Looking back just long enough to get mad

It's the last weekend of 2013. I made a goal about this time last year to get my weight down to about 200# by my 41st birthday. Some time over the summer I was down from the mid 240's to about 225. Great progress, right? Well... I weighed myself on Thursday and it seems that I've managed to find every pound I lost this year. If there's a positive, I haven't found new weight, just kind of reconnected with old pounds. Bummer. So, I'm making a few changes for 2014.

In the new year I plan to exercise more regularly, eat smarter, and lose weight. I have downloaded a couple new fitness apps for my phone and Jennie and I will be doing our own version of a group fitness plan. I joined the Parker Rec Center (PRC) last year and I have even managed to go each month enough to justify the expense. Jen suggested that maybe I should take it to the next level and get a few sessions with a trainer. I want to take some classes, too, thinking that I can get to meet new people and develop a type of accountability. I will take this coming week and try to get to the PRC every day (except Wednesday, of course).

I am going to pay more attention to what I eat this year as well. Jennie has Celiac disease so she cannot eat gluten. I have tried gluten-free a couple of times and I do feel better after a week or so. However, I find that I over-indulge when I abandon the g/f life. This year, I will allow myself to eat Clif bars for breakfast or for training, but try to eliminate other sources of gluten, including beer. Yep. I will reduce my intake of beer and change what I do drink to gluten-free options like Omission or Angry Orchard hard cider. Of course, there's always wine. 😉

So there it is... My fitness resolutions/goals/targets for 2014. I will be stepping on scale every Sunday morning and Jen will take my body measurements the last Sunday of each month, starting today. I'll use this blog to track my mileage for running and my progress on my weight-loss goals. Wish me luck!

Holy Cow!

Holy Smokes, it's May!

I weighed in last Wednesday. I am officially 5 pounds overweight. On the plus side, that's a lot better than I thought I would do. I guess the running is paying off after all. I hope so. I can already tell that I'm going to need new shoes when I get home. And, PJ, I am NOT talking about those squared off brown shoes you always try to get me to buy. :-)

I've been working my arms and shoulders on T/Th to compliment the running and break up the routine. I've actually been able to run a couple of simulated 10K races out here. Granted, they were on the treadmill at the gym, but the computer says I picked up my feet enough times to simulate running over 6 miles at a time. Wow! I'm trying to get up to a 1/2 marathon by the time I get home. I want to run the Horno Ridge Run when I get home. That's a 10K, but then maybe I could consider the Rock 'n Roll marathon next year. Hmmmmm...

I must be doing something right

Okay, I've had two people in the last week tell me that my face looks thinner. I guess that means I really am on the right track. I am usually able to best notice differences in my weight by looking at my face as well. I know the bigger target is my gut, but no matter how much (or how little) I weigh, it always looks the same to me. I graduated boot camp at 180 pounds and I thought my stomach was big. I've been as heavy as 230 and I KNEW my stomach was big, but it didn't look to me like it was 50 pounds bigger. Is that a perspective problem? Have I just become so used to my flabby sides that I just assume I'll always have this body image? Well, I have 20 weeks left before I put my workout regimen to the ultimate test: what will SHE think about it?

I think I'm off a bit

Okay, so I just updated my ticker but I don't think it's accurate. I added in 9 1/2 miles for the last two days and then I just noticed that I hadn't posted an entry in over a week. I'll leave it where it is for now and just try to be better at keeping my stats updated. Speaking of stats... I've somehow become the book keeper at our softball games. So now it's up to me to make sure everyone's averages are accurate. That's fine, but if the book says you went 1 for 4 with a fielder's choice, don't tell me you went 2 for 4. It's not the same thing.

Just keep running... Just keep running...

whew!

It's been an interesting week for PT out here. We had a good sand blast early this week and then today I ran to the gym through the rain. Huh?! I thought I was in a desert! Then I remembered that a desert is any region that receives less than 10 inches of rain in a year. Well, that means there could be some rain, just not very much.

I've also decided that my shoes are too small. My toes push against the toe of my shoe from the moment I put them on. This does not leave any room for my feet to swell while I'm running. I guess that would explain the MASSIVE blisters I've been getting on my toes while I run. I'll just have to remember to use my foot powder (thank you, community grab box) and try to air out my feet as much as I can, which isn't very much.

Still, I managed to put some miles on my feet four times this week, including two "monster cardio" days. I think it's starting to work because my belt has more of a "tail" on it than it did when I came over here.

Have a good weekend! We have three softball games scheduled. I don't know if the weather will allow us to play though. We'll see.

modified plan of attack

Okay, so I've been trying to do a little bit every day. I haven't gotten up to a full six days a week yet, but I'm getting there. Yesterday I ran on a treadmill for about 3.5 miles and then hit the bike for another 8 miles. That was 30 minutes each machine. I added that to the miles I ran last week and came up with the total of 25 miles so far this deployment.

I'm going to try something new this week. I did pure cario yesterday. Today I'll try to do all three workouts (upper body, lower body, abs) and try that for a couple of weeks. That'll give me three cardio workouts a week (M/W/F) and two weight training days (T/Th) and leave the weekend open for softball, swimming, or whatever. If this works, it'll be more sustainable as it will allow me to continue the cycle after I get home and keep the weekends open for the family, like they should be.

on your marks... get set... here we go!

I brought a book/magazine with me out here to help with the LG4J plan. I read it again yesterday and decided that since I have the time, now would be a good time to get started on their 8 week program. It's published by Men's Health and what they did was get several of their staff of various body types, ages, workout habits, etc. and give them personalized training for 8 weeks. Well, as luck has it they have a guy who started the program at 222 pounds and ended at 204. He's 6' 2" and 32 years old. I decided to follow his regimen for 8 weeks to see if I could achieve similar results. I started that today with an upper body workout followed by a run on a treadmill. Suprisingly, I actually feel pretty good so far. We'll see how I feel when I wake up tomorrow. Anyway, since I didn't run yesterday there's no credit for miles but since I went to the gym on Tuesday and it's about a mile from my living space, I've added that distance in to the tracker. We're off and running. We'll see what happens over the next 8 weeks.

I've been eating pretty good at the DFAC. The last thing I want to do is waste my physical activity by eating junk, right?

BTW, Jen and I have talked about it and since she wants to be surprised by my 'new' physique when I get home I probably won't be posting many pictures of myself during this deployment... at least, not in PT gear. Since cammies aren't exactly flattering, I'll probably have some shots on my main blog. We'll see.