Goals, goals, and more goals!

After much discussion, planning, calculating, and dreaming, Catherine the Great and I have come up with a new weight loss goal to parallel my marathon training. As incredible and unbelieveable as it sounds, it is my goal to lose 52 more pounds by January 13th. (At this time it's actually 50 since I'm already down ~2 lbs from when I set the goal.) That should get me to the starting line at right around 250, down ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY POUNDS from where I was September, 2004 when I e-mailed Steve Shepard who introduced me to the Houston Striders, Power in Motion, and a healthy lifestyle with running as a key component.

I didn't come up with 52 pounds by drawing that number out of a hat. Catherine has me targeting 1000 calorie deficit per day. That's 7000 calories per week. And at 3500 calories per pound of fat, that's 2 pounds per week. I started on Sunday, exatly 26 weeks from January 13th. That's where we came up with the 52 lbs.

Yes, this is ambitious and yes, it may not take into account plateaus, muscle gain, and/or other things that may be going on with my body. But as far as the things that I have control over (e.g. what I put in my mouth), I'm going for it. I've gone 3 weeks now without a single slip up. This is the longest I've gone eating healthy since January and man is it showing, not only on the scale but also in the way my clothes fit, in my running, and most importantly in how I feel and that's great motivation to KEEP IT UP!!!