Weigh-In Results

Happy Monday everyone!

Let me start by telling you that I had my ass thoroughly TurboKicked tonight.  My wife, Claire, and I just joined the Y because they offer a ton of classes where our neighborhood Snap Fitness does not.

So what is TurboKick?  Watch this video and you'll understand.



Turbo Kick is an hour-long class where something happens.  I'm not exactly sure what that something is because I was really confused most of the time.  Everyone else seemed to be moving together while I clumsily tried to imitate them from the back row.  It seems to be a cross between dancing and kickboxing.  They say it takes four to five classes to really catch on to all the moves, but I think it might take a little longer for me.  Some friends and I wrote a musical in college for our school's film festival and I played the lead.  We did one dance number and my friends likened teaching me to dance to teaching a horse to talk.

I'm the robot.


So back to TurboKick.  Here's what our Y's website says about it:

It’s high energy and the hottest exercise class around! This ultimate cardiovascular challenge mixes aerobics with martial arts in easy-to-follow combinations.

A Typical Class

Turbo Kick® is an interval based, full body workout that begins with a sports-specific warm-up. High-paced intervals follow with kickboxing-specific strength/endurance training sequences and easy-to-follow combinations. Class ends with a mind/body-like (think Tai-Chi) cool-down.

Outcomes/Benefits

• Improves heart and lung health
• Strengthens muscles and bones, reduces risk of osteoporosis
• Improves posture, coordination, agility and flexibility
• Stimulates your brain
• Improves energy
• Promotes weight loss

My biggest insecurity with the class was I was one of only three men in a class of about 40 people.  I'm a teacher, which is a profession dominated by women (especially in the younger grades) so I'm not uncomfortable around women.  I just feel like I could let my guard down a little in a class with more men in it.  It's the same reason I wasn't really into Weight Watchers meetings. 

Bottom line, the hour went by pretty quickly and it worked me hard.  It's impossible to argue with the great exercise I got.  I'll be going back to this class.

Now, for what all three of you who read my blog are waiting -or should I say weighting? (no, I shouldn't)-for: My weigh-in results.

260.4.  This is a little less than a 1 pound gain from last week, but I'm chocking that up to weighing myself after dinner instead of before.  Or the two slutty brownies I had this week.  Seriously, whatever you do, do not make these.  I take it back.  If you are chronically underweight and you need to take in huge amounts of calories to bring your body weight up (then you probably wouldn't be reading my blog) then go nuts.  Otherwise, consider them a loaded gun.

I'm very optimistic about what I'll be able to accomplish in the coming months.  My goal for next week is to get into the 250s. 

The Plan

I did a pretty good job of being active this week, despite a very busy week.  Thanks to the gorgeous weather we've been having in Minnesota, I got to bike to work on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I would have biked Thursday but I was headed down the last hill on my commute home and my brake cable snapped.  I wasn't going very fast and managed to Fred Flintstone my way to a stop so I didn't crash.  Now those of you who have read my blog for a while know that I built my own bike last year.  I should have paid the additional $6 to buy a new brake line and foot of housing, but I was cheap and thought it would be fine to reuse some old brake line that came with my old bike frame.  I guess it held up pretty well for a year, but I expect my new cable to last a lot longer than that.

I ran with Liza again on Tuesday.  It was rough.  Maybe because I hadn't run that far in a while and maybe because I'd already put a few miles on the bike that day going to and from work.  We still managed our usual 4.5 mile route.  Some day I'll be able to expand what I'm capable of running, but I've come a long way so far.

I also had the chance to go on a couple walks with my wife, Claire.  One of which took us nearly 4 miles at a fairly leisurely pace.  We even got to go to the bike store (one of my favorite places to go).

I'm getting frustrated because the weather is changed recently, and I've gained some winter weight.  I don't fit into many of my dress shirts anymore, and the ones that do fit are really baggy and awkward and make me look fat (because I am).  I can't wallow in this though.  I have to do something about it.  Clearly, the exercise is almost there (I'd like to run 4.5 miles more than once a week and get back into weight training).  What needs to happen now is I need to put a serious dent in my intake.

So here is my plan for the coming week:

1.  Use myfitnesspal to log my intake for Monday through Thursday, and then Saturday and Sunday.  Friday will be a cheat day.

2.  Bicycle commute but don't use it as a primary exercise source.

3.  Follow this schedule for exercise

Monday: Go to the gym - Cardio and Weight Training

Tuesday: Run with Liza.

Wednesday: Go on a serious bike ride - 20-30 miles.

Thursday: Go to the gym - Cardio and Weight Training

Friday: Another epic bike ride.

Saturday: Walk with Claire, go to gym

Sunday: Bike ride with Claire, run at least 5k.

So that's the plan.  Let's see how it goes.

The Funeral

So last night, Claire and I drove to Shawano, Wisconsin to say goodbye to my cousin Michael, who died last week.  I haven't seen Michael since I was a kid and when we were looking at pictures of him, I pointed out the Michael I remembered.  It was hard to see him in the casket, but I'm glad we went.

Both Claire and I noted that while Michael had health problems unrelated to his weight, he was still obese and that surely didn't make things any easier.  He was 40 when he died and I'd like to live at least twice that. 

So I don't know how I'm going to get there yet, but I know I'm going to get there.  I'm going to be active, healthy, and happy for a good, long time yet. 

We spent a long time in the car today and stopped at an Applebee's for dinner.  I got a bruscetta salad and it arrived looking like this.

Those brown things are some kind of fried mozzarella balls or cheese curds or something very anti-salad.  While I couldn't resist all of them I only had two or three.  Did I get these with this salad because I was in Wisconsin or because Applebee's always tries to sabotage dieters?

A Good Day

Thank you all for your support.  Reading your comments made me feel like I can actually achieve what I set out to do.  Sometimes I forget anyone reads my blog.  It was nice to be reminded so many people are reading and rooting for me.

I've got some new tools I'm hoping will play nice together and a new outlook. 

I've been using my FitBit activity tracker for a couple months now on and off and it really gives me some useful information.  I also just installed My Fitness Pal which allows me to adjust my intake goals based on how many steps I've taken from my fitbit (which syncs wirelessly).  I've also installed the endomondo exercise tracker which has some really cool features I'm exploring including following other peoples' routes or designing your own.  This also syncs with my fitbit.  Cool stuff.

I'm going to start slowly.  I tracked my intake today.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep doing it, but if I miss a day I'm not going to get down on myself.  I'm going to keep going to the gym.  Hopefully, the weather will warm up soon so I can get back to bicycle commuting.  That always makes me happy and gives me an excuse to exercise every day.  I'm going to eat out less and try to eat healthier choices and most importantly, stop when I feel like I've had too much.

I think my biggest hang-up is things never seem to happen as fast as I want.  This usually results in a backslide.  I had a good day today.  I'm going to try to make it a good day tomorrow, but if it's not, there's always the next day.

Last, but not least, it's Monday, so I need to get on the scale.

Last week I did weigh myself (though I didn't post it).  I came in at 262.4 pounds.  That's about a 15 pound backslide from my lowest weight.  Let's see what the scale said this week.

A loss of 1.7 pounds is not bad.  Like I said, I'm going to try to go easy on myself if I'm not losing as fast as I want.  I'm still losing and that means I'm winning. 

I Don't Know How To Do This

My Cousin, Michael, died last week.  He had been having heart problems and he just didn't wake up on Wednesday morning.  We weren't close.  In fact, I haven't seen him since I was a kid.  But he was still my cousin.

Like me, Michael struggled with his weight.  He was 40 when he died.  I know I'm not him, but I want to live a lot longer than 12 more years.

I want to change my weight and lifestyle, but I feel hopelessly stuck.  I'm so frustrated that I haven't been able to lose any weight for the last two years.  I made a change once and lost a lot of weight, but the scale has been creeping back up.  Time after time, I tell myself this is the time, but it never pans out.  I don't know how to do it again.  I don't know how to repeat the success I had when I first started this blog. 

I can feel the weight coming back.  I can see it in the mirror, I can feel it when I sit down.  I can feel the extra fat all over my body.  I feel disgusting.

I want to keep going.  I want to finish what I started.  I want to live a long, healthy life.  I just don't know how to do it.