I'm not dead yet....

...of course, that's the point of this blog, isn't it?  I am notorious for dropping out of posting for long periods of time, unfortunately.  This is one of the reasons I chose to do a thousand day challenge;  It gives me time to work out some of these problems and get into a proper routine.

How's that going, you may wonder?  I started this blog right before the whole holiday season, so about as well as you can expect.  In addition, in the five weeks since my last posts, we've had three birthdays (not counting Jesus', so four), a trip to the ER, two Doctor's visits, several trips out of town and visits to family, and a partridge in a pear tree.  This is the part where I tell you the change in my weight between early December and after the holidays and then explain why its that way.

Folks, I lost seven pounds over Christmas.



No refined sugar, no dairy, and no grain.  
Tastes like Awesome.

The number one reason for this astounding feat is the Paleo Diet that we follow.  We ate paleo birthday dinners, paleo Christmas Dinner, and paleo holiday treats.  As part of the season, Debra and I made a bunch of Christmas candy for her co-workers.  These included rice crispy treats and chocolate covered pretzels and the delightfully named concoction "White Trash". 

Now, B.P. (Before Paleo), we are drooling at the prospect of making mountains of milk-chocolate and marshmallow confections.  After Paleo, the smell of all that cornstarch, corn syrup, and refined carbs was making us - even the kids - physically ill. 

BTW, You know you've managed to make a positive dietary change that is sustainable when you open a jar of regular peanut butter and you're five-year-old says "Ew, that peanut butter smells gross."

Join the Rock Side.  There are Bacon Waffles.

The links above, assuming you haven't clicked on them yet, are to Debra's blog Primal Wishes & Paleo Dreams.  If you've never heard of Paleo, or have and don't know how to get started, make her blog your friend. Right now she's doing a series on Paleo on a budget.  While I do most of the cooking around here, thanks to Debra's brutal work schedule, she come up with the menues, researches new recipies, and generally provides the heart and soul of our Paleo progress.

So check it out.

Next post (yes there will be regular posts again) will involve my theory as to why it's so hard for me to start an exercise routine and get it going.  Another post in the not-too-distant-future will discuss how to get an object at rest in motion.  You know, without coffee.

Day 3 Overview: The Fitness Assesment

Obviously, this isn't Day 3 of my 1000-Day-Challenge, it's Day 9. These updates will not be daily, as life (and all the exercise!) gets in the way. However, I do need to include a Day 3 post because it was important: Day 3 is the Fitness Assessment.

You can do this in different ways, depending on your time, exercise philosophy and what your goal is. Me, I started simple: weight, waist measurement, and my current baseline in a few key exercise areas.

I wasn't expecting great numbers, but I have to admit that I was disappointed with my performance:

Weight: 269.9 lbs – Not surprised. It's actually down from my all-time high of 284.4, so I'll take it.

Waist: 51.5 inches – Again, not surprised, and down from my largest.

Push-ups: 11 – Yep, that's all I managed. My upper body strength is not impressive.

Sit-ups: 8 – Even worse! My six-pack isn't even a keg, it's a water bag.

Inclined pull-up: 16 – This is where your feet are on the ground and your body is at about a 45° angle. I have now idea you good sixteen is, but seeing as how I can't do even one regular pull-up I'm assuming it isn't that good.

Walking: I measured this a little differently. I discovered I'm able to walk for 20 minutes in normal terrain before the first signs of fatigue and a full hour before getting too tired to really continue without hurting myself. Again, not great.

Let's remember, however, that this was an assessment, not a judgment. The point was not to pull great numbers, but to know where I'm starting from. The way I see it, starting so low just means that reaching my goal will be that much more impressive.

Next post: My first week of exercise (Days 3-9) and how it went. See you then!

Day One Overview: Setting a Killer Goal

So the first step I'm taking on my thousand-day challenge is setting a killer goal.  By "killer" I mean a goal that inspires the best in me, something that will fill me with fire and motivate me when the going gets tough.  Not "killer" as in, "Oh, God I'm gonna die if I try this".  I hope.

No, I'm not kidding.

So, what do I want to do in two years and nine months?  Nothing less than run the qualifier for American Ninja Warrior.  If you haven't been watching this show, you're missing out.  It's amateur and professional athletes from all over the world competing in on the most difficult obstacle course in the world.  What's awesome is not just that the course chews up pros from the NFL, and NBA, not just that it chew up Olympic medalists, but that some of the best competitors are the middle aged, men and women recovering from debilitating accidents, amputees, type one diabetics, and people whose backgrounds aren't that different from anybody else.  It's truly inspiring to see people tackle that course who, by conventional thinking, have no business being in such an intense sport. 


Yes, that warped wall.

I wanna be one of those people.  That's my big, 1000-day goal.  Whatever happens, I want to face that course and give it my all.  I want to hit the buzzer at the top of the 14-foot tall warped wall.  Just once.  Just to say I did it.

Do any of you have a big fitness goal?  Or maybe just well wishes?  Share in the comments section - I'd love to hear from you.

The 1000 Day Challenge

I looked good for a man that was dying.

Okay, that was me in the summer of 2009.  I was 32 years old, weighed a hundred and fifty-five (the same as I did in high school!) and worked and went to school full time.  I didn't know it at the time, but I only had another month to live.

On July 17th I went home from work early because I felt exhausted and couldn't catch my breath.  I had horrendous heartburn all day long.  even drinking water felt like acid.  I got in the tub to relax my legs (which had been cramping almost daily for weeks) and discovered that they were both covered in purple stains, as if I had spilled ink all over myself.  I remember waking up once in the night and falling out of bed.  I was trying to go the bathroom and couldn't walk.  I didn't make it...

That was Friday.  I don't remember anything until the following Monday. 

And what I remember is fighting a breathing tube.  I was on partial life-support.

To spare the gory details, I had succumbed to diabetic ketoacidosis.  My blood pH was so far off I currently hold the record at the local hospital for the amount of Potassium (K+) pumped into me.  The hospital, with a level-2 trauma facility ran out of K.  I may have suffered a stoke as well, and had stage-3 renal failure.  I wasn't expected to live.  I was definitely not expected to be anything but a vegetable.

I was put on a blood pressure medication (for the kidneys) and insulin.  Later I was put on an anti-depressant for reasons that should be obvious.  I cannot work.  I went from the family's breadwinner to a very expensive and useless houseguest.  I began to think that it would have been cheaper and more convenient if I hadn't woken up after all.

That was five years ago.  In that time, I've made some great progress.  I no longer need to walk with a cane, my kidney function is normal, and I can cook and clean most days.  I also have had another five years with my family.  That alone is worth everything.



The problem is, thanks to limited physical ability for many years and the medications I've been on, I now look like this:

I look so smug because I ate the guy in the previous picture.

I don't want to be just surviving anymore.  I already feel like I've been robbed of my thirties by this illness.  I'm almost thirty-eight and I don't want to enter my forties in worse shape than the 63-year-old dad.  That's a recipe for an early grave.  I've already subjected my family the prospect of my dying young;  I'd be some kind of asshole if I did it again.

That's why I'm setting a deadline of  one thousand days from today to get in shape.  Not just in better than I am now, not just better than the average forty-something American man, but the best shape of my life.  It can be done.  I know for a fact I can do it, because just by getting out that hospital bed in 2009 I've already done the impossible.  I can do it again.

I invite you to join me on the journey.  It's going to an interesting three years.