7 and a half years

It's kinda crazy when I think about it but I started this blog damn near 8 years ago. How does time fly that fast?

As you could imagine a lot has gone on in that time. I've never again been the weight I was when I first typed this blog  - so that's great.

I've also never fully given up on fitness or paying attention to my diet even when it's bad. That doesn't mean that I haven't gained weight, in fact out of the 115 pounds I initially lost by 2008 I've probably put half of that back on at times.

I just realized reading the right rail of my blog that 6 years ago today I was training for my first half marathon. It was my last half marathon too, ha!

I've changed my outlook and my methods, but I do still sometimes wonder if I can ever be as fast or as strong as I was 6 years ago. Especially in my 38th year. It's pretty lame to sometimes think about how at some point your best physical years will be behind you. I'm not there yet, but I already cringe just thinking about it, some day, not far off. I mean, look how fast the past 8 years have gone!

I still haven't been very motivated to blog. I rarely even check it, but tonight I did and saw Rip posting on his (http://ripx180.blogspot.com/) so it motivated me to do the same.

So, here's what I'm up to:

- trying to do cardio every other day. A few days I ran a 5k on the treadmill (i'm back in the land of cold winters again, at least for a while). Other times i switched it up with other boring cardio machines at the YMCA. I doubt this will last long if I don't find something that interests me. Perhaps I'll go back to training outside. Perhaps I'll try a marshal art? I don't know yet.

- doing weight training 3 days a week. Actually the first day was just a refresher and I was so god damned sore I didn't go for almost another 2 weeks! that's right! I'm not ashamed, I guess. But I'm back now, and the soreness the second time wasn't as bad. I find weight lifting to be pretty damn boring as well, but I'm doing it because I need to. The only thing that's fun it to see the weight you're lifting go up, but I'm not there yet.

- I'm not really doing anything special with food. Not counting calories and I don't plan to. I just try to be reasonable, most of the time. I will say that I've kept a no soda diet for, i guess three years now? I don't miss it. No diet soda for probably 3.5 years and no regular soda for maybe 5?

So that's basically it. It's not a bad plan, 3-4 days of running 5k's and 3 days of lifting. But as you can see it kinda lacks focus and perhaps the love/ambition that I had in the past.  But at least I'm doing something.

Doing nothing wasn't working out as it actually makes me depressed and tired. Life is hard, ya know?

Ah well, I'll keep trudging on.

Doin' it in NYC

I'm in NYC this week for work hence the title.
First of all, thanks to the guys still reading and supporting. I really do appreciate that, it's an important motivator for me.

I'm still plodding along. I did decide a while back that it's not as important for me to weigh myself daily. It's a bit of a mental detriment and even small upticks from water weight or whatever make it annoying.

So that said I havent done a weigh in for a while, but I do know I'm still moving in the right direction. I'm fitting in clothing again that fit me when I was probably high 230's/low 240's, so that's good.

Everything I eat isn't perfect, but the portions are and I believe I'm being sensible.

Exercise still isn't ideal, especially this week with traveling, but I'm hoping to change that when i can get back into a normal schedule. I did bike commute 10 mile round trip 3 out of the 5 work days last week.

I guess that's it really. I'm just slowly moving in the right direction while trying to have somewhat of a normal eating life. Oh, and I realized that it's been over a year since I've had soda of any kind, diet or otherwise. I plan to keep is that way forever if possible.

Still Doin' It

I just thought I'd send  quick update to let everyone who reads this (no one) know that I'm still doing this. I havent weighed myself in a few says, but at last check I was hovering around 245, or about 10 pounds since I got started on this.

The eating has been pretty good. The exercise is still a slow start as I've been so busy with work and life. I havent even been riding my bike to work, which annoys me. I hope to change that soon.

In any event, I'm still moving forward, or downward in weight, however you want to look at it.

Gotta be patient

I've been having stomach pain over the past few days. Not like an "i'm hungry" pain but moreso an upset feeling. It always goes away when I eat something, so now I know they must be hunger pains of some sort. I've been eating well below my  "lose 2 pounds a week" number, especially one day when i went on a 50 mile bike ride.

I guess I'm just saying here and to myself, I have to be patient that losing this weight is going to take time. I need to slow down a little. By that I mean I need to eat a little more.

Anyhow, my first weigh in last thursday was 254.6 i believe, and now I'm around 250, so that's the right direction.

Gotta get more exercise though. I'm coming up with a plan to do that.

That's it for now.

-Brian

Weigh in/ Observations

I did the initial weigh in the other day expecting to see around 260 and instead saw 254.2. Ok, better than nothing I guess. Since then I've been at it. 3 hour long bike ride yesterday, good eating going on I think 4 days now. I had a 252.2 weigh in the day after the first one, so I'm hoping to get below 250 reasonably within a week or so. Maybe earlier.
I was just reading through my blog from the past almost 6 years. here's a few observations  some of which I'd forgotten:

- I started out at 50 pounds heavier than I am now, and it took 100 days to get to what I weigh right now. So I havent totally gone back to the beginning, that's good.

- I lost nearly 100 pounds in 183 days the first time.

- I was averaging about 3 pounds weight loss a week. (i hope I can do this again, obviously). I know I probably won't be able to work out as much as I was before though.

- I more or less kept all the weight off for almost 18 months. It wasn't until 2 years after my goal weight was met I'd packed on about 20 more pounds. This coincided with major lifestyle changes, some of them planned.

- I've been 240lb + for about 2-3 years now.

- My original goal weight was 215 which i achieved Jan 2008, however i got as low as 198 during that year.

- I pretty happy in my clothing when I'm at least 230, ideally 215-220. I was never completely happy with a shirt off.

So, those are just some things I've been thinking about. I can't believe it was so long ago i first started this journey. I'm glad that lots of the good things I learned during that time stuck with me, but I hope I can find a way to better adapt to life's changes while still maintaining a comfortable weight.
That's the hard part.

Today is day 1 of tracking calories again. I haven't weighed myself yet because I'm scared of the number,. I'm going to get things in line for a few weeks first then weigh myself. Anyhow i'm using MyNetDiary (http://www.mynetdiary.com/)  from the Apple Ap store on my iPhone.

So far so good.

Plans Aren't For Fools

Hey guys,
I'm gathering not a lot of folks come here anymore. I haven't posted in a fear years. It also seems almost all of the pics in my posts are gone because I switched hosts and forget I had a lot of stuff linked here. Anyhow, here's a quick update since we last chatted:

- I no longer live in the Philadelphia PA area. I moved to San Jose California is early 2012 to work for my new employer, a popular online auctions company...

- My kids are older, as you'd imagine. My son will be 4 in July and my daughter 3. With that comes a busier schedule. Less "me" time.

- I'm still active in that I ride my bike a lot including to work almost daily. In fact I just recently purchased a car after going almost a year without.

- I weigh more than I did when we last chatted. I'm certainly not on the levels I was when I started this blog (300+ lbs at that time), but I'm not near the lowest either ( high 190's). I'm not happy with whatever my weight is, but most importantly I feel tired all the time. I know I need to get back on the horse but I'm being very lazy.

- I've tried some things over the past few years to get back into the run of things, but nothing has stuck. I got back into running again but then my California allergies kicked in causing a pause in my running which I never picked back up. It's been that way for about 5 months.

- I'm still doing things to improve myself such as , I've always hated my stupid crooked teeth, so I got braces .  I'm 6 months into that, and have about another year before that's done. Better late than never eh?

- I'm looking to start feeling better about myself both physically and mentally again, and I need to figure out a way to do that. Holding myself accountable and having you folks keep me that way was HUGE to me back in 2008-2007 when I started this. I'm back to do the same.

Hopefully some of the original folks are out there, and maybe there will be a few new ones.

Anyhow, posting this is hopefully the first step on my comeback train.

Talk to you soon.

-Brian

p.s. I forgot to mention I also have grown a ridiculous mustache and feel kinda like my dad. I think I'll keep it for a while.