My baseline

So this is a my first post...My purpose of blogging is to try to keep myself accountable on my journey to fitness and a better lifestyle. I'm going to attempt a triathlon exactly 3 months from today. Since this is my first post, I want to establish a history, so it will probably be my longest post. Hope you don't get too bored.

My entire life I've been a pretty stocky guy. Not really fat, but never really thin or in shape. I don't eat awful, but I don't eat great. Over the last several years I've experienced some issues with my blood pressure and most recently my triglycerides were elevated. I've got a lot of hereditary risk factors so as I get older, I'm getting concerned. My motivation for all this is my family. I want to walk my daughter down the aisle and be around for my wife and son. I certainly don't want to leave anyone behind too soon!

My Motivation!

The past few years, I've been much more active than I was in my 20's, but not really too active if that makes sense. I sit behind a computer all day, so I don't do too much. In May 2009, I was sitting at the table with my wife and in laws, stuffing my face with cheese steaks (yes plural) and french fries. Action News was on reporting the results of the Broad St Run. And I said "I can do that"...and everyone laughed and was like "yeah right"...challenge accepted bitches! So, 2009 came and went and I still hadn't done anything about running or changing my diet. A few months passed in 2010 and then it was time to register. I did, but then didn't do anything about it for several weeks. Probably about 3 months before the race, I decided to start running and biking. Ohh, I never mentioned...I HATE RUNNING! I ran the race with a few friends. I finished in 1:54:59 at an 11:28.9 pace. Not too bad for minimal training. Then I stopped running, due to aforementioned hatred of running and sore knees.

Right around the beginning of February 2011, I was approaching the 240 lb mark, not my highest weight ever, but one I said I would never go over again. So, I started a "diet". I didn't eat health food, I just ate less and didn't eat after 6:30 PM. I wanted to lose some weight and then start working out a bit. I was able to drop 10 lbs in February. On March 1, 2011, I started p90x at 229 lbs and 28% bf(according to my not so fancy scale).  I finished three weeks of the program and was feeling pretty good about myself, but then I had to travel to LA for 2 days and totally threw me off track. I came home and planned to get back on track the following Monday, but ended up with some nasty cold that sidelined me for two weeks. I tried picking up and repeating week 3...got half way through and it was like I was worse off then before I started. My motivation sucked, so I quit!!!

Since then, I haven't done much. As 2011 was winding down, I had constant headaches and turns out my BP was acting up again. I visited the doc in November and got back on my meds. I wasn't happy with my appearance and always feeling out of shape, but I wasn't really doing anything about it either. I did manage to keep the off 10 lbs for over a year though. I started another "diet" and exercise program on April 29, 2012.  I started off at 230.6 lbs and 30.2% BF according to that fancy scale. This time around I was keeping a food and exercise log. That lasted for about 12 days and I stopped keeping the log. I've run about 25 miles over several days and biked once for 15 miles. At this current point, I can run 3 miles at just over 10 min pace and I biked 15 miles at a 4:39 pace.

My motivation for this time around was to lose some more weight and start p90x again. On one of my runs at the end of May, I had an epiphany that maybe I was wrong and it wasn't really running that I hate, but rather where I was running. I live in the "country" now a few miles from the beach and have found that there is something special about running alongside growing corn fields, sun drenched wheat fields swaying in the breeze, endangered moth species, stepping over turtles, running with (read away from) foxes, seeing animals I never knew existed, almost zero traffic, and no sidewalks on a country road!

This morning I took my wife and daughter to breakfast. On the way, I saw an add for the Bethany Beach Triathlon and said to my wife, I want to do that. I spent the day rest of the day researching if 3 months was enough time to train for this and found that while not ideal it can be done. I think since I have a decent running and biking base that I will be OK. I don't worry about the swimming at all. I was captain of the high school swim team and was able to swim 500 yd in just under 6 min. I'm sure that will all come back quickly!

Today is June 24 and I'm weighing in at 224.6 lbs. This was at the end of the day after eating, so I'm down 15 lbs since the first start of p90x in early 2011. I'm headed in the right direction weight wise, but even 15 lbs doesn't make a difference in how I look. Below are some awful baseline images, but I'm hopeful to look back on this in a few months and laugh!

To sum it all up, my goal is to get on track to eating, looking, and feeling better. It's going to be tough as my son will be here in the next two weeks, I have a 5 day trip to NJ late August, and I might have to go to India in early August.

3 month goal is to finish the Tri
6 month goal is to drop 25 pounds and be at 199
9 month goal is to complete a tough mudder

You can follow my progress here and and at my RunKeeper site.

February 27, 2011 - before p90x (don't mind the scars, I had my appendix out 5 months before)

June 24, 2012