I love Google

It's the simple things.

I'm going to lay down some flooring soon, so I was taking measurements today. 74 inches by 91 inches. 160 inches by 174 inches. 38 inches by 25 inches. Yada, yada. It soon comes time to tally up and figure out the square footage. So what's the easiest way to calculate the square footage of 75 inches by 90 inches? Just google 75*90 square inches in square feet

Wedding Crasher

Actually, it's more like the wedding crashed me. My eating routine went out the window today. I took the day off and attended the wedding of an old friend. I hadn't seen Jonathan in probably a decade. And I got to catch up with a few other friends as well. It was great to see everyone and reminisce a bit. On the drive home, I caught a timely sound bite on NPR...something like "how much of identity...of personality...of the you-ness that makes you you...is determined simply by your remembrance of things past." [listen here] I think the sum of our recollections is certainly like the fingerprint of our soul. And I'm lucky to have some great ones.

Anyway, a great excuse to be off routine for a day. I did hit the gym tonight...with my knee brace I might add...and I'll be back on track tomorrow. I think my cardio tomorrow will be spent behind some lawn equipment. :-)

I'll take subtle

A few days ago, I had a dull ache in my legs...actually, I couldn't really pinpoint where it was. And I remember being annoyed that I couldn't figure out if it was my knees, hips, legs...or what.

Well, I'll take subtle anyday. I know exactly where the pain is now and it sucks. My knees are killing me. I guess I overdid it on the treadmill. Tonight, I couldn't run at all, so I just did a brisk walk. I don't think I even broke a sweat. Looks like I'll have to switch out my cardio to something a little easier on the knees for now.

Starting Stats

Went to the Y last week and got all measured up. I actually just went in to get my body fat measured and the trainer did all sorts of stuff. They've been really great at the Y.

Anyway, my weight is 135. That's up a few pounds from the beginning of the year. I've been 132 for years. My goal is 155.

My body fat index is 6.1%. My goal here is to simply keep that. It's going to be tricky gaining 20 pounds without increasing my body fat. But there's really nothing bad in my diet right now and I'm doing decent cardio along with everything, so that should help.

Trunk flexion is 13. That's pretty bad. I definitely need to improve my flexibility.

Resting blood pressure is 121/72. And my resting heart rate is 61. Those are good stats...I'll just try to keep them.

Muscular endurance was 48 situps in a minute. Middle of the road (according to her charts). Need to improve that.

And after my 3 minute step test, my heart rate was 77 after a minute recovery. That's good, so I'll shoot to just keep that. For cardio, I just want to increase my overall endurance.

All in all, I was a little surprised to see I wasn't in as bad as shape as I thought I was.

I'm pleased with my progress so far. It's slow, but I've been consistent. My first workout was January 27 and I haven't missed a workout since. I'm not shooting for perfection...I'm sure something will come up at some point and I'll miss a few, but so far, so good.

Coke...mmm

Man, a cold coke tastes good. The routine I'm following allows (even calls for) me to take 1 day off a week from my diet and training. So Sunday is my day. No gym and I eat pretty much anything I want. Even with that liberty, I try to show a little restraint and not shove 2 Big Macs in my face. But I do take the day off. And I enjoy it.

So what do I enjoy the most? Surprisingly, a cold coke. I don't miss the other junk all that much. Maybe the cookies. But the coke...man.

Cardio

Last night, I had my best cardio workout yet. I did 2.25 miles in 20 minutes...that's about an 8.8 minute mile pace. Not going to win me any trophies, but it's my personal best so far. And that's up from my starting run about 3 weeks ago, when I did about 1.2 miles in 20 minutes. I used to run a bit, so I think my pace will improve quickly here in the beginning. Then I'll hit the wall.

Anyway, my goal is a 5k run in about 18 minutes, which is about a 5.8 minute mile pace.

The Journey of a 1000 Miles

The first steps.

I'm a night owl. Certified. 100%. When the alarm rings in the morning, I'll trade anything for a few more minutes of sleep. I mean anything. I'll skip breakfast. Not even think about lunch (there's always Chick-fil-a). Rush through my morning -- I've pretty much got it down to a science. I know exactly how many times I can hit the snooze and still get myself (& the kids) out the door.

And so that's the first thing that had to change. I knew if I was going to start working out, I had to wake up early. I needed to eat breakfast. I needed to pack a lunch. I needed to be able to hit the gym in the morning if my evening was going to be busy.

It took a couple of weeks. I knocked myself out w/ Tylenol PM so I could get to bed early. And I started waking up at 5am. I didn't do anything except get out of bed. That was enough.

Then there was the issue of eating. I mentioned I skipped breakfast. Always. In fact, my stomach would revolt if I tried to give it something in the morning. If it did ask for something, I'd give it a pop tart (free at work) and some coffee. Then (if Meg didn't pack me a lunch) I'd head to Chick-fil-a and order up. If I wanted to feel healthy, I'd get a diet coke. Most of the time, it was regular...up sized.

That took a couple more weeks.

So then I was up at 5am and making breakfast. Now I had to go workout. And I hate gyms. I'm a small guy, so I look out of place at a gym. And I've had my fill of long term contracts with those places. But I figured if it's discipline I want, then what could be better than waking up before 5 am and dragging myself down to my least favorite place in the world. And the YMCA didn't require a contract.

So that's it. That's been my life for about 7 weeks. But I'm pretty excited about the progress so far. Today I was up at 4:50am. I hit the gym and did a lower body workout (about 45 minutes). Came back and had 6 egg whites, a bowl of whole grain cereal, a whole grain waffle, a glass of phosphagen, a glass of tea and a couple glasses of water. A few hours later, cottage cheese, an apple and a natural peanut butter sandwich. Not a bad replacement for a pop tart!

Body For Life

Well, I'm about 7 weeks into my only New Year's resolution. And I've pretty much turned my life upside down for this one. Of course, it started simple enough.

I just wanted to get into shape.

When I decided this, it took me about 2 weeks to figure out what I wanted to do exactly. It was important to figure out what I really wanted from this. Because I've failed a hundred times before on this one. My problem has never been lack of drive...I can summon an incredible amount of drive and will power when I want to. My problem has always been finding the right direction to point myself in. I lose the battle because I invest myself into things that I just don't care all that much for. I've no doubt I could climb Everest if I really wanted to. The key there is if I really wanted to. Typically, I'd get half way up the mountain, ask myself why the heck I'm climbing Everest, figure out I really didn't want to climb Everest...and promptly leave the mountain. So I knew even before I did my first exercise, I had to figure that part out. I had to sort out my motivations and find one I was passionate about.

And that I did. An unexpected motivation for sure. But I realized that my life is desperately lacking discipline. It's an unpleasant word I know...but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that discipline is the chasm that sits between me and every goal or dream I have. Bill Phillips put it perfectly in his book when he talked about keeping your word to yourself. It's really quite simple...if I tell myself I'm going to do something, I simply want to do it. Imagine that. But how many times have I not followed through? Many. And with each broken promise, my self confidence wanes.

And so that's my goal. Well, so there are 3 really. Discipline. Self Confidence. And a better physique, which isn't so much a goal as it is confirmation that I'm achieving the other 2.