Satisfy Your Widest Ambition

Just wanted to let anybody know that I’ve actually moved my blog to wordpress so this will be my last update here.  I hope to be more active on the new blog!

http://kongholiday.wordpress.com

I can’t even begin to describe what I’m feeling right now.  I stepped on the scale today at 224lbs.  That means that since I began my journey on 3/15/08 I’ve lost 70lbs!  It’s almost enough motivation for me to skip turkey day tomorrow, but that’s not going to happen.  Initially I’d planed to go all out and eat whatever I wanted on Thanksgiving, stuff myself.  Instead, I think I’ll go with a different strategy and plan to eat whatever I want, but not in any quantity I want.  I’m going to get a small portion of whatever I want.  A small sliver of pie, etc.  That way I can minimize the damage, not undo anything, and still allow myself to enjoy this special holiday.  Then I’m in the homestretch to knock out some serious clean eating between Friday and My birthday (Dec 20th) when I will allow myself to have birthday cake (my sister makes the world’s best carrot cake from scratch.  It’s to die for.)  The “holiday season” is not going to do me in this year.  I’m going to work hard to ensure that I enter the Winter 52DC leaner than the end of the classic challenge.

Just had to come put in a quick word on my blog since I haven’t updated in a while, though I did put some new progress pictures up a couple of days ago (check the Photos link on the right).

Just got done with the second hardest workout I’ve ever done in my entire life (the hardest was a killer circuit workout forced upon me by my football coach years ago).  I switched to the next set of TNT workouts, finally on the last four week set before I move on to the Advanced workouts.  I kicked up the intensity with heavy weights, and after I got done I busted out 20 minutes of hardcore HIIT on the elliptical machine to help me catch back up on CT’s.  As I was leaving the gym I could feel fire pumping through my veins I was so stoked.  I can see why exercise is so addicting.  When I got in the car, Just What I Needed by the Cars was appropriately blaring through the radio and I rocked out all the way home.  Right now I feel like I could go bowl over a house with my bare hands.  I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow, but it’ll be so worth it.

Gotta go eat now, and then get some last minute cramming in for my 9am exam tomorrow.  Just wanted to post this up while I was still feeling invulnerable so that I could come back and read it again next time I felt like skipping a workout.

… now it seems much nearer today.

What’s that all about?  Well, you may recall in my last post about my 5k goal by the end of the challenge.  I was going to complete the couch to 5k program.  On Wednesday, I went to the gym, hopped on the treadmill and did the first workout without barely breaking a sweat.  So I decided that when I went back, I would skip to the second week, b/c no use in running if I’m not even feeling challenged.  Today was supposed to be 90 seconds of jogging and 2 mins of walking.  The treadmill at the gym is pretty cool, you just tell it you’re doing speed intervals, program what speed you want to walk at, and what speed you want to jog at and then everytime you want to switch you just hit one button and it slows down or speeds up.  So I set my walk time for 3.5mph and my jog speed for 6mph.  After a 5 minute warm up I began jogging.  When I got to 90 seconds, I still wasn’t tired so I decided that I would keep going for a full 3 mins.  At the end of 3 mins, I stretched it to 5.  At the end of 5 I was sweating, but I felt I still had some in me so I decided to just run until I couldn’t run any more.  I wanted to measure where I was at so that I could properly determine what week in the 5k program to start on.  Well… when my workout ended 25 minutes later, I  was still running!!!  I ran for an entire 20 minutes at 6mph.  So I ran for a full 2 miles non stop.  At the end of the workout I probably could have ran for another 5 minutes or so, but the treadmill started it’s cooldown mode and I did have somewhere I wanted to be so I went ahead and did the cool down instead of cranking it back up.

The whole time I was doing it, I was thinking “this is crazy, I’m not in this good of shape.”  But my legs didn’t give out so I kept pumping them.  Here’s the crazy thing.  I rarely do cardio.  In the last challenge, I did 14 HIIT sessions of 20 minutes each.  I really think what helped me run that far without getting tired was all the time in the weight room.  My legs are so much stronger, and the full-body, minimum rest TNT workouts are somewhat cardiovascular themselves since you are moving from one workout to the next so quickly.  Also for the first time ever, I ran without getting shin splints.  I don’t know if it’s the new shoes I got, or the fact that I was running on a treadmill instead of outside, or that my legs are stronger, or a little bit of all three, but there was no pain during or after the run.  When I was running a few years ago, I would get the most painful shin splints you could imagine.  So Yippie!!!   I suspect that within a week or two I’ll be able to complete a 5k on the treadmill.  Then I’ll probably kick it up a notch or two with some incline or hill training or something.  Once I feel like my legs have gotten used to running again, I’ll take the show on the road and hit the pavement outside.

On a personal note: The Oklahoma State Cowboys are 7-0 for the first time since the 1940’s.  I’ve been waiting my whole life for this.  Next week we get to face #1 ranked Texas who put a major hurting on Mizzou tonight.

The Classic 52 day challenge is upon us and got kickstarted with a bang today.  I’ve set some pretty high goals for myself, and I have every intention of hitting them all.  So I thought I’d write a bit about my goals and my plan for acheiving them.  My goals for this challenge are:

• 95 Clean Eats.  This was pretty easy last time, but last time didn’t include Haloween and Thanksgiving, and a wedding.  I will still hit this goal.
• 21 RT and CT’s - 21 RT’s was no problem last time, because I don’t mind weight lifting.  I increased my CT’s because I didn’t want to leave myself any room to slack off.  So I started today, the first day, with a CT.
• Go to every single class.  I skip class.  But I’m trying to pull a 4.0 this semester, and that’s not going to happen if I keep neglecting my attendance.  So I’m going to force myself to go to every class by making it a goal.  I wanted to skip today (I want to skip every day) but I didn’t.  So far 100% adherence to this goal.
• Weigh under 220. That’s 2 lb/wk.  It’s ambitious, but doable.
• No diet soda.  This may be my toughest goal, because I love the stuff.  I’m the kind of person who is always thirsty.  If I don’t have something to drink nearby I go crazy.  I started drinking diet soda several months ago to give me a changeup to drinking just water.  But as the days went on, my soda drinking became greater and my water drinking went down.  To combat this, I bought two 32 oz nalgene bottles that I can fill with water and alternate in the fridge so I always have good, cold water to drink.  I’ve been doing this about 4/5 days now and it’s worked great.
• Complete the couch to 5k.  Again pretty self explanitory.  I did the first workout today, and it really seemed like I was beyond the physical level of a “couch” so I may skip to the second week next time and see how that suits me.  I’ve been doing cardio, so I’m not totally out of shape.  Maybe I don’t need to start at the very beginning.  I bought some awesome new running shoes and didn’t get any shin splints today, which is usually my problem with running.  Hopefully these will take care of that for good.

Also on a side note, as a reward to myself for doing so well in the last challenge, I bought myself a little something.  My old desk chair was really a piece of junk  that came from a surplus sale at the high school.  It was worn out and always leaned back when I sat in it, even if I was trying to sit forward.  It wasn’t made to be sit in for any length of time, and since I am studying MIS and will probably be sitting at my computer for long hours programming and doing other things I went ahead and bought myself a super awesome desk chair.  I went all out on this puppy, sat in every chair that Staples had, and picked the one I felt had the best quality and comfort.  I think I could sit in this thing for 15 hour shifts if I had to (with appropriate breaks for stretching and going to the gym of course).  It’s the most amazing desk chair I’ve ever sat in and it’s a Lane so I’m sure it will last me quite a long time.

I visited my Mom’s house last weekend.  I don’t have a lot of photos of myself… but she does.  I went through some of her pictures from the last few years and wow… I found some pictures of myself at my heaviest and at my lightest.  So I though I’d put ‘em up here.

Here’s me at my heaviest around Thanksgiving 07 ~300lbs:

And here’s me at my lightest around the Summer/Fall of 04 I believe (with my grandma and brother) ~180lbs:

My pie in the sky goal weight would put me about 10-15lbs below the weight I was in the above picture with a little more muscle.  I weighed about 180 in the above pic and I still wasn’t super happy w/ my physique.  There was still a lot of visible fat, around my stomach and chest, but it’s amazing looking back at pictures and seeing I was a lot thinner than I remember being.

Down to 242 today.  My body has been toying with me bouncing back and forth between 245 and 242.  So the weight is coming off albeit pretty slow.  I’m hoping to go on a spurt here sooner or later where I start dropping some a little faster.  Either way as long as it’s coming off, I’m happy.  I’ve read the longer it takes to lose, the better chance you have of keeping it off.  I believe that to be true, if for no other reason than you’ve had a lot longer to practice doing the right things with your diet and exercise.

I bumped up to the intermediate workouts on TNT last week, but I slightly modified them.  I’m doing pullups (on the assisted machine) rather than the kneeling lat pulldowns.  Essentially it’s the same movement, but I’m hoping to keep doing pullups because eventually I want to build enough strenght to be able to do an unassisted pullup (something I’ve never been able to do before).  I’m pretty sore all over from the pullups, side bridge, and the swiss ball work.  But it’s a good sore.  I love the feeling of knowing I put my muscles to work.  I went to my family reunion over labor day weekend and got some compliments.  It’s always nice when somebody recognizes your hard work.

Just a breakdown of where I’m at on my goals in the challenge since there’s only 11 days left.

Clean Eats: 79 clean eats out of a possible 82 so far, with a goal of 95.  I don’t plan on using another cheat during the rest of the challenge, so I should end up at 101 total clean eats.

Resistance Training:  17 down, 4 to go.

Cardio Training: 10 down, 4 to go.  With 11 days left, that gives me 8 workout days and 3 off days and I can still hit my goals.  Good shape here.

Personal Goal: Weigh in under 240.  At 242 lbs now with a little under 2 weeks to go.  I’m hoping and praying that this one will happen.  It’ll be big for me to see 239 on that scale.  It’s been a few years since I’ve been below that weight.  8lbs lost in the challenge so far which is still a little more than 1lb per week, just wish it didn’t seem so excruciatingly slow.  The good news is, my lean body mass is the same now as when I started the challenge.  So everything I’ve lost has been pure fat.

Gearing up for a strong finish here!

Today was the first day of school. Danger. Rushing around, hustle and bustle of every day life. Time is the killer of all diets. I got out of my last class at 12:20 and had to be to work by 1:00. So I was going to stop by the student union and grab some lunch. Almost blew a CE on Pizza as I was in a hurry and that line was moving really fast. But I persevered, fixed me up a big salad with spinach, salami, tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers, ham, and ranch. Then I sort of pseudo-cut in line (hey I was pressed for time, and it was either that or steal it, so I chose the lesser of the two crimes), and paid for my 8.00 salad!!! 8 bucks for a friggin’ salad. I pay something like $200 a credit hour, to go to school, and they have the audacity to charge me 8 bucks for veggies and dressing. I could have also got a 1/4 cup of pudding for 3 bucks, or a 1/4 cup of gelatin for 2.75!!!! One thing’s for sure. I’m brown-bagging it from now on. I liked that salad so much, I ran out and bought all the stuff I put on it. I’ll just stop by work in the mornings and throw it in the fridge, and then eat in the breakroom before I clock on. Probably save myself a thousand bucks over the course of the semester.

On another note, I was down to 247.8 this morning. That’s the lowest I’ve weighed in yet, so I hope this means I’m making some progress on that stall I’ve seemed to be stuck in. I’ll keep a close eye on it.

Guess it’s about time for me to update this page. So far the 52 day challenge has been going good for me. I’ve got my clean eats down pretty good, 13/14, right now and am on track for my resistance training.

As for that cardio, I finally knocked out a session tonight. Went to the gym and did 25 minutes on the elliptical. I went ahead and rented a locker at the fitness center tonight too so that when school starts I can stash some crap in there if I have to squeeze in some impromptu workout sessions whenever it’s most convenient. If I have workout gear and protein on campus with me, there’s no excuse not to grab a workout before heading home. Also, I can stash some work clothes in there so I don’t have to wear hot, dress clothes to class and then go straight to work. I can go workout/shower/change at the gym and then go to work. Awesome!

Tip of the day: Smile more! I was at the gym the other night, doing some neutral grip shoulder presses, and struggling to get the last handful of reps. I happen to glance over at the fella next to me, doing some bicep curls and apparently straining with them. But I look at his face, and the sadistic S.O.B. is smiling. That’s right. He’s enjoying this. He pumps out his next few reps and racks the weights. My next set when I start struggling, I decide to give it a try. Sure it’s hard, and I’m doing everything I can not to just keel over dead, but I put a big grin on my face and I pump out the next few reps with relative ease. Here’s something interesting: “Studies have shown that smiling releases endorphins, natural pain killers, and serotonin. Together these three make us feel good. Smiling is a natural drug.” Thus, maybe there’s a scientific reason that smiling could help me lift more. Either way, I’m taking this one to the bank!

Today was the first day of the 52 day challenge and I really got started with a bang.  2 Clean Eats, 1 Resistance Training.  But tomorrow the real challenge comes; knocking out one of those blasted cardio sessions.  Ah well, 20 minutes of HIIT on the elliptical won’t kill me.  Not really sure what else to put here for now plus I’m tired and need to get to bed, so I’ll end with a little bit of what I’ve been watching/reading lately.

Watching: The Wire - Season One on DVD

Reading:  Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman

Listening:  The Goo Goo Dolls - Dizzy Up the Girl (Alt. Rock at it’s absolute finest), Lou Reed - Transformer