Wow it has been almost a month since my last post. I guess I have been trying to figure things out for myself. I am now trying a different approach to my eating, thinking, goals, and my workouts. On the eating front I am now trying the "Build the Muscle, Burn the Fat" approach. Simply I am adding protein to every meal and snack and trying to consume most of my simple carbs before dinner, and only have protein and veggies for dinner. So far it is working to drastically decrease my afternoon and evening munchies. Under this plan you are supposed to visualize yourself at your goal and do affirmations every morning and night. This has helped me to believe in myself. It helps me feel stronger and more confident. Just yesterday after I was done with my run I was walking back to my car, and I actually saw myself at my goal size. I felt strong, powerful, and proud.

I am going to try high intensity interval training (HIIT) for the next 9 weeks. This is supposed to burn some major fat. Under the Lose the Belly Fat plan doing HIIT is supposed create at least a 2 pounds fat loss in the first week. He even says that this is huge under estimate. I will let you know.

I also joined project hydrate My water consumption has always been a problem. Give me a chance to win free stuff and suddenly I become very motivated.

I am not sure which of these chance, or if it is all of them, but for the last few days my energy level has been very high.

I have so much more to talk about, but it is already an hour past when I wanted to go to bed, and I just finished my 84 oz of water for today. Quick side note my WI for this week was 163.

A Look Back in Time

Happy new year. It has been a long time since I have written anything. I just haven't felt like putting myself out there lately. I am going to make an effort to be more dedicated to writing at least twice a week. I am doing this so I have something to look back on for strength and guidance when I need reminded of what works and what doesn't. I cant really do that if I don't write every now and then.


The new year always seems to be a time of reflection. So I started my day thinking back to the first time I lost the weight. What inspired me then. I know that somewhere around the weight I am now that I got stuck in a rut similar to where I am now. What pushed me on the road. I cant remember for certain, but I do recall one event that really shook me. A fellow coworker who is the same age as I am lost his mom in a motorcycle accident. I remember the pain in his face and his eyes. I heard other talk about how you never truly get over the loss. Let me just say now that I have not lost any real close relatives yet. His pain was so deep and is still there to this day, it is just buried deep down. I saw his pain and it made me somehow see that pain on my son's face. This image made me sick to my stomach. It was then that I made a new goal. I wanted to be there with my son the day that he became a grandpa for the first time. I know no one is guaranteed a tomorrow, but by living a healthy lifestyle the odds are better that I will reach that goal.

For Christmas I got a Nike+ Sportband. I am trying to figure out to post my run info here, but I haven't really had time to play with it yet. So far I have gone for two runs. I still need to calibrate it for better accuracy, but right now all of the local school tracks are still covered in snow. I am hoping once schools starts back up again they might clear some of the snow off. With the sportsband I have set two goals and entered into three challenges at nikerunning.com. I have since seen several challenges on other blogs that I would love to give a try, but I am going to stick with the three I have already entered and go from there. If I try too much I will just get frustrated and not finish or accomplish any of them.

My goals for 2010
- Run all three races I ran last year and beat my previous time.
- Run the bolder boulder
- Run a half marathon
- Start a strength training program
- Believe in myself
Of course losing weigh is in there as well, but hopefully that will fall in to place as I accomplish all of the others. I want most of all is to be a better person this year than I was last year. I will post what my goals and what challenges I have signed up for on nikerunning.com later this week

Bring it On

I decided to join in two challenges. Nothing like a challenge to get me motivated, especially when it is one with a plan. The challenges are:
The Hundred Push up Challenge
The Two Hundred Squat Challenge

Tonight I am doing the initial test and I will do the first week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. For the second week I hope to be on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule, but due to a stomach virus I was not able to do the initial test on Saturday and therefore was unable to start workouts until Tuesday.

Initial test results:

Push-ups 5

Squats 60

There is one other challenge out there, the two hundred sit-up challenge, but I decided not to do this one because when I tried to do the initial test it caused my neck and back to hurt. I tried twice and decided that I must not be performing the sit up properly so it was in my best interest not to keep trying and hurt myself. Crunches have always hurt my back, which is why I normally do them only on the ball. Maybe once I buy a new ball, my cat put a hole in mine, I will try the sit up challenge on the ball.

Between me and my kids being sick I did not write often last week, but I did want to mention that after work on Wednesday I was really tired. I debated back and forth as to whether or not I was going to go home and take a nap or go to the gym and workout. When I got home I went straight to the fridge looking for something to eat even though I was not hungry. I then shut the fridge, grabbed my gym bag and left. I did forty minutes of cardio at the gym and afterwards I felt a lot more energized then a nap would have done. I was so proud of myself.

Here is my workout plan for this week:

Monday: Run 2 miles

Tuesday: Cross training 40-45 minutes Workout 1 of Squat and Push up challenge

Wednesday: Run 1 mile race pace

Thursday: Workout 2 of Squat and Push up challenge

Friday: Run 2.5 miles

Saturday: Run 30 min. EZ Workout 3 of Squat and Push up challenge