Milestone Day: 50.2 pounds!

Today marks another milestone - 50.2 pounds. It's flour time. Took a little longer to get to the fifth bag of flour. I think a number of things need to be taken into consideration on why it took a little longer to hit the next milestone. But considering we went through the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Holidays, and during the holiday window, I only gained 0.6 pounds. I have to consider that a win. To have enjoyed the feasts of the holidays, in moderation, and basically come out at the weight I went into them, that's a win.

During the past month I also made a couple of other changes. First one is that I started the C25K - Couch to 5K - program in an attempt to become a "runner". My goal, to run my first 5K in mid March. The second is that I started strength training on January 3rd. Don't know if that has had any impact on the slow down in my progress, but I do know it is making a big difference in how my clothes fit. So while the pounds aren't coming off as quick as they did during the first 40 pounds, the inches are. The Wellness Zone on the Best Buy campus has a fitness contest called Drop it Like it's hot. I signed up for it. It's a 12 week contest. Next week is the 6 week check in and I am very curious to see how things have changed in 6 weeks.

Next week marks 6 months of Project David 2.0. It's been an amazing journey so far. Hard to imagine what can happen during the remaining 5 months of this project. I know I can't wait to find out!

I'm running? What's up with that? It's about the shirt.

I've never been a runner (well, there was soccer in junior high), and I never planned to be one. Of course I never planned on Project David 2.0. That all changed 4 weeks ago when I decided I was going to run a 5K before my project goal date, my next birthday.

4 weeks ago I started the C25K - Couch to 5K - program. I had seen tweets about it, and decided to check it out. The concept, for those that are not familiar with this program, is a running program that takes you from the couch, or a non-runner, and in 9 weeks gets you ready to run a 5K or 30 minutes non stop. Since I've been walking 60+ minutes a night since the end of September I jump straight to week 2 of the program. My wife asked me why I wanted to run since I've never shown any interest. Told her it was about the shirt. You always get a shirt when you participate in a 5k. The real reason was that I wanted to shorten the amount of time I have to spend on the treadmill each night, so I needed much a faster pace. I was already walking at 4.2 miles per hour, so I was going to have to start running. Tonight was workout of 2 week 5:

00:00-5:00: Warmup walk

5:00-13:00: Run

13:00-18:00: Walk

18:00-26:00: Run

26:00-30:00: Cooldown Walk

I continue my usual walking for another 30-40 minutes beyond the C25K program. I don't have the speed there yet. More focused on actually being able to sustain a run. I figure the speed will come once I can reach a sustained 30-40 minute run. So far in a combined run/walk on a treadmill, I can cover a 5K in 42 minutes. That's with 16 minutes of running in that 42 minute window. The next workout, on Friday is a 20 minute run. Crossing my fingers that I'll be able to make it!! In a little over 3 weeks I'm supposed to be at a 30 minute run. That will be amazing. My first goal will be to run a 5K in under 40 minutes. There are two in St. Paul around St. Patrick's Day, and I am thinking that maybe that will be my first. I think I need to commit to that in the next week before they close registration.

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it - another goal added to continuing to be successful Project David 2.0.

402.97 miles down, 597.03 to go.

I am 22 1/2 weeks into Project David 2.0. 6 weeks after I started I added cardio to my plan. For me, someone who was not a runner, that meant walking on the treadmill. Tonight I went over 400 miles. I don't count all of the walking that I do during my work day, just the miles from my focused treadmill sessions. As of tonight I have walked 402.97 miles. That's the equivalent of running from Minneapolis to Kansas City.

I didn't not set a mileage goal when I started this project but having watched my friend Bob Stanke set and achieve a goal of running 1,000 miles last year, and now setting a goal of 1,200 miles for 2012, I thought maybe I should consider a goal. So tonight I am announcing my goal of walking/running 1,000 miles by the end of Project David 2.0 on July 17, 2012.

Can't remember the last time I saw that.

This morning was a major milestone in Project David 2.0. This morning the scale showed 199.6. Yes! No leading "2" on the scale. It's probably been 20 years since that has happened.

This project, as those that have followed me in this journey know, has been about milestones. A bag of flour at every 10 pound increment, 25 pounds by Christmas, getting my weight to match what my driver's license has shown for the last 15 years, and removing the 2 that was at the front of the scale. There are several other goals, and I'll do a "project status update" soon, but this was a major one for me. So much so that I left a message for my wife this morning announcing it - wrote "199.6" in big numbers in lipstick on the bathroom mirror!

Happy to arrive at the new century!!

Project David 2.0 at 4 months - 40.2 pounds

Today marks 4 months since I started Project David 2.0! And today the scale showed that I have now lost 40.2 pounds so it is flour time! For those that have been following along since the start of this project you know the story of the flour, for those new to my blog, every time I lose 10 pounds I buy a 10 pound bag of flour which I place on my desk in my home office. A great representation of the weight I've lost since I started this. (Notice the storm trooper lego mini fig in front of the middle bag. Wonder how many mini figs it would take to reflect my weight loss!)

A couple of weeks ago I didn't think I would hit this milestone by the 4 month mark. Starting with Thanksgiving weekend, big traditional dinner, leftovers, dining out several times over that weekend. I actually came out of the holiday weekend up just 1.5 pounds. Not too bad. The next challenge was that I started my new position at Best Buy the Monday after Thanksgiving. Nearly a week of orientation, and team lunches. Stayed flat for that week. When I've been averaging losing 2.5 pounds a week, being up 1.5 over nearly 2 weeks necessitated some extra cardio sessions to increase my calorie burn and bring me back inline with my average.

I continue to be amazed at my progress and the changes that have occurred. It has come much quicker than I ever imagined. One of my incremental goals was to lose 25 pounds by Christmas, which happened before we got to Halloween. I never really imagined how this would impact my clothing, and well, I've had to replace basically everything. I've asked for clothes for Christmas because I need everything. And I imagine come spring I'll need everything again as I hit my final goal weight.

Here are some statistics during Project David 2.0:

1. 40.2 pounds lost in 4 months
2. 1.2 points - the amount I've lowered my A1C in 4 months (6.6 to 5.4)
3. 268.98 miles walked on the treadmill since September 30 (took me 6 weeks to add cardio)
4. 513,201 steps logged on my Fitbit since I got it on November 12
5. 2 pant sizes dropped
6. 1.5"off of my neck. Sure is easier to find shirts now!

My original goal was 61.6 pounds. This number was based on what I thought might be attainable in 11 months time, and as I was getting ready to start this I was looking at the Body Mass Index and wondered what it would take to move to a healthy classification. I didn't think that number was possible, and also knowing that the BMI table doesn't take into consideration body composition, so I figured 61.6 was good enough. I really need to (and should have done this before I started) get my body fat measured and base my goal on that. I do know that I'll be revising my target weight in January, as I am realizing that I have more than 20 more pounds that I can afford to lose. Right now, I am excited with the thought of getting below 200 (6.4 pounds from now) for the first time since, well, probably 20 years ago if not longer.

Thanks for reading and thanks for everyone's support. I couldn't do this without all of the encouragement that you all give me!