I'm invincible, but my shins are not!

So I apparently have bad grammar.  Honestly  I do have spell checker turned on.  But as I was reading over my last blog post I definitely noticed several grammatical errors.  So I fully appreciate your patience while I figure out the difference between  "it's" and its.  LOL.  I'm kidding, I know the difference, I just type super fast and I tend to miss some of the details like; no, an apostrophe doesn't go there.

Despite my flaws in writing,  I'm doing pretty great.  I don't know if this applies to everyone, or if it is just something I feel.  But after I get a hard workout completed, I feel great!  A bit sore, and I have aches and pains all over, but I feel great.  What I mean by that, is that I'm excited, I feel a bit more passionate about everything I'm doing. I have more energy to devote to the things I feel are important.  My mind seems a bit more clear.  Yeah, I have pain all over.  Not to be cliche, but No pain, No gain right?

I like feeling great, it gives me a great attitude and it makes me feel like I'm invincible.  I also feel less stressed about what is going on around me.  My work life feels more positive, and when I get home I feel ..  who am I kidding, when I get home I pass the fork out.  Ha!   But when / if I don't pass out I am more engaged and I have a slightly better attention span.  Wife might disagree with me there.

I will say that going day to day is rough.  Sometimes it is hard to be so positive, and sometimes it comes easy.  Today has been a good day, and I'll take that as a win!  So while I'm in a great mood, and I feel like I can share anything.  Let me do what I love to do.. Complain!  Yay!

So what is the deal with shin splints.  Like for real?  They are just the worst!  I am pretty sure I have some because every step I take feels like my damn bones are breaking.  I do feel like I mask it pretty well.  I'm not limping around or anything.  But let me tell you, they are wicked.  I've had them before too, when I use to dance in a Portuguese folk dance group.  yeah, you read that right. I was a Portuguese folk dancer! LOL.  Now you're never getting that out of your head.  Haha!

So hoping to have a full recovery for Friday's workout,  I'm taking it fairly easy.  I've been pretty good about my diet.  So far, only been cheating with some yummy IPA's .. LOL  but all my meals have been pretty low carb.  I'm excited for Sunday's weigh in.

For now,  here is the workout deetz!

31 splat points,  not bad.  We did a lot of weight room, so naturally i'm going to be sore as all heck! I had Aaron today. Yeah, he is the "are you okay?" coach.  And yes, he did it again to me today.  My heart rate was spiked after a 30s sprint at 7.0 speed.  That was after running at 5.0 for 5 minutes straight!   I was literally dying, and I'm pretty sure Aaron thought "this is it! He is going down!"  ha!  Well I have you fooled Aaron,  I made it!

Definitions of Success

How do we really define success.  I think there can be a little bit of success in all that we do.  I take win's, however small they are, as small milestones toward my greater goals.  I'm totally feeling successful these days.  I know I have not written a post in a little while.  Frankly it is hard to come up with witty, and interesting things to talk about on a daily basis.  I'm also not an award winning writer, so there is that. Ha! 

A day or two ago, I stepped up on the scale.  I normally don't do it until Sunday, but I was freaking out a little bit because I have not been running as much as I should.  But I have been sticking to my Keto diet.  Even when sticking to a diet, you still suck in a few carbs here and there. Old habits are hard to break, and let me tell ya, that Trickster IPA get's me every time!   But here I stand, looking down at little red numbers hoping that it's readout is something positive.  Then, Boom!  197.2!  I've still lost a few more pounds, a total loss of 17.8 pounds. 

These are wins, and I look back at what is getting me there.  I'm following my diet, 99% of the time.  I do cheat a little here and there.  I had sushi the other day, which is a little carb heavy, 27g,  but when you are already on a strict diet and consuming virtually zero carbs in everything else you eat.  You are close to the Keto allowance of 20 /day.   So hey,  I'm not perfect, but 99% of the time I am!  I feel that is still successful and my results are proving that I'm right.

All success has some reward.  It could be as good as a good feeling.  I do this fairly often,  I see tuns of people walking by a small piece of paper that is on the floor.  Someone clearly dropped it, whether it was a wrapper, a trashed receipt, or just some garbage.  But I, most of the time, will pick it up and throw it away.  Keeping our facility clean, because I think others appreciate it and I also don't like litter.  But that is a win for me, a little bit of success and I end up feeling good about it.

In my fitness journey I am being rewarded by feeling better and losing weight.  And I really feel good and motivated to keep going!  It's hard to make diet and fitness a lifestyle, but it is necessary.  As I approach 45 years of age,  I feel aches and pains in my body all the time.  My sciatic nerve shoots pain down my leg virtually all day long.  My tummy frequently goes on the fritz, and I'm fairly certain that IBS runs in my family.  My dad screams at me all the time,  "you should take probiotics, it works miracles!"  Ha! Dad!  But I truly believe that a healthy diet and being more fit helps alleviate some of the pains of getting older.  Maybe not all of them, but a little bit of relief makes a world of difference. At least it does for me.

Today's Progress
I rocked out a solid work out today.  While my splat points were down,  I had a more weight lifting workout. I was doing some sort of bench press and my arms literally felt like jello tube extensions from my shoulder down to my fingers.  It was hard, and my back was hurting and I was really miserable.  My coach today calls it "uncomfortable", blah, blah.  You try being in this body for a day and tell me if your miserable or just "uncomfortable" when you heart is racing at 107% on the heart rate monitor.  :P   Complaints aside, I keep going because I want success. I want to beat this and I want to be in great shape this summer.  It's already starting to be gorgeous out!  Time to feel great!

Day 14 - No gain, no loss, lots of pain, but I am still all in!

So it's been a week, roughly, and I stepped on the scale last night.  No significant gain, but no real loss.  I can't help feeling a bit disappointed by that. Last week, I did slack a little bit because I was sick.  But I have been pretty good about sticking to the Keto diet.  I also did do some workouts.  On Monday, I went for solid run in my neighborhood, I made sure I got my 25 splat points in!  So come on! What's the deal here?

On that note, I did notice that running in my neighborhood is not the same as running at Orange Theory.  I went to OT today and for the same exercise duration I hit 45 splat points.  So clearly I'm pushed more in OT than when I run out of studio.  Regardless, it was a good run and I do like the cold chill while I'm running outside. 

In general, running is hard.  It hurts in the knees, my feet, and virtually every step comes with some form of pain.  I have to will my way though each minute and keep fighting to finish my workouts.  But that seems to go with everything in my life.  I've never quite had any sort of easy path.  I've always had to work hard for anything and that has always lead to a good result.  So running is no different for me. 

I've been doing a bit of introspection lately, and  I have been analyzing the things that I complain about. I feel like they are relatively insignificant compared to others.  I'm clearly not appreciating what I have and where I am at in my career, nor have I really taken in how fortunate I am.  I have a great job, I have a nice house. I have a wonderful wife that takes care of me.  Come on, what do I really have to complain about?  So this is being added to my overall self improvement goals. 

When I rebooted this fitness campaign I set these goals

• Loose 35-40 pounds
• Learn to care about the right things ( Eat right: Keto Diet )

So adding to that list is "Learn to appreciate what I have".   I think this goal is a solid way to stay motivated. I need to stay positive, push my limits and really show myself what I am made of.  I'm getting super pumped up and motivated just writing about it.  So I'm pretty sure this is going to work. Ha! 

Today,  I pushed a bit harder than normal in OT,  I smashed a whopping 45 Splat points, and I picked up my running Push Pace to 6.5.  That was my all out before!   Granted I felt like I was going to die, but I didn't!  This is kind of funny, I never see the coach go up to other people and ask if they are okay, or how they are doing.  But this coach Aaron,  he definitely keeps an eye on my heart rate.  When I'm pushing at 103%  to 107% in the red zone,  he comes over and gently pats me on the back and says "how are you doing, are you okay?".   So he is either a really nice guy or he thinks this fat old man is going to croak if I get to 110%.  LOL.

No matter what, I'm proud of what I accomplished so far.  I'm roughly 15 pounds down.  I am an accomplished human, and I have learned to care about my health.  I'm on a road to recovery and now I'm not feeling that down that I didn't loose any poundage over the last week.  I do look forward to pushing through and hitting my goals.  I just need to work hard, appreciate life, and keep learning!

The weigh in was good, the path was not.

The struggle has been real,  over the last few days I have gone through somewhat of a rough patch.  On Saturday I started feeling some nasty symptoms.  My stomach was a terrible mess and I knew something wasn't right.  I pushed through it though and despite my better judgement I went out with a friend on a boat to go look at other boats.  It was an amazing trip, I'm glad I went, well sort of.  We stopped at Ivars and I had clams and a vodka martini.  Clearly not using the best judgment here, but hey my diet said I can do that so I did.

By the time I got home, I was super ill and I couldn't keep a thing down for the next 12 hours.  If you have ever had or heard of the Nora Virus, you will know and understand what I was experiencing.  I don't think it was the Nora Virus,  but I have had the Nora Virus before and what I was experiencing was ridiculously similar to it.   Needless to say, I didn't exercise on Saturday, Sunday or yesterday.  I'm just barely recovering, but I am feeling much better now.

So while pondering what the heck happened to me, I have come up with a couple scenarios that I thought were interesting.  Well, I could have legitimately gotten ill with some virus.  My neighbours also have caught a virus and they were experiencing similar symptoms.  But they had a fever and I did not.  That is also why I am kinda ruling out the possibility of a virus.  No fever!  I also had thought that maybe I got some sort of food poising from the clams, but I started having severe issues with my stomach much earlier in the day on Saturday which detoured my efforts to exercise.  So I already wasn't feeling great, and I'll tell you the clams were delicious but definitely didn't help that situation.  Plus, I highly doubt that Ivars, a well established restaurant would be serving bad clams.  So I am for sure ruling out the possibility of food poisoning.   I did come across something interesting on the internets, because everything you read on the internets is true.  I could have gotten the Keto Flu,  yes it's a real thing.  The internets said so!  I had 4 of the 7 possible symptoms and I have been pushing really hard with my diet and exercise over the past week.  I don't know if I really had a Keto Flu, or if I got a virus.  But I was definitely ill and I was not happy about it.

But let's bring this back to a positive note, shall we.  I did a weigh in on Monday morning.  I am now 201.3 pounds.  Approximately 14 pounds lighter than the weigh in the week before.  I'm not sure if it was just the Keto diet, or the combination of working out and the Keto diet. Or if the fact that I was expunging all my bodily fluids into Mr. Toilet bowl had a role to play in my extreme loss of weight.  But I definitely lost a lot of weight in a little amount of time.

To be honest I am not sure how to feel about this whole thing.  On one hand, I am very happy that I have lost a bunch of pounds.  On the other hand, I feel like it is an extremely bad thing.  Loosing this much weight over the course of only a week seems unhealthy.  I feel like I may have over done it which might have caused me to not feel great and has tasked my old fart of a body to react poorly.  Or maybe it lowered my immune system and I more easily caught a bug.  Regardless, I don't recommend this route.  It was very painful, it was a lot of hard work (Good) and the end result of getting sick (Bad) was a terrible experience.

The new plan!  Let's ease up a bit.  I've gotten a good break, so tomorrow I'm going to have a nice run.  I'm going to only workout 3 times a week and pair that with my continued Keto diet.  I still want to shed the pounds, but I want to do it the right way and come out a healthier version of myself.

Overall this is a great life lesson, know your limits!  Knowing what you can and can't handle is an important part of any exercise and diet program.  Hind sight being 20/20 and all, I would not have pushed myself so hard over the last week.  I should have had more rest days.  I would have gotten more sleep and I probably wouldn't have gone on the boat trip with Chad when I already wasn't feeling good.   Although, Chad and I singing "Africa" by Toto while standing on the bow of Chad's boat watching the sunset go down was an exquisite moment that I feel made all the pain worth it! Ha!

No workout results today, just 14 pounds down and recovering from bad decisions.  Tomorrow is a new day and I look forward to getting back into the routine.  Make good choices, live a healthier life and feel great!

Until next time, Caio!

Day 5 - Making it through the shit day

Have you ever had a total shit day?  I have, and oddly enough it usually starts from the moment I wake up.  Yesterday was a total shit day, and from what I've heard it was a total shit day for a few others too.

For me it absolutely started when I got out of bed.  My legs hurt so bad I felt like I could barely stand,

I woke up late and slept right through my alarm. Which, by the way, is instant stress.  I continued to push through and even convinced myself to show up to work.  But being at work was no treat either, I've been struggling at work also, my OKR's (Objective Key Results) don't make any sense, I can't seem to get a good understanding of some of the specifications I'm supposed to write and for the life of me I can't seem to find the data that I need to make good decisions.  I kinda felt totally useless yesterday and frankly I'm glad it is over.  Needless to say, I used yesterday as my rest day, which is a bummer because I was going to use the weekend as my resting days off.  So now I have to do a run on Saturday to really achieve what I set out to do.

But today is a new day,  I am refreshed, and this morning I woke up and I knew I needed to do the work.  That is life, it knocks you down and you have to roll with the punches.  Shit days are inevitable.  That is just how it goes, but I have to pick myself up and dust off all yesterdays bull shit and rock on into today. 

My sister once gave me a huge compliment.  She said "I admire your ability to never give up".  I also agree that is one of my best qualities.  We can't give up on things we believe in, and sometimes when things are not going your way it seems like the right thing to do is to give up.  I just can't do that, I have to see things through.  Even my company Hashbang Games, which constantly struggles.  I don't give up on that either as much as I want to.  It is a cockroach that won't die, but it's because I don't give up on it.

I'm not giving up on my fitness, even a total shit day won't keep me down.  And today's endurance workout at Orange Theory was just what I needed to set my mind right.  I pushed hard today,  I bumped up my pace.

-- Pause --

Okay, on Day 3 I gave some misinformation.  Apparently the  Base pace is 4.5-5.5 for runners, it's still +1-2 for each stage after that for Push and All Out.   And the numbers do represent miles per hour.  I think I was just even amazed that I run 5.5 miles per hours.  To me that is crazy!  Thanks Beth & Kevin for pointing that out! ;-)

-- Un-Pause --

As I was saying, I bumped up my pace to an 8.0 All Out!  I increased my push to 5.8 and I slayed the workout earning 45 splat points!  995 Calories burned and I'm feeling proud that I bounced back and didn't give up after a shit day.  Special thanks go out to people that support me, Jen (Wifey), my friends and family for their great words of encouragement on Facebook!  It means a lot!

So I will keep rockin on!  One day at a time!

Day 3 - The wrong motivation, but the right result

I know that you all are on the edge of your seat waiting for what I chose to do yesterday.  Or maybe you aren't but, hey,  I'm trying to create some suspense here!

The results are in and I chose the Gin.  I will say that not caring that much about having a couple Gin drinks really felt like my cheat day.  However, it also motivated me to get my lazy, sore, achy butt out of bed at 5:00 AM to get to my Orange Theory class. 

I also feel a bit relieved!  I'm not perfect and I don't need to be perfect.  What I need is to be strong!  Strong enough to bounce back, and keep doing the right thing day after day.  Was Gin the greatest thing for me, probably not,  but I'm convinced that I have redemption in the 60 minutes I dedicated to tearing it up on the treadmill this morning with a peek heart rate of 191.  

I'm not going to lie here, It was brutal!  My legs hurt so bad that every step was like someone was stabbing me with a knife.  In addition, I was in the red-zone a lot this morning.  At one point the coach came over and gently put his hand on my back, as I was running full speed, and said.  "Are you okay?  You might want to walk it off a little bit."  and all I could blurt out in response was "legs hurt".  I didn't want to quit though,  I wanted to finish the 45 seconds in the "Push Zone" and then I got 90 seconds to walk it off.  So that is exactly what I did! 

So just to fill you in on some Orange Theory mechanics.  There is a base zone,  a push zone and an all out zone.   Base for a runner is a run speed of 3.5 - 4.5,  and a push zone is +1-2 to that and a all out zone is, i think, a +1-2 to the push zone.  So when I was doing a push I was running at a speed of 5.5.   I really have no clue what it actually means.  It isn't miles per hour,  but I will say it is a significant difference going up 1 point.   Going from 4.5 to 5.5 puts me in the red-zone and I feel like the lady in the picture to the top right.

However, driving to work this morning was pure bliss!  I rolled down the window and I had just come out of my workout.  The chill this morning filled my car and it just felt so nice.  I really love Seattle / Redmond or really just Washington in general.  It is gorgeous here and I really found some reward in how refreshing just that moment was.  I earned it, I worked hard,  and I am now hungry as all hell.  LOL.  But really, I'm also very motivated.  I'm motivated to keep going, I'm even feeling a bit motivated to do some really great work today at my Job. 

I think back to just last night, having a couple drinks with some great friends.  I did cheat a little,  but wow I feel more motivated now than on Day 1.  Maybe it's just a little reward for doing a lot of work, or maybe I am just getting into the zone.  Either way,  this wrong motivation feels so right.

Today's Result!  Kickin' Ass!

41 Splat points, Heavy red-zone endurance day at Orange Theory.  I burned a crazy good 933 calories.  My average heart rate was actually down a few points and I feel like that is a good sign.  However, look at that peek heart rate!  191, I was working super hard!

I just know that I'm doing great things for my body!  I don't know if it is all in my head, or if I just am really feeling a bit better.  Despite all the pain, all the struggle I am starting to feel great! 

Today's a great day!  Party on!

   

Day 2 - The Suffering

"I hated every minute of training,  but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion."  You know who said that?  Muhammad (forkin) Ali!   I'm in the same boat Muhammad! I hate running, to me it's horrible.  It hurts the next day, in fact I woke up this morning after working out yesterday and I feel like a bus ran me over multiple times.   But I'm not quitting!  I got up, and did a quick run!

Yesterday during my workout, I was chatting with a lady that was there at Orange Theory (OT) and she was telling me that she has been working out since February (Impressed!). She also said she has not lost a single pound.  I was definitely shocked by that, so I asked her if she was also on a diet plan.  I always thought that if I worked out that I could eat what I wanted.  But in reality that isn't the case at all!  You have to eat right to compliment the hard work you are doing on the exercise front. 

Last time I went on this adventure I was on the paleo diet.  That did work out pretty well, but oh did I suffer on the eating part.  Paleo just sucks the life force out of me and crushes my hopes and dreams of eating anything that fuels my desires.  So I'm definitely trying something new this time around. 

Yesterday I started the Keto diet,  I have a good friend that is doing it and Jen started doing it and so I am jumping on this Keto band wagon.   I have to say day one was not too bad.  Look at this delicious morsel! I will say it tasted as good as it looks!  So I certainly have high hopes about less suffering during this diet!

Regardless,  I do know that I can't just eat whatever I want.  I have to care about what I put in my body.  If I over eat,  which is my Jam, then I'm counteracting all the exercising that I'm doing.  My really great friend Beth said to me that many people have this misconception that if you exercise, then you can intake more calories.  It is not true people!  So I need to stick to the schedule and care about my input.

But here it comes,  my big confession.  I am certainly going to break protocol here.  I looked up what type of alcohol I can have because I'm going to this thing and I really like to drink when I socialize.  It turns out that that Gin and Vodka are Keto friendly, but also not really "any diet friendly".  Here is why,  when your body breaks down alcohol and uses it for energy,  that is when you start feeling the effects of "the drink".  But that is also counter productive to what a diet is supposed to do.  If you are using a toxic substance to create energy you are no longer burning the fat that helps you lose weight! 

So now I have to make a choice!  Drink and socialize,  or don't drink and socialize.  I'll let you know how much I really cared about that topic tomorrow! LOL.

Today's Progress

For now, here is Today's progress.  I had a great run!  I got up at 7:00, and shook off all the suffering and pain and got suited up.  I took an interesting route and I kinda sorta got lost when on my run.  Mostly because I have zero sense of direction, and I had to use google maps to find my way back.  But in doing so, I found a really cool route that is a little hilly, but has a good balance of hills and flat so I can get an effective workout.  I'm not quite sure how far I ran today.  But I was running and a little walking for about 25 minutes.  Here is my splat report!  21 splat points, and 580 calories burned!  #PatSelfOnBack

I'm also excited that I've successfully stuck with it two days in a row.  It's hard to keep going.  Motivation is low, but like Green Latern I have to use will power to push through it.