off to Wal-Mart this evening to pick up some suitable towels to throw in my sparring bag, to avoid future issues with my sweat.

Man, I'm a dumbass sometimes.

Day 37 of 84

Today's Weight: 315 pounds
Delta (day): -1 pounds
Delta (total): -25 pounds
Today's BMI (lb x 0.1319): 41.5
Yesterday's Calories: not measured
Last Night's Sleep: not measured
Yesterday's BP: not measured
Yesterday's Glucose: not measured
Yesterday's Exercise: Tae Kwon Do class (45 min, particularly strenuous)

Day 36 of 84

Today's Weight: 316 pounds
Delta (day): 0 pounds
Delta (total): -24 pounds
Today's BMI (lb x 0.1319): 41.7
Yesterday's Calories: not measured
Last Night's Sleep: not measured
Yesterday's BP: not measured
Yesterday's Glucose: not measured
Yesterday's Exercise: none

One week to go! (until halftime)

On Wednesday of next week, it'll be day 42. Ignoring the awesome cosmological significance of that number, my weight that day should tell me roughly how much I can expect to lose "on the backstretch" (speaking of backstretches, I'm going to the Dickies 500 in November!). If figure I'm good for 5 pounds, that puts me at 311 on the 11th, or 29 pounds down at the half, which says that a reasonable goal should be 29 pounds under that, or about 282. 282 would be the lowest I've weighed pretty much my entire adult life. (And ironically, would leave 42 pounds to go for the original goal #1). This also puts me roughly on par with J, whose "30 pounds in 40 days" success rate was my orginal inspiration for starting Medifast.

Yes, 42 is the answer. Don't Panic, dammit!

Day 35 of 84

Today's Weight: 316 pounds
Delta (day): -2 pounds
Delta (total): -24 pounds
Today's BMI (lb x 0.1319): 41.7
Yesterday's Calories: not measured
Last Night's Sleep: not measured
Yesterday's BP: not measured
Yesterday's Glucose: not measured
Yesterday's Exercise: Tae Kwon Do class (45 min)

Day 34 of 84

Today's Weight: 318 pounds
Delta (day): -2 pounds
Delta (total): -22 pounds
Today's BMI (lb x 0.1319): 41.9
Yesterday's Calories: not measured
Last Night's Sleep: not measured
Yesterday's BP: not measured
Yesterday's Glucose: not measured
Yesterday's Exercise: Tae Kwon Do class (45 min)

A losing weekend...

Well, I'm not going to claim that I've discovered the key, but I managed to do enough right this weekend to not just avoid gaining, but actually shed a pound or two. I could have behaved better (and hope to in the future), but I'll take this as a step in the right direction.

It's Monday. I'm setting a goal for Friday of 315, and a goal for the following Monday of 314. Stay tuned, data hounds...

I think this "Luann" might be the truest, most succinct treatment of its subject that I've seen.

Okay, that is all.

Day 33 of 84

Today's Weight: 320 pounds
Delta (day): 0 pounds
Delta (total): -20 pounds
Today's BMI (lb x 0.1319): 42.2
Yesterday's Calories: not measured
Last Night's Sleep: not measured
Yesterday's BP: not measured
Yesterday's Glucose: not measured
Yesterday's Exercise: none

Day 32 of 84

Today's Weight: 320 pounds
Delta (day): -1 pounds
Delta (total): -20 pounds
Today's BMI (lb x 0.1319): 42.2
Yesterday's Calories: not measured
Last Night's Sleep: not measured
Yesterday's BP: not measured
Yesterday's Glucose: not measured
Yesterday's Exercise: Tae Kwon Do class (75 min)

Day 31 of 84

Today's Weight: 321 pounds
Delta (day): -1 pounds
Delta (total): -19 pounds
Today's BMI (lb x 0.1319): 42.3
Yesterday's Calories: not measured
Last Night's Sleep: not measured
Yesterday's BP: not measured
Yesterday's Glucose: not measured
Yesterday's Exercise: none

Day 30 of 84

Today's Weight: 322 pounds
Delta (day): -0 pounds
Delta (total): -18 pounds
Today's BMI (lb x 0.1319): 42.5
Yesterday's Calories: not measured
Last Night's Sleep: not measured
Yesterday's BP: not measured
Yesterday's Glucose: not measured
Yesterday's Exercise: Tae Kwon Do class (45 min)