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?

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