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This is a great time to look ahead to the next year–like most do–and try to make things better for your life and those around you.  I’ll just get right to it.  The #1 thing I want to fix this year by far is my weight. It’s been a problem my whole life, and my weight has yo-yoed in drastic ways for many years.  I will share two benchmarks that I’m proud of:

80 pounds August 2001-April 2002. The 80 pound loss was mostly due to divorce (and determination from the divorce), Xenadrine, insane cardio and the chance to start dating again.  I went from 270 to 190.  I didn’t do any strength training.  It was ALL cardio. I just about memorized Linkin Park’s first album while working out; many feelings come back now when I hear a song from that album.  What killed it?  It was a combination of feeling too good about myself, not keeping up with it, a bit of depression (from the dating scene, and even a brief stint of smoking).

42 pounds January 2006 – June 2006. I was starting to gain weight back after I ran my marathon in Alaska in August 2005, and it got to the point where I reached out to my then cousin-in-law, Gordon Leftridge, who just opened up a gym in House Springs, MO (my hometown).  In the first 5 months with Gordon with training sessions 2x a week and a hell of a lot of discipline, I combined strength training with cardio and was stronger than I had been in my whole life.  Went from 245 to 203 in that time.  I was getting to the point where Gordon was ready to change up my diet and go to the next level, which would have been power building, which would have been insanely great.  But what killed it? I became a manager at FOX, which brought on a lot more stress than I had ever imagined, and I was putting in way to many work hours week after week.  I still worked out with Gordon 2x a week through July 2008, but once I moved to Washington DC, I rarely worked out.

By the end of the year with even more responsibility and putting in 12-hour days was becoming the norm.  That along with adjusting to a new life away from family, much more responsibility with work, the urge to eat out all the time, and living with Lindsey, I lost control of everything in my life, except work.

Current Health Assessment:

  1. Hard time getting to bed, usually getting 5-6 hours of sleep
  2. Don’t get good night sleeps. I’ve only had a couple good sleeps since I moved to DC
  3. My suit shirts are maxing out. I hardly ever button my top button my shirts because they barely fit
  4. I only wear one pair of jeans and a pair of khakis because I refuse to buy fatter clothes
  5. I have bought 2 hoodies and an ugly Christmas sweater that fit decently
  6. My typical breakfast during the week is 2 bagels with cream cheese and a coffee
  7. My typical lunch during the week is turkey sandwich with fries and a large Diet Coke
  8. Sometimes I’ll make a vending machine run, eating Doritos, popcorn or donuts
  9. My typical dinner is either something awesome Lindsey makes, or we go out
  10. The area just below my left breast hurts when I lean forward
  11. I wake up every morning with sinus trouble, usually cured by a Zyrtec, but it never goes away
  12. I feel sinus pressure which feels like my ears need to pop

My Goal: Losing 72 pounds.  This would be losing 10 pounds each month through 4 months.  Then taking 5 months to drop the other 32. How I’m gonna get there:

  1. Track my food using FitDay’s software program. I tracked every meal in the past, and it works great.
  2. Workout 5x a week, including strength training and 30 minutes of cardio, and some abs
  3. Keep an ongoing list of every food I am offered or presented but reject. Then jot down calories of what I would have eaten so I can see how much I would have gained eating it.
  4. Sticking to Gordon’s diet plan, which is 25% fat, 30% carbs and 45% protein and a gallon of water.
  5. Take a picture of myself each day using DailyMugshot.com

Timeline:
250: January 1
240: February 1
235: February 10: Cherry Blossom 10-miler begins
230: March 1
220: April 1: Buy new car (pending sale of house)
218: April 5: Cherry Blossom 10-miler
216: April 12: Easter: See family for first time since Christmas
212: May 1: Family visits DC
208: May 15: Get teeth whitened, straightened
204: June 1
196: July 1
194: July 7: My birthday, change out wardrobe completely
188: August 1
187: August 2, Las Vegas Marathon training begins
186: August 4, One year at WUSA
185: August 11: Lindsey’s birthday
180: September 1
178: September 10: Plan Vegas trip