Six Months to Fifty - Better Health through Diet and Exercise

It is finally time. I am six months out from my 50th birthday. With my goal being to be in better shape emotionally, spiritually, relationally, professionally, and physically, than I was when I hit 40, I don't have much time to get everything in order. Most of them I can say I have made some good progress, but physically is my challange. I have 180 days to get to 180lbs.
That means I have to drop 54 lbs in 6 months. That is about 9 lbs a month. I say it is doable as long as I have a plan and I stick to it.

So today I dusted off P90X, and two days ago started on SouthBeach Diet again. Both of these have worked well in the past. My problem is I get to about 200 lbs and I quit, or I get tired of hearing Tony Horton talk on the workout video. I need to figure out how to move into a lifestyle of health and wellness. So once again I launch towards a goal. This one is worth meeting.

One Man's Battle



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P90X - Day 60

Sixty days of P90X are in the books. I have faithfully been at it everyday with the exception of 1. But I made it up by working out twice the next day.  I have been sore, at times discouraged, but mostly I have felt great about myself.  I debated about putting pictures up on this page do to embarrassment of how out of control I had gotten. Yet on the other hand I have worked hard for two months and have some great results to show.  So take a look at what can be accomplished when you "Do Your Best, and Forget the Rest." Thirty days left and there is no way I won't make it to the end.

P90X - Day 46

I want to stay true to the intent of this blog.  My goal way back when it started was to talk about try to find a way to live healthy in an unhealthy world.  A world that is constantly tempting you to take a short cut to happiness, health and wellness, and yet continues to produce more and more people who live unhealthy lives. Over the last 4 years I have made many great starts towards a healthy live style.  I have also blown it and given in to the many messages around me.  As a result i have yo-yo'd up and down with weight.  I have been bordering on being diabetic, I have joined the ranks of those taking blood pressure medicine, and have like so many, resigned to the lie, that this is how life is going to be.  Well no more.


This blog is about the battle.  The biggest battle is the one I have with myself.  I am determined to win this battle, to regain my life, and to start living the way I was meant to live.  With that in mind, I started P90X back on January 5th.  It is now February 19th and I just completed day 46 of the 90 day workout.  While I am lossing weight, and changing the way my body looks, I am learning so much more.  I am learning that by working hard I can change the direction things are going in my life.  I am talking about more than health and fitness.  I am learning that when I feel good about myself it has a direct impact on my job performance and my relationships.  I am realizing that I do have the strength to stick with something and am determined to see it through to its completion. I am in my 7th week of P90X.  I have lost 26 lbs. I feel like I am finally doing something important for myself that will reap life long consequences.  This is all about becoming the best me I can be.  I was looking at the pictures of me on the header at the top of this page.  The picture on the far right is from me in April of '07.  I had gotten down to 211 pounds.  This morning I was 210 lbs.  The difference is that I have been converting fat to muscle, so my build is much better today than it was when I was 43.  I am starting to realize my dream of being in better shape when I hit 50 (yes, 2 and a half years away) than I was at 30.  I am trying to decide if I will do another round of P90X after I finish in April, or if I will start training for a Marathon.  My goal is to develop a life style of health, wellness, and fitness, that will carry me through the rest of my life.  I am well on my way to winning this battle.

P90X - Day 39

I am 39 days into P90X and starting to see some big changes. Over the first 3 weeks I dropped 15 pounds, but then have been stuck at 216lbs ever since.  My wife keeps telling me not to let the scale be the determining factor, but I can't seem to break free from it.  I was feeling a bit discouraged, realizing I was building muscle, that weighs more than the fat I was losing, but still discouraged.  At day 30 I took the second set of pictures. While I didn't see a flat stomach and six pack abs, I did see that I was slimming down a little.  I also noticed that there was some muscle definition replacing some of the sag.  My chest was starting to look a little more like the chest I remembered in days gone by (still a long way to go).  the start of this week I heard Tony H talking about '"Bring it," once again.  Only this time I told myself, I am going to make sure I am drained at the end of my workouts.  My muscles haven't really been sore since the third week, so I thought, turn up the intensity, do more, push harder, but be smart about it.  As a result, I felt like I was going to throw up after finishing twice this week, looking in the mirror, there is even more definition. To top it all off, this morning I was 209.  That means I am 27 pounds lighter than I was January first and 22 pounds less than when I started P90X.  I am no longer among the obese, just at the high end of overweight.  More than anything, I have maintained a fitness lifestyle for 39 straight days.  Kind of amazing for a couch potato like me.  I have just finished yoga, still can't do it all, but am doing a lot more than the first time round.  I continue to wonder what I will do to continue this lifestyle when I complete the first go around of P90X.  Maybe start again and work to get in even better shape.  My future goal continues to be clear, to hit my 50's in better physically, spiritually, emotionally, and relationally, than I hit my 30's.  At this point I am 39 days into my plan to get there.  My your battle go well for you.

P90X Day 11 -

I'll admit it, I have been a couch potato for the last 17 years of my life.  I surf a little, I ski a little, some years I try jogging, some years I try soccer.  But for the most part, I enjoy tortilla chips, salsa, the couch and the tv.  And, I can't forget to mention beer, who could resist all the Oregon Micro Brews.  As a result I have made a long climb from 178 pounds in 1985 to 236 pounds at the start of 2011.  That is 48 pounds in 16 years, or 2 to 3 pounds a year. It happened slowly, just crept up on me.  Actually it surprised me when I really took a look at it.  So I decided to take a different path.  I realized I needed to do something dramatic to get moving in the right direction.  With the gain of weight has come blood pressure medication, the inability to do as much physical activity as I want (even though I am still pretty active, its just not as easy), and a hard time bending over in the middle. Not the way I want to live the next half of my life.

So, after watching a few infomercials, talking to a few friends, and knowing I needed something to kick start by sorry ass, I have begun P90X.  I figured extreme is what I needed to make a 180 degree turn in direction (as well as get down to 180 lbs.)  As I type today my chest hurts, I feel lame because yoga is not my thing, but I am relaxed and already seeing my fitness improve.  I have never done more push ups on my knees, but I am going to keep doing them until I can do as many normal push ups as the guys in the video.  I can keep up on the shoulders, I'm not doing pull ups and instead using the bands.  Not sure I could pull up 230 pounds more than once if I had to. I almost stayed up for all the plyometrics the second week, and I can tell you it will probably take me all 90 days to get to the point were I can do the yoga and actually bend and balance to the point I feel like I can say I do yoga.

The hardest part so far is the amount of time.  Most workouts are more than 50 minutes and yoga is much longer.  Lucky for me I started as soon as I got the CDs, without thinking and yoga lands on a Saturday.  I have to get up at 5:30 in the morning which is also a huge change in lifestyle for me.  But I figure I have 17 years staying up late, sleeping in, eating junk, and basically not doing what I need to do for me.  I should probably plan on spending most of the next 17 years working out, eating right, and thinking long term instead of immediate gratification.  At this point I am 11 day in with 79 left to go.  In this Man's Battle I am determined not to be beat.  If you want to partner up for encouragement or to share stories just leave a comment. Here is looking to April 4th, my 90th day.

P90X Day 2 - Can you say Plyometrics

Ok, sleeping last night was hard.  Every time I rolled over or tried to push myself up in bed my arms screamed out.  Day 1 was still hitting me.  But once again the alarm went off at 5:30 am.  Today I found myself jumping, bouncing, basically it was almost an hour of sweating.  Wow!  I again did my best.  I couldn't do it all, but I tried it all, and I did it as long as I could until I could do no more.  I would rest for a few seconds and jump back in.  I wanted to through up as it all ended.  Arms still sore from the day before, and know the rest of me wiped out.  Drinking water like mad, sweating it all out, making my lunches and eating according to plan.  Two down and Eighty Eight more to go.  I found myself walking around the house making the P90X sign with my arms.  My wife and kids think I am a nut.  I feel like This is going to be a long haul.  They say no pain no gain.  I am just hoping my arms are ready for tomorrow.  Not sure what shoulders and arms will be all about, but my arms are hurting.

P90X Day 1

Its the night before I start P90X, and I am questioning my sanity.  Why do I think I can do this, why do I need to do this, isn't life ok the way it is?  The reality is I am 231 pounds and fall into the clinical definition of obese.  On New Years Day I was 236, but I started working the South Beach Diet plan, which in many ways is not to different from P90X's Phase 1 Fat Shredder plan.  I haven't been working out consistently for almost three years, and then it was only for about 5 months. I am 47, and I would say when I was 19 is when I was in the best shape of my life. I hate getting up early, and I like to eat.  So it feels like everything is stacked against me.

However, I took the pictures that they want you to take, the front, back and side.  When did I get so overweight.  I don't see it when I look in the mirror, but there I am in pictures looking larger than life, and definetly larger than I ever wanted to be.  I also feel myself becoming less able to do the things I want to do as a result of being to heavy, and to out of shape.  Sure I can hike miles, I can do an elliptical trainer, but I want to be able to run with my wife, play a little soccer with my adult sons, and feel like I can sit in a hot tub and not feel shame. So there is my motivation

So at 5:30 am my alarm rings, the disc goes in and I start warming up.  Not so bad.  I am huffing an puffing but doing it.  Soon the workout starts, and we do a few push ups.  I listen to Tony Horton say "Do Your Best," and to pace yourself.  He asks the people working out how many push ups they are going to do, and they are all in the range of thirty.  I think to myself 10, at 10 I am still feeling good and try two more before stopping.  Then to pull ups.  There is no way I am going to be able to lift this heavy body up and down for pull ups, so I opt for the bands.  Then they go back to pull ups, then bands, then pull ups, then bands, and on and on and on.  Pretty soon I am only able to do three or four push ups while on my knees, and even then my arms are shaking, but I push through with sweat pouring off me.  Of course Tony and company are still pumping out 30 at a time, but Tony states that a few of those on the video when they were newbies struggled like me.  There is hope.  I Did My Best and Forgot the Rest.  Then I realized I was suppose to do the Ab Ripper routine as well.  I tried to do the first set with them and realized I would never make it, so I turned off the video and vowed to do it after work.

A few hours later, knowing I had done my best, I couldn't forget the rest.  Soreness started to settle in to my arms..  At lunch I was having trouble lifting a glass of water to my mouth without feeling the pain. I hurt in places I didn't know had muscles.  In some ways it felt like two a days for high school football.  I laughed at myself and again thought, what is a 47 year old guy like me thinking.

I came home and tried the Ab work out.  At one point my stomach completely cramped up.  The muscles in my stomach were so tight I couldn't move.  After relaxing them a minute I went on to the next routine.  I did my best, stuck with it till the end.  I didn't do nearly the reps they did, but tried all the exercises.  I have survived day 1 of P90X.