Well, I weighed in this morning at 293.8, which is 64.4 pounds from where I started this time, and 113.2 from my top known weight. It’s been a pretty good month, although the gardening and a bit of a mishap with my foot (much better today) kind of derailed some of my planned exercising.  So, the monthly totals.

• calories per day: 2300, calorie balance: -641 per day
• treadmill: 3h 20m, strength training: 13h 30m
• pool (various, incl. laps): 20m, BBQ assy: 1h 30m
• garden work: 4h 0m, walking outside: 3h 40m
• avg daily exercise: 53 mins
• weight lost: 8.0 pounds

Now if the end of the month hadn’t followed a lifting day I would have been around 9 pounds down for the month.  Although it varies I usually hold at least an extra pound of water after strength training days.  Oh well, that might just make July’s number better.  I just added them to the stats page if you want to compare to previous months. Now I need to think about goals for next month. I don’t set weight lost goals, as I feel I would be disappointed if I didn’t meet them. I try and set goals that will push me, but I can control if they are attainable. Although you can do certain things to help, you can’t force your body to lose weight on a schedule. So, on to the goals for July.

• Eat within plan every day (2400 exercise days (60 mins of something), 2150 rest days)
• Drink water every day (18 cups min.)
• Exercise (60 mins treadmill Tues&Sat, 60 mins strength training Mo/We/Fr)

The exercise remains the same as last month.  I was planning on changing the calorie levels but the weight loss has remained steady, even trending up the past few weeks.  So for now they’ll stay the same.  I’m planning a maintenance week, which might fall during July (haven’t decided yet).  The concept is that you shouldn’t eat at a deficit for long periods of time.  Ideally once every 12 weeks you should rest (workouts) and attempt to eat at maintenance levels.  This actually makes sense.  It gives the body a chance to repair anything that it might not get a chance to when you’re losing weight.  I’ve done slight rest weeks since I started the lifting, however, I’m way overdue on the eat at maintenance levels.  I want to see where I am on the lifting program towards the end of the month and I’ll pick a week then.  On the first day of August I’ll take a look at these and see how I’ve done.  Wish me luck!