Saturday, July 21: Push Through

I didn't sleep much at all Friday night. Something I ate during the day must have disagreed with me, as I had pretty significant stomach pain and couldn't really get comfortable.

I was tired and still in some pain yesterday morning, but I managed to find a way to work through it. We still went to the Farmers Market (picture later if I get around to it), and when we got home I recognized the best opportunity I was going to get all day for a run. It was about 10 am and starting to get warmer, but it was overcast and still somewhat cool (in the upper 70's).

All I really wanted to do was go back to bed, but my mother-in-law and I went out and got 3.58 miles in before the sun started to come out and the humidity became too much to bear. I probably wouldn't have gotten as far as I did on my own, so having someone with me to set a pace really helped out here.

I'll be honest: After this run I spent a big chunk of the afternoon in bed (watching cartoons instead of sleeping), got up to eat dinner and watch a Brewer game, took the dog for a short walk and then went back to bed early. But at least I still managed to get my run in.

Exercise log: Saturday - 3.58 mile run and a 0.9 mile dog walk (with a brief sprint in the middle when he got loose and took off after a skunk)

July 20: Sneaking In Some Vegetables (And A Weigh In)

The Brewers are in Cincinnati and Philadelphia for the next six days, which creates some awkward schedule issues. They play at 6 pm tonight, tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday and at 11 am Sunday and Wednesday.

Brewer games that encroach on meal times make it a challenge to eat healthy: All of a sudden I'm losing an hour or two I could have spent making sure I'm eating better.

I didn't get a chance to make dinner until 5:30 tonight, so my time was somewhat limited. I gave in and tossed in a frozen pizza, but while I was waiting for the oven to preheat I shredded and sauteed a zucchini with salt, pepper, garlic powder and Tuscan Sunset. I spread that on top of the pizza before it went in the oven and instantly had an extra vegetable to go with what could have been a massive fail of a meal.

Exercise log: I've fallen behind writing here over the last few days, but I have gotten workouts in.

• Wednesday - I had to wait until almost 11 pm to do it (morning work, afternoon Brewer game, night Timber Rattlers game which went to extra innings), but I ran 2.8 miles.
• Thursday - In between my morning work and a 2 pm radio booking I hit the gym and swam for 35 minutes.
• Friday - 350 calories worth of DDR this afternoon followed by a half hour dog walk.

Finally, Thursday's trip to the gym meant another opportunity to check my weight. I had last checked on July 6, when I weighed exactly 260 lbs. My plan must be working, because on Thursday after getting out of the pool I weighed exactly 255. That means I've lost roughly 12-14 lbs in the last month, which is both incredibly encouraging and probably not sustainable. Nonetheless, I'm feeling really good about my progress.

July 13-16: Recapping A Weekend Away And Falling Back Into The Fire

I'm several days behind here, so let's do the quick version"

Friday was a fail. I had to rush through my morning stuff to make it to Milwaukee in time for an afternoon meeting and a Brewer game, didn't find time for exercise and didn't really improve much in terms of food.

Saturday we went to the Wauwatosa Farmers Market (forgot to take a picture of our purchases, sorry), a sporting goods store, lunch, the beach, dinner and Bastille Days in Milwaukee. I didn't eat spectacularly well on this day, but I covered for it a little bit by passing up on several opportunities to drink and having nothing but water all day.

Sunday we went to another Brewer site's tailgate party and I made an interesting discovery: I brought two kinds of hard cider along: A Michelob Ultra Cider that was supposed to be a little lighter and a Magner's Pear cider that wasn't as light. It turns out the difference between the two is only five calories per bottle. So I might be drinking more pear cider going forward.

I also ran 3.48 miles when I got home Sunday night, which has to be the most I've ever run on the same day where I've attended a Brewer game.

Today has been a rough day. I was anticipating taking a break to exercise and maybe do something fun this afternoon, but immediately after I finished writing this morning I was presented with breaking (and then slow developing) news regarding Zack Greinke and as a result I've been at my desk all day. I managed to sneak in about 300 calories worth of DDR (with a long break in the middle to come check for news).

In more positive news, though, today's Meatless Monday is going as planned. I had roasted vegetable soup and a grilled cheese for lunch, and I'm having sun dried tomato and spinach pizza for dinner.

So, to sum up, here are my single things for the last four days:

Friday: FAIL
Saturday: Drink nothing but water
Sunday: Go a little lighter at the tailgate, sneak a run into a day where I normally wouldn't.
Monday: Meatless Monday

July 12: Make Up For It

I'll start with an admission: Yesterday was something of a fail. Every year a few members of my family and I go on a day trip adventure to someplace we haven't been before. This year we went to Jefferson County, WI to visit three places:

• An old archeological dig (perfectly healthy)
• A local history museum (also healthy, even if it did feature a "dairy shrine")
• ...and a county fair. 

As you might have guessed, the county fair wasn't my healthiest choice. I didn't go as crazy as I could have gone but still had a giant burrito, deep fried cheese curds and half a cream puff. We brought healthy snacks along for the car and I ate some of those too, but I didn't exercise.

Today I did the best thing I could do: Follow up my unhealthy day with a better one today. Here are my meals for today:

Breakfast: An "instant breakfast" shake.
Lunch: A cup of soup and two salads from a salad bar.
Dinner: Taco salad, chips and salsa.

I waited a while after dinner, then went for another long run. 5.58 miles tonight, the longest run of my life by almost a full mile (and the second longest came earlier this week). I'm not sure why running is getting so much easier, but it's almost surreal how much better I feel than I did a month ago.

July 10: Personal Bests

Before I start looking at today I'd like to tell the rest of yesterday's story, because I didn't get around to updating the post last night.

After dinner, frustrated with a less than stellar day, I decided to go out for a run. The timing wasn't perfect: I was still full and wasn't sure I'd be able to do all of the 1.6 mile route I'd planned out without stopping. I figured I'd give it a shot and if I had to I'd walk for a while.

I was on the home stretch of the run and still feeling really good, so I turned off the route and tacked on another half mile. Then I turned the other way, crossed the main road and kept going. And detoured through another neighborhood. And around a pond. And through another subdivision. And back across the south half of our subdivision.

I actually didn't decide to come home until I was worried people would be starting to worry about me - I had left for a 1.6 mile run and been gone over an hour. I remapped the route when I got home and found I'd gone 4.65 miles, the longest run of my life. It's the furthest I've run in 2012 by a mile and a half.

I figured I'd be sore this morning, but I still felt surprisingly strong. So I set another personal best with a 520 calorie DDR session before lunch.

I'm not sure where this sudden burst of energy and stamina came from, although having lost a few pounds is probably helping. I'm just hoping it lasts for a while, because these last couple of workouts have actually been fun.

July 6: Doubling Up

After a few days of relatively light exercise, today I carved some time out of my schedule to make sure I made up for it a bit. So, once my morning work was wrapped up I headed to the gym (it's still too hot to run outside) for a 1.4 mile run followed by half an hour of swimming.

The pool, unfortunately, brought an unwelcome surprise. I had thought my sore knee was feeling better, but apparently kicking with my left leg is still pretty painful. As such, even my usual slow laps (mostly with a kickboard) were much slower than usual and I was only able to complete a couple of laps without any flotation help. When I was done I rewarded myself with a trip down the slide.

There is good news, though: I stepped on the scale before getting dressed and weighed in at exactly 260 lbs (I tried to nudge the scale down into the 250s but it would have none of it.). I'm not sure how far down I am since I didn't weigh in when I started this project, but I'm confident it was closer to 270. So I'm pretty happy with my progress.

Did I exercise today? Yes, 1.4 miles of running and half an hour of steady swimming.

July 5: Battling Through Soreness

I've been complaining about being sore from this week's raspberry picking for a few days now, and today is no exception. I'm still not able to bend either leg without pain, and I must look ridiculous when I try to walk right now.

With that said, I wasn't going to skip out on exercise two days in a row. So today I busted the DDR back out and decided to see what I could do.

I was actually surprised to discover that, after a few minutes to warm up, I was able to go pretty close to full speed. I burned around 390 calories in 45 minutes this morning and only stopped because I needed to take Gorman to a vet appointment. Once I cooled off my legs tightened up again, but it's good to know that exercise seems to make them feel better.

So, all told, I'm glad I pushed myself.

Did I exercise today? Yes, see above.

July 1: Do What You Can

I woke up this morning to an unpleasant but not unexpected discovery: The knee I twisted yesterday felt even worse after stiffening up overnight. I was able to walk on it without too much difficulty, but really struggled to go up and down stairs or do any other bending. I'd like this knee to get better, so I decided not to pound on it by running.

Knowing that my workout level would be down a bit today, I tried to knock down the unhealthiness of my food a little bit. I had a salad for lunch and made a trifle for dessert tonight with leftover angel food cake, sugar-free pudding and fresh fruit. I probably negated all of these gains by having french fries with dinner, but every little step taken is better than no step at all.

For exercise today, I tried to limit the impact on my sore knee by going swimming. The combination of the crowds, the areas open for swimming and my personal fear of deep water meant I didn't do much swimming, though. I did a lot more standing around in water. That was fun and refreshing, but didn't really count as a workout.

Fortunately, by 10 tonight my knee was starting to loosen up a bit and I was able to play some DDR. 306 calories tonight, and I didn't really start to get sore until near the end. I'll call that progress.

I'm also heading into my week on a better rest level because I've slept in each of the last two mornings. I slept 9 1/2 hours last night, which has to be the most I've logged at once in months or years.

Did I exercise today? Covered above.

June 27: Extra Unexpected Exercise

I had the morning free yesterday and Laura and I were supposed to go pick raspberries. Our normal place was picked out, though, and another "shot in the dark" didn't work out. With options 1 and 2 out of the picture, we decided to go get breakfast. Then I followed a detoured road in the wrong direction and got lost.

While trying to figure out the way back, though, I stumbled across something else: A walking bridge that could take us across a lake and lead us to a spot about half a mile from our destination. So we parked the car and walked the 2.6 mile round trip. It took a little longer but we had the morning free anyway.

It was a nice reminder that exercise doesn't always have to be work for the sake of work. 

Did I exercise today? Yes, I walked the aforementioned 2.6 miles and ran 1.2 more after 11 pm when it was cooler.

June 26: Make It Fun

I'd guess that I'm like most people when I say that I rate most of my exercise options on a scale ranging from "completely unbearable" to "a necessary chore." It's pretty rare that I actually enjoy getting sweaty and uncomfortable. That makes it something of a challenge to commit to significant workout time each day.

I don't recall what made me think of it, but about a week ago I got the urge to play Dance Dance Revolution. I played it a lot in college, and even owned and wore out a pair of control pads. At some point over the last half dozen years or so, though, I had tossed the worn out pads. My PS3 isn't backwards compatible, so I would've had to hook up an old system and find obsolete equipment to play the game.

Anyway, a quick search about a week ago revealed that Amazon has a bundle including the PS3 version of the game and a control pad for $27.99. At that price it was more than worth a shot.

The game arrived yesterday and I gave it a shot for the first time this afternoon. It's not exactly how I remember it, but I was able to download some of the songs I remember from previous editions and get a pretty good workout out of it. I'm still relatively good at the game, even if I have probably put on about 30 pounds since the last time I played it.

I have a few complaints about the game that I'm still trying to find ways to work around:

•  Previous editions of the game featured a lot of upbeat Japanese-sounding pop and techno. This, for example, is one of my favorite songs from a previous version. So was this. Regardless of whether this is or isn't your style of music, it at least had a solid beat and a fast rhythm. Those are DDR songs. Lady Antebellum, Jason Mraz and Train are not what I had in mind, but they're what's on the new game. Thankfully I was able to download some stuff that was more my speed.
• One of the primary modes of the game is "Club Mode," where you start with the easiest songs and build your way up while being constantly evaluated to decide if you're ready to advance. The game is really slow letting you advance, though, so at this point for me it's just a mishmash of slow songs on easy levels with no exercise value.

With that said, I had missed DDR a lot and I've quickly remembered how much fun I used to have playing it. If you call sometime in the next few days and I don't answer, it's probably because I'm in my living room stepping away.

Did I exercise today? Yes, I spent about an hour playing DDR, then took a short break before going for a 1.2 mile run.

June 22: Working Out Together

As I mentioned yesterday, I used a rare in-season off day to get ahead of schedule and buy myself some extra time today. I used that time this morning to take my wife on an hour-long hike in a nature preserve near our house.

It was nice to get a chance to spend some time together this morning, because our early schedules typically don't line up. Laura starts work at 11 am, and 6:30-noon or so is usually the busiest part of my day. On her work days I usually see Laura for a few minutes when she brings me breakfast (if she has time), and again as she's on her way out the door. Most of the time I'm too engaged in my work to have much more than passing conversation.

Anyway, today we got to spend an hour together and we both got some much-needed exercise out of it. It's a good day.

Did I exercise today? Yes. I haven't been able to find a distance-labeled map of the trails we walked this morning, but I think we hiked about two miles over most of an hour. I also ran 1.14 miles when we got home to keep my running streak alive.

June 21: Taking Advantage Of Opportunities

Today is kind of an unusual day schedule-wise, but the opposite of the way yesterday was. Yesterday I had to pare down my responsibilities in order to find time to prioritize getting a run in. Today I had lots of time.

The Brewers are off today, the Timber Rattlers are out of town and, as such, I had a rare in-season day without baseball to watch or cover. I finished most of today's immediate responsibilities before 1 and after a run, my calendar was open.

I took advantage of the chance to run some errands this afternoon, then came home and used the evening to get some work done in advance to hopefully lighten up my schedule a bit over the coming week. As of this writing I've produced six posts tonight that will run on Brew Crew Ball over the coming days, and I hope to finish one more once I'm done here and start work on tomorrow's daily responsibilities so I'll have time to go exercise with Laura in the morning before she has to go to work.

"Working ahead" was supposed to be today's only goal, but as it turns out I also got some extra exercise in. It's a beautiful night in Appleton tonight so I took a break from writing to take the dog for a long walk in addition to my run.

I have no idea how much of this is physical and how much of it is mental, but today I noticed I'm feeling better. My energy level is up, my soreness level is low, I'm more cheerful and the more mundane parts of my day didn't bother me as much today. I could just be having a good day, I guess.

Did I exercise today? Yes, I ran 2.08 miles early this afternoon and, as mentioned above, I also went for a 2.28 mile walk tonight.

June 20: Keeping The Streak Alive

Today is kind of a tough day, schedule wise: I got home from the ballpark after 1 am and I'm responsible for previewing and recapping a day game at 1 pm. In the middle I had to take a car in for repairs, and my lawn is in pretty serious need of mowing.

Today would have been a pretty easy day to use my schedule as an excuse to not worry about this project and just drop back into a normal routine for a while. I didn't, though: instead of spending all morning buried in my work I lightened my plans a little bit and still found time for a short run.

That single short run (about 1.2 miles) isn't going to change my life, of course. But it is a little better than what I'd normally do on a day like this, and that's the point of this project.

I went to last night's game with a friend who's seen this space and asked me, "So, you're eating better these days?" I am, but this project is about more than that. Sometimes it's going to be about exercise. Sometimes it's going to be about time management, or life/relationship maintenance, or other things I need to work on to help improve the quality of my life.