Weight Loss Challenge - Day 1 of 39

So here's the deal:  I have a massive athletic career in my 50 year old body - from being an NCAA I swimmer to Iron distance triathlete to elite cyclist to Aikido student, heck I even did Crossfit for a year.  I know all about performance, how to get it out of my body and the bodies of the people who have trusted me to get it out of theirs in a coaching scenario.  But at this moment in time at age 50 and being 100% committed to Aikido and progressing to Black Belt (and beyond) I found myself in a weird place.  I was fit for Aikido but not "fit" by my own standard.  So I decided to give OTF a try.  I knew very little about it but 2 things I knew were that it's been the #1 fitness franchise for 4 years and never had a studio close down.  So I signed up and have loved every one of my 28 workouts AND I've shaken the rust off my fitness... "Z fitness" is coming.They released a weight loss challenge and signed up for it.  For those of you who know me understand that me and weight loss are like oil and vinegar.  Without going into the details I believe it is not right for any of us to judge ourselves (or others) on their appearance.  We should judge ourselves and others on function - performance.  I have made a profession of helping people break the link between the value they have in the Universe to the number on the scale.  (another topic for another time).  But for me at age 50 I have a curiosity about what I have under the hood.  I wondered "can I win this weight loss challenge?"  That in turn led to 25 million other questions... what do I eat, how do I eat, what should I do differently working out, etc.  And because I have no experience in making the scale move I decided to be a student and learn.This is a documentation of day 1 of 39.Saturday, April 22,  2017I spent the week after getting home from Norway preparing for the "weigh in".  My weight at the time was 230 - no clue if that is heavy for me or not but I will say this - I had fun in Norway and didn't workout a ton :)  To prepare I pulled out the Precision Nutrition books and re-read them.  I also told Kim what I was doing because she does the family cooking and my eating changes would impact how much she cooks.  My daughter Aliya aka The Beast (b/c she's a bad ass swimmer) asked if I could make her some meals so I make her breakfast and lunch now.  I also downloaded MyFitness Pal, an app to track your calories.  I also dove into the owners manual of my Garmin 735 XT to find out what it could do besides track steps, track sleep, etc.  Turns out it will track all of my calorie expenditure.  I also started an Advocare Herbal Cleanse.Friday, April 28, 2017OTF did the weigh in and I weighed 226.9 lbs  I also spent this week learning about how many calories I should eat and in what macronutrient ratios.  I'm not worried about the workouts, I'll do OTF 4 times a week and Aikido 4 times - plenty of workout stress.  I consulted with my team (the MOST important thing I did):Kim Buttar - my best friend, wife and #1 fan.Jonathan Weiner - my aikido teacher and a guy who has dropped 85 pounds in the last 2 years.Sarah Tuczynski - my main OTF coach.Josh Szymanowski - personal trainer and friend who has been on my health board of directors for 5 years.The net product of consulting with them was I learned how to food prep, made my schedule of training / eating / timing and effectively turned this 39 day fight into manageable 1 day game plans - on any given day I just need to win that day.  The results will be what they will be.Monday, May 1, 2017 - Day 1Got my allergy shot and then I did OTF in the morning, got 19 splat points and burned 840 calories.I did 2 hours of Aikido in the evening and burned 592 calories.  It was a Monday class which meant I did extra training and we were on full automatic the whole night.  I ended the night with some Jiwaza test practice (it looks like this).  The first time out I made a ton of mistakes and was in oxygen debt the whole time.  We ended it while another student did the same thing.  I sat, stretched and cleared my mind in the back of the room.  And I had a thought:  "if this is the focus, nothing else today matters.  Nothing before right now counted, this counts, get your head out of your ass and go do what you know how to do."  I got another chance and rocked it.I had 5 meals each in the 480 calorie range.For the day I burned 3,873 calories.I took in 2,341 calories.The net deficit was 1,532 calories.I slept 7:01 (need more but Amira came into bed with us)I drank 138 oz of water.Bottom line - today was a win.