I will not be doing P90x til fall….

But fear not those of you that are still reading my blog despite the fact that I have barely posted in the last two weeks, I am not returning to my sluggish ways of the past, or planning to drown myself in Jack Daniels or Crown Royal (or insert other alcoholic beverage that I love).  Starting this Sunday, May 16th I am starting 100 days of fitness, that will conclude Aug 24th.  While I will mainly be continuing on doing Power 90 and Power 90 master series workouts during this time, I will also be throwing in a  mix and match of many different workouts.  6 days a week I will do something.  There will be a lot of “Pushing Play”.  I have many different workouts that I have gathered over the years.  And over the last few months I have gotten Power 90 and Power 90 MS, P90x, Insanity, 3 different Jillian Michaels Dvd’s, an assortment of Wii fit games etc.  There will be mountain biking and walking.  There will be hikes with the family, and hopefully playing some pickup sports such as tennis and basketball.  This summer will be my most active summer in years.

 

This isn’t me giving up on my plan to get into my best shape ever in 2010, but rather REDEDICATING myself to just that.  This will be me focusing on moving more, everyday and continuing  living a healthier lifestyle than I have in the past.  I have some big goals for the next 100 days (they are coming).  6 days a week, I will move move move, and I will document the whole journey here.  Then come September I will do P90x or Insanity or some program and follow that to a T.  To get ready for that, I am going to do things that give me the best opportunity to get the best results.  The ultimate goal, is come NYE 2010, my 38th Birthday, be in the BEST SHAPE OF MY LIFE.

 

Just as there has been the last few months, there will be bumps and bruises.  There will be detours that life will throw at me.  However, to the best of my ability, I am dedicating myself to working hard every single day to just move move move, and to make healthy choices when it comes to eating.  I will be continuing doing Weight Watchers as I like the program.  I will be more vigilant in tracking my daily points and I will work hard to get all my water in as well as hit my daily point allowance (I have been under eating much of the last 9 weeks).  I will continue taking and posting my progress pictures every Saturday for the duration of my 100 Days of Focus. 

 

What led me to the decision of not doing P90x til the fall is the results I have been having on some of the Power 90 Master Series workouts I have done over the last 10 days or so.  Part of me wanted to stop doing P90 and jump ahead to P90x starting as early as this coming week.  However, if I am going to be realistic about things, I am not quite ready to get the full benefit of the program.  Yes you can modify and yes I can take breaks or hit the pause button etc, but I want to get the best results possible.  While the 1-2 workouts are now to easy, the 3-4 workouts are starting to get boring.  I am 48 days into power 90, plus I had done 6 weeks of it earlier this year.  I am tired of the same couple workouts, and starting to know what Tony is going to say before he says it on the tapes.  Meanwhile over the last 10 days or so I have been doing the different workouts on power 90 master series and done the ocasional Jillian Michaels DVD’s and I am enjoying doing different workouts.  So my thoughts are I am going to take the summer and just do a variety of things.  I will give whichever workout I do my all, and I will just be sure to do SOMETHING six days a week.  I will work hard to build my cardio, improve my strength and flexibility,  and work on my endurance so that come the fall I can give my all to P90x or Insanity or whatever I decide to do and get maximum benefit.

 

Goals for May 16th-Aug 24th 2010

1.  1,000,000 counted steps on my pedometer

2.  500 km on bike (combined mountain and stationary)

3.  lose 30 scale pounds

4.  lose 6 inches from waist

5.  be able to perform at least 3 chinups (minimum recommended to start P90x)

6.  be able to wear my wedding ring again

7.  get to 4th knotch on my weight belt

8.  Be able to jog 2km without stopping

9.  blog 5 days a week minimum

10.  take fit tests at days 25, 50, 75, 100 to measure progress

 

So there we have it, 10 goals, measureable and challenging, yet realistic.  Full starting measurements and pictures will be posted this weekend.  I have my weight watchers meeting tomorrow morning, and I am not sure what to expect.  I have been working out all week, but have not been on the scale, I have been so close to breaking 210 pounds, only to creep up again.  210 is a mental block for me much like 200 has been a mental block for me in the past.  But I will get there, and maybe as soon as this weekend, we’ll see.    I am excited about the next part of my journey.  This 100 days of focus will get me through the doldrums of working out “to feel better” or “to get healthier”.  These two statements are important and they are what I want to do, but they are not truly measurable.  My brain needs something to shoot for, and I think I have given myself plenty to shoot for.  I will be ready come September to give P90x my all.  Over the summer I will start doing the odd p90x workout, mixing it in with power 90, and I will be ready to really rock it.   I am excited for the most active summer I have had in years.  Bring it on!

Day 12…..Time to step it up a little

Today was another slllllllow day, its been raining here in my neck of the woods, so not very nice weather to get out and walk. It’s time for me to start working some more strenuous exercise back into the flow of things. My blood pressure is finally going down as the new pills start working as they should. And now its time to see if I can start stepping up on the exercise front.

I am going to go slow and see what I can do. I may have mentioned in my blog here that over the past couple weeks, will all this high blood pressure/migraines/etc racket that even after simple walks I felt pretty shitty at the end of it. I feel much better than I did even a week ago, although I did have a bit of a headache today. I will just ramp up the intensity a little bit at a time and be careful and watch how I feel very carefully.

Eats have been ok. I still have a problem eating 34 weight watcher points. That’s a lot of food when you are trying to eat clean! I could fill it up easily eating crappy foods but I don’t want to do that. I have not weighed myself since last Saturday morning, and I don’t think I will til the official weigh in at the meeting Saturday. I do not feel I have had as good a week as last week though because I haven’t been walking as much as I did last week cause of the weather. Either way I try and ramp up the exercise tomorrow. My plan is to do Power 90 (the precursor to P90x) until July 1st, and be ready physically to do P90x by July 1st. That’s my immediate plan of attack.

Week 1 in Review

Well I made it through the first week of Weight Watchers.  It was not without drama not related to the program itself.  I spent seven eye opening hours hooked up to a heart monitor.  It turns out that my heart is ok and not affected by blood pressure or anything else, but I got to tell you, lying in a hospital bed gives you alot of time to think.  All I could think about is, the stuff I can control in regards to my health are going to be taken care of.  I have alot going on, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, bad back, contstant neck pain, blah blah blah.  But all of this can in the grand scheme of things is manageable.  But I can’t put it off anymore.  I can’t allow it to get any worse.  I must take responsibility RIGHT NOW and get control of all this shit.

I was taken off work for another two weeks, I return April 2nd.  As I write this Saturday night, my blood pressure is still high, and my neck is killing me, my headache while soooooo much better than it has been still is there.  These early weeks are important weeks for me in the weight watchers journey because they are when I will get some great habits ingrained and I am home and able to measure out my foods and really make sure I have a great start.  The results will be the best in these first few weeks and then the will peter off to a couple pounds a week in all likelihood.  Its time to get some really great habits established so that when I get back to the real world, IE working for a living I already have the good habits in place and I am ready to really do well.

So here’s my first week in review:

What I did well through my first week

-ate cleaner than I have in years
-walked as much as I could, sometimes up to three times a day, getting in over 13000 steps most days
-wrote down every single liquid or food that entered my mouth

What I didn’t do well

-didn’t hit my points most days
-didn’t get enough water in

What I need to do this week to improve

-hit points for the day!
-improve on my water
-get some stretching in for my back/neck
-get a multi vitamin

 

First Week Comparison Pictures

 

 

Progress

Down 6 pounds

Down 2.5 inches from waist

Pre-amble

Well, here we go.

If you know me or have read my numerous weightloss/fitness blogs before, you are thinking, here we go again. And to be honest, you certainly have a right to think that. Yes I am starting over. Yes I have a new blog, and yes, I hope that this time is the time I stick it out.

Not going to make excuses for my past failings in the weightloss/fitness department. I have reached a state with my health that while certainly know life threatening situations, I have some stuff that needs to be nipped in the bud quickly. I am 37 years old, have been overweight for about 10 years, and I am starting to have some health issues that if not taken care of now will be troublesome in the years to come.

For the past two weeks I have had a steady tension/migraine headache. Not your run of the mill standard headache, but a pulsing, throbbing, someone give me something, anything to stop this right now and I will give you 500 dollars headache. I have recently been put on high bloodpressure medication (March 1st) and have seen readings in the last two weeks as high as 174/114 at Outpatients.

I have been off work the past two weeks because of this headache foolishness, and while work has been absolutely fantastic with me over my absences over the past two years due to chronic migraines/chronic back pain its not going to go on indefinately looking the other way. I am not someone who takes advantage of the great benefits my work provides and I believe management believes that, but I don’t want to have to use up so much sick time/medical leave. Besides the simple fact of the missed time/ lowered pay because of benifits being exhausted, I am simply sick and tired of feeling like shit.

So I now start over, and make a REAL, HONEST take no prisoners and make no excuses approach to get myself back on track, healthy, fit and happy.

I will be starting weight watchers on the weekend with my mother. I will be attending the meetings and I will be following the program to a tee. I have “tried” many programs over the year. Tried has consisted of “real honest effort for a few weeks or months ” to saying I will start something but never really doing it. That takes care of the nutrition side.

The exercise side will be using a Keep it Simple approach. Less time sitting on my ever expanding butt in front of the computer or tv, and more time moving. Move move move will be my new motto. Walking, exercise bike, power 90 and then p90 x video’s and whatever else I can get my hands on to stop living the life of a shut in/slug, and the life of a healthy, vibrant, positive rolemodel for my family.

More details about me if you are interested will soon be posted in the ABOUT link over there on the left.

Two weeks left of this night shift, and what a nice day!

Well I just am coming in the door from an hour walk on a local trail, and its beautiful days like this that make me realize all that I have been missing the last few years sitting on my ever expanding fat butt at work working 20 hours of OT a week, and then coming home and playing poker online or just mindlessly searching the web for hours on end. I am going to do everything in my power to not repeat that this year, and spend as much time as possible outside this summer.

I want to try and get some golf in (back pain permitting) but even if I can’t do that, I want to hike, play tennis, bike with the kids, and just do whatever I can to get me off my butt and out into the fresh air.

That being said, time to get off my butt and get going to work……sigh….two more weeks of 1:30 to 10.

Two weeks left of this night shift, and what a nice day!

Well I just am coming in the door from an hour walk on a local trail, and its beautiful days like this that make me realize all that I have been missing the last few years sitting on my ever expanding fat butt at work working 20 hours of OT a week, and then coming home and playing poker online or just mindlessly searching the web for hours on end. I am going to do everything in my power to not repeat that this year, and spend as much time as possible outside this summer.

I want to try and get some golf in (back pain permitting) but even if I can’t do that, I want to hike, play tennis, bike with the kids, and just do whatever I can to get me off my butt and out into the fresh air.

That being said, time to get off my butt and get going to work……sigh….two more weeks of 1:30 to 10.