31 Days of Lessons Learned: I Can Run a Mile!

31 Days of Lessons Learned:  Day Twenty Two

I Can Run a Mile!

To most of you, running a mile may not sound like a big deal.  That’s okay.  Just know I’m extremely proud of myself.  If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I’ve been struggling with my weight and I’ve recently lost 30 pounds and started a Weight Loss Class sponsored by the University of Michigan MHealthy Department.  It’s more than Weight Watchers – it’s a structured three pronged attack that focuses on exercise, nutrition and psychology.  I’ve been learning a lot in that class (and hope to share my wisdom with my family soon) and because of it, I’ve also gained some confidence.

On my way home from tonight’s class, I started thinking…  “You’re running a mile tonight.”

Not quite sure why that thought popped in my head.  The closest I’ve got to that lately are my lunchtime walks.  I couldn’t dismiss the thought though.  By the time I got home and had dinner, it was settled.  I was going to run a mile tonight.  I told my wife during dinner, then played with my daughter a bit before she went to bed.

It was time.

I grabbed my running shoes, which are stained from volunteering to be a color thrower during the Ypsilanti Color Run and went on my way.

I had my friend’s exercise mix from 8tracks playing in my ears and off I went.

I tried to keep a steady and manageable pace, but I definitely slowed down a bit towards the end.  The important thing is I never stopped and I never transitioned to walking.  Towards the end, I may have been able to go faster if I walked, but it’s the principle of the thing.

So, after 25 minutes, I did something I haven’t done in 15 years.  I ran a mile.  After my cool down, I came back inside and checked my route and found out I actually ran 1.2 miles instead of one mile.  Boo Yah!

Hopefully, this can motivate you to try something that you’ve been hoping to accomplish in your life lately.  It’s amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it.

31 Days of Lessons Learned: Getting a good night’s sleep is important

31 Days of Lessons Learned:  Day One:

Getting a good night’s sleep is important

I’m going to ease myself into this year’s blog challenge.  Last year, I blogged about Halloween all month, which is extremely easy for me given the fact that I’m such a huge fan of the Halloween season.  This year though, I’m going to be a bit more introspective.  Sure, my blog site traffic may not be as high this time, but I’ll be giving you some quality content.

Before I get into the really deep lessons, I’m going to start off with a lesson I learned today actually.

As part of my ongoing work on weight loss and improving myself, I just started taking a 12 week class from the University of Michigan’s MHealthy Department.  I’m in their Weight Management Program that breaks classes down between nutrition, fitness, and psychology.  It’s an amazing course so far and I would recommend it to anyone in the Ann Arbor area who wants to work on these issues.

So, tonight we spoke about several things, but the one thing that stood out to me the most involved sleep and its affect on gaining weight.

Cooper and I sleeping back in his puppy years.

Since college, I’ve maintained that as long as I get four hours of sleep all night, I’d be just fine…and for the most part I have been.  That mantra has given me twenty hours of awake time a day, which allows me some “me” time after everyone goes to sleep, which I use to either watch movies that only I care about, play video games, play on the computer, or read.  Sometimes, I actually even get some writing done.

These late nights helped in college because of my heavy course load and it helped when Cooper was a puppy because we had a lot of issues with him when he was younger that required us to let him out multiple times a night.  Now, with a Toddler running around, it gives me some decompression time.

From day one though, my wife hasn’t been a fan of my late nights and kept telling me that it was bad for me and that it was going to affect me.  Still, I resisted.  That “me” time is important to me.  I think it’s part of my only-childness.

Well, tonight in my MHealthy class, I learned the negative affects getting four or less hours of sleep a night can have on you…especially as they relate to weight gain.  As it turns out, if you are in that group of people who have that kind of sleep schedule, you are most likely to gain weight, most likely to have the hardest time keeping weight off, and most likely to carry all your weight in your abdominal area (plus a whole bunch of other bummer mental, physical, and physiological things too).

Strike One.

Strike Two.

Strike Three.

My wife doesn’t hear it very often, but I am officially admitting I was wrong and she was right.  While I’m not going to change overnight and I may still have the occasional late night, today I learned I need to pay more attention to my sleep schedule.

Lily takes a shoulder snooze.

Joining a new club

I know some of my family may feel uncomfortable with me speaking so honestly about my current weight issues and what I’m doing to fix those issues.  I’m not writing these blogs for them though – they’re all for me.

So, I’m just completed a month of Weight Watchers and I’m celebrating for two reasons – 1) I achieved my 5% weight loss goal (losing 5% of your starting weight) and more importantly, 2) I left the 300 club.  That’s right, there’s no longer a 3 in the beginning of my weight and there will never be a three in the beginning ever again.  I’ve said this before and it obviously didn’t stick – this time is different though.

When I started Weight Watchers this time, I was told my ideal healthy weight is between 145 and 179.  That seems insane to me.  I can’t remember the last time I weighed that much, but dammit I’m shooting for 175.  Oddly, this time around, 175 doesn’t seem to hard or so far away.  I’m doing this the healthy way and the right way, but after a month, I’m already seeing the end in sight, which is both amazing and scary.

I’m making great strides though – I’m walking faster, feeling better, and my clothes are getting looser.

I’m still taking it step by step, day by day.

 

Oh, as for writing, I’m going to go clean the bathroom.  We had to bathe both dogs tonight because they decided to play in the mud.

 

Saggy Bottom Club

I’m not sure how to chalk this one up – good, bad, funny.  I think it’s good and funny (not good n plenty).

The first thing that happens to me every time I start to lose weight is that the pounds fall off my backside first.  What results is me joining the Saggy Bottom Club.  No, my butt isn’t sagging – my jeans are.  I’m almost 31-years-old, and my jeans look like I think I’m 18 all over again.  It’s a small price to pay to get healthy.  Luckily, I have other pants in my collection that are smaller sizes – see, I’ve always had faith that I would get a healthy weight.

So, to all my friends, family, and co-workers who may see me walking around with my pants sagging, it’s not a sign of disrespect, it’s a sign of transformation – a well-needed one.

OK, back to writing/not writing.

At the moment, I’m watching The Killing with Rachel.

Something to cheer about

I read my last blog over again and it kind of sounded like a “woe is me” thing.  I didn’t intend that at all, so I wanted to take a break from whining about writing to post about something else.

For those folks who know me, I’ve struggled with my weight for years.  I’d say the last time I really had things under control was my junior year of high school.  Since then I’ve been as high as 320 and as low as 240.  That’s an 80 pound spread.  I’m not happy about it (in fact, I’m pretty embarrassed about it to be honest), but it’s just the truth.  I’ve done just about everything diet-wise – Atkins, South Beach, vegetarianism, and Weight Watchers.  I’ve had plenty of excuses for the gains and plenty of success when I apply myself, but at the end of the day, I’ve been stuck in a cycle of yo-yo dieting.  I’ve finally decided to do something about it.  I’m going to do it the old-fashioned way with diet and exercise as I work to transform my life.  I’m back on Weight Watchers and it’s the most confident I’ve felt in years.  I’ve lost ten pounds in the last two weeks and can already feel the differences.  I’m walking faster, and even went for walks that were as long as five miles last week.  This is only the beginning and I can’t (and won’t) be stopped.  As I lose the weight, I’m also starting to chip away from my fat kid mentality.  That’s the hardest part for me so far, but dammit, by the end of 2012 I’ll weigh 175 pounds – which is a weight that I can’t remember when the last time I saw it was.

So, what’s different this time?  What’s going to stop my cycle of yo-yo dieting?

Lily Bug - the only motivation I need