No I didn't Quit

Though it has been a while since I wrote here I haven't quit the program. It is going along swimmingly.

Since I last wrote I am down more than 33 pounds. That is in 10 weeks! I feel better. I have noticed that my pants are looser. My shirts fit better.

Other people are starting to notice. I had one friend ask me if I have been losing weight. I said I had and told her I was doing the Body for Life program. She said it is a good one and she had done it as well. She had a book that she let me borrow. It is called Eating for Life. I have read it already. It was a good book. I am excited to try some of the recipes.

I also had a couple other people last night say something about the weight loss. Today a good friend said to me "I am going to embarrass you". I had no idea what he was going to say. Then he said in a room with co-workers that I had lost weight. He obviously could tell.

When I look at myself I cannot see it so much. I guess that is what happens when you see yourself all the time, but others who don't see you quite as often seem to be able to tell.

Next week is my final week on this 12 week program. Of course I will continue to do the program for a long time to come. I have a ways to go to reach my goal. But finishing this first 12 weeks is one of my first goals in obtaining my ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is 148 pounds. I am about 1/4 of the way there.

Luckily I have not hit a plateau yet. I am sure I will hit one some time along the way. That will be a interesting time period. Because I will have to recognize that I hit one, and then I will have to work to get off of it.

What I have found is that in doing this program I have been going to bed early. Most nights I don't see 11pm let along midnight anymore. That was a nightly occurrence for me.

Early in the program when it stayed dark until around 8 in the morning I really liked the feeling of walking out of the Rec Center having been up for 2 1/2 hours. Feeling like I had accomplished something in the day.

I figured I would keep my early mornings going at least through the first 12 weeks to give it a try. Part of the thing keeping me getting up early is wanting to do the swimming in the morning. The pool closes at 8 in the morning and reopens at 11 in the morning. So I have to hit it early or miss it.

It would be perfect for me to get up around 8 in the morning and workout at 8:30 then swim at 9:30. But I cannot do it that way.

I will have to make the decision on whether I want to continue to do the swimming in the morning or not do it. I think it has been good.

I have seen a ton of improvement in my swimming. I can now swim five laps without a rest. I probably could go even more, but I figure that is a good milestone for now. I do five laps. Rest for about 3 to 4 minutes. Then I swim a second five laps. For a total of 500 yards each day.

I read some of my early posts. It was interesting to read them early on because I was really new with the whole thing. Now it is becoming more of second nature. My shopping trips and my tastes in some food have changed. I now happily eat wheat bread. I also am a fan of tomatoes on my sandwiches.

I also noticed how many calories I had been putting away in some of the things I was eating. One huge example was my breakfasts. I would have around 500 calories in cereal a lot of mornings. With my waffles I would have four at a cost of 440 calories. Then I would put about 100 calories of butter, 150 calories of peanut butter and about 200 calories of syrup. That is about 890 calories for breakfast alone. Now I try to keep my breakfast and lunch to about 300 calories each. My three mid-meals are around 200 calories, with dinner around 450 calories.

My goal right now is to stay around 1600-1800 calories a day. Right now I am really in the weight loss mode.

I can't wait until I have to go see the chief because my turnouts no longer fit.

It is also nice because I am seeing some more definition in my muscles. It is neat to see them forming. But I will have to lose more fat for it to be noticeable for a lot of other people. I feel like I have really gone a long way, but really I am just starting what needs to be and will be a change in life.

I like the fact that Body for Life lets you have a "free day" each week. That is where I can have the treats that I love, in moderation of course. I look forward to having my ice cream or candy bar during that time. Because I haven't had to to totally give them up it makes life easier. Also, I don't have to feel bad about cheating, because I am not cheating when I have it.

So far nothing but positive have come out of the this experience. The only thing I am not sure about when I am done with this 12 weeks if I will keep the same logs that I have been, or only a food journal or what. I guess it is nice to keep track of my weight lifting to see how that is progressing as well. But I could keep track of that once a week and see the changes on a week to week basis.

If I can keep this progress going like I have been doing it, I should be able to be nearing my goal around Christmas of this year. That seems like it is so far away. So I will have to keep my shorter goals in order to keep my mind looking at the short term, in order to see the small gains, in order to keep a positive outlook.

My plan is when I reach my goal I am going to write my next Daily News Town Crier Column to memorialize the reasons why I did it. I will come up with 148 reasons, one for each pound I lost along the way.

New Focus

I had a new focus today. After spending the last few days unable to work out due to hurting my back, I finally made it into the rec center. I did ten laps in the pool. That didn't cause me any pain in the back.

New Outlook

It has been nearly one month since I started my work out regimen. I had started by getting up at 0530 hours. But that was not much fun. The last few days I have been getting up at 0700. I have to say that walking out of the rec center at 0800 felt good. I felt like I got a lot accomplished. I felt like I had a lot of day to use.

But getting to the rec center around 0730 and getting out of there around 0900 makes me feel like I am wasting part of my day. That is a good feeling. It may help me make a permanent change to being a morning person again. But I find that when I am on call for the fire department, I am always worried about getting calls and not being able to wake up early like I would like to do.

I am going to renew my energy to getting up early in the morning again and getting my workout done at the earlier time.

I have come to the conclusion that four pounds a week is not a bad amount of wight to lose a week. If I could keep that up, that would be great.

In some ways I feel like it would be nice to do additional workouts each day in the hopes of losing more weight every week. I don't think I will be moving to that level yet.

Hurting Ankle

My ankle has been hurting since Saturday, so that sucks. It made it so I could not do a fully productive workout of the lower legs. I did some more swimming today and a lot of the swimmers were not there today. I suppose that is due to the bad weather.

I was able to do the length of the pool in one breath again, but I need to do better. I was barely able to make it. But at least I did it. I still need to get more stamina in the pool. It seems that I cannot get a lot of laps back-to-back.

So on an unrelated note, I just had to do a small rant here.

1) if you drive to a fitness place, don't circle the parking lot looking for the closest spot. You look silly when you do that.

2) it seems to me, for instance, if you're doing curls and you have to throw your back into it, you're trying to lift too much. Maybe I am wrong here, but it seems that doing a little less weight with proper form is a much better idea.

Holding my Breath

I was swimming yesterday for my cardio. After spending twenty minutes doing various kinds of swimming laps, I did a few more but with some rest between them. Finally I held my breath and swam the length of the pool. The first time I made it about three-quarters of the length. Then I made it the whole length. That was pretty cool. Now I have to find out from Russell if his class has to go there and back holding their breath.

My Friday Workout

I have been having a hard time getting up at 0530 in the morning. Some of it is going to be so late. I need to start to get to bed earlier in the evening.

I did my upper body work out. I pushed myself more than normal and I started to have a hard time getting all the reps I was supposed to do and I would push as much as I could. I think I am getting closer to where I should be.

Sometimes I look at the weight I am doing and think that I am such a weakling. But it takes time to build muscle. It is not something that is overnight. Sometimes I see guys around me doing a whole bunch more than me. But I figure if I keep at it, I will some day I will be there.

Only Swimming today

I thought the alarm clock was set, but it wasn't. I got up late. I wanted to make sure I got swimming done today. So I made my way to the Rec center and went straight to the swimming pool. I got in and decided to make that my twenty minute cardio. I just swam laps the whole time. I used different kinds of strokes. Some were harder than others. So that made me work harder or less hard. I think I got a pretty good workout and I did laps back to back so I hope that will help.

Tomorrow I plan on swimming as many laps as I can until I just can't go on. To see where I am at with it.

I shouldn't have

I probably shouldn't have weighed myself today. I was underwhelmed by my progress. I should have stayed happy with feeling better. With having my turnout coat fit better. But I found my weight only dropped nine pounds. I guess that is not too bad, four and a half pounds a week, but I was expecting more in the first couple weeks.

I did my arm workout. I also found out that the bar I thought was fourty-five pounds is really only fifteen. So I thought I was doing pretty well with the weight, but instead I am weaker than I thought. I know it takes time. It took a long time to get where I am today, so I can see it taking a long time to get to a better weight.

I was thinking that I should write down some of the reasons why I want to do this. What I am hoping to accomplish. Why do I think this is important. I need to reflect on those things daily. Refresh my memory. Think about it very carefully to understand the importance of not failing to reach my first milestone, which is to complete this twelve week program.

Today is the start of week number three. I have to say I am happy that my hunger has not been a problem. I have felt hungry, but only because I wasn't eating when I should be.

I think going to Seattle hurt me a lot as well. I think that most of my loss came during the first week and in the second week I maintained.

Day Late Doing Cardio

I did a double work out Thursday because I knew on Friday I would not be able to get one in due to driving to Pullman, plus other things. That is good because I didn't get one in. Saturday I spent nearly thirteen hours working at the fire department. So I didn't do my cardio yesterday.

Today while standing by for a call at the fire station I decided to jump on the elliptical machine. I pounded out twenty minutes. I felt good about myself for doing that. I am going to treat myself to some M&Ms tonight. That is my gift for a decent week.

I have noticed that my turn out coat fit a little more loosely. My duty pants seem to be a big larger feeling as well. I will have an idea of how much weight I lost when I go to the rec center.

But now that it has been two weeks. Maybe it would be better if I just didn't weigh myself until the program is done. That way I will not see if I have a bad week and it causes me to get depressed and lose all my work.

Two More Workouts

Because of the day I have going on tomorrow I decided that I should probably do both my cardio and workout today. While at East Highlands I did my twenty minutes of cardio. I used a treadmill today. I cannot seem to do as well on that as I do on the elliptical machine. I used the elevation control to make my workout harder while keeping my pace to about three miles per hour the whole time.

Then it was off to my lower body. I pushed myself on my lower body more today than I have in the past. I was able to bust out the whole workout pretty quickly. I wanted to do my leg presses third but this lady was taking her sweet time between sets. I was able to get through two sections before she finished up on the leg press.

But I found one machine that did nearly the same thing. Instead of my sitting still and pushing the press machine away from me. I sat in a machine and pushed the chair I was in up a track. With the weight I included it was harder than any of the presses I had done to this point.

Back on Track

This morning I didn't beat myself up too much over last night. I just got back into the saddle again. I went to East Highlands Fitness and started up the aerobic exercise I missed from yesterday. After twenty minutes of that, where I think I had the hardest workout doing the cardio than I have in since I started. I went to work on the upperbody workout. Again I pushed myself more than I had in the past. I could have probably pushed even more at times, but I am happy about the pushing I did.

I was able to breeze through my workout because when I started there were only a couple of us using the weights. But as the work out was coming to an end more people showed up.

One thing I have really noticed is that even though I pushed myself today, I am not all that sore. My legs are feeling it a little bit due to pushing myself in the cardio. But that is about it.

First Major Failure

Some people will probably read this and think of me as a failure. Some will read this and think of me as human and being too hard on myself.

I would have to agree that I failed in my goal, but I am not a failure as some might call me. My goal is to meet each challenge and win. My goal is to stay on the strict boundaries I set for myself and not stray too far.

Last night was a blazing failure for me. Had it been Sunday, no problem. Maybe I should give myself some more breathing room on Sunday's than I did. But there was no excuse for yesterday. No work out and ate way too much. It wasn't weakness as much as it was other factors.

One was my morning working was killed by the fact that I woke up a bit late and had to get to the doctor. My evening work out was killed by my mom setting up a transportation of items sold to someone in Renton.

Then the final blow was the purchasing of Papa Murphy's pizza and cinnamon pizza. I was going to try to be good. I was going to have two slices which is reasonable. Than two pieces of the cinnamon pizza which would have been okay. I looked up those items online. However, what I found was I failed at doing that. I had a couple extra slices of each.

I just feel like I can't tell my mom what I am doing. I haven't told anyone in the family. I haven't told my friends. It is not so much that I am afraid to fail. It is that I would admit that I am fat. That I need to lose weight, and it will be like "What took so long." That goes with the other issues I have in life where I hide who I am.

I am not going to let this one day of failure kill me off. I stayed away from the deadly M&Ms. I also realized that even with this failure, I didn't set myself back to day one. I may not have a good weight loss total this week, but I will still lose weight. I will still gain muscle. I will still get better in the cardio.

Start of Week 2

It felt like it has been forever since I last worked out. That is because it has been more than forty-eight hours. But really it was one day -- Sunday. I did my cardio on Saturday. Sunday is a free day.

I made sure that I didn't ruin a week worth of work with one day of splurging. I was very good. I kept to my calories. I just didn't physically do a work out. Also some of the calories came from sources like some M&Ms as well as some homemade bread and a tiny sliver of cake. I still ate sensibly through out the day.

While I was at the store today I saw Oreo's and M&Ms. I think those are my two biggest downfalls. That and Peanut Butter Cups. My mom has M&Ms within reach. But I am going to be good. I think my will power right now is high. I just remind myself what I am doing. Why I am doing it. And that if I really want one, I can have one on Sunday. If I have one today, Sunday will not be so special. So I am just working to keep that mentality.

I quit chewing after my surgery. I had my last can and just stopped. The first week it was bad. Not that I was having physical problems. Just that during certain times of the day or certain activities I have a dip. I wanted one bad. A couple times I was almost willing to drive to the store to get one. But I would remind myself why I quit. That has worked so far. I would like to keep this idea with some of the sweets I love so much.

I phoned Scott from East Highlands Fitness. He made me a deal because I was only going to be working out a couple times a month at most. I went in when I got done working and quickly found the machines that I needed to use to complete my workout.

I still think I am in the phase where I am working into doing a hard workout. A couple of the sets were tough. But for the most part it went along the middle of the road as far the ease of the workout.

Today was the first time I was really able to get through the exercises during the high intensity without a break. There are times you are supposed to move from one place to the next with no rest. At the rec center I need the time to get from machine to machine due to the placement in the facility.

My other real concern is just being over here in Renton. It is hard to stay on the diet here trying to eat correctly when going out with the guys at lunch and eat at home are the options I feel I need to do. I guess that more times than not the guys get food then eat here. I could go along with them for the ride, but once here fix my own stuff. That would be really helpful.

Last workout day of the week

The plan was to do my cardio and swim today. But I wanted to get some work done around the house and because of the things I had to do this afternoon, I decided to only do the cardio today.

With this being Saturday I wasn't able to get into the rec center until nine o'clock am. That allowed me to sleep in a little bit. But I still was up pretty early and going on the day.

I went to the rec center and straight to the cardio machine of choice. Right now it is the elliptical machine. It gives the least impact on my ankle. I pounded out twenty minutes while watching part of the movie The Maverick. There wasn't a lot special about today's workout.

I have to say thought I have been feeling good. Getting up early is still a pain as I still cannot get to bed at nine o'clock reasonably well. But I really don't want to push my start time any later. It is perfect for getting breakfast, workout, swimming down all before I have to be at work, and before the rec center is crazy busy.

Upper Body Day 2

My pecks and triceps had been very sore since Monday when I did my first upper body workout. The pain was really bad Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday I could feel the muscles but the pain was very limited. Today they felt okay.

Now it is time to do another upper body workout. I know from past experience that the pain from the first workouts don't last forever and I don't expect the same problems after today's workout.

It has been a full work week of getting up at around five-thirty in the morning. This is about four hours earlier than normal for me. I tend to go to bed in the wee hours of the morning and get up late. But that is something that needs to change. I just know if I go back to my old schedule that I will not get to do my workouts. I will find something else to do.

My only issue is finding the time in the day to fix my meals, do my normal work, workout, and everything else. I find that I want to get to bed by ten o'clock PM. But because of various things I am getting to bed later than I would like. I think the biggest thing that could cause me failure is just getting to the point where I am exhausted and I cannot keep going with my lack of sleep. One thought was to nap when I got back from the workout. I might need to do that.

So when I was at the rec center today I worked through my five areas that needed to be done today, including shoulders, chest, biceps, triceps, and back. I chose the exercises that I was going to do list night. I also chose the weights I would life based off of my last workout. I found in some areas I was not able to do as much as I did last week.

But that is because I changed up the order of the body parts so each one would have its own chance to start first. From my understanding, the first set of any overall workout is the one that actually does the most to help the body. Therefore changing what you start with each time would help you be more balanced.

Following that it was off to the swimming pool. I swam a lap, but my arms were deadish. Not horrible gone, but not fully rested either. I spent time working on swimming while holding my breath. I made it farther once today than I had before. But most of the other times it was the same as yesterday. I was stoked because I was able to hold my breath for thirty-one and thirty seconds. Those are my best this week.

I hope that as I go there each week I will see improvement in the distance I can swim without breathing. Also I hope to see my breath holding ability to last longer.

Cardio Day Two

Today I worked my second cardio workout. I did the elliptical machine again. Another twenty minutes. I noticed that I has having some minor discomfort in my right buttock area. It wasn't enough that would stop me from going, but enough that was annoying.

I upped the workout by a notch. Instead of topping out at thirteen on my peaks, I went to fourteen. I hit three peaks along the way. I was looking at the schedule, and I have a lot more road in front of me than behind me so far.

In our world of now, now, now; quick turn arounds; and instant gratification, it is hard to think slow. Think short term and long term. I want to have improvement after one work out. I want to lose all sort of weight in one day. I want to be able to hold my breath underwater for a minute.

This is something that I am going to have to work on. I have to allow my mindset to change. This is a life long process, not like buying a car or a computer. I have to work on this day after day. Really there probably is no real "end" to this, only short term, medium term, long term, and maybe extended long term goals. By this I mean that I might reach a long term goal of my target weight.

But will I be done? I don't think so. Then I will want to get more toned. Add more muscle, etc. There is not real end point. Just some longer term goals.

But for now, I have to look short term. I have a dream of what I would like. I also need to realize that I have to step through all the hoops, through all the short term goals in order to make my long term goals come true.

Once I was done with the cardio workout I went to the pool. I spend some of the time working on holding my breath longer, swimming under ground longer, treading water, and doing more laps. My first lap was one minute flat. That was great. Then later on my laps were closed to one minute and twenty seconds or more. Nothing more than one minute and forty seconds. I spent thirty minutes in the pool and about five minutes in the hot tub before calling it a day.

Legs Day One

I had planned out the workout today to start with leg presses. That is one place I have a lot of strength. I was able to push a lot of weight. Compared to Monday's upper body workout today seemed to go by pretty quickly.

I didn't get quite as fatigued as I did with the upper body work out, until I got to the crunches. Those were giving me a hard time. I also had some pain in my left ankle when I was doing one exercise that called for me to push upward on a weight object using my ankle as the pivot point and my toes as the grounded part. I had to lower my weight on that one.

Following the workout I went out to the swimming pool. I stayed in the pool for thirty minutes. Most of the time I spent treading water and staying afloat. I also did a couple laps. I used the hot tub for about ten minutes following my workout.

I am in a lot of pain on my triceps right now. As well as my pec muscles. It hurts to move right now. I like the feeling of pain due to working out, but this is just starting to get annoying. Hopefully by Friday, my next upper body workout I will feel a little bit better.

First Cardio Day

I was able to sleep in more today than normal. I was doing cardio, so my work out is about twenty minutes long. I set my alarm clock for ten after six this morning. I was a little slow to get out of bed, but that is because I kept waking up in the wee hours of the morning.

I went down to make my breakfast. Today it was pancakes made with egg whites, cottage cheese, and oatmeal. I put a small amount of butter and syrup on them. They were very good.

I went to the rec center and up to the second floor. I was going to do a recumbent bike, but I decided after I got there to do an elliptically machine. I did my twenty minutes. I definitely broke a sweat.

When I completed my cool down period, I recorded the data from this workout. I went about one and three-quarter miles. I walked down to the locker room. I was going to do some treading of water in the pool. I got to the pool and I was told I only had ten minutes.

I went to the five foot section. I first did one lap. I ended back at the five foot section. That allowed me to just tread and stay afloat. I wasn't tired from treading water, but I think the swimming can kick my butt. I need to get some goggles.

When the ten minutes were up, I called it a day. It was a good day.

First Workout

I decided to make my first workout start at six o'clock this morning. I had to get up in the wee hours. I had breakfast then it was off to the rec center. Today was the upper body. One thing I found that is hard is not having a spotter. Someone who can help me on the final lift or two, to make it up. Now, if I am unable to finish a lift, I just can't finish it.

It felt okay to get up this morning early. I knew I would be tired because I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before, and last night I went to be late. It was snowing and headlights were still needed as I headed out to the rec center.

I got there and walked around it once looking at the equipment, trying to find the one I wanted to use. I found a bench press station that is hooked onto rails. When you start to do the lift you twist the bar outward and it unhook it. The only problem with such a system is the small muscles that would normally have to work to stabilize the bar as you do the lift are not used.

The work out started. I put two forty-five pound weights on the bar. I felt sort of weak. But I also didn't really worry about those who sometimes seem to lift to show, rather than trying to work out. Maybe those people don't exists. I surely hope I don't turn into one. But I quietly went through my workout. I didn't push myself as hard as I probably could have. I was a little afraid of looking like more of a weakling when I couldn't do as many lifts as one would think I could do.

I guess that is one thing I am excited about seeing change. I want to see my ability to lift heavier weights. To be able to do more reps. To have more intensity. I think the one thing I need to work on is really pushing myself. But as it was I was already getting sore. In someways I was hoping to work into the work outs rather than killing myself on my first day and not wanting to go back.

Preparing for my Body for Life

I stopped at Safeway and did my big shopping. I purchased a lot of fruit and vegetables. Plus many other things I was going to need to start my Body for Life twelve week program. This is something I can continue to do, over and over. To me each start and ending point will be a nice goal period. I get my weekly goals. With each Sunday is a "free" day. One were I can relax and not stay so regimented with the food I eat. Can you say Pizza?!

Also at the end of the twelve week period I will hopefully see a change in my health, weight, stamina, strength, and softball power hitting abilities. My first twelve weeks will be done at the end of March. I will be nearing the end when Softball season is going. I hope that I will see some positive improvement by then.

I started to work on my meal plan for tomorrow. They have the first week plotted out for you. I am going with that, and making minor changes along the one.

Tomorrow is the start of a new path. Since moving into my house I have done things to be cleaner. I have always been bad at leaving things laying where I last used them. I always had a clean kitchen, but my bedroom is always covered in clothes and other things that just never found a home. I have worked hard to keep the house clean. I wash my truck weekly. With the snow and ice I haven't washed it lately. But keeping a clean truck is important.

I have kept that up longer than anyone in my family thought I could. Longer than I thought I could. I also have kept my budget tracking going the whole time too. I think I am ready for anther change in my life where this is not a fly-by-night one time work out. This is going to be a change in my life. I am trying to ease into it rather and shocking the system too much. So for the last week I have been eating less and more healthy on my own.

I thought about going to bed a little earlier. Then I will take a power nap after my work out to get a little more sleep before starting my day.