It’s My Fury Road

21 Day Fix – Day 5

(Today felt like this going fast and not being able to eat!)

Yep that’s right, day 5. I feel like it’s going at a fast pace now, pain, planning and repeat.   I truly can’t believe its day 5, the last of the week days.  And I’m feeling better about it each day, sure the workouts kicked my butt again, like who can possibly do burpee after burpee.  I, after taking almost 20 seconds on the first one,I went down for the second one, but my arms gave out, and I laid there for the rest of the drill trying not to throw up.  But by the next exercise I got up and I kept on going.  Tonight, I finished Cardio Fix.  1 down with that workout and 2 to go. 

I would like to take a moment to comment on this workout however.  Beachbody always claims you can do all their workouts in the comfort of your own home.  And for many people, I’m sure that’s true.  A little 110 pound woman or a 170 pound guy could jump all over their house on their light feet and be fine.  And on the flip side a big 350 – 400 pound guy who had to modify everything to the extreme could do it at home.  But what about the in-between.  As I’ve said before I am a big guy, 6’4 and as of today I tip the scales at 310 pounds.  Luckily with two bad knees I need to modify, but if that wasn’t the case I would bring the house down on top of my bouncing around.  I could still do the lifting and the yoga but cardio would have to stop. 

(A Picture of me doing Cardio inside!) 

Tony Horton if your listening is it possible to do a Cardio that won’t break the house, and will bring me down under 200 pounds?  I’d be happy to beta test it with you (OK, I doubt Tony Horton reads this blog but let me try the hashtag thing again #TonyHorton #Beachbody (There now I’m sure he will be reading this with his breakfast Shakeology)

Anyway back to the day (I guess I haven’t talked about that yet.) I woke up early (Well early for me, and my wife actually woke me up after her workout, but it sounds better the other way.) And I made breakfast for my wife and kids.  Breakfast sandwiches with turkey bacon, egg, and tomato on a whole wheat English muffin.  (It sounds boring, but my eggs are legendary.)  I didn’t want to go for the English muffin -  it just sounded too early for the loss of two carbs.  So I had 3 scrambled eggs and 4 slices of Turkey Bacon.  It was a solid breakfast for only 2.5 protein.

My wife packed an amazing lunch and snacks for work.  Me, I forgot.  I was going to try to wait until dinner, but after shoveling snow, I was tired and hungry so it was off to get another salad, I got the same thing as I got yesterday judging container size as best I could, and I think I did OK.  Worked the rest of the afternoon, and came home and made Honey Garlic Pork Chops. 

They were amazing.  Probably the second best thing I have had on this diet.  (Although it has only lasted 5 days.)  If I ever figure out this link thing out I’ll let you click to the recipes, but don’t get your hopes up). 

Well from there I hit the workout, which I already talked about.  I had a protein shake, and I wrote this blog, watched Fury Road, and here we are.  I think I’m going to have a waffle with almond butter and go to bed.  

It looks like another busy day tomorrow.  

Today is a Better Day

21 Day fix – Day 4

Well yesterday I was pretty sure I wouldn’t make it to day 21, but today I feel much better about the whole thing.  Yes, I was right I did not sleep well last night.  My body felt sore and broken and it wasn’t until about 5:00 AM that I finally fell asleep. This caused me to turn off my alarm at 7:30 AM.   Thankfully, my wife woke me up at 8:00.  I hurried around and grabbed a smoothie knowing I would be at work all day.  Well, I made it to work 20 minutes late, which is always tough when you are the one leading the Bible study, luckily we have recently studied forgiveness and all was OK. 

Not you may be thinking Tim, this does not sound like a good day at all, “why are you feeling better?  Well not to worry, I’ll tell you.  To start off, after waking up late, I stepped on the bathroom scale to a weight of 312.  That’s 8 pounds from when I stood on the scale Monday Morning to when I stood on the scale Thursday morning.  I’m not sure anyone’s done better on the Biggest Loser… Which makes me think I should have went on there because I could use a whole bunch of money.  I actually went on to another Biggest Loser moment after getting to work, I walked through the kitchen on the way back to where we meet, and there on the counter 1 dozen assorted donuts and 1 dozen glazed donuts.  It was a huge temptation challenge.  I stood there and looked them over, I could have eaten not one, but several donuts and no one would have noticed… But I didn’t and walked into the other room.  I won the challenge!  (It’s good to know I’ll be safe from elimination on Friday!)

The day continued on the good streak, I had forgotten my lunch but I was able to estimate the size of the containers and get a salad from a local salad bar.  Which by the way shares a space with a Blimpies.  Dominos and a Cajun Fried Chicken place… yet I walked out with just a veggie and protein heavy salad.  I stopped at a gas station for a pop (yes, I still haven’t been able to kick the diet Mt. Dew… that is another challenge.)    Anyway the gas station also has hot dogs, nachos, and yes the best donuts in town (that’s a shout out to you Tom’s Donuts #TomsDonuts (I really don’t understand this Hashtag thing)

(This isnt my Tom's Donuts but its a Tom's Donuts) 

Well I eventually went home and cooked dinner, which I can’t believe I haven’t done yet as my wife

has been doing all the cooking since we started.  I made a pretty great Honey Mustard Salmon, and yes the picture is the actual salmon I made…

And finally at 9:00 I finally got in front of the TV to press play and make my way through Pilates Fix.  Now I had never done Pilates, to be honest it always sounded a little effeminate, and I kind of pride myself on being a manly man.  But let’s be honest, a woman named Autumn kicked my butt all week and she will probably continue to do so.  So Pilates it is.  It was good to know as well that both my wife and brother-in-law who are doing this with me said it was way easier than yesterday.  I stepped in encouraged, but before I go on remember I am 6’4, 312 pounds and I may be the least flexible person on the planet.  I have never been able to go lower then my knees on a toe touch.  My back doesn’t bend like that.  And I quickly realized several of the exercises I had to modify the modified just to get into the starting position.  So it was hard, really hard, but as I am sitting here still sore, I’m thinking I still did do some good. 

And that was my day, maybe I can do the next 17 days without a donut. 

(I Feel like this could be the new face of Tim Loses It!)

My Legs Hurt

21 Day Fix – Day 3

Well I’m feeling positive as I have completed 3 days out of 21, that means I am 1/7 of the way there. 

For a guy who hasn’t made it past day 2 of anything since 10 minute trainer almost 2 years ago, this is a pretty big deal.  Also, I continue to be pretty full.  Today I had a giant smoothie for breakfast, a dinner with this balsamic peach chicken, pasta, and broccoli and I even had a late night snack of a couple of beef taco’s from last night.  I know I missed lunch in there, but we had a weird snow day and the whole family slept in.  Plus, more good news, no one brought me any donuts and I have lost 7 pounds since Sunday Night, and 5 pounds since Monday morning which is my technical start date.  I know I can’t keep up this pace but it gives me a quick push towards dropping under 300 which is my goal for these 21 days…

I am, however, also feeling very negative tonight as my body is spent.  The 7 videos for 21 Day Fix are more difficult than P-90 or Ten Minute Trainer, and I didn’t realize just how exhausted I was until I went to stretch out for the Legs workout and my arms were really stiff. The more I warmed up, the worse it got until my arms were on fire and I still had 28 minutes of legs to go. 

And let me tell you about legs, this was the single most difficult workout I have ever done.  And that includes 8^th grade basketball tryouts where we had to run around the gym again and again and again, until enough kids left the team… I guess the coach didn’t like cuts.  But back to this workout, I wanted to remember the names of these exercises but they slipped my mind as each one was more evil then the one before.  Squats and lunges for the first 20 minutes and then you had to get on the ground for the really hard stuff.  I gave up on weights pretty quickly.  At 315, I figured I was already lifting way more weight than any on them on my squats and lunges.  And when I hit the last exercise I was using muscles I never knew I had… they’re still on fire over three hours later…

(No this was not my 8th grade Basketball Team)

All that said, what has me really feeling defeated is I don’t know how my sore arms and achy legs will get better, everything else I’ve done has always had a rest day. I always remember being so sore until that rest day but feeling so strong afterwards.  Here, I don’t know how my wrecked body ever recovers.  Will every day just be worse than the ones before?  Am I destined to 17 days of misery?  I hope not, but as I struggle to sleep tonight these are the thoughts going through my mind. 

I hate to leave things so negative, so I will close on a positive.  First I will finish, and second, I had the chance to eat a donut today and I didn’t.  I had stopped at Wal-Mart to pick up Fennel, Celery, Humus and other healthy things when I found myself standing in front of the donut case. It helped that Wal-Mart donuts are gross, but they still looked good. Then I turned around and found myself staring straight at a piece of red velvet cake.  Not only red velvet cake, but clearance red velvet cake.  .59 cents a piece.  I love a good deal almost as much as I love red velvet cake, but I fought through the temptation, bought my celery and headed home. 

Although telling that whole story, I really want a donut!  I’m going to bed, so when you read this it may be tomorrow.

This is a donut form QD in Lansing... They have great Donuts

And That’s All I Need!

21 Day Fix - Day 2 

Well although I left yesterday looking bleak, it really was a good day, sometimes the key to any specialty program is to be a little bit flexible… So although I was not able to get through the workout, I’ll do 2 at another date.   Even without the workout I did drop a pound and a half dropping from about 320 – 318.5.  So I’ll take it. 

Today has been a different sort of day all together.  Because of an incoming ice storm, I stayed home and had to try to work out here, I usually try not to do this, as I am a big man, and I live in a small fragile house.  But today was all upper body so I didn’t break my floor bouncing around.  The upper

(No thats not me... We were getting an ice storm)

body was harder than I expected as I usually do ok with the weights.  This however not only had 2 full minutes of pushups, but it also had 4 full minutes of crunches.  I would be lying if I didn’t say this kicked my butt. 

I’ve also had a solid day on food, I traded my yellow container for 16 ounces of almond milk, so I

was able to go for a fruit smoothie for breakfast, and a protean shake after my workout.  It made part of the day much more bearable but I’m sad they don’t let you make this switch every day.  It seems like a little milk would be better for you then the waffle I used for that carb yesterday. 

All in all though, I am a little hungry most of the time, they do a pretty decent Job on the amount of food, I have not been able to get through all the protean and Veggies yet.  But I am finding myself seriously missing those things that I used to eat a lot, but I currently cannot have.  For example I am usually a big cereal guy.  I often eat 3-4 bowls of cereal now I have gone cold turkey, with no serial, I could manage a singe bowl of whole wheat cereal, but I would use up all my carbs for a day.   And that would not be fun. 

I also used to eat an unhealthy amount of donuts.  To put it in perspective I once lost over 15 pounds doing a 1 donut a day diet, people sometimes ask how many donuts did I eat a day, well as I may someday run for president, I would rather not say.  But after 2 days of clean eating, I really really miss Donuts.  Turns out a whole wheat waffle, with a teaspoon of almond butter is not a decent replacement. 

Tonight I started thinking about what I wanted to eat on day 22.  Sure I’m gonna get back to try to eat healthy again, but I really see day 22 as a giant cheat day to eat those things I’ve missed.  As the evening went on, I have started to feel like Navin R. Johnson talking about how “that’s all I need”…

On day 22 I’m gonna have 4 Donuts and that’s all I need…

On day 22 I’m gonna have 4 Donuts, and a box of Reece’s Puff Cereal and that’s all I need. 

On day 22 I’m gonna have 4 Donuts, and a box of Reece’s Puff Cereal, and a bacon wrapped pizza, and that’s all I need! 

On day 22 I’m gonna have 4 Donuts, and a box of Reece’s Puff Cereal, and a bacon wrapped pizza, and crepes with real maple syrup and that’s all I need!  That’s all I need, well until tomorrow. 

So that’s where I am right now.  Its 10:00 pm (Although you won’t read it until later) Its usually the time I start busting out the cereal, but all I have left tonight is fruit, veggies, and a couple teaspoons of peanut butter… I’ll let you know how it all works next time… And remember don’t bring me donuts… Nooooo Donuts, I definitely don’t want donuts right now…

Good night

I Forgot to Set My Alarm

21 Day Fix – Day 1

Starting a new weight loss program is a lot like trying to make it to church on a Sunday Morning.  Not for those people who are always at church on Sunday - for them, it’s easy. But for those people who want to get started - for them, from Saturday evening through Sunday morning is a series of problems all trying to keep them from getting out their door in the morning.  Late night movies, friends with problems, sick children, over sleeping, car problems…the list goes on and on.  As a pastor, I have heard them all, and you know what there usually being 100% honest.  It does seem like the universe stands against them getting to church. 

Starting a new weight loss program can almost mirror that.  Sure, if you are in month three or year three, every day seems like smooth sailing.  But day one or day two can be just a list of things going wrong.  It happened when I started Power 90, it happened when I did 10 Minute Trainer, and yes as I tried to start 21 Day Fix with my wife, I have once again had the list of troubles. 

1.       It all started Friday as we were waiting for the package to arrive.  The key to 21 Day Fix is not just the workouts but the colored food containers that limit what you eat and keep you eating clean.  Well, to prep for the week we needed to be able to see what we could eat, and my wife wanted to start Monday as she is also doing a challenge group.  So Friday I was home all day with a sick kid, waiting for the package to arrive.  It didn’t, and when we checked the mailbox all we had was a note that they could not deliver the package because no one was home.   (So much for through rain and sleet and snow, they will get the mail there.)  Well, as it turns out it was too late to get the much needed package now so we would have to wait until Monday at 10 until our small town post office opened. 

2.       Sunday night, we figured we would go ahead and do pictures and measurements… I still had the items needed from 10 Minute Trainer, as soon as my wife wrapped her arms around me her comment was “Tim, you’re burning up.”  Well, as always, she was right and I had a fever, this was going to be a fun start to things. 

3.       The fever caused me to oversleep this morning.  And also let me forget to set an alarm.  So instead of getting to the post office at 10:00 it was now almost 1:00.  My dear wife tried to run over to the post office then as she was getting hungry, but the post office that opens at 10:00 also closes at noon for a 2 hour lunch.  (Strangely, they also close at 4:00, talk about great work hours.)  Anyway, I went back at two and brought home the package.

4.       With not feeling well, I haven’t eaten a lot today, but things are working well with the containers, by 8:00 I was feeling a little better and thought I’d work out.  I bundled up and went to the gym, and set everything up.  Then I popped in the DVD and kept getting disk error.  For some reasons it works fine at home but the Stone Age DVD player here can’t handle it, so a 40 minute round trip and I can’t work out.

So now I will stop at the store and pick up some more ultra-healthy food for tomorrow and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.  As far as today went, the only thing that could have made it worse health program wise, is if somebody dropped a dozen doughnuts at my door.  That’s right, I sure wouldn’t want anybody to drop a dozen doughnuts at my door *wink wink* yep don’t drop those awful doughnuts off here J

Day 2 down, 10 Workouts to Go.

Yes I understand I am running a day behind with this blog, to be honest its tough not to. There may be days I am unable to blog as well, but to be honest, its helps me to stay honest with the healthy experience to write about it every day.

I made it through work out number two today. For me that’s pretty huge. I have tried several times to get going over the past year, but never got past day 1. I have only got through day 2 one other time and that’s when I did all 90.

One additional thing that has been helping with the motivation is a new Tony Horton Podcast, It just helps to

hear the additional motivation. I've also found his chats on utube which have been great as well. I think one of the most difficult things when trying to lose weight is the motivation on days when the pounds aren't flying off.

Another motivation I have set, it to get back under 300 by my Birthday. Which is November 19th. Ideally I would like to get there before November, but we will see if my body agrees.

How did the workout go you ask, Well it kicked my butt once again, that being said I still have the video memorized from 2 years ago. I will also openly admit my core was so sore by the end of the workout, I had to skip Ab Ripper. Although the idea of 100 crunches in a couple minutes was appealing I just wasn't up to it physically. Maybe I’ll get it on Thursday.

The Best Laid Plans

Well first off I must say I am impressed as I have not entered a new blog here in almost 2 years but I still have 10 to 20 readers a week.  Beyond that however the news is not good.  If you read the previous blog post I was finishing weight loss before a Disney trip.  My goal was 280 when we took the trip, and although I didn't get there until after one day on the trip.  I made 180 pounds. 

Then I decided to reward myself with the Epcot food and wine festival.  I don’t drink, but I did eat my way around the world, 38 locations each with an ethnic food to that region.  Some stops I tried everything on the menu.  From there I enjoyed much of the great food Disney has to offer.  I never do anything half way.  Big breakfasts, big lunches’ and big dinner’s made up the rest week, and as much Dole Whip as I could hold. 

Upon returning home, I knew I should get back to it, but it seemed like a lot of work, and I was still under 300.  I figured I would maintain for a while.  That Spring I my daughter got me back into the theatre.  I hadn't been on stage in years, I was worried about my weight with the dancing and such, but I stepped on a scale was only at 310.  Sure it was over 300 but having lost 100 putting on 30 didn't seem so bad. 

By the start of the next school year (I teach school) I had to go back to my old blue suit coat at 320 the new one no longer fit.  When I tried out for a play that winter I managed to get the lead role, but at 330 couldn't get my health under control the entire time. 

I spent the winter planning on starting to work out tomorrow.  First it was after the show.  Then after basketball season, then after the next show.  Finally I found myself being fitted for costumes for Les Miserables.  Stepping on the scale my weight is back up to 345.  Only down 35 pounds from my original 100 pound weight loss. 

Well after a weeks of feeling sorry for myself, and a week of messing with diet, I pulled out the old Power 90 disc, and got started.  The next t weeks are uber busy, but I stand the best chance of keeping with it if I make it public. 

So my first goal is two weeks of Power 90.  Let’s see if I can go on this adventure again…