Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today!

There's 104 days till Survival Race Dallas

And I’m too out of shape now to own it

So the imminent problem for my overweight @$$

Is finding a good way to tone it

Like maybe... 

Doing some yoga

Or maybe some boxing

Or picking up a tractor tire

Discovering muscles that didn't exist

They feel like they’re all on fire

Using battle ropes

And some videos

This rhyming’s becoming a strain

Finding my target zone

With my heart rate watch

And driving my dear wife insane

As you can see

There's a whole lot of stuff to do

Before I do this race

So check back here and see if maybe I 

Fell flat on my face

So check back here and see if maybe I 

Fell flat on my face

Lets start with a little background. I relaunched this blog back in 2012 to document my fitness routine after my son told me I was too fat to be a Power Ranger. You can go back and look at the backlog for all of that. Then this happened: Knee Surgery Post. Then a whole lot of nothing to back up all that posturing. Then this happened: More of the Same BS. Now it is just over a year after my knee surgery and I have let everything go and then some. 2012 might as well have not happened. I have put back on more weight than I lost thanks to a big stinking pity party over my knee. I stepped on the scale the other day to see what the holidays had done to my already awful situation and I was crushed. I had broken a promise to myself. I swore I would never break 300 lbs again and last Monday morning I weighed in at 300.4. Letting myself go before was one thing but seeing that number on the scale was the last straw.

Back in 2012 I had decided that I wanted to do a mud run obstacle course 5K thing. I have never been a big fan of running and doing a 5K never really appealed to me. Then I heard about a zombie 5K and it sounded great. I wanted to do it with some friends but no one was really down and it was way out of town and it was just not a good thing. I found a MUCH closer run that was just an obstacle course and it looked so much fun. I decided it was the closest I would ever get to being on Ninja Warrior. Well my knee injury ended all that. I signed up for a few more runs after that but never went through with them for one reason or another. After a year of feeling sorry for myself I decided that the pity party ends NOW. Through a Groupon, a discount for canceling, and a New Year's sale I have signed up for 3 races this year. I will be doing The Survival Race on April 27th, Mud Factor on June 21st, and ending with Savage Race on September 13th. It just so happened that my first race is in 104 days, thus the lame attempt at a Phineas and Ferb joke to kick this off.

So what will I be doing to get in shape for this thing? Well, here is the basic plan: DDP Yoga, GSP RushFit, battle ropes (in my case an old firehose), tires, boxing, running programs Couch to 5K and Zombies, RUN!, my Fitbit Zip, and a number of fitness apps such as Runkeeper, LoseIt, and mapmyfitness. That sounds like a lot but hear me out. The main things I will be doing are the running programs, DDP Yoga, and RushFit. Those are my constants. When the weather balances back out I will be using a strength training routine I devised from hours of research utilizing battle ropes and tires. When I am not able to go outside to for that routine RushFit will serve as my strength training program as well as my go-to ab workout. Lastly, the boxing is because it is a helluva workout and SO much fun!

Over the next several weeks this blog will return to being a record of my fitness journey as well as covering some of the things I am using and why I am using them. It will be hard work but I have done it before and I know I can do it again. I know diet will be my biggest obstacle to overcome. My baby is starting to sleep through the night and is getting on a more regular schedule so that will help as well. I actually have the energy at the end of the day now to get a workout in. As long as I manage my time, manage my diet, and stay focused I should be just fine.

Until then MAY THE POWER PROTECT YOU!

\m/ IS NO TRY \m/

*BLEEP* just got real

I have decided to take this blog in a much more personal direction. When I launched it I did not intend on it being a fitness blog, but it has become that. That will most likely be its primary function with other stuff sprinkled it. As it relates to the fitness stuff I am going to stop pulling punches, so to speak, and start being more honest and open about everything. I am shooting for one post per week right now. I really want to post more often but I have a lot of things on my plate right now. Stay tuned and bring the tissues.

\m/ IS NO TRY \m/

Don't Call It A Come Back...

I'm back! I have let this blog get away from me over the last few months, but there is a reason. I have been recovering from injury/surgery. In case you have not been following, here's the story...

I was training for an obstacle course 5K that was to take place in November. All Through my training U was fighting a nagging knee pain. Turns out that pain was actually a somewhat serious injury. I broke down and went to the doctor when I fell off the treadmill in pain. I had an MRI done and it was revealed that I had a "compound tear of the left medial meniscus  and that was going to require surgery. That took me out of my race. I was very upset, to say the lest. Over two months of training and I was sidelined two weeks before the event. I had surgery on November 30th and everything went fine.

The surgery may have fixed my knee, but it broke something else...my spirit. Sorry if that sounds overly dramatic but it is the truth. I spent most of 2012 working out a eating better and I was fianlly going to prove to myself that I was not just the fat nerd that makes everyone laugh and that opportunity was taken away. I did more in 2012 than I have in my entire life up to that point combined. I lost about 50 lbs, lost several inches all over, dropped a shirt size, my belt did nto fit anymore, and my wedding ring fell off. The I hit the brick wall of this frakking knee.

I was very concerned that I would backslide during my recovery and I dd just that. I took my "do or do not" mantra a bit too literally and "did not." With the exception of eat all the things. I threw myself a fully catered pity party and ate the whole spread. Never let it be said that I don't have feeling...I have 20 lbs of them. And none of them tasted like happy. I have spent the last few months feeling sorry for myself and letting myself get  lazy. I have noticed that my clothes are not loose like they were getting and I can see where I have put weight back on. Well I am here to declare NO MORE! This is not about a New Year's Resolution, it is about me getting off my lazy bum and getting back at it (it just happens to be January).

Now that you are up to speed.... where to go from here. I was scheduled for the Run For Your Lives Zombie 5K (my first 5K since I did not get to do my original first 5K) in March, but it was moved to the only weekend in June I have a conflict. Turns out that may not be a bad thing. I tried running last night for the first time: big mistake! About 45 seconds in to the run my knee let me know I was not ready for that. And it has continued to remind me not to try that again any time soon. For now I am focusing on body weight strength training. I am using a bike and walking to build up my knee and lower body work for strength. I bought a new punching bag over Christmas I am ready to try out and I am doing the RUSHFIT thing again. GSP is currently in training camp for his March 16th fight with Nick Diaz so I am doing Battle Camp and "training along with him". I am better than my knee injury and I will win.

\m/ TRY NOT. DO. OR DO NOT. THERE IS NO TRY \m/

How I'm spending my summer vacation...

This is a quick post to show off some homemade equipment I am using this summer. Below are some pics of my DIY-ish workout gear.

Can't take DIY cred for the punching bag and stand. However, if you look on the floor you will see my DIY medicine ball. It is made from an old basketball, filled with 10 lb. of sugar, and duck taped to hell. It currently resides in a soccer ball training thing (seriously I have had this net thing since I was like 10 and have no idea what it's purpose is anymore, what it is called, or where you might find one) to serve as a hammer.

This is my ground and pound dummy. It is several rolls of carpet covered in a ton of duck tape. It is really fun to toss around and beat on. Total cost was about $5 for the duck tape.

This is my uppercut bag. It is an old duffle bag from high school. My old marching band duffle bag to be specific. it contains a 50 lb. sand bag and it filled out with old T-shirts to round out the bag. Cost was about $1.99 for the sand and $3 for the hardware to hang it. 

This is my double end bag. It consists of a bounce ball I stole borrowed acquired from my children. I covered it in...wait for it... duck tape and secured a rope to hang it. The rope was the tricky part. It took several times for the rope to work. It is attached to the ceiling and a bucket full of concrete pieces via bungees. I had the ball, I had the bungees, and the bucket and concrete "came with the house." Seriously, the bucket is an old paint bucket left over from the renovation on this house before we moved in and the concrete pieces were just lying around my yard.

This is my most recent piece of equipment. I picked these up at a local tire shop around the corner from my house. They are awesome! I flip them, drag them, pull them, feed them, change them, etc. Through a VERY generous friend I also have a sledgehammer that I hit these awesome tires with.

So that is my workout equipment at home. Had I bought all of this brand new and "professional" it would have run me over $500. I am having a lot of fun with my new toys and will post the progress as usual. I am currently working on the final post on my "Is That A Fat Joke" series. Stay tooned...

\m/ IS NO TRY \m/

Don't call it a comeback...

So last week I hit a wall with my workout. For some reason my motivation was GONE. I have been going hard core for 5 weeks and once I hit week 6 i just hit a wall. I talked to come friends and did some internal searching and I think I figured out what the problem was: I could not get out of my own head.

I did an update for 4 weeks which was half way through my program. I was not seeing the numbers I thought I should have and I was suddenly feeling like it was no longer worth it. I got up inside my dead and was psyching myself out. I have since realized that I was being stupid and it did not matter. I also Tweeted/Facebooked my plight to @GSPRushfit and for about an hour or so I became a Twitter celebrity. There was such an influx of support from random people on Twitter. It was humbling. No one said anything overly profound or motivational, it was just having the support from total strangers that kicked me back in to high gear.

I think part of my problem is that I weigh in every day. I have a 1/10 pound scale so I can see every change. That is good and bad. I know some people do not even weigh in or they only do out of curiosity. I am sure there is a split on each side of the fence for that. For me, it helps. It does motivate me and it helps me know what causes me to gain and lose. At the same time I was hoping for more dramatic losses by the numbers than I have seen. I understand the biology behind it and know that muscle weighs more than fat and this program is definitely building muscle. That does not always help. I am focusing on the inches and physical results over the actual weight numbers and I am doing great. I have two weeks left on this run. I am taking a couple of weeks off Rushfit after I finish to focus on my cardio. I have just about finished my homemade equipment and will have pictures posted soon. For now I am still pushing through and having fun. Can't wait for the end of week 8 to see where I am on my measurements and such.

\m/ IS NOT TRY \m/

Call me cheap if you want...

Short update today. Working on a few projects at home. I have a 4-day weekend coming up so I have some time to play around with some stuff. I am closing in on the end of Level I of Rushfit. I have three weeks left. Between now and the beginning of Level II I am trying to get some more equipment. I am looking to add the following items:

TITLE MMA Training and Fitness Dummy - $100 + $22 shipping = $122

TITLE Uppercut Bag - $90 + $25 shipping = $115

TITLE Double End Bag - $40 + free shipping = $40

Total for these items is $277. I am not spending $277. My using items around the house and some pseudo dumpster-diving I am going to be able to make all the items listed above for less than $50 (I think maybe even less than $30). I will post updates as I finish things. Short version:

Dummy = old carpet (wrapped in duck tape)

Uppercut bag = 50 lbs of play sand and old clothes in an old duffle bag. (possibly wrapped in duck tape)

Double End Bag = kids bounce ball (wrapped in duck tape)

I am really excited to get my "gym" finished. I have considered an actual MMA gym, but since I have no plans to actually fight anyone and I am just doing this for fun I see no need to pay expensive gym fees and the gas to get there (closest gym is 30 miles away). I will post pictures when everything is done.

I have about half of THIS built, but I can't seem to figure out exactly how to finish it. With everything else I am making, it is not that big a deal.

\m/ IS NO TRY \m/