I take requests

In an email chain going a little further into my 80/20/10 theory Paul says..

"This would make an excellent blog post"

Here it is. ;)




Here is the exact spot I started thinking about the 80/20/10 theory.

I sat for 20 min on this clearing and talked myself into acceptance with stopping here and turning around. The summit bid takes a dramatic turn for the most difficult portion of the climb right here and I "knew" it was going to be "impossible" for me to make it. After a long spell of thinking I came to realize this exact spot is a place I've been a thousand times in my life. It is so easy for me to outperform the bottom 80% it shouldn't even be fair to them.

You could put me on an island with 100 random people and give us all a task and bet you last dollar on the fact that I (at any point in my life) will finish in the top 20%. Easy money bet.

But that day was different I somehow became aware of the idea of how much of a relative cop out it is for me to always stop here. Like I said it's very easy for me so in a way I've done a lot of things that were ironically "equal" even the bottom 10%...they were not trying very hard either. :(

Not sure if it was the elevation or other factors but I slowly decided I could not stop here. I didn't really think going on would result in making the summit I just had to go further for further sake. I just really didn't want to be 80% guy anymore...I was getting pissed off to be honest, and not about this climb but past endeavors that I should have probably done better at. I had accepted besting 80% and giving myself a little high five all too often. I could have stopped at that clearing knowing that the story of climbing to 13,000 feet would be enough to get that normal 20% spot I was used to. Even the rare 10% of people I would meet up with would not be enough to bother me because I could still take comfort in performing better than most. That day I decided to just go further....that's all just further.

One thing led to another and I made the summit.

I'll say this much, and it's the most important thing I took from the entire experience:

I did believe in the clearing that me making the summit from there on that day was impossible. I was sure of that and accepted it as fact. An hour or 2 later I was looking down at the previously "impossible". That is the moment where something changed for me watching myself do the impossible. Had I thought I might be able to do it I could not have accomplished the same thing.

I believed it was impossible for me and then I did it anyway. Maybe is was all the senses working that amplified it and literally standing on top of it was more than symbolic.

So there it is...the start of my 80/20/10 theory.

14ers are not the thing of course it could have been anything, it was just my thing. 14ers are not EPIC events...it was just epic for me at that point in time. It's all relative.

New gym membership

Monthly dues: $0.00
Crowds: None
Equipment/ machines available: The "stair climber" is always open.
Parking available: Tons..it's in a parking garage (free parking).

I read that the best training simulation one Denali expedition crew uses is climbing flights of stairs. Above is a pic of where I will be spending many hours between now and next summers 14er climb. :) I've only made two trips to the stairs so far but in those short sessions it's obvious that I should have climbed a few thousand flights before my last 14er...under training was a serious mistake I made (won't make it again). I suffered more than I had to getting up.

I'm going into my next climb 20X's more prepared than I was for Handies. I will take the lessons learned/mistakes made and make the corrections necessary to take my climbing to the next level. When I step onto the trail head next time I'll have the satisfaction of knowing I'm prepared and that the glitches I'm aware of will have answers at the ready.

By the way if you haven't climbed 20, 30+ flights of real stairs lately, maybe go see what it feels like.;)

Paid with pork chops

Not exactly, it was more like a tip/gift but a customer gave me these pork chops yesterday from part of a MASSIVE pork chop cook off they were having. I tasted them but couldn't really dig into them at that time. No worries...around my house somebody will always be ready to eat and the chops found a happy home in no time. :)

Training is going well and I will be making a % bump up next week. I'm getting a lot stronger however the effort isn't. I'm starting to realize it's coming back to the mental side of things. The early stages are so much more mental than physical as you are developing new habits and learning to deal with the types of changes that can serve you for the rest of your life... Doing something like a 6 week cabbage soup diet is mentally easy...(probably physically hard with hunger, sickness, weakness, etc..)but it's a no brainer. You just follow the directions and you're done.

Re-learning how to eat in a healthy/clean way involves mental work on the first level of figuring it out as well as another less talked about level of changing your habits. Food is another addiction and you can't simply replace ice cream with carrot sticks for a "presto chango" instant healthy lifestyle makeover. There are some deep discussions you have to have with yourself.

I am finding the same thing with exercise/training. It does not get easier when you get stronger (for me anyway). It's about the mental aspect and I don't have the words for it yet. Words like acceptance don't work because they sound too much like a grieving process... I think what is happening is like other habits/rituals. At some point you stop thinking about the why or how and this is something you just do because "it's what you do". The notion of it getting physically easier when I got stronger/lighter/faster is turning out to be like youthful daydreaming or wishful thinking. It aint getting any easier and I know the further I go the harder it gets every time I take the next step. The mental joke is looking out a year ahead and calculating the increases.....uhmm yeah. ;O

I was reading a story about a rock climber who climbed a route called Magic Mushroom in 24 hours. The story details the climb but it goes in depth on the type of work this guy had to put in to pull it off. It goes over the exhaustive prep work and pre-climbing of sections he did. A team climb (as a test run of the route), his next failed attempt at it, and finally his successful run. They gave a lot of detail on the work it took and it was very time consuming and supremely difficult. These are the types of things people do that live in the upper 10%. When you make up your mind to get closer to the top 10% you have to realize what demands the universe is going to put on you to get there.

I've got a long thought process that goes over the bottom 80%, the top 20%, 10% theory that I've been working on I'll save for another day but the gist of it is this:

Getting the the top 20% of an endeavor is something I have found very easy to do in life. It doesn't matter what it is. The reason is that 80% of people are easily bested with near minimal effort. Most people don't like to admit it but they are pathetically minimalistic when it comes to doing things. They will do the absolute minimum allowable by the universe around them. The ABSOLUTE minimum. In many cases like a job or something if you just show up on time with a willingness to try/do/learn you will be outperforming people straight away.

I discovered at an early age that I could rise above most people in most endeavors by applying slightly more effort than them. With a little hustle I have always been able to become part of the upper 20% in the category. This elevated state was enough for me to feel a slight sense of accomplished. The problem with all of that is when you break it down I am still doing what the bottom 80% do.. slightly more, a little more effort...and stopping right there at the threshold of "better than".

The upper 10% are much different!

They seem to be operating amongst/against themselves. Slightly more and a little better do not enter into their thought processes. They are after the most, the best, the biggest. This difference in perspective shoots them far out above the 10% below them and into a different galaxy from the bottom 80%. These people are perceived as insane often because...well they are literally operating in a different world most of the time. This 10% world does not operate and revolve around the things most people take for granted as "normal" or the way things work.

Anyway...I'm rambling on, My point is easier is not something I see ahead of me from where I am now. I've traveled a fair way from back there to here, I see there is a longer trail ahead of me, and I notice some big hills ahead on the trail.....it's going to take more effort than before to get over those hills. I think over the horizon there are even bigger hills:

Bottom 80% would not have made it this far.

Top 20% would get over the next series of hills to get a big enough lead over the others to claim a victory and stop there with a comfortable lead.

Top 10% are looking forward to seeing what the trail will offer over the biggest hill they can see far off in the distance....what will be next after that? The are not looking where they are in relation to the 80% or even the 10% below them because nobody else but the top 10% are still in the game at this point. All they have is themselves and each other to high five over the next hill.


I've been a 20%er most of my life but I've got my eyes on the back of the 10%ers heads on the trail in front of me....I think I might be able to catch up to them if I keep at it. They are having all the fun up there.

67 is the new 50

Keep on rockin' in the free world Dominick!

9 mile style

Very good first half of the week...

I got in all my scheduled training and exchanged my basic core workout routine with the patented Staylor's Stability Sphere Success System aka 5S.

I had also been planning on some extra credit work today for my pre Thanksgiving workout and it worked out nicely.

The set up is this: In training for Handies I understood that it was going to be an 8 mile hike but for training I was doing a 4.5 mile hike.....sound stupid yet? :( To make it worse I was not wearing a pack in training and would need to carry a 17# pack on the climb. My reasoning was that I understood two things.

1)Half of 8 is 4...I trained the 4 miles to get up.
2)My desire to make it back home would assure me that making the second 4 was a given.

I gave no thought to the Pack other than I needed it and was going to carry it.

Well, in retrospect I under trained for Handies and determination accounts for a good 75% of my success there. One of the lessons I learned was that I didn't want to repeat the mistakes I made there because mistakes = pain on the mountain. My next route looks like it will be 7 miles with an 18# pack so rest assured I will train a minimum of 10 miles with a 25# pack long before I step foot on my next 14er.

Today was my first run of that type of training and I got up early and did 9 miles with a 15# pack. I would have carried 20#'s today but the pack I was using is insufficient for it. In addition to just hiking it I used liquid nutrition on the walk as well as follow up protein post workout. I'm working to make sure my nutrition is better for my next climb than it was last time. It turns out I suffered a lot more on the mountain than I needed to if I'd only taken the time to add a few scoops of powder into a few water bottles and done a bit more planning.....I'm working on that.

A successful week

I met my goals for this week and cutting down the Ross by 50% I am very happy to say was effective. I'm doing the same thing next week with an eye towards making the first increase in Dec. and getting the full program early next year.

I had a strange moment walking in a Lowes parking lot a few days ago when it hit me that I was going to make my end goal sometime next year. When I say it hit me I mean that it was a significant feeling. There is still a lot of work ahead of me, and a lifetimes worth on the other side but....

I'm going to reach my weight loss goal sometime next year.


It felt strange to realize that it's getting closer to a reality than just a "goal".


In addition to my main routine I got a chance to do a test run for a backpack hike I'm going to to on Thursday AM (more details later) to dig a small caloric hole that the T-day feast is going to go into. :) I also got a chance for a core workout with my buddy Shaun It was eyeopening, challenging, and fun at the same time. Shaun is a competitive (successfully competitive) athlete, a coach, very knowledgeable guy, but most importantly :) he is a top level Barista in a VERY exclusive little bistro called Cafe'de Staylor. You'd be hard pressed to find better coffee within 1000 miles or more but then again you'd be hard pressed to find this place as well. (sucks for you).

It was a good week and I'm happy with how it all went down. The only "bad" part was that my Tuesday conditioning workout almost killed me. My back was destroyed for 3 full days and it's not even 100% now. I am hoping that when it comes back around next week I'll be in a better place for the workload. It caused me to stay off the kayak this week and that was a bummer but I made a judgment call that overtraining/injury wasn't worth the risk to get out this week and took a pass and It was HARD to do on Fri for sure because I wound up with several hours free when the weather was perfect...damn that was hard but having tweaked things already and needing to nurse them back, I know it was the right call. :(

More in a few days....

Last bit of Handies

I guess it was 2 months ago that I climbed Handies and today I lost my last external physical reminder of the event....my big toe nail. I was thinking that I'd keep the thing after the first month and that the black would eventually grow out. Not the case, the entire shebang fell off today. Not sure what I'll do now. I've grown used to looking at my jet black big toe everyday and remembering how it got there. The next 14er is still approx 10 months away. :(

At least I have Rosstraining to perform attempted murder on me because my lower back is killing me right now. I know for sure I'm on the right track based on the sheer pain of it all. I had reached a point of stability in my weight loss that I could just feel was going to be permanent (set point)if everything stayed the same. I think my body had adapted to the level of exercise and diet I was putting in and had grown comfortable in that spot. Sensing that I decided to move into a much tougher training schedule and make sure my nutrition is together. My goal is to jot something down every few days now until I have successfully gotten everything back on track.

I think it's important to say that this part is hard. Harder than the initial weight loss. It's a challenge to get started and mentally tough to stay the course when results are slow to show up but the initial phase is easier than what comes next.

I don't know what the final stage(s)look like yet but I feel like I've definitely entered phase II. The things that brought me 50#'s of weight loss, vastly improved fitness, and all my previous results are not enough anymore to continue onward. Phase II requires you keep all of that and add MORE. I want to keep a record of all of this to remember, be accountable, and possibly share it if it can help anybody else. Bottom line: it gets harder along the way....not sure what comes next but it's war right now.

I'll get back to doing weekly weigh ins soon but for now it's not important. It's become a small detail lost in the big picture. The things you do now, next week, this month...those are going to shape next year. The individual #'s are very important (and won't go untracked) but now isn't the time to look too closely at it. As a measuring tool sure, but the focus and attention has to be on something to bring longer term success right now or else you can wind up doing something stupid just to make temporary gains (losses). Not worth it! My weight isn't dropping right now and I know that but the ass kicking structures I'm building right now are going to resolve that issue. ;)

Bigger water shorter sets

The weather was perfect this weekend so I took the opportunity to get the kayak out in some bigger water. I got over to Telfair and it was sweet! Instead of the 6 min trip across my neighborhood lake Telfair took me 35min out and 45min back. Not only do I get over an hour on the water it's a cooler trip. There is tons of wildlife out there with ducks, several kinds of cranes, turtles, and whatnot. I learned that for now 80 min of continuous paddling is enough to toast my arms. :)

My goal this week was to break down my Rosstraining into small enough chunks that I can manage it. I decided on a full 50% reduction in the beginning program for a week and then gradual builds up to the full program. I cut 50% because I'm determined to be doing the full program in 2009 and it's really hard for me. I felt like 50% was realistic enough that if i don't do it it's not because I "can't". I pretty much forced my own hand here.

Yesterday was strength training and at 50% it was not all that hard. I can do it for a week and bump it up without much trouble. Today was conditioning and core. I still have to do core but I'll be doing my full core routine and it will be fine. I just did conditioning at 50% and this is my weakness.....it is extremely difficult. I managed the 50% mark but it was a little woozy. I'll be able to go at 50% on this but it's hard and might take me 2-3 weeks to start bumping this part up.

So......report is so far so good on my goal for RT. I'm going to get there....more in a couple of days.

Harder than hard

I wanted to be posting all bout how great my Rosstraining was going....

It's harder than that...it's not going so great.

In a way I feel bad but in another way I feel encouraged because I have a plan now. Next week I'm going to break down the beg R.T. program in as small of chunks as necessary for me to complete. I'm going to build on that (no matter how small it is) and I'm going to build up to the full routines even if it kills me.

This plan is fool proof because either I'll make the goal or I will be dead and weighing only 21 grams should make completing the exercises a LOT easier. :)

I'm going into a tunnel now RossTraining or die!!

Updates to follow shortly......I hope. :o

Time for massive action

What an crazy time since my last post.

My buddy Shaun gave me the short notice challenge last week that went something like this "Dude what are you doing day after tomorrow because I have 2 plane tickets to Chicago and 2 tickets to UFC 90 burning a hole in my pocket....what's up"?

We ended up doing a whirlwind 24 hour trip that jammed about 4 "normal people" days into one outlandish adventure. Damn that was fun! :) It deserves it's own post with pictures so I'll get something together later this week about the madness that was our Chicago UFC adventure.

On the fitness front: Things are (and have been) fairly static lately...too static for sure and something started making itself known as soon as the shadow of Chicago was in the airplanes rear view mirror. This thing has been looming for some time now and as it started to make it's presence require attention one of those cosmic signs happened and then it was all over. The time has come to get back to where I started with the RossTraining. I was not in good enough shape when I started to make a fair go of it but that was then and this is now. I know it's going to be VERY hard and there has been a certain amount of dragging my feet leading up to this but here it is.

IT'S ON!

With only 2 months left in this year I am fired up to make these last 8 weeks count. I'm going to throw everything I have into the rest of this year for a bunch of reasons. One reason is just that I owe it to the year. I've accomplished a lot in 2008 and I can't let it ease out without finishing strong. I expect to have significantly increased blogging the next 8 weeks as well because there is much to go over and I want to document this phase to look back on later.

More to follow soon......

Kayak

Sometimes things work out the way they are supposed to....

Part of loosing weight is avoiding excess or "empty" calories. Of course life isn't about eating brown rice and broccoli 3X's per day so you shouldn't' get crazy militant about it if you do things like occasionally drink a beer or 2.

That being said when you have a capable all grain home brewery in your house, and always have beers and various styles on tap and in bottles within easy reach..(Like I used to have available) it's a conflict of interest. It has been nagging at me for a while now but my beloved hobby of brewing beer just doesn't fit into the lifestyle changes I'm making right now. It might be several years until I'll be in a position to handle having that much beer accessibility and I really needed to let it go for now. Instead of a passive hobby that gives me excess calories I really needed an active hobby to burn some calories...get out there and mix it up a little.

The idea to sell/trade my brewing gear for a kayak started forming and after some acceptance and grieving process of giving up my brew gear I know it was the right having to do for several reasons. A short while later a deal was hatched and off I went to pick up a kayak. I did tons of research and for my first kayak I decided on the yak board ocean kayak. I had 45 spare min yesterday so I decided to go grab my new toy at Academy...things did not go well. I wound up wasting 30 min with those clowns and despite my telling them clearly "I'm in a hurry but will buy one of these kayaks right now if you can tell me how to do it"....3 different employees trying to figure out what to do...eventually a guy tells me I am going to have to fill out an aquatic license paperwork of something but I could just throw away the registration papers when they mailed them to me, it should only take 10 min, blah, blah, blah,.. I walked out disgusted with how hard it is to buy things sometimes.

Having only 10min left I went into Gander Mountain and found the first salesman in the boat dept. I pretty much ran up to him and said "I have 10 min to spare and $300 to spend. I want an entry level sit on top kayak that I can just try out to see if I even like kayaks before I get something more expensive, can you help me?"

12 min. later I was driving away with my new kayak and 45 min after that I was in the water. :)

Today I took it out for the first real test. I spent an hour on the water this morning. The weather was perfect and after 20 min or so I realized I stumbled upon the absolute perfect kayak for what I wanted. There are some significant disadvantages to getting an entry level kayak like this and those deficiencies work directly to my advantage. For one this little 8'er is tippy....if feels WAY tippy when you first get in it. Excellent! It's a freaking core workout just to keep from dumping your ass in the water. HA! In reality it isn't that bad. It "feels" like you are going to topple over but I've leaned into it at a lot of angles and dug in pretty deep....it has not dumped me yet. I think having to balance it is a bonus for me. It tracks poorly (does not stay pointing were you want to go very easily) Perfect! This causes me to work harder to get where I want to go.

My goal was to get some exercise, upper body, and be active.

Because this kayak is so small it's a snap to transport to the water. I've had it out twice in the last two days and it's not a production at all. I can be in the water in under 15 min of just deciding I feel like it. This ease of use is vitally important. If I had to load up for half an hour and drive 30 min each way I'd probably be able to get it out 1-2 times per month. Now I can go out as often as I want.

If I'd have had time to research this kayak I never would have chosen it. It's only because I was aggravated and in a hurry that I just grabbed it. I think it's perfect for my needs and goals at this time.

I'm half tempted to start answering people differently when they ask..

"So what do you do?"

I climb mountains and kayak. ;)

Monday weigh in

Weight today 220.

I held on at 220 this week and at this point I'm used to that. It only starts to bug me after 3 weeks of holding because I am convinced that things are changing the scale does not see. First off I know how I feel and I also can see things like my forearms or ankles...I can tell that progress goes on that does not show up as a lost # on the scale (that can be measured in 7 days).

21 days is a different story and to me signifies either that I am slacking off or I have reached a new mile marker that requires more effort to get results.

For the virtual fight at 205 idea.....

It was a fun idea but it's not going to work for several reasons. :(

What I can say is that I got to a gym with my buddy Shaun and he showed me some Mui Thai techniques that were eye opening. I have never seen how to throw a Mui Thai leg kick properly. I had also never been hit with one....it hurts. :) Due to some introspective thinking I've decided that I really do want to get in a gym and learn various fighting styles I have not seen before and possibly get some instruction but my reasons are a lot different than I thought they were. I am not looking for the healthy competition in that arena..... I just like hitting things and learning how to hit them harder/smarter than the average Joe. Just how terribly rusty you get after taking about 20 years off of martial arts was brutally obvious in the first 10 seconds of hitting the bag. I don't like being that rusty and "unprepared" those are the reasons I'll pursue something to remedy that not because I want to test my skills and go for a trophy, ribbon , or patch. I used to hate that back in the day and only wanted to train and spar. Tests, competitions, breaking demos....I hate that stuff.

Anyway it's Monday and work is calling me. Booo work. -:

Monday weigh in

Jumped on the scale today.....

Weight today: 220

Loss to date: -50#'s

There is something mentally satisfying about crossing each new 10# increment and the 50# mark feels pretty good. It feels like a significant number to me at this point. I'm weird I guess but having lost 50 feels more substantial to me than the 2#'s more then 48 it actually is if that makes any sense. It's a nice solid number that looks big....it feels big enough for me to acknowledge it to myself.

My next intermediate goal is to "make weight" for an imaginary fight at 205.

My plan is over the next few days to go pick a UFC fighter at 205 and build a pretend fight with him where eventually I will set the date, start watching tape on him and train for the fight. I might even take a few private BJJ lessons or boxing lessons to add to the fun and "reality" of it all. The next 20#'s will be like a game.

Anyway, 220#'s today.... 50#'s down and my first 14er done and successfully marked on my peak list. Next target of 205 is coming online swiftly and my next 14er as well as some flatter but easily accessible weekend hikes are in the works. Production level is is good right now. ;)

False summit

Here is a very short vid I found of the last portions of some people climbing Handies. These guys are from http://www.neverbad.com and they are climbing all the 14ers and posting up on each of them.

It's the only representation I have found that shows the steepness of this section. I looked at a lot of pictures before climbing and most of it looked like a fairly gentle slope. I was surprised to see it for real because even the first 100 steps off the trail head (that are drastically more gentle than the reach for the summit) are much steeper than pictures would have you believe. For some reason grade/elevation does not translate well in pictures.

This vid gives and idea but even it is deceptive. The real tell is the guys voice when he says the words "steep" and "false summit". :) it's a real kick in the ass to gain the false summit BTW. You know for sure you will make it at that point because it's only 100 yards away but there is something cruel but appropriate about the mountain getting in an extra smack upside your head right at the end...ha ha, silly mountains.




http://www.neverbad.com/14er/2008/handies/tom/false%20summit.wmv

Handies Peak

Here are some initial pics of our Colorado trip. It was an incredible trip filled with fun, food, beer, and views.

I gained 1# that will be gone within 24 hours.

No problem considering the food porn I'm about to post......

Back to normally scheduled programing next Monday and more details of the climb to follow once I am done processing what happened. :) I need to gather my thoughts on the 14er but for now here is a hint of what it our last week looked like.

Closing in

The date for the 14er is closing in. As things get closer I'm not sure where my head is going to be at and I may/may not update until I get back on the 20th.

What I can say is that my weight today was 223 so I do expect to make my goal of 222 by Monday but like I said I'm not sure if I will update or not because it's getting to "all things 14er" pretty quick.

Example: today I had a job cancel and found some free time. I wound up getting a lap in at a local park pictured above so I could try out my shoes on some different conditions like pebbles, larger rock, grass/dirt.. My normal walk is on super smooth sidewalks so it was a good chance to see how they feel. They feel awesome. :) I had read a negative review of Merrell and sometimes that one negative review sticks in your mind. So far from the second I put these shoes on in the store to breaking them in and today's tests on various surfaces my feeling is that these shoes are a truly outstanding value. If I go on to take on more 14ers in the future I'm not sure how fantastic a shoe is going to have to be for me to buy it (and the mountain will be the real test of course) but I'm very happy with this product so far.

I actually have 5 major things running in the back of my mind right now that I want to explore but I feel the mental dial moving to 14er 24/7 and I just can't get into any of it right now.

We leave on the 14th and come back on the 20th with climb day on the 16th.

I am more than ready to get at it and report back about the journey ASAP.

Anybody who happens to read this hope for good weather for me on the 16th because all I really need at this point is good weather. ;)

Be back soon......

wek 28

I had a flat week this time and am holding at 224#.

There were some factors like beer an pizza on my B-day so I am fine with 224 this week..next week is a differnt story and I am targeting 222#'s for week 29. :)

Week 27 weigh in

Weight today 224

Weight loss to date 46#'s

Current avg -1.70#'s per week.

I feel re-focused now and am really glad my laziness over the last few weeks didn't hurt me too much. It hurt my rate of progress for sure but I'm back with it now.

I'm feeling great and am only a few weeks away from climbing my first 14er. A goal that was for some distant "one of these days" back when I set it but now it's really, really real and close at hand. I'm jazzed for it and am starting to feel like I used to feel before going on stage. It's anxious energy and I just want to get to it NOW. Waiting is going to get harder by the day...

Week 26 back on it!

After several weeks of static limbo I'm ready to get back to business.

I had several weeks of loosing focus of my goals but didn't suffer any sort of "falling off the wagon" or anything I just went into a lazy phase.

My laziness was rewarded with zero progress towards my goal. :(

Week 26 weight in...

Weight: 226
Weight loss to date: 44#'s.

Monday is the next week weigh in and I am geared up to be back on track.

Coffee Break

Last call
Originally uploaded by waxteeth

I've run into a break on blogging my weight loss.

I have NOT been eating Moonpies and milkshakes or gaining weight. I did gain a pound as I mentioned last time and that bummed me out because the week after that I held STRONG on that one pound gain and the scale did not move for 7 days straight (not even in the tenths of pounds).

I will be back to regularly scheduled programing soon but life had a way of distracting me and I let it......I'm not sure if it's a god thing to just take a mental break or if it is weakness to let myself do it but either way the break is almost over. ;)

Carezza shot - test

Carezza shot
Originally uploaded by waxteeth

This is just a test post to see how pushing a pic from flickr directly to the blog works. One day I might figure out how to work basic technology. :)

Week 23 weigh in

This is the strangest weigh in so far.

Over the last week I have noticed that my "smaller" pants are getting loose (so I'm going to have to move down a size again). I'm feeling lighter on my feet, and I'm having more frequent bursts of energy where I feel REALLY strong.

And the scale today says I have gained one pound. :O

GAINED a pound....

It's strange and I don't know what is going on but there it is:

Weight today 227
Total lost 43#'s
Net +/- from last week +1 pound.

This is the first time in 23 weeks I've gained weight. I'm not sure what to think because I'm pretty sure that I must be doing some body recomposition because my pants are getting so loose and I feel lighter.....

??

If I gain another pound next week I'll probably spin off into a panic mode or something and turn to drastic measures but for now I'm going to just try and observe it, make sure my nutrition is on track and everything else is going like it should and see what next week brings.

weird.

Babysitting Brutus II

When one coffee fanatic leaves another coffee fanatic to feed the dog while he is on vacation....what do you think happens to his coffee gear while he is gone?


The answer is obvious isn't it....It's getting used! :) :)








Now for some pics of an iced drink just because...

Week 22 weigh in

Weight today 226

Weight lost to date 44#'s

I've settled in to loosing 1# per week now and I'm undecided on how I feel about that. On one hand I know I could step up my efforts at this point and speed my weight loss but on the other I am currently eating/exercising in a form that I can live with forever and am still improving my health/loosing weight just slowly.

I'm not sure yet......

What I don't know is if I will hit a wall somewhere and then it will be required of me to re-double my efforts so I guess in the back of my mind I'm holding back for that time because it's going to be necessary at some point.

The only downside to not amping it up right now is time. If I changed nothing and my progress remained steady I would not reach my goal until 6/09. If I amp it up I can get there faster but I'm not sure how much faster.

In typing this out I already feel lazy for not jumping on it because I "know" I can do more so I guess I just made a real time decision while writing this sentence that it's time to take it up a notch right now.

The next few weeks will show if I can get off the 1# per week trend and back into the 2+ range for a while and start bringing that goal date closer in....

Week 21 weigh in

Weight ?

Weight loss to date ?

Funny story, I forgot to weigh in this week...

I had a pretty big workload at the end of last week and I had to put all my attention on getting the jobs done that needed to get done. It wasn't until I was standing in a bikeshop with my buddy Shaun looking at bike trainers that I even knew it.

We were looking at different models of bike trainers and Shaun asks "so what do you weigh right now"? I said..."huh, .....that's a good question, I have no idea" and that is when I realized I had forgotten I was even loosing weight. I had no concept in that moment of what I weighed because I have weighed so many different things over the last few months.

It might have been the first time in 20 years that I had no sort of weight awareness just being in my skin. It was cool and surreal.

Anyway, I forgot to weigh in and now that I've missed it I'm just going to let it ride one week and make sure to make the Friday weigh in.

Iced AeroPress coffee

Just a few pics of Todays afternoon Iced coffee.

A nice smooth Brazil that went down good over ice on a hot 4th of July weekend. :)

20th week weigh in

20th week.

Weight 228

Weight loss to date 42#'s

I don't even need a calculator to to the average this time it's 2 & 1/20th #'s per week. :)

I'm good with that average and happy with my results here at week 20. I suppose if you would have asked me on day one how much weight I would have lost at this point I'd have said 50#'s figuring I'd loose 10#'s per month. But I would not have accounted for weeks where I only loose 1# or even weeks where I don't loose any weight but can tell my body is re-adjusting. Now that I've done that enough times I feel like it's important. it's something my body wants to do for whatever reason and I just continue doing my thing....a few days later the scale starts moving again and I think it's probably healthy.

Quick notes about loosing this first 40#'s in case anybody ever reads this blog for ideas..

So far I have not deprived myself of food to the point of going hungry for any length of time. I do get hungry but when I do I eat asap. I eat 4-5 times a day and might even have a small snack or 2 depending on the day. My past weight loss experiments that involved going hungry for hours on end and using will powered deprivation are FAR behind me.

It's mainly a mental game. The absolute hardest part for me so far was getting used to the pace of progress. Now that I have 20 weeks behind me it's a breeze but weeks like 8, 12....you are months in and those 2#'s per week seem so small. Your brain tries to tell you "nothing is happening". It's difficult at first to accept the pace . I think the reason is that in order to get yourself ready to loose a lot of weight you almost have to do the equivalent of throwing something super heavy with somebody when you say "ok on 3...1....2.....Three!" and it requires you to get some swings going first for the momentum or else you could never throw it. In weigh loss it's like you are getting up that momentum and say "1,2...Three!" but once you get to 3 you have to hold it out there for a few months before you can let go.

You do not get to see real time results based on immediate actions.

You have to find ways to mentally deal with that and accept it.

Work today pays off tomorrow and work tomorrow pays off next week and you need to keep on working next month for it to pay of next year....I sometimes ask myself if I want to be in shape for Thanksgiving 2010 or not just to think out into the future and keep the right perspective.

Enough for week 20 but I do want to say that my post for what diet am I on part 1 turned into more of a rant than I intended. I think it's because as I get further away from it and look back at myself and food...the relationship we had I get really pissed off. I'm mad at myself, food marketers, the food itself, but mostly myself. I'll get back into it on part 2 but the gist of it as whenever I think about the gimmick diet I get very aggravated. Instead of directing that aggravation into a general rant maybe I can figure out how to use that energy in a better way.....we shall see.

Week 20 42#'s down Very cool!

Houston we have chin ups

It took over two weeks and about 80 "at bar"s but I can now do one rep chin-up sets.

As soon as I did the first one I took 30 seconds rest and repeated with 3 more sets of one. Niccccccce!

Not sure if it was only a physical barrier or if some of it was mental because as soon as I went over the bar I "knew" I could do more. It wasn't a smooth pull either, I got stuck in the normal spot of just 2" shy but instead of doing my slow decline I added a second pull and toped the bar. The next reps were smoother pulls.

This was sort of a hard fought victory to be honest getting to the 1 chin up club and it might make most people laugh but my foot is in the door now baby....let's see if it's laughable in 60 days. ;)

Cool, after about 20 years I can do chin ups again....

What diet am I on? (part 1)

With 40#'s weight loss now people have started asking me (every 24-48 hours) "What diet are you on".

This is becoming a problem because 1)I don't have a prepared answer for them. 2)They are not prepared to hear the real answer. The answer is a lot easier to say than explain so I've got to figure out how to come up with a concise explanation that works.

The simple truth is the oldest diet philosophy in the world sums up my "diet":

Eat healthy foods and get some exercise.

Yesterday I tried to give those exact words as my diet and it didn't work at all. :
There is such a powerful marketing force in out food industry that it clouds people's judgment and confuses them against what they already know. We know that broccoli is more healthy than lean pockets. They have created zillions of things like lean pockets, Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches, and weight watchers Pizza that people buy into as healthy food. Making an ice cream sandwich with less fat and sugar in it does not make it the nutritional equivalent of brown rice.

So healthy foods do not mean (alternative versions of unhealthy foods that have reduced fat, sugar, or are now made with fortified whole grains) healthy foods are real foods that are healthy PERIOD. Somebody said if your great grandma would not know how it grew/was raised don't eat it. There is no Lean pocket tree. It's an oversimplification but that is the idea.

Good clean healthy real foods are what I try to eat as often as possible. It's the absolute most important thing I've found that you have to get into your mind. Shift away from fake, processed, engineered diet foods. Shift away from obviously unhealthy foods and move towards as much good clean healthy food as you can eat and do that 99% of the time. If that is all I did I'm sure that (it would be slower) but I'm sure weight loss would be inevitable.

That is weight loss....fat loss...very nice but that is only part of it and health/fitness is the next part.

We could loose lots of weight/fat on the cabbage soup diet or the Diet Coke diet I'm sure but it will not be healthy.

To be healthy we need....and here comes the next million year old idea:

We need a healthy balanced diet that provides all the nutrients required to sustain good health. We need vitamins, minerals, carbs, protein, fats, and all the other tiny things it takes to run the machine. We can get really skinny on the all white Rice diet or the Micheal Beal diet of one apple and one can of tuna per day but just like it did him we are going to pay a price for doing that to ourselves.

How exactly to divvy up those individual food items is too complicated to say right now other than more age old wisdom a "healthy balanced diet".

I do eat plenty of meat...I wold like to eat less someday but I like this quote from Micheal Pollan:

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

So that is the part 1 just to lay it out. In part 2 I'm going to try and make a short answer that explains the above in a way that people will accept. People strongly want to believe that there is a new whiz bang package diet program or product that will make them loose weight easily without having to..

Eat healthy foods and get some exercise. :(

to be continued...

19th week weigh in

Weight today 231

Total weight loss to date 39#'s

I've started averaging 1# loss per week lately and if that holds for next week I'll have lost 40#'s in 20 weeks for a flat average of 2#'s per week.

Slow and relatively steady has been the trend so far.

I think it's cool that in July I'll be in the 220's. That's not something you normally hear people say but if earlier this year they weighed 270 and it's just now mid year then the perspective is different. The idea that I'll be around 210 and possibly looking at the 200-single digits for Thanksgiving this year is pretty outstanding actually. That will put me at ~70#'s weight loss inside a calender year that did not even start in January. Not bad.

There that was my mental check but there is another side....

I'm not feeling as mentally "changed" as I'd like to.

I'm really trying to feel more like my body has changed to and is changing towards, more healthy, fit and in shape. I feel it physically...I'm getting stronger everyday. That isn't an issue but I'm finding that my mental self image does not mirror the scale. When you loose 20#'s it does not auto-transfer to the brain and make the correction.

I think I'm going to have to collect some "proofs of improved fitness" to the game as evidence for my brain to evaluate when it provides my self image.

Hmmm, Angie was telling me yesterday about the closest 14ers to Durango Co. and we are planning on riding that Durango Silverton RR in a few months.....I think it's time to put the research and planning to my 14er project......

18th week weigh in

Weight today 232

Total weight loss to date 38#'s

I should see the 220's and a 40+# weight loss for 4th of July weekend. Sweet!

The hardest part of this for me remains to be the mental game. Developing patience and accepting weeks without weight loss, or working very hard for minimal progress can be frustrating but that's the way it goes.

It's hard to keep "defocusing" on the time line you WANT and accept that the realistic time line to loose a significant amount of weight is much longer than you would like it to be....a year, a year and a half, two years....? Could be. ;)

The thing I keep trying to remember is that a year or two goes by anyway and I'm also going to want to be fit then. The race to loose weight fast is a mental trap and unless you have impending serious health risks that require it, averaging that 1-2#'s per week with intermittent periods of no weight loss is what experts suggest to be the best approach. It's hard to deal with because we all want instant results and particularly if we are working hard we want to get "paid" NOW!

Even at a pace of 5#'s per month that is 60#'s weight loss in a year...100#'s in a little over 1.5.

It's a mental battle but we have to fight it to avoid the pitfalls that await with quick weight loss gimmicks, tricks, and unhealthy schemes that only offer temporary results at best.

Chin ups are hard!

I got a chinning bar and (as I expected) can not do 1 pull up.

I've been working at it for a few days now and can get the bar just below my eyes...I can do 2 eye ups. :)

I'm working at that and controlled declines, I bet I will be able to do 2-3 chin ups in about a week or so. Slow and steady right?

The good news is that I'm building up quite a nice home gym with the various dumbbells, kettlebell, bar, sandbag, TRX knock off, swiss ball...I've got several options beyond all the bodyweight stuff, yoga and other workout dvd's, before I even touch my full Olympic weight set and bench. Not too shabby.

Next is some sort of cardio machine like a tread mill, elliptical, or what Angie wants a tread climber, (pretty much a combo of a treadmill and elliptical). Until then I have plenty of low tech cardio options that are kicking my butt on a regular basis anyway.

I expect to have dropped some weight on Friday's weigh in and I'm feeling really good....strong....no complaints right now.

Kettlebell

I have not had this overpriced hunk of iron long enough to know it's full potential but straight away it seems to be a very nice addition to a workout toolkit.

When I first saw kettlebells and swings I thought it was just idiots using horrible form doing useless swinging. I can get an 80# dumbbell and use poor form to swing it up into something that looks like a curl but so what? I was misunderstanding what the swing is all about. It works your back, trunk,...cardio...it's sort of a beast to be honest. I had fashioned a makeshift kettlebell that was "OK" but the real thing is of course better and I'm glad my buddy Shaun goaded me into buying it. :) The thing is that these marketing guys know when they have a hot product and I know that in 2 years these things should cost 50% less than they do now. Oh well, waiting for the price to go down $20-$30 isn't really worth it for all the workouts I would not be able to do while waiting.

Damn supply and demand... I picked this thing up when it was still in the shipping crate (they had to enter it into their system before they could turn around and sell it to me), the guy told me they sell them about as fast as they can order more.

I have not ventured into the more complicated lifts as the cornerstone basic swing is enough to keep me busy for a while.

More on the kettlebell will follow I'm sure... ;)

17th week weigh in

This week held at 234.

No weight loss....ask me if I care.

I don't.

I've had enough weeks now to know that this happens and that I am doing my thing so there is nothing else to be done right now. If it turns to a trend I'll know it's time to change something up but for now everything is as it should be.

My nutrition is solid and my exercise is solid, I'm fine with a static week.

I'll post up tomorrow on my new toy an official kettlebell. :)

16th weigh in

Week 16

Weight 234

Total weight loss to date 36# avg loss of 2.25#'s per week.

Cool!

This pushes me over the hump of the high 230's and sets the 220's right in my line of sight. It's really exciting to me that I'll be weighing 220 something soon after weighing 270+ just a few months ago...man it's a trip.

What is really wild is how at some point I am going to drop below 200 and weigh in the 100's. Not having a 2 in front of my weight will be like going back in time to when I was 21 years old.

My mood is good right now because my food and exercise are pretty much in check at this time. What I have now is pretty much second nature to me at this point so I'm happy to continue on monitoring my progress and make any needed adjustments whenever they might be needed. But for now I'm sort of set on autopilot.

234....I don't see any reason I will not be at/below 230 for 4th of July and be able to represent 40#'s of fat loss at that time. If I make 237.5 it will be 45#'s or 50% of my total goal....if that does not happen by the 4th it's still going to happen in July and the 50% mark will be a super cool milestone.


John F

2 35's

Today's daily weigh in was 235. I have ironically lost exactly 35#'s at the 235 mark making 2(35)'s.

Trippy. :)

15th week weigh in

Weight today 236

Total weight loss to date 34#'s

I'm happy with the week. The 1# does not tell the tale of the work I've done this week and this is probably one of my favorite pounds that I've lost so far. I'm doing some very structured workouts right now that incorporate good ratios of strength training, cardio, and recovery time. It's an improvement over my personal "scattered" approach so I'm learning how to put some structure in where it was badly needed.

Little by little I am picking up small tools, learning new things, getting bits of equipment...slowly everything is changing in my life to gear it towards the direction of health and fitness being the normal "day to day" and not the old way where eating healthy, exercising, or activity based things where a diversion or departure from the norm.

At this almost 35# mark I am starting to get a few comments from people now saying they can tell I've lost weight. I figure by August/Sept. it's going to be strange running into people I have not seen in a while. It's one thing to see me having lost 35#'s but if it's 50#'s I expect that I'm going to look a lot different in the face and all...that is going to be sort of odd.

Anyway, mood is good, I'm feeling really good, plenty of pep, sleep is relatively above average, strength is increasing...things from old school diets like food cravings, hunger pains, that deprived feeling, feeling fatigued or exhausted with the menu...all of that stuff if non existent for me and mostly because my focus is on being healthy, fit, and living an active lifestyle NOT simply loosing weight.

It's been a good week for me. :)

Cool vid

Here is a cool youtube vid. I think it could apply to almost anything you want it to but....well, just watch it.

Moving the weigh in day...

A bit of housecleaning......

I joined an online weight loss group and everything they do is based on Fridays so I'm moving the weigh in days to Friday starting with the one that was going to be tomorrow.

I'll give more info on the group, why i joined it, and what it's all about after 2-3 weeks of membership just to make sure it's going to work out (like I hope it does).

Also, I'm going to test a weight loss ticker below here to see if it works.






Cool, it works! So I'll be able to update that whiz bang ticker every Friday with the weigh in as well starting next week but the above is the my actual up to date ticker.

14th Monday weigh in

I forgot to post the 14th Monday weigh in....

No matter because the few days before it tell the tale :(

The good news is that the scale is moving now and I expect a good report for the 15th weigh in. Not sure where I will be on Monday but I just did a quick look by today's #'s and and I am still slightly out pacing the 2#'s per week measure.

As I am getting into the mid 230's now I am already bored with them and have my eye on the 220's.. Hahahah.. But seriously I do expect a good report in a few days and am glad to have broken the slump.

The hammer didn't help..

Man....this is tough.

I have put in some serious effort lately and have started making small caloric shifts, working different exercises, amping everything up....

Zero movement on the scale.

It is mentally taxing.

The only saving grace is that I am starting to get a couple comments that I've lost weight now and I am starting to feel that I am in a different size category. I just feel smaller, so I'm sure that results are happening they are just not translating to the scale at this moment.

It's frustrating because I really want to get that 50% by 4th of July and with another potential zero weight loss this week it's getting ugly...

All I can do right now is step back, look at it and take another approach next week...what else is there? The eventual goal is not even a question for me, I am positive that I'll make it it's the question of time and what sorts of unknown adjustments I'm going to have to make between here and there that cause the frustration. I seriously hoped that I'd get to 238 for tomorrows weigh in (and it's not impossible I suppose) but zero scale movement day after day after day with increased effort is a pure pain in the ass. :(

The only good thing I can see is that once I break this thing and later on get into an even longer/harder slump I can come back here and read these posts and realize that whatever efforts I make here eventually paid off. Realistically there is no way that this journey is over now and that the 29#'s is all I am ever going to loose....the rest of it is coming off, I'm not confused about that I'm just mad because of the lack of cooperation here that my body is taking sides with the fat instead of "me" and doing what I want right now.... I'm going to have to have a talk with it....

Hammer dropped

I put some serious work in today because I have got to get moving into the 230's.

I give it anytime between now and 48 hours but I have got to break that 30# mark and start working down the 230's asap if I have any hope of making my 4th of July goal so I decided to make a move at it today.

I'm pretty much going to go on overdrive until I hit 238....will report back soon.

13th Monday weigh in

No weight loss this week still 241#'s.

I'm not as nervous this time to stall as I was last time because I know it will work out over the next 7-14 days.

I've started looking out to the 4th of July as a goal and would like to see how close I can get to 227 for that weekend.

227 represents 50% of my target weight loss. It would be best for me to make the date a few weeks later but we normally have a family get together and I'd like to make the 50% by then if I can. Up until now I have been going slow and easy...other than developing patience that does seem like the best way to go but this goal might push me to amp things up a bit. I'll try to get reports up here every 1-3 days as it might be valuable to record this phase of things.

I think when I get about 80% in it's also going to get really interesting (as in very difficult) and there will be more to document. This first 30% has been sort of uneventful and boring. It's been a real mental drag to be honest because very out of shape people can't simply do everything...I learned that early on with the Burpee intervals and the jumprope work...You have to ease into it and there is nothing cool/fun about easing into things. I like to cannonball in because it's fun. Can't do that here because of injuries...damn injures.

Anyway, blogging will go up for for a while to document operation 50%.

12th Monday weigh in

Current weight....

241

Total loss to date 29#s

Things are going along fine right now and there is not much to report at this time... I'd say in this initial phase of weight loss it's really simple in that all you have to do is 1) keep watching to make sure you are eating as clean as possible. I've learned that you can eat "healthy" but it isn't really as healthy or clean as it could be. Trying to stay with the best choices is something you have to stay on top of or else you can wind up slightly off track pretty easily.

2) Do some exercise almost every day.

Getting some exercise has been easy for me...too easy in fact to be able to stick to a specific program and I am all over the map with rosstraining, TRX, walking, core work, tabata protocol, kettlebell, sandbag...etc..I desperately want to get a heavy bag and set up my weights to where I can get full use of them.

There is no shortage of things I am doing and want to do so that is fun but progress is easy to be had right now in the initial phases here and a lot more structure is going to have to happen down the road.

So yet again the classic things are proving out for me.

Eat right
Exercise
Average 2#'s of weight loss per week

So far I can not find anything at all wrong with those standards.

11th Monday weigh in

I was all set to have a no loss week and stay at 245 when I stepped on the scale this am to see...

243

Total loss to date 27#'s. :)

Not too bad and I am overall happy with my diet and exercise. I keep finding ways that I can improve both but am still getting results at these levels so it's encouraging.

But I have been thinking about changing my attitude about loosing X pounds in a specific time frame because I'm not sure it's the best way to look at it. There have been times that I did not loose weight for X time and then suddenly drop a couple few #'s. I'm sure it's not a one day thing and that the efforts put in on those days that do not show any weight loss are very important to the day the scale does move. I've got no idea what other benchmarks to use and the idea has to be to keep the scale moving downward....it's just not as simple as saying 2#'s per week. It does average out like 2-3 but there is something unhealthy about feeling bad when you don't loose any weight one week however (everything is fine in that moment..the efforts are "working" just not showing up right then).

As always it's more to think about but the good news for today is that everything is still going according to plan and onward I go....

Monday weigh in

I thought this might be the day and it is....

First 25#'s down.

Weight today 245.

It's strange in a lot of ways because it feels like a lot and it feels like nothing. It was hard and yet it was easy....It's just a strange thing for a few reasons.

The main thing is that it is a good thing. I am 25#'s lighter and there just isn't any downside to that at all. I think this next 25 is going to be the dramatic part where I start to look a lot different. Maybe I just carried that weight as a super thin layer all over because even loosing 25 I don't look in the mirror and see it right now. That is a little mental jab to think you should see some visible results but this is a long game.... It's only the first quarter and I am up 14-0 so there is nothing at all "wrong" here it's just that weight loss on a big scale is so much harder than just the actions of eating right and exercising.

By the way I have decided that the simplicity of some things must be what confuses us because sometimes it is that simple...this is one of them.

1) Eat right
2) Exercise
3) see above

So it is pretty easy to figure out and after you change your mindset about food the "diet" portion is even fairly easy but what nobody tells you is what goes on inside you head all this time. I have yet to go back and read any of the diet books I've owned to see but I'm pretty sure now that unless the authors of those books were super fat at one time they are probably not able to get across this internal piece of the puzzle. And I'm not talking about willpower, cheating, or anything like that..the food part is really not that hard. :)

I'm probably going to get into this later because I feel like it's very important yet it's not something I hear very much about or see portrayed on the various diet reality shows or wherever. They focus on willpower and food almost exclusively...BL goes heavy on the exercise with personal trainers 4 hours per day...but the internal mental game....I don't see anybody dealing with that.

Anyway......

25 down is pretty freaking cool and it is very strange to be looking at that scale and see 245 where 270+ used to be just a number of weeks ago....220 is going to be all the more cooler. :)

This 4th of July BBQ I will be wearing smaller shirts.. It's going to be fun to stop paying the extra $2 for "extended size" shirts. I have been in XXL for a long time now. This BBQ season I will be sporting the less expensive and leaner XL. :) ;)

Espresso

I love good espresso.

On most days I stop by to see my buddy Shaun and we talk about a wide variety of zany topics and I watch as he pours some 4oz drinks with superior quality coffee like the above pic.

There is no other point of this post other than to give props to Shaun for this pour and many others like it, good coffee, convo with your friends and all in all some of the good things in life while it was on my mind. :)

I love good coffee.

AM walk

I had some time today to grab a quick 30 min. cardio with a walk around the lake.

If I move someday this will be the one thing I really miss about this place. I can step out and walk 3 min to the park and grab a walk around the lake. It's really nice and if I had a decent camera or could take pictures it would probably show more.

So I put on my hi tech hiking socks and sport specific hiking shoes (because I have become an urban assault nerd) :(

I geared up and hit the trail... and by trail I mean to say HOA maintained 6' wide level concrete walking path.

The weather was super nice and cool for this time of year and the sun was full. I saw a bluejay digging around in the grass, and a few ducks wandering around...the normal park/lake stuff. But then I spotted an 80 year old dude doing tai chi he looked pretty cool if you ask me. As I made the loop I see the same old guy doing pull ups on the monkey bars. I made him my hero for the day.

I think I'm going to google up tai chi now.

9th Monday weigh in

This was a tough week.

Because of the stall last week I mixed up my exercise and amped it up a bit. I made some adjustments and went to work.....

I did move the scale but it was the recognized "healthy weight loss" of 2# per week.

Weight for the 9th Monday 249.

This 2# was the hardest to loose so far.

Now I'm pretty sure my body has adapted to the new diet/exercise routine and is trying to compensate. This makes things much harder. :(

I even put in an extended work out by doing a 4.75 mile walk that took 1.5 hours.

Last week I thought I could have done more (we can always do more) but this week I feel like I put in enough effort that I should have lost 3-4#'s. I think sticking with it long enough is going to cause a correction. I think my body might prefer to keep things static but I have other plans.

The current 2 week trend now is that it's going to be a lot harder to move the scale so for next week the exercise goes up another click. My diet is pretty good. I will keep looking at it but it is pretty good.

Anyway 2 hard earned pounds this week....

2 is not exciting but it is another 2 down and not 2 up, so now it's time to get at week 10.

Plateau busted

The Plateau didn't last long and the scale has started to slowly respond.

What's in my mind now is that I lost a week towards the next goal and I'm not sure just yet how I'm going to make up for that.

It's a bit of a problem where I didn't want to panic about a temporary stall but now I don't want to miss my goal or do anything wacky in order to make it either....

Not sure what I'll do next but if I wait for 1-2 weigh ins it might auto-correct.

Looking back on it I really should have done more Mid week last week when I saw what was happening. I had to make some adjustments in my exercise program and I was just too slow to implement those changes.....sucks!

So, I guess the next 2 weigh ins will tell the tale because I have ground to make up.

On the larger scale it's insignificant but mentally it's a challenge if the progress stops and goals get questionable...it's a problem. If these things continue of get worse/last longer it's going to get even harder and I'm going to have to make some adjustments and hard decisions.

For today I'm glad that the Plateau is busted but it's something I'm going to have to think about before it happens again.

8th Monday weigh in

Rats! Plateau week. :(

Nothing to report.....

In the back of my mind I knew that a time would come when my body would adapt and I would have to step it up, I was just hoping it would be months away.

It might be that or something else but either way the lesson I learned is that I should have done something sooner in the week to avoid this. So I have no excuses I could have done more to try and change things up so that is the plan for next week.

It's a real drag not to have made any weight loss this week but now there is a new week in front of me to manage and I'm going to focus on that so the next weigh in will go better.

I picked up a pedometer that I'm going to start using today so I expect to make a mid week post on that as well as if I can break the plateau before the next weigh in but other than that it's a bleah sort of post for now.

Holding on to 251 :)

7th Monday weigh in

7th Monday weigh in a 1st mini goal update.

251 (-19# to date)
45% body water.

I'm going to stop measuring body fat% for now until I loose some more weight. What I want to do is get down a bit and go to a Dr. and have them measure it. Actually I want a full blood panel done as well but I'm going to hold off until I think I've made enough improvements to make it worth checking.

I could have went in and done it 7 weeks ago but it's probably better that I don't know what my blood levels were... :(

My first mini goal date is tomorrow and the goal was to loose 10# on 04/01/08. I am at -19 now so by tomorrow I should be somewhere between -19 and -20 doubling my goal. Sweet! My first instinct was to increase my goal for next month but that does not seem like the right thing to do.

I am averaging weight loss of 2.7# 's per week. It's too close to the well established 2# per week for me to get carried away and make myself a goal that might not work out. I'm going to go conservative (normal) for my next goal and stay with 2#'s per week and shoot for this.

2nd mini gaol:
Get down to 240# on 05/01/08
Continuing my exercise program and keeping my body water at 44-45% or more.
This way I ensure weight loss is fat loss and not water/muscle.

Progress! Pretty cool.

Things are going good and I think to celebrate my 20# weight loss I'm going to buy a chin up bar. My old brain might say losing 20 should be cause to celebrate with a "cheat day". This day I want a chin up bar a lot more than a cheat day to get an idea of what my mindset is like right now.

1st healthy BBQ

I had my first crack at doing something a little healthier on the grill today.

What would have been bad ass burgers and fries last year was kick ass chicken burgers and steamed broccoli today. :)

I was wondering if the ground chicken was going to hold up because it was a lot different consistency than beef but it held on and kept together long enough to make the flip and get on to the fresh wheat buns from Whole Foods. I made them like any other burgers (with my secret spices) only thing I did different was use some Sriracha on the cooked burger along with mustard...nix on the mayo and catchup. These chicken burgers turned out better than I expected and I'll have no problem making them again as the BBQ season gets into full swing.

I think there will be more of these burgers, grilled salmon, chicken, and who knows what else but we do a lot of grilling so more healthy options are going to be tested soon.

But back to the sriracha...man do I ever love this stuff! I had never tried it until a month ago but not that I've tried it I find that it seems to make everything taste better. From eggs to chicken burgers to pasta....delicious. I wish back in the day when I believed you had to eat diet industry gimmick foods to be healthy that I know about this stuff. I bet it would make the blandest plastic tray "meal" taste pretty good. It is really good stuff.

My left calf is dead from my jump rope experiment and forcing me to do more recovery that I wish I was doing. It's sad but pacing myself is VERY difficult because I want to do more... now not take it slow and steady. I am going to try and do core and some upper body work on my TRX knock off the JHF. :) in order to give the leg another day.

The TRX (and JHF) are suspension training devices that you anchor in a doorway and then use the handles to perform some pretty serious bodyweight exercises. I'll post a picture of my homemade version as well as a link to the official TRX website.

My version:



The real deal:

http://www.fitnessanywhere.com/index.php


It is an awesome piece of equipment!

7th Monday weigh in will be in about 12 hours.......

Child's play

So I just skipped rope for the first time in a few decades.

I thought I would do 100 loops, 3 sets for 300 loops total.

Hahahahaha!

It went like this:

1st set 75 loops.
2nd set 25

Fine 200 more loops to go right? Hahahahaha!

3rd set 42 loops (oops this is way hard)
4th set 33 loops (oh boy, cardio is dead) :(
5th set 25 loops

How about stopping at 200 loops for now?

Yeah that seems like the right thing to do.

Jump ropes are evil tools.....to be continued....

Bumped the conditioning

I already bumped up the conditioning routine I posted Monday.

I'm doing the same thing but 6 sets.

It gives me 18 min. active and 5 min rest but it isn't really "rest". I do the min. drills with a LOT of intensity and need to rest periods just to survive. :)

It's a freaking hard workout!

I'll do 6 sets like this for a few weeks and them I'm going to change up exercises. I think I'll add one exercise at that time and drop back down to 5 sets.

The exercise is really doing a lot for my energy I can say for sure. There have been a few times now in mid day when my food has been particularly good I am feeling really strong. It's pretty strange to just be walking and feeling a lot stronger when you are not even doing anything but that is what's going on.

For the record I think this is a marker I'd like to make:

6 weeks into eating healthy and exercising and I am sure that I feel a difference. I felt the first rush of something 2-3 weeks in of just eating clean food, I think this was like detox of the junk and a new influx of good food/fuel. About 4 weeks in and I could tell I was getting stronger...but 6 weeks seems to be a mile marker to me as a point where I can say for sure everything is starting to work. I am closing in on 20#'s and that is going to be great but I can't know yet if this improved feeling is going to double when I get to 40 or what is going to happen.

Still the hardest thing for me to deal with is the time...waiting.

This is a slow paced situation and there is mental effort involved in keeping it together.I'm not interested in eating unhealthy or stopping exercise it's just really hard to loose weight slowly over months like this and most likely over a year.

One way to look at is would be that I am on target.... Loosing weight steadily, diet is good, exercise is on track so just set the cruise control and enjoy the ride to the end goal sometime in 2009.

That would be good if I could override the part of my brain that is screaming for faster results but I can't. It's just a continuous effort to keep reminding myself by using logic that "everything is as it should be".

It's tough, but it should be.