Running

This will be a back to back post.  Two days in a row is a record for me.  It got me to thinking of a question.  What actually motivates me to run?

1. I am stuck in front of my desk all day.  I have to get up and move.
2. I know it has to be burning some calories.
3. Surely, it makes me healthier.
4. Sometimes it helps me think.
5. Sometimes it helps me NOT think.
6. I don’t want to go to lunch and eat “good” but, unhealthy food.
7. I like to run in the fun runs that serve beer, wine, chocolate, foam, or mud.
8. Most importantly, I am going to the beach in a month.  The sun is out and I am very pale.  I run to soak up some rays.

What motivates you to run?

Magic Diet?

I have been slacking but, I really have not had much to say.  Yes, I have had 2 workout of the week that I didn’t post so, here they are:

1. 4 rounds for time:  My time was 10:03.7.
   • Push-ups x 10
   • Squats x 20
   • Alt Leg Raises x 30
   • Jumping Jacks x 40
   • Plank Holds x 50 seconds
2. 21-15-9 reps for time:  My time was 1:30.8.
   • Jump squats
   • Push ups

I wrote about my wife and Pinterest in this post, Social or Not So Much.  Well she is not quite addicted but, over the weekend she found this on Pinterest, The Military Diet and wants to try it.  It pretty much is 3 days of strict dieting and then 4 days of eating anything within reason.  Has anyone tried it?  It claims you can lose 10 pounds a week.  Normally, I would try it with her because it is always easier to stay on a diet when your significant other is doing it with you.  Ten pounds in a week and you are supposed to eat hotdogs and vanilla ice cream sounds a little too good to be true.  She is all in and I will support her and if she does lose 10 pounds, I will join her eating hotdogs and all.  For now, I will just keep eating my salads, veges, fruit, eggs, chicken, fish, and protein lattes.

Following My Wife

So, my wife and I have made it through the first part of the “Totally Fit Life” program.  This program is being hosted at a local church.  We are not actually paying for the program.  We are just following some of my wife’s co-workers who are in the program.  So, pretty much I am just following what my wife says.  I am such a good hubby.  This program is more than just a diet.  It’s about a lifestyle change building on faith, diet and exercise.

The diet portion uses the glycemic index.  Which is kind hard to compute but, I figured out is pretty much no sugar and low carb (but good ones).  They give you a chart with three columns the first column is green (low GI).  The second column is yellow (medium GI).  The last column is red (high GI).  As you can imagine the foods in the green are good to go, yellow food caution, and the red foods you should stop and think before you eat them.   This first part we were to stay in the green.  I pretty much had eggs, fish, chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, peppers, onions, chick peas, beans, mushrooms, protein powder and water.  I should have taken a picture of my dinner or lunch.

The exercise portion they wanted you to work out 10 days straight.  I am not real sure why exactly but, maybe this was just to get you used to working out or getting into a habit of exercising or of a way of not thinking about eating sugar.  I changed my workouts up some.  I love running not really because it’s good for me but, just because I like to see, smell, and feel the outside.  That being said the treadmill has gotten a bit old.  So, now on top of my Kettlebell Bootcamp for total body workouts, I am doing an elliptical machine for a fast 20 minutes and then strength training one part of my body per day for 20 minutes.

The faith part of the program I really have no idea what they are doing for this.  They might meet for devotion or something before they have the group work out.  I am not sure.  I am still keeping up with my daily reading of the New Testament.  I just finished reading about when the Son of Man is going to come back riding the clouds of heaven with all of his angels.  It sounds pretty scary but, I and ready and will have my camera.

Speaking of a camera, do you know how hard it is to try to take pictures of yourself with a four year old wanting to know WHY?  Why do you have your shirt off?  Why does the camera keep going off?  Why do you keep deleting the pictures?  Why can’t I be in the pictures?  Sometimes, you just can’t win.  I am better taking pictures when I am messing around as opposed to self-posing.

After the first round of the program I lost 4 pounds.  I am down to 151 pounds.  I will just keep following what my wife says and see where this ends up.  Sorry, I ramble a lot.

Looking Back and Going Forward

I was thinking nothing really happened last year.  Then I thought I did start this blog.  I went back through and realized that I did do something last year.  I started this blog in February (wow almost a year).  This was just a way to keep track of my attempt to lose weight for a competition at work.  Since it was a weight loss blog I had to swallow my pride and post some half naked secret photos of myself.  The first ones are scary but, I stuck with it and faithfully posted pictures about every week or so.

Starting 169.9 Pounds

 

Finish 131 Pounds

I learned that eating clean and healthy actually made me feel better.  Towards the end of the year I also learned that I really love food and sometimes bad food outweighed the way good food made me feel.  I learned my normal day to day weight isn’t 130 pounds where I finished nor is it 170 pounds where I started.  It is somewhere in-between.  I am at 150 pounds right now.  I am not really happy about it but, I am not going to kill myself for it either.

I set some goals to run some races.  I ran 3 races last year with my best one a 10 K that I finished in 45:40.  I ran 2 other shorter runs with my wife and that was fun as well but, not as competitive.

Fun Run

I also, started lifting weights more and actually have fallen in love with Kettlebell Training.  I started this in December and I have just started a new session today.

Now going into 2013, I will continue with my Kettlebells.   Being in my early 40’s, I plan on staying a little stricter on my food.  If I did in my 20’s what I do now in my 40’s, I may have been cute with a great body.  Now I just have to try harder.  A goal that I have started is to read my Bible every day.  I have tried this before but, I am a slow reader and sometimes I just don’t understand the language. So, I am doing our church’s One-Year New Testament Challenge in 2013.  It should be shorter reading on a daily basis and I can look up stuff that I don’t understand.  I will do this one.  I am still running every day and plan to run a few more races and may even try to do one of those cross training, mudder, ultimate warrior type of a race.

I also plan to update something on here once a week or so.  Hopefully something fun and exciting things will happen for me to write about.

Cheers to a great year in 2013.

Dazed and Confused

I originally said that I was going to update every two weeks with progress pictures and measurements.  I don’t think this is going to happen.  I have just finished week number two of my Kettlebell Bootcamp with mixed emotions.  Sometimes I am so lost trying to figure out what we are doing other times I am doing something that doesn’t seem to be doing anything.  I am in a class that probably accepted a dozen or so too many people.  Too many people have made it crowded and hard to hear the instructions.   Another thing that has made it tough for me is that it is a mixture of rookies (me) and experienced kettlebellers.  I am guessing this also makes the experienced ones a little upset when we have to do the “basic” training exercises when they want the “advanced” exercises.  The experienced ones also are supposed to help the rookies out.  I have been lucky enough to be paired up with a couple of good ones but they didn’t sign up to help me.  Sometimes we go to stations and I have no clue what to do or where to do them or for how long.  I am not giving up but, I hate this slow start.  I guess I was hoping I would wake up a little more sore.  I have been sore but not too bad.  My legs were sore but, I never really worked them that much besides running and running isn’t hitting the same muscles used in squats and lunges.

Another confusing part of the past two weeks is my weight.  Prior to KB camp I was running in the morning for about an hour (6-8 miles a day) and then I was weight training during my lunch break (30-45 minutes).   Change is good.  I know that.  I was told this kettlebell would easily take the place of both of those workouts.  In my mind I swapped the weights and runs now.  I do KB Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings and during my lunch I am running on the treadmill (only 30-45 minutes).  I am still trying to run every day.  My diet hasn’t changed much.  I am a simple person.  I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day. My dinner changes some but, is still reasonable.  RAMBLE RAMBLE…I have gained 7 pounds in the last 2 weeks.

I really doubt I am adding 7 pounds of muscle.  Here are some things that have changed:

1. I am only running 3-4 miles not 6-8.
2. I have added Creatine Monohydrate.  This might make me retain water.
3. My protein powder is a Whey Isolate, Casein, and Hydrolyzed Whey mixture.

Here is a question:  When you have going through Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), do you retain more water, and junk while your body is trying to rebuild the muscle?

Sorry about this long written post.  I doubt anyone will even get through all of my ramblings.  Maybe next week will be better.

Morning Run

I still have not been able to sleep through the night due to my back.  Instead of crying about it at 4 this morning, I got up, stretched, threw some clothes on, and ran.  I am not sure what happens when I run but my back feels ok.  Maybe it’s the weird chemicals that make everything go numb.  When I finished running, I was hoping my back was better but, NOPE.  I am typing this at work sitting in my chair on my butt with my feet on the chair and my knees pulled to my chest.  Sounds weird but, it helps the pain.  Sitting just kills me.  At least I got a run in this morning.

I snapped a picture of myself after working out yesterday.  Taking a picture in a small bathroom in a mirror while holding a phone is hard to do.  It’s not a very good picture but, I tried.  Only a few days left until I leave for vacation.

I ended my biggest loser competition at 131 pounds.  I am now staying right around 139-141 pounds.  This past week I haven’t done much cardio (blaming my back).  I am still eating relatively well with a few cheats now and then.  Now it’s time to eat my lunch of spinach, cottage cheese, tuna, broccoli slaw, hot sauce and Greek yogurt.

About Time

Finally, I have my beginning and ending pictures up. WOW! I was plump in the beginning. You can check out my progress chart and the pictures on my Progress page.

At the start of the contest I always thought I would be able to win the percentage part of the competition. I didn’t think I would have to hit 22% loss. My numbers at the end were a bit deceiving. Like I said I had some tricks I was planning on using at the end. I noticed most of the people were working out right before weighing in. They also wore shorts for their weigh-in. I followed my workout schedule of working out at night before the weigh-in. I also wore jeans, golf shirt, t-shirt, underwear, socks, phone and wallet in pocket. The last week I practically went bare. I wore shorts, practically holey socks, light t-shirt, no wallet or phone, and no underwear. Then on the last weigh-in I worked out before weighing in. I figured this would make up quite a bit of difference compared to everyone else. They had been doing that all along.

I was dehydrated for my last weigh-in. A week later I am at 138 pounds. I am back on track now.

I am not planning on losing any more weight. I will take a weight loss but, that isn’t my new goal. I have added some heavy lifting as opposed to running 4-6 miles daily. I like running so, I will still run 2-3 times a week. I am also, half way into Insanity and I plan on doing that every day. Insanity is quite a bit of cardio and I wanted to add more heavy strength training to see what that would do.

I am still addicted to the blog thing so, I will update it with any progress or lack of progress I make. This blog may just turn out to be about stupid things I do. Maybe you can give me some suggestions or dares to have me do. I will take pictures and we can all have a few minutes of laughter from my stupidity.

Beginning	Ending

Weekend Binge

During my time with this Biggest Loser Competition, I learned a few things about myself and others as well. When I started I was overweight from inactivity that comes with wintertime and a shoulder surgery. Both of these excuses lead me to be lazy and eat just about anything in the house. I was always thinking I will get “healthy” tomorrow. Then the Biggest Loser came along. Tomorrow started as soon as the competition started.

I have always known the right foods to eat. I just don’t always eat them. It seems like everyone from yahoo to men’s health have easy ways to lose pounds by just eating this and not that. My problem was I rarely ate the stuff they say not to eat. To be honest I rarely ate the stuff they say to switch it too. For example, eat a grilled chicken sandwich instead of a cheeseburger sandwich. I know that would save calories but, it wouldn’t save calories if I were eating a grilled chicken with fresh veges already. I know the concept is a great one but it really didn’t work for me. It has worked for some of my competitors. They simply started eating 6-inch subways sandwiches and chips and were able to lose weight. I would gain on that diet. I had to find something that I could give up. That was alcohol for me. Captain and Diet Coke went on hiatus.

I remember the first few weeks the urge to just have a few jelly beans, a marshmallow, or pretzels. At the time I did have a just a few. As time went on, the urges for those things left. In the back of my mind, I may have been thinking I am in a competition don’t eat that. Actually, I think I was enjoying how I was feeling when I didn’t have that junk in my body. I really put that to test over the week end. After my last weigh in I went on a binge. Everything I ate, pizza, jelly beans, chocolate, beer, and chips all tasted great but made me feel blah and tired. I was falling asleep on the couch Sunday after noon. I had no energy but, I had plenty of food energy in my body. It just wasn’t the healthy food.

I am not sure if this rambling is even saying what I am trying to say. At first, I was sick from not having all of the junk food I wanted. At the end, I was sick from eating all of the junk food that I wanted.

I am still in the process of putting up my progress page with before and after pictures. I am heading to Florida in about a month so, with no competition pushing me, I will lean on this blog to stay the course.

Final – 131.0 LBS

I am done with my work’s Biggest Loser Competition.  The results are in.  I won the men’s most percent loss at 22.76 %.  That equates to a 38.6 pound loss over a 3 month period.  I am impressed.  It’s one of those things I knew I wanted to try and thought I could do it and I did.  I said back on day one that my goal was to be the winner of the biggest percentage.  I was going up against some bigger people so my thought is that I don’t have as many pounds as they have to lose.  I did end up coming in 3^rd with the total number of pounds lost.  I have been neglecting posting my progress pictures but I took one Friday morning.

I will post a few more times about my struggles and my plans and update my progress page but, I wanted to get this out there before I forget.  I know this last weigh in was a lot of water loss but, don’t scold me.  This was a competition so my goal this past week was a low number and I think 131.0 pounds is pretty low.

Home     131.0 pounds
Official    131.0 pounds

Tricks used last week:
1. Insanity (still)
2. No Cheating (still)
3. No Adding Salt – I am a saltoholic. (still)
4. Shorts – as opposed to jeans (still)

New Ones:

1. Watermelon (2 lbs) and Asparagus (2 lbs) only on Thursday – supposed to be diuretic
2. Light T-shirt (no collared shirt)
3. Commando – talking about weird showing up at work with no underwear, but then again…never mind that is for another blog.
4. Exercised the morning of weigh in.  I ran 4 miles at 4 am.  Told you I am weird.

And by the way…Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom out here.

Week 11 – 137.8 LBS

I am on the back stretch of my competition.  I can see the finish line.  My final weigh-in is on Friday within days I can count on one hand.  On Monday, I posted a 3.6 pound loss.  I am getting beat in the total pounds lost but, I have a firm grip on the percentage lost.  I am at 18.75%.  That is a little more than 2% better than my next competitor.  I keep goals in my head.  Rarely, do I write them or talk about them but, I have set a goal of 20% by Friday.  It’s going to be tough but, so has the past 3 months.  Once again, I am pictureless.  I figured with the last weigh-in less than a week I would wait until Friday to take the picture.

Home     135.5 pounds
Official    137.8 pounds

I know that losing 3 – 4 pounds isn’t really the healthy thing to try to achieve in a week but, this is a competition.  What I have learned going to the extreme is something that I can easily apply to maintain a weight that I feel comfortable with.  I plan on blogging about everything that I did or actually didn’t do during this 3 month experiment.

Tricks used last week:
1. Insanity (still)
2. No Cheating (still)
3. No Adding Salt – I am a saltoholic. (Still)
4. Shorts – as opposed to jeans

I have a few more tricks for my last weigh in.  I know you can’t wait to hear about them.  HAHA.