Dr. Marctagon™

Good night everyone! Happy Thanksgiving!

I’ve been long overdue to update you all on how I’ve been doing with my own weight loss quest. I decided to call my personal weight loss entries #DocInTraining logs. That way, you know when it’s about my weight loss goals and developments and it’s easier for me to find if ever I need to do a search, okay? OK.

So what’s been up, Marc, you say? Well, on October 29th, the day Superstorm Sandy came to visit, I came in at an all-time low of 288.6 pounds.

When I say all-time low, I mean since reaching my max weight, that was the lowest I’ve been since I’ve been on the way back down. Then Sandy came.

As I said in my Sandy recap, I did a lot of eating. Between all the junk comfort foods, cheap Halloween candy, eating perishable foods in a hurry so they would spoil and just overall lack of motivation to eat healthy or workout, I knew I had put on some weight. My jaw dropped to the floor when I looked at the scale and it said 297.8. I knew I gained some but I was expecting 5 at most. Then again, I have the tendency to put on weight fairly easily and lose it just as quickly. It’s not uncommon for me to put on 4-5 pounds in a week if I don’t do what I’m supposed to but nine definitely took the wind out of my sails for a second. But at least I knew where I was starting from again.

The past couple of weeks since then have been good from a diet perspective. I’ve been keeping with my prescribed calorie range, according to MyFitnessPal. I have been indulging in sweets and a few days I did have chips and a few cheat meals but I’d say 80% of the time I ate what I was supposed to. They say you should strive to eat right 80% of the time so I suppose I did okay.

It’s so hard to motivate yourself when you’ve been away or don’t feel like it but the key is discipline over motivation. Rather than thinking long enough to talk yourself out of it, you just have to go and do it. Every meal or workout  is a chance to get it right or fix where you messed up before.

I finally got back to running last week, continuing with the Couch to 5K Week 3. I was using my own plan but I switched back. Why? Not sure? Maybe the intervals felt easier than a steady state run. Running a continuous amount of time at one steady pace has always felt harder for me than intervals even if they both average out to the same speed which they often do. I will continue with my plan though after the 5K part of it. I like the couch to 5K plan I chose because it gives you goal for distances and time, making it a true 5K plan.

I weighed myself this morning, and I lost 5 of the pounds I gained during the week after Sandy so we’re getting there! The goal this holiday weekend is to not gain them back Also, I definitely have to make sure to get a pre-Thanksgiving dinner workout in.

I did my weekly 24 hour fast Tuesday evening into Wednesday evening. This was one of the toughest ones I’ve done in a while. Had a massive headache and almost didn’t make it through but I did. It just shows how much my body needed it. I’ve been doing well with it though. I’ve done it 8 of the last 9-10 weeks. Have I noticed any benefit? Hmm, not sure yet…I still need to do a better job of breaking it.

So there you have it, the short version of the last 3 weeks or so, Sandy and all. Had a few setbacks, but I’ve learned a long time ago that you can’t change your past, just use your present to change your future. This won’t be one of those blogs where every week is perfect. There will be setbacks and I will put on some weeks but it’s so liberating when you can come to terms with the flaws and defeats because it makes victory that much sweeter. Same thing goes for you. If you’re having a rough time, just commit to that moment, to that day. And when that’s over commit to the next moment. Even over years, it’s still an addition of numerous days. You can’t skip time so you might as well use it.

And on that note, goodnight everyone! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Paging Dr. Marctagon™

Marc Applewhite is the author and editor of the blog Dr. Marctagon™, dedicated to improving and empowering others in the area of wellness while highlighting Marc’s own wellness journey. He is also the Head Geek in Charge of his company, Marctagon™ IT, and an avid runner.

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