So here comes the Introduction......
My name is Joshua
and I've been on this planet a little over 28 years now. I'm
married to my best friend Sarah now 7 years and have a 3 year old
daughter. I have 3 dogs, I work in IT, and I’m happy with my personal and
work life. I enjoy spending time with friends & family, all things
Jeep (you can read later about that), and being outdoors. I love watching movies and tv but want to
start now on becoming the healthiest I can be so I can have many more years
with my wife and daughter.
So now onto the
nuts and bolts of this blog.
I'm not happy with my level of
activity, exercise, or weight loss that I've had the last few years.
I'm starting this not for people to read but to make
myself accountable daily for my level of activity, to my food intake, and
my overall thought process to the food I eat and why I made the choices I did
that day.
I tend to tell
people I have an addictive personality which is very true, and I know
this drives my wife insane. Whatever activity I become interested in, I
quickly dive down the rabbit hole of the ins and outs of that activity.
I non-stop talk about it, research it, and want to buy every
accessory that can benefit me in it. This is where my wife's dispassion
for my passions comes in because every few months to year can be something new
then I’m off to the next addiction/activity while leaving all the toys/products
I bought for the last addiction/activity. This year’s current
addiction is my Jeep and all things Jeep & offroading.
I'll give you an
example of my addictive personality:
About 7 years ago I worked in sales and my boss was obsessed
with Golf, talked about it, practiced swing all the time, and was always
watching it on the work computer. I had never played golf nor had I have
ever an interest to learn but realizing quickly that this was his interest and
topic of conversation daily; I started asking questions....which was the 1st
step to the addiction. This was during month of June and in July I went
out with him on a par 3 using his clubs to see what all the hype was about.
I instantly was hooked because it was so peaceful (I love being outdoors
in the sun/heat) and I found I could listen to my headphones and play while
getting some great exercise. By 1st week of august I had bought a cheap
set of clubs from sears (exchanged those 3 times because I kept breaking
drivers) and was working 25 hours a week & playing golf 30 hours a week.
This went on until end of October/Early November when it got cold and par
3 was closed for winter break. I found myself watching golf when I had free
time and was watching YouTube videos of how the pros swung their clubs. The next year I played maybe 5-6 times the
entire year because I was busy. In the
last 2 years I’ve played twice. In 2015
I will start playing again and I now have this blog to hold me to that.
So now that I’ve explained how easy
it is for me to become a self-proclaimed expect in all interest I hold. I want to start this blog because I’m hoping
that with this, I will think twice before eating bad, not exercising, because I
will have to justify why or why I didn’t do something in this blog.
A brief history of my weight and activity
levels:
I was always tall and skinny with
an abnormally large head (a running joke my Brother likes to tell). I never played sports and never tried anything
like that because I used the excuse we didn’t have money to get equipment. In high school I took every physical
education course possible because I loved being active. I took P.E. 1 & 2, advanced team sports,
weight lifting (twice) and a few other I don’t remember the name now.
High School Junior Year - 190 lbs
I was 6’1 ½ and weighed 185 lbs at
end of junior year of high school and during senior year I went up to 230 lbs because
all the classes I took. I was consuming
3 to 4.5 thousand calories a day but was gaining a lot of muscle. *Note* None of these calories were healthy or based
on any diet, mostly just Taco Bell, Mountain Dew, and Energy Drinks….an award winning
diet. The summer after high school I was
working out 3 times a day isolating different body parts and taking workout
classes with my brother. Our schedule
was 6am Gym (arms, back, chest
depending on day), then 1pm class (Pilates,
spin class, yo-pi, yoga, kickboxing advanced yo-pi or whatever was offered at
that time slot), and then 9pm Gym
(legs, cardio, abs depending on day). I
was turning into a beast (well in my own mind) and loved it. I was able to leg press over 600lbs if I remember
correctly and was probably in the best shape of my life. I went up to 255 lbs and wasn’t concerned
because muscle weighs more than fat.
In the fall and I got a full-time job
which impacted my 3 a day workouts and I quickly lost steam and eventually stop
going to gym all together but still kept my 3 – 4.5k daily diet of junk food,
fast food, and soda. Over the next few
years I got married, worked my butt off to pay for the wedding and normal monthly
bills plus went back to school. I never
really worked out nor did I eat healthy besides a month here or there off and
on.
New Years 2006 - 260 lbs
In 2013, I hit my all-time highest
weight and was devastated. I jumped on
the scale and saw 299.4 lbs looking back at me on the digital screen. I
could fluctuate 3-6 lbs a day depending on the amount of bad food I ate but
this was ridiculous. I decided that day
that I was going to go on some diet and lose some weight. My wife and I started weight watchers online
and over the next 3 weeks eating WAY smaller portions than I liked plus
switching to water I dropped 30 lbs….10 lbs a week for 3 weeks. I know this wasn’t healthy weight loss but
to be honest it was nice to see that number daily dropping off because I went
from 4000 calories to probably 2000 lbs and we were walking daily. Over the next few months we slowly backed
off weight watchers and were trying to eat healthy but my portion control went
out the window. I gained some weight
back but finally stayed around 280-285. Fast forward to spring of 2014 and one of my friends
at work and I discussed how we were so out of shape and needed to do something
about it. My brother Chris who I will
discuss in another post is an Ironman and has always been an athlete so I asked
for his help with some tips on weight-loss.
He stated I should start walking and then jogging when I can. So after a few days we determined that 3
times a week we would jog downtown or walk around if jogging wasn’t an
option.
October 2013 - 285 lbs
Jogging was difficult for me and I
had to wear a knee brace due to the heavy impact of my weight on my knees and
crappy shoes on concrete but the hour runs continued to get better and better
and the distance I was able to run because farther and farther. At first we jogged around 2 miles and would
walk a lot of that, but by the end of the summer we were up to walking/Jogging
40/60% of the time and I felt great. I
went from 279 to 259 and went from a 44-45 pants waist size down to a 40. I was jogging at least 3 times a week and
was no longer using braces of any kind except the occasional compression
socks. I was really proud of myself and
even ran a 5k distance on the beach on vacation in 90% humidity one morning
because I could now run it.
Galveston - June 2014 - 263 lbs
So starting in September I interviewed
for a new job and eventually took it but due to the stress of leaving my old
job and starting a new place, plus my schedule changing, plus stress from life I
stopped running on lunch breaks, I went back to eating whatever, and stopped
watching my level of activity and portion control. I was proud to state that I made it through
the entire month of October never eating a single piece of Halloween candy. That month I noticed that on my UP24 Band
that my daily step count that was around 8-9 thousand steps on normal days and
15000-20000 steps on days I ran slowly went down to 4000-6000 steps. I took my new job before Thanksgiving and
with all the new changes in work environment and everything else my daily step
count went down to 3000-4000 steps and my weight went from a 258-263 to
weighing in at 275.5 on Christmas Day.
October 2014 - 270 lbs
A change must be made. My wife and I have discussed starting a new
diet but first doing a Juice detox first.
Over the years I’ve researched healthy food and done multiple diets, and
we have learned what kind of food to eat and what not to eat. In 2014 my wife and I have broke ourselves of
most fast food restaurants because the amount of calories for 1 item is ridiculous
plus we prefer our daughter not to eat that kind of food. We pulled the trigger
and bought a Juicer which I’ll review in a later post and now January 1st
2015 I start my road back to Healthy and then onto Awesome J
A few things I plan on doing on this blog:
·
Reviewing Daily food
o
I’ve done food journals before and figure I’ll be
accountable on here.
·
Review Activities (daily or weekly)
·
Review Products I use (gadgets, websites)
·
Review Recipes I use
·
Review Events I participate in
Goals for 2015:
·
Weigh 225 lbs by Birthday In August
·
Run a few 5ks (for charity or what not)
·
Run a few extreme 5ks (Tough Mudder / Zombie
Runs / Warrior Dash)
o
Use GoPro on these for Youtube
·
Possible run a half marathon
o
Will depend on how training goes
·
Possible run a full marathon (Only doing because
My Brother insists)
o
Will depend on how training goes
·
Be active in Gym twice a week
·
Maintain a monthly goal of daily steps taken
o
January goal is 5000 steps daily
·
Be Outside as much as possible doing some type
of activity
o
All depends on weather and seasonal activities
