Sorry I haven’t been posting as much lately, I should be back in action here soon. I’m almost finished with this cold I’ve had all week with a cough, sore throut, and runny nose. It’s been hard enough with the cold, the new job, and two sick kids (and now wife) to get my workouts in, let alone my blog posts … but my workout have been on schedule and I’m eating pretty well.
The weekend wasn’t perfect but we did really well overall considering it was a lazy holiday weekend. We had two meal out when we ate bad but other than that we ate really well and even managed to barbecue a bunch of food on Monday. Are we as perfect as I’d like, no, but we’re doing the best we can while still pushing to be healthy.
Enough banter, now on with this weeks weight-in:
Previous Weight — 288.4 lbs
Current Weight — 285.8 lbs
Change In Weight — -2.6 lbs
After being up last week I’ll take this loss and run with it. Like I said, being sick it’s been hard to workout but I’ve still managed to get something in, maybe not as long as I’d like, but still a workout. No, I’m not crazy and working out with a fever, that part is gone and I didn’t work out then … I slept. This is the aftermath of the sneezing and coughing collateral damage. Nothing a little motivation and determination can’t cure!
Running Update
As you might remember, my wife and I are training for a 5.7 mile race in October. To get us on a plan and an organized schedule we started using a couch to 10k application on our iPhones. It’s a lot like the couch to 5k version except that it’s obviously designed for a longer race. A 10k is a tad over 5.7 miles so we figured it made more sense to use this application while training instead of the the 5k one.
Anyhow, we’ve completed the first three days of the program, actually did day three yesterday. So far so good … the intervals are really easy right now, only 30s of running and 5 min of walking for about an hour. It works up pretty quickly though so I’m not complaining.
After having not run for a few months my feet are still getting used to running on real cement and not a treadmill. I’ve been weight and cardio training for about 6 month now in my Vibram Five Fingers (VFF) but running is still hard on my feet.
After day three yesterday the bottoms of the balls of my feet are bruised again. I think my form is a bit off, maybe I’m coming down too much on my forefoot and not enough on my midfoot. Also, walking fast for me is actually harder than running in the VFF, call me weird. I actually had to switch into my regular shoes yesterday to walk home after we finished running my feet hurt so bad.
We have a few rest days now and then we’ll be back at it doing longer intervals. I’ll keep everyone posted how it goes.
Goals Update
I wanted to writeup a quick blurb on how my short and long term goals are faring. Entering into June I have a goal at the end of the month to be at 275 pounds. Obviously that’s a little over 10 pounds away which will mean that I’m going to need to drop 2.5 pounds per week over the next 4 weeks. Totally doable but certainly a significant challenge. I’m obviously going to keep the goal since I know I can do it but I’m going to have to be spot on this month.
I’m a little behind on my birthday goal of reaching 250 pounds. Nothing to cause me to cancel it but having a few weeks of slow to no losses if putting the goal seriously at jeopardy. Depending on now the June goal goes I may adjust my birthday goal.
How are your goals going for the summer?
I’ve been working really hard the past year and a half. My weight has gradually went down and I’m now sitting in the mid 280’s after being 390 pounds in January of last year. It’s kinda crazy looking at old photos on my AppleTV when we’re playing with the kids. We like to have it up showing photos and maybe playing music instead of having TV shows on all the time.
Anyhow, when I look at the old photos as they scroll by I’m struck with just how big I was. I look in the mirror or windows of passing buildings now and almost always do a double take because I look so different. I’m actually thin … well maybe not thin but I’m certainly a lot thinner than before. Unfortunately as I was reminded the other day I’m actually still quite fat.
It was one of those moments that instantly tears down your self image. I was riding my bike from my house to the local bike shop (LBS). It was about to start raining and my wife was meeting me there as I was dropping my bike off for the annual tuning (I have some unreachable high gears and no skills to fix it myself). We were planning on walking the kids and bike but the rain threw a kink in our plans.
Anyhow, I was flying along and coming up on an intersection with a 2-way stop but my direction had no stop and was clearly right of way. Some guy flys up to the stop from the mother direction, breaks, clearly sees me and then jerks forward, breaks again, and then guns it causing me to have to slam on the breaks else I crash into him. I was flabbergasted … he obviously saw me otherwise he wouldn’t have paused but why the heck did he gun it?
Anyhow, I holler “Nice Breaking!” at which point he flicks me off. Really? This was somehow my fault that he doesn’t know how to drive or follow the rules of the road? We then exchange some loud choice words (all while I’m still moving away) at which point he yells “Keep peddling tubby“.
Now I know this was all in anger but it shows people true perception of me as still being fat. I never thought of myself a being thin, more being thinner than I was. I’ve had a lot of people tell me I look great but this is the first time in a year and a half someone has called me a fat name.
It made me feel about two inches tall and very angry. Had he stopped his car I’m certain there would have been an altercation. More because of my bruised self ego than it being worth the trouble. In hindsight I know he was dumb and his insult was him acknowledging his mistake and grasping for something to insult me over.
I know I should have just moved on instead of yelling but all of the hindsight in the world doesn’t make me feel any better at someone still viewing me with a FAT label. I see that I’m not thin but I’ve come so far … I’m not quitting or anything and I didn’t binge but I still feel crappy and angry and self conscious again about myself in the mirror.
The first thing I did as I pulled up in front of the LBS was look in the window at my reflection. Was I that fat still? When will I have this damn fat stigma and label removed? It’s so frustrating and blows my mind, the whole situation and his reactions during it.
I’m just ranting now … sorry.
Have you had a similar thing happen to you on your journey? How did you handle it?
It’s been a few weeks since I last weighed in. As I said yesterday, I was on vacation for a while and didn’t eat perfectly. Let’s get on to the weigh-in to see the damage:
Previous Weight — 287.8 lbs
Current Weight — 288.4 lbs
Change In Weight — +0.6 lbs
That’s a gain of a little over half a pound … I’ll take it and move on. I wasn’t expecting a loss this week, especially given that I took 9 days off from tracking or watching like a hawk what I ate. I knew it was mostly a water weight gain but it was still a gain. It’s certainly a testament to circuit training that I was able to drop 3.4 lbs of water weight in 2 x 20 min circuit training workouts and 1 x 40 min weight training workout. I would have done more but I’ve been kinda time constrained lately.
My goals for this coming week is a really clean food week with lots of exercise. At least one workout session per day and if I can fit two then even better. Usually when I do two it means a long walk with the family or maybe a bike ride with my daughter in the trailer. I also want to make sure that the holiday weekend doesn’t blow up into anything more than a nice opportunity for some healthy BBQ’ing.
Do you have some holiday weekend goals?
My First Interview
If you’ve been reading me for a while you know I’ve posted a few times on my use of Lose It to track my food and exercise. Heck I even wrote up a detailed review that was picked up on twitter and the Lose It facebook page.
It turns out that the creator of the awesome Lose It iPhone application recently signed a book deal to turn Lose It into a book. I know it sounds weird but Lose It is about the tracking and usage of the dietary and exercise information combined with the creating of the community more than it’s about the application itself.
Anyhow, as a result of my success with their application and because they saw my review they asked it I’d be interested in an interview to possibly be included in the book. You can guess what I said … YES!
This was my first interview by anyone about my weight-loss so I was very excited. It was about an hour long and was the first with maybe more to come in the future. I pretty much just told them my story from start to finish focusing on the last 18 months using Lose It and how I lost the weight. We discussed details of what I ate, how I worked out, when, and other things like motivation and community support. It was a lot of fun to talk about and I can only hope I didn’t blabber on or mumble too much (I tend to mumble when I talk fast and get excited about something).
Wish me luck, I hope they include my story. Have you ever had an interview about your successes or journey in health & fitness?
Vacation is over and it’s time to return to my normally scheduled programming. No, I didn’t fall off the face of the earth and rumors of my disappearance are complete folly. I was off last week taking some time with the family around the house.
I had initially planned to workout hardcore and eat perfectly last week. Unfortunately I didn’t do either, at least to the degree I’d initially planned. No, I didn’t fall off the wagon completely … instead I took the week off to relax and unwind with the family. This translated into eating well for most of the day excluding usually dinner and maybe a snack. I also managed to get a workout in almost every day including a trip to the gym, a few 1 hour bike rides, and a few runs with our new running stroller.
All in all I felt pretty good with the weeks decisions. I did overindulge a few times but it certainly didn’t explode into all out food overdose. I was up ~4 pounds of water to 292 and this morning I was down to 289 after some killer circuit training and clean eating. Most of that gain can be attributed to two bad meals over the break (yes, I still weighed in daily) so overall I feel like I balanced things fairly well.
I don’t know if I’m going to weigh-in this week but I will track my weight to ensure I’m back on track and moving in the right direction. I guess I should weigh-in to be honest … though it’s not like I’m trying to hide my gain or anything. A data point is a data point so I might as well I guess. Flip flopped in the same paragraph … lol.
Thanks for all of my Lost It friends that sent me messages asking if I was ok. It always feels good knowing there are people out there watching my back. I probably should have posted something more on my blog but I didn’t, sorry about that.
Healthy Living Summit
I don’t know if it was fate or pure luck but I happened to check twitter last week about 30 minutes after the tickets for the Healthy Living Summit (HLS) went on sale. The site was reporting that they had already sold out but after tweeting back and forth a bit with some folks I just tried a few more times and was able to get a ticket. So lucky me will be attending the HLS in August in my local Chicago.
I’m particularly stoked about HLS because it’s so close to my goal weight date of my birthday at the end of August. I think it’d be awesome to meet a ton of the bloggers whom I read regularly and who provide so much daily inspiration and motivation. Reaching my huge goal combined with meeting everyone would just be a ton of fun and very exciting.
About the only thing I’m a bit nervous about is that apparently there are only going to be like half a dozen males in attendance at HLS. That’s like 4% of the attendees, yikes … talk about minority. I knew that health and lifestyle blogging was female dominated but I guess I figured more males would signup for a conference in Chicago. I was wrong … I’ll just have to represent my peeps well <insert-male-gang-sign/>
How was your weekend?
After a lot of research and trying a bunch strollers at the stores we finally pulled the trigger on the BOB Revolution Duallie Stroller on Wednesday and it arrived on Saturday. I’m always amazed when Amazon says 5-9 days delivery and it show up in 2 days, be weary of paying for shipping if you qualify for super saver free shipping.
Of course it was sitting on the porch awaiting our return after a long walk with the kids, bummer. No biggie though, we took it out for it’s inaugural run bright and early this morning with the kids. Here was the path we took:
We did some simple intervals and started getting our feet ready for some dedicated running. For me it was also time spent getting my feet used to running in my Vibram Five Fingers again. My feet felt pretty good and I might have been able to go a bit further but I was starting to feel it in the ball of my foot. I tried to stay focused on form, landing, and tempo which really helped.
Here’s a fun shot of me and the kids with the new stroller. As you can see we opted for the red stroller instead of the blue one. The blue stroller was like a two month wait and to be honest the red/orange one is much safer in the early morning light and will be cooler on hot days.
Overall we really like the new stroller a lot. The unpacking was really easy and other than unfolding it all we had to do is attach the three wheels which took all of 2 minutes … easy peazy!
It moves like butter and almost didn’t feel like it was even present when we were running. Since we didn’t run that fast we didn’t need to lock the front wheel but I can tell that once we get our pace up it’ll be nice having the locking wheel to control direction.
After we run more I’ll post more information but I was very excited about sharing our impression the first weekend.
It’s Finally Official
To round out the great weekend running news we officially signed up for our first race. We’re running the 5.7 mile Mackinac Island Great Turtle Run on October 23. I know I’ve mentioned it before but the registration was closed for a while due to trail usage disputes (according to the organizer). I checked again tonight though and saw it was open so we jumped in and registered. Now on to the training!
Did you have any fitness fun this weekend?
I’m sure everyone in the fitness blogging or tweeting world has heard of P90X and Beachbody. Heck anyone who’s turned on the TV after 11:00pm or before 9:00am and channel surfed a bit has seen their endless infomercials. It’s advertised as the “Extreme Home Fitness”. I’m also certain that if you’ve ever been interested in trying it out and shared said interest on say Twitter you were immediately inundated with Beachbody coaches trying to not only sell the programs but get you to signup under them. It’s pyramid guerrilla marketing as only the fitness community can do.
First and foremost I want to say up front that I’m not a Beachbody (BB) coach though I did almost sign up to be one. I almost got caught up in the hype and I hadn’t even bought anything yet. It’s kinda like Amway in it’s addicting potential.
All you have to do is make all of your friends & family ridiculously uncomfortable guilting them into buying your wares and then transform your blog into an infomercial device to sell the BB products. Top that off with an endless back-patting verbal splattering on Twitter and other social networks like Facebook and you’d be rich in weeks … right?
Well maybe you don’t have to do all of those things but it certainly felt like that was what a number of the coaches were prescribing. I had no less than 7 of them telling me my website was already perfect to sell the products and all I had to do was add links to my store and it would fly off the e-shelves. When I’d ask them any minor details about my site or me they knew nothing. When I asked them details about the BB workout programs they were selling few knew anything other than how awesome they were. When I asked them about the shakes and how they compared to Myoplex or FullStrength I got nothing.
How can someone possibly think they’d know what I should use my blog for if they don’t even know where I’ve been and how I got there? Why would I suggest a workout program, or a shake for that matter, if I haven’t used them for some extended time period myself and actually seen a benefit above what I already do? It’s just crazy to me their perspective and approach to selling all things BB.
The last thing I want to do on my blog is endlessly pitch or sell something to all my users, especially if I’ve never used it. Do I have links to Amazon for things I use like DVD’s or equipment, yes of course. It’s one thing to suggest things that I 100% know have worked well for me and quite another to turn my site into a BB marketing war zone for something I’ve never even tried.
My site is about my journey to a fitter and healthier me. It’s about what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, what’s working, what isn’t, the challenges, joys, and sorrows of my journey. It’s not a commercial, it’s just me communicating via the written word my turbulent journey.
If I were to try a BB program, which I am planning to do as I want to try P90X because I love circuit training and it does look solid, I would post about my personal usage of it from the perspective of a heavy guy trying to keep up and get healthy. I’d post what worked, what didn’t, and anything that might help other overweight people be better prepared for it if they chose to try it. You might have already seen similar informative postings from Tyson and Amy Mac. Like them, I won’t convert into a commercial to drive sales and create followers to grow the BB pyramid bigger. Instead I’d do it to share whether the program worked for me, not because I wanted to sell more programs for BB.
To all of the BB coaches who spam Twitter or the web or maybe think I’m just wrong, if you really want to make a difference (and not just sales) I challenge you. I challenge you to actually add to the community, create something new and interesting and then share it. Don’t just tweet about a sale, a new diamond tier follower, a free shake, the latest marketing promotion, or tag lines to get new people in your pyramid. Actually add to the fitness conversation and create something new and original.
Maybe you share your journey to becoming fit and healthy? Maybe you actually post something critical and informative about the lessons you’ve learned with the programs your selling. You have actually used them all right? I don’t care what you do just be original and add value instead of noise.
In an already confusing health and fitness market the last thing we need is more marketing hype and people shoving the wrong solution down peoples throat as a one size fits all answer. If your not a part of the community solution then you are the problem.
Definition of community — a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists
Have you or others you know had similar experiences with Beachbody or other fitness programs / trainers?
I was sitting here wondering what I want to write about today and then I realized that I haven’t shared my recent good news with everyone on my site. I mentioned it in passing on twitter but not here.
Here it is … I’m an anomaly when it comes to careers, there I said it. Now your probably wondering what that means. Well that’s all I’m saying … just kidding. On to the long drawn out story, sorry it’s how I roll … grab a coffee and take a peek into my weird thought processes.
Job != Dissatisfaction
I grew up in a household where we were reminded almost daily how much our parents hated their jobs. Every single day, in one form or another, we were reminded of this. Sighs, yelling, anger, or just the statement “I hate my *%#@ job” were normal communications and gestures of hello.
When your young you wonder why they’re doing it if they hate it so much? Why not change jobs? As you get older your realize it’s hard to pick a job, keep a good family balance, pay bills, find security, etc so you want to make sure you pick the right major early and find the job that fits because you never want to have your kids see you dreading every single day.
Why would you want to hate your job? Why would anyone want their kids to be reminded of that hate every day?
It’s because of this that I vowed to never hate my job and if I ever did I’d change it. Whether that change was working to improve it, transferring internally, or finding a new job I will always strive for job satisfaction and balance. No I’m not crazy and yes I realize that all jobs have their moments of pain and anguish, it is a job after all. There is a difference though between hate and short term pain.
What I want from a career
For me a career (not a job) is about working with smart people, being challenged, challenging others, and feeling like my knowledge and expertise are appreciated and supported. Finding a job that has all those things can be maddening and for me I’ve changed jobs 8 times including working for myself twice in my 12 years since graduation.
Here’s an interesting thing I’ve noticed about my career timeline, you can almost exactly correlate my ups and downs in weight to my job changes and associated amounts of stress that said jobs introduced. It never fails that historically some kind of external stimuli / stressor caused something in my already fragile lifestyle change to fall apart and I’d resort to not working out or eating right. As you might imagine a good work / life balance is on my list of career must haves now.
On with the news
So with all of that out of the way what is my news? As you’ve likely already deduced I’m changing jobs, hopefully for the last time. I’ve been consulting the past 6 months and while it’s paid work I don’t find it rewarding nor is it what I’d call stable. I’ve been looking for the right job for a while now and it had to have all of my prerequisites especially the work / life balance. There’s no way I can succeed at this new lifestyle if I’m constantly fighting a battle of stress and balance at work.
Well I think I’ve found that company and I’m starting there in two weeks. I’m taking a week in between jobs to relax with the family before jumping right back in but I’m excited and really hopeful for the opportunities that have been presented to me there. The people, the environment, the challenges, and the balance all appear to be present. Wish me luck!
Do you love or hate your job? Does it hurt or help your healthy lifestyle?
