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Showing posts from 2016

Hectic time of year

We've stayed busy the last few weeks. I've stayed the course well with activity.  And did pretty well with my intake over turkey day. We went up to my moms, and had a good trip.  My son  and I saw a buck but he was running so we didn't get a good look at him.  We got to see Murphy win in the playoffs,it's kinda thanksgiving tradition.  I did miss the game when I was 16 and wrecked my grandpas truck getting to the game.  (By the way even if the guy is waving a flag for you to go watch for speeding Lincoln towncars) For our November step challenge st work I came in 2nd place, So far I'm in first for the December one.  I've made my step goal every day since I set it back in late August. I've been going to 9round for a few weeks now. Things there are getting easier in some aspects and harder in others because I can do more things there's less modifications for me to the routines.  Generally I leave wore slap out,  which is the point I reckon. We go

Turkey Week

Short update this week, but I wanted to get back to updating more often. Biggest update is that I've started doing 9Round with my son.  It is a challenge to say the least and I leave out sore most of the time.  The next morning is killer.  I'm sure that is why folks that do CrossFit, F3 and other programs on a regular basis talk about it non stop because the pain don't quit man.  I suppose it'll get better. The owner of the one I go to used to be big so he understands what I literally can't do and modifies the routines for me.  It's good to get back to working out, we've been 6 times now. With going out of town we'll miss most of this week but went Mon and Tue already. I'm hopeful it'll help my son with his soccer, it's something to keep him active during the down time between fall and spring season.  Hoping all the burpees and jumps and upper body workouts will pay off for him in the goal this spring. I've stayed the course with

Once a month is better than every 5 years

I've neglected to update this blog in over a month!  Whoops. Life happened. I've stayed the course on my journey though.  I was 3rd in our October step challenge, but not from a lack of effort.  I finished the month with over 400k steps up 50k from Sept.  My competitors definitely stepped up their game.  For November I'm curently in 2nd place.  Weight wise I'm down 58 lbs for the year.  My monthly average loss is 3 lbs for the year, that is brought down by a 0 loss in August, not sure how that happened, but I do see that Sept and Oct increased, ironic that is when I got the tracker and started the step challenge.  Funny how that works right? Some key exciting things I can note over the last month would be: We had a luncheon at work and I was able to fit in the auditorium chairs.  It was nice to sit with coworkers enjoy the meal and talk.  Previous luncheons I've either skipped or had to go stand later for the presentation after my legs went to sleep from sq

Tuesday commitments don't work either

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So turns out making my commited date on a Tuesday didn't help me not skip a week on this blog thing.  Gotta do better. I'll put a reminder in my phone, but here's what I've been up to. I annilated the competition on our Sept step challenge.  I hit 10k all 30 days, the closest anyone else came was 24 days.  The Oct challenge is toal steps.  Through 6 days I'm in 2nd place, one guy is torqued off about losing Sept and out to annilate everyone. I'm very pleased with the difference the tracking devices have made in our family.  We are all more active the last few weeks.  $ 80 bucks well spent. I met again with the health coach at work, she is very pleased with my progress and the addition of the tracker and step challenges.  Also got a goodish report at my annual physical, it was a good report, but if they don't let you know at my weight you got issues to deal with why even go?   It was nice to have positive talks with the Drs about progress and the like r

Milestone reached

Monday morning I was down an even 50 pounds!!!! Today I wasn't but I always fluctuate a few pounds each day, so I'm claiming the milestone! Another milestone was this weekend while camping I was able to easily zip the sleeping bag and put both arms in!!!!  I can't ever remember being able to do that short of when I was a very young kid.  Granted it's a big and tall bag, but still. I've been looking for a bag for a couple years, finally got a double bag a couple years ago that wasn't great and was just way to big to manage. I'm still easily killing the skinny folks at work on our step challenge!  It's pretty funny because I'm in the worst shape of the bunch but I do walk walk walk. Next committed update is 9/27.

Way behind on blogging

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Couple of bad news items: I've definitely not done good at is keeping this blog up to date. I missed my goal of 30 minutes for my morning walk by Labor Day.  The best time I made was 35 minutes twice the week before labor day.  Once soley just walking and once running, ok jogging, ok well best I could do to immitate these.  I got the same result both ways The good news is I've stayed the course in walking monday to friday.  My food logging is still going strong and I crossed the 45 lbs lost mark last week.  The downward trend is starting to show through One of my co-workers started a step challenge at work for the month of Sept.  I figured it would be a fun thing so I signed up.  I bought a Jawbone UP cia bug and started using it 8/27.  The goal is to get 10k steps each day in Sept.  So far I haven't missed a day.  My morning walks get me 4200-4500 steps and then with a little effort I can pick up the rest througout the day.  The tough days are the weekend

Slow and steady but always moving!

I was due to make a post on Tuesday, but didn't. This past week we came back from our last beach trip of the summer.  We got to see baby sea turtles hatch again for the 2nd year in a row.  It's a very cool thing. Both kids had open houses.  The boy starts middle school!  I was pretty nervous but then we lucked out his home room teacher is my buddy's wife.  I don't know her really well, but it put my mind at ease for sure. I met with the life coach at work again last week.  She's pleased with my progress and said I was on the right track.  I got back in a month or so.  The snacking is still a new thing and I will have to get better. One of the guys at work is starting a step challenge the first of September.  I didn't have any sort of tracking device, but I wanted to participate.  Another buddy told me about an Up Move device that was under $20 on Amazon.  So I ordered some and they showed up right as we were leaving for a soccer tourney this weekend. I

Couple days late still on track

Friday was very hectic, so I didn't get my post up.  Left the house at 6:30 to grab some butts to smoke Saturday before work.  I got home from the boys soccer camp at 9:30 and had to prep them to go on the smoker at 6 am.  I did my walking during his camp and I was brutally reminded why I get up do that in the mornings!!!  It was 95 degrees and that track has very little shade.  Also very hard to keep pushing for 2 miles on a track.  Much better motivation to keep going when your a mile from the house and your only option to quit is call your wife for a ride home!!! I got the smoker loaded Saturday by 6:30 am and crawled in bed last night just before midnight!  Long long days. Today I had to tame the yard.  Had to do it in the heat of the day to avoid the rain that was coming.  Kept hoping it would start and save me.  Afterwards someone told the boy that boardwalk Billy's was the best place around to Pokemon.  So I took him over there for a couple hours, worse places to kil

Quick post before a hectic weekend

Progress this week was steady, biggest news is I started snacking at work!  Sounds and seems very counterintuitve to me, but we all know I did everything exactly wrong for 40+ years so I'm going to follow the nutrionists advice. Snacks are fruit and either almonds or peanut butter.  We went to the farmers market sunday and got some fresh fruit.  It's gone good, just have to remember to do it at work and get in the habit.  Good news is i got a new lunch bag!  (Ha) Walking is going good, I've had some knee pain this week but I attribute that mostly to missing a chiro appt last week.  I had to go in early Wednesday morning for work so the family joined me for an evening walk.  That was nice the weather ended up being great for it.  Finally a break from the heat. The weekend is going to be hectic, it's birthday weekend for lil bit and she will have a sleep over tomorrow evening.  Hopefully the shrieking will be minimal or at least not in the room I'm in.  (One can

Missed a week

Last week was hectic and I missed posting my update.  Crazy week of working remote and more soccer club drama.  Happy to now have my son on a new soccer club and even more excited the more I get to know his new coach.  He's very experienced and took a group of U14 boys from an also play team to the state championship game by they time they were U18.  I'm excited to see what he can do with this new team that's forming. You'll notice a new tracker on the left of the blog.  It's a few lbs off because obviously I wasn't tracking by in 2015 when I hit my max weight I estimate at 430.  But in the grand scheme of things I'm going to go with the tracking that is there going forward. So while over all I'm down 40 lbs this year, since I've only been since April 25, 2016, by this widget I'm down 29 lbs over 13 weeks which works out to over 2 lbs per week.  More importantly than this my energy level is much higher.  I mowed the grass last night in mid 90

Almost 3 months in

So July 25 will be 3 months of daily tracking my meals and walking 5 times a week.  It doesn't really seem like that long ago, but I just checked the calendar and counted on my fingers to confirm it. Over the 4th week I didn't walk, but we were at the beach and I stayed really active.  We were at the ocean nearly every day and they days we weren't I was working on a bathroom remodel.  I took the kids out and we swam at low tide across Tuggs Inlett it is between Sunset Beach and Ocean Isle.  Lil Bit did great no issues, other than got tired and panicked on the way over at the end.  The boy surprised me and struggled going and coming.  I guess her swim lessons are paying off.  It is definitely not something I could have done last summer.  So that is a win. I'm losing weight slow and steady.   I'm down 37 pounds in 12 weeks.  Seems like it's a very slow go, but looking at the numbers there that works out to 3 lbs a week.  That pretty impressive.  Stats are beau

Missed a week but I'm on track!

So I missed a week of checking in with the blog.  But the good news is that while traveling last week I did walk every morning.  The road by my moms is right at 1 mile long and I walked up and down every morning.  The extra incline was tough!!! I also stayed on track with my eating.  I've walked every day this week as well and kept my intake in check. I don't know how to best express it, but I can't believe how much better I feel in general since starting this new journey.  My activity level is much better, I'm not experiencing nearly as much back pain and foot pains I once thought were just part of life have basically subsided.  Dont' get me wrong I'm still sore most days at times, I mean I'm still 40 years old an 395 lbs, there's gonna be aches and pains.  But I'm happy to report I'm moving in the right direction. The next few weeks will be hectic, we'll be traveling a lot and off schedule.  I'm committed to seeing this through, s

Making progress

Slow and steady wins the race they say in the tortoise and hare stories. I got the slow part down!  Can't seem to get my walk times down much but did have a bit under 42 minutes one morning. Walking is going good aside from speed and becoming routine.  Up at it everyone morning, since school is out I've been going a hour later, it is nice to sleep but has been warm.  No doubt I couldn't do it mid day at work now and not need a shower and change of clothes! My energy level is much better, I've been doing yard work mid week after work.  I never had the energy for that before. This week I even weighed in under 400 lbs for the first time in years.  Can't say I remember the last time I was maybe a CAD biggest loser?  Probably not though. Next week I'm off to help at a camp with the kiddos.  Will be tough to keep the walking up away from home but I'm planning to do it.  I'll be driving home Friday so my next update probably won't be until Saturda

7 weeks in

I just went back and looked this is my 7th week of this journey. I met my first short term goal last Sunday.  I rode my bike to the pool with my daughter.  My son didn't want to ride his, but we had our summers open party and rode.  I had to push some on the first hill, but to be fair it's a very steep hill and I nearly made it up. Hopefully next week we'll get a chance to bike up one day after work. This weekend we are headed out camping with our CAD friends.  We go a couple times a year and have since my son was 3.  My daughter started the next year and has been going since she was in diapers. I'm excited since Santa brought me a fancy REI tent.  Should be a good trip, hopefully not too hot and looks to be dry. I've settled into a routine of walking 2.1 miles every morning prior to work, most days my average time is 42 minutes. The daily stairs was really stressing my knee so I've paused that for now. I've controlled my intake this week and not

Not much to update

Short week after our trip to the coast. I will say it was nice to not be exhausted after the walk to the beach for once. Buoyed by my success at losing weight I lost focus on limiting calories so my weight has held stead the last couple weeks. I got to do better on limiting intake for sure. Walking is becoming more routine.  I was encouraged that I convinced myself to just get on up and walk Tuesday morning after a long weekend.  Reason being that I'd still be sleepy after 45 min in bed when I'd have to get up, and then feel like crap all day for not walking.  So I drug my fat ass out of bed and walked.  Took 48 minutes instead of 43ish but I did it.  My best time has been 39 minutes but it was raining that day, so I had extra motivation to get done. Next committed update is 6/10.  May do it on the 9th since I hope to be in the woods with no cell service on the 10th!

A month in

I guess this late posting thing will occur more often. I've been tracking my intake and walking regularly for over a month now. I've surprised myself by sticking with it.  I've learned a lot about how I got this way now, just this week we went to Carolina Ale House one of my favorite spots.  The wings and fries I used to have at least once a week are over 2,100 calories.  That's nearly 90% of my daily intake need!  Wow!  Also a cookout strip tray is 1500 calories, that used to be my lunch nearly everyday for years. The walking has been good.  My back feels better than it has in a long time.  I have some pain in my left knee.  Of course I'm not using a cane like the dr told me I would by 30 if I didn't let him cut on it when I was 17!!!  That surgery may happen someday but hopefully I can coax a few more years out. Weight wise I'm down nearly 20 lbs, I had hoped I would be 25 by this week, but I'm glad to be where I am.  The scale reading my weigh

Sneaking this one in late!

Crazy hectic week for us!  It was soccer club tryout week.  Our son has a  sprained foot so he couldn't tryout.  We weren't sure how it would work out. The club he played with last season had light turnout the first night and I freaked out that they might not make a team his age.  Straight up first world crisis!  We visited other clubs but in the end wound up exactly where we had planned at the beginning of the week. I got all my walks in this week. I surprised myself walking a couple mornings in the rain.  Ok drizzle but still.  I've always thought walking in the rain was ridiculous.  But I wanted to be sure I had it done and with the 'soccer crisis' going on I think I needed to know I had something go right with the day. Last weekend I tried the scale again and I'm very excited to have it read a number.  I've checked all week and it's dropped some all along.  I lost 4 lbs this week!  I'm down to 404!  I've lost at least 17 lbs.  I was at th

Only 3 weeks in?

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Wow I checked back at the blog. Seems like I've been doing this walking thing forever at this point, at least a month or so. However this is only the end of my 3rd full week. Really feels like longer, but it is what it is. I had been walking some at work in the weeks before so maybe in my mind I'm tying that in. Doesn't really matter in the long run, just a thought I had today. Even if it's only 3 weeks in I feel much better, I did skip my walk yesterday morning. I hadn't slept well and when the dog woke me up at 5 I thought let me move my alarm up so I can at least get an hours sleep before work. Guess how that worked out? Anyway I kinda justified it because I was planning to mow after work and that's walking too right? It's a cop out no doubt. I did however track my walk while mowing. (Special shout out to my wife for encouraging me to do that, and also encouraging me over the last 3 weeks as I've started this journey.) Interestingly enough

Isn't this supposed to get easier?

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The past week was tough. I didn't get any exercise in on Wednesday. My legs were on fire all day Tuesday and I just couldn't make myself get out of bed. Overall I did pretty well with activity though I've walked 8 miles this week. I'd have lost a bet if someone had told me that would happen this time last year. So that is a win. I'm doing well tracking my food. Below is a snap pic I took of the info on myplate. I had a wake up call on Wednesday (tough day all around I guess) because I made 'breakfast dinner'. Who the hell knew homemade biscuits have over 200 calories each? (ok apparently that's common knowledge I either never heard or chose to ignore over the years.) I went to bed hungry and still went over my calorie goal. Oh and I'd have never thought a small piece of sausage would be equal to a nice pork chop in calories. I suppose that is the point of tracking so that you can learn to make better decisions. Still haven't broke

Successful week!

This past weekend I was out of town on a soccer club trip so I definitely got some walking in but didn't track food. Monday I started tracking my food. All week I've tracked everyday and been at least 600 calories under what myplate says I should be to lose 2lbs a week, except Wednesday, I was 30 calories over. Apparently a bag of microwave popcorn is 500 calories!!! So much for my favorite evening snack. Which really I shouldn't have. I've walked 2 miles each day this week. I haven't gotten any bike riding in, but maybe this weekend. Lunchtime walking hasn't been working well. It's stupid busy at work and so hot I've been in a full lather. Tuesday I got my walk in while my son had soccer practice in. Since Wednesday I've gotten up early to do my walking. I've done the stairs the days I'm in my main office, one day after a luncheon I even did them a second time. My manager and some coworkers went up with me. My legs were pissed

5 Years later, Really?

So it's been over 5 years since I started this blog. How did that go so quickly? Anyway I suppose it's an accomplishment that I'm still the same size as I was 5 years ago, but it sure feels like a hollow victory. I need to find a way to start making some incremental progress. It's going to be a long process I'm sure of. I turned 40 years old last October and I seriously don't know that I'll live to see my kids graduate HS at this point much less know my grandkids. My short term approach increase my activity level and cut down on my food intake. The intake is the key to losing weight, my head knows this but it doesn't stop me from snacking or over indulging at meals. Activity level is a little easier for me to tackle, most days I take the stairs up to my 5th floor cube in the mornings. I've been taking a nearly 2 mile walk at least 3 times a week. It makes a huge difference, I feel much better. I got a bike for father's day last yea