For those that aren’t familure with Gympact, it’s a website that allows you to set a fitness pact (aka goal) and be rewarded (or punished) for meeting your pact with cold hard cash. For example, you could set a pact of $5 to workout at the gym 3 times per week. If you don’t make it to the gym all 3 times you’d be charged $5 each and every week. If however you do make it to the gym you’d be rewarded with … something not even close to $5.

I started on January 2nd setting up a goal of 3 workouts per week with a $5 pact. I know a lot of you are wondering what type of cash you could make off this thing. Maybe you could quit your job and just workout for a living?

Well, I hate to burst your bubble but your lifestyle wouldn’t be very extravagant. Here’s a rundown of my cash rewards over the past 5 weeks:

• Jan 02 — Jan 08 paid $2.19
• Jan 09 — Jan 15 paid $1.29
• Jan 16 — Jan 22 paid $1.29
• Jan 23 — Jan 29 paid $0.54
• Jan 30 — Feb 05 paid $2.10
• Total paid $7.41

Not quite the windfall you were expecting? That’s bit lower than that $5 pact you put up isn’t it? What could be interesting is to see how the payments change over the coming months. Obviously January was a month of New Years resolutions but as you can see that last week there were quite a few failed resolutions in the money pool.

During the course of using Gympact I compiled a few comments & complaints.

1. There is ZERO transparency into the equation used to calculate the payouts. You have no idea what Gympacts cut is in the transaction nor how your pacts financial commitment or number of days impact your weekly payout. You’d think that the more you put up the more you’d make? That isn’t the way it works based on what I’ve read online.
2. The iPhone application is noticeably sluggish and clearly not native. It doesn’t scroll smoothly, it regularly crashes, it constantly fails to find me, and the UI lacks polish in terms of responsiveness and intuitiveness. For something that potentially costs me $5 per week I expect more polish and consistency.
3. You can’t find your weekly pact payout or costs online. You can find your total win loss to date from your pact but not a breakdown on a weekly basis so if you toss the email your SOL.
4. Gaming the system is pretty easy, though I didn’t do it I promise. An example of how you could game Gympact is if your gym has a coffee shop or restaurant nearby all you have to do is go there, check into Gympact, sit, and enjoy a free additional workout.
5. Sometimes when you workout and check out when you’re done, the next time you checkin it tells you that you completed a 24 hour (or whatever hour) workout since the last time you were at the gym. With this bug you essentially get double the workouts for each real workout.
6. There’s zero social interaction to the application. This was kinda crazy to me since I expected to see friends pacts, share progress, etc. This definitly makes the whole application boring and forgettable to be honest, which might be the point so they can get your pack money. Yes you can tweet or Facebook each day but this is not Fitocracy, Dailymile, or LoseIt.
7. On a positive note, the two times I had issues with the application or recording a workout the support staff was very quick and on their game. All I had to do was reach out via email or twitter and they usually got back to me in a few hours.

So yes, in all I do have more complaints than positives when it comes to Gympact but I don’t want that to discourage you from trying it. If you’re someone who works out at the gym regularly this application is like free money. If you’re someone who’s competitive and driven by losing a few bucks per week then this application could be for you.

To me Gympact is more of a stress than a motivation. That constant worry of “did my workout record” … “did it find the gym this time” … “did I remember to check out” … “but I want to workout at home” … it just wears at me and doesn’t make it fun any more. Combine that stress with the gym conflicting with my 6,000 mile bike goal for 2012 and Gympact just doesn’t make sense for me.

If you love trying new things, workout a lot at the gym, and don’t mind working through a few quirks then I’d give Gympact a try. If you’re someone easily frustrated at lost data, crashing applications, want a social support system, or stress out about hitting a financially motivated goal then this is definitely not your thing.

I think Gympact is a solid idea and given more time it could become a great application that really motivates many people, I just think it has too many rough edges right now.

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving — Anatole France

While Brad knows quite a few words, colors, letters, body parts, etc. when prompted, he refuses to say them in his day to day interactions. Instead of speaking words he prefers a finger point, a shake of his head no, or a turn of his head and grunt.

While we may generally know what foods are healthy and that we should be exercising regularly we don’t always act on that knowledge in our daily lives. Instead of applying this knowledge toward getting healthy we prefer to eat and do what we want when we want it … we choose to turn our metaphorical heads and grunt.

At some point we hopefully turn a corner on our healthy life journey, just like Brad will and just like my daughter turned a corner and learned to talk.

At some point the finger pointing will turn into “hello” and eventually into “Daddy, I’ve got something to tell you” (one of my daughters favorite phrases).

At some point we’ll choose the smaller portion size or the vegetables over the cheesy processed puffs.

At some point we’ll take the stairs instead of the escalator or maybe we’ll choose to sign up for that 5k instead of sitting on the sidelines.

Inside of us is the potential to be healthy and happy much like the potential to speak. What spurs that growth and desire to communicate beyond the grunts and finger pointing varies with each individual. While we may not speak clearly at first and we may not make the best choices we will learn lessons along he way and become fluent in healthy living.

What’s important is that we don’t stop trying to unlock that potential … that we don’t accept being overweight and unhappy … that we don’t give up and accept the grunting over the “Daddy I love you”.

Have you chosen to keep on grunting or are you speaking with your actions?

Now that I’m in the morning groove I love it. While it’s certainly challenging at first fighting the alarm, once you get into it you find that your whole day clears up. You make healthier food choices, you have tons of energy, and regardless of how bad your day was at work you don’t have to somehow muster your last ounce of energy for a workout.

Here’s a look at what workouts I ended with this week:

• Saturday — Off Day (I forget why I was lazy today)
• Sunday — 60 min, Cycling Trainer
• Monday — 30 min, Running & 20 min, Elliptical
• Tuesday — 45 min, Weight Lifting & 30 min, Cycling Trainer
• Wednesday — Off Day (Planned)
• Thursday — 50 min, Precor AMT
• Friday — Evening bike workout planned

So now I’m sure you’re wondering what the scale looked like … on to the numbers!

Previous Weight — 280.2 lbs (on 01.27.2012)
Current Weight — 281.4 lbs
Change In Weight — +1.2 lbs

Well that’s not at all what I expected. I felt great all week and ate pretty well. The only thing I can think of was eating out a few times this week even though I made positive food choices that were normal portions (aka kid sized).

Calories wise LoseIt shows I’m about 1,800 calories under for the week and that’s already including and accounting for a 2 pound loss. Don’t worry, I don’t usually end up under much for the week since my free meal spends the credit.

Shrug, onward and downward … I’m not going to dwell on the number, it’s just a number. I feel stronger, I’ve done some new workouts this week, and my energy is great so I’m just going to keep on keeping on. Besides, next week is going to be the week of the bike since I’m tossing Gympact to focus on my cycling goal instead of my 50¢ weekly windfall.

How’d your weekly goals go?

So now you’re probably wondering where I should be right now if I were on track. Well, ideally I’d be at around 500 miles which puts me around 330 miles shy of my goal … yikes.

This certainly puts me behind the 8 ball of shame being this far behind my goal. The hardest thing right now is finding the time to get on the bike. I had planned on riding almost everyday but then I went and signed up for Gympact requiring that I goto the gym 3 times per week to make my 50¢ … as an aside, it’s definitely not worth 50¢.

I know I’m going to workout and be healthy without Gympact and since it doesn’t have the ability to record a home workout it’s not really going to work for me. As of next week I’m canceling my pact and back on the bike more.

And another excuse, I’m full of these things aren’t I, what’s with the 6:00 am gym classes all these new years resolvers are taking? I’d love to ride a spin bike in the morning if only they weren’t monopolizing the room with the bikes. I’m kinda hoping they change the schedule to include a spin class or perhaps bend to my request and put a spin bike next to the other cardio equipment.

If you were looking for me to throw in the towel you’re in the wrong place and time. I’m not about to let myself off the hook here … this is something I know I can do, I just have to get more focused.

It’s go time!

No … these feelings weren’t directed at Sue, her piece was very well written and full of emotions. These feelings were directed at the Georgia Ad Campaign toward “fighting childhood obesity”. I prefer to call it the Georgia Ad Campaign to “destroy children’s confidence and misplace the blame of childhood obesity”.

Look at these horrible posters they’re using in the campaign:

Now don’t get me wrong, the words and the message itself isn’t bad … what is bad are the photos. Rather than exploit the children they should instead be showing pictures of the obese parents waiting at drive through windows for dinner. Or maybe show the portion sizes of the food that most parents serve their kids compared to what they should be eating.

Shock and awe can only take you so far and certainly can have it’s use at times in any battle but these photos are just inappropriate.

As someone who’s been overweight my entire life and who’s parents used to give me second and third helpings at meals I can understand where some of the blame lies. As someone who’s father used to constantly call him fat and who was looked down on by other parents and children I understand the emotions these kids feel and how humiliating being overweight can be. As someone who learned little to nothing about fitness and nutrition in school I can understand how this epidemic has reached this point.

As a previously overweight kid I also know that these photos do nothing but hurt children’s confidence and self-esteem and that they’ll certainly do little to nothing to help address this epidemic.

If you were an overweight kid and you saw any of these posters or commercials can you imagine how you’d feel? Seriously think about that for a second …

I bet you’d want to curl up in a ball and hide in your room. Do you really think you’d have the self-esteem or confidence to ask you parents why you’re overweight? Do you think you’re doing to suddenly just figure out what you need to change to get healthy? Do you think any parents are going to look at these pictures and suddenly have an epiphany to change their ways because they see their kids in the those faces?

Now if you’d put the parents in those photos waiting in fast food drive lines, eating the crazy portion sizes, or perhaps sitting in front of TV eating dinner that’d be interesting. I’m sure they’re afraid of angering the fast food or restaurant lobbyist though so that’d never happen. Instead they choose to take advantage of children already struggling to find themselves or their place in society.

As a father that grew up overweight and understands the pains of being obese throughout my childhood I’m very conscious of what my kids eat and how active they are. I struggle every day trying to make sure I’m a good role model and yet not overbearing. I’m constantly striving to teach my kids how to make educated food choices and have fun being active and fit.

The blame and responsibility of childhood obesity lies with the adults, the parents, and the educators not the children. It’s time we all stepped up and took responsibility and act in our children’s best interest to help them be happy and healthy all throughout their lives.

If you’re moved by this or want your viewpoint to be heard then please check out this post. Also use your Twitter and your Facebook accounts to let the creators of these ads know what’s on your mind. Finally, join me, MrsFatass, and others tonight (Friday) for a Twitter chat from 9-10 PM EST using the hashtag #ashamed.

See you there!

Fall seven times, stand up eight.

I think it’s a fitting description of the ups and downs of my journey. I’ve been busting my hump all week getting up at 5 am for my workouts and making sure I ate healthy foods. This was also one of the first weeks in a while that my wife and I were able to cook meals the entire week, triple win!

We My wife made a great Chicken & Turkey Sausage Jambalaya slow cooker recipe and a delicious Healthy Pizza on our new pizza stone that we picked up from the new Sur la Table this weekend. Needless to say it was the first time we’ve ever used a cooking stone and it was our best pizza ever. We’re definitely going to be using it to test out many more fun pizza creations!

Anyhow, it was a focused week and I felt great so lets see how I did and if it lines up with how I feel:

Previous Weight — 282.0 lbs (on 01.20.2012)
Current Weight — 280.2 lbs
Change In Weight — -1.8 lbs

While I’m happy with the loss I was hoping to break into the 270′s this week so I’ll admit I’m a little bit disappointed. I did however feel great all week and I’m losing so I guess can’t complain too much.

It’s about progress, not perfection

It’s a simple mantra I’ve been using for a very long time. I try to live it, breath it, and keep pushing ahead following it as best as possible. Small losses every week add up to huge losses over time.

This weekend I’m planning on putting some serious miles on the trainer at night with my new Sufferfest videos. I need to make a serious dent in the miles for my goals in the saddle this month. I’m planning on doing a review of the videos once I use a few more of them, stay tuned.

Was your week as good as mine? Any good weekend plans?

It felt great and it hurt … the good kind of hurt though.

So what happened?

After my triathlon in August was completed I weighed in at 260 lbs. Between then and my first trip to Brazil in October I gained around 12 pounds. From October to the end of the year and the holidays I added on another 22 pounds … 22 pounds! I know I’ve always had trouble during the holidays but that’s ridiculous.

During that same time period from August to the end of the year I only worked out a handful of times. Sure I got a few workouts in here and there and at times had a streak of 2-3 days but there were just as many missed weeks as there were mini streaks.

My success to date has been due to two primary pillars, exercise and nutrition. Whenever I find a healthy balance of both pillars I’ve had great success. When I get lazy or complacent and lean more on any one of them than the other I begin to fall.

If I don’t get my workouts in but eat well then I usually start making excuses for why I don’t need to be as strict. “I didn’t work out anyhow” … “I’ll be back on track tomorrow” … “I’ve earned it by eating well for a while”. From that point I just slide and slide further and further to the point where not only am I not working out but I’m not eating well either.

If I don’t eat well the I’ll usually start making excuses to skip a workout. “It’s too dark” … “I already ate bad so what’s the point of working out” … “It’s already 7 PM and I’m not up for it”. It always seems like it’s easier to skip a workout for me than it is to skip food, especially in the fall. When the days begin to shorten and it’s dark when I get up and when I get home from work then it’s so hard to get that workout in.

Without that balance of working out and eating right I invariably fall off one of my proverbial pillars of fitness … this time that fall was a 34 pound topple.

Q: So what’s a person to do to ensure they don’t fall off their pillars and maintain a balance?
A: Set some goals

If you’re at all like me, I’ve always done better when I set goals. Whether it’s an 8k or a Half Ironman, as long as I have some type of goal to work towards I’ll usually stay motivated and keep making progress. The goal I set last year was a pretty huge goal and afterwards I rested on that goal far too long … so long that I fell off my pillars. After that lazy spell I was thrown a 1 … 2 … 3 punch with eating out far to often, some pretty significant international travel roadblocks, and then there’s the holidays.

A: Not only do you have to set goals, you also have to reevaluate them from time to time to ensure they’re still keeping you motivated and that you’re making forward progress.

Well I’ve now set a few goals that should keep me going for a while. With a new bundle of joy coming in June, my 6,000 mile challenge, and my trip this fall to Fitbloggin I’ve got some serious goals to meet for the foreseeable future.

I’ll obviously report back how I’m progressing on each of these goals throughout the year. I’m hoping to report on my cycling challenge at the end of each month and I’m sure I’ll mention it from time to time throughout the month. I’m planning a complete monthly mileage and time breakdown at the end of each month to stay accountable.

Have you set some realistic yet challenging goals recently? Have you revisited your goals to see that they still make sense?

So on with the show:

Previous Weight — 283.2 lbs (on 01.13.2012)
Current Weight — 282.0 lbs
Change In Weight — -1.2 lbs

Not too shabby considering the circumstances. I’ll take it and move on to start this next week anew.

Next week I’m going to try pushing it a bit more throwing in some longer circuit training workouts. I’ve tried doing some longer ones recently but my base fitness has deteriorated since last summer so they were too hard and I didn’t want to hurt myself. I felt stronger this morning and my Sufferfest intervals I did last night felt pretty solid as well. I’ll be posting a review of The Sufferfest cycling training movies soon after I’ve used them a few more times, so far so good.

Another change I’m planning this week is to improve my food choices more. I’ve been working the past few weeks to lower my processed carbs and this week I’ll continue to eliminate even more. I’ve successfully dropped all half & half from my coffee since the new year so I think I can knock down these processed carbs as well.

How were your workouts this week?

Photo Courtesy of Brittany

I hope to see you there!

I had a great workout on Sunday night and rode ~22 miles in an hour on my trainer in the basement. I made sure to drink during my workout but I went to bed without continuing to hydrate and my snack didn’t exactly contain any protein (aka a sweet was consumed) and was way too processed. Combine that with the tail end of a cold and you have the makings of a dizzy start to the day, make that the dizzy half of a day.

I reluctantly decided to take the day off from working out and made sure to drink a lot of fluids and not push myself. I’m feeling much better as I write this in the evening.

I’m picking up tomorrow (today when this posts) where I left off and I’m not planning to take another day off until after my weigh-in on Friday.

Have you ever experiences really bad vertigo for extended periods of time?

I was honored and thought it’d be fun so told him I’d be happy to! Little did I know that I’d be in the company of David from Keep It Up David. While I’m certainly not as motivational as David I do have a long story to tell.

Anyhow, grab your coffee and head on over to check out my interview over at Dieting Smarter this morning. Thanks for asking me Jeff, it was fun answering your questions and I hope your readers enjoy what I have to say. As usual I’m pretty long winded in my responses but did you expect anything else?

I’m worried about losing momentum and worried about changing something that’s working … so I took it easy but still kept moving. Fortunately mother nature helped me out a bit as well and threw some snow at us so I was able to get an hour and a half or so of throwing frozen water around for good measure.

Anyhow, lets take a lookie to see how I did this week.

Previous Weight — 286.4 lbs (on 01.06.2012)
Current Weight — 283.2 lbs
Change In Weight — -3.2 lbs

Not bad for week two of being back on my A game if I do say so myself. I wasn’t expecting much this week and am glad that I was able to lose something.

So what did I do this week in terms of workouts to lose the weight?

• Sunday — 30 minutes Stationary Bike, 20 minutes Elliptical
• Monday — 45 minutes Weight Lifting
• Tuesday — 30 minutes Elliptical, 10 minutes Stationary Bike
• Wednesday — Off Day
• Thursday — 25 minutes Stationary Bike, 25 minutes Walking @ Incline, 2 x 30 minutes Shoveling
• Friday — 25 minutes Circuit Training, 30 minutes Shoveling

A total of 290 minutes or 4 hours 50 minutes of workouts for 3,996 calories burned over 6 days. This weekend I’m planning some trainer riding, I need to get some saddle time in to knock out that goal. It’d be good to get a few solid hours in per day, to burn some calories, and drop some serious numbers.

Happy riding! (or shoveling)

How’d your workouts go this week?

<taps foot waiting>

You’re back, crazy ahe … and that doesn’t count the old posts from over at my other blog (hasn’t been updated in years). Anyhow, I was looking around my archives and found some interesting things that I’d written. Here’s an interesting quote from a post entitled Dr’s, Obesity, and Dreams that I wrote in February of 2000:

… How many people do you know that have had strokes? Heart attacks? Have diabetes? Can’t walk up a flight of stairs without resting? Hell I am/was one of those people. But I made the decision to make a change in my life. I decided to transform, hell to transcend from my old dead, overweight, ugly body to a new me. To a trimmer, fit, and healthy Sean. If I can do it, anyone can, regardless of what a “Dr” says. If you want, slap a “d” and an “r” in front of my name and listen to me. I will tell you to “listen to your heart”, “set goals”, and “realize your dreams”. don’t be a typical American, but instead, raise the bar and dream a new you. When you decide to do this, something miraculous will happen. Your confidence will shoot up, your entire life will come into focus, and you will be happy. Let this happiness propel and guide you to achieving your dream. …

Those are compelling words even today when doctors are prescribing more and more drugs to augment our lifestyles. Instead of giving their patients the tough love they likely need they’re selling them on quick fixes or lying and telling them they can’t lose weight.

Rather than treat it with surgery, pills, or insulin shots why not change your lifestyle and get back in the game? It’s not going to be as easy as it is eating that double stuffed pizza or burger and fries but you’ll feel younger and thank yourself later when you make it to your kids graduation, your retirement, or maybe even your 90th birthday.

Here’s an example of a random vent I went on about huge gyms, or as I called them Fitness Megaplexes from back in April of 2000:

… What does this have to do with a fitness megaplex. I never claimed to think in straight paths, I’m a programmer not an author … hehhe … give me a sec here. So does anyone get fit in these megaplex’s? Well they are hoping you don’t. If you did you might not come back. They want you to come in during that migratory cycle and then leave after a few months. All the while, during the rest of the year you still pay the dues each month for that “life time” membership you signed up for. Keeps the place empty, keeps them in jobs, and keeps a nice flow of cash on the books. So what do I suggest to solve this dilemma? Well first you have to dig deep into yourself and ask a few personal questions. Think about where you want to be in a few year … what shape is your body in? What about success in your job? Your family? These are dreams and desires … we all have them. Now you just need the energy to reach those dreams. What better way then through fitness? Not the wait in line kind of fitness, I am talking about the fitness that has a personal touch. The fitness that makes you smile, makes you grow mentally as well as physically. The kind of fitness that gives you the energy from morning to night. …

What’s interesting to me about this post is that around 2005 I joined one of those megaplex gyms and actually quite enjoyed it. What I enjoyed most was the variety of equipment & classes and the 24 hour access and wish we had an affordable option like that near our house today.

Why am I sharing this change in viewpoint with you? Well first to show how even I get things wrong and am far from perfect. While I made a lot of good points in that post I’m far from being an expert. I’m just like you, I have my ups and downs and I construct my opinion the same way as everyone else and it’s not always correct.

I don’t pretent to know you or your body, what I try to do is share what does and doesn’t work for me … “for me” being the point of that statement. Please take time to learn what works for you, by all means start with what I’m sharing but don’t give up if it doesn’t work. If you love that huge gym then join it, just because I didn’t doesn’t mean anything because I changed my viewpoint. If you find something that is healthy and works for you then by all means ignore me (and all other media) and just do it.

The key is to get healthy and fit and not to keep up with the fitness joneses.

And in closing here’s a quote from one of my favorite old vents from June of 2000:

So why is this article entitled “Obesity vs Corporate America”? Well looking back at that insulin question I asked above. How much do you think Eli Lilly made from insulin last year? In case you didn’t know insulin is used to balance out the blood sugar of diabetics. Where is the largest population of diabetics, yep you guessed it, overweight and obese individuals. So how much did they make off of insulin sales last year? $1.5 billion dollars … and there are around 50 companies that produce insulin products. This is only a small view of how corporate america profits from an obese society.

In that posting I quoted Eli Lilly as having sold $1.5 billion dollars in insulin (not including related insulin products) in 1999, the market at the time was $3.85 billion dollars. In 2010 worldwide sales of insulin products have quadrupled to 15.4 billion dollars, and the largest maker, Novo Nordisk, sold $7.1 billion of insulin. (cited from Forbes)

Does that sound like a decade of healthy change for America? Should we really be looking out for our own health and fitness or continue to put our faith in corporate america and shareholder value? I think I know the answer, what about you?

But that’s just my opinion, for what its worth …

I’ve always loved riding my bike, in fact it was one of the first pieces of fitness equipment I bought back in the summer of 2000 when I started this journey. It’s one of the easiest things you can do when you’re first trying to lose weight. Even if you’re heavy like I was (450 pounds) or maybe only a bit overweight, you can find a bike to meet your needs. You can’t say the same thing about running at 450 pounds. Yes, sure you can go for a walk around the block to lose some weight but there’s nothing like that feeling you have on your bike with the wind in your face and the road beneath your tires, your body the engine to adventure.

Once you’ve found a bike it’s a great way to lose weight because whether it’s 4 hour ride with your local bike club or a 10 minute ride to the coffee shop you can find a way to fit some riding in. If you really try, you can find a way to replace some of your driving with a bike ride. It’s an exercise that helps your mind & body and is great for the environment as well.

Not only has cycling been a huge part of me losing weight but it was always a huge goal of mine to get a great road bike. Well, two years ago I was finally able to fulfill that goal and purchase my first ever road bike. That bike helped me lose even more weight and stay motivated throughout the summer, fall, and winter months that followed. I was able to throw it on my trainer in the basement even on the coldest days … sorry for the bad picture, it’s not the best lighting in the basement.

I just throw on the news, watch a movie, or zone out to some music on my trainer and crank out some miles and calories. That’s one of the ways I’m planning on hitting that 6,000 mile goal by the end of the year. I figure all I need to do is crank out 120 miles per week and I’m golden. I can easily drop 20 miles in an hour on the trainer in one sitting … so that’s just 312 daily 1 hour sessions, easy peasy right?

In all honesty that can’t be the only way I hit this goal, I don’t know that I can get that many basement rides in without going a little crazy. There’s also going to be some long weekend rides with the club and solo rides as well. I really enjoy getting up early in the morning and doing 2 – 3 hours on my bike, it’s very therapeutic.

So is that going to be enough, just a bunch of weekend rides and some trainer rides? No, not by a long shot … the whole point of setting a goal like this is to make it something that isn’t easy to attain. If it were easy then everyone would do it and it wouldn’t be as rewarding. I fully expect this to be a goal that pushes me further on a bike that I ever have gone before. It’s going to force a diligence and dedication on the bike that I’ve never attained in the past.

So essentially I’m planning a combination of:

• Weekend rides with and without my club — 50 mile average
• Rides in my basement on my trainer — 20 mile average per hour
• Rides at the gym on the spin bike — 10 mile average for 30 minutes
• Training rides for a triathlon (yet to be chosen) — unknown average but could be big
• Random rides in the evening and on weekends with my daughter around the neighborhood and at random races — unknown average

I know it doesn’t look like much but you’d be amazed how a lot small things can add up to something huge.

It’s going to be an awesome ride!

I mentioned my new weight on my 2011 retrospective and while it wasn’t an official weigh-in I will count it, honest is honest

Last Blogged Weight — 260.0 lbs (on 08/26/2011)
Previous Weight — 294.0 lbs (on New Years morning 01/01/2012, +34.0 lbs)
Current Weight — 286.4 lbs
Change In Weight — -7.4 lbs

I’m certainly not happy with the huge gain from last year but reality is reality and I got extremely lazy after my HIM. Sometimes reality is that splash of cold water, or in this case the punch to the gut that I needed to get going again. I have so much to live for and a backslide into a heavier and unhappier me is not what I want.

I’ve started this year off on the right foot with my loss and plan to continue on this path until I reach and maintain a healthy realistic goal weight. I feel like I can reach that this year, I don’t know why but I feel it … maybe the 3rd times the charm.

How have you been fairing with your healthy goals this year?

You know whats weird …

• I really enjoy throwing on my shoes for a run both outside or at the gym.
• I relish the mental calm I drop into while running.
• The pace, focus, and routine of running really relaxes and calms me.
• When I need to just shut off the interrupts or complexity of the outside world, a run is the perfect prescription.
• It’s not about the shoes, it’s about the runner (sorry I had to).
• And the burn, did I mention the calorie burn is awesome as well

Not everyone can run right away. If you’re like me you’ll need to start out small and start walking 2-3 minutes, run for 30 seconds, and then walk again for 2-3 minutes, repeat. I suggest you find a good Couch to 5k/10k application or program online, there’s a bazillion of them.

Next suggestion, don’t stress your body too much in the beginning, running is hard on the joints. I still have sore ankles and knees from time to time after longer runs or if I’ve run too much in a week. It’s certainly better than when I first started running when I pushed it too far too quickly and I even tried the whole minimal running when I first started, ouch! Try only running once of twice per week and certainly not on back to back days.

Whatever you do, I can say one thing … don’t be afraid to start running. It doesn’t matter how you run or what you look like while running. No matter what you might imagine people are thinking it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re doing it, you’re not on the couch watching, you’re in the game. You’re in the game of life, of getting healthy and fit, of breaking out of your comfort zone and pushing yourself to achieve new high points.

Now go run and don’t stop running … oh yea, and watch that form remember land softly.

I’m off to get in a morning run to commemorate this anniversary and hope you will to.

He brought me a new Jawbone Jambox wireless speaker and a new Road ID Elite wristband.

The speaker connects to my iPad, iPhone, or Laptop via Bluetooth (or a cable if I didn’t have Bluetooth) and will play the sound that’s playing on my device … movies, music, or games. It can also double as a speakerphone when I answer a call from my iPhone. The other awesome thing about it is that it has a built in 10 hour battery which means it’s a stylish compact mobile speaker. I can use it in the basement on my trainer or doing weights, outside in the spring when I’m doing trainer / running intervals, or I suppose we could even use it on the jogging stroller while we’re running … I have a lot of options.

The Road ID is something I should have purchased a long time ago. It’s a band I can wear while working out, cycling, running, or really any time I’m outside the house exercising and I might not have my wallet or other easily accessible identification information. It’ll give both me and my wife peace of mind on my 50+ mile bike rides this year. Now she’ll have GPS to track me and I’ll have Road ID in case something happens to me.

Those are a few of the cool gadgets I’ll post some reviews on later this year after I’ve used them a bit more. I’m pretty geeked to use them in my exercising and other healthy activities. As a gadget nerd it’s these small things that make exercising even more fun for me.

How about you, did you get any fitness loot from Santa?

I’m starting this year with a few resolutions and some bigger goals that I think will keep me on track and keep me motivated throughout the year. So here we go:

Stop finishing my kids foods — I’m guilty of not only eating my own meal, which might not be exactly healthy lately, but also of eating a bit from my kids plate as well. Those calories can quickly add up when I’m eating part of a sandwich and/or part of their side in addition to mine. Just because I paid for it doesn’t mean someone has to eat it. Maybe it’s that child in me trying to clean my plate to make my parents happy.

Eat healthier — A simple statement but not exactly easy to put into practice. We’ve been eating out a lot the past few months because cookings been difficult (insert it makes my wife nauseous). It’s really hard after a long stressful day at work to come home and cook or make sound decisions from a menu filled with scrumptious food, especially when I hadn’t been working out.

Get back down to at least my low of 2011 — I know it’s kinda weird but I want to get down to at least where I was at my low last year. That low was around May so I know it’s doable in a reasonable amount of time. Yes, I do want to get lower but my key is getting there and maintaining at least that weight instead of going right back up.

Blog more — I usually start out really strong in the first half of the year and then fade toward the end. This year I’m shooting for consistency all year long. That might mean me venturing into other topics a bit, maybe a bit nerdy so be prepared, but I’ll never stray from my roots of this blog … A healthy sustainable weight-loss and lifestyle.

Now to end with a meaty long term goal I can sink my teeth into.

Cycle 6,000 Miles — As long as I’ve been into cycling I’ve wanted to ride a substantial distance. What better distance than twice what RAAM (Race Across America) did last year? I know it’s not the 20,000 miles Gaz cycled last year (an amazing blog and inspiration I recommend you check out) but I don’t commute to work like he does. I think it’s a challenging goal that’ll keep me motivated for most if not all of 2012.

So those are my goals for the year, I’ll post in the coming days how I’m planning on accomplishing them. Everything from my workout routine(s), food (changes), to cool new gadgets I’m playing with.

What are your resolutions and/or goals for 2012?

• Shared some great lessons learned from new years resolvers, something applicable entering into this new year as well.
• I met Phil Keoghan and saw The Ride. If you’re looking for inspiration to ride or find yourself making an excuse to not go to the gym, try riding across America in 40 days, that’s more than 100 miles per day.
• Had a quick Doctors checkup and was diagnosed with high blood pressure. Later in the year I returned to the doctor and he decided to observe it for a while and not treat it with medications.
• Tried out the New Balance Minimus Road shoes for the first time. They worked out well for running under 5k and for all other forms of exercise. Any longer running and my ankles couldn’t handle them.
• We celebrated our children’s 3rd (Abby) and 1st (Brad) birthdays.
• Shared my beliefs that sometimes even fear can be motivating.
• Put together a really popular guide to LoseIt badges.
• Ran in Chicago Shamrock Shuffle 8k and faired pretty well.
• I did a look back at my transformation in pictures from when I started in 2000 to where I am today, wow what a trip!
• I finally found a cycling helmet and posted about my journey to choosing a helmet. It was my 5th most popular posting of the year which was kinda cool.
• I attended Fitbloggin, had an amazing time meeting some truly inspirational people, and did Zumba for the first time.
• Joined the Shrinking Jeans family and later in the year had to part ways due to time challenges
• Shared another really popular posting on fear and whether or not it overpowers you.
• Came out about my toilet breaking growing up.
• Was humbled in my first Horribly Hilly Hundreds 100k bike ride.
• DNS’d my first triathlon, participated in my first sprint triathlon, and later my first Half Ironman 70.3 (or Iron Duathlon as my wife calls it).
• Ran in three 5k’s including setting a new PR of 26′ 43″ and then later another new PR of 26′ 14″.
• Mourned the death of Steve Jobs.
• Flew over 25,000 miles for work including 1 trip to San Francisco and 2 trips to São Paulo Brazil.
• After nearly 2 years of inactivity I updated my first iPhone application, Fairway Golf, to version 1.5 and started working on another secret application I hope to release next summer.
• Rode my bike nearly 1,000 miles (981 to be exact) this year, not as much as I’d like but that doesn’t count the miles indoors on the trainer nor the miles on spin bike.
• Started the year at 276 pounds, got down to 249 pounds, and ended the year at 294 pounds. The last 4 months have been lazy to the max but I’m starting the year anew, more on that tomorrow
• Happily shared with the world the announcement that we are expecting our 3rd child in June of 2012.

Phew … that’s a quickie look back at how my year went. While did I accomplish a ton of my goals I had my share of ups & downs as well. Like everyone I’m only human but I’m a fighter and won’t be giving up any time soon. I’ll be posting my New Year’s goals soon, tomorrow perhaps.

I hope your 2011 was as amazing as mine … lets bring 2012 in with a bang!