One more week down, gryphans, and I’m glad to see you back! This has been a big week for me, so I’m excited to share. Of course, before we get down to brass tacks, let’s hit the standard junk I always put at the beginning!
Miss last week? My Superhero Body – Week 3
Want to catch up from the beginning? My Superhero Body – Getting Started
Post Mortem
Food. Always food.
Okay, so after last week’s underwhelming .9 pounds lost, which still isn’t that bad, I had to think on what I could do to make better food decisions.
On Tuesday, I had an idea that was simple, elegant, and thanks to the advent of smartphones, not that difficult to execute:
I started tracking my calories.
I know, right?
Turns out, it was a lot easier than I expected, thanks to an app that came pre-loaded on my phone: Samsung Health.
I’ve used this app for a few years as a step counter, with the vague, caveman notion of “me walk more, me healthy” while I quietly ignored the battle with my weight I’ve been slowly losing since I turned 20.
The app has some really cool features, but the library of food across different brands has made the calorie counter incredibly easy to use.
I invested in a small kitchen scale to help me measure portions, and it turns out that I overestimate the portion size of less healthy foods and underestimate the portion size of healthier foods.
I used a Calorie Calculator to estimate how many calories I would need to consume to lose weight. With my age, gender, activity level, etc… It estimated my caloric needs at 2160 Calories per day. I plugged that into the app and used that as a guideline.
As I’ve became more aware of the calories in my food, my choices have started to change. I’m having carrot chips with lunch instead of potato chips. I’m snacking on baggies of almonds and other hunger busters that I’ve pre-measured.
If I make a poor food choice, I tell myself, “Okay, you had half of a Hershey bar, but that’s coming out of your evening snack,” and it’s been working!
Sunday, though, was a bit of a cheat day. It was my first father’s day, and I was celebrating my three year anniversary married to Mrs. Gryphon, so crazy food choices happened.
In the end, that was only one day, not every day, and I’m not allowed to do something like that again for at least ten days. I might make some phenomenally bad food decisions next time we go to a movie, but I won’t do that every day.
All things in moderation. Even moderation.
Exercise
I had moved on to Week Four of Zombies Run 5k, but I was flagging. This week included a 15 minute free-form run, and I was just too pooped to run for 15 minutes.
My aches and pains have finally caught up with me.
I had to take some more ibuprofen and use some of the topical pain and anti-inflammatory gel I have a prescription for. I’m not letting it stop me, but dang, dude.
I’m hoping next week will be better since I have new running shoes! Mrs. Gryphon knows that I’m really stingy when it come to buying myself shoes and I will straight up keep a pair of shoes until the soles fall off, so she bought me some decent, and not overly expensive, running shoes for our anniversary.
Weekly Weigh-In
The Numbers
On June 19th, 2017:
- I weigh 290.0 pounds
- My body fat is 37.4%
- That means 108.2 pounds of me is fat
In the last week:
- I’ve lost 6.1 pounds
- I’ve lost 4.1 pounds of fat
Since I’ve started:
- I’ve lost 15.4 pounds
- I’ve lost 10.0 pounds of fat
Heck yeah! I know I won’t see progress like this every week, but a win like this feels amazing!
Moving Forward
This week, I’m going to repeat Week Four of Zombies Run 5k. I will run the full 15 minutes, gosh darn it!
I’m going to keep tracking my food so I can make good decisions. 
Finally, I’m going to appreciate the heck out of my new running shoes.
Giveaway!
On a final note, I’m giving away a few copies of my novel, Mr. Smith Isn’t Afraid of the Dark, on Amazon.
Just click THIS LINK to enter.
Even if you don’t win, you can pick up a copy of my novel for just $4.99, RIGHT HERE!
That’s it for today, and we’ll see you next week!
Mr. Gryphon
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