Happy New Year!

I had my 8 week KOSAMA post assessment today and there were some very interesting results. I'll start with the good ones. My waist measured 3 inches smaller and my chest was 1/2 an inch smaller. I'm pretty happy with that and I can't wait to see how much more progress I'll have in 8 more weeks. Next my bicep measurement stayed the same un-flexed and increased by 3/4 of inch flexed, so the guns are starting to look pretty ripped. The number of push-ups I did went from 14 to 24 and the number of sit-ups in 60 seconds went from 19 to 44. So I'm definitely seeing big gains in strength too.

Now on to the slightly disappointing results. The big one was my weight didn't come down at all. Still about 311 pounds. My chin-ups were still 0, and I was only able to hang with my elbows at 90 degrees for 2 seconds. What can I say, I'm a big guy, chin-ups are hard, I'll keep working. My wall sit time went down for some odd reason. I think maybe I just didn't quite have my feet positioned correctly so my quads fatigued too quickly. Who knows, try again in 8 weeks.

Now, since it is New Year's Eve, I'm going to list some goals and resolutions for the next eight weeks and for the entire year.

Next 8 week assessment:
1. Weight = under 300 lbs.
2. Waist = lose another 3 inches.
3. Push-ups = do 30 without stopping
4. Sit-ups = do 54 in 60 seconds
5. Chin-ups = hang for 5 seconds. I would like to say 1 chin-up, but I don't think that's quite within range yet.
6. Wall sit = 2 minutes

2012 goals
1. Eat Healthier
2. Drink just a little bit less beer.
3. I'll leave this one open for reader comments, so post your suggestions below and I'll determine from those what to put in the 3rd goal slot.

The Plan

Okay, so my ultimate goal is to lose a whole bunch of weight. How am I going to do it you may be asking, well please read on to find out. Also, keep in mind that this whole weight loss plan is sort of flexible. I'm not (at least not yet) restricting myself to a super strict diet program. My hope is to get into a groove where I can consistently lose weight til I get to a point where I feel good and then I can maintain that weight with the same dietary and exercise program that I've been doing previously.

So without further ado, the current plan that I have to lose weight. My plan involves a lot of exercise, since that seems to be easier for me to do than watching what I eat. Although, I WILL TRY to watch what I eat from time to time.

I joined KOSAMA as a way of keeping my activity level very high for an extended period of time. I believe that KOSAMA is a better way to get me to exercise daily, because it is a group class and people will notice when I don't make it to class, so that is a great motivator. Also, they offer a class every week day at 5 A.M. which allows meet to get my exercise in for the day, while keeping my afternoons completely open. So I am able to run errands right after work, or meet up with friends or do anything social really after work, and I've already worked out. It's great.

So how is that KOSAMA going, you might ask. Well I've been doing the class for 6 weeks now. I've only missed 4 classes during that time period, so I'm sticking with it pretty well in my mind. And just as a side note, 3 of those missed classes were due to being out of town for the Whiley-Riley wedding, which was great. I haven't lost a whole lot of weight so far, but I can tell that there are differences in the way my pants fit, and in the way that my arms look, and several other indicators that I'm in better shape than I was.

I'm confident that I will see some drastic increases in weight loss when the holidays settle down. I know that the holiday eating from Thanksgiving and the buildup to Christmas have kept a few more pounds on than I would've liked, but if I hadn't been doing all that exercise, I could have gained weight instead of being down.

The ultimate plan going forward here is to continue to push the exercise envelope. I haven't done any straight up running in the last six weeks, but I'm thinking I can add the running exercise to the routine a few days a week while I continue to do KOSAMA daily. That way I'll burn even more calories and I'll also be training for that 26.2 mile run I want to do.

I'd like to take this opportunity to ask anyone out there reading this to suggest a good 1st time marathon. Please make any suggestions in the comments section.

Goals

Okay, so I'm probably not the largest marathoner ever. As a matter of fact, I have yet to complete an actual marathon, but it's a goal of mine.

I am a runner though. I could probably be classified as a recreational clydesdale. I've been running since October 2008, which is about six years after I graduated high school, where I was a football player for 4 years among numerous other activities that kept me in pretty good shape. October 2008 is also a mere 10 months after I graduated from Iowa State University, where I had some of the greatest times of my life and met some of the best people in the world, but I also exercised very rarely and my weight ballooned to well over 300 lbs. That's another goal to lose a whole bunch of weight.

So back to October 2008 when I started running. I started because of my uncle Dave Poe, who is a very athletic man. He has run a large number of long distance runs, which includes at least 2 attempts at 100 mile runs. I'll have to do more research on that and inform you later as to the exact history of my uncles running career. But in October 2008, Uncle Dave came to Sioux City, IA for a visit and to run in the Siouxland Marathon/1/2 Marathon. I was recruited to be a motivational pace setter for the last 1.5 miles, which was much to my surprise, having never run more than 1 mile in my entire life before that. Needless to say, I don't often back down when proposed with a challenge like that, so I did it. And when I crossed that finish line with my Uncle, I...was...Hooked!

I decided to start running right there. I wanted to lose weight and run marathons and compete with all the other runners. It's been a little over 3 years now, and I still haven't completed the marathon goal, but I have completed a 1/2 marathon, three 20k's, three 10k's, two 8k's, six 5k's, and one 7 miler known as the Living History Farms Cross Country Race (that was a hell of time). During all of that, I didn't lose much weight, but I have learned a lot about healthy eating, and I think I'm close to pulling it all together and making my lifestyle totally healthy. I've also recently joined KOSAMA, which I love, and I believe will help a great deal with the goal of eventually running a marathon.

Me and some friends after finishing our 20k at Dam to Dam

So, that is a brief history of my quest to becoming fitter and healthier and happier. I plan to continue write about my continued progress toward the marathon goal and other goals and my life in general, so stay tuned, this could get interesting.