Nike+ Need Motivation?

I have been using Nike+ with my iPod in my workouts and it is such a great idea. Putting goals, challenges, accomplishments to help motivate people. I love it.



I particularly enjoy the challenges. I started a challenge for tomorrow called the “12 runs of Christmas.” In theory you would run 1 kilometer the first day, 2 kilometers the second day and so on until the 12th day you are running 12 kilometers.

I did not choose miles because that would be 78 miles in 12 days and I cannot do that… yet.

78 kilometers is still almost 49 miles. That is still a high goal in my book (considering I never ran 4 consecutive miles in my life before this year).

The purists will run the 1 kilometer on day 1 and 2 on the second day, but because I will not run on Sunday, I will be dividing mine out to 5 miles a day.

It will be a great goal.

http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/?l=all_challenges,553115208

Snacks and Food

The hardest part about trying to diet is being a father. What?!? What does being a dad have to do with your diet? My answer: Everything.

Kids are notorious for their snacks. Fruit Snacks, Animal Crackers, Cheeze-its, Fruit Snacks, Ritz, Club Crackers, Doritos, Pretzels and Fruit Snacks. I love all of them. A lot (can you tell I enjoy fruit snacks and crackers, sheesh).

It is not like you cannot have these around the house either, because the kids eat them. Thank heavens they eat apples and bananas as well.

Oh, I forgot to mention this
http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/v1/html/milestones/print_certif.html?id=1957500382&region=us&language=en&locale=en_us&dateFormat=MM/DD/YY

Let’s try this again…

“My name is Chris, and I like to start new workout routines and then stop them after a month when I get sick.”

“Hello Chris!”

Seems like every quarter I actually start a new workout routine/diet. The process starts about a month and half before then in my mind because I hate how I feel in my clothes and I hate buying size 40 waist pants. So again it starts.

I have been so motivated by watching the contestants on “the Biggest Loser” and the amount of weight they have lost. Granted they are at a campus, but still, these trainers are working them ragged regardless of weight. It is amazing.

So, I needed to workout but I needed to change something. Getting out of bed at 4:00 am is too difficult and I cannot get to bed before 11:00. I try and I try and I cannot do it. My wife and I are night owls and getting to bed by 10:45 (asleep) is an accomplishment.

So I get up when I usually get ready for work and work out then. I have to get up anyway and it is either run or get ready for work. So it is not so difficult to motivate myself there.

Right now I have a couple of routines I do throughout the week.

Monday: Treadmill day
I start at 6mph at a 6% incline and run 1 minute. Do the same incline at 5mph for 1 minute and then 4mph for 1 minute.
I drop the incline to 4% and run the same paces as before. I then drop it to 2% incline for 3 minutes and 0% incline for 3 minutes. That is usually 1 mile.

I up the incline again to 4.5% for 3 minutes (alternating pace still). 3.0% for 3 minutes, 1.5% for 3 minutes and 0% for 3 minutes.

I up the incline to 3% and do 3 minutes. Repeating the pacing I go to 2%, then 1% and finish at 0%.

Up the incline to 1.5% to 1%, 5% and finishing my last minute at 0% and cool down. Usually after all is done, it is 4.22 miles at 52 minutes.

Tuesday is Winsor Pilates.

Wednesday is another treadmill day. Start and continue at 4mph starting at 0% incline. Every minute I move it up .5% until I get to 10%. Then I come back down.

Thursday is core training on one of those training balls and a couple of miles on the tread mill.

Friday is another treadmill day doing whatever I want.

I have also started a diet from http://www.biggestloserclub.com. We’ll see how that works out.
Starting weight: 255.
Goal: 195.

If you are a Ute fan and want to try and run as many miles as the trip from Rice-Eccles to the Big House, check out this Nike+ Challenge.
http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/?l=all_challenges,955754947

Update: 1-16-07

Last week, the week ending the 13, was a minor setback. I ended up sick and did not work out Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

I then told my wife it was okay for me to miss a kids good night kiss if they have snot and saliva covering their face.

Weight at week's end: 255.

I did a second Podfitness work out and they're brutal. JUST BRUTAL. three cheers for no pain no gain.

I just finished my third week of working out and finally I am starting to see some progress.

Last week in my training I decided to use that podfitness program. It did some upper body work and the next day guess what the trainer did a lot of exercises for? That’s right, the upper body.

So I figured I didn’t want to be that tired again for work so this week I was going to focus on some cardio but additional strength training. Tuesday and Wednesday I spent 20 minutes on the stair climber and then an additional 20 minutes on an elliptical trainer.

What do you think we worked on Thursday? This week he decided to focus on the lower body. Nice.

Swam better today as well, not as tired afterward.

Total weight loss: 4 lbs.
Weight: 256.

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.

My training group me

My training group met with our trainer last night and the result was me almost throwing up and not being able to walk up any stairs.

We started by doing some rope drills working on our footwork.  If you hit the rope you had to do push ups.  Luckily I only had to do two sets of push ups.  I’ve got good feet. ;-).

Next we did some lunges.  I felt my legs start to tear and the shaking and pain start to set in.  We did side lunges after that.  That was followed by some stretching and running exercises.

We ended by more footwork drills and throwing medicine balls against the wall.

I could barely drive home.  My legs were shaking all night and any amount of movement by my wife caused me to wake up because of the shot of pain from the legs.

I can’t walk.

I struggle getting in and out of my chair right now.

I hurt.

It was worth it but I hurt.

Thursday Dec 15

Thursday Dec 15

Tonight we were weighed and we were measured (and we were found wanting…love that movie).

The bad news:
Waist: 46 inches

Worse news
Weight: 255 lbs

Okay news:
Neck: still 17 inches.

So I have a lot of work cut out for me.  If I could get back to the 220’s by summer, I’ll be very VERY happy.  

Where did this come from?

I know where it comes from actually.  The “it” is the absolute pain I am feeling in my arms right now.

I did not do anything special yesterday morning, just a couple of bench presses.  The pain just goes to show how little I’ve used my chest and arms in the last year or two.

I can’t even grab my head it hurts so badly.

Mission Accomplished

Mission Accomplished.

I got over the hurdle that usually hurts my work out progress.  I worked out two days in a row.  Shocker I know.

The only difficult part was I couldn’t move my arm because the joints in my arm are very tight.  Also, I’m going to have some problems staying awake today and that never bodes well.

Plus I’m working to 10pm tonight followed by the midnight showing of King Kong afterward…. Mama!

I bring it upon myself.

Day 2 dilemma

So I’m halfway through day 1 of waking up at 3:30 in the morning.  I’m doing fine, I still have 10 hours left in my shift.  That is quite intimidating and daunting.

I’m quickly getting to the hurdle that knocks me down every time I try and work out.  

Morning Two I always find an excuse or a way to stay in bed and BAM, the diet’s over, working out is over and I’m 10 pounds heavier kicking myself for not working out.

Here’s to overcoming the first hurdle so I can make it to the second hurdle…the 3rd morning.

Day 1: again

I started again today.  New Day! New Diet.

Not that I was on a diet before.

Today I started working out.  Some friends of mine and me got a rather inexpensive membership to Xcel Spa and Fitness.

My only hurdle is the tax season is now upon us and I’ll be at work 60 hours a week.  When do I go to the gym?

Today I was up at 3:30 am and intend to follow that schedule and see how it goes.

The routine:
Treadmill: run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes repeated 7 times.
Chest: did some chest workout stuff.

I was amazed to see about 20 people there as early as myself.  It will be nice to finally work out and shed some of this fat off.  If you’re wondering, I’m just as fat as I was when I took those photos below.

9-1-05: the first day

Today was the first day of the diet.
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 255 <- i'm fat.

Eating: A bowl of raisen bran. Homemade hambergers for dinner. 32 oz of water.

Exercise: soccer practice. We did these drills where my quads were really getting a workout. Today, I can't even walk up or down stairs. Yippeee.

24 hours later.

Last night some friends and myself got together to play some soccer. I could feel the soreness start in my upper thigh, you know the muscles that have atrophied due to lack of physical exertion.

I woke Friday morning and felt super. I didn’t have any soreness in my legs or anywhere else. I thought, “huh, maybe I’m in better shape than I thought.”

As the day progressed I could feel myself progressively getting sorer and sorer. My chest and ribs area started tightening up. My groin muscles were stiff and my legs were hard to lift. My foot, the foot I kick with, I wasn’t able to move that foot at all.

24 hours later I had a hard time coughing and moving because almost every muscle in my body was feeling some effect of the previous day’s activities.

Here’s to continued success.

New blog

this is where I'll discuss my weight progress.

Week 3

Feeling a lot better after weekend.
I didn't eat anything for breakfast.
For lunch I had two go-gurts and some lasagna.
Dinner was some chicken and salad, with a handful of peanuts.

Week two…

Why is it whenever I start to work out I get sick? I either get a really bad chest cold or something. Fortunately I did eat healthy during the week, and did just fine.

Unfortunately…..

Vacation = Diet Killer!

I probably gained weight last week. Damn vacation! OH CANADA, WHY IS YOUR FOOD SO FAT!

That being said, let’s talk about the vacation.

We arrived in Canada late on Friday night and got to bed by 1:00 AM Saturday morning. The next day we visited Mrs. fuegote’s grandparents. Her grandparents own a couple of cats and their lovely house was covered in cat hair. Well I’m allergic and this is the start of my phlegm woes of the trip.

My family went to the zoo right after and I’m happy to say we didn’t see any humping monkeys. The Calgary zoo is a far cry from SLC’s Hogle Zoo. The animals look like they’re enjoying themselves (they had a painting elephant).

Sunday = family reunion. I like to look at this day as the day I started watching the EPL. After the reunion we traveled up to Banff.

Monday was spent on the golf course. Banff Springs is a beautiful course designed like the British courses across the ocean. The bunker’s are deep, the rough is very rough. I shot a 135 and enjoyed every second of it. One of the guys we were teamed up with gave me a whole new perception on golf. He was a Swede and he always goes golfing with his friend. After a particular shot where he sliced it into the short rough, he turned to my brother-in-law and I, and with a smile on his face he said, “Yaa, I always do that.” He goes golfing just to enjoy the outdoors and hanging with his pal. Good learning experience for me. So I didn’t mind the 135.



Monday night was spent trying to get over a cold that had now crept into my chest. Thank heavens for mentholatum. That stuff is amazing.

Tuesday we spent at Silvertip.

That course is more American in it’s greens and style. The item that sets this course a part from other courses I’ve been on is every tee is overlooking the shot and every view from the green is a spectacular view of the mountains.

Wednesday was spent at Lake Louise and hiking around. We came home Thursday. Wonderful trip, wonderful family. I’m glad to be back so I can start losing weight again.