Get fit by 45

Well, this is my final blog of the Forum fitness challenge.  The application essay I wrote back in January had several features in it. One of the most important…was that I wanted to serve as an example to people out there just like me…busy, in a food saturated world, but trying to do their best to be fit…but not having a good strategy to do it.

I now have that strategy…thanks to The Forum, Lisa Svaleson and Jennifer Goetz at Meritcare, and Lori Howard a registered dietician at Blue Cross Blue Shield of ND.

I have tried in every blog to be completely open with you about what I am learning and to encourage you to try what I was learning.   Since February, I have had about 4700 hits on my blog…so I hope I have shared some things that will help!! 

As for me, I still have my goal to be fit by 45 (August)…so if your interested in my progress, come visit my blog at ndwellnesscenter.com.

I leave you with a wish for good summer and a challenge to continue the quest for fitness!

Good bye and may God bless you!!!

Randy <><

This week I have had several people say "I bet you will be glad to have the Forum fitness challenge behind you"…referring to the pictures, blogging, and accountability associated with making one’s life public for a period of time.

At first I say "Yeah", but then reality hits….the fitness challenge is never over for me.  The habits I learned over the last 12 weeks have become a part of my life and need to be a part of my post-challenge lifestyle. I have to admit, I had kinda slipped into a "this is just about over" kind of mentality. 

The things I have learned are the most applicable ideas that I have ever experienced. The nutrition and fitness advice I have gained really work into a real… busy… life that many of us lead.

I hope you will make a commitment, along with me to continue these ideas into our futures. Sorry to break it to you, but our fitness challenge is never done!

As a reminder, I will continue my blogging at ndwellnesscenter.com if you are interested in tracking my progress through the summer.

Randy <><

I want to extend my thanks to Jennifer Goetz at Meritcare. She has walked this journey with me the last 12 weeks. She has combined humor, encouragement and honesty to give me the tools I needed to succeed. I remember her first message to me after she saw my normal daily intake of food…"dude, you eat like a girl".

That was only the start of her practical advice to me. The bottom line….she taught me how to eat..not how to diet.  Once I stopped starving myself, and balanced my meals…I began to see results. Her plan is so workable…I am confident I can make it work.

She taught me how to view food as fuel and to keep my fuel tank between 1/4 and 3/4 full.

I hope I have passed on some of her knowledge effectively to you…Jennifer, thanks for all you did for me.

Whoever raised Lisa Svaleson, my chosen trainer at Meritcare should be proud parents. She is a great personal trainer, and an even better person. She has been such an encouragement to me through this challenge. She has pushed me harder than anyone has ever pushed me, but has done it with encouragement and support (and swearing and yelling when needed).

Some of the main things I learned from her….

1. Have fun while you work out

2. Try something completely different

3. Adopt exercises that are "functional" and mirror real life.

For instance, yesterday she had me sitting on a wheeled stool with weights trailing behind on a rope…and using only my legs…pulled those weights across the floor using my hamstrings. Hard to do…but so effective.  And who can’t use that skill??  How many times in my office have I wanted to pull myself around my office in my desk chair…and haven’t had the strength to do it!   In fact, I rolled myself down to a meeting earlier this morning.  Stairs were challenging…just had to lean back and hold on tight.

She has worked on the back side of my body from the very start. I can feel/see the results in my back, butt and hamstrings. This focus on my total conditioning has really paid off. My left knee, which has had three surgeries on it over the last 7 years…had been in almost constant pain…especially when I golf.  

Through Lisa’s training, my knee has never felt better!   As I understand it, strengthening the muscles around the knee have made all the difference in the world. I walked 18 holes last week with no pain!

My encouragement to those of you that have been doing the same thing for a long time…try something completely different!  I know you will see results.

Next week I have my final evaluation to get a feel for my overall improvements from her efforts.  I will give you the results on my new blog at ndwellnesscenter.com. 

In the meantime, look for me doing some goofy looking exercise at the gym. I would be happy to show you what I have learned…and we can get weird looks together!!!

Well, this is the last week of my blogging…which was meant to communicate my progress in the Forum fitness challenge. In this final week, I plan to give it my absolute best to finish strong.  Friday May 2 is the official end of the 12 week challenge and will be my final blog entry as well.

Even if the challenge were to end today, I would consider it a success…not because of what I have done, necessarily, but because of what I have learned from the many people who poured their time and expertise into me the past 12 weeks. I will achieve my goal to be fit by 45. I will be 200 lbs and in better muscular shape by my August birthday.

I have learned life long lessons in both nutrition and exercise. As I continue beyond the challenge, I will be putting these into practice in my life.

My focus will now transition to the wellness challenge we have going on at work. We are involved in a "biggest loser" kind of competition. I have a partner and a fitness coach that I am accountable to.

I will be writing about this on ndwellnesscenter.com, Blue Cross Blue Shield’s new online wellness site. If you want to keep tracking my progress, I will keep bloggin there!!! 

Here’s to the last week of the challenge!!  

Randy  <><

As I near the end of my blogging days as part of this challenge, I would love to hear from you, the readers who have been with me through the ups and downs of this challenge.

It would be a real encouragement to me to hear from you.  Would you mind using the comment feature to send a quick note back to me to let me know…what main idea from all the ideas/learnings that I have  put on my blog…has helped you the most?

Are you anything like me…where the things I have written about have broken many myths about nutrition and fitness?  Let me know what those myths were.

One of my main goals that I stated in my application essay to the Forum was to serve as an example to others who were like me….trying to figure out how to achieve a higher level of fitness in a busy, food saturated world. 

So, help me understand….did I accomplish that part of my goal??  Would love to hear from you!!

This was the topic of conversation during today’s visit with Jennifer, my dietician at Meritcare.  As I have talked with people throughout this challenge…the first question people ask me is..how much weight have you lost?   Honestly…not as much as people may have wanted me to!  I am down about 10-12 pounds, which is the recommended pound a week goal, and have lost inches off my waist, and added muscle mass to my chest, arms, back and legs.

Now I would love to say "I have lost 20 pounds". But…is that the true measure of my success in the program? The answer, as I was reminded today, is NO.

Jennifer reminded me that it was called the Forum Fitness Challenge, not the Forum Weight Loss Challenge.  Summer, Lida and my goals were different in their details, but similar in their end goal…fitness.

So, how do I measure that?  Well, I have dropped one trouser size, my clothes feel looser, I have more energy, I am working out even more than the past, I have developed better eating habits, I am gaining muscle mass by turning fat into muscle, my cholesterol is down 100 points…and my wife can’t keep her hands off of me (embarrassing at times)…Sheesh, woman…get control of yourself!!

Anyway….Those are the measures of success that frankly…at times I lose sight of. I have fallen into the trap of defining fitness as solely weight loss. In fact, as I watched Valerie Bertinelli on aJenny Craig commercial last night..she said she was "one dress size healthier". This was a refreshing change from the sole focus on pounds lost.

Having said all that, I still hold a personal goal to weigh 200 pounds by my 45th birthday, but if I don’t quite get there and have practiced discipline all summer long, I know I will be more fit. After all, my ultimate goal was to be "FIT by 45". I feel I am well on my way!!!

Well, after being in Baltimore and around the Chesapeake Bay crab cakes all week…I knew I was not going to come home having lost a pound…I gained a pound…but, all in all, with all the food in front of me last week…I am not too dissapointed.

I am looking forward to getting back on track again this week. Today, I presented my learnings from this challenge to an Optimist club over lunch. I described my overall learnings as:

1. Don’t starve yourself

2. Vary your workouts for results

3. Practice portion control

4. Measure yourself differently…not always by just the scale

5. Legalize all Food…don’t deprive yourself..just practice moderation

Preparing for this presentation was a good exercise for me…to summarize all that I have learned over the last 10 weeks.  Just a couple weeks left of the challenge. Our final picture and interview is May 5.

I am sure I will say it again before I am done blogging, but I want to thank The Forum, Meritcare, all of you who commented on my blog, those that stopped my on the street and encouraged me, and Blue Cross Blue Shield for all the support, encouragement and skills I have learned during this journey.  I will never be the same.

I have been out all week…away from my family. I can’t wait to get home. It has been a really good week…but long.  If you have been tracking my week, I have been trying to give you a sense for my journey of trying to make good nutrition and exercise choices while traveling.

This week I have tried my best. Limiting my portions, passing on all desserts, eating fruits and vegetables…Last night was really tough. Here in Baltimore, crab cakes are the specialty. These are not just your ordinary crab cakes. About the size of a baseball, with chunks of crab about the size of a quarter.  I had a crab cake and some green beans along with it.  The hard part was passing on the appetizers…deep fried calamari, mushrooms stuffed with crab meat, etc.   But, I had a couple small ones and passed on the rest.

I have been working out…applying many of the exercises that Lisa has been teaching me. It was interesting to see/hear others in the workout room asking me about the exercises I was doing. I have to admit, some of the exercises are wierd looking, but they work for me!!

When I began to do one handed push ups while balancing on an exercise ball with my head and wrist bands, cut off mesh t-shirt and men’s exercise leotards…that garnered the most attention…not exactly sure why.   Maybe my form was a bit off…Lisa, I hope I was doing these like you taught me!!

I hope that reading my blog this week has encouraged you that eating healthy involves doing the best you can during weeks like this when meals are abundant and portion control is difficult.

Ready to jump on a plane and get back to Fargo!

Day three of my business trip brought 3 full meals in front of me once again. The portion control strategies I have learned worked!  I am finding that my new "normal" is just so different than it used to be.  I am able to push my way away from the table and not eat the cheesecake, etc. that is in front of me.  I am far from perfect on this issue, but I am encouraged by the mindset change I am experiencing.

Last night, we went to see the Baltimore Orioles play the White Sox at Camden Yard.  Beautiful ballpark. We were in a suite where food was provided. Hotdogs, brats, crabcakes, burgers….a potential train wreck if I wasn’t careful. Here again, not denying myself of this traditional baseball fare…I enjoyed a small amount of each.  I have not weighed myself while I have been here….but I think I am doing OK !!

This is a plan I think I can LIVE with!!!   I hope this encourages you to implement what i am learning into your lives. I hope you are hearing from me that these nutrition strategies are workable and livable.

Play ball !!!