Sept. 30

Ok, yesterday was eggs with corned beef hash. Can't do that again, the hash has potatos in it so the leftover can went to the dogs.

Lunch was a small cob salad that didn't hold me over until I got home so I grabbed a couple beef skewers at Dominicks on the way home.

Dinner: Culvers where I had a Bunless Burger and 1 french fry. Should have resisted the one fry on principal alone but alas...it was good.

Today

Breakfast: 3 strips bacon and 2 scrambled eggs

Lunch: Delish steak I grilled this morning before leaving for work

Dinner: Steak/bacon chili been cooking in the crockpot all day....looking forward to that one.

Monday I worked out at the Fort and we did Isabel. I finished the fastest but I can't claim to have had the heaviest weight, nor the prescribed weight. Rob the Bruce did it with 50k and I finished with 40k.

Tuesday I went for another run on my "couch to 5k" program. This consisted of a 5 min. warm up walk, some stretches then a 5 min. run/3 min. walk/8 min. run/3 min. walk/5 min. run.

All in, according to walkjogrun.net I covered 2.31 miles.

Today is a rest day as I am working late. Will be at the Fort on Thursday and Friday at the 5:00 class.

Sept. 28th

Ok...not sure how it happened but the scale says I dropped a few more pounds. I am apparently at 25 lbs. lost since early June which would put it at roughly 15 lbs. lost since beginning the 60 day body challenge.

My clothes are fitting looser, I've run out of notches on my belt but I'm waiting to tailor my clothes as I intend to lose a good bit more. I've had a few comments from co-workers and clients alike that I look like I've lost weight so that's always rewarding.

Going to my first "non ramp up" crossfit tonight...hope I don't die.

Diet.

Yesterday:

Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs and orange juice

Lunch: 6 oz. filet mignon

Dinner: meatballs with tomato sauce and salad. (It was another temptation conquered as it was "Italian dinner night" at church. I was able to resist although I did notice another crossfitter eat some cake ahem ahem....not naming names.

Today:

Breakfast: 3 slices bacon and 2 scrambled eggs with orange juice

Lunch: roasted pork tenderloin

Dinner: will be baked pork chops in tomato sauce and sauteed veggies (wow, that's a lot of pig in one day....I imagine I should tone that one down a bit?)

I brought grapes and mixed nuts for a snack although I've really not been hungry between meals. Will probably eat some nuts on the way to crossfit.

Next blog I'll share a little about my experience in Canada.

Sept 26th

My apologies to all my facebook friends. This blog automatically posts there and I'm not sure how to select which ones should import and which ones shouldn't.

On my 60 day Body Challenge I think I'm doing relatively well other than a lack of workouts last week due to work schedule. I've lost 11 lbs. since beginning. The question I have (you crossfitters can help with this) , I have a handle on the allowable foods (at least I think I do), I just am not sure how much I should be eating. I'm going to explore DAILYPLATE.COM tonight and I think it will tell me calorie intake as well as nutritional values in my foods I'm eating. But I don't know how many calories I should be taking in nor do I know the nutritional guidelines...i.e. grams of protein, carbs, fiber etc. What's a good rule of thumb?

Today was:

Breakfast: a few pieces of smoked sausage and two scrambled eggs with orange juice (not from concentrate)

Lunch: Bacon burger without the bun and a small caesar salad

Dinner: (skipped the free pizza my sis in law bought as a thank you for helping her move) and went home and had about 10 oz. of smoked sausage with sauteed yellow bell pepper.

Hope I'm on track?!

I DID IT!!!

So, I'm 21 lbs. lost now so I can give myself that new tattoo. I'll wait until I'm in Alabama in November so I can get the same guy to do it that did my first. Just have to keep it off until then but I believe that won't be a problem as I'm intending to continue getting in shape.

I've done surprisingly well at switching my diet to the "paleo diet" Basically, no grains, no sugar, no dairy, no legumes and no soy. That means I can have meat, vegetables, and some fruit as well as nuts. I like all of that and it gives me a good excuse to grab a steak for lunch. In the last two weeks, the only time I've really ever deviated was one night I had a meatball sandwich and last night I had two soft tacos. Otherwise I've been able to stay on track.

I have only been to crossfit once since I got back from Canada. I've finished my ramp up. I have set aside the money to pay for October at crossfit, I just had a really busy week at work after being on vacation, so the plan is to get at least three days a week at crossfit. My goal is, on the days I'm not at crossfit, to continue my "couch to 5k" training.

Today's workout for couch to 5k was to run for 20 minutes without walking. Gotta be honest, when I saw this workout a few weeks ago, I thought...."aint gonna happen". But guess what. I ran for 20 minutes without stopping to rest today. Pretty proud of myself. walkjogrun.net tells me that I ran 1.75 miles so I know that all you runners out there could smoke my time, but finishing without dying was an accomplishment.

Hopefully, after halloween, I can post my after pics and redeem myself for making your eyeballs bleed when you looked at the before pictures a few posts ago.

Last week in Canada--more weight loss

Went to Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada all last week. Left Chicago Friday evening and were in the park by noon Saturday. We figured to have covered 60-70 miles over the week. Ok, crossfitters.....I think I got my rowing in this week as we were in the canoes from 9 am until about 4 pm every day. When we weren't rowing in the canoes we were hiking with our heavy packs and a canoe on our shoulders up and down the trails through very rough terrain.

The only unfortunate thing is that I couldn't control diet and there were a lot of grains on the trip. Once we left civilization I spent the next day and a half easing back into Paleo diet but am full swing in again.

I lost 4.6 lbs. on the trip and am looking forward to getting back in the swing of things at crossfit.

Pics to follow once I get my computer to cooperate.

Remove all children from the room!

Ok...so they are in...the pics are here. My before pics for the 60 day Body Challenge I'm doing. I'm posting the picture late in the post so innocent children don't accidentally see the nightmare.

First...update. Today was eggs and sausage for breakfast and steak and broccoli for lunch. No dinner yet. Leaving in about 20 minutes to go meet the rest of the guys for our trip to Canada. Going hiking and canoeing in the Algonquin Provincial Park near Huntsville, Ontario, Canada. Looking forward to it, will be gone until late next Saturday. I won't be "officially" working out this week but certainly hope that canoeing will replace Crossfit rowing and long hikes with a backpack and canoe will suffice for box jumps dead lifts and squats. We shall see, my goal is to lose 5 lbs. this week. Not sure what we will be eating daily but I'm packing beef jerky and mixed nuts for my daily snacks. If I lose 5 lbs. this week I will be 1 lb. away from my tattoo weight. I gave myself the incentive back in June that if I lose 20 lbs. I will justify the expense of a new tattoo. In the pic you will see on my left shoulder my tattoo of the Goodson family crest. What I would like to do is just beneath that, create a band with all three of my children's handprints.

Anyway...that's the scoop. Are you ready? Brace yourself.....remove the children

In fact, you may want to cover your eyes and peak between your fingers....I promise, it'll be like a train wreck...you'll look away and then make a weird face and look at the pic again.

No blog updates this week from the wilderness, but beginning again on the 21st....check in for regular progress and check in on me and cheer me on.

another day

I'm finding that eating right really requires planning ahead.

I had my 2 eggs and 2 sausage patties for breakfast

smoked grilled sausage, baked chicken leg, grilled chicken breast, baked fish filet and green beans for lunch (wow...looks like a lot when you write it down huh?)

dinner, didn't plan ahead and ran out of time with packing for the Canada trip so I had 2 burritos and a soft taco from taco bell.


Hmmmm.....that doesn't look so great huh. No workout today either as I've been packing for the trip. Will be hiking and canoeing all week so my goal is to lose 5 lbs. this week. Am packing beef jerky and mixed nuts for snacking during the day on the trip.

Weigh Down

So, yesterday I think I stayed on track pretty well.

Breakfast--sausage and eggs
snack--grapes
lunch--small filet and spinach salad
snack--nuts/seeds
dinner--2 hamburger patties

At crossfit we worked on technique for pull-ups and handstand push-ups. Then we did 500m rowing warm up followed by three sets of:

200m run
12 kettle bell swings
6 body rows

Today on the scale I am down to 253 lbs. Grand total of 14 lbs. Only need 6 more before I can get that new tattoo!

balance

Balance is hard for me...it's hard to balance everything. Family time, quality family time that is. Work, exercise, diet.

Today is a non-workout day for me. My ramp up session is tomorrow but I didn't really have time to run today. I worked until 6:00, came home and had dinner with the family around the table for some nice face to face time, now putting the kids in bed and it's already 8:30.

Then I'm gonna snuggle on the couch with Reese for a little bit of quality time with my wife. I'm not willing to give up family time, I can't afford to give up work time, so exercise time gets pushed to the side. I should have gone for a twenty minute run today for the last of my week 5 "couch to 5k" workouts but it aint gonna happen.

I also need to learn balance in my diet. Not sure if I'm eating too much or not enough. Any fellow crossfitters wanna fill me in?

I had two fried eggs and two small sausage patties for breakfast.

12 grapes for a snack

6 oz. filet mignon and a spinach salad for lunch

1/4 sandwich size ziploc of mixed nuts/seeds for a snack

(broke down and got a taco bell beef burrito cause I was hungry)

then for dinner had about 4-6 oz. roasted pork tenderloin and about 2 cups broccoli.

My only breakdown came late afternoon on the way home and I was hungry and couldn't seem to will myself to wait until I got home and grabbed a burrito.

I need enough protein to fuel the body change, but not too much to make it slow going, and not too little to make me prone to eat too much of the wrong things.

Guess I'll keep on working and spending time with my family, keep hitting crossfit at least 3 times a week and try to get in as many runs as I can while I keep tweaking the eating.

Post Labor Day

Ok...first potential roadblock on my body transformation journey has come and gone. Labor Day and at least three parties that I can remember.

It all began with our 10th annual Harding Street block party. I was able to avoid grains completely eating my brat and burger without the bun and enjoying the spinach strawberry salad that I took. I did consume a bit of wheat with the few beers I had and I couldn't avoid sugar altogether as I had two brownies.

Sunday morning we had a breakfast party at our house which had plenty of protein only but I did give in and have some breakfast pie. Great eggs and sausage, but with cheese in a pie crust as well and I must admit I had a half of the cinnamon apple french toast that I made for the party.

Fast Forward to my parents house last evening and I did quite well avoiding the grains, didn't have any. Probably had too much protein though as I had a small pork chop, a burger patty and hot dog all bunless. Oops...I did have some corn on the cob, but only 1/4 of the cob and I did give in and have some peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

I forgot to weigh before breakfast, but after breakfast the scale says I gained 1.1 lbs. Back on track, had egg and sausage for breakfast and have already grilled my filet for lunch along with my spinach salad and packed nuts and grapes for snacks during the day. Charis will be roasting a pork tenderloin with veggies for dinner. I'm working late so probably won't get in a workout but back to Crossfit tomorrow.

New adventure

So...any of you that read my "Manhood Plan" knows that I'm interested in making lasting changes in my life. That plan outlined ways that I want to be the father and husband I'm intended by God to be. It included spiritual, emotional, discipline, financial.....and physical. See, I want to be around for my great grandchildren. And, I would like to be active and able to have fun with them, maybe even still be able to play with them. One of the goals I have is...

-I will continue striving to maintain healthy diet and proper exercise in order to maintain my health and longevity allowing me to serve my family into my great grandchildren's generation.

Well...half-hearted attempts have been made to this end. I've eaten "ok" sporadically but not with any continuity. Recently I decided to follow the couch to 5k training program. Just today I completed run two of week 5 which consisted of an 8 minute run, 5 minute cool off walk followed by another 8 minute run. I was able to do this in a rather hilly (by hilly I mean uphill...both ways) and completed 1.65 miles. My next run is supposed to be 20 minutes running with no walking. Ouch...we'll see how that goes.

But, more importantly, I have recently been subjecting myself to a strangely satisfying torure called crossfit fire. I must get in shape and stay that way.

Before I joined crossfit I set a goal to lose 20 lbs. with the reward of a new tattoo. I lost 10 lbs. pretty quickly then hit a wall with my own efforts. I started at 267 lbs. and dropped to 257 over a month or more. I have been through one week of Cross Fit and dropped another 2 lbs. to leave me sitting at 255 lbs.

I have joined the cross fit Better Body Challenge. As soon as I'm able too I'll download my "before" picture so you can all get a good giggle. I'll be posting my progress along the way so you can keep up with it and send me some encouragement every now and then.