It has been way too long.

To think it will be two years in March since I wrote about the journey. So much can change in that amount of time but one thing still remains. I am still on The Hard Road.

I have now gone back to college to finish my Bachelors. I work full-time over night at a local factory. I have not had much time to anything. It is sleep, class, study, work. I have cut down on my credits and am going to try to incorporate more physical activity. Since I am living in the coldest city in the United States running out side has its challenges. As I write this, it is -16F with a -32F wind chill. Not very good for running.

I may have fallen off the wagon for a bit but I still managed to get some races in. My last race was a 5K in Iowa with my friend (C). I did very well. I cannot remember my time, Dang! but I did take third.

Looking toward the future. I have not signed up for any races, yet! I need to start training anyway. Since it is so cold out I need to make good attempts to going to the gym. I work over nights at the factory, I get off at 5:30 am the gym opens at 5:30 am. My plan is to go after work. I hope I have enough energy to work out after working all night.

Energy + Persistence conquers all.

I still have not obtained my ultimate goal weight of 147. I think the best I have been has been under 180. Here is my check list to obtaining my goal.

• Weight myself every day.
• That weight X 10 = my maximum calorie intake for the day.
• Consume a higher percentage of protein than fat and carbs. 
• Work out every day. 
• If you cannot make it to the gym, work out at home or outside (weather permitting)
• Join road races and other athletic activities.
• This has always kept me focused and motivated.
• Update this blog regularly 

I have not formulated a good workout routine yet. Ideas on the topic I am have are:

• Run one mile every day. Every week add half a mile.
• Weight training.
• Focus on my weakest muscles but do not forget about the strongest ones.
• Setting Goals and working to complete them.
• Running a mile under 7 minutes, Bench press my weight. ect...

Till next time my friends.

Stay Focused And Keep Moving Forward! 

It has been 4 days...down 2 pounds to 237 this morning.
I have cut my sugar consumption drastically and I have to admit I crave it more than you can believe.

Today my intake was not terrible but not prefect. I had plenty of water, no milk, no pop, no juice. Just water. Breakfast was bacon and eggs. YUM. I did not eat the pancakes because I did not want to have the syrup. The pancakes them self's had a bit of sugar, 5g a serving. I also finished the other half of (B)'s banana. For a snack I  had an orange and a nice salad for lunch. The salad was spinach, kale, grape tomatoes, carrots, celery, cucumber, and a small amount of shredded cheese. I added the cheese because I do not use any salad dressings so I thought a small amount would add some flavor. A piece of french bread with butter. I did not have a afternoon snack, since lunch was around 2pm. For dinner was coconut chicken with sweet potato fries, corn, and another piece of the french bread with butter. That way the bread was gone before it dried out. I just finished a ham and cheese sandwich and a clementine.

My activities today included 35 minutes at the pool with (E) and (B). He loves getting out of the apartment. (E) and I tried a workout routine that I saw from a Biggest Loser episode. This was a long time ago but it just seemed to stick in my brain. You take a deck of cards and decide what workout to do with a curtain suit. For example, Clubs = prisoner squats, Spades = sit up, diamonds = leg lifts, hearts = push up. Shuffle the deck and what ever number in on the card is how many reps you do. 2 of hearts was 2 push ups. I made it only ten cards before I had to call it. Pretty week but hey it is a start. A bit after that I went for a 30 minute walk. I was on my way back when a car wanted through the intersection I was crossing. So I decided to jog the rest of the way back. It was not far and maybe only lasted 3 minutes. But I was sure winded.

I watched a great video today. I have to give my sister a high five for sharing on fb.
Here is the link please take the ten minutes to watch it. Great information and I hope it gets everyone walking.

So I guess tomorrow is a lot longer than we thought. Sorry for the delay of this post.

First I will update on my progress.
It has been bad. I have gone in the wrong direction. I weight 239 and my belly is 47 in.

It was my birthday and (E) bought a dream cake from Whole Foods. It was nothing less than delectable. 

Second, updating my goals.

My goals on my previous post did not seem so absurd but my new goals might.

147 LBS BY THE END OR THE YEAR!

The reason for the 147 lbs is because that is the weight restriction for the welterweight class in boxing. I know what you are thinking. Going from 239 to 147 is a HUGE amount of weight. This is my goal and I do not want this plan to fail.

Now on to my ideas and plans for losing this amount or weight.

I still need to just lose 2 lbs per week. I do not have a gym membership or no fancy weights. Just a nice pair of shoes and any thing I can find to help me on my journey. 

Diet.

I will consume no sweets. After that cake how can anything compare. The only sweets I will ingest would be from fruits. This also means no milk. Yes, you heard me no milk. Milk has 13grams per cup. Previously I would drink tons of this stuff and with your daily allowance of sugar only being 40grams it would easy to reach 40grams on just milk. I am cutting back on meats. I enjoy meat just as much as the next person but after watching some documentaries on food and diets I have decided to slim down on the amount to meat I consume. I will focus my diet around vegetables, fruits, nuts, and whole grains. If I had the money I would buy a juicer and consume only juice until I reach my goal. I will discuss this further once the money for the juicer becomes available.

Lifestyle.

I live a sedentary lifestyle right now. I need to become more active through out the day. My thoughts on include taking the stairs with (B) on the shoulders. We have done this a couple of times. He does not seem to mind. Taking him on walks around the apartment complex inside and out. Going on walks carrying him around will help. Once (E) returns from work, on days she is on call I will workout in the apartment and the stairs. On days she is off I will go out for walks and move up to a mild jog once I lose some weight.

Exercise.

I have a great tool to help me lose the pounds. It is an itouch that I received from (E). This is a very handy tool. I have downloaded an application that is called workout trainer. It was free so not adding to the cost of losing the weight, yet. I have looked through all types of work out routines and found a couple I can do from home with out equipment. Today, I started an routine but found my body to be too weak even for the casual level. I was only able to hold positions and exercises for about half the time the routine called for. I will continue to work on the routine until I can complete it at the full amount of time. Once This routine becomes easy than I move on to harder levels.

I tried to do a push-up today. I did three sloppy ones actually. I heard every joint in my arms and shoulders pop and crack. Probably not a good sign.

These are my plans and goals. I will continue to update the blog on a regular bases. Please feel free to add comments and suggestions.

I am starting my blogging career back up but this time on the topic of losing my massive amount of weight I have gained.

Currently I am around 5' 8". I have not measured myself in quite some time but since that is what is on my driver's license we will go with it. I am 236 pounds and 46 inches around my belly button. My Body Mass Index (BMI) is 35.9. This is in the obese category. For my BMI to be considered in the normal range I have to make it to 164 pounds. I doubt I will be growing any taller so losing the weight is the only option to get my BMI down.

How about some fun with numbers?

If I currently weight in at 236 lbs and need/want to make it to 164 lbs that means I have to lose 72 lbs. I weight almost as much as 15 bowling balls. I want to lose 5 of them. That is 1/3rd of my weight. That is a lot of weight I want to lose. I remember hear some where that losing 2lbs a week is a healthy amount. So saying I lose 2lbs a week it will talk me 36 weeks to reach my goal. 36 weeks from today is October 24th.

Once again my goals:

• Main objective is 164 lbs.
• Losing 2lbs a week or more.
• Completion on or by October 24th.
• Over all just feel better.

Tomorrow I will discuss my plan for reaching my goals.

A new project

I have taken a pause from do projects to celebrate the birth of Baby (B). He is super cute and loves to eat.

My new project is figuring out international IRS forms for my sister. This has been quite interesting so far. I have worked on form 1116 and I have to say learning how to do taxes without software is very time consuming. Just going through the form with out proper instructions was hard but now that I have found the worksheet this project is going to get good. I will keep this updated with how this are going.

If any one has any tips or hints how to complete IRS forms 1116 or 2555 please post a comment.

Update

So I said I was going to post my projects that I have completed on this blog. Since my last post about all I have done is put the babies bassinet together.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3997259#showReviews

Here is a link if you want to see what it looks like.

Still working on my weight. 223lbs today.
The computer is (E) old computer for some people that need clearifaction on that. I am waiting on that one because (E) said she had plans for some pictures on the computer before I transfer to the HD. If anyone has ideas on how to transfer files to the HD that would be great because I have never done it before.
Today starts the second half of the semester. I need to buckle down and get all my work done on time and correct. Study Study Study!

Good luck to everyone with your projects.

The new blog

I have decided I am going to use this blog to post projects that I am either currently working on or have completed. Projects consist of anything I want to complete. That includes what weight loss. I will start my projects blog off with a list of projects that I would like to complete in the near future.

1. Weight loss
1. To loss 20lbs by June 1st.
2. Currently 220lbs
2. Computer
1. I want to transfer files from an older laptop to an external hard drive.
2. After files transfer is complete I will update computer (RAM upgrade)
3. Finally I hope to sell the computer
3. Online Courses
1. I am currently taking online college course so studying is always a project
4. Always Open
1. I would like to continue to find project to work on to expand my list of completed projects.