Winning is all about losing...

Today was the official weigh in for my weight loss challenge. To win I needed to be under 198 lbs by end of March. I did it. I weighed in at 196.6 lbs, and I didn't have to sweat anything out or nothing. It was my morning weight.

I made sure I video taped it just to show I wasn't lying as there was $200 on the line if I win and me not having to pay out $600 if I lost the bet. I had a straight up $200 bet with Peter and a double or nothing bet with Rodney which could have cost me $400.

Looking back at the results for the month on both the weight loss and the training and I'm proud. Also, it was not easy. There is a lot of sacrifice and discipline required. I dropped just under 10 lbs in 31 days and I trained for 27 days (30 workouts) out of 31 for a total of 27 hours.

There is even one bit of misleading data. Even though it's a 10 lbs weight loss it's probably more in that I lost fat and gained muscle. There is no doubt my stomach has gotten smaller, Alice confirmed that today when I asked her if she noticed a difference.

I still have a long way to go and it's tough. I sacrificed and pushed myself all March to lose 10 lbs and I have another 16 lbs to go to get down to my 2009 weight of 180's and if I really want to be aggressive I want need to get down about 26 more pounds to get down to my all time low weight of 2008.

At that time I was 180 lbs before going in for my tonsils to be removed and when I got home I couldn't eat for 1 week and in those 7 days I dropped 10 lbs and came in at 170 lbs. I surprised myself that I was able to hold it around 175 - 178 for the longest time.

So when I think about how much hard work it took for me to lose just 10 lbs in 31 days I recognize how hard it will be to lose another 10 lbs. And I can't forget that about 5 of those pounds was over a 6 day period when I juiced. On the plus side I did have 2 days of drinking beer and eating way more than my weight watchers diet says I should.

Either way I'm going to take the win. I can definitely tell I've lost weight and from my all time high of 210.4 lbs in February I'm down about 14 lbs, which is pretty respectable. Thinking back to February I was a pretty unhappy person and felt pretty crappy being that weight. Not to mention I was busting out of my pants and all my medium shirts were pretty tight and all my Ironman tattoos were stretching.

Today I didn't feel like running or biking and I swam and did weights yesterday. So instead I decided to do an Insanity workout. I thinking I dislike doing those workouts more than swimming. Why I dislike them is I know they are going to be hard and hurt. Although the feeling of accomplishment and self gratification is super high after finishing an Insanity workout.

I haven't been doing the workouts daily. I've been fitting them in as I feel the urge. I much prefer it that way.

After today I might start doing them more regularly. I definitely noticed a difference. I'm getting stronger and I'm looking thinner in the mirror from the first time I did one. I was looking at my notes from March 1st when I did my first one and I was 206 lbs and I remember looking in the mirror as I was working out and couldn't believe how far my body had come from that once Ironman physique to a Rolley Polley body.

Not only did I notice the difference in my physical strength, I noticed a difference in my body shape. I'm definitely trimming out and the next 10 lb weight loss is going to cause a major physical transformation. Even the next 6 lbs will make a big difference in losing my stomach.

In one way I'm looking thinner at the top and bottom. My legs are really thinning out and that is making my stomach look bigger. The stomach is always the last to go and I have about 5 more inches I need to lose according to my old records of body measurement.

I took a picture after my Insanity workout. Yes, I look fat but it's not as bad as the picture. The very tight shirt and the way the sweat dripped down the shirt makes it optically looks about 10% worse than it really is. 

So basically this is a bitter sweet moment. It's sweet because I lost 10 lbs and had I not I wouldn't feel as good and mentally positive as I do today, and it's bitter because I still have a long way's to go, I'm not even halfway there. There is this part of me that wants to juice again to accelerate the results.

I may do that but I'm waiting to see how my juicing during the day and eating a regular meal at night flushes out.

Right now I'm also super motivated to get all my accounting stuff done. I typically leave it for 5 - 6 weeks and then spend a day or so organizing it all and getting it back to ground zero until the next 5 or 6 weeks and repeat.

I've mentioned it before and it's worth repeating. Not being employed or getting a pay check for 6 months makes you re-evaluate everything you know about money. I used to make decent money and spend decent money. For close to 30 years I never went without a regular paycheck. When that money ends up not coming in it really changes the way you look at things. I no longer take money for granted.

Tonight as I was working on expenses I decided to look at all the credit card statements. Normally I don't and Alice just pays them. It was an eye opener. I found charges that I didn't realize we should be getting charged. They weren't huge but $50 here and $50 there adds up quick. Not to mention we got this bill for an additional $117 for Internet usage and I called to get that moved down and get an unlimited plan.

I was in the mode to look under every rock to see if money was going out. I even called in a credit card to say it was stolen. I'm going to do it with them all. The reason is they suggest you do that so that people don't just automatically renew and charge you. I caught a couple of those today as well.

I'm proof that it's never to late to learn. In the beginning it was a little weird not having money coming in and cutting into savings and then it becomes scary and hits the ego as well. I didn't realize how important to me mentally it is to bring home money to feel like I'm contributing. I've spoken to other guys my age and they felt the same way in similar circumstance.

Regardless it's all good. I've learned many lessons this year and I have and continue to take them head on, it's all about not quitting or giving up and trying to learn from it and grow from it. I find I'm probably doing more personal growth now at my age than I did when I was younger. It's not something someone would expect. I didn't. Mind you it's great knowing that you are not yet set in your ways either.

Tomorrow is another big day. It's April 1st and you always want to get a workout in on the first of the month to start the month off right. It's also the day I go in to the doctors to get an ultra sound done on my thyroid to see if it's in fact hyper and needs to be treated. It's also the day I hope to finish off accounting, some legal agreements and work more on the app. We are getting into the prototype and branding stages, very cool stuff.

So I'd say that March was a pretty good month. Last year my March was in Boise away from family and it was a little dark and instead of training and losing weight I was not training and gaining weight and the highs were high and the lows were annoying.

It's amazing the difference a year makes. Heck, it's amazing the difference a month makes.

Insanity Workout - 42 minutes
196.6 lbs.

I'm dreaming about my boobs growing...

So last night all I could dream about is that I have boobs. I know that it's because the doctor told me I had a hyper thyroid last week and when I looked into the side effects online it said that men could start getting boobs.

The freaky thing is I noticed I had some boobies happening when I was close to 210 lbs but figured it was just fat. I'm down about 13 pounds now and the big test is when I get down another 7 or 8 pounds. I know for certain in the past that at 190 lbs I don't have boobs.

It's pretty freaky thinking you might have boobs as a man and I'm sure I don't but it's definitely freaky. Of course the side effects also mentions that you will lose weight but no, I don't get that one. That one would be an awesome one to get.

I'm surprised I didn't dream about the pain in my mouth. Last night I decided to whiten my teeth. I just received some teeth whitener at 35% peroxide that I ordered from Amazon. I went with the strongest because I don't want to sleep with the 10% version. I've used the 10% version in the past and it worked really well.

Right off the bat I knew I might be in trouble. I didn't read the instructions and put way to much gel in the trays. Afterwards I read the instructions and I was to only use 1/3 to 1/2 of the syringe. Instead I used the entire syringe.

The minute I put the trays in my mouth I could feel a extreme burning sensation on my gums. It was unbearable. So immediately after feeling it I decided to do nothing. Rather than stopping, taking the trays out knowing that I put way to much gel in I just left it in.

I read the instructions and it said keep them in for 30 minutes. I figured I just needed to hang on for 30 minutes. It wasn't easy, but when 30 minutes came it didn't feel that bad, so I decided to keep them in for another 30 minutes. I figured it would whiten them faster.

Then I took them off after 1 hour. I looked at my teeth and to my horror my upper gums were completely white. It was like it bleached my gums. It was damn scary. There was nothing I could do except hope my gums would turn back to red by the morning.

This morning I looked in the mirror and it was good news bad news. My gums were no longer white, instead they were read and looked like they had been burnt from the peroxide. When I brushed them today it was the biggest mistake the pain was incredible. It hurt like hell and my gums started to bleed.

Of course I was hoping my teeth were a little whiter for all the pain and suffering. Can really notice.

The scary part is I was told after I ordered the gel from a buddy that I have to be careful. That much of the cheap stuff on amazon is knock off stuff and it may be hazardous. Of course not to be deterred I'll wait until my gums heal and go in for another treatment with less gel and for only the 30 minute prescribed time frame.

Some good news was I weighed in at 197.4 lbs today. I lost over 2 lbs of weight in my sleep. Last night I felt my body burning up and was glad. It means that my weekend of beers and a eating a little bit more food than normal equalized itself out.

Training wise I had a double workout today. I decided to change up my weight training routine and push some heavy weight. The plan was to load up as much weight as I could and only do 4 reps. It's not as easy as it sounds. More often than not I picked a weight that I could do 6 - 10 reps. I did push some heavy weight though. All a good thing.

I woke up with a really stiff back today. I figured the weight lifting would help. It did but not much. After doing my weight training session I decided to do a swim to see if that would help. It did. Loosened it up a lot more.

Definitely a tight back is a sign of stress. At least it is for me. I kind of knew was was causing it. A loose end I need to tie up. Turns out by the end of the day it was tied up and almost immediately it felt better.

There is no doubt in my mind that a sore lower back is primarily mentally induced for most people. I remember watching a TV show were a Dr Sarno who has been treating people with back pain explained that stress or things not going right in ones life causes back pain which is a symptom. And if you address the issue the back pain will go away. I 100% believe this and since being aware of that theory I take it into account and focus on the problem or what is going wrong in my life and address it head on. 

Food wise I've been a very good boy. I'm doing the fruit during the day and a balance dinner. I'm very seriously considering going back to a full juice fast to drop another 5 pounds in one week. There is something so motivating about losing weight rapidly. The next 5 - 7 lbs is going to be the most noticeable for me.

I still have a long way to go. I plan on getting down to 175 lbs. That's another 22 lbs. I told Alice I'll look completely different when that happens. I was done there in 2008 and those days are coming back. I can't remember the last time I've been so focused to lose weight.

Hopefully the weight loss will mean that I won't be growing boobs.

Weights - 40 minutes
Swim - 24:45 / 1100 meters
197.4 lbs

Three Dog Night weekend...

Alice and I have not been to many concerts in our lifetime. Yet in the past 3 months we have been to two, Fleetwood Mac and Friday night it was Three Dog Night.

Music wise I am caught in the 70's. I don't listen to any other music only 70's. I have the complete decade of the 70's top 100 billboard hits for each year of the decade. I got it from a guy who got it from a disgruntled and fired DJ from a radio station in the U.S. In fact, it was just part of 50,000 songs I got.

On every run it's the 70's. When we are sitting downstairs at the Pig & Whistle or outside on the deck it's Sirius 70's playing in the background. In my mind there is not greater era of music.

To my delight many of these old time bands are still touring. Fleetwood Mac, most of the band members are in their late 60's and one even in her 70's. They still managed to fill the Buffalo Arena.

Three Dog Night formed in 1967. That's 47 years ago. I was born in 1965. I found out their were playing in Williamsport, PA which is about 4.5 hours away from our house. It was at a smaller venue and tickets were about $50. I think Fleetwood Mac tickets were just over $200 each.

When we went to Fleetwood Mac most of the crowd was older. Most in late 50's or early 60's. At Three Dog Night I was surprised to see most of the people in their 70's. It was a white hair and balding celebration. It was actually crazy, I almost felt out of place just standing in line. There was some younger people, like us, but not many. It's weird to think of myself as a younger person at 49 years old and turning 50 this year.

I was expecting an awesome concert. Three Dog Night has some of the best songs. I actually thought it would be better than Fleetwood Mac. I was wrong.

Why?

Basically because they played their hits, but they also played new songs that no one knew and there was lots of talking from them to the audience like a Vegas lounge singer would do, explaining songs, etc.

Alice was telling me that she hear Stevie Nicks talk about their concert and only playing hits. So much as they would like to do other music they don't because that would be self-indulgent and people came to hear the hits not the self-indulgent stuff. Three Dog Night didn't get that memo. Had they just stuck to the hits it would have been a great concert.

I did also learn one other thing. Although we had great seats in the balcony the sound is not as good as on the floor level.

Getting down to Williamsport was a breeze. I was really blown away how hilly it is from Buffalo to Williamsport. It reminded me of the terrain in West Virginia.

Williamsport was a little more "seedy" than I thought it would be. It's only 30,000 people and I thought it would be a "American apple pie" type of place. Instead it seemed to look like a decent amount of poverty, one of the stores we went into had some pretty sketching looking characters.

Prior to leaving home, I did a weightlifting workout. Really pushing the weights and the pump lasted all day. I love that feeling of knowing your muscles are still recovering and you are getting benefit all day long.

I was really on the fence about wanting to have beers. I haven't had beers in nearly a month and have been completely focused on living a healthy lifestyle and losing weight is not easy, it's a commitment. Having beers is counter productive and could easily reverse some of the hard fought gains I've made.

It's not just the beer that is the killer. It's the lack of willpower when you have beers and start to eat bad food because you are not in the right frame of mind. I also tend to have lots of beers when I have beers. I have an all or nothing personality and once I get started the only way I stop is when it's bedtime which is usually well after the bars close. Which did happen in Williamsport. We closed the city down.

To put it in perspective. We didn't wake up until just after 1 pm. I was shocked that no one knocked on our door to wake up us. When you end up sleeping until pass 1 pm in a hotel you really feel like you got your monies worth. That you gamed the system. At least I do.

The good news was I didn't eat poorly. I had a salad for dinner and no late night snacking. Perhaps the hypnosis is working and it was able to combat my old habits of eating real crap if I'm out partying.

The next day we started our drive home. It was an awesome drive. Hardly any traffic and near no trucking traffic. We were in no rush and ended up stopping at some little towns along the way. If or when we ever retire or slow down our idea of the perfect retirement is driving around and stopping randomly at small towns and taking in the sights. Typically stopping at bars, having a drink and moving on and not knowing where are next stop is going to be.

That's what happened on this trip. It was good and bad. Good as in it was a slow ride home. To put it in perspective it took us under 5 hours to get there and almost 12 hours to get home.

Lunch we stopped at a restaurant that has been around since 1886 and are known for their Turkey. They used to be a farm and the restaurant has been in the family for 5 generations. It was just a place in the middle of no where, literally. Of course we had Turkey. I had turkey with waffle. It was a lot on the plate and I probably only ate a 1/4 of it. It's such a great feeling to taste and not over eat.

Next stop was Painsville, PA and a pit stop at Applebees. Alice ordered some awesome wings. I had a little nibble and more beers. So much for only having beers one night.

Rochester, NY was our final stop before getting home. Found a nice restaurant and pub with live music and great stone oven cooked pizzas. Nice atmosphere. We weren't sure if we were going to stay in Rochester or head home. We ended up heading home. One less hotel stay and it's always great to sleep in your own bed and relax on a Sunday.

Waking up today was tough. Even though it had only been two days of being off my great routine it's enough time that could bump you off your healthy regime. I woke up well rested and both days felt really good all things considered.

First thing I did was jump on the scale. I knew it wasn't going to be pretty and it wasn't, I was 199.6 lbs. Still under 200 lbs so a major win. I also knew that I'm major retaining water.

I could feel myself not wanting to train. Dang, I knew this could happen. My motivation levels were not what they were. Even though I worked out Friday and only took Saturday off it felt like a lifetime ago.

There was a point I was thinking I should listen to my hypnosis and it would get me back into it. I didn't. I did a relaxing Sunday morning with coffee and catching up on my social media, downloading my pictures from Friday's concert and then I decided to enter the food I ate into my weight watchers online diary.

Too put it in perspective I did not eat that much food this weekend. Or at least not relative to what I wouldn't have eaten on a road trip. Most road trips we would have snacks in the car and most of our time would be spent grazing on food. This time there was no snacks.

I was actually looking forward to see what the points would add up to. I was shocked when I saw how much points I ate. I'm only allowed to eat 39 per day. I had 70 points one day and 80 the next. It blew me away as I didn't eat that much relative to the past.

It was also an eye opener. I tried to tell myself it was okay. I didn't eat my weekly bonus food points or exercise points. I was still on track somewhat.

There was a point I was going to grab some leftovers to eat and quickly thought about it and stopped. I wasn't hungry. It was only out of boredom I was going to eat. Instead I made myself some freshly juiced orange juice. It hit the spot.

Then a couple hours later I got motivated to go out for a run. It took a while for me to get into that mode and I was a little bummed because my resting heart rate was high and I figured I had sabotaged my progress.

I was wrong. First thing I noticed when I got out the door was my pace was the fastest it had been in over 6 months. I've been running between 6:18 - 7:00 per km. Today I did the run at a 5:32 pace. Mind you I turned it into a tempo run and only kept my heart rate at 140 bpm on less for the first half of the run and then it got up to 167 bpm for the last half.

The amazing thing is my legs feel so strong lately. After a run it doesn't even feel like I ran. I think the carbo loading really helped as well. I definitely had lots of gycologin stores in my body. At one point I started sweating and the amount of salt coming out of my body was amazing. The sweat was dripping into my eyes and there was so much salt my eyes were burning and I could hardly see. I guess those meals I had over the past two days were salt rich.

Sweating salt is a good feeling. It tells me the weight I weighed in at this morning was water weight from water retention caused by the salt.

When I got back I made my recovery drink. I added different frozen fruits this time with my whey protein. More strawberries and melons. It was AWESOME. The texture was exactly like a milk shake. It's so great having a drink that is so healthy yet just as tasty as any milk shake.

Plan for the rest of the day is to relax. Listen to my hypnosis tape and just chill and prepare myself for a great work week next week. I'm not sure if it's the beer, must be, but I've been having great dreams about work and the app and have a clear vision. They say that light sleep when you think of this stuff is a self hypnotised state. I love that state. Some of my best work has been when I come out of that state.

Feel I did good and didn't sabotage myself this weekend.

Run - 57:27 / 10.4 km
199.6 lbs

Women problems...

Today was another busy day of interviewing and research meetings, all good stuff, lots of great information.

The process at times is taking me out of my comfort zone and even last night I dreamt all night about it. We are following a very different process to develop the app in that we are validating every feature and assumption of the app before we even start building it.

It's a very hard thing to do because it's so easy to just do it and start building and feel like your making tangible progress. The way we are doing it now is interesting as you have a target group of early adaptors that you use to validate your assumptions and there is lots of uncertainty and anxiety and you don't yet know where the app will end up.

The cool part is we have already discovered some things we never would have not following this process and it's definitely going to make the app much more robust and useful than we previously anticipated. With that said it's still a bit of a "white knuckle" ride.

This morning I had discomfort and after all the interviews today I felt much better about our approach and direction. I know it's taking every ounce of my courage to keep on the current path and it's definitely a journey outside of my comfort zone. Yet I know first hand that if you want to grow you need to get out of your comfort zone.

Mid morning I had to head over to my doctors. They called me on Tuesday and said there was some abnormal readings in my blood work and the doctor wanted to see me.

My doctor is a really good dude. He's a young entrepreneurial doctor that is a major over achiever. We get a long really well. Lots of "F-Bombing" as part of our conversations.

So I was expecting nothing major. I figured it was going to be my standard high level blood work for certain readings. To my surprise most of those were in the perfect zone.

What he wanted to see me about was my Thyroid levels, mine is very high. Really? I thought Thyroid problems were for women?

Then he goes on to ask me, "Have you been getting heart palpitations?" Nope. "Have you been loosing weight?" Nope, actually opposite I've gained weight. "Have you had an abundance of energy?". Nope, I fall asleep tired on the couch every night. "Have you felt any muscle weakness?" Nope.

So then he goes on to tell me that if you have an over active Thyroid that some of the side effects is weight loss. When he told me that I felt ripped off. How come I have a overactive Thyroid and I'm not benefiting from the weight loss. I was envisioning how great it would be to eat anything I want and drink beer and be thin.

I'm not going to lie, when he said I had an over active Thyroid I was kind of pumped about it. Then I felt that I got ripped off because I didn't have any of the side effects. And then he realized he better retest me and get an ultra sound done.

The upside was all my other readings were pretty good.

There was a funny moment when at the start of the meeting he asked me if the request for blood work was the one he gave me to get done close to 2 years ago. I said yes. He laughed because he couldn't remember him giving me a request since 2013.

I'm so glad I finally went in to get tested eventually. Perhaps this would not have shown up 2 years ago. Alice kept telling me to go in and get a physical. She must have a sixth sense.

This afternoon I had the best run in a long, long time. By that I mean I was able to keep my heart rate in the zone. Most of my runs have been in the 140 - 150 range. When I'm in good shape it stays in the 140 zone and below. Today I ran mostly in the 128 - 140 bpm zone. It felt great.

When you run completely aerobic it doesn't even feel like you are running. It's effortless. Even my speed was faster than normal. Still slow but faster. That's when the data proves you are getting in better shape. You run faster at a lower heart rate.

I'm really on the fence about tomorrow. We are going to a Three Dog Night concert and if I'm going to have beers it will be tomorrow night. I'm really on the fence. I like the losses I'm having and want them to continue and a road trip with beers could derail it for a bit and eat up some of those gains.

The hypnosis is probably playing a lot on it as well. I'm instructed to only put good stuff into my body. Yet I think beer is good for you, only not sure if in large quantities it's good for you.

Anyways, another great day. Life is good.

Run - 1:01:57 / 10.05 km
198.4 lbs

Mixing it up...

So I finished juicing on Monday and started back eating solids. By Tuesday night I was tired and low physical and mental energy. I actually missed my juicing, or at least the side effects of mental clarity, higher energy and rapid weight loss.

There is no greater feeling than stepping on a scale every morning and being down close to a pound a day.

Today I decided I was going to get back to juicing for most of the day and then have a regular meal for dinner.

So far so good. I had more energy than normal and I've become accustomed to fresh juice. It does taste much better. I even decided to try some beet juice again today. I wasn't going to let it beat me. Last time I had it I overdosed and next think you know I felt I was going to die and just felt like throwing up. Then I read that beet juice is very powerful and you should only have it in small doses.

Training wise I pumped Iron today. This time I didn't take my C4. I mentally can't. It makes me retain water and my mind is too fragile to see the scale go up right now. Even if it's just water weight.

Just from getting back onto solid foods my weight got up to 199.4 lbs today. It was also water retention from snacking on some popcorn last night and it's higher in salt.

I dug up an old picture of me, well of my legs when I was 173 lbs. I remember that day, I remember what I looked like and I felt like. It was about 7 years ago when I was 42 years old. I remember actually being surprised myself because I never had veins in my legs, or my arms for that matter and I was veining up all over. For some reason when you see veins like that it's hard not to be impressed, whether they are your own or others.

Mentally I've decided I'm going to get back into the low 170's. Prior to looking at stats last week I never thought it was possible. Then the stats showed me I was down to that weight and I remember those times and I felt great. Sometimes you just need to know it's possible. I keep telling myself I can't get down to my young 20's weight which was about 160 - 165 lbs, but maybe I can, or at least come close.

I'm also taking a realistic long term view of this journey. I have not anticipation that it will happen over night. The last time it happened, I went from 212 to 170 in 5 months. I don't see that as an issue. It would be nice to get down into the 180's as quickly as possible. Then those next 20 lbs I don't mind a 1 - 2 lbs per week weight loss on weight watchers.

The hypnosis is really helping. Many of the suggestions behind it refer to being able to manage stress and anxiety. The key triggers that cause one to emotionally over eat. It's very interesting that since listening to the tape, which I have done every day since March 1st (25 days), whenever an emotional situation arises and my mind wants to grab something to eat, I stop myself and consciously recognize that I'm going to emotionally eat and instead don't, or get something healthy or just pour myself a cup of coffee.

Tonight after a great dinner of a little chicken, some ham, small roasted potato's, sprinkled with gravy and a little salad, Alice and I went for a car drive. I love driving especially where we life. Within minutes you are into the Escarpment and it's all country roads and I think I've ridden every one of those roads on my bike and brings back good memories of lots thousands of miles of training.

Afterwards we stopped in at the local supermarket to pick up more fruits for juicing. I'm really interested to see how my juice by day and eat a healthy meal at night is going to work out. If I can lose about .4 lbs per day I'll be a happy camper.

Weights  - 45 min
199.4 lbs

Good news, not sure news...

Things are going well. Between yesterday and today we have been evolving with the app and believe we have come up with something so different that we may potentially have two potential patents.

This morning I was up, weighed myself and was 198 lbs on the nose. About .4 lbs up after one day of eating solid foods. Today is day two of eating solid foods. Frankly I'm not sure about whether or not I really should have gone back to solid foods.

I'm not one to normally notice changes in diet and such, but I do notice the difference from juicing to eating. There is a physical difference and a mental difference.

Physically I'm feeling much more tired again. Yesterday I near fell asleep on the couch, today I did. Mentally it felt like life was richer on the juice, albeit after the 3rd day. Back on solids I feel a heaviness.

Not to be totally down on solids they do help my training. My heart rate is lower and I feel a little stronger.

Today I ran and the change in eating solids was seen in my time. I ran faster and was able to keep the heart rate lower than normal.

There is one other thing I've noticed and I'm not sure if it's the juicing, the steady training, the mixing up my training with Insanity workouts or what...my legs are feeling much stronger and I'm not shuffling like I normally do. It feels like they are new and stronger feeling than they have been in years.

On today's run it felt effortless. It is such a cool feeling to run for an hour and not even feel it. Reminds me of old times.

As I ran today I noticed my thoughts. They are much different than they were in 2011. Since working from home for the last 4 years I've come to fully appreciate the work from home lifestyle.

If you would have asked me prior to 4 years ago I would have said that having employees work from home would not work. Now I think completely differently since doing it myself and growing a business from 2 of us to well over 100 people all from the comfort of our guest bedroom office and Skype.

This is the second business I'm building from my house and my plan is to never have a head office. I want the company to be virtual. I think the virtual business is the way of the present and future and it not because of corporate cost savings. It's all about lifestyle. If you are a person that is self motivated and can work from a home office it's a lifestyle choice.

I was reading an article and 85% of Cisco's employees work from home and Apple customer service people who you call work from home. Unfortunately it's not my idea to have a virtual company, many are doing it now successfully. 

The ability to not have to commute, to seamlessly integrate your work life with your personal life. An example is to be able to slip out between meetings and go for a run or to the gym. And you save money on water from not having to shower and shave everyday.

Frankly I think I work more now working from home than I ever had. There is no beginning and no end time. There is just time and work and play is interwoven. Technology makes this happen. I love it. I don't miss the days of old. Of voice mails and letters and no email, Internet or pdf's.

I'm of that generation that had one foot in the old and one foot in the new. When I started in sales I had a pager and it was not even an alphanumeric pager. That was high-end. I just had one that buzzed and then I'd have to call the office and the receptionist would give me my message.

Then there was the no voice mail. All the messages were written on a piece of paper and put in my "slot" by the receptionist so when I walked into the office I'd look at them and call the people back.

Everything took more time and it seemed there was much more drama. Everything took longer. It was all phone calls or in person and every phone call had your customary pleasantries. Anytime you had something important you wanted to discuss you set up a meeting or met for lunch.

Ah the lunches. Yes, lots of lunches and if you weren't having lunches with clients you were having lunches with co-workers. I don't ever remember having any scheduled meetings at noon. Between 11:30 - 1:30 was pretty much known as lunch time. It was like that was a booked appointment daily.

We didn't have pdf's or emails and I remember it was all couriers and everything was a drama. Did the courier arrive? When will they be there? It was just constant drama.

Even getting stuff done like going to the DMV or dealing with insurance or anything was a hassle. It was a time where full transparency was not the order of the day. It was a time your customers knew less than you. Unlike now where many customers through the Internet are more researched.

It was a time in business where the order of the day was to "get as much money as possible" from your customers and your best customers were the ones that paid you the most with the least hassle. The good customers with the most amount of work would pay more than the small guy who was a great negotiator and typically a a pain in the ass.

Now it's much different. Technology has changed everything. The Internet came. Then email came. Then cell phones became everyday devises. Then smart phones made everything portable. Then computers became so damn cheap.

I think we get so much more done now with less hassle. Email is great. In fact one of my pet peeves is getting unsolicited phone calls or phone calls when an email will do. With that said, I'm old school in that I always answer my phone if it rings.

I've seen the changes in business attire. I used to wear $1000 suits and $200 ties and now I don't have a suit in my closet from this decade. I think I got my last suit in 2009. I haven't worn a suit in probably 6 or more years. I HAVE only worn blue jeans and Ironman shirts and runners for the last 6 years or more. It feels so much more natural. I can't tell you the last time I've been to a dry cleaner which used to be a weekly occurrence.

The other thing I love is that when you work from home you can work from anywhere. As a CEO I don't care if someone is working from home or from a beach. So long as the work gets done I'm cool. In fact with our company we don't even have a holiday plan. In the old days you would get two or three weeks vacation. In the new world you take what you need, don't take advantage of it and just make sure you get your work done. I stole the idea from Netflix.

What I love about today is it's all about results and not titles. It's a new world order and I love it and I feel sorry for any of those that don't get to do it. I don't miss the office BS and there is always that one or two people that are pains in the ass and a cancer and in this new world order they now don't have that level of influence. Not to mention the constant interruptions just because...you're there.

Instead I get my social interaction on Facebook. I work away. I have one screen open on facebook. When I need a short break I look at postings, send myself out one myself and get back to work.

I love Skype meetings that I just need to be a passive participant. It gives me an hour or so to ride my bike as I listen in, or I shoot some pool, or in the summer I sit outside on the deck in the sun and listen in, or work from there. 

There is no doubt in my mind that I will never work at an office again.

The other thing I decided I'm not going to do again is go to any day long conferences or training sessions. I can no longer do it. I did one recently and it almost killed me. It's like sitting in class as a student in school. It's so slow and boring.

Instead I like quick hits. If I need to know something I want to google it and read about it. Or I'll check out video's on You Tube and if they are boring I stop them and find better stuff. Or I figure it out on the go in talking with those I work with or friends or mentors about it. It's about doing everything in real time.

Lastly what I like now over before is everything is quick. As the business grows and you need to have meetings a long one is an hour and most are 15 minutes with no pleasantries. I love the no pleasantries. Let's just get down to it. Deal with the task at hand and move on and let's get going and lets do it all on the phone.

So I'm one of those old school guys that is really a new school guy in an old school guys body. With all that said I'm so grateful that I was around and did the old school stuff. Most all of my good stories are from old school antics. You have to remember it was a time with lots of lunches and dinners, no seat belts, driving and talking on a cell phone was fine, travelling with no GPS and a big map spread out in the car as you drove in a new city, and lots of work boozing with co-workers and customers.

I talk to some young people now and they tell me that they wish they were around during those times. I had one thinking that having people call you and leave and get voicemail would be so cool. Are you kidding me?

Anyways, that's my rant. Now back to my current reality.

Today I learned a very important lesson. DO NOT drink more than 1 ounce of pure beat juice. I drank about 7 ounces and within minutes after my stomach hurt, I had to head to the bathroom, I though I was going to throw up and started sweating. It was worst than any bonk I've ever had after an Ironman.

Alice did a quick google search and read that there is side effects and that it's very powerful and you shouldn't have more than one ounce in the first week and then up an ounce the next week.

Live and learn. The hard way.

I got a bit of a disturbing phone call. It was my doctors office. The doctor wants to see me to go over some of my blood work results. Of course they say it's not urgent but then I'm thinking I just had the blood work done yesterday and they are calling today. So I set up a meeting as soon as I could, on Thursday.

My feeling is if the reading are way off then they must be off. After a week of fasting, a near month of eating perfectly and having no beer I would have thought all my numbers would be good. Who knows maybe my high fat diet was an issue or maybe it's just cholesterol. Either way I sure wish that the medical system could operate like the business world and just email me the results.

Looking forward to the rest of the week. Got some major great things going on with the app and it's a bit of a ride with twists and turns daily. In a good way.

Run - 1:01:33 / 10.05 km
198 lbs

First day back on solids...

Monday morning my official weigh in day for Weight Watchers. The verdict? 197.6 lbs, or 5.2 lb weight loss in 1 week. I'll take it.

Now the big test is seeing if I can maintain the losses after getting off the juicing diet or will I balloon back up because all I lost was water and muscle? Or was it really fat lost?

Of course I want it to be fat loss and I think it is. I can see physically my body is looking different, my face is getting thinner and during the juice fast I supplemented with whey protein and did heavy weight training.

My plan this morning was to start with softer foods. For breakfast I had Quaker Oats and a banana and for lunch it was a baked potato, cottage cheese and beef barley soup. For dinner it was a small piece of steak and corn, a bag of popcorn for dessert and a plain yogurt and frozen blueberries for a latter night snack.

Listening to my hypnosis this morning was cool. I kind of drifted off. So I'm not sure if I got the full benefit or I feel asleep. Kind of going out is what you think hypnosis is all about. I did like it because it didn't feel like I was working for it. It was a beautiful drift away and then comeback.

It must have worked. I felt motivated to train. I had a skype conference calls I needed to sit in on and listen to with minimal input and it's the perfect environment to get on my bike and ride, which I did for 1 hour and 20 minutes. The other motivation was I didn't want to run outside, it was - 17 C today. Not your typical spring type weather.

Today was one of those days that flew by. The hardest part was getting used to eating solid foods and I'm not really sure I liked it. I kind of got used to and liking the juicing.

I almost forgot, first thing this morning I headed to the lab to get some blood work done. This was before I ate anything. Some of the blood work was of the fasting kind. I had been given the note to get blood work from my doctor in July of 2013. Almost two years ago and I hadn't yet gone. I figured now after a week long juicing cleanse would be the perfect time to go. If anything shows up as a problem, it probably really is a problem.

This morning I also had my measurements done. No huge changes from last week, other than my waist went down about 1/4 of an inch. I'll take it.

At 4 pm I had a meeting downtown Toronto to meet up with Jeff Swystun a friend from high school that is a branding expert, you can check out his website here. Myself and Mark, my co-founder, met with him to discuss where we are with the app and get his input. Jeff has a lot of experience and was the Chief Marketing Officer at Interbrand Worldwide out of New York and also at DDB. It was well worth it and it got us aligned on what we need to do next.

On the app side I am super pumped about where it is headed. There is some features that we had not originally thought of and with our early adopter group, who are major couponers, they all had similar comments and what they told us was gold. There is a problem to be solved and it's easy to understand yet complex to execute on, but we are confident we will. It's like a rubics cube, you know it can be done it's just figuring out how to do it.

This development is super exciting and we are doing everything right. We are taking all the right validation steps and the past 4 weeks has been very gratifying to see how it is all coming together by working in an open fashion with those are most likely to be our early adapters. I can't say it enough on how confident I feel.

I did have a little bit of not so great news tonight. Nothing major, but just a distraction of sorts. It was really my test. My normal reaction would be to eat. I was very conscious of this this time around and instead I changed my mental attitude, realized it was nothing major that will unravel itself shortly and to stay the course and not sabotage my efforts. I figured I've worked to hard to let it all go and mentally the past few weeks has been awesome and I want to keep up that feeling of awesomeness.

On the noticeable weight loss scale, Mark hadn't seen me in about 10 days and the first thing he said when he saw me was I lost weight. I mentioned that I'm about 16 lbs away from where I want to be. He said, "if you do that you will look completely different" and I said, "yes, that's true" and he's right and it's only been the last 14 - 18 months that I've looked the way I do now, it was the prior 5 - 6 years that I looked on the outside how I feel on the inside.

One last comment. I was tired tonight and it wasn't from a busy day. It was from eating solids I'm certain. When I juiced for the week I had lots of energy and did not fall asleep on the couch. Tonight I came oh so close to falling asleep on the couch and couldn't wait to get to bed. I was exhausted. The only change was in diet. It's amazing how much diet will effect your energy levels.

Bike - 1:40
197.6 lbs

You gotta love pushing yourself to the limit...

Big day today. This morning I weighed in at 196.8 lbs. Went right from 198 yesterday and bypassed 197 all together.

It felt great to see 196.8 lbs. It's been a long time. I still have 16.8 lbs to go but it's closer than being 30 lbs away. I can't remember the last time I've been this committed to lose weight.

I have a vision in my minds eye of where I want to be and how I want to feel. It's the hypnosis. The tape keeps referring to visualize your ideal self. I know EXACTLY who that is and it stars with a 17 to 18.

Doing this juicing has been a real bonus. It was very hard to start doing and now I'm somewhat used to it. As much as you can get used to not eating solid food.

What I like most about juicing is the instant and quick results. Everyday I've been dropping weight. There is a part of me that wants to keep this up until I get into the 180's and then go back to weight watchers for the remaining difference.

Even though I've been juicing I've also been supplementing with whey protein after every workout. I really don't want to lose muscle on this juicing cleanse.

For fun I took a picture of myself in the mirror today and compared it to one I took back in November. Definitely a noticeable difference. I'll post it when I have the final picture to show the difference along the way.

Mid-morning I headed over to LA fitness for weight training session. I took some C4 before and the plan was to go hard. At minimum to maintain the muscle and at best build some muscle.

The minute I started lifting I could feel the C4 kicking in. It makes your body tingle and it feels like you have more strength than normal. I was pushing some heavy weight on every exercise. My plan was to push my muscles to exhaustion.

My toughest session again was the lunges. I use the squat rack and do 12 reps on each leg, two sets. By the end of the first set I had to sit down again. Aside from being light headed I could hardly get enough air into my lungs. The same thing happened on yesterday's bonking run. It's a feeling I've never had before.

Next set on the lunges was even harder. It blew me out. I had to sit down and close my eyes and just wait it out. In a very twisted way it feels great to push yourself to that level and know you got a good workout.

Even though I'm juicing I'm still getting a lot of calories. About 1500 per day, just in juice form.

I started this juice fast last Monday afternoon. I think my last meal was a tuna sandwich for lunch. Today was day 6 on the fast. I'm really undecided on how long I want to continue.

One one hand I know I've lost some water weight and need to get back to solid foods. I'm told you gain about 2 lbs when you go back to solids. I really don't want to see me go up. Yet and the same time I need to get back to regular food in order to have the energy to train hard and get the gains.

A hybrid is probably where I'm going to end up. Today I had popcorn and then for dinner had onion soup from a can with mushrooms from a can. It was horrible. I'm not sure if it was horrible because it's horrible, or because I'm used to drinking fresh juice.

One of my options is to juice in the morning. Or at least eat my fruit. Have salad or fruit in the afternoon and a normal meal for dinner. I'm leaning that way. Mind you I'm kind of into this juicing thing.

If I didn't juice, this week I'd be weighing in on my weight watchers program at probably 202 lbs. It would be a 1 pound loss just like previous weeks. Instead I'm down at least 5 lbs in that same week. What if I could just do another week? That is what is in my thoughts. Could I get down another 5 lbs and hit the 180 something?

Tonight I was sitting on the couch and feeling a little restless. Something came over me and I decided to go downstairs and do an Insanity Workout. It was pure cardio. The instructor was saying "he wasn't looking forward to it" and personally I don't mind pure cardio.

It was definitely a good workout. It got me dripping in sweat and the heart rate got up to 160 bpm. I think part of the reason I did the workout is to get some of the water out of me before my weigh in tomorrow morning. I don't want to see a 2 lb gain or anything. Every time I take C4 I retain water and a 2 lb gain is not unusual. It's all a mental game.

On a fun note Alice and I did a Sunday drive today. Ended up in Brantford. We drove for a few hours and it seems I noticed every restaurant and pub along the way as we drove through many of the small towns along the way. With that said I didn't feel compelled to stop. I'm a man on a mission.

Weights 45 minutes
Insanity Workout 38 minutes
196.8 lbs

Juicing and bonking...

I woke up this morning. Weighed myself and was down another pound. I was 198 lbs on the nose. That means I win my $200 bet with Peter and I don't owe Rodney $400 based on our double or nothing bet.

Now I will give the guys there due, lets see if I way the same tomorrow. The key is I'm to be 198 lbs or less by the end of the month and it's only March 21st. I have 10 more days to keep it off and lose more.

The juicing has really given me a kick start. 6 days ago I was 203 lbs and today I'm 198 lbs. A 5 lb loss in 6 days.

I've been pretty strict on the plan, other than some popcorn the last couple nights and a protein shake with banana and frozen strawberries and blueberries after a training session.  Oh, and coffee everyday, many times per day.

My routine today was just as it's been for the last 21 days. I wake up, weigh myself, listen to my weight loss hypnosis tape and get a coffee, with coconut oil in it.

I'm actually afraid to not listen to my hypnosis every morning. I was really wanting to skip out today's early morning 30 minute session and didn't. I need all the help I could get. The results are I also stay focused on training.

This month out of 21 days I've training 19 of them. Today would be no different. I actually was looking forward to training and had it in the back of my mind I was going to do a long run. I haven't done a long run in a long while.

The minute I got out the door I knew I was going long. My current long is about 15 km, or close to 1 hour and forty minutes based on my super slow pace.

At my normal turnaround point I kept going. Time was flying I must have been deep in thought. It stayed that way for the first 10 km and then I came back to earth and things slowed down for the next 5 km.

Those 5 km were painful. My heart rate was through the roof. It was near 160 bpm for the last half of the run. Normally I'm 140 bpm or less. Withing the first 5 km I was hungry. All I had for breakfast was a glass of fresh orange juice.

There was a number of times I stopped to walk during the last 3 km. Even walking didn't bring the heart rate down. My lack of energy was definitely do to the juicing. I know what the right food and diet are for me based on my running heart rates. If I want to keep it lower I need to have a nice blend of carbs, protein and fat and carbs are most important.

You can tell me all about the different diets. Just eating normally for me gives me the best performance results.

When I got home it didn't get better.

First thing I did was weigh myself. I was down 4 lbs of water weight. I should have got food right away, I didn't. I showered instead. Then when I was done I had my protein shake with a banana and frozen fruit.

About 30 minutes later I had a major bonk. If you don't know what a bonk is it's when your blood sugar gets low and you get major headaches and feel like passing out, you need to bend over. I'm sure my blood pressure was probably low too. The only thing that cures the bonk is getting some carbs in you.

For me, those carbs were a glass of fresh orange juice. It did the trick. About 20 minutes later I was feel much better. At least good enough that I could do some thinking work for work for a couple hours.

I'm getting close to getting back on solid foods. I think I'm only another day away of fruit and vegetables away from finishing them all off. My plan is once I get rid of the fruit and vegetables I'm off. Actually I might do a combination of fruit for breakfast and lunch and eat a regular dinner.

Much of my day I spent time looking at all my old statistics of training mileage and weight since 2007 lbs. It was really interesting looking back. For near 2 years in 2008 - 2009 I was around 178 - 183 lbs.

During all that time I had some pretty insane numbers for number of beer I had per month during that time too. I kept track of my beer consumption too. A small month would be about 50 beers and a big month would be just over 200 beers.

I also looked back at my training mileage. It was a huge amount of mileage. I definitely deserved to get to Kona. I trained a lot. From May 2007 - March 2015 I've done close to 70,000 km of swim, bike and running. To put that in perspective, the earth is only 40,000 km around, I'm near finished my second loop. I just have 10,000 km to go before I start my 3rd lap.

Keeping track of my stats is very eye opening. I went through every month and every year. I made notes of what key things I did that day and how I felt as well as mileage and beer consumption. To my amazement it didn't take that long to read through all the posts.

It was freaky. It really hit me how years is really not that long of a period. Just by reading the update I time travelled back to those days. It was amazing how those days came back to me and it felt like yesterday.

I got through it all and thought I was missing something. It blew my mind that I just went through near 7 years of data and it didn't take as long as I thought.

There was some posts that has some pretty insane mileage. Especially during the cold months. My record was near 80 hours of training in one month, and there was a number of month near 80 hours. There was not one month that I haven't got training miles. Not one. I think the lowest month I had was 5 hours.

It was really cool looking back. It's amazing how if I relied on memory my memories would have been much different. Having the written stats is so awesome. They don't lie. They are what they are.

In some ways it was pretty inspiring. I now know what weight is the perfect weight for me and I realized the perfect level of training for me is about 30 - 40 hours per month. The perfect amount to stay fit and be somewhat competitive at Ironman 70.3's.

Looking back that my 70.3 training my longest rides were about 3.5 hours. That's not a crazy amount of hours on a weekend. Hell people that golf need at least 4 hours to complete a round plus drive time. Longest run was around 2 hours. That mileage is perfect mileage for a weekend.

Even though I have no races planned and have no desire to do any races, I love training. There is something about putting in the training hours that is the fun part. I think maybe it's because it's such a big deal to race. You need to travel, pay and get up way to early. I like sleeping in and then deciding to train when I feel like. Sometimes early in the morning, sometimes later in the day.

The other part of my day is facebook and twitter. Yes twitter. I used to be on it all the time. Meet many of my good friends and current facebook friends on twitter. I find twitter much different than when I left it. When I was on it it was about relationships, people talking and interacting. Now it seems to be one long stream of news feeds.

To meet Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is a great way to take a break in the action. Send something up. Have some laughs from responses and then get back at what ever I was doing prior.

Tonight was again a really tough time to keep on the juice. I broke and had some popcorn and coffee. I'm curious how much I'll way tomorrow am and if the crazy bonking run is causing my body to retain water to heal itself.

There is this weird thing in my mind that I may want to keep up the fasting because I'm liking the immediate results. On weight watchers I was getting about 1 lbs per week. On juice fasting I'm getting 1 lbs per day. Every day is like fast forwarding one week of normal dieting.

So far I'm pretty good at staying the course. The toughest time to keep it up is from about 7/8 pm until bed time. It's hard.

Long Run - 1:37:33 / 15.10 km
198 lbs

Sub 200....FINALLY!!!

I was anxious to weigh myself this morning. I actually woke up a couple times in the middle of the night to see what time it was. At 6:30 am I got up, about an hour earlier than normal. Like I said I was excited to stand on that scale.

And for good reason, I did it, I broke 200 lbs. I weighed in at 199.2 lbs. I haven't been under 200 lbs since October 1st, 2014. That's 5.5 months.

Next stop after the weigh in was to listen again to my hypnosis tape, that is now 20 days in a row. I was so pumped I actually listened to another one on goal setting. This one was weird. It took me right out. Normally with hypnosis I feel awake and hear everything. This was a new guy and about 10 minutes into it I was out of it.

I'm not sure if I fell asleep or he knocked me out and got into my subconscious. I hope it's the later. I love the idea of just closing your eyes and then boom it's done. It's like being a kid and falling asleep on the car and waking up when you get home. It's like time traveling.

Today was a busy day. We are interviewing people for the app that we believe will be early adaptors and getting their feedback on a very rough wire frame we have put together. We've been doing this since Wednesday and it's been super interesting and totally worth the effort.

We've been at it 4 weeks exactly to determine core features. We surveyed 150 people, then interviewed the top 50 and then determined 14 of them are the total experts. It's amazing how into couponing these people are. It's a whole sub culture. The 4 weeks we've taken has been invaluable.

I had about an hour between one meeting to the other and I was able to slip out and do a quick 6 km run. I was in the mindset that I wanted to do a 10 km or more run, I just didn't have the time. Before going I strapped on my heart rate monitor and it got down to 42 bpm, which is great. Mind you I still had to walk a bit on today's run to keep the heart rate under 140 bpm.

Today was a tough day on the juicing around dinner time. After a great week of work I wanted to celebrate. I was thinking that I should take the family out for dinner and then realized I'm on a juicing diet. I would have really like to have winded down with a beer and then realized I can't I'm juicing.

With all that said I'm still a long way from where I want to get to and just breaking 200 lbs is the first step of a much longer journey.

I have pretty crazy records of training and weight that I've kept daily since 2007. I went back to my records to see what my lowest weight  was. I was totally shocked to see that I got down to 170 lbs in 2007. I actually went from 214 lbs down to 170 lbs in 6 months. Mind you from 180 lbs - 170 lbs was all do to me having my tonsils out and not being able to eat.

After the tonsils were out I moved up to 177 - 180 lbs for a long time after that. It kind of blew me away as I didn't realize I could actually get down to 170 lbs. It's actually even more depressing as for me to get down there it would be another 30 lbs I'd need to lose. Even to get down to 180 lbs it would take 19 pounds.

Tonight I broke down a little. I couldn't go out for dinner, I couldn't have a beer and I really wanted to eat something. So I made a small bag of popcorn and ate it very slowly. I cheated, but not by much.

I was then reading on the Internet that a guy that lost 100 pounds plus did juicing for breakfast and lunch and then had a regular dinner. I like that sort of model. I think it would work really great. I remember once losing a lot of weight when I was 19 years old, dropping 50 lbs and I ate fruit in the morning and then lunch and dinner. It was the fit for life diet plan. It worked great for me.

Tomorrow will be another big day to see if I stay in the 190's. I sure hope so. I really don't want to see a 2 ever again.

What's really cool right now is I feel focused once again and that I have my discipline back. I think having stability with my job was a big factor. I less uncertainty to worry about and I think stress and anxiety is the number one reason for people to gain weight. Eating food is very comforting and it's so easy to over eat to help cope with it all, and having beers too.

Run - 37 minutes / 5.96 km
199.2 lbs

Day 4 of juicing and it's a time warp...

I was so anxious to jump on the scale this morning. Was it going to be the day I was going to break 200 lbs and finally see a 19. I'm so done with being in the 200's. It's been about 9 months in the 200's and I'm done with it.

Monday afternoon was my fasting start date and it seems like yesterday. It kind of surprised me it was Thursday morning already. You have no idea how much I want the days to pass buy quickly. I do want to get back to eating solid foods. There is something about chewing and grazing that I like.

Since March 1st I've been listening to hypnosis every day and I've come to learn to chew my food slowly and really enjoying it. The juicing has taken that pleasure away from me.

Yesterday was a tough day. The toughest so far. It was the day that I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing.

What kept me going is two things. The first is I bought all this fruit and vegetables, $80 worth and I can't let it go to waste. It would crush me for it to go to waste. The second reason I'm sticking with it is I totally want to get back to my ideal weight. I can no longer look at myself in the mirror without asking "what happened to me?"

When I think back I swear I must have had one of those mirrors that made me look "not overweight". One Monday I did my first Insanity workout and it was the day that I really noticed how much I'd gained weight. Between the mirror and the Go Pro video I made it was a total eye opener. There was no denying that I slide more than I thought.

It's kind of daunting to think that over a 4 year period I had gained 30 lbs and in only 3 months I had gained 15 lbs. I remember being at around 181 lbs and when I got up to 183 lbs I was worried. Then it became 185 lbs, then 187 lbs and then it was so long as I stay under 190 lbs I'm okay. It's amazing how quickly you can lower the bar over time and before you know it you step on the scale and see a 210 lbs.

14 months ago - Big Difference

210 lbs is a damn scary number to see on the scale. It was that moment that I near wanted to cry and realized at that point I HAD to do something. My pants were getting tight, my T-shirts where getting tight and I actually tried to put on one pair of pants and there was no chance I could do them up. I think it was about 4 or 5 inches was the closest I could come to try and do them up.

Now here is where is gets even worse. I'm down 10 lbs from the high, which is a positive. Now I'm starting to look fatter. The way I lose weight is from the out to in. It starts and the feet and head and works itself to the middle. The side effect is this makes the stomach look much fatter as you start to lose weight. It looks worse before it gets better.

I'm still 20 lbs away from my ideal weight. When I think about it I realize how much discipline and sacrifice I'm going to need to make and sometimes it feels overwhelming. If I could snap my finger and lose at least 10 lbs really quick and it would seem more attainable to lose those last 10 lbs.

I keep telling myself not to think about losing 20 lbs and not to think about it at all. Just take it day to day. I'm not going to lie, it's hard and mentally tough. Mind you if I could even get down to 193 - 195 and I can start to see some noticeable losses and get into the pants I couldn't, I'm sure it would give me a mental boost to get to the next level.

This morning I was the exact same weight as the day before. It was somewhat depressing. The only thing I tried to tell myself was that I worked out so hard I was retaining water. I also took some preworkout C4 and it was probably retaining water.

Tomorrow will be the moment of truth. I haven't had much juice today and have drank a lot of water and coffee. Mentally I need a win tomorrow. Will I finally break the 200 barrier and will it mentally give me a lift.

I haven't set a date to stop the juicing. I want it to end immediately, but I have all these fruits and vegetables. I've told myself the fast will end when I finish eating all those fruits and vegetables. I really hope they are gone by Sunday, which would be 7 days of juicing.

Tonight was better than yesterday, but still really tough. It's a mental struggle to keep up the discipline. Today was also a very busy day with meetings, I had 8 and for some reason it made the day last longer and I seemed more hungry. Yet at the same time it took my mind a little off the juicing and forced me not to take in that many calories. I sure hope tomorrow I can get into the 190's. I've damn been working hard at it.

Training wise I was able to slip in a 30 minute Insanity workout. This one was cardio recovery so I don't think I got my heart rate up past 130 bpm. I was thinking of running but ran out of sunlight and some days you just don't feel like running in the dark. I think if I did run in the dark it would have taken my mind into a dark place.

Dinner wise I had a green juice. Alice on the other hand made homemade tasty smelling and looking burgers. It was weird in that I wanted some and yet I didn't. The juicing is taking away those cravings.

My number one motivation is just to burn through the days. The faster the days past the faster I'll be off this juicing diet. The sad part is that I'm on this damn juicing diet because I have to get down to 198 lbs or lose $600. I so wish I didn't make that bet and just stay on my weight watchers plan and lose 1 lb a week and enjoy life.

Mentally I felt so balanced and life was good on weight watchers. What was I thinking making these bets. I feel like I signed up for an Ironman and now I have to train and I'm thinking, "why the hell did I sign up to torture myself".

Anyways I really hope tomorrow is a good day. If I'm not in the 190's it's going to be a very long and hard day for me.

Insanity workout - 30 minutes
200.4 lbs

Riding the line...

Day 2 of my juicing fast and was pretty excited about doing my morning weigh in.

It's kind of an immediate reward to see the weight down and makes the personal sacrifice and discipline required worth while. Today I was done another 1 lbs. That means in 2 days juicing I'm done 2.6 lbs.

Best part is I'm on the edge of dropping under 200 lbs. As of this mornings weigh in I'm 200.4 lbs.

For the two weeks prior I followed the weight watchers plan religiously and lost about 3 - 4 lbs. I didn't go over my allowance and I trained. I really worked hard to get those pounds off. Some days the weight would go up, other days it would go down.

To see a 2.6 lb weight loss in only 2 days is just an awesome feeling. I know it's not sustainable. I know it's probably water weight and I've read that it's common to gain a couple pounds back when you start eating solid foods.

Regardless, I'm happy and my plan is to use this as a kick start and in 7 - 10 days I'll get back to regular food following weight watchers.  I plan on following weight watchers even after my goal is hit, just to maintain. I really like the weight watchers point system.

My fear is losing muscle during this juicing period. I've supplemented the juicing with whey protein and I want to keep up my weight training. Mid-morning I slipped away to the gym and did a killer workout.

Before going I took some C4 supplement which I find jacks you up and for some reason I can do more weight. My plan today was to push the weight hard. In all cases I increased the weight a minimum of 10 % and most of the time it was up to 30% more weight.

Right off the bat I knew I was working out. I do two sets of 12 reps and do super circuits. One set of upper body, then lower body and then back to upper body. I do no recovery. Actually my upper body recovery is when I'm doing lower body. It's a very efficient way to get a 90 minute weight training session done in 45 minutes.

By the 6th rep on most all sets I was hurting. I forced myself and was grunting and groaning for those last 6 reps. I had my headphones on listening to music and I'm sure it was super load. I know some gyms don't allow grunting. I rarely hear it in our gym. As a kid I went to the YMCA where the serious body builders went and all you heard was them grunting out their sets.

The only time that was a little scary and hard was doing lunges. I do it at the squat rack and after the 1st set I felt light headed and my heart was racing. I actually had to sit down. That was a first. Then I did the second set and same thing, I had to sit down.

It was a tough session and very gratifying. The weight was higher than normal and I felt sore afterwards. It's still not as much as I was doing 6 months ago, but I'm getting there. At my age weight training is probably one of the most important things I can do. The older you get the quicker you lose muscle.

Again this morning my back was tight. I'm not sure if it's from stress or being at that 200 lb which is the point my back normally gets sore. If I get a few pounds lower or higher it's okay.

There is always work stress. It's less and controlled now but I know what I do now in the planning is going to have a big effect on our future. We are currently showing key features of our app to qualified early adopters and getting feedback. Very valuable process. Tomorrow and Friday is lined up with about 10 more. 

Juicing is tough, at least today it is. I had a lot of hunger pangs today. They say day 2 to day 4 is the toughest. It is. The tough part of juicing is the cleaning up. It's kind of a hassle and it really makes you question if you need juice right now or could wait.

To switch it up tonight I had some consume soup. I read that some people that do juicing also do bullion soup. So I had some. It was so tasty. Amazing something like soup would be such a treat. 

I find myself going to the washroom and pee ever 45 minutes to hour. It started a little yesterday, today it's in full swing. It's a good sign. Every time in the past that I've lost weight I've peed a lot. I often think that it's a way that my fat is exiting my body. I don't think that's true, I think I read it comes out of your pores and breathing, but I've convinced myself it's dispelled through pee.

Tonight I was thinking of doing an Insanity workout. I didn't. I was still super sore from today's weight training and didn't want to over do it. After today's session my hips were sore. Yes, my hips. Never had that before.

Aside from being at the sub 200 lb level, my pants are getting a little loose. I had to start wearing a belt again and at one point was able to get to my regular loop. It was a little tight and I let it out a loop, but it was close. It won't take long to get to that loop if things keep up.

Weights - 45 min
200.4 lbs.