Thanksgiving is just a week away (Holy Cow where has November gone, in fact where did September and October go?) and it's that time of year when we start reflecting on what we are truly thankful for so here's my Top 5 list (there is so much more but these are the really important ones)
1. My Family especially my wife and boys without them I would be lost, Deanna, Casey and Caden motivate me to be a better husband, father and person everyday.
2. My Faith and my Savior, a lot has changed and happened in my life over the last few years and I can only imagine the choices I would have made and the roads I would have traveled without having roots in my faith. I don't always walk the straight and narrow path but I know that Jesus is never far enough away to snatch me up by the ear and get me back on course.
3. My Friends, I have amazing friends that inspire me to be something more. When you have friends who are published authors, musicians, Half Ironman and Ironman finishers, 100 mile Ultra marathoners, amazing examples of husbands and fathers, and friends I've known for decades that are more like brothers than friends it's hard not to try and be something better than what you are.
4. My in laws, yeah I know most people barely tolerate their in laws, but I got lucky. My mother and father in law are truly wonderful people that have always been there for us, and my brother and sister in laws are more like my close friends than my in laws (and if you know me you know that means a lot).
5. My career, in this economic climate I'm thankful that I have a job at all especially one with relative job security.
What are you thankful for?
Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
WildCat 50k and Paleo Lifestyle week 2
I ran the WildCat 50k yesterday, well I should say I ran the 20k. I knew going into this awesome low key event that I was only going to do 2 of the 5 loops, what can I say I'm just not in Ultra Trail running shape right now and seeing as how I have nothing to prove I decided to just go out have fun and run in the woods with 160+ other people for my weekend long run. The 12.4 miles is the longest I've done since the QC Marathon and other than my fatigued hips from the ascents and a slightly aching right knee it was a great time. Hands down one of my favorite events of the year, low key show up donate what you want to the cause and do as many loops as you feel like.
You will notice from my title that I changed the wording from Paleo Diet to Paleo Lifestyle in part because this really isn't a diet in the conventional thought. I am not doing this to shed a few pounds for bikini season with the intentions of going back to my previous eating style, this is a lifestyle change for me and something I hope will remain permanent.
So often in our culture we misinterpret an eating style for "A Diet" or vice verse. Your "Diet" is what you eat so if you eat cheese burgers and fries, that is your "Diet", going on "A Diet" means you are just changing from what you are doing currently to something else. Well when I started this I went on "A Diet" and now I'm currently on that diet and plan to stay there so in fact it is now my lifestyle so it will be appropriately named as such "The Paleo Lifestyle". Anyway enough of that rant.
Tomorrow is my weekly weigh in and I'm contemplating skipping it this week, not that I'm concerned or worried that I may not have lost weight, or even gained weight, but simply because of what was previously stated about Diet vs. Lifestyle. This isn't about weight loss and I don't want to get to caught up in what the scale tells me. I'm more concerned about what my body is telling me in how I feel and the changes I can physically see. So far after 2 weeks, I feel great, I'm rarely hungry (I eat a lot of food on a given day, but so much of it is fruit and vegetables that it is low in calories) I haven't seen any workouts affected so far and I'm trying new foods. Will probably put off my weigh in for another week, or two, heck maybe I won't weigh in for a month, it really doesn't matter anyway in the long run.
Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
You will notice from my title that I changed the wording from Paleo Diet to Paleo Lifestyle in part because this really isn't a diet in the conventional thought. I am not doing this to shed a few pounds for bikini season with the intentions of going back to my previous eating style, this is a lifestyle change for me and something I hope will remain permanent.
So often in our culture we misinterpret an eating style for "A Diet" or vice verse. Your "Diet" is what you eat so if you eat cheese burgers and fries, that is your "Diet", going on "A Diet" means you are just changing from what you are doing currently to something else. Well when I started this I went on "A Diet" and now I'm currently on that diet and plan to stay there so in fact it is now my lifestyle so it will be appropriately named as such "The Paleo Lifestyle". Anyway enough of that rant.
Tomorrow is my weekly weigh in and I'm contemplating skipping it this week, not that I'm concerned or worried that I may not have lost weight, or even gained weight, but simply because of what was previously stated about Diet vs. Lifestyle. This isn't about weight loss and I don't want to get to caught up in what the scale tells me. I'm more concerned about what my body is telling me in how I feel and the changes I can physically see. So far after 2 weeks, I feel great, I'm rarely hungry (I eat a lot of food on a given day, but so much of it is fruit and vegetables that it is low in calories) I haven't seen any workouts affected so far and I'm trying new foods. Will probably put off my weigh in for another week, or two, heck maybe I won't weigh in for a month, it really doesn't matter anyway in the long run.
Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
Friday, November 09, 2012
Walls
I have really hit a wall the last 2 days, I have not wanted to work out even though I felt just fine, just couldn't drag myself out of bed to either go to the Y and swim yesterday or jump on the bike trainer or run this morning. For some reason I can't get back in my groove of getting up early. Well I know part of it is to blame on the fact that I'm not going to bed as early as I used to. I have got to make myself go to bed at a decent hour if I have any hope for getting up at 4:15 am.
Tonight I'm hoping to get in a decent workout after work, I think a kickboxing style cardio workout is just what I need, punching and kicking the crap out of the bag should help blow off some steam, mix in some jump ropes, sprints on the treadmill, burbees and crunches and I should be able to get a decent workout. I've actually been more motivated to workout at night recently than mornings which is the exact opposite of this summer when I was getting up early but couldn't find the drive to workout after work or dinner. Maybe I should just go with it and reverse my workouts and put the more important and harder workouts in the evening and then keep it lighter in the morning and get up just a little later to accommodate.
The bright side to this all is right now there is no plan, there is no schedule so I'm not beating myself up too much if a skip a day. I want to be mentally fresh once the New Year rolls around and I get back into more structured training.
I was taking a look at race planning for next year already the other day, I already have decided I am going to cut way back on my running events and focus more on triathlons. I will do the Live Uncommon Race Series events again but other than those probably not too many others. I am going to try and do all of the Heartland of America Triathlon Series events this year. Of the 4 events I did last year I thought they were all done incredibly well and I had a great time at each one so might as well try out the rest, besides they are all held in Iowa and only a couple require an overnight stay. Just sitting here typing about next years races is getting my motivation going, I know another thing I am really missing right now is the Saturday morning running group, need to get those going again. Until this last year I have never really trained with a group and it really provided a lot of extra motivation during those times when I didn't really feel like training.
Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
Tonight I'm hoping to get in a decent workout after work, I think a kickboxing style cardio workout is just what I need, punching and kicking the crap out of the bag should help blow off some steam, mix in some jump ropes, sprints on the treadmill, burbees and crunches and I should be able to get a decent workout. I've actually been more motivated to workout at night recently than mornings which is the exact opposite of this summer when I was getting up early but couldn't find the drive to workout after work or dinner. Maybe I should just go with it and reverse my workouts and put the more important and harder workouts in the evening and then keep it lighter in the morning and get up just a little later to accommodate.
The bright side to this all is right now there is no plan, there is no schedule so I'm not beating myself up too much if a skip a day. I want to be mentally fresh once the New Year rolls around and I get back into more structured training.
I was taking a look at race planning for next year already the other day, I already have decided I am going to cut way back on my running events and focus more on triathlons. I will do the Live Uncommon Race Series events again but other than those probably not too many others. I am going to try and do all of the Heartland of America Triathlon Series events this year. Of the 4 events I did last year I thought they were all done incredibly well and I had a great time at each one so might as well try out the rest, besides they are all held in Iowa and only a couple require an overnight stay. Just sitting here typing about next years races is getting my motivation going, I know another thing I am really missing right now is the Saturday morning running group, need to get those going again. Until this last year I have never really trained with a group and it really provided a lot of extra motivation during those times when I didn't really feel like training.
Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
Thursday, November 08, 2012
Paleo Diet - Week #1 in the books
***Oops I meant to post this on Monday***
Well my first week of the Paleo diet is in the books without any major blow ups, well with exception for the planned ones. Friday night I went off diet and devoured a big @$$ burrito and then again on Sunday afternoon I had pizza over at my grandma's for lunch, but I had planned on 2 or 3 non paleo meals this week and I ended up with those 2 so I consider that a victory. To be honest the burrito and pizza tasted delicious but both left me feeling overly full and bloated later. The thing I have enjoyed most about my new eating approach is I can eat, sometimes a lot, and be full but not sick to my stomach full. If I wanted to I could easily go workout or play with my kids after eating a baked sweet potato, piece of fish and grilled chicken and spinach salad without having to wait hours for my stomach to digest. I'm feeling full and satisfied without being bloated and sick to may stomach later.
I ramped up my workouts towards the later part of the week, definitely noticed a spike in my hunger so I'm making a couple changes this week, instead of eating 3 meals consisting of 600-700 calories each and 2 snacks consisting of 200-350 calories each for my total of 2800 calories, this week I'm going to try just eating 4 meals a day of 700 calories each and see how that does.
Getting pretty excited to weigh in tomorrow, I know I shouldn't get my hopes up too much, I have to be prepared that I may not have lost any weight or even gained some weight over the last week. It would be a disappointment I won't lie, but ultimately I'm not doing this for the weight loss, but for the health benefits and to help lean my body up, I'm perfectly comfortable staying between 200-215 pounds I just would prefer to not have the extra 10-20 pounds of useless weight around my midsection and distribute that more to the rest of body as muscle that will in theory make me more efficient.
***So since I didn't post this on Monday I'll update my weigh in results here, pretty freaking excited to say that I dropped 3.6 pounds the first week. I was really nervous that I might not have lost anything so seeing any negative was good seeing 211.6 on the scale was great!
Goals for this week:
1) Continue to increase my workout load (running, biking, swimming, cross training)
2) Trim down my intake of dairy
3) Keep my non-paleo meals to 2 or less
4) Get to the gym to lift weights
Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
Well my first week of the Paleo diet is in the books without any major blow ups, well with exception for the planned ones. Friday night I went off diet and devoured a big @$$ burrito and then again on Sunday afternoon I had pizza over at my grandma's for lunch, but I had planned on 2 or 3 non paleo meals this week and I ended up with those 2 so I consider that a victory. To be honest the burrito and pizza tasted delicious but both left me feeling overly full and bloated later. The thing I have enjoyed most about my new eating approach is I can eat, sometimes a lot, and be full but not sick to my stomach full. If I wanted to I could easily go workout or play with my kids after eating a baked sweet potato, piece of fish and grilled chicken and spinach salad without having to wait hours for my stomach to digest. I'm feeling full and satisfied without being bloated and sick to may stomach later.
I ramped up my workouts towards the later part of the week, definitely noticed a spike in my hunger so I'm making a couple changes this week, instead of eating 3 meals consisting of 600-700 calories each and 2 snacks consisting of 200-350 calories each for my total of 2800 calories, this week I'm going to try just eating 4 meals a day of 700 calories each and see how that does.
Getting pretty excited to weigh in tomorrow, I know I shouldn't get my hopes up too much, I have to be prepared that I may not have lost any weight or even gained some weight over the last week. It would be a disappointment I won't lie, but ultimately I'm not doing this for the weight loss, but for the health benefits and to help lean my body up, I'm perfectly comfortable staying between 200-215 pounds I just would prefer to not have the extra 10-20 pounds of useless weight around my midsection and distribute that more to the rest of body as muscle that will in theory make me more efficient.
***So since I didn't post this on Monday I'll update my weigh in results here, pretty freaking excited to say that I dropped 3.6 pounds the first week. I was really nervous that I might not have lost anything so seeing any negative was good seeing 211.6 on the scale was great!
Goals for this week:
1) Continue to increase my workout load (running, biking, swimming, cross training)
2) Trim down my intake of dairy
3) Keep my non-paleo meals to 2 or less
4) Get to the gym to lift weights
Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
Friday, November 02, 2012
Paleo Diet Day #4 and #5
Okay I'm pretty sure last night one of my son's Halloween buckets full of candy actually spoke to me and told me "It's okay, one little piece of candy isn't going to hurt, c'mon you've earned it". I almost cracked, I really wanted a Kit Kat, or Reece's Peanut Butter Cup (my favorite) but I did prevail in thwarting the evil temptations of the Devil's candy...well sort of I did break down and have a Starlight peppermint that we keep around for my oldest boys occasional upset stomach. It did the trick and the cravings for sweets subsided.
This morning I got up early and jumped on my bike trainer and rode for an hour. Afterwards I did 5 rounds of 75 single jump ropes, 20 push ups and 20 lunges, pretty tough workout after the bike definitely one (or similar) that I'll do more of going forward. Found a great website the WOD Shop that generates Crossfit workouts, so I can do them at home with what I have available or take with me to the Y when I lift before or after my swims, pretty cool!
My appetite has been way up today, due to the higher volume workout this morning, so glad tonight is my big cheat meal of the week. We typically go to Habenero's in East Moline every Friday so I'm going to enjoy my Sr. Burro tonight, not going to go crazy but it's most definitely not going to be a paleo friendly meal.
Long run this weekend is probably only going to be an hour, legs are still pretty sore and tired, and looking forward to a nice long trainer ride on Sunday afternoon while watching football.
Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
This morning I got up early and jumped on my bike trainer and rode for an hour. Afterwards I did 5 rounds of 75 single jump ropes, 20 push ups and 20 lunges, pretty tough workout after the bike definitely one (or similar) that I'll do more of going forward. Found a great website the WOD Shop that generates Crossfit workouts, so I can do them at home with what I have available or take with me to the Y when I lift before or after my swims, pretty cool!
My appetite has been way up today, due to the higher volume workout this morning, so glad tonight is my big cheat meal of the week. We typically go to Habenero's in East Moline every Friday so I'm going to enjoy my Sr. Burro tonight, not going to go crazy but it's most definitely not going to be a paleo friendly meal.
Long run this weekend is probably only going to be an hour, legs are still pretty sore and tired, and looking forward to a nice long trainer ride on Sunday afternoon while watching football.
Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
Thursday, November 01, 2012
Paleo Diet Day #3 - Halloween
Day 3 was by far the toughest day so far, actually the day wasn't so bad it was the night, see I didn't take into account Halloween and trick or treating with the kids when I started this diet and well let's just say my resolve and discipline was thoroughly tested last night. I am happy to report that I did not have one single piece of candy last night, I did have 3 pieces of Double Bubble gum but considering I could have easily mowed down half a dozen peanut butter cups (both my kids have a peanut allergy so all the peanut butter candy usually ends up getting eaten by yours truly) I'm happy with that.
Today will be my first real test since I finally got my lazy tail out of bed and went for a run this morning, only got 3.5 miles in, legs are still tired and sore from Spartan Race, but it will certainly ramp up my appetite a little. Over the last 3 days I have taken in roughly 2600-2900 calories which is a far cry from the 4000+ I could easily consume in one day before hand, and I haven't had any issues with being overly hungry at times. I'm still eating 5-6 times a day so that helps out and eating more meat definitely helps keep me full. Plus I'm eating large quantities of food, its just the foods I'm eating (salad, lean meat) has less calories than what I may have otherwise eaten. I think I have packed enough food for the day here is a breakdown of what's in my lunch box and what I'll most likely consume today.
Post work shake (at home) 1 c strawberries, 1/2 c blueberries, 1 c spinach, 1/3 c dry oatmeal, 2 scoops protein powder, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 c milk, 1 c fruit punch G2
Snack #1 Spinach salads with 1 oz grilled chicken and apple
Lunch - 1 large sweet potato,4 oz grilled chicken, 2 tbsp salsa, 3 oz tilapia and 1 container of plain Greek yogurt
Snack #2 Spinach salads with 1 oz grilled chicken and 1/4 c mixed nuts
Dinner - I will most likely have a sweet potato and either fish or chicken
I know some of the items like milk and Greek yogurt are technically allowed in a strict Paleo diet but this is part of my modification. Those items may eventually leave my diet but for now there in and okay with it.
Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
Today will be my first real test since I finally got my lazy tail out of bed and went for a run this morning, only got 3.5 miles in, legs are still tired and sore from Spartan Race, but it will certainly ramp up my appetite a little. Over the last 3 days I have taken in roughly 2600-2900 calories which is a far cry from the 4000+ I could easily consume in one day before hand, and I haven't had any issues with being overly hungry at times. I'm still eating 5-6 times a day so that helps out and eating more meat definitely helps keep me full. Plus I'm eating large quantities of food, its just the foods I'm eating (salad, lean meat) has less calories than what I may have otherwise eaten. I think I have packed enough food for the day here is a breakdown of what's in my lunch box and what I'll most likely consume today.
Post work shake (at home) 1 c strawberries, 1/2 c blueberries, 1 c spinach, 1/3 c dry oatmeal, 2 scoops protein powder, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 c milk, 1 c fruit punch G2
Snack #1 Spinach salads with 1 oz grilled chicken and apple
Lunch - 1 large sweet potato,4 oz grilled chicken, 2 tbsp salsa, 3 oz tilapia and 1 container of plain Greek yogurt
Snack #2 Spinach salads with 1 oz grilled chicken and 1/4 c mixed nuts
Dinner - I will most likely have a sweet potato and either fish or chicken
I know some of the items like milk and Greek yogurt are technically allowed in a strict Paleo diet but this is part of my modification. Those items may eventually leave my diet but for now there in and okay with it.
Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
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