Day 3 -- 09may13

I am not off to a great start posting updates.  Today i have been laid up in bed with some illness that causes nausea, fever, chills, malaise, joint soreness, and more awesomeness.

I have not taken a pic today, yet.  im not really in a picture taking mood, but i should do one.

Day 1 -- for the third time (6May13)

Here I am again for another Day 1.

I've had several big changes in my life over the last year. Each change has stopped my momentum in improving my health. Over the last months I have started to change my habits about how work works. For more than 13 years I have worked from the time I started work (7:30 or so) to quitting time (4-6pm) without taking lunches. I smoked for 16 years and during that time I would take smoke breaks which seemed to help cut out burnout. I quit smoking in 2007 and thus burnout seems to occur more often. Now, for my lunch, I take 20 mins or so and sit in the sun eating whatever my lunch is. Mostly, because I don't go outside much and I've decided to get some sun to possibly boost my immune system. After I spend my 20 minutes outside I then spend a few minutes doing some basic yoga poses followed by about 20 minutes or more of what's known as "The Corpse Pose." During this time I breathe in and out slowly through my nose and meditate letting all of my cares go, and let my thoughts go freely. After about 20 minutes almost all of my thoughts are gone and I remove almost all of my stress for the day. I'll do the same thing about bedtime - if I don't do yoga poses I will, at the very least, cover my eyes and breathe in and out slowly through my nose.

So, now that's all out here's why I'm starting another Day 1. I have 7 weeks to drop weight, get in better shape, and be healthier for my trip to Disney World. It gives me a deadline to strive for and something to look forward to. It's not too far off that I won't want to keep going. And it's far enough that I should see some pretty good results.

I don't know how I'm going to look, feel, or what my weight will be, but I'm definitely going to give it a go.

So, here's the deal. Daily I will be posting: pictures of myself, weights, exercises, how I feel, and what I eat. Weekly, I will be posting measurements.

Each day I have carved out 3 hours to workout; not always working out at each of those times, but 3 hours that I will be working out and/or relaxing. For example, in the morning I will be doing a cardio-like working first thing in the morning before I eat. I want to get that out of the way (like Insanity) and then spend some time relaxing and cooling down with deep breathing, etc. Then at noon I will do my normal lunch routine. Finally, after work, I'll do a weight program of some sort (mostly body weight - I've got 275 pounds or so to work with.) This weight program will consist of pull-ups, elevated pushups, elevated crunches, chair dips, and maybe some minor weight lifting.

My meals are going to be primarily vegetarian with protein and vitamin supplements as recommended by my trainer.

My goal for this journey is to be informational for myself and push myself to lose the weight I need to, but more than that be in a better shape to chase my kids for a long, long time.

Let's see what tomorrow holds.

"You only live once, don't live like a bitch" - Joe Rogan

Day 51 - 5 Mar 13

I would like to tell you that I've been working out, eating right and have lost 20 pounds.  I have finally made time during the day to eat right and even time during lunch to workout.  I've been making that time because if I don't then I'll never have the time; I'll always let work rule when I can eat and workout.  I've been averaging 15 mins on my elliptical daily during the last week.  The weeks before were 20-40 mins daily on the elliptical.  I've cut out almost every processed food except cheese and Coke...and those are about to go away again.

Tomorrow I will declare as Day 1 (part 3.)  I have a goal to be between 190 and 210 by October that's 10 pounds a month.  My goal is to lose weight, which should mean that I'll be healthier as well (through a better diet and exercise.)

This isn't the first time I've been on this course.  As a matter of fact, since 1997, I've been struggling with working out, weight, and more...but it wasn't until I started taking Zoloft in Iraq for OCD that my weight ballooned from 195 to 265.

I've asked my wife for support; and I've asked my personal trainer to put together a plan that involves, but not limited to:

• foods (and times of day to eat)
• supplements (and times of day)
• workouts (insanity, elliptical, p90x2 and times of day)

Again, since this isn't the first time I have a lot of experience with what hasn't worked and what seems to work for me.  What does work is Insanity and P90X.  Not for "muscle confusion" but for ADD brain occupation.  I must not have time to think about what I'm doing or I'm going to get distracted.

In any case, tomorrow I start day 1 and my trek into a smaller, more healthy, and more fit me.  I like who I am, I am just not happy with not feeling well and that I can't chase my kids around the lawn or even run up the stairs without getting out of breath.  And I look fantastic as Fat Elvis.

Day 36? - 19 Feb 13

Well, I started my next phase last month, and then I was attacked by the flu and a pulled back muscle at the same time.  That may well have been the four greatest days of my life.  I've had a lot of stress lately from my personal life (someone I did business with, but they don't care enough to make things right) from the last year; so i'll be taking care of that.

I've been eating like crap lately.  I've been doing somewhat better; but I've found that when I get stressed out I tend to eat more of the foods that release endorphins...If I'm really stressed out and eating carrots, well, I'm healthy, but really stressed out.  I went to the doctor on Friday to work on taking care of that.

The bad news is that without Coke I can't concentrate enough to get work done.  It may be psychological or it may be a real reaction to drinking Coke for more than 20 years.  In any case, I need to be able to concentrate without Coke; my final vice.

Day 2 - 15 Jan 13

It says Day 2, but it's the first day of my actual workout schedule.

I was completely not prepared for this morning at 6:45...and it was crappily cold in my room which made it extremely hard to get out of bed.  I did run up and down the stairs a few times for my workout. I did not do the plan for p90x2 like I had wanted to.

I did make changes to my diet though.  I ate my oatmeal this morning with a whole lot less butter and a whole lot less sugar (1tbs and 2 tsp, respectively.)  For lunch I didn't eat; however, I did have carrots and almonds for a lunchish-like thing.  I had some cheese sticks for a snack at some point.

For dinner, I sucked...I had a 32oz coke and a Double Quarter Pounder from McDonald's.  I kind of forgot about what I was doing today...however, I haven't eaten at McDonald's in around 6 months.

So, I did ok, and sucked at the same time.

When I get stressed out I forget to workout.  Today, I finished something for work and feel a lot less stressed.  When I get stuck on something and I've told someone I plan to have it done by a specific time, I do everything I can to make that happen...which is part of what I said yesterday in my journal entry - I need to remember to take time for me.

Tomorrow, I start anew and will attempt to get up and workout.  I may do 20-40 on the elliptical in the morning while watching Airwolf... then save Tony "Effing" Horton and Insanity for my noon or 4:15 workouts.

I also plan to eat more snacks and figure out what the heck I'm actually going to eat including V8 for the afternoon snack.

For supplements, I'm about done with the 14 day detox and began taking magnesium.  When the detox is complete, I'll begin taking the multivitamin, coconut oil, and fiber.  Once I get into heavy workouts I'll do the coral calcium and some other supplements that my personal trainer recommend.

Day 1 - 14Jan13

The last time I worked out I spent 65 days working out at least 3 times a week.  I ate pretty well and lost about 10ish pounds.  I stopped because I began prepping for an interview for a new job, then studied to stay up with the new job and then I wanted to let the dust settle.

Well, I am very happy to say that I am very happy at the new job and I have been finding that I am finally able to budget time for working out again.  It takes me a while to get into working out, but once I do, I hit it hard.  I'm feeling a bit more motivated this year.  I've set a goal this year of doing different workouts and pushing it pretty hard and putting myself first.  So far, I'm 14 days in, and I've not put myself first, yet.  Tomorrow morning is the day.

There are several changes that are happening with my office and workout areas.  I am moving my office down to the studio area where I also have my workout equipment (and the projector.)  In this way, I will be able to work, then take the time to workout by jumping on the elliptical to think about a particular problem I'm working on - or simply be closer to the workout equipment to knock out some quick 5-10 minute workouts during the day.

So, the trick is going to be getting enough sleep tonight that I will get up at 6:45 in the morning to workout for 45 mins doing some version of P90X or Insanity, then enough time to eat and get my youngest ready to go.

The rest of this week will be getting used to that.  Next week, I'll add a noon workout and an afternoon workout.  This plan is to last 30 to 60 days.  During that timeframe I will be eating very healthy.  My goal is to lose as much size and weight as I can then cut out my afternoon workout and/or my noon workout and eventually replace all with 40 minutes of elliptical in the morning or multiple miles of running (no more than 3.)

My overall goal is to lose 80 to 100 pounds by October.  Technically, it is possible to lose the weight.  Ideally, I would like to be 160-180 by the end of the year and only doing maintenance workouts 3ish times a week.

Day 65 - 1Aug12

So I wanted to see my progress.  I've not been as consistent as I have wanted to be with working out.  I've been a lot more consistent with eating healthier.

I've found that my schedule gets me messed up quite a bit and that I am going to have to workout in the mornings before I get up, because I don't want to get out of bed.  I've been having a problem sleeping lately.  I think some of it has been sporadic workouts.  I've actually cut out most of my tea consumption to almost nothing and been drinking far more water during the entire day.  I have one 20oz coke in the morning (mostly b/c I hate coffee and the amount of sugar I have to put into coffee to be able to drink it is far more than the sugar in the coke -- and there's a lot more caffeine in the coffee than the coke) and the rest of the day is water, unless I workout at noon then I have a Gatorade.

I wasn't feeling great the last two weeks, but this weekend I flushed my system and have felt much better.  My headaches are almost completely gone now.  I ate crappy twice in less than a week and I think that was enough to throw me off.  So, now I am sticking with foods I can pronounce all of the ingredients to...that includes cheese that may not actually be cheese, but melts wonderfully on nachos.

So, considering that in the last 13 days I've managed to get in only 2-3 workouts, I've been doing better.  If I don't workout during the day I can't sit still.  I have to move around constantly; if I do not then I get this feeling in my body that I just need to run it off or do some sort of zumba-flashdance workout while screaming...so yesterday I ran up and down the stairs in the office a few times and that helped a bit.

My breathing isn't quite what I want it to be.  My trainer tells me there are some yoga breathing exercises that will help with that.  I keep telling my trainer that I need to go see a hypnotherapist; if only I knew one.

So, anyway, here are the following measurements after 65 days of changing my diet and exercising at least 2-3 times a week.  If you look at the navel measurement note that it is not measured by "sucking it in;" it was measured by "letting it go."    If I suck in my belly I can get that number down to 46.5 without trying and 46 if I really try... you'll notice that my navel measurement and my waist measurements are getting a lot closer together... woot!

I'm not disappointed by the weight measurement as the size is getting smaller.  That is more important to me.  I'm sure if I also worked out 2-3x a day like I want to I'd knock off a lot more weight and size.  I'd like to workout 2-3x a day, but my schedule isn't accommodating at this time.

I can tell you that people have noticed my size getting smaller.  I was told at work that too many more days of p90x and I'd need to get a new wardrobe.

Which also brings up one other thing.  I've been doing P90X2 for the most part, but I've become very addicted to Insanity.  It kills me to do Insanity, but I absolutely love it.

	13May12	7Jun12	31Jul12
weight	270	272	268
navel	49	48.5	47.75
waist	46.5	48	45
hips	54	52.5	NA
neck	18	17.5	NA

PS - Do not mistake my love for Insanity and P90X (and P90X2) as loving Tony Horton or Shaun-T -- I hate them so.  One day, I would like the smaller me to be able to tell Tony Horton how much I don't like him ;)