I have been plugging away at the gym for several months now, and I have not been able to see a lot of progress. Last week I decided I needed to step up and really work my butt off at the gym every morning. I decided to start running at the gym every morning. I knew this would be difficult as I had not run, without it being involved in a sport, for a long time. Last Monday I decided to start running, but in an effort to not kill myself I started out slowly. The first day of jogging I started for 10 minutes, and then I walked the rest of the workout. I was definitely tired, but it was not too much to handle. The next day I ran for 11 minutes, and then walked the rest of the way. This has gone on for over a week now and I ran for 16 minutes this morning. My plan is to get to the point where I am running for 30-40 minutes every morning. Once I can do this consistently, I will increase the speed I am running at. Right now I set the speed on my treadmill to 5.0. I realize this is not a very fast speed, but it is a nice jog that will get my cardio running effectively.

Like I said I have been doing this for over a week now and I love it. I feel better at work, and I am much more effective. I have had energy at night after work, and I have had a blast playing with my 19 month old daughter. Before I started running, I was usually tired at the end of the work day. I have more energy, and my clothes are fitting better. I will continue to run and hopefully the pounds will start to come off. I have temporarily quit playing basketball in the mornings so I can focus on my weight loss. I have set a goal to get down to 210 pounds before I start playing basketball again. This will motivate me to work even harder now, because I love playing sports and I can’t wait to get back on the basketball court.

I was in a rut and I needed something to take me out of it. Running has provided that spark for me. If any of you are in a rut, I would recommend looking at your workout and finding ways to increase your workload.

This morning I played some pick up basketball games. I usually play every Tuesday and Thursday, it is a great workout for me because I love competition and I love the comrraderie that I have with the guy’s I play wih. We have a great time with each other, and we are getting in shape in the process. This morning when we went to the gym it was very hot. It reminded me of my soccer game this week that was extremely hot! I was sweating before we even started to play. We had several great games and we played for about an hour and a half. It was a great time and I probably losta lot more than I normally would have because of the heat. Just my luck to have 2 extremely hot workout sessions in the same week. I guess that is what happens when you live in the dessert.

Last night I had an indoor soccer game and it had to be over 100 degrees in the building! We play in an old warehouse and we had a pretty early game so the sun was still blazing down on the all-metal building. It was 94 degrees outside, and it had to be much hotter inside. I could hardly breathe as I was running around and I probably drank a gallon of water. My wife is pregnant and it was so hot in the building she went out to the car and cooled off with the air conditioning. Although it was uncomfortable, it was probably one of the best weight loss workouts I have had in awhile. My shirt was drenched by the end of the game, but I felt really good! Plus, my team won the game. It was a great workout and probably very effective, but I wouldn’t mind it being a little cooler next game!

I have been going strong in the workout department. The only day that I did not work out last week was the 4th of July. I did help set up flags throughout my neighborhood that morning and I guess that could work as a workout. Also, we had a family party and my nieces and nephews decided to throw water balloons and cups of water at me. So I did some running there to get away from them. It may not have been an organized workout, but I probably got enough in for it to be effective. We also played volleyball at the party, I know I am losing weight and feeling better about myself because I always want to be doing something active. It is great to have the desire to workout and be active again. I have always been like that and I love that I am getting that drive back.

I am also going to be playing on 2 soccer teams for the next couple of weeks. They needed some players to fill in and I couldn’t pass it up. It will be good to play 2 times a week because it is such a great workout. I always feel so good after my games, even though I am completely exhausted. Plus we play in these old warehouses and the are extremely hot in the summer, so I probably have been losing even more because of that. It is a fun activity and I love working out when sports are involved.

Always remember to get enough water while working out in the summer! My sister-in-law had edema this last weekend because she was out in the sun too much and didn’t drink enough water. Be careful while you are dropping the pounds!

I think playing soccer is one of the best workout I recieve all week. I usually have a game every monday night and I am going to start playing pick up games on Saturday mornings. My monday night games are on an indoor league so it is a lot of running and very fast paced. I am pretty tired after a 40 minute game and I am also very sore. This last monday we had 2 games on the same night. We played our first game and I was exhausted, we play in an old warehouse and the air conditioning does not work very well. It was a hot summer day, and our game was at 7:00. It was probably between 90 – 100 degrees on the field. I have never sweat as badly as I did during that frst game. After the first game, which we won 4-1, we had a 40 minute break before we played the best team in the league. I was worried I was not going to have the energy to play in the second game. I was suprised when i felt as though I had more energy in the second game than I had in the first game. It was like I got my second wind and I was able to play very well. We ended up tying the best team in our league and we played one of the best games of our season. I am one of the youngest players on my team at 26, and their oldest player was probably 23. They were young, but the old guys ran circles around them and we should have won the game. It just taught me that I can still be in great shape despite my age!

I slept very well that night and got up and played basketball the next morning. I was still pretty sore from soccer, but I drug myself out of bed and made it to the gym. I played a good 40 minutes and felt great all day at work. It was a great 12 hours of working out!

I had a great workout this morning! I have been playing basketball every Tuesday and Thursday for about 40 minutes with a great group of guys. Lately I have felt like Basketball wasn’t enough and I would be getting a better workout at the gym, but I enjoy playing and I like the competitive aspect of it. This morning I tried something new, I went to the gym at 6:15 and worked out onthe treadmill for 30 minutes and then headed over to play basketball. Luckily my gym and the gym where we play basketball are close enough that this will work. I felt so good afterward and I am excited to do that every Tuesday and Thursday now.

Is there anything harder than working out and dieting while on vacation? We recently took a trip and I tried to my hardest to eat healthy and avoid the junk food, but it is difficult to eat healthy on the road. I avoided weighing in this morning because I did not want to be disappointed, I did make it to the gym and it felt good to get back in the routine of working out. I feel so much better during the day after I work out in the morning. I tried to work out while I was away, but it did not happen as much as I would have liked. The hotel we stayed at did not have a gym so I swam laps in the pool as much as I could. This trip was not a relaxing trip, and we remained pretty active the entire time. I am hoping that the activity during the day made up for the lack of actual work outs.

For meals I would try to eat healthy and avoid fast food places as much as I could. We took some fruit with us that we could keep in our refrigerator in our room and I ate that for breakfast and snacks. For lunch I would try to eat a small reasonable lunch. Dinner was the hard part because we were traveling with family so we ate dinner with the group. We went to a steakhouse one night, and a Mongolian grill the next night.

It was a road trip so I snacked on sunflower seeds during the trip. I have heard that sunflower seeds are a healthy snack, but I have not confirmed that anywhere. I like to eat sunflower seeds on road trips because it helps keep me awake. Hopefully they are healthy because they are one of my favorites!

I came away with a couple of questions after our trip:

• Are Sunflower Seeds a healthy snack?
• What snacks do you eat that are healthy and still taste good?
• How do you manage your diet while you are on vacation?
• What do you do to work out while you are on vacation?

This morning was a rough morning and I did not feel like going to the gym. Instead I stayed home and did Push Ups and sit ups in our living room. It was a good alternative to the gym and I feel like I got a decent work out with it. It was not as good as going to the gym, but I think everyone has mornings where they just don’t want to go to the gym. All in all it was a good alternative and I do want to either go swimming tonight, or go to the gym to make up for not getting any cardio in today.

Last night I had an Indoor Soccer Game at 11:10. These games last 40 minutes and I usually play anywhere from 25-35 minutes of the game. It usually depends on how many substitutes we have. Last night we had a full bench so I figure I probably played 25 minutes total. This is a fast paced workout with a lot of running and cardio training. It was tempting to eat something after the game, but with the game being so late I resisted the temptation. I had some water after the game and then showered and went to bed.

I usually play Basketball in the mornings on Tuesday and Thursday, I was a little worried I would not make it because I didn’t get home from my soccer game until 12:30. However, I rolled out of bed around 6:30 and headed over to the gym. I have to be to work by 8:30, and we don’t usually start playing until 7:00. This only leaves me about 30 – 45 minutes to play. It was a good workout, we only had 9 guys there this morning so it was 5 v. 4 playing full court. I was on the team that only had 4 players so I was able to run a lot to make up for being a man down. It was a good workout and I feel like it was effective.