Full Throttle - Days 230 - 232

These last few days started off really well, but then they were pretty rough. Saturday morning I woke up and was excited to go for a run. I ran two miles, and walked one mile, and I was feeling great. However, within the next few hours I was not feeling so well, and then started feeling even worse. I had a fever and spent the next couple days in bed, including missing work and missing a workout on Monday morning at Full Throttle Athletics. I hated missing the workout, but I did not have much choice... my body was not cooperative. I am starting to feel better, so I am sure I will be able to workout by Wednesday.

Full Throttle - Day 228 and 229

So, I made it through Thanksgiving without eating any of the delicious looking, great smelling desserts, breads, or other unhealthy foods. I "grazed" on broccoli and celery while everyone else was eating junk, and for the main meal I had turkey, ham, some green beans, and I did have a little corn casserole. I feel great in knowing that I did not compromise on the one day a year that I have always overindulged in snacks, breads, desserts, cokes, and anything else in front of me. I feel like making it through the Thanksgiving meal was a huge step for me, and I feel good knowing I did not compromise on my eating.

Full Throttle - Day 227

This morning's workout was another great one. BJ and Kori were out of town due to Thanksgiving, so Jennifer did the class. We did 10 minutes of warmup followed by a 15 minutes workout of 20 squats, 10 pushups, run to the road, as many rounds as possible in the 15 minutes. Then, once that was done, we had a 2 minute break followed by 4 rounds of bicycles and planks (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off), totaling 4 minutes. I felt great after completing the workout.
Today at work we had a holiday meal with the choice of chicken fried steak (one of my all time favorite foods) or meatloaf, and tons of sides. I was proud of myself for not eating the chicken fried steak and eating only a small amount of corn and lots of green beans. Lots of people at work compliment me on my weight loss, and I knew they were watching what I was eating. It was nice to be a good example and not eat all the delicious sides, breads, and desserts. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, and I know I will be faced with lots of delicious food that I do not need to eat. I am confident in that I will be able to avoid eating them. I plan to eat mostly turkey and green vegetables, and as much as I like desserts, I will avoid them.

Full Throttle - Day 225

I weighed myself this morning when I arrived at Full Throttle Athletics, and I was down 4 pounds from Friday, to 270 pounds. It feels good to know that with some discipline the weight will start to come off again. I am feeling so good after 4 days of being committed to losing weight again, and I am excited to see the results in a few months.
This morning's workout consisted of a 10 minutes warmup and then another really tough workout. The workout was 50 seconds on/ 10 seconds off of 5 exercises, 4 rounds. The exercises were suitcase deadlifts (half on the right side and half on the left side), pushups with a "T" at the top, deep in and outs (almost a squat position and then jumping while widening and narrowing the distance between my legs), kettlebell swings, and bicycles. My legs were dead when I was finished.
Today I ate:
7am - ProGrade Lean Meal Replacement Drink
10am = 22 almonds, whey protein drink
1pm - smoked sausage
4pm - 22 almonds
7pm - 2 eggs, 4 egg whites scrambled with spinach
I drank over 200 ounces of water today.

Full Throttle - Days 223-224

This weekend was my first weekend back to eating healthy. In the past weekends have been more difficult than weekedays when it comes to eating healthy because I am usually busy and there is no routine. This weekend was no different, but right now my will power to eat healthy is very strong. I have discovered in several different time periods that I am able to have really strong will power at times, it is just a matter of "flipping a switch" of some sort... although flipping that switch can be very difficult. I feel right now that I have the mental toughness I had a few months ago that led me to lose 75 pounds. I will carry this attitude for the next few months, as I have a goal to lose another 40 pounds in the next 3-4 months. I have done this before, so I know I will do it again. This weekend I made good eating choices, and I am feeling really good about those decisions.

Full Throttle - Day 222

This morning's workout was a good one. It was a recovery workout after a couple really tough workouts this week. The workout consisted of a 10 minute warmup, which included overhead squats, shoulder dislocates using pvc, pvc Romanian deadlifts, and walk out to plank. The workout then consisted of 5 workouts, each done in 4 rounds at 50 seconds with 10 seconds between each, totalling 20 minutes. The exercises were body weight squats, pushups, side planks, reverse lunges, and planks. I still love the feeling I get after completing a good workout.
Today I started my journey of healthy eating again. I even went to a party with tons of desserts and poor food options, but I made great choices. It helps that the people at the party are facebook friends and knew I had once again committed to eating healthy... I knew they were watching me (a couple of them even made a couple comments about it). That accountability is the very reason I have this blog and post things about my weight loss on facebook. Here is what I ate today:
2 whole eggs, 4 egg whites, scrambled
lunch included salad and several meats
Dinner was turkey, ham, deviled eggs, and lots of broccoli.
I only drank water today.
This morning I weighed myself, and I weighed 274 pounds.

Full Throttle - Day 221

It has now been another week since I last posted on my blog. It amazes me how easy it is to not post on my blog. It is just as easy to make poor eating choices, and I am tired of making so many poor choices. I worked really hard for several months to lose weight and get myself in shape, and I do not want to gain that weight back. I am still working out at Full Throttle Athletics 3 days a week, but my eating has not been what it should be. I do not want to slip back into the unhealthy lifestyle that I have lived most of my life. I want to be healthy and proud of my body. I want to be strong and not always be trying to cover my fat with baggy clothes. Therefore, I am committing RIGHT NOW to making good food choices again. I will not wait one more week until after Thanksgiving. I will not wait 6 more weeks until after Christmas. I will begin again NOW. I still have 40-50 pounds to lose to get to the weight I would like to be. I will also weight myself weekly again (I have been afraid to step on a scale the last couple months out of fear of gaining weight), and I will post my weight on this blog each Friday, beginning with tomorrow. I am putting this in writing and putting this on facebook so that I have the accountability I need. That accountability was very important in my loss of 75 pounds, and I am certain that accountability will help take me where I need to go.

Full Throttle - Day 214

I am discovering that maintaining the proper eating habits has become the most difficult part of my transformation. For a few months I did not have much trouble eating healthy and making wise eating choices. However, the last few weeks I have founf myself making poor eating choices more and more. I want to get my mindset back to where it was a couple months ago in order to continue the weight loss. I know I can get there with hard work and lots of discipline.

Full Throttle - Day 214

I am discovering that maintaining the proper eating habits has become the most difficult part of my transformation. For a few months I did not have much trouble eating healthy and making wise eating choices. However, the last few weeks I have found myself making poor eating choices more and more. I want to get my mindset back to where it was a couple months ago in order to continue the weight loss. I know I can get there with hard work and lots of discipline.

Full Throttle - Day 214

This morning's workout was nice, and I am certainly still feeling the effects. However, this that I feel is a good feeling, not the kind of pain that makes it hard to walk, but the kind of ache that reminds me how hard I worked. I enjoy the feeling of knowing I pushed myself physically, and that there are physical results from that hard work.
I arrived at 5:45 this morning to do some strength training. This morning's strength training was kettlbell snatches. This morning's warmup was the same as Monday's wamrup... 10 overhead squats, jog to the road and back, 10 shoulder dislocates (with pvc pipe) continuous for 10 minutes. It was then followed by a workout consisted of 20 kettlebell swings, 10 pushups, 10 box jumps, and 10 deep body weight squats, repeated for 20 minutes. I was able to complete 6 rounds, and I did all of the pushups from my toes. A couple of the females in the group were doing pushups from their toes, so I knew I could not do them from my knees.
I can feel myself getting stronger and my endurance growing. Getting up at 5am on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays has now become such a habit that it no longer hurts to get out of bed. I look forward to going and working out each of those mornings, and I love seeing the results.

Full Throttle - Day 212

I had some trouble sleeping last night, so 5am came very early this morning when it was time to get up and go workout. The good thing is that working out 3 days a week has become such a habit that I no longer lay in bed and argue with myself about getting up. Although it would still be easier to turn the alarm off and go back to sleep, I have found that it is not near as difficult to get up as it used to be.
This morning's workout was really tough (one of the toughest in awhile) but I felt so good about it when I was done. The warmup alone had me exhausted, but I loved that feeling. The warmup consisted of 10 overhead squats, run to the road (about 200 meters), and 10 body weight squats... this sequence repeated for 10 minutes. Once that "warmup" was done, the workout began. The workout was a 50/10 (50 seconds on and 10 seconds off) of 5 different exercises, and the sequence was completed 4 times... for a total of 20 minutes. The exercises were ring pushups, squats, mountain climbers, one arm kettlebell presses, and 2 handed kettlebell swings. The 10 seconds between exercises was just enough to get to the next station and get ready to begin the next exercise. After the 20 minutes, I was exhausted, but it felt so great.

Full Throttle - Day 211

Wow, I have not posted in quite some time. I am a bit disappointed in myself for not blogging, but I am realizing how dauting the task of blogging becomes when I go a few days without blogging. I am thankful for the friends and workout partners I have that I work out with who hold me accountable to blogging and repeatedly remind me that I need to blog.
I am still working out at Full Throttle Athletics, and I feel like I am in the best shape of my life. Over the last month I have decided I will be riding in a 150 mile bike ride in July with several others from Full Throttle Athletics. This is something that is both scary as well as exciting to me because it is such a huge goal, but I look forward to achieving something that I would have never even thought about attempting only a few months ago.
I plan to begin blogging daily again and I am hoping that my blog will continue to motivate me as well as motivate others.