Getting Faster

I only ran 2.6 this morning (but I ran 3 yesterday evening, so lay off), but my time was 26:22, so I'm almost down to 10 minute miles.  Considering I was at 12 just a couple weeks ago, that's pretty satisfying.  Once I can do 3 miles at a little under 10's then I'll start adding more distance.

I'm getting a little excited for tomorrow's weigh in.  Will I see the 270's for the first time in a while?  I'm close today.  And will I make it upon wakeup, or will I have to run in the a.m. to get there?  So much suspense...

Bill, I implemented your suggestion to re-do the slideshow so that it shows all the side shots together and all the front shots together.  It's much better that way.  Thanks for the suggestion!

Another Day, Another 3 miles

Today (Tuesday) I ran around the school while Will was at soccer practice.  The whole time I kept thinking how much more fun it would have been to be running around playing soccer instead of running around watching others play soccer.  I really need to join that adult league like I've been meaning to do.

A couple of you have suggested running on the treadmill while watching TV (as opposed to eating, which is a more typical activity for me).  That's all well and good, if I didn't have such a totally ghetto TV in my basement.  That thing's so bad it's like setting your monitor to 640x480, all pixelated and crap.  But I've been suggesting to Therese that we get a better TV for our bedroom, which means I could move the slightly less ghetto bedroom TV to the basement, and throw out the basement one.  Realistically, that's probably too much work and I'll never do it.  But maybe...

In sports news, the Cowboys won and the Redskins lost to the Lions.  So I've got that going for me, which is nice!

I need to start exercising again

I need to get my groove back.  Sunday we were gone all day, and today I had to count the collection in the morning and then work this afternoon.  I did mow the lawn this evening, but that hardly counts as exercise.  (Although Dan said I could count it.)  Tonight is the Dallas game (Go Cowboys!) and then I'll be up late studying for a test in my tax class.  I could get up early with the kids and then jog before class.  But most likely I won't.  I do need to run at some point tomorrow or my Thursday weigh in will be a disaster.  It's too early to start backsliding and break my streak of down weeks.

Not much to say today

I was watching the kids b/c Therese was sleeping after working all night, and with two soccer games and then rain, I wasn't able to get a workout in.  That, coupled with a big dinner (bourbon chicken, mmmm) doesn't give me a lot of hope for tomorrow morning.  So instead of weighing myself I'll just accompany Therese to the triathlon and watch her work out.  Sweat osmosis!!

Thank God for James Younts

It didn't look like I was going to get a workout in today.  Then the workout fairy delivered an email to me from James Younts who said he was home and looking to play some racquetball.  So I got all sweaty after all.  I'm glad b/c playing first base at my softball game tonight definitely isn't going to cut it.  Maybe if I got more hits I could spend more time running the bases...

Pictures

I'm slowly figuring this out.  I added a slide show on the right side under the statistics and above the weigh ins.  If you click on a photo, it helpfully opens a new window with full size versions!  I must caution you all, however, that the surgeon general has issued a warning suggesting that the elderly, infirm, and children avoid prolonged exposure to it.  Fans of National Geographic specials and/or Golden Corral may look.

3rd Weigh In

282.6 this morning!  I can't post much b/c I'm off to tax class (on my bike!), but I'll write more and update the stats later today.  Just wanted to share the good news.

Still Running

I ran 3 again this morning (third day in a row!) and finished in 32:39.  That's under 11 minute miles for the first time.  It's also starting to feel a little better as well.  Instead of terrible calf pain it's just moderate calf pain.  Today was pretty hot, so I was sweating something fierce.  Why did the nice fall weather disappear now that it's officially fall??

On another note, good job everyone keeping me honest.  First it was Bill emailing me when I missed a day and now Dave just texted me to find out where I was.  Answer:  Doing my usual Wednesday circuit training "boot camp" workout with my personal trainer Peggy.

Tomorrow is weigh in number 3.  I'm crossing my fingers for good news, but considering my filet intake this past weekend, anything lower than last week will make me happy.

Wow, running DOES get easier!

I ran again this morning and felt pretty good the whole time. I was at least a minute faster than my last run, and felt better too. I chalked up yesterday's decent run to the fact that I was "carbing up" all weekend at the wedding, but today I don't have that excuse. Maybe I'm actually getting in a little better shape??

Back to the daily grind

I went for a run this morning with Therese.  We ran "together" for a while, which consists of her constantly looking back and wondering whether I'm pulling a VW bus behind me or something.  The wonders of physics that let a 290 pound man run at all seem to escape her.  Translation:  For the time being, I'm happy to be upright and putting one leg in front of the other.  Until I get a bit faster, it's not much of a workout for her.  Ahh, for those happy times in 2006 when I used to be the faster one...

Disappointed with myself

Went to a wedding this weekend in NY.  It was a great time, great food.  A lot of great food.  Specifically, a lot in my personal belly.  Then tonight at Olive Garden I had chicken carbonara.  Delicious, but I ate the whole thing.  I really need to start asking them to just bring out half of it and bring the other half already wrapped. 

Tomorrow's another day, but I'm not sure there are enough days between now and my usual Thursday morning weigh in to get below last week's weight.  Maybe it's time for some two-a-days...

Biking in the rain...

...is no fun when you wear glasses.  It's probably not much fun if you don't wear glasses, actually.  But I didn't see myself getting any other workout today, and I was planning on meeting Dave Costanzo at Foster's for lunch after tax class, so I decided to chance it.  I didn't even get out of my neighborhood before it started drizzling, and it just got worse from there.  Luckily for my classmates, I brought a dry shirt and deodorant. 

Good news about lunch:  I forwent (Is that a word?  What's the past tense of "forgo" anyone?) the burger and got the chicken sandwich.  With a side salad instead of fries.  And unsweetened ice tea.

Bad news about lunch:  The chicken sandwich had cheese and fried onions and fried mushrooms.  But it was delicious!  And I did get light mayo...

On another topic, I've had an incredible response so far from people wanting to sign up for the automatic email notices when I post.  The stupid system will only let me add 10 addresses, and I was almost immediately over that number.  I just added people in the order they responded, and I'm going to try to figure out how to add more than 10 names.  I might just manually forward the emails until then.  As always, thanks for all the support!

Weigh In, Week 2

285.4 this morning.  3 pounds is not bad, but considering how hard I've been working out I was hoping for a little more.  Nevertheless, this makes almost 10 pounds overall that I'm down (and 15 from my all time high), so I guess baby steps are better than nothing.  I'm hoping to ride my bike to tax class this morning, but it's been raining.  Hopefully it lets up later.

Thanks again everyone for the words of support and encouragement!  My friend Kevin has been inspired to start a similar blog/website chronicling his own transformation, and I'm really eager to get a look at it.

I took pictures again today, but I'm holding off on posting b/c I don't think they belong right in the middle of the post.  I'd rather have some picture viewer type link in the sidebar where I can have these, but I'm still trying to figure out how to do that.  But never fear, lovers of distended bellies, your corpulent eye candy will be back soon!

Body Fat, Take 2

So Peggy used the calipers on me again tonight to double check the measurements from last week, and the result was a little lower, 27.8% instead of 29%.  So I'm getting a little excited thinking that my weight loss so far has translated into a slightly lower body fat percentage, and then she does the body measurements, and reality returns.  Using body measurements, my body fat percentage comes in at 34%, rather than 27.8%.  In Therese's kind words, the 34% is a little more "plausible."  Thanks, honey! 

But looking around on the Internet, it seems that the caliper method is considered to be more accurate, so I'm going to keep using those numbers.  (Also because they're lower!)  Tomorrow's my second weigh in, and then it's off to NY for a wedding this weekend.  At least I won't have to worry about eating while watching football this weekend since I'll be driving home on Sunday.

And because Brendan is such a good friend (or a Sadist, I'm not sure), he wants to work out early on Friday before I leave.  In anticipation of a six foot tall wedding cake the next day, I have agreed.

Basketball tonight

Other than racquetball, I think basketball is my favorite exercise.  Much better than running just for the sake of running.  Now if I could only hit wide open 2 footers I'd really be in business.  There weren't even any tall guys there tonight...

Does Running Get Easier?

I managed to get a run in this a.m. before it got too hot.  I went 3 miles and I know at some point this is going to get easier, but I sure hope it comes soon.  I'm dying out there, but then again, its like my 225 pound self from 3 years ago is jogging with a 60 pound pack on, so I guess that is hard on the old legs.  I've got hoops tomorrow which I'm looking forward to.  Come join me!!

I'm Still Here

All right, Bill, here you go.  Yesterday I set my alarm to wake up early and play Ultimate Frisbee with the Holy Trinity group, only to get there and find just two people there.  The most we had before I had to leave was 6, but most of the time we had either 4 or 5.  I guess that was good for me b/c it required a lot more running, but my poor physical shape was that much more on display.

Last night I had my usual weekly card game and everything was going well until Sam showed up with two big trays of nachos with cheese, ground beef, cream cheese, jalapenos, etc.  It looks like card night is going to be my most challenging night, with football Sunday my second biggest challenge each week.  I'll try to behave today and get back into my groove tomorrow.  The work week seems so much easier than the weekend...

P.S.  Week Two pictures were taken but not uploaded yet.  They don't look much different, of course.

Trying to get back on track

Ran 3 miles this morning.  That was miserable, but it did start to get a little easier as the run went on.  I really didn't think I'd make it at first.  Tomorrow should be OK for exercising too.  That just leaves 7 hours of football on Sunday standing in my way...

Joan, no eating at all while watching TV?  That would probably take more discipline than I have.  Which, of course, is why I'm fat in the first place.

First Weigh In

288.4 today.  Ugh.  I was a couple pounds lower earlier in the week, but I guess that's why you should only weigh once a week.  But 7 pounds isn't that bad, as long as I keep it up.

Football starts tonight.  I'll try to keep the eating under control, but TV is always the worst...

Body Fat

So my personal trainer (Peggy) got out the ol' calipers this evening.  Results?  Not as bad as I expected.  29% body fat.  While it still is super high, it's definitely not as bad as I thought it would be.  At my current weight, that means I have about 83 pounds of fat I could potentially lose.  That would get me down near 200, which is where I want to be anyway.  I'm going to add a body fat percentage box on the right side, but that won't get updated nearly as often as the weight.  Peggy says only every 3 months.

Had a good boot camp workout tonight.  The weather was awesome and all my peeps were there (except for the Halls).  Thanks again everyone for all the encouragement!

Being hungry

Thanks Bill and Peggy for the advice.  Snacking more seems kind of counterintuitive, but I will definitely start doing that more.  This is apple picking season and I love apples, so those should be OK.  Now the Combos I had this afternoon, maybe not as much.

Bill, I like the small plate idea.  I'll just use one of the kids' plates.  They'll laugh, but I'm used to that...

Hurting Tonight

Just played two hours of hoops with Nagle, Brendan, Thomas, Anil, etc.  The good Mr. Fegan was a last minute scratch.  Amazingly enough there were no injuries tonight, and no one hurled.  So it was a success!  I'm not sure I'll be able to do much at boot camp tomorrow night, but I'll be there.  Peggy is going to be bringing her calipers, so I guess I'll have humble pie for dessert tomorrow night...

Big shout out to my beloved Therese for being so supportive.  Although I do need to talk to her about loading up on frozen pizzas.  I know they were on sale, but come on. 

I found some old weight watchers books today.  (I've joined at least 3 times, maybe 4.)  My most recent one had my starting weight at 286 and in 4 weeks I was down to 272.  Then in week 5 I gained NINE pounds, and that was the last entry.  Gain 9 pounds and then quit.  That's how I [used to] roll.  But now that everyone is watching [as if!] I can't let a little backsliding torpedo the whole endeavor. 

Realistically, is anyone still reading this besides Peggy and Joan?  Should I just send them personal emails every day? 

Wow, Talk About Tempting!

I've included a picture below of just the meat portion of what Christan & Craig served us tonight.  How is a guy supposed to stay strong when confronted with ribs, crab legs, Cheddarwurst, shrimp and filet mignon???  Dessert was cake, pie, and 3 kinds of ice cream.  At least I had Brendan kicking my butt today in racquetball AND making me run before he would even play me.  And I have hoops tomorrow, so that should help...

One Big Meal Down

Luckily my brother is a health conscious guy, so he made turkey burgers instead of beef.  Then we played a good bit of frisbee and football, so I might even have burned most of it off.  And I'm even thinking of taking Brendan up on his offer of a run tomorrow...

So Far So Good

I didn't get to play Frisbee this morning b/c Therese scheduled the kids for well child checks at 9 a.m.  So this afternoon Will and I played Frisbee golf and instead of walking from hole to hole we ran.  Not as much exercise as Ultimate, but better than nothing! 

Just got on the scale today after my shower and it said 286.  That's 9 pounds since Wednesday, but since I have big dinners tomorrow and Monday night I do need to get ahead a bit.  Who's joining me for hoops on Tuesday??

"Better" Before Pictures

These are better in the sense that they're not blurry, but not in any other, really.  They just show the fat much more clearly. 

Today went pretty well.  I was hoping to play ultimate frisbee tomorrow morning but the kids have a doctor's appointment and Therese is working, so there goes that idea.  Maybe I'll try to run in the afternoon.

In another big lifestyle change, I'm heading to bed now!  It's not even 10:30.  What do you think of that, Bob??

 

 

Day Two

Thanks for all the love and support everyone!  I'm super hungery today, but haven't given in yet.  Thanks to my govt. flexible schedule, I'm heading off in a little bit to play some racquetball with Brendan.  Peggy, we'll meet up sometime soon to give those calipers a workout so I can add body fat percentage to the list of stats.

On another note, apparently some people are having trouble with the comments.  If you don't want to be anonymous, just choose "name/URL" from the list and type in your name.  You don't need to put in a URL.  If you have a gmail account for email, you can just choose "Google Account" and sign in with your gmail name and password.

"Before" pictures

I figured out how to post pictures, but these are terrible. Stupid ghetto camera won't focus. So I'll leave these up until I get some better ones.

Thar she blows!





And to answer Therese's question, no, I'm not "puffing" my stomach out in the second picture. That's really how big it is.

Inaugural Post

Hi everyone! Welcome to my weight loss blog. This is my first post, and my first attempt at blogging. Those that know me know I've yo-yo'd with my weight for years, so I figured I'd start this blog so that you can all follow my progress, such as it is, online so you can keep me honest.

I took a before picture from the front and side, and those will be my before pictures. I really don't want to post them b/c they're so incredibly embarrassing, but it's probably the only way to keep me honest. But I don't yet know how to add pictures so for now you'll have to imagine what I look like. Think of Britney's ex K-Fed and you'll have a good idea.

I weighed myself yesterday to get a starting weight. 295. Yikes! It's hard to believe that 3 years ago I ran the Marine Corps marathon and was down to 228. What's even worse is that when I met Therese I was under 200 pounds! My friend Kevin Caiazza keeps encouraging me to join the 300 club, and I still maintain that I've never officially been north of that particular border. But there were a couple nights of hard eating when I might have crept over but been back down under it in the morning. Suffice it to say that I'm probably nearly 100 pounds overweight. Therese doesn't weigh much more than what I have to lose!!

Kevin is the one who turned me onto the John Stone Fitness website, which is where the idea for this blog was shamelessly stolen from. You can see from John's pictures over the years that he went from heavy to incredibly fit. (Kevin, you still owe me a day of yard work from our most recent weight loss bet, which I won only three years ago. Do I forfeit the prize since I blimped back up??)

It's easy to start a diet and then quit it when no one is looking. The reason Weight Watchers works for a lot of people is that you have to go there every week and weigh in and have your day of reckoning. So this will be my electronic reckoning. I'll weigh in every Friday morning and also take pictures. I hope, God willing, that some day I'll look back at these pictures and just shudder at how fat I was. My goal is to some day fit into those clothes Therese got for me back in 2006, as well as those size 36 jeans I still have from college. That, and to some day lay on my stomach at a beach without the dreaded "see-saw" affect.

So to minimize my chances of failure (or maximize my shame if I do fail), I'm going to let lots of my family and friends know about this blog. Trust me, there's not much that's more humbling than posting the pictures I have in my camera right now on the web.

I also am looking for ideas/suggestions/tips from all you fit people out there (you know who you are, Brendan & Peggy, Bob & Joan, Blaine & Carrie, Rob, etc.). I started biking today and it's definitely a bit harder with a baby seat on the back holding a book bag full of tax books. (I started classes this week at H&R Block so I can work for them next tax season, and the place we meet is only 3 miles away.) Tomorrow it's racquetball with Brendan and maybe a jog. Then ultimate frisbee on Saturday, and hoops at All Saints starts Tuesday. Do I really need to lift? Naw...

So here goes. Wish me luck!