Goal Announcement

As I’ve been saying all weekend, I want to lose more weight. The goal is 30 pounds in 90 days. That’s 30 pounds by February 5th. Here’s how it’s going to happen. I will follow the p90x workout schedule for all 90 days of the program. This is the resistance part of my program. But there is no reason I shouldn’t be able to do extra cardio. I’ll be doing approximately 8 hours of p90x per week and running between 13 and 20 miles per week beginning Monday. I don’t want to restrict my cardio to running alone, so if I decide that I want to ride my bike instead of running, I’ll multiply the distance by 4. I’m going to do extra cardio four times a week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday). I chose 4 days a week so I can give myself some rest days to recuperate. Since weekend workouts are a little easier for p90x, I thought those would be the best days to recover. I know that I’m more likely to stick to a schedule if it’s set up for me, so I set one up.  And here it is:

I’ll complete this schedule 11 of 13 weeks. I’m aiming for 13, but we all know that things happen.

Food. My philosophy is to eat what you want, but within reason. The way to lose weight is to eat less calories than you burn in a day, so portion control is very important. In order to help me track my consumed calories, I’m going to get myself a food scale so I can measure things better. It’s just too hard to eyeball some types of food... like meat. I will also use measuring cups and spoons until I am comfortable with my estimates. I will then plug these things into www.fitday.com. I’ll aim for 2000-2500 calories a day. With the amount of time I’ll be working out, I think this should be about right. I will reevaluate the caloric intake at week 6 to see if I'm restricting too much and am feeling the effects (irritability, tiredness, etc.) I want to accomplish this goal an average of 5.5 days per week which means I want to do it at least 71 times. I imagine that Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Years will be busted days. But that’s good because if your body gets used to something, it stalls. That's the whole premise behind p90x isn't it?

Alcohol. As I mentioned yesterday, drinking still plays a large role in my overindulgence of calories. One way to reduce my desire to drink is to remove the temptation. We still have a few bottles of liquor and wine and the refrigerator might have a six pack left in it. That's a lot less than we usually have around. Here are the rules this time… No drinking during the week. That’s Sunday through Thursday. The exceptions to this are if we are invited out to see people at a bar/restaurant/etc. and football season. I don’t NEED to drink when I go out, but I’m going to allow myself to enjoy the evening if I choose to do so, assuming I stay within my caloric limits. Sundays and Mondays are football days. Something I really enjoy is having a beer while watching my team play. So I’ll allow myself to have 1 drink during the Eagles game ONLY. If the Eagles play on Monday night, I don’t drink Sunday. If the Eagles play Sunday, I don’t drink Monday. It’s pretty simple. Friday and Saturday I can drink 4 beverages. I am not allowed to drink alone with the exception of my football drink. Since my wife is the only other person I know in our new town, I can’t drink without her unless we are visiting with friends. I’ll accomplish this goal 9 out of 13 weeks.

Water. I’m going to get myself back in the habit of drinking more water. This is going to be even easier this time and here’s why. The water at the new place tastes much better. Also, if I’m tracking calories, I’m not going to want to give up calories for food to drink a soda, juice or something else. That’d be ridiculous. I’ll drink my two liters of water 80 of the 90 days.

Measurements. I’m going to have my wife help me with measurements. She agreed to measure my body every other week to track progress. We’re going to measure the following: chest, waist, hips, shoulders, biceps, and neck. Not really a goal to write here. I’m just curious to see how my body changes.

Clothes. I have some clothes that I used to fit into that I don’t anymore. I’d like to be able to wear them again. Here are some pictures of me in those clothes. I decided that I no longer want to hide my face. Most of my readers are friends and family anyway, but I’m not embarrassed of who I am or what I look like. I just want to be healthier. Also, this might give me some motivation to get my hair cut!

 Red Polo. I used to wear this shirt for work a lot. I still like it and would like to be able to wear it with confidence.

 Here is a bike t-shirt my wife bought me a while ago. It never fit well, but I LOVE it. I really want to wear it.

 This is a t-shirt I got on our honeymoon in Curacao. I never tried it on before I got it. It never fit well. It's an XL. Caribbean XL must be different. haha

 When I lost weight in high school, this was the shirt I used for motivation. We dropped my brother off at college, I picked up this shirt, and swore I'd fit into it some day. I did, but now I don't again. Soon.

 Some slacks I got in my senior year of high school for an internship. I know they fit me then, because I wore them a lot.

 I wore this bathing suit to Key West after my freshman year of college, I think. I was in the 210 range and it fit pretty well. Not anymore.

 I got this bathing suit before my honeymoon because my wife said she loved it. I was trying to lose weight then too and thought for sure this would fit by the time we got married. It didn't. The tag is still on it.

Yuck. By the end of this, I will fit into them again. I’m not going to count this as a “goal” per se. I just want it to happen. It goes along with the body measurements.

As always, I’ll make it easy to track my goals. Here’s how you’ll see my goals on the side bar.

Weight: x/30

Workouts: x/11

Food: x/71

Alcohol: x/9

Water: x/80

See you Monday to get this Train back on track! WOO WOO!

Resurrection Part 2

As part of my new routine, I’m going to utilize p90x. I’ve been doing some reading about people who are successful using this program. Those who make the most drastic changes to their bodies don’t simply do the p90x workouts (been there, done that), but they do additional cardio and follow a pretty strict diet.

Running the half marathon made me realize that I don’t have limitations. It may take some time for me to get there, but I can do anything that I set my mind to. No more setting comfortable goals. In addition to p90x, I decided to add a running regiment. I want to be able to make my “natural distance” a 4 miler instead of a 3 miler.

One of the hardest parts about losing weight for me is my diet. The biggest issue I come to with the diet is my philosophy on weight loss. I don’t believe in fad diets. Are there merits to them? Sometimes. Lets look at the South Beach diet. I tried it for a month or so as part of an experiment that my wife was doing in college. I hated it. I was constantly drained of energy and incredibly irritable. Did I lose weight? Sure! But I didn’t keep it off. Besides, that diet works because it makes you conscious of what you’re shoving into your face. It’s not so much the lack of carbohydrates as it is the stuff you eat instead. Protein, fruits, and veggies. I can eat those things without completely restricting my carbohydrate intake. Atkins on the other hand is an absolute joke. There’s no way I should be able to eat 8 pounds of bacon and not be able to eat an apple.

What it all comes down to, really, is simple math. Consume fewer calories than you burn in a day and you will lose weight. I want to eat normal foods. What I need to focus on is increasing my fruit and veggie intake and reducing portion sizes. My biggest problem with calorie intake has continued to be alcohol. I just drink too much of it. I need to restrict that. When it comes right down to it, I know that my body performs better when I haven’t had alcohol the day before. That will be my motivation. I think that the last time I made an alcohol goal, I gave myself too many allotted drinks. There’s no reason to drink 4 days a week and have 10 drinks in that same time.

I’m advocating for a lifestyle change here. I need to prove to myself that I can do it. I don’t have excuses anymore. I’m not working in the traditional sense. I can set my own schedule. Nobody is holding me accountable to get paperwork done on time or fill a certain number of hours per week. If I make weight loss, health, and fitness my life, there is absolutely no reason I shouldn’t be able to accomplish everything that I want to accomplish.

Stay tuned. Tomorrow is Goal Announcement Day.

Resurrection

It’s time to resurrect this blog. The Train got derailed for a little while. My wife and I have had a lot going on lately. I recently resigned from my job as a behavior therapist and my wife just took (and passed) her board exam to become a licensed physical therapist. On top of all that, we moved.

I will not be taking another job in the behavior health field. I’ll call that a backup plan for the future, but I want to change fields. I’m fortunate enough to have a wife who supports me and will allow me to follow my dreams. She agreed to support us financially for a few months to see if I can start my own company in the health and fitness industry. I’ll give more information about that another time.

For now, my focus is going to be weight loss. In order to market myself in the industry that I want to join, I will need to look the part, right? I’ve managed to maintain my weight loss. I’ve been hovering around 250lbs for the past few months. I also stalled on my last group of goals because of time constraints and stress from all the stuff we’ve had going on over the last month. I am not going to complete those goals. Realistically, I cook pretty healthy for the most part, and who do you know who can do 100 push-ups? I managed to run a half marathon at 250lbs. I’m pretty proud of that accomplishment. And that only took me 8 weeks to train for.

On Monday, I will start a whole new set of goals. I want to use this move as a fresh start. We’re in a new house with new responsibilities and new routines. What are those goals? I’ll give you the general idea today. They’ve all got to do with weight loss. SURPRISE! Keep checking throughout the weekend as well for some other updates and thoughts.

Consider this The Train getting back on track.

WOO WOO!!!!

Goal accomplished...

Which one? I'm sure you'll figure it out quickly.

This morning, my wife and I decided to go for a run. We moved our long runs to Friday because we both generally have more daylight hours available to do a run on Friday's as opposed to Sunday. We set out with the intention of running double digits. My longest run until this morning was 10 miles.

We walked out the door a little late. I left not feeling very good. My stomach was in knots. I tried to eat this morning because I knew I'd need fuel for the run. Bad idea, apparently. We brought a little bit of food (Shot Blocks and Gu Gels) with us. I was hesitant to put anything else into my body other than water for fear of making the stomach ache worse, but if I needed energy, I needed energy.

As we approached the starting line, I decided that today was the day. The first Elicker Superfluous Half-Marathon. Why that name? Because I didn't map out a 13.1 mile route. We just ran, zig zagged up and down streets, and ran in cul-de-sacs. Thank God for Garmin watches.

We set off, and I didn't have my normal pep in my step, so to speak. I imagine it was the stomach ache, but who knows. My legs felt ok, but I didn't feel like an athlete. I would say that I leave on about 30% of my runs feeling AWESOME. Today wasn't one of those days even though I was hoping real hard that it was. Oh well.

I decided that a 12 minute mile pace would be comfortable. I mean, lets be honest... I only started training for this run 8 weeks ago. That's not a lot of time to go from struggling to finish a 4 mile run to a half-marathon runner.

We're fortunate to live at the top a "hill." The beginning of our runs are typically down hill for at least a quarter mile. It gives us time to warm up and what not. Today, I would say that the first mile and a half were mostly down hill with the exception of one larger hill that we ran up. If it wasn't down, it was certainly flat. Great warm up.

Mile two comes and I hit a wall. Not hard, maybe we'll call it a fence. It's not a high fence. In fact, I feel like I'm just about over it, but as I'm coming down the other side, my shorts get caught and now I'm hanging off the side by my underwear.

As it goes, my wife and I never have a good run on the same day. If she's struggling, I'm feeling fantastic. If I'm struggling, she's killing it. Today was one of her days.

By the time I finally got off the fence, we were about three and a half miles in, and running down hill again. I know this isn't going to be a great day for me. I'm barely a quarter of the way through this thing and I've already hit one wall. In order to add some distance, we went to a small park with a running loop that we've done before. I hate this park. On the plus side, there are water fountains and I need to fill my bottle up.

At about mile 6, I realize that my shorts are falling off my butt. These shorts are wrestling shorts that I got in high school. Junior year. That means they're about 8 years old. They have no elastic left, so I just use the string to tie them tight and keep them up. But the knot is impossible to get out! I had to stop running for about a minute to get the knot out, otherwise I'd be running with a water bottle in one hand, and my shorts in the other.

When we started up again, my legs felt like they'd gained 100 pounds a piece. I've heard people say that their legs felt heavy. I'd never had this experience before. Today I got that experience. It's horrible. Luckily it only took a quarter mile to get the lead out.

The rest of the run was relatively uneventful. We added chunks of road here and there. I ran out of water and one point, luckily we were only about a mile from that park, so we went back there, I filled up my bottle again, and we got back to it.

At this point, we're guessing about distances. I'm trying to look at the watch and figure out where we need to go to get our 13.1. We ran the park loop again, then a loop around the local high school. As we turned on our last mile home, we realize, we're just about exactly a mile from home. We've taken this risk before and ended up short of our goal distance. I'm not about to let that happen to me today. Once I'm home, I'm home. I'm not turning around to get an extra half mile, and there's no way I'm gonna go back out in the next few weeks. I'm feeling pretty horrible at this point. There's another really small park on the way home with a gravel running path, so we did that.

On that path, I ran out of water. My hamstrings started to burn worse than anything I've ever felt before. My calves were also on fire. I punched my water bottle out of frustration knowing that I was only about a half mile from finishing. I sped up to just get it over with, but I didn't have it, so I slowed down to a crawl again. At this point, I'm extremely frustrated thinking that I may not finish this thing. And I'm so close I can almost see the finish.

We have two turns left to get onto our street. I'm a quarter mile away from being done, and I'm cramping up big time. I wait for the first turn, then I put my foot on the gas. I'm not in a sprint by any means, but my pace is back up. I turn the second corner and spot a speed limit sign. I run to it, look at my watch. 13.01 miles. Not yet. I look for another land mark. Another sign. I run to it, look at my watch. 13.06. Damnit! Ok, one more. A tree this time. I figured something organic might help. 13.10.

I did it.

Tears start rolling down my face. I can't control my emotions (If you were at my wedding, you know this runs in the family). My wife is telling me how proud of me she is. I have to bend over to breath I'm so choked up at this point. But I did it. In 2 hours, 26 minutes, and 33 seconds. 11:11 per mile. I blew away my 12 minute mile goal. I did it.

Start of Week 8

It's time to reanalyze what I've been doing to myself these past 7 weeks. I only have about 6 weeks left to the end of my second 90 days... and I haven't lost hardly any weight. 252 this morning. I am happy that my yo-yo has stopped, but I'm sabotaging myself. This is my M.O.

The first thing I noticed is that I'm drinking more alcohol than I need to. That stopped over the weekend. I even considered packing up all of my liquor for the move (in 4 weeks), but I decided that I wanted to test myself.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a Behavior Specialist. Granted, I work mostly with autistic and ADHD kids, but I should be able to analyze myself, right? Half right. I needed some help from my better half. She told me that she doesn't think it's a problem drinking issue as much as an impulse control issue. Perfect. I have my finger on it now.

I had to take a look at myself in different aspects of life. Impulsive? Me? Heck yeah. I'm totally impulsive, especially when it comes to consumables. One of the biggest issues for me with consumables, is that if I see something I can put in my mouth, I want to eat it. Or drink it. If you've ever been to my apartment, you know that our pantry (a book shelf, really) is wide open. If I walk from the living room to the kitchen for a glass of water, I have tons of food staring at me. It's easy to grab a handful of anything... dry cereal, pretzels, chips, a bag of popcorn to pop, candy, nuts....

Now, that's not all horrible for me to eat. But it is when I do it 3-4 times a day when I shouldn't be. I'm not adding up the calories because it scares the hell outta me to see how much I eat and don't really think of as a snack. Especially because I usually plan a snack or two during the day and eat that in addition to all of the extra food I've eaten.

I've got to control myself better. How will I do that? Here's the plan...

I'm going to start using FitDay again. This is a website that you can use to track calories in food. It's got loads of stuff in it already, but you can also add your own custom foods. I've used this in the past to track calories so I could lose weight and it worked. The best part is that it shows you a nutritional breakdown between carbs, protein, and fat. It also shows you a vitamin breakdown.

I used a website to calculate how many calories I should eat in a day. Freedieting.com has a calculator that shows you based on height, weight, gender, and amount of workouts you do per week how many calories you should consume in order to maintain, lose fat, or "extreme fat loss".

There are a few different formulas for this calorie calculation. I've used the Harris-Benedict formula in the past. This calculation shows me that I can eat 3500 calories to maintain my weight. 2800 is fat loss and 2100 is extreme fat loss. A new formula that I haven't seen before is called the Mifflin-St Jeor. This formula shows me 3187 for maintenance, 2550 for fat loss, and 2016 for extreme fat loss.

In the past, I have gone below the extreme fat loss numbers in order to lose weight quickly. It works, but only for so long. Crash diets suck hard core and cause relapse. I'm trying to change habits here, so we're not going for the super extreme fat loss tricks... I need it to stay off. I'm going to aim for somewhere between 2000 and 2500 calories per day. This can be a struggle sometimes, but I'm determined to get some more weight off before the move. I'd love 10 pounds, but I'm going to hold my breath. I'd be ok with sitting comfortably in the 240's.

Also, I have only lost 7 pounds so far in this 90 day challenge, but I'm going to post side by sides to see if there's a difference... I don't see much, but a little bit in the back and maybe in the stomach.