Making a Change

Before I get into my change, let me give you a little history as to how I got here. Warning, long post ahead.

Currently, and have been for years, I take 3 different medications to control my blood pressure. The pills work, my numbers were much higher before I started taking them. The problem is that I don't want to be on meds the rest of my life. So 4 years ago, I began jogging. At the time I was overweight and out of shape. I could tell because my then 3 year old would run circles around me. I know, most kids have more than enough energy to spare, but becoming winded after just playing for 5-10mins was not cool by my standards. So I started jogging. At the time one of my friends was doing a lot of running and actually training people for the various level of runners that belong to the Running Room. This made it easier to get advice so that I could make jogging enjoyable. Believe me when I say, I never really liked running in my younger years, so taking it up in your mid 30's is not always a fun tasks. I was excited to run and that I did. Unfortunately, injuries, mainly shin splints, followed. Between being determined to lose weight and some good sports medicine\therapy, 10 months later, my shins didn't hurt anymore. I also managed to lose 20 lbs, which helped. I then ran my first half-marathon successfully . It was not a fast run, but none the less I trained by myself and finished the event by myself. I felt awesome that about 1k before the finish line, I almost began to cry. I continued to run afterward and have since completed 3 more half-marathons and several 10k events. My goal has always been to run a full marathon, but with 3 kids, it is hard to devote 8-10 hrs of training each week for 18-20 weeks, especially when almost 1/3 of that training time is done on the weekends. Eventually I will complete one, just not anytime soon.

Now back to my health issues. About 18 months ago, I began a 7 month parental leave. It was great as my wife was also off for part of it, so both of us were home to handle the 3 kids (on the days that my oldest wasn't in school). With the extra help, plenty of time off, and after watching Dr. Oz on Oprah one day (hey, what else is there to watch during the day), I became motivated to read his "You on a Diet" book. It was an eye opener, and so began my 7 month journey of making proper food choices and before going back to work, found myself 30 lbs lighter. I felt great, was beginning to look better and my running time was becoming faster, to the point I was hoping to set a PB on my next scheduled half-marathon later that year. My wife also mentioned that with the weight off, I rarely snored, which meant she was getting better sleep each night. Happy wife, happy life. Then I went back to work. I didn't think it would make a huge impact on me, but slowly my food choices were no longer the right ones, I was finding it hard to get my training in, as now there was work and/or meetings to get to during my lunch time. Finally over 1 year later (today), I've gained all the lost weight and more. During this time, about 3 weeks before I was planning on running another half-marathon, I went on a business trip. I didn't run on this trip and pretty much lost most of my interest to run. I wasn't happy about it and felt that I wouldn't be able to complete the event, so I didn't go. From that point on, factoring in the extra weight I was gaining each week, my runs started to become more and more difficult. I was getting the shin splints often to the point where I just wouldn't run for weeks at a time. Also, my snoring is now keeping my wife up every now and then, making her less happy with me.

That brings me to within the past few weeks. I've been feeling unhealthy to say the least. I'm feeling tired more and more each day, and generally don't like the way my body looks and feels. I've been trying for the past month to make better food choices, but I don't seem to be losing any weight. My exercise has consisted of running for 30mins about once a week, and maybe rollerblading for about 30mins once a week. I'm not consistent, so in all honesty, I'm not helping myself with this poor training. Then a few days ago, I met with my physician who told me that my cholesterol levels were above normal. He said I should start paying attention to what I eat or he will be prescribing meds to control it. Great, more pills each day. I don't want that!

Now comes the point of this post.

About a week ago, a fellow employee came back to work after being of for parental leave. He came back over 50 lbs lighter. He wasn't even a big guy, but now he looks great. I'm envious of him, as I want to be able to do that too. His secret, juice feasting. Now, I've been reading about it and it is some extreme stuff and I honestly don't think I can feast for 92 days (my co-worker did 52 days), but if I can incorporate many of the concepts into my daily diet, then maybe I can start losing some weight and become healthier. So I've talked to my wife and she is partially on board. I say partially as she has no intentions on giving up food to do the 92 day detox program found on the juice feasting website. Actually she doesn't even want to go 1 day without food. I on the other hand, haven't totally dismissed it yet, time will tell if I take the plunge into the raw only world. She is interested in trying many of the juice drinks (mostly fruit, but some vegetables ones too) and incorporating them into her daily food intake. Because of this, we have purchased a decent juicer by Breville and anxiously wait for it to arrive. Our goal is to start making fresh fruit and vegetable juices daily and have our kids enjoy them with us so that they too can live a healthier lifestyle.

We have also purchased the Wii Active and I have been trying to do 20 minute workouts every other day. Eventually I plan on doing the 30 day challenge so that I can tone up and get into a better shape. If you haven't had the chance to try the Wii Active, give it a go. For me a 20 minute work out leaves me drenched in sweat and I am truly enjoying the exercises. Along with the Wii , I plan to get back into running. I think I will wait until I can lose a few more pounds in hopes that my shin splints act up less due to the lower weight.

So I'm looking forward to the journey ahead and feel that I am focused on succeeding. Time will tell. This weekend, in anticipation of the juicer arriving and me beginning to use it dialy, I will try to take all my measurements so that I have a baseline to work from. I may, or may not, post them here, depending on how good/bad they are.

In parting, I will leave you with a quote from a song I like.

"life's a gift and not a given right"
If today was your last day, Nickelback (Darkhorse)