I know you have been wondering

But we have still been training and today made our first 5k as a family. Now to work on time but we did it. Grant had 3 min of walking and pushed the kids the entire way!!! I had to take 1 more min but we did it!!!!!!

How many times do you have to start over?

Well for us it is until we can do it and get the results we want and make habits form. We have now been going for over a week and I can say I am more committed than ever. You ask why? Well first of all we are getting up at 6 am and Virginia is meeting us. We get the kiddos out of bed and head for out for our jog.

We have decided to run a 5k in Sept or Oct...maybe both. Her is what we are doing for anyone who may still check this site and want to join in:

Couch Potato to 5k

&

5 BX

Of course we hope to loose weight but I decided I just wanted to feel better and need to have energy. It is crazy if we burn tons of energy we get more....Not quite sure how it works but I feel great.

What were we thinking???

Well I was down 15 lbs when Christmas came. I did good to make it through thanksgiving but Christmas candy is my downfall. I gained almost 8 of this 15 back and now am slowly getting back on track now most of the candy is gone. We have made some major adjustments to our eating and are seeing the results and feeling the energy. One thing we decided is to try to have one to two veggies with dinner which fills you up and so you eat less of whatever else you are eating. This really seems to help me.

Now it is time to really commit to the exercise part of getting healthy.

On Track

I have been jamming it lately. My goal is at least 20 minutes of Turbo Jam 4 times a week. We are going on week three and I have done it. This week with Grant being gone I missed so I did a 40 min one today...that works right? Well I was noticing that the 20 min one still got me sweating but I wasn't weak afterwards, so it may be time to kick it up a notch anyway. I can't believe the difference it makes. I am so uncoordinated but it doesn't seem to matter, I am still getting a killer workout and she is so motivating. If you are having trouble working out, do these it seems like a couple of times and you are addicted.

Getting my Jam on

Well now I am home for a while I decided it was time to start my dates with Chalene again. I did my first one this morning and my thighs are jiggly but I have turbo energy!!! Yeah for my time every morning!!!!!

Well I did it

I made it through the entire pregnancy and stayed under my pre-pregnancy weight. I am now 15 lbs lighter than what I started the pregnancy at and hope that will continue to drop. I plan on exercising again as soon as I get the okay from the Dr. So I will keep you posted:)

Pregnancy

I know we have really neglected this site lately. Mostly because the news hasn't been to great on our end, but we are motivated to change that.

Update on the pregnancy, I am still 2 lbs lighter than before I was pregnant. I have 5 days left and hope to keep it this way. That way I will be on a great start in the right direction.

The Value of Proactivity

For work, I've been reading the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People for the first time.  Now, I promise I'm not going to turn this blog post into a sermon on the 7 Habits - mostly cause I haven't even finished the book - but also because I know there are a lot of people who look at the book as a gimmick.  I know I did for a lot of years and in some ways, I still think it is.  However, there are also a lot of people who have been excited about this book for a long time.  I think it's because the book does contain truth, and when truth is perceived and received, it excites the human soul and motivates us pursue that truth.

So, with that warning in mind, I want to elaborate on a truth I believe is presented in this book and apply it to my own efforts.  That is the first habit of Proactivity.  In relation to health and exercise, I look at proactivity as my own efforts to "become" better - to eat healthier, live a more active life, desiring to be a better dad and keep up with my children as they grow - rather than on the desire to "have" better - have a better looking body, have more energy, etc.

First, a little context.  Covey talks about the idea of a circle of concern: being inside that circle represents all the things that concern us, worry us - weight, health, world peace, car breaking down, war, failing marriage, natural disasters, next paycheck, the econimic crisis, etc.  Within that circle is a smaller circle - the circle of influence.  These are the things we can actually do something about, that we have some control over.  And the process of pushing the circle of influence outward, of growing it to encompass more concerns, is proactivity.

For example, before, I was concerned about my weight and my health.  I didn't want to die of a heart attack or get cancer.  I didn't want to look fat.  I wanted to like exerice or to have a better physique or to wear smaller clothes.  But, during that period, I allowed those concerns to sit outside of my circle of influence - I wasn't actively doing anything about them.  Then, I started to work - I read the blog post on www.acaloriecounter.com about the One Fact of weight loss and that truth triggered in me the desire to be better.  I pushed my circle of influence outward to encompass those concerns and started to take action on them.

The nasty thing about proactivity, as Covey cleverly realized, is that its a habit.  If I don't keep working on it, I'll fall off the wagon.  I'll fall back into old ways.  I'll fail.  On the reverser side, the nice thing is that the habit is transferable - as I learn to be proactive in one area of my life, I automatically aquire the ability to be proactive in others.  Recently, I've noticed this key concept in my efforts and that's what I wanted to share - the value of proactivity in everyday life.

More context - Covey divides the 7 habits into three types - the first three he calls "private victories" because these are things that may never be seen by the world; the second set of three are the "public victories" and are immediately obvious to those around us as we practice the; the last is to restore and revitalise the other six and so is a mix of both.  And context over.

When I first started working on trying to incorporate the proactive habit, of trying to be rather than to have or seem, the first thing I decided to work on was my marriage.  I was feeling a loss of love and a lack of personal commitment, which is odd because I would call myself very happily married.  But I just didn't feel the spark anymore and I missed it.  And since it was all about becoming something more, about changing self rather than others, I decided I was going to be happy, truly happy, when I came home.  Easy enough to do because I really have no desire to keep dwelling on the stuff I do at work.  I also decided I was going to be more helpful - looking for ways or things to clean up around the house and if I didn't know what to do, to ask Stacie.  And it worked!  I noticed immediately that I like being with Stacie more, we had more fun together, we suddenly got better about holding hands, hugging in the kitchen, and teasing in the bedroom.  It suddenly felt new again.  I loved it.  I still love it.  And it can still get better.

But coming back to my key point, that proactivity is transferable, I've noticed a proactive approach to my work has become a lot easier.  It's easier to make myself work on a project I don't want to do because I desire to "be" more productive at work, to "be" a more valuable employee, to "be" a person of integrity and put in the time and effort needed by work instead of being lazy and sliding along.

So what's the next step - to transfer the learning, to apply it to my next area.  Since proactivity is about changing who we are, the "be" nature of our lives, my next item to enter my circle of influence is this - I want to "be" a traceur.  That means someone who does parkour.

Notice, I don't want to do parkour, or have the skills, or have the strength.  I want to BE.  That's the paradigm shift we all have to make.  That's how we become proactive and make it useful to us.

So, what do you want to be? 

Training Journal

Just a quick update - one of the recommended things I've always seen but never been very good at is keeping a workout or training journal. This can help you gauge performance and determine where you can improve or where you may need to pull back and not push so hard.

For right now, my training will consist of a warm-up workout put together by the APK (the American Parkour group over at www.americanparkour.com). A series of body weight squats, pushups, pullups, and agility drills designed to get you warmed up, but I will be using them to actually start training and forming the baseline for getting fit.

Right now, as I'm just getting started I will be working the warm-up drill three times a week. And as Tuesdays and Wednesdays are not the easiest to work out in, it will be Monday, Thursday, Saturday.

When I do a journal entry, it will probably not be too "insightful" - mostly just a log of what I did, how long it took, and how I felt afterwards. But hopefully, it can serve to inspire others to do their own training journals. Look for my first entry after today's session.

PS - This one's for Andrea, but if anyone else is interested, a quick documentary by the "founding" member of a NYC women's parkour group. As parkour had mostly attracted a following of guys, Ann in NYC decided to change some things and start her own jam session with a couple of other ladies from the New York area.

My Best Life

Recently, some of you may have been watching the Oprah special series on making your life the best it can be starting this year. So have I and in some ways its made re-evaluate my life's direction yet again. Yes, you read the name of the author of this post correctly - that would be me, Grant, the guy. Locally, we have a station that rebroadcasts the Oprah show at around 9:00pm and Stacie has been (perhaps cunningly so) making sure that its on when I'm in the room. So, honey, if you were trying to send me a message, it arrived. ;)

But, back to the best life and re-evaluating. The longer my life goes, the more I am coming to understand what is meant by building line-upon-line. Everytime I start to get things in order, something else unravels (this blog being the perfect example). Just when I was really getting into the habit of posting and doing well life kinda fell apart in some other aspects and I was forced to re-balance my time and priorities. The result? I'm back up in weight almost 15 pounds from where I was. That puts me with a total loss for 2008 of like 7 pounds. So, a gain, but not much of one. Part of the year, I feel I was living my best life. Part not so much. So, welcome back to me and to you.

Last year a lot of my posts and my focus were on getting my life healthy. This year will be no different in terms of health, but it will be different in terms of focus. This year is about peace. Happiness can sometimes be transitory, but I believe that peace is eternal and when we have it, we can keep it. I have not been at peace with my own health recently and I've started to change that. The thing that will remain the same - I will still be using calorie counting as my "diet" methodology and I'm going back to the strictest sense by weighing out everything I eat that doesn't come in pre-determined sizes. My exercise will be changing however.

Last year, I started on a quest for 100 consecutive pushups and running a 5K. Those got off track when I figured out I had a sinus infection and the pushups where giving me seriously bad headaches when performed for too long. The 5K went better but was still not completed. I got up to about 2 miles before "seasonal sickness" set in (AKA Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas). These were intended to give me a functional base from which I was going to start practicing Parkour. If you have no idea what that is, a simple Google or YouTube search should end all misunderstanding. ;)

Why Parkour? Because I feel it is the physical expression of my own mental directive. I am inherently a problem-solver. It's why I gravitated to the career I did, it's why I attach myself to projects I enjoy, it's why I hardly ever pay full price for anything, it's part of why I am me. Parkour has a philosophy in much the way martial arts do - a set of guiding priciples that provide both framework and boundary for the practice. That philosophy is about overcoming obstacles, of finding a creative way to make a path and thinking outside the standard and established ways of moving through this world.

Dead????

No we just fell of the face of the earth for a bit. We are still eating good, but have been very busy as you can see in our other blogs.

I have lost 14 lbs in the last 17 weeks. I know this for a fact because:



It isn't fair. I worked my tail off and didn't loose a pound. Now I eat and sit and have now lost 14. Well we will just keep doing what we are doing and hope that it continues.

Is It Okay If I Just Cry Real Soft?

So, I was getting ready to do my push ups on Wednesday evening all resolved to do the lower intensity level as I start week 2 of the push up challenge. And wouldn't you know it? The plan specifically DOES NOT LET YOU! I was so flabbergasted! It says specifically to "not cut corners" which I felt left me no choice.

So I started week 2 of torture. And you know what? Mentally, it's like I made it over the hurdle. Forcing myself to keep going and using the mental discipline to stick to the plan suddenly made it easier. No, the exercise itself didn't get any easier, but it became easier to force my body to keep going, having the mental stamina to keep going on.

I think it had to do with a class that Stacie and I are taking right now to learn about home finances. In the class recently there has been a lot of talk about the idea of personal integrity as a financial skill - integrity to stick to your budget, integrity to talk to your spouse of money and be truthful with you feelings, integrity to keep savings goals, integrity to not splurge.

So, I ask you faithful readers - appears to be only two at this point ;) - do you feel you have the personal integrity to keep your fitness promises to yourself?

Or are you just a liar?



Harsh. Yep. Every time you wimp out, you are a liar. Did that wake you up? Are you angry now? Good. Hold on to that for just a second.

That is the thought that went through my head when I found myself trying to decide if I kept moving forward on the push up plan. You see, I made a promise to myself about getting fit. I made it to Stacie. I made it to the world when I posted it on this blog. I committed myself to reaching certain goals in a certain amount of time using certain plans. And there I was, re-reading the rules and realizing that if I backed down, I was nothing more than a liar. I didn't even have enough integrity to keep a promise to myself.

Now, that's not to say we should try to keep goals that are impossible or that potentially could hurt us. But see, each of the plans I was following - one for running and one for push ups - have ways of adjusting the plan to meet my needs. The running plan says to "jog" - it doesn't specify how fast a jog should be, but leaves it up to me to scale to my abilities. The push up plan says do a certain number of push ups per set, but it lets me vary how much rest time comes between the sets. These variances allow me to adapt these plans to make them possible/achievable for me at this time. However, at the same time they force me to be honest about the weaknesses that I have.

And that is the mental hurdle I cleared, the obstacle that was in my path. So what if I can't do the push ups perfectly or don't run the 5K I'm planning in under 22 minutes? The goal was to run the 5K and finish and do 100 consecutive push ups. So long as I do my best to accomplish those, I have won. I have kept my honor. I have learned to workout with integrity.

So, again, without beating up on yourselves, I ask you - do you have the personal integrity to keep those fitness promises? And if not, what do you need to do to change that?

I realize now that I have not had the personal integrity I need to keep getting fit, especially not in the food department as Stacie will mightily testify to my midnight snacking weakness. Where then does that leave me?

Remember that email about Alma the Younger and repenting and not getting converted all in one go? Take some time to repent and fix things, then move on. Because that's all I or you can do.

New Poll! I'm On A Roll

And so should you be. On a roll. With me. Together both of us will be on a roll. Which is better than a biscuit (unless you're British and a biscuit is a cookie).

And another new feature which some of you may have seen already, we've added a "Followers" gadget, cause I'm curious to see who all is watching this blog. So, if you're a regular reader, hit up the "Follow this blog" link in the side column.

Loving Running - HATING Push ups!

Okay, I finally know now why push ups are punishment in the armed forces. These things are horrible! I jest, but only a little. And what makes it worse is that it's not even the parts of my body that I thought would be getting the workout - instead, it's my abs. I guess I should have expected it. Push ups are a measure of fitness and I know I'm not fit. Push ups are also a core exercise and boy has my core been getting it. Honestly, I don't know why I'm surprised.

So, for this next weeks worth, I'm going to be bumping down a level from the high intensity column of the work out, to the medium because I know my form is not perfect and to give myself just a bit more motivation. Again, I shouldn't be surprised because I think if were to go back and do the initial test again, I would be a lot more deliberate about how deep I go on them. I'm really hoping that dropping the intensity a bit will help motivate me to keep going. I want a workout but not to be so beat up that I feel horrible and want to give up.

On the other hand, the exercise that I thought I would hate I have really enjoyed, and it all has to do with those dang shoes! Three nights of running and one volleyball night and I am absolutely, totally and complete hooked on these Vibram FiveFingers. They are so comfortable and they make running something I look forward to doing. It was so enjoyable that I started pushing myself harder last night. Instead of jogging I started running and on the last one, sprinted to really stretch myself. It felt SO GOOD! I'm still slapping a little hard and I'm going to start researching and applying some good "barefoot" technique because I'm not sure my brain is getting it.

WARNING!: If you try these Vibrams out, be prepared to start hating all your other shoes. This is the only drawback I have found to these. Yesterday, I wore my very comfy [till NOW! :>(] Saloman trail-style cross trainers pretty much all day and I noticed as we were getting geared up to head to the church that my toes and arches hurt. Not a lot, but a definite ache. And the longer the evening went, the worse it got. It was particularly noticable when I was sitting, not moving my feet. Everything suddenly felt tight and I could feel my toes encroaching on each other.

At first, I wondered if it was just a tightness from not having run since Friday and there may have been some of that. But as soon as I pulled the shoes off, the aching went away. I think my feet are not happy being cooped up in shoes. Popped on the Vibrams for my Tuesday night run and voila - totally and completely happy feet.

And it's not just the Salomans. My other favorite pair of shoes are a pair Sperry Topsiders loafers. My feet have been bugging me all morning and now I sit at my desk during lunch with my shoes off because it just hurts enough to be a major distraction. I told Stacie last night that if I could I would wear the Vibram's for everything I would, even church on Sundays!

Therapy or Torture?

Today I finally started getting the looks and the questions. Of course today was also the first day I really took the FiveFingers into public. Yes, I know, running around the neighborhood is public, but it's not like grocery store public or ward activity public (both of which I did today). And I was amazed at how self-conscious I was in the store, till I realized that nobody just looks at your feet. I'm sure there were a few double-takes but nobody really said anything.

The ward activity was a different matter. We were having YMCA night (no, not that kind of YMCA night).

Just sports night down at the local YMCA. I got involved with the volleyball game and kept getting comments about being a distraction on the court. However, afterwards, there was some more serious conversation as two of the ladies are avid tri-athletes and I was able to tell them about my experiences with them. Some of the conversation got me thinking though - I had been wearing these things all day and I'll admit that after an hour and a half's pounding on a hardwood floor did leave my feet a little sore. Surprisingly not as sore as they use to get when I worked retail in my Florshiem wing-tips, but still sore from all the running and standing. I started wondering if I really wanted to keeping putting my feet through that kind of work out all the time. And this time, because they had been on for so long, I could feel my pinky toes on both feet getting pulled out away from my foot, getting a little bit stretched. Not uncomfortable, just different. A quick jont to Wal-Mart after and we were home.

I pulled off my FiveFingers and noticed something strangely normal about my right foot. Yes, read that again - strangely normal. See, I have this one weird toe on that foot - I guess it'd be like the ring toe, the next to last one. It's always had this curl in it - it curls under and my pinky toe slides over almost on top of it. Been that way for as long as I could remember. And because it knuckles under like that, it looks like it's shorter than my pinky toe, till I force it straight with a finger. Well, when I took of my shoe, I saw that, low and behold, it was straighter. Not perfect, but it didn't look weird. I guess the toe box for that toe helped to force it straight and having my pinky toe pulled out of the helped it stay that way. So, sorry if I gross anyone out, but this is what I saw.

First, how my foot normally looks. I actually had to force my toe back into this position.

How it looks now.

So, in the end, I'm going to go with therapy. I really think this shoes help.

Running Day 2 and Push Ups Day 3 - Still Good?

Yep, still good. I actually figured out that I swapped some things the first day of the running (it was supposed to be jog for 60sec walk for 90sec then repeat and I did it backwards) so switching it back for the second day worked great. I figured out that I still have some work to do on my posture - still not up on my toes as much as I need to be.

Did day 3 of the push ups this morning. More ouch, mostly in the abs as those are what are giving out rather than my arms or chest. So a rest day tomorrow will be very nice for my poor abs which are dying. But, moving forward. We'll see how long I can keep this up.

Title: OneHundredPushUps - Day 1; Subtitle: OUCH!

Well, I will not be so confident in my push up abilities any longer. Stacie will certainly confirm that I got pretty beat up last night trying to do the first night's work out for the OneHundredPushUps challenge. And I am definitely feeling it today. Over all a good first work out - humbling maybe, but good.

Now, I admit that I am one of those people for whom reaching individual goals is much easier than maintaining something I already do. If I set a goal to do 100 hundred push ups, then I'll do it. But after I've reached that goal, if I don't have something set up and ready to go for the next round I'll just revert back to my old, wicked, flabby ways. I'm just really horrible at maintaining. Remember how I said I thought I could continue using diet to keep loosing weight? Fat chance of that (no pun intended). For some reason, the pain of last night's efforts really focused my mind an helped me admit that I'm just human sometimes.

So, new goal - I will weight at or less than 200lbs by the time this six month period is over. There. Hah. Now I've gone and done it. I've committed myself.

Oh boy...what have I done.? This is probably going to hurt. More.

Starting to Run and Feeling Fine!

So, right on schedule, my new shoes arrived (more on that in a moment) and I was able to start my new running program from Cool Running. So far, no soreness, just a little stiffness in my back, but that probably comes as much from the cooler weather as with anything else. I'll have to stretch that out a little bit more today before moving on with my push ups. I think yesterday was more about getting started rather than really pushing. We had a class to go to in the evening and for some reason I thought it went later than it did. So I really rushed to get myself out the door because I didn't think I would have time later on (turned out I was wrong, but I guess that's okay).

The other bit was that it was raining outside. Just a light rain...with 40mph winds...and suddenly a lot colder than the day before. Well, I guess maybe a picture says it better:

Yes, those are the remnants of hurricane Gustav, about an hour and a half before I started my run. I was at the red spot. So, you can imagine how it might have changed after that time (i.e. it just got closer). So, yesterday's jog-then-walk-then-repeat exercise that constitutes the first day's work out of the program was much more about discipline, about getting it in despite what's going on outside or inside. Because all-in-all, I feel really pretty good. No shin splints, aching legs, or ragged throat from panting to death. However, there's one other thing that may have contributed to at least some of that - my new shoes.

The way I introduced these to my mother yesterday (she was watching Sam for us while we were at the class) was by saying, "I don't know how you feel about toes, but these may freak you out a little." I'll give you the same introduction in case you haven't seen these before.

These are Vibram's FiveFinger shoes,made originally for watersports gurus. But there's a whole contingent of runners who've been spouting off for years about the benefits of learning to run barefoot and these shoes finally gave them the best of both worlds - the same ergonomics as running barefoot (better posture, springier step, stronger ankles, etc), but a hard sole to protect from glass, sharp sticks, doggie doo, and the like. And as I was at a point where I was going to start running again, there were two things I was hoping to avoid - bad shin splints and expensive shoes. The shin splints could have been taken care of with some really cushy shoes, because I didn't used to get them when I had my very nice, new running shoes. But I just wasn't willing to spend $130 on a pair that I'd wear out by spring of next year.

So, after a lot of reading up, I went ahead and got the FiveFinger KSO's (or Keep Stuff Out - look at the other versions and you'll see why they're called that). No padding, no cusion, no arch support, no orthotics - on other hand - no laces, no sweaty heat, no socks, no weight. Just a sole and something to help keep it straped to your foot. Figured I could help break in my feet and my body at the same time since these first few runs are very low intensity. Everything I had read about these shoes written by runners was that they force you to run with better posture which helps prevent shin splints. And that you feel like a kid running around barefoot. Wait...what? Yeah, like a kid, right. Sure pal.

It's SO TRUE! Here I am, running around in the rain and wind, stepping in puddles and mud, grass literally getting stuck between my toes, and I didn't even care! Brand new shoes! When's the last time you wore a brand new pair of shoes and didn't care about getting 'em all mucked up the first day out? Probably when you were a kid. I mean, I had cleats I had to kinda scuff up before I really took them to practice so I didn't feel so bad about getting 'em dirty. And let's not even talk about the break-in period just to get the darns things to stop blistering your feet to death. Again. Just like the last pair.

These shoes, on the other hand, required no break-in, at all. The don't fit perfectly, but the fit is so close around the foot and they are so flexible that your feet don't shift in them at all. And that first run totally took me back to the summer rain storms from my kidhood with my sisters and cousins - playing in the ditch, squelching in the mud, and generally getting so drenched that my whole body was pruny afterwards. I've always loved those memories and now here I am, a responsible adult for all intents and purposes, and I'm actually having fun running. I hate running! I mean, if I'm only running for running's sake, I hate it. I only like it when I'm in a race. It was both weird and cool.

Oh, and there's no way I paid $80 for mine either. Found 'em on sale with free shipping for $63. And there's no breakdown that could really happen except the sole pulling free. So unlike running shoes where the padding wears out and you've got perfectly good soles and upper but no way to use them as running shoes anymore, these just keep on going.

Day 1 down. Day 2 on Friday. Yeehaw! I wonder if it'll be raining again. *GRINS*

Signs

Well in the last week I have had 4 different ladies approach me about walking. I guess that is a sign I better get off my keaster. So I will probably walk at least 4 days a week switching off partners...Heck maybe I will start a neighborhood walking group. But I am taking that as a sign I need to add a set workout regimen and be accountable to meet others so I do it. So starting tomorrow or maybe later tonight I am going to start a walking routine.

Hope you have been being way better than I have. I am pretty much starting back at point one. However, I am still going to do a turbo jam in there every once and I while. I love them just feel I need to get Sam outdoors while it is cooling down and before it gets to stinking cold.

One Hundred Pushup - Initial Test

I started the challenge for the OneHundredPushups program. The first step is doing the initial test which helps to determine which intensity level of the program you need to use to get your body ready for the challenge. Basically, you do as many good-form pushups as you can then from there you move into the actual weekly program.

I was able to do 15, though I'm really only counting 13 as good form - I started to arch my back too much at the end. That puts me at the high end of a Rank 2 or the low end of a Rank 3, but that doesn't matter much for the actual program as either way I'll be using column three. So now a day of rest and then I start the first week, going from Thursday to Thursday.

Anyone else crazy enough to take this challenge? Post in the comments if so.