Week 3

Fri January 16

Stayed home sick today. I feel like horsesh**! Kidneys are bugging me something fierce and I'm having a gout attack to boot. I didn't eat a lot today, but I don't feel hungry like I was starving myself. 

Sun January 17

Another Seahawks Sunday football game. We lost the playoff game with Carolina, and while it's dissappointing, I can honestly say we played a tough game. If it weren't for the two interceptions we may have won this game. As such, I did have a beer... Well it was a 22oz beer (Black Ravens "Trickster Scotch Ale") but definitely worth the calories. Otherwise, it was another easy day of making good food choices.

Tues January 19

Another weight loss on the scale today. I'm still finding it hard to get workouts in during the week with the current schedule we have. Part of this is due to lack of motivation in starting a workout at 8p after the boys are in bed. I have to say that it is all my decision... I control every choice I make on this journey and this one is giving me a hard time. I may try to get up earlier this week and get some bodyweight exercises in before I start my day, so I have no excuse to do nothing after dinner and bedtimes. Food on the other hand is going quite well and that is definitely the reason I am seeing the results that I am. 

Weekly Totals

Weight: 211 (-3 lbs)

Calories: 10872

Steps: 30913

Week 2

The amount of work that goes into a blog is definitely more than I initially thought. I blogged every day of the first week, but I'm not sure that is the right format. I can't imagine trying to read 365 daily blog posts... Talk about overkill. Thus, I'm thinking 52 weekly blog posts will prove to be plenty. I'll still give weekly totals, the same as I did daily and any daily notes I may have for myself will show up below.

Weds January 6

Still feeling full from the food I'm eating, but under calories by 300 today. Got a ton of steps running in place again today. This allows me to get a little workout done in the house so I can also be helpful. I'm sure I'll make it outside for a real run soon. Feeling great!

Thurs January 7

About 300 short on calories again today, but feeling satisfied and full of energy. It's getting easier to make good food choices already and I've been really enjoying my fruits and vege's. Got in quite a few steps again tonight, but didn't go near as long as the last two days. 

Fri January 8

Today went well again. We are traveling to eastern Washington for Stella's birthday so no workout this evening. We met Chris and Brandy at "Ellensburg Pasta Co" for dinner and I think I ate pretty well. Other than the 2 beers I had a small spaghetti dish and a side of steamed broccoli. I hope I can do just as well tomorrow while we are at triple play in Coeur D'alene.

Sat January 9

"Tired"... That pretty much sums up how I'm feeling right now. We went to Ellensburg yesterday to spend the night before heading onward to Coeur D'Alene to visit family. Two 3.5 hours drive sounds way better than one 7 hour drive right? We had a nice dinner with my brother and his family at the "Ellensburg Pasta Co." And went to our hotel to get settled in. Then, out of nowhere, our oldest son started throwing up about 10:30 and then, every two hours after that he was up throwing up more. I felt pretty horrible that he wasn't feeling well and woke up with every little sound he made so I'd be able to help him with lights, ushering him from the hotel bed to the bathroom toilet... Ugh, I'm beat. Needless to say we ended up making the decision to head home once we woke up (Crawled out of bed) this morning. Eating was tough. Had an Americano and a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks on our way out of town and some berries about halfway through our drive. Then nothing substantial until dinner this evening. No workout for me today either. Tomorrow morning however, I am going on a run with a friend of mine. I'm pretty excited and it will give me something to get moving before the Seahawks playoff game against the Vikings! Well, off to sleep, I need it! 

Sun January 10

Beer and football today with a couple of friends. No surprise that I went over my calories, but only by 300. Go Hawks! 

Mon January 11

Today was a blur. Food went well, but the wife had to work late with "science team" and everyone but myself has come down with something. No workout today.

Tues January 12

Weekly weigh in, shows I lost 5 lbs this morning, Woot! I've been trying to remove the animal products, sugar, and alcohol from my meals in hopes that I will be able to get off the gout medicine. Today was the first day I succeeded in this. Not that I was far off the last few days, but today was a full on vegan day. I've been reading a lot about the negative affects of having meat or animal products in your diet. I suppose I can blame this on Rich Roll and his podcast as well as Dr. Greger of nutritionfacts.org. I won't bore you with all of the details, but pay attention to either of these two guys and you'll be better off.

Weekly Totals

Weight: 214 (-5 lbs)

Calories: 12864

Steps: 61759

Day 5

Well, it's Tuesday, so that means this is the official start of week 2. I gained a bit of weight this morning, but I'm still feeling good and staying positive. Even though it didn't show up on the scale I know that I'm making better choices, and at the very least... recognizing them. I've been walking during breaks and lunch at work which has also been positive. It's gotten me out of the office and away from my computer. It's always a draw to continue to work during breaks, and if I'm at my desk then I'm almost always working. I'm glad to have something else to occupy my time. Something that's also benefitting my health. I've also noticed that I'm having a hard time getting all of my calories in now that I'm eating cleaner foods. Maybe I need to take a closer look at that in the future, but I feel like I shouldn't worry too much about it since I'm not hungry... Actually I'm fairly full in the evening. Maybe that will change when I start working out more? Speaking of which, I had no real workout today. What is a "real" workout anyway? Do I need to endure blood, sweat, and tears to feel like I've actually performed a workout? Maybe not. Maybe something is better than nothing. It's hard to get motivated to run or workout outside when I get home and it's dark as well as cold. Not sure what I need to jump start that, but I need to do something soon. I've been looking more into body weight fitness so I won't need any actual weights or machines once I start. I did run in place in the living room for about 2-1/2 hours and accumulated a ton of steps, so I'll take it. 

Day 5 totals

Weight: 219 (+1.4 lbs)

Calories: 1689

Steps: 20069

Workout: running in place 2.5hrs

- Dave

Day 4

First day of the work week. It is definitely nice to be back on a schedule. Food went well today. Under by about a hundred calories, but I had to guesstimate on a couple of things and I'm stuffed, so I'm gonna call it good. 

Day 4 Totals

Calories: 1793

Steps: 4257

- Dave

Day 3

Day three consisted of a lot of beer, BBQ, and football. Like yesterday, I went over my calories by 300. I'm not 100% sure the math is working the way I'm using it, but I was under by 600 calories on day one, so... I'm even, right!? 

Tomorrow starts the work week, and my breakfast, lunch and snacks are packed, ready to go! Dinner is also already planned out, so I'm already making progress. My wife, to be fair, did all of the work this evening, preparing lunches for our family. It's nice to have someone in your corner when you're taking on what seems like the monumental task of losing weight and getting healthy.

My workout was similar to day one's workout, but without the planks. Push-ups were sets of five, except for the last two sets of 2 and 3 respectively. It took 9 minutes to complete. I'm not sure if I'm better off doing sets or trying to do these straight through. I feel like I may have better form doing smaller sets and it seems beneficial to me to have put in quality work. I know they're just basic moves, but if you can't do the basics very well, you aren't going to be able to do anything else very efficiently.

Day 3 Totals

Calories: 2252

Steps: 2446

Push-ups: 50

Sit-ups: 20

-Dave

Day 2

Today went better than yesterday. I stayed up late again last night and slept in late too. Not having a daily routine is making this tough. I'll have to put in a bit more effort to make sure my weekends from here on out are planned out better than the past 10 days off have been. Food went okay, but I did go over my calories today. I've also learned that Mac'n'cheese has waaayyy more calories than I ever thought possible! The workout was just as hard as I expected. No way was I going to finish this without doing the modified version. My arms felt like rubber and I sweat my ass off!

Day 2 Totals

Calories: 2278 

Steps: 2662

Workout: Insanity Max :30 "Sweat Intervals" (modified version)

-Dave

Day 1

Well, day 1 did not go off as smoothly as I hoped, but hey, life is full of hang ups and obstacles, whether self inflicted or otherwise, so it seems fitting that today would work out the way it did. I'm going to make mistakes, have time to reflect on them, and learn along the way. I stayed up late last night for New Year's Eve. Nothing crazy. I spent it at home with my family, had some gin and juice (thanks Snoop!) As it turns out, after such an exciting evening, I was lazy this morning and not motivated to get out and run in the 30 degree weather. I slept through the alarm I purposely set and started off my day by missing the "Polar Run and Plunge 2016" with a few friends this morning. I'll have to remind myself again, "You'll never regret the things you do, as much as the things you don't"... Lesson learned.

For accountability, I'll start with a a photo of my jacked up feet and the scale. 217.6 lbs. not too shabby a starting point. I normally weigh myself on Tuesday mornings, so from here on out I'll only be posting weight then. 

I'm using "Fitbit" to track steps, since it works with "MyFitnessPal" which I'll be using to track food, and I'll also be using "Nike+ Running" for mileage, because it awesome!! So, needless to say, I'll be posting both steps and mileage. Wow, I didn't realize how much technology was going into this?! What did I finally accomplish today? Planks, push-ups, and sit-ups. Nothing out of this world, but a starting point none the less. I started off with 5 push-ups and a plank "rest" after the 5th one until the 30 second mark. Sounds easy enough right? I made it 5 mins 30 seconds... Well sorta. The first couple of minutes went fine, but my arms gave out and I had to drop to 2 push-ups for the 2:30 & 3:00 minute marks. I then dropped the plank portion extended my rest time and was able to move back to 5 push-ups for 3:30, 4:30, and 5:30, finishing up with 25 sit-ups. I wish my workout would have gone a bit better. I'm not gonna lie, those numbers seem pretty pathetic. Food went okay today. I've had a few days off and am not in any sort of routine so while I'm sure this will improve. While I'm know that I am eating a calorie deficit. I'd like to stay close to that number and definitely needed a few more calories and water today... Maybe I'll have a night time snack, jk. 

Day One Totals

Weight: 217.6

Calories: 1338

Steps: 1118

Push-ups: 44

Planks: ~ 90 seconds 

Sit-ups: 25

-Dave 

The Beginning... Again.

Hello there 2016! Look at you, you brand new year you, all bright and shiny, untarnished, full of hopes and dreams. Today is January 1st, New Year's Day. It is a day a lot of us will say "New year, new me!" Blah, blah, blah... I'm gonna do this or that, make a million dollars, publish a book, fold laundry as soon as it's done, I won't let food dry on the dishes, I'll read every night, and do yoga, and meditate, and remodel the house, and learn guitar, and be the best, funniest dad ever! You know the routine. I'm not here to discourage that. It's all very achievable if you hold yourself accountable. That's what this blog is for me... My accountability. I'm not any different than any of you. I just needed a way to keep myself motivated to get better, to become the best version of myself. Follow along if you'd like (I know it's a public forum, but I find it funny that I'm writing as if I'll have an audience of sorts), but I warn you, I'm nobody special. (Well, maybe my boys would disagree, but they're nowhere near becoming teenagers yet.) I'm not a writer, I'm barely a blogger. In fact, this is the third time I've started this blog, the first two have been deleted, removed from blogger land. I'll be updating here with whatever info I feel is pertinent in showing my progress. Let's be honest. I'll probably be posting more often at the beginning of this journey than I will be later on, but 3rd times a charm, right!? I'll try and follow some sort of format, posting towards the end of the day, showing my workout for the day, if any, lol, and food intake. I'm sure this will also start out awesome, making me look cooler than I actually am. We all start off with the best of intentions and I have some big plans for myself, if I can hold on.

Well, I suppose I could give a little more info about me (The quick and dirty, "Readers Digest" version). My name is Dave, I typically wear a black t-shirt, jeans, and probably a hat. I'm 34, and I have what I think is a pretty awesome family, a wife and two boy's (a 6 year old and 9 mo old). We live in a small, humble home (my wife would call it our "tiny house") on the south end of Camano Island in the puget sound of Washington state. I run occasionally, but am nowhere near the runner I was in my youth, (but a hundred pounds will do that!) And now a little history... High school seems a good place to start this since that's a place in our lives I think we can all relate to. I was a sprinter on the track team and graduated at 145lbs and dropped to 135lbs the summer after (other than my legs, I was scrawny), since having an actual job, involving manual labor, turned out to be a bit tougher than track practice. I settled into a routine, a couple years went by, I got a job at the airport where I lifted bags all day (and finally gained a bit of muscle), met the woman of my dreams, got married, moved to Camano, changed jobs again, 5 years went by and I steadily gained... Especially while my wife was pregnant! I gained 50lbs with our first son, topping out at 243lbs... Naked. I felt like such a lardass! It was the happiest and the least happy I've been in my life. I know that this isn't big, considering the state of American obesity, but I needed to feel healthier, I knew I needed/wanted to make a change. The weight wasn't going to fall off having an office job. So I tried a few different programs. All of which worked to a degree, but I'd figure out how they worked for me and I'd settle into a routine of neither losing nor gaining weight. I've essentially been sustaining this for 5 or so years. While I'm happier, and slightly more comfortable with myself, I'm definitely not where I want to be. So, I guess this is where I start. Let's see what happens shall we?