Alex Shalman . comPractical Personal Development

On October 1st I started out at 5′8″ 195 lbs. Over the past 3 weeks I have managed to lose 13 lbs. Actually, exactly one week ago I weighed 182 lbs. This means that my weight stabilized on 182 for two weeks in a row.

The goal is to lose 20 lbs by October 31st. I basically have a week left in order to lose 7 more lbs. The chance of me losing all that weight while still eating anything seems like an over zealous goal at this point. However, I’m not giving up, not just yet.

You can see the weight loss plan, that I created for myself at the start of this month. I put together some common sense tactics in order to get the most weight loss with the least amount of thinking.

Brutal Honesty

I ate really badly this week. Not that every meal was bad, 90% of them were just as healthy as before, but I purposely went for some horrible choices for the sheer sinful fun of it. Let’s see what I can remember…

1. Chicken parmesan sandwhich
2. Multigrain bagel with veggie cream cheese
3. 2 Coffees
4. Insanely hot chicken wings, with fries, and a beer
5. Some kind of sour candy

That’s the unhealthiest of it. However, I think it was enough to stop the weight loss from progressing further this week. On the other hand, the thing that I think did me in the worst is that I didn’t stay as hydrated as I needed to. I ran out of my big 1 gallon waters and never got more from the store. These are great for keeping track of how much water I drink, but I’ll work on creating an even better system, one that doesn’t involve me lugging these uncomfortably sized gallons around.

Exercise

I’m continuing with spin class 2-3 times per week. I’ve also started doing some heavier exercises because my back is feeling better, and because Nora made me. As I mentioned in my previous post on running, I ran my first race on Sunday, which was a pretty cool milestone in my life. I even saved the racing numbers, as a memento to the very first race and to many more to come.

Yesterday after my internship, Michael and I, ran around central park. The goal was the run the whole 5 mile perimeter in the same way as described on the New York Road Runner’s map for this Sunday’s race. Unfortunately we took the smaller circle before the lake, and ended up messing up our running scheme. I didn’t have it in me to do the whole 5 mile track after already running, so we just ran around at random before returning to the car.

This Sunday will be the real deal Poland Spring race. At this point I just want to finish. I’ve never run 8K straight in my life, but one day when I’m running marathons these measly 5 miles will seem like a joke!

Healthy Eating

I think the biggest deal with eating healthy is keeping the refrigerator stocked. I haven’t gone shopping as much this week, and that left some perishables (namely vegetables) not good for eating. When that happens I notice myself eating more meat, which is not the best substitute for veggies!

Otherwise you can refer to the week 2 weight loss report to see the typical meals that I enjoy throughout the week.

It’s Not Over

It’s not over till the fat lady sings… that’s what they say anyway. I’m going to exercise extra hard this week, and be more on point with the healthy meals. However, even if I don’t reach 175lbs within my goal period, I know that I’ve already developed some better habits as well as a good out look on food.

I’m already educated in health and healthy eating, and know a thing or two about fitness, but it’s a totally different ball game when it comes to tackling bad habits and evil inclinations. The biggest hurdle to over come now is not being disappointed at the lack of weight loss and to just push forward.

The best thing that has come out of this month is my new love for running. Now that I’ve figured out where I stand, and have set several running goals to challenge myself, as well as found some places that consistently hold races that I can train for, I am ready to live an extra clean and healthy lifestyle.

What goals are you going to set for yourself for the month of November?

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