Workout Song #4 - Omen

This one kind of sticks out or doesn't feel like it fits. One major difference is that this one has words and "singing" in it. It's also pretty intense. It's by The Prodigy. They've been around for a while and I'm not sure how well known this song is. I first heard it in the movie Kick-Ass from earlier this year. I love that movie.

Here's a clip from the movie below the fold (Warning: foul language and violence)

Week 8 - Day 2

It's always tough to wakeup at 5:30 in the morning when you don't "have" to, especially if you're bad about going to bed before 11 pm. I finally made it out the door a few minutes before 6 to go workout. Today consisted of another 28-minute run.

There was more than one instance where I wanted to stop and call it good but I overcame my old self and kept going. I even ran at a faster pace for a little while and that allowed me to run farther than I had before, about 2.7 miles or 3 laps around the recreation complex.

Knowing that I can pick up the pace a little bit and not die is good to know going into Saturday's 2-mile race.

Workout Song #3 - The Sunshine Underground

Way back in 1999, I was into electronic and techno music but that was limited to 3 or 4 groups or artists. Fatboy Slim was big at the time along with Moby but there was another group that put out an album that year that I originally purchased for just one song. I ended up loving the whole album. I purchased The Chemical Brothers album, Surrender, for the song Let Forever Be. It had an amazing video directed by Michel Gondry. If you're familiar with any of his advertisements, music videos or movies, you know what I'm talking about.
Also on that album was The Sunshine Underground.

I weigh less than "Err"

I posted earlier that I weighed more than 335 lbs. because the scale at home tops out at that. The scale would always display "Err" if it was more than 335. Well, this morning I finally stopped getting the "Err" and instead it read 332.5 lbs. It's been awhile since I was last able to see a number rather than letters. It felt good.

I completed Week 8 - Day 1 of the Couch to 5k program this morning. It's the 2-mile race on Saturday. I hope to get it under 25 minutes. When I ran my 5k a week ago, my 2-mile time was 26 minutes and change.

Another small victory

Went to Valentino's for lunch today. They have a buffet with plenty to choose from. I made 1 trip to the salad bar, 1 trip to the pizza buffet that included 2 slices of hamburger pizza, a bowl of minestrone and 1 breadstick. After that I had 1 dessert breadstick. And all I had to drink was water. Normally I'd have 4 or 5 slices of pizza, 3 or 4 breadsticks plus a couple of dessert breadsticks. So overall my weekend wasn't perfect but I did pretty well considering. Off to bed now. Need to be able to get up and run in the 40-something degree weather in the morning.

Workout Song #2 - The Birth and Death of the Day

I first heard this song in 2008. After KU won the Final Four, someone put together this video:

Small victory spoiled

Oreos are my kryptonite and my mother-in-law got some limited edition football-shaped ones that are great for dunking in milk. Ugh!

Small victory last night

On the way to my in-laws in Lincoln, Nebraska, we always stop for dinner at Runza in Beatrice. Runza is the Starbucks of Nebraska. Usually I'd get a double cheeseburger and large size the drink and fries but last night I got a single and the standard size drink and fries. Doing a lot of little things like that can make a big difference.

Workout Song #1 - Barbastella

I love comic books. I started collecting in 1989 when Tim Burton's Batman movie was in theaters. Still collect comics today but I'm more Marvel than DC but I still love Batman and consider 2005's Batman Begins and 2008's The Dark Knight as two of the greatest comic book movies ever. One of the things I love most about those movies is the score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. My favorite piece is Barbastella. It's from Batman Begins when Bruce conquers his fear of bats when he goes into the well that he fell in as a child and discovers the huge cave below.

What I'm doing

So I'm doing the Couch to 5k training program. It's a 9-week program that gradually builds up the amount of time you run each week. Week 1 I alternated between running for 60 seconds and walking for 90 seconds for a total of 20 minutes with a warmup and cooldown walk of 5 minutes. I'm on week 7 where I'm jogging for 25 minutes all at once with the warmup and cooldown walks. Next week I'll be up to 28 minutes and on the last week I'll be up to 30 minutes.

I think one way to keep me going is to register in 5k or 2-mile races. I don't know why that would motivate me to exercise when I have plenty of other reasons but nothing else has really worked yet.

My workout music

I run to the same playlist every time I workout. It's probably not your typical list either. I'll try to post a YouTube link to each one with why it's included. And you'll also find out why I'm a huge dork when it comes to my musical tastes.

So stay tuned and look for playlist in the coming days.

How did I get here?

It took a long time to get as heavy as I am and I've been over 300 pounds for several years. I gained a lot of weight after high school. I was around 250 my senior year in 1998. Going off to junior college on a football scholarship and on my own was not good for my health or diet. It was all you can eat at every meal and I took full advantage of it. I packed on the pounds and didn't exercise enough to balance although I don't think I could have exercised enough for everything I ate. Since then, the lowest I've been was 275 and that was around 2003. Hopefully I can get there again if not lower.

So it begins...

I'm fat. I'm overweight. My BMI indicates that I'm obese. I'm 6'3" and weigh over 335 lbs. because that's the limit on the scale at home.

7 weeks ago I started the Couch to 5k program.

Click to see where I'm at now.