The Eventual Goal

I think that one of the healthiest points in my life was when I got married.  For nearly an entire year prior , I was working out consistently five days a week, eating well and in a really good place for my health.    When I got married I was pretty happy with where I was health wise.  A year before that, I was probably in the worst shape that I had been my entire life.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, over the course of that year, I lost about 75 lbs. A wedding and honeymoon will provide that motivation I guess.

Here's a picture of me playing with my wife's nieces in Hawaii just after our wedding.  During the year mentioned above, I was home in Hawaii for three months, during which I was hanging drywall for work and after work my buddy and I would either surf or work out at 24 Hour Fitness.  When I got back to Utah for school, I got a membership at Gold's Gym, and I was a usual at the 9th East gym in Provo.

I was by no means a specimen and not anything impressive in the pictures above, but obviously in much better shape than I am now (This picture to the left was taken in August at a "family olympics").  This is what getting too comfortable in a relationship (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), and a job that puts you at a computer for majority of the day will do to you.  I stopped working out consistently, started eating out a lot more often and paying less attention to certain signals that my body was sending me.  It took two pretty painful signals to get my attention (a strained hamstring and a strained quad two months later).  I definitely don't have time to work out like I used to, but I'd like to eventually get back to the shape I was in when my wife and I got married.  It's been a fun goal for she and I to go at together.  She's currently doing much better than me.  She's lost about 10 lbs in the last 45 days or so.  She turned into kind of a gym addict...it's really cute and pretty hot.

Progress Update 9.22.2010

Thanks to conscious eating, workouts and maybe a bit of weight fluctuation, I weighed in this morning at 258.  Two lbs down, 18 more to go in this challenge.

I think I'll reward myself with an ice-cream sundae...oh wait, that's not how it works!

10 Reasons Why I'm Losing Weight

Ever heard of a vision board?  It's something that I've seen friends and family use.  Basically, it's a collage of different things that you want to accomplish, or things that you "envision" yourself being able to do.

Consider this post an online version of my vision board.  After some reflection, there were a multitude of reasons why I felt like I needed lose weight and get in better shape.  Here are the top 10 (not necessarily in order of importance).

1. Injury.  Over the last two months, I've strained two muscles doing activities that I could do for hours while I was younger.  Although I don't necessarily believe that it's all because of my weight, I think that weight is a factor.  I think the bigger reason is that my body is just out of shape.  I've got to get back in shape.

2. Health.  I think we've all heard the many health factors that weight plays into.  As I've experienced these recent injuries, my feelings of invincibility that I once had while young are diminishing.  I feel like Superman coming closer and closer to Kryptonite.  I've also had some loved ones recently who have had pretty bad health scares.  They were in pretty good shape, but one of the things that their doctors told them was that they needed to take better care of their bodies.  That was enough of a warning for me to realize that I needed to do the same.

3. Fun.  I've found myself recently not enjoying physical activities as much because of limited physical ability.  That just isn't very fun for me.

4. Vanity.  Looking in the mirror just isn't as enjoyable anymore :-)

5. Accomplishment.  A year prior to getting married I weight about 280 or so.  Over the course of the next year, mostly in preparation for the wedding, I dropped about 75 lbs.  The day I get married I weighed in at 205 (pictures to come soon).  Looking at that scale, and now looking back at the pictures from our wedding and honeymoon gave me (and still do give me) a great feeling of accomplishment.  I need to do that again.

6. Progress.  I'm a progress freak.  I love seeing and tracking progress.  It's kind of like a drug to me.

7. Wardrobe.  I like wearing my old clothes, however some of them don't fit like they used to.

8. Energy.  I find that I have so much more energy when I've been working out and am healthy.

9. The Journey.  Journeys are often greater than destinations...I'm excited for what lies in between.

10. Family.  I got out my calculator and crunched some numbers.  When my son is 15, I'll be about 40.  I want to be able to still beat him in a game of one-on-one, take him on hikes, wrestle him to the ground and keep him in check when he's 15.

20 in 60 | My First Challenge

Starting Weight: 260

Goal Weight: 240

For Thanksgiving, my family is planning on meeting up at Disneyland for a couple of days.  I was looking at a picture of myself at our last family gathering, and it really hit me how heavy I was beginning to look.  Don't get me wrong, I don't believe that I'm grossly overweight, I'm just getting to that point where I'm uncomfortable in my skin...not a good feeling.  At this next family gathering, I'd like to be a bit lighter than the last one.

The trip is in about 60 days.  I'd like to lose about 20 lbs prior to that.  What do you think?  Can I do it?

I'll log my progress every few days.  If anyone has tips and/or pointers, I'd be happy to hear it.

Let me know if you want to join me on this weight loss challenge.  

You've Got To Start Somewhere Right?

So I seriously debated whether or not this blog was a good idea.  I actually think I still am.

Did I really want to put myself out there like this?  Is documenting a topic like weight loss and fitness too personal?  Did I really want to commit to do this?

My answer to that last question is the reason for this blog.  Yes, I needed to commit to something like this.  Knowing that my progress is put out there for anyone to see really lights a fire under my sometimes lazy butt.  

My feelings about that are probably similar to what was being portrayed through Amy Adam's character and her dedication to her blog in the movie "Julie and Julia".

Hopefully this blog will be interesting.  Hopefully this blog will be entertaining.  Maybe this blog will be motivating.

Wish me luck.