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I can’t believe that it’s been over a year since I’ve written in my blog. And the last entry had me “Back in the 280’s again”. And here I am again, about to embark on another journey on my never ending quest for weight loss and health. The one thing I do know for certain is that I desperately want to be healthier than I am now. When people say “I’ve tried everything to lose weight”, I can honestly say “I’ve tried JUST ABOUT everything” but nothing seems to stick for very long. Maybe I have ADHD or something, but I get bored pretty easily and go back to my old ways. (old weighs) Whoever said it takes 21 days to make a habit was an idiot. I’m sorry but they were. Maybe it only took them 21 days to make a habit, but I’m pretty good at doing things for 21 days without issue, but I always revert back to my old habits. Why is that? I don’t want it enough? I’m too stubborn? (My vote lies here) or maybe I just haven’t been scared enough yet to think I really NEED to change. Well I had a pretty good wake up call about 5 weeks ago.

I was about to do my 3rd 1/2 marathon in the span of a year. I had been having some trouble with my hip and my physical therapist recommended a doctor to give me a shot to perhaps dull the pain just so I could get through the half. So I went to doctor Reedy’s office in Auburn thinking I’d just get a shot and be on my way. I ended up getting weighed, my blood pressure taken, my hips and chest x-rayed, my blood drawn and an EKG thrown in for good measure. Well the really frightening thing was that my BP was higher than it ever had been before. I think that initial reading was 191/155 or something insane like that. Since I had my lap band installed, I hadn’t taken any BP medication and the last time I had it checked, admittedly a couple years ago, it was fairly normal (for me) 140/100 or so.

Anyway after a stern talking to by Dr. Reedy, we agreed to meet again after the 1/2 and get on a program. He gave me the shot, and off I went. The 1/2 was the worst I had run in all 3, mostly because my hip pain led to quad cramping and I ended up walking the last 5 miles.So after the 1/2 I went back to his office and he put me on some BP meds and did a super blood test that checked all kinds of things related to my cholesterol. (My cholesterol wasn’t overly high and my HDL [the good stuff] was better than I ever remember it being) He also prescribed some Vitamin D, Vitamin E and a multi-vitamin and had me get some special trail mix from Trader Joes and a home blood pressure cuff. We set up another appointment for two weeks later.

I had that appointment last week and we went over my whole cholesterol panel. He prescribed some additional BP meds and increased the dosage of the first one he gave me. In addition, he put me on some cholesterol lowering medication and I finally got my prescription for Celebrex filled. (Even with my fancy insurance that I get through my lovely wife, it’s still nearly $90/month!). He also gave me some liquid vitamin B and liquid Omega 3-6-9 formula.

An interesting thing happened at the gym today. While running my 3+ miles, my heart rate was MUCH lower than I ever remember it being. Even cranking the treadmill up to 6.5 MPH quite a few times. My heart rate hovered around 125-131 throughout. Normally it would be around 155. So my question to Dr. Reedy will be if the BP meds have something to do with that? If that’s the case, if nothing else, I think this regimen will help my endurance.

Now to the new journey. Tomorrow morning the intent is to finally start working out with P90X on the “Lean” track, which while still pretty intense, is geared more towards losing weight and adding more cardio into the program versus building muscle. I’ve got my workout mat, my yoga blocks, some dumbells, pushup stands and a pull up bar. (Although I don’t have a good place to mount the pullup bar. I am going to be working out in the master bedroom, so maybe the master bathroom doorway will be the answer?

I’m excited to begin, but pretty scared too. See because I’ve tried just about everything, I’ve learned one valuable lesson about me. I don’t really follow through really well on these endeavors. So the 90 in P90X stands for 90 days. 90 days of 6 day a week workouts. I have NO doubt that if I do the workouts as intended, I will see results in my body. Positive changes. And if I do it, I’m hoping those positive changes are enough of an incentive for me to continue on and 90 turns into 180 and 180 into 270.

So tomorrow I’ll get up and take my before photos. So this is fair warning to you, if there is still anyone that still reads this blog, there will be some nastiness coming your way. While I’m no longer in the 280’s, I’m not far off and one week of good solid workouts will have me there again. I was at 292 earlier this week and I suspect I’ll crack 290 again pretty soon. I can only hope that 280, 270, 260 and 250 follow it. Once I’ve taken pictures, I’ll do the first workout, Core Synergistics, and report back. I won’t write here everyday I do the workout, I don’t want to bore anyone. But I will try to check in periodically and let you know how I’m doing.

I’ve signed up for my next 1/2 marathon. It’ll be the Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon in Las Vegas on December 2nd, 2012. I’m going to finally break 2:45 on that 1/2 marathon, I can feel it. I know I have a sub 2:30 1/2 marathon in me somewhere too. But baby steps. If over the next 90 days I can lose 15, 20 or even 30 pounds I know that 2:30 is certainly attainable. Gotta get my hip pain gone, but the weight loss can only help.

One last thing before I sign off tonight. Today I was carrying my new dumbells up the stairs. I had been doing that since yesterday. Yesterday I carried up the 5’s, then the 10’s. Today I said “screw it” and just carried the 15’s and 20’s up together. So with 35 pounds in each hand, 70 pounds total for those of you that are math challenged, I headed up the stairs. About half way up I realized that those 70 pounds are almost excatly what I had lost since August of 2009 when I had my lap band installed. And it was FUCKING hard to walk up the stairs. I can’t believe that I used to carry that weight around all day, every day. It was like an episode of the Biggest Loser on NBC where they have all the folks put back on all the weight they’d lost and work out. But on a much smaller scale. It was really a profound experience. And it got me to thinking about getting the next 70 pounds off. God, I would look amazing and feel incredible at 220!! Here we go…