Friday, November 6, 2009

It's been a while - I'm on week 7!

So it's been a while since I've posted on here but do not fear, I have been continuing my program and I am halfway there. I am on week 7 and on Saturday I plan to do my longest run yet:

Run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute - 5 Times = 55 minutes total.

Yikes. I'm a little nervous but I feel like I can do it. Mind over matter. I have been continuing with my program since I last posted and in the second half of the program I will be running more and walking wayyyy less. I was also going to walk on my off days but the girls go walking at 5:30 am and I can't do 5am 4 days a week while working 40+ hrs per week. So I dropped out of the walking but I've been doing circut training with Hoon the past couple of weeks on my off days and I've been liking it. I'm trying to stay really consistent with my cardio & lifting because I know that's when I'll see results.

I weighed myself today after not getting on the scale for a while and I was happy to see that I am down about 5 pounds! I feel really motivated right now to keep going and continuing with my program and better food choices.

Hoon & I also just got bikes this week so we're hoping to incorporate bike rides into our weeks as well - more for leisure but it's better than sitting on the couch! So that will be really fun. I'm excited.

Hang in there everyone!

--Kari

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Brandon - 4.5 miles

Just got back from my big Saturday run.  This was my longest run ever at 4.5 miles.  It took me about 42 minutes, which means I averaged about 9.5 minutes per mile.  That's not too bad for a novice, especially since it was pretty windy and rainy for much of it.

Once I got warmed up, things felt good, but about 3 miles in I was feeling pretty tired.  Oddly enough, it started raining again at about 3.5 miles and kind of reinvigorated me.  Here's the route:


Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Graham - Posting a Goal and Plan

For the past two years I have competed in a Varsity Scout sprint triathlon. I have performed poor to fair. Unfortunately, the former stake president was the star of the event—winning his age category for the past umpteen years. I know that it is unfair for me to assume I can do as well since the guy ran a 50 mile running race on his 50th birthday, teaches a spin class, and has 0 percent body fat. I would, however, like to come in the top 25 percentile of the adults competing in the race. In order for that I need to decrease my time from the previous race by 25 percent. Hence, my goal is to complete the Varsity Scout sprint triathlon on April 24, 2010 in 45 minutes or less.

In order to accomplish this goal, I have established three mini-goals:

1) Maintain a workout schedule that includes exercising 4 days per week, for a minimum of 30 minutes per session. I will rely on running, biking, swimming, soccer, tennis, and hiking to fulfill this goal. I will complete a chart showing my weekly exercise activity.

2) Lose 20 pounds over the next twenty weeks (average of 1 pound per week) and maintain the target weight for another six weeks. I will accomplish this goal by following the principles of weight watchers—eating smart, avoiding empty calories, and increasing water intake. I will keep a food journal daily and will graph the weight loss on a weekly basis.

3) Complete mock triathlon in the first weeks of January, February, March and April. I will keep my times for each triathlon event and total time.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Ross Catching Up

Okay, three weeks went by fast! since I posted last.

I've been more active, and more aware of just trying to be more active in the course of daily living. E.g. Nancy and I walked to Blockbuster, 30 minutes each way. It would have taken 20 minutes to drive, so we got 60 minutes of exercise for the price of 40. And I ride my bike on local errands and appointments when I can. But I haven't lost any weight. I find that when I'm more active, I want to eat more. I need to coordinate the more active lifestyle with more careful eating. Today we stocked up with some low carb snacks. I'm preparing my willpower for the Halloween temptations.

Here's the summary of the last three weeks:

Week ending Oct 4

Bicycling 20.6 miles
Exercise bike 120 min
Walking 50 min

About 223o calories

Week ending Oct 11
Bicycling 22 miles
Exercise bike 135 min
Walking 60 min
Softball 2 games

About 2975 calories

Week ending Oct 18
Exercise bike 150 min
Walking 40 min
Softball 3 games

About 1900 calories

Monday, October 12, 2009

Mark

Mark recently posted this on the family website, and I thought I'd post it here as well.  Thanks for sharing your goals with us, Mark.  Good luck!

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I, as a member of the Anderson family, have a serious problem. I have allowed my weight to move slowly and gradually upwards from190 at marriage (age 26, 1984) to almost 300 (age 51, 2009). In 1996,I hit an allttime high (up til then) of 273. I used Phen-phen and lost almost 30 pounds. That, of course,was not a long term solution. I have hovered in the 275 range for many years since then and have had an occassional loss due to a spurt of focused efforts (255 in 2000). I ws regularly playing racquetball upuntil aout 2 years ago and that activity stoppage has conributed to me moving from the under 280 range to over 290.

When i was in my 20s,I was so active sportswise, that i never really thought much about it. In my 30s,as I gained into the 235-245 range,I thought that was fairly normal and acceptable. I have "lived with it" for the pastt 10 years into these higher ranges and just shrugged it off.

Part of the problem is understanding the difference between lifelong maintenance and attention to living and eating habits and short spurts of determined activity which is not sustainable because we lack the knowledge and experience of how to live and eat long term.

Anyway, I recently went topurchase more life insurance and even though I am in the business, I was shocked at whatt it would cost for my age and weight. I can not afford to let my family not have enough insurance on me so this, among other motives (comfortable daily living, fitting into attracttive clothing, avoiding or forestalling diabetes, being able to have more physical activity stamina) is moving me to do something meaningful and hopefully longlasting about my weight.

At the beginning of September, I was pushing 300 pounds. I weighed in this morning at 285. I am in the process of actually writing an activity goal plan for the balance of 2009 so that i can increase my physical activity from driving and sitting in an office all day to at least walking and reintroducing gym activity which formerly for me was routine.

The most I have ever lost in a 'dieting" effort is about 30pounds and I think I did it twice--once with phen-phen and once primarily using Atkins. My biggest problem in the past has been to coordinate my eating habits with my excercize efforts. It seems thatt i have never been able to do both at the same time. This time,my focus will be on including both simultaneously.

I am making these goals public and allowing my family to help hold me accountable.

My immediate weight loss goal is to be at 250 pounds. I will time myself on walking/running a mile and 2 miles and then post the time results and then come up with an improvement goal for that.

So, do not let me off the hook until I have reported to you all that my weight is 250.

When I am at 275, that will be an important milestone, ahving lost almost 25 pounds in 4 months.
I will then work on getting to

September 1, 2009-----297
October 9 (today)--------285
November 1--------------280
December 1-------------275
January 1-----------------27­5
February 1----------------270
March 1,2010------------26­5
April 1-------------------­---260
May 1-------------------­----255
June 1-------------------­--250

Mark

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Brandon - Week 3 - 3 Miles

I'm back on my feet, and I ran about 3 miles this morning. Some friends wanted to meet us for breakfast at Kneader's, so I ran the 1.5 miles there and met them (and Lacy and Elly). After an artery-clogging breakfast of sausage, eggs, croissant, and french toast I ran the 1.5 miles back home. So, it wasn't a true 3 mile run, but it was still good to get out and do something since I haven't done anything all week. The highlight was that I ran a pathetic 10+ minute mile there, but stepped it up to an almost 8 minute mile on the way back. Progress! Here's the route:

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Kari - Week 2

Finished up week 2 of the running program last week. Saturday I was up to 40 minutes - running half and walking half. I didn't make it on the walking days - I forget why, so last week I only worked out 3 days. I'm starting to feel really good though. I like this program I can tell even after 2 weeks that my endurance is getting better and my body is getting used to it. My friend (the one who started this all) finished the 13 week program and ran for a solid 60 minutes the other day! it was awesome. We were really proud of her and very inspired. She says she's gotten to the point where it's very relaxing and if she starts to feel stressed she just wants to run. She loves it and craves it now. Hoon asked me if I ever thought I would get to that point and I really don't know! Sounds a little crazy, but after 3 months of running consistently I hope that I at least enjoy a little more!