Saying hello on my journey to the Tough Mudder!

Hi All,

I started using Myfitnesspal (MFP) several weeks ago but haven't posting anything yet, and figured this would be a good time since I'm starting to hit the slow spot.

This is my first official adventure into dieting and proper nutrition. At the age of 28 my body has caught up to all my college habits. I'm about 6'2", and have managed to get to 220lbs with a waning exercise routine and more sedentary lifestyle. Not exactly a huge amount of weight, but enough to make me want to do something and get back into shape. A bunch of friends of mine decided to make a pact this past December to get ready for an event called the Tough Mudder in May. It's a 10+ mile obstacle course with 25+ military style obstacles that's laid out on a ski slope. It generally involves lots of mud (hence the Mudder), long steep uphills, water, and cold. Plenty of people have already said I'm nuts for doing it, but I like setting a goal and a difficult challenge to motivate myself. Prior to my current situation I was big into mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking, road biking, and most any other physical challenge that has come along.

My current goal it to get down to about 200lbs. I have my daily calories set to lose 1lb a week, with a sedentary lifestyle. I also workout usually 5 days a week alternating weight lifting/cardio, and distance running. I've been getting better on the weights, and I'm up to 5mi of running in one go on the treadmill. I generally log my cardio and running for the calories burned since the treadmill or machine will tell me about what I burned. I'll generally leave the lifting out since it's difficult to sum it all up on all the different machines. Plus from what I've read, lifting on it's own doesn't burn much in terms of calories (maybe 200 for a 1/2 hour). However, I'm at this point where I'm hitting the weird balance between added muscle mass, water retained, and no weight loss. My weight has bounced around from 220, to 217, back to 220, and will probably be different again come morning. I can't say I've noticed any significant changes in body shape, but I'm still hopeful.

I have about 100 days left to train and get ready for the event. Wish me luck!