Making a slight departure

For the next two months I'm pretty much going to focus on my exercise and weight loss plan. I won't really have much else going on, anyway. This entire thing is very important to me, for reasons other than just the outcome. I want to be able to prove to myself that I can do this.

My weight is going in to it a little higher than it's been. Tuesday I took my ex-gf out to dinner before she moves to California and ended up eating a whole steak at like 9 PM, so that started the problems. I pretty much ate bad the rest of the week... without exercising.

I didn't originally intend to mostly sit this week out - it just sort of happened. I worked all day Memorial Day and didn't feel like working out - Tuesday I had other things to do with Amy, Wednesday I did manage to sneak in a 3 mile run. Thursday, I crafted my crazy schedule for June (which will be replicated in July) and decided to just relax the rest of the week.

I'm part of a weight loss challenge that runs June 1st to August 3rd and a Nike+ challenge group that requires 100 miles of running from June 1st to August 1st, so I want to be pretty focused and do well in those.

Starting out tomorrow with a 2.8 mile run at 6:30 AM and then a gym workout with 60 minutes of cardio in the evening. I have 10 workouts scheduled for next week, which is the most of any week during the month of June. Although I think some of the later weeks will be harder, especially the 8 mile run scheduled at the end of the month.

I wish I was feeling 100% but I'm not. I'm taking antibiotics and while the cyst in my back has gotten smaller (it's only about peach sized now - down from tennis ball) it's still annoying me and there have been a few issues today and yesterday with mild dizziness but I've already resigned to flipping my "crazy" switch and not missing a workout that I have penciled in under ANY circumstance.

So I'll mostly be writing about this sort of thing... mostly boring but if I end up doing what I plan on doing, people are probably going to wonder how the heck I accomplished it.

I did see Up! today and it was a beautiful film. The first ten minutes or so have nearly no dialogue whatsoever and are touching and almost heartbreaking. It's a good movie with a lot of heart and of course there are the cute characters which I always tend to love. Softie for dogs that I am, Dug was, of course, my favorite.



I was hiding underneath your porch because I love you.

The importance of going 100%

I am notoriously lazy.

When I want something - I will do whatever it takes to make it happen. The other 95% of the time, I tend to sit back and watch things happen like an old man sitting on the porch; watching the day drift by.

Unfortunately, nothing career-wise has succeeded in jolting me out of my malaise. I'd imagine that the day this happens, if it ever actually does, might not even amount to anything. I waver back and forth on whether people even notice hard work. Ultimately, of course they do, but does anything but the end result truly matter? If you are adept at producing results with minimal effort, which I tend to be able to accomplish, is that good enough? Due to my current situation, I probably won't know the answer to that, for years.

But that's not what this is about.

I have decided to go "100%" in another aspect of my life. The physical aspect. I let myself gain a little weight again this winter. I have excuses, but again, that's all they are...excuses. This time wasn't that bad really. I put on about 20 pounds.

That weight is gone now, thankfully.

I have run 50 miles since the end of April, when I started tracking my running distances and times with Nike+. I still work out at the gym 3-5 times a week, so I have been averaging about 6-8 workouts a week for the past month.

But for June... well, I'm going overboard. I printed a schedule, which I intend to follow that includes every day for the month. I'm going to be smart about it, though- there are off days. There needs to be. I found out over the past few months that you NEED those days. I worked out 14 days in a row and could barely get out of bed. I followed this with two days off and I had my energy back. I'm learning as I go.

I plan on running 73.1 miles in the month of June. It may end up being more, but it certainly will not end up as less. This doesn't include the trips to the gym and all that entails.

The fact is, it has been nine years since I last weighed under 200 pounds. A lot has changed in my life since 1999 and I am singularly focused on making this a reality once again. Furthermore - I plan on STAYING there.

I know it's a crazy idea, but I think it's time to find out what kind of things can happen when I devote myself entirely to getting something done. I'll have updates when they are warranted.

What is the male equivalent of Plain Jane?

Today was my first paid holiday at work...I worked all weekend anyway. Which is nice, because it works out to be about $700 in overtime pay. Too bad I'll probably see half of that.

My life has been way too boring lately. All I do, honestly, is work, run, go to the gym, and take Jack for walks. This is a good thing, because I've lost 16 pounds in the last two months and if I had to guess I'd say Jack lost about 5-7, which is a lot for him.

I bought an XBox 360, after my failed Wii experiment last year. They say people buy a Wii, play it for 3 months and then never play it again. I knew that ahead of time, but bought it anyway. I bought it in April and played it until September until I got bored of it, so I beat the average. I'd rather play real video games instead of gimmicked ones (if I have to pick an innocuous hobby, this may as well be it).

It drives me crazy how boring I am lately. I don't drink or go out. I won't allow myself to buy clothes for a few more pounds, I'm not traveling anywhere this year, I couldn't get tickets to UFC 101 in Philadelphia, and I've paid off $9000 of debt in the last 8 months.

There are hundreds if not thousands of 13 and 14 year olds living more vibrant social lives than me right now.

Oh well - in other news I look like a goof with my hair in transition. It's all fuzzy and not in a cute/attractive/socially passable way. I look like I should be wearing a helmet just in case I accidentally fall down or eat too much paste. How long until I have manageable hair again?

Nothing to report really - just waiting for something to finish at work and I needed to kill some time. :)

Just keep on truckin. Take your time comin' home.

Lessons I learned from yogurt

For years now my go-to night time snack has been a bowl of Lite-N-Fit Yogurt (vanilla) with granola mixed in.

A few months ago, I ditched it because it had "too many calories" and I felt as though I could surely eat something smaller around 8:00pm.

I switched to yogurt cups, which was fine for a while. There are a lot of great flavors. But after awhile, one cup wasn't enough. I needed two cups. Then that wasn't enough - I added in ultra processed 100 calorie packs.

Before you know it - my lighter alternative isn't lighter at all. It's probably ending up being much worse for me.

This certainly isn't the first time I made something worse by trying to make it better.

It also probably won't be the last. Sometimes it pays sticking with what's reliable.

ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

I'm growing my hair out. It's been 30 months... it's time.

I'm getting at least one tattoo as a reward for making it to 185 pounds. Estimated time: August or September.

I got new glasses... the nerdy kind (black plastic frames)...I will wear these probably once a week.

I'm throwing or giving away at least 50% of my wardrobe... most of it doesn't fit anyway. I will add back to this collection very slowly and carefully. Expensive quality items I can wear over and over again will take precedence over t-shirts (the era of me owning over 60+ threadless t-shirts is over forever)

I have taken to running 3 miles most mornings before I go to work. It's hard to wake up but I find that I really enjoy it. Every single fitness goal I take now is to get lean. No more lifting for strength.

I've reached a point where I'm happy with my life, but I STILL want to change many things about myself. Happy but not content if that makes any sense. Gotta keep growing and improving. If only I could work on having more patience...

happy day

I owed $7200 in October.



$12,000+ in October. Almost there!

Play Haley off, keyboard cat

This meme is floating around the internet and it's mostly pretty funny. This is by far the best one, though.



So wrong, but I crack up every time.

Abuse!

A man came to the dog park on Saturday with a police grade baton and hit another dog with it. I saw the whole thing. A rottweiler (who I found out likes getting his butt scratched) barked at a little poofy white dog, who probably should have been on the small dog side, and this man just whipped out his "weapon" and hit the rottweiler with it, TWICE! This dog started yelping for a few minutes straight as it ran right towards its owner with the most confused look on its face.

So then this guy comes over, weapon still in hand, and starts grilling the guy. He even asked "is that a pit bull, sir?". Me and everyone else who was sitting there were like, oh hey buddy nice weapon that you just used on a dog, how about you get the fuck out of here! He had the balls to ask for this guys information like he was going to file a police report on him.

It was nuts. All of the other people there were praising how calm this guy was and saying they would have been much angrier than that. I just kept thinking that if he did that to Jack I might be going to jail for knocking out a senior citizen. I was angry and it wasn't even my baby! Some people.