9 Months

I have to first give a huge thanks to all my trainers and to the Dudley and Bob Morning Show for making this all possible.

Nine months down, three to go.

I always had a hard time picturing nine months. It’s the last leg of the race, yet I remember the day I met the trainers back in July, and the anxiety I'd built up wanting to get the process started. It seemed like so far off. Since Day One I have had the attitude that I am the only one that can slow this down and to this point I feel pretty happy with my success. So let's just see into the numbers.





I want to first show my July 23, 2009 numbers:

Neck: 17.75
Arm: 19.25
Chest: 58
Waist: 64
Hip: 63
Thigh: 28.5
Calf: 19
Weight: 370





And here are my numbers as of April 19,2010:

Neck: 15.75
Arm: 15.75
Chest: 44
Waist: 42.25
Hip: 46
Thigh: 25.25
Calf: 17.25
Weight: 254

Total inches: 63.25
Total Weight: 116

So I tweeted that I had lost 73 inches, but I forgot that we added the Waist at its smallest point about three months into the measurements.I don’t have a day one measurement for that, but I have lost 10 inches in that spot since the three-month mark.

I FEEL GREAT BY THE WAY!

Is this where I wanted to be at nine months? Not exactly, I thought I would be about 20 pounds lighter, but that number doesn’t define all the work I have done and I won’t let it hinder my progress going forward.





OTHER BIG NEWS!

I announced this on the Dudley and Bob show this morning, and now it's time to say something about it on the blog. For the past 3 months I have been playing with the idea to become a personal trainer, and I am happy to say that I will be in the next 3 months. I am currently studying for the CPT exam through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. In the next couple of weeks I will have more information about where I will be training, and how you guys can come work with me if you are interested. I am really excited about this whole new direction for my life and it would have never happened if it weren’t for the great people I have spent my life with these past months. They have guided me in becoming a much better person than I ever was and to them I am forever grateful. The trainers at Workshop Fitness gave me my life back and now I would like to return the favor helping others reach their fitness goals.

UPDATE

I am failing at my duties of keeping you guys up to date on what is going on with this weight loss journey, so let's catch everyone up to speed.

I am currently at 257 pounds, which is 113 pounds down from my original weight when I started July 23rd 2009. That equates to about 30.5 percent of my total body weight I have lost in a little over 8 months.

The first week in May I will be participating in Warrior Dash, a 4-mile obstacle course being held outside Dallas, Texas. My trainers Thomas and Jason will be in the race as well as my friends Monty and Todd. I have been preparing by doing at least an extra hour of cardio 3-5 times a week for the past month or so. I am hoping to be fewer than 250 by the time the race comes around. I am excited to see if my body can handle four miles of work, the farthest I have gone is 3 miles. It will be a great test of endurance and heart.

The diet is being tweaked on an almost week-to-week basis and it's honestly becoming almost too much to handle. Trying to keep up with how much protein, cabs and fat I am supposed to intake depending on the day can be very confusing with the workouts, actual work, and other obligations I have. I am trying to figure out what my food plan can be four months down the road. I don’t believe I can keep the regiment I am on now forever, but I feel if I modified it I could still see results-- just not as drastic as I have been seeing.

I have planned a trip to Colorado to see a good friend after the training is over to visit Fort Collins and to hike a 14,000-foot mountain. Will I make it up to the top? Not sure, but I am willing to try.

Sorry, guys, this so short but I will have more updates coming soon.

New Workouts

The trainers at Workshop Fitness have been putting me through some new workouts and I wanted to share them with you guys.

· Mariesa, who is the co-owner of Workshop, has started spin workouts with me. I remember as a child riding my bike in the old neighborhood, going over to a friend’s house or heading up to the park to play some football with the old gang, but unfortuntately spin brings back zero of those memories for me. One on one spin is tough just for the simple fact that you can’t slack since the instructor can see you the entire time. I can’t tell you how many times she says, “Come on Ricky, can’t you go any faster?”
· Jason, the other half of Workshop, has been taking me out to Town Lake to do all kinds of crazy exercises outdoors. We start with pushups and pull-ups at the monkey bars by the Zachary Scott Theatre, then we do some jogging on the trail, followed by scaling the rocks by the pedestrian bridge and we end it with some sprints on the stairs to the pedestrian bridge. The main thing about this workout is that its not isolated-- people can watch me workout. If we had done in this month one I would not have been that up for it, but now I don’t really care about working out in public because I feel in good enough shape to show off a little.
· Christine “Torture” Tusa has been adding more weight resistance to my ab workouts. Even with lightweight it creates a lot of resistance when you are trying to concentrate on engaging your abs. She is also adding new stretches to help get my body back in balance. I never realized how hard stretching can be but after being asked to hold a pose for over a minute it can be just as painful as any workout I do with one of the guy trainers. After working out with Christine I try to run as far as I possibly can because my body feels completely recharged from her torture sessions.
· Paul has fallen in love with the prowler. Instead of me pushing the prowler, he is now strapping me into a harness and dragging it. He has also been hitting my legs hard, and after one workout a couple of weeks ago I couldn’t walk right for 3-4 days because my legs were in such pain.
· Thomas has been the most consistent workout when I come into Workshop. We still hit chest and back. This isn’t because Thomas is boring its because he knows that is what I want to do and he pushes me in those two areas. He even let me do a little bit of bicep work after I shared some concern for my gun show.

These are just a few examples of what these people put me through. I couldn’t be more blessed to have such a great foundation for health in my life. The key to these workouts is that there is so much variety with each trainer. I am not doing the same thing everyday so my body can’t get used to the work. With their help I will be able to hit my goal in four months and start the new chapter of maintaining.

Location:Kirby Blvd,Southeast Harris,United States

8 Month Measurements

 Eight months. Really?

I seriously can’t believe that 8 months have passed since I started working out at Workshop Fitness. To think that I have only 4 more months of this training before the next part of the journey starts has its own set of emotions, but for right now I am feeling fantastic about where I am at today.

January 25th

Neck - 16.25
Chest - 44.5
Arm - 16.75
Waist (Smallest part) - 44.5
Waist (Belly Button) - 49
Hip - 49
Thigh - 24.5
Calf - 17.5
Weight: 280

March 11th

Neck - 16.25
Chest - 44.5
Arm - 16.5
Waist (Smallest part) - 43
Waist (Belly Button) - 48
Hip - 47.5
Thigh - 22
Calf - 17.5
Weight: 263

Total Inches: 6.75 inches lost
Total weight loss: 17 pounds


So far I have lost approximately 69 inches off my body and 107 pounds. There is some good and bad news that comes with my results.

The good news is that I am still losing weight and inches. The bad news is that I am not losing them at the pace needed to reach the goal I put for myself of 180 pounds in one year. I am trying to figure out how I am going to lose 18.25 pounds a month from here on out to reach 180 pounds. All I can do is put in the hours at the gym, and if I don’t hit the goal weight I will at least know that I tried my hardest to achieve it. If the worst thing that happens to me in this process is that I lose 160 pounds instead of 180 pounds, I think I will live.

Why am I okay with not hitting the biggest goal I have set for myself this entire time? The reason is that I have come to the conclusion that I would rather have a lifestyle change than a diet that limits my food intake so much that when I get off of it I just gain all my weight back. I also am able to do so many things that I wasn’t able to do before. Just this weekend I spent a large portion of the day outside hiking with friends and playing basketball. Then the next day I went to play more basketball with friends. I was completely sore, could barely walk afterwards but I could still do it. For me at this time that is what matters, being active and being able to be happy with myself.

Battle Scars

As my weight continues to fall, I am starting to notice that my body is changing in both positive and negative ways.

 

Some of the positive things that are happening is I am actually seeing muscle definition on parts of my body. As a kid I was in shape by playing basketball and football, but never had any kind of muscle definition to speak of. I can also feel my ribs when I lay down and that hasn’t happened since high school. These feelings are nice but it isn’t necessarily why I wanted to get healthy, and so I am trying not to focus on this part of the process. What I find more interesting is the negative side effects of my weight loss.

 

The biggest thing I have noticed is that I have a ton of little bumps around my stomach and chest area. At first I had no idea what they were and I went to the doctor to find out. Turns out they are fat deposits called lipoma that are all over my body from the all the weight I had put on. The weirdest part about it is that they probably won’t ever go away (except with some kind of surgery. Note: I am not a doctor so I could be completely wrong on this subject). I don’t want to look at this as a negative thing-- more like a reminder to myself that you have gone through a lot and to never go back to where you came from. No matter how great a shape I am in I will always have the reminder that not so long ago, I was the person playing videogames, drinking Dr. Peppers and eating pizza all night by himself. When I am down on myself, or feel like I can’t do something because I am tired, I like to feel those bumps to remind myself that I have come so far in this journey, so why stop now? I only have so much more time with the trainers,  so why waste it complaining when I can show myself everyday that I can improve and I will reach my goals if I put the time and work into things. 

 

As I was writing this blog post I was thinking to myself.  It occurred to me that, at the beginning of all this I would have never written anything this personal. But I am starting to realize that this blog isn’t just about me. It's about everyone who is going through the same struggles as I am with weight loss. If I can show someone my pains and struggles, maybe they can also push through the tough times and come through their own journey a better person. 

Chewing Gum

If you hang out with me you know that I always have gum on my person. It helps me fight the cravings I have of sweets and usually can curb my appetite if its not quite time to eat again. Counting Calories did an article talking about their feelings on gum and I found it pretty useful. Check it out here.

MY FORMER MENU

I smelled something very familiar the other day while driving...Wendy’s! I thought to myself how it's been such a long time since I ate there, but I remembered when I went there I had been responsible with my choices and got the Chicken Mandarin Salad (which turned out to be fine). It did, however, make me think of all the bad food choices I used to make just a couple months ago, and now I don’t think I could stomach most of them. So I came up with a list of some of the major fast food places I used to frequent and what my normal order would be.

McDonalds – 20 piece McNugget. Super Size Fries. Large Dr. Pepper. 3-4 packs of BBQ Sauce.

Wendy’s – Spicy Chicken Sandwich combo no veggies. Large Fry and Large Dr. Pepper. Order of 5 nuggets. Order of junior bacon cheeseburger, no veggies.

Papa John’s – Large pepperoni pizza. Breadsticks. 3 packs of garlic butter sauce.

Chic-Fil-A – Chic-Fil-A sandwich no pickles. 8 pack of chic-fil-a nuggets. Large Fry. Large Dr. Pepper.

Dunkin Donuts – 4 strawberry filled powdered sugar donuts. Large Chocolate Milk.

Burger King – 2 chicken sandwiches, no lettuce. Large onion rings. Large Dr. Pepper.

Sonic – Chicken Toaster Sandwich, no veggies. Route 44 ocean water. Sonic Size tater tots with cheese.

Fazoli’s – Chicken Paramgiana. 2 baskets of breadsticks. Large Dr. Pepper.

Whataburger – Grilled Chicken sandwich with bacon and cheese only. Large fry. Large Dr. Pepper. Apple pie.

Jack in the Box – Chicken strips. Bacon Bacon Cheeseburger. Large curly fries. Large Dr. Pepper.

Long John Silver’s – 5 piece combo (2 Fish, 3 Chicken). Large Fry. Six hushpuppies. Large Dr. Pepper.

Looking at this list now, it almost makes me want to throw up it's so disgusting. I can’t imagine trying to eat that much food. I can really see that one of my old problems was portion control. I had no control over how much food I put in my body, irrespective of the horrible quality of the food. I also waited way too long between meals, so I would be starving when I ate, and that is just asking for trouble. I would have put what I get at all these places now but the problem is I haven’t been to most of them since I started working out. I think that is something I really need to start looking into as I get into my "maintain phase" of this journey. I will have to come face to face with these places more and I need to be ready to make healthy choices.