That moment when...

Welcome back!

You, me, everybody... well, a few people anyway.

So next year's Spartan schedule was released about a week ago. I was checking for pre-registration options when I noticed something about Utah's race next year.

Utah is getting the Beast in 2015.

What now?

Ha.

12 miles.

Double Ha.

I'm going to run the Dirty Dash instead. Maybe the Tough Mudder.

At least in 2015. I'm guessing that the races rotate (sprint, super, beast). I hope the Ultra Beast isn't coming here, lol. (full marathon). At least, not in 2016. :)

Today's breakdown:

Weight: 295.8 - definitely going in the wrong direction. Maybe it's because I haven't been hitting the gym regularly. Gee, what a thought. Also, need some significant changes in food consumption. Working on that.

I did hit the gym today, though. I almost talked myself out of it. Was woken up multiple times through the night. Cat. Dog. Whatever. Didn't feel like getting out of bed any earlier than was necessary to go to work (even with the time shift). These words kept running through my head:

So, I got up and get my stuff together, went to work, and hit the gym.

See you tomorrow.

Monday, Monday, Monday!

Typically Monday is the second work day of my ... well, week.

I work Sunday, Monday, off on Tuesday, back at work for Wednesday and Thursday, then off on Friday and Saturday. I work 10 hour shifts. I got into the gym at about 3:50 AM today, and won't leave work until 3:30. Basically, I'm present on my work site for 12 hours a day, 4 days a week. About an hour in the gym, 10 hours working, a half hour lunch, and the other half hour (almost) is basically walking to and from my car. It takes about 7 minutes to walk from my car to my desk, 3 minutes maybe to go from the car to the gym locker room. Our parking lot is way out there.

It was a good workout today, spent my time on the elliptical machine doing the "weight loss" work out which alternates from an incline of 1 (flat) and 4 resistance, to incline of 8 and 10 resistance. Since machines all vary, this means almost nothing to everybody else. :)

Did some work on my arms and chest and called it a day (in the gym) and headed back to the car to drop off my gym clothes bag and grabbed my lunch, then headed to my desk where I am now.

Speaking of lunch (and breakfast which I bring), here's the rundown:

Coffee (w/ creamer which I'm now measuring out to make sure I don't just absorb an extra hundred calories for almost nothing in return).
Muscle Milk (1 scoop of powder)
Cottage Cheese (1/2 cup - 2%)
Grapes (about 14 oz.)
Chicken Chipotle Flautas (lunch, 2 sticks)
Fruit Snacks (1 pouch - maybe)
Granola Bar (Peanut Sweet & Salty - Nature Valley)
Ritz Crackers (on standby in my desk drawer)

All of that comes out to about 1,257 calories. Not sure about dinner yet. Was going to make tacos (we bought like 5 pounds of hamburger at Costco, I sectioned it out and froze 4/5ths of it), but wife and daughter aren't thrilled about that, so I have to figure something else out.

Overall, I should stay under 2,000 calories today. The biggest challenge, probably, is keeping myself disciplined on my three off days and not mindlessly eat little things here and there that add up super fast. It's like Fighter Diet founder Pauline Nordin says (paraphrased), "It doesn't matter the work you do during the week if you're undoing it on the weekend."

Also, it isn't much, but between 2 weeks ago when I weighed in (293.8 lbs) and today (291.4 lbs) the scale is at least headed in the right direction.

The Two-Step...

Two days in a row? Might be something going on...

Hit the gym again this morning after getting to bed at a decent time. Getting up at three isn't easy if you're going to bed (sleep) after 10. I was pretty much out around nine last night, so I only did the snooze dance one time this morning.

Decided it was time to get back to the weights as I have not been on those in quite some time. Nothing big since I'd been away for far too long. A few sets with the bench press (95 lbs), shoulder press machine (uh, not very much, I'm shocked at how weak my shoulders are), and the triceps extension machine (again, WEAK!). After all of that, I hit the elliptical machine again for my 33 minutes. I went a little harder this time, getting my heart rate up into the 150s and burning around 400 calories (according to the machine - my Lose It app says around 600).

It's about consistency right? Time to find that rhythm and keep at it.

Almost 5 months...

Somewhere along the way motivation wandered into a dark room and decided to stay for a while.

Now, I've gone to the gym here and there and just never got back on track.

Inspiration comes in different forms. Heroes. Best Friends. Striving for health. The list goes on and on. My wife is an inspiration for me to get back on track. Mostly out of fear of being totally left behind.

About nine months ago my wife was struggling with weight loss, like well, pretty much all of us. She'd been doing roller derby for about a year at that time and was still considering herself one of the "big girls." Those are the rare gals that somehow combine weight and speed to be formidable blockers and intense hitters. They kind of remind me of football players that line up in the trenches. You know the big guys, that look like couch potatoes (sometimes), and then totally shock you with their speed and quickness.

So, my wife began cutting her portions. A lot. Now, it kind of comes easier for her than others because when she eats, she pays a price. It (eating) makes her sick a lot of times. She has to eat, but sometimes it's a gauge of how sick she wants to tolerate that day. The weird thing is, nobody can figure out what's wrong. Doctors haven't figured out the trigger, and for all intents and purposes, the triggers are everything and nothing.

Some days she'll eat a salad and be fine, a couple of days later, she'll eat the same type of salad and wish she was dead because of the pain she's experiencing. Same for burgers, fish, dairy, bread, oh hell, I'll save some time and just say "everything."

In the last nine months, still doing roller derby, my wife has shed an amazing 65 pounds. Sixty-five! She's gotten to the point that she can push it really hard and compete with some of the jammers.

Even when I was hitting the gym consistently, I was seeing nothing happening. Granted, I sure didn't give it a year. Messing up that muscle (excuse coming) in my back/neck back in March just made me revert back to being only "slightly" active.

Food consumption changed only a little bit. Portion control was anything but. Probably more like "outta control." One of the problems is that I sit at a desk. Four days a week. 10 hours during those days. Work is interesting, if not repetitive. And I ALWAYS feel like eating something. I bring my breakfast and lunch to work. But always feel like there needs to be more. Juice and soda is free here. Talk about a fight every day. We do have coke zero, diet, etc. But you know how it is. Why get those when there's a cherry coke RIGHT THERE!?

So the transition needs to happen, instead of spooning out three tablespoons of cottage cheese, I need to measure it. Turns out I can easily get a full serving (half of a cup) from a heaping teaspoon. I made sure I came with just ONE serving of cottage cheese today. A couple of clementine oranges. Leftovers from dinner the other night (homemade beef-a-roni), and we'll see how it goes from there.

Spent about a 33 minutes on the elliptical machine this morning. Weight loss mode.

Inspiration comes in many forms. My inspiration is my wife and her toughness, consistency, and determination. Inspiration is knocking on the door where motivation is hiding and inviting it to come out to play.

It's been...

I'm finally back. Did you miss me?

It's been a rough month and a half. First my neck and back issue, and then, when I thought I was all set to go again, I had a rough bout with a head cold (still clearing out some sinus issues, but overall feel pretty normal).

So, here's the rundown for today:

Bent Over Dumbbell Row: 2 x 10 @ 12.5 lbs; 1 x 15 @ 12.5 lbs
Lat Pulls: 2 x 10 @ 70 lbs; 1 x 12 @ 70 lbs
Standing Barbell Curl: 3 x 10 @ 45 lbs
Dumbbell Alternate Bicep Curl: 3 x 10 @ 12.5 lbs

I also spent 10 minutes on the bike. Cardio is SO not my thing, but it needs to be done. I plan to work my way into it gradually, though.

It's good to be back.

That's probably a setback...

This morning I seem to have hurt myself a little bit while doing my workout. On my second group of lifts, the side laterals, I pulled, or tweaked a muscle in my neck and right shoulder. That's probably not good. I can somewhat turn my head to the right, and almost not at all to the left. This could take a few days to feel better from. I'm not at all happy about this.

I don't know if it was because I had less sleep last night (thanks Daylight Saving Time!), or if I just wasn't warm enough yet. I'd finished my inclined presses okay, but on my second set of the side laterals, I just suddenly felt off and the muscle in my neck was not right. Or I pinched a nerve. Something.

Needless to say, today's workout was not up to snuff compared to normal.

Checked with my supervisor today (who is working his once-every-three-months weekend) who I know works out down at the gym, but he doesn't carry any Icy Hot or similar product. Called security to see if they have any hot packs or something (nope). So, I get to sit here and suffer today. I do have some ibuprofen to take the edge off. My neighbor has a heating pad at her desk, but she's pretty unhappy about people touching her stuff (which most of us are, so it's understandable).

So, for the next couple of days, I might just be on the treadmill or elliptical while the issue with my neck heals up.

It's not all about exercise...

I'm still working on dropping weight. I have 15 months until the 2015 Spartan Race in Utah, and it's going to be take a LOT of work to get there. (My father-in-law thinks I can make the 2014 race. To that I say ha ha!).

I've started a better balanced meal plan over the last several days, and my wife and I have been doing more of the "outer circle" for shopping. We still have bread and pasta, but we're pushing for less bleached out items, and I've been making a stronger effort to bring veggies w/ my lunch to balance out the fruit. It's easy to throw in a banana or apple, but then your carbs (sugars, not fiber) end up way out of balance with everything else.

For example, today I packed 100 cal yogurt, a bagel thin (110) w/ laughing cow wedge (35), carrots, an apple, a cutie orange, two pieces of beef jerky, some reduced fat cheez-its, and leftovers from dinner last night. The dinner last night was actually really high in fat (it's made with prosciutto, a lot of Parmesan cheese and cream, so there you go), but portion control is a big thing.

I remember feeling particularly hungry when I got prepared to make dinner, but I still only had one serving and didn't over eat. Sure, when I made the protein shakes last night and filled our travel bottles (we re-use 8 oz. Ensure bottles for easier grab and go), I drank the rest of what didn't fit, but that stopped me from having a bowl of cereal before bed (something I haven't done in weeks, and it used to be a REGULAR, every night kind of thing).

I broke "code" today and stepped on the scale before my workout (usually only weigh in on Sundays), and found I'd dropped 1.8 pounds since last Sunday (sure, I'm still 292.6, but progress is progress).

Anyway, thanks for reading my additional run on...