Longest and fastest run yet.

I felt great on last night's run.  I did Burke Lake (4.5 miles) in 44:33 minutes.  That's a 9:54 pace.  While that is not fast, it's fast for me at this stage.  I have yet to run under a 10 minute pace so this was great.  Really it was the last mile that slowed me down, I felt great the first 3.5 miles.  I know that with the weekly runs being 2-3 miles for the next few weeks I am only going to get faster.  I want to run the entire 10 miler in under a 9 minute pace, that's my goal.  My run for today is 2 miles so I will do that right after class, to keep me accountable I will post on the Facebook page for the site that I am running and see if anyone wants to join me.  That secures that fact that I won't skip it, every little bit helps.  This week, Friday will be my rest day and I am either running or have boot camp every other day.  Sunday is going to be my long run days every week throughout training.  Another 4 miler this Sunday but the week after that we are up to 5 miles.  By then I should be more than ready to run the 5 miles, I mean I just did 4.5 last night.

I ate exactly my allowed 47 points yesterday and I earned 11 activity points for the run.  Definitely a good way to start the week.  I have to tell you about the dinner Hila made last night.  This was a Buffalo Chicken and Blue Cheese Cheesesteak.  I cannot tell you how good this was.  This entire dinner was only 15 points.  Here is the recipe if you are interested, she did make one change though.  Due to her straight brain genius she added the blue cheese and I am telling you now the blue cheese made this dish, it was fantastic.  I definitely recommend trying it.

I mentioned yesterday about my stellar 8 point egg wrap, check this out.

I could have a bowl of cereal with almond milk for 9 points (bleh) or this delicious egg wrap for 8.  This is 2 eggs, 2 pieces of Canadian bacon, 1/4 cup of part skim mozzarella shredded cheese, mushrooms, zucchini, and spinach in a whole wheat tortilla wrap.  This is not only much more healthy for me, it saves me a point and it will keep me fuller longer.  Yet again, another reason my wife is amazing!!!

Faulty Weightwatchers Scale.

It's the only logical explanation.  How the heck did I lose 1.2 lbs. while on vacation??  I am overjoyed with this number.  I really thought I was going to gain.  Yes I did workout everyday of vacation but like I said before, the food intake was not good.  Really not good at all, atrocious was the word I used.  I can only assume that the previous week of eating well and working out contributed to the success but I think that main reason is definitely the working out while on vacation.  I pushed myself harder than I wanted to and I made a commitment to stick to the plan and now I am reaping the benefits of that hard work.  It was not easy but now that it's over I have forgotten about the pain and I am only thinking about how great I feel.

Now comes the interesting part where I need to also incorporate a running schedule into my boot camp workouts.  I am into week two of a 12 week plan and will soon be getting to the point where I will need to skip a boot camp class in order to get in my runs.  I don't like it one bit but its a necessary evil.  Today I am scheduled for a three mile run, while it's not very long running this before or after class is extremely difficult.  If I run before it will take away from how hard I can push myself during class, if I run after I am more inclined to skip it due to the difficulty of class or not put forth the effort required to get a good run in.  In a normal situation I would probably just run after class but with this past week and how hectic this weekend was with traveling and the Dave show I missed my scheduled long run of 4 miles.  In any running plan the long distance runs are the most important and should never be skipped.  I need to be more careful not to miss these runs so tonight I think I need to skip class and get in my long run from last week.  So tonight I am doing a lap at Burke Lake, yes this is a 4.5 mile run but that last half mile won't kill me.

One reason I am even remotely successful in my weight loss is my wife, Hila.  I literally do not have to worry about food at all.  I mean not one little bit.  Every meal is healthy and completely prepared for me.  Honestly I am spoiled.  I would not be able to do this without her.  Today for example, my breakfast was (two eggs, cheese and vegetable wrap, 8 points) made and ready to be microwaved this morning.  She sent me with a bag of cherries, bag of strawberries, banana, half a grapefruit and one cup of Greek yogurt.  All of these snacks today are only 3 points and that's just for the yogurt, fruit is 0.  That is a substantial amount of food and all of it is extremely good for me.  Today for lunch I have a sandwich (10 points) and a bowl of soup (3 points).  After coffee, breakfast, lunch, and all these snacks I still am coming home with 18 points.  Not too shabby.  So, I say thank you as often as I can but it never hurts to get one more in, thank you very much Hila for all you do to aid in my health and weight loss, I cannot say it enough.  Thank you.

Last day of vacation - 6 for 6 with workouts.

I have never in my life come close to working out everyday of vacation (all workouts listed below).  I don't even think that I have done every other day.  I am impressed with all of us.  I must give thanks to Hila since she definitely assisted in the motivation aspect each morning.  There is nothing easy about getting up and going straight out to workout.  Today was rough, I was not feeling it at all, not even a little bit.  But I noticed today that even though I would have called it quits after we were standing in the driveway about to start, I totally lost the negative motivation after the first set.  I not only lost it I actually gained positive motivation.  I was able to push though the doubt and fear of having to workout and now that it's over I feel great.  I have already worked out, eaten breakfast and taken a dip in the ocean.  An absolutely great way to start the last day of vacation.  Looking forward to some more beach time and diving into my next book, I finished The Universe Versus Alex Woods yesterday.  Pretty good book but not an A+ by any means.  Today I start Carl Hiaasen and I know without question I will like his book, he's done it to me 12 times before.

Unfortunately I will not be able to workout tomorrow.  We have a 6-7 hour drive home and then straight to one of my most favorite things to do in this world...a Dave Matthews Band concert.  This will be #31 in the record books and I am very much looking forward to another DMB experience.  I literally cannot think of a better way to end a vacation.  But starting Sunday it's on like Donkey Kong.  Back to eating right and back to our regular routine.  I thrive under a disciplined routine, I enjoy order (just take a look at my office).  I am ready to get back on track and start to tackle the obstacles ahead of me.  I can't be the guy that starts a fitness/weight loss blog and gains weight after three weeks, oh wait that's already happened...  Need to get back on track and hopefully the next few weeks offer less difficult situations where it's hard for me to be good.  I have plenty of support, I feel great and I feel motivated.

Food this week has been atrocious.  We have eaten North Carolina BBQ, fast food french fries, pizza, and lots of beer and wine.  I have done what I could when it came to making good decisions while eating this week but with a group of 12 people ordering all types of food there are only so many times you will win against the battle of eating well.  Many times I lose, many many times.  All I can do it pick my head up and move forward.  Today is a new day, I can do this.  And I will.

Sunday - 3 mile beach run, 10 minute pace
Monday - 5-4-3-2-1 workout (with Hila, Sarit and Assaf)
Tuesday - 3 mile run, 10 minute pace
Wednesday - Boot camp class (with Hila and Assaf)
Thursday - 3.5 mile run, 10 minute pace
Friday - Boot camp class (with Hila and Assaf)

3 for 3 so far this week.

Woke up fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head...sorry Beatles got the best of me.  Woke up got out of bed and took right off for a morning run.  Today it's pretty overcast with a breeze so the run felt great.  For me there are two reasons to get up and head straight out to run.  One, the run is out of the way first thing in the morning, second is the heat.  Here at the beach the heat is not so bad at 7:30 AM especially when it's cloudy.  So again for the third day in a row the workout is complete before anything else in the day, I like it.  I also really liked the after run dip in the ocean, water is nice and cool and quite refreshing.

Yesterday was a bit harder with the food.  We had taco's for dinner and then ice cream and in general I just feel like I overate.  Today is going to be difficult again since we are going out for pizza.  I will just have to make smart decisions throughout the rest of the day since I know what is coming.  At least I am able to start everyday with this amazing breakfast which is both healthy and filling.  (thanks again Hila).

I am hoping to get a good amount of reading done today, it's been hard reading with all the kids running around like mad all the time.  But I enjoy spending time and playing games with the kiddos.  We will see how it goes today since as of yet there is no sun but a cloudy day at the beach is still better than a sunny day at work...

My first 5-4-3-2-1 workout: 49.31

Finally had an opportunity to try this workout.  This started while I was taking time off from bootcamp for my shoulder surgery and I have been fascinated with it since I first heard about it.  While this workout is only five exercises, now that I have done it once I can honestly say its brutal.  Hila, Sarit, Assaf, and I all did this workout on the driveway of the house.  The workout is 500 jumping jacks, 400 squats, 300 sit ups, 200 push ups and 100 burpees.  Because of the difficulty of this workout you can modify some of the exercises to accommodate your level.  Today I did all of the push ups on my knees and for half of the sit ups I changed to double crunches.  You can do this in any order you wish so I just broke the workout up into sets of 20's and pushed though as best I could.  What an amazing concept that is so simple yet so absolutely bone crushing.  I thought the burpees would be the hardest but with only 100 of them I was surprised how easily I went though them.  For me the sit ups were the worst, like I said I had to modify them and in hindsight I should have focused on them more in the beginning.  Either way I tip my hat to you Tom for coming up with such an amazing workout.  I used to think that while on vacation I couldn't workout without a gym or my only option was running.  Now after today I literally have no excuse not to workout out while away from my normal routine.

Not sure how well my points have been going, I have not been keeping track.  My issue is not the food, which has been amazing, the issue is definitely going to be the beer.  Yesterday we opened a few while on the beach and had some more after dinner just hanging out.  I need to focus to make sure my food is on point so I can enjoy the beer.  Something about a cold beer on the beach that I just cannot resist.

This beach is so beautiful, it's just about a full moon and last night sitting on the deck this was our view.  I was mesmerized just staring at this all night last night.  Sarit took a picture from her camera which is going to be much better quality, this pic is just from my iPhone.  Can't wait to see how her picture looks!

Barefoot beach run on the sand.

I woke up at 7 this morning and headed straight out the beach for a quick run on the sand.  This is our view from the deck, not bad eh?

I have never run on the beach before and I was pleasantly surprised.  I definitely feel it in my legs already.  It was also interesting running barefoot.  I actually think it would have been harder with shoes on.  The best part about the run is that it's over and it's only 8:30.  Showered and dressed and about to eat breakfast.  What a way to start a vacation.  My goal is to get the workouts in first thing, the longer I let it go the more I will struggle.  Especially after we eat lunch or after a few beers on the beach, pretty much a guarantee it's not happening.

My breakfast today (made by Hila and Elyanah) is only 7 points and looks amazing.  How lucky am I??  Thanks ladies :)

I have my cup of joe, about to start on a new book, its going to be a fantastic day.

I am just hoping we have enough tomatoes for the week.  Anyone who knows us knows that we are all worried...

Running on fumes only.

I was miserable yesterday.  I really struggled with the workout and the heat.  My problem was simply I could not catch my breath no matter what I did.  Every time I started to push myself I was forced to cut back once I started to get winded.  I literally was standing there taking deep breaths thinking to myself don't pass out.  I felt dizzy, light headed and just plain terrible.  I pushed though it but it was not my best day.  By the end of class I felt like I had low blood sugar or something and was thinking I would stop on the way home and get a Gatorade but really didn't want to spend the points on it, luckily the surprise at the end of class was not a Slurpee but fresh watermelon.  What a treat, I cannot tell you how much that hit the spot.  I had two slices and immediately felt better and I didn't spend any points on it!  Thank you Jen for such a lovely treat!!

So tomorrow we are off to the beach for a week.  I am going to start my running plan as soon as I get down there and try my best to eat as healthy as possible.  There will be no weigh in for me next week so I really hope to lose twice the weight once we get back.  I am definitely looking forward to getting away for awhile.  I love vacation, I mean, who doesn't?  Even more than the beach I am looking forward to some reading.  I long to be lost in a book.  I absolutely love it.  I don't know what I did with my time before I started reading, probably just camped out in front of the TV wasting time.  Now, if I am home alone I don't even turn on the TV, I immediately dive into my book.  I read a book a week on average and next week I hope to read three books.  I have been saving some good beach reads just for this vacation.  Carl Hiaasen's new book Bad Monkey, a new book out called The Universe Versus Alex Woods (supposed to be awesome), and Dave Barry's new book Insane City.  Not the deepest books by any means but all should be good, funny, easy beach reads.  I am often asked about what books to read so if anyone ever wants some suggestions you can look at my read shelf on Goodreads and see how I have rated all the books I have read.  Be aware though, some of these books have changed my life, some are so good that I envy you for not having read them yet, you are in for such a treat.  I know this has nothing to do with heath and fitness, but hey it's my blog and I can do whatever I want with it :)

I will be updating while I am at the beach, I need to keep myself honest and this really does seem to work.  My motto for vacation (thanks Tommy!):

DNF - Did Not Finish (official race time)

I was prepared mentally and physically, I was hydrated, I had the proper gear and I was prepared for the heat.  There is one variable that I could not control...faulty equipment.  Kind of hard to finish a bike race without a pedal.  Yes, my left pedal broke off.  I had an issue with this last time I rode and took the bike to the shop and I thought that everything was fixed.  Apparently that was not the case.  I was about 2.5 miles into the race when the pedal came lose and I knew I could not finish the race.  Very disappointing, especially since I am already going to miss the fourth and final race in the series since we are on vacation next week.  So out of the four races I was only able to do two of them, well two and half I guess.  Regardless I am still proud of what I did, I got out there did my best and braved the sweltering heat.  It just sucks that I was not able to finish, even with the best of intentions.

While the Wednesday's at Wakefield series is now over I still have the Moco Epic coming up in October, which I am very excited about.  They just released a really cool event poster for the event, I am not sure why but I just love how this looks.  I am planning on doing the 25 mile ride which will be my longest ride to date and am excited to make a day out of the entire event.  As of now I will just be doing this by myself but if anyone is interested in doing it with me by all means let me know.  I am always down to hit up some trails on the weekend or just get out and ride with friends.  What I like about this event is that it is just a ride, not a race.  So you can get out there with a backpack and some water and snacks and just have fun with it.  Yes it's going to take a few hours to complete and it will be hard but again it's one of those things that is just fun to do.

I think the heat index this afternoon will be in the low 100's...should be a fantastic bootcamp class tonight!!  I hear there is a surprise after class tonight for us "troopers" who have made it out this week despite the heat.  As long as the surprise is not burpees I think we will be okay.  Maybe it's a Slurpee...mmmmm Slurpee...  Hey an 8 oz. Slurpee is only 2 points, where is the closest 7-11?

Luckily there was a breeze.

I don't care how you put it working out outside is 90+ degree weather sucks.  Big time.  Luckily for us there was the slightest of breezes yesterday which believe it or not made class almost bearable.  Today should be interesting since its my third bike race and again going to be 95 degrees.  Yesterday I focused on water and drank close to two gallons, today the same is in effect.  Tonight the race is in the woods, so no breeze and I will be wearing gloves and a helmet.  It's going to be hot for sure but I will make the best of it!  At least mountain biking is fun, not that working out isn't but this workout is out of the ordinary and I seem to focus less on the pain and more on the excitement of biking over logs, rocks, and up and down hills, especially the downhill part.

We have all heard the saying that it takes six weeks to get into shape and two weeks to get out.  I realize more and more everyday how true this statement is.  I notice a difference even after a long weekend.  Why is it so hard to be healthy and so easy to be unhealthy??  One thing I noticed yesterday was that only after two weeks of working out again I can already feel the endurance coming back.  Someone once said about our bootcamp classes that at first he was only trying to survive the workout and as time went on and as he got into better shape he changed and started to attack the workout.  I felt a glimpse of that last night running stairs.  The first week back to class I can honestly say I was useless, could not keep up, could not do all the exercises and pretty much complained the entire time.  While I am nowhere near being in shape again, I could tell that last night I was a little bit stronger and was able to push it a little bit harder.  As my friend Linzi says all the time I don't need to be the hero, but I am telling you now that I want to be the hero.  I want to be the fastest person in class.  I want other people to push me to catch them on a run.  I want to pass people while running stairs.  I am not there yet by any means but I did get a glimpse of that hero coming out a little bit yesterday and I will tell you I loved it.  I miss him and I want him back.  Just those few moments of joy and the feeling of success has already given me more motivation to keep pushing, to try harder, to stick with the plan.  I can and I will do this.  I will achieve my goals!!

Dinner last night was beyond phenomenal.  We calculated the points as best we could and even went out to Frozen Dairy Bar for custard.  Dinner was 19 points and the custard was 8.  So in total yesterday I went over my daily allowance by 7 points.  Hey that's why the weekly points are there.  At least dinner was spent with good people and we even ran into some more friends at Frozen Dairy Bar.  All in all it was a great evening and I really enjoyed myself.  Thanks Dominique for picking the menu as usual!!

Wish me luck on the bike race tonight, I am going to need it.  Not only with the heat but I also need to beat my previous time of 59 minutes.  Should be interesting...

Young Lotus Root Salad, Fresh Garden Rolls, Crispy Spring Rolls, Grilled Lemongrass Beef, Vietnamese Pancake.

You win some and you lose some.

This week I lost, not actually but figuratively.  I lost the challenge this week to lose weight, I gained.  Only one pound but still a gain nonetheless.  Yesterday I was hopeful that by accounting for all my food I would still be successful.  Well that is not the case.  You cannot eat more than 100 points over your daily/weekly allowance and still expect to lose weight.  Lesson learned.  Could have been worse I suppose...

Well today is a new day and the start of a new week.  All my points reset and so does my mental state.  I am back in the game and ready to play all nine innings.  Another week, another set of challenges.  At least this week will be in the mid 90's so I should lose at least that gained pound in water weight alone just from sweat.  Kind of gross but at least I have that going for me :)

I am sure it will be another killer bootcamp class tonight.  My thoughts for this week are hydrate, hydrate and then hydrate some more.  I need to be constantly aware of my water intake, dehydration is not something you want to mess with when it is this hot outside.  It's only 11 AM and already I have consumed at least 1.5 liters of water.  I should double that by the start of class and easily consume that much more again, during and after class.

One challenge tonight is going to be dinner out.  Hila and I are social people and one main thing we do is socialize with friends over dinner.  We are going to a Vietnamese restaurant in Falls Church called Huong Viet with our friend Dominique.  We have never been before and there are no nutrition facts on the website so I really have no idea what to expect.  Should be interesting trying to calculate the points for this meal but I will try.  Hopefully I will succeed.  I cannot control that food itself but I can control the portions, no need to be the "human garbage disposal" as I have been referred to in the past.  I will try my hardest and hope for the best!

Well this weekend was interesting.

This was a rough one.  We had quite a bit going on this weekend and I struggled with both eating right and working out.  It is difficult to manage everything that goes on in one weekend.  We had a party on Saturday so I spent most of Friday getting ready and I ended up skipping the gym.  Maybe I should have gone but I decided I had other pressing issues at hand.  I did make it to bootcamp on Saturday though and spent the rest of the day continuing to prepare for the party.  If I am being honest I did not write down on Saturday, I just guessed that I ate and drank about 80 points (probably low).  Yes I ate BBQ chicken, cheeses, homemade ice cream sandwiches and drank beer.  I can only hope that I was mindful enough to not ruin the hard work I put in this week, the scale will let me know tonight how well I did, the scale does not lie.  With the party and Hila's birthday dinner I ate well over my allowed points.  Technically I should not lose weight tonight, I should gain.  My thoughts are that since I wrote down as best I could, worked out 5 times and was at least mindful of what I ate I should be more successful than if I just said screw it and paid no attention whatsoever to what I was doing.  At least it's Monday and I know for the the next five days that I will workout and eat right.  This weekend should be interesting since we are heading to the beach for a week.  I will need to figure out how to be successful there as well since I will be away from my own kitchen and won't have structured bootcamp classes.  My plan while I am away is to start my running training for the Army 10 miler, except I am going to train for a half marathon distance.  I want to beat my previous times so I figure go big or go home.  The training schedule is 12 weeks and still allows me to do my bootcamp classes.  Hila used one of Hal Higdon's methods to train for her marathon and it worked so that is what I am going to do also.  Luckily the race is exactly 12 weeks out starting the week we are on vacation.  We can get more into the running next week.  As for now, I am ready for a new week and look forward to succeeding!

I friggin love food.

I love food.  A lot.  We had the most amazing dinner last night at Proof for Hila's birthday.  I cannot even put into words what good food does to me.  Life was a little bit better last night while eating this meal.  I forgot about the stress of work and bills and the general thoughts that weigh on ones mind during the day for these brief hours.  Bliss is the best word that comes to mind.  I find that good food and good wine together just make me happy.  Luckily my wife shares the same feeling so we are able to enjoy this together.  A friend once told me that she only eats to live, other than basic survival she has no interest in food.  I cannot fathom that statement, for me I live to eat.  I love everything about food, the way it makes me feel, the textures, the different flavors, the way a certain wine enhances the flavor of a certain food.  This has definitely become a passion of mine.  It is because of this passion that I have to focus so much of my attention on what I eat.  There is a reason I am overweight, I eat too much.  I have tried all types of diets, South Beach, The Abs Diet, etc.  While I have been successful in the short term, none of these have lasted in the long term.  I have only found success in Weightwatchers.  It's not a diet, its a change in lifestyle.  What I have learned from my years with Weightwatchers can be perfectly explained in two words, portion control.  Like I said I like to eat, and I very easily overeat.  If I am not carefully weighing out my portions, or measuring my food I will eat too much.  There is a mechanism in your brain that says "hey you are full, stop eating", I have confirmed with my doctor, that I was born without it!  It doesn't exist for me.  For the first time, maybe ever, we brought some of the food home last night.  Dinner was four courses, and believe me when I say it was good.  I wanted to finish our entrees, I wanted to eat all the bread.  But I didn't.  I am not saying we made the best decisions when ordering dinner as far as healthy food is concerned, I mean we ordered foie gras, ok?, but I am saying that I did make some good decisions when it came to eating the food we did order.  One of the courses was a cheese course, served with bread.  This time around I skipped the bread, it was just empty calories when all I really wanted was the cheese itself.  We also ordered dessert but we split it.  I am guessing I ate over 130 points yesterday, I used the rest of my daily points, all my weekly, all the activity points I have earned and then some.  But I knew this was going to happen, it's my wife's birthday, it happens once a year.  Now I need to focus on being aware of what I am eating the rest of the week and make sure I workout.  I am not going to dwell on the calories I ate, I enjoyed it, now it's time to move on.  In the past I would wonder after a night like this what's the point in being good the rest of the week, there is no way I am going to lose weight now and I would just throw in the towel for the rest of the week.  All that mindset ever did for me was make me be unsuccessful on the scale come Monday night.  Today I am on it, I'm starting fresh with my daily points, I brought my lunch, I am heading to the gym tonight (no bootcamp on Friday's) and I will do it all over again tomorrow and Sunday.  It's times like these where I truly know that life is good.

Cheese course, Charcuterie, Beef Pho Terrine, Foie Gras, Crispy Pigs Head, Grilled Berkshire Pork Chop, Sauteed Peking Duck Breast, and Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake. (left to right, top to bottom)

Bike race cancelled but I was prepared!

First things first, as you can see I have changed blogging sites.  I did not care much for SimpleSite, it's more of a website based program than a blog.  Blogger seems to be much more user friendly and even after one post I like it better already! (thanks Hila)

Well, it didn't rain until well after my race would have been complete but the race was cancelled due to wet trail conditions from rains previously in the week.  I saw that someone posted something on the race site and said that if the race were on it would be like riding in wet peanut butter.  A pretty good description if you ask me.  mmmm...peanut butter...  Regardless I was prepared to workout, I thought ahead and brought clothes to make it to bootcamp!!  And what a class it was.  Lots of running and upper body workouts.  I even ran stairs with my trainer for 5-10 minutes before class.  One day I will need to take a picture of myself after one of these workouts, I literally look like I just climbed out of the pool, I am that soaked with sweat.  Is it weird to want to change shirts half way through class??

One aspect of Weightwatchers that I have not mentioned yet is activity points.  Every activity you do earns activity points that you can use once you use up all your daily or weekly points.  I try not to use these points for food, I feel like I am negating my workouts.  Bottom line about weight loss is calories in calories out.  So If I replace my activity points with food I just feel I will be less successful when it comes to the weigh in.  You can get activity points for all types of daily things, walking the dog, mowing the lawn, playing sports, running, working out, etc.  Weightwatches has preprogrammed points allotted for these activities depending on the duration and intensity.  I count bootcamp as 5 activity points on average.  Honestly I think Weightwatchers gives too many activity points for certain activities   For example, my 2 mile run on Monday earned me 5 activity points and that was only for 20 minutes of running at a 10 minute pace.  There is no way that in those 20 minutes I burned enough calories to then be able to eat something equivalent to 5 points.  Personally I feel you earn one point for every 10 minutes of a strenuous work out.  On average I burn anywhere from 60 - 100 calories every 10 minutes.  Times where I have worn a heart rate monitor in class I come up with a calorie burn of somewhere between 400 and 600 for that hour.  If you breakdown the food itself 100 calories of food is just about equivalent to one point so my thoughts are that in a 60 minute bootcamp class I average 5 activity points.  That was quite a bit of rambling and I hope it makes sense.

Today is my wife's birthday so of course it's a week long celebration.  Last night we went to Tara and Assaf's house to see the family and order take out.  Uh ohhh how can I eat healthy ordering out???  In the past I have always had the mindset that if I am paying for it I am going to order what I want.  Well that becomes a bit more difficult when trying to lose weight.  So last night I spent some time looking over the menu and ordered the chicken platter with vegetables.  The key to this meal was not eating the 2 cups of buttered rice they sent, I only ate about 1/3 of a cup.    

I calculated this dinner to be 18 points with the naan.  We also opened a bottle of wine during dinner with another glass afterwards.  This was a whopping 8 points just for the wine, but believe me when I tell you it was worth it.  Assaf has some of the best wine I have ever had in my life!!!  So in total I went over my daily points by 7.  Not bad but I also have several other events this week that will be cause me to dip into my weekly points.  We will see how it goes...

With all that said about making smart decisions about ordering, tonight should be interesting.  I have a dinner planned for Hila's birthday and no part of this meal will scream healthy.  I just need to make sure I write everything down and do my best to get some more workouts in the rest of the week.  I will be going to bootcamp again tonight, that's 4 days in a row!!  Booyah.

I didn't wake up with a toe tag this morning...

Yesterday was a “hungry day” for me as we like to call it.  No matter what I did I felt hunger, all day.  I tried to satisfy that hunger with fruit and it helped but did not seem to last that long.  What I need to do is try and pair fruit with a protein so keep me feeling satisfied longer.  Yesterday I had an apple with a cheese stick and I feel that satisfied me better than just eating the apple alone especially since the cheese stick is only one point.  Mental note for today, get some more proteins to eat with my fruit.  I ate a ton of fruit and vegetables yesterday, apple, cherries, half a grapefruit, banana, broccoli, cabbage and green beans.  Wow, putting that all in writing is amazing to see.  That is so much healthier than eating junk or those damn cookies in my office (which I completely avoided BTW).  Hila made a fantastic dinner last night, fish nugget tacos from Trader Joes.  If you have never had these I am telling you that you are missing out.  With three tortilla wraps this dinner came out to only 14 points.  With such a low dinner I treated myself to a nice glass of red wine (2009 Castello di Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva) for 5 points.  I am pretty much a red wine fanatic, well I am in the process of becoming one.  I love it, and this wine was fantastic.  Plus Hila’s parents came over and had dinner with us so I had someone to share it with.  Yes, I will treat myself to a glass of red wine for dinner (or dessert) even if I am all by myself but it’s always better to enjoy it with someone else that loves red wine, thanks Elyanah!  With the leftovers I just plug the bottle back up, put it in the wine fridge and save it for another day!

Looking back, now that I think about I could have even eaten more food yesterday, I went to bed with two of my daily points left over.  I want to make sure that I am not depriving myself just because I am trying to be healthy.  I could have eaten more throughout the day or had a piece of chocolate for dessert, I did not have any dessert last night and that is rare.  I will try to be better about making sure I eat my allotted points although I can’t imagine that the fewer calories will hurt me.

Bootcamp was awesome, yet again.  Jen is the trainer of my site and she is fantastic.  She knows I am working through an injury and is there to assist me or modify any workout that needs to be changed since I struggle with shoulder exercises.  She will always give that boost of encouragement or that extra push to keep moving on.  “Come on Bobby, you got this” as she said to me yesterday while doing some ridiculously hard one legged step ups on the curb.  I thrive when pushed by others.  That is the main reason I love bootcamp so much.  The gym and I don’t work out, literally.  I was told as a child that I always choose the path of least resistance, while I don’t agree with that statement totally it is at least partially true.  I need someone to push me especially when it comes to working out.  Why I love this program so much is all I have to do is show up, once there I will do whatever I am told to do, but if I have to do it on my own, if I am being honest it just won’t happen.  I know that about myself and I am ok with that but that is why bootcamp works for me and why I think it works for so many others.  Tomorrow is my third mountain bike race at Wakefield Park called Wednesday’s at Wakefield (http://www.potomacvelo.com/tag/wednesdays-at-wakefield).  I always hope that the day before the race is not a leg day, and have been lucky up until now.  Yesterday was 100% legs.  I am not too sore yet but for me the soreness does not settle in until the afternoon of the day after the workout, so right around the start of the race tonight I should be in pretty substantial pain.  At least the race tonight will work some of the lactic acid out of the stems.  My goal with these races was to do each one faster than the last so all I need to do tonight is finish in less than 57 minutes or so.  We live in Northern Virginia so the summer forecast is afternoon rains and heat, let’s hope the rain holds out long enough to just start the race and I can deal with the heat. 

I will note that I recently bought my bike from Performance Bike (http://www.performancebike.com/bikes/TopCategories_10052_10551_-1) and have been beyond pleased with the service.  Twice I have had to bring the bike in for minor adjustments since I felt the bike was riding funny.  Well one time the entire peddle came off, needless to say that sucked since I was at least a mile from the end of the course.  Each time the bike mechanics and helped me and even replaced a part or two completely free of charge and right there in front of me, I thought for sure that I would need to leave the bike there.  If you are even remotely interested in buying a bike my first thought is to at least check them out.  Like I said I have been more than pleased with the service.  Here is a picture of my bike.

I am all set today with more snacks and soup and a sandwich again for lunch.  Today is going to be another good day.  As my coworker said this morning, “I didn't wake up with a toe tag this morning so how bad can it really be?”  I kind of like that.

Starting weight 220.6 lbs. I can do this.

Day 1

Starting weight 220.6 lbs. (a surprising 3 pound loss from my last weigh in 3 weeks ago, apparently ordering late night pizza and drinking wine and barbecuing on the fourth of July is the new 2013 weight loss plan!)

I am not sure the best way to start this blog so I may adjust as the days go on but I can already tell you that I feel more motivated to stick to the plan than I have in a long time.  Now I just need to keep that motivation for next several months.

Yesterday was a good day all around.  Bootcamp pretty much kicked my butt, I will get to that shortly.  Food wise, it was great.  I ate in my daily point allowance (47 points) and felt good since I had a weight loss at Weightwatchers.  I was thinking that my goal was 40 lbs. but after yesterday it’s actually only 35 lbs.  So already I am closer to goal.  Under 200 lbs. is definitely attainable, too bad I didn't start this a few weeks ago since I am going to the beach in two weeks, hey even a few pounds of loss is better than nothing.  Not only does the plan call for me to eat within a certain point allowance each day it also calls for me to “Track Healthy Checks” which is to make sure that I drink enough water, eat at least five servings of fruit and vegetables and incorporate whole grains, milk products and healthy oils.  Yesterday I had about eight 16 oz. glasses of water, eight servings of fruits and vegetables (thank you Burke Farmer’s market) but no whole grains, milk or healthy oils.  I have never been one to incorporate the healthy oils simply due to the point value (3 points a TBSP for olive oil is a lot for no actual food).  Maybe as time goes on I will see about adding that in and see if I feel any different. 

I think I over did it yesterday with working out.  Our bootcamp class is outdoors at 5:30 PM, needless to say its summer and it was hot as blazes yesterday.  Actual temperature was 86 degrees but on a black parking lot it feels so much hotter, you literally can feel the heat coming off the black top.  I got to class early so I decided to go for a 2 mile run just to get in some extra burn.  Of course once we started class we did upper body workouts like chest press and chest fly while you and your partner alternated running laps.  A lap is just around the parking lot which is not very far but throughout the entire class we ended up running 22 laps, that on top of the run I was pretty much useless halfway through class and the exhaustion and heat started to take over.  At this point I don’t think that I am ready to be running before class just yet.  While I did get a longer total workout in it actually took away from how well I could participate in class.  At this point that is not good.  Because I was so tired from all the running I was not able to do the actual exercises as well and I just took more breaks then I should have.  Lesson learned, no need to be the hero just yet.  I will just be doing the standard class schedule until I get into better shape.  I have bootcamp again tonight and I’m sure it will be just as hot.  Another thing that happened to me yesterday was I ran out of water about ¾ of the way through class, mental note, bring more water to class tonight!

I have plenty of fruits as snacks today along with soup and a sandwich for lunch.  I think today will be another good day with food even though one of my coworkers brought in an entire platter full of cookies and brownies from her 4^th of July party this weekend.  I will be strong and resist the temptation, the weight loss will feel better than the taste of the cookie, at least that is what I need to tell myself for now…

And here we go...

I have been struggling with not only losing weight but also sticking with a fitness plan so I have decided to write a blog.  We shall see how this works but I want to make myself accountable, well more accountable for my actions.  I am going to take pictures of myself and post about my struggles with food and working out.  I currently am a member of Custom Fitness Concepts (http://www.customfitnessconcepts.com), CFC to the in crowd and am a weekly meeting member of Weightwatchers.  I weigh in tonight so I will update my current weight after the meeting.  I also recently had shoulder surgery so I have been pretty much out of the working out loop for several months.  Before the surgery I was what I would call in pretty good shape, although I still lose every long distance race to my wife, Hila, lose is an understatement, I get crushed.  She is fast and in incredible shape.  She recently ran a marathon and she has been a lot of the inspiration for me to take my fitness to the next level.  I have a few goals that I want to set up front.  

1.  Weight - The "book" says I should weight 185 lbs., where this book came from I have no idea but that is pretty low.  I bet I am about 225 right now so that is 40 lbs.  Holy hell that's more than I thought I had to lose.  I am going to make two goals about my weight so that the 40 pound goal does not seem unattainable.  First goal is to get below 200 lbs., I have done it before and I can do it again.  My goal weight at Weightwatchers is 203 so once I beat that I will be free again, that's and extra $40 a month just for being skinnier, I'll take it.  Second goal is to lose the last 15 lbs. and get to 185.  I am not sure that I can get to a healthy 185 but we will see how it goes.  

2.  Fitness - I have several fitness goals all of which I should be able to complete this year, except one.  First, bootcamp, bootcamp, bootcamp.  I really need to make an effort to get to class more often.  This Saturday I passed up a perfectly good opportunity to go to class for no more reason than I just didn’t want to.  Sure I made some excuses in my head about cleaning and running errands since we had company coming over but really they were all excuses.  I should have gone.  Hila was planning on going all weekend and asked me a gazillion times to go and each time I said maybe, damn well knowing I was not going to go.  Of course I heard the class was awesome and I felt guilty the whole rest of the day for not going.  Yes, I ran some errands and got some things done but bottom line is I did not get in a workout.  One day farther from my goal and that does not make me happy.  

Second, the dreaded run.  I really need to up my running game.  I am slow, fat and lazy right now.  I have run in several races but never have I been a good runner.  Frankly I hate it, but I know that running and running alone with improve my fitness level all around.  I am signed up for the Army 10 miler in October and my goal for this is to run the entire race in under a 9 minute mile pace.  That will be a minute faster than I have ever run a 10 mile race.  

Third is mountain biking.  I have recently taken up mountain biking and would also like to take this to the next level.  I am currently participating in a weekly race series called Wednesdays at Wakefield.  Its 4 races on 4 Wednesdays, we have raced two so far and this week is the third.  First I raced in the Clydesdale category (200 lbs. and over).  This consisted of three 3.3 mile laps, needless to say I was the absolute last person to cross the finish line.  Coming from a background of being better than average physically this was a hard one for me.  I knew I was last place from the word go.  I was lapped by just about everyone, even the racers who were doing 4 laps.  Quite the humbling experience.  The next week I contacted the race director and asked to be moved to the beginner level which is only two laps.  While this was a much better fit for me I still finished second to last out of 16 guys.  We will see how I do this week.  My goal for this is simple, get better.  In October, the weekend before the Army 10 miler, there is a 25 mile ride in Montgomery County called the MOCO Epic (http://mocoepic.com).  My goal is to ride in this ride and do it well.  This is not a race but I want to be able to complete this ride without feeling like I want to die.  So far 10 miles is the farthest I have ridden so 25 miles is quite a feat.  

Fourth is another Tough Mudder (http://toughmudder.com).  I have run two of these so far and unfortunately the next one is the same day as the Army 10 miler.  So while I may not be able to complete this goal this year, its something that I want to do soon.  I completed both TM's previously but could not do so without walking.  My goal for this next one, whenever that may be is to complete this race without walking at all.  

3.  Looks - I have never been classified as having a good body.  I pretty much have, no not pretty much, I have been overweight my entire life.  Simply, I want to have the beach type muscular body I see on TV all the time.  How the heck to these guys look like this??  I am not sure how this one will come about but with any luck it just will by following my goals and sticking to the plan.  

Now other than my own head talking me out of working out and eating right I do have a shoulder issue.  Yes I just had surgery so its extremely weak but I also think this surgery has not fixed it 100%.  I have had rotator cuff surgery twice and I have a feeling I will need it again.  I will work through the pain and weakness for now and will update again once I go back to the doctors for my 6 month follow up in July. 

This will not be easy but if I put it out there for all to see there will be no reason for me not to meet my goals.  I have a fantastic wife who is willing to workout with me any anytime.  I have tools from the folks at CFC to reach all my fitness goals.  Now the hard part is just doing it.  I have bootcamp tonight and then Weightwatchers afterwards, I will update on each tomorrow.  Let the goal reaching begin!!