Haven't posted in a LONG time! Still working hard though!

Don't know if anybody ever checks back here anymore, but I'm still working hard, and am seeing great results. I'm now down to 173 lbs, not sure what the fat percentage is, but I almost fit into size 32 jeans, wear medium size t-shirts very comfortably, and almost have got rid of most of my belly flab!

Gonna keep going until I get a six pack in my abs, which I know is a lot of work, but I'm in this for the long haul :) I made a resolution at the start of the year and I'm sticking with it (for once in my life, I think I've made this resolution 10 or so times in the past). I'm doing "Insanity" right now, which is a cardio intensive workout program on DVD. You can look at it at Beachbody.com

It's fantastic. Hard as freakin' hell, but fantastic. It takes interval training and turns it upside. Typical interval training you work out really hard for about 30 seconds to 1 minute and then recover for a few minutes. With this workout, you workout super hard for 3 to 4 minutes, and then rest for 30 seconds, it's "Insane". Hence the name "Insanity" :) HIGHLY recommended, especially if you want to cut fat.

Anyway, here is a picture of where I am at now. You can scroll down and look at some of my older pictures. I'm pretty proud of myself, and plan on being prouder as I keep going.

Results!

This is me in Washington DC in August of 2007.  Weight- around 230 lbs. Body fat percentage-who knows, but probably in the 30's.  Chins-at least two. Boobs- two. Cute baby in back pack-one.  :)  I wore a size 40 pant at this point and extra large shirts.

These first two pictures are where I was 90 days ago: after some dieting and a little bit of exercising, but prior to my 90 day fitness extravaganza known as p90x. I posted these stats earlier, but my weight was 195 at this point, and I had around 22.5 percent bodyfat.  

Below are my post 90 day pictures.  I now weigh 178 lbs, and am at 18 percent bodyfat.  Not too shabby!  I still have  a little excess flab to lose around my midsection, and I'm gonna start incorporating more cardio for the next few months into my workout so that I can get rid of that asap and show off my hot abs that are currently covered by a little fat :)  I am also now in a size 34 pant very comfortably, size medium t-shirts, and only have one chin!

Anyway, that's all!  I'm now supposed to take a 2 week break from p90x since it is such an intense program, but I'm going to start up another round of it on Monday May 4th, and will be done with that one right before my second year of MFA Acting starts.  My goal for this round is to maintain my weight at least in the 170's, and get down to at least 15% bodyfat, although I'm going to shoot for 12%.

Lots of exciting news!

So, for anyone who still follows this, sorry I haven't posted an update in a few weeks, but I've been keeping at it still so that is the important thing.  I've had lots of exciting news in the last week, so that is way rad for me!

News item #1- I'm now slightly less than 180 lbs, I weigh 179, so that is super cool! It's been almost 10 years since I've been in the 170's and even then I wasn't in as good of shape as I am now. So woot!

News item #2- My school had an approximately 10 week fitness challenge that was based on overall improvement in body fat%, pushups, situps, planks, and box jumps.  Here are my numbers for the challenge.

For my initial testing about 10 weeks ago, these were my (approximate as I don't remember exactly) numbers:
Body Fat %- 23 percent
Pushups (1 minute)- 27
Situps (1 minute)- 30
Box jumps (1 minute)- 40
Plank- 1:10

For my testing at the end of the challenge I increased quite a bit!
Body Fat %- 18 percent
Pushups (1 minute)- I did 49, but the guy testing me told me I didn't go quite low enough on 11 of them, so he only gave me 38, which pissed me off, but whatever 
Situps(1 minute)- 48
Box Jumps (1 minute)- 66
Plank- 2:31

 So, the long and short of it is that I WON the whole stinking thing! And by winning I got a $500 gift certificate to R.E.I.   WOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! :)

SO yesterday was a good day, and we even learned that for the first time in years we don't owe taxes and get a few dollars back, so double bonus!

Lanny out

A new milestone! :)

I know it is the middle of the week, but I was happy today because I am now down to 185 lbs! Yay!  Actually I was 184.6, but we'll round up to be fair. But yay! I'm doing it :)

To celebrate I went out and had a large hamburger with cheese and and fries with fry sauce. MmMMmmm!!!  That probably means I'll be like 190 lbs tomorrow, but whatever!  I originally had a goal of 170 lbs, but I think that is going to end up being to little for me, so I'm gonna aim to be between 175 and 180 as I think that that will end up being more in my range.

Everyone else keep up the good work!  Melissa, Nick and Katie, post an update on your stinking blogs! :)

Lanny out

One pound a week!

I seem to be averaging 1 lb a week since I started working out, but I'm fine with it!

I am down to 187 lbs. I still work out 6 days a week, every week, so that's awesome! AND I'm getting a little bit better with my nutrition, so that is swell! I still needs some work though.

Not much else to report this week as things are kind of the same ol' same ol'.  But I'm still at it which is the most important thing! OH!! I do have one small thing to report, I do Yoga a few times a week, and for those of you that do or have done Yoga, you may appreciate the fact that for the first time I was able to do a Half-Moon and Twisting Half-Moon pose and hold them for 30 seconds each! WOoot!!

So that is it! Keep up the good work everyone! If you find that you've been slacking off, don't get discouraged and quit. Tomorrow is a new day, and just think of every day as day one and you'll make it :)

Week Six and Seven

I posted in the middle of last week, but didn't actually post my numbers!

BUT, I feel really good and am doing well.  I'm down to 188 lbs, only one more pound than a few weeks ago, but I'm still working out really hard, six days a week every day for the last six weeks.  I'm starting to see pretty obvious results which is nice.  My love handles are getting a lot smaller. I've lost two notches on my belt since beginning, and I now fit into my really nice Calvin Klein suit that I haven't been able to wear since my wedding three and a half years ago. And actually, the suit even fits better now than it did then, so that is way cool too!

My nutrition has been a lot better too.  During the week I generally do a great job of eating well and not eating a lot of calories.  The weekends still suck for me though, and I kind of undo a lot of the good I do during the week on the weekends I think :)

Despite the fact that I'm not losing a lot of weight, I know that I'm definitely losing inches which has always been more important to me.  I could not lose another pound as far as I'm concerned if I continue to get more muscles and lose more fat!

Anyway, that's it! Good luck to everyone and keep those blogs updated so we can continue to keep each other accountable!

A quick pic

So, weight wise I haven't lost a ton of weight this month, about 7 lbs, however I have lost quite a few inches, gone down a few belt notches, and can even fit into the suit that I wore for my wedding reception again, which I haven't been able to do since about a week after our marriage (it was a tiny bit tight even then).  So rock on!  There hasn't been huge changes, but I'm posting a "30 day picture" anyway.  I'm starting to get a little more definition in my arms, and my abs are getting a little tighter. The p90x program has me doing around 1000 ab-moves per week, and even though I still have some flab on top to get rid of, the stuff under it is getting pretty tough :)

Anyway, here is a picture, mostly for my brother Todd cause he asked! I look like a ghost, I need to freaking get outside!

Week Five Update

Starting weight: 195

Last weeks weight: 189

This weeks weight: 189

First of all, sorry I'm a few days late posting this (I usually do on Sunday). So, this last week (February 9th-February 15th) I did really well at working out, but really lousy and eating well!  My weight shows that I think!  We were invited over for dinner twice this week and both times it was really good food with really good desserts, and even though I tried to resist I couldn't. I tried to chalk it up to not wanting to be rude, but I could've been polite and still not had 2.5 servings of cheesecake :) And then there was also Valentines, so we ate out for that too, I had a show open and we went out for it, etc... etc... so yeah!   The good news though is that I still weigh 189 and didn't gain any weight, and so far this week I've been doing really well with my eating and also have done well with not eating past 8:00 pm.

My workouts were good last week, I'm still sticking with p90x and doing that 6 days a week.  This week I finished my first full 30 days of the program, or what they call phase 1.  The last week is what they call a "recovery" week where you don't work out as hard to allow your body time to recover from the strain you put it through the first three weeks.  I was really happy to have that opportunity, and my body needed it.  Although I'm glad to be back to the hard core stuff this week that makes me feel like I'm going to puke sometimes (the sign of a truly good workout, hehe).  

Anyway, that's about it for now. I'll post again on Sunday this week to get back on my regular schedule.  Good luck everyone, and keep up the good work!

Lanny out

Week Four- Slow and Steady wins the race!

Here we are again!

Week Four results:

Starting weight: 195

Last weeks weight (feb 1): 190

This weeks weight (feb 7): 189

Total weight lost to date: 6 lbs.

So, I've been at this a month now basically, or rather four weeks, and have lost 6 total lbs, or 1.5 a week, which I actually feel pretty good about.  In the past, when I've just done the dieting thing, I think I might've been a little bit depressed about 6 lbs in one month, but given the fact that I've decided to take what I consider the appropriate route this time (working out, eating less food) I feel pretty good about it!

I'm still working out 6 days a week, I take Sundays off, and I work out for on average one hour each day, and that hour is always intense as well. I'm starting to notice changes in my body which is great. My belly is getting smaller, my arms, shoulders and legs are getting a little more definition, and my cardio is getting a lot better too.  

Anyway, I'm really proud of myself.  Although this is week four of my workout journey, it is week three of doing p90x. Next week, I'll post some new pictures after I've been at it a month. I can already see results in my body, and I think you'll notice some too! woot woot!

Week Three update

Weight this week: 190 lbs.

Total weight lost this week: 2 lbs.

Total weight lost: 5 lbs.

So, another week that didn't have a HUGE amount of weight loss, but I'm feeling good about a pound or two a week. I'm working out really hard still, six days a week.  I feel myself getting stronger, and I have to buy a new belt cause my current one doesn't work anymore cause there are no more holes in it! Yay!!!

I could be doing better on my eating, but I feel like the most important part (the exercise) is going really well, so I'm not as worried about this as I would be if I wasn't exercising well. :)  

Nothing much else left to post for this week, I'm just going to keep working hard, and keep losing a few pounds a week, and hopefully come spring time I'll be right where I want!

Week Two, aka: The week of being really sore

So, I just finished my first full week of working out.  I worked out 6 days this week, and every day I worked out I worked out for at least one hour, so I'm really proud of myself.  I can already hold up a several ton boulder as you can see below :)

I also did a good job at eating healthy foods. I'm eating a little more protein, a little less carbohydrates, a little less fat, and a lot more fruits and veggies.  I feel pretty good about it.  I'm also drinking a LOT of water, no soda, and basically no juice, which seems to help as well.  I have a hard time not eating lots of treats, cause I love treats, but I've given myself a free day once per week on Saturdays to eat basically whatever I want. Although I've found that after eating healthy for a whole week, I don't find myself wanting to pig out, even on my free day, so that was a nice change in my psychology :)

As far as working out, I worked out really hard every day this week, and didn't mess around.  When I go to a gym, it's really hard for me to work hard and I usually have a really low intensity workout, and then feel bad about myself cause I spent the hour there, but didn't do anything.  p90x has really fixed that problem for me.  The workout program pushes me really hard, and I do it, cause other people are doing it to. It makes it nice!  My favorite workouts so far are the Yoga workout and an Kenpo karate workout.

Anyway, here are the stats for this week.

Starting weight: 195

Week 1 weight: 192.5

This weeks weight: 192

Weight lost total: 3 lbs.

Now, regularly, I'd be a little bit bummed about losing half a pound in a week, but I worked out really hard all week, and I can tell that things are already starting to tighten up and that I am losing fat and gaining muscle.  So, as long as that is happening, weight loss is irrelevant.  In all honesty I could probably stay around 190 lbs. if it was mostly muscle, and look pretty darn good, so we'll see what happens. :)

I still want to be in the 170's, but I've never been in really good shape either, so I don't know how my body will respond, and maybe my ideal weight will be higher. I'll keep ya'll informed!

Lanny out

Week One or... One down and 20 more to go!

Hey ya'll, welcome to my first week results post! :)  

First of all, I'm not going to measure myself again for a little bit longer, for now I'm just going to post my weight loss, and then every month or so I'll post my measurements to see what I've done there!  So how did I do my first week you might ask? Well, I am now 192.5 lbs, down from 195, so I've lost 2.5 lbs which I feel pretty good about.  My body is also pretty sore from working out, but a good sore.  The kind of sore that you can tell is going to turn into muscles some day! Woo!

I think from now on I am actually going to post my progress on Sundays, as Sundays are kind of my day off from working out during the week and everything else.  Plus, it's a nice Sunday activity to blog about stuff.

So, I also set a goal in my last post to work out at least 4 days per week.  Well, it turns out that I am actually now working out 6 days a week, thanks to this item below. p90x.

I have NEVER bought anything off of television my entire life. But I watched an informercial for this product, and decided to go for it.  I started the workouts a few days ago, and they are TOUGH.  What I really like about it is that it gives me a workout that I have to do, and it really pushes me.  I've always had a problem with going to the gym for an hour, and while I'm there not really doing anything. Just putting in a little bit of cardio, lifting a little bit maybe, maybe taking a class, but never really having a focus.  

I decided though that if I'm going to spend an hour of my precious time (and an hour is a lot between grad school and having a family) that I needed to start making the most of it and actually doing something.  Anyway, so far p90x has seriously delivered.  I feel REALLY good about the hour of working out I am putting in, and know that in keeping up with it, I will definitely see results cause it is freaking hard.  

I still plan on running, even though I am doing this program, as I still want to be able to run a 10k, so I'm going to still run on our treadmill and work my way up to a 50 minute 10k like I wanted to before.  I also have to take some Yoga as part of my MFA program, so that will be in addition as well. But, I think the extra Yoga will actually help a lot, as it keeps me limber, and less likely to be injured for this intense workout program.  

So, that is all. I am way excited to keep going with this program.  It's amazingly simple to find one spare hour for your day to work out when you really put your mind to it.  I just spend a little less time on facebook, or watching tv, etc... Yay!  More to come later. Hang in there everybody! (including me!)

Goals and 1st day weigh-in and measurements

I'm really glad I saw Richie doing this, it's a great idea.  I watched "The Biggest Loser" last night too, and so I am extra pumped to get going.  For those of you who watch "The Biggest Loser", it was a sad night on the show, and it sucked that BOTH Jerry and Daniel fell below the yellow line as they were my two of my favorites :(

Anyway! Here we go.

The reason I want to lose weight:

Besides being skinny like pretty much every kid is at the ages of 0 to 8 (at least 20 years ago when kids played outside a lot), I've been overweight pretty much my entire life.  As a middle schooler, I weighed over 200 lbs, and although I wasn't what I would consider obese, I was still big enough to not have any confidence, was REALLY lazy as I'd started playing a lot of video games, and just generally unhappy with the way I looked.  This carried over into most of my High School days, until my Junior year when I started spending my lunch money on cigarettes instead of lunch.  I lost about 25 lbs and was down in the 180's between about 17 and 19.  Obviously, that wasn't a good way to lose weight though, as I was replacing foods with nicotene, and I still never worked out.  When I stopped smoking at 19, I gained a lot of my weight back, but had recently started college and as I wanted to date girls, I joined a gym and started working out and eating right.  At around the age of 20 I got down to 170 lbs and was actually in pretty good shape too.  I stayed relatively healthy until I moved from Dixie State College to Utah State in 2002 at the age of 23.  I slowly started gaining weight back, and although I had ups and downs, it was always steadily up.  In 2005, I was married, and at the time weighed 195.  In 2006, my wife got pregnant with our daughter Adah, and I gained what I like to call "sympathy" weight with her, and got up to 230 lbs, the heaviest I'd ever been.  I kept that weight on me until last year when I found out I was going to be in an MFA Acting program at the University of Idaho.  I didn't want to come looking like a fat slob, so I lost a little weight, and got down to 215, far from my goal.  My first semester at U of I, I was cast in a leading role, and decided I wanted to lose even more weight, and I did a pretty good job. I started doing Yoga, running on our treadmill, and eating more healthy.  I dropped down to 189 lbs in December of 2008, which I felt pretty good about, but still not good enough.  Over Christmas break, I wanted to work out and continue to lose, but instead gained 6 lbs of it back, which brings me to today, January 14th, 2009.  I currently weigh 195 again!  

I feel pretty good, but know I can be in better shape.  I want to be able to be active with my daughter, and also help her be active as she has some "fat" DNA in her blood from my side of the family as we have a lot of overweight issues.  I also want to be a good husband to my wife, and support her as she is also trying to lose weight.  As I'm in an MFA Acting program, I also know that getting into good shape will help my acting career and castability, as well as just feeling good about my physical appearance for the first time in my life.

Goals:

My goal is to lose 25 lbs, and get down to 170lbs.  The date I am setting for myself to do this is June 5, 2009, which will be my 30th birthday! What better 30th birthday present to give myself than to be in the best shape of my life.  And what better present to give my daughter and wife! :)

My goals for working out are to work out at least 4 days per week with a combination of cardio and weights.  Minimum workout time will be 30 minutes per day, but I will try for one hour.

By the time June rolls around, I would also like to be able to run a 10k in under 50 minutes, and be able to do at least 50 pushups without stopping.

I may add more goals later, but these are my two main goals for now.

The Pictures:

I'm really nervous about these, but here they are. I'll list measurements after. I made a sad face on purpose so I can look really happy when I look good :)

Stats:

Weight: 195

BMI: 28 (which according to the BMI index is "overweight" and borderline "obese"!)

Body fat percentage: around 22%

Waist at Hips: 37.5

Belly Button: 39

Pant size: 36

Biceps: L-13.5, R- 13.5

Chest: 40.5

Thighs: L-23, R-22.5

Calves: L-15, R 15.5

Inspiration

My friend Richie inspired me to start this blog, and I'm gonna try to get others on the bandwagon too who are wanting to lose weight so we can all keep each other accountable.

I've been overweight pretty much my entire life except for about a 1 year period when I was around 20 when I weighed 170lbs and was in good physical and aerobic shape.  Anyway, if you see this blog, I invite you to start your own if your goal is to lose weight this year. In my next post I'll put pictures as well as other info and goals that I have that I want you to keep me accountable to.

So feel free to post any supportive comments, angry comments, hazing, etc... Whatever you think I need :)