A Fine January – Being Resolute With Your Resolutions

Well, the numbers are in and I really couldn’t be happier with the start of my year.   Coming off a holiday season that saw me gain 15 pounds while being unable to eclipse the 100-mile/month mark in either November and December, I needed some refocusing.  I made my resolutions and got to work.  January was a resounding success.

I was able to log 175 miles on the month, which was well North of what I thought capable.  I went from struggling to get to my 2^nd belt-notch to easily getting the 3^rd.  My 38” pants went from being somewhat snug, to now being loose.  I’m close to breaking out the 36” pants from my closet for the first time since October.  I cannot possibly over-emphasize the importance of comfortable pants, and being able to fit into the half-dozen or so pairs hanging in my closet should really open up my wardrobe nicely.

Aside from January 1 and 2, which were really somewhat of a vacation / celebration phase for me, I ran every single day in January.  A 29-day run streak that I didn’t really think I would ever embark upon, but now that I’m on it, I don’t want to lose it.

Nearly every weekday I ran for 40-minutes at lunch.  In the early days, I found that I couldn’t reach 4-miles in 40-minutes.  I would have to stretch the timing for a few minutes until I got to four miles.  The first time I did this, it took me around 42:00, a pace of 10:30 per mile.  But by the end of the month, I clocked a best 4-mile time of 37:59, a pace of 9:30per mile.

After a 10-mile run on Saturday, January 30^th, I kicked back with my girlfriend and had a nice, light, low-cal chicken dinner.  We shared a couple of bottles of wine and watched a movie, getting to bed relatively early.  The dehydration resulting from drinking more wine than water after a 10-mile run, exacerbated the final weigh-in, which was 221 pounds.  This clocked my weight loss for January at 19 pounds.

NINETEEN POUNDS!

Now, granted, the next day I spent hydrating and the following morning I was back up 3 pounds which felt like a more normal weight.  But I’ll take a 16 pound loss, too.  My goal hasn’t been to starve myself.  I don't think I ate less than 1700 calories in any given day and I try to maintain around a 1,000-calorie deficit when coupled with calories burned exercising,   Some days I do more, some days less.  And on one occasion, I blew completely through those numbers (I really should have just gone to bed early that night!)  But overall, I’m on a good track.

If there’s one thing I didn’t follow through on though, it was my writing.  I did post a bit more often to the blog, but beyond that I didn’t do much.  It’s easy to proclaim that you want to write a book… but actually writing one?  Hmm… a little more difficult.  I'll work on it.