I met with Steve yesterday morning for the first time since last Monday. I acquired tendonitis in my achillies last week and I have not been able to work out until yesterday. I have lost 2 more pounds during the week off. My unofficial weight loss is 25 lbs. I can start spinning tomorrow and slowly work the treadmill routine in next week.

Wednesday night I ran another 5K. I trimmed 2:20 off my old time of 44:15. My next goal is to break the 40 minute mark. I ran 2 miles right under the 30 minute mark this morning. I continue to increase my speed on the treadmill while still accomplishing the increases in the work outs with my trainer.
I have lost another pants size and the new belt I bought 3 weeks ago is now on the last hole. I expect to go down to a smaller belt size next week. I hope to say goodbye to the Big & Tall section in Belk real soon.
Thanks again for everybody’s support!

It has been 12 days since my last Blog. Bryan had a weigh in last Wednesday night with measurements. I have officially lost 20 pounds! Last night I have lost 2 more. 3 more inched have been lost for a total of 20 inches. I lost a half on the arms, half on the calf, 1 inch in the waist and 1 in the hips. Tighten that belt. I have working hard on my running and my work outs with my trainer Steve. I continually increase the weight on my work outs. The squats are getting easier to perform. I can focus more on adding weight and reps after 7 weeks of working out. My lower body has finally surrendered to the misery. My hunger cravings are still strong and Steve contributes that to the weight increases and running I am doing. I continue to eat rabbit food, chicken, steak and fish. The good part is that my diet is what I like so I am not miserable. I keep eyeing those Reese eggs at Walgreens the food fascist keep putting out on the market.

I have been working with Steve all week and as usual he increases my weight. I have managed to give the same reps or a few more than the last time with the weight increase. I am feeling a significant difference in my body and my energy as each week passes. Last Saturday I went for Pilates and the instructor couldn’t make the class. Crystal, the other trainer from hell, stepped in to give us a work out. I am just kidding. Crystal is wonderful. She keeps the step class going strong while helping the newbie’s keep up and get the steps right. We did step instead of Pilates for an hour. It was more focused on light weights and stretching but it was a good work out. Feeling I had accomplished a good work out with Crystal after running for 20 minutes before the class, I was getting ready to head home and Crystal reminded me that I committed to taking her step class at 10:00. Crystal leads the step class with out compensation for the Battle of the Bulge people. We really appreciate her dedication to our health and the program. I think she just likes to see me suffer. I finished her step class which gave me 2 hours and 30 minutes of exercise to start my Saturday morning. I was exhausted. It didn’t help that my 14 year old daughter went with me to encourage me. (She likes to see me suffer too I think.) It’s Wednesday morning and I ran another 5K on the treadmill. I shaved 3:43 seconds off my first 5K last Wednesday and I feel great so far this morning.

I have worked out with Steve 3 times this week. The work outs keep getting better. I am adding weight and achieving more reps each time. I had official weight and measurements taken last night. Great results!
2 inches on waist, thighs and abdomen.
3 inches on the hips.
1 inch on calves and biceps.
4 inches on chest. A few more inches and I can burn my man bra!
17 pounds lost.

My best achievement to date was last nights work out. I worked legs Wed. morning with Steve and came back Wed. night and ran a 5K on the tread mill. I kept my pace between 4.0 and 4.5 until the last half mile and I bumped it up to 5.0. I can’t believe I ran non-stop for 48 minutes. That is a long way from 5 weeks ago when I could barely walk 15 minutes on the treadmill.

I have worked out with Steve three times since my last Blog. We have achieved significant results. I have increased my weight and reps at every station we have worked on. Steve has me on six different routines for workouts. Three lower body and three upper body. The squats have become harder but less exhausting due to the increase in weight. I am feeling a big difference in my body and my overall health. I am maintaining my smart eating and I have lost 15 pounds to date, one pants size and smaller belt.
I experienced a new work out Saturday morning a week ago. Crystal had me join her step class. That was a new experience! I was flat wasted after an hour in her class. Lori, the Pilates instructor, shamed me into her class at 9:00 on Saturdays. With that being said I did Pilates at 9 and step at 10 and went into a comma at 10:05. Pilates had me sore in muscles I didn’t know I had. Any of you macho guys out there want to work your core muscles, try Lori’s Pilates class. I really enjoyed both classes and felt I had two very good work outs. When the Crystal and Lori aren’t bashing my body with step and Pilates, I have worked my cardio up to 2 miles in 30 minutes on the treadmill. Thanks again to Lori and Crystal for working with me even though they are not assigned to train me. I think they are trying to wear me out to give their girls a chance. Lol.

It was all business this morning. I have maintained my cardio workouts of jogging 20 to 35 minutes twice a day on the tread mill. This has helped get me in better shape. I can focus on increasing the intensity of my workouts. I have increased reps and weight on every station this morning. It is a great feeling to focus on a certain muscle until it can't push any more and still have a lot of energy left for the next one. When I first started with Steve I was struggling to get through a session with out dying; now he works me hard and I can still get my cardio workout in right afterwards. I am sure that will change when he reads this.

This morning went well. Steve added more weight to my squat day. I managed to achieve all the reps with the extra weight added with the exception of the hamstring exercise. That one killed me. I was flat worn out. I have achieved the first goal of 50 reps on the crunch machine without dying. The great part about today’s workout was that I was at the gym an hour before Steve and jogged 15 minutes of the 30 cardio workout. Yesterday morning I jogged 25 of the 30 minute workout with a 3 incline and 3.7 speed, I never thought I would be able to jog that long. Tomorrow I am going to increase the speed a little and try to get 30 minutes of jogging. Kip, have the defibrillator ready.

Good News! We had our first weigh in last night and I am happy to say I have lost a baby. 7lbs lost and 4.6% reduction in body fat. Hooray! Hooray! Steve told me that if I was eating right and following his training instructions I would start losing weight the 3rd or 4th week. It's been 3 weeks. It makes you feel good when a plan starts coming together.
I met with the beast this morning for an upper body workout. It was challenging. I am stepping up the intensity of my treadmill workouts each day. Last night and this morning I actually jogged instead of a fast pace walk for at least 7 to 10 minutes out of the 30 minute workout. That gets my heart moving faster than it has in many years.

The work out was great. It was lower body. No squats thank goodness! I was able to increase my reps on some stations and weight on the rest. All the cardio the past three weeks has helped my workouts a lot. I don’t feel the drain of energy from the physical exercise as much as I did last week. Now that my body is use to moving and exercising twice a day with cardio, I can focus on the benefit of each individual workout. It is a good felling to be pushed to the limit on a machine and feel like you are completely wasted and 30 minutes later you feel like you can do it again. I feel I have passed another hurtle in my journey to a healthier lifestyle. My eating is doing great. I went to a Water Festival oyster roast this weekend and ate about 10 pounds of oysters, No hot dogs, chili, macaroni and cheese, sweets or sweets. It was easier than I thought it would be to not crave the good foods (I did eat two peanut M&M’s). I just stayed outside away from the devil foods and it made it a lot easier. I lost 3 pounds since Friday. My trainer says if I have been eating the right foods that I should start showing weight lost after two to three weeks. I am on target. I have been working cardio for three weeks and this is the first pounds lost.