Pound-A-Month Club Update, May 2013

A bit late posting the update for May, as I was traveling over the weekend. The good news is, I dropped 2.5 pounds in May. This is less than I’d hoped for, actually, as I either walked or biked to work every day but one. I also was better about bringing my lunch to work. So why didn’t I lose more weight? Four factors are probably to blame:

1. I think I’ve plateaued a bit as far as my exercising goes. Although it’s a five-mile roundtrip to the train station, my body is pretty much acclimated to that distance, and it’s not as much work for me to get there. As such, I need to address this issue.
2. In addition to plateauing, I would also allot myself a few additional minutes to make it to the train, which meant I wasn’t hustling and making the most of the distance. Casual strolling doesn’t seem to be getting the work done.
3. Although I was better at bringing my lunch, I swapped out peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches for lunch meat sandwiches. Can’t deny the additional calories there.
4. When I was bad, I was really bad. For instance, a trip to the White Sox game that saw me sample a bratwurst with sauerkraut, a chicken flauta, a BBQ brisket sandwich with chips (let my wife have the pickle), two beers and a churro. And when I say I “sampled” these items, I mean I devoured them whole. So I’m still working on certain food-related restraint issues.

However, I think another factor is in play as well, which is that although I haven’t lost much weight after this month of exercise, I do think I’ve converted more fat to muscle. The jeans I have on are rather baggy, and the belt is on the last notch and still not terribly helpful. As such, I bought a couple pairs of pants one waist size smaller. I tried them on, and they’re not quite comfortable yet, so I probably have another five pounds to go before I can wear them without worrying I’ll pop a button that will fly off and land in someone’s mouth and then the shock of that will cause them to accidentally swallow it while thinking: “Who’s that guy kidding? He can’t pull off those pants!” I also tried to use a smaller belt I have at home, but I couldn’t even get it on the first notch. So I called the belt stupid and threw it back in the closet.

Looking ahead to June, I plan to focus on continuing the exercise and focus on calorie reduction. I’ve already eaten out six times (today is June 6), so I’m not off to a flying start in that regard. I did buy a weight bar and a couple of weights for my workout bench, which remains disassembled in the basement. The weight bar is in the garage.