12 Ton Challenge - Week 3

Life has really challenge me this week to keep at it, Haven’t gotten much sleep and everyday has just been getting harder and harder. I’m not completely talking about the workouts either. It comes in waves of just random crap, but I’m pushing though it.

Either way, the Stay puff event has been canceled again, turns out winter time it horrible to try to plug a out door event. The 12 Ton Challenge website is finely up and the 12-12-12 crew is adding new stuff everyday.

Ben’s been brainstorming with us on getting more people out to the class. It’s always nice to have more support plus there is always more people like myself, just looking for a little help.

I’m currently down 15 pounds so far, but I need to get better control over my eating habit’s. Over the Last week I fine myself just eating to feel better or just for something to do. I’ve been this way my whole life. I get depressed, I eat…I’m bored, I eat…I’m Stressed, I eat…and the list goes on and on…Yet my Journey continues…

12 Ton Challenge - Week 2

    This week Started on Sunday for me. I went to the “Your first Workout Class” at 2 pm, Ben has been hosting these classes all during January to get the 12 ton challenge out there. Plus every morning during the week from 8am-9 am I have the life change class with Ben, the exercises are getting better each day. Last week I was feeling really stiff and having a hard time doing simple movements. There are 6 people registered for this class, but every morning for sure there’s 4 of us there.  Shit happens things come up, but I’m at a point in my life; if someone is going to offer up there time to help me out. I will get my ass out of bed and make it there every day. I am determine to lose this weight, this seems like the only thing in a long time I can stick too.

    So I think at this point I think I can finally mark myself off as the main thing that were to hold me back from losing weight for my self, my wife and my family. I want to participate fully in putting my best effort forward in losing weight for this challenge. To me it doesn’t matter if I loose a ton of weight, as long as I feel healthier. I would love to walk a flight of stairs and not get winded.

    Last week I mentioned Ben’s Challenge, for this challenge Ben will raise $150 towards a healthy food donation for our local food bank. This was suppose to take place last Friday, But of course we got out first real snow fall of the year. Because of the snowfall one of the key players was stuck helping with the snow cleanup. So we postponed the challenge to this week Friday. So as long as the weather holds up the challenge will be a go. There will be a video I will post next week with more information on the challenge.  

    As for this week I have done 3 morning classes. These classes are about 45 minutes and the exercises are challenging for sure. Some days it feels like the longest 45 minutes of my life. I feel tired when I get up in the morning, but I can say I don’t have that mid afternoon slump as much anymore. The only thing that has been hurting my are my hands, I think its more of all the years working behind the keyboard. Ben has told us that Thursday is our day off from the workout this week. He still wants us to get out there and do something, I am going to head to the car show with my wife for the day and then hit the gym when I get back. No point messing with my routine at this point. Staying motivated is key!

    But like I said before Friday is the event. The weather looks to be sunny and cold. All let ya know next week how it went.

2012 - 12 Ton Challenge

So…I know I’ve completely stop writing for the last two years. Trust me, nothing has changed. I still feel as though I need to lose a lot more weight. The largest hurdle for me to overcome is setting a goal and sticking to it. I might fall back into the same boat, and put my weight loss on the back burner. That may or may not happen. This year I think I will have a fighting chance of meeting my goals. I have found some help!

If anyone reads this blog than they would have seen that I’ve been posting videos of the “12 Ton Challenge”.  I originally heard about this challenge from a friend at work. I thought to myself this could really make a difference in the way I have been going about things. It makes me realize that I need help if I really want to make a difference in the way I work out. 

For the last three to four years I have been spending money on gym memberships for the winter, and I find myself going and sticking to the same old run on the treadmill. When my membership runs out I tell myself I will walk every night. This lasts for about a month, and then it goes down to 3 times a week and whenever I get to it.  

After watching all the links about the “12 Ton Challenge” it got me thinking. This could be the step that would kick my ass into getting my workout routine and health on the right track. Hell! I am never going to be thin; I just want to be around to enjoy the rest of my life as a happy healthy man!

So enough about me… 

The Chatham-Kent “12 Ton” Challenge

A local personal trainer and emergency room doctor are leading the charge to have Chatham-Kent residents lose a total of 24,000-pounds in 2012. Check it out if you have the time -> www.12tonchallenge.com. 

Ben (Personal Trainer) has offered his time and work out space to offer free classes to get people moving. He also has started offering a free “Your First Workout Program” every Sunday in January to beginners.  A great way to get a rundown of things you can do a home to help with getting fit. He’s also got a FREE “Life Change” fitness class to those who are over 330lbs. I.E. Me. This runs at 8am Monday - Friday and after a quick talk at work. I was able to get my hours moved around and make the time to get in on this. The “12-12-12 Crew” are committed to helping us and all they ask of us is if we start the program we commit to ourselves, my family and the 12 Ton Challenge and continue the program and let it help us change our life’s.

Sounds easy enough… I have re-arranged my work schedule so rather than 8am-5pm I am working 9:30-5:30 pm to accommodate for the Boot Camp workout in the morning.  Maria (my wife) has been shopping and cooking to help support me along the way.

So it all started last week January 4th 2012. I stopped in at the Wednesday night weigh-in after the gym. I signed myself up for the upcoming 6 week Boot Camp workout. They took my measurements, weight and blood pressure. They had one of those generic digital scales, which wouldn’t show me my accurate weight. Ben the trainer asked if I was going to make it to the life change class. I wasn’t able to make this with my work schedule, but told him I would be there for the Sunday workout. 

Friday night I feel was the best way to start this whole process. I decided to have Chicken Strips and a Thai fusion soup from our local Crabby Joe’s. Well I guess when I was hugging the bowl at 1 am, I shoulda went with the damn Burger and Fries. Needless to say I spent the next 24hrs sicker than a dog with food poisoning. Sunday afternoon it was time for the workout class, I still wasn’t 100% but I made it through the hardest 45-minute workout I have ever done. Even though I wasn’t feeling too great, I a glad I pushed myself through it!

Day 1 

Monday morning and my first life change class came. Still not feeling 100% from the weekend’s adventures. But I went and pushed myself through the 45-minute class. My legs were aching and my stomach was sore. I tried my best, but man I am outta shape! Going from the usual 30 minute walks on the treadmill to this….Big adjustment!

Day 2,3 & 4 

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are a different story.  My legs were really stiff, I could barely walk, stand or breathe the wrong way and man I was hurting. 

I can admit things are getting easier. Ben did tell me day 2 would be tough, but it will get easier. 

This Friday, Ben has planned for us to chase him around the track at the local High school. We have 45 minutes to pull just one flag off of him. It’s not one each, its one in total. This is a good way to end the week; he has put a spin on this to give us a good outlook on this class. I think its all good as long as we are moving. Can we do this, I think we might have chance, we have an X rugby player in our group. 

This is just the beginning; I can’t say how long I will stick to this. 

BUT

As long as I can keep pushing myself to go to each class, it might just be that kick in the ass I’ve needed for years. 

… I’ll try to keep you posted.

New Year Started & Holiday Season over with Minimal Damage

If you have been reading my blog I was pretty PO’d a few weeks ago and since then I’ve gotten my cool again, I decided that I would take a break from things and just get though the holiday season. See for years now I hate that time of the year. I get really frustrated and very worked up around the 15th of December. This year was even worst as work seemed a lot busier than normal.

So for the last 3 weeks I haven’t weight myself, I’ve still been watching what I have been eating by haven’t been in putting it in to my Loseit! iphone app. For the last 2 I haven’t been hitting the gym as my membership came up for renewal and just haven’t had any time. I would have loved to just make time but I really didn’t have any to make it with.

This morning @ 7 am, I hopped on my scale to get my numbers to start the New Year and was happy to see I only gained 3 pounds back, the same 3 pounds I have been fighting with the week prior to the holidays. So I started January 4th, 2010 off @ 364.4 and my goal was 350. Missed it but 14.4 but I’ve lost 37.6 pounds since July. I’m not happy that I missed my goal but I’m also not mad as this is the most amount of weight I have ever lost when I’ve tried to lose it. Which makes me happy, but my goal of 300 pounds for 2011 will have to stay. It’s only an extra 14.4 pounds to my 50 goal that I had bumped up from 250, 3 months ago. I think I can do 1.25 pounds a week, heck I would like to be able to do 2 or more pounds a week but only time will tell.

Also on a Side note I would like to thank everyone who sent me e-mails and post on here and twitter telling me to stick with it.

Week ?? – It’s been a While and I’m not happy with myself.

So it’s been a few weeks now and I’m fixing it harder and harder to crack this addiction. With the holidays upon us it seems that every weekend feels like a food festival.  I don’t need help over eating or just simply eating stuff I’m not sub post to be eating. My will power is very low and can be easily talked into any bad meals (Fast Food). FAST FOOD is my Kryptonite! It can easily break me down. I love a good burger, and by good I mean any burger with fries.  Sometimes I feel like I don’t even notice what I’ve ordered.

I just want the weight gone! When I started this I had my self eating 2000 cals a day and it was going good for the first 3 months. Seem to be losing weight weekly and all was good then I hit a wall. I seem to be stuck around the 35 lbs lost mark and it didn’t seem to Mather what I did I would bounce around 363-365. A month has gone by now and I’m still stuck. I talk to others and even my doctor and was told to bump up my daily cal count. Only problem is when I did this I have lost very little I would even say that I would be at my maintain level of my cal intake. I’m going to the gym 3-5 days a week and do a min of 40 mins. It seems that these extra 800 cals that I try to take in daily to get my body out of starvation mode is only fuelling my addiction to eat more.

I found myself to be eating more and more. I have that extra 100 cal snack or that little more to help me out. I feel that it’s working against me. The more food I take in, the more that I miss on portions, the more I eat. I HATE this and am very frustrated right now. I asked my doctor to get in to see a nutritionist or a dietician to help me understand how much I should be eating. That was three weeks ago, she told me that if I don’t hear anything call back in a week, I called back and was asked to wait another. It makes me feel like maybe I’m not sub post to lose this week. Maybe this is the way I’m sub post to be. It feels like fate lets me get the door then slams it in my face to let me know that this is the way it’s going to be and live what little time I have left. Fate lets me sit for 7 hours  to see my doctor with nothing to eat because I knew I was going to need blood work done and was hoping to go after the appointment. Then two trips for blood work and then the less me open hope that I was going to see someone else that will help me understand what I may be doing wrong. How much can one person take!

This is why I have been overweight my whole life. It started with my family not helping me when I would ask for help growing up. Not showing me how to eat healthy, I ate a lot of garbage growing up. I don’t really remember ever having a healthy meal. Not once have I ever been given a proper portion size. Always tons of food and always offered second and thirds, even today this is the same. I going to family things and people see what I eat and worry that I’m not getting enough. Offer me food after food and am always told to not be afraid and to help myself or my wife or others are asked if they think if I got enough. I even remember when people would put more on my plate just because I was a big guy and it looked like I needed more and maybe too shy to ask.

I know I’m just running on with this post but I’m pissed off! Most of what’s above will make no sense. When I get upset I tend to miss words or even type the wrong ones that MS Word doesn’t fix for me. When I clam down a bit and all edit this post, but I needed to vent today!

Weigh-in – Week 20 – Finally Down over 40 lbs lost and Loseit! got a update

So I got up yesterday with a good feeling for a change, I might have turn things around. Weight myself like I do every Wednesday to see I’ve pasted the 40 lbs mark. I came in at 360.6 which put me at a total weight loss of 41.4lbs since July. I couldn’t be happier, plus after a few e-mail to Russ over at fat2fit radio (A great podcast I must add – fat2fitradio.com) turns out I’m been under eating with has put me at that stand still. So I updated my Loseit! App on my iPhone to what the App says I should be taking in for my weight and height. Not subtracting anything like before and I seem to be doing well.

Other happens to be happy for…

I finally got in to the doctor to find out about the tiredness and turn out same thing. Under eating…So I’ve done a little too much researching on the web and got some numbers mixed up. But I’m back on track and hopefully this is all I need to get weight to come down again.

In other news…

That iPhone App, Loseit! Got a much needed update to 2.0, don’t get me wrong, this app is the best weight-loss App on the iPhone.  Besides it’s free, even though I would have paid money for this. Anyone out there that has it. Please add me to your friends list – mtapester@gmail.com. If you don’t have it and have an iPhone or iPod touch it’s a must download. Then add me.

God knows I could use all the support I can get.

Weekly Weigh-In - Week 16 / 17 – Hmm…Well I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

So I find it hard to come up with anything to say when I gain weight in a weigh-in. Last Wednesday I know I only went from 365.2 to 366.2 but I sure felt like crap. Just couldn’t bring myself to type anything up. I’ve upped my gym time to a Minimum of 50 minutes and I go Monday – Thursday. Friday’s night are typically a write off and I tried to go last weekend but the gym that I go to is a mad house both Saturday and Sunday morning. Sunday Nights are a little quieter but still require me to wait for a treadmill.

Today I weighed in at 365 so I was able to work that pound off and lose another 0.2. A loss is a loss is that way I chose to look at it and I will keep at it. I knew that this wasn’t going to be easy or happen overnight.  So 0.2 lbs loss in 2 weeks time is better than any gain.
I don’t know too much when it come to the gym, and I haven’t made a workout plan as of yet. Need to get some help with that but for now it’s been cardio, all treadmill, elliptical and bikes. Normally 30 - 60 minutes on the treadmill and then I work in some elliptical / bikes when I not feeling the walking. A start is a start, and this has to be better than nothing.

But week 20 I would like to have a full gym schedule set up and would like to be able to go for 5 days a week at least 1 hour a day. So I’m not that far away from this goal. I would like to be less than 350 lbs before Christmas 340ish even, but all keep at it.

People are starting to notice even though I don’t. Plus every week I have to put another hole in my belt so I must be doing something right. I’m continuing to input my stuff in to my iPod touch so I can keep track. I’ve also decided not to watch any of the biggest losers this year. Just don’t like it now that I’m trying to lose weight as well. They always seem to have big number each week and it does seem very safe.  I have been enjoying a pod cast that I found about a month ago called fat2fit radio. These guys seem to be very knowledgeable and always have real tips on getting lasting weight loss. Check them out @ www.fat2fitradio.com; they take real question and answer some every show and they also have a forum / support group and are also on face book. I’ve been looking forward to their weekly shows and have been using any tips a lot the way.