Goodbyes and Hellos

Motivation:

"I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say definitely

what is and what is not possible." Henry Ford

Diary:

Sorry I have been absent for a while. This has been a busy week.

Monday - no gym, and no food until dinner, when I had a big steak and potatoes (and beer)
Tuesday - elliptical 2.25 miles, walk 1 mile, sauna. (This was a little weird. I set the elliptical to go one additional minute, but it put on 3 additional minutes, and I didn't pay attention, so I ended up going way past the 2 mile mark and did another 1/4 mile. It didn't feel bad, although I noticed I worked hader.) On Tuesday, I restarted my 6 meals a day thing.
Wednesday -
b: bagel and peanut butter, coffee
s: protien shake
l: bbq pork and green beans, xs, vitamins
s: celery and peanut butter
d: turkey burgers
g: elliptical 2.27 miles, walk 1 mile, sauna (again, I tried to set the elliptical to 23 minutes, but I guess it has dislexia, becuase it just wont take it. again, it went 25 minutes, and I didn't notice until I was done. There is nothing wrong with doing this much, but it was just unexpected based on the way I understand how the elliptical is supposed to work. )

Notes:

After saying goodbye to my sister and J-man, and all of their stuff - I didn't get much done on the weekend. I didn't watch Shawshank, instead I unloaded a trunk full of wood and other things that J-man decided to give me at the last minute. I really appreciate all of their generousity, my patio is mostly hand me downs, and that is fine with me.

So, ongoing struggles with my car (the one with the patriotic mirrors) have been dogging me for the last few years. It had a bad back end, and I spend a lot to fix it, but it was again becoming problemsome. It rumbled, and there were loose parts that caused the noise to get worse. It would bottom out if the road was bumpy, which I know is probably due to my added weight, which it probably wasn't meant to handle, lets see... there were lights out, and overall light problems - they would come on for now reason and I couldn't turn them off without pulling the fuse.. the hazzards didn't work, and when I tried to use them they shorted out the turn signals, the windshield water line had a hole in it, that I tried to fix thrice, but it kept breaking, so I could never wash my windshield using normal means, the gas mileage overall was reducing, I would find loose bolts everywhere, and then on sunday it was found that I was loosing coolant, and could have oil in the coolant reservoir.

Single, none of these issues were a problem, but together I was just tired of dealing with car issues. I couldn't take it on a road trip and feel safe. For the last 3 years, I have been telling myself that "just one more year" I will get a new car, but it was so nice not having to make payments....

On monday, I found the car I wanted, and I bought it (or , the bank bought it, and I am buying it from the bank). They actually took my old car, (goodbye, old friend, we had fun...) and now I am driving a new vehicle. It is a gift to myself for losing weight, although it is an early gift. I didn't think I was going to purchase something until after I had reached size 52 pants, which I am still a ways away. HOWEVER, I do need a car to go to work, and to go to baseball games and now to drive to see my family. I think this was a good decision. It is a safe vehicle, it is a SUV type vehicle with all wheel drive, and all the bells and whistles. It was used, and still in excellent condition.

I have a habit of naming my cars. My tan Buick was called "Chet Burl Jacobson", although my sister called it the "turd", but I don't remember why. My last car, the Mercury Sable, was called "Wes" although I don't recall it's full name. This car will be named 'Royal Bill' Siemanzko. The names are not random, they have to do with the history of the vehicle, where they came from and the situation of how I came to find it. 'Royal Bill' is a very appropriate name for this vehicle, and I think I will stick to it. I am sure that my sister will come up with another nickname for it that would also be appropriate.


Enough car talk... I need to start discussing the 5K training plan. Starting this weekend, until October 7th, my life is going to be mostly devoted to training for the 5K. Today's motivational quote is key to the beginning of this training. Almost everyone who I have spoke to about the 5K has a first reaction: "You? You are too big to do a 5K. Why put yourself through that, it can't be good for you. You won't last."

I just keep thinking "I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say definitely
what is and what is not possible." Good enough for Henry Ford? Good enough for me. Bring it on baby..

The picture at the top represents the enemy. Know thy enemy and my enemy is the St. Olaf 5K. I can't guarantee that this is the exact route, but it will be something like that.

I will be posting the training schedule on Monday, after my running partner and I have a chance to go over the details this weekend. I will be heading to the retreat in Wisconsin this weekend to breathe fresh air, forget about work and city hub-bub, and do a test 5K walk/jog. I am going to try to time it, so I will need to remember to bring a stopwatch. Where did I put that thing... ok, here it is. Maybe I will bring my pedometer too, to measure how many steps it takes to go 5K.

I will report all of my finding, of course, when I have time next week.



OOOOOOHHH I forgot.. I did measurements on Saturday, so I do need to do a little debriefing and update my stats.

As of April 29, 06
Measurements
Chest 55.00
Waist 64.00
Hips 57.00
Thigh 33.00
Neck 18.00
Calf 20.00
Bicep 18.00
Forearm 14.50
Difference over Previous Stats 3.50 inches (gained)
Difference Overall 14.25 inches (lost)

Current Statistics
Weight 414.40
Estimated Body Fat% 33.11%
% of Weight Loss -0.91%
% of Total Weight Loss -14.99%


I am still losing, but it was a wacky period and didn't lose much. I am going to push for a better weigh in on May 20th.... I would like to feel even better for Memorial Day!



more later..

Chazz