Day 158 - My Towel, Mine!

Look what I got! Yep, the yoga towel that Jody hooked me up with via her recent give-away arrived.

It took only a day to get here. The company that shipped it for Jody was nearby in Indiana.

There you see the towel, sort of, it is it's wrapper.

You also see a bonus, a Full Bar, hmmm. Never tried one until yesterday.

Not bad, sort of like Captain Crunch squished into a bar.

Also a hand written Stciky-Note on it from Cheryl of Bottled Fitness congratulating me and wishing my enjoyment with my towel.

Ok, enjoy it I shall...

Well, I am trying to enjoy it. Which end goes up?

It doesn't come with instructions. Ah, a label...

Figured it out.

Right after getting untangled I went downstairs and hit the home gym, with my towel.

Ah Ha - it wipes away sweat. No, it sucks it up, fast!

This photo cracks me up, I look like I am about to fall asleep in that towel.

Certainly it is soft enough to sleep on.

Very nice towel Jody, Thanks again!

Ok - Fill in the blank: Wednesday is a good day to __________ ! To what?

For me this is a good day to go have some more of my cheek removed. Yeah, wish I didn't need that but as I shared yesterday it is needed and I am not waiting. So a morning of work and an afternoon with the plastic surgeon. I'll be in and out in an hour and on my way so no big deal procedure wise. Just want it done, healed and well, done.

When I awoke it seemed a fine day to strength train so I got in a great session with my dumbbell routine. Five sets of push ups & sit ups too. As noted abouve yesterday after work I also got in a session with the home gym. These sessions were closer together than I would have usually spaced them but for good reason. Just as it was two weeks ago when they removed the skin lesion I it will be again today; I'll need to take a week off of the weights. So four of the past five days I have hit them as hard as my heart could. Kind of like a squirrel storing nuts for winter. Yeah, I am guessing strength training doesn't quite work like that.

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 143 - BBQ'n & Drive'n

Hope all had a fine Labor Day yesterday. A good one was had by our clan. Since I took Sunday off from exercise I chose to exercise Monday holiday or not. My son & I got in a dumbbell routine and did five sets of push ups & sit ups. A good workout, and a needed one considering the food temptations to come.

Monday I was up before sunrise bringing the smoker up to temperature and getting five racks of baby back ribs on. See them in that picture there? Oh, no you can't, the lid is closed, silly me. Trust me they are in there. And in there they stayed for eight hours cooking slow on a low temp. When done they were proclaimed perfect.

BBQ'ing is a passion of mine and I am good at it. Mission to get healthy or not I will always get my BBQ'n on. The difference now is that I don't eat like the pigs I BBQ. Instead I exercise moderation with my passion.

Today I enjoyed just four ribs from the small end of the rack. That was probably two more than I should have eaten if I am honest with myself. The old me would have eaten an entire rack of ribs minimum. The old me was not responsible and could spell moderation even with spell-check. What, you like ribs too? Ok, here is a pic of the result for your eyes to feast upon...

Dry rub BBQ on the left and wet BBQ on the right. Two types of wet...

The bunch in front is sauced with Sweet Baby Rays and the bunch in the back is sauced with an Apple-Bacon blend.

As if the ribs weren't temptation enough I receive a call when driving home in the evening. This call comes with a request to bring home Dairy Queen for a couple of back home. It's Labor Day, sure why not some ice cream to end the holiday. Not for me, I told myself. A mile up the road I tell myself, well, I could have just a small blizzard, right? Two miles later, Nope, not going to do it; the ribs were enough indulgence today. DQ is now just a mile away, screw it, I am having Ice Cream! The DQ driveway in sight, NO! In the DQ drive thru which is six cars deep, Ok, treat yourself to a blizzard already and walk it off later. At the drive thru window I order a Peanut Buster parfait and a Oreo Blizzard, pay a ridiculous $8+ and drive of with ice cream for the sweet teeth at home. None for me; Commitment wins, Temptation loses.

And later that evening my wife and I went out for a brisk walk to end it on a healthy note. Again a fine Labor Day yesterday. How was yours?

Tuesday it is today, back to work. My day today started with a drive into work. It was an oddly congested and I'll say adventurous drive. One which I decided to try & find some fun in by capturing some of it's emotions...

#%$@&!, Cut off by a squishy little car; I hate squishy little cars!

Argh, the squishy little car has NO brake lights and is getting bigger in my windshield extremely fast!

Ha Ha!... Local radio'heads talking about Illinois politics; best comedy on the air.

Soooo, when was the last time I used my moon roof?

PLEASE... why do trains run during peak commute time?!

Um... is that cow doing a heimlich maneuver on that other cow?

Really? I left home with my own barn door wide open...

If I had three wishes, what would I do with them?

Uh Oh!

Oooo, somebody knows how to dress for traffic.

Green, the light is GREEN, Yippee!!

So, how was your commute today?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 129 - Stretch Me Please

When I woke up I guessed it was Tuesday, I checked, and I'm right. So I am 1 for 1 so far today.

Those of you that guessed a tile floor got yesterday's riddle correct. Some guessed it was tile early & before I announced that it was tile, and, well some of you guessed correctly after that. As I am from Chicagoland in Illinois all of your votes count regardless of when the polls closed. Oh, some of you guessed what room it came from, it was from a bathroom.  

Sunday I took the day off from exercise. Needed rest after Saturday's NSV of being able to do Sit-Ups once again; my core felt good & thrashed Sunday. Monday came & I got busy with a 5 a.m. dumbbell routine session and 5 sets of push ups. No sit ups, still sore in the gut and sides. But I will get after more of them this week for sure.

After work I had about an hour before the varsity soccer game so I got in my workout duds and headed off to Stanton Hill. The plan was to best my previous PR of 20 laps up & down that hill in 30 minutes. That was the plan, but this time out was a buffet of struggles.

Each lap had it's own story, and most not pleasant. Buffets are supposed to be pleasant, bountiful and satisfying. Trust me, I know from experience.

Lap one & I took off like a rocket, felt ballistic, and was ready to explode up in that PR's mug.
Lap three, eased up on the macho as my breathing lost it's ease.
Lap six or seven, pain; left lower leg just was starting to whine. I don't like wine so I refused to have any.
Lap ten & I was tapping reserves as fast as kegs at a frat party.
Lap fourteen or fifteen & my sides start splitting and I wonder how much shame there is in pulling the abort lever?
Lap seventeen & I swear that lost tortoise pass me up and flipped me off, @#%$ Tortuga!
Lap eighteen and I have company all of the sudden....

The Grant Sophomore football team saw me thrashing the hill & decided to get in on the action.

Lap nineteen and pride swells throughout igniting a surge to the finish. Or was it a save-face reflex?
Lap twenty, finally! Pride or not my attitude was clear, it is time for this to be over. Regardless of how impressed the football players are, I must soon go.
Huh, lap twenty finished and the 30 minutes, while close, had not ticked off yet?
Lap twenty-one, Stomping the dirt like a child; I was supposed to be done!
Argh, so close, missed completing twenty-one laps in 30 minutes by thirteen seconds.

Next time, there will be a next time, Stanton Hill.

OK, serious moment; this post is titled "Stretch Me Please". Need some help folks, I feel I do a terrible job of stretching and that may be why I had a rough go at the hill yesterday. I do try & stretch, but I feel the stretching I do is as useful as a back pocket on jock strap. So, I need those of you in the know to suggest stretching for both when I weight train and when I walk, hill climb, jog or sprint. Please, it would be rude to not say please. Don't make me beg; please.

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 122 - If only...

Source

Good Morning!

As I committed for the week I did go for the early a.m. exercise yesterday but I didn't plan enough time to get through my entire dumbbell routing. I did get 1/2 of it in, while good, I didn't got that great feeling at the end of the whole routine where I feel like I worked out and accomplished something. Just a matter of timing, I'll get the mornings figured out. After work the schedules were friendly and I was able to go back and do the full dumbbell routine after which I did feel thoroughly thrashed when done.

As promised here is yesterday's log looked like this....

• 5a - Exercise: 1/2 Dumbbell Routine, and 4 sets of Crunches
• 615a - Greek Yogurt, Banana, Grapes, Tomato Juice
• 845a - Milk, Pear
• 1p - Caesar Salad, Apple.
• 5p - Celery with Almond Butter, Cherries
• 5a - Exercise: Full Dumbbell Routine, and 5 sets of Crunches & Push Ups each
• 730p - Lasagna (1/2 portion), Garden Salad with Salsa

Video Games - Recently my boys commented that I do not understand video games; specifically the benefits to playing them. Really, I beg to differ... Video gaming is all about trying to achieve the perception of reality through it's unreal stage. No different than a good book, a movie or play. Video gaming just like food can be addictive, the challenge for many is keeping perspective between what is real and not.

Oh how I wish video games were real. Imagine if we could approach real life recklessly and excessively without regard to good sense. Many people do in fact approach life as if it were a video game. Some eat as if there is nothing to worry about from their bad food choices. Some ignore exercise as if there is nothing to worry about in living large & sedentary. Some smoke, drink, take drugs, text while they drive without wearing a seat belt while under the influence, and some I'm sure do even worse. If only real life were a video game...

In video games you approach your characters life recklessly and excessively because you get multiple lives. If you get eliminated, killed, crash, whatever; so what - you've got multiple lives & you go on playing. What - you just drove your race car over the cliff into a pit of molten lava, no problem... Huh, you threw that grenade only 3 feet away and caught a face full of shrapnel, no problem... It's Ok, here is a new, fresh and fully healthy life, play on! If only...

In real life no such luck. You get one life. When you have used it up, you are done. Sure there are exceptions in the stories of those extremely lucky few who have faced death and lived to tell about it, e.g. beating cancer having been diagnosed level-4 & terminal... or the lone survivor of a violently explosive & fiery plane crash. But these lucky few usually endure great pains from their experience before getting to go forward with their new perspectives on life. You get one life.

In video games you try and achieve something along the lines of a new high score or reach higher levels of game play. Wait a minute, in real life you do too; right? Most of us do strive to greater levels than we enjoy now, e.g. make more money, get promotions, get pregnant, get healthy, get after whatever it is we desire to be, to do, to have. In video games after a hours and hours of time playing and you realize you hosed it all up, you get to do what? Yep, you get to reset and start over. Erase in an instant all the bad we've accumulated and start fresh from the beginning. If only...

In real life we can choose at any moment to change course for something better, but; we do not get to erase all the bad we've accumulated and start fresh from the beginning. It would be nice if you could instantly erase the 120+ excessive pounds you accumulated and start fresh living healthy from your ideal weight. But in real life you first have to lose the 120 pounds if you want to realize the health benefits of weighing 120 pounds less. You erase with great effort.

In video games you are surrounded by ample & freely available help. Online game forums, the more experienced players you play with, all sorts of resources to give you the edge you need to achieve game success. And if you want to get there really fast, like NOW - ah ha, you can use cheat codes. Just smack those buttons in the right sequence and shazam!... you have slayed that battleship sized acid breathing dragon with the disposition of a over-taunted Pittsburgh Steeler fan. If only...

In real life there is also plenty of help available to you, right? Web sites dedicated to living healthy and getting there if you haven't been doing so; and much of it free. Doctors, Nutritionists and Personal Trainers are just a click, phone call, office visit (and a co-pay) away. Books, books, books... more books than there are beads of grease in your arteries. And we have cheat codes too, don't we? Sure we do, watch that infomercial at 2 a.m. this Saturday that'll allow you to eat double decker pizza & cream puffs while losing 10 pounds in 10 days... but wait theres more! Order now and we'll double... Huh? Yeah, I agree - Horse$#!&... there are allot of cheat codes promising our quick victory to get healthy. Some healthy approaches are faster than others, but none are quick - cheat codes don't work in real life. There are NO quick fixes; none! 

Video games - play them!... Real life - play it!... Enjoy both, but don't approach your life as a video game for if you do you will surely live a shorter and / or less fulfilling life; my opinion.

What is, or was, your favorite video game? Or, if you don't play video games, what is your favorite game period?

Tetris my favorite video game. Truth, I get little entertainment joy from video games as an adult and have seldom played them in the past two decades. Diplomacy is my favorite board game. Basically, if it is not a strategy game which forces me to think, I am bored. Although I used to play a mean game of Candyland when my kids were pre-schoolers.

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 48 - My W.I.D.T.H

I recently found a very popular blogger who is doing a series which I know many of you have likely seen if not have participated in. He asked bloggers to send him a note card in a picture which stated why they want to get healthy. He calls this the W.I.D.T.H - Why I Do This Here. I think it is an awesome idea and look forward to when he posts new cards which he does a few times a week. Naturally I sent him one of my own which he posted yesterday; here is my note card on Jack Sh*t, Gettin Fit. It is worth a scroll through his posts to read these cards and see some of the faces behind them. In many you can see the sincerity in their faces, their desire to get healthy. I found it motivating to say the least... Hey Jack, well done, Thanks!

Yesterday I rocked out my best work out in my 48 days of working at getting healthy. Came home from work a tad early to get in my P.T. clothes, then had to do a conference call; ugh. But when that was done I hit the weights and busted out a great session on the dumbbells. Increased the weight on a couple of the exercises and pumped up my attitude as much if not more than my body. The routine done, I wanted more. So recalling some valuable advice from some of you where one of the best times to do cardio is right after strength training I marched upstairs and jumped on the elliptical. An hour later I was good, I didn't want any more.

Did you get in your exercise yesterday? Or Today??

Food, I ate great yesterday too. Here is the turkey breast I roasted while I worked out, I love multi-tasking...

Not sure why I chose an over-the-top/aerial view for this picture; seems like an odd way to look at food. It didn't look like this for long as the kids had me carving up as soon I as put the camera down.

Alright, I have training all day today so I need to get some real work done before heading off to class. I'll catch up on your blogs later today. And then tonight is is Game 4 of the Stanley Cup. The Blackhawks lost an overtime tilt Wednesday night in Philadelphia. They still lead the series 2-1, but we gotta take this one game at a time. Sound familiar?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 42 - Scallops & Dumbbells

Welcome to the weekend Bloggers, a holiday weekend at that!

Scallops anyone? There on the left you see last night's dinner, bacon-wrapped scallops hit with some mesquite seasoning; these came off the grill 5 seconds after I took that pic. Accompanying them were some fresh green beans lightly sauteed in garlic - Oh my it was good!

Ok, enough food chat. Let's talk exercise shall we? My dumbbell routine has been on my mind so I thought I'd share it below. For all of these exercises I do 3 sets of 12 reps; except the 10th exercise which is a repeat of the 1st but for the 10th exercise I do 7 sets of differing reps; 6, 9, 12, 15, 12, 9, 6. Why do I do that for exercise 10? Really I don't know if it is wise or not, but it seemed to make sense when I cooked it up as a means to give the arms some added attention. Probably a guy-thing. My dumbbells range from 5 to 50 pounds. Currently I use from 10 to 25 pounds depending on the exercise and muscles involved.

1-Seated Concentration Curl

2-Lateral Raises

3-Two-Arms Triceps Extension

4-Bench Press

5-Triceps Kickback

6-Lying Fly

7-Shoulder Press

8-Kneeling One Arm Row

9-Straight-Arm Pullover

10-Seated Concentration Curl (again)

Aren't those animated gif's cool? They are them from dumbbell-exercises.com which I've found to be quite informative. The above dumbbell routine was put together on my own before I found this site. My idea was that it is supposed to strength train a variety of upper body muscle groups in one exercise session. Now having looked a bit more at this site and specifically at the page for Workout Routines for Dumbbell Exercises I wonder if I need to mature my routine a bit. I probably do but I'll need to do some more reading first and of course welcome advice from you.

Any thoughts? Is this routine something a trainer would give a thumbs up to, or, cringe in horror at? Do I need to modify it to do more to target specific muscle groups vs. trying to do them all in one session?

May you have a Magnificent Saturday!

Got any big plans for the holiday weekend?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!

Day 41 - What a Week

Been an odd week in that stuff that is not usually part of our routines have had to be handled.

Monday was actually a normal day in most respects. Although coming home late to nearly nobody home was odd. That was the day I did a short 30-minute burn on the elliptical vs. wasting my time watching television. Never did that before.
Exercise, check; got in 4 trips up the stairs at work too.
Healthy Eating, check; actually since I got home late my dinner was very light so maybe I under ate.

Tuesday my wife was out with friends taking in a Cubs game (they won), so I got the kids all to myself to feed dinner. That really wasn't abnormal. What was however was that my son Ryan was eating his final meal before having his wisdom teeth extracted the next day. So I gave him the choice of what to have for dinner. He chose the Bento Cafe for some sushi (pictured to left).
Exercise, check; got in a great session with the dumbbells, and three trips up the stairs at work too.
Healthy Eating, check; the sushi rolls you see in that picture I did not eat. Those sauces are usually high in fat & sugar. Instead I had some tuna sashimi and a bento-box with salmon(3, maybe 4 oz. tops), a green salad and rice. Oh that sounds so good, when we going for sushi again?

Wednesday morning was spent at the oral surgeon with Ryan. He's a bleeder so it took a while before they would clear him to go. Here you see him after we got back home. Knocked out from the earlier anesthesia and later on some vicodin before sitting on the couch. With gauze still in mouth we had to wake him up after we saw he had nodded off; didn't want him swallowing and choking on it. But not before we took this picture to share with friends & family :-)
Exercise, un-check; took the day off.
Healthy Eating, check; I ate excellent all day before my son Andrew & I went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. Look there, below, that's my basket of wings. What is that you say, how can I say that was healthy? Well let me tell you. Before disturbing that beautiful basket of heaven I put the six smallest wing pieces over by that celery and the six largest pieces into a take home box for my other boy Cameron (he ate them for breakfast Thursday - like me he is a wing addict). The sauce on these is Spicy Garlic which is their lowest carb sauce so not much unwanted sugar.

Thursday morning Ryan was up at 4:15 a.m. and needed a little help with his medicines but overall he is working hard at being a man and dealing with the pain and nuisance of having four less teeth in his head. In the afternoon I went with my wife to her doctor's appointment. Thankfully we received good news on her and the fear of possible surgery for her this summer has been erased.
Exercise, check; got in a 60-minute session on the elliptical in the morning. I worked from home both Wednesday & Thursday this week so no trips up any stairs to speak of. After dinner my wife & I went out for a 30-minute walk to end the day positive.
Healthy Eating, check; excellent meals and snacks capped off by firing up the grill for some sliders. Lean ground beef seasoned by a pro (me) and grilled to a perfect medium-rare (some to medium for my wife). A simple fruit salad to go with those delicious mini-burgers. I had my sliders (appx. 3 oz. each) without the buns and half the cheese the old me would have draped over them. Topped off with a couple pickles and a bit of my home-made salsa (oh it is good!)... why am I describing them so, here they are; see for yourself...

Why am I writing this food crazy post, it has me starving now :-o

Friday, well lets see what it brings. Back in the office for the days work. This being the Friday before a holiday weekend I'll likely cut out of here early assuming nothing needs attention. If I do, I am getting in some more cardio; perhaps a walk around a forest preserve.

So, How has your week been?
 
Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!

Day 39 - Whey To Go

Did some reading yesterday, been doing a lot of reading since taking off on this health mission. In a short period of time I came across three articles all of which mentioned their use of Whey Protein Powder. My initial reaction, "What the #*@% is Whey?" Being in a mirthful mood my mind fixated on the word Whey a bit & triggered old memories of Wayne's World where Garth would say "No way," and Wayne would reply "Way!" It is safe to say that this comedic-duo certainly was not debating the prospect of enjoying some Whey Protein Powder with their lunch.

There were a few common nuggets of info from these authors. Whey is an animal protein that is known for it's muscle building properties and therefore it is commonly added to shakes by body builders. Now I am not angling to being a body builder as anyone here that follows my blog likely knows. I am just trying to lose weight and get healthy again. Once I achieve that, who knows what I'll do with my new and improved me. But I know some of you do a bit of body building in your routines so I thought I would ask...

Whey Protein Powder, does anyone use it and what benefits are you gaining?

Final nuggets are that it is low in calories & high in protein. One author also said it may help prevent prostate cancer too; a bonus no doubt. All sounds good but I hope there are added benefits to justify having it in the house.

My cats seem to have caught the attention of some of you. Here is another picture, this one is Crush who you've met before. The kid, well that is Cameron, our youngest. Crush has an odd habit in that he likes to lick your hair when it is wet. Cameron just sat down after a shower, and Crush hopped up and started licking. Strange to be sure...

Quickly, ate very well yesterday and did an intense session with my dumbbells. Felt awesome! Today we'll be looking for some cardio.

OK, let me end this day's blog post with a favorite quote from Wayne's World; "I once thought I had mono for an entire year. It turned out I was just really bored." - Wayne Campbell

Party on Bloggers ;-)

Responsibility 199... Gotta Do It!!

Day 32 - Snack Attacks

So how did Tuesday go for you? It was a fine day for myself. A good job of working though my dumbbell routine and a good job adding a couple of new dumbbell exercises suggested by Jody in her Tuesday post. Thanks Jody, I still feel them in my arms & abs. Tuesday was also a good eating day and a good day at work and home too. Hope your Tuesday was as good or better.

Wednesday is here, and it shall be a cardio day I do declare! Plan is to walk around Lake Andrea with my son after work, haven't checked the weather report; hope it plays nice. If you get a moment today check in on a fellow blogger I follow regularly, Lisa ...she is a veteran blogger and has made progress since starting her journey but seems to be in a slight rut lately. Maybe together we can help her out and on her way forward again.

Yesterday I had a snack attack, a serious snack attack. You know the kind with teeth, claws and some sort of jedi-mind powers that can lift and throw a perfectly healthy human, or a very overweight one, into a vat of ice cream. Yeah, one of those dreaded snackinators came calling on me. Just a month back I'd still be digesting that ice cream. However yesterday, a month into my mission, I repelled that attack; albeit barely. It occurred on my drive home and I was oh-so close to taking a left towards those golden arches. I told myself I'd get a chicken sandwich, like that wouldn't hurt.

How do you suppress snack attacks?

Thankfully I drove by, shook my head and grabbed a stick of gum. It was an impulse move grabbing that stick of gum; it was the closest thing to food I had in the vehicle. To my surprise just a few minutes into some frantic chewing, and I did chew as if I might find a prize inside if I just chewed hard enough, after just a few minutes my hunger abated, my mood calmed and I made it home having added no empty calories to my body.

Maybe I should have known it as it seems obvious today, but chewing a stick of sugarless gum does suppress the urge to snack. A strong flavor gum would likely do an even better the job I imagine. Not sure if it is a physiological thing, or, a mental thing, but whatever it is about gum, chewing it slays the snackinator.

Responsibility 199... Gotta Do It!!

p.s... Happy Birthday Dad! I miss you with all my heart & soul. Until the day we meet again - stay peaceful.

Day 31 - Magic Fitness?

Have you see an advertisement lately that sounds something like this... 10 foods that burn fat... Or this... Our pill, powder or drink slims & gets you ripped... Or...

I'm sure we've all seen ads like these in magazines or websites, perhaps even on some of our favotite blogs. I've peeked into the details of a few of these ads over the years; usually at times when I wasn't dieting or working at getting healthy. Just a few minutes hoping to discover that magic to quickly returning to the fitness glory of my youth. Each time I've come away unconvinced & unwilling to go there.

But, still these marketing marvels get me wondering. Just last week I read up on two such popularly seen pills. After 30 minutes of reading I had more questions than answers, unconvinced again. Plus there seem to be some serious law suits alleging neglegence that may have resulted in harm to health including death. Justified legal action or not, I have no idea. But the risk doesn't justify the lack of certain & safe reward as I see it.

Therefore as I write this I doubt there is any way to do this short of earnest discipline & effort.

If anyone has opinion or experience to the contrary I'd enjoy hearing about it; do you?

Today is work out day, I took yesterday off. Thinking dumbbells after work. Maybe a walk too if I can, hope so.

Responsibility 199... Gotta Do It!!

Day 24 - My Rewards

Monday was a great day. Ate superbly, hit the dumbbells and had my best workout with them so far, just a fine day. Let's see if Tuesday can go just as well. How was your Monday?

Ok, yesterday I wrote about rewards - Thanks for your comments on rewards, opinions on deserving them, affordability, etc... So yesterday I stopped short of defining my goals. Having left myself hanging there I thought about them often throughout Monday and have made my list. The structure is to reward myself for every 10% of progress. I am looking to lose 121 pounds from my start of 320 pounds so every 12 pounds lost is another 10% and a reward will be mine! I set this up based on stuff I like and want; good characteristics for a reward don't you think? However, setting each reward at 10% had me thinking that that is 10 rewards and those can add up to a lot of cash if I don't show a little restraint. To add a bit of balance I set it up so the odd-tens, 10%, 30% etc... these would be fairly inexpensive rewards. At least compared to the even-tens, 20%, do I really need to explain that ? ;-)

Enough explaining, here are my rewards which I intend to visualize myself enjoying as a means to motivate me to get to my goal weight of 199 pounds...

My Rewards~
10%~Work out clothes (all I have now are old t-shirts, shorts & sweats from the 90's)

20%~Computer bag (the one I have now is in bad shape)

30%~Three Pack of Hot Sauce (to feed my hot sauce collection, nearly 300 bottles with room for more)

40%~Masterbuilt Hitch-Haul® Cargo Carrier (We are a family of hunters and this will come in handy)

50%~Four Pack of Hot Sauce

60%~Hunting Rifle (Savage Arms, not sure yet whether to get a 7mm, a .308 or a .30-06; time yet to decide; hunting season is in November, can I achieve this one by then?)

70%~Five Pack of Hot Sauce

80%~Bedtime Reader's Nightstand (actually to use by my chair in the family room)

90%~Six Pack of Hot Sauce

100%~Daytona 500 Week of NASCAR racing (My wife and I are big NASCAR fans and we've talked about going to Daytona soon so we may as well earn it. This one, the 100% reward, is a joint goal. My wife is working at losing a chunk of weight too. So which ever one of us that gets to their 100% first has the added incentive to help motivate the other the rest of the way because we want to go to Daytona!)

If you have a rewards list you are working toward I would love to see it; who has one?

Responsibility 199... Gotta Do It!!

Day 17 - Measurements

The measure we track on the scale is certainly the most important measure we follow. If it's not right the measures of body size or body chemistry are less likely to be right too. Realizing that I am taking another step here in paying attention to measurements by logging my mission starting body measurements. Well these were taken on day 15, close enough to mission starting. Hopefully they'll be quite different when I get to 100% of my goal.






And they are…

• Neck: 20-1/2"
• Chest: 56-1/2"
• Upper Arms: 18-1/2"
• Girth: 58-1/4"
• Waist: 55-3/4"
• Upper Thighs: 30"
• Calfs: 17-3/4"
• Forehead: 22-3/4"

Ponder those for a few seconds and it is easy to see that I am an apple shaped man. Oh I like apples, but not being an apple.

So how often should I check these? Certainly not once a week like I do my weight on the scale. Monthly? That seems a bit too frequent as well. Maybe I don't check them again until I hot that 100% of my goal. How about you; if you are tracking similar measurements how often do you check them?

Today is an exercise day. After work I'm getting some in. Leaning toward cardio as my arms & shoulders are still a bit sore from the weekends initial go at the dumbbells. Then again maybe I ought not wait another day and get back after them. We'll see how I feel when I get home.

Whatever it is you do today, enjoy it thoroughly.

Responsibility 199... Gotta Do It!!

Day 15 - 6% Progress

Bullet one dodged. My nephew's 1st Communion yesterday was a great time. The temptations were definitely there to get too close and personal with all the pizza my sister had delivered for dinner. But, thanks to those of you who offered suggestions on how to gear up to dodge the temptations, and some earnest discipline on my part and also that of my wife; I did just that, dodged the urges and came out victorious! I did have one slice of the pizza that was loaded with veggies, had sausage on it too. But my sister also made a huge garden salad so I made that my dinner and treated that slice of pizza as a side dish. Oh, I had one bottle of Miller Lite too. Come on, the hockey game was on; I'm supposed to watch a hockey game with diet soda?

For the trip I brought that huge water bottle and chugged that down; half before the church service and half after. I also ate a Fuji Apple on the short trip between the church and my sisters... Dawn, Thanks for that tip.

Dinner of course included dessert and my sister asked if I wanted some; but Blue,
I said 'No thanks I am fine'... Thanks for that tip.

Oh, dessert, here is the cake that my sister made for Michael...

It's an alligator, made of cup cakes, quite impressive work for my sister considering she has never been known for her culinary deft.

Yesterday was a great day all around. In the morning I got in a hour of cardio and cobbled together a 9-exercise dumbbell routine and did 3-sets of each of those. And the best part, I did all of that 'moving' with my son too so got some quality father/son time in too. Oh, and a shout out to my wife who got up and went to the YMCA and swam 30+ laps for her 'moving' yesterday. Yep, we kicked butt on 'Moving Day'!

Today of course my arms and shoulders are sore, sore, sore. Been here before so I knew yesterday as I was busting out flys, and bent over rows, etc... that I'd be sore today. Nothing a few Advil can't cut the edge off of. The best pain reliever however was when I hopped on the scale. OK, I didn't hop on it, I don't hop. Regardless how I got up there when I looked down the numbers were quite rewarding; 4 pounds lost this past week which now has me 6% of the way to my goal; I weigh 313 today. Cool!

Bullet two today; that family brunch. Kyle  I'll be putting your tip to the test today at this all-you-can-eat brunch; that being find one healthy item and put the most of that in the middle of the plate. Fingers crossed I dodge this bullet as well as I did yesterday's.

Wishing all of you a victorious Sunday!

Responsibility 199... Gotta Do It!!

Day 14 - Moving Day

Good Morning blogger folk. Ready to move today? I am. No no no, I am not suggesting we pack our keyboards and find a new place to blog. Nope, here we shall stay. Moving Day is simply Exercise Day. It is Saturday and I've got the time set aside to get some moving in. How about you; ready to move?

What's it going to be then? For me it is primarily weights (dumbbells & nautilus machine). There will be some stretching and good old fashioned calisthenics too. I have yet to determine a weights routine I like so part of my objective for today is to start to figure that out. I'd like to get some cardio in too but disappointingly I am dealing with some heel & ankle pain today. Thanks largely to my weight I have spells of pain in my feet, heels & ankles and the past few days I've had such a spell. It wasn't so bad this past Wednesday that I couldn't get that Lake Andrea walk in. I'll try and tough it out and get some walking in today too.

So, who out there has a dumbbell routine they like and swear by? Anyone?? If so I'd love to hear about it. I'm looking to put a routine, or routines, together that takes about 30 minutes to work through.

OK, I gotta go get moving and then get ready for my nephew's 1st Communion this afternoon - Thanks to all who replied yesterday with suggestions for surviving this weekends food challenges. Very much appreciated!

Happy Moving Day!

Responsibility 199... Gotta Do It!!