Unreal Stretch

Wow... All I can say is wow.  I have been on a free fall for the last 10 months when it comes to working out and this is my first post since June.  The good thing is that all my zero readers/subscribers are patient and willing to wait it out for me and to you, I thank you.  As for the rest of you, you get to read this in succession without any delay from the previous post so here it goes.
To sum up the last 10 months, we added a new baby girl, moved from our loft downtown into a great house in the suburbs (not as bad as I thought it might be) and had changes in my job that has kept me out of the gym.  That all adds up to a bunch of excuses and self-loathing.  Especially the day after my hometown Kansas City Chiefs just lost in the AFC Championship game.  If you don't watch football, it's a pretty big deal but I will make it.  
The reason I write today is to try and get back into the healthy mindset and to get myself into a groove.  I am currently 210 lbs which isn't as bad as I have been in the past.  My body comp isn't looking great at 22% BF so I have some work to do.  I am going to start small by just getting into the gym and building on that.  I don't have a plan yet but as I build up to doing more classes and getting into a routine, I will start to map out what I plan to do.  One of the things I have realized is that I cannot overwhelm myself with overly lofty goals because if I do not accomplish them, I will fall short, frustrating myself in the process and stifling any momentum I have.  I am not saying I don't challenge myself, I just know I am not going to back to CrossFit if I know I am not ready for that.  Start small and get that momentum and at that point, I tend to just off the deep end and really go for it.  That takes time but once I get there, let the yo-you dieting commence.
I cannot wait for the first post-workout entry as it is important for me to be held accountable to those who rely on my blog for inspiration and a reason for logging onto the world-wide-web each and every day.

-N 

Better w/ Age

I used to think that when I was in my 20's that I was hitting my stride and feeling like I was in great shape only to look back on them now and realize I was coasting due to... being in my 20's.  My body was able to keep the majority of lbs off by metabolism alone and very little work. I can tell there was little there other than what nature had given me, nothing had been earned.  Now that I am closer to 40 than 30, I took a trip down memory lane and in those pictures, I see that there is a difference.  Don't get me wrong, I still have a fair amount of dad-bod to shed but feel like I have earned what I have and that is important to me.  It keeps me going and the main reason I feel I can bounce back from taking a few months off instead of just falling back into my old habits permanently.
I wish I would have realized then how it felt to earn something in my 20's as it does today (said most everyone in their late 30's and 40's).  It is a whole new level of pride when you see the changes in your body and that you have had a direct impact on what you feel like on a daily basis.  I hope that everyone finds this because it is truly a great thing.  That feeling combined with taking control of your own health and well being is liberating and opens up so many thoughts to what you can accomplish outside of health and wellness.  It truly bleeds into everyday life.

-N

Feels Good(ish)

Today was a tough one for many reasons.  I was not interested in being bad at it (no lung capacity) and then actually being bad at it.  Either way, I made it and it feels good.  We did a Tabata 4x (same workout for 20 seconds, 10 seconds of rest and repeat 4 times before moving onto the next station) and I was finding myself unable to do the last 5 seconds of nearly every round once we had went through a couple of times.  That was tough to deal with but I was feeling the burn and understanding that I was getting better by being there.
I currently have a mental block to get past so I can finish that last 5 seconds.  I don't know what it is but it's there.  It could be a few things but I know it is only mental.  Once I get past that hurdle, I think I will start working towards that next stage.
Speaking of stages, I think I am going to put an analogy out there so if it works for you great, if not, it wasn't meant for you anyway. :)
I feel like stages of fitness are like trying to sprint when you are laying down on your back but happen over the course of months instead of seconds.  At first, there is no movement and your just have to figure out how this is going to work.  Once you got that down, you then start getting up.  Movement is happening but you don't feel like you are going anywhere.  This is still an important piece because you have to do that to eventually sprint.  Once you are up, you need to start moving your feet.  For me, that is when I get the bug or the fever.  You are starting to see progress and feel like you have made it past the toughest part.  Once you are going, you feel momentum kicking in and things are moving fast.  You peak and feel like you could tackle anything and then you hit the wall...  This is the part of the sprint where you start to slow down and eventually stop.  For me, that was this last few months.  I had taken myself to the peak, slowed down and instead of walking again, I stopped.  Now, I am trying to run but this time, I am not on my back, I just have to start going again until I get the bug.  So far, I am 6 days in a row and it feels good.  I think I am back on track but with a long Memorial Day weekend, I need to do something to keep running.  

-N 

Hey Stangers

It has been a long time since I posted last but since no one reads yet, I don't feel so bad.  The part I do feel bad about is that in the last 2 months, I have worked out a total of 3 times.  Three.  Tres.  Drei.  Yeah, it was not a good stretch.  I do have an excuse and I don't plan on using it again.  My wife and I welcomed a new little one into our lives and it has been a great 2 months.  She is happy and healthy and we love every minute with both our kiddos.  In trying to be a good husband and dad, I wanted to be there and available at all costs.  Plus, it gave me a chance to recharge.  I hear that every great once in a while (6 months or so) you should take a week or so to recharge your batteries.  For me, it was 1.5 years and 2 months so oh well.  Now that I am back at work and able to hit the classes offered, I am getting back into eating healthy as well.  While out (we'll call it A Time Required Only for Purposes to Help You or ATROPHY - seems about right), I didn't watch what I ate on top of not working out so things got all out of kilter.  I started drinking pop (yes, pop.  I have a sweet tooth that will not stop and beer does not scratch that itch) along with eating any candy I could get my hands on.  That didn't feel good after a while and my body told me about it.  Day after day I would feel disgusting and wasn't processing why.  Not I know because after being back for only 3 days and watching what I eat and pushing myself, I am feeling back to normal.
The biggest thing I noticed when I started working out again was my stress would go down for the day.  Not matter if I worked out over lunch or in the morning, the rest of the day felt more relaxed and I felt like I had more energy.  I am not sure if only a few days can make me feel that way again but I'll take the placebo effort.  Taking time away did have it's benefits though.  I started understanding how quickly I could lose what I have worked really hard to gain and it was tough to see.  I had made the commitment to myself and to see all of that go away in a matter of 8 weeks was eye opening.  At my age (36), I realize that eating whatever I want may be offset a little by working out but when you pile that on top of not moving my ass for weeks on end, it became more real.
The moral of the story is take enough time to give your body a break but don't let yourself see the old you creep back in.  It is not worth it to throw away what you have worked hard to gain.

-N

And We Go!!

Back in the saddle again.  I have re-found my passion for working out.  It was a rough stretch for a few months where I put on 10+ lbs and lost most, if not all, motivation to push myself.  One simple change got me back, logging my calories.  Simple as that.  In the past, I have had lots of success with logging calories but would end up going off of that process due to said success feeling like I could do it on my own.  Once the working out would taper off and the food continues (or gets worse), that is when I thought all was lost.  I realized this last week and started randomly in the middle of the week.  I logged a day of baseline foods that I was not worrying about how the numbers came out but being honest with what I did take in.  That was shocking and devastating.  I had been pretty good that day knowing I would have to see the end number and I was 600+ calories over what it told me I should have taken in.  My tracker took into account the steps for the day, any cardio based on my heart rate and sets of stairs taken in the day.  This was not a randomly assigned calorie number but actually based on activities.  Not happy, I made the change immediately and it was like a switch.  I am extremely diligent to log all food as I eat it as to make sure I don't forget and to make sure it is accurate.  I am also able to scan anything that has a bar code to make logging easier.  This has been a great feeling knowing how much I can eat and knowing if I need to work harder during my workouts.  For me, my goal is to have 1,000 calories left by the time I leave work so that the nights are night quite as much of a grind.  As tough as it is, it helps fuel my competitive nature and is something else to work towards.  If I am hungry, I eat.  If I am content, I stop.  If I am full, I have gone too far.  It is all about filling up on the right things and knowing when I am just dehydrated or bored instead of hungry.  Getting back into this has been what I needed.  I am down a few pounds already and also seeing my resting heart rate drop shows me that my body just needed a change back to healthy foods and getting pushed.  Without seeing those changes, it would have been tough to get back to it.  Make one small change that you know you will feel and you will be hooked (again). 

-N 

Tough Stretch

Without question, the holidays are so much harder to keep at working out and staying motivated than any other time for me.  The food is so good, the weather is so cold and the couch is always teaming up with Netflix to beg me to stay one more episode.  As is the case, I relented and skipped out on 60% of my workouts from Thanksgiving through the new year.  Not good.  In that time, I put on 1+ inches on my waist and 8-10 pounds and it was all dedicated to sweets in my case.  I could not stay off of the sweet stuff and candy is my biggest vise and I do not discriminate: chocolate (milk, dark or white, I don't care), fruity, sour, etc.  It is all fair game.  I tend to not worry a lot about gaining this time of year as I know I can get back to it and get those pounds off again.  The slippery slope is how long I perpetuate that line of thinking.  If I tell myself that too much, I get right back to where I was before I started working out.  With this blog/online journal I hope I can break out of that thinking.  I need to find my new motivation for 2018.  It could be that I am expecting a kiddo this year and need more energy or that I want this summer to be the summer I make all my ex's jealous.  That is always a good one.  
The motivation I am going to pick are the pictures I see of the previous me and how it makes me feel when I see those pictures.  I look tired no matter what I am doing.  Just standing there made me look tired and ready to sit back down.  

                           

This first photo was me trying to be athletic and accomplishing the exact opposite.  The second was just a month or so ago.  One is me playing a child's game of kickball looking tired and wore down and the other is post workout, feeling good.  And don't judge, a gym selfie is sometimes acceptable when done in a private changing room to brag to your brothers. :P  At the end of the day, I don't want anyone seeing tired me ever again, especially my son who right now, thinks I can do/lift anything.  That is a more amazing feeling than actually being able to do/lift anything.  

-N 

New Gym, Different Feeling

In an effort to mix things up and wake up my excitement about working out again, I tried a new gym.  It was still a CF gym but closer to work and allowed me to break up my day with a new routine.  It was nice to see how other CF'ers workout and how the environment was different than what I am used to.  All-in-all, I was not all that impressed with the experience.  No one was there and the passion was missing for me that I get out of my other gym.  Part of that was there was only one other person in the boot camp style class and I like to feed off of others there to push myself.  Since this other person was brand new, I had to rely on myself which is not my strong suit.
What I really wanted to find out was if mixing up my routine would A) lead me to join this new gym and rekindle my passion for this or B) I would realize I have a great gym and really need to use it more.  Right now, I feel I just need to get into my current gym more and push past the hurdles that I am putting up.  That last sentence could not be more true.  I am putting up hurdles for myself.  No one else is telling me I cannot do it or that I don't have time.  The toughest part is getting there and once I do, I feel the passion everyone else has and feed off of that until we get started.  I just need to get my butt out of bed and get it done.  The framed art next to my bed that says, "Wake Up and Be Awesome" needs to be a mantra and not just framed art next to my bed.

-N