Week One Update

Hey Everyone!

So it's been about a week since my last post, so I think it's about time for an update.  There has been some good progress and a few set backs, but I'm still more or less on track so I feel like that is overall good news.

First the good.  I got all the flooring in in the living room, kitchenette type area and the the hallway.  I still have the closets and the bedrooms to do, plus all the moulding and painting to do.   I have two weeks left so I've really got to get on it.

The unfinished parts of the photos are finished now, but there is stuff there now so an updated photo wouldn't show much

I also have completed all my scheduled workouts since I've started back up again, having done my 4th workout today.  That is going well so far, I'm in a little better shape than I initially thought, but there is still a long ways to go.  I think I need to do something about my scale, it varies wildly depending on where I put it on the floor.  Our bathroom is too small to leave it in one spot.  Once I get the floors done in the bedrooms I might put it in our room and not move it.

More days than not I ate reasonably healthy, and that has been a vast improvement over what I have been doing.  Pretty much every day I crave a cheeseburger or some such and I've been able to resist that urge more or less.

For the not so good.  While my diet is improving, there were a lot of back slides, notably this weekend.  Audrey had to work on Saturday, and when she got off, we went out for pizza.  Sunday was all around bad, lying around the house all day eating junk.  That said, I'm back on track today and will hopefully do better next weekend.

I'm doing a little better than this

On my off days of strength training, I'm supposed to go out for walks or do some sort of cardio, but I've had excuses for pretty much every day.  It's been either too cold or too wet out.  I need to just get over that and get to work.

One of the biggest things I need to work on is getting an appropriate amount of sleep, especially on nights before work.  With Audrey working until 11:15 ish at night it is really hard.  Last night we went to bed around 2ish and I got up at 6:15 to go to work.  Getting that little sleep definitely takes a toll.  On Friday I really felt it at work, and it showed.  It also makes it hard to want to work out, cook, do chores, work on the floor, pretty much everything.  So my goal is to get Audrey off second shift!  Also, to get more sleep. :)

At some point I'll post some before pictures and take some real measurements, but for now, I'm just going to try to keep plugging along.  That said, I do have some measurement related goals.

1. To have a healthy blood pressure ASAP (I haven't had it tested in a long while, but last time I was this fat it was high, and when I was doing well and losing weight it was healthy, so I think it is safe to say it is high again)
2. To fit into 38" waist pants by graduation
3. To fit into 36" waist pants by the end of the year

I have a few others on the back burner that I'm trying to flesh out, but those are the major ones for now.  I don't have a set weight goal, because realistically I don't really care how much I weigh so long as I'm healthy, fit, and get rid of this gut I've grown.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully not all posts will be this long.

Back at it

It's been about a year and a half from my last post, but seeing as I;m getting back on the wagon it seems like a good time to start up again.  I think documenting my progress last time helped keep me on track, so hopefully that will work again.  Did my first workout in a long while yesterday, and I am crazy sore, some of that might be from working on the floor though.  Either way, I can't wait for this part of exercising to be over.

I'm basically back where I started from.  Starting attending classes turned out to be more stressful and time consuming than I initially thought, and I fell pretty hard.  I stopped riding my bike, in large part because I was getting flat tires every couple of days.  I'm not sure when I'll get back on it since work is about 11 miles away and I go straight from work to class, but hopefully soon.

With any luck, this is my last semester, and I'll be graduating this May, 135 days left.  Since my last post, I've started work at a small local accounting firm, J.A. Solari and Partners.  It has been a great place to work, and I've learned a tremendous amount in the few months I've been there.  When I was hired, they said that assuming everything is good, they intend to hire me on full time upon graduation, so between those two things, a tremendous amount of the stress I've been holding on to is lifting.

During this winter break, I've started replacing the carpet in the house with laminate.  It's been a lot more work than I remember, but it is slowly getting there.  I had to take today off since I am so sore from exercising yesterday, but I'm probably about a third of the way done now.  It's looking good and I can't wait for it to be finished, I think it will make a big difference in how our house looks.

Wow, way too long since my last post...

Sorry this post is so past due, I can't even say I've been too busy, just too lazy.

Everything is going pretty good, I've been completing my workouts and riding my bike to work most days.  I had Wayne up the intensity of one of my workouts, and it kicked my ass.  I'm looking forward to getting better at it.  My ride to work takes me about 40 minutes, which is kind of nice since google estimated it would take me 50 minutes.  Suck it google!  The ride home is very fun, all down hill, and I've hit 40 mph coming back home which was both exhilarating and scary.

My bike since I've added the rack and panniers

My route according to Strava, click to enlarge

As far as my fitness Progress goes, things are more or less on track.  I need to refocus on my diet, but my workouts are on target, and I think it shows.  For getting the diet on track again, the ever beautiful Audrey found a bunch of simple crock pot recipes that she prepped and froze.  So now all we need to do is thaw a meal in the fridge over night, and toss it in the pot in the morning.  No more getting home from work feeling too tired to want to cook anything!  So far we've done 2 meals, one was a rootbeer pulled pork, and last night was a hawaiian bbq and applesauce chicken.  Both were delicious.  We'll have leftovers tonight, and for tomorrow, nothing but options!

Here are some pictures I took from Saturday after my workout.

Things are getting better all the time.  I should be ready to kick the Spartan Sprints ass in October!  

Monday begins school, back at the University.  This will be a big change for me, as most of the classes I've been taking over the last 2 years have been mainly online, now all but one class is in person.  I'm a little worried that time will become more of an issue, but I'm sure I'm up for it.  Plus before, I was working full time, now I have an extra 20 hours a week that I didn't before.  Either way, wish me luck!

My Bike Dreams Are Coming True!

So, I got some old bonds my parents had bought for me every year from '86-'92 that before interest totaled up to $750 which was awesome in and of itself, but with interest it came to a little over $1,200.  I've had my eye on the Public V7 bike, so I called up a dealer for them that's based in Auburn, CA.  They didn't have any in stock, but brought one in for me to try out.  Today I made the drive, (traffic was terrible...) and test rode it and it was great!  Road very smooth, turned nicely, and felt great riding mostly upright.  I could see very clearly all around me, and I suspect I'm easier to see.

 As the pictures show, yes I did get it!  I also needed a new helmet, as mine got cracked from sitting out in the sin too much.  So I went to REI and got a Bern Brentwood, that looks awesome!

Also picked up some nice lights, the Urban 500, and the Vis 180.

I also ordered a rear rack that is painted to match the bike, and I got a Timbuk 2 pannier that removes easily and will make a great bag for school, and make it easy to bring stuff with me to work.

 Needless to say, I'm super excited and can't wait to ride everywhere!

Also progress, not good this week as I suspected, spent the week drinking with my bro, not eating great , and my exercises were spotty.  I'm rededicating myself this week, and will kill it.  Plus adding in all the bike riding I plan to do things should continue nicely.

Progress!

Alright!   This week was great!  Ended up at 215.9 pounds!  My measurements were about the same as last week, but I think I'm looking better all around so that makes me happy!  Quick post, this week will probably not be great, weekend has my awesome aunts, and the rest of the week has my brother, so good food and beer (I know, that ship has sailed)  But this is the long haul, and I still have to enjoy life.  Without further ado, the photos!

Other progress type stuff!

Today was a really fun day!  Audrey got out of working today, so we spent the day together.  Went and got some delicious fresh fruit from the farmers market, got some of my new favorite cookies from Sugar Bug.  Had the Burger (sort of) I've been craving, though I ended up getting the dirty bird grilled chicken burger, which was a blackened chicken breast with pico de gallo and chipotle mayo on it.  Very tasty!

After lunch, we took my bike to REI to see what it would take to get it up and going again.  Probably a few hundred dollars.  So that sucked, but I knew it needed a lot of work.  So I'm going to look for a decent used or cheap new bike to get me up and running again.  We're going to check out a swap meet and see if there's anything there.  I had a classmate tell me he found some bikes for a good deal there a few months ago.  I'm a little afraid anything we find might be stolen, but I don't really know what to think about that or how I would know.  I'm also going to check out craigslist, but I'm not sure what is good, or what is garbage, and it seems like it will be tough trying to figure that all out.  I've got about 6 weeks or so until class starts, so I'd like to get a bike going by then.

We also went to see Inside Out this afternoon, and it was great!  Very funny, with a few sad moments.  Very entertaining and well done, I highly recommend it.

After that, we went to Home Depot, and checked out some plants.  We ended up getting a cool hanging basket, a spiky tree and some lavender.  If we can keep these things alive for a couple of weeks, we're gonna get some more stuff to purtty up the homestead a bit.

The spiky tree is pretty small right now, but Audrey's grandparents have one that has grown very big and it pretty cool.  So hopefully it survives our black thumbs.

Progress! July 11th

I know, I took some of the excitement out of it, but I still hit my goal!  Right after my run this morning, I weighed in at 219.3, and about an hour later I came in at 218.7.  So that feels pretty damn good.  Still sitting at about 25% body fat according to my gizmo, but I'm sure that will trend down soon.  I really think adding the running back in is helping a lot.  The down side is that my right calf is super tight and a little painful, so for today's run, I stuck to the flats and just maintained a 10 minute mile pace, I'm hoping the calf loosens up by Tuesday when I run next.  I've also added in the Pull up, Lunge, Push up 60 day challenge, and today will be day 3.  I'm excited about this one.  I've also talked with Wayne about my future workouts and dieting stuff, and it all sounds really cool.

This week I kept my eating very clean, and I plan on keeping it up, with the exception of today where I want to get a delicious cheese burger from Burger Me!  I've been craving one, so I'm gonna have one!  I'm especially proud of last night, we went out to Red Lobster, and instead of getting a big lobster with butter sauce and fried shrimp, I went with some grilled salmon and sauteed shrimp.  Very delicious, and not too unhealthy, especially when I knocked off most of the butter from the shrimp. I also am going to stop drinking beer until the family camping trip.  I know, that will be a tough one, but I got this.  New goal of 210 by August 8th, means I gotta kick some ass.

Without further ado, my photos!

I think I'm looking better all the time!  Wish me luck!