I had a great week last week. I did four days of cardio exercise for 30 minutes per day and I did two days of the 100 push-ups challenge. I did a pretty good job with food too. In fact, I gave up all hydrogenated oils and diet soda at the start of the week. Maybe that was too much healthy living for my body to respond to because when I stepped on the scale this morning I had gained 3 pounds!

My weight was up, but my body fat was down by 0.8% (a 2% decrease). I’m going to chalk the weight gain up to one of those strange weight fluctuations that happen from time to time. Honestly, the weight gain is a bit discouraging. It’s easy to think why should I bother with the exercise if I’m going to gain weight anyway, but I’m not going to fall into that trap. I feel much better after last week and I need to trust that continuing with the exercise and improved diet will bring the results I am looking for.

As far as the 100 push-ups challenge goes I was going to give up on it after day 1 because I was having a lot or wrist pain. Saving a long story, I had an accident years ago that required surgical repair of 3 tendons in my right hand. I still get some pain and stiffness from those repaired tendons and the normal push-ups were putting a lot of stress on them. Later in the week I decided to try doing push-ups with my hands closed instead of open and that relieved all of the stress on my tendons and I was able to do the full set of day 2 push-ups. I decided I will re-do week 1 (again) this week using this new push-up form. I think that was the change I needed to get through the program.

Below is the weight chart for this week, also see my updated weight loss graphs page with all of the latest numbers. These weren’t the results I was hoping for, but I’m not going to let the weight gain slow me down. I just need to make sure I work even harder this week. I can’t wait to get on the scale next week!

*Note about this weight loss chart. When I started this blog I weighed 266 pounds and I was only tracking my pounds lost each week. On November 28, 2007 I started using a new scale that tracks body fat and more (the numbers you see above). I report the figures from that scale in these weekly posts and I still track my total pounds lost in the Weight Loss Goals section in the sidebar on my site.

I created a new page with charts tracking my weight, BMI, and body fat percentage. The charts make a nice way to track my progress over the long term and I actually find the chart view to be a little extra inspiration- it feels really good to see the lines trend down (and it hurts more to see them climb). Visit the page to see how I’m doing and maybe find a little inspiration for your own health and fitness efforts.

I also added comments at certain points on the charts where significant events occurred that may affect my fitness progress. For example, my weight seemed to start trending down nicely when I quit playing World of Warcraft in October ‘07.  Sadly, my fitness seemed to level off and start moving in the other direction after I started playing again in January ‘08 (I knew that would be a mistake).

Of course I’m (mostly) joking about World of Warcraft being evil. It is entirely possible to play the game and still make time for fitness. The only problem is, the game demands huge amounts of time to make any decent progress and it can be highly addictive. Quitting again would likely be a wise move. I have a pre-paid subscription until October, so I’ll have the game on my computer, but I need to do my best to avoid it and make sure I never play before I have done some exercise.

Anyway, take a look at the charts and let me know what you think. At the very least, I think this will be a nice long term view of my fitness progress and the comments will make for some interesting analysis as I look back at how I’m doing.

It has been two weeks since I hit the scale and I’m happy to see I have lost 1.2 pounds, though I know I could have worked much harder  so I can’t get too excited about the weight lost.

The week before my vacation was a good one, I met my goal of 3 days of 30 minutes of cardio exercise and I started day 1 of the 100 push ups challenge. However, the week after my vacation turned into a lazy one as I didn’t do any more exercise. I had some good excuses and some lame ones, but that is in the past now and I need to focus on working harder this week.

This week’s exercise goals: 4 days of 30 minutes of cardio exercise; 3 days of the 100 push ups challenge week 1.

*Note about this weight loss chart. When I started this blog I weighed 266 pounds and I was only tracking my pounds lost each week. On November 28, 2007 I started using a new scale that tracks body fat and more (the numbers you see above). I report the figures from that scale in these weekly posts and I still track my total pounds lost in the Weight Loss Goals section in the sidebar on my site.

Interesting and useful links from the past week or two.

Drop Upload Does Quick Drag-and-Drop FTP - from Lifehacker.  Very nice little FTP application, perfect for quick uploads. I set up a connection to the images directory on this site and now I can quickly and easily upload images for posts without having to open any heavy programs.

Everyday Expenses & Housing Costs Ate Stimulus Checks - from The Frugal Duchess. Interesting statistics on how stimulus checks are really being spent. Many people are using the money for regular expenses and some even needed the check to avoid foreclosure- “29.4% used funds from their tax stimulus check to pay for everyday expenses, such as food and gasoline, while 20% said they paid down their credit card debt“.

Fuel Efficient Cars In Your Future? Watch for the MPG Illusion - from The Digerati Life. You can’t just look at miles per gallon to figure out how much money you might save. The percentage saved goes down drastically as you switch from moderately efficient vehicles to those higher up the scale.

The Dirty Secrets of Debt Reduction - from Get Rich Slowly. Everything you need to know if you are getting started on your journey to get out of debt.

15 Baby Steps Towards Voluntary Consumerism - from Early Retirement Extreme. Entertaining read on how to become a great consumer! In case you don’t notice, this is a what-NOT-to-do list. 

I’m skipping the  scale this week because my wife and I took a long weekend vacation to Northern Arizona.  Here is a picture from the center of town in Sedona.

Sedona is probably best known for its ‘red rocks’ but I didn’t get any good pictures of those. I guess we’ve been there too many times to take notice.  :)  You can see some more pictures at the Visit Sedona website.

Last week was a good one for me and my exercise goals. I did 3 days of cardio, 30 minutes per day and I started day 1 of the 100 pushups challenge. I didn’t make the best food choices on vacation, but I did do a decent amount of walking so I hope that made up for it. I need to get back on track now and get some cardio and pushups done with only about half a week left, but I think I can make it. I will be back on the scale next Monday.