Athlete to Fat Guy and now heading back

I have accomplished my first goal of losing 75lbs.  So I have been asking myself what is next.  I liked having a goal and date to accomplish it.  The thing is I don’t care how much I weigh anymore, its not about pounds lost.  I still have a lot of bodyfat especially around my midsection that I don’t want to carry around anymore.  So whats the goal and when do I want to do it by???  Well the date is the easy part..why not make a push to see what I can do in my Rookie Year.  I started this quest January 3, 2009.  So my target date is 1-3-10.  Now the harder part what do I want to accomplish in the next 130 some odd days. There is one large thing I can think of that will help me to get toward the overall body I want…losing bodyfat.  Bodyfat is the focus not weight.  I am at 20% right now, so my objective by the end of my rookie year be down to 12% bodyfat.  Why 12%??  I am not sure but it would just be cool to be below the teens, and I was well over 30% when I started.  So there it is 12% bodyfat by 1-3-10.  GO! 

Just to update the record I lost my 75lbs in 221 days I hit 225 on Aug 12, 2009.  1 month faster than I set out to do it.  You can check out the 225 me in my profile pic.  I know I still need to lose bodyfat and build more muscle but I am going to do some thinking on what my goals from here will be….I’ll update you when I have something more concrete than lose fat build muscle……

I have lost 71lbs since January with my goal being to drop 75 total.  I am looking forward to accomplishing this goal, but back in January I sure didn’t think I would have this much of a gut left after dropping 75lbs.  Guess it goes to show how bad of shape I was in back then.  I actually think my gut and love handles look worse now.  Don’t get me wrong I know my body has changed for the better but I sware with everything else tightening up and looking better the gut and love handles just look even more out of place.  I guess they say that love handles and lower belly fat are the last to go which is fine I will get there.  It does leave me wondering though when I get this goal accomplished how much more would I need to drop to get rid of the midsection flab…..time will tell I guess……..

The 220’s are here!  I weighed 229 this morning.  that is 71lbs of my goal to drop 75lbs. down!  71lbs in about 6 and a half months.  can’t wait for the next four to go bye bye!

the 250’s—-5 to 6 years ago—back in them 2.5 months into working out.

240’s—9 years ago—about 3.5 months into it

230’s—11 years ago— a little over five months in

220’s—13 years ago (sr. in hs)—  6.5 months into working out !

It’s official.  One of my goals was to have my relaxed arm measurement to 16 inches by 9-12-09.  Both arms officially are 16 inches as of today, 79 days ahead of schedule.  They were actually there a couple days ago, but I hesitated to update the measurement because I thought it might be the result of some leftover pump and swelling from a awesome arm workout earlier this week.  16 inches here to stay.  As for where I will go in the future with them for a goal I am not quite sure yet, they certainly could still use some improvement.  I read in an old body building magazine that not that its a requirement but many old time body builders would shoot for having calves, biceps, and neck be the same measurement.  My calves and neck are the same, but biceps are lagging behind those two.  Will update after some thought on the new goal, but for now I did what I set out to do and I did it 79 days faster than I figured, thats good stuff.

For those of you who may have read the blog before you might recall I made a little chart to track how long it took me to get to certain weights and how long it has been since I have been there…well its time for an update as I wieghed 238 this morning.  I started at 300

the 250’s—-5 to 6 years ago—back in them 2.5 months into working out.

240’s—9 years ago—about 3.5 months into it

230’s—11 years ago— a little over five months in

220’s—13 years ago (sr. in hs)—  

 I seemed to linger in the 240’s a while not for lack of effort but thats just what happened.  Well now they are gone and I am going to try to blast through to get in the 220’s  I can’t believe its been 13 years since I have been that weight…..well watch out here I come.

Today is 1 day shy of 5 months into a healthy lifestyle.  I have lost 60lbs as of today.  I am now only 15 from my goal which I gave myself until 9-12-09 to reach.  Started a new job with a marketing firm yesterday so I got some new clothes.  It was quite enjoyable to buy pants with a 38 inch waist, and I also picked up the first tank top I have wore since over a decade ago and all my shirts were xl instead of xxxl .  today was a good day!

I am about 45 days into P90X, and all my body is saying is this is cool, but what happened to the crazy iron sessions?  P90X is a good workout, but lets face it everyones body responds differently and every personality likes different aspects of physical training.  My body is missing good old fashion lift til you puke training.  During the month and a half I have been doing P90X I have made the least amount of weight loss and strength gains since I started this journey.  I am not knocking P90X, but the fact is my body isn’t responding in ways I want to that brand of excercise.  Going through it this far I have also realized that the type of body that workout is designed to obtain is not the physique I am looking for.  So some may say I failed or didn’t give it a chance…but whatever it’s my body and I didn’t pay for the dvd’s.  P90X I am done with you.  I enjoyed meeting you and have learned a lot from our time together.  There are movements that you have taught me that I will use in the future, but I can no longer be faithful to you.  I’m sorry we are breaking up.  You’re Dumped!  Now onto the iron in my basement.  I miss you!  I am sorry I have left you sitting alone for so long.  I don’t know what I was thinking….can you forgive me?  I got caught up in all the hype of changing up my workout, and I now realize I could change and grow with you.  I didn’t mean to abandon you to such a degree.  I know we can make it better though.  In our time apart I have learned lots of other things we can do together.  Please take me back!  So there it is I guess I am just an Ironhead.  Today I am going to go back to my hiit cardio routines and lifting til that vain in my forehead throbs like its going to break through the skin.  I am 18 lbs away from my goal weight, and I know this switch is going to get me there faster…don’t believe me check back and see for yourself.  My name is King and I am an Ironhead.

Could you out run a Pitbull?  I already knew the answer to this question when I woke up today, but I thought to myself such a beautiful day I should do my cardio outdoors.  For those of you who don’t know I am a dog lover.  Have two of my own, and I volunteer at a place called The Animal Recue Legaue of Western Pennsylvannia.  I decided running with some dogs would be a great way to get some cardio.  My dogs legs are pretty darn short so I can outrun them no problem.  So I decided for the double win this afternoon I would get my cardio and the dogs at the shelter would get some good exercise.  So my cardio for today was what I will now refer to as Pitbull Intervals, it sounds better than amstaff intervals (for you non dog people thats short for American Staffordshire Terrier).  The really cool part of doing sprint intervals with the dogs is that when normally I would be so pooped out and have to slow, the dogs kept me going….LITERALLY.  They would keep dragging me forcing me to work harder and themselves too.  It was a lot of fun….more so I think for the dogs.  It was a little bit more work for me.  So I always volunteer with the dogs a few days a week but I am going to dedicate at least one good weather day of that from now on to doing Pitbull intervals.

In the last four months my eating and excercise habits have changed dramatically.  It finally stuck..its a lifestyle for me now.  I have a long way to go to look the way I want, but I know I will get there.  What I want to know is if any of you have any advice or experience with trying to make a difference in somebody you love to make a change.  First and foremost my wife is my best friend.  Next to her it’s a guy I played football with in college.  In college we played on defense together, and were about the same size 6′1" both between 232-242lbs.  To get right to it he is huge now, and I don’t want him to die young.  He is 30 years old, and he now weighs 370 lbs…that he will admit too.  Our history tells me that whatever he admits to you can probably add anywhere from 10-20lbs.  So lets just say he is pushing 400.  He smokes, he drinks way too much, has a family history of high BP and heart attacks, and he is getting larger at an extremely quick rate the last 6 months.  So I love this guy I mean he is my best friend I want him to hang around a while.  Can you approach a friend and have this conversation or does he have to realize it on his own?  If I should do this what do I say???  Hey buddy…do you realize your about 200lbs overweight???  I am seriously struggling with if I should say something and if so what do I say?  Anybody out there got thoughts or been through something like this?