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. 

 

Day 1 - Rebooted

Four years have passed, and I have been doing a bit of a postmortem of my fitness and health over the last few years. We all remember my amazing effort to slim up in 2015 for my 40th birthday.

Since then, I gained all that weight back and I can't help but to wonder why. I recently had an interesting experience with a scale. I got on it in the morning, and I already wasn't feeling too great about my weight. I knew just from how my cloths fit, or rather no longer fit, that I was going to be disappointed by the results. I was even more shocked when the scale screamed at me to get off! That's right, I got ERROR! Joking aside, I reset it, and then I weighed in at 215 pounds. I was right, very disappointed! All that hard work in 2015 completely gone, and I felt totally defeated by life.

So today is the start of my fitness reboot. I'm back on the mission and I realized that I need to set some ground rules for success to happen. First, I need a goal! I want to lose 35 to 40 pounds in the next three months. It is a bit aggressive, but I do believe that setting aggressive goals that challenge us is super important. The second ground rule is that I need to care. As I reflect in my postmortem of my health and fitness, I realized that I just didn't care enough to take my health and fitness serious. That burger just looks and tastes so good, and I stack a large fry with it. Gluttony has gotten the better of me far too often in the last 4 years and I realized that I eat all the feelings.

Today, I'm learning to care. Care about what I eat and care about how many calories in versus how many calories I burn. I am learning to care about not eating that candy that some awesome person put on my desk. I'm also learning to care about how to break my bad habit's so that I can successfully reach my goal. The way I see it, is that I only seem to do anything when I actually care about something.

I think another important thing is to care about the right things and stop caring about the wrong things. There are more important matters at hand than eating all the things. I need to care about work, spending time with my wife, going on trips or hikes. After all, spring and then summer is coming right around the corner! There are lots of things to care about that fall more in line with my goal and thus I will spend some time to care about the right things.

The status report for today. I started Orange Theory, it a is a fitness class which I find to be very challenging. It is kind of like a Cross Fit, except they focus on training your body to recover faster. So you start with a warm-up, then quickly move to high exertion. Once your heart rate is in the red-zone, it is time to bring it back down. Allowing your body to recover between each set. We also alternate exercises, which I do fancy. Spend a few minutes all out on a treadmill, then move to something a bit more chill like the rower or lifting some weights. Then rotate back into the treadmill for more power running.

The evaluation is based on how many "splat points" you get. The more the better, and today I got 45 spat points and burned a whopping 946 calories!



As you can see, I was in the red-zone for quite a while. I felt like I was going to die! I wanted to give up so bad, but I kept looking at myself running in the mirror and telling myself that I care! I'm going to do this, I'm going to succeed!

60 days of fitness for this fat old man, Day 1 - Rebooted. I've got a new, and long road ahead; which I'm both excited and scared. Wish me luck!

The Big Day - Final Post

Waking up and knowing that my big birthday bash is only a few hours away had my nerves on edge.  I hurl myself out of bed at 7:30 am to get an early jump on the day.  I can't believe that it has been 60 plus days since I started this fitness adventure, furthermore I was amazed at the results.  Now I have not looked at my before pictures, and I had definitely not done a side by side comparison until yesterday.  Jen has this really cool app on her phone that takes two photos an puts them side by side.  It is pretty neat, and I was astonished at what I saw.

I have been watching the scale like a hawk, even know I've been told several times that it probably wasn't a good idea.  However, I am glad I did because I was working hard to get fit and I was seeing the pounds dropping off of me day after day.  To date, I have lost 21 pounds and over 6 inches of belly fat.

I can honestly say that this has been the best 60 days leading up to my party and it was the best birthday party ever!  Unfortunately this will be the last post of this blog.  It has been such an adventure and I was very happy to share and write about it.  Truthfully, this is the first time I've publicly written anything, so I hope you all have enjoyed reading and following along with my adventure.

Being Green Lantern was truly special.  As I've stated early on in my blog posts,  I have a strong connection to the character and that has helped me with my journey to fitness.  I went with the Ryan Reynolds version of the Green Lantern, and instead of making a costume I went with a full body painting.  I found this really awesome company that is here in San Diego called Mr. Body Paint,  and you can see his work at  http://www.mrbodypaint.com.  He showed up at my house at about 12:15, and we went over what I wanted.  My plan was to wear a compression runners shirt and compression shorts,  but he said that I should go bare skin on everything except the shorts,  so I took his advice.  Unfortunately for me,  I had to shave my entire upper body and my legs.  But I did it, and he was totally right it came out great!  It took nearly 3 hours to complete and I was proud to be The Green Lantern!

The party ended up being amazing.  At about 3:30 people started to show up to the party, and my house quickly became Super Hero Central.  We had great food,  a tun of laughs and lasting memories that will carry with me forever.  Here are some great characters from my party.

...

Day 60 - The Birthday Boy

My eyes open,  I'm 40....Shit.   It all went by so fast,  only yesterday I was a punk kid clueless to the world.  I know my father probably looked at me and thought, how is this kid is going to make it through life.   For many years, I was just that, a kid with blinders on.  I would try, fail, pick my self up and try again.  I learned a thing or two over the years though,  and I know I've made my father proud to this day.  

Green Lantern is now a big part of me,  I didn't grow up with him,  and I discovered him by seeing the movie, but I do not discredit his importance to me.  He represents that try, fail, pick myself up and try again part of me.  The "Will" to go on even when you fail over and over again.  Today on my 40th birthday,  I am a reflection of Green Lantern and I am eager to see what the future holds.

So this is my 60th day of fitness,  we'll actually yesterday was and I choose to do CrossFit.  I look back and I can see all that I have accomplished this past 60 days.  I'm much thinner now,  I definitely do not feel fat anymore.  I am just estimating here because I measured my belly and waist kind of late,  but I've lost about 6 inches off my belly and I went from a size 38 pant, to a size 34.   I have not been this thin in 20 years.  I am feeling great,  I think I am near the best shape of my life and not only that, I have gained a lifestyle and a way to live life that is healthy.  Now I have a birthday party coming up,  and I'm almost all set for my big day.  I still have a week left of fitness to squeeze in, but today I'm relaxing since it's my Birthday and I've earned it.

Long gone are the days of struggle.  Sure each CrossFit is tough,  and running that last .5 miles of a 3 mile run is always brutal.  But it is not a struggle, I am physically fit,  I know my body can handle it and while that last .5 miles sucks real bad,  I push on through it because I can.  I remember the days where each pounding step struck my calves and legs like i was being bitten by snakes on the road.  I remember that Karen (150 wall balls) nearly gave me a heart attack.  I was so out of breath, I could literally have passed out.  I remember, wanting to give up day after day and I'm so glad that those days are behind me.  I'm 40 now,  and I can say with pride that I beat life's challenges.   Life, is just beginning, and I am fit with the tools to beat the next 40.

Today's Goal.

I'm relaxin' yo!  It's my birthday, and I'm going to spend some time having good laughs, and a nice dinner with my family.  No work out today.


Overall Progress.

So among the many inches off my belly and waist,  I've lost nearly 20 pounds, 19.4 to be exact.   I couldn't have imagined this result in 60 days,  but it's true, I did it!  I am super excited for my birthday party on the 7th.  I think i'm going to look pretty damn good as Green Lantern, and I will make him proud.  

So I have one more blog to write before I'm done.  I'm going to write the day after my party,  and I want to share with you all the before and after picture.  I wanted to wait until after my party,  so that you can see my Green Lantern costume and really see the difference between what I was then and what I am now.  So stay tuned,  March 8th, my final blog issue.

Day 45 - Fit for life

Green Lantern is the beacon for which I stand each day. He gives me hope that there is a way to get through any situation.  I'm representing Green Lantern on my birthday and I've been having a bit of trouble figuring out what I wanted to do for my costume.  March 7th is the day of my party, and the day is coming quick.  So recently, I've had to make a few tough choices and I've concluded that making my own costume is not going to happen.  There are a several reasons, but it is mainly due to lack of time and a plethora of skill that I just don't posses.  I have a vivid imagination of what my costume would look like and I have no means to accomplish the vision. The other issue is money, and it seems that my vision costs a lot more than I am willing to spend on a costume.

So in my despair, I have searched for a new solution, and what I've found might even be better than any costume that I could have made.  There are a few conditions in order for me to pull off this new solution and if I don't meet them I could seriously look ridiculous.  So here is my idea;  After much discussion with Jen and lots of Google-ing,  I've found a top notch artist that does full body painting.  The new plan is to go head to toe full body paint (except the private parts *wink*).   As you can imagine, or may not want to, if I am not fit by the time painting day comes around, then this could end up a complete disaster.  

Fear, is Green Lantern's arch nemesis.  It is also mine, and I definitely have some fears about this full body paint thing.  Firstly,  I'm not the hairless boy that I was when I was 12 years old.  I've grown into a full blown harry man (eww gross), and hair removal is going to be part of the process.  My mind immediately flashes to the movie 40 year old virgin, and instead of Steve Carell laying on the table it is me;  and I'm screaming "Kelly Clarkson!".  I can vividly see that Asian girl, holding up a patch of hair while I'm laying there crying, and calling me a "Pussy".   Ha!  This is NOT going to be fun.   Regardless,  the Green Lantern within overcomes these fears and I will press on as planned.

There is some good news,  and I was extremely excited about this today.  I weighed in at 184.8,  which means I have lost 17.2 lbs in 45 days!  I didn't even realize that I've lost that much and now it is making a bit more sense, that other people are recognizing my weight loss efforts.  This routine that I've been doing is obviously working, and I just have to stick to it.

Today's Goal.

I start a new program at CrossFit today.  My CrossFit TOV, is starting up a new program that really defines out what CrossFit is and they train you more on technique.  I signed up for 5 classes of the CrossFit essentials, so that my normal CrossFit workouts are not so brutal.  I didn't really know or understand this before,  but if your not doing the exercises properly your actually expending more energy and effort to do the same task.  The more fatigue I would get, the worse I was doing the technique.  These new classes at CrossFit are for beginners, and train you how to maintain the correct form and technique during the workouts.  So I'm excited about this new program; can't wait!

Today's goal is about knowledge, and learning the right way to do CrossFit!


Overall Progress.

I think overall I'm doing pretty good.  I've been on a steady routine of CrossFit and Running my 2.8 miles.  I do the running on days that I don't do CrossFit and that has been a nice relief from brutal workouts.  Recently, I started walking at work on my lunch.  I really like this, and I'm going to try to do that every day as well.  It's not a heavy workout, but a 1.5 mile walk still burns calories and is good for the heart (I've heard).  Then, every few days I take a rest day, or sometimes two depending on what my body is telling me.  I use to feel so guilty about taking a day off, but now it is more of a reward for all the hard work I've been putting into being fit.  

I looked in the mirror recently, and for once I was excited about being me.  I really have not felt that way in a long time.  I was getting old, and I was drastically overweight compared to what I was in my 20's.  This 60 days of fitness has probably been the best decision I've made in my life and my results keep inspiring me to keep it going and make this a lifestyle for myself.  This is no longer just looking good for my party,  it is looking good for the rest of my life!

Day 39 - Chaotic life, but I'm making it work.

It's mid day and super windy out and I can't help but to relate to the chaos that is brought on by strong winds.  I'm here at work today and the wind has claimed destruction over patio sets and the tree's.  Leaves flock about the street in a whirl and leave a mess of chaotic clutter upon the streets.  My life has not felt much different than this as of late.  It turns out that the hardest part about exercising is making time to write this blog each day.  I've been struggling from task to task to fit in the time.  The good news is that I have been doing a great job at sticking with my exercise routines.  It's been a rough road and getting back into the swing of things after being sick for a week has been a real challenge.  To catch you up,  I've been trying to hit CrossFit at least 4 times a week. 

 On my off days I've been running anywhere from 1 mile to 2.8 miles depending if my chaotic life has blown me in the opposite direction of CrossFit.  This has happened a couple times and it get's quite frustrating because all I want to do is get in a good workout, go home and eat like a pig from a trough.  Moreover, I am so exhausted when I get home that going upstairs to write my blog has been less of a priority and the food coma after I eat keeps me secured in my chair.

Getting sick sucked, We've all been through it and it's never fun.  The worst part about it is how it totally destroy's your routine.  Combine that with Jen's new job schedule and trying to find the best time to do CrossFit and I find myself needing a personal assistant. Ha!  Luckily,  I've fallen into a routine the past week or so and it is kinda working out.  I don't want to get up at 5:00 am anymore, plus Jen doesn't get up that early anymore and trying to get up on my own is completely hopeless.  So I had to find just the right solution.

My solution is pretty simple when you say it out loud,  Get up, make my protein shake, and go to work; leaving the house by 7:00 am.  Arriving at work by 8:00 seems to be the standard, because traffic at 7:00 am is a total nightmare.  So instead of my normal 40 minute drive, I'm stuck with a full 60 minutes of bumper to bumper.  That sucks, but it allows me to get off of work at 4:00 - 4:30 which is barely enough time to get to the 5:00 pm CrossFit class.  Where the wind blows in my direction,is usually around 4:00 when it's time to leave work and I've missed my CrossFit class a couple of times.  Thankfully, I have a solid backup plan, which is to run a mile and then follow it up with a solid upper body workout.   10 push-up's,  30 sit-ups,  20 Arm dips, and 50 jumping jacks,  and repeat that until I can't anymore.  Right now I'm up to 2 sets of that after my run,

On another note,  Paleo has been great!  I've really been enjoying all the food that Jen has been making and the diet has been the least difficult part of this journey to fitness.  There are so many wonderful recipes out there and we have been taking full advantage of it's deliciousness. 

Today's Goal.

I've been making it a habit to try to get to CrossFit every day,  so that is my goal today.  The workout for today looks pretty crazy and I have missed 2 days in a row.  Thankfully I did a bit of a workout each day to keep the momentium going.  But looks at this routine!  Crazy huh!

Workout Of The Day

Thursday, February 12th

STRENGTH/SKILL

Ab Tabata

WOD: "Beast 12"
25 Walking Lunges

20 Pull-ups

50 Box Jumps, 20/18

20 Double Unders

25 Ring Dips

20 Knees To Elbows

30 Russian Swings, 2/1.5 pood

30 Sit-up (standard)s

20 Dumbbell Hang Squat Cleans, 35/25 lbs

25 Back Extensions

30 Wall Balls, 20/14

3 Rope Climbs

Overall Progress.

So I'll try to keep you all posted on how it goes,   Right now, I'm down about 15 lbs and I had a fantastic day last weekend.  I went to my best friends daughters birthday party, she is 2 and adorable. When I arrived there everyone was boasting about how good I look and how much thinner I looked.  I could barely tell myself, but apparently it was pretty noticeable to those that have not seen me in a while.  This was very exciting for me and really has given me a boost in motivation to keep it up.  I have 22 days until my Birthday party so I'm going to have to work it hard to get my tummy as flat as possible for the big day.   

Thanks everyone for all your support! 

Day 30 - Do, or Do Not, there is no try!

There is nothing that I hate more than not doing something that I said I was going to do.  It really doesn't matter what the thing that I said I was going to do was,  If I said I was going to do it, then I should do it.   I'm am profoundly good at making excuses and I'm a damn good salesman too.  When you pair those together, I can sell myself any excuse like selling pork rinds to pigs.  Easy as Pie, as they say, but let me tell you right now;  It's not right!   I'm totally cheating myself, and that is assuming that I'm the only one whom I've made the promise to.

Last Sunday,  I ran my one mile.  I was proud of it, but come Monday morning I didn't wake up on time.  I didn't run in the morning and promised myself that I would run right when I got home.  I think you know where this is going.  I got home Monday night after sitting in traffic, and the excuses came flooding out of my mouth like water flowing from a river.   (whiney voice) I'm too tired,  I will run tomorrow,  I am still sick..  I was the pig, and I ate that pork rind right up and it was so good!

This morning, I tried to pull that same crap when I got up.   Today is Day 30, my half way mark.  I had to give myself a swift kick in the, pardon my french, ass.  I had to make a commitment, no more bologna!   It's like what Yoda says,  "Do, or Do Not,  there is no try".

Today's Goal.

Today I need to push myself.   I didn't run yesterday because I drank the coolaid, so today I need to work extra hard.  Today's goal is 1.6 miles and I better make it a solid run too.  This isn't punishment, this is what is needed because tomorrow I'm supposed to be running 2.8 so I can return to CrossFit.

I'm highly motivated, suited up, and ready to rock some enya.





Today's Progress.

Normally I do my stretches in my living room, but today I did them right in my driveway.  It's about 7:15 and the sun is up already.  Yeah, I'm running late, but it is such a beautiful morning out that soaking up the sun like Superman just felt like the right thing to do.  I hit the street running pretty hard,  It was almost too hard and I knew that I might have motivated myself a little too much.  So I had to slow it down just a tad so that I could get a nice rhythm down.

Running can be so euphoric.  But when I let it go, make excuses, and I miss days, it seems harder to get started.  That is when I have to reach deep in my gut and push through.  After getting half way down my street, I started to feel so much better.  My breathing was great and I could feel the fresh cold air piercing my lungs as if they were brand new.  I don't know about anyone else, but I generally hate the cold, except when I run.  When I run, I love the cold, and I love how fresh the morning feels on my face and body.   It's so refreshing.

By the time I go to the bridge,  I was a happy runner again.  I was all warmed up and highly motivated to complete my run.  Long gone are the days when I was struggling to do this run.  I hit Dulin Rd and headed back.

I'm not sure why the run back is such a pain in the butt all the time.  I use to think it was because I was completely exhausted,  but that is definitely not it.   Maybe it is because, I really don't want to stop running?  Maybe I'm Forest Gump and I just want to keep running from ocean to ocean?   I can't quite put my finger on what it is about the run back that is so bad, but every time I get about half way back down my street I feel like I'm running a little slower, or sometimes the street just seems extremely long.   Whatever it is,  it's always a struggle making that last .25 miles.   Today,  I felt like I cheated that somehow.  I recognized the feel, and Ignored it completely.  Instead of slowing down, I sped up.  When the road looked longer, I simply looked at my feet.   That seemed to help quite a bit and I was able to land on my driveway like a Football player making a touchdown. I made it today,  1.6 and it was an easy run.   I'm still not 100% over my cold, but I'm sure feeling a lot better.   Tomorrow's 2.8 is going to be rough, but I know I can do it.

Overall Progress.

So I've had quite a 30 days.  It definitely had it's up's and down's.  I pushed through lots of pain to get my body acclimated to running after 20 plus years of neglect.  I started CrossFit, man is that tough.  I also got my first running injury and learned some valuable lessons about resting.   I got sick and I bounced back.   The overall result, is that today I weighed in and I was 188.9 pounds!  13.1 pounds lost and this is the first time in 3 years that I have been under 190 pounds.   I'm super excited!  It just goes to show, that I can do anything if I put my mind, heart and soul into it.

Day 27 - 7 Day Roller Coaster.

I'm sure we have all heard the saying "what goes up, must come down".  This has certainly been the case with me this last 7 days.  One day,  I'm feeling like a million bucks and able to accomplish anything and then I have a week like this last 7 days.

It all started with a blessing from God,  Thomas Judah Roberts was born at 3:47pm 1/13/15.  This 7lbs 2oz  of cuteness inspired Jen and I to drive to Arizona and visit our friends Megan & Spencer.  We took a new route to their house this time around.  Our fun app called Waze, navigated us south from Fallbrook to the I8 freeway which we took virtually the entire way there.  It was an amazing and some what scary drive.  There was high winds and it nearly blew our car off a bridge, but thankfully Jen is a great driver and we didn't end up a flaming pile of rubble at the bottom of a canyon.  Upon arrival,  Spencer warned us both that he had been sick and he was on Antibiotics.   Honestly,  I was pretty careless here and I gave him a hug anyways.  I have not been sick in a long time and a lot of people around me have been sick and I have yet to catch anything.  I figured I was immune to it, and I ignored Spencer's several warnings.   We had an absolute blast with the Roberts.  To boot, his parents were there, whom are just really awesome people and Little Judah was so adorable.  

Now as I've said before,  I'm doing the paleo diet.  This means I have to stay away from things like delicious home made chocolate chip cookies.  The Roberts are great hosts and have amazing hospitality,  and here I log what I now call the "Sugar Incident".  I've been doing paleo for about a week at that point and I had been doing pretty good.  But I cracked and had one of those tasty cookies which ended up being so good that I became the poster boy for Pringles; "Once you pop, you can't stop".  I had so many cookies,  and then I polished it off with a piece of Spenser surprise birthday cake.  I was so happy to be there and see them, that I pretty much ate my feelings.

So the trip was amazing and I was completely off the rails.  I didn't run on Sunday,  but that was good because I needed as much rest for CrossFit on Monday night.  

I hit up CrossFit on Monday and the exercise of the day was called "Karen" which were 150 ball walls.  Honestly, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  Our warm-up consisted of the standard stretching, running, butt kickers, knee highs and a solid lesson on how to jump rope.   After our warm-up,  we got a short training on what a ball wall was, and it didn't seem so bad.  It's a very simple move,  which involved a medicine ball.  I probably picked one that was too heavy for me, I started with a 14 pound ball.   Above each station, there was a bulls eye target about 10 feet high and it was about the size of a dart board.  The objective is to throw the ball and hit the target, then catch the ball and take it into a full squat.  That seemed pretty easy,  but let me tell you it wasn't.  I chose to split up my reps in 10 sets of 15.  This means that I had to throw and catch the ball 15 times to complete one set and then rest.   After two sets,  my heart was racing so fast that I thought it was going to jump right out of my chest.  Just forget anything about my muscles,  I could barely breath.  I remember standing up and I could feel the vein in my neck pulsing in such a bulbous fashion that I thought someone was going to point at me and say,  "someone help that guy, he is going to pop".  That was after two sets!  I kept pressing on and with each set, it became more and more difficult to keep any sort of form.  By the time I got to the 8th set I could barely even throw the ball, let alone breathe.  This was also one of the most embarrassing and Inspiring CrossFit sessions ever, because I quickly realized that I was the only one left doing them.  Everyone else had completed theirs and I became that guy that everyone was cheering on to cross the finish line.   I did it and the crowd went wild!  Ha!  And then, I thought I was going to die of a heart attack.  My heart was pounding in my chest so hard and it took me about 10 minutes to get back to a normal breathing state.   It was completely brutal and I have been seriously wondering if CrossFit is too advanced for me.  I shook that thought out of my head as quick as I could and really tried to focus on my goal, which is to get fit for my party.

Now,  one small detail that I have not said yet, was that Monday morning I woke up with a very minor and slight sore throat and I thought that perhaps it was because of my snoring.  I do snore, very loudly, kind of like a bear in hibernation and sometimes that leads to a sore throat so I really didn't think anything of it.   By Tuesday,  my sore throat turned into a more severe problem, and I called into work and by later that evening I was running a 99+ temperature.   I quickly jumped on to the meds.  I started to take everything we had in the arsenal.  DayQuil,  NyQuil, Advil,  you name it I was trying to gun this thing down before It took me out.   By Wednesday,  I was completely sick, with a 103.8 temperature, a cough that would last forever and I had to make the visit to the doctor.   Apparently, I had caught exactly what Spencer had warned me about and I have been paying the price ever since.  So this is primarily the reason I have not been blogging the last few days.  I've been in my own ICU at home.  Jen is so wonderful and has taken care of me.

Now those that know me, know that I'm a tough cookie.  I can take a beating, and keep on ticking.  But when it comes to being sick, I'm the biggest baby in the world.  I completely revert to a pre-teen 8 year old boy and I can't seem to do anything for myself.  Thankfully I have a loving wife whom tolerates the rare occasion that I get sick and she has nursed me back to heath.


Tomorrow's Goal.

Now that I'm feeling better, I am going to try for a short 1 mile run tomorrow.  Hopefully It is not too bad and I can build back up over the next couple days to get back into CrossFit.  I'm definitely not going to be 100% .  However, I'll do CrossFit if I can hit 2.8 miles by mid week.  One mile is a only running to the end of my street and back.  So it's time to get back on the road,  I have a lot of catching up to do if I'm going to make my goal.


So today, I'm going to continue to get my rest.  I'm still only at about 75% and I have a cough that kills.  The good news is that my muscles are all healed up and I don't have any fever anymore.  So tomorrow should be an interesting run.

Life is sure a roller coaster, and I just took the plummet going 100 miles an hour.  I will not give up and I will be back on track in no time at all!  I still have a month to hit my goal.  I'm down 11 lbs and I definitely feel like I'm getting there.  I just have to stick with it!

Day 19 & 20 - An Adventure and a Bizarre run

Sometimes life has a way of preventing your plans no matter what you do.  Yesterday was a case of just that.  I had originally planned to get up at 5:00 in the morning and do CrossFit, which would have been the first time I had done CrossFit two days in a row.  However, I didn't set my alarm and neither did Jen.  A couple days ago, Jen left her Job and while I support her 100%,  I miss my 5:00 am alarm clock.  "Mister, wake up Mister", best alarm clock ever!   So I didn't get to do CrossFit, and realistically I blame myself more that life for that one.  What comes next is a full day of work at Buzztime.com and that doesn't leave any room for exercise.  I supose I could go run on my lunch, but I didn't prepare for that so I don't have the proper gear.  Maybe something I should do in the future is bring some cloths to work for a short lunch workout.  Never the less, that didn't happen yesterday and I was hoping to make CrossFit the first thing I do right when I get off of work.

My job is not very demanding,  in fact it is by far the best place I've ever worked.  However, when a job needs to get done, you have to suck it up and get it done even if that means ruining your after hours plans.  That was the case yesterday as I had a fairly important project to complete and if I didn't get it done it would have seriously impacted Buzztime's schedule for launching our next game title.  So I had to again modify my plan,  I was going to hit up the 5:00 pm CrossFit session, and now I had to do the 6:00 one.

For several months now, we've promised a couple of our closest friends that we would look after their car for a few months while they were on work contract in New York.  My friend is Brock Boyts and if you just feel like enjoying about 10 minutes of your life, I would highly advise to go check out his website (http://brockoli.com/).  We were expecting Brock and Nellie to drop off the car today at 6:30 pm and so that pretty much ruled out CrossFit for today.  However, I figured that I could run and arguably exercise is exercise.

Life loves to throw curve balls at you at high speeds,  and I'm normally pretty good at knocking them out of the park.  Yesterday not so much,  I could not seem to catch a break.  No matter how much I prioritized what I wanted to do, something else was just more important and sometimes that is just how it is.  Yesterday,  my friends needed my help and they were struggling and that, in my book, is reason enough to put my needs on hold for the rest of the day.  We ended up driving to Orange County and meeting up with them.

Let me tell you right now,  it was so worth it.  I got to meet Layla, Brock and Nellie's newest addition to the family, and she was so adorable.  Children just strike my heart with a spear, and make it ooze love.  She was such a fantastic personality to meet and I was truly thankful and blessed to have had the chance to meet her before Brock and the family headed back east.

So no exercise yesterday, but what an adventure I had!

Today was a much different story, and it all started with Jen telling me that I was virtually impossible to wake up.  Ya see we didn't get home until midnight and I was literally dead tired.  But running was my priority and with solid motivation and Jen's ultimatum "get up or else" I hopped out of bed and got suited up for a run.


Today's Goal.

Today I'm going on my typical run.  I've set my goal to do a 1.6 mile run, but I need to change it up a bit.  So I decided that instead of just doing the same ole jog there and back that I was going to do a light jog there and really press hard to a achieve a full speed run on the way back.  So .8 miles at a full run speed should get my heart pumping pretty good and give me a fantastic workout.






Today's Progress.

Today's run was one of the best run's I have had yet and it was also one of the most bizarre.  Immediately when I stepped out of my house, I could feel that is wasn't cold.  In fact, it kind of felt like I was standing next to a space heater and there was a slight wind that was blowing this warm air upon my face.  This was not very typical and I was expecting a nice chilling 59 degrees to run in.  So I am heading towards the end of my street and as soon as I hit the end and turned onto Dulin Rd, I could feel a temperature drop of what felt about 30 degrees.  This drop was paired with a wind that immediately stunk my face with pins and needles of cold.  The strange thing was that it was completely out of the blue, and it's not like it felt windy out or anything.  The temperature difference was this strange anomaly during my run and by the time I passed the bridge, the next wave of this anomaly happened; bam' warm again.   This hot and cold anomaly lasted my entire run, and it was trippin me out.

I got to the end of Dulin Rd, and took a moment to get a good stretch going.  I have grown to love that after warm-up burn,  and so this has become part of my running routine.  I started to head back and as I was running, I was focusing on running technique.  Thinking back to my Track and Field days from high school, I remembered all the things my coach taught us.  I put the knowledge to good use and started to pick up speed until I was at a full speed run.  I was really working on my stride, so that I could cover more ground with each step and about half way back down the street I could really feel the burn in pretty much every muscle of my legs.  I was pushing pretty hard, but I could totally handle it.

Now being half way down the street it was time to do a systems check.   I don't want to overload, or burn out too fast so making sure I am keeping to solid running techniques is important.  Arms pumping and elbows in, check.  I checked that I was rolling from heel to toe with every jarring step and most importantly that I was managing my breathing properly.

I was 100% and going strong and it wasn't before long that I came across another runner.  I put out my arm and give her a big thumbs up and held it there long enough for her to see.  I know this always was encouraging to me when I saw another runner and I wanted to give her a thumbs up so maybe that was what she might have needed to keep it going strong.   Shortly after, I hit my driveway with pride.  A strong finish, and I was feeling great!  Best run ever and certainly the most bizarre.

Day 17 & 18 - Priorities

Here I lay in my bed, the lights are on but nobody's home.  Jen's soft voice slowly registers, "are you going to get up? or am I going to have to snooze my alarm".   As I lay there, I am having a very serious debate with myself.   If I get up now, and go do CrossFit again then I'll be able to get to work early and get off early.  Why was I getting off early?  That fact escapes me,  so I think of another scenario.  I could fall back asleep and get up in two or three more hours, since it's 4:30 a.m., and then go to work and leave on time.  Hrm,  that is a real tough one, oh wait, then I can do CrossFit at 5 or 6 tonight.  Yeah, that sounds good.  Awh crap, I knew there was a reason I needed to get off early.  I can't do CrossFit at 5 or 6, because I have to be in Orange County by 6:30 pm to meet up with a colleague.   We'll that screws up that plan,  okay, okay,  I'm getting up..

Yesterday, I barely moved a muscle all day long,  I didn't get up.  I called into work sick.  My boss is literally the coolest person in the world, besides me, and I am comfortable telling him that I killed myself doing CrossFit and I'm not feeling like I can make it into work.   And like the awesome boss he is, he laughed at my expense, made fun of me a bit and then said get some rest and see you tomorrow.  Now while this was okay with him,  it's not okay.  I convinced myself that I needed to rest because I couldn't get out of bed.  While the rest was nice,  no really it was amazingly nice,  it really wasn't the right thing to do.  Actually yesterday afternoon when I was feeling a bit better I looked up muscle recovery online and it turns out I did, literally, the worst possible thing I could do for my body in this situation.  I should have been active, and moving my muscles to avoid scar tissue build up.  Lots of stretching, and if I had gone to work and just toughed it out, then I would have healed a lot faster and felt a lot better.   Lesson learned.

The bigger lesson is priorities,  this morning I was reminded of this because I have a lot of things on my plate.  My priorities influenced my decision to get out of bed and and get CrossFit in before my day started, because I kinda have a dousey of a day.   I was reminded laying there, that CrossFit is a priority in my life, and that is why I am making time for it.  I'm sacrificing for what I feel needs to be a priority.  My fitness and health has become a priority in my life, and this helped my decision making process.  I used to make that same excuse over and over again.  "I don't have time ...",  but that excuse doesn't really mean I don't have time to do something, it means this action or task is not a priority to me and I have better things to do with my time, like sit on the cough, eating potato chips and watching my favorite show The Flash.  

So now that I have that sorted out, I kind of feel better that I got off my pair of butt cheeks and made it this morning to CrossFit for Day 2.  It's also made me think, that maybe there are some other things in my life that I need to make more a priority as well so I'll mull that over during my workout.

Today's Goal.

Today's goal is to get a grip on my priorities, and get through CrossFit today.  I really need to suck it up because I'm hurting pretty bad, and just about everywhere.  But I can do it,  No pain, no gain right?  

Today's Progress.

We'll I'm going to keep this part a bit short, since I'm writing this during office hours.  But I wanted to share with you, how wonderful it felt to just show up to CrossFit at 5:30 a.m. and show that it was a priority for me.  Was it hard,  hell yeah it was.  Again it totally kicked my butt!  But I'll spare you the details since I"m a bit short on time.

Now, I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  I'm a pretty religious guy.  I'm a believer.  I pray before I eat, and I used to go to church every Sunday.  Yep, I'm sure you caught that.  I "used to" go to church.  I have been pulling the same, I don't have time excuse every Sunday and since I've had a moment of clarity today I've realized that I just have not been making God a priority in my life.  So that needs to change.  I also have some work stuff that I need to re-prioritize as well,  and all this had come to me while sweat was pouring out of me like a water fountain.  

So today, I got a little exercise in, I did some soul searching and I realized that priorities are what is most important in my life right now.  Not bad for a day's work, and I still have a whole day to go!

Day 14 - 16 - CrossFit: A new beginning.

So I received a text from my Grandpa and he says.  "Are you Ok?".  "I haven't seen a blog post from you since Saturday",  which was my Day 13 post.   The truth of the matter is that a little bit of crazy had taken over my life these past couple days.   First of all, I picked up Micah from LA and he changed his flight from leaving Sunday to leaving this morning at 6:45 am from San Diego International.   It was great to have him here and we had some great laughs and hung out.  So pretty much Sunday became another rest day which worked out perfectly.  Also on Sunday I called CrossFit TOV of San Marcos and scheduled me to come in on Monday (yesterday) at 5:30 am and signup.  So that is why it was good that I rested.  I wanted to be at full health in order to do what most people call the most insanely intense workout they have ever done.  Most that I've talked to about CrossFit have stated that the workout simply "kicks your butt" and to be quite frank that scared me a little.  So I decided that having an extra day to rest was just what I needed.

As usual, Fun-day Monday came around and it was 4:45 am and the only movement that my body was willing to make was a swift motion, and a slight roll to my side, in order to turn my alarm off.  Before long, the "oh S@#!" I am going to be late became the motivation to get out of bed and try to make it to the CrossFit.  I ended up being 30 minutes late and it was too late to join the class.  However, I had a great chat with Jason the lead trainer there and he got me pretty pumped up and I signed up right there and then.  Luckily there was quite a few classes yesterday and I knew that I could go to work and hit CrossFit on my way home. To add to the extreme satisfaction of signing up,  I got in on a great promotion that works perfect with my goals; $99 a month for 3 months.  I'm all in!

I was going to try and make the 5:00 session, and since I was up so early and already close to my work, I had gone in early so that I could get off work a bit early as well.  That plan got trumped by Jen because she wanted to go Grocery shopping at the Trader Joe's near our work at 4:00.  I was okay with this mostly because I knew they had a 6:00 class and Jason had said that I can come at any three of those times( 4, 5 or 6).   So we hit Trader Joe's at 4:15 and I got to CrossFit at 5:30.   I was 30 minutes early and it was kind of refreshing not to be running late for once.

Yesterday's Goal.

I think that it is safe to say that my goal for yesterday was to just not die. Ha!  For real though,  I think my goal was to do the very best I could at CrossFit and commit 110%.  After all I committed to this already and I've paid for it, so I best give it my all.


Yesterday's Progress.

I'm at CrossFit and I don't have to check in or anything, but I quickly notice the current CrossFit session that is being wrapped up.  There are people doing push-up's while doing a handstand.  I couldn't help but to think that there is no way I am going to be able to do that.  I can barely do a regular push-up, and I am up to a whopping 10 push-ups a day from doing them every morning before, and sometimes after, I run.  This is pretty intimidating, and I am hoping they are not going to ask me to do that.  I guess they would all get a pretty good laugh if they saw me attempt one of those.  I couldn't help but to think of what a disaster idea this was and maybe I should bolt out the door now while I had the chance.   That chance quickly fled, because Jason's (wife i think?) struck up a conversation with me and put my mind at ease.  She told me that most likely I wouldn't have to start with that, and that they would show me the proper workout that was right for me.  Few;  I felt like I just dodged a bullet there.

The session ended and a few new people arrived.  Now imagine if you will,  the CrossFit building I'm in is not like an ordinary Gym.  This looked like an old car repair garage, in the back there were two garage doors that were opened up and where normally a repair shop would be, there was what looked like some sort of obstacle course.  There were bars to do pull-up's and from those bars there were ropes and rings attached to ropes.  It kinda reminded me a little bit of a playground when I was a kid.  This isn't a gym, this is somewhere I would go for recess.

Let me tell you right now, I was wrong; ever so wrong!  The first thing we did was warm up by running around the building.  Now, I know I can do this, I've been running up to 2.8 miles for the last two weeks.  So I kept up with the cool kids and had a good run around the building.  Then we did some strange running exercises,  like running and bringing your knees as high as you can.  I'm sure there is a name for it, which I just can't think of right now.  On the way back, we did what they call "butt kickers" where you try to kick your own butt with each step while your running.  This stuff wasn't so hard.  But I knew from what I've already seen that the worst was yet to come.  We finished up the warm-up and dove right into learning how to pickup a dumbbell for doing squats.  While everyone else was doing heavy weight, Jason took some personal time with me to show and train me in the correct form of how to pick it up.  It wasn't a lot of weight, but the 10 lbs + the training bar was more than enough to make my quads burn.   We were doing this over and over again, and just when I thought we were done with it; we weren't.  By the time we were done, I could barely stand on my own two legs.  Like an infomercial;  "but wait there's more"  we now start the real workout.  huh? what?

Next up is Cindy or Mindy,  and those were not the names of two hot chicks in the gym either.  Each name represented a list on a white dry erase board.  Each list had a set of tasks.  Cindy was for beginners and Mindy was for more advanced CrossFit'ers.  On Cindy's list, was 5 pull-up's, 10 push-up's and 15 air squats with arms extended forward.  You might think that doesn't sound too bad,  but I had to repeat this over and over again for 20 minutes.

I choose to use the rings for pull-ups because I tried to do a single pull-up using the bars and I couldn't manage to pull myself up even once.  The rings were far easier to do, so I did that with pride.  Next up was my first set of push-up's, I know I can do 10 because I've done that before.  So down to the floor I went and knocked out 10 perfect push-ups.  The air squats were much easier than I thought considering that my legs were jello at this point and I did 15 with no problem.   Before we started, they gave us some chalk to mark on the floor for each set that we complete and I proudly marked my first set.  I repeated this routine a second time,  but by the time I got to the third time, I could not do anymore push-ups.   Push-up's quickly became my arch-nemesis,  and I would do one and collapse on the floor.  Face plant!  It took every thing I had to not give up, and I kept at it with each attempt being a complete and utter failure.  I just couldn't lift the weight of my body any more.  My muscles were completely fatigued.  So I sat there and rested for a second or two and then had at it again.  Each attempt, I maybe got 1 more closer to the 10 until all 10 were completed.  Then a refreshing air squat which seemed to be the easiest of all three exercises.   But air squats didn't solve my problem and before long I was back to doing push-ups.  I kept waiting for Jason to come tap me on the shoulder and tell me that I can skip the push-ups because what was a perfect push-up became what looked like someone just threw a rag-doll on the floor.  He finally came over and instead of telling me to move on to squats, he said you can modify them and do push-ups from my knees (ya, the girly ones).   The funny thing is that didn't help at all.  I could do like two of those and it wasn't very long before I couldn't do even one more of those either.

Now I'm pretty tough,  and I just stuck it out.  I knocked out those push-up's one by one for twenty minutes and I am proud, and slightly astonished, that I completed 7 sets.   It was a lot of pain, and a little embarrassing, but I did it!  I am a CrossFit'er now!

I have to say, it was literally the best workout of my life.  The people there are so motivating, and everyone that was there would come up to me and tell me that I'm doing good and to keep it up.   I didn't know, or at least I didn't understand, what CrossFit was all about.  Now that I do, I am hooked! I'm going to look damn good in my Green Lantern costume and I am confident that with a combo of running, CrossFit and a solid diet that I will hit my goal with no problem.

As for today,  I'm resting because I hurt in places that I didn't know existed.  My muscles are so tight I feel like the incredible hulk is ready to burst out at any moment.  I don't exactly know what my schedule is going to be, but I am pretty sure that I will be trying to do CrossFit as many days a week as I possibly can.

So as you can see, I didn't give up.  I am doing okay Grandpa!   And I am proud to say that I completed day one of CrossFit.   It is a new beginning!