BiggerFatterWider

That's my new blog name.

Dude, I've been sucking like a Hoover the last two weeks. Thank GOD I'm only about a pound up from the last time I blogged, though I DID see two days where I saw 280.8 and 280.4.

It's bee a nasty three weeks. I worked out ONCE since I started my 12-week program, and I've put on a pound.

Food? No discipline. Working out? Too many excuses.

It's been ugly.

I'm leaving for Michigan on Tuesday afternoon, and my goal was to be under 270 by then. Well, that ain't gonna happen, people. My new goal is to just get back to the 272.5 I was at several weeks ago.

I find myself disappointed in who I've been these last couple weeks. I'm pissed at myself. Two days of 280's? Really? I mean, I actually feel fatter. My chest feels flabbier. My arms look scrawnier. The mirror has NOT been kind.

How do I let that happen? I have no idea, but it stops today.

By Tuesday morning, I WILL be AT LEAST 272.6 on my scale. I will have counted every calorie for five days. I will have done as many sets of push ups, curls, shoulder presses - whatever - as I can do by then. I'll get back to taking walks, or tossing a football.

I'll do everything I've been doing to get myself from 363 to 272.

And I'll do better about blogging. I just haven't cared enough to put thoughts down on cyber paper. But I'll blog every day between now and vacation.

There's a lot going on with us right now - some kind of stressful situations, and a lot of uncertainty about our future - but to blame my lack of focus on that would be wrong. My lack of focus is solely responsible for my lack of focus. Nothing else. Nobody else.

And so, here I go again with the reset button. It's helped in the past, so we'll see how it does this time around.

Wish me luck.

Not off to a Great Start

Eating has been great. Haven't topped 1,800 calories so far, which is good. But I haven't worked out at all to this point. It's been a mix of lack of time and lack of energy due to a lack of sleep. I did take the girls for a 2-mile walk yesterday to get them out of Beck's hair, but that's been about it.

Of course, my weight was WAY back up today, which makes perfect sense. Eat great, do something active, put on 1.4 pounds.

Stupid.

So, here's what I'm going to try to do over the next few weeks - until the Colorado Blizzard Season makes itself known:

> Sprint/Strength Circuits 3x Per Week
60 yard sprint, 25 plyo hops, 10 push ups, walk to starting point, repeat until death

> Dumbbell Workout 3x Per Week
Bench, row, curl, shoulder press, shoulder extension, straight dead lifts, squats. Use moderate weights and reps, 3 sets of each.

> Add in basic crunches and sit-ups on Weight Days

I'm hoping my dad doesn't know about this blog, but Beck and I are bringing our girls to him for a surprise early Christmas gift. We'll be taking a day off from Grand Rapids to head to Detroit to meet up with the Michigan branch of the Coalition at a Pistons game. My big goal right now, outside of getting to 260, is to be 10 pounds lighter on 12-9 than I was on 11-12, when I started this thing back up. That would mean that I'd need to weigh in at 267.4 - on a foreign scale - on the 9th.

100% doable.

So, I'm going to make a real effort to do my Cardio stuff this afternoon. We have a meeting at 3:30, and Beck and I both need to go do this today, so timing will be tricky. We'll do what we can, though.

Anyway, just wanted to get some thoughts on "paper," so I now return you to your regularly-scheduled blog-reading...

My 350th Post

Let's play everybody's favorite blog game...

Good News / Bad News!

Good News: Weight went down 2.6 pounds from yesterday, placing me back under 275 at 274.0.
Bad News: I STILL need to lose 3.2 pounds to get back to my lowest weight of the transformation.

Good News: No fire alarms last night.
Bad News: I was still up from 2-4, and I have no clue why.

Good News: I don't have any obligations today, so I'll have time for some sort of workout.
Bad News: I'm still feeling wiped out, so it ain't gonna be easy to push through.

Alright, enough of that.

Took my measurements Monday to start this 12-week stretch. Here are the comparisons to my last set of measurements on July 28th:

Neck:
18/18, no change

Chest:
49.75/49.5, -.25"

Bicep:
15.5/15.32, -.12"

Waist:
47/45.5, -1.5"

Hips:
43/41.5, -1.5"

Thigh:
24/22.5, -1.5"

That's about it, everybody. Another day in the fight we're all fighting. Just do the best you can today, and don't worry about yesterday or tomorrow. It's cliche', but let's all just take this things one day at a time. It's all we can do.

Day One - Ugh

Calories - 1,790
Workout - Nada

So, yesterday kind of blew. We were all over the place with work-related errands in the morning, then we came home, put the kids down for naps, and we each had some more work we HAD to get done.

Next thing we know, it's 4:30, and we have to walk over to Target, as we promised our oldest we'd so when she woke up. We got back home around 5:30, and I kept the kids busy while Beck made us some 3-bean turkey chili.

We eat at 6:15, finish up around 6:45, and now we're playing with the kids for a little while before work calls again. Now we're both back at work.

Fast-forward to 8:15, and it's sleepy time for the kids. The youngest needs some special attention to get her down (teething), so I keep the oldest busy while Becky deals with the baby.

It's now 9:00 p.m., and I put the oldest in bed. Now Beck and I are available, but we both realize we have some more things to do.

And now it's 11:00 p.m., and I need to unwind. So, I pop a game in the 360. Now, I know that I COULD be lifting right now, but it's been a long day, and I have nothing in the tank. I SHOULD have powered through and done what I needed to do, but I took the easy way out.

So now it's 1:30 a.m., and Beck and I are wiped out. So, we head to bed, and 45 minutes later our fire alarm goes off. It seems one of our downstairs neighbors was trying to knock a door down to beat his wife (all heresay), and she got out and pulled the fire alarm to get the police there.

So, from 2:15 to 2:45 our entire apartment building was filled with a constant, shrieking "BEEEEEEEEP-BEEEEEEEP-BEEEEEEEEP." The fire department finally got things turned off before 3, so we were all back to bed. Well, all except the baby, who decided she was pissed and was not going to go back to sleep anytime soon.

So, Beck tried to rock her out, and I stayed up as moral support. And it was 4:30 a.m. by the time we were finally back to bed.

And I was up at 9. I have NO energy, my eyes are blurry, I feel numb - it's not going to be a good day.

In good news, I did eat 100% clean yesterday, and my calories were right on track at 1,790. I could have had 1/5 of a slice of cheese if I wanted and still been at 1,800! Whee!

Here's to a better day today.

And to the many of us who are still struggling, I hope I can count on you to be here with me. I don't need comments, as I know I've been struggling to find time to comment on your blogs. But I still read, and I'm following along with all of you. I need you to be strong for me, and I'm going to do all I can to be strong for you.

Screw This Noise

It's back on tomorrow, people. Just like Rob, I weighed in before bed last night (Rob, we're MORONS), and I saw 280.0. Now, I dropped four pounds overnight, and I'm 276 this morning, so I've pretty much maintained over these last three weeks. But that 280 sucked the life right out of me, man.

Maintenance is cool, and all, but I can't worry about maintaining until I actually get to my goal weight.

The good news is that I feel the fire creeping back in. I told Beck we need to get the sparring equipment back out. I'm going to be laying out a dumbbell workout for each of us this afternoon. I'm back into my Under Armour addiction phase.

I mean, look at those dudes on the top of the page. The one guy is like, 100 years old. If a dude that's 100 years old can get that lean and strong, I sure don't have any excuses.

The other dude has HIV. One of the deadliest viruses in the universe, and he transforms like that.

Dang.

So, here's the deal. I STILL don't have a gym. I STILL can't afford a trainer or supplements. I STILL can't go to boxing training. It's me, my 100 pounds of dumbbells and my $7 dumbbell bench. Would I prefer to have access to any or all of those things? You bet. But I can't let my lack of extras stop me. I'm down 90 pounds without spending a single day in a gym, and I can drop another 20, if need be.

So, here's how it's going to work-

Dumbbell weight workout 3 days per week
HIIT Cardio (sprints? stairs? hiit sparring?) 3x per week.
Saturdays off

Goals-

Drop my final 16 pounds (more if needed)
Achieve noticeable toning improvements
Increase strength
Increase cardio endurance (mine still blows)
Achieve 90% or higher success over the next 84 days*

*I'm only shooting for 90% because of our schedule. When deadline week comes, things get NUTS. If I can stay at 90% those weeks, I'll kill this thing.

Misc.-

I will be counting calories - not portion sizes
I'll aim for 1,800 calories per day
No Myoplex or EAS supplements
I will be buying Kashi Go Lean Fiber/Protein rolls**
Saturdays off

**I'm choosing these because they're gross, so I won't be tempted to eat the whole box in one sitting, which I have been known to do before.

I started the process last night. I went to Wal Mart at 9pm last night to go get some snacks. Did I get SNICKER'S? Reese's? Ice Cream? Candy Corn?

YEP!

Just kidding. I bought us each a couple of Kashi bars. Lower calories than 2 candy bars, and lots of fiber and protein. The journey of 100 pounds begins with a single good decision. I think that was a pretty good one.

Also, idle note-

We took our kids trick or treating this year, and I saw something truly sad - kids walking, mom - HUGE mom - riding along side them in her car. Now, do I have all the facts? No. Is it possible she CAN'T walk? Sure. But, on the surface, it made me a little sad. Assuming she was driving out of laziness, I wonder if she's made the connection that that may be WHY she's so out of shape? I don't know, but I know I'll never be that way with my kids. Never.

That's it for today, kids. And a quick word of advice? DON'T WEIGH IN AT 11PM!

Later.

Go, Lions.

Weighing my Options

As usual, not a ton of time. But, I wanted to toss this out there and get some feedback.

I yanked out my old copy of Body for Life tonight and read a few pieces of it. While I don't agree with everything Bill Phillips preaches in that book, I do have to admit that a lot what he says rings true with me, and his training and eating focuses sound pretty reasonable.

I've tried BFL in the past, but I always quit after a week or so. Never saw it through. I'm wondering if, now that I've lost 90 pounds over the last year, if I'd be more apt to finish it this time.

Some of the positives:
BFL lays out a pretty good workout, of which, I could do about 80% of the exercises with my dumbbells.

I'm already down to 15 pounds to go to hit my goal weight, and spending 12 weeks focusing less on weight and more on working out and eating right could help get me focused.

The food that BFL suggests are now foods I'll eat. That wasn't the case the last time I tried this.

I'm just not sure. I can't afford the myoplex crap they want you to take, but maybe some Kashi protein and fiber bars for midday and evening snacks to replace them?

I'm not sure what I'm going to do next. I feel stuck in mud right now. No motivation, no energy, no desire or drive - it's bad, man. This is by FAR the worst funk I've been in since I started this thing.

Guess we'll see what happens, huh?

Anybody have any thoughts on the BFL program as it would relate to me at this stage? Or any general comments on it?

Still Plugging Away

It's been a crazy few days - a lot going on in the professional and personal words.

Quickly, I'm down three pounds in two days as my eating has finally leveled off. I'm hoping to get back on the weight bench tonight.

From here on out, it's just business. I have a job to do, and I'm going to do it. 259.9 by Christmas morning.

I gotta admit, it's gonna feel good to go from 6-8, 365 to 6-8, 259. I'm looking forward to it.

Motivation

This helps get me fired back up.

Damn.

To put it simply...

I've sucked.

Not a ton of time, but here's the basics:

Ate too much, didn't work out, put weight on, need to fix it.

I'm back up to 276.4. Two weeks ago I saw a 270.8 on the scale. The truth is, this could be MUCH worse. I tried to do well for about 2/3 of each day, but it was that last 1/3 that killed me.

So, here are my "back on the horse" goals:

By Thanksgiving Morning - See a 268.8 or lower on the scale
By 12-04 - See a 266 on the scale
By Christmas Morning - See a 259.8 on the scale

How will I do it?

Count calories again
Drink more water
Hit the weights again
Hit the sprinting again
Take walks with the family again
And keep my calories under 1,800

So, I'm back, I'm mad, and I'm determined. I'm hoping that produces some serious results.