1.5 weeks later.

Well holy crap. I have actually gone to the gym every day since the first post. That has not happened since I wrestled in high school.

Minor adjustments I have made:
I'm now waking up around 4:25 so I can get to the gym and have the full hour. Crazy, crazy.

I cannot afford a $60/week trainer (come on man, that is $240/month). I did however find something very interesting. Over the loud speaker I heard an advertisement for PodFitness. I went to their site, signed up for their 10 day free trial and tried my first workout this morning. The cost per month is $19.95.

Creating the workout was simple. The only problem with creating the workout is that it will not use iTunes .m4p files because they are protected. You need to have them converted into .mp3. After that it is very easy.

The work out was tough. A lot of cardio, some cardio weight work. Just brutal. Not as brutal as my 20 minutes in the pool on Friday. I love to swim, but wow that was amazing.

Initial weight: 260. The heaviest I have... ever... been. I'm fat (phat).

Day 2: the gym

I got up today at 4:50 am and actually drove to the gym. Life Time Fitness is a new gym for me so I am unaware where everything is located.

I got there, looked for the locker rooms for a while, finally found them and got ready. I got to my treadmill and started a similar program to what I did yesterday.

It was a 25 minute walk at 4 mph targeting 145 heart beats per minute. I did not read the censors correctly for the first 8 minutes and ended up walking at a 7% incline. I finally managed to correctly put my hands over the censor and had a good work out.

Today I had Dave Mathews Band because that was the only thing on my PSP memory card.

Going to a new gym I find it funny how difficult it is to find the important areas, say, like a bathroom. I could not find the bathroom to save my life and ended up waiting for an additional hour to get to the restroom at work.

On my way home from work today, I dropped by best buy to get myself an iPod Nano. This is my first iPod and I am only 5 years behind the times.

Day 1

I still couldn’t walk very well today so I decided to stay at home and do some light treadmill work for 20 minutes before going to work.

I got up at 5 and followed my schedule. I need to show more discipline on my personal time but everything else worked out okay.

I did eat a danish and my eating when I got home from work left much to be desired. I need to show more restraint in that area.

Thank you iTunes and Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam and Dave Matthews for making that 20 minutes seem like a walk in the park.

Turning 30

I finally turned 30 this last week and it was the first birthday I felt old. I am now 30. 30! I have blossomed to a wonderfully heavy 260 pounds and have never been fatter. I guess that is why my wife got me some time with a personal trainer starting last Saturday.

Happy Birthday, you are going to the gym tomorrow.

I am not upset or embarrassed by this gift. The truth is I need it. I want to stay somewhat healthy for the next thirty years and right now nothing fits, nothing looks good, I am tired after walking up stairs and I am flat out not healthy.

The trainer I worked with at Lifetime Fitness started out by “working out my mind.” We needed to visualize the goal. The goals are three:
Get my fat body to 200 lbs.
Be a happy, healthy husband (3 points for alliteration)
Be successful in my church callings.

He then had me go through exercises in how I am going to get there. Ultimately he had me schedule my ideal day.

5:00 am: Wake Up.
5:15 am: Work out.
6:00 am: get ready for work
6:30 am: get to Trax
7:15 am: be at work
7:20 am: Spiritual Development
8:00 am: Work
4:30 pm (or 6:00 pm): go home
6:00 pm: Time with wife and kids (keep TV off)
8:30 pm: enjoy my wife’s company
10:30 pm: Go to bed.

I’m supposed to take notes on how that schedule is going and we will discuss it next week.

I did some core training with my wife and the class and let me just say I can barely walk and my back is extremely sore.