DarqByte

I’ve never really worked out on a regular basis. I’ve tried in the past for different stretches of time, but ultimately I’ve never been successful at it. The only times I’ve ever lasted any amount of time is when I got to work out with Laura. But with her early-morning schedule of working out conflicting with my work hours, I can’t join her in the morning.

So this month I thought I was making decent enough progress on losing weight that I might actually hit 175 pounds by February 1st. That’s not looking like it’s going to happen, with only even a couple of days late last week that killed some progress I’d made. Apparently my margin for error on losing weight is very small now, so there’s almost no way for me to continue losing weight with what my willpower looks like.

Couple that with the fact that I do generally want to be in better shape, and you’ve got the recipe for me to attempt to work out again. Now keep in mind losing weight via a proper diet and working out are two separate things. You can work out and not really lose weight. But in combination, they can actually work to help you lose even more weight and to get into better shape.

I started working out again last night at the UNLV gym. Being a student I can use the facilities for free, so I gave it a shot last night after my last class ended at 8:15pm. Yeah, that’s kinda late, especially since I get up for work at 6am and only have any kind of a break from 4pm-5:30pm, the time between when work ends and my first class begins. So it was a long, filled day.

But it went well. I’m a bit tired and slightly sore today, which means I pushed my body a bit, which is what you need if you’re trying to get into better shape and lose weight. All I really did was this elliptical-type machine, I don’t know what exactly it was. What I do know is that it required a bit of endurance and some leg strength in muscles I don’t normally use. I was sweaty and tired afterwards.

I’m going to vary my routine up, hitting different equipment at different times. I do want to do some weight training as well, but I need to figure out what muscles I want to focus on and when. In weight training, I’ve learned that you need to leave a day between times when you work out the same muscles, so if I do my upper body one day, I shouldn’t do them the next day. I think this’ll work to my advantage, since I want to combine cardio and fat burn with strength training. Oh, and I need to make sure I work out my abs, since that’s where most of my fat is.

Basically, my workout routine will be on weekdays. I can’t see myself heading up to UNLV on the weekends to work out, since Laura can’t go there, it’s far enough from my house that driving there to work out isn’t palatable, and I’d be taking up time I could be spending with Laura. My schedule will be:

Monday: After work ends at 4pm
Tuesday: After class ends at 8:15pm
Wednesday: Indoor soccer
Thursday: If indoor soccer starts 9pm or later, then indoor soccer. Otherwise, after class ends at 8:15pm
Friday: After work ends at 4pm

All of these times are pretty convenient for me in terms of distance from my last activity of the day and not overlapping with potential Laura time much. I get off of work before Laura does, so working out immediately afterwards doesn’t impact seeing her much. Indoor Soccer overlaps with her church choir practice. The only day that gets impacted much is Thursdays.

So today is day 2. Not sure what exactly I’ll be doing yet. Probably some weight training of some sort and maybe ending with a small dose of cardio.

Robert Life weight loss, working out

34 inches? I know what you’re thinking about but no, I’m not talking about that. 34 would be selling myself way short anyway.

The latest chapter in my whole “make myself look and feel better” thing has arrived. I’ve been putting off getting new clothes mainly because I wanted to complete my weight loss first. I didn’t want to have to buy a bunch of clothes in a stopgap fashion. Unfortunately, my last two pairs of jeans bit the dust, so I was forced to replace them. They were Levi’s, and they were built rather well. The only problem was that it was tough to find 38-30s that weren’t below my heels. They weren’t truly 30s so I kept stepping on them and wearing down the bottom of the pant legs. For the record, I really needed 37s, not 38s. They don’t make 37s.

Now I’m in 34s! 34-30s and they aren’t too long. This makes me a very happy person. I’ve lost at least 30 pounds and 3 inches off of my waist. Good stuff. I’ve recently begun making progress again and I anticipate hitting the 175 mark by the end of this month or early February. That would be 35 pounds off since I started nearly a year ago. I think my target is 160, but I won’t really know until I get there.

I recently looked at photos of me when I went to just the mustache, the Robstache. Wow I’ve lost weight since then. I do look better. Still got further to go. Additionally, I’m going to try to start running in the mornings with Pepper (and potentially Laura). I was supposed to start this week, but being excessively tired when my alarm went off put the kabash on things. Hopefully I’ll start tomorrow.

And if I do start tomorrow, wow what a day it will be. Today I start my next semester of MBA courses. In 50 minutes, actually. I’m in Lied Library right now. But because my classes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I’ve signed up to play soccer on Wednesdays. I was originally waffling on the decision, but Laura’s support for me switching days and the fear of getting really out of shape spurred me to sign up. In any case, tomorrow’s my first Wednesday day of soccer on a new individual coed team, and for some odd reason we have two games tomorrow… What the fuck. Two games? A doubleheader? I’ve done it before, but by choice not by facility scheduling. Running in the morning plus two soccer games in the evening. Wow.

And that’s not the end of it! I told my Thursday soccer team I’d make the games if they were late enough, which is basically 9pm or later. So the 9:10 game this Thursday? Yup, I can make that. And I’m hoping to run on Thursday morning as well. Which would make three runs (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) and three soccer games from Wednesday morning to Friday morning. Wow. See why I think I’ll hit 175 this month?

In other news, I wish I had endless time to do everything I want to do. Not only am I trying to find time to work on OMGN 4, I want to write a memoir about my video game life until, well, now. I think it would be very interesting because I don’t think there’s much of anything like that out now. And I’m a pretty good example of someone who gamed a lot when they were a kid and make the transition to being a responsible (well, at least I think so) adult with a married life and a job and other normal responsibilities.

This brings me to another subject: video games. Specifically, the original Atari joystick. See, my friend Jonathan recently got a tattoo in Elvish from Lord of the Rings. He loves it and I’ve always wanted a tattoo and I’ve always loved video games. I wasn’t 100% set on what tattoo I wanted but I knew I wanted a video game-related one, especially after seeing Anne’s roommate Ed’s “Mario 1up” tattoo he’s got. See, I didn’t want a tattoo that was system- or franchise-specific, I wanted one that represented video games as a whole. Now I know the Atari joystick is still Atari, but it represents so much more than that these days. And I’m asking Jonathan to give me a nice illustration of it so I can verify I indeed want to get it permanently marked on my body.

Laura’s been making sure I really want one, and I do. I am, however, curious to know what you all think of it…

Anyway, that’s it for now. Chat at you all later when I know more about my spring courses and I can let you know if I think I’ll be on track to continue my pursuit of a 4.0.

Robert Athletics, Life, Musings, School soccer, unlv, Video Games, weight loss

So I’ve been struggling over the course of the last… hell, five months, with continuing to lose weight. Laura and I have been losing weight and dieting since sometime in February, I think, and Laura’s hit her mark and actually gone under it a bit. Me, on the other hand, I never really set a mark to meet. I’ve been more interested in shrinking my man-jugs and belly.

The first 20 pounds went relatively easy, actually. I dropped from 210 to 190 pretty quick, by early May. It was a cinch, essentially. But the last 10 have been hell so far. In May, Laura and I took a trip to San Francisco and I regained my larger appetite as well as lost some of my willpower to eat properly during that trip, and it’s been haunting me since. It took forever to lose another 5 pounds to hit 185.

Well, I’ve recently rediscovered my willpower and lower appetite, or so I hope. And today I stepped on the scale, and despite eating a poor lunch yesterday, it read:

179.7!!

Man oh man. The last 5 pounds were tougher than the first 20, but they were easier than going from 20-25, so I think I have some momentum. I’ve also identified that I think I’ll end up at the 160-165 range, which means I have another 15-20 pounds to go. But since I’ve already lost 30, I’ve lost at least 60% of the weight I need to lose already, which means I’m definitely more than halfway there. I just need to keep working at it! It’s tough, avoiding all those Pizookies…

In other news, I’m on Facebook and Twitter a lot, so if you’re looking for the random day-to-day stuff that doesn’t warrant a full blog post, check me out there to keep up with me.

Robert Life 179.7 pounds, dieting, facebook, twitter, weight loss