Update

After the holidays, I'm trying to get back to the exercise bike. It hasn't been the greatest couple of months for that.

I rode it most days up until the week of Thanksgiving, I took 2 weeks off at work, the week of Thanksgiving and the next week. The plan was to ride my bike for at least 15 miles each day, figured that much time I could shed some pounds. The 2nd week we were going to go to Virginia so I knew I wasn't going to work out the whole time but the wife and I hadn't really gone down together in 6 or 7 years. All that sounded great but it didn't work out that way.

I ended up getting sick for the whole 2 weeks. I tried to bike a day or two but would end up coughing so much once I started breathing heavier so that nixed that. On top of that, my uncle ended up in the hospital and we didn't think he was going to survive so we cancelled our trip to Virginia.

I went back to work the following week but didn't bike much because I was still coughing quite a bit. I turned in bereavement time for the following Monday and Tuesday as my uncle didn't make it and then turned in personal time for Wednesday through Friday because I needed to use those up by the end of the year. On top of that, I had the next 2 weeks off with vacation time that I turned in at the beginning of November.

I had so much time off from exercising that I didn't bother doing anything the first few days because we were going to Virginia and I knew I wasn't going to be working out then and I figured I'd start back up once I got home. Which is what I did. I've been much better the last week or so and started to get back into it.

The main purpose of working out wasn't to lose weight but it's a good byproduct. It took my weight to get over 300 lbs to push me to do something but in actuality, my goal was just to get in better shape. So my legs felt better as I'm on them most days while at work. I was worried that with all that time off and the holidays that I would gain more weight back but because I was sick a lot of it, I stayed where I was. Last week I clocked in under 280 lbs for the first time in probably a decade.

So it's all going well in the exercise area of life. Christmas is over now so I can't lean on it to bring me some joy but I'm coming to terms with what is so hopefully I won't have to many down days.

Ho Hum!

I'm still working out. I don't remember if I said before but I've been doing 6 miles after work and 15 miles on my days off. For the most part, I stick with it. I do occasionally just don't because I'm not feeling it. Actually, most of the time, I'm not feeling it but I still force myself. It helps that I have mile goals set it my head depending on the day so I usually get that. I even rode for 20 miles one day last weekend, rode hard too. Cranked on my workout playlist, shut my eyes and rode. It was rather enjoyable, I wish it could be like that every time.

Generally, on Fridays, I listen to New Releases so I don't push as hard but I still put in the 15 miles, usually just a few minutes longer than I usually do.

I finished up the Star Wars challenge sometime since my last post. I received this in the mail yesterday.

It's pretty cool, I really like it. I've been putting all my miles now on the Route 66 one. I think I'm going to put those pages on my side bar somewhere so you can just follow along there.

I mentioned I was listening to my New Releases this morning. Beth Crowley's new album was pretty good, lots of lyrics kind of hit home. I really enjoyed it and added the majority of it to my playlists. Coldplay's new one however, was a waste of my time but I'm not a huge fan of theirs but I do have some of their songs that I like so I'm a lot more critical when listening to them.

Cheri goes for her annual MRI today. I'll be her driver because they have to drug her up to get her in the MRI tube. We're hoping nothing has progressed because she stopped doing the MS drugs awhile back. She still takes LDN which helps with the symptoms but we don't know much about it. The MS drugs side effects were too much for Cheri, she couldn't function doing her daily tasks because of them which is why she quit. I think every MS drug has treated her that way.

Sunday Catch Up

I've gone another week without posting but I promise, I'm still going at it. I haven't been quite as consistent this week but it's been an off week for me. Work is even busier (not production wise, just for me) so I've had to really force myself to do something because most days I just want to go home and chill.

Here's what I accomplished this week.

• Monday (9/9) - 3.12 miles walking
• Tuesday (9/10) - 5.03 miles on the bike
• Wednesday (9/11) - 1.54 miles walking
• Friday (9/13) - 10 miles on the bike
• Saturday (9/14) - off day/show
• Sunday (9/15) - 15.08 miles on the bike

I rode the bike on Tuesday because I had a class at one of the plants closer to me so I wasn't near the park near my work but since I was close to home, I came home and hit the bike. Thursday was the only day that I couldn't just get myself motivated.

Now that I have separated both of my challenges, I don't get too far each week on the Star Wars one.

I am over half way complete now though so there's that. The only thing I unlocked this week was this.

I unlocked it earlier in the week. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue doing the Star Wars challenges or not. I like them but I'm liking the Route 66 one as well.

Of course, the Route 66 one is huge so it feels like I make very little progress but I knew that going in. I might do a city like Paris or maybe even Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon after the Star Wars one for my walking.

Here's where I am on the map, I'm just outside Pontiac, IL. The red balloon thingy is a pace marker which I haven't really investigated into what that really is. 

There's also this.

I didn't mark down a specific weight to start at but I was just over 300 lbs. I know it really doesn't seem like much but I haven't really changed my eating habits. I still eat out a lot so just adding some motion in my life is helping, even if it's slowly.

Sunday Catch-up

I'm still working out. I wasn't as great this past week but I did alright.

Monday (Labor Day) - Road the bike for 15.04 miles

Tuesday - Walked 3.05 miles

Wednesday - Walked 1.55 miles

Thursday - Day off, rain

Friday - Walked 1.54 miles

Saturday - Day off, show day.

Sunday - Biked for 15.07 miles

So not too shabby. I should have walked on Thursday. It rained really hard but it was finished by the time I left work. I was afraid I'd end up on the other side of the lake when it started again and I would have been screwed. Hind Sight says I probably would have been ok.

I unlocked this earlier in the week from the Star Wars Conqueror's Challenge.

Other than that, those have been quiet. Now that I'm doing the biking on the Route 66 one, the Star Wars one has slowed down.

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I started a new blog for myself. I titled it Mental Health. It's a private blog so there won't be an address or anything but it's a place to put my private thoughts about my Mental Health. I've struggled with a few things recently so it's a place for me to unload my feelings.

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Not looking forward to work tomorrow. My partner in crime there has left. She did a lot for me, work and personally. She took a lot of stuff off my plate which allowed me to get a lot of stuff done that I didn't have time for and we made a great team and I'm going to miss that. She was also very good for my head because she was very good at getting me out of bad moods which work tends to put me in. I'd like to think that we were both good for each other in that aspect. So tomorrow starts work life without Lex and I am not looking forward to it.

the Weekend

I had a good weekend, exercise wise. I rode the bike 3 times. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I put up 7.5 miles on Friday, 10 miles on Saturday and then on Sunday I was wore out and was only going to do a couple of miles but I got on and started to think about work and got annoyed and ended up cranking out 6 miles in 25 minutes which is definitely faster than usual. 

I've gone almost 24 miles across Chicago which is barely 1% of the journey. Yikes!

I'm loving the maps on these real locations. It gets the map nerd in me excited.

At the end of the weekend, I have exercised either walking or biking for 8 straight days and I plan on walking all week. Even though it's supposed to be in the 90's

8 days in

 It's been 5 days since I posted, don't worry, I haven't stopped. I went and walked on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. I was having issues with my SI Joint on Tuesday. About half way through the day it started hurting. I took some Ibuprofen which usually makes it go away but it didn't even make it better so I took the day off. It was still hurting on Wednesday but not nearly as bad so I still made the walk. Just a little slower. I also unlocked this from the challenge.

I like these virtual cards. I'm crossing my fingers that I actually get the cards when I finish the challenge but I'm pretty sure I don't. I also unlocked this today.

This is the 2nd postcard that I've received. They are alright but nothing special. Just a glimpse into the story basically. I also unlocked this today, not even sure what they are. Kind of a glossary to the rebellion.

It comes with 4 pics attached.

So, as you can tell by what I said above, I did climb on the bike again this morning. I did another 6 miles. Tomorrow is a show day so I probably won't do anything. We'll see if I do the bike again on Sunday.

I weight myself this morning as well, 294.6.

6 of 7

I took off yesterday from exercising, as I said I was going to. I got up this morning and figured I'd get on the bike. I wasn't really feeling it so I only went 3 miles. I did go faster than I did on Friday. The reason I went 3 miles was that I needed 2.8 miles for my 1st postcard on the Conquerers challenge that I mentioned in my last post.

Pretty cool, kind of a storyline postcard. I wasn't sure what to expect since this isn't an actual place. This also popped up saying I unlocked it as well.

For informational purposes apparently.

I'm enjoying it, and hey, it motivated me to do something today. So there's that. 

I go back to work tomorrow so the plan is to walk at the pond for the next 4 days.

6 out of 7 days last week I exercised. I credit that to the fact that I'm not overdoing it and only doing a few miles at a time. Usually I get all gung ho and do too much and burn out quickly. 

So far so good.

5 Straight Days

For those that don't know, I work 4 10 hour days so I work Monday thru Thursday. I said in my last post that I walk close to work because I get really lazy after a 40 minute drive home. Well, I did great this week at walking. Had a couple of days where I really didn't want to and ran through excuse after excuse in my head not too, but ended up going anyways. I walked all 4 days which is a great start, especially for me.

The trick was, motivating myself to walk on the weekends. I got up this morning and it dawned on me, why do I need to walk. I have an elliptical bike in the basement. So I hopped on it and rode a little over 6 miles. I had to push myself, I've been having some back pain since yesterdays walk so I didn't push myself real hard. I just kept a slow and steady pace and rode for half an hour, which is what I usually walk.

I also found a site that is really cool, if you can afford it that is. They have all these challenges. You pick a challenge and then can track where you are in the challenge. They have a ton of cities that they actually place you on a street map. You can unlock postcards of points of interests when you pass places. 

They also do fictional places so I chose a Star Wars themed one. (Race bib pictured above). They have 6. With my 6 miles today and a couple of walks in the last couple of days. I unlocked this stuff.

The first is a virtual card, which if you know me, I love cards. I just wish it was a real one. The second is part of the story of the challenge I'm on. The challenge that I'm on is 87 miles and once I've completed it, they send you an actual medal with the challenge design on it.

I do plan on taking tomorrow off from exercising. We are setting up at a card show, which I do most weekends these days so I figured that will be my 1 day off a week.

So far so good.

Here we go again

I started working out again, I know, you've heard it all before. I've started blogging multiple times because I started working out so like I said, we've all heard it before.

The issue I've always had is I get off work at 4. It takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to get home. Which means I'm sitting down all the time so by the time I get home, I don't want to exercise. There's a county park just down the road from work that has a path around a lake (pond) but getting off at 4, I was afraid I'd walk and then by the time I get home, shower and eat that it would take up my whole evening.

I googled the pond and the path around it and it's only a mile and a half so I decided to try it out last week. Just do 1 quick lap and be on my way so I didn't feel like I was getting home so late. It's only a mile and a half but I figured it was better than nothing.

So on Monday last week, I hit it on my way home and it was kind of nice. I do the lap in just under 30 minutes and get on the road to get home so it's definitely doable. I was going to do it Tuesday but I ended up not leaving work until almost 5:30 then the same on Wednesday but I did hit it on Thursday. The weekend I planned on going out in the morning around the neighborhood but I never did. This is where I usually sluff off and just stop going but after work yesterday, I walked it again and then today happened. 

I wasn't feeling it at work today, my legs were tired and I was already pretty hot and sweaty just didn't want to go but I made myself. That was already not my norm. On the way, it looked like it was going to rain so again, I was thinking maybe I shouldn't go, but I did it anyways. Yeah me!

So that's 4 times in 2 weeks. and 2 days in a row this week. We'll see if the trend continues.

Getting better

I did a little better this week as far as working out some. Here's a little look into last week.

Monday I had over 10k steps and 10 zone minutes, all at work and I didn't do anything when I got home other than get up and move every hour when my watch told me I needed to.

Tuesday I had 12.5k steps and 32 zone minutes. Most of the 12.5k steps were at work but 30 of the zone minutes were on the bike. I ended up riding 7.24 miles. It was a nice day out and I had the playlist that I crank up when I have the windows down on the way home. After I got home, I still had the playlist going so I stayed on the bike until it was finished.

Wednesday I had 10.5k steps but only 2 zone minutes, that was all at work as well. I got annoyed with a 1 on 1 with my boss so I wasn't in the mood when I got home.

Thursday I had 11.3k steps and 6 zone minutes, again, all at work. We went out for supper when I got home and I didn't do anything after that.

You can see my work week is where I struggle, I knew I would. I did get 1 day in on the bike so it was better. We'll see if I can get better this week.

Friday I had 3.2k steps and 1 zone minute. I did ride the bike for an hour but apparently I didn't register any zone minutes for it. I just went a steady pace and sidetracked myself with going through my New Release playlist which lasted just over an hour so that worked out. I did do 13.15 miles on the bike which is the farthest I've gone this year. Not only all that but I made sure I didn't just ride the bike and sit down. I ended up being on my feet for most of the afternoon while working on my cards. At one point, I even squatted down to grab a book without realizing it. I ended up coming right back up which I couldn't tell you the last time I was able to do that without screaming in pain when I got up.

Today, we got up and went out for breakfast and ran a couple of errands which is usually my downfall but I forced myself to get on my bike when I got home. I was going to listen to my New to Me playlist but I noticed more songs on my New Release playlist so I went through those and a couple of artists on the New to Me before calling it quits. It ended up being around 48 minutes and for 10.27 miles.

My mom stopped by to drop off a couple of things and I told her what was going on and I told her to hit me up if she was going to go walking so hopefully that will help me do something else other than biking.

Tomorrow we have a show so I doubt I'll get on the bike, although it is the local show, maybe I'll get home in time to ride some. That's also the reason I'm posting on Saturday instead of Sunday. I knew I wouldn't be home much tomorrow.

Motivation

I've been trying to motivate myself to do something, just get off my ass and move some. I do ok on the weekends because I get up, throw on a work shirt (why dirty a good one) and go downstairs and hop on the bike. Notice I didn't say put on some shorts, I do it in my boxers. Again, why dirty a pair of shorts. I did this once last weekend and had planned on getting on the bike after work during the week. That didn't work out. I work 10 hours, 1 1/2 in the car and by the time I get home, I just want to sit on my ass, there lies where I need the most motivation. Work days.

I just hate to exercise, it's not my favorite thing to do and I'm all about doing things you enjoy and not doing things I don't so it's extremely hard to get motivated. Part of my motivation is I topped 300 pounds a couple of weeks ago (2/16). I usually go up and down in the 285-295 pound range but I hadn't logged in over 300 until then. I've been weighing myself once a week since November of 2022, mainly just to make sure I didn't top that 300 pound mark and I hadn't even though I wasn't doing anything to prevent it.

I see extremely obese people (not hard, they have their own shows) and my thought was always how do they get themselves that far. Well, I think I have that part figured out. Lack of motivation. So I'm trying not to get that bad.

You would think that be enough motivation, sadly, it's not.

On Friday when I got up, I went downstairs and did 11.3 miles in around 45 minutes. That's the most this year (haven't been doing it long) but my previous high was only 6.5 miles but I haven't really done it much at all, then proceeded to sit on my ass most of the day, which is my typical weekend. Although, the wife and I did load a dresser, desk and 3 nightstands in the car so there's a little bit more exercise.

Saturday, we had a card show in Fort Wayne so I get a little bit of exercise. My cousin and I carry everything in from the car and set up. He usually pulls the cart so he only goes to the car twice where as I bring all the stuff that doesn't fit in the cart. The showcases and boxes of wax so I make multiple trips to the car and back. Once inside we set up, I usually set up the newer wax while he sets up the boxes and the cheap wax. So I get a little exercise, nothing terribly exciting but it does get the heart rate up (according to my Fitbit) for 10 minutes or so. During the show, I sit and I stand. I occasionally walk around but not a whole lot. I prefer the shows where they are so busy that I don't have a chance to sit or shop but it's rare to never have a chance to sit. After the show, we pack up and load the car back up so again, 10 minutes or so of accelerated heart rate. After that I went to my sons and unloaded all the stuff we loaded up the previous day so a little bit of movement.

This morning, I did the same thing as Friday, got up, threw on a work shirt and got on the bike. I did 13.34 miles in an hour but instead of going and sitting at my laptop like I normally do, I walked around my basement for 5 minutes or so just to get the stiffness out of my legs from being on the bike. Then I went into my Card Room and stacked up some boxes on my desk so now I've been at least standing while on my laptop. When I stop typing to think about what I'm going to say, I wander around my room. It's now been 45 minutes or so since I got off the bike and I still haven't sat down. The wife got out of bed so I went upstairs to talk to her for a few and started my laundry as well so we'll see if I can sustain the movement. I don't really have much planned today so I'm not sure how long it will last. At least I'll be heading for the shower soon so there's more not sitting on my ass time.

The real purpose behind this blog post is possible motivation to keep going as well. There's a girl at work who's trying to improve her life and part of that is physical so she's been trying to push me some as well. My wife pushes some and I could get my mom too as she's is always trying to stay physical. I need to reach out because I obviously can't motivate myself. The problem with other people doing it is I tend to do my own thing so I don't necessary listen to other people either.

We'll see, I'll try to keep going on here about my fat ass. I'm pretty sure I have a tag over there called fat ass that I used years ago when I tried to work out.

Weight Loss Wednesday

Just a quick post as it's getting late (for me) and I'm getting sleepy but I wanted to get a post up.

So about a week ago, I decided I needed to get off my ass and at least get a little active. My role at work has changed some in the last few months and that has me sitting on my butt a lot more and messing around (mostly) with Excel sheets. I feel like my weight has slowly been creeping up. 

The problem is, I suck at motivating myself to do things I don't enjoy and I don't enjoy working out in any kind of way. We have an elliptical bike just sitting there (my wife uses it) but like I said, no motivation. Well, as I said on Monday, I'm into music and I've been wanting to go through certain playlists and find new songs so I figured a half hour a day, I could ride the bike and go through that playlist. So that's my motivation, finding new music. I'm hoping by the time I get through the playlist that it'll be habit and just keep riding it.

Since this my 1st post about it, I'll go ahead and throw it out that the last time I weighed myself I was 312 lbs which was on Monday so that will be my starting weight. I have rode the bike for 8 straight days but there has definitely been days where I had to force myself to do so so we'll see if I can keep it up. 

Here's to another week of riding the bike.

A Week in the Life of

I'm still finding my way around these posts. They are essentially what happened in the last week. I haven't really had an order to them yet. I just went through my "A Day in the Life" posts to see if I had anything to talk about this week. I'm not going to rehash my Instagram posts, you can follow me on there if you want to see my post a day.

Monday night we didn't have much to walk so I searched for a movie. If I don't already know of a movie, I just pick one of the streaming services or on demand and go through it until we find one. We ended up watching Unknown, I believe it was on Netflix. It stars Liam Neeson and we hadn't seen it so we figured why not. It wasn't anything special but it was a decent movie. Enough to entertain us for just under 2 hours.

Had Taco Bell this week. If you don't know my history with Taco Bell, here's a quick reference. Used to love it, had it all the time (see my stats post). Last year they took a bunch of stuff off their menu, including most of my usual order. Haven't been going there nearly as much but my wife likes the Queserito so I would just grab some chili cheese burritos. The problem with that is her order can only be ordered through the app, not a problem, use it anyways, but the chili cheese burritos aren't on the app, no idea why. So basically I get annoyed every time I go there because I have to do an online order as well as one at the drive-thru. When I get to the last window, they'll hand me one order and I always have to explain that the next one is mine as well. Like I said, it was just annoying.

Well this week when we grabbed it, I noticed a Club Chalupa and tried it. It was pretty good so I can order that now instead of having 2 orders. They also announced that they were bringing back their Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes which is one of the items they took away that I liked. So my Taco Bell intake is looking up. I just hope the Club Chalupa isn't a promotional, it wasn't listed there on the app so I think it might be a regular menu item.

I pass a mall on the way home from work and it's a dead mall (see above). A really dead mall. There are only a few stores left in it besides the anchors (JC Penny and Hobby Lobby). There are supposed to be 4 anchor stores and even 2 of those are empty. Basically, it makes it nice to walk, not many people and warmer than walking outside right now. I see more mall walkers than customers. I ended up walking 3 days last week. I started Tuesday, went back on Wednesday. Thursday my sister-in-law and niece were visiting my wife so I came straight home after work to see them. My wife tends to visit all of her family in the middle of the week while I'm at work so I don't see them often. My mom ended up meeting me out there and we walked on Friday. I went over 2 miles each day which is my goal, for now. 

Part of the problem I have with walking at home (other than it's winter right now) is by the time I get home, I just want to shower and relax so I talk myself out of walking. That's the main thing on why this mall walking might be good for me. We'll see how long I sustain it though, because to be honest, I really don't enjoy walking.

We had to work yesterday (Saturday) and I might have stopped there on the way home but I had made plans to have lunch with my youngest daughter. Her girlfriend and my wife, neither care for Hacienda and we both like it so we tend to go there. It's the second time we've done it, I'm going to try to make it a regular thing. Every month or two or something. Otherwise, I don't see her much as she doesn't visit us much more. Even though she is in the area all the time. Damn kids!

I ended up walking 7.75 miles at the mall this week. Hopefully I can make it a regular thing since last time I went to the doc, for the first time I was over 300 lbs. Being 6'3" helps we wear it better than most but I would like to get rid of some of my gut. I've been pretty steady in the 290's for a long time so it's not like I put on a ton of weight but there's something about that number, 300 pounds just seems like a lot.

Not to much going on at work. The city surprised us with an inspection on Wednesday. During our Q&A, he mentioned that he only schedules us for an hour because he knows the walk through never takes long because we are always on point. He said some places he goes he has to schedule 4 hours. Everything went well, he even contacted our EHS coordinator and told her that he was impressed with our staff (which is me and our EHS person) so that's always good to hear.

The wife and I went out Friday night, it seems to be becoming a regular thing where we drop my son off at work and than go to 5-Guys burger and fries (they have curb side pick-up) and than we just sit in the parking lot in our car and have supper. Afterwards we run down to Steak 'N Shake and grab a couple of shakes, and again, sit in the parking lot and have our dessert. It really is the perfect date night for us. We enjoy the food and I would rather sit in the car, listen to our tunes and enjoy a meal than be stuck in a restaurant where people are annoying and it's usually loud so you can't really talk that well. My wife has issues with a lot of noise, it makes it hard to focus when there is a lot going on so it's a nice date night for us. We can even stay in our PJ's which is what we tend to do. Don't worry, our PJ shirts are regular shirts so you won't notice unless you see our PJ bottoms.

Not sure how much this will continue though because my son is taking his driver's test on Tuesday. Hopefully, he'll pass it so we don't have to drive him anymore. The taking him isn't a big deal. The picking him up between 10 and 11 pm is because on work nights, I'm in bed around 10 and my wife has trouble driving at night. She goes and gets him, luckily traffic isn't really bad and it's not real far. Her eyes have issues with the lights coming at her as they don't dilate very quick so she can't go from darkness and than a light in her face.

I guess that's all for last week. No real plans as of this week other than my son's driving test. Hopefully see you all back here next week.

Losing weight, slowly

So, since I got a new Fitbit for Christmas and I was playing around with, I noticed it has a food and water tracker. I already knew it did, my old did as well, but this one I can actually add on the device so I don't have to remember everything. It also has a weight tracker and when I was putting my weight I played with the weight loss portion and it said if I keep the calorie intake in the green that I could lose weight. I set it up to lose 50 lbs, by November.

I know that sounds pretty easy to do in 11 months but let's face it, while I am pretty overweight, I'm also very healthy. I have some aches and pains that I hope will subside with the weight loss but I also realize that I'm closing in on 50 years old so I'm probably still going to have those. I'm not a diabetic, nor do I have high blood pressure. As a matter of fact, the only issue I have are my work pants are starting to get a little snug. If I need to prove that I'm healthy than here you go, I had perfect attendance at work last year. I get 2 personal days to use anytime I call in, I used them during our Christmas break so I could get paid during the time off.

So losing weight by November isn't that big of a deal because I'm not losing weight because of health problems but rather, just because I'm fat. So my goal is to keep my calorie intake in the green (it measure how much I eat compared to how much I burn) and drink more water. It doesn't seem like much but I do tend to overeat and I don't drink much water so they are both necessary anyways.

The real reason that I'm choosing to lose weight this way is because I like what I eat and I hate exercise. It's not that I can't exercise, it's that I don't enjoy it. I don't like working out, I don't like even going for a walk without a reason so. I have other things I'd rather be doing. So this is what I'm going to try and see if it works out.

Besides, it's unhealthy to lose weight to fast.

Sunday Thoughts

You can see above about when I got up. Which isn't great because I probably will have trouble going to sleep tonight which means 4:45 am is going to come awfully early tomorrow morning.

I have no plans today, sit on my laptop and not do a damn thing. Cheri left not long after that photo was taken above to meet our oldest daughter in Indianapolis so it's just me and the kids. I'm sure they'll play video games most of the day but I don't have any extra money this week to go do anything. I do have some plans Tuesday that will take a little cash so I have to save what little I do have. Right now, I'm in my recliner, on my Chromebook and listening to my playlist.

I was going to mention this yesterday but I forgot. I keep track of who I listen to as far as music go, I do this for my stats as well as my Last Song of the Day blog. Last month, Taylor Swift was my most listened to artist. Why? Well because she released a new album and my wife if obsessed with her and will listen to it over and over for a few months. I get stuck in her car occasionally and she plays it.  Yesterday, we went shopping and once again, I got stuck in her car again. So guess who has a huge lead in this month's list? Cheri can't stand the type of music that Taylor plays now (Pop) other than a few songs but because it's T-Swift, she loves the album. I don't get it. I did add some of the songs on my playlist because a few of them weren't bad but to listen to that album over and over, I'll pass. I might have to start carrying headphones with me.

Day 378 - Friend, NE (1218.1 miles)

Since there is nothing going on today and usually most Sundays, I thought I would give a minor update on my steps for the year on Sundays.

You can see above that I'm still in Nebraska but I am heading West for the mountains. Good think I'm not actually walking in the mountains, I'd be dead. Here's some stats so far this year.

Goal = 1500 miles (4.1 miles/day)
Currently = 39.33 (3.02 miles/day)

That's not going so well. The 1500 miles a day goal is rounded up from 8,000 steps a day but because I've had more days off work than normal, I'm still quite a bit lower. A couple of Mondays off because of New Years and a court date as well as I have only worked one weekend so far, also because of the holidays. I generally average around 8,000 on work days so it'll be a matter of making up for my lazy weekends which in most cases will only be Sundays because I generally work most Saturdays. I imagine the miles per day will gradually go up as it gets warmer as well with home projects, mowing the lawn, ect. I won't be quite as lazy. Who knows, maybe I'll get out and walk the neighborhood occasionally.

After blogging the first half of this post, I took a break and got around to putting away the cards I've picked up the last couple of months. I tend to let them stack up until I get around to putting them all away. They are out of sight, so the wife doesn't usually complain but the drawer I keep them in was getting full.

I don't remember what she did to be a pain in the ass. We ended up hooking the Wii up because I had brought it up from downstairs. Cheri and I have talked about doing the yoga and stuff on the Wii Fit. We used to do it a few years ago and we both felt better, had a little more mobility so we thought we might try it again. Samantha and I got it set up and ended up doing a the balance games before starting to do the games. Trevor joined in after awhile and we ended up being on it until Cheri got home.

Good movie, not so good weight

I complained about having motivation, well I got some today. I've noticed that I feel bigger plus my wife has mentioned that I look bigger. I really noticed that in the mornings at work, before I eat, that I had already felt bloated, which I normally feel after I eat. So I decided to take the plunge and got on our industrial scale. It's probably a good thing it's an industrial scale because I might have broken one of those little bathroom scales.

Good movie, not so good weight.

I used to sit right around 275 lbs. I wasn't happy with it, but I was okay with it. I am 6'3" so while I consider myself fat, I'm not completely round, yet. After getting on the scale and noticing just how close I was getting to 300 lbs, consider myself motivated. It was a tad chilly when I got off work to go walking. Not to mention rainy, which has now turned to snow, that should tell you how cold it is. I've been trying to think of things to do. I would love to shoot basketball again, I love playing but just don't get the opportunity to do so very often. Maybe this spring when it warms up, I'll run down to the local school and shoot some hoops. Obviously I'll probably start walking more often after work and I really need to on the weekends. I've even thought about running to the mall after work and maybe do a little walking there while it's cold out. We'll see, I just know I need to do something because I am the heaviest I've ever been.

I've considered changing my eating habits, for about 20 seconds. I like food to much, I'd rather exercise.

Day 57. Wind Point, WI (177.7 Miles)

As you can see, I crossed over into Wisconsin a few days ago. I haven't come across anything real exciting to show you so I haven't really been posting but I am still keeping track. It's been my usual walking 6500+ steps during work days and lucky to get 1000 on non-work days.

Day #1 - Indiana

As you can tell, these will be a day behind in accordance to the date since I have to wait until midnight (or when I go to bed) to get my steps for the day.

Well, I got out yesterday and did a little walking. We are dog sitting so I took Milo for a walk. That always makes me feel awkward because I have to put my Fitbit on my opposite hand because I hold his leash with my right hand and it doesn't register my steps.

I need to get out and walk today soon because it's supposed to rain this afternoon. Tomorrow I go back to work so I'll get back to getting steps there. I walked 2.6 miles yesterday which wasn't real far, I basically made it into town and not much further. According to Google maps, this is where I stayed.

As you can see, there are a couple of vehicles there so I had to take out a few zombies. I used my gun but I decided I needed to find something quieter because now there are some zombies outside wanting in. I'll just ride them out until tomorrow. Hopefully, they'll be gone by then. I'm going to look for something here that I can use for a quieter weapon. I thought about using that truck but I think it's safer walking, engine noises attracts them. Walking, I can go my own pace and such. I'm in no hurry to get to SLC. Slow and steady wins the race.

They say you want a Resolution

Here we are, at a new year, with new resolutions. I don't make resolutions, never really have but there is one thing that I need to work on, my fat ass, or more, my fat gut. So, once again, I'm going to try to work out of some sort. I'm going to try to walk again. I've done that a few times here on this blog, and it never lasts. So this time, I'm going to make it a little more interesting. Something I do love, is maps. So my goal for this year, is to walk to Salt Lake City, UT from my home in Indiana. Why? Well, there's a rumor that a government has set up there and it is considered a safe zone. Why do I need a safe zone? Well, because I'm now in a zombie apocalypse. That would be something else I love, apocalyptic stories. I'm a huge the Walking Dead fan and I read apocalyptic thrillers all the time, about all I read anymore so I'm going to combine those things I love with something I hate, exercise.

I chose Salt Lake City because it's approximately 1,500 miles away which is an average of 8,000 steps a day for a year. I chose 8,000 because while I generally am close or over that on work days, it'll be the making that up on the non work days which will be more difficult. I plan on doing some walking on my work days when I get home to get over 10,000 steps a day. Which will make my weekends a little more relaxing. I still plan on walking on those days but not 10,000 steps. I learned last time, that is a lot of steps to be taken just on one walk.

I'll blog about it, I doubt every day, but maybe I'll throw in a story about something that happened that day during the zombie apocalypse, maybe not. I do plan on posting where I was sleeping that night, hence, the use of the maps.

Sure, I could change my diet, but I love food so I just don't see that happening. Although it's ironic that I'm sitting here eating M&M's while I type this out. I hate exercise and to be honest, I'm not sure what all I could do as far as lifting weights and such because of other issues. Hurt shoulder, bad knees, ect. With walking, I usually enjoy the time jamming out on my headphones and it generally takes less than an hour a day. I don't want to take to much time away from my sitting on my ass time. (Haha, but not really).

This may accomplish a couple of things.

1. It'll get my fat ass out there doing something to work off this gut.
2. It'll get me to blog more here. Maybe I should track how many words I post as well.
3. Let's face it, if I can lose some weight, my body would feel better.

So we'll see how far this goes, hopefully further than the last time I tried to exercise.

Walking and 7-Eleven suck

Just to let you know how hard this challenge (yesterdays post) is going to be for me, I was going to go walking today after work, you know, kind of a warm up before the challenge starts tomorrow. About 2 o'clock, at work, I got stuck outside in the pouring rain as a sudden storm hit and I was on my forklift trying to get some things inside. I was drenched. I wasn't all that concerned with being wet since I was getting off in half an hour anyways but when I got home, I helped the wife put the ice maker back together (she was trying to figure out why it stopped working) and I still planned on going but do you know what ultimately prevented me from going? My socks were wet. Yup, there you have it.

My thought process was at first, I'll just go for a walk in my work boots (they look like tennis shoes/sneakers) so I don't have to change my socks. Then my though process was, it probably won't be good to walk in wet socks, I'll probably end up with blisters or something. Then I was thinking, but I don't want to change socks just to go walking and then take them off to shower. So I just didn't go.

Do you see how easy it is to talk myself out of going? Do you see how hard it is going to be to do this challenge?

I'm going to give it a go though, we'll see how well I do.

If you follow me on Twitter, or should I say, if you actually read what I tweet because I'm sure the majority, if not all, of my followers don't even know I exist, then you saw this tweet earlier, and I shall explain here.

On my way home, I took an alternate route than I normally take. Because we got blasted with rain, the road I work on floods and I mean floods. I have seen cars get stalled trying to drive though it. So I took the back route out to avoid that and I needed gas, so I hit the 7-Eleven that I pass by. Normally I hit, what we call, the Smith's Food Mart which is on my usual route. It's been there for years and I tend to me loyal to places that never give me any problems. Plus they have greasy gas station food that I love (Pizza Puffs). Yummy! I'm hungry now.

Anyways, I went to 7-Eleven and inserted my card, put in my pin number and it said cancelled by cashier. In other words, they run a certain amount on my card at the start to make sure you can afford gas and I didn't have enough in it. Now, I was only going to put $10 in, for one, I get paid Friday. Two, $10 will last me a week because for the most part, I drive back and forth to work and that's pretty much it. I only work 4 miles from work, 8 miles round trip so I don't use much gas. Since mid-February, I have only gone 2625.7 miles.

I absolutely hate the fact that these places do this. I understand they are protecting themselves from thieves but you know what, don't punish me for the criminals out there. I understand, but it doesn't make me happy. So I got in my car and drove off. I do pay at the pump because I don't want to go inside and pay. I don't want to roll my windows up, take the keys out and lock the car when I should be able to scan my card and never leave the area around my car. Not to mention, people suck so if I can avoid a few, I'm out. I drove off and went to Smith's, which is a Phillips 66 station. Put my card in, put $10 in and left.

For the record, do you know how much I had in my account when 7-11 denied my card? $65 was my balance. My car won't even hold $65 of gas at the current cost. They must be running it for $100 to see if you deem worthy for their gas.

I will be avoiding 7-Elevens from now on.

Arthritis update and we're becoming an animal household

It's been almost a month since I posted about my arthritis and in that month, my knees have hurt 1 other time. So as bad as it hurt for that few days, if it's even arthritis, it's apparently not that bad. If I had to be honest, as much as my body aches, when I've played softball, my legs have felt pretty good. As a matter of fact, last week I was 3 for 3 with a single and 2 doubles. Even stretching out the doubles my legs didn't hurt. Last year, I could barely run to 1st without being in pain. This year, I sprinted out a triple and my legs felt good. I certainly don't think I'm in better shape, I'm still pretty round, but my legs seem to be doing a lot better. I get really achy, for the most part, when I've been sitting on my ass for to long and then get up. The cat loves to sit on my lap because I will sit for a good 3 or 4 hours without getting up but oh my god, can I feel it when I do. I'm guessing since I'm a homeowner now that mowing the lawn every week is probably a good exercise that I wasn't doing before as well.

Speaking of the home, the really good news is Cheri has been getting out and about and doing the outside of the house. She has been planting flowers, painting, putting down bark, shoveling, ect. Except this week because it's been ungodly hot. The great news is even with all that activity, the only real soreness is muscle soreness and not her bad back or the Fibromyalgia. So it's been good exercise for her as well.

We are dogsitting our granddog this week and maybe longer. To be honest, we're not sure how long he'll be here as our daughter is between places for a few weeks but we also know how much she hates being without the dog so I have a feeling, she'll end up on our doorstep sooner or later.

Having a dog here reminds me why I'm a cat person or I should say, why my wife is a cat person because Milo (the dog) is up her ass. Every time she gets up to do something the dog follows. Right now, she's in the kitchen trying to cook supper and he tries to sit between her and the stove. So needy. Cats, they want nothing to do with you most of the time. You can get up and go to the bathroom, come back and the cat hasn't moved. Don't even get me started on getting up to let him out and let him back in. Milo loves to go outside at night and run around for an hour and then come in. You'll be cool because you think he probably wore himself out but no, 5 minutes later, he wants to go out again. He does this constantly once it gets dark. A pain in the ass.

Example. Right now my wife is cooking. Here's the dog.

and here's the cat.

I won't even get to the phone calls I get from my mom and brother, "Can you go let our dogs out?" Cats, leave them some food out and they are good all weekend.

Don't get me wrong, I love dogs. I love that you can rough house with them and they are truly mans best friend. More obedient, easier to train, ect. but I'm lazy, and I like my house not smelling like dog. Especially wet dog because they still have to use the potty even when it's bad weather.