Five Months and Still Working At It

I am now at the end of 5 months of steady, regular working out. I also took a new "wellness" check-up on Friday, about 4 months since the last one. It turns out that all this working out has had generally positive results (not a surprise) and one that so far hasn't been seen (frustrating.)

The good news:

• My cardio has improved 20%!
• My strength levels have balanced between upper body and leg strength. (Upper was bad in January.)
• Overall, I feel great. I am probably in as good a physical shape as I have been in years.
• In the past few weeks I have lost some weight- actually about 6 pounds on average- from what I was a month ago. Which is a result of my annual physical exam last month.
• My bike riding this spring has been a lot easier and more enjoyable than either of the past two springs. More energy, more strength, less exhaustion as soon.

The bad news:

• My body mass index (BMI) has not changed since January.

Yeah- the trainer was stumped, too. Just like my doctor was at my physical last month. Actually, it is probably a lot less of a mystery than rocket science. As I started exercising more I also started eating more to make up for the increased caloric burning.

In other words I did the Move More part of weight loss and not the Eat Less part.  I stopped the weight gain, but didn't reverse directions. Until now. So I am now attempting to watch my eating. In so doing a couple things actually surprised me:

• Using fat-free French dressing at lunch instead of bleu cheese dressing actually decreases my intake by 100 calories a day- 500 calories/week.
• Only having my Caribou decaf coffee cooler twice a week instead of five times a week saves another 1000 calories/week.
• Cutting out two baked goods at the convenience store lowers calories by at least another 600 calories/week.

Add that up and you get a whole extra day of calories in a single week. Trying to squeeze 8 days of food into 7 adds up. Real fast.

Thank goodness for the exercise regimen. Imagine how much easier my bike riding will be when I am not carrying around that extra 10 - 15 pounds. Which reminds me- I hope to do some more tail riding tomorrow (Saturday.) It's been a couple of weeks and the weather hasn't cooperated on the days I have been able to ride. Things are looking good for tomorrow after those destructive storms that raged through here yesterday. We even had a small EF 1 tornado here in Rochester. It was quite a storm. But it's to be a great day tomorrow. Will keep you posted on that. And my continuing road to feeling better each day.