Happy New Year!

2009 is almost in the books now and heck the 'oughts' are also ending. We are heading into a new decade. Kinda cool. I'm looking forward to decade number 6 for me :) Remember, I was just barely born in the 60's. Rock on!

Looking back on 2009, I think I've got a lot to be proud of. I've dropped somewhere around 30 pounds or 2.1 stones, or 13 kilograms .01 tons, or 36 troy pounds (whatever the hell those are). Not too shabby. The holidays have been brutal on the workout/diet but January 4 starts me back on my routine.

Something new to the workout rotation in January will be swimming. I swam competitively in my youth. Swimming is such a great way to workout. Calories burn like super dry kindling.

I haven't made it to the gym as much lately as I'd like. Some of it is just lack of motivation but I kind of expect that when my routine isn't so routine. I did stop in to the gym yesterday for a nice run. The Nike+ stuff is still pretty cool. I don't remember if I shared it here or not, I know it's been updating Twitter and Facebook, but here's the link you can check up on me and see my runs: http://my.nike.com/OhCaptain

My run yesterday taught me something about myself I didn't know and still don't really understand. I have several running friends that have encouraged me to find a running pace that I can do for a long period of time. OK. Here's what I'm learning. 4mph on the treadmill is the point at which I feel the crossover between walking and running. 5 mph I can run, but my legs quickly hurt like hell. 6 mph, still hurts but I can do it for about 10 minutes no problem. 7 mph still a little pain, but the heart redlines. And here's the new twist, I hit the button for 8 mph just to see - no pain. My legs didn't hurt and my stride felt comfortable. The downside, my heart felt like it was going to explode after about 60 seconds. Sigh. I think ultimately, I just need to keep it up and all of this will just improve. You think?

So, as my final post for 2009, I should probably do the whole goals thing. Last year, I did this in a very generic and attainable way. I'd like to lose another 30 pounds this year. That would be cool. I'd also like to keep learning to eat and live more healthy. I think this is pretty much where I left off last year. Attainable.

I'll leave you with this video. It's from one of favorite running songs. I love this song! Try it in your headphones and let me know what you think!

I think I'm gonna cross post this over at the Geek blog. I might decide to transition all of this to the geek blog just to simplify my life. I love blogging but this multiple site thing is getting brutal. Before I do it officially, I'll post it here. Happy New Year!!!!

Missed it by that much

We had our final weigh in last night. Another .8 pound loss week. About half of what I was hoping for. I came in at a loss of 9.8 pounds in 10 weeks. That's still not too shabby. The real news will be when I go back for my bod pod follow up.

I guess it's back to the gym! See ya there!


-- Posted from my cell phone that starts with the i.

Final week of the M.A.L.E. program

Tonight is the final week of the M.A.L.E. program I've been talking about. Kind of bittersweet. I really like the accountability of having to do certain things by certain times. There's a chance I might sign up for it again in January. I'll consider it...there's also a chance I wouldn't qualify for it if I do a good job working out and eating over the next 2 months. We could hope.

Last week was a bit disappointing. .8 pounds. I know the goal was a pound a week, but I guy can dream right? I'm not sure this will be a good week either. The scale at home is basically showing now progress even with more workouts this week. The pants seem bigger this week, but the scale is telling a different story.

One thing I've started was to get a pair of running shows and actually use the Nike+ stuff to monitor progress. Let's face it, I'm a geek. Any shiny new tech is fascinating to me. I've done 3 runs already with it. Not like marathon runs but run/walks that push me. My legs aren't quite up to the challenge of full on 30 minute runs but we are getting there. Yesterdays run started with an entire 5 minutes of running without slowing to a walk. Just 2 months ago there would have been no way. 2 minutes usually killed me.

If you are interested in checking out my progress, here's the link to the public side (http://my.nike.com/OhCaptain). It's an interesting website. There are goals and all kinds of stats to keep you interested. Ultimately, I'll be getting a new iPhone and hope to start using this site, Runkeeper. This has quite a few other options that look pretty awesome. When you use it with your phone and run outside, the GPS keeps track of your location and the shows your details on a map. Pretty cool.

The final day of the M.A.L.E. program is Saturday morning. They will be serving us breakfast and then awards and recognition. It could be fun...right?

Here's to smaller jeans..Cheers!

24 pounds - really?

I had fired the Wii up with the kids tonight. We did our usual screwing around. After the kids went to bed, I decided to screw around and see what kind of progress has been made since we bought that thing.

As it turns out, I've lost 24 pounds since we bought it and I first stepped on that funny gaming controller called the Wii Balance board. Not too shabby.

Running because I want to

Really awesomely good news last week at weigh in...I lost 2.2 pounds in that week. I was actually hoping for a little more, but I'll take it.

Working out has been happening a lot more lately, although this Halloween candy business makes it damn hard. One thing we learned in the M.A.L.E. program is that you are much less likely to snack, nibble and generally take in stray calories if you don't have the food any where near you. Damn cute pumpkins and candy dishes...they are EVERYWHERE this time of year.

Will power...damn it!

There is a part of me that really likes running again. Today at lunch, I went to the gym just to run at lunch. Granted, it's only the treadmill at this time. I wanted to break in my new shoes in a controlled environment rather then running a mile and find out there's a problem. Corn fields are surprising not a place you find many phones.

Being the gadget geek that I am, I'll be trying out the Nike+ stuff here too. I've got the shoes and the iPod so if I can just figure out how to get it all working together, I'll be all set.

Let's start hoping I can pull off the weight loss again this week. According to one of my teammates, we are the biggest losers so far.

Happy shrinking!

This weeks strength routine

Figured I'd post this while I was thinking about it. Here's this weeks strength routine. It's got some serious umf in the core...

Strength Routine – All exercises performed at 3 sets of 12 reps and do not need to be completed in this order. We are hitting all the major muscle groups during this workout so you can do which machine is open at the time it is available. Pair the abs exercises with a machine and during your rest break you will do 1 set for 30 seconds. At the end of each exercise you will have performed 3 sets.

Strength
Free Motion (FM) Chest Press
FM Shoulder Press
FM Lat
FM Row
FM Squat – Those with lower leg injuries use the Leg Extension
FM Lift – Squat and Row

Abdominals
Alternating toe touches
Bridge ups
Crunches
Planks
Reverse Crunch
Scissors

Yesterday, I skipped this and did only a 20 minute run on the treadmill (which felt awesome, thank you very much!) Not sure if the run added to this, but I'm still feeling the abs even today. Might I have a 6 pack by Vegas? Ha! Yeah, right :)

Moving past disappointment

Last Thursday, I suffered a bit of a disappointment. For the first time since I started the M.A.L.E. I didn't really lose any weight. I was officially down .2 pounds, but that's basically nothing. Bummer!

Not to make excuses but I did kind of expect this. Our workouts last week were mostly yoga. While I like yoga, it's not much of a calorie burner.

I've also been suffering a bit of knee and shin pain. Let's just say ibuprofen was a good friend of mine.

The best part of being flat weight wise though was I was sticking to my diet. I've told you about my fancy diet, right? Eat less then burn.

This last week I've started some new training. I really like this one. It uses free motion machines for doing strength training and then you do a short ab workout between each machine. I can post the workout later.

Another change comes in the form of running on the treadmill. A few of my friends have been running regularly. This has inspired me to push myself in this direction. I guess we'll see where this takes me.

That's about for now. I'm hoping to show some actual weight loss this week. Let's all cross our fingers!


-- Posted from my cell phone that starts with the i.