Transforming Dan

After lots of walking and rounds of golf, I’m thinking the foot and ankle may be ready for a light run. We shall see, gonna give it a shot today.

Another successful 4th

We sent everything with a wick skyward, and even some things that didn’t have a wick. I’m proud of the USA…. hope you all had a great 4th as well.

Huge NSV

When I last posted I was in a really tough spot, I had a job that required about 15 hours a day. Most of that time was spent behind the steering wheel which made good diet decisions really difficult. My work/life balance was completely upside down. I am happy to announce that yesterday I accepted a job with another company that will not only allow for better family/diet/fitness decisions, but also triples my income…. I am absolutely stoked and can’t wait to get all those priorities back in the proper balance.

Job vs. all the other stuff

Anyone that has been following my posts might find some of this a surprise…. I intentionally kept all of the business and employment junk out of my blog because, frankly, I hate dealing with it.  I feel that the stress brought on by work and money is, in almost every case, directly or indirectly related to the health problems we face today…. anyways I digress, another topic for another day.  My plight is one that most have to face, job vs. everything else….. In December 2009 I was in a bad place mentally and physically.  That was the month we officially closed the doors of the business that we had spent 16 years building.  I previously had been dieting occasionally with little success.  However, moving forward, without work sucking up all my time and energy I found making time for health related activities a priority and even, dare I say, easy.  Things progressed and my healthy lifestyle became therapeutic… whether running, cycling or sporting, the stresses of my past and whatever junk I was dealing with mentally melted away.  In April 2011 I broke my ankle AND landed a new job within days of each other.  Now, 2 months later, the ankle is probably ready for some light jogging and walking.  The job, however, is sucking up my time and energy…..  I find myself falling into the same traps I set for myself before.  This my friends is where the rubber meets the road…. today I realize I am standing at the same intersection that got me here in the first place.  Better make the right choice. 

runalwaysrun asked: Hey Dan - just wondering how you're doing. Last post was about your ankle and now you've been AWOL for a bit. Hope that your ankle is doing well and that you're still exercising and eating well. Ed

Ed!!!! How’re you doing??… bad news on the ankle front… turns out the ankle was broken.  It isn’t a bad break, but bad enough that a month later I still have to limit standing and running is out of the question.  I have been working on getting some ROM back with physical therapy and stretching. That being said, the diet is okay and I am beginning to increase my physical activity.  Its really good to hear from you.

Sprained ankle…. I assure you, it hurts worse than it looks.

Sprained ankle…. I assure you, it hurts worse than it looks.

It was bound to happen…

Let me preface by saying, I am competitive. I mean REALLY competitive, and it doesn’t matter what I’m doing…. I’m just built that way. So, I had to expect that slow pitch softball and I wouldn’t end well. So let me set the scene… Overweight dude (me) at bat, I hit a slow grounder towards third. I may be big, but I’m not slow…. So I am sprinting down the line trying to beat the throw. Thump… My foot hits the base, POP POP…. my ankle rolls. Uh oh….. I’ve played competitive sports as long as I can remember, pop is not a good sound, EVER. That was yesterday, today I have the worst sprained ankle of my life…. At least I hope it’s sprained. There is VERY good news to report though… In a close play at first, the call was safe. I’ll try to post some pics later.

Okay, Okay……

So here’s the thing, I’ve been slacking.  I’ve been slacking on exercise, and I’ve been slacking on Tumblr.  I have NOT, however, been slacking on my diet…. net result, I haven’t lost OR gained weight.  I am always surprised by the support of the fitblr community and I want to thank you guys and gals for the kind words and concern, all is well here aside from some small speed bumps.  I will try, going forward, to post more often.

Fast Food – Ads vs. Reality

Here is a cool blog that actually took fast food products, photographed their food and compared his photo to the advertising photos by the fast food restaurants…. Err, Uh… establishments. The disparity is criminal.

Played softball….

For the first time in years today, something that really wasn’t possible a year ago….. Win. 3 games played, 3 games lost…. Uh, loss. Oh well, one more thing for the to-do list….Practice.

7 miler in the bag….

My longest run in a while. I felt pretty good for the first 5…. The last 2 I ran out of gas. I wore a Heart Rate Monitor for the first time on a long run, and I have a question for the runners who use a HRM. I set my HR alarm at 90% of max… toward the end of the run I couldn’t run more than about 2 minutes without the alarm going off. Do you guys press on when that happens, or do you back off every time?

Major NSV

An old friend from high school saw me yesterday for the first time in about 4 or 5 years, needless to say I was huge the last time he saw me.  When he saw me he said, “WOW!  Dude you’ve lost biggest loser weight.”  I don’t know how to even respond to that.  All I could say was thank you….. I’m gonna have to work on a response that is a little better than a bashful thank you.