Motivation

Last night after work, I turned on Hulu and finished the episode of Extreme Weight loss: Makeover Edition to continue following Tony's journey. This man was pretty incredible. He gave himself until his 50th birthday to get his life back. During that year, he had a failed relationship with his fiance, he was homeless for a majority of the time and his 28 year old son died. Despite all of these obstacles, he was able to lose 200lbs.

I know sometimes these shows focus more on the drama instead of the actually purpose of losing weight. However, this man was a prime example of how life can be difficult, but that doesn't mean that you should give up on yourself. This should give anyone the motivation necessary to see that pushing forward is critical to success!

Fear

It's amazing the ridiculous things that people are afraid of. I was watching Extreme Makeover: Weight loss edition this afternoon during my daily meal prep. The fiancé of the gentleman going through his journey made a comment about being afraid to fail. I don't think it would be anymore possible to understand how that feels. I think I am also afraid to succeed. The reason being is because once I get to my goal, what is left for me? Maintenance? Constantly fearing gaining all of my weight back? I'm pretty sure it's all of these random, ridiculous fears that hold me back each time the journey gets to be too difficult.

Accountablility

I have felt for some time that the one thing that I lack most is accountability. I start something, but when I don't feel motivated enough, I just place it all on the back burner. I have decided to try something a little out of my comfort zone. While I have been discussing weight loss for the past year and a half on my Facebook, I have kept it pretty limited. I have decided to start a page dedicated solely to my journey. I know quite a few people on Facebook that motivate me constantly. I hope to remain motivated and potentially inspire people.

http://www.facebook.com/TransformingAsh

Inspiration

I think I am going to go in a new direction with my journey. I love blogging, but I get terribly bored because I lack participation or general interest from outsiders. Time to do some research and once I am active in the gym again I'll make it happen. The tattoo is almost fully healed and I can kick the routine back into overdrive. Exciting business!

Hiatus

Hello (lack of) followers...

I know that I have been on hiatus. There are multiple reasons that I am not really going to get into. The diet has been on and off for the past few weeks because of our vacation to NJ, Mother's Day/Mom's Birthday, and my 29th birthday. Now that has all past and I am working towards one last obstacle... that would be my healing tattoo. I got a large tattoo on my chest which is about 4-5 days away from being fully healed. I didn't want to work out with it healing because I didn't want to get it irritated. I am hoping that I can get back to my routine after this weekend.

I was doing really well with going to the gym after work. Moving over to Planet Fitness was a nice step in the right direction! Having access to the gym 24 hrs during the week has been a huge benefit. I have also been able to focus my frustration at the gym. Hopefully I can get back to blogging and getting into my routine... I am slowly starting to get antsy without being able to focus on what I enjoy doing.


... the tattoo was worth it though ;)

50

It happened... I finally hit the 50 lbs loss mark. I have been working for this on and off for about a year. It was a lot of hard work but I made it happen. I will not go back to what I was. I will keep going unlike my success in 2006.

Brief Update

I am afraid I have lost my momentum for updating as much as I was in the beginning. I think part of this has to do with the fact that I am moving and doing rather than writing about it now. I have been experiencing much success lately. I am 1/2 from 50 lbs lost. That is a huge thing for me because I am right where I was in the middle of 2006.

That is all for now... I will post more as the weeks go on... :)

30 day shred

Completed day 2 of 30 day shred. I am pretty sore from all the extra activity lately, but I am hoping it will get easier. Joanna also became my unexpected tennis partner which is awesome. We have been having a great time with it! We are also beginning week 2 of our couch to 5k. Progress!

Return from hiatus

Hello party people...

I know it has been too long and I broke promises to myself by keeping up with documenting my journey. I am lame. There has been a lot distracting me, such as work, lack of personal time and being sick for a decent part of the month. The sick part truly sucks because Joanna and I decided to financially invest in our health a little more and purchased bodybuggs. For those that might not know what a bodybugg is, it the device used by contestants on the biggest loser to track calorie burn vs input of food intake.

We are working on work 3 and we are loving the program. We are both down a few pounds, but it has been slow since we both got sick. Sick = lack of motivation!

Lots of plans coming up. Joanna and I are trying to set fitness goals for each other. We are actively participating in the couch to 5k. I am almost enjoying the challenge. We are going to actually run our first 5k in April. We are also planning on training for Run for your life Zombie 5k and a Tough Mudder. The idea of these goals is making it easier to focus.

Tomorrow is also March 1 and I am going to try to begin Jillian michaels 30 day shred. Going to take before and after photos and if I feel confident enough I will submit them online at the end of march!

BodyBugg

Quick update on my journey...

Joanna and I have recently invested in a device which we have both been wanting for quite some time. We have taken some hard saved money and found a great deal on the BodyBugg. The BodyBugg is the device that has been used on the Biggest Loser. Hopefully they will not take too long to come in. I will have more to update on this once I have the access to the website.

You are what you eat...

It makes me sad and disgusted to reflect back on days when I have had this exact meal. This was my go to meal when I was broke and too lazy to prepare something at home. Hell... My old manager would go to McDonald's on Wednesday's for 49 cent hamburger day and get like 30 for the team. I might not always make the best choices, but I sure as hell know better now...

Distractions

I have become my own worst enemy over the past few years. I have come to a point in my journey where I found myself comfortable again. It figures that it is around the same weight that I was last time I became comfortable. I feel like I look good again. People notice and pay me compliments. I just am so focused on everything else that I have lost sight of finishing my journey. I can not make this a permanent mistake (again!). I came across a picture of myself from Joanna's birthday back in 2010 and I was amazed to see the difference between then and now. I am hoping that I can use that as a kick start back into the way I need to be. Fortunately enough I will not be able to use work as an excuse for much longer. I will not be working the ridiculous amount of overtime that I have been and I can put that motivation back into fixing myself.

I came across a video on YouTube of the Season 2 winner of the Biggest Loser. This guy was such a huge success when it came to his journey, but then let it all go to shit. I don't want people to ever thing that about me. I do not want to be the one reaching a goal and then calling it quits because the journey is really never over unless you give up.

Progress pictures

In previous entries I tend to talk about my lack of motivation lately. Here are some pictures to refocus.

The first picture is from November 2010 when I was at my heaviest. The second picture was the last weekend in January 2012. I was wearing the same outfit. I love the difference being so noticeable.

Lack of Motivation

It is hard to break the cycle of excuses. I have had them all....

~ I work so much and never relax
~ It is a pain to constantly prep food
~ Healthy food costs more
~ The gym is far
~ It's cold out
~ I have cramps
~ I want to spend time with my wife
~ I don't want to crate the dog
~ There are things that need to be done in the apartment

I need to put myself as priority number one or this process is going to take even longer. The warm weather of Florida is already approaching us so that's one excuse already eliminated. Our trip to New Jersey is going to be in a little more than 3 months and I have a goal of 20 lbs before our trip. I think I can make it happen. No... Not think... I know I can!

Routine

So today was the first day back in the gym after a seasonal hiatus (not including the occasional spin class). While it was a pain in the ass to wake up and get going early, once we got there it felt great to get back into our normal pace of the morning.

I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I got a heart rate monitor to track the amount of calories that I was burning throughout my workout. Today we worked triceps and chest with cardio. I was able to burn 586... Not bad at all!!

We started over day 1 of couch to 5k again. We only got through week 1 last time. This was mainly because of the fact that we had the free app which only offered the first 4 days. Day 1 went well today. I actually had running shoes this time so I didn't feel like sawing my feet off afterwards. Looking forward to seeing how far I can push myself in spin tomorrow.

I think this is how my week is gonna from now on:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday - couch to 5k and weights
Thursday, Saturday (if not working) - spin
Sunday - anything outside of gym

No Excuses

You would think by the title that I am going to discuss my own struggles with weight loss... Alas that is not true. I am going to discuss the newest season of the biggest loser which started on 1/3. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this season.

What the writers decided to do is bring all these teams onto the ranch and then split each of them up between Bob and Dolvett. First upgrade in this scenario is no Anna kournikova. She is the main reason I had a HUGE disconnect with last season. Poor replacement for Jillian. Then there is Dolvett... He is ripped, but I had a hard time focusing on something other then the fact that was was just an actor on a Tyler Perry show.

I digress... So they split the teams up. I think that is great because then they can't rely so heavily on the people that they made excuses with. What confused the hell out of me though is that these people usually drop anywhere from 15-35 lbs the first week. If u recall correctly, only 1 person lost more than 20 lbs. In fact, multiple people lost only single digit amounts. Wtf... I thought this was the biggest loser, not the under achiever. As a long time fan of the show, I have grown to expect more. I don't think it has anything to do with the trainers.. Just the people they casted! The guy who pretty much voted himself out was the second biggest guy on the show. I just miss the fight of the previous seasons.

Speaking of biggest loser... Joanna and I are going to the Landing in Jacksonville early tomorrow so we can meet Olivia and Hannah from season 11!! Yay!

New approach

So I am slightly over talking just about my struggles and successes through this process. My awesome wife, Joanna ( follow her blog - joannathestylist.blogspot.com ), has been blogging about makeup reviews for just as much time as I have been diving into this project of mine. She tries out different products and does research in hopes to educate people that might need some guidance. I want to do that as well!

I can not tell you how many times that I have invested time or money into something without knowing a thing about what I was getting into. Part of my problem is that I lack the attention span to sit and read something if I am not completely interested.

Here is what I am going to do... I am going to try out different work outs, apps, online communities. I am going to listen to podcasts, watch broadcasts and become more engaged in research. I am going to give my honest opinion on my findings and what I have learned from whatever resource I am investing time into.

I believe this will bring a new focus to my project!

Well said...

This might be the very reason I didn't have any motivation to go to the gym today. I know it's going to be all sorts of crowded for the next month or so. Hopefully this won't make me lose my spot for Thursday night spin class!

Food Porn 2 - The Holiday Edition

Here are some of the amazing dishes that we had for Christmas...

2012

I am so glad the holidays are over for many reasons. It creates so much unnecessary stress. Stress always had a tendency to lean towards eating something completely bad for me. The holidays involves enough crappy eating without stress regardless. I think I was a lot more disciplined then I have been in the past.

Yesterday was completely painful for me. I had my first hangover. While I didn't have the migraine, I couldn't keep anything down. We went to five guys for the best burgers ever and the second I smelled the food I was running to the bathroom. That's what I get for not treating my body like a temple.