Day 37

This week is going to be a monumental week for me. I'm hoping to lose another three pounds and I'm on track right now to see those results. It's all about my daily calorie deficeit. As long as I'm fueling my body with nutritious things and burning some calories and my deficiet each day is between 350-650, I'll shred weight like nobodys business. I learned this by observing the deficeit from the last five weeks. I'm testing the theory this week and will give a more detailed report next week of my realizations.
I just finished up a back work out with Jones and also was able to knock out my 200 core reps while I was at Bally's for an hour. Later, I plan to knock out an hour on the elliptical.

Day 36

Today started out as a lazy day. I didn't think it would shape up to be much more than that. Next thing I knew, I was on my bike heading out to meet up with Jason Jones for what would quickly become one of the most insane workouts I've had with him so far. We started by biking over to Bally's where we had a very solid, concentrated work out on chest. We then proceeded to bike on down to the coffee shop. For a half an hour we did sprints, and lunges and various other conditioning exercises, we then knocked out 100 sit-ups before we made our way back up 94th toward home.
While I was out and about, my wife was at the doctors office with Jaxon because he wasn't feeling well. She then had to go to Costco to pick up a prescription for him. While she and Jaxon were waiting, poor Jaxon threw up all over her, in Costco, and from what she described, it wasn't a pretty picture. I can't stand it when my little guy is sick. I feel helpless.
Other than that, today turned out to be a fair day. I made some insanely good salmon and sweet potato french fries to go with it. I also enjoyed some of my decadent aged white cheddar with an apple and a half and some popcorn while we watched "No Country For Old Men". It was a super weird movie. We'll get back after it tomorrow.

Week 5 Video Recap

Coming soon...

Day 35 - Week 5 Weigh In

I can't believe it, but I made it down below 2oo!!! I weighed in today at 199 exactly! Considering the week I had with working out very hard and eating well, I didn't know if I'd actually lose anything or just hang out in the same weight area. I was stoked to see I lost 1.2 pounds. I'll take that any day. It's progress.

My dad and I started out the morning with a walk/jog over the the drive thru coffee stand and back. We got ready for church and then off we went. What a great service at P4square today! We came back and had a little BBQ action and enjoyed the company of some old friends, and then hung out as my wife and I waited for our community group dinner date at 6pm. We went to Asado, which was out of this world! What a great dinner and date!

Day 34

Today was a rough day. No exercise. No time. Good day of rest though.

Day 33

Today after Jones and I got done working out at the gym, I decided to take Jaxon on a little bike ride. We went over to the Nathan Chapman Memorial Trail behind Rogers High School and did a few laps before taking a break to play frisbee and enjoy the playground. I was able to catch a pretty sweet action shot of him throwing the frisbee, it hitting me in the face, and then him laughing hysterically at the incident. We had an awesome time together and overall, it was an awesome day with diet and exercise. Here's the pics in sequence:

The powerful throw from Jaxon...

The powerful blow to my head...

The hysterical laughter begins as he picks up the frisbee to try and get daddy again...

Both of us are now laughing hysterically at this point, him because of what he did, me because of his laughter. What a sweet kid!

Day 32

Nothing too impressive happened today. It was pretty much your standard, solid day. I'm thankful that it stayed dry! I enjoyed that. I also enjoyed a mid-afternoon nap, until I was rudely awakened by Ol' Jonesy. He called me right when he got off work and very sternly, but fairly, coaxed me into meeting up with him at the gym. I slowly got up out of bed, kind of like you do when you have an undesirable appointment to attend, you know, dentist, proctologist, psycologist, to name a few. We preceeded to concentrate on chest today, and as always we worked core as well. We worked out for a solid hour and ten minutes or so and in contrast to yesterday, I felt like a million bucks! I made sure I ate enough today in preparation of working out and for me it made all the difference. I could really feel my body burning the food I had consumed during the day as opposed to running on fumes. Just a solid day overall.

Day 31

Today was a difficult day. I lacked energy and stamina. I think it's because I'm not eating enough. My mindset is to stay below my allotted calorie budget, but I now realize that it's not a problem to end up at my budget for the day. I'm now allotted 1,725 calories per day and as long as I'm burning calories, I can eat more than that. My body is more sensitive then ever to needing food as fuel. If I don't have something to eat every 3 hours or so, I can feel that. It's super weird, but cool at the same time. It just requires me to be organized with my meals and to stick to the schedule.

I just finished an hour and fifteen minutes of cardio on the elliptical and I'm soon off to bed because I open up the coffee shop in the morning. Tomorrow is another weight training day with Jones so I will make sure to fuel up as I will be burning a lot of calories during my workout with him. Also, here's a shout out to my little sister Ally who's turning 20 tomorrow! Happy birthday Ally!

Side note: I am absolutely sick of the freezing cold rain and the weather here in Washington. I wish I lived somewhere warm. My poor son has to play in our garage because it's too wet and cold outside. I'm half tempted to sell everything we have and move to Hawaii and live off the land like the natives did! Seriously Washington, warm up a bit, and let the sun shine!!!

Day 30

Today was a killer day for burning calories. As you can see I went nuts working out today. I did an hour of elliptical on my own and then Jones and I spent about 1 hr and 45 minutes at the gym doing back and triceps. What a great work out and what a great milestone today marks...It's day 30! I'm going to be taking 30 day pictures tomorrow, and then 60 and 90 day photos as well to compare with my before photos. I'm so looking forward to my 90 day pics. I've just got to remember to take this thing one day at a time. Look at us doing work today!  The bottom line is that there's no way to look awesome when you're working out!  I don't care who you are, you will make the same goofy faces as the guy or gal next to you.

Day 29

Honestly, I probably wouldn't have worked out today if Jones hadn't come over with Jimmy Bailey and worked out with me. It's so good to have accountability! I'm so thankful for the time and effort that Jason Jones puts in and for the encouragement that he gives me daily...by telling me that I resemble a beached whale.

Week 4 Video Recap

Day 28 - Week 4 Weigh In

Today was weigh in day and I weighed in at 200.2 lbs, a loss from the previous week of 3.6 lbs. I was so stoked when I looked down and saw 200 lbs on the scale. I couldn't have been more pleased with the results from my effort put in on week 4. Good things!

Day 27

Today Jones and I went back to the gym to do work. I ended up getting worked over doing sit-ups and core exercises and then Jones told me that I looked like a beached whale. Here are some shots of me looking like a beached whale.

Here's an actual beached whale...I guess I can kinda see some resemblance...

Day 26

Today I received the best compliment anyone's given me in a long time. I went to Bally's gym with Jason Jones and I was able to get hooked up with a week long pass. We sat down with my good man Sam and got to talking and I shared something about my wife and he goes, "What? You're married?" He was shocked apparently. I told him absolutely, and that I had an almost 3 year old son and another baby on the way. He went on to tell me that I looked like a baby, all of 19 years old he said. Ok...best day ever! And then Jones got me.

Day 25

Today I tried to squeeze a lot of things in. I don't like days like that. They cause you to forget everything you did, because you did so much. I opened the coffee shop this morning at 5AM and then proceeded to work out, shower and get ready for the opening night of the Sold Out Conference that was taking place at Puyallup Foursquare Church, swung by Taco Bell for a double decker taco with my good man Adam Roberts, and then proceeded to a small church in the Midland area where we had the joy of hearing first hand our friend Spencer Black's music, kinda of a cross between the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jack Johnson. He's got some cool stuff, more to come about Spencer and his projects. All in all, it was a pretty decent 18 hour day, although you can see my eating was slightly off...

Day 24

Now I can do perfect push ups! Not necessarily because I am stronger, but because I bought this product called Perfect Pushups. They're pretty awesome if you're into awesome things. I tried them at a friends house and felt the potential of a super great work out. I haven't used them yet today, but I certainly plan to and will let you know my assessment of the product when I'm done.

A crazy thing happened today. While I was at the coffee shop downtown for a meeting, there was a little disruption with a few of the guests. A young lady got my attention and told me that she thought someone had just taken her book bag which contained her wallet and other important things. She said that whoever took it, headed into the women's bathroom. I knocked on the women's bathroom door and said, "Hello, do you happen to have a bag in there with you that may possibly not be yours?" I think I heard the person say, "There's nobody in here." which is weird because there was obviously someone talking to me from inside the women's bathroom. I could tell it was a woman and that she was obviously not all there. When she slowly made her way out, she denied taking anything which was highly inaccurate because one of my loyal patrons, Keevan, searched the women's room immediately when she exited and found inside the garbage can, underneath the garbage bag, the book bag that belonged to the young lady. She immediately took inventory of the items that should have been inside the bag and realized that they were missing. The lady that had come in and caused the disruption had a young girl with her and was heading slowly toward the park attempting to go unnoticed. At that time we realized that this lady had obviously stolen the young lady's wallet and money, and had also managed to steal a Forza t-shirt and a chicken pasta salad on her way out. Another awesome regular to the coffee shop named Scott, ran to the police station to get an officer. All the while, the young lady followed the other lady and tried to talk her into handing over her belongings. She wouldn't confess or admit that she had stolen the items even though it was clearly obvious. She finally came clean when the police arrived and the young lady had her items returned to her. Here's the kicker.

Basically, after all was said and done, the officer came in and had me sign a trespass notification, and shared with me that the victim was taking the offender to buy groceries over at Safeway. That absolutely blew me away! To have someone wrong you, steal from you, and lie to you, and then to turn around and bless them for that...that my friends is GRACE!!! Grace, by definition, is getting what you don't deserve. What the lady deserved was punishment. What she received was compassion, love, forgiveness and mercy. God treats us the same way! No matter how many times we fail, no matter what sins we have committed, God is faithful to forgive us and to show grace! He gives us what we don't deserve, which is forgiveness of sin and eternal life, through faith in Jesus Christ! You see, when God looks at us, he doesn't see our filthiness, our deceit, our unworthiness, our sin, He sees Jesus! He sees all our wrongs made right because of the death and resurrection of Jesus! What a powerful illustration today of the mercy and grace of God!

Day 23

Ol' Jonesy and I went for a "little" bike ride today...and when I say "little", I mean a "little" 10 mile bike ride...in a torrential down pour!!! Good times! Honestly, this was one of the hardest rides I've done so far. We were soaked from the moment we left our homes, head to toe, and the fun had just only begun.

These kind of rides build endurance because, a) you're carrying around about 10-15 pounds extra weight in sopping wet clothing, b) even though it's March and Spring is right around the corner, we're still experiencing sub-zero temperatures that freeze you to the core, and c) everything that could possibly go wrong with your bike does. Nice going.

We kicked off our journey with a visit to our local bike shop, Bike Tech, to see if we could get Jones' bike to shift gears properly. The repair man there basically said, "Yeah, just squirt a little dabble doo on the hoo diddly and that should make the skippity doohickey work." I wasn't sure what that meant, so we shrugged it off. Jones' ended up getting a new wheel while we were there, so after that got installed, we hit the road again.

It seemed like it was raining even harder after we left Bike Tech. I was glad I had made the decision to wear a poncho...that's right, I was wearing a poncho on this particular bike ride. (See pictures below.) Little did I know that the poncho would later save my life during this epic ride.

We began to make our way towards the coffee shop downtown and as we were near the hospital I ended up spilling over on my bike as I tried to merge onto the side walk. Jones described the fall as hilarious, and incredibly smooth and graceful. I guess if you're going to crash on a bike, you definitely want to do it gracefully. I flew onto the sidewalk, and slid about 10 to 15 feet, gliding upon the buttery like pavement with my poncho between us. Instead of freaking out when I was crashing, I simply submitted myself to the inevitable, and fully embraced my destiny with only one itsy bitsy bump on my knee. I was so thankful to God for protecting me. It could have ended up a lot worse than it did. I rolled onto my knees and paused for a moment to thank God for life, for preserving mine, and for the joys of the rain and the ability to ride a bicycle and then Jones and I pressed onward.

Once we arrived at the coffee shop downtown, one of my favorite humans, Drew Westerfield, took a few pictures of Jones and I in all our glory. The journey so far had been incredible, but the fact still remained that we needed to get our wet bodies and our riding instruments home. The cold got colder, and the wet felt wetter and I couldn't help but stop by Chili Thai to pick up some fresh rolls for dinner. Fresh rolls are insanely good and they're super healthy. They are basically lettuce, rice noodles, chicken and shrimp wrapped in rice paper. It was a nice treat to end the day with. Check out my calorie count for the day!!! I flipping owned it!

Day 22

Today was awesome! I connected up with a couple of friends who live upstairs in the condos above the coffee shop and took them to Dillanos Coffee Roasters for a tour. We are in the process of brewing our own Forza Coffee Porter and wanted to experience the roaster first hand and see if we could come away with some tips and insights for brewing beer with coffee.

After the tour, we headed back to Ben's condo and began the brewing process. It's a lot like cooking; you follow a recipe, you put in ingredients, you celebrate it! I've always wanted to try making my own beer. Ben has all the equipment necessary and the know how, so I'm super glad we were able to get together for this project, it was a lot of fun, and the best part about home-brew, is that you get to drink a home-brew while you brew at home. Ben had recently made an english pale ale that was like no other beer I've ever tasted! It was incredible and super eye opening to the reality that it is possible to brew insanely great beer at home, and for half the price of buying beer at the store!

I ate very conservatively today because I figured that I'd be having a beer, and I honestly haven't had one is so long, so it was a nice treat to enjoy, yet I knew that I'd have to get in some extra cardio later to make up for having it. I did. I got a great work out in. 1 hour of cardio and core exercises. Good times! Check out the brewing pics below.

Week 3 Video Recap

Day 21 - Week 3 Weigh In

Today I ended up trying something new for cardio. I jumped rope. My friend and almost MD, Joey Parker, highly recommended jumping rope as an excellent source of cardiovascular exercise. He said that approximately 10 minutes of jump rope is equivalent to 30 minutes of jogging. I ended up doing 3 sets of 5 min. each set with push ups and sit ups done in between each set...what an intense, concentrated work out! I was sweating more than when I ride my bike or use the elliptical. I know you're probably laughing right now as you picture me jumping rope...I challenge you to try it yourself. It will own you!

Day 20

Today at about 5pm, my brother Austin, dad and I were cruising around, running a couple of errands. I told my dad that he should buy a bike to replace the one that I use...that's actually his...so we could jam together around trails and up hills and such. We looked at some super ghetto bikes at Wal-Mart. One of the bikes seriously had a bell on it. I rode it around the aisles of the store for good measure and then off we went to Costco.

This is finally the appropriate time to reveal my undeniable love for Costco. For those of you who don't understand the gloriousness that is Costco, let me paint you a picture. Actually, I'll just try and explain it's awesomeness. Right away when you walk in, you're greeted by giant TV screens, flickering and shinning on you. That's a

precursor to the many, many aisles of incredible gizmos, gadgets, whose its and whats its galore that await for your perusing. Everything is cheaper, and almost everything is in bulk, which in and of itself is awesome! There's wonderful people I like to call the "Sample People" that hand out free food and talk to you as if they're on an in

fomercial. In short, anything and everything you could want is at Costco. Prime example; Austin, my dad and I walk in to Costco right as it's

closing at 6PM. We bee-line straight to the back of the store where we know bikes are. We check out this sic bike and as we are about to buy it, we think out loud, "Dad, you're gonna need a helmet!" We turn our heads to the right and whadda ya know, there's a huge stack of helmets for sell right next to the bikes! Who'd have ever thought!

So we end up scooping up the bike and getting it home. My dad and I gear up and get psyched and then go for an hour long ride to the coffee shop downtown and then back. He felt like I felt the first few times I rode a bike up 94th; super tired, winded, and sore. I felt awesome as I rode. I'm a lot stronger than I used to be and now have much more endurance than I did even 3 weeks ago.

Tomorrow I weigh in and I am hoping for another 2 pounds to have fallen away. We'll see.

Day 19

Today was a "nada" day. You'll have to tune into the week 3 video review to understand what a "nada" day is. The video will be up on Sunday.

Day 18

Today I googled the word "habit". I've heard it said that it takes about 21 days to form a habit. I'm soon going to be crossing that threshold and can attest that as each day has gone by, the coming one has gotten easier and easier to fulfill my goals. My habit of a healthy lifestyle will become an official habit this Sunday.

I also googled who invented the bicycle. I am no more educated about this now, then when I had the bright idea to google it. I do know that several people helped craft what we now know today as the bike, or bicycle. Check out this link if your curious about the history of the bicycle. Why would he google about the bicycle you ask? Well, today when I was frivolously pedaling up 94th on my way home, I got to thinking about who invented this crazy rolling torturing device. I felt the burn in my legs today baby! I intentionally tried to not stand up as I pedaled up hill to maximize the workout. I did pretty good. Tomorrow will be an early one. I'm off to bed soon.

Day 17

Today Jones took my core (abs) workout to another level. We spent about 40 minutes focused there and then switched to some chest exercises. He pushed me hard and I felt it when I woke up this morning. I literally had to tuck my knees into my chest and build momentum as I rocked back and forth and then launched myself off the bed, to then ultimately land on the floor, but then quickly stood up pretending that didn't just happen. Yes this is yet another post that comes from the day after. I'll do a better job staying on top of this gig.

I wanted to express how vitally important I think it is to have people around you encouraging you, spurring you on, challenging you, pushing you, supporting you, and helping you to realize your goals and see them through. Honestly, if I was all alone trying to do this thing, I'd probably knock out about 4 push ups and then go and heat up a corn dog. It is essential and applicable in everyday life as well to have "cheerleaders", for lack of a better term, cheering you on as you work it out.

What are some goals you might have? What are some hopes and dreams you have been pondering? Write them down, tell someone, tell several people, and then get after it! For me, this is something that I've been thinking about doing for about 4 years. I have been procrastinating and finally came to a point where I had to decide which direction I wanted my life to go as far as my health was concerned. I'm coming up on 30 in about 3 and 1/2 years and I had to decide if I wanted to carry all these extra pounds with me into that age, or if I would rather enjoy running around the yard with my kids, walking up the stairs in my house without needing to take a breather, and go skateboarding again. I decided the latter. I told some people. Now, it's on! I encourage you today to take out a pen, scratch down some thoughts, goals, etc. Set up an action plan, tell someone, and do work! You'll be glad you did.