Lose It With Lamb, Week 10

A major event took place this week that made me stop and think about how far I have come in my get-fit journey: My wife went out of town.

Jody was not only my motivation for starting my weight-loss/health-gain but has been by my side 100 percent of the way. She has helped me celebrate my breakthroughs and supported me when I wasn’t so successful. On a more day-to-day level, though, she has made it easy for me to stick to my program, keeping a ready supply of healthy food choices in the kitchen and encouraging me to exercise every day.

So in her absence, it would’ve been so easy to slip back into old habits—and the Old Mike probably would’ve been camped out on the sofa, devouring the better part of a Meat Lover’s Special pizza before her flight out of town had even landed. But I’m not that guy anymore.

The New Mike was able to stay on track both at home and when I ate out. I didn’t veer off the straight-and-narrow even when I had to go grocery shopping! The real test, though, came Friday night when I was asked to order pizza for several students who were video taping a local high school football game. I could have ordered a bunch of Meat Lover’s Specials, then added a “teacher-only” pizza for good measure. Instead, I ordered only as much as we needed, and I made sure one pie was half veggie. Then I took one slice and walked away. (Okay, it was the biggest slice, but still.)

I also managed to stay on track with my workouts. I took Maggie, our dog, for all of her twice-a-day walks, plus worked on the running intervals that Wendy, my trainer, recently taught me to incorporate into my routine (I’m always looking for new ways to keep my workouts from feeling old). I push myself to jog until I’m out of breath, walk only until I’ve recovered, then jog again. After just two weeks of doing this, I can already feel the difference. I can run farther and recover much more quickly. I’ve improved so much that when my colleague Mr. C, an accomplished runner, asked if I wanted to join him for a 6:45 a.m. run, I said yes!

It’s funny. During the last school year, no one I know would have taken a bet that I could work out in the morning and then actually have enough energy left to teach school. But that’s exactly what I did. Mr. C and I ran the equivalent of a 5K (he was very tolerant of my slow pace), then I cleaned up and headed to my classroom. It felt great!

In addition to the running, I also did a lot of core work this week (how could I face Wendy otherwise?) and ran through my weekly circuit a couple of times. I challenge you to give it a try this week.

So yes, this was a week during which I could have cheated and done a lot of damage by the time Jody got home. But I didn’t, and my good choices showed up on the scale on Saturday: I lost another 1.4 pounds, putting me right at 80 pounds total!

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File under: Lose It