Beyond General Fitness: Running: Distence and how to ramp up.

So lets say you have your goal to run a half marathon.  You have done the research on how to run properly.  Now lets talk about how to start ramping up your distance to run the half. 

Some people think that if they want to run a half marathon then they should just go out and run 13.1 miles everyday.  That is actually the worse thing you can do.  Marathoners don't run marathons day in and day out.  It is something that you have to work up to and running super long distances for long periods of time can cause injury. 

To start I'm going to assume that you can run continuously for over thirty minutes.  If you can't then you should go back and check out an earlier blog post of mine.  So now we have to get you from running three plus miles to a half marathon distance.  Now there are a lot of websites out there that do talk about this and I have linked a few in the past, but some of those websites don't tell you the why and only the how. 

Getting ready to run a half marathon takes planning and the best way to start planning is have your event date set.  So go purchase yourself a spot at a half marathon that you want to do and that is your end point.  Now we will work back ward from that point (I'm going to use my workout calendar as an example).

(Sorry for the odd formatting, but its the only way to see it.)

So my half marathon race is the first weekend in May.  It is best to start by planning when your long run days are going to be.

I started with that date and planned a two weeks of taper in that is my personal preference others only plan one week of taper.  After that you know you have to at least attempt the race distance once before the actual race so you know how your body will react and feel after.  (April 19th on my calendar).  Then as you can see I simply subtracted a mile from my long runs every week.  Now I have my long run days at different times of the week and some professional runners say that is a no no, but it is my family schedule that I have to adapt to. 

So once you have your long run days figured out it is time to fill in the rest of your workout calendar.  It is best to plan on running two additional days during the week and have at least one rest day before your long runs.  As you can see from my calendar that I routinely do Yoga the day before my long run.  It is to make sure I am stretched out and some what recovered before my long run. 

Now as you can tell I don't have workouts planned on the weekends and that is because of my work schedule on those days I can't workout, so my calendar is adjusted so.  You should also plan on two days a week to do some sort of strength or circuit training in order to strengthen the muscles that you don't use while running.  This is done in order that you don't have an imbalance of strength in your muscles, which can lead to injury.  As you can see my circuit training days are listed as different p90x or p90x3 (Beach Body) names or climbing gym.  Those are just my personal preference of workouts.





So as you can see from my march calendar that I have after this week, in which I am having a rest or de-load week (also being sick), I am starting my training by just slowly ramping up my distance.  I have other notes in my calendar, but those are my specific training for a OCR event.  My half marathon distance is actually an OCR so I am planning other things then just running.

I hope this information is helpful as I am always open feel free to message me or leave comments.

Illness and Fitness Journey.

I didn't think about making this post until I started feeling ill on Thursday.  I apparently have a head cold so here we go.

Illness happens.  Getting sick sucks and can put a big hold on any fitness goal or training plan.  It is an unfortunate pare of life, but getting sick happens.  This post I'll post things that you can do to minimize sickness, get over being sick faster and what can you do while being sick.

Getting sick while trying to lose weight or prep for a competition is a real downer, but in the world we live in we have to do our best with what we got.  So what can you do to try and minimize getting sick?  Wash your hands regularly is the most effective way of not getting sick.  Covering coughs are important as well, but washing hands after coughing is also important.  The only problem is washing after every cough can get tedious.  Wash bed linens after you or your partner has been sick can also minimize the spread of the illness.

Things that you can do to get better faster.  There are a lot of old wives tails that have different things that you can do and if they work for you then great.  These are a few things that work for me and have a general approval of the medical community.  Drink lots of water as being hydrated can help the body fight off what ever type of bug you might have.  Vitamin C is known building block of the immune system and will also help fight off the bug.  Get lots of sleep if possible.  During sleep is when our bodies are able to repair itself and restore it to a full functionality.  Sleep is paramount. 

The final thing I want to talk about is the fact that you are sick doesn't give you a free pass to eat what ever or do what ever you want.  It is difficult, but it is for the best to try not to eat everything in sight while sick.  The best thing to do is up your calories so that you are at least at maintenance calories if not a hundred or two hundred over maintenance calories.  This is best while you are sick because your body is already stressed and being in a deficit while being sick can make the sickness last longer, be worse and a long list of other things.  So take the time to eat a little extra, but don't go over board and rest up.

As I am currently sick and have a grade school age children I am actually shocked that I'm not sick more often, but these are my words of advice for people on a fitness journey and hit a small road block on their way.

Beyond General Fitness Running: Running Form.

Now as far as running goes people might think that they have been running since they were children and they know how to run.  Unfortunately that is incorrect, because your joints, muscles and entire bodies are young, healthy and easily recover from injuries.  So in this post we will talk about running form, how to dial up your distance safely and a couple of websites to find training plans for all distances up to Marathons.

Running Form:  Most people think they can just go out and start running, but that can easily lead to injury.  Running long distance actually takes proper form and technique in order to do it with out injury. 

The first thing is to keep your knees under your center of mass.  Most children run with their legs out in front of them.  That is actually very bad for your knees.  It might seem strange, but in order to protect your knees.  If you watch a video of Olympic Marathon runners you will see that their knees hardly move beyond their center of mass.  This will lessen the impact on the knee as people continually pound the pavement.  Over Striding is were the knee passes beyond the runners center of mass.  Over Striding can cause Runner Knee, ITBS and many other issues that could sideline a training plan.  Keep those knees close please.

Next we need to talk about the foot.  The runners foot should land as close to the middle as possible.  If the first impact of the foot is the heel if can lead to things like Planter Fasciitis and a host of other injuries.  The opposite is that if a runner where to land to far forward on the foot more on the toes other problems arise.  Toe striking leads to Shin Splints and other toe problems.  It is best to try and land with the center of the foot.

Running isn't all about the lower body though.  It is also important to think about the rest of your body in order to help with the above.  Moving up the body though the next area is the Core or Abs.  You need to keep your body in a good posture and to do that is to keep your Core engaged.  You don't have to try and suck you stomach in the whole time, but occasionally keep in mind that you need to engage your Core to keep your posture. 

Arm's bent at the elbow and should be at 90 degrees.  It is best to keep the hands relaxed as if holding "potato chips".  The arms is something that is fairly natural to people, but the hands can be difficult at first as most people are used to clinching.  Also relaxing that hands can be hard during cold runs as clinching your hands together will make your hand warmer.  In the end clinching your hands and try to keep your arm swing to a minimum as they both waste energy. 

The final thing about running form is to keep your head up.  Some people look down at the ground too much as they run.  This can cause neck pain and stiffness.  Others tend to push their jaw and neck forward.  It is thought that it is done to keep the body over the knees, but this too is incorrect and can cause other neck issues.  The best thing is to keep your head up and looking approximately ten to fifteen feet a head of you. 


If you are planning on going down this road there are a lot of resources on the web that can help you along.  A few that I enjoy are Hal Higdon and Runners World. 

Beyond General Fitness: Goals and Beyond.

So you have either already reached your goal or you have found your way to my blog and didn't need to read my General Fitness posts.  Maybe you are not sure where to go next or might need some help with achieving the goals you have already set.  That is what my Beyond General Fitness will be for.

So just like in my General Fitness posts I believe that no matter what you are doing in life or fitness Goals are an important part.  So this first post I am going to talk about more advanced goals, like the ones that I have.  My goals are a Spartan Trifecta, Race Elite at San Francisco and finally next January 2018 I'll run my first regular half marathon.  My goals don't have to be anyone else's goals. 

So what kind of fitness goals can people go for next?  Well there are multiple goals that you can choose from.  Obstacle Coarse Races, Marathons, half Marathons and Triathlons are most of the running races.  There are also things for people that can't run.  Those competitions are Body Building, Power Lifting and Cross Fit competitions.

Now if you are not really like me and don't like the idea's of competitions then you can do other things like Rock Climbing, Hiking, Ice Climbing, Mountain Climbing and so much more.  I'm sure in the end you will be able to find something to keep your fitness moving forward. 

I'll be posting different basic things that you can do to prepare for each of these kind of different goals. 

I hope that some people will find the next set of posts informative and helpful.

General Fitness Final: Goal Within Reach, Now What?

Alright Joe my goal weight is in sight.  Now what?

Now it is time to buckle down for the long haul.  It is time for what is know as body recomposition.  It is time to stay the same weight, but lose fat and gain muscle.

The best way to do that is by exercising regularly, like I hope you were doing to lose weight.  While keeping up the exercise you eat maintenance calories.  This is a very long process and takes time. 

What you need to do while going through recomp?

1.  Make sure you aren't eating to much or too little.  While calorie applications do estimate how much you need during the day to maintain it can be off.  So you will have to play the calorie game.  The game is to adjust your calories on a monthly basis to find that sweet spot.  Start with the applications maintenance number and if you still lose weight adjust it by 200 calories.  Then wait a month and if you still lose another 200 calories.  If you gain weight subtract 200 calories or even 100 calories.  Now this isn't 100% fool proof, but try and get it close.

2.  Lifting is the best way to gain muscle and lose fat.  Now I'll go more in depth about numbers, but a good place to start is Stronglifts 5x5. 

3.  Protein is one of the main building blocks for muscle.  Now you can't shy away from fat or carbs too much, but you have to make sure you have enough protein in your diet.  You might have to play the same game with Macro's that you did with calories.  A good starting place is 30% of your daily calories and adjust from there if you need.

4.  The scale is only there to make sure you aren't putting the pounds back on.  Now that the scale is useless you will have to get a fabric measuring tape (fabric stores) and start taking measurements.  Bicep, Chest, Waist and Thigh are the best places to start and it is a good idea to measure once every other week or even once a month.  Pictures also help as a way to see the change that you might not feel. 

So there you go.  Congratulations on losing the weight you wanted to lose now it is time to tone up and build muscle.  :-D

General Fitness Part 4: Plateau or the Weight Loss Stopped.

So lets say you are doing everything I have posted so far.  You have your goals that you have been meeting.  You figured out your maintenance calories and thus your diet calories.  Finally you have been exercising regularly.  Weight has been falling off you slowly, but steadily.  Until this week.  For some reason nothing is happening.  No weight gain and no weight loss.  What happened.

Well there can be a lot of different reasons for a weight loss plateau.  Some reasons might be overly simple while others are much more complicated.  I will lay out a few things to try before getting to frustrated. 

First thing is to just be patient and wait it out.  It can take 4 - 6 weeks or even 6 - 8 weeks for a plateau to pass.  I know that it will be hard during this time, but sometimes it best to just wait it out.  If it has been longer then the 4 - 6 - 8 weeks then maybe you should move on to the next step.

Still plateauing?  Maybe you need to do a hard reset.  The next thing to try is to eat maintenance calories for two or three weeks.  This is one way to let your body know that it is ok and it can still lose weight.  This worked for me when I went into acidosis from dieting to hard for too long.  After a short diet break the weight started falling off again.  You can still exercise during this time, but try not to diet until 1 - 2 weeks are over.

Plateauing still going on?  Maybe you need to recalculate your calories.  I have noticed that with MFP and Fitbit that as you loose weigh they don't automatically adjust your calorie intake for your new weight.  In MFP I know that if you adjust your goal from time to time it will adjust your maintenance calorie base.  If you have been doing the cyclical dieting then this shouldn't be a problem, but it wouldn't hurt to try to just adjust your goal once or twice.

Ok Joe the scale still isn't budging after all prior steps being taken.  Well then my last piece of advice to two fold.  First is that maybe this is the weight you should be?  Now if you are basing your weight loss goals on a scale like BMI and you are still considered obese then this weights probably isn't what you should be.  However if you are in an overweight or average area of the BMI scale, then maybe take some time off eating maintenance calories.  Still keep working out and weighing your food and start the long process of body recomp (see next blog post). 

The final option is that there is something medically wrong.  It is rare, but there are cases that weight loss in some extreme cases can cause thyroid, pituitary and even other hormone problems.  Now this is a rare problem, but it is something to keep in mind.  The only way to tell is by going to a doctor and getting blood tests. 

I hope that the advice in this blog post is never needed as a weight plateau is a difficult and annoying experience.  I hope no one goes through it.

General Fitness Part 3: Exercise and Fitness.

So if you have you diet under control and you have your short term goals listed out, now it is time to start Exercising. 

Exercising is definitely going to be very individualized.  Just because something worked for one or even a lot of people it might not work for you.  In the end I am going to talk about slow and steady approach.  It is important to not to do too much at first as it could lead to failure. 

It is important that before you start any exercise plan that you should first get check out by a doctor.  Just to make sure everything is working ok before you attempt a work out routine.

Now with everyone being different it is truly hard to judge where to start.  So in the end it is probably best to start slow with walking.  Once you start walking you are simply getting in the habit of exercise.  You can progress to a run walk combo.  There are multiple smart phone applications that can help guide a run walk combo that will progress someone from unable to being able to run at all to running full time.  The applications are things like c25k for example. 

Now if running or walking isn't your cup of tea then maybe you want to start with weight training.  Thankfully enough there are applications for the too.  They will take you through workouts and keep track the number of reps and how much weight you use.  The applications will even increase the weight from your last workout to keep you gains.  The applications are things like 5x5 for example.

I however didn't do either of the two routes above as I hated running and knew that going to a gym for a 5x5 workout would be a limiting factor.  I needed something that I had hardly any excuse not to workout.  Thankfully I found Insanity by Beach Body.  This didn't need any gear at all.  Just your body and space for you to move.  I am not a beach body coach or anything like that.  I just am truthful and it worked for me.

In the end the most important thing is to get moving in some way shape and from.  Diet can and will get you far, but together diet and exercise will make the weight fall off at a rapid pace.  Just be careful as injury can set back not only fitness goals, but also dietary goals as the time you need to heal can cause depression and cause people to fall off the bandwagon.

General Weight Loss Part 2: Goals and Even More Goals.

As I talked about in my Average Joe's Story I use to try and to loose weight by just striving towards that end goal of being under 200 lbs.  Now that was a noble goal, but difficult one as it would take upwards of 40+ weeks of dieting to make that goal. 

As I talked about in General Weight Loss Part 1 cycle dieting can make dieting easier for the long haul as there is always a little bonus just days away or a big bonus a week or two away.  That made life easier, but so did making and surpassing a lot of little goals along the way. 

Those little goals made that long term goal not so far away as I was still checking things off my mental check list.  Although I never had a physical list written down anywhere I did have a mental list that looked a little like this.

I was 240 lbs. and I wanted to get to below 200 lbs.  40+ Weeks to goal.

First Goal:  Weight food and Count calories every meal for a week.
Second Goal:  Weight food and Count calories every meal for two weeks.
Third Goal:  Weight food and Count calories every meal for a month
Fourth:  Weight food and Start cutting 500 calories out of my maintenance calories to start losing.
Fifth: Weight food and continue cutting 500 calories out of my maintenance calories for 2 weeks.
Sixth:  You probably get the point.

As you can see I didn't even start dieting at first.  I wanted to get in the habit of weighing food and counting calories again.  It was amazing how once I started seeing just how much I was eating that it was actually easy to cut those calories.  It is some times as simple as having two taco's instead of three.  Or one plate of pasta instead of seconds or thirds. 

Lots of little goals that were continually being checked off the list made to long term one not seem as bad.  After I had started to run out of small diet goals I moved on to the next step of weight loss.

The same can be done and I did do on a fitness level, not just diet.  As per my Average Joe Story I started working out with an at home workout routine called Insanity by Beach Body.  Now this routine was 65 days and my prior weight loss attempts never finished all 65 days.  I was determined to finish this time, but I still made small fitness goals a head of the nine week course.

First Goal:  Do Insanity everyday for a week.
Second Goal:  Do Insanity everyday for 2 weeks.
Third Goal:  Finish the first month of Insanity.  (I had gotten this far before)
Fourth Goal:  Get past my last failed attempt at Insanity. (Only made week and half of second month)
Fifth Goal: Finish Insanity and attempt a second run through the whole program.

If people do similar things as I did you can look and see that just by placing and checking off all the small goals we would now be approx. three to four months into a fitness journey.  Now a reader might be asking how they could apply the fitness goals to something other then Insanity?  It could look something like this.

First Goal:  Go for a walk (or to a gym) every evening after work for a week.
Second Goal:  Go for a walk (or to a gym) every evening after work for two weeks.
Third Goal:   Go for a walk (or to a gym) every evening after work for a month.
Fourth Goal:  Walk for a Mile (or Kilometer) every evening for a week.
Fifth Goal:  You probably get the point.

In the end a lot of what could seem like stupid or crazy easy goals can actually make dieting or working out so much easier.  I am sure the same can be done in many aspects of life other then diet and exercise, but this is my experience.

General Weight Loss Part 1: Diet, BMR and Cycle Dieting

So if you read my history blog posts you will know that I went through a starvation period where I had Ketosisacidosis and I was nearly passing out several times.  It was then that I changed to the current diet form that allowed me to power past my original goal weight and go lower then I had ever thought I would be able to go.  We will start with basic information and move on to more complex diet things on another post. 

To start it is probably best to find a website or a application to assist in tracking calories.  I personally like My Fitness Pal, but there are several other applications you can choose from.  You can choose between a nice digital scale and or a set of measuring cups and spoons.  I recommend a digital food scale as it is more accurate.

To start lets talk about starting out on a diet and how to figure out how many calories you can consume in order to lose weight.  To start you have to figure out your Base Metabolic Rate (BMR).  Now to do that involves really complicated formula's, but can be boiled down in a much easier way by just multiplying your current weight by eleven.  If you are in a very active job or life style you could raise that number to twelve or more, but if you are just starting out ten is a good start.  Age can also effect

So lets say you were me and your starting weight is 240 lbs and you multiply that by eleven then your body burns approx. 2,640 calories just to live or what I call Maintenance Calories. 

Now if you want to lose weight in a healthy manor then you need to subtract 500 calories from that total.  That will usually give you the one pound a week that is generally considered the healthy weight to lose.  If you are first starting out and very over weight like I was you will lose a lot of weight quickly at first. 

Now that you know that if you want to lose weight and my original 240 lbs that I needed to eat approx. 2,140 calories to lose weight.  Now if you just simply eat that from day 1 to day 100 you might be ok, but you could end up like I did.

Now that we know how many calories you can eat now lets talk about how cyclical dieting can benefit you.  Doing this cyclical dieting can make life much easier as you know you have a little bonus waiting for you.  This is what I followed and it made life much more tolerable.

Monday - Friday: Diet calories of 2,140.
Saturday & Sunday : Maintenance Calories 2,640.

That rotation would be repeated for four weeks.  After four weeks of this you get the bonus of having an entire week of Maintenance Calories otherwise called a Re-feed week.  Which looks like this on a calendar.



Now I always felt like the week 3-26 through 4-2 was like a celebration week.  This was my reward for being good for a whole month. 

I hope this post will help someone out there. 

Average Joe Story Final Part: Obstacle Course Racing and Continued Fitness

So as 2016 continued to pass I continued to train for the August Spartan Race and had even conned my older sister and her son into running it with me. 

Now my wife and I had been trying to have our second child all this time.  There were two failed pregnancies during my journey so far and it had felt like we would never have a second, but we didn't stop trying.  My wife had gotten pregnant a third time, but neither of us wanted to get our hopes up as we didn't want to be disappointed.  We just kept living life as normal always thinking that the baby wouldn't make it for some reason. 

He was just fine of course and was born in May.  Now I had a plan set up to continue to workout even with a newborn.  My wife approved of my plan because I was going to limit my workouts to under thirty minutes.  I picked up p90x3 and Insanity Max 30 from I bet you can guess https://www.beachbody.com/.  They were both around thirty minutes long and if all else failed would keep my fitness level to a status quo during the early months of newborn life.

The workouts did keep my fitness level the same and even improved it in small amounts.  August came and I put all my training to the test

My training was good, but not great.  I had reached another long term goal and needed the next one.  Thankfully Spartan Race had three lengths and if you complete all three in a year you get a special medal.  So I had my next goal finish a half marathon, 15k and another short race to do what is called a Trifecta.

So now in 2017 I am still working on my fitness.  This time to do a Trifecta and maybe even a regular half marathon.

Average Joe Story Part 6: Final Goal and The Extra Credit

What started in February 2015 with a long reaching goal I found that in August 2015 I was at my goal.  I was under two hundred pounds and in need of a new goal.  I knew that without that end goal I would never be able to keep the weight off.  So I thought of an extra credit goal weight and I thought I had lost forty pounds what was a few more.

I use to wrestle in high school at the one hundred eighty nine weight class.  I only was under one ninety during wrestling season.  So that was my new goal get under one hundred and ninety pounds, but that goal was only ten pounds away.  I needed another long term goal. 

I always loved sports, but after shattering my ankle in high school sports seemed like they would never come again.  I had seen an old high school fried also named Joe do an event called Spartan Race and other do an event called Tough Mudder.  So I started to research this thing I had never heard of, but looked interesting called OCR (Obstacle Coarse Racing).  My daughter and I are avid watchers of the American Ninja Warrior, but those obstacles always seemed so far above and beyond my abilities even in my youth and height of my athletics. 

After much research I found that Spartan Race seemed like the event for me and they even had one coming to my home city of Portland Oregon.  I had missed the 2015 race, but the 2016 race was far enough away that I could finish losing my weight and get trained up for it.  So I altered my workout routine and had my new goal.

I lost down to one hundred and eighty five pounds by December 2015 and started to just eat maintenance calories.  The obstacles in the coming race was rather upper body focused and so I dusted off another old work out DVD set I had called p90x from you can guess https://www.beachbody.com/.  I went out and bought a set of dumbbells and started training my upper body for the obstacles. 

I was doing what is called body recomposition.  I was attempting to continue to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time.  All the while staying the same weight.  It is a long process, but I had a long term goal in mind. 

Average Joe Story Part 5: A New Diet Plan and The Next Exercise

So after learning that I had gone into ketoacidosis I had to spend two weeks eating more food then I had in several months.  Thankfully my older brother was an expert at managing weight loss in a safe manner and gave me a new plan.  Diet for 5 days then 2 days of maintenance calories and after four weeks of that rotation take an entire week of maintenance calories (I'll go more in depth with this on a diet / calories post). 

The new plan was amazing as there was always a bonus in sight.  If I was good for five days I could really enjoy a few extra calories on the weekend.  Then if I was good for a month I would get a whole week of extra calories.  It was amazing and after a small weight gain getting my body out of ketoacidosis I started losing  once again.

The weight continued to come off and my new diet plan was amazing, but Insanity from www.beachbody.com was getting stale and old.  So during the summer I started to go for jogs.  The runs weren't long, but they were amazingly fast. 

It seems that doing Insanity had primed my body to be able to run faster then I had run since high school.  It was quite shocking so I had to find out some new apps to track my running.  I attempted to use Endomondo, but the GPS tracking was terrible around my house.  My older sister told me to use a different app that she used while running and it is Cardio Trainer.  After a little tweaking the app was tracking much more efficiently then the prior app.  I had also purchased a Fitbit over the Christmas holidays and was using the heart rate monitor to help with the exercises.  It was all coming together.

Average Joe Story Part 4: Unexpected Weight Loss Problems.

As with all things in life there will always be unexpected problems that will arise in all the best laid plans.  My Fitness Journey also had a large unexpected problem and that was the quite hotly debated Starvation Mode!!!!

I was still going strong on my conviction to lose the forty pounds that would get me under the magical two hundred pound mark.  I had completed two cycles of Insanity by https://www.beachbody.com/.  I continued to count my calories on the http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ app on my smart phone (you don't need the phone you can use it online).  Everything was going perfectly and the weight was flying off even fasted the originally planned.  I was thinking that the under two hundred pound mark was going to be checked off the list before the end of summer. 

When people get a little cocky and over confident is usually when the rug gets pulled right out from under them.  It did for me on this journey. 

I was doing the second and harder month of Insanity a third time when I started to notice that the workouts weren't getting any easier anymore, but were getting harder for some reason.  I chalked it up to the fact I hadn't worked out for this long since high school and vowed to power through it.  I didn't think anything was particularly wrong just needed to work through it, boy was I wrong.

One afternoon after struggling through another Insanity workout in the morning I was standing watching my daughter play on the floor of my living room.  The suddenly my vision went completely black and I reached out to grab the wall that I happened to be standing next to. 

Now working it didn't take working in the medical field for over ten years to know that just randomly blacking out while standing still was not normal.  So I immediately went to my two favorite sources of guidance for anything my older brother and sister. 

My big brother is a natural body builder that couches for a company called http://3dmusclejourney.com/ and my sister is a runner that has run more marathons and half marathons then I can keep track of.  They both said the same thing and that I was in ketoacidosis or starvation mode.

The first thing I said was "Impossible!"  I was at two hundred and twenty pounds and not currently hungry there was no way I was in ketoacidosis.  Ketoacidosis is what most people with anorexia go through and I by no means had anorexia.  So on both of their recommendations I emailed my doctor and asked for a urine test to test for ketones in my urine.  Sure enough my body was breaking down my muscle in order to feed itself.  I had been in to high of a caloric deficit for two long and my body and gone anorexic.

Anorexia is a mental disorder.  Anorexic is the action your body goes into when it is starving.  So I had to start eating again and it had made me wonder if that is why I failed so many times in the past to lose the weight.  Maybe I was dieting correctly, but not intelligently. 

Average Joe Story Part 3: The First Steps to Reach That One Goal (Exercise).

After getting my diet under control by using a lot of small goals in order to start checking things off the mental list in order to make the end goal seem less father away I knew it was time to step up my game. 

I knew that diet alone would only get me so far in losing weight.  In theory if you control calories you can and will control weight, but I didn't just want to lose weight I also wanted to get in shape in order to keep up with my growing daughter.  So I knew it was time to start exercising. 


When I lost weight the last time I tried to do too much to quickly and fell off the bandwagon, but the exercise that I was doing did help me lose weight. 

So I dusted off the old Insanity workouts from (https://www.beachbody.com/)  and started the work out again. 




This time I started with the knowledge that I had gained from the last two months of dieting.
So I started with simple small goals once again.  Workout everyday for the first week in the Insanity calendar.  Then finish two weeks of the calendar. 

Then again the goals got bigger.  Finish the first month of Insanity.  Then finally finish the entire 60 day workout plan.  I had never finished the whole schedule before.  I washed out before finishing the most recent time, but this time I was determined to finish. 

I did finish and then went through a second time.  I was continuing to lose weight and even better then expected I was losing more then one pound a week which was amazing. 

I was getting stronger with the pushups and the workouts weren't nearly as danghting as they once were.  I was dedicated and ready to lose the weight once and for all.

Or so I thought!!!

Average Joe Story Part 2: The First Steps To Reach That One Goal (Diet).

My main goal at the time was to get under two hundred pounds.  I hadn't been below two hundred pounds since high school as far as I can remember.  I had forty pounds to lose and in order to lose it safely and healthily I planned on losing one pound a week.  Losing one pound a week is generally the healthiest amount to lose in order to keep the body from going into different starvation or defense modes that can happen with rapid weight loss.  It is also the general accepted amount that if lost at a pound a week that people are more likely to keep that weight off.

After years of attempting to lose weight and failing many times I decided to take it slow.  I knew that it I started with to much to quickly that the motivation would die out and I would fall off the bandwagon once again.  So at the time I made the choice to start with diet first. 

Starting with the diet first would mean a few things.  I downloaded the phone application I had used in the past My Fitness Pal (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/).  This application is great at tracking calories.  It will do a basic calculation on how many calories you should be eating and make it easy to put all your food in.  It also has a recent function as if you eat the same foods a lot you can just quickly reselect them. 

I went out and bought a decent digital food scale.  All packages now a days have a weight and other measurement like cups or something.  I always found that the weight is more accurate then in a measuring cup.  If weighing got me more food then I would weigh on a scale rather than measure.

The final thing I did was I told my wife, sister and parents about the fact I was going to start this.  It was my way of having people to keep me accountable for my actions.

After the first week of dieting I did the math and realized that in order to reach my goal weight by losing the afore mentioned one pound a week that it would take the better part of a year to lose the weight.  It seemed so far away. 


That was when I read an article on My Fitness Pal about setting up smaller non weight related goals in order to make that main goal so much easier to reach.  So I did just that I made a few smaller goals in order to be able to check things off of a mental list to make the main goal seem not so far.

It started so simple yet oddly satisfying.  I started with count calories every meal for a day, then every day for a week and then every day for two weeks.  Then the goals got larger, but still easily attainable.  Count calories every day for a month and then two months.  Suddenly it had become habit to weigh my food and count calories.  With the first step done it was time to start the other half of the weight loss equation. 

Average Joe's Story.

My story so far...

My weight has gone up and down so much since high school that if you were to graph it the graph would look more like a roller coaster. 

As you can see from this picture that only documents my weight over the last five or six years it for sure looks like it belongs in a six flags.  After my first daughter was born I really really tried to lose weight and get into shape.  I was succeeding as you can see I lost 40 lbs. at that time, but I soon fell off the bandwagon again.

I even tried a few more times as you can see from the up and down of the graph.  It wasn't until 2015 that I was once again looking in the mirror at my reflection and I was disgusted at what I saw.  I knew then that the only way I would be able to change the reflection was that I would have to change the person looking in the mirror.

I thought to myself that this time was going to be the last time I started and this time I would reach my goal.

Who is Average Joe Fitness?

Who is Average Joe Fit?

I have spent years yo-yo dieting and exercising only to fall off the bandwagon and put the weight back on.  Since 2015 though I was able to lose the weight I wanted to lose and much more.  So I want to spread what I have learned and also document my continued journey.

Why should people read or even listen to me?

I work in the medical field as a Sonographer.  So I do have an advanced knowledge of the human body and its inner workings.  I also have years of trying and failing at losing weight I finally was able to find what worked for me.  I also have many sources that I have and can turn to if someone reads my blog and asks a question I don't know. 

What am I offering?

I am simply going to put information on diet, exercise, how the body works, my workouts and my own journey in the OCR world.

Will this work for everyone?

I can't and will not guarantee anything, but I can help people learn and try new and different things.  I hope it will work for more than just me, but only time will tell.

How often will Joe Post?

I am planning on posting daily for a while.  I will start with my history, diet information that worked for me, exercises that have helped me and my current work out routine that I have created to help me reach my next goal. 

Can I contact or follow Average Joe Fit else ware?

Of course.  You can follow me in Instagram @average_joe_fit772, this blog and I will post more locations if they are needed :-D

I hope this helps and people like the information I put out on this blog.