Fresh again.

I've joined a gym in the area, and am kicking off things again.

Current Weight: 189#

Belly: 103 cm

I have a single, simple goal right now. Lose the gut. That means I want to get down to 170#. I'm giving myself 12 weeks (84 days), starting today, to do so.

84 days, 19 pounds, means I am looking to lose just 1.58 pounds per week. Totally reachable.

Should I reach this goal early, I will pick a new goal within that timeframe. Essentially, I will be chasing Athalos and his new start of P90X.

Progress will be posted. Things start today.

Get the Gut Gone - or 3G.

Once again, here we are. Me, feeling too fat for my own good, and resolving to do something about it.

June 1st has come and gone, and I meant to post something like this yesterday, but we're here now, so we post now.

6 weeks from now (the 1st, that is) is July 13. I expect to be travelling back to C-town around then. I'd like to be weighing in at significantly less than I do right now. Right now, I weigh in at about 202 pounds.

My goal is to weigh 180 pounds, but my low goal is 190. 12 pounds in 6 weeks? Totally possible. 22 pounds in 6 weeks? If I put in the effort required, I can do it.

Because stating a desire to lose weight actually seems to make my body lose some weight, I'm putting the desire out here to the public. But, since stating the process I'll employ makes me feel like not doing it, I'll leave the how part out.

To give me some serious motivation, I'll be tracking a couple measurements and making a few public declarations:

Weight - tracked daily, recorded on fitday.com, and posted here on the blog. Once a week, I'll post up a number on Facebook.

Belly - I've got a ruler in cm, which means a lot more precision overall. Rounding up to the nearest cm. Tracking it weekly, since changes here aren't likely to happen on a day to day basis. Maybe twice a week, but I'd expect it to be roughly weekly. This number will get attached to the picture.

Photo - Again, weekly, when I take my measurement. It'll go on FB, under a new photo album I will call something like 3G.

Feelings - How I'm feeling about everything. Blog posts mostly, but potentially also some FB posts. What I eat may end up in here as well. Done as a sort of "helping", "not helping" kind of thing.

Workouts - I'll record anything done as a workout here as well. Just to let me track what I'm doing.

There's 42 days. To make my goal, I need to lose somewhere between 0.29 and 0.52 pounds per day. My scale isn't that accurate, so it's 2 to 3.67 pounds per week (I'll settle for 3.6). I can do this, I just need to focus on it. Make it the priority.

Thoughts, and such.

Ok. The diet thing has been off and on. More on than off, but this is about the point where I start to falter. Must remind myself of the good progress so far, and not fall into the habit of thinking that I'm doing great, so I can slack off. No. I can't. Now is when I must go harder.

I seem to have hit a first plateau, and the way to get through it is to change things up a bit. Stricter diet, or additional exercise. Given that my exercise numbers are practically at 0, I feel exercise is the better option right now.

I've got my gym membership, but that's limited, and soon to run out. Will be working through with bodyweight stuff. Been thinking of posting on BWC again, simply as a self-motivator, and also for ideas.

At present, things really are body weight only. I don't really have much access to weights or a bar (though there is a bar here, there's no place to use it).

With that in mind, I'm looking at the basics. Biking, walk/run, and simple at-home exercises.

I'm looking to put up a first challenge for myself. Push ups. I haven't done them in a while. So I want to set a simple goal, with a short timeframe. Something I can achieve without needing to push myself into injury.

My current timeframe is 6 weeks. Enough time for 3 consecutive, quick 2 week goals, 2 consecutive, quick 3 week goals. Plus a single 6 week goal.

2 Week Goal (May 5 - 19): Push Ups: 15 consecutive.

3 Week Goal (May 5 - 26): Yoga Headstand: 30 seconds.

6 Week Goal (May 5 - June 16): Burpees: 1..5..1

Right. It's go time.

I've said it before, and I say it again. It is time to get things happening. Time to get started, again.

In one of my recent posts, I asked myself, what's different this time? What will make this a success? I said I wouldn't start again until I had an answer. And I think I may.

What's different this time is that I will be doing both things. Diet and fitness together. I've done diet alone, and diet with half-ass fitness. It's done me some good, but nothing that lasted. I've done fitness alone, and fitness with half-ass diet. And I've done half-ass diet with half-ass fitness. That one didn't do much at all.

This time, I'm gonna do them both. Fitness I can do. I have a gym membership. I have a bike. Getting outside shouldn't be a problem.

Diet is always the bigger issue. I get a bit too concerned about things when I count calories. So that option is out. And I'm over generous with simple portion control. Likely, I will be using fitday.com to do some rough calorie estimations for me. Something to keep me both honest, and also to give me a grounding of where and what I am eating.

I like keeping records, so I'll be tracking weight and calories on a day to day basis on fitday.com. At least until I feel that is undermining my efforts. Since I will be trying to build up riding distance, I will be tracking rides on mapmyride.com as well. Hopefully will do a bit of light running as well, though I do not know if I have good shoes for that here. I will have to check.

Right now, I'm keeping the goal simple. Weigh less. Specifically, down to 185. Timeframe, 14 weeks, starting immediate. Aggressive schedule, but I think it is still possible.

Athalos: I know you read this now and then. Permission granted to kick my ass into gear.

What's different about this time?

That is a question (more or less) that was asked on the xweighted site back in January. What is different about this time around? What will make this time different, so that the outcome (failure) will be different?

At the time, I didn't have a good answer, and thus far, that lack of an answer has proven true. Nothing has been different. And nothing has changed.

So, with my mind a-whirl on the idea of maybe, finally, kinda, sorta, losing some weight, I am forced to ask myself this question. And forced to give myself an answer. Without one, there is no sense in declaring an intention to lose weight.

Desire simply isn't enough. There has to be intent. There has to be will. There has to be committment.

Hopefully, I will have an answer for myself soon.

A bit of here and there

I haven't been following any of my plans for fitness.

Months ago (nearly 4 months at this point). I signed up for the gym. I went for a while. Then stopped. Then went again, then took 3 months off. I suck.

Since then, I've gone from around 193# to my present weight of about 212#. Yes, that's 20 pounds in just about 4 months. FUCK.

I've said to myself that I wouldn't mind being heavier - if I was fit. But I don't feel fit. In fact, I feel really unfit and flabby.

I haven't even been biking. At least then I was doing something. At least then I was getting some serious mileage laid down. I mean, a month or so ago I was polishing off the 450th kilometer in a 30 day period. That's pretty good mileage for a guy that doesn't do anything. Now? 0. Nothing. Not even a little bit.

What is it about me that keeps me in this stupid cycle? I really don't know.

I do know that I don't like the weight I'm at now. Few of the clothes I have now fit me. They're too small. Know why? 'Cause I got down to 185# and told myself that I would never again crack 200. Fuck me. I'm pushing towards 215 at this point. Honestly. How can I do this to myself?

I don't want to set any lofty goals. Anything I put down here will be like a mouthful of sand to me. Still, I can't get by without some kind of goal - some form of direction.

Thus: By the end of October, I want to weigh in at under 200#. That's 10# in 6 weeks.

Yes, that is pushing it. But it is totally possible. Only one way to do it, though. And that is to get off my ass and start working out. Hard. And lots. And also, I must stop eating so much junk.

I hereby put forth my standard diet and exercise plans:

The Stop Eating So Damn Much Diet, and the Get Off Your Fat Ass and Do Something workout plan.

I commit myself to doing this, starting today. I'm gonna need some help.

Nothing...

Ok... so after my overnight ride, I haven't touched the bike at all. Dunno quite why. Think I psyched myself out there somehow.

I haven't hit the gym either.

And I eat terribly. Vegetables? What?

So, yeah. I'm a bit over 205# right now, which isn't into the range of unacceptable... but it's really close. I'm not happy with it. But I'm not really doing anything about it either.

I've got to do something to change the way I interact with food.

Thoughts on workouts

I've always been pretty good about writing or telling people about my successes. I think most people are. We want recognition for the things we've done. Besides, a little praise is a great motivator.

I've been less good about telling people about the problems I have. I don't mean about injuries or physical limitations - I'm pretty good about telling people about those. Rather, I mean telling people about the things I didn't do, like when I skip a workout, or when I make a workout easier than it should be for myself. I'm also bad about telling people about the poor choices I make when it comes to food. Like, buying a dozen large cookies and eating them all myself. Or buying a carton of ice cream and simply sitting down with it and a spoon and eating until I don't feel like I want ice cream any more.

Well, this post is hopefully the start of a change for the better. I'd like to be a bit more open about my failings, and not just my successes.

As a starter, today was a pretty good day. I got a bike ride in this morning. I got to the gym this evening, even though I rode. I had intended to do some squats, but chickened out of them, and made up an all arm day workout instead. On the food side of things, I picked fries over rice or salad, and I bought myself a carton of ice cream - though I didn't eat that much of it.

I'd like to make some changes in the way I eat. I know I'm not very good at making the healthy choices. I also know that the best way to make healthier choices is to have healthy food around. Nothing that could be considered unhealthy. I'll have to go through the kitchen and clear things out. I'm already eliminating the trash from the rest of the house, I might as well carry on through there too.

Off wagon

So I fell off all the wagons I was on. Diet, exercise, everything.

To sum up, I'm eating poorly again, and haven't been exercising.

I'm getting back to it all again though.

I got to the gym on Monday and did 25 minutes on the treadmill at an average pace of about 5.8.

I also got out the bike and have been trying to ride that more as well.