Race Recap: Super Bears Shuffle 5k - September 10, 2015

 Apparently I've decided to conduct further research and experimentation on what happens when a guy my size runs a 5k after training approximately zero times for it. Round two of the research happened last night at Soldier Field in Chicago for the Super Bears Shuffle 5k.

                                             

Let me preface this by saying that I am a HUGE Green Bay Packers fan. I only paid money to do this race because I lost a bet to my brother in-law (a Bears fan). In fact, I'm pretty sure the Bears shirt we got was slightly burning my skin over the duration of the evening... Not really. Maybe kind of.

Like any race held near Soldier Field, parking cost much more than one would want to pay, but I guess it comes with the territory. We walked out of the parking garage to this scene:

                                             

As you can see, there was orange and blue everywhere. Ick. We arrived MUCH too early, so we decided to walk around the perimeter of Soldier Field. I wasn't terribly excited about that decision since I wanted to be on my feet as little as possible leading up to the race, but we did it anyway. During our pre-race walk, I actually ran into two, brave souls decked out in full-on Packers gear. I gave them a huge "Go Pack!" and explained that I lost a bet, but truly was a Packers fan. They gave me a high five and said they were sorry I was in my predicament. I'm sure they caught an ample amount of crap throughout the night. I hope they made it out unscathed.

As you can see, they had huge "BEAR DOWN" letters displayed on the grounds, but the rest of the area wasn't too impressive. They had an inflatable game where you could kick field goals, a DJ playing music, a selfie station (isn't that what your iPhone is for?) and a concession truck for 'beverages.' The Bears drumline was a nice touch. I didn't see Nick Cannon though...

As we all lined up for the race, the racers got a quick pep talk from local FOX sportscaster Lou Canellis. The emcee asked him why the Bears were going to beat the Packers this weekend, and he - no lie - dodged the question and talked about how the team would grow over the next, few years under their new head coach. I had a nice chuckle at that one. As the starting horn sounded, a Bears hype video appeared on a screen set up by the start line, and fireworks shot off as the runners headed out onto the course. But I was already immersed in my Dave Matthews Band playlist by that point.

                                                       

Going into this race, I decided that I wasn't going to start off by seeing how far I could run without stopping. That's what I did during my last 5k and it came back to bite me. This time around, I decided to voluntarily alternate between running and walking, so I could make sure there was some left in the tank for a strong finish.

Along the route, there were activities set up for the runners that mimicked NFL practice drills. You could run through a gauntlet of tackling dummies, high-step through a row of tires or do some cone drills. They also had a handful of large banners set up for you to take selfies with some of the Bears players. Unsurprisingly, Jay Cutler was not one of the banners featured.

In the end, my strategy paid off and I was able to "sprint" the last leg of the race to finish three and a half minutes better than my time back in late-July! Since I trained just as much as the last one, I'm thinking that whatever weight I've lost so far during Whole30 may be to thank for getting me to the finish line faster. Or maybe the fact that I just wanted to get away from all the Bears fans A.S.A.P.  Here's my time, I managed to finish 2,001st out of 2,600 or so.



In the end, I got another medal to add to my collection, but I never plan on wearing the Bears shirt again. In related news, congrats to my wife in receiving a new shirt! Let me just wash it first... All in all, it was a fun night with my brother in-law, and I'm glad the only photo he got of me was a blurry one. Go Pack Go!

Did you participate in this race too? What'd you think? Which 5k should I look into doing next?

The Injury Bug Strikes!

All the way back in May, I announced that I was going to tackle my first FULL marathon after a few years on the bench. But, as you can already probably predict by the title of this post, that will not be happening anymore.

About a month ago, while up at a summer camp with friends and family from church, I tried to participate in the annual sand volleyball tournament. Well, my knee felt otherwise. During our second game of the tournament, it decided to buckle underneath my overweight-ness (accompanied by three, terrifying pops) with a little help from the uneven, shifting, soft sand court. Awesome. At least my team went on to win the tournament without me!

As you can see, my right knee swelled up nice and big...

After getting back from camp, I wasn't able to get to the orthopedic doctor for 2.5 weeks. By then, things had started to settle down a little bit - I was able to walk without a limp, and it really only hurt when doing a squatting motion or trying to jog. The doctor didn't really find anything wrong either, with the exception of a half-hearted, hail mary "possible torn meniscus" diagnosis. He suggested I head to physical therapy for 6-8 weeks and get back to him after that. While there, they further diagnosed a hamstring strain and possible meniscus tear. Splendid.

So since then I've been forced to deal with the reality that I won't be able to finish training for the marathon in two months. I've fallen extremely far behind in my training, and don't want to risk further injury by trying to rush back into things. The icing on the cake is that I can't get sell my registration to someone else either, since the race is a Boston qualifier. Better believe I'm going to pick up my swag bag though!

Registration Giveaway - Chicago Half Marathon - September 8, 2013

It's that time once again, readers! Time to give away a FREE registration to one of the Chicagoland area's premiere races! Let's read on, shall we?

The 17^th Annual Chicago Half Marathon (and Hyundai Hope On Wheels 5k) will be host to thousands of runners that will enjoy a beautiful 13.1 mile course along scenic Lake Shore Drive with great views of the Chicago skyline, starting and finishing at Jackson Park. Visit www.ChicagoHalfMarathon.com for more info!

There aren't a lot of half marathon courses around here that feature as gorgeous of a view as the one that runs up and down Lake Michigan. Since most of you reading this are from the Chicago area, you know what I mean - so awesome.

"Jordan, stop talking! How do I get my mitts on this free registration?"

Okay, okay. Your name will be put in the hat by simply commenting on this post either here on my blog, or by commenting on Facebook when I share this link.  Easy peasy!

I'll be choosing a winner at the end of this week - June 14th - so get to commenting!

Come Along With Me

I hope this doesn't come off as being overly vain, but since I started my weight loss journey back in January of 2009, I've wanted to be able to document my progress (actual progress, not treading water) as I lose weight, and show people what I'm accomplishing, how I'm changing, and hopefully inspire some people along the way.

At first I tried doing weigh in updates on YouTube and then those eventually fell off when my progress slowed and eventually reversed. I tried joining challenges and contests on YouTube as well, thinking that it would provide a new kind of motivation and encouragement in an 'online community' sort of environment where like-minded people would push me in the right direction. Those would start off with enthusiasm and effort (and results!), but then also taper off before the contest would finish.

I've also joined weight loss Facebook groups with friends, hoping that our words of support and personal challenges would get me over the hump - but that just turned into a place for people to feel less guilty about admitting they had a terrible weekend (and gained 5 poiunds) and then still just recieved the "aww, you'll get 'em next time" type of response. Not helpful. And now finally, I've been using this blog as a means of sharing this part of my life with you.

To date, my progress during the life of this blog has been up and down at best. I'd sign up for races and then slack during my training, only to downgrade the race distance the week prior. I'd let you all know about how I'm embarking on this huge, 365-day transformation journey only to fizzle out in less than a week and hope you forgot about the original post.

So I don't blame any of you if you've stopped reading or paying attention to my sorry attempt at weight loss.

But this time it feels different.

Rather than trying to put myself on a diet that doesn't allow me to eat certain things (Atkins, South Beach, etc), I've begun making smart, lifestyle choices in my nutrition that I find to be much more sustainable and less restrictive and suffocating. Most of the time I try a diet, I find that the fact that I cannot eat certain things, makes me crave them even more. And as the pressure builds up, it's only a matter of time before I erupt and binge on things like fast food, soda, chips, etc. But now I realize the need for moderation and if I have chips, I just grab a handful, or I make a smart choice at the fast food restaurant (something I haven't had to face YET), or I just drink water instead of hitting up the break room fridge for Pepsi!

And making these smart, small choices every day gives me confidence in its potential sustainability. It also gives me a sense of pride that I can in fact do this without breaking, and momentum to keep moving in the right direction. And as you can see by my "Progress" stats below my picture on the right, so far so good!
The key will be to see how things continue once I'm two, three, six weeks down the road. It's been quite a while since I've been able to sustain constant weight loss for more than two weeks, so the moment of truth is still ahead of me. And if the day comes where I do end up binging on something, I need to have the control to realize it's only one day and get back on track right away. Unfortunately, I'm used to letting one bad day turn into a week of bad choices...

But I hope that your waning faith in me can be restored in the near future as you read about my progress - and hopefully see it physically as well (I'll be adding a stats page to this blog soon)!

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!

June 2012 Report Card

A few weeks ago I wrote a post listing some of my goals for the month of June 2012. Now that we've found ourselves in July, I figured it'd be a good time to step back and look at how I did! I'm going to be doing something like this each month using the title of "Report Card" - I think it'll be fun! Well...unless I end up with a big, fat "F"

Below I have listed the goals that I stated back towards the beginning of June. I've graded each individual goal (kind of like as if they were their own class in school). *GULP*

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


OVERALL: C

So let's walk through these in a little more detail, shall we?

1. I gave myself a D+ for losing weight because I have lost about 5 of those 15-20 pounds. Percentage-wise that probably warrants an F, but I know the effort I've been putting in lately. Definitely room for improvement!

2. I've been doing pretty decent on the soda, but a few times in the last month I gave into the orange Crush in the fridge at work. Free stuff is so hard to pass up sometimes!

3. I'm just kicking off my half marathon training, so the endurance isn't quite there yet for five miles. I've logged a lot of treadmill time in June, but wasn't pushing myself hard enough to increase endurance. Kind of just settled for the running/walking pattern.

4. These numbers SHOULD be easy to track, but then again, I failed to take note of where all the stats stood when the month started...whoops! I have, however, upped my Facebook and Twitter 'likes'/'follows' quite a bit, because I've seen all the notification emails that have come through my inbox. Thanks to everyone for joining me!

5. I think I've stayed pretty on top of this one. I think things here at the blog are really gaining some momentum, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the opportunities that come from this here site.

6. The closest I got to reading my mags was packing them in my backpack last weekend when we went camping. I have them on my person a LOT, but have never found myself unoccupied enough to bust them out and flip some pages.

Looking back, this month hasn't been anywhere near a TOTAL loss. I've made some solid steps forward, and plan to carry the progress over into July. And don't worry, I'll have a July Goals post up REAL soon! (Probably later today)

Update + Camping Trip

So if you've "Liked" my Facebook page, you've already seen that I posted a picture today showing yesterday's read-outs from my Nike+ Fuel Band, my LiveStrong calorie counter, and my WeightBot app as well. This is something I want to do on a daily basis to keep myself accountable and also to show people my progress. I'll probably only be posting these pictures on my Facebook page (so all my Facebook friends don't get uber annoyed after a week and a half).

I've decided to do this because I have a tendency to avoid calorie counting on days that I mess up. I don't want to put numbers to the amounts of snacks I'm eating and the ounces of soda I'm downing. This way, I feel that I'll be forced not only to count my calories everyday, but to keep me more disciplined (since I have to report!). If you missed it, here's the picture:

I have a daily goal of 3,000 "Fuel Points" set for myself. Fuel points are more or less just a measurement of movement that Nike made up. (The band also counts calories and steps.) For me to hit my 3,000 goal, it usually needs a 30-60 minute jaunt on the treadmill in the morning, a couple pointed walks around the office and maybe a little extra walk or something at night. With a desk job, I feel this is a good number.

As for calories, I currently have my goal set at 1,800 calories per day. If that's averaged out over my three meals and snacks, it comes out to be about 450 calories each - not too shabby. Add in some burnt calories from exercise, and I'm in good shape! Definitely a number I can stick with.

Also, I get the privilege of going CAMPING this coming weekend! It's going to be fantastic to get away from the city and work for a while and just enjoy the great outdoors with my wife and some of our friends. Unfortuantely, the temperatures for the Indianapolis area are forecasted to be between 95-100 everyday...guess we'll be swimming a lot!

I'm really looking forward to being outside and utilizing the opportunity to be active and burn some major calories. A great majority of my workouts have been in the gym (except for a few outdoor runs), so it'll be nice to take advantage of it. I'm bringing a football along, we'll be swimming, and hopefully some hiking as well! Once I get back I'll make sure to share some pictures and stories! And the amount of weight I lost in the process!

P.S. Stay tuned for another HUGE giveaway today or tomorrow!

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.

90 Degrees Ain't Got Nothin' On Me

So if you leave in, near, or around Chicago, you'd have to be an Eskimo living in some wonder-of-technology igloo to not know that it's mighty warm this week. I'm talking it's so hot, that you have no choice but to learn how to drive with two fingers because your car steering wheel is so hot. It's brutal.

Yeah, that's the kind of day that I decided to do some track runs at the local high school - out of doors. I got this grand idea on my drive home from work, for some reason, and fueled it by looking up some different types of workouts one can do on a track. Here's the one I decided to 'go' with:

1) Walk one, warm-up lap
2) Jog three laps very easy
3) Walk one lap
4) Run two laps at a fast pace
5) Walk one lap
* Repeat entire thing twice
6) Walk the curves and sprint the straights
*Repeat for two laps

So this routine looked mighty good on paper when I was sitting in the comfort of my home, but once my feet hit the track and sun beat down on me, things kind of changed. Here's what I ended up doing instead...

1) Walk one, warm-up lap
2) Run 3 laps at a pace faster than I'm used to (since I can't run a steady pace outdoors)
3) Suck down some water
4) Walk one lap
5) Run 2 laps at the same pace as #2, maybe slower
6) Walk one lap
7) Down more water
8) Run one lap
9) Walk one lap
10) Walk straights and "sprint" curves (for 3 laps)
11) Run one lap at 7.5 mph
12) Drink more water
13) Stumble to car and drive home
14) Take freezing cold shower

Ok, so maybe things didn't work out as I had planned, but I was glad to do something different for a change. Running on the treadmill day in and day out gets a little monotonous after a while, and apparently running in the comforts of a building with AC was getting old too.

This was also the first time I synced my Nike+ GPS app to Facebook and had friends 'cheer' me on as I ran. It was kind of cool that whenever someone commented on my post online, it played applause and cheering into my headphones - so thanks to those who did so!

Also, I made a stop at the local Jewel and scored some protein powdah (Boston accent). Looking forward to seeing what benefits I can reap from using that!

I know some of you have been braving the heat to get some runs here and there - more power to you! I now know what that all entails - whew!

Setting Up My Summer Plan

Well now that my 'big race weekend' is behind me, it's time to focus on what REALLY needs the appropriate attention - losing the weight.

I've actually set sort of an 'unofficial goal' of September 1st as the date that I'd like to really make strides in my weight loss efforts. I don't want to assign a specific goal weight to this date, but since that is me and my wife's anniversary weekend, I'd love to be able to look back on our first year of marriage and see the healthy changes that I was able to make - for the better. And I want to be able to share a 'before and after' comparison with you using my wedding photo!
So what kind of plan am I going to put into place to make 'skinny Jordan' a possibility? That's a good question...

I think I've gotten to the point where I've almost read TOO much material on workout plans. Like dieting, it seems like everyone has their own method that's worked for them, and swears that it'll 'work for everyone!' So understandably, I'm kind of confused as to what might work best for me.

My goals are to not only lose six dozen pounds, but also to slim down my wasitline, flatten my gut, deflate my thighs and get some solid arms and shoulders. I also want to vastly improve as a runner!

But first things first. One day at a time. Sure, I have lots of goals, but they're all going to take time to accomplish. Another goal is to make weekly videos updating you on my progress. I'll videotape my weigh in, talk about my week's accomplishments and failures and give you an insight into my mind and how I'm handling the hard work that lies ahead of me. I'll also take measurements every few videos and post them here as well.

So I would love it if you checked back here on a weekly basis to see the progress that will be happening on this site. I'm excited to share my journey with you and show you what I'm capable of. And if you have any workout program tips, please let me know!

Time to Get A Raise!

I was reading this article on Yahoo! and I knew I just had to say something about it, especially due to recent observations at an on-site gig I had for work. I won't go into everything in the article because I think it's an interesting piece to read for yourself, but I'll touch on a couple things.

First off, I went to a Chicago company this week to do an on-site video gig for work. (I obviously am not going to give details since what we do is 100% top secret and confidential...not really.) The is my second time we've visited this company, and the first time I was there a co-worker and I both commented on how fit and attractive 90% of the employees are.

We wondered: "Are there health/fitness incentives at this business?" "Do they only hire beautiful people?" "All they do is sit on the phone all day, why does it matter how attractive the employees are?"

We were baffled at what we saw. But after reading this article, maybe this company knew a thing or two about who to hire and why.

Fit, attractive people tend to be more confident than overweight, self-conscious people. FACT. Being healthy boosts mental function. FACT. In shape people are usually in a better mood. FACT

So why wouldn't a company want to hire people like this? It makes perfect sense! And it makes sense that if someone were to go from "flab to fab" while employed at a company, that their productivity and attitude would increase, thus possibly earning them a raise.

Not that I'm complaining concerned about how much I'm currently making (especially since my amazing wife just landed a great job of her own - so proud of her!), but if getting to the gym and losing some weight magically makes the numbers on my paycheck higher, than I think it's worth trying!

What do you think? Do you think that this supposed link between fitness and salary is legit? Or even better, have you been a beneficiary of this study as a result of your fitness?

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.

Giveaway WINNER!

I know I said I was going to wait until April 2nd to reveal the winner to my half marathon registration giveaway, but as I was writing up my training schedule for the race, I realized that the recipient of the giveaway may want to get started as well. So I've decided to name the winner TODAY!

So let me just cut right to it - congratulations to Mark Boys! And an early congrats on the arrival of your second child! I'll be sending your registration code in the email, so keep an eye out! I also dug around and found a picture of Mark at last year's Urbanathlon downtown. A race I'm hoping to run in 2012!

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in this giveaway! I'm so grateful for your readership and feedback. I'm hoping to have more giveaways in the future, so keep checking back!

That being said, I'd like to ask you all for a little more feedback.

What are some things that interest you in the health/fitness realm that you'd like me to write about? Moving forward, I'll be reporting on how my half marathon training is going as well as how my weight loss is progressing, but there's MUCH more to the arena of health and fitness, so let me know! Any products you'd like me to try out or foods/recipes you'd like me to try? I'm open to anything!

"Obese" & "Poor"

I have a history of thinking that certain things don't apply to me. When I was in 6th and 7th grade, I unfortunately didn't think that my teachers' or parents' rules were things I needed to follow. As a cameraman at sporting events, I figure that regulations and boundaries on regular spectators don't include me, so I can walk all over the football field. 

And for the last couple of years, I thought that the BMI Scale didn't apply to me.

But after visiting Trinity Christian College's new Human Performance Lab and getting some vital statistics tested, I think I need to take off my blinders and face the music...

I'm a big guy.

At Trinity, I found out my Body Fat % (41.7%) and my VO2 Max score (33).

Body Fat % Categories

VO2 Max Norms for Men

After looking at these charts, you can see that my Body Fat % puts me WELL into the "obese" category, and my measly score of 33 for my VO2 Max puts me on the border of "poor" and "very poor." 

But...but...I've run four half marathons! How can I find myself labeled obese and poor?!

I think either I've been lied to all these years, or I've just refused to believe it. 

So what does that mean for today? Tomorrow? 6 months from now? It means that every decision of every day is valuable. It means that my health should be near the top of my list of priorities (behind finding a job and loving my wife), and that it should be a focal point of every day - and especially every meal. 

So here goes nothing!

Do I Smell a Podcast?

So I'm not exactly sure why this idea crept into my head today, but I just wanted to gauge people's reactions before I move forward with it. Now that I've really kicked things into gear with this whole weight loss and get healthy thing, I've toyed with the idea of starting a podcast.

My initial thought is to kind of break it up into two segments - the first of which I just shoot the breeze, talk about recent happenings and just random stuff. In the second segment I'd talk health and fitness - pull articles and topics to discuss and give my two sense on them. I'd also talk about my progress in my weight loss journey - what's worked/not worked for me. And who knows, maybe even have a guest or two!

I've dabbled in the world of podcasting before, but really didn't have a plan going into it. I just clicked "REC" and jabbered about virtually nothing. I'm hoping that by focusing this podcast a little more one one topic, I can gear it towards a specific audience who will keep coming back each episode, participating and even giving feedback!

I don't know, what do you guys think? Think this is something I should try to pursue, or should I give it a while and wait to do it? 

2:28:56

Sunday marked another milestone in my so-called "athletic career." While it's a career that's seen its share of ups and downs, I feel that it's on the way up once again. The peak of said career came in November of 2002 when I won a Wisconsin state soccer championship - not too shabby. Think I can top that with a complete marathon someday? I don't want to get ahead of myself, so let me back up to what happened this past weekend.

On Sunday I participated in the First Midwest Bank Southwest Half Marathon in Palos Heights, Illinois. My goal going into the race was just to NOT set a personal, slowest time. Back in August of 2009 I ran a 2:33:11 half marathon when I ran the Rock N Roll Half Marathon in downtown Chicago. I trained poorly and struggled for a majority of the race. In the weeks leading up to Sunday's race, I managed to destroy my back doing yard work for the future father in-law (which put me out of commission for almost a week), and I used my "winding down" week before the race to eat whatever my heart desired and only run one day.

Needless to say, I was slightly worried.

But once that gun sounded, my buddy Rick and I hit the road together. Even though I had an entire playlist set up to listen to as we ran, I pulled the earphones out after a couple miles and stuffed them in my pocket - deciding that I'd rather talk to and joke around with Rick. And that's what we just did - we talked with other runners, made jokes about roadkill and just did a great job keeping our minds occupied with things other than how bad our hammies were burning.

Unbeknownst to me, every time I would encounter someone I recognized (fellow runner or enthusiastic fan), my legs would magically move faster! Just seeing familiar faces was a nice break to the pothole-ridden pavement and half dead trees that I saw for the majority of the 13.1 miles. With a little under a mile to go, I turned to Rick and let him know that he was free to release the hounds and finish strong since my legs weren't moving too fast by the time the last mile rolled around. After he took off and I made my way closer to the finish line, the cheering from the crowd and seeing the huge "FINISH" banner stirred up some fire within me and I managed to "sprint" the rest of the way. (It felt like I was finishing quite strong, but it may not have actually happened that way.)

When all was said and done, I beat my worst time and finished at 2:28:56. As I assumed before we even started, my sister Erin smoked me by over 17 minutes. Maybe I'll get her next time :) From here, I plan to stay on task and ride the tidal wave of motivation into this month of May in hopes of chipping away at the number of pounds I want to lose before the wedding. Let's see how it goes!