Breaking a Barrier

This morning I wanted to see if I could do it again… Yup, I can.

I weighed myself and for the first time I can say I've lost more than 40 lbs. The scale read, "220." 220! I have now lost 41 pounds.

500 Miles!

http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/v1/html/milestones/print_certif.html?id=279092946&region=us&language=en&locale=en_us&dateFormat=MM/DD/YY

2-21-08 Update: Inspiration

I was considering waiting until the first of March to make my next blog post so I could add some photos, but my cousin reminded me that I should be posting more often.

I’ve got to continue being the inspiration that I am becoming. Next stop: running for President and having people pass out while talking about change and hope but not discussing any policies to get there. .

As of Monday, February 18, I was 225. I have lost 36 lbs since December 1st. I want you to consider how much weight that is. If any of you have a water softener that requires salt, next time you buy one of those bags of salt, just remember you are now carrying the weight I have lost.

I consider that a huge accomplishment. Only one more bag of salt to go.

The workout intensity has only increased. I started including gym sprint triathlons into my routine. They are brutal. I run between 25 to 30 miles a week at 10 minute miles. Looking in the mirror, I now am seeing the man that married my wife and even now I look better than I did then.

I will add the photos next week. My wife has really enjoyed going shopping for me because she is buying me these dress shirts that are a little more “metro sexual” as in form fitting. I had one last year that looked like the buttons were about to burst when I wore it. Now it, and the other shirts look great.

My co-worker has lost about 20 lbs since he started losing weight (he is a walking fool right now). My cousin has lost 6lbs. My brother just joined a gym and my brother-in-law is now getting motivated to work out as well. I will not say I am behind it or I am the main inspiration. That would be complete lunacy.

I will say it was a little easier to start living a better life knowing my wife was already doing it in her life. If doing what I am doing can make it easier for someone else to start, so be it. I cannot wait to see their results as well.

The Goose Egg

This was the first week in the last nine where the scale read, “0 net change.”

At first I was kind of bummed. I did everything right. I stayed in my calorie range, I worked out every day, added some more strength training, ran another half marathon and…. 0.

To be honest though, I have never felt better. My clothes all fit; I can stay awake at work; my body is starting to become more defined.

I spoke with Mrs. Fuegote about it and she mentioned how much happier I am now then I was 6 weeks ago. I am happy to see my kids and play around with them. I do not just go home and sit and watch TV. It has been a fantastic change.

This whole experience has increased my testimony of the Word of Wisdom.

"What plan are you following?"

I get this question a lot now that people can notice I actually have only 1 chin and, gasp, there's actually a neck.

"What plan are you following?"

I started this little journy of mine upon watching season 4 of "The Biggest Loser." I was hooked. I then signed up for "The Biggest Loser Club" and bought "The Biggest Loser Cook Book."

That is the diet portion of my weight loss. I've already discussed the other portion: my new addiction to running. I calculated that I've run 223.53 miles since Dec 1! I'm actually contemplating yet another treadmill half marathon this Saturday. I'll post it if I do.

My Jan. Nike+ Goal

My up to date information

Weight Update

Lost another 4 lbs last week. Man I'm feeling great. Also completed a treadmill half marathon:

and my fastest 10k this morning:

Photos from before and now

Images on the left are the befores and the right hand side are the afters.

Progress report: 1-16-08

I have a secret. I have a bunch of new clothes and I did not have to spend 1 cent on purchasing them. No I did not buy them, I just opened my closet and found them just sitting there. They were collecting dust so I decided to start wearing them.

I have not been this excited or happy in quite some time.

Let me tell you what has been going on since my last post. That diet… excuse me, that lifestyle change I started in December, well, I am still following it. The Biggest Loser cookbook and plan are fantastic. I get hungry; I get cravings, but who doesn’t. I just haven’t succumbed to them.

I work out every morning. I run between 3-10 miles a day depending on the day of the week and I’m loving the Nike+ site and challenges.

Here are the one’s that I really enjoy:


You want an update? Here it is.
Weight: 236.2 (down 24.8 since December 1)
I’m not tired at all throughout the day.
I’m off caffeine and… here’s the best part…

I got home from work today and put on one of my soccer jerseys. This jersey used to fit pretty tight around the middle area and my arms were tight (just like all of my golf shirts). I put it on and my wife is absolutely amazed. The shirt is now baggy and the arms are loose.

I proceeded to try on all my clothes in my closet and it all fits: Pants, golf shirts, everything! Quite a great day!

My profile on Nike+

One month later…

It’s January 2008! Happy New Year!

Progress report: Since I started the Biggest Loser Plan back in December, I have gone from 260 pounds to 243 pounds (and during the Holiday Season as well!).

2 pair of slacks I have not worn yet are now in my wardrobe rotation. All my other pants are baggy. I can fit into the suit I have not worn for two years, I wore jeans for the first time in two years and a suit I have not worn for two years now fits.

Wow, what a difference a month makes.

Physically, I run about 5-7 miles per day. If you were to tell me last year I would be regularly running 5-7 miles per day I would have laughed until I fell over dead. This week I have a goal of running 42 miles. 42 miles! Amazing.

My diet is going well. I had bad days on Christmas and New Year’s Eve but lost weight during that week anyway. I get up at 4:00 am and enjoy the day. It feels good to be doing this well.

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.