Check Out This Run!!!

Today I ran to the drive thru Forza in front of Goodwill to visit with my homeboy Daniel from Roman Holiday and he made me a fantastic creme de menthe white chocolate americano on ice which I proceeded to jog down Meridian with, nearly triped onto my face in front of McDonalds because there was a ledge that poped out of no where, and made my way home for a total of a 4.3 mile run non-stop. I feel awesome! I'm planning on starting Phase 2 of the LGN Project this upcoming Monday, stay tuned.

Day 50 - Day 66

I must finish strong. I started out the LGN Project with great enthusiasm and passion. I was on a mission. I had my sights locked on the target of soon stepping onto a scale and having it tell me that I weighed 185lbs. I haven't lost the drive or determination to reach that goal, I have though lost a little bit of momentum I feel.

As of now I'm in the home stretch. I weighed in last Sunday at 193.6lbs, which puts me 8.6lbs away from attaining my goal. I know I will reach it, that's not an option, but as far as my 90 day time frame goes, I don't know if I'll be able to do it within that. I have officially 24 days left until the 90 day mark. I have 28 days left until my 5th wedding anniversary on May 28th and 36 days until I go down to Cali with Jason Jones to celebrate my weight loss goals. My thought is that I can hit the 185lbs mark some time between my anniversary and my trip to Cali. It'll be pushing it to try and reach it by May 24th which is officially the last weigh-in day for the LGN project, however, I'm going to give it everything I've got. I'm making a conscious effort to eat more fruits and vegetables and lean proteins and drinking plenty of water and I know that if I make the commitment to blog everyday for the home stretch of this deal so as to make myself accountable to the project, then there's a slight chance I'll hit it within my 90 day time frame.

With a renewed passion now to finish the race strong, off I go to knock out an hour and a half of cardio on the elliptical. Catch you tomorrow.

Day 42 - Day 49 Recap and Explanation

It's been exactly one week since I've last blogged and I've done that intentionally because I really needed a healthy break from it. I have developed the habit of blogging and journaling and I am grateful for that, but I noticed that I was feeling stressed out if I hadn't blogged and I didn't like that it was making me feel that way. I decided to just celebrate life and not blog for a week and now, here I am back in the saddle and I've got a lot to share so buckle up and enjoy the story ride. Here goes.

Last Saturday, I ended up leaving work early with fever of 102. I was tripping out. I ended up getting into bed at 10AM and finally around 4PM my fever broke. A few moments later I received a call from Leah that Jaxon had just busted his eye open on the playground and needed to get stitches and that I needed to come to pick them up from the park because they had walked there. I was pretty disoriented, to say the least, but I got up and going as quick as I could and we took Jaxon to the clinic to get stitched up. I was impressed at his bravery. He had a gaping gash near his eyebrow, but that was not getting his spirits down. He was a good sport...Until his daddy and mommy had to hold him down on the doctors office chair while the doctor attempted to stitch his eye. If I'd have known what would play out, I definitely would have had the nurse assist the doctor in this process rather than me. What happened was that Jaxon was flailing around and freaking out and his hand slipped out of mine and got a hold of the suture, the doctor started freaking out and left the room for whatever reason. I thought that doctor got jabbed with the suture, but later found out that she didn't, so I'm still not really sure why she left the room and was freaking out so much. It was stressful, but we made it and now his eye has healed up very well.

On Monday, Jones and I had one of the most epic and endurance building days I've ever had in my entire life. We rode our bikes to Ballys, worked out chest and did 200 core reps, rode down to Sparks Stadium and ran stairs and did the "death march", rode over to Forza and played frisbee for an hour or so and then rode over to Decoursey Park where we went riding on some killer mountain bike trails and then home. The journey was awesome, the exercise was great. When I got home I was absolutely wasted. I had never worked my body that hard, but it felt great. I grilled up some salmon and sweet potato fries for lunch and passed out I think.

By popular demand, I've included another sketch of me at my half way point. As of today, I've got 40 days left of the LGN project and I'm only 10lbs away from my goal. I clocked in today at 194.8 which I was stoked to see, but being Easter and all, I ended up eating a bit more than I should have. That will be our little secret though. I hope you also enjoy the other two pictures that are honorable mentions. The first is of me at my fat stage where I would eat a lot. I was at a sushi place after work one day and you can see how large I was. The other picture shows my highly sophisticated side as I am sipping my first official glass of red wine at the Gig Harbor Forza store. I will blog as often as I feel necessary from here on out. Every few days or so ought to be just about right.

Day 41

Today was quite eventful in many ways. It started with me having a fever of 102 that didn't finally break until 4pm, to which I then recieved a phone call that Jaxon had fallen on the playground and needed stitches. It was a pitiful day all and all and good ending to a terribly rainy and mundane week. No where to go but up from here and with the forcast for this week saying that it is going to be sunny and high 60's, we have a lot going for us in the week to come!

Day 40

As my week 6 weigh in approaches, I'm becoming more and more excited. I'm still feeling a bit sick and hope to sneak a nap into the day. I'm excited for the weigh in because I've been watching my food intake a lot this week and working out consistently. It should be a great number. I'm going to guess that I weigh in at 197.3. That's a fair goal I think. We'll see...

Day 39

Today I was battling a cold but was still able to knock out an hour on the elliptical. I can't stand being "under the weather". I also can't stand the weather lately. I'm ready for warm, dry, sunny days. I'm working hard to beat this cold thing I have, I'm drinking a lot of water and putting lots of vitamin c in me. I hope it doesn't progress...worlds most boring blog entry ever...

Day 38

This day began at 4AM. I'm not sharing that to boast, I'm simply trying to express that I understand what it's like to be walking around inchoherently at that ungodly hour of the day. I've seriously begun to prepare everything I need for the next day, the night before, so that it's easy to grab, put on, package up and take with me to work. If I don't plan ahead, I end up accidently grabbing things I shouldn't bring with me to work, or dressing slopily, or worst yet, not eating properly. That's what I am beginning to notice is the most difficult part about this lifestyle change. It's the food part. I'm absolutely stoked on the working out portion of the deal, but that's literally only 1/3 of the battle. The other 2/3's of the battle take place with food consumption. It makes a huge difference what you eat and how much of it. The issue isn't that I'm hungry, or that healthy foods taste bad. Healthy foods taste awesome, fresh, and are completely satisfying. And when I eat, I feel full. The issue is making sure that I'm eating all the essential fruits and veggies, fats and proteins, and complex carbs that my body needs. I'm finding it a struggle to get enough vegetables in me. I feel like I'm hitting the other areas fairly well. I'm so looking forward to weighing in this week! It's been a fruitful one so far! Time to eat more veggies!

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!