I'm BAAAAAACK in the 280's again!

You have to sing that title to Aerosmith's "I'm Back in The Saddle Again" to really make it work.

So I've had my lap band installed for just over a year and a half now. This time last year, I was in the low 280's, that was with getting my band adjusted pretty much monthly. Well as time went by, as happens, I wasn't getting my band adjusted as much as I should have been. I started eating more and figuring out ways to eat more that wouldn't impact my band. I basically went back to my old ways, but now I'm a cyborg. I've realized that no matter WHAT you choose to do to lose weight, exercise, follow some crazy diet plan, hire a personal trainer and chef, or in my case, get surgery, you can find ways to cheat. And I have.

HOWEVER, I knew this going into this whole life change and my HOPE was that the Lap band would at LEAST keep me from gaining the weight back as quickly as I had previously. And that is exactly what it has done. While I only got my band adjusted maybe 3 times last year (tighter each time) I only gained back about 15 pounds from my low. (OK, maybe 18 pounds) And in the past 6 weeks, I've for the most part eliminated Jack In The Box breakfasts and now eat a bowl of cereal in my office in the morning. I've also cut out all soda from my diet. (I've had maybe 5 sodas in the last 6 weeks and only one of those has had caffeine). I was up to 296 when I did this . . . (OK OK sheesh, 20 pounds, happy now?!) and have been trying to get back in the habit of working out 2 - 4 days per week during this time too. Well I'm happy to report that I weighed in at 288 this morning! I'm now only 10-12 pounds above my low weight I hit early last year.

Yesterday and today I had a protein shake for lunch, much better than Toscanos or Taco Time. Today I added a bag of baked Lays to make my lunch an even 400 calories and hoping the chips will make me feel more full. So far so good. I'm hoping that I can at least get back to protein shakes for 2 - 3 meals a week to just cut down slightly more calories. And now, it's time to really kick into high gear my 1/2 marathon training. Set to do a 4.Something mile run this weekend at Point Defiance.

While I never expected the Lap Band to be the end all be all of weight loss, it has been an amazing tool and I'm still glad I did it. Now, do I have the cajones to call my doctor and get another adjustment? Maybe in another 5 pounds so he can see I'm actually making progress. :-)

Sublime Day!

Yesterday I got up at 4AM and headed to Brandon's. He was taking me to the airport, so I could come to California for a family reunion and to spend some time with friends that had moved away at various points. Dave, Angela, Jordyn and Nyrie in Santa Barbara and Mike in the bay area. My flight left at 7AM and landed right on time. I picked up my rental car and typed the address of my hotel in Goleta into the Navigon GPS app I downloaded for the iPhone. Mounted the iPhone on the window and away I went.

About an hour into my journey, Dave called and asked if I would pick Jordyn & Nyrie up at school as they wanted to spend the day with me and show me around Santa Barbara. Here's where I have an admission to make. I was terrified. I've known Jordyn & Nyrie literally all their lives. I held Jordyn, my goddaughter literally hours after she was born. We're NOT strangers. But I have to admit, kids frighten me. I just don't know how to interact with them. Dave had asked me earlier via e-mail the same question, if I would pick them up at school and I just pretended like I didn't even see it. And now, with him on the phone, I kind of stammered "Uhhh, I don't know if I'm going to be there in time to get them, what do they normally do after school?" Hoping that would be fun enough that the prospect of hanging out with me wouldn't seem nearly as cool. "Oh they either go to the after-care program or hang out in the library and read" . . . Crap. "OK, let me call you when I'm done eating and I'll let you know when I'll be there and we'll see what happens".

I spent the next 30 minutes eating and screwing up my confidence enough to hang out with two kids for 3 hours. What would we do? What would we talk about? How do I keep from swearing for 3 hours? Is the music on my iPod appropriate for children? AUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!! Finally I said "Look John, these are kids that actually LIKE you. You can do this, it's ONLY 3 hours." So on the road again, I called Dave and recited the address of their school that I had Google mapped and put into Navigon. He said "Yep that's it" I said "OK, I should be there around 1". So for the next 45 minutes, I gently talked myself into being able to do this.

When I arrived at the school, I wondered what people would say to a strange guy looking for two girls. Surprisingly they pointed me in the right direction. As I was wandering around I heard "JOHNNNNNNN!!!" and two of the cutest girls came up and gave me a big hug! Awesome. So I asked them what they wanted to do and they replied "I dunno" and I again asked, "OK, what do you LIKE to do?" and they replied in unison "Read". Uh-oh . . . but then Nyrie casually pointed out that that wouldn't likely be much fun for everyone so we decided to head to the Mission and we were off.

First they took me to the Rose Garden in front of the Santa Barbara Mission. I watched as the two girls taunted each other with rose petals. Not slugs, or dirt, or the other horrible things that sisters usually do to each other, but rose petals. We wandered around the mission for a bit, then it was off to Ice Cream. I told them to order whatever they wanted as long as it wouldn't get me in trouble with their parents. We had a grand time sharing ice cream. After that, we headed back to their house so Jordyn could drop off her cello. I got to meet the new members of the family, most notably the new dog Jasper, the new cat (forget the name, sorry Nyrie!) and the chickens. Next up, it was off to the hotel so I could check in. I changed into some shorts and told the girls I wanted to see the beach. We headed for Goleta beach and after some creative navigation from Nyrie, we arrived where we connected with Dave.

It was great to see my old friend again. It really looks like he's been settling into California life! I told him how impressed I was with his girls. I really am blown away by how smart they are! We went back to their house and when Angela got home, we went to "downtown" Santa Barbara for dinner at the Paradise Cafe. We got all caught up on all the happenings in our life. Back at the house, the girls showed me some new tunes on the Violin and Cello and we just all relaxed. We talked about the Waldorf education that the girls were receiving. I had to admit finally to Dave & Ang that when they told me about the Waldorf school many years ago when Jordyn and Nyrie started, I thought it was some "Hippie Crack Pot" thing they were doing, but after spending a day with these two amazing girls, I had to admit, this was probably a FAR superior education to the one I got when I was their age. I'm really impressed by these two girls (if I haven't mentioned it already) and I'm SUPER proud of my two friends for being the amazing parents they are TO these two girls.

I tell you what, after spending 5 minutes with Jordyn & Nyrie, they really put me at ease. I didn't have to worry about what to say or what we were going to do, the only thing that mattered to them was that we got to say it and do it with each other, and to me . . . . that was just perfect. Girls, I had an AMAZING day with you and I can't wait to see where you go in the future. Thank you so much for allowing me to be part of your lives . . . you're incredible, I love you! Dave & Ang, I love you guys so much and you really are fantastic parents. Not that there was ever any doubt, but I've been super blessed to have you in my life and I can't wait until we get to hang out again.

Staying the Course . . .

I haven't been writing much in my blog lately. I don't really know why. But I suspect it has to do with not achieving my goals as fast as I would like. I've been trying to take comfort in the small victories, but at the same time I've conditioned myself over the years to be a "I want it right now" kind of guy. If I can't have it now, then is it really worth having? But lately I've been trying to look at the big picture and see what it is that I REALLY want in life. I've come to the conclusion that many of the things I thought made me successful and who I am, really don't matter that much to me. The big house, the fancy car, they're just things. They don't define me. The consideration I show others, the encouragement I give, the love I receive, those are the things that are important and what I want to be remembered for.

Lately, I've been stuck on my weight loss goals. Last August, I went in for Lap Band surgery and for the most part have been successful with it. The funny thing is that it still boils down to diet and exercise. The Lap Band is really just a forced diet. And like any diet, you can cheat. And I do. The idea is that with the band, you have it progressively tightened so that you eat slightly less. At some point it gets tight enough that you can still eat enough to sustain yourself (along with protein drinks and supplements) but not so much that you can gain any weight effectively. But you learn what goes down easy and what doesn't. So you start eating more of what goes down easy. For me it's well cooked pasta. Now will someone tell me where the pasta diet book is? Right, there isn't one.

So for the past three or four months since I last had my band adjusted (I actually had it loosened because I wasn't able to get much down) I've been enjoying eating. A Lot. But I've also been exercising. A fair amount. Fortunately over that time, according to my doctor's scale, I actually LOST 0.7 pounds. So pretty much for the past 4 months, I've maintained my weight. If I gained 2-3 pounds, I worked out harder, when I lost the 2-3 pounds, I slacked off. I found a balance. For once. But the weight I was at, was not the weight I wanted to be. Yesterday I visited the doctor again and had my band adjusted. Tightened. I have at least another 60 pounds to lose and I'm hoping 30 of those are by my birthday (08/24 - Start making preparations!).

Also, while I did actually lose some weight, other changes were taking place as well. I bought my first item of clothing without a number in it in God only knows how long. I bought a Sounders jacket that is a size XL. Not 2XL or 3XL, but XL. I consistently wear jeans that are a size 38 and are loose. I've gotten size 36 shorts and pants on, but they're not comfortable . . . yet. (I used to wear size 44). My dress shirts that I bought last year with a size 20 neck are ready to go to Good Will being replaced by my size 18.5 neck shirts. As of this morning, I'm only 7 pounds away from where I was when Teri and I started dating 13+ years ago.

Now I'm trying to celebrate the little things. That I actually LOST 0.7 pounds while pretty much eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted is a victory. My four months of debauchery really wasn't debauchery at all. I knew I could be doing more in terms of watching what I ate and exercising more, but what I thought was debauchery was really "enough". That's a victory. I think I'm FINALLY starting to understand my body. And I'm starting to believe that it's capable of a great many things. A few weeks ago, I went out and did a 50 mile bike ride, while I was spent the rest of the day, it felt good and I felt fine the next day. I'm actually making PLANS to work out and do some races. These are victories. I'm not going to be 220 by tomorrow. But I will be 220.

I know this is a somewhat disjointed post, but it's where I'm at . . . and you know what? I'm OK with that.

Running Conditioning Is Improving . . .

This week I've been to the YMCA 4 times. Three of those times I ran on the Treadmill and one time was for a mile + swim workout. On Wednesday, I picked a cross country program on the treadmill and ran for 40 minutes or so. Thursday was the swim, 500 warmup, 200 kick, 500 pull, 200 kick, 3 X 100 sprints and a 100 IM or 1,800 yards. Friday I did the Runervals 2.0 workout. I still cannot do this workout in it's entirety as designed unless I set my base pace at like 1.5 MPH. But I am doing the whole workout, just when it gets to a 5% incline at 5MPH above base pace, I'm at the 5% and only about 2MPH above BP. This morning, I went back to the Runervals 1.0 workout.

I set my base pace at 4.0 MPH and the first set was unbelievably easy. So for the remainder of the workout, I was at 4.5 MPH for my BP. And on the sets where it started increasing incline, but NOT BP, I increased my BP anyway. And finishing the sets at 7.5MPH at 3% incline were hard, but certainly not so hard they were not doable. So at this point, I'm feeling pretty darn good about my running. And I think it's helping my cycling too. At least I feel good with all the compliments I'm getting from the boyz after a 30 mile ride. Don't know how complimentary they'd be after a 50 - 70 mile ride, but hopefully this summer we find out.

Hoping to get a few more Lbs off before Teri and I head to Vegas in the first week of May . . .

The Funny Thing About Goals . . .

So this year I've set a number of goals for myself, both professionally and personally. I do this every year. I write them down and occasionally I'll even review them to see what I wrote. (Note to self: Set another goal to review goals frequently) I've tried to convince Teri that we should follow the Morelli lead and have a weekend away in January somewhere nice where we can talk about our hopes, dreams and aspirations for the year. As of yet, we haven't done it. Although I think she's starting to come around. I mean who wouldn't want a weekend away with ME? Even if the main focus is goal setting, it would probably be in some romantic ocean side location . . . with dogs. I mean come on . . . ANYWAY . . .

This year I set a goal that reads:

By July 12th, 2010, I will have registered for, competed in and finished the Ocean Shores half-iron triathlon.

After doing the Seattle Rainman Indoor Triathlon yesterday, I don't know how I can possibly achieve that goal. I think honestly by July I COULD get myself in decent enough shape to run/walk a half marathon. I just don't know if I could do said half marathon AFTER swimming 1.2 Miles AND biking 56 miles. So the funny thing about goals is that they can be revised. So as of now, I'm revising my goal to read:

By July 12th, 2010, I will have registered for, competed in and finished the Ocean Shores Olympic distance triathlon.

I felt pretty good about my results in the indoor tri yesterday:
Swim: 15 minute pool swim, I set a goal to do 750 yards, I did 900.
Bike: 30 minute bike on a trainer, I set a goal to do 8.5 miles, I did 8.2. Although I didn't know our transition time would be part of the 30 minutes, so I really only rode for about 25 minutes . . . I think I could have easily done the additional 0.3 miles in 5 minutes.
Run: One 2.8 mile lap around Greenlake. My goal was to do this in 31 minutes. I think it was close to 33 or 34 minutes, but we were delayed by a minute plus by police action. So I'll call it 33 minutes.

Last week I ordered a book by Jeff Galloway on Running. I know I suck at Running . . . at least I do now . . . I used to be a fairly decent runner. I know two things about my running now if I want to improve. Getting the pounds off my frame will go a long ways. I need to increase my endurance. I know trying to push a 280 pound frame is going to wear down my legs a lot faster than a 220 pound frame or even a 250 pound frame. So I've got to start getting in the gym more frequently and REALLY starting to pay attention to what I eat and using the tools I have to get the pounds off.