12-19-12

     Welp, No workout last night due to darts. No workout tonight due to just not feeling it. Once and a while that's ok so I am not going to get worried yet. It just can't become habit to not work out. That's the beginning of the end right there. So, if I am not working out I decided to just hang out a bit on the net and see about finding some information on working out. As I have been using the elliptical a lot as of late I found a pretty neat little 10 things not to do on an elliptical machine article off of a link on MSN. The article is here.
     The next week or so are going to be tough. There is always so much to do around the holidays. It's going to make both me and the wife tired. To be honest the wife will make me tired if I just watch her. This can't be an excuse every night though. We have to be honest with ourselves and take the time for ourselves, even if only 25 minutes. After the holidays I am going to start 45 minute workouts. My plan is that by late February I should be at hour long workouts. That's going to be it for me. I should not need more then that. Honestly, if I am doing stuff like an elliptical, or walk away the pounds with yoga I should be able to run a 5k.
That's it for now..  No motivation tonight as I couldn't even get myself to workout. <<<--- Need to be better about that.
-C

12-15-12

     I didn't post last night. I wanted to but I got busy. Instead of spending bad time on the computer I put my time to good use. The wife and I made homemade sausage and it was a lot of fun. I would guess that we made over 3 yards of the stuff. I may even go crazy and post a couple of pictures of the sausage here to remind myself that while I have cut back on what I eat I have eliminated nothing.  Anyway, the reason why I did want to post last night was that I wanted to do a weight update. Drum roll please!!!!  25 pounds down! Awesome. Still not seeing it myself but a couple of others have and have mentioned it. So with 25 down it's time to really focus in on my over all goal. I had told my brother and sister-in-laws that I wanted to be 30 pounds by Christmas. Well, I have about 2 weeks to go. 2.5 pounds per week and I have got this so long as I am good and keep up with what I am doing.
    
     So that's my motivation at this point. I have to prove myself right about 30 pounds by Christmas. I have to show my family that when I put my mind to something I can do it. I am so very close. While I admit that I am a bit sore all the time at this point it's the good kind. The kind that I can get behind. The kind that reminds me during the day that I am doing something good for myself. I AM getting in shape.

-C

Meh, edited to show a picture of the homemade sausage.

12-13-12

     Welp, just got off the elliptical and that makes 3 days in a row on it. I am getting stronger and stronger on the elliptical and now that it is set up so that I can adjust it's resistance and the time goes up and is working correctly I am able to tweak my workouts on the fly. For example, last night I did 30 minutes and burned 470 calories. Tonight I did 27 minutes and burned 456 calories. in another 3 minutes I would have gone over the 470 from last night. That's pretty awesome. It means I was working my ass off. The thing I have to remember is that it's not just about burning the calories but getting into shape so I need to sometimes take it a bit easy, relax, and just get my heart in a good zone to make it aerobic.
     The only other thing I wanted to put on here tonight is that tomorrow is going to be a *gulp* weigh in day. I haven't posted any weight this week because of that setback but I need to post it because good, bad, or indifferent it is part of the path that I am on. Even if I haven't lost anything I am in better shape this week then I was last week.
     No motivation tonight. I don't have the motivation for it ;)
One last thing, I have added the wife as a contributor to this blog. Once and a while she will e-mail me something that might interest me and now she can just put it here so that I have it without searching though e-mails. She too can write here if she would like. It's kind of our thing so I wouldn't mind. Not even going to talk to her about that..  she can decide if she wants to or not.
-C

Juice solutions

http://myphytos.com/build is a site the wife found where you can get a calorie count from any homemade juice that make.
-C

12-11-12

     Well, here I sit, with an ice block on my ass trying to dull the pain of this damn IT band. Want a quick way to drop some weight? Chop off this freaking leg for all the pain it's giving me. Seriously, how can I train for a 5k run if I can't run? It's pretty frustrating to me. Honestly, come on body, give me a break here. I have done more for you this past month and a little bit then I have since I got out of high school. I am paying more attention to what I am putting in my face and I am trying to stay way away from the stuff I know isn't good for me. How have you rewarded me so far body? You have a literal pain in the ass, and you have stopped losing weight.

     The IT band issue, from everything I am reading on the net is mostly caused by a few things. First, my gate while running is probably to long causing an over stretching of the band over the entire time I am on the treadmill. Second, my hip flexors are probably a little on the weak side, and third, my hips are probably on the tight side. Okay, so I have identified the problems or at least the potential problems so it's a matter of fixing them. One article that I read said that using a 6 week strengthening program working on the hip muscles got rid of the pain and people were able to run again pain free. Sounds okay. 6 weeks from today. God damn it! During that 6 weeks I should be able to increase any flexibility issues that I have in my hips, so for that keep going with the yoga and do some special IT band stretches. As for the gate issue..  Damn it..  I have to wait, and wait, and wait, until I can run a bit on that damn treadmill so that I can record it from a couple of different angles and forward it on to an internet friend of the wife's who happens to be a PT. Damn it. Working so hard and for what. To wait. Seriously.

     As far as the wight loss goes. This morning, I weighed myself. I only post weight updates here once a week but I hop on the scale about every other day. It may be too much, it may be obsessive but damn it, I want to KNOW that I am going the right way. Well, this morning I got a slap in the face. I didn't lose anything since last week, in fact I had gained a pound. What the hell! (note to the wife, no, my body isn't in starvation mode) Back on the internet I went and what I found out was that my body is screwing with me and it's perfectly normal. This is something I knew could happen way in the back of my mind. I remember this from the hours of being in a gym. My body has gotten to the point where it now knows what I am doing and it is slowing everything down because it's not sure when it's going to get fuel again. This isn't starvation mode, not yet. This is normal when you get all fat and try and do something about it. From what I was reading today, this could have been the beginning of the dreaded "rubber band." Here is the cool thing, if you know what's happening then you know not to let it worry you as long as you don't gain back an excessive about of weight. One to two pounds if fairly normal and all you need to do to correct it is to mix up your routine a bit. In severe cases you may need to eat more often, the 5 or 6 times a day that you might have heard of in small quantities. I don't think I am to that point yet but if I change up my exercise routine a bit it should be enough to shock my body back into fat burning.

     What else should I toss in here today? Nothing. I think that's all I have in my brain tonight. 

     Motivation time..  Tonight I have very little. I got on the elliptical tonight for 25 minutes. I have an ice pack on my ass. I am sore and if I move just right I feel like I can collapse. Not much in the way of motivation tonight. Am I going to stop though? Nope. The old me is still in control. The me that sets a goal and will do just about anything to get there.

-C 

food for thought

http://living.msn.com/life-inspired/tech-life/why-you-shouldn%e2%80%99t-have-more-than-354-facebook-friends

     Getting rid of strees is supposed to be good for helping to lose weight, some of my stress comes from facebook (facecrack) and thus I may forego using it as a new years resolution. Everytime I look around be it at home or work I see that site up and running. Honestly, in my opinion there are better things to do on the web. For me it's going to be trying to build a skill. Playing guitar has eluded me for years but I am going to be giving it a pretty honest go by using a "game" by ubisoft called Rocksmith and so far it's been pretty cool.

More to post later.
-C

info on IT band

get to reading these tonight

http://www.runnersworld.com/injury-treatment/how-get-rid-popping-hip-syndrome

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/fitness/running/strengthening-beats-stretching-when-it-comes-to-this-common-running-injury/article4365074/

12-9-12

     Wow!, it's been a while since I have posted on here. Thought I would pop on and give an update. As of last week I am down 22 pounds and feeling pretty good. I still can't really see any changes in my body no matter how hard I look and that part is getting me depressed a bit. I would think that 22 pounds, I should start to see something by now. The biggest news from last week is that a friend of mine and his wife gave me an elliptical machine to use. I have never really liked them before, to be exact I was afraid of them, but last Wednesday night I got it home and I jumped on it for 35 minutes. I burned over 500 calories in that 35 minutes. That pretty much did me in there, I am hooked! I used it the next night too and here is what I found. My calves just don't like being on it two nights in a row. I had to put a heating pad on my calves after taking a night off from working out. Lesson learned. Don't use the elliptical two nights in a row. Or, perhaps, I can try doing it for less time. The thing is I think I need to do it for at least 25 or I have to do something else before or after I get on it. It's not as complete a workout I guess is what I am getting at. For example, tonight I got on the treadmill for the first time in a long time because of the IT band. I was on it for about 15 minutes I think. Maybe it was 20, I really don't remember now. Anyways, I could feel my IT band as I was on it getting tighter, then the wife and I switched, (she was on the elliptical) and I was fine, I went pretty hard for about 10 minutes. I pretty much just wanted to burn 150 calories on that as I had burned about 100 on the treadmill. After all that we came upstairs and did some yoga.
     So, my body has pretty much done it all today. Truth be told, I needed it. I have been feeling like I have been slipping a bit and loosing a bit of motivation due to not being able to see the changes. I think I have said it on here before but I don't exactly have the most positive of body images so even if others are telling me they can see it, the problem is that I don't. So, tonight I'll post some pictures that were taken of me last week. I'll just keep looking until I see something positive. I just hope it's soon. I really need it. I haven't talked to the wife about how bad I am feeling about all this yet though, I suppose, she will read it here. It's not something I am completely comfortable speaking of in person. Sometimes, this blog is a sounding board for me and that is just going to have to be ok.
     Last night was my company's Christmas party. I had a good time. The wife and I got to dress up all pretty like and go out without the kids and without any friends. It was pretty nice and there is a little part of me that can't wait for the kids to be older so we can do it a little more often.(not that I am in a hurry for them to grow up by any means) Anyways, at the party there was so really good food and I was a bit surprised at myself. Until last night I had eaten whatever was out but I would really try to control it and if it was too much I would really feel bad about it. Kind of like an addict getting caught doing what it was they were addicted to I would think. Not last night though. Last night I just dug in and filled myself up. I think I had more to eat in that meal then I did at either one of the Thanksgiving meals that I had. I did it and I didn't feel bad about it at all. This is a very slippery slop for me I think. I can't let it happen again. Everyone always says to me that it's ok once and a while, the problem is that if I let myself find comfort in food I may mess everything up that I have worked so hard to accomplish. Keep this in mind for the holidays Chris. It's important.

Picture time:

 

So this is how I am looking as of last week. I don't know. I don't really see anything different yet. I'll keep on working at it but I need something soon. Perhaps, I should have been using a measuring tape. Maybe then I would have seen something. Anything.

 

     Motivation time,

Don't be afraid to fail, be afraid to no have tried. Don't let the actions or words of others prevent you from reaching within yourself to find that little something that you are hanging on to. Don't allow yourself to not feel the guilt if you over eat. That guilt is your drive. It means that you are failing yourself. You will never be able to eat that way again. You need to know that you can eat anything but you have to keep it in moderation. Know that you can workout hard. You have proven that to yourself already. Make sure to understand though that some days are going to be better then others. Don't be afraid to take advantage of the good days and push it just a little bit harder.

12-2-12

First part of my goal is down as of this weekend. I have made it to 20 lbs lost. That is a pretty good feeling know that I have met one of my goals.

     Welp, I am dumb, I deleted the pictures that I did have here.. Oh well, moving right along.

 

 

     So this is me, 20 lbs lighter and feeling pretty good. I have been doing a lot of walk away the pounds and yoga. I have also been able to enjoy a good sauna from time to time over at the in-laws to help my muscles feel a bit better. I'll get on a bit later to add to this but I thought I would put these up so I can see if I can spot any changes.