I'm still here!! Had to travel for work this week, but that entailed a LOT of walking around on job sites so I was active the whole time. And as of this morning I'm back down to my lowest weight...huzzah!

4/15 OTF Endurance Day (60 minutes, 1000 calories burned)

My Active April challenge was to do 540km on my bike for the month (average 18km / day), while also continuing to be under my carb and calorie goals.

After 16 days, I'm well ahead of schedule on the bike, with 315km on the odometer for the month. I've kept under my calorie goal, and was under my carb goal every day except today. It was a family get-together and while I avoided the chocolates and sweets, I did indulge in some carby snack-type food. No regrets though, it was tasty and I'll be good again starting right now.

Finally, Sundays are my weigh-in days, and as of this morning I'm down another 1 lb. That's 158 lbs so far, and 97 lbs left to hit my goal.

4/16 OTF Endurance, Strength, & Power Day (90 minutes, 1300+ calories burned)

4/16: started Hammer and Chisel. I'm probably going the strength ones and will sub running for most the cardio days .... tonight was chisel balance.

Elliptical Sat and cooking/cleaning 6 hours yesterday. left my fitbit at home, need to get a new one.

Got my butt up at 4am and went to the gym this morning! It wasn't long (less than 30 minutes) but I did it, got to work on time and feel really good. I also found a better location of my gym for my commute, so that should help with a longer workout. I'll try that location tomorrow.

4/17 OTF Strength/Everest Day (60 minutes, 788 calories burned)

@baconslave thanks for setting up this challenge!

Active April Shape Up Challenge Goals
1. Eat between 20–30 g of carbs per day max
2. Drink 6 to 8 cups of water per day
3. Lift weights 3 to 4 times per week
4. Swing kettle bell 6 to 7 times per week
5. Walk six times per week
6. Record daily
7. Lose 6 to 8 pounds

SW 195
4/1 137 lbs
4/8 134 lbs
4/15 134 lbs

Congrats on the baby goats! We now have 6 new peeps and 2 ducklings, but they came from Southern States . I did not get a lot of walking in over the weekend and I did go slightly off plan yesterday. I'm right back on track today, though.

cstehansen wrote: »

New profile pic I see. You look quite different - younger, actually. Great job on your progress so far!

Thanks very much!

For the last week, I managed to stay under 15k steps every day and over 10k except 1. My BG readings were nearly flat from the previous week except I had much higher readings on Saturday for some reason. Can't figure out what happened, but it was running 10-25 mg/dl higher all day through Sunday morning. Seems to have gone back down to close to what it had run most of the week by after lunch on Sunday.

With the lower activity, my average resting heart rate increased again. It is still at a healthy rate, but I am wondering how much further it will increase. I also checked my BP at one of those kiosks at the store and it was a little higher than normal. Again, still healthy level, just higher than I am used to seeing.

I will continue through the end of April with trying to keep activity levels down from what they used to be and continue to monitor everything. My BG is still my primary metric, but if there is only minimal improvement there for the month and I am moving in the wrong direction elsewhere, I may need to move back to my normal activity level.

So far I have been successful in reducing food enough to remain in my maintenance range.

4/17 I did strong lift work out a in the morning. I walked three different times for a total of 4.6 miles. I finished the evening with my kettle bell workout. Carbs and calories were excellent!