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| Amazing views of Mt. Rainier on my first bike ride of the year |
Perhaps you wondered if I totally fell apart and had thus disappeared. Not exactly. I weighted in today at two pounds up since February. The truth is that coaching has kept me fairly active. It's not exactly aerobic exercise, but throwing batting practice at a rapid interval comes close. Mostly, I'm hitting balls for fielding practice and tossing balls to batters working on hitting technique. The best analogy is to gardening, which is regarded as good exercise, if not exactly aerobic or weight lifting. In fact, I've done a fair amount of raking to get the field into playing condition.
Eating-wise, I haven't been particularly focused. It's the "two steps forward, two steps back" pattern. I'll be OK, then have an odd schedule. Or I'll go full steam until the family is in bed and unwind with food I don't need when I finally get some me time. And my salty snack addiction has been in full gear. Only my time on the field has kept me putting on more pounds.
After a couple of months away, I've been looking for a plan to get back on track. I'm still about 35 pounds down from my highest weight, but need to take the next leap forward. After considering what I know to work, it always comes down to eating less and moving more.
One thing I've noticed is that 2000 calories has been the magic number for several successful "losers." It's arbitrary, but when you think about it, there's logic to it, at least for men significantly over weight. Two-thousand is significantly less than my maintenance calorie level, but it's enough that I can eat enough to be satisfied. So I'm going with 2000 calories.
As for activity, I wanted something that would push me to be more consistent, but allow flexibility to incorporate a variety of activities. Enter a goal of 2000 seconds of activity every day. That's 33 1/3 minutes of walking, biking, push-ups, throwing batting practice, or whatever. At a solid half-hour minimum, 2000 seconds should complement 2000 calories nicely.
So that's the plan: 2000 calories and 2000 seconds of activity daily. I'm going to see how long I can keep it up for and check in here regularly. I'm very confident now that the days are longer and the weather is getting nicer. Can I keep it going for a whole year? Let's find out.
