The Improvement of Me

Results... FINALLY!

2010-04-12T16:14:00.001-04:00

Well its been almost two weeks since my last post and I finally have some good news on the goals front.

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to try some new things to meet my weight-loss goal but wasn't going to start until after my trip. The reason for the delay was that I was going to Las Vegas and I'm not entirely sure how you can stick to a diet/workout plan while in Vegas. (However, I did manage to maintain my weight while I was out there) When I got back I started going through the Biggest Loser 30-Day Jumpstart Book.

I took the meal plan for the first 7 days and went shopping and tried to follow it all week. I had my share of temptations over the week (some that I successfully avoided and some not so successfully) but overall I stuck to the meal plan. The plan consisted of eating 3 meals and 2 snacks throughout the day and eating around 1500 calories per day.

When I first saw that I was going to only eat about 1500 calories I thought that I would be starving each day, but it was actually the opposite because of the food choices I was making. I was eating better foods with better proportions of the nutrients that I needed, so I stayed fuller longer.

I'll admit I did not follow the workout plan all week, but made a good effort at the beginning and tried to stay active all week. The first week is a lot of stretching and mobility type exercises with some cardio, so I attempted to keep up with the cardio this week.

I'm glad to say after all of that, I am down five pounds this week. This morning I was ecstatic when I weighed in because of the last month or so being quite stagnant. I know that I probably won't count on 5 pounds every week, but I'm glad that I got a good boost this week. 15 more to go!

That Elusive First Pound

2010-03-29T16:38:00.000-04:00

Ok, so one pound isn't that exciting to most, but considering that I started my 20 pound weight-loss goal 4 weeks ago and either maintained or gained weight, this is very exciting. Hopefully I'm going to continue in the right direction.

I will completely admit that I have not been doing enough to reach this goal (which kills me by the way because I set goals for a purpose). I have run or lifted or played soccer a couple of times a week and tried to eat somewhat sensibly, however, it has not been for the whole time and I seem to go off the path when the weekend comes around. If I want to look at the glass-half-full side of things, knowing that I haven't been the best weight-loss follower, maintaining my weight over the course of the last few weeks could be considered a win. Though I'm still far from my goal.

I do have a trip coming up in which it will be very very very hard to keep up with my goal this week, however, I'm going to try and do my best. I do have a plan for when I get back from the trip and will give an update on that when I get back.

The Best Job in the world is...

2010-03-09T21:02:00.001-05:00

... being a parent!

The other night I got home from work and grabbed my little 8 month old son and went into the basement to spend some time with him (Unfortunately because of my work schedule and his sleep schedule I only get to spend so much time with him during the week). In the basement I helped him pull a bunch of his toys out all over the floor and we started to play. First with the little basketball hoop he has (was trying to teach him how to shoot and dunk), then on to the trains that make music and light up. As I sat there watching him play, I couldn't help but be amazed at how I was watching this little person learn about life and the things around him and watching him get so excited when he would figure something out. It is absolutely the best feeling in the world to sit there and watch him grow and learn.

Weight Loss Goal: Week 1

2010-03-08T20:56:00.001-05:00

As promised, here is my update on my weight loss goal. Just to recap, my goal is to lose 20 pounds. If I succeed in losing this weight, I will be the lightest I've been since college. This week, however, wasn't such a good week. I started off strong, watched what I ate, worked out a few times, things were looking good. Then the weekend hit. On Friday I went out to lunch with my coworkers and 1400 calories later was sitting in a food coma back at my desk. Then I got home and my family's Friday night ritual is to go out for dinner so we ordered Outback (side note: Alice Springs Chicken Quesadillas are amazing). On Saturday Lis, my wife, and I got to go away for the night sans kids. This was great but we ate gas station bags of goodies on the way down and this sketchy Italian restaurant for dinner. Sunday wasn't much better because I was too lazy to make something healthy for myself and ordered pizza. Needless to say, I gained a pound this week. So my 20 pound goal is now 21 pounds. Hopefully I can stay on track this week and get to my goal. Maybe I need a time frame on my goal?

Workout Day 1

2010-03-01T06:39:00.002-05:00

When it comes to working out, I am one that goes all in (for about 2 weeks) then get distracted or off my routine and completely de-rail my workout goals. Needless to say over the last 10 years I have had a lot of "Day 1's". Today is another example of this for me. Yesterday I posted a goal for myself of losing 20 pounds. (Hey its now March, beach season is approaching fast, and I have to look good for ... well... my wife of course :-) )

The trouble that I have been having as of late in getting started again is trying to find a good time to do my workout. My normal day goes as follows. I get up around 6:30 (same time my 8 month old son does), get showered/dressed, have breakfast, clean up the house for the babysitter, feed my son, walk/feed the dogs, go to work, get home around 6, have dinner, hang out with my family, put my son to bed, relax/fall asleep (and start all over again). Now, I have used every excuse in the book as to why I stop working out, but lately, I have found that hanging out with my family for a few hours at night is the most important to me.

This leaves one logical time left to work out for me, 5 am. For those of you that don't know this is an absolutely absurd time of day. No one in their right mind (or that doesn't have to work that early) should be awake. It's still dark outside, right now its really cold, but I need to figure out how to get my butt out of bed and do what I need to do.

Like I said today was Day 1 again. I'm planning on getting up and running a couple of times a week, but Mondays will most likely not be that day. The reasons are simple, 1. its monday, 2. I play soccer on a work team Monday nights (thats enough running for Monday). Today, I did push-ups and sit-ups. For push-ups, I am using the Perfect Pushup (and yes despite its "As-Seen-On-TV" status, it is a pretty good workout program). For sit-ups, I am using an iPhone app I found called 200 sit-ups. Basically its a program to get you to be able to do 200 consecutive crunch-like sit-ups.

Hopefully I can push past my 2-week wall and continue this until I reach my goal.

Goals

2010-02-28T08:35:00.002-05:00

I am a very goal oriented person. You can ask my family that I have always tried to set goals for myself (sometimes ridiculously high) and strive to complete them. This challenge to improve myself is no different. As I go through this journey, I will no doubt come up with goals that are more complex than writing a simple blog post and completing in a day. I also want to expose these goals to anyone who might be reading so that I can be held accountable for reaching my goals. As I come up with new goals I will post them in a section on the left with my latest status of that goal.

My first goal is that I want to lose 20 pounds. I'm not an obese person, but I know that I am overweight and now that I have a growing family, I need to concentrate on being healthier to keep up with them and be around for them. I will update my weight loss status over on the left each week on Mondays.

A simple Thank You

2010-02-27T08:12:00.012-05:00

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.

~Oscar Wilde

It's amazing how much a simple thing like saying "Thank You" can do. It very quickly show someone that you appreciate something they have done. I was raised to understand the importance of saying "Please" and "Thank you", so throughout my life I have tried to make sure that I say thank you to those who do something that they wouldn't have to do and just do it out of kindness.

One thing that I have not been good about is thank you notes. I believe I have written thank you notes three times in my life, high school graduation, college graduation, and 0.02% of my wedding thank you notes (Thank you honey for doing all the rest!). There have been times where I have had the motivation to write them for other events (I even acquired the notes to write on), but have fallen short of my goal.

Today is my birthday, so in the spirit of improving myself with small changes, I am going do a better job of acknowledging the kindness that people will be showing me today and fully thank them.

Introduction

2010-02-26T11:56:00.000-05:00

I thought I would give a little introduction as to why I wanted to start this blog and what purpose it will serve. You may think by the title that I'm a person that needs a lot of fixing, however, this is not the case (at least as far as I think about myself). You hear it all the time in sports, coaches and players make statements about how there is always something that can be improved. That is how I feel about myself and that is the purpose of this blog.

Let me start by saying I like myself, I love my life, and I'm not looking to drastically change any of that. I do believe that I could improve my overall health and fitness, be a better husband, be a better father, and be more productive and successful at work. I am planning on using this blog as a way to try and push myself to improve those things I mentioned. All of this with possibly the accountability that a public blog would bring.

I am not looking to convince anyone how to live their lives, but if someone finds that something I have done can help them, well then that is great. Like I said before, this is to push myself to become a better person because I believe that I am supposed to be a better person.

If you still feel like following and reading, then welcome and I hope to hear from you along my journey.

Chris