One week 'FIT'

Hey, just about one week late.  Not bad?  No?  It's bad, isn't it.  I thought so.  

My attendance last week was... well, spotty.  I went Monday... I don't remember if Sarah worked Sunday night or not, she might have.  I think she went, though.  We may have gone together, I don't remember.  I didn't go Tuesday... my buddy Mark was taking the day off of work so it was our 'hang out' day... got caught up at his house, watched a couple of movies in his home theater, etc.  Wednesday I went at 9:30, had a good workout... then in the afternoon Sarah was planning on going to 5:30.  Well, around 4 or so I was feeling pretty good and thinking that Emma was home anyway... Alex and Joshua were going to be napping so... hey, I might as well go in with Sarah, right?  So I did.  Justin's wife had run the 9:30 class and she was there when we walked in the door at 5:20, too... as I feared, she thought it meant that she was too easy on us at 9:30.  I told her I was just so energized, I had to do more.  As Justin feared, she didn't buy it.  Turns out though that I kind of tweaked my left shoulder that morning, apparently, because it hurt worse and worse through the 5:30 class (with Randy).  But I just love the left-right-left-right combos doing jab-cross-hook-uppercut.  Fun stuff, man.  I was WIPED Wed night, though.  But that was a good day.

Thursday I got in for bands. John had his whole family there (wife Alyssa is a member too, and kids walking around... cute, even though they're John's kids).  I did my usual 'barely get through one set of abs and then be worthless the rest of the time'... did my terrible-form lunges thanks to my turf toe, etc.  Afterward, I turned in my signed 'thanks for firing me' documentation over at Trane... yay.  

Friday was a busy day... Sarah was working that night and we were having Mark and his family over for dinner, so I let Sarah sleep in and then all the stuff to get done in the afternoon meant I didn't make it to Friday Funday.  Similarly, I didn't go Sat morning so Sarah could get to sleep when she got home from work, since she was also working Sat night and we were going to my parents' for Christmas on Sunday so we wanted her to get as much sleep as she could Saturday.  So... I haven't worked out since Thursday.  I FEEL very inflexible, weak and fat.  The scale (which I shouldn't ever look at, of course) says 314 this morning, so... it's almost like I didn't gain last week at all.  Which is weird since it was like... cheat week.  Cookie's at Mark's house... cookies Friday night... Cookies Saturday... cookies at Mom and Dad's yesterday.  I think the cookies are all gone, but we're driving to Iowa tomorrow for Sarah's family Christmas.  I need to do some shopping today and should pick up some protein bars while I'm at it.  I got more bottled water so I can get back to hydrating. I had dreams about boxing last night, though, I really really am looking forward to kicking this afternoon again.  Just hope I don't hurt my back!!!  yay for Ibuprofen.  

10 week conclusion

You could probably take the regularity of my blog posts as an indicator of how good my own self-discipline is.  I SHOULD post after every class and event... the memory is fresh, it gives a nice flow when you read it (generally), etc.  Similarly, I SHOULD be writing down what I'm eating and staying on track.  But I don't and I'm not and there you go.

I'll start with the final Friday Funday...

I went to 9:30 and it was pretty busy.  I've seen it more crowded before... the 9:30 on black friday, for example... and the 8AM Saturday FIT that I went to.  But it was pretty crowded.  We warmed up with laps back and forth... I was just hoping we wouldn't do the crap-walks across the studio.  I can't do those things.  Like... I'm afraid that I'm going to hyper-extend my elbow and seriously hurt myself.  It's related to why I hate dips and can't hardly do them.  But we didn't have that for warm-ups... jabs across, jab-cross across, squats, lunges, front-kicks... good times.  We did the usual 'wheel of death' stuff with the outside of the wheel rotating, which I was in.  I felt great, like better than I think I ever have at a class.  When we were warming up, I kicked my knees up to get loosened up and I felt like I almost kicked my shoulder with my knee.  Obviously, that's not what actually happened, but being able to lift my knee that high... and hold it there... says so much for how far I've come in strength and flexibility in the past ten weeks.

Some fun stuff in the wheel of death:

Randy and Jill were working out on the inside of the wheel (Justin ran the class) so I got to partner with each of them.  Randy and I traded right roundhouses for power which was fun... because Randy is ridiculous.  When I rotated over to Jill, the second or third thing we did was trading off left jabs and she didn't jump right into it... so I gave her a look like 'c'mon, what're you doing???' I don't know if I said 'let's go!' to her or not, but I thought it was funny.  Karma's a bitch, though... at my next station, I was holding a six-inch (lie on your back, legs straight, hold your feet six inches off of the ground... just hold that...) and had my eyes shut, arms crossed... trying to focus on keeping my core and back tight... and I was thinking that it was a nice break. Justin was walking around and threatening to get out a tape measure if he thinks people aren't holding at six inches.  Shortly after that, I felt someone futzing with my feet... and figured it was Justin... well, it wasn't, it was Jill.  She had a medicine ball and an evil smile.  She put the ball on my feet... so I had to hold up the medicine ball along with my legs.  To be fair, it WAS too easy for me and I was not pushing anything.  So I held it the rest of the time with the medicine ball.  When done, I kicked it into the air, caught it and tossed it back to the middle of the studio.

Right around that station, Randy said we were going to do a 'mini-pyramid'... of pushups and jump-squats, just up to four.  Well, we started doing them and it felt... a little too familiar.  Then I realized... it was like doing burpees.  Almost exactly.  Justin can call what he wants, it was nearly a burpee pyramid.  Which... actually, now that I think about it, the thought of doing a pyramid of roundhouses and burpees sounds like a particularly nasty torture.  I don't want to give anyone ideas, so  Randy, Justin and Jill, if you are reading this, please don't take that as a request from me to add that.  ;-)

After class one of the women I partnered with told me that I almost hit her in the face with the bag with my cross at one point.  I apologized and told her that I wanted to make sure that she knew that I had done my combo.

So... that was the last session of my 10-wk challenge.

Testing yesterday was okay.  Inches-wise, I did okay, I think.  Pushups and situps I progressed, same with stretching... but my weight and body fat were disappointing.  I mean, I knew my weight wasn't great, but the body fat deal said I only decreased my body fat by 0.7%... which translates to me losing 4 pounds of MUSCLE along with like 4.8 pounds of fat.  I don't understand how that is possible when I've lost the inches that I lost.  <shrug>

So here's my final numbers:

Starting weight:  326.6 lbs
Final weight:  318.0

Starting fat percentage:  27.5%
Final fat percentage:  26.8%

Measurements (starting/final - inches)
Chest:  54.25 - 51.0
Waist:  54.0 -  50.0
Arm: 16.5 - 15.0
Thigh: 28.5 - 26.0
Hips: 51.0 - 49.0

Pushups in one minute!
Start:  27
5wk:  33
Final:  42

Situps in one minute!
Start:  29
5wk:  42
Final:  51

And finally, the sit and stretch/reach was okay.  At initial testing I did 7.25 inches and at my final testing I did 10.25.

I did the mile run in 9:27 at the start... we didn't test it yesterday... snow and cold... not safe.  You don't get a very good time running across a tundra, either.

So anyway... obviously I made progress with the numbers, but nothing spectacular.  I blame my diet and hunger.  I don't really have much more to day that that.  I wasn't eating a pizza and a quart of ice cream every night or anything, but I did have some of Emma's cake, I did have pie on Thanksgiving, etc.  I have a real hard time not being really hard on myself given how I've lost weight in the past by NOT indulging in that kind of food... and here I feel like I kind of screwed this up bad.

But... on the plus side, I did lose weight... I'm in MUCH better physical shape... and I'm not starving myself.  I'm really looking forward to the FIT stuff starting up tomorrow.  It's going to be hard, of course, but I kind of feel like there isn't a judgement hanging over me anymore.  Needless to say, I didn't win the $1000 prize at the awards deal last night... I wasn't even in the top five.  Guys up there tripled their number of pushups or lost 20% of their body fat.  They deserved it, I didn't.  But like I told John the other day, we're all winners.  Which I know sounds trite and everything, but it's true.  It didn't FEEL true yesterday, but... well, a decent night sleep and some quality time with your kids can shift some perspective.

I'm still planning on doing the 10K challenge.  John's doing it so we can push each other.  He was trying to break 100 pushups yesterday... crazy.  He didn't make it... and he wanted to break 50 situps... so we're on par there.  It's funny how we're all doing the same things but we're all at different competency levels... but the point is to push YOUR limits, not to compare yourself with someone else's.  But it's human nature to do that, so of course we do.  (at least, those of us unenlightened neanderthals do...)

So... I have my goals.  Long-term is the Twin Cities marathon next year (Sunday, October 5th, 2014... exactly one year after my initial testing for my 10wk challenge... is that kismet?  Serendipity?  Irony?  I dunno... but it works out well.)  I want to finish in under 4 hours.  Properly training for that will include some increasingly long runs... primarily on Wednesdays, working up to a 20 mile run a month before the marathon.  That will be interesting... kickboxing in the morning, run 10, 15 miles in the evening... then do bands workout the next morning.  ;-)

Short term my goal is to get under 300 pounds again... and well under, like to 290... so I don't relax and go back over.  If I keep my diet reasonably correct and keep with the workouts, I should be able to lose 1-2 pounds a week regularly... which is actually a pretty good pace of healthy weight loss, I think.  If I keep that up and work down to around 280 by the time I do the marathon, that'll help a lot to be running without that extra weight.  I don't really even want to talk body fat percentages because I still think something's screwed up there... but if I lose 35 pounds of fat in the next 40 weeks, I would theoretically be  at about 21% body fat... right about where I was in college when I was at my 'most' fit.  Of course I weighed 215 pounds then...

My Farrell's story continues in FIT starting tomorrow.  :-)  I enjoy the workouts, I think the people are great.  Very supportive and just HAPPY.  I've never seen so many smiling faces in a workout facility, it's pretty awesome to be one of them.

Resistance is futile.

lol... just kidding.  My inner Trekkie coming out there...

Today was tough, it was a lot of abs stuff that my back wouldn't let me do.  Especially my right leg... leg lifts, shin-taps, etc.  I'm not sure what to do... I really should do the core exercises that I learned in therapy a couple of years ago when I knocked my back out... that would probably help.  Also, it might be good to stretch more... I wind up showing up just in time for class to start and don't have much time for loosening up.

Did a lot of lunges today, too, which is still very difficult with my turf toe.  :-(  And then squats with resistance.  I did them with two medicine balls at first but it's so easy... so I did two purple bands and just like I figured it's not hard for my quads but it hurts the bottom of my feet... ditto for hen pecks (which we did also).  I wish I had shoes.

I was kind of surprised we didn't do donkey kicks or hip raisers today.  And since I was in the 'well, this is probably the last resistance class I'll have until February' mindset, I was waxing a little nostalgic... but Sarah is going to get me a month of FIT membership for my Christmas present, so I'll get signed up tomorrow so we can keep going through the next two weeks.  That'll be nice... with the kids home from school to watch Alex and Josh (well... with Emma home to watch the boys... Nathan isn't our babysitter), Sarah and I can work out together.  That'll be fun... she's missed the last two weeks thanks to her kidney infection, she's looking forward to getting back into it on Monday.  She hasn't even used her new girly pink boxing gloves yet.

Last resistance class today...

On the one hand, I want to go... but on the other hand, I don't want to leave the house today.  Meh.

It's been a good week so far, as far as classes are concerned.  Kicking yesterday was weird, though... we were finishing up and Justin said 'one more exercise and you're done!' and the guy I was partnered with smiled at me and said 'pyramid'... I smiled and nodded... but all I could think about was the fire hydrants that Jillian put us through on Saturday.  But then... it wasn't a pyramid.  I don't remember what it was, I think I was in too much shock to register what we were doing but... no pyramids.  Of course we did like 120 pushups and 40 or so dips so that kind of made up for it.  Or I should say the class did 40 or so dips... because I can't.  I wound up reverse planking as best I could.

So anyway, it's the home stretch here.  One more resistance class (I have to leave in ten minutes)... which Justin yesterday promised we'd enjoy... so I'm sure there's some extra creative torture planned there... and one more Friday Funday.  I'm not going to be able to start FIT right away.  I don't know when I'm getting my severance and if it isn't until the end of January, I can't afford two FIT payments before then.  It sucks... I mean it's been 10 weeks since I wasn't doing this... and it'll probably be at least two weeks before I get in again.  I love getting started up kickboxing... throw a right roundhouse and a jab-cross into the bag, waiting to get started.  WHAM.  Ugh, it feels good.  My turf toe is getting better, but not great.  I can't believe I've gotten this far without hurting a knee or blowing my back out.  (not to jinx myself).  I really hope we can do the run on Saturday testing, but it's been pretty damn cold (single digit high temps).

One more week to go

Well, Friday was 'fun'... ;-)   I'd never had a class with Tiffany running it before.  I'd seen her as a class participant before and could tell that she really knew what she was doing.  I think she's probably the 'worst' as far as not letting you slack off.. which means she's the best, I suppose.  ;-)  Three things stick out in my memory...

1.  Pointing out to us "You just wasted five seconds!!!" when we didn't start the next exercise right away.
b.  While I was squatting, she came over, made me stick my chest up and get my thighs parallel so I wasn't resting on my calves... and then said "I know what you're doing!!!"   Like... 'I see what you're doing there, it looks like you're squatting but you're really resting... quit slacking'.   Nice.
3.  I don't remember if it was jab-cross combos or burnout jabs... I think burnout jabs... but she yelled at me that she knows I can hit harder than that.  Yeah, it was the burnout jabs.

So that was a good workout.  I don't remember what we finished with but I do remember being on my knees, staring at the mat and panting.

We were told to bring our gloves and wraps in on Saturday... interesting, huh?  So here was the deal...

Saturday's workout was apparently supposed to be a 'taste of FIT'... but I think not really because we only went 45 minutes.  It was like the 8AM FIT class I went to though because there were fast transitions.  We did three 'sets'... each about 14 minutes long.  Each set had four different exercises that we were doing which corresponded to a card suit.  For example... in set 1, hearts were wide-grip curls.  Jill had a deck of cards... and whatever she pulled, that was what we did.  So if she pulled a 6 of hearts, we did six wide-grip curls.  If she pulled a face card, it was 10.  Aces were 11.  And if she pulled a joker, it meant 10 of all four exercises.
I'm going to try to remember them all...

Set 1:  Wide-grip curls, pushups (with figure-8 band), jump-squats and... ugh, can't remember.

Set 2:  Jab-cross combos, alternating right-left roundhouses, situp/jab bag combos and effin' burpees.

Set 3:  Plank dips (you plank, then dip your right side hip, then left... that's one)... and I don't remember what else right now except for fire hydrant pyramids.

Okay... to refresh, fire hydrants are as follows:  On your hands and knees next to the bag... you lift your knee sideways like a roundhouse and then kick the bag... then you let your knee down and then lift it again without kicking the bag (like you're a dog peeing on a hydrant)... that's one. The pyramids are working up to say five.  So starting on the right, do one right kick, one right lift, then two right kicks, two right lifts... up to five of each... then you work 'down' on the left, starting with five left kicks and then five left lifts.  Well, Jill never pulled a number that low for them in our final set... What I can remember is a nine, an ace and then a 10-spot to finish it up.  I will admit that I cheated on all of them... because I started getting twingy pains in my back and hips... felt like there were balls of hot iron in there also.

To be fair, it was a great workout.

So I'm staring down my final week.  As of this morning, I've lost 13 pounds total since my start.  Since I don't have to worry about going to work this week, maybe I'll hit multiple kickboxing classes in a day.  ;-)   Sarah picked up donuts after her shift yesterday morning so yesterday turned into my cheat day... keeping the fitness plan today.

Time flying

Friday of week 9 already.

Well, I gained about four pounds over Thanksgiving weekend. Sarah and I did head in for black Friday 'Funday' which was good, but crowded.  I didn't get in on Saturday, though... Sarah had worked that night and it didn't count against our attendance anyway.  <shrug>

Sarah's been sick pretty much all this week so she hasn't been in.  I made it to kickin' at 7AM on Monday, then had to stay home to take care of Sarah and the boys Tuesday and Wednesday, but I got in for the afternoons.  Tuesday was called 'density'??  Never heard of it... we did three sets of exercises, the first being chest and shoulder stuff.  The second was all abs... the last was curls and triceps.  I'm obviously seeing results because I banded up to a purple and a red for wide-grip curls and the same for the figure-8 bands for behind the head tricep extensions (goal posts).  Feels great!

Kickboxing yesterday was good.... Lauretta always works us hard.  We did two pyramids.... kinda.  The first one was a 'see how many you can do in a certain amount of time' thing with roundies and lunges.  Started on the right side which kind of guarantees that I won't get far because I can't do right lunges decent at all with my bad left toe.  Then we did something else and then came back to doing left side roundies and lunges, counting down from whatever we got up to on the right.   The second pyramid was fire hydrants... up to 8.  It was brutal.  I mean,  I did better than I did the first time we did them... and the second... but going up to 8 is hard, especially when you start burning out at 4.  The Farrell's WBL Facebook page had done a poll on Wednesday asking what people's favorite kickboxing moves were... I voted jab-cross-low kick.  A fair number of people voted hooks, too...  we did both in the workout also which may or may not have been influenced by the poll... but it was fun.  Our last exercise was freestyle burnouts which are fun... I did alternating hooks, alternating jab-cross-kick combos... and some burnout uppers.

 I didn't make it in yesterday... partly because Sarah was still sick and Emma had a band concert last night... and also partly because I got laid off from work yesterday.  It's the first time I've been laid off/fired/downsized/force reductioned/had position eliminated... whatever you want to call it.  I worked at Trane for 15 years.  I'm having kind of a hard time dealing with it... couldn't get to sleep last night, mind racing.  I can't financially go back to school to be an astronomer or anything, but I don't know that I want to just find something doing what I was doing before.  It wasn't especially fulfilling before I got laid off and to be honest, I'm feeling pretty bitter and betrayed so I want to see what other options I have.  I wasn't 'fired', it was a position elimination so apparently I can apply for a different open position at Trane if I want to... so that's some consolation but it still really feels like a shitty 'fuck you'.  I've heard of people being offered new positions after a re-org eliminates their previous jobs... but they didn't do that for me.  Oh, well.

I'm going in to kick either at 9:30 this morning or later this afternoon... kind of depends on how Sarah's feeling.  (fever and aches all week)

I can smell the turkey...

Sarah and I are going to kick together this afternoon, so I didn't go to 7AM this morning.  I was thinking of going to 7AM AND with Sarah in the afternoon... but last night the thought of sleeping overwhelmed that ambition.

Yesterday we focused on legs, biceps and triceps.  No shoulder work, no abs.  Justin added a fun twist to the donkey kick/hip raises superset... fire hydrants.  It wasn't terrible or anything, I just wish my right hip didn't feel like it was screwed up in some way.  There's always some pain when I do the fire hydrants or when I really get my leg up high for a proper-form roundhouse.  I hope it's just tightness and not something like chewed cartilage in my hip joint.

I tried some braided bands that they got a few weeks ago... I had assumed that they would be stronger than the purple bands, but doing curls with them, I don't know that they are actually stronger.  Also, the way they attach to the handle makes them press on your wrists at the top of the curl which kind of hurts/is annoying.

Another fun new thing... Justin had us do '21s' for a set of curls.  7 reps going from fully extended to half flexed... 7 going from half flexed to full flex... then 7 more 'normal' curls through the whole range of motion.  Good one!

Week 8... with a bullet!!!

Yeah, I don't know what that means... sorry.

I skipped updates for a few days again.  I made it every day last week... Friday was good, but my tank ran out... one of the first times I think when I was thinking of how great it would be to just walk away.  I toughed it out, though.  One of my partners (we did the wheel of death thing where the bags are all in a circle and the outside partner rotates) was an older woman... late 50s?  It's so hard to tell.  Anyway, I had her doing alternating roundhouses and she stuck through it all.  It's kind of impressive and motivating.  I'm (I hope) at least 15 years or so younger than her... if she's still going, I should be right?

Sarah was going to meet me Sat morning but she had to put air in the car's tires and get gas.  It was extremely cold, her hands were frozen (she worked Friday night) and she showed up five or ten minutes into the workout so she just headed home.  It was good, all lower body and abs... for squats I just held two medicine balls instead of wrapping multiple bands under my feet (which hurt my feet and make me worry about them slipping out and taking out someone's eye) but it didn't resist very much.  I imagined doing them with a barbell with plates like at Gold's...  not very practical in a room full of people.  ;-)

For 'cheat day' Sunday I had one donut but was good the rest of the day.  Most of last week I was following more of a south beach nutrition plan... which was effective in burning weight.  I wasn't wiped too much at all in class either (had Greek yogurt before class), but had some bad afternoons and cravings.  I'm switching to more phase 2 this week... a little more carbs, but since I was able to keep up in class well last week, I was going to keep on with it.

This morning I made it in at 7 again... I think there were 9 of us there total.  We did pyramids of pushups and squats which was a nice break from roundhouses... by the set of 4, I was burning bad.

My toe is getting better... I can do pushups and planks with some weight on that toe (not a ton)... right lunges are still really difficult, though.  Justin took me aside to correct my form this morning on them because I was lunging forward instead of lowering myself down.  It's pretty tough when you can't really bend that toe.  Left lunges were fine, though.

The schedule for the week was released (Thanksgiving week)... no classes Thursday and reduced number of classes Friday... no 7AM, for example.   Justin said that apparently on average, Americans consume around 4500 calories on Thanksgiving... he recommended we not do that.  Also, Friday and Saturday are not counting for 10-weekers for our attendance numbers... which is great and all but I still don't want to miss because I want to keep making progress.  Thinking Sarah and I will go to 9:30 Friday morning... Sarah works Friday and Saturday night, so maybe I'll go at 9:30 on Saturday after Sarah gets home.

Lost post?

Over the years of my new life of parenthood, I've gotten to the point where more and more I don't ever start doing something that I can't just drop because I have some emergency to attend to.  Things like... raiding in World of Warcraft, for example... HA.  Or any online game that I can't pause (which is... pretty much any online game).  I'm pretty sure that blogging is on that list now too... because I SWEAR I wrote a post last Friday... but I don't see it.  So... someone must have restarted my computer when I wasn't looking last week... before I published the post.

ANYWAY... lots to talk about.

Firstly, it finally happened... I injured myself.  Last Friday during warm-ups, I was jogging across the floor and I jammed my left big toe in the mat.  Sprained it.  I limped through the rest of Friday Funday, gimped home...  actual Friday Funday was good... worked out with my coach John.  Did reverse planks for the first time which John helped me with my form, the rest of the exercises we just drove hard.  It wasn't the rotating circle this time, we were partnered up and the room/class was dividing into three groups/areas... two with bags and the middle area for abs exercises... and we'd rotate to new stations every minute or so.  Also, we were focusing on form more than ever in the past... Justin said that they had some clinic the night before where they were talking a lot about focusing on form.  During warm ups we were going across the floor jabbing and focusing on footwork... then jab-cross... which was harder but do-able for me... then jab-cross-hook which became a complete gong show, I couldn't keep anything straight, I could either focus on my feet or my hands, not both.  Ugh.  Then lunge-kicks across the floor and then alternating squats across the floor... then I jogged back and sprained my toe.  Dammit.

Funny stuff, John said that he read this blog and thought it was funny what I estimated for ages of the owners... because I was ten years low, at least on Randy and Justin.  I guess being fit makes you look younger.  :-)

I was really worried on Saturday that my toe would either get worse or screw up my workout, but it was okay.  We dropped the boys off at Kid's Time so Sarah and I could both work out... good times.   My left thigh killed, though... I think because I had been walking

Saturday we were talking and I decided to go low/no carb this week to try to kickstart my actual weight loss.  It's worked so far, I'm 7 pounds down this morning from where I was Saturday.  Next week I'll operate kind of South Beach phase 2 so I can have more energy before workouts... although honestly this week hasn't been bad except for the usual carb cravings during the day and feeling tired maybe in the afternoons.  Workouts have been good.

Monday was kickboxing with Sarah again... good times as always.  I was careful with my toe and all...

Tuesday was fun supersets with bands... beat the hell out of my legs, biceps, triceps.  Actually it's funny, I think it was while doing donkey kicks and hip raisers I was thinking back to like the first week when we did hammer curls... and wondering if we were ever going to do it again because it was such a nice little break.  Then sure enough, it was the next exercise.  However, we were doing supersets with standing wide curls so I'd have to get up quick, get the right band and all and do standing curls, then back down on the mat, different band, wrapped around my feet right and then hammer curls... three times.  Not nearly as 'restful' as week 1 was.  :-)

Kickboxing yesterday was pretty good, but my toe was hurting again/still and I almost I think tore a tendon or something in my right calf while doing this thing where we kick our partners gloves (right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot) basically dancing in place.  I think I kind of strained something while compensating for my sprained toe and that almost knocked it out.  Anyway, I made it through at least.  We focused on some more form stuff... including better roundhouse forms.

The invitation went out today for the 'awards' dinner at the end of the 10 weeks... Sat Dec 14th.  Looking forward to it!!!

Looking forward to Friday

Friday's coming... Friday Funday!  Sarah hates it... I really like it.

I missed on Tuesday... I was going to go at 4:30 but Joshua broke his foot in the morning... had to get home before Alex's bus showed up because Sarah took Joshua to the Dr... and then Joshua wasn't in good shape.  He had a lot of pain in the middle of his nap... my first time experiencing that kind of miserable torture, watching your baby writhe in pain and beg for you to fix it and you can't do anything.  :-(  The tylenol finally worked and he was better.  The swelling must have gone down, too.

Wednesday was a huge challenge to get out of bed.  But lying there at 5:55AM, I did the math and realized that at most, I'd get an extra half an hour in bed by skipping 7AM class... and I didn't want to get home late after an afternoon class.  It was good... Lauretta drove us hard, didn't let us take breaks between exercises... or made us do high knees when she was explaining things... which gets pretty hard after a bunch of squats and roundhouse and pyramids.  We did fire hydrant pyramids which I screwed up on the way up because I was just doing kicks, not the leg raises between them.  I did them right on the way down on the left side and it was much harder.  Did 7 reps up and down.  One cool thing was during a straight-arm plank 'rest', I actually felt... rested.  Looked up, looked around the room... but 7AM is pretty empty (only like 10 people there, usually) ... so Lauretta looked right at me... at which point I thought 'oh, crap... she's going to see me not having a problem with this and make me do something tougher'.  I'll be planking with my feet up on the bag pretty soon, I think.  We also did a ton of jabs, burning out... good times.

I had a one on one meeting with Justin today which was good, talked about different goals, weight loss, etc... how to do better on the pushups, nutrition.  He said they started offering these one on ones with the 10-weekers this summer because they saw a lot of people in the spring session stop coming around week 7 and thought that maybe they could help people stick with it with that extra attention.  I think it's a really good idea... I can see how someone might quit at this point if they aren't seeing what they expected to see for results at this point.   Some of it may be changes needed to how you're working the program but some of it I think is just that a lot of the more noticeable improvements are made in the second half, after you've developed enough that you can do all of the exercises.

I showed up a little late to the 4:30 class, so I got started a little into the first exercise.. and didn't really get any stretch/warmup time, but it was good anyway.  Really burned down legs and I added a red band on the pushups which was good.  We did a lot of abs stuff which started to strain my lower back.  I really don't want to pop something in there so I wind up backing off and just planking or something instead.  Frustrating.  Also, we were doing lunges with bands which was terrible because my rear foot wouldn't stay stable because I'm wearing frickin' socks.  I need martial arts or wrestling shoes!!!

Anyway... Week 6 is going fast...

Week 6

I went to the 9:30 class on Saturday... it was packed.  I wasn't going to be able to make it to 7:00AM because of Sarah's work schedule... 8:00 is the FIT class, so that doesn't work.  I did okay at the mid-way checkpoint, I guess.  I did 33 pushups and 42 situps.  Still a far cry from where I want to be.  I did much better for the PFT for NROTC back in college... of course I was quite a bit smaller then... but also I'm doing better form pushups and situps now than I did then.  Regardless... I'm doing extra pushups now and trying to focus more on abs work in class.  It's really frustrating, literally my gut gets in the way of abs work... crunches and situps.  My lower back gets sore... meh, now I'm just whining.  The workout was good... some brutal leg work.  Supersets of donkey kicks and hip raises... 12-16-24 reps of each... so 104 reps on the right side, then 104 reps on the other side.  I had to band down from the purple to the blue.  I also had to keep going to get different bands as we burned out on things... which was kind of tough because it was so crowded and there weren't many mid-range bands left.  Like, there weren't ANY red long bands left.  <shrug>  Oh, well, I did my best.

Anyway, I've been keeping an accurate food journal now since Friday... which I was supposed to be doing this whole time.  I have five focused weeks ahead... now that I've got a basis of fitness and strength to do the work, I need to push it... and eat right.

I didn't go crazy on 'cheat day' Sunday, just had two donuts, followed the nutrition plan the rest of the day.

This morning was good, kickin' with Sarah.  We didn't do my favorite combos, but I finished the pyramid okay... pushups going up and squats going down.  The new one I can think of that we did was jab-cross-roundhouse-lunge combos... generally anything with a lunge in it, I don't like.  I still feel like that's going to blow out my knee one of these days.  I did two dips and them my gloves slipped off of the stupid bag base again.... hate dips... it's a really awkward exercise for me.

I have an early meeting tomorrow so I'll be going in the afternoon.

Week 5 Friday Funday

Sarah worked last night and went to the 7AM class...she reported to me that there was a lot of running in warm-ups and fun things like bear crawls.  Justin didn't make us do bear crawls... still a good workout.

Taking a step back, yesterday was really tough.  I don't know what the deal is with Thursday.  I think that it being the fourth day in the week and strength training instead of kickboxing (kicking's more fun) makes it hard to get to.  Plus I didn't feel relaxed, I think I have a touch of a head cold from the boys, I kind of had a headache the whole time.  It was kind of crowded, I had to keep getting lighter bands because of the exercises which I hadn't done before... I was toward the front of the room so I couldn't see Randy very well... blah, blah, blah.  Pushups were hard, my wrists really hurt...  Just wasn't feeling great.  I'm glad I went, obviously.

Last night I had Sarah do some measurements on me.  I lost half an inch on my arm, I think two inches on my chest, only an inch and a half on my waist, I think only one inch on my hips... and then three inches off of my thigh.  It's kind of frustrating to lose on my thighs which weren't terrible to begin with and hardly touch my gut which I hate.  Possibly related, I'm following the dietary plan better and I"m actually writing in my fuel log rather than entering what's convenient in MyFitnessPal.  Also, I'm still 320 lbs. Also regarding food... I think part of my problem is that when I had success with South Beach, I generally ate till I was full... whatever was on my diet.  But now... I have to have more carbs for fuel, but I'm not used to snacking on them and by default go to the SB or atkins stuff... snacking on some meat and/or cheese, almonds, etc... and something in my brain thinks that if it's okay to eat more carbs, then I should just eat ANY carb... which is erroneous of course... and then I finish off the boys' leftover pasta and meatballs.  Stupid.

Today was much better than yesterday.  In recognition of the Vikings' shocking second victory of the season last night, I wore my Studwell jersey which Justin appreciated.  We did butt-kickers in warm-ups and also lunge-front kick across the room which was pretty fun.  Burpees were easier than last Saturday... possibly because we weren't doing pushups in them, but I'm sure I'm in better shape now too.  We did my favorite combos...  jab-cross-roundhouse and jab-cross-hook... with power on the roundy and hook, but by the time we did the last set, I couldn't put much power behind my left roundhouse.  Abs work and pushups felt a lot better than yesterday, maybe I should wrap my wrists before I do pushups for the midpoint checkpoint tomorrow.  I held oblique planks for almost the whole 30 seconds and most of it with my arm in the air... progress.  :-)

Also, my coach John was at the 7AM class and Sarah said he pushed her pretty well, thought he was a good coach.  I knew this already, I'm glad she made it there after she worked this morning.  She's working late tomorrow so she'll be missing, though... and I should be at the 9:30 class.

Week 5, day 3

Middle of the middle of the middle week... whoa...

I'm 3 for 3 so far this week... fun time kicking today, except for instead of doing something nice and relaxing like boxer shuffle between sets, Randy had us high knee-lifts.  Besides just feeling kind of awkward, that was pretty frickin' tough right after doing a bunch of roundhouses.

REALLY had fun with the jab-cross-hook combos today... almost knocking the bag over on my right hooks.  BAM.

It's funny, I feel kind of achey and worried about my right knee getting swollen and sore when I'm at home and at work... then after stretching and warming up, it felt totally fine.  Not feeling totally fine, though, is the fact that I succumbed to my baser desires and went to the buffet for sushi during lunch today.  Combine that with not enough WATER being consumed (diet pop at lunch, some coffee in the AM... that's it today) and I got some cramps today which I've never had before.  It's to be expected... not following nutrition and hydration guidelines.

Along those lines, I don't think I really have a chance at the prize anymore.  I haven't been keeping food logs and I'm sure they care about that regarding winning.  I don't have anyone to blame but myself.  I haven't been eating terribly, but I have been finishing off the boys' food they don't eat sometimes... oh, yeah, I'll just have those two pieces of pizza, for example... or yeah, some noodles and meatballs that Alex refused to eat.  I don't feel like I'm earning a Sunday cheat day... and honestly it's easier to eat right on Sunday when I don't work out... which is kind of weird, but makes sense when you think that I don't have that post-workout hunger to deal with.  I dunno.

I'm also frustrated with the number of pushups I'm doing during workouts.  I burn out pretty quick most of the time (again probably because my nutrition isn't up to par) and besides my wrists get sore and it hurts a lot of the time to be pushing off of the mat.  We'll see how I do on Saturday at mid-way testing.

Monday was fun kicking with Sarah again (on the last day of my 4-day weekend).  We did drop sets with strength training yesterday and I had some trouble with the squat sets... the purple band was pretty easy and of course Jillian noticed I think because she said "that was way too easy for some of you, band up!!!" so I grabbed a blue to go with the purple... which wasn't too hard for my thighs for squatting but was tough because that pressure from the bands on the bottom of my feet kind of hurt.  Sarah's looking for martial arts shoes for me... I could get them myself too I suppose... and should.  Also, we did jump-squats yesterday which was a new kind of fun torture.  It's amazing how much it takes out of you to jump up from a squat... 20 times.  My breaking point was when I was pretty sure that if I jumped up one more time, I wasn't going to be able to stop myself on the way down, my thighs were about to say 'f-you, I'm out' and just let me fall to the mat.  But that's where we're supposed to get...

I've made it to 18 classes now out of 27...  66.6% attendance.  Assuming I make it to the last three this week, that'll be right at 70% attendance... which is the min required to qualify for the prize (there I go again... I say I don't think I have a chance but then I talk about it again).  Then if I make five every week for the second half, I'll be fine.  But I want to just get there every day... it's the most important thing, just showing up.  Once I'm there, I do everything I can and I then later I can feel guilty about what I'm eating if I want.  ;-)
Laters...                                                  

BTW...

I was just reviewing old posts.  I don't think it's quite clear from my posts what's going on.

Yes, I'm still weighing myself.  I was 319 this morning still.  I'm not keeping track of my food like I should be, I need to get better at that.

I find myself subconsciously flexing muscles all through the day now.  Weird muscles like my glutes and obliques.  Trying to sleep at night I'll start to alternatively flex right and left side muscles... it's a weird kind of new fidgeting.

When we started doing pushups in class, I tried a few regular and then just went to pushing from my knees.  I'm doing mostly regular pushups now, all through class.  Saturday was a little different, but I still didn't just revert to knee pushups.

On Friday I held proper form oblique planks for 8-10 seconds.

Brad Pitt has nothing to fear but I can see the changes in the mirror, too.  My belt is one notch smaller this week than it was the week before.  I'm actually worried that my shoulders and arms will screw up my goal of wearing off-the-shelf shirts that aren't XXXL again.  Oh, well.

So... it's going well.  :-)  I'm planning to cancel my gym membership this week, I can't imagine why I wouldn't just continue at Farrell's as a FIT member when my challenge is done in December... and the regular gym is pointless in comparison.

Day of rest after Week 4

First of all, my failure to update all week was not an indication of me slacking off this week.  I made it to 5/6 of the days... so there.

Monday was great... Sarah's first day back and we partnered up.  It's so different to have a partner that you know.  I suppose I could get to know the other Farrellites better too, but I haven't been there enough I think.  Or I'm unfriendly, I dunno.  Regardless, the week in general went well.  Originally Sarah and I had talked about her doing 6AM and I just bring the boys with me to 7AM and she'll bring them home... trade off at Farrell's.  Great in theory, but in practice that would mean I need to wake the boys up in time to get them in the van and down the road by about 6:20... which is pretty early, they're pretty much never up then.  I can't remember the last time I saw Joshua up at that time.  So on Tues/Wed I wound up going to the 4:30 classes.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  The Sat at the end of Week 3 burned the hell out of my thighs.  Consequently I spent most of the day Sunday in pain whenever I tried to use said thighs.  I was worried about Monday morning because of it, but it went well, except for burning out in warmups when we were doing squats.  My thighs weren't an issue the rest of the week.

Tuesday we did drop-sets for strength which apparently is really focused on doing high-resistance bands to make sure that you fail.  I suppose it's kind of like the 'low rep/high weight' part of free weights training rather than high reps with lower weights.  It's my understanding that it's geared toward building muscle bulk more than strength... bigger muscles rather than leaner muscles.  Regardless, it's still a lot of reps.  10 instead of 16 in a set isn't a huge difference, but when you're banding up, it's pretty different.  Plus that gave me a better view of what bands challenge me for each muscle group.  Most anything chest and tri-related was blues or purples... well, curls too.  Back and shoulders are generally green/red.  My coach John was there too which was good.

Wednesday kickboxing was fun... but then it always is.  We added a new move/combo... jab-cross followed by a spin with a back-handed punch.  Pretty fun, I'm surprised I didn't hyper-extend my elbow because I was getting wiped by that point and a little fuzzy mentally.  Pyramids included roundhouse-pushup combos and I was a little overzealous throwing myself onto the ground for pushups because later on my lower back was feeling kinda sore and tweaky.

Thursday was Halloween.  Sarah worked Wednesday night so I was going to do the 5AM class Thursday so I could be home right after work to give her time to nap or otherwise recover.  However, at 4AM I realized that the van didn't have enough gas in it to get me to class and back and my wallet was in the car... which was with Sarah at work.  So I missed Thursday.  :-(

I took Friday (and Monday/tomorrow actually) off of work... I've been needing some extra days off for a while.  Sarah and I dropped the boys off at Kid's Time and went to the 9:30 class which was a blast.  It was my first 'Friday Funday'... Justin had the bags set up in rows and we warmed up running through them hitting them... then doing either jumping jacks or pushups at the end and then running back to the start.  I consider it a minor victory that I didn't screw up a hip, ankle or my back on the final run through with alternating roundhouses... right then left on a bag, run to the next... repeat...   Then the bags got put in a big circle with one partner on the outside and one inside and the inner circle rotated through the workout, so I got to partner with everyone on the outside.  That was fun, even though I spent less quality time with Sarah... <shrug>  Near the end, we were doing right roundhouses for power and I happened to be partnered with a bigger FIT member guy (Randy... not the owner Randy, different)  and his first hit really rocked the bag over which kind of woke me up... like 'okay... okay, let's do this...' so we had a good 'see who can knock the bag over first' contest.  I had a few good ones in there, but I'm pretty sure he won.  But we both won because it was a good workout, right?  Right.  I know I've never hit that hard... like anything, the best way to improve is to compete with someone better than yourself.  Although I suppose that assumes you're a competitive person... which I probably am... a little bit.

So... Friday was the best day so far, I think.  Sarah and I were going to get pedicures and some sushi and a movie too so I showered there and we wound up chatting with some of the loitering FIT members along with Justin and Randy.

Saturday morning I was going to go at 7 but Sarah worked and I realized that she wouldn't be home until 6:40 at the earliest... and since Em and Nate aren't here this weekend, I couldn't leave early.  So I was faced with a dilemma... show up 15 minutes late to the 7AM class... or just go at 8.  Problem with 8 is that it's the FIT class.  But I figured... usually in classes through the week, they just have FIT members do things like squats or planks while the rest of us are doing jumping rope or boxer shuffle... so I figured 'well, I can do that'.  I showed up and John was there, asked me how class was... and when I told him that I didn't make it to 7, I was there for eight... his eyebrows went up and he was like 'you're doing the FIT class??'  I explained my scheduling issue and thought that doing FIT was better than missing 15 minutes of the regular class.  I don't think he actually said 'good luck' but the sentiment was implied.

Jill was running the class and it was pretty crowded which especially sucks for me because when we're doing anything that spreads out like lunges or burpees, I take up a lot of room.   So Jill started out telling us that we were going to run later than 45 minutes... already a bad sign.  The transitions between exercises were much quicker than I was used to and the exercises were quite a bit tougher than I'm used to also.  'Warm ups' included a new thing for me called 'around the world'... which was lunge forward, lunge to the side, then lunge back... that's one.  Ten on one side, then ten on the other.  Christ.   Did hen pecks for the first time... also challenging since I'd never done them... and burpees with pushups and jumps in them.  That REALLY sucked... I was only about half-speed as the rest of the class and I was all discombobulated.  By the time we were doing walking pushups (stand up, bend over, walk out to standing arm plank on your hands... pushup... walk back on your hands to standing), my hands were so sweaty I was in danger of slipping on the mat while walking out.  We also did something... I forget what it's called... it's not 'impossibles' but it's something similar.  You stick one leg out behind you like a back lunch, then slowly lower yourself to that knee, then bring the other knee down... then the other leg forward to stand up slowly.  It reminded me a lot of exercises we did in wrestling where we'd walk forward like that... foot to knee, foot to knee.  I didn't think that was terrible, but then I was also more falling to my knee than lowering myself to my knee...

What else... I dunno, it was brutal.  It didn't quite go an hour... I was POURING sweat like I can't remember... dripping into my eyes off of my hair.  Our last set was abs stuff and I just sat there for a couple of minutes when we were done.

But... then I drove home.  Sun was just up a little ago... it was 35 degrees out, no wind at all, not a cloud in the sky... and that blue sky against the fall colors on the trees... it's some of the best weather I ever see in Minnesota, I just love it.  By the time I was ten minutes from home, I had recovered from the class mostly and I just felt... great.  Not just the weather, but everything.  Chris Brown's 'Yeah, Yeah, Yeah' song played on the radio when I was almost home and if you've seen the video for it, there's a lot of running around and jumping in it... and it was like how I felt.  I don't know how else to express how I felt... it was like life-changingly good physical feelings.

I have six weeks to go... Whatever any of my other goals might be, my main one is just to get to class every day.  Next Saturday is the midway point evaluation... I guess we just do pushups and situps to see  where we're at.  Sarah's working but Em will be here to babysit so I'll be at the 7AM instead of 8AM FIT.... probably...  ;-)    Really looking forward to 7AM kicking with Sarah again tomorrow.

End of week 3

Who's got two thumbs and has totally been slacking off?  This guy!

Seriously, though, the last two weeks has kind of sucked.  I've been out of town for work Monday thru Friday which means missing Tuesday/Wed/Thursday for sure at Farrell's. I made it to the 5:30 kickboxing on the Friday of week 2 which was very good but wound up missing Saturday because of my uncle's funeral down in Faribault.  Week 3 started off with co-coach Tim kicking with me Monday morning which was great... he really chased me around the bag... my flight Friday got in later than the week before and Sarah had to work Friday night so I didn't get to kick Friday, but I did get in for strength training yesterday.  John was there which was great but oh my god am I in pain.  I realized yesterday that it had been two weeks since I did strength training really... I mean, I did alternate workouts three times while traveling (not enough) but that's nothing compared to a real Farrell's session.  I banded up quite a bit on any chest or tricep exercises now that I have the techniques down.  Well, not ANY chest exercise, just the one simulating incline press.  What destroyed me was the lunge sets... right side forward and back is one, three sets of 12 and then left side same thing... essentially 144 lunges.  I did maybe half of them total, my quads almost gave out on me completely.  Between that and the donkey kicks and hip raises that inevitably follow... well, I tried to go without ibuprofen today but I couldn't take it anymore.

Tomorrow starts a glorious week 4... and Sarah will be there!  She signed up for FIT at my location, planning for 6AM classes so I'll bring the boys with me and we'll trade them off on mornings when Em is in school... otherwise I'll maybe go to afternoon class, we'll see.  But since Em will be home tomorrow (they don't have school Monday), Sarah and I are both doing the 7AM class so that should be fun.  :-)   I'm just excited to be HOME for a whole week... (I'm taking a 4-day weekend next weekend)... and excited for a full week of Farrell's again.

Week 2, Day 1

Yesterday sucked, I felt so blah all day.  I mean, it was nice to sleep 'in' till 7:30, was nice to not have to be going anywhere and just hanging out at home with the kids.   Actually now that I think about it, I felt more energetic than I had pre-Farrell's, I just think that by the end of the day I felt sore from not working out... if that makes any sense.  I did a lot of sitting and reading and playing with the boys.  Beautiful weather... I guess I mowed the lawn, so that wasn't just sitting around.  Maybe I didn't feel blah all day, just the end of the day... and that might just have come from dreading having to leave town for work.  I don't like that, I miss my family.

Anyway, I was looking forward to the workout this morning and it was good.  Justin had us do three new things, hook punches, low side kicks and pyramids.  It was interesting learning the technique for for hooks, to not swing with the shoulder... gets a good tug in the abs.  And pyramids... it's funny because Sarah's mentioned them many times before and it never really sank in... but since we were doing roundhouses and lunges... and I suck at lunches... it was pretty bad.  By the time we were working down on the left side, I was doing maybe two lunges... instead of the 6-5-4-3-2-1.

(for those who don't know... pyramids work like this:  you do one roundhouse and one lunge... then you do two roundhouses and two lunges... you do that up until you do 6 of each, then you work your way 'down' on the left side from 6 to 1.)

Low kicks were fun, I enjoyed the jab-cross-low kick combos.  I kind of knocked the bag nearly into my workout partner on one of them, though... a FIT lady who I probably outweigh by 180 pounds.  She was a good partner, though.

Oh, another different thing we did was a jab-roundhouse combo where you have to shift your feet between.  My footwork is awful, I'm about as agile as a mammoth.

When we did jab burnouts, I kicked it up a notch at the end... felt good, I suppose I should be doing that the whole time, though.  Of course, I go from that right into a plank... with arms like rubber.  Planking went better than last week, though, both the regular planks and the side planks.

Randy sold me a red figure-8 band to use in workouts while I'm traveling this week and next week, so that's cool.  I'll be back for the 5:30 class on Friday.  I really hate that this travel is happening while I'm working the program because I can't spend extra time at home this morning or Friday afternoon to make up for lost family time during the week, I won't be home until 7 Friday night... I miss them already.

End of week 1

I made it through 'Friday fun day' yesterday... good kickboxing, first time I did roundhouses for power, felt great to kick the bag as hard as I could.  My right hip is kind of acting up so I was trying not to push what hurt... I really don't want to torque something that puts me out of commission at all.  There was another guy there so I had a partner on the bag which was good.  My core strength is better, I was able to plank better while 'resting' than I could Wednesday which is good.  Still failing, though... which ironically is also good.

Taking a step back, Thursday wound up being my cheat day.  The guy at Famous Daves (where I was at for work) bought me lunch... and they talked me into the bread pudding.  It's delicious... far too delicious.  I also went and weighed myself yesterday morning and was up 4 pounds.  Ironically, the white board at the gym advised us not to weigh ourselves and that the scale was the enemy... I need to stay away from it... focus on what I'm doing in the gym and the food regimen and not worry about my weight.

This morning (Saturday) was cool, the gym was full (only two classes on Saturday, I think) and Justin changed the music up, so we started out with AC/DC, had some Guns N Roses and similar tunes while working on strength.  Funny, at one point after doing squats and then burning out a focused quads exercise he said 'one more and we're done with legs'... then he paused and said 'well, done with quads anyway'.  DICK.  (not really)  Then donkey kicks and glutes... we finished with abductor and adductor (probably spelled wrong) workouts... I couldn't even use a yellow band for the last ones, lying on your side and lifting your straight leg up.  Apparently my legs are plenty heavy by themselves to make that a hard burn.  I could hardly walk to put the bands away when we were done... again, which is good.

My favorite exercise this morning was hammer curls... because we were lying flat on our backs doing curls with bands for resistance... all I could think was 'this feels so good to be lying flat on my back'.  I'm trying to focus on keeping my core flexed as much as possible, stuff I learned in physical therapy for when I blew my back out a couple of years ago... my lower back and abs really need the attention.  Those and my shoulders are my weakest areas... so far anyway, I'm sure they'll find some muscle group next week that I've never used.

All in all, it's been a good week.  Next week I have to travel for work which sucks big time, but I'll make the Monday morning class and I'll go to the 5:30 class Friday after getting back from Montreal.

Day 4

Yesterday was super busy, I didn't get a chance to post an update.

There weren't many people in class yesterday morning... I was the only guy and there was an even number of women so I worked the bag by myself.  Tim was there from the 6AM class and we talked some nutrition... he recommended chocolate almond milk... which we don't have at County Market.  <shrug>   The workout was good... Jillian was running it... I didn't exhaust myself in the jumping jacks this time which is already an improvement over Monday.  I tried to get my roundhouse form better which worked my hips more... they're still sore today.  My core continues to not be up to the challenge yet... we were doing oblique planks between bag exercises which were pretty bad, I failed every time.  But of course, we're supposed to be working to failure anyway.  I can't decide if it's easier or harder with no partner... you don't have to worry about coordinating hitting the bag but at the same time, you can't 'hide' either.

I talked with Randy after class about the 10K challenge, nutrition, bands, etc... I might buy a figure eight band to travel with next week and the week after (I'll be traveling for work the next two weeks).

We had a health screening here at work yesterday so I was going to know my weight anyway so I weighed myself in the morning yesterday... I was 5 pounds down from Saturday.  Now... different scale, though... so maybe some factor there.  The scale at work was 11 pounds less than Saturday which was way off, but when i got home I weighed myself at home again and I was 2 pounds down from that morning... and it's not like I'm fasting or not drinking water.  After the busy day yesterday (more than 4 hours in the car), I had a bit more for dinner than I 'should' have... but still when I weighed myself this morning, I was another pound down from where I was last night.  So I'm 8 pounds down from Saturday... which is pretty great.

This morning, though, I was not eager to get out the door.  I wanted to sleep... very, very badly.  And I'm really sore.  Not as bad as post-marathon or anything, but pretty sore.  Jillian was running the upper body strength training... I've started dropping bands when I can't do it anymore so I can keep doing the exercise.  It's so weird, some thing are super easy and then the next thing is super hard, all because the disproportionate muscle development I've built up by just doing a couple of different exercises for years.  My core is still terrible.  My abs hurt all day yesterday and didn't feel much better this morning, so the abs stuff was really not good this morning.  I got the form as best as I could and when I couldn't anymore, I tried to hold something that at least kept putting some work into that muscle group.

I was kind of shocked to look in the mirror and see ripples in my triceps during one of the exercises... cool.

Tomorrow is, according to Sarah, the worst day of any week.  Friday kickboxing is the most intense workout of the week.  Looking forward to it.  ;-)

Day 2

Some jerk laid out a bunch of donuts and pastries about ten feet from my desk.  I just had an apple but the craving/habit is yelling at me to have a donut and coffee... have two!  Argh.

Anyway, strength training with Randy this morning was good.  I'm not sure why I was thinking it would be easier than kickboxing... in some ways it was, but the muscle isolation and the resulting burn is pretty intense.  We were concentrating on form today so using light bands, I did wind up banding up to a green for a later triceps exercise since my triceps are pretty developed already.  I have a hard time just getting my body into the right position for some of the exercises just from my bulk.  Lunges were extremely difficult for me to balance and do, especially with my bum left big toe.  If I had martial arts shoes that would help a lot I think.  Jillian helped with my lunge form when class was done which was good, but then of course I do two of them and my quads are on fire and quitting on me anyway.

Overall, good day 2.  :-)

Yesterday afternoon was rough... I'm still in the 'South Beach' food mindset so what I had for snacks and lunch yesterday was lo/no carb... and yesterday afternoon I was absolutely wiped out.  Today I brought in bananas and apples and a sandwich and I'm hoping they help me out more, also hoping bumping up my carb intake will make tomorrow morning's kickboxing go better.  The irony is that if I'm feeling better, I should just work harder so I still go to failure anyway.  It's an interesting mindset.

I don't think I was more than level 8 today, maybe 9 yesterday.

We have health screenings here at work tomorrow so I guess I'll be getting a weight update before the 1-week point as was my plan.

Week 1, Day 1

I survived the first day... for some reason I feel like it wasn't as bad as the kickstart class.  It can't be because I was better prepared for it... well, I suppose it could be, but if my testing two days ago and half an hour on the treadmill five days ago is that much of an effect, I should ramp up awfully fast.  To be fair, Justin said many times to 'enjoy it while it lasts'... like giving us a break towards the end to stretch.  Wednesday I expect to be much worse for multiple reasons.

I paired up with Brad, who's about my height but much lighter... he says that he cycles and plays soccer (he has the hair for it).  We have nothing resembling rhythm yet hitting the bag.  Also, I am still clumsy and don't do very well with the knee-kick to roundhouse combo.

But let's back up to the start... and how I felt like tapping out just doing jumping jacks in the warm-ups.  I thought I felt good and matched Justin's pace with the jumping jacks and my tank was empty in like 15 seconds.  I can make excuses like my arms are heavier than Justin's but whatever, I'm out of shape and have terrible stamina.  Also my calves got beat down from all of the bouncing on the balls of my feet.

The planking between bag exercises I just about flat-out couldn't do... my core is just beaten down, I think partly because the sit-ups to failure test on Saturday thrashed me.  Whatever, I need to consume 240 grams of protein today so that should help in my recovery.  I need to get a case of Brawndo (j/k) or low/no sugar sports drinks to help with my hydration and keeping my electrolytes up.

I decided to weigh myself once a week through this, because I want an idea as to what kind of a curves/plateaus in my weight loss I go through, rather than just seeing where I'm at in 10 weeks.

Orientation done

Orientation was yesterday which was good.  My weight was about what I expected, what I didn't expect was my body fat percentage was less than I figured.  I have less fat available to lose than I'd thought so I suppose that's good, but my goal of getting down to 270 pounds is less likely, since I have less fat to lose.  We'll see.  

I was overly optimistic about my mile run, after doing half an hour on the treadmill on Thursday... I never achieved anything resembling a 'groove', much less 'runner's high'.  

My situps/minute score was pretty bad, I thought... but that's to be expected considering how little I work my abs.  My pushups was better (actually did more pushups than situps) but again that's to be expected since I bench press at the gym with some regularity.  

My coach's name is John, he's the guy that won the prize from the April class and also the guy that when I saw his before/after pics online I thought that my chances at the big prize are pretty slim.  He's also competitive, he was telling us who we have to beat.  That's good, though.  

The nutrition seminar was not surprising... Sarah had already talked to me about it from her 10-wk challenge and I'd read quite a bit of her book already.  

It's ironic that I feel more sore than I have in quite a while and that's just from testing and orientation.  Tomorrow morning should be fun and I'm already looking forward to Wednesday morning being a really fun wakeup.  

Nervous

Tomorrow's my orientation day.

I ran yesterday at the gym.  About half an hour of alternating walking 3.5 mph and running 6mph.  I got cocky and threw in some jab/cross action while jogging.  Pretty stupid, would have been really easy to lose my balance and fall, but... felt like doing more.  I'm nervous about not being 'ready' but at the same time this is it before 10 weeks of hard work and caring more about what I eat again.  I feel sore just from that running... and I've got shinsplints on my right leg.  That's a bad sign, maybe... I really don't want to get hurt and screw up this 10 weeks.

Anyway. I'm excited and nervous.  It's dumb because tomorrow isn't even a real workout.  I hope I don't blow out my knee in the mile run.

Sarah's graduation

We went to Sarah's graduation dinner last night which was pretty cool.  It was combined for the Andover and Blaine locations... the awards was cool to see, Sarah's workout partner won the $1000 for women at the Andover location which she figured she would anyway.  Sarah suspects she didn't get credit for a few times she got to class late because she didn't even get called up for the 'top five' and aside from the girl that won, she had really comparable if not better results... she increased her number of pushups in a minute by 47 which is pretty awesome.  I had timed her earlier this week and she did about 62 regular pushups... when she had started ten weeks ago she did pushups off of her knees so that's how she tested.

I've been meaning to post more regarding the kickstarter class... the next day I felt fantastic except for my sore thighs and had almost no desire for coffee, I drank water most of the day.  I had a ton more energy and that lasted at least three day, maybe four or five until I felt 'back to normal'.  I think I'm going to ask if I can attend the kickstarter next Saturday too because it was great.

It seems weird to me how many people talk about making sure my starting physical condition is as bad as possible so that my improvement can be as dramatic as possible.  I suppose it makes sense, it IS a competition, after all.  I'm not going to sit on the couch and eat chips for two weeks, though... but I won't be following strict South Beach.

I went to my regular gym on Thursday and kind of felt like it was a waste of time... my usually workout of just benching, curls and leg curls and then cardio on the bike seems pretty weak now.

Kickstarter class

Well, I made it through the class.

7:30 in White Bear Lake... there were about 15 of us total and three trainers/coaches... Justin (20-something dude), Randy (guy a little older than me?  Mid 40s?) and Jillian (tiny girl).  Justin ran the class... Randy's cool, I talked to him a while when I first signed up.

Justin ran us through about ten minutes of just talking about things, then we did about 20 minutes of strength exercises with the bands and then they helped us wrap our wrists for 20 minutes of kickboxing.  The strength training went fine... there are five different strength levels of bands, color coded... yellow, green, red, blue and purple (ascending).  They told us to take a set of yellow, green and red for the exercises.  First thing we did was shoulder flys... I went with the green bands... two sets of 16, a short rest and then another set of 16... my shoulders were burning pretty good, I haven't done shoulder exercises in many many years.  Next we did some triceps work which was easy for me for my triceps but my shoulder were still burning seriously.   Donkey kicks... and then this bridging thing with the band.  I stuck with greens the whole time and made it through all of it.  We also did squats... which burned pretty good... I have pretty big quads and really don't work them at all at the gym except what I do on the bike which isn't intense or anything.  Kickboxing was a different story.

We started just doing jabs and crosses, then some knee kicks... I started really realizing how uncoordinated I am... then we moved to the heavy bags...

I don't remember doing roundhouses before, but I got the technique down pretty quick... I went first and after the first set of roundhouses, it was my partner's turn... it hadn't clicked in my head that he was holding a squat the whole time I was kicking... so then I had to do that and I was about done... tank empty... but then we had more after that.  I kind of got a focused tunnel vision, not like I was going to pass out, just trying to get from one exercise to the next.  Two jabs, then cross... coordinated knee kick then roundhouse with partner... squats to 'rest'... by the time we were done I really couldn't even lift my arms.

And this is the 'easy' introduction...

I haven't had a workout like that since... well, since I did the Chicago marathon in 2002, probably.  Even that was a very different kind of workout so I really probably haven't done anything like that since football back in 1990...  which is kind of exactly why I wanted to do this.  I clearly don't self-motivate very well... so this class to focus on six days a week for 10 weeks... I expect to be really good for me.  For various reasons.

Registered... and kickstart is tonight

I registered on Aug 31 for the fall class...  Oct 5 for the first session with evaluation and everything and then 7AM on Oct 7 for the first of 70 classes.  I'm going to miss Tue-Thu of weeks 2 and 3 because I'll be traveling for work which sucks... and I'm assuming that I'll be home that Friday early enough to make the 5:30PM class.  

I'm still hovering around 320 pounds.  My right knee hurt yesterday and now this morning my back is sore... hoping I don't hurt myself tonight at the kickstart, Sarah says I shouldn't, it isn't a full class... and I'll be careful.  

Sarah's been looking for a similar class to keep up with her workouts after her challenge is done, but there isn't anything really close.  There's an MMA studio here in WBL, I think it's $50/mo for the kickboxing classes, but I don't think that's really what she wants, she wants to do more Farrell's, the FIT class.  I can understand... when I signed up, the people I talked to were all smiling and clear-eyed and happy... which is totally contrary to every day that  I walk into my regular gym.  It made me want to quit my gym membership already.  I only get there like 5 to 7 times a month, I wonder how much I'll be charged to drop my membership... I should ask.  

Anyway, if Sarah wins the $1000 from her class, I told her she should roll some of it into continuing her classes.  Plus gasoline and Christmas presents (it's right around the corner...).  It would be awesome if we both won the 1000 and were a husband/wife team in the running for the big prize... but that's me daydreaming.  For me, my plan as it sits now is to get back into running after my challenge is done.  With the dropped weight and increased fitness, I should be starting out in better shape than I was when I stumbled through the Chicago marathon in 2002 which would be great... then I could finally actually do the Twin Cities marathon next fall.  My jarhead buddy from college was just lamenting this week that he failed to qualify for Boston when he ran the Ventura marathon this past week.... apparently he had to run a 3:15 to qualify, he did it in about 3:30.  Just awful.  ;-)  Regardless, that would mean 'shaving' three hours off of my last time if I wanted to run Boston in 2015... which would be pretty awesome, really.  One step at a time, though, I need to get through the kickstart class tonight without blowing out a knee or throwing out my back.  :-)  

Fall is coming

I was just checking the web site for Farrell's in White Bear and they have the dates posted now for the Fall class... 10/5 thru 12/14.  Nothing much else new that I can tell, but they have the class schedules listed too...  M-F classes at 5, 6 and 7 AM... so that should be 'fine'.  Saturday classes are 7, 8 and 9:30 AM.

Sarah's 5-week appointment is in a few days.  She's still frustrated over not losing the pounds she wants to lose.  She looks great, though, and her clothes are hanging off of her.  She was at 40% body fat when she started... she's down only about 10 pounds total... I think she must be down 20 pounds of fat and added 10 pounds of muscle.

I'm trying to recruit my coworker Susan to enroll with me in October.  I was talking to her last week about it and she said she was still interested and then asked 'it's every Tuesday, right?' She had forgotten that it's 6 days a week.  I asked her what she's doing at 7AM M-F that's more important and she said that was a good point.  Also, she and her fiancee were planning on going hiking in Costa Rica in December... so this class would be PERFECT for her.  ;)   Maybe I'm a little evil.

I'm not even following my reasonable diet very well.  It's been more than a week since I've gotten to the gym... I took a five day weekend and didn't make the time to work out at all last week.  I did edge the driveway and mow the entire lawn this weekend, though... so at least I didn't spend the whole time sitting around.  Also running 90 pounds of twin boys up and down the ditch in their wagon about 50 times this weekend got me moving around.

Firsties

I learned about Farrell's through my wife's sister who went through the 10-wk challenge earlier this year.  She kept a blog for much of her progress and I figured anything that helped keep me committed to the process would be a good idea so I'm kicking one off too.

I'm not starting Farrell's until this fall, my wife is on week 2 right now and doing great.  I'm kind of worried about my hips and knees and back holding up because in the past when I've started into workout routines after having not been active for a while, I hurt something.  So I plan to try to focus on my flexibility and core stability before I start up in probably October.

I've always been a big guy, but post-college I eventually ballooned.  Chalk it up to being less active, having an office job, just getting older, etc.  Whatever the reasons I went from being about 220 when I graduated college to suddenly finding myself around 280 at my 10 yr high school reunion and well over 300 not long after that.  At 29 I was around 320 and decided to do a marathon.  I didn't train especially well for it and it took me just over 6 hours to finish (Chicago, 2002) and I was at 304 pounds.  In the ten years since then I'd gained back more over the years.  My exercise was spotty at best, my diet didn't pay attention to portion control, I drank a lot... in 2009 I tried to donate blood but couldn't because my blood pressure was so high.  Alarmed, I went to the doctor and his first immediate recommendation for me was to lose weight.  I was 330 pounds at the time.  In the immediate months after, I didn't do so well.  My wife was pregnant with our twin sons, they were born in January 2010... and within a month, in a moment of clarity from the sleep-deprivation, I weighed myself and I was up to 349, the heaviest I've ever been.  It was actually getting difficult getting into the car and tying my shoes.  Now I had two babies to take care of... and I want to be there for them...

So I did the South Beach thing again.  I'd done it a couple of years before and lost about 20 pounds, but then went back to my old habits and had gained it back.  This time it wasn't difficult, maybe the boys distracted me enough.  Regardless, I lost fast and kept losing until I was down to 289 which felt incredible.  Just breaking 300 was fantastic, I couldn't remember the last time I was under 300 pounds.  This was with pretty much zero exercise, just strictly following South Beach.  My wife and I got married in the fall of 2010 and we went on our honeymoon a bit later, April 2011... which is pretty much where I mostly abandoned South Beach again.  I started back in my old habits of eating what was around, grazing through the day, finishing up  the kids' leftovers so I don't have to throw food away, eating a second plate even though I'm actually 'full', etc.  The weight came back until about a month ago I was back up to 329... so I went back on South Beach phase 1.

About that time, my wife found out that her sister had done Farrell's... and she discovered a groupon or some similar deal for half-price on the summer Farrell's challenge, so she signed up.  It sounds great and I'm planning (as I said) on signing up for the fall challenge in White Bear Lake, MN (close to my work).  Other times I've focused on losing weight in the past, I hit a wall in loss... actually, that happened with I was down to 289, I kind of stuck there and in the 290s for a while and I think I got frustrated and gave up on the diet rather than starting to exercise... which would have helped.  I think there's a point where once I've lost x-amount of weight, it won't fall off of me anymore without the exercise.  Well, I expect 60 sessions of Farrell's should do it.

I'm at 320 right now, trying to keep on SB phase 2 and trying to get to the gym over lunch when I can, where I usually stretch, bench press and do 10-15 minutes of cardio on the exer-bike.  Not very intense.  I'm looking forward to Farrell's, but not looking forward to getting up early, obviously.  I like my sleep...but with twin 3-yr olds and a puppy at home now, I don't sleep in anyway.  ;-)