Mar 31, 2013

First Blank Week

Blanked
Well, looks like I just had my first blank week. Didn't get to the gym at all last week. Just forgot on the normal day and never made it up. So that's no good. I think I did mostly ok on the food / snack front though. Not great, but better than the week before, so that's got to count for something. I did do a longer than normal walk with Steph and Sam in her wagon yesterday. Forgot to hit record at the beginning, so don't know how long it was in total. Important part was the weather was beautiful and we all had fun. And something is always better than nothing.

I'm looking to step it up this week to two times. The first will be in the gym. Depending on the weather and schedule this week, I may try and do an outside run. I'm ok on the elliptical, but I want to get a reading on where I stand on regular feet-to-the-pavement running. That way I have a better feel of how far I need to go to get 5K ready.

In addition, I'm toying with the possibility of running a half marathon in January. And not just any half, the Disney Half Marathon. That is the one I have said I want to someday run. My wife brought up the idea, because I'd have someone to do it with, our friend (her friend from back home) Dave. This way, I'd have someone to help keep me motivated in training. Plus, having a set date gives me a timeframe to stick to. Couple that with it being my 30th birthday in January, and you have a built in excuse for going, because I wanted to go somewhere / do something special, so Disney always works (we're both huge Disney fans). I say toying with because I have to 100% convince myself I can do it. I know I have enough time to do it, I just need to believe in myself more than I traditionally do. So, I'm going to start looking into plans / training regiments to get me ready. I need to do my research to prepare mentally. There's a running shop actually right near the house, so I'm sure I can get some advice there and can invest in a really good pair of shoes when I start getting to longer distances. I do know that much is important. And then, if I keep myself working out and get in better shape, that will help with the confidence. That, and the support I know at least my wife will give me on the way. She's good like that.

Mar 26, 2013

Gym: Day 2

I'm back filling some gym posts right now. I want to try and write them the day of, but, since I had the idea after I already had gone to the gym and I don't have a Delorean, I'm writing this now. My second day at the gym was Wednesday, March 20.

Elliptical

Running Shoes
Not my actual running shoes.
My second day at the gym had some nice improvement. I ran on an elliptical again. I took a better pace this time around, which really helped. I didn't jump fast at the beginning, but did take a pretty quick pace overall, comparatively. I ran farther in barely more time. So I'm happy with that. I actually was going to go for longer, but the back of my leg got a little tight, so I didn't want to push it too much and mess up this early on in working out.

Stats

Time: 33 mins
Distance: 4.5 miles
Average Speed: 8.2 mph

Gym: Day 1

I'm back filling some gym posts right now. I want to try and write them the day of, but, since I had the idea after I already had gone to the gym and I don't have a TARDIS, I'm writing this now. My first day at the gym was Wednesday, March 13.

Elliptical

Running Shoes
Not my actual running shoes.
My first day back at the gym went pretty well. I ran on an elliptical. I took too fast of a pace early, which tired me out pretty early. I listened to some music on Spotify that I found from some running / workout cds. I need to download some of it so I don't need to always stream it, especially since there's no wifi in the gym. Afterwards, I was tired, but a good tired. 

Stats

Time: 31 mins
Distance: 3.5 miles
Average Speed: 6.8 mph

Mar 24, 2013

Checkpoints and the Road to Get There

I want to get in shape. That much should be evident. But could I be a little broader in what I want to do? Well, I could try, but how useful would that be?

Plan of Action

Grass... tasty AND healthy.
I recently started a new job. My new workplace has a gym on site. So I'm starting there. I've gone to the gym once a week the past 2 weeks. I plan to start picking it up to twice a week and one from there. Currently, I'm just doing cardio (running on an elliptical machine). Eventually, I may add in a little lifting, we'll see where it takes me. I'm starting with just running in the gym, but will work to some running outside, in the real world, with people and crap. I'd like to try and do that at least once a week. After I get into a routine of going to the gym and working out, I'll see about modifying the plan, but for now, we'll just run and run and run some more, because it has worked well for me in the past.

Oh yeah, I'll also work to eat healthier. That should be a given. I'm going to work to cut back / out the chocolate. I'm going to try and keep doing my salads every lunch with fat free dressings. My wife and I are getting back to cooking more. I want to get to back to making some more new recipes, and pick only healthy ones (of course). That way the variety will help with the healthy eating. That's the hardest part I have with eating healthy, is if it gets to be the same thing all the time, I get bored with it and don't want to eat it. Thats why my salad with lunch every day needs some variety. Otherwise I look at the salad and go, "Hmm, what could I have instead?"

I'm going to start trying to use some tools as well. I'm a geek, so I have to try and leverage some gadgets and apps. Right now I'm starting with tracking on Endomondo. I haven't looked too in depth to it yet. As of right now, I'm just inputing my workouts into it. If you want to find me on there, you can search for John Wickee. I'm not sure if you can friend or what, but it's there. I plan on tracking with Google's My Tracks at first. I know Endomondo can track as well, but I want to play with the Google one and I can import the GPS information into Endomondo later anyway. I need to get some music. I found a couple of random CDs on Spotify for working out and running, mixed to particular bpms that I may try and grab digitally, but I am open to any suggestions. For the food portion, I'm not using anything right now to track or what not. I've done WeightWatchers before. It worked well. It had a mobile app that was good for tracking purposes. However, It got to a point the last time I was using it that I wasn't tracking regularly. At the time, I was looking to cut some money budget-wise, so if I wasn't using it, there was no point in paying for it. Right now I'm going to just try and eat well without tracking, but may look for some free apps as well as a possibility.

Long Term Goals

Sure, it may make sense to start with the short term goals, but I won't. The reason is they're not really my goal. i can't be satisfied just with accomplishing them. My long term goals are really where I want to get. The short term goals are really just more of checkpoints to help me get there. 

So, for the long term, what do I want? My first goal is to run a half marathon. I know it won't be easy, but that's why I picked it. Plus, I want to use it as an excuse to go to Disney World and run the Disney Half Marathon. Who doesn't love and excuse to go to Disney? Plus Disneyland and go coast to coast? Golden. Second, I'd like to do a Tough Mudder. Tough Mudder would be a whole other ball of challenge. The beauty of it is it will provide me with a different physical challenge of the half marathon and require me to work out a different regimen. I think it will be a good challenge on it's own. I have a friend from college who has done one, so I'd love to get to compete in it with him as well. Then, there's of course the weight I want to achieve. Obviously, the physical health is most important, but I still need to have a goal here as well. I'd love to try and reach 200 lbs. I don't know if that is possible or not, but I'd like to try. I'm not huge, but I'm not tiny either, so it may be that it just won't work to reach that for my body. I do want to at least reach 220 lbs. That I know should be achievable, so I need to at least hit that.

More Near Term Goals

Ok, what do I plan to accomplish in the more near term? What will my checkpoints be? First, on my path to the half marathon, I want to run a 5K. One thing I need to do is pick an actual event. My sister is running a 5K in Hershey the Chocolate Miracle 5K, but unfortunately I will be away. There is a Prison Break 5K nearby, but that may be a little too quick for me to get physically ready for. I may see if I can push myself for it, but I don't want to go too quick and mess up my long term plan. I really need to make sure I establish my routine to keep my long term plans in place. For a weight, I'd like to reach 17 stone, 2 lbs as my first checkpoint. That can also be known as 240 lbs. Why did I use stones? Why not?

Mar 21, 2013

Ch-ch-challenges

As part of the introduction into the beginning of my weight loss journey / adventure / trip / hardship / crapfest / trial / time, I wanted to breakdown when I think will be my toughest points. The challenges to my weight loss. The Grenel to my Beowolf. The Elites to my Master Chief. The Darth to my Luke. The Fat Bastard to my Austin Powers.

My Challenges

Cartoon bear
Step away from your
snack of choice!
There are a couple things I think will be my (initial challenges). In no particular order (other than the order I typed them in):
  • Being Active / Routine
    • In order to lose weight, I know me. Eating right alone doesn't do it. I'll lose some weight, but it really isn't enough for me long term. I need to be active. I need to get to the gym and exercise. And to do that, I really need to get in a routine. Getting into that routine is always the hardest part. I need to get it started and keep it going. That is a key for me.
  • Candy Basket
    • At work, in the kitchen, there is a basket. And in the basket sits candy. Chocolate candy. Yummy candy. They're the mini Hershey's, Snickers and Peanut Butter Cups kind of candy. The problem isn't eating one, because that can slide every once and a while. The problem is it is entirely too easy to have one here, one when you get that cup of coffee, one after lunch, one with that soda and before you know it, you've had 7-8 pieces of candy.
  • Work Snacks
    • At work, one of the nice perks is they have a kitchen well stocked with snacks. They actually do a good job of providing healthy options. Sure, they have the candy and some cookies, but they also have granola and nutrigrain bars. They have assorted chips, which can be nice with lunch. While they do offer standard chips and Doritos, they also offer Sun Chips and Baked Lays as healthier alternatives. The largest problem is even with the healthier options, it's still easy to eat too many of them and overdo it.
  • Soda
    • I enjoy soda. I like the taste, it's refreshing and I run on caffeine. When I drink soda, I always try to have either Coke Zero or a diet version of whatever soda . So, I do avoid the sugar from soda, so point for me! As I said, I do run on caffeine, so I do tend to drink more soda than I should. With the sodium in soda (and all the other crap) it's not the best for you. While I drink the better option for soda, I do need to cut it back some. That largely will also need to be done at work, where in addition to snacks, soda is well stocked (and free).
So, there are the couple of things that I think will be my biggest initial hurdles. I'm going to do my best. Hopefully, trying to make myself regularly write here will help me to regularly evaluate how I'm doing on these things and help me stick to what I need to do.

That's all I've got for this one.

Peace out, cub scout.

Mar 20, 2013

Obligatory Intro Post

Well, here is the the obligatory "what's this blog about" post.

What is this blog?

Cartoon T-Rex
I don't care if you have a big head
and little arms, get in shape!
This is my blog about getting myself in shape. Or at least the my attempt to. I thought maybe having the blog and updating my progress on it will help me to keep making progress. The name is a blunt message from me to me. It's not necessarily a how to get "your" ass in shape, but at least my attempts. Hopefully it will work, in which case you can feel free to use those parts as tips.

Where am I starting at?

So, I'm not really happy where I'm at weight wise. I'm pretty high up. I've topped out around 270 lately. So that will be my starting point.

Why am I losing weight?

What's my inspiration, my driving power I'm using to lose weight. There are several overriding items.
  • For Samantha
    • As my little baby girl gets older, I really need to be setting a better example for her. Eating right, exercising and being overall healthy is the example I want to set.
  • For Stephanie and Samantha
    • I want to be around for the both of them for a long time. I need to be healthy to accomplish that.
  • For Me (and that damn machine)
    • I currently have to use a CPAP machine for sleep apnea. Since the day I started it, I wanted to get rid of it. I don't like having to use it every night and take it with me when I travel. I'm used to it, but I don't like it. I want to lose the weight to rid myself of the sleep apnea. (My dad does have sleep apnea too, so it could be genetic, but the most likely cause is my weight.)
  • To be happier... 
    • I'm not unhappy with me, mind you. I just would be happier looking into the mirror at a thinner me. Some days, it does really bother me, but not like perpetually or anything. I am happy being me.
  • ... and healthier
    • When I lost weight before the wedding, I just felt so much better when I was so much healthier.

So, there's your basic intro. Coming soon: the challenges I face against my weight loss, my goals and my plan.