Day 134 - 41% Progress

Got in another cardio workout on Saturday. A return to the Junior High soccer field for some more 80 yard sprints. Last weekend my first attempt saw me do ten sprints before calling it a workout, this attempt I did a dozen. My fastest sprint was 20 seconds, a second better than my best spring a week ago. I may have pushed it a bit further than wise as my left thigh was not too happy with me afterwards. I stretched it out good afterwards and it felt better, no big deal; just need to stretch more beforehand is my guess.

Had a pair of cool NSV's yesterday...

We are going to a wedding this coming Friday. My wife asked if I was going to get a new pair of trousers since the ones I wear now are so baggy. I wasn't going to but she seemed to want me to so we did just that.

For the better part of a decade I've been wearing 46's. If honest with myself I should have been wearing 48's or 50's perhaps the past year or so as my 46's have been tight tight tight. I grabbed a pair of 44's to take to the dressing room and my wife suggested I try 42's. Not necessary I thought but I grabbed them any way and off I went to the dressing room.

The first thing I tried on was a 2XL t-shirt I grabbed before making my way over to the trousers. Before I started this mission I wore exclusively 3XL's which fit me. Not all would fit when I tried them on, just some. Had I been willing to buy 4XL's I'd have had more options in recent years, but, for whatever reason buying 4XL's was something I was not going to do until I needed to.

Huh? Can you believe that!? Attitude, that was my old attitude, that someday I would have to buy 4XL's and when that day came so be it, but not before. Thinking back at that attitude both boils my Irish blood and tickles my Irish bum.

The 2XL t-shirt fit great and the many old 2XL t-shirts I've had shoved to the back of my dresser drawers have been replaced the 3XL's for use now as I can wear any 2XL I touch comfortably now.

Back to the trousers, I started with trying on the 42's. Now I should have known my wife would be right, silly me. I never even tried on the 44's, just took the t-shirt & the 42's and checked out.

So chalk these up on the NSV list...
>Buying new trousers in size 42, down from 46's.
>Saying goodbye to having to buy 3XL shirts & hello to 2XL

The numbers for this weigh in areas follows: I weigh 41% less than the day I started this mission.

Thus, 49.5 pounds have been lost in the past EIGHTEEN weeks; 2 of them this past week.

Today I weighed in at 270.5 pounds. Oh Yeah!

Cool - the 40% mark has been achieved! The 50 pound mark, missed it by that much; holding thumb & fore finger a 1/2 inch apart representing that 1/2 pound shy I am of that mark. Needless to say, I am quite please with this past week.

Enjoy your Sunday, have fun & be healthy!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 127 - 39% Progress & Oh Yeah's

Welcome to the 34th Sunday of 2010, is it just me or is this year passing by faster than corn through a goose?

My wife & I celebrated our 11th Anniversary this week. We did so low-key as she is still recovering from her recent surgery. We've given ourselves a pair of tickets to go see Bill Engvall & John Pinette perform next month. By then she should be fully recovered and we'll be able to get out and celebrate in style. Happy Anniversary to my gorgeous wife! 

As promised yesterday I was going to work in another cardio work out. Not wanting another walk, not able to hit Stanton Hill as the football team was using it for their workout, I drove around until I found something different; a soccer field. The local junior high field was looking a bit lonely so I paid it a visit. After arriving, I wondered what to do. I had no soccer ball. Walking around it seemed lame. I don't run, maybe a bad idea, I may as well leave. Then it hit me, sprint!

Well that notion woke up that evil hungry-demon inside me who drove me to obesity. "Huh, spring! That's running, no?" he jested gruffly. "You barely jog and look like a drunk armadillo when you do."

I grin and look at the field, it is a bit smaller that a regulation field, expected as 7th & 8th graders play on it. Regulation fields are 100-130 yards long, I paced this off at 88 yards (114 steps of my 28 inch stride), so figuring a bit of error in my pacing I considered this field to be 80 yards long.

"Seriously, lets go home and you can walk on that treadmill," said the hungry-demon, sniffing his jelly donut. "It has rails you can hold on to, much less embarrassing."

A freshly fried donut oozing with jelly puts off a strong smell, a smell that the healthy-alien in me does not like. "Sprints huh, that's the spirit," he encouraged boldly. "One, just do one 80 yard sprint, or one 80 yard jog, lets see if you've come far enough to do it."

One, sure I can do one. I really don't want to walk, treadmill or anywhere today. A little stretching, the IPod set, my watch in hand, off I went. Field was in good condition, flat, grass cut recently. Half way across, I stopped critiquing the field conditions, this is 80 yards? Seems like 80 leagues! Time, 33 seconds.

"Way to go big boy," the hungry-demon blurted through a chortle. "Too bad nobody is here to watch, I could charge $2 to watch this show."

Nice, that one stung a bit. As well that sprint had a bit of sting to it too. It was a sprint, not a jog; I was hauling this body as fast I could move it.

"Now walk, walk back," suggested the healthy-alien. "Walk and while you catch your breath."

And so I did, pondering my 33 second effort. Once upon a time I could sprint 40 yards in 7-8 seconds. Not really that fast, many of the high school athletes I hung with could do that in 5-6 seconds.

Back on the other side of the field now I was no longer listening to the healthy-alien & hungry-demon. They argued, the jelly donut hit the ground and those two locked horns like two ornery heartland tornadoes competing for the same trailer park.

While they went at it, I took off on another sprint; 32 seconds. A walk back, a check of the iPod, and another sprint, and another, and another, and...

Ten sprints later I had enough, my body was urging me to exercise some caution. Which I did, gladly and with a smile as I took note of that tenth and final sprint time, 21 seconds, that deserves an Oh-yeah!

Back at home, I left the healthy-alien & hungry-demon back at the soccer field; back at home I chit chatted with my wife for about fifteen minutes before I realized I was antsy and her attention was fixed on whatever was on television. We had a few hours before we would pack up the kids and head off to a family gathering. Bored, I went into the basement to do some crunches and push ups.

Once in the basement, I set up and did a set of push ups. Now crunches, but as I looked at that bench I smirked; I really didn't want to do any crunches. Too boring.

A quick pondering, I grabbed a mat and set it down beside the home gym. I got down, flopped onto my back, said a prayer, and away I went. Or rather I should say up I went, I did set of ten sit-ups. SIT UPS, really sit ups, not crunches - the real deal.

In all honesty, it has to be 15 years since I've got up the gumption to do a sit up. Yep, you guessed it, that also deserves an Oh-yeah!

Five sets of ten push ups and sit ups were completed before I called it quits, declared victory, and headed off to the shower.

It seems only fitting that I add being able to do sprints and sit ups to my NSV list. I'll do just that after I get this posted.


Ok, today is weigh in day, and I am pleased at the result. It very well could have been a 1/2 pound or a pound better but the family gathering yesterday probably cost me that much. It wasn't a a complete giving in to temptation, not at all. But there was some indulgence. A great time it was.

Brass tacks time, the scale reports that I have now punted 39% of the weight I want to lose. In all, 47.5 pounds have been kicked away in the past SEVENTEEN weeks; 1.5 of them this past week. Today I weighed in at 272.5 pounds. Oh Yeah!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!