I'm back...

So, I have reached week 15.  The last time I posted was during Week 6.  What have I been doing all this time?  Absolutely nothing.  I've been pathetic and was too embarrassed to even give an update on here.

But my motivation is starting to creep back.  Weeks of holidays, chocolate, soda pop, and sitting are past me.  It's time to get back on the horse and start dieting and exercising again....on Monday!

....well it's already Wednesday, if I start tomorrow then I'd only have two days of working out before the weekend, and I know I won't work out on the weekend, so those two days will be nullified.....AHH, YOU SEE WHAT I'VE BEEN GOING THROUGH THESE PAST 2 MONTHS?!?!

But seriously, I'm not starting until Monday.

If you could somehow record the thought process I go through on working out and the battle between "going to work out" and "convincing myself that's a bad idea", the students in the Behavioral Health program at the University of Iowa would have a field day with me.  I think it's ridiculous, and I'm the one DOING it.

But back to that creeping back of the motivation.  I have been working out over this huge break, it's just been really sporadic.  The sole reason for that shred of motivation was Fitocracy.  It's basically a social website where you log your workouts and you "compete" with friends.  You get a certain amount of points for certain exercises, then your points add up and you compare them with your friends.  It sounds dumb because it's completely on the honor system, but for some reason it works for me.  I have a lot of friends on there and it pisses me off when one of them logs a huge workout, then I feel like I have to go work out that much harder.  Which is good.  It brings out the competitive side of me, which is the whole reason I was ever in shape in the first place.  Once the competitiveness was removed, I had no reason to stay in shape.  That topic should really be it's own post...

So Fitocracy has given me a nudge, but I have one more ace up my sleeve to get me moving towards my 30 pound weight loss.  That ace is?  The Dam to Dam.  It is a 20 kilometer run (half a marathon) in Des Moines, Iowa.  How many miles is that you asked?  Here.

Registration isn't open yet and I guess it fills up fast, so it's still not 100%, but I will be doing my best to sign up.  Oh, and did I mention my brother wants to do it too?  He'll have just turned 40 and I'll be a week away from 30.  And I can't lose to a forty year old....I mean he's already got one foot in the grave.  But I digress...

Since I started using Fitocracy, I actually challenged myself to run a 5k.  Granted, it was on a treadmill at the gym, but I did it.  I actually have done it many times.  Doesn't sound like much, but I haven't run that far since high school, and I felt pretty good afterwards.  Now I just need to add 10 more miles to that....cripes.

So, let's get down to brass tacks already.  I was either not working out or hardly working out for 9 straight weeks.  I was real worried stepping on that scale.  I weighed in for Week 15 and was at 223.0 lbs!  Granted, that's 6 pounds up from where I was in my last post, but I'm still 7 pounds down!  It's a little disheartening, but I was fully expecting to have ballooned past 230...I was thankful that was not the case.

My wife has started a three week cleanse diet which has all but guaranteed the outlets for gorging and snacking are not longer available.  Check that, the "good" outlets.  Carrots, kale, celery, and lettuce need not apply.  So that's another motivator to get back to working out, I need to exercise to get my mind off the food I'm not eating.

Oh and speaking of food I'm not eating.  Since October, I have basically kept my "no fast food" rule.  I did break it once (twice) one day a couple weeks ago when some of my friends came up and I got somewhat inebriated.  Fast food hits the spot when the room is spinning.  But one time (two) since October, I think that's pretty good.  Take that fast food establishment!

That's all for today folks, I have a non-workout blog post in the works.  For those of you who are my friends on Facebook, you may have seen a post about pancakes and tires.  That story deserves some further depth.  It will be supplied here.

Good day.

Week 5 and Week 6

Well, my wavering diet has finally caught up to me.  Due to various Christmas parties, office treats (everyday someone else brings in a treat for the month of December), and random discretion's, I've finally had my first plus in the weight loss column.

After Week 5 I weighed in and was down to 217.8 lbs, a 1.2 pound loss.  I was happy with that.  But then this past Tuesday I weighed in for Week 6 and ended up at 219.2 lbs, a 1.4 pound gain.

That's pretty disheartening, especially given that Christmas is right around the corner and I'll be off work until January 2nd.  We'll be spending Christmas with the in-laws, and they make so many delicious Christmas treats that they literally have to set up folding tables in order to lay them all out....it is awesome.  I did plan for this, which is why I started in November and my end date is June.  But nevertheless, I'm still annoyed with myself.

I really can't be surprised though, I haven't been working out like I should and eating like I should.  I'm not sure what the next couple weeks will bring, but I'm guessing it won't be good for this venture.

....but at the same time, I guarantee it will taste real, real good.

Current Weight Loss: 11.0 lbs.

Week Three and Four

So I'm still here, still losing weight...just have been busy and haven't found time to update the blog.

I haven't updated since before Thanksgiving, so let's start there.  I was TERRIBLE during the whole week of Thanksgiving.  I was giving myself one cheat day for Thanksgiving and that ballooned into about 5 or 6 cheat days.  I was really disappointed in myself, my will power is embarrassing.  I didn't work out all week because the gym on campus was closed due to the holiday break, but I showed no initiative to exercise on my own, which was dumb.  The whole week I was dreading stepping on the scale because of my stupid behavior...

So Tuesday rolled around, I step on the scale and....lost .2 lbs.  I literally have no idea how that happened.  How did I not gain weight, let alone lose weight (regardless of how minuscule that weight loss was)?!  So my weight at the end of Week Three was 222.4 lbs.

This past week was much better, I got my diet back under control and really felt like I've recovered from my Thanksgiving binge.  However, I still haven't worked out.  This is mainly due to work being really busy.  When the only time I can work out is over my lunch hour, going to the gym is at the mercy of my workload.

So that gets annoying.  I'm hoping to get back there sometime this week.  But, today was another weigh in day, and without working out and relying purely on my diet, I wasn't sure what to expect.  219.0 lbs.  Lost 3.4 lbs.

I'm surprised at that, but at the same time not surprised.  I know that dieting is more important than exercise, so it makes sense I lost a good chunk of weight without exercise.  But I am surprised that I actually did it.  I've historically always relied on working out to lose weight.  I've never been a good dieter.  So it's good to know that I am capable of losing weight just by dieting.  And when life does get in the way of me working out, I don't have to stress out about it.

Total weight loss since the beginning of this project, 11.2 lbs.  I'm down to the "teens".  I haven't been there for at least three years.

Progress.

Week Two

Okay...so I've been neglecting just about everything regarding this project.  The blog.  Exercising.  Watching what I eat.

How you ask?  How did the train fall off its tracks after just one week?  See the previous post to a reference point...

This week at work has been one of the busiest and stressful times of my professional life (I'm not including the time I couldn't get home in time to watch Lost, mainly because I still can't bring myself to think about it).

Nothing really serious has happened, it's just those annoying things in life that randomly happen and stress you out.  Things like: your dishwasher breaking so you have to buy a new one, or your dryer quits working and need it repaired, something at work breaks down and you spend all week trying to fix it while everyone is waiting (im)patiently for you to fix it, or your spouse gets in a fender bender and your car is in the shop for over a week.  Any one of those things can be super stressful and super annoying.

When they all happened within a week of each other....that's when things like a "30 by 30" project fall off a cliff.

I did find time to weigh in on Tuesday.  222.6 lbs.  A one week loss of 1.8 lbs.  Hell, at least I was in the negative.

As for this week?  Between home and work crisis', there has been no workouts, a fair amount of stress eating, and a whole lot of cantankerousness (30 by 30's word of the day) towards not letting outside forces thwart my goals.

Oh well, next week is a blank slate.  Surely nothing worse can happen....SURELY..............

Life gets in the way

As far as the diet and exercise plan goes, it took a big hit this weekend.  And with my pending weekly weigh in happening tomorrow, I'm a little afraid of what it will say.

It started on Friday.  I took the day off to enjoy a little "me time"...which involved playing a new video game I purchased and cheating a little on the diet.  I also had to clean the basement or else I would have been sleeping on the couch, but that's neither here nor there.  However, life got in the way.

You see, my wife got in a minor fender bender (minor enough that no one was hurt, however not minor enough that the car has been in the shop for over a week now), so we've been stuck driving a rental...of which we only have one key.  So Friday morning my wife wakes up and takes the boy to daycare and accidentally takes the key to the rental with her.  So I'm stuck at home, so my plan of eating a couple (four) slices of Casey's pizza for lunch were thwarted.  So I instead ate a granola bar and fasted while being distracted by my new awesome video game.

The wife came home and we went out for a late lunch to our favorite diner, Newton's Paradise Cafe.  And because I was starving, I ordered their classically Iowan breaded pork tenderloin.  This thing is as big as my head....and I have a big head, LITERALLY.  I ate every bite...it was amazing.

Then the next morning the wife had a craving for pancakes at our favorite diner again (see above).  So because I have no self restraint, we go (and unlucky for us, the same waiter was working....we felt sheepish).

Then Saturday night we met some friends out for dinner out our favorite restaurant in town, Montage.  I had the Hoison Pork Loin with their Montage Potatoes (think shredded potatoes with cheese and sour cream baked in a ramekin...delicious).

That's a lot of eating out and a lot of me not caring what I eat...

BUT, not all was lost!  Because my weigh in days are Tuesdays, I have Monday to make it all right in the world!!

Which brings me to the second, less fun part of the weekend...

You see, on Friday, our dryer quit working (broken belt).  I mentioned the fender bender (sun in wife's eyes).  Also earlier in the week our dish washer went kaput (water tank is leaking into the basement, need to buy a new dish washer).  So this weekend we went to Lowe's and ordered a new dish washer (and since it was 18 months no interest, we decided to replace our old refrigerator too...I'll buy close to anything with no interest for 18 months).

Which brings us back to Monday, where I was going to make up for my transgressions during the weekend.  The appliance repair guy who we've been waiting on all weekend calls me 10 minutes before I was going to work out and asked if I could be at the house in 15 minutes for him to fix our dryer.  To which I had no choice but to reply "of course......"

So...the weekend-saving work out never happened.  And even when I was 80% good last week, I only lost 5 lbs.  I'm not looking forward to that scale tomorrow...

Week One

My weight this morning was 224.4 lbs...that is a seven day loss of 5.8 lbs.  One thing I have noticed is my appetite seems completely under my control.  I don't have the urge to over eat and I don't crave greasy bad-for-me food.  That surprises me that out only took one week, I was assuming that part would take multiple weeks to get under control.

With that said, the weekend wreaked havoc on my diet.  I didn't over eat, but I didn't exactly eat healthy when I did eat.  It was circumstance based.  I was at a party that had ham balls, what was I supposed to do, turn down ham balls??  I'm not sure if ham balls are really the healthiest item to stuff in my face...but man they are good.

Side note: I used to think I hated ham balls.  It was one of the five foods I refused to eat (along with sweet pickles, olives of any color, the bagel chips in store bought Chex Mix, and the Brazil nuts in a can of mixed nuts...).  I remember when I was a kid, let's say 1990-1995 somewhere, we were vacationing with family in Colorado and my aunt made everyone ham balls.  But as memory serves, she accidentally screwed up the recipe and they tasted awful.  That was the first and last time I had ham balls until 2007.  That was when my now wife reintroduced me to them...and good God was I missing out.  Ham balls are delicious, period.

Anyway, so 5.8 lbs with room to improve on my dieting.  I'm feeling okay about that.  I was hoping for a pound a day, but I'll take it.

Now because the purpose of this blog is for me to be open about everything surrounding this process, even the bad stuff, I need to relay this information to clear my conscience.  One of my overall goals during this was to give up soda.  I did really good all week last week, then on Friday afternoon at work, I just had to have one.  So I gave in and bought a Diet Mountain Dew.  Granted, it's zero calories and does basically nothing to damage my diet, it is still an unnecessary substance I'm putting into my body and adds no nutritional benefit.

......that's not all.  Yesterday I forgot my contacts (I can't work out in my glasses, it drives me nuts when sweat drips on the lenses), so my routine was thrown off and I got another Diet Mountain Dew out of nowhere.  I have no idea where it came from.  BUT THAT'S THE LAST ONE THIS WEEK.  It's disappointing, but the way I look at it, if I can go from two sodas a day down to 1 a week...that's pretty good.

And I still haven't succumbed to greasy fast food.  So back off on the soda thing.

Delayed onset muscle soreness

Three days into it and I can already see myself putting much more emphasis on cardio than weights.  I will still work in some lifting every other day, but I am enjoying running more.  I ran a little at the end of yesterday's workout because I got bored with lifting.

I am definitely sore today.  The thighs are really sore from three days of running.  Today I tried to mix up the treadmill and add in some inclination (basically simulating running up and down hills)...big mistake.  I had to stop multiple times to catch my breath and give my legs a chance to stop screaming.  I eventually decided to do 10 minutes of random inclination and then 10 minutes running level....otherwise I'm not sure I'd be here to type this right now.

Yesterday I had my first "I'm a big dumb idiot who hasn't been in a gym in a while" moment.  So, there's a piece of equipment in the gym called a Decline Sit-up Bench.  It's a bench that's declined and has braces at the top for you to stick your legs through so you can do sit ups (or other exercises) in a declined position.  And for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to get on this machine...

So I perched myself at the top, manipulate my legs into the braces so they are locked in place, then start sliding down the declined bench into place.  However I didn't think it all the way through and as I slid down, my shorts starting sliding off.  So as quickly as I could, I unlocked my legs and awkwardly removed myself from said machine.  Pulled up my shorts, looked around the gym, and did the patented "I meant to do that" stretching and pacing.

I'm a moron.

I did eventually figure it out and got in my declined ab workout.  And I'm positive I looked cool doing it....