Thursday, December 3, 2015

Restarting



March 19. That’s the day. The goal. And this time I’m going to make it.

Well that certainly is a pleasant thought, but if history has taught me anything it’s that saying and doing are two very different things. I can go on and on about having attempted to start a diet/workout plan and failing. I can exhaust myself talking about the times I’ve tried restarting this blog. Requisite third thing in a list. This time I’m using a goal to try and make it stick.

I have been signed up for a 5k on March 19th by my lovely wife. It will be the second one that I have run. While the first time went fine, I know that there are a lot of things I can do to improve my experience on this next one. Like training for it. Yeah, I didn’t exactly do that the first time around. What can I say, I’m a lazy bones.

Understatement of the year there. I’m a sack. Mostly of fat.

As of two days ago (December 1st) I’ve officially been counting down until the big event. As of the writing of this post I have 106 days, over 20 hours, and some minutes and seconds in change. That’s a hell of a long time and there is so much I can accomplish in that timeframe.

There are three main goals that I am going to be focusing on for this:
  • Eating healthy 
  • Lowering my time
  • Losing weight 
I know those sound like very simple and basic ideas, but you gotta start somewhere.

Eating healthy:
This is probably the main issue that I’ve struggled with over the past 4-5 years. I can literally pinpoint the moment I started moving towards eating too much fast food, but that still hasn’t made it any easier to stop doing. I think that this is the most important of my goals because everything else will be directly affected by it. If I can get this under control I should be in good shape. I’ve been using apps like LoseIt and MyFitnessPal sporadically in the past, but it’s time I start logging everything I eat, no matter how small. Naturally I’m going to limit my junk food/fast food intake. I’m also going to just completely stop drinking soda.

Lowering my time:
During my first 5k I ended up with a time of 40:02. While I’m not super proud of it, I don’t think that’s too shabby for not doing any real preparation. However, I think I’ve actually gotten a little bit more out of shape since I ran last May. This Saturday I’m going to do a preliminary 3.1 miles and see what my time is. I will then try to run 3.1 miles every two weeks and see if I can match or beat my preliminary time. By March I should be able to beat my first 5k time.

Losing weight:
I’m fat. I’m going to workout and get less fat.

But seriously. I know how much I weigh (that does NOT look like a real word) right now. I’m thinking about not checking again for a period of time. Ideally it would be right before the race in 106 days, but realistically I don’t think that’s a good idea. I think having an accurate weight count will be helpful for the weight loss app I’m going to be using.

Alright, I think that’s enough. A rough outline of goals and what I want to accomplish this time around. Look for more updates on this topic and others (video games, etc.) whenever the hell I feel like it.

Here. We. Go.