Back to Work - But Keeping the Faith

I am a teacher at an Ecuadorian high school, so as I have started my weight loss campaign I benefited by being on vacation (South American schools generally have "summer vacation" in February and March). I haven't had to worry about fitting my diet around work, or figuring out the best time to do my workouts.

That changed today. Mar 22 is back to school or for teachers so here I am back into a work routine. We are up early enough to get our animals taken care of and lunches packed. Then my wife gets on her bus and I get on mine. First day for teachers, of course is fairly simple. We get a couple of meetings, spend some time networking with the other teachers and seeing what everybody did on their vacations. Then we check out our rooms - I got a new desk!

After school was over I changed and did a cardio session on the school track. While doing that I heard a yell. Some of my oncoming seniors were at basketball practice. While the ladies had a water break we talked a bit and briefly got caught up. Fun!

Tonight I'll be trying out a total body fitness DVD. We'll see how it goes!

Mall Walking and Kathy Ireland

Friday my plans were thrown completely out of the window, since I got called in to substitute at my wife's school for half of a day. That put me behind, but I was looking for ways to get creative to replace my missed cardio session. Later in the day, I found myself at a local mall, waiting for Lisa to meet me, when she called to say she would be delayed. At the spur of the moment, I did a 45 minute mall walk - simply walking around the perimeter of the public areas, interior areas of the mall. This was a fairly good sized mall, with two floors, so I got to do some fair exercise and people watch at the same time. Of course, it was Friday late afternoon crowds, and I wasn't dressed in exercise clothes, so I didn't do it at the intensity I would normally do a cardio, but it elevated my heart rate, worked up a bit of a sweat and most importantly burned some calories.

That night I was going through some older DVDs in our collection and ran across some older aerobic workouts. I popped one in the DVD player and spent 30 minutes on a low-impact, low-intensity session with Kathy Ireland. It was a great change of pace!

Vacation Winding Down - Back to Work!

This morning I had a good, 60 minute cardio - a walk-run around adjacent neighborhoods with a couple laps around the running track at my favorite park. These morning times will be going by the wayside, unfortunately. next Monday teachers report back to our school. My school here in Guayaquil, Ecuador, runs on the South American school calendar, April to January. Getting up to grab the bus at 6:30 in the morning means my morning workouts are out. Instead I'll be taking time after school to use the school facilities as often as I can.

I'm going to weigh-in Saturday, and I am hoping for a number below 275. Wish me luck!

In a hurry

I was kind of proud of myself yesterday. My wife couldn't go in to school yesterday, and in the morning I received a desperate call from the teacher coordinator if I could sub for her, since they had no other subs available. I had 25 minutes to shower, dress and put together a lunch and some healthy snacks before the bus came to pick me up (most larger Ecuador businesses and schools have buses called Expresos which pick up employees).

Despite the sudden change, I managed to keep my food on track all day. The only problem was I wasn't able to do my cardio. This week it seems every day either my food intake or my workout goes off kilter. Hope it doesn't hurt much on the scale Saturday.

A Blog of my Long Journey into a Lesser Me

I was always the athletic guy when I was younger. In high school it was football, baseball and wrestling. In the US Army I was the guy leading PT and road marches while calling cadence for group runs and ran 10k races. I ate a lot but worked out a lot. When I got out of the army in 1993, my working out drastically cut back but my weight steadily increased. At one time I had ballooned up to 295. Several times I'd started diet and exercise programs to tackle the problem. In every instance I took after it with too high an intensity and ended up with training injuries, and my assault on my weight would end.

Now at 49, my blood pressure and blood sugar are getting elevated, and I am facing many more health problems if I don't stop carrying around all of this extra me. I need to get smaller - Be-littled if you will. I have been working at it a couple weeks now, and last week's weig in I was at 275, after starting my journey at 282. I'm working on a combination of a healthy diet and sensible, low impact cardio and strength training to get to the littler me I want to be.

My goals are:
This Week: Below 275 (Not a big goal, I know, but this is a week with a lot of issues, and I am planning for that)
Middle term goal: Below 260
Long term Goal: Below 225
Ultimate Goal: Maintain 185-190.

Also I want to become healthier in my life and to provide an inspiration to my wife to motivate her to do the things she needs to do to live a healthier lifestyle.