2014 Naperville Marathon - Or Not...

If you've read any of my posts older than two weeks ago, you know that I signed up for my first full marathon earlier this spring. You also know that I have since dropped out of the race due to a knee injury I suffered this summer. Apparently my knees and a sand volleyball court do not get along well.

Well, that marathon (believe it or not) continued without me this past Sunday.

Since the race was a qualifying race for the Boston Marathon, I did not have the option of selling my registration to someone else or giving it away. As a result, I got stuck paying a decent chunk of money for a race that I wasn't participating in. However, I did realize that (like every other race) my registration comes with some 'free' stuff!

So Karin and I made the trek to Naperville, Illinois on Saturday to visit the expo that coincides with the race. It's a place where runners pick up their race bibs and vendors set up booths to sell running gear. It's a pretty fitness-friendly atmosphere, you could say.

Immediately upon walking in, we spotted a guy in a costume. And there's something you need to know about me - I am a sucker for mascots. If I'm at a parade or anything, I need to get a picture with them. Guess it's just my inner six year old wanting to get out.

We then went over to the board to find my bib number - #1430!

While picking up my bag of stuff, the lady handing things out just HAD to try to make conversation, didn't she? I, of course, just fed her fake questions - but in my head I was thinking:

"Is this your first race?" - It probably looks like it, doesn't it?
"Are you all ready for tomorrow?" - Yup. All ready to sit on the couch and watch football.

Needless to say, I really felt like I didn't belong there. All these skinny, fit runners in their race shirts and bright running shoes really just made me stick out like a big, sore thumb. On top of that, I had ordered a large shirt for the race. Guess I was a little optimistic about my training regimen.

But that being said, going to these types of events still reminds me that I still do have a goal of being a runner. While running a full marathon wasn't part of my Sunday this week, it will still be a part of a Sunday at some point in the future. I haven't given up on this goal yet.

Company Generosity - Good or Bad?

Now that I've been working at my current job for almost six months, I've come to see many of the perks of working for the company. But one of the aspects that I first considered as the best thing since a comfy desk chair, I've come now to view as a burden and curse.

 

 

As you can see, the company is more than generous with their supply of free snacks and drinks... The fridge is also full or MORE drinks as well as string cheese - LOTS of string cheese.

But here's the thing - turns out that some of my biggest temptations / weaknesses come in the form of things like Mountain Dew, Orange Crush and Sun Chips - things that are not in short supply here.

Now I'm not going to stand here and blame the company for my lack of weight loss - that'd be silly. But let's be honest...it'd be much easier for me NOT to eat / drink all these things if they weren't sitting there ready to be consumed.

So this is one of my main goals heading into this next month of the year (September) and in the future. To walk right past this closet and only focus on my lunch in the fridge and the water cooler in the corner.

Business Trip Highs and Lows

For my job, I sometimes get to take 2-5 day long trips around the country. Who knew being a webcasting engineer was so posh? Well, before you start ooh-ing and aah-ing, let me tell you that this latest trip was to the 'metropolis' of Bloomington, Minnesota. Hold your applause, please.

While the short trip (Wed - Thurs) was mostly work (who woulda thunk it?) - setting up cameras, checking microphones and testing our webcast stream, my coworker and I were able to get out of the hotel and visit the Mall of America for a whopping 5 hours! We walked around for the first two hours simply looking at all the different restaurants, shops and amusement park rides and logged almost 12,000 steps! Makes me wish I would have thought ahead and worn my running shoes rather than flip flops...

But unfortunately, the temptation to eat crappy food was prevalent due to the fact that we get a $50 a day just for meals - not to mention that one of the two lunches was paid for by a separate client... So while we were at the mall we stopped at Famous Dave's for some nice BBQ and  then moved onto Buffalo Wild Wings for some beverages - and sports, of course! And don't get me started on how tasty (and probably unhealthy) the other few meals were...

We also stopped at the Nike Store so I could check out a few things and drool uncontrollably over the running gear they had stocked to the celing. I could have walked out of there with a few, full bags of shoes, shorts, shirts and everything else they had! They also had a sweet decoration on their ceiling - dozens of racing bibs from all over the place. So cool!

But now I'm home and back to reality where I don't get to sleep in a king-sized bed by myself and my meals aren't paid for. And I'm also getting back to the gym! I'm looking to have another 365-Day Transformation update to you later this week! See ya then!



In the Starting Blocks

On the heels of the Men's 100m Finals - all hail Usain! - I think the title of today's post is quite applicable.  By the way, can we all just stop a second and admit that he is ridiculous? Any time I watch his run my jaw just drops - so impressive.

Anyway, if you read my post from yesterday, you know that I am now 28 years of age and am embarking on a year-long journey (a la Chris Powell) to get to my sub-200 pound goal. So before I get started, I want to establish where I'm starting. I'm adjusting my feet in the blocks and getting ready to tear up the track. (But of course this isn't being treated as a sprint!)

This morning I took stock of where I find myself after a week of vacation and a week + of slacking on my half marathon training schedule. And it was worse than I thought.

If any of you follow me on YouTube, you'll know that I also just joined a couple of challenges - so to speak - that require me to make regular update/progress videos. In my initial videos for #CHANGE and "Hot 4 Halloween" I made a guess before vacation that I weighed around 270 despite having not seen a scale for a week prior to that. Well...I must have been wrong. Here are my starting numbers as of today:

Starting Weight: 275.6

Measurements (in inches):

I took some 'before' pictures that I will show you at the end of each three-month "Phase" (again with the Chris Powell comparison). I will also be giving short, weekly reports each Monday letting you know how my last seven days went - mostly statistical with a little analysis. I'll also have a running, weekly, weigh in tally in the upper-right portion of the blog.

I also want to note that I don't want to stray too far from the running focus of this blog, but that shouldn't be a problem since I'll be continuing my half marathon training this next month and using it as a huge part of my weight loss. My ultimate goal after all of this is done is to become a hardcore runner (like some of you!) and maybe even dabble in some du- or triathlons. Hmm? Hmm?

But let's take this one day at a time, k? I'll have my first progress post for ya on Monday.

A 365-Day Transformation?

On days such as this (my birthday), I find it hard not to evaluate the year that was, and the potential of the year to come. Unfortunately - and only due to a result of my own efforts - I haven't seen much progress in the health & fitness arena since I turned 27 last year. But I'll get back to this in a second...

The rest of my life, however, has changed quite a bit! Back in September of last year I married my wife and best friend, and in March I started my first, official full-time job in downtown Chicago (after a few years of freelance/part-time gigs). Even scored a new car last month! Just about every other aspect of my life has improved since my last birthday. So why not this last part?

Now don't get me wrong - this isn't me lamenting about how bad my life is AT ALL. I am so happy for all the blessings I have received between 8/6/2011 and 8/6/2012 and I wouldn't go back and do a single thing differently. As far as weight loss goes, the past is the past - and now it's time to only look at today and set goals for this next year of my life.

My primary verse for the next 365 days

I'm a big fan of Chris Powell and his show Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition on Sunday nights. Instead of a 'ranch' format of group training a la Biggest Loser, he takes on a client one-on-one for an entire year to completely transform them. Now I'm not looking to lose half of my body weight (thankfully I haven't let myself go THAT much), but I am going to aim for my goal weight by my birthday next year - so I have 365 days to do so.

So beginning tomorrow, I will weigh myself, take pictures and measurements and establish my official "starting (over)" position. More details will come in tomorrow's post pertaining to my plan on how I will approach the next 365 days.

Let me know what things have worked for you that you think I should include in my plan!

And So It Begins...

Well now that we've given away another half marathon registration, it's time for me to turn my focus elsewhere - training! Yes, I will also be running the Chicago Half Marathon (as I've mentioned), and my training schedule kicked off this week!

Now I won't lie - I'm a little more excited about this September 9th race moreso than the June 9th one I registered for (I ended up downgrading to the 5k due to imminent heat and lack of training). Don't get me wrong, the Allstate 13.1 Marathon Series was a fantastic event, I just wasn't as excited to run the actual race due to my lack of training -  the reason I'm more excited is because I have PLENTY of time to train for this race as opposed to the shorter timeframe I got before the June race.

This time around I'm trying a different kind of training schedule. In the past, I've used a schedule more or less derived from the Hal Higdon model. But this time I thought I'd try my hand (or feet?) at the Runner's World half marathon training schedule. I'm looking forward to it because it doesn't just give me a straight-up number of miles to run every day, but it incorporates interval running and different stamina exercises.

I've adjusted it slightly so that my longer days are on Saturdays, and I'm already looking ahead to the summer to make sure that I get my miles in despite some vacations and busy weekends. I'm 100% in on this program and I look forward to getting my miles logged, losing weight to get the pressure off of my worn out knees and PRing this race in September. Not to mention that it's been awhile since I've gotten to run a nice, long race in downtown Chicago!

What sort of half marathon training regimens have you used in the past, or are currently using? There are TONS of different things out there, and I'd love to hear about them!

Weekly Update #2

If you haven't heard, I'm doing weekly progress updates on my YouTube channel. Now I've tried doing this type of thing before, but I would just cowardly fade away once I started doing poorly. Let's not let that happen this time around, shall we?

Anyway, I'm just about done with quite the whirlwind of a week, and unfortunately it took a toll on my activity levels and discipline along the way. Had a wrench thrown in my routine - had to take a personal day off of work due to a death in the family, was asked to work from home twice this week, and even worked from a different office for a day. All these things threw curveballs at me and I wasn't ready.

When I can settle into a routine and know ahead of time what I have coming up, it gives me a better chance to plan out my meals and gym times. When things get kind of hectic and are thrown off-kilter, it gives me less time and warning to plan things out. With less time to plan, I'm more susceptible to giving in to spontaneous temptations (snacking, sleeping in) and therefore sabotaging my goals.

But the B-Side of that is that when I DO give in to the temptations of immediate gratification, I continue to give in the next time, and the time after that - each instance where I display a lack of discipline makes it easier to give in the following time. That's where the change needs to happen.

I mean, let's face it - no one rarely anyone can keep on point 100% of the time. We all mess up at one time or another! It's how we respond to that lapse in discipline that defines our journey and self-control. For me, it's been a week of good, followed by a bad Saturday, followed by a bad week, which turns into two weeks... You get the point.

That is the piece of the puzzle that I need to figure out for when these lapses come. Once I learn to stop the bleeding once the cut occurs, I'll be in great shape when the next temptation comes around.

My (Slightly Belated) June Goals

One of my reoccuring downfalls on my weight loss journey has been setting all my final, big picture goals up front and then rarely setting smaller, more bite-sized goals along the way. As a result, every time I stumbled on my diet or gain a few pounds here or there, I saw my progress through the lens of the larger goal and found myself getting discouraged because I had "such a long way to go", and would forget that one, bad day doesn't ruin everything and that I just needed to forget yesterday's failure and focus on winning today. I've never been good at that...

So in an attempt to combat this cycle from rearing its ugly head anymore, I'm going to take some time at the beginning of each month to set some goals for myself for the upcoming 30 days. I think I'll give a few, different kinds of goals: weight, nutrition, activity and maybe something unrelated to weight loss.

Before I get into my June goals, let me backtrack a little and talk about May. My efforts - on a scale of 1 to 10 - probably registered only about a 4.5 last month. I had a couple weeks where I ate well and got to the gym 4-6 times a week, but the other half of the month I avoided the gym, at donuts for breakfast and enjoyed way too much soda. However, I still managed to lose 8-10 pounds last month despite my efforts not to, haha.

For June, I've found a new source of motivation to help me through the summer. Some of the women at work started a Biggest Loser type of contest and asked me to join! The prize is yet to be determined, but I'm still really excited about it. I'll get more into that at a later date. On to the goals!

By July 1st, here are some things I want to say I've accomplished:

- Lose 15-20 pounds so I can get myself back into the 250s
- Avoid all non-diet soda
- Be able to run 5 miles without stopping
- Gain 50 combined Twitter followers/YouTube subscribers/Facebook page 'Likes'
- Blog at least once a week
- Read one Runner's World and one Men's Health

I like the list I've put together here! They encompass a lot of the different areas I want to work on and allow me to make smaller steps forward in all of them! I'll lose weight, develop healthier habits by dropping soda, work towards my goal of 'being a runner,' improve my online presence and gain knowledge my reading! Man, I love these!

So there ya go! Let me know your thoughts on my goals, and I want to know what YOU want to accomplish in June! I'm real pumped about this, can't you tell? :)

Happy 50th Post!

First off, I want to say that you all must be pretty special or something, because I don't think any blog I've ever started has reached this many posts! I have a bad history of starting something with good intentions - "Oh man, I have the best idea for a blog, and I can't wait to write everyday!" - only to fizzle out after a couple of weeks and leave it laying (lying?) in ruin - R.I.P. my sweet, sweet Xanga...

Either way, I'm glad that I've kept this blog up because health/fitness-related topics are things that have really caught and kept my attention as of late - mostly because I'm in the process of losing mucho poundos and are doing a lot of reading/research in the same field. It also helps that all of you are interested in the same thing!

Now if I were to head up a blog about the many uses of Post It Notes, this whole ordeal may or may not have been as successful - or maybe it would - who really knows? Maybe the Pinterest crowd would jump all over that! (I call dibs on PostItMagic.com!)

I actually also have a large passion for all things sports, and most things Netflix (currently watching River Monsters as I type this), so some of you may be glad that I've chosen to write about running and eating healthy rather than the latest Fantasy Baseball rankings or the addition of "Rango" to the Netflix Instant Streaming list. Shout out to my fellow Netflix junkies!

*Deep breath* But moving on to something pertinent to the health/fitness realm...

As most of you may know, this coming weekend is Easter weekend - a weekend not only known for remembering the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but also for the plethora of family get-togethers and delicious victuals. It's this imminent spread of food that worries me...a lot.

The whole "endless-food-cannot-NOT-be-in-my-stomach" tendency is strong in this one. Food that is free and plentiful is definitly my kryptonite. (How about that! A Star Wars AND Superman reference in the same post!) Easter at grandma's house is just one, long, 7+ hour grazing fest filled with ham, Jell-O, desserts, sloppy joes and endless candy. The only healthy redeeming quality of the day is that we usually run around outside (basketball, football) for a couple, good hours. But this year I'm going to be a good boy.

As I may have mentioned, my wife constructed some sort of present for me which I will receive if I can string together two weeks of healthy, controlled eating. I'm still going strong, and I don't want something petty like Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs (oh, yum!) to take that away from me! So you can count me on me making some forward progress on this day known for its food comas.

Spring Cleaning

For today's post I'm feeling quite scatter-brained and absent-minded. I feel kind of frazzled and unable to focus intently on a single topic for this post, so I think I'll touch on a group of things that I feel I need to update you on. Got that? Great. Read on.

1. As you may have seen, my weekly updates have not gotten off the ground yet. I know it just sounds like an excuse, but allergies have been whoopin' my behind these last, two weeks and I haven't been making any progress that warrants a legit 'update.' However, I PROMISE you that updates will be around the corner. With Easter weekend coming up I will be visiting my parents in Wisconsin, so you can plan on my first update coming to you on April 14th. Let's see what kind of numbers I can have for you in two weeks!

2. I mentioned that I have a goal of losing 40 pounds by June 9th. If I do, I get to sign up for the Chicago Half Marathon. My lovely wife has also just informed me that she has an awesome gift she wants to give me as well that she and her brother have been collaborating on. In order to get that, I need to string together two great weeks of eating and exercising. Can't wait to see what it is! (And don't worry, I'll fill you in when I receive it.)

3. Also in that same vein, I got an email this morning telling me that the aforementioned Chicago Half Marathon is 33% ahead of its 2011 numbers, and that it will likely sell out in the near future. That's a bummer for me because I won't know if I can sign up for it until June 9th... Thus, I will either have to just sign up for it now to guarantee my spot, hope it'll still be open by June, or just accept the fact that I won't be able to run it. Or maybe just sign up for the Chicago Men's Health Urbanathlon in October instead!

4. I've recently started a new job downtown and I knew things were going to be different than my last job. The commute is much longer, the hours are longer and the work is harder. What I didn't expect was for there to be a break room stocked consistently with chips, soda and lots of other snacks. Needless to say, that has been a major struggle in my first, two weeks at the new gig. I really wish I could take a lunchtime run outside, but I would come back quite sweaty and smelly if I tried that. Maybe just a nice stroll will have to suffice. And lay off the Sun Chips, man!

5. As a result of the allergies and work snacks I assume that I have made negative progress on the scale. It's pretty frustrating, to be honest. But it's more of a frustration with my lack of effort, discipline and self-control rather than a frustration with the scale or the snacks. I'm the only one who can control which way the numbers go, and lately I've been quite lazy, complacent and out of control. With each day I string together I gain more confidence, so I just have to put the work in and get the ball rolling. Easier said than done...

And finally, I'll have to admit that I'm a bit jealous. I've been reading a lot of posts or seeing a lot of 'after pictures' lately by great individuals who have progress to show for their efforts. And while I'm happy for them, it's just kind of hard to see everyone ELSE doing well while I continue to tread water and sometimes almost sink at times.

But like I said, that will only continue if I allow it to. And let's start making each hour of the day count! Tomorrow morning I'm making my 6:00am-7:00am count by hitting the gym! I'll post proof tomorrow

Train Your Brain

Our brains are crazy things. It's amazing what they're capable of! Just think of all the functions it performs every single second of your life! But did you know that you can train your brain to increase your will power?


According this this article from the Boston Globe, it is possible to train the decision-making portion of your brain in an area called the prefrontal cortex:

"Those striving to complete a marathon, a diet or a doctoral dissertation can gain the willpower to help reach their goals by doing little self-control tasks throughout the day, like fixing their posture, avoiding curse words, or controlling their temper at home.... Neuroscientists believe these acts reinforce neural pathways in the brain’s prefrontal cortex that help us say “yes’’ to our goals and “no’’ to procrastination and temptation."

What?!? So you're saying that I can train myself and my brain to say "yes" when I need to say "yes" and "no" when I need to say "no?" Get me on that training program pronto! In my case, I need to be saying "no" to a lot of the bad food choices I make and "yes" to getting my butt to the gym first thing in the morning!

The article also goes on to say that your brain is more or less has a holding tank for will power. Exerting yourself with a morning workout and a long, decision-filled day at work could leave you depleted, exhausted and ornery by the time you get home at night. However, an extra dose of sweets can help you power through the rest of the day. 

I find this fascinating and encourage all of you to check out that article. It also obviously makes me wonder what I can do to increase my will power. Since the article says that those who exert self-control in dieting and weight loss usually excel in other areas of life, I wonder if those who excel in other areas of life succeed in weight loss as a result...

But just like training your legs and lungs to run longer and be stronger, it's going to take one decision at a time to train your brain to aid you in making the decisions it needs to help get you where you want to be. So I'm going to try to focus on the self-control it takes to do the little things every day. Of course I'm going to continue striving to accomplish my health and fitness goals, but I'm going to pay more attention to the little, minute decisions that will train my prefrontal cortex.

What do you think about this article? 

Knowledge vs. Action

I'm a sucker for knowledge. I enjoy learning new things about topics I love or at least have an elevated interested in.

I have endless sports statistics, players and games in my head. I know music lyrics that I don't even WANT to know - just turn on any Will Smith song and it will automatically start coming out of my mouth. I went to two men's conferences on back-to-back Saturdays this last month and enjoy reading books on how to be a good leader and husband. And I also read endless websites, articles and blogs on running, losing weight, training schedules and whatever else I think I can use to further my journey to 199 pounds.

But my problem comes whenever I try to APPLY all of this information.

Why does this happen? Why can't I follow the simple process of learning and then doing? Does the hard work and dedication scare me off? Do I feel like I need to finish other things before focusing on this? Do I just love fast food and soda that much?

It's tough having all these questions and not knowing what the answers are.

All I know today is that I have two, great days under my belt and I'm feeling confident. And I think that's the important thing for me - confidence. If I don't believe that I can actually lose all this weight, then I never will. If I get down on myself for having a bad food day and therefore skip the gym and get all down on myself, I'll just keep yo-yoing like I have been for the last three years.

Even though my actions don't always communicate it, losing this weight is very important to me - probably too much, to be honest. I get very hard on myself when I slip up which, instead of motivating me and getting me to the gym, actually sends me to the fridge or to the grocery store. I need to learn how to take small failures and turn them into positive actions.

And I promise not just to KNOW that, but to DO it as well!

Are my mindless wanderings getting annoying yet? :)

No-Nonsense November!

I've been pretty good lately about getting up early during the week to head over to the gym. Notice I said that I'm good at the 'getting up' part...not necessarily the 'going to the gym' part. I don't know why, but it takes me at least a half hour to muster up the energy and willpower to get my butt down the stairs, into my car, and to the gym - if I make it at all!

I blame the internet. Don't point fingers at my lack of self-discipline or my laziness - I blame the interwebs! Ok, so maybe I'm a tad slow in the morning, but who isn't?!? I always like to have a nice time waking up before bolting off to the day's first appointment. I want to be awake so I don't trip over my feet and eat the treadmill belt. Not the breakfast of champions...

6:00am is early for a gym visit, but I gotta make it happen!

But in all honesty, it's going to come down to me being able to say 'No!' to Facebook and YouTube at 6:00am and "Yes!" to lacing up my running shoes and making my way to the gym. My fantasy football rosters can wait a couple of hours; those pictures on Facebook will still be there when I get home; and my body could sure use the extra 25 minutes of calorie burning!

November and December are going to be make-or-break months for me, I can smell it already. October? Forget about October - I've already left it in the past! I only managed to lose a measly four net pounds over the last 31 days (it was an up-and-down month) . I could lose that in two day if I actually tried! But looking forward over the next 60 days I see Thanksgiving and Christmas staring me in the face - along with all of the delicious food that comes along with them. Over the next 3 weeks, I've made it my goal to lose 15-20 pounds before the dreaded Thanksgiving feast rears its ugly head. And don't worry, I haven't made it my goal to put those 15-20 pounds back on with turkey, stuffing and cider!

So here's to a solid month of hard work, no cheating and losing weight! Who's with me? What are your goals from now until Thanksgiving? What are you going to do to stick to them?

Mark...My...Words

Last November I embarked on a challenge with a few other men in my church to see who could be the first to lose 20 pounds. All four of us had weight loss goals and all strived (strove?) to slim down and improve our health. As I sit here and write you in the first week of May, I'm still at the weight I was when we started this challenge.

Now it's a little bit of a consolation knowing that the other three men made about as much progress (or less) than I did, but it still makes me think. Makes me think about where I could have been TODAY had I stuck with things since November. But I try not to think about that for too long since it just gets me all bummed out and angry at myself and my lack of self-motivation.

And then there was that time (yesterday) where I went shopping for clothing and had to buy BIGGER sizes that didn't hug my gut like some of my current clothes do. When it gets to a point where you need to buy larger sizes to make you look smaller (interesting logic, eh?), you know that some drastic changes need to be made.

So as the title of this post reads, mark my words. I do not want to be putting on my tuxedo on September 2nd for my wedding and regret that I continued to waste the previous four months drinking gallons of Mountain Dew and ingesting pounds of fast food and Doritos. It's time to stop saying "if I had only..." and start saying "I'm thankful I finally...."

A big problem for me has been saying yes to urges for fast food and computer time rather than healthy meals and visiting Cardinal Fitness. Time for that all to change - for good. Time to start looking more like the magazine cover that Karin made for me and less like...well, like I do now! Time to institute some self-control and discipline and do away with self-loathing and internal disappointment.

This goal reminds me of a verse that was shared with me by my worship pastor, Mark:
"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age." - Titus 2:11-12 (NIV)

Time to implement this endeavor once and for all. I've nicknamed this plan "Project Shock Factor" in hopes of surprising people with my changes who I haven't seen in a while. I'll do my best to keep you all updated. Thanks in advance for your support!