Health

My Journey to a Healthy Me, Day 335

Time for the weekend! Almost time for rest day Sunday. 🙂

This morning I did not get up with my alarm apparently. I wanted to get up and try running before we went off to my son’s bowling. With that not happening, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.

After bowling, we went to grab a few items from the store, then headed home. I ate, and debated in my head about maybe doing things tonight, or not at all. There was some rainfall as well happening. The rain cleared up. I checked the weather app, and saw there shouldn’t be any more for at least a few hours. It was time to seize the moment. 🙂

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Sun is out, time to get on my run 😂

A post shared by William R. Tate (@wrtate) on

I finished off my run. Week 1 day 3 of the Rundouble C25k finished! I even tried to run harder on the last interval. I got that 9:23 min/mile mark. No way I am ready to sustain that yet haha. I figured it was late enough, that I went ahead and just continued walking around the track I was running at. Until I was at 10,000 steps.

I was certainly wiped out, and ready to come home and eat. 

I also got in my shipment of ice cream yesterday. 🙂 It is nice to have a good day of working out, and finish it off with some great ice cream. 

I have Chocolate Chip Cookie dough flavor this time. It is pretty good. I really enjoyed the Mint Chocolate chip last time. I don’t have any Rebel Creamery near me in stores, so I have to order by the case at their website.

Yesterday

All in all, a good day. I weighed in, and finally broke the 100 lbs lost this year mark. It seems like things are really working out well this week. I have been hard at it with watching what I eat, and making sure I get in the work with workouts and running.

Food:

1743 Calories, 9 net carbs.  1140 Calories remaining.

Sleep:
Fitbit was weird, and didn’t produce a great sleep graph. I think it had something to do with me deleting part of it. It had a gab from 3-7 am. So no graph, but I still have most the numbers.

11:41 PM to 8:00 AM. 7 hrs 2 mins. I got in my reading, and was off to be on time.

Exercise:
11,128 steps, 103 active minutes. No run scheduled.

Got my workout done in my apartment. 
3 x 10 squats
3 x 10 elevated push ups (against the kitchen counter)
3 x 10 Doorway Body weight Row
3 x 10 each arm Dumbbell rows. 25 lbs

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is rest day. Boy, I feel like I need it too! I still plan to walk a little bit though. I just don’t want to push hard for 10,000. The Pokemon Community weekend is still going on. I think I will probably just go walk around the nearby Lake Elizabeth, while I play some Pokemon Go. Then I just need to make sure I don’t consume too much food, and I should be good to go. I might even go with a longer fast, then Hit up One meal tomorrow.

My Journey to a Healthy Me, Day 334

It’s Friday! How has everyone’s week been going? I noticed I am feeling the weight of getting all the exercise in this week. My body is ready for “rest” day. haha.

Got out this morning, and completed walk number 1. Almost to 5,000 steps. So I still need to push another 5,000 or so still. Also finished my workout today. 

3 x 10 squats
3 x 10 elevated push ups (against the kitchen counter)
3 x 10 Doorway Body weight Row
3 x 10 each arm Dumbbell rows. 25 lbs

At some point, I need to cook a bit more food for me. I am almost out of all my “convenience” foods. 

Yesterday

Things went really well yesterday, despite some hiccups. I was a bit late to finish my 10,000 steps. My second walk didn’t happen until after bowling. My wife had a doctor’s appointment that I took her too. Her car started acting up a bit.

I also hadn’t posted to the blog yet, so I was doing that on my phone, while I was bowling. It actually was working out OK. I just needed to make a couple of tweaks from home.

Food:


1671 Calories, 8 net carbs. 1482 Calories remaining. I ate a little less yesterday. Mostly since I was a little behind with getting my steps in. I didn’t want to go to far over my limit, and not be able to make it up. Everything ended up working out.

Sleep:

11:39 PM to 6:35 AM. 6 hrs 27 mins. 15 x awake for 29 mins. I got off my computer in time to read, but was delayed a bit because my older son was talking to me for a little while. Didn’t actually read until 10:50 PM. Not going to count it against me though. Was fielding questions, not chasing after videos or something on the computer 

Got into bed on time. Slept well enough. Had a weird dream, and it woke me up early. 

Exercise:

10,825 steps. 62 active minutes. I mentioned in my last blog about running out there in the rain also. So I did completed Week 1 Day 2 of the RunDouble C25k app. 

Up Next…

Still to come, running tomorrow! That will finish off my week of doing things each day. Sunday will be a rest day, buy I plan on walking a little bit still. I want to build up the calories I can eat. 😉  There is a special Pokemon Community Day (weekend) that starts today, and lasts until Monday I think. So plenty of special stuff to get out there and catch! 

My Journey to a Healthy Me, Day 333

Today was rain filled day. Still I got there and got my run in today. 😁

Lots of rain, slippery mud, and plenty of puddles. I almost didn’t do it, but I decided a little rain isn’t going to kill me. 😂

I’m off bowling now. I still need to get in my steps for the day.

Yesterday

I had a pretty good day yesterday. Pretty much got my goals for the day. Even worked out in the gym complex. Dumbbells and a little bit of the weight machine.

Food:

1926 Calories, 11 g net carbs. 1088 calories remaining.

Sleep:

11:37 PM to 7:01 AM. 6 hrs 54 mins. Awake for 30 mins

Overall my sleep has felt better. I have woke up a couple of times, but overall I am feeling rested.

Exercise:

11,543 steps. 124 active minutes.

3 x 10 bodyweight squats

3 x 10 elevated push ups (on the dumbbell rack)

3 x 10 one are dumbbell rows each arm (25 lbs)

3 x 10 lat pull down bar. on set

Had rain, so I worked on the treadmill for 45 minutes, then did my workout. It felt pretty good.

Next up…

Workout day tomorrow. Looks like more storms on the way. I might just have more treadmill days ahead.

My Journey to a Healthy Me, Day 332

We had a bit of raid this morning. I elected not to go walking around in it. Instead, I came back to the apartment. 

Once I was back here, I headed off to the gym in our complex. Nothing fancy, but decent enough. I hit the treadmill, then decided to hit up a workout there as well.

3 x 10 bodyweight squats
3 x 10 elevated push ups (on the dumbbell rack)
3 x 10 one are dumbbell rows each arm (25 lbs)
3 x 10 lat pull down bar. on set was 50 lbs each side. 2 sets were 70 lbs each side. 

Plus I got about 6,500 step in. 40 minutes of walking.

Yesterday

Yesterday, I got in my run, I got in my steps, and did well with my sleeping. I ate a little over 2000 calories, and was still at a deficit. 🙂

Food:

2038 Calories, 10 net carbs. 1022 calorie deficit. Not too bad.

Sleep:

11:25 PM to 7:00 AM. 7 hrs 11 mins. 13 x awake for 24 mins. I got to reading a bit early, and headed to bed before the alarm went off.

Exercise:

10,083 steps. 114 active minutes. Just barely made the steps. I could have went out for more if I needed. I also got out and did Day 1 of C25k.

I haven’t checked my past runs, but it felt like this day 1 was really good. 

This Week

Just have to keep focusing on each day. I hope to keep this progress rolling. 🙂

My Journey to a Healthy Me, Day 331

Well, I got out this morning, and started my running again. 

It felt great getting out there again, and being able to finish it.  I was listening to some Spotify, and this song really helped me push the last two runs a bit harder 😉

I still have plenty to get done today, but I fell like I am getting this moving in the right direction already.

Yesterday

I killed it yesterday, or at least felt that way. 🙂

Food:

1711 Calories, 11 g net carbs. Calories remaining 2126. I think this was the most deficit I have had haha. 

Sleep:

11:35 PM to 6:59 AM. 7 hrs 5 mins. 12 x awake for 19 mins. I got to reading at 10:44 PM. Almost missed it. Started reading Book 3 of the Culture novels. Headed off to bed on time as well.

Exercise:

13,574 steps total. 118 active minutes. I got in two walks, plus bowling. I was actually over 10k before I went to bowling

Workout was done!
3 x 10 squats
3 x 10 elevated pushups (against the kitchen counter)
3 x 10 Doorway Bodyweight Row
3 x 10 each arm Dumbbell rows. 25lbs

Taking each day one at a time

I did great yesterday, and I am working on rolling it into today. Each day building on the last.

My Journey to a Healthy Me, Days 317 – 330

Well, it has been another few days. I meant to get a blog post in before I left out for Thanksgiving, but just didn’t make it.

The last couple of months have been a bit of a struggle, but I feel like I am breaking through it these last few weeks. Focusing on making sure I am in a decent calorie deficit has been helping. I have also been stepping up my walking game. 10,000 steps quite a few days recently. Not really much last week, as it was all time to get ready for Thanksgiving.

We traveled down to my Sister-in-law’s place for Thanksgiving. I kept it Keto, even though it wasn’t easy. Of course we had turkey. We brought a Honeybaked Spiral cut ham with us. Of course, that is like 5 carbs a serving from all that sugar. Still, that is pretty much what I ate. I had a few green beans. I brought some spicy pork rinds to snack on too since we were down there for a few days. Other meals I kept it pretty simple. Eggs and ham, I had eggs and sausage from McDonalds one meal. I did have one bite of cranberry sauce. I cut a piece of cheesecake and pumpkin pie for my wife too. I wanted a piece, but I settled for just having a small taste of what was left on the knife. That made me really want to eat something sweet after that. haha. I refrained though. I did have a few sips of wine over the couple of days as well. Just taste of ones they were all trying. Man, they were super sweet. I could see drinking a bunch of that. It was better just to avoid it.

While I haven’t been making the progress I had really wanted, I have been doing pretty damn good this year.

My biggest failure, was to gain all my weight back so fast. October 7th, 2014 I was 257.3 lbs (my lightest). September 21st, 2015 I was 385.2 lbs. 127.9 lbs gained in less then a year’s time. I floundered over the next 2 1/2 years or so, only getting to 367.6 lbs at the beginning of 2018. January 1st of this year was my time to get back at it. I wanted this to me my defining year. The year to help erase that horrible failure of a year.  So far, I am doing it.

AS of this morning, I am 265.1 lbs. 99.7 lbs gone this year. I still have a month to go. Can I get to my lightest weight ever? That is my goal.

Nerdfitness

To help my with my goal if hitting that 257 mark, I am doing the final NerdFitness Challenge of the year. I got my thread up last night. Tateman – Finish of 2018 with a Bang!

I am taking on many goals this challenge. Much of which, I have done over this last year.

  1. Keto with a deficit.
  2. Read and Sleep
  3. Walking with a chance of running
  4. Workout!
  5. Posting to my Blog, and Nerdfitness daily
  6. Take a Linux course

I had worked on my deficit tracking last challenge. I did have a few days of 1000+ calorie deficit. I should be able to hit that 1000 calorie deficit each day with the help of working out, running, and walking.

Sleep/Rest is super important too. If I am doing all this extra movement, I for sure need to make sure I get the rest and recovery I need to keep at it.

I’ve also been back about keeping the blog updated. So I am working that into my challenge.

The Linux course is mostly for fun. Plus learning. I really want to see if I think it would be a good fit for me to pursue as a career choice.

My possible wrinkle to my plan

I started to apply for a bit of work. One job would be 12 hours shits running 3 days one week, 4 days the next. I did this kind of shift a long time ago, and loved it. Of course, that was before two kids and 20 years later haha. Money is tight though, so I really need to get out there and work again. If I get sometime soonish, I will probably have to re adjust my goals to fit in the new schedule. Still excited to try.

My Journey to a Healthy Me, Days 297-316

Wow oh wow. It has been so long since I blogged. It’s one of those I’ll get it tomorrow. Then that turns into 3 or 4 weeks later.

Just to update. I am still going Keto strong. I have been participating in my NerdFitness goals still. Though, I haven’t posted there as often as I wanted too as well. I hope to fix this all as well.

I have been struggling still to lose weight, though maybe I might have started breaking that plateau. The basic idea is to make sure I am at a deficit for the day. I am shooting for a >500 calories deficit. Though this week, I had a few more over eating days. Work in progress.

My Birthday

November 2nd was my birthday. I turned 45.

I have been having the feeling of wanting to run for awhile. So for my Birthday, I decided to test how far I can go. It has been a few years since my 5k. I went over to a track, and did a bit of a walk first to warm up, then started off. I went about a half mile before I had to go back to a walk. Farther then I thought I would make it at least. It does give me some idea that I think I can start running again. (My younger self would have never believed I would want to run, ever)

That night, we went to the San Jose Barracuda hockey game. When we walked in, one of the tank patrol asked if my son would want to take part in the Limbo challenge during the first intermission. Of course he said yes! 🙂

Video of his attempt too:

He needs to work on that form! He had a blast. It was really fun getting to be down there for it.

Then next night, it was time for more hockey! This time the San Jose Sharks Star Wars night.

Food Tracking

I’ve felt that tracking my food has always been a big help to me. It is amazing to see how small a serving size it when you are lookign at packaged items. Back in the day, I’d have a Stoffer’s frozen lasagna all to myself. Then see on the back that it is 4 servings per package.  Things like that, let me know I need to track.

Maybe one day, I will feel more comfortable seeing my portions sizes, but I just like weighing things, and tracking them.

I’ve been using MyFitnessPal for a really long time. I have made a switch though. I am now using Chronometer full time. I don’t get to share out my daily food diary though. But it does have some nice features. It has very specific numbers to show things like b vitamins that you get.

Weight Loss Progress

Down to 269.6 lbs. 95.2 lbs gone this year. I pretty much struggled all last month with weight. This week though, I lost 2.7 lbs. I feel like I am making the break through again. So damn close to that 100 lbs lost number. Feels like it is taking so long! haha.

Walking

Past few weeks, I have been stepping up my walking game. With my NerdFitness Challenge, I have been trying to increase step amount each week.

This last week, I was shooting for 7,000 steps per day. I am giving myself one day off.

11/05 – 10349 steps. 60 active minutes.
11/06 – 8960 steps. 78 active minutes.
11/07 – 8752 steps. 69 active minutes.
11/08 – 8302 steps. 43 active minutes.
11/09 – 9453 steps. 85 active minutes.
11/10 – 6172 steps. 44 active minutes.
11/11 – 8345 steps. 77 active minutes.

I almost did the 7,000 steps every day this week. My one day off was still over 6,000. This coming week, I am shooting for 10,000 steps per day. I’m going to have to really work for it!

Workouts

I had some decent start to working out. Mostly body weight, and some dumbbell stuff. Recently though, it has been a fail. The last week, and this coming week, my sin is on minimum days. Parent teachers conference and all that. In an effort to save some money on Gas, I am saying there around the area while my kid is in school. On benefit is I am getting my walking in. One downfall, is that I haven’t been getting any kind of workouts done. I hope to do at least something this week. No school today, but I have been busy.

Holiday times are approaching!

OK, the real challenge for the year is coming. Thanksgiving, and Christmas for me. This time of year seems to be all the holidays though. I’ve decided for myself, that I will remain Keto. This next week, I have a couple of recipes to try for a sweet potato replacement, and possibly a pie. We are going out of town for Thanksgiving, so I might have to bring a few things just for me. Turkey should be fine, I just have to ignore other items.

Then there is Christmas. We do like to have our sweets here too. I am sure we will have a Honey Baked Ham. So there will be sugars there. It just means I need to watch the portions closely. Then I might just need a few keto deserts to hold me over while others have normal cookies and candies.

It’s just good to start preparing for things like this. I don’t want to be caught in emergency mode of no planning. Much easier to give in that way.

 

My Journey to Healthy Me, Day 296

Tuesday is ending now, and overall, things seem to be going well.

My biggest issue is that I did not workout out yesterday. I did however get my steps in.

Exercise
8,760 step yesterday. My goal this week is to be above 6,000 steps. Bowling helped out some here as well. I did not hit my body weight exercises. I didn’t do any today as well. Tomorrow though, I will get it done!

Sleep

11:42 PM to 7 AM. 6 hrs 45 mins. 16 x awake for 33 mins. I got in my reading, then headed off to bed. Temperature around here is fluctuating. Sometimes warm, but sometimes getting cooler. I have been waking up being too hot, then trying to get back to sleep.

Food
10/22 MyFitnessPal – 1694 Calories, 19 net carbs. I had higher fat then protein, and my remaining calories was 827. So over my >500 mark.

I did polish off 2 quest bars yesterday. I had ordered the new peppermint bark bars. Before they came in, I had gone to a grocery outlet store. I found they were selling Quest bard for $11.99 a box. I found 3 Quest Hero bars for $0.99. I bought those three as well. I paid the price for 3, that I would pay for one at Target haha. Well, I at one Hero bar. Then later the peppermint bark bar came in. I have been waiting to try it, so I decided to go for it.

I did enjoy the peppermint bark bar, but I feel it was a little weak on the flavor. The peppermint flavor was there, but just not enough for me. Plus, when I think of peppermint bark, I feel more like a solid like chocolate. These are chewy. Still, I will enjoy eating them all 😉 Just felt they missed the mark just a bit.

Mental game
I have felt better this past week or so. There are some stresses going on in my life now. So it is in there in my head. I just have to do what I can do. 🙂

Tomorrow
Continue the grind. Get in my steps, and hit my exercise. My kid might be getting sick, so I may not be taking him to school in the morning.

My Journey to a Healthy Me, Day 275-295

I’m back! I’ve really struggle a bit these last few weeks. Some of it mental, some of it frustration.

For over a month, my weight hardly moved. Up and down the same basic area. Now, if I was at my goal weight, then no sweat. I have plenty to lose though. So this really was frustrating me. Checking Fitbit, my weight only moved 3 lbs down. I thought I was doing things properly. I was getting in workouts, and a bit more walking, yet it felt useless.

I looked back at my food tracking, and I was hitting where I thought I should for my calories and macros. Still eating at a deficit etc. The problem is, I don’t think I actually had been.

The light bulb went on

I had the realization that I must not be as active as I assumed. I wasn’t walking that much. The body weight workouts I was doing, were hard, but it wasn’t taking that long.

I looked back, and decided to re evaluate my numbers. This last week, I have not been focused on hitting a certain calorie goal. Instead, I am focused on burned calories. I have been using MyFitnessPal and Chronometer this week to track. I’ve also been walking each morning. My goal this last week, has been to have greater then a 500 calorie deficit. If this meant I didn’t walk, then that meant I couldn’t eat much. I want to eat more, I need to workout more. haha 🙂

It’s working

So this last week, I am down 6.7 lbs. Apparently, this is working for me. I haven’t dropped this much in awhile! So here we go!

down to 272.9 lbs. Moving he correct direction again.

I have been walking each morning after dropping my son off. There was a couple of days I hit up the treadmill in our complex here. A couple of the days last week, I was under my 500 calorie burned mark vs what I ate. Overall though, I did well.

NerdFitness

It is time for a new Nerdfitness 4 week challenge. I have made my thread there. Tateman – It’s my Birthday Challenge!

I setup my goals there to reflect what I have been trying out this last week.

#1 focus on >500 calorie deficit.
#2 Getting in my steps. Also increasing the amount each week.
#3 Get in my workouts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
#4 Make sure I get enough rest.

It seems pretty straight forward. I feel if I am hitting this each week, then I am going to be in a good place.

This Week

I just want to focus on getting all I can done. The year is almost up, and I want to be able to look back, and be amazed at what all has happened. 🙂

 

 

My Journey to a Healthy Me, Days 268-274

Whoa, time sure is flying. It is October already! I am disappointed a bit in myself for not posting all week. Not sure why. I guess I just thought I didn’t have much to say. I will try to get better this week.

Today, I went for a walk after I dropped my son off at school. Nothing major. I parked in one area, then walked around the school and park to get back to my car. Then I got a workout in today as well.

3 x 10 squats
3 x 10 elevated pushups (kitchen counter)
3 x 10 One Arm Dumbbell row 25 lbs each arm.
3 x 60 seconds farmers walk. 25 lbs dumbbell in each hand.

Also, little funny thought I had today. I was doing the farmers walk with these dumbbells. I was thinking, man, this 50 pounds can get heavy quick. Then it hit me. In April, I was 50 lbs heavier. I was carrying this much extra weight around me then, every place I went. Kind of weird thinking it was double that amount on me last year.

Last week summary

Overall, it was a decent week. I did lose a little bit of weight. So that is going the right direction. It is just slower then I want. Though I think it is because I really am not that active, and am eating over what I should. I want to check out where my numbers need to be again, and attempt to be more active this week. I have been getting workouts in, but they are not super high intense or anything yet. They do push me at least.

Weight Loss

1.9 lbs gone this week. 90.4 total since January 1st. I am back within 10 lbs of hitting my first weight loss goal of 100 lbs lost.

Food
09/24 MyFitnessPal – 1758 Calories, 8 net carbs, 115 g Protein, 140 g Fats
09/25 MyFitnessPal – 1750 Calories, 7 net carbs, 126 g Protein, 137 g Fats
09/26 MyFitnessPal – 1663 Calories, 15 net carbs, 105 g Protein, 128 g Fats
09/27 MyFitnessPal – 1677 Calories, 8 net carbs, 137 g Protein, 116 g Fats
09/28 MyFitnessPal – 1857 Calories, 6 net carbs, 152 g Protein, 127 g Fats
09/29 MyFitnessPal – 1862 Calories, 8 net carbs, 145 g Protein, 135 g Fats
09/30 MyFitnessPal – 1796 Calories, 16 net carbs, 127 g Protein, 132 g Fats

I had a couple of higher protein days. I had to finish off some meat we had, so there wasn’t too much choice haha. Overall my numbers were pretty good. I am going to re look at what my numbers should be. I think I am not up to “lightly active” numbers yet. Maybe this week, I can get there.

IF was done each day, though nothing consistent as always eat at 11 am. There were a few days that I went later in the afternoon before eating 1st meal.

Sleep
09/25 – 11:30 PM to 7:00 AM. 7 hrs 2 mins. 13 x awake for 28 mins.
09/26 – 11:49 PM to 6:45 AM. 6 hrs 27 mins. 11 x awake for 29 mins.
09/27 – 12:49 AM to 7:34 AM. 5 hrs 58 mins. 13 x awake for 47 mins.
09/28 – 11:37 PM to 6:59 AM. 6 hrs 40 mins. 14 x awake for 42 mins.
09/29 – 11:38 PM to 7:18 AM. 7 hrs 5 mins. 15 x awake for 35 mins.
09/30 – 11:51 PM to 9:02 AM. 7 hrs 59 mins. 17 x awake for 1 hr 12 mins.
10/01 – 12:06 PM to 7:00 AM. 6 hrs 10 mins. 16 x awake for 44 mins.

Each night, I did read. The 27th, I finished a book. Most nights were OK, but 3 nights I really got to bed too late. I did also have a couple of nights that I didn’t sleep the greatest either. Kids or whatever waking me up early too.

Exercise

Monday exercise was the Boss Battle I did.
21 squats
7-8 good form Knee Push ups.
1 minute front plank
17 seconds left leg, 22 seconds right leg for one leg balance

Wednesday
3 x 10 squats
3 x 10 elevated pushups (kitchen counter)
3 x 10 One Arm Dumbbell row 15 lbs each arm.
3 x 60 seconds farmers walk. 15 lbs dumbbell in each hand.

Friday (night)
3 x 5 (each leg) Assisted Bodyweight Lunge. (held onto my counter)
3 x 5 Inch worms (much harder then I expected toward the end ;) )
3 x 10 Wall Slides (also deceptive in how hard this is to do)
3 x 20 second side planks (I could not do the full side plank. Had to do from my knees)

Sunday Night
I went out for a walk with our dog. Took him all around the area. Mostly getting steps and active time in. The dog has to stop too much to make good time. 😉

This Week

OK, I need to make sure my sleep is on point. I want to continue building on my exercises. I hope to get out for more cardio. I know a couple of days this week will be packed busy. I hope to tackle those well.