FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT! Right?

AS has been said thousands of times by probably thousands of people, maintenance is a bitch! I mean, if you break it down it isnt. Is it technically hard to weight yourself regularly? No. Is it hard to limit your intake somewhat? No. Is it hard to get a normal amount of exercise when you can? Not really.

But put it all together? Is it hard to keep that mindset day in and day out for the rest of your life? Yeah, for me it is. Here's my deal: I focus on things and they consume me. Weight loss and fitness was one of them.
When I stop making them my #1 priority they fall off somewhat. They don't completely disappear but they definitely fall off some. When a healthy fit lifestyle falls off a little we pay the price, and before you know it if you're not careful you find yourself in an unhappy situation again.

Duh.

So of course that said, it's clear I havent been keeping the healthy lifestyle as much as I'd of liked to. Let's break it down.

Here's the bad:

- I haven't weighed myself in a while. Like probably some months. I'm kinda afraid too which is a bad thing. I just don't want to be depressed and pissed off by the number.

- Eating hasn't been good for a while. Holidays, not into counting calories or paying much attention to intake. Not mentally in it. Call it what you want but eating hasnt been great.

I guess that's the extent of the bad.

Here's the good:

- Still working out. I biked up until late November, then I started running again. I'm going to run the half marathon again and I'm in my second week of training for that.

- I suppose I'll count that I'm still thinking about my health and worried about things getting out of hand as a good thing. Obviously if I wasnt even admitting I need to get back on track then I'd be back on the road to blubber.

So there you have it. Some shirts are getting a little tight. I went up a jeans size from a 34 to a 36 about a month and a half ago. No one is calling me fat and no one has told me I look like I've gained weight, but I can tell. I know I have and that's all that really matters. What is different for me this time if that you're not going to see me going all out living a 100% completely healthy lifestyle like I did when I lost 100 pounds in 6 months. It's not sustainable. My goal this time is just to dial it in a little bit. Get back on track. Get back into a 34" waist pant. Start weighing myself again, just not every day. But I do have to say I don't think I'm ready to weigh myself yet. I want to give myself another week of marathon training and decent eating...I know, some of you will disagree with that, but it's what I want to do.

I'll also be posting again until I feel I'm back where I want to be. In a 34" jeans, feeling good again. Ha! that's funny, because I never felt 100% good even when I weighed 200 pounds. I always felt like I still had love handles and some flab. Even in this pic I felt flabby and not how I wanted:


Now I look at it and wish I was there again. So it's a bit of a state of mind. Finding what's comfortable for you I guess.

Here's me a few months ago:



felt fat there.

here i am about a month and a half ago:

i know it's not the best pic because of the big bulging jacket, but i felt fat there too.

anyway, I don't know what I'm saying anymore, except that I want to be back in a 34" pants and I want to feel good about myself. I'm not there right now. But is the grass always greener on the other side? I just don't know.

Talk to you soon.

Had a scare - back on track.

First of all, Hello blog. I've been ignoring you for a while. Much has happened since our last meeting. I'm now a father of a beautiful now 9 week old boy named Henry:







He's awesome.

But the real reason for my post it to come clean. A while ago I found my maintain weight of around 215 or so. Well, after maintaining that for a while I got comfortable and stopped weighing myself. Eventually I knew I'd gained weight but grew afraid to step on the scale. Not cool. That's an old habit that got me to over 300 pounds eventually. Not cool at all.
I finally came clean a week ago after an especially debaucherous evening. The next morning i jumped on the scale ready for the worst, and it was the worst, 231.6. OUCH!

To rehash the past few years, I lost 100 or so pounds over 6 months, reaching 202 or so in early 2008. I maintained that for a while, at the same time getting comments from people telling me I'd gone too far. I eventually settled on a maintenence weight I felt comfy with, and that was 210-215. I maintained that until about 3 months ago after I finished a half marathon. Then the impending baby came. Goal-less "maintenence-land" existed for while. I stayed active, riding my bike daily, but my diet eventually started to slip and I stopped weighing myself.

That brings us to last Monday and my 231.6 weigh-in.
I'm now happy to report that after a week of much better eating and daily weigh ins to keep me honest I'm back down to 224 , on my way back to 215 or so.
I'll keep updating this blog until I get down to where I want to be again and to keep me honest.

But yeah. It just goes to show that it really is a lifestyle change and that has to mean forever. You cant allow yourself to slip into old habits and if and when you do, you have to adjust and get out of them. I'm working on doing that now.

Zone Maintenence - Paranoia Check

Today's weigh-in: 215.4

Today I'll be blatantly ripping off Bill's Zone theory, adjusted of course for my numbers.

Green zone: <212 lbs
Yellow Zone: 212-220 lbs
Red Zone: >220 lbs

220 was my original goal to reach, back in January of 2008. Since then I've found myself averaging as low as 203, to having weigh-ins as high as 221. There was an upward trend that started the past 4 months since I stopped Half Marathon Training, so the past few weeks I've been trying to get things in line and my number is coming back down. The reason I consider my green zone a little higher than my lowest recorded averages is that I've put some muscle on. Basically I don't start getting nervous about my weight if my number is below 212 or so.

So that's it really. Thanks for the idea BillyBob!

Psycho Killer Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Hi.

Been a while eh?

Well you know, I had those neck issues and all. I re-injured my neck after it was almost completely healed, so that set me back. That was a few weeks ago though and it's been 100% now for at least a week. So, no more excuses really.

Know what sucks? As soon as my workouts tail off or I don't watch those calories quite as close as I normally do, what happens? Fat shows up. Where? Directly on my hips and gut. Not so much anywhere else really, but right on my gut and love handles. How annoying is that?

I mean, I was still active, riding my bike and running maybe once a week, but I just lost the fire. And I was relaxing big time on watching my caloric intake.

Maintenance is hard...man.

So after just being tired, hurt, and maybe a bit lazy and watching my weight show my numbers as high as 221-ish, last week I decided I'd better get back on the bus. Err, wagon, and off the retard bus.

I surrounded myself with healthier snacks. I rode my bike a few more days, and I ran in a 5K.

Right, so that 5k. I ran this on Saturday:




On paper I guess I did well, running it in 23:45 and placing something like 170 out of 2000-ish people, but in reality, it hurt. I started the race towards the front for some reason, I guess I thought I was being more badass. You know, the place where they ask the real runners to start from...

I stood around with these 90lb women runners all decked out in spandex and muscles and told myself I'd pace with them for a bit. I mean, come on, I just ran a half marathon, I can do this. That's what I told myself. I forget the Half was almost 3 months ago and I've barely run 12 miles since then.

The Mayer of Philly sounded the alarm and the runners took off, myself included. That first 90 pound women took off, running between large fat cop legs, weaving in and out of Dunkin Donuts eating traffic. I stuck with her, but being 6'3" 215-ish I wasnt quite so agile as her. I found myself running at top speed to get around people in the crowd to try to work my way towards the front.

We hit the first mile marker and it said 6:45. That's when I was like, uhhh wow! I've never run a mile faster than 7:15.

What the hell am I doing? I cant breath! my legs hurt! where the hell did those women go?

I had to slow down and catch my breath and try to recover enough to finish the race.

My splits were something like

mile 1 - 6:45
mile 2 - 8:15
mile 3 - 9:30

hahaha! Way to pace myself! That hurt!

The short of the story is I got a decent time for me, but I almost died. I could have nailed a low 22-ish 5k time two months ago, but I've definitely lost some cario ability. My muscles hurt after the race too.

At the end of the race I basically collapsed at the finish line and layed down on my back for a minute. A random stranger kicked me lightly to make sure I wasnt dead. I just gave her a thumbs up since I still couldnt breath.

So yeah, I ran a 5k.

I've been eating a little better. If Bill's kryptonite is a Cheese Steak, mine are nacho's. beautiful, cheese and meat covered nacho's. Warm. Crunchy. Sour cream. Delicious....

I'm cutting those out for a bit. The constant snacking? Gotta stop that too.

So here I am, trying to eat a little better, ride my bike a little more, lift a little more, and drop about 8-10 pounds. I am down to 215 after topping out at 220.

Last summer I was maintaining around 204. I've put on some muscle with all the running and lifting work in the past year, so I'd like to maintain about 210 this year.

We'll see. Honestly I'd really like some nacho's though.

Update

I still have neck pain that is keeping me from lifting because I don't want to make it worse. Considering this is how I injured it to begin with I think it's the right choice.

I've been eating OK, and in fact I'm trying to dial my eating in more than usual since I'm not getting the workouts in.

I rode my bike to work on Friday, and for a short ride over the weekend, but once again, the neck is an issue and I'm afraid that whatever I do will make it worse.

So really, all I feel like I can do right now it monitor my food intake and try to maintain. It's pretty frustrating because I'd much rather be exercising.

That's all I've got right now. Hopefully someone soon I can get active again and maybe even set some fitness goals.

My neck my neck!

So apparently I pulled something in my neck lifting a few weeks ago. For the third time now, I have a dull pain in my neck that lasts for a few days. Last Sunday I went bowling and made it even worse. It sucks!

I've never been to a chiropractor in my life but the pain was becoming unbearable so I decided to give it a try last night. He put me on a table and cracked my neck.

It immediately felt better but this morning it hurts just as much as it has all week.

This sucks!

So that has been hampering my workouts. I got a 4 mile run in Monday morning in the rain, but I skipped lifting. I also havent been on my bike for a week because it's been raining non stop. It's really kinda depressing.

I havent weighed myself for about a week, but I have been watching my food intake fairly closely so I don't think that I've put on weight or anything. That said I do need to get back on the scale.

Right now my first priority is just getting better though.

So I guess this is a warning, be careful, especially when lifting with free weights. I think what I did was rush through my workout and I got sloppy and ended up injuring myself.

Here's to better days.

Going All Out

I've been really active the past 4 or 5 days. I've also eaten and drank a bunch :).

Friday Morning: - 4 mile run
Friday Night: 4 Marqherita's, chips, a few french fries, the Flyers lose.

Saturday Morning: 40 mile very hilly bike ride
Saturday Night: 2 beers, way too much sushi, and Ice Cream Sandwitch and a cookie!

Sunday Morning: Bike 30 miles, eat a huge breakfast, bike another 20 miles home
Sunday Night: eat a salad, but not the healthiest of salads. The Flyers win!

So yeah, it's kinda crazy. As you can see the weight is back up to 219, and I don't know if it's water retention from all the riding/running, extra weight from all the food drinks, or just that I ate too late last night.

I'll button the eating back up this week though, and I'd be willing to bet I'm back down to 215-ish within a few days. I'm also planning some running this week since the weather wont be the best for riding.

I do feel great though. The weather was beautiful and it felt great getting all that riding in. I really like that I'm riding and running.

I really need to take some pics and compare to last year so see if I can tell if the extra ten pounds is mostly muscle or fat. I'm starting to think that 210-215 is my real ideal weight. This happens to be 10-15 pounds over what BMI says.