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!