Balancing act:

I have been struggling to balance my work, family, and exercise life.  Work life gets in the way of family life, and family life gets in the way of exercise life.

My current position requires me to work 09:30 am until 06:00 pm with a half hour commute to and from. When I get home from work I am tired, want to spend time with my family, and want to get my run in.  Trying to do all three of those at once does not work well.

It has been nice so my daughter has been wanting to ride her bike to school.  She is four, and school is multiple blocks from home so this is something she can not do alone.  Her wanting to ride to school reminds me that she keeps a close eye on her parents, and she is wanting to live a healthier life.  Well I like to think that is the case, but I think she just really just enjoys riding her bike.  Since someone has to ride with her to school, I use this opportunity to get a littler exercise in and ride with her (pulling our son in the bike trailer).

When I get home from work my kids want my undivided attention rather for playing, or telling me about their day.  Not to mention that dinner is normally done, and time to sit down.  We wrap up dinner around sometime after 07:00 pm, and the kids want to play some more.  Then starts bedtime routine, and so on and so forth.

My my mother in law is there after the kids are asleep we go for a run.  If she is not there, I try to get a run in by myself.  But running by myself is not nearly as motivating.

Another reason I think our kids watch us closely is because most of the time our daughter is begging to go a on walk after dinner, and our son climbs into the stroller if you let him.  So sometimes we go out as a family and go for a walk.

Long story short, it is hard to balance every role and keep living the healthy life style.  So I tell myself take every chance I get to do a little exercise and do it.  Something is better than what I was doing before, which was nothing.

Image taken from my new camera during our family walk last night.  Suppose to be in HDR, but seems I was a little shaky because it has some blur to it.

Great weekend...Rough weekend

We had a great mothers day weekend.  Enjoyed some time with my mother, and family.  Enjoyed sometime with my Rachels mother and family.  Enjoyed some time just us.

The part that makes this a rough week is regarding my "diet" and exercise.  We cooked out both Saturday and Sunday.  First real weekend of the year that we have cooked out.  With cooking out comes great food, and cold alcoholic beverages.  I indulged in way to much to eat, and have a few beers this weekend.

I think I ate more this weekend than I have ate in the last couple of weeks.

The 8th was my birthday, and I finally made it under 200 lbs.  I am afraid to weigh in tomorrow, because I am sure I have gained at least a few pounds back.  I did not eat extremely unhealthy, but just way to much.  Along with the way to much food and gatherings, we did way to little exercise.

Feel like we have started to fall off the exercise and health wagon a little last week and over the weekend.  I need some motivation.

All that being said, I tucked my shirt in today for work.  For years now I have not tucked my shirt in.  I used the excuse that I crawled around under desk working on computers and it would just come untucked anyway, but in reality I think it hides my "fat" a little better.  Tucking my shirt in today was a great decision for my unmotivated self.  I have had multiple people tell me how great I look, and questions how much I have lost, and how I am doing it.

Feels nice to be noticed, and have people want to talk about it.

We did not run last night because Rachel is having a implant put in, and yesterday was a painful trip to the dentist for step 3 of 5.  Great excuse to not run, when I really should have went or at least went for a walk.

Not sure Rachel will fill up for a run tonight either, but I am determined to get a run in tonight.

-Jimmy
Keep on running!

Personal Best:

Pushing yourself.

Last night I went for my run by myself, my wife and I normally run together.  I really did not want to go, but decided to go.

I find it crazy how the mind changes so quickly.  Crazy how the mind goes from, I don't want to go, to lets go as hard as you can.  Once outside, I decided it was time to push myself again and see just how much I have improved.  My fastest mile time had been just over 10 minutes.

I took off as fast as I could, it did not take long before I realized I would not be able to hold that pace the entire time.  I settled into a pace that had me breathing hard, but still manageable.  I did not check my time the entire time, just kept running.  When I crossed in front of the house, I opened my phone, and hit the lap button to start my cool down walk.  Checked the time, and finished my mile run in the fastest time I have ever done it: 8 minutes 55 seconds.  Now I know I could not maintain that pace for much longer than a mile, but it felt great to see my time change that much.

Really loving this running thing.

One word of advice.  If you don't feel like your daily exercise  make yourself get up and get ready.  I find that once I get my clothes on, and shoes on, my mind decides you know what lets do this.  Something is better than nothing, so if you decide you don't want to do it your already dressed at least go for a walk.

Tomorrow is my birthday, and weigh in day.  Hopefully I can make it under 200 for my birthday!

-Jimmy

Keep on running!

Crazy day

Crazy day at work today, so I did not have to write a post on my lunch break.  Short story, is it has been still raining so not much running for us fair weather runners.  But that lead to a busy weekend around the house, and missing lunch on Saturday and Sunday.

I weigh in on Wednesday, but I took a quick peak this morning to just see where I was at.  This may be the week I break under 200.  I have been stuck there for around a month now, and can't get over the hump.  Hopefully running tonight, and tomorrow night.  We will see.

I will try to post more tomorrow.

-Jimmy
Keep on running!

Rain:

Not much to post about today.  It has been raining here for 2 days, and continues to rain now.  I enjoy my running, but find it extremely hard to pound the pavement in the rain.

I did some more crunches last night on the ab lounge. 1 set of 40.  I believe Rachel said she did 1 set of 60.

With the rain, and weekend not sure what kind of running I will get in.  Besides running my daughter here or there.  She is only 4, and from my understanding this only gets worse with age.  I may try to get some time in the on the stationary bike, if I get a chance.

Have a great weekend, and see you next week.  Big week for me next week, I turn 28.

-Jimmy

May 2013 Goal: Run 25 miles:

Rachel and I have set a mini goal, if you will, for May.  Something we can strive to achieve, and something to keep us going.  We discussed, and decided to set a goal of running at least 25 miles in May.  I added a tracker to the left side of our blog so everyone can keep track.  I will be trying to update it daily.

Last night being the first night of May, we had to make sure we got out, even though neither of us felt like going.  Looking at the forecast it looks like rain for the next 3 or 4 days, and we are fair weather runners so not sure how much we will get done in the next week.

Lasts nights run started a little sore with the bruised heel from running barefoot, but after we got started it loosened up (And I did wear my running shoes).  We we got home I also did 30 crunches on the ab lounge. I have some love handles that need to go.

I played around a little with the layout of the blog this morning, but still not sure how it will ultimately end up.

-Jimmy

Running Barefoot:

I have been reading blogs, and magazine articles about running barefoot.  It is the new craze, and I am not sure why.  I witnessed a guy running barefoot a couple months back.  It was freezing outside, he was in shorts, a t-shirt, and no shoes or socks.  I thought he was crazy.

So last night my wife and I were headed out for our normal nightly run when I decided to give it a shot.  I decided to become one of the crazy people running without shoes or support, for at least one night.  We are not new runners, but not veteran runners either (only about 4 months in).

So my wife strapped on her running shoes, and well I dusted off the bottom of my feet.  First let me say I love being barefoot, taking walks with the family barefoot, and do not have tender feet.  Rachel was not feeling well so we decided on doing our 1 mile course.

We ran the first mile in just over 11 minutes.
We walked a second mile in just over 18 minutes.

I thoroughly enjoyed running barefoot, and must say it is easier on my feet to run barefoot than walk barefoot.

I can't say I will be running barefoot every night, but I will say that I think I understand why some people in enjoy it.  I enjoyed feeling the cool pavement on my feet, after being shoved in boots all day long.  I enjoyed feeling the different textures on my feet also (strange I know).

Not sure I would recommended running at night barefoot, because you can not easily watch out for big rocks.  At one point I came down on a fairly big rock on my heel, leaving my heel a little sore today and a little bruise.

My entire body is a little sore today, something I have not felt for awhile.  So not sure if running barefoot kept me tense, or if it caused me to use some other muscles that I normally do not use.

All in all I think I will be running barefoot again sometime.  Not sure it will become a every run kind of thing though.

-Jimmy

On Track:

I have tried and tried again fighting this weight loss battle, and the live a healthier life battle.

But, my how my life has changed since December.  I took some time away from blogging about it, and just started doing it.

In December I started eating right, by right I mean just eating smaller portions and trying not to eat all the junk.  Since then I have been successful in following those rules, most of the time.  Sometimes I slip up and get an extra helping, or slip up and grab some sweets. All in all though I have been following those rules.

In January, I convinced my wife, +Rachel A, to join me in my journey.  And she did.

We started in the basement using the elliptical, and the stationary bike.  We used the 5 days a week, until we wore out the elliptical.  During this time, I started running a little in prep for the Sand Mine Challenge a friend of mine wanted me to do.  This was a 5k under ground obstacle race, in the sand.  The sand was by far the hardest obstacle.  My goal with this race was to finish, and I did.  I finished around 48 minutes, and did not die.

After that I was hooked on running, and started trying to get my wife involved.  I find it much easier to have someone to run with, and someone to motivate me when I am down.  Rachel is a busty woman, and was convinced that she could not run.  We got her started, along with 3 sports bras, and she has not stopped since.

We run multiple times a week, and really enjoy it.  During this time we also started tracking our workouts, weight, and our calories using www.sparkpeople.com.  Sparkpeople has helped us stay accountable, and be successful in tracking our progress.

Back to the running.
Rachel and I have ran together in two 5k races, and plan to do some more.  They are pricey, which makes it hard to do on a budget, but they are fun.  I am very competitive by nature, so running in them only encourages me to get better, and run faster.

Now for the numbers:(My wife will kill me for posting her actual weight, so I will only post what she has lost)

I started at 235, and I am now at 200. Loss of 35lbs, and I am sure multiple inches.  I went from size 38 jeans to size 36 jeans with a belt.

My wife has been tracking her inches also.  She has lost 34 lbs, and over 20 inches from her body.

I am going to try to post more on here, because I have found that our weight loss has been encouraging others to get on the wagon and start their journey.  We have found running to be enjoyable, and a great thing to do together.