Tuesday - My wife wanted to go for a bike ride so I said I would go with her.  Went to get the bikes off the car and realized the tires were flat.  Soooo we went for a run instead.  My wife is not a runner so we took it fairly easy.  She did very well.  We ran about 2.1 miles and only walked a little bit.  She even pushed through a bleeding blister on her heel.  For me it was a recovery run.  Diet - breakfast- turkey breast (home baked) sandwich, water.  Lunch - chicken salad sandwich (small) and a chocolate milk shake (small).  Dinner - homemade veggie pizza (3 pieces, thin crust, small pieces) salad w/ blue cheese dressing.  Couple of mixed drinks before dinner.

Wednesday - Sister (the runner) and I went for a run.  We did a tempo run which consisted of a 10 minute recon shuffle followed by 2 miles at 5K pace (10:30-11:00 minute/mile) and finished with another 10 minute recon shuffle.  The second mile was, of course, into the ocean breeze headwind because I decided to run a different was today.  Smart man.  Diet - breakfast - Lovely wife made me sausage biscuits for breakfast.  She loves me so.  We're going out for lunch, don't know where but it will probably consist of seafood. Sister and her husband are cooking dinner.  Roast pork enchiladas.  I'm still trying to talk my sister or brother into a boot camp workout but they seem scared.  It might be the sand bags I brought.

Having fun at the beach. Weather has been really nice and I've been catching a 1-2 hour nap just about everyday.  Going back to work next week (teaching in NH) is going to be hard.  Going back to boot camp in a couple of weeks is going to be realllly hard.

After class on Wednesday I went back to the hotel and picked up Matt, the other CSC trainer, and we drove to Ocean Springs for dinner with some folks from the Gulf Coast Services Center. We ate at an upscale sushi place. It was really good but a little pricey for sushi. Did not exercise at all. (breakfast - mini blueberry muffin. lunch - chicken salad sandwich, chips, diet coke)

Thursday, started the second class of the trip. (breakfast - mini blueberry muffin. Lunch - Gotta love the caterer - chicken finger sandwich, pasta salad, diet coke) Got done a little after 4:00 so I went back to the hotel and hit the pool. Of course before I went to the pool I called home to check in and my wife told me she was going to post a comment to my blog about my diet on this trip and complain about the fact I had had dessert and some fried food. So after talking to her I went to the pool. Matt told me we were going to meet a friend of his for dinner later on. My guilt got the better of me so I went upstairs and put on my running stuff. I walked out the front of the hotel and started. The idea was to do a tempo run so I started slow, building to a fast 2 miles. Problem is that my nike sensor is not the most accurate thing in the world so I couldn't really gauge my pace. At that point I just decided to run and not worry about it. I was feeling good (dessert and fried food will do that ) so I just kept running. I ran from my hotel, up through the business district, through the neighborhoods (where I got a good view of storm cleaned concrete slabs and a couple of FEMA trailers) all the way down to the water (Biloxi Bay). I turned there and ran back to my hotel along the beach. All told, right around 5 miles. Felt pretty good. I wasn't breaking any records (even though my nike sensor's little voice came on and said I had set a personal best time for the mile). I love the looks I get when I cruise in the front door of the really nice hotel/casino (do a web search on the Beau Rivage) all soaked in sweat. People tend to give you a little extra room to pass when you're dripping. After cleaning up I met Matt and his buddy Kelly (a guy) at a bar down stairs. We had one drink and then hit the buffet. I know, I know. You're thinking "oh no, not the buffet". Don't worry, I was pretty good. A plate of samples, a little jambalaya, a little salmon, a little of something else that wasn't real good, 2 fried shrimp and the second trip was for a seafood pasta dish in marinara sauce. Too much food? Maybe, but I don't think it was too bad. And no dessert.

Tomorrow (Friday) is last day of class. May try to hit the gym (if I feel like paying the $15) or go for a short run.

Well yesterday (Sunday) was a travel day.  Probably could have gone out and exercised but rested in my hotel room instead.  this afternoon after setting up the computer lab where I will be teaching all week and taking a nap, I hit the hotel gym (or spa as they call it) because it looked like rain.  Little did I know that it closes at 7:00.  I guess they want everyone to hit the casino after that, not the gym.  I had only made it .6 miles so I walked outside, across the street and started running.  My nike shoe sensor isn't the most accurate thing in the world.  in general I ran 2+ miles through the business district and back down the beach front road in front of the casinos.  The sensor said I was doing a 10 minute mile but I don't believe it.  Tomorrow, gym a little earlier for arc trainer.

Diet - breakfast - whole bunch of nothing.  Lunch - oyster/shrimp/deviled crab po boy and fries (It was gooood).  Dinner - taco salad from McAlisters Deli (641 calories according to their web site), cheesecake and unsweet tea.

This morning I skipped my normal Friday morning bridge run to run with Greg, Grady, Dave, Alan, Karen and Linda.  We did a warm-up mile and then stretched.  Then Greg had us work on our pace.  We told him what we wanted to finish the 5K in and he gave u half and full lap times we should be hitting.  We then ran a lap with him calling the half and full lap times.  We did this several times to help us get an idea of how we should be running to achieve our goal.  We then played catch the rabbit.  Person with the slowest lap time started then we started all based on our appropriate full lap time.  The theory is we should all finish at the same time, running the pace we need to run to meet our 5K goal.  Good work out. 

Running a 5K tomorrow afternoon at 5:30PM.  We think the course is actually on the beach but we are not sure.  Either way it will be warm.  I will need to drink lots of water.  Practice a pace for a 32 minute finish.  I'd like to break 30 but I'll get there.  If its on the sand I have no idea how that will affect my time.  Wife and kids are coming to play on the beach and watch me finish.

Diet - Breakfast - 1/2 of a egg and cheese biscuit w/water.  Lunch - Red Orchid general chicken with white rice w/diet coke.  Dinner - leftover taco salad (ground beef w/tomato sauce, lettuce, tomato, fat free sour cream, velveeta cheese sauce, onion, tortilla chips) w/unsweet tea.

So, I figured I would start writing a blog to help me keep track of all the things I am doing to get in better shape and share it with my friends and family so they can keep tabs on me and help hold me accountable.  Consider it just another way to help motivate me to toe the line on things like nutrition and exercise.  To start I guess I should give a little background (and I apologize for the length of this post, they won't be this long in the future).

A little over three years ago my father passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack.  He had smoked from the time he was a teen up until he learned that my wife and I were going to have our first child.  It was a big shock and made me start wondering about my health.  I knew I was overweight, by a lot.  At that point in my life I was 278lbs.  I was getting winded walking up the stairs at work, having trouble keeping up with my kids, outgrowing clothes, and not real happy with my overall appearance.  I decided to go get a physical, something I hadn't done since high school.  I let the doctor know about my dad and he diagnosed me with high blood pressure.  My numbers were something like 150/95, scores like that.  Not good.  He told me that we had probably caught it early and that little permanent damage had been done BUT that I needed to get in shape.  I left the doctor's office with a prescription for high BP medication and a pretty healthy dose of fear.

I decided that I would set a goal for myself to help me get back into the exercise routine.  We had bought a treadmill a few years ago and it had done an excellent job holding my towels and clothes but didn't get much running action.  Well I decided that I was going to run the 2007 Cooper River Bridge Run in February.  This was July.  Plenty of time to get ready.  I didn't really have a plan, I just starting getting on the treadmill and exercising.  I started with Jeff Galloway's walk/run method.  I would walk 1 minute and then jog a minute.  I put a picture of me getting out of the ocean several years ago on the wall in front of the treadmill to show me what I wanted to look like again and a picture of my dad beside the treadmill to remind me of why I was doing it in the first place and because I know he would want me to take care of myself and my wife and kids.   A good way to start.  Except I stopped.  It wasn't until December that I finally realized that "****, the race is only a few months away".  By this time I had told friends and family that I was signed up for the race and my sister, brother and best friend (along with others) had committed to traveling to Charleston to run the race with me.  It was at this point I got serious with my daily exercise.  Still using the walk/run method I worked my way up to running 7 minutes for every 1 minute of walking.  The race came and my sister ran by my side helping pace me and timing my run and walk segments.  I finished the race in 1:21.  Not very fast, but I finished and that was my goal (my sister didn't even break a sweat).  Over the course of training I could really tell an improvement in my overall health but the BP was still kind of high.  After the race I fell out of the exercise routine.  This is when a co-worker started encouraging me to think about an exercise program being offered at the Medical University of South Carolina, downtown.

This program is called Boot Camp.  It is called this because it is run by United States Marines stationed at the Citadel while they are completing their degrees.  This seemed like an absolutely crazy idea at the time but I knew that I had to do something to get back in to exercising before I ended up right back where I started.  I told my co-worker friend that I would do it but I almost backed out until she told me there was a "beginner" boot camp class that would help ease me into the regular class.  So I signed up.  I showed up the first day not having any clue what to expect.  The first thing we did was warm up with the Marines and then this guy came up to the front of the class and introduced himself and proceeded to take off a layer of clothes that he used to wear that were now way too big for him.  He told us about his struggle with weight and diabetes and how boot camp had helped him lose weight and get in better health.  Great motivation for the first day.  Then the yelling started.

The class was extremely hard and the Marines pushed us every day.  After four weeks in the beginner's class we were all incorporated into the regular boot camp class.  We were not treated any different than any other student.  It was extremely hard.  And I was sore.  REALLY sore.  It hurt to walk up the stairs at work but I wasn't winded anymore.  I finished the first 12 week boot camp and cut 2 minutes off my mile time and could actually run the entire mile without stopping which I couldn't do at the start of the 12 weeks.  I was starting to see real results and was hooked on the program.  Of course I signed up for the next 12 week boot camp.

On top of my second boot camp came this new program, the Healthy Charleston Challenge.  This was a program put on by MUSC that was run kind of like the Biggest Loser game show.  Ten or so teams of about 7 people all signed up to compete for prizes.  The team that lost the greatest percentage of body weight won.  There were teams from businesses in the area and teams made of individuals that wanted to be in the program.  Each team was assigned a professional trainer to help through the 10 week competition.  Then there was our team, Team Boot Camp.  Made up of men and women from boot camp and led by our Marine instructors.  All the teams had to meet Thursday nights to weigh in and workout.  Our team struggled for the first couple of weeks then our extra training, above and beyond our MTTh boot camp workouts, began to pay off.  We were all working out twice a day and really watching what we ate.  We used a web site called Spark People to help us count our calories and see where we made mistakes and where we could improve.  We brought these to our team meetings so Sgt McKee to look at our diets and make suggestions (and the occasional snide comment).  After several weeks we had pulled ahead and drawn the ire of other teams.  Some folks from other teams were even asking if they could join our team.  We even ended up joining the "Spec Ops" exercise program on Friday mornings.  This is the more advanced boot camp training the Marines offer.  In the end our team won, losing 250lbs.  I lost 29.6lbs and I wasn't even the biggest loser on our team.  It was a great feeling and the comradeire that was built among our team was even better.  We still workout together outside of boot camp and push each other in boot camp.  Yes, I still do boot camp.  It is a way of life now, or as some folks like to say, I have drunk the kool-aid.  I also ran the 2008 Cooper River Bridge Run this time in 1:09, shaving time off last year.

I am now down to 230lbs.  Just last week my doctor has taken me completely off one of my high BP meds and halved the other, promising me that if the BP stays normal for a month I can stop taking that one as well.  My cholesterol has gone from 190 to 160, with my HDL increasing and LDL decreasing and my triglycerides went from 109 to 40.  My biggest problem now is my clothing.  Most of my wardrobe is too big.  Not a bad problem to have.  My wife keeps telling me to go buy new clothes but I don't want to waste the money.  I have 30 more pounds to go to reach my target weight so why spend money on clothes that will be too big soon?  The bad news is I haven't lost any more weight since the Healthy Charleston Challenge has ended a couple of months ago.  I haven't gained any, but I need to lose more.

This is where this blog comes in and where I need your help.  My idea is to keep a daily record of my physical activities and my diet on this blog for the world to see.  I'm hoping that it will help keep me accountable knowing my friends and family are "watching".  Please let me know what you think, make suggestions, comments, etc.  I will keep you posted as I set new goals and hit new milestones.  For example, my next big goal is to run the Myrtle Beach Half Marathon Feb 2009.  My friend Steve M. has already agreed to run with me as has my sister if she is able.  After that I plan on running the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC Oct 2009 (my brother and sister have both done it so I figure I need to as well).  Watch this blog for info about my training and anything else that pops into my head.

Steve