Health Juggernaut

Well its a start of another week. Diet and exercise are still very much at the fore front of my mind. The furnace is still burning hot and I want to go where Ripx has never gone before. I really feel like there isn't much that can stand in my way at this point. I feel like a health Juggernaut.

An observation — I really hate seeing the lull in the FAT blogs these days. It really saddens me and I hope this isn't the signs of this group circling the drain. I know some have reached there goals and that means less interaction once you hit maintenance stage. There are still many who have not reached their promise lands that are starting to drift off into the fat vortex. I say it is time for our founders "The Fatastic Four" to reenlist and once again show us how its done. I suppose Billy deserves a hall pass on this calling cause he has reached his goals and is continuing to show us how to maintain the weight he has lost. At this point I call on Rob, Kevin, and Beck to come back with a vengeance and show us all how old school FAT coalitioners get it done. I got to thank all the huge success stories for getting it done (Billy, Brian, Kristen, Jimbo and others). Thanks to the newer peeps for keeping things rolling (Jason, Geoff, Will, and Justin). I miss reading stuff from Melissa (hope you come off hiatus soon), Swanks, Rebecca, Jay, Gene, and Dave. I know I have been kind of absent myself for a while but lets all get back to what we set out to do. Being healthy and fit is so important and this group goes along way in supporting just that.

This last weekend was a huge test of my resolve. I did things that I have never done since being part of the fat coalition. Let me guess, you are all thinking that I blew my diet and didn't work out this weekend. I know you have every right to think that cause in the past that is what I have done. This last weekend was a "mans weekend" and I was a man with a plan. My friend and I were slated to head north to Seattle for golf, UFC night, poker etc. No kids, no wives, just a bunch of guys having fun, taking a break from everyday life for a couple days. Before this it was a pass for me to eat the world, drink gallons of beer, and just plain and simply be a sloth. But no, I had a plan. My meals were all packed in my little cooler. I got my workout in Friday morning before I left and ran 3 miles last night when I got home. My friends tried to break me at every meal or snack. They were all chowing down on pizza, lasagna, chips, cookies and tons of beer. There I sat with my 4 ozs of chicken and salad passing up the stuff they kept trying to offer me. Luckily Saturday night was my cheat meal so I was able to par take in some ribs and some beer etc. But like everything else that weekend my cheat meal was planned. It felt good to say no and be in control of what is important to me even if it meant standing out like a sore thumb. I jumped on the scale this morning and was happy to see no weight gained and I can just taste a new low as it gets closer.

My wonderful wife is really staying the course this time too which helps me eminsly. Evan's color seems to really be looking better. Looks like we might actually get some sun this coming weekend. My oldest son Ryan turns three this week which is a total trip to me.

Blog Slacker!!

I know, I know... I have been harassing a handful of you to post more often but then turn around and don't blog myself. I will try to do better (thanks for the reminder Jason).

I am still kicking some serious a$$ in the diet and exercise front. The weight is still coming off nicely and I am really hoping for a new low post here in the near future. I am going to have to dig way back in ripx180 blog sphere to find my last new low. I think I remember the number and the sad thing is it was way back in 2007 when it happened. I got no excuses or remorse at this point, it is what it is. I can tell you this though, it feels different this time. I can really feel the fire and desire to do this. Even more so then when I first joined the FAT coalition. I just feel like I have a direction, goals, and that I can actually do it. I almost enjoy the slight tinge of hunger in my gut because it reminds me that I am shredding fat of my big a$$. It just feels different this time.

I am playing with the idea of ditching the cheat meal once a week. Part of me wants to keep it but the other part of me thinks it counter productive. I just don't want to burn out and crash by not allowing things that I really like on rare occasion. Last weekend on my cheat night I decided to indulge in some booze (had been 3 weeks since I really had much). I drank a fair amount and had fun but felt like absolute S the next day. The older I get the less attractive booze is. I think in the future if I decide to partake in booze it will be in much less quantities. Drinking or not at social gatherings I always have a good time.

My wife is doing great also. I am so glad that she has decided to make a change for the better health wise too. Its so much easier having your best friend to talk to about nutrition, exercise, frustration, etc etc. She is also loosing some pounds and its starting to show. We seem to motivate one another so I am pretty pumped to see how far we can take this thing.

Evan my 2month old still has slightly elevated jaundice levels. So we had to have a blood test done on him. Poor kid had to have 3 shots and a blood test in a hour period. Luckily everything came back normal on his test and they said to just keep an eye on his coloring. They said that breast fed babies sometimes take longer to expel the jaundice. He is gaining weight and growing like crazy.

I bought a little 1971 Yamaha AT1-125 enduro to go next to my dirt bike in the garage. Its been fun putting around the neighborhood on it and tinkering with the engine etc. Nice to have a little bike that is street legal again.

So there you have it FAT, thats whats been going on in Rips world.

I'm Still Here

Wow I cant believe its been over a month since the last time I posted. I have been trying to comment more on all of your blogs but have neglected my own. Heres to more frequent postings.

My wife was released to start exercising etc after her c-section about 3 weeks ago. So its been really nice to have a diet/workout partner. We have both really helped keep each other on track. We bought a food scale and have really cleaned up our diets both portion and quality wise. We are allowing 1 cheat meal a week and that seems to be working really well for us. It seems that after about 6 or 7 days you are getting pretty fed up with eating clean so a cheat meal allows us to have something we have been craving. It also usually reminds me why I shouldn't eat like that (cause I feel like crap). When I adjusted my portion sized I was and am hungry allot more than I used to be even though I am eating 5-6 times a day. It wasn't that I was eating the wrong things all that often, I was just eating too much. We have also been exercising 5-6 days a week which I am sure will really help. I had regained some of the weight I had lost last year and got back up to 232. So I am currently re loosing the pounds I had lost not so long ago. I am hoping to be able to post a new low in the next few weeks. Evan our 2 month old is doing great. However sleep and downtime around our place is far and few between for us adults. 2 kids is allot more work than just one. Hope this finds everyone in FAT is doing well.

What's Up FAT

It’s been almost 3 weeks since I last updated my FAT blog. I know I need to be doing it more regular. My workouts have been good the last few weeks. I finally feel like maybe I am catching some wind in my work out sails. My food intake has kind of been hit and miss for a long time now. I guess it has always been my Achilles heel. My goal with eating these days is to minimize junk food and eat smaller portions in general. There really isn’t much to a 4-6oz piece of stinking chicken. There is also always more room for veggies.

I had somewhat of an eye opener conversation with a friend of mine the other day. I have spoken about him in past blogs (the firefighter who’s training for a ironman). I was out at his house for dinner and we were talking about his training schedule which is absolutely insane. I started bitching about my workouts and trouble losing weight. He is one of those lucky guys that can eat just about anything and never get fat, so he didn’t have much advice on diet. He only had a few pieces of info on diet “calories in calories out” and “pre/post workout shake or drink”. What he did bring back to the forefront of my mind was heart rate while working out. I have a polar heart rate monitor and never really put much stock in where my heart rate was at. Well I have been running in the 165-175 bpm range when doing runs on my treadmill. I was gassing out after about 15-20min and had no stinking energy. He told me I was working way too hard and that I needed to slow down even if it meant walking some. The stupid thing is I already knew all this information but wasn’t putting it to use. I started researching it a bit and found some generic MHR equation like 220-your age = MHR (max heart rate). I am 33 so my approx MHR is 187. So pretty much anything over 168 was putting me into the red zone 90% of my MHR. My understating is it’s ok to get into those number if you’re doing HIIT but steady state cardio is another beast. So the last week or so I have been keeping my MHR under 160 (preferably 155) while doing steady state cardio. My workouts have been much more enjoyable and effective. Last night was a 40 min cardio session that resulted in over 3 miles and 550 calories burnt. Previously I was lucky to hit 2 miles and 400cal in 25 minutes or so before practically crashing. I think the main issue was I was still trying to work out like I did when I was 30yo, <200 style=""> So if you have a HRM use it and listen to your heart. Your workouts will be longer, more affective, and more enjoyable which will increase the likelihood of doing them again.

Keep it real FAT.

Its all Evan’s Fault...

Ok maybe not at all but he has sure been keeping us busy. We had a planned c-section date but he decided to choose his own birthday and nuke everyone else's schedule along the way. I cant believe that my second son will be a week old tomorrow. For the ladies he was 6lbs 12oz and 19inches long. Both he and his mother are doing great and I am trying to get back in the swing of things on the nutrition and exercise front. Once his mom gets back to 100% she plans to get involved too on both fronts. Hopefully I can talk her into doing a blog also. Now if we can just get Evan on a good schedule and get a good night sleep.

Kristen thanks for sending me a reminder to get back and Melissa sorry to hear that blogspot ate your page. Guess that means I need to back mine up. I have a couple weeks off work so I am planning on getting some more frequent exercise and blogging more also. Help keep me honest FAT, if I don’t blog shoot me a comment if you got a moment.

Here is a little video of Evan at 4 days old. His grandpa got really lucky and caught his first smile on video.

Start of a Good Week

Overall I do feel like things are taking a turn for the better in my quest to get healthier and drop some weight. I have really been trying to pay attention to the mental part of the game which I think is my worst downfall (that or diet). I have been reading allot of old posts and trying to reestablish the reasons why I am doing this. Not that I have ever forgot them, I have just kind of had times where it hasn't been at the absolute front of my mind. Diet wise I am really trying to eat clean and less in general. I think my portion sizes have been somewhat skewed in the past. I am really just trying to simplify things. Natural healthy whole foods and less in general. Here is yesterdays menu...

6am
Grilled chicken breast (small amount) & diced tomatoes, Banana
9am
Green tea, Organic oats & flax, Black coffee
Noon
Grilled chicken breast, veggies, brown rice
2:30pm
Ziplock of spinach, celery & almonds 15nuts
6:30pm
Turkey chili, sautéed zucchini (in evoo), 6oz v8
Throughout the day
Multi vitamin, vita c, 4fish caps, 100+ onces of H2O

Another note on the menu I have started to do like some of you all do. Monday night I grilled up 4 chicken breasts, made some brown rice, and a big batch of veggies. That gave me four lunches and four chicken and tomatoes snacks. Last night we had turkey chili with left overs so I made two more lunches out of that. Almost looks like I am planning my diet out here... :) I have been trying to be more active in the kitchen with my wife to make sure food is being prepared how I like it (healthy). She seems to like input and the help too.

Monday I did a circuit workout that included dumbbell swings, jumping squats, lunges w/dumbbell press, push ups, row deadlift combo. I stayed pretty light on the weights to work on form. I still nearly puked. The all over body workouts just waste me. I noticed another weird thing, when I do these workouts my BP drops significantly. I always thought it would go up. I took it right after I was feeling kind of ill the first time and it was like 91/68. whats your take on that??? Has anyone else taken there BP after or during a hard compound movement circuit?

Last night I did 40 mins on the treadmill. ran for the first 20 mins then switched to a more HIIT approach for the last 16 minutes with a few minutes cool down at the end. I was soaked and really wasted by the end. The treadmill doesn't make me feel like I am going to puke which is nice. I guess if I went harder and faster it might.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Did Something

Even though its only been a short period of time since my last "tear in the beer" blog I am feeling much better. Thanks for all the comments, I feel like many of them stuck for some reason. Billy's "make your actions match your intentions", Jim's "Do Something", Jay's "the only thing that helps me is exercise", Rob's "Just do something athletic", and Swanks "Pay yourself first, Treat this lifestyle like you treat your mortgage" all meant allot to me. Lets just say in the last few days I have done something, matched my actions with my intentions, exercised, and payed the lifestyle mortgage and it all feels good. I think just getting on the treadmill helped refocus and reset my mindset, diet, and desire to loose weight. I woke up this morning with the fire deep in the pit of my stomach. Things are looking up and if I were a betting man the weight will be coming down. I do have some lost ground to recapture but that's fine it is what it is. The only thing I can do is dig in and start moving forward from here out.

215 swanks..... I hear you loud and clear.