It's maybe a little early in a reboot to drop the mic on the whole situation, but I just rode my bike 70km in about 3h:15m on Sunday.
If I am recalling correctly that would be the farthest I have ridden my bike in one day, even figuring when I was super in shape.
I feel good about it, my body really hated me for the rest of the evening, I assume because it was 30 degrees and I had completely depleted myself of hydration and electrolytes!
I very much feel like I'm hitting my stride though. I'm not as fast as I was before, I'm not as strong as I was before again either, but I feel like there is progressively steps forward being made. I know as I work moving forward that I will get to the goals I want simply because I can really feel what's changing.
Clothes fit better already, I can run 5k in a decent time already, I can make my body ride 70k and I can lift weights not too far away from where I was before.
I'll get there!
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Friday, July 26, 2019
Different From Before
As I am working to get in shape this time around there are some stark differences from before. One of them is that it's not an all or nothing proposition this time around.
In 2010 I worked my ass off to get in shape, pretty much literally. I ate barely anything and out of about 240 days I probably was over my calories maybe 5 or 7 times or something. I worked hard, ate nothing and dropped weight like crazy.
Here in 2019 I'm, as already stated not as far gone as I was before, but I'm also taking the time to enjoy the life I have along the way. My friend and I went to the US for a night to see a Weird Al concert and go to Darien Lake, on that trip I ate the things and didn't work out on the Wednesday (other than 10000+ steps at the park). I'm sure it's a much healthier way to accomplish all this.
Anyways, progress is being made, I'm only 15-20 pounds from my goal now (because my goal is a bit elastic) and I'm hoping by the end of the summer to be only 15-10 away! Woo!
In 2010 I worked my ass off to get in shape, pretty much literally. I ate barely anything and out of about 240 days I probably was over my calories maybe 5 or 7 times or something. I worked hard, ate nothing and dropped weight like crazy.
Here in 2019 I'm, as already stated not as far gone as I was before, but I'm also taking the time to enjoy the life I have along the way. My friend and I went to the US for a night to see a Weird Al concert and go to Darien Lake, on that trip I ate the things and didn't work out on the Wednesday (other than 10000+ steps at the park). I'm sure it's a much healthier way to accomplish all this.
Anyways, progress is being made, I'm only 15-20 pounds from my goal now (because my goal is a bit elastic) and I'm hoping by the end of the summer to be only 15-10 away! Woo!
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Reboot
It's been a while huh? Like 4 years since the last post! What can I say? Life gets busy. So what's been happening?
When we last chatted I was married to a woman, and was just welcoming a 3rd little girl into our home by way of Foster-to-Adopt. Shortly thereafter that woman decided I was no longer necessary, so out of the blue, that just a week previous I'd bought a new car with some input from her on the process. I had to find an apartment in less than a day! I had no legal claim over the girls and supported her to the Children's Aid Society as a good mom. I also gave up any claim to pensions or spousal support or anything, heck I even paid her, and she kept the house! I lost/gave up everything except my personal things and my car.
As you can imagine, my life was upside down for a while there. I was working for a while about an hour away from where I was then living and so everything kinda started to slide. I did try to keep up running and biking but it was very difficult.
I then took a new position, Site Supervisor of a school age program which split my hours up a bit, early morning and late afternoons, that was good, I moved much closer to my work and that was good too. For a while in there I could have - and maybe should have written a dating blog! Those were some adventures to be sure. I continued to ever increasingly see the little ones that my ex-wife had in her care and did finally adopt.
I met a new woman after a few shorter relationships, she is amazing, we dated like a whirlwind and moved in after only about 4 months, she's got 3 children, much older than the little girls were, but they were welcomed with open arms and hearts. I gained a few pounds. The only thing worse for your waistline than misery, is contentedness!
I got to go to San Diego Comic Con in 2017 and 2018 thanks to Andy from The Flash Podcast! An amazing opportunity from and amazing guy! I proposed to Brooke while in San Diego in 2017 and in the February of 2018 we got married! Twice actually. On Valentines day at the courthouse and on the 24th with all our peeps.
I took a new position with Compass - co-Leading the entire Peterborough School Age division! That happened in Mid-April 2018.
We moved from a small town into the small-ish city that summer, and then the bus of life hit me again when my ex decided that I'd never be seeing those three little girls again. They had literally just spent a week at our house and the day we moved into town and I dropped them off at the ex's house was the last time I would see them in my home. Now there has been all sorts of hate and vitriol about that back then all that time ago. Not undeserved, but I'm not really interested in reliving that moment any more than I have to on an ongoing basis.
Christmas 2018 came, another incident with the ex as we attempted to surreptitiously drop off gifts, intending to not be seen, to not create an event. Of course we were spotted, by the middle little one, and my ex flipped, some back and forth ensued... not at all a great time.
To try to forget all that we went off to Punta Cana, we took pictures at the beach and I was wholly embarrassed at myself. Where had the guy that is standing on the left of this blog gone?
Life can really run you over sometimes!
So we came back and I hit the gym, hard.. sometimes multiple times in a day, and then I got a concussion in a fantastically unglamorous way and was benched for at least a month from doing anything remotely strenuous.
Shortly after I bonked my head we discovered that Brooke was pregnant, and while the pregnancy has not been easy, it's moving along (I felt the baby moving last night even!)
Mid April 2019 I was hired for yet another new position - with a whole different company, this time going back to my tech roots and fixing tech stuff for children who need assistance with communication. A lot could be said about the year where I was in a leadership position at Compass. If you were to talk to the people I was leading they would say I was a great guy, and a good boss, and there to help and listen and support as needed while also giving the space to sort out their own problems. If you talked to my superiors I was on a learning curve and not as good as my co-program lead and... well, basically, I didn't drink enough of the Kool-Aide. Since leaving I've had a few people wonder to me if I would please come back.
Short Answer - No. My new job is great, they see me as competent and capable, they pay me well and I have a pension now! Why would I go back to a place where most people did not see my value.
As we've approached summer we made summer bingo cards for the kids, mostly fun stuff to cross off, go for a bike ride, catch fireflies, a few chore type things - help mom 10 times etc... I made my own card taking written responsibility for my fitness situation on it basically.. may card has things like run 3 times in a week, bike 2 times in a week go to the gym at least 2 times in a week... we are mid 3rd week into this now. I believe I'm down 5 pounds at least, didn't really get an accurate look at the scale yesterday at the gym.
And that brings us to here.
Am I (was I) as out of shape as I was back in March 2010? No, definitely not. Am I the superhero I was when I took 2nd place in a Zombie run out of 3500 survivors? Also no. But today I'm 2.5 weeks closer to the later than the former.
A lot of things try to suck the Power out of your life - situations, people, events. It takes Wisdom to recognize what's happening and then Courage to make things right, even if it means admitting where you are at and rebooting the franchise!
When we last chatted I was married to a woman, and was just welcoming a 3rd little girl into our home by way of Foster-to-Adopt. Shortly thereafter that woman decided I was no longer necessary, so out of the blue, that just a week previous I'd bought a new car with some input from her on the process. I had to find an apartment in less than a day! I had no legal claim over the girls and supported her to the Children's Aid Society as a good mom. I also gave up any claim to pensions or spousal support or anything, heck I even paid her, and she kept the house! I lost/gave up everything except my personal things and my car.
As you can imagine, my life was upside down for a while there. I was working for a while about an hour away from where I was then living and so everything kinda started to slide. I did try to keep up running and biking but it was very difficult.
I then took a new position, Site Supervisor of a school age program which split my hours up a bit, early morning and late afternoons, that was good, I moved much closer to my work and that was good too. For a while in there I could have - and maybe should have written a dating blog! Those were some adventures to be sure. I continued to ever increasingly see the little ones that my ex-wife had in her care and did finally adopt.
I met a new woman after a few shorter relationships, she is amazing, we dated like a whirlwind and moved in after only about 4 months, she's got 3 children, much older than the little girls were, but they were welcomed with open arms and hearts. I gained a few pounds. The only thing worse for your waistline than misery, is contentedness!
I got to go to San Diego Comic Con in 2017 and 2018 thanks to Andy from The Flash Podcast! An amazing opportunity from and amazing guy! I proposed to Brooke while in San Diego in 2017 and in the February of 2018 we got married! Twice actually. On Valentines day at the courthouse and on the 24th with all our peeps.
I took a new position with Compass - co-Leading the entire Peterborough School Age division! That happened in Mid-April 2018.
We moved from a small town into the small-ish city that summer, and then the bus of life hit me again when my ex decided that I'd never be seeing those three little girls again. They had literally just spent a week at our house and the day we moved into town and I dropped them off at the ex's house was the last time I would see them in my home. Now there has been all sorts of hate and vitriol about that back then all that time ago. Not undeserved, but I'm not really interested in reliving that moment any more than I have to on an ongoing basis.
Christmas 2018 came, another incident with the ex as we attempted to surreptitiously drop off gifts, intending to not be seen, to not create an event. Of course we were spotted, by the middle little one, and my ex flipped, some back and forth ensued... not at all a great time.
To try to forget all that we went off to Punta Cana, we took pictures at the beach and I was wholly embarrassed at myself. Where had the guy that is standing on the left of this blog gone?
Life can really run you over sometimes!
So we came back and I hit the gym, hard.. sometimes multiple times in a day, and then I got a concussion in a fantastically unglamorous way and was benched for at least a month from doing anything remotely strenuous.
Shortly after I bonked my head we discovered that Brooke was pregnant, and while the pregnancy has not been easy, it's moving along (I felt the baby moving last night even!)
Mid April 2019 I was hired for yet another new position - with a whole different company, this time going back to my tech roots and fixing tech stuff for children who need assistance with communication. A lot could be said about the year where I was in a leadership position at Compass. If you were to talk to the people I was leading they would say I was a great guy, and a good boss, and there to help and listen and support as needed while also giving the space to sort out their own problems. If you talked to my superiors I was on a learning curve and not as good as my co-program lead and... well, basically, I didn't drink enough of the Kool-Aide. Since leaving I've had a few people wonder to me if I would please come back.
Short Answer - No. My new job is great, they see me as competent and capable, they pay me well and I have a pension now! Why would I go back to a place where most people did not see my value.
As we've approached summer we made summer bingo cards for the kids, mostly fun stuff to cross off, go for a bike ride, catch fireflies, a few chore type things - help mom 10 times etc... I made my own card taking written responsibility for my fitness situation on it basically.. may card has things like run 3 times in a week, bike 2 times in a week go to the gym at least 2 times in a week... we are mid 3rd week into this now. I believe I'm down 5 pounds at least, didn't really get an accurate look at the scale yesterday at the gym.
And that brings us to here.
Am I (was I) as out of shape as I was back in March 2010? No, definitely not. Am I the superhero I was when I took 2nd place in a Zombie run out of 3500 survivors? Also no. But today I'm 2.5 weeks closer to the later than the former.
A lot of things try to suck the Power out of your life - situations, people, events. It takes Wisdom to recognize what's happening and then Courage to make things right, even if it means admitting where you are at and rebooting the franchise!
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
10 Pounds
It's funny what you consider to be "fat". When I was 230 pounds I didn't really think of myself as fat. I practiced karate and played hockey, surely these are not the activities of a fat man.
Five years ago when I got down to 150 pounds I looked back at what I used to be in amazement, how did I ever do sports?! As I've said in other posts on this blog I did come back up to about 166 pounds once I started to build muscle and that's the weight I've been for about the last four years.
Over the last year we've had three children come to live at our house and in that time I've gained about 7 pounds. So I'm around 174 pounds at the moment and I will admit that I feel fat.
So am I fat? Not really. I'm part way between a 31 and 32 waist. I can still run 5k in less than 24 minutes. But I feel fat, I feel out of shape.
So what's to be done? Back in February I was feeling the same and every night after the kids were in bed I'd go to the gym and workout for an hour. I don't have that much free time now. So for the last couple of days the alarm has gone off at 4:40 so that I would get up in time to go for a run and a shower before I left for work at 5:30.
Diet has to be part of what's happening to be successful as well though, I know from experience that working out without changing the diet, or that dieting without working out will not achieve the goals I want in a timeframe that I want. So we are back to counting calories, Back to the methods that got me in shape in the first place.
I had the willpower and the strength to lose weight before, I can do it again now, even if it is only 10 pounds.
Sent from Samsung Mobile
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