Improving My Blogging - and Yours!

Since I've been kind of M.I.A. on the blogging front lines lately, I've decided to do some research on how to up my online game. Of course there's the obvious things like, I don't know... ACTUALLY BLOG, but I found out some other interesting things as well. Naturally, I first had to do the obligatory Google search for "How to be a good blogger."

Ah, good laugh. It's reassuring to know that if I ever want to drop my prime gig as a blogger that I could easily find out how to be a good bartender. Definitely would make more money! I also think babysitting is in my near future, but that will be a mandatory vocation - since the kid will be my own! (And no, mother, this is not me announcing that we have a baby on the way!)

Anyway, one of the things that I read was that your blog should be aesthetically pleasing. This made me wonder if I should try a different layout/design of the blog. Thoughts? I like this layout because it allows me to have all these nifty things on the right side here, but I definitely like the layout of some of the more dynamic layouts. I can't decide...

Another key to good blogging is writing about a topic that you know, and that your readers will enjoy or find useful. I think this is where I need to improve. I've been doing a lot of running over these last few years, and I can tell you how I did or how I felt, but when it comes to giving tips and recommendations, I really don't think I could confidently give you credible words.

In that same vein, I also feel that once I am more successful with my weight loss and can actually post some respectable times in my races (and my YouTube viewers start reading), that people may see me as more of a credible source as well, rather than a guy who can make you laugh here and there. The goal is both!

So while I take an introverted look at my own blogging highs and lows, feel free to do the same with yours too! But I must say, the blogs I've been reading lately seem to be doing pretty well for themselves! For now, I just hope you stick with me on this journey - things will get much better soon!

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!



I'm A Cartoon!

So after selling my car this past weekend, I bought my wife an iPad. She's a graphic designer, so it's a huge asset to doing her work - and let's face it...these things rock! 

Well, the first day she had it she decided to do some doodling, and here's what she came up with!

That's me!!

It's always awesome to have supporters :)

365-Day Update - Day 8

Well it's been a little over a week since I started my 365-Day Transformation efforts, and there's been some progress to speak of!

Unfortunately I didn't get to the gym as much as I'd have liked to (or needed to with the half marathon coming up soon!), and I also ate more of the cruddy snacks at work than I wanted to. But when I stepped on the scale this morning, I had a pleasant surprise!

Day 1 Weight: 275.6
Day 8 Weight: 272.4*
(I'll take scale pics from now on)

Weight Lost (so far!): 3.2 pounds

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!