Long Break

Wow.  Talk about a long break….Where have I been?  I have been here but, lazy.  I was looking through the blogs I follow and I think they have all died away as well.  It’s funny how that works.  I am guessing no one follows me anymore.  I wouldn’t blame them.  I have been a bump on a log and not writing anything.  It’s warming up and I really need to get ready for bikini season.  No one wants to see me in a bikini though.  I haven’t stopped exercising.  I am addicted to it.  I am getting ready to run the Spartan Race.  That will be a muddy blast.  The best thing I have done lately is I went on a 20 mile hike with a weighted ruck (backpack) on.  It was fun.  Ramble ramble with no aim with this post.  I am ready for warmer weather and less layers so I will not have to look like this at the office.

 

Making Time by Prioritizing Time

I am in the middle of a great series at church.  What makes my pastor an awesome pastor is how he can apply the words of the bible to everyday life.  The series is called Becoming…What got you here won’t get you there.  It makes perfect sense if you are in a rut.  The main point or tag line is “If you want to go somewhere you have never been before you must become someone you have never been before”.  I write this because he is describing me of about a year ago.  I was trying to be fit and eat right but, nothing I was doing was working.  I needed to change who I was.  For instance, I don’t like sitting at my desk.  So, for my lunch I would go and walk on a treadmill.  I “worked out” mostly everyday but, nothing was happening. I needed to work out to make myself better, not just because I hate sitting.  So, my intensity increased, my body changed, and I became addicted to working out and now have added morning workouts (I made time…workouts to me are more important than sleeping in).

I have always said the only way to have time is to make time.  On my way out of church we were discussing a book the pastor referenced.  It is about habits and how you form them.  Someone said that they had the book and that I could borrow it.  I said I didn’t have time to read it and I am happy with my habits right now.  I thought about what I said.  It’s not that I don’t have time.  It is the other things I do with my time I feel are more important than reading that book.  Right now I am happy with my family, my life, and my habits.  So, this book, although probably very interesting, held low priority in my time budget.  The owner of the book could not believe I didn’t have time.  I went thru my day with her and asked her what I should give up to spend time reading.  Workouts?  Work? Weekly/Daily yardwork?  Kids sport camps? Time with my wife and kids? Daily New Testament reading? My fun read (I am reading Happy, Happy Happy…a Duck Dynasty book)? Eating? Or Sleeping?  I am sure she didn’t get anything I was saying but, reading the habit book at this part of my life just wasn’t a priority.

I kind of branched off the path about the church series Becoming.  I used habits about a year ago to become a fitter person that I wanted to be.  The pastor also mentioned to use tools to help you become someone you have never been before.  Coaches were the tool he said to use.  WOW…he really was talking about me.  Not only did I change my habits but, I also have great Fit Coaches that helped me become a fitter person.

I just thought I would share this series at church that I have already lived but had no idea I was living.

I do like this quote:

“If you want to go somewhere you have never been before you must become someone you have never been before”

WordPress Notifications

Another quick post. What can I say, I just like quickies. I am relatively new at this smartphone stuff but, I guess I am getting addicted to it (just put it away on dates!). I recently updated my WordPress app. I am not sure if it’s a new feature or if I have my push notification turned on but, whatever it is, I like it. Now, by a little icon on my phone, I know immediately when I get a comment, a response, a like, or a new follower, etc. It doesn’t take me much to get excited so, beware it may end up with a quick response. Just another way this blogging thing makes me feel like everyone is my extended family. Thanks for all that read and put up with me. Just know I will be chatting back with you in almost real time.

Creature of Habit

If anyone follows this blog you have heard me say that I am a creature of habit.  I guess that makes me pretty much a boring person.  I figured I would explain my weekly routine.  The only part of a schedule on the weekend is that my weekends are so chaotic that I consider them a habit of chaos.  At least I know it’s going to be chaos.

Monday through Friday I pretty much do the same thing.  This is so exciting I thought I would write about it so you can see the inner me.  I know scary, right?  Don’t fall asleep!

• I wake up at 4:40.
• Brush my teeth and splash water on my face.
• Undress
• Dress for Kettlebell workouts in the front room so, I don’t want to wake anyone else up.
  • Compression shorts
  • Outer shorts
  • Old shirt with my work logo (I don’t want to ruin good clothes and they don’t make cute workout clothes for guys and I doubt cute clothes would help this ugly mug)
  • Sweatshirt
  • Socks and Shoes
• Drink my pre-workout drink at 4:55 on my way to my workout.
• Swing, snatch, pull, squat, etc. a kettlebell from 5:15 to 6:00.
• Back to home and throw matching clothes into the washer (darks or whites) and set the washer to wash in 8 hours.
• Swallow some BCAA’s.
• Shower, deodorant, body spray, and get dressed.
• Fix my infamous Vanilla Latte with 2 scoops vanilla protein powder and coffee and another large travel mug of black coffee.
• Grab my lunch from the garage fridge.
• Head to work by 6:30.
• 8:00 eat an egg.
• 10:00 eat plain DRY old fashion oatmeal with a half scoop of vanilla protein and a small handful of flaxseeds.
• 11:30 eat Lunch
  • Spinach or Spring Mix Salad
  • Tuna
  • Egg
  • Leftover veges and/or couscous or quinoa
  • Salad Dressing – lately it’s been Bolthouse Farms Chunky Blue Cheese Yogurt Dressing.  Other times it’s Maple Grove Farms Sugar Free Balsamic Vinaigrette.
  • Fruit
    

    Today’s Salad! Broccoli was my left over topping today.

• 1:15 pm workout at my office’s gym.
  • 20 minutes elliptical between 9 and 10 mph.
  • 20 minutes quick arms, chest, back, shoulders, or legs strength workout – rotate through the week.
  • Shower and dress again
  • (Sometimes I run for 45 to 50 minutes if it’s nice outside.)
• Swallow some BCAA’s.
• Back to my desk by 2:15.
• Another infamous Vanilla Latte.  Only one scoop of Protein Powder.
• 3:00 Fat free non-flavored Greek yogurt with frozen fruit.
• 4:00 driving home while eating sunflower seeds.

Once I am home my schedule is a little less structured but, it is pretty much the same every night.  I put the laundry in the dryer.  I snack on way too many nuts until I eat whatever my wife makes for dinner.  It’s usually fish or chicken with vegetables and some sort of “good” carbs.  Then it is off to some sort of practice for the kids.  Back home again to fold the laundry, pack my lunch, put workout clothes in my car for work and set out clothes for the morning kettlebell workout.   Read my one year New Testament Bible.  (Yes, I am still doing my new year’s resolution.)  I am usually asleep by 10:00pm.

This is my daily week schedule in a long winded nutshell.  On the weekends I am horrible with my food choices.  I usually go to a Saturday Kettlebell class and try to get some sort of run in on Sunday of about 5 miles.  I am ok with my bad food choices on the weekends because I know my week schedule is only a couple of days away and my food choices are pretty good then.  So, now you know all of my dirty little daily secrets…Actually, they aren’t secret nor are they dirty but, I AM a creature of habit.

Spring Break

After the 9 inches and counting of snow we are getting here in Indiana, I am ready to head to Florida.  What I am not ready for is the 15 to 16 hour drive with three kids.  Anyone want to guess how long into the trip the question of “Are we there yet?” gets asked?  Like father like kids, their attention span is pretty much non-existent.  I just hope that staying with my in-laws in their small condo won’t dampen my our vacation.  Normally, my ideal location in Florida would be a place right on the beach.  To get to a beach we will have to drive about an hour.   With kids at various ages, I like the freedom of hanging out at the beach but if they get bored we can go back to the condo or pool.  We will not have that luxury but, we WILL still have fun.

Another thing I will miss is the local restaurants, the ones on the beach that have fun names and stores where you can buy shirts. I hope to drive to one at least once or twice.  I guess the positive thing about that is that I might actually force myself to eat close to normal most of the time.

The retirement community, where we will be, does have a nice exercise room.  I am not sure I will have access to it since I will be a guest but, I hope I can use it.  I know I will need some time away so, hopefully, it’s the gym and some running.

Whatever happens I get to sport my new swimsuit.  It’s a good thing the suit is not the speedo bikini type.  I am not sure the retired people would be ok with that but, everyone needs a good laugh and why not laugh at me?

Kids

My schedule has been changed again. Today, is usually my cardio day during lunch. Since I ran about 5 miles yesterday, I will be ok with missing my Monday elliptical session. My number two kid is sick and we decided it to be best he stay home and rest. I drew the short straw and get to be his slave for the day. But speaking of kids, I went shopping for a swim suit over the weekend. After browsing in the Men’s Department at the over priced swim trunks, I decided to look in the Boys’ section.

I have always hated being small. Through high school, I was never taller than 5’6″ and never more than 140 pounds. I NEVER used it as an excuse it was more of a motivation, especially, playing sports. I was blessed with over average skills and a love for playing sports.  With the motivation of being the small guy, I was able to compete at a high level (as far as high school goes). Probably, even better was that when I went to college and played in the recreational leagues, more times than not, I would get the worst player guarding me. By the end of the game I would be matched with one of the other teams best players.

I digress, this is the happy part about being small. I was able to fit in a boys size XL swim suit. The prices are a lot cheaper and there was a bigger selection. Score one for the small old 41-year-old wearing boys sized clothes.

Swim Suit from Boys’ section

Bummed

Does it mean I have a problem when my 5:00 am Kettlebell Bootcamp gets cancelled and I am totally bummed out?

My “training”, (opposed to class or workouts) because coach thinks he is training athletes, is held at the local high school.  We had some snow and ice making the school opening delay for 2 hours in the morning.  This means no bootcamp.  The reason for the most part is so the parking lots can get treated and plowed for the kids when they get to school.  Most people would be happy to sleep in.  I am upset mainly because this throws off my schedule.  I have posted about this before I am the definition of creature of habit.  You mess up one thing and I am lost for the day.  I still plan on working out during lunch unless, since my morning was messed up, I decide to go out for lunch (resist the urge).  I just like my full body, sweating, lung hurting training in the morning.  It wasn’t long ago that I would have never said that.

1. Anyone else feel the same way about liking the fun in hard exercise?
2. Anyone else get thrown out of whack when their schedule changes?

 

Blogoversary

Today is Lose It Big’s first blogoversary.  I started this blog a year ago as an online diary of a weight loss competition I entered at work.   Here is my first post (The Journey Begins 169.6 lbs) and not one comment (boo).  During the time of our Biggest Loser Competition, my posts were simply a recap of the previous week, my weight, and a picture of me.    Although I still despise pictures of me, I am able to look back and see the changes I made in pictures which is a big inspiration in itself.   I finished my competition a winner by losing almost 23% of my weight check it out (Final – 131.0 LBS).

Why do I keep blogging?

After blogging about my competition, I kind of got hooked on this blogging thing.   I am in no means any sort of expert in exercise or diet.  I found out that if I push myself with exercise and eating healthy that I could change my appearance.  I found that I really like lifting weights and running.  I found that I like eating all sorts of food that I read people talk about on their blogs.  I found that I like the friends that read my blog and that I follow.  I found that we all have the same day to day life struggles with family, work, exercise, and time.  I also found my lowest weight is not my normal weight…I like eating way too much.

The later part of Lose It Big has kind of just been a hodge podge of sometimes boring life.  I am still big into exercise and eating.  Every once in a while, I will post my workout or maybe what I eat.   I have even talked about some of my crazy kids.   I have (and probably again) posted under the influence of Captain Morgan.

I rarely weigh myself anymore but, as of this morning I am 149 pounds.  In a month I will be heading to Florida for spring break so, I guess I need to work on getting back into my speedo.

Now onto the fun stuff.  Over the past few weeks a few bloggers have nominated me for an Inspirational Blogger award.  I know I am taking the easy way out of this by just writing it in one post but, at least I am getting around to it.  I follow all of these blogs and they are more of an inspiration to me than I can be to anyone but, I thank you all for thinking I can be a little bit of an inspiration.

Here are the rules:

• Display the award logo on your blog
• Link back to the person who nominated you
• State 7 things about yourself (things you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask)
• Nominate 15 bloggers for this award and link to them
• Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award’s requirements.

We Shall Have Pie…2 Girls running for pride and pie
FitBit’s blog…For all things fitness, nutrition, and positivity related
ErinHasThoughts (and some are really out there)
It has begun, Challenge 2013

Check them out.  You will see they all have a common theme…Food and Exercise

Things about me

1. I love cooking but, I hate doing dishes…those conflict
2. My attention span is worse than a child’s…Look squirrel.
3.  If time wasn’t an issue I could run all day…I am serious.  I have gotten lost while running. I think it relates to number 2.  I forgot I was running.
4. My favorite movies are Dumb and Dumber and Vacation…I listen to them at work at least once a week.
5. When I say I am going to do something, I mean it…See my Biggest Loser Competition and now I am about 2 months into daily reading the New Testament.
6. I am a huge sports fan.  My favorite teams are Indiana University and the Indianapolis Colts.
7. It hurts me so bad to watch my sons struggle in sports…sports are natural to me so, why can’t they get it.

My Nominations

I follow so many great blogs.  I have decided to nominate some the newer blogs I have started following.

1. Ms. Sick Of Being Fluffy
2. lollipoppushups
3. Too Big To Fail
4. Operation Skinny & Fit
5. *~ Fat Panda Slim ~*
6. 2013 Fit Plan
7. STRONG is the new SKINNY
8. In Pursuit of Fitness
9. Fast Workouts at Home
10. Confessions Of A Fitness Lover
11. PITLIFEKIMMY
12. Bestversionoflc’s Blog
13. Shape Up, Samantha!
14. Coffee With Sabrina
15. Goodbye, Fatty!

Social or Not So Much

My wife’s coworkers are addicted to Pinterest.  I have an account there but, I have no clue how to use it.  The pictures of food look great and I think for her being on the glycemic index count thing maybe Pinterest would be fun for her.  I am selfish.  I would benefit too because if she tries to make something, I get to eat it.

I have all these social media accounts.  Twitter (@kwasson123) is probably my most active one.  I follow more than I tweet.  I have only posted a few things on Facebook and my pictures are probably 10 years old so, that probably makes me more of a stalker.

Like I said before, I am clueless about Pinterest.  I am just not sure I want to lose my wife to an addiction to Pinterest but, I want that food.  So, I am asking the smart people out here to give me some advice on Pinterest.

I know this post has nothing to do with anything so, I will just say I am at work listening to the movie Groundhog Day.  I may watch listen to it over and over again.  Happy February.

Fun Friday

I am off of work today.  One of the things I like about being off is I don’t have to be in a hurry to do everything.  For example I have already worked out and showered but, I am in no hurry to get dressed.  No one is around to scare so, here I am donning a towel and posting about my Friday.

As mentioned, I worked out this morning.  I am in a Kettlebell Bootcamp that meets every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (Saturdays are also open).  The session I am in starts at 5:15 am.  So, even though I am off work, I still get up bright and early.  If I were more camera talented, I would have taken a picture of the workout on the board or maybe even me trying to do the workout but, all you get from me is a list of the workout.

1. Warm Up
   • Get-ups 1R/1L
   • Push ups(10)
2. Stations (5 minutes each)
   • Pull Ups(5) or Ring Rows(10) – you go I go with a buddy
   • Double Kettlebell Squats(5) – you go I go with a buddy
   • Weighted Alt Leg Raises(30) or whatever you can get in 40 seconds rest for 20 seconds
   • Jump Rope – 40 seconds on 20 seconds off
3. Finisher (21 reps first set, 15 reps second set, 9 reps last set)
   • Presses
   • Burpees

After that, I decided to run about a mile around the gym while the next Kettlebell Session was warming up.  Since I am off work, what the heck..DO IT ALL AGAIN!  So, I did it a second time.   I like being off work.  Now on to my honey do list which includes shopping for my 14th wedding anniversary gift for my wife.  Any suggestions?  Then I need to clean the garage.  Fun Fun!