Our Time to Change

After 3 calls to our doctor’s office on Friday we were able to get some medicine called in for my foot.  Amazing what two small pills for swelling will do.  Within 14 hours the swelling in my foot had gone down and I was able to workout.  And I put in a great workout that day too as I felt so much better than I had the previous 2 days. I also finished my first week of the Couch to 5K app and loved it.  Anyway, my foot feels great and it is no longer hindering me from exercising the way that I want.

I am still concerned about the combination of this new medicine with my blood pressure medicine and hope to have that all changed when I go in to see my regular doctor.  Not to get my hopes up but I would love to walk out with at least half the dose of BP meds that I am on now.

Here is how today went down…

Breakfast:

• Ham & cheese melt (Canadian bacon, egg whites, cheese, grain English muffin)
• Strawberries
• Soy milk

Snack #1:

• Apple
• 1 stick of low-fat mozzarella string cheese

Lunch:

• Tofurky wrap with sprouts, spicy Dijon, tomato
• Baby carrots

Snack #2:

• Hardboiled eggs with hummus

Dinner:

• Chicken breast with tequila lime seasoning
• Asparagus (I like to use low-sodium soy to season mine)
• 1 cup of cherry tomatoes with basil and balsamic vinegar
• Soy milk

This was around 1500 calories, give or take a few. I hit the elliptical while my girls napped today.  3.39 miles in about 47 minutes.  Had about 64oz of water throughout the day.

Hadn’t really been tracking it like I used to, but looking at our calendar this morning I realized that today marks our 95th day on our new journey to a healthier life. :-)

Still dealing with gout in my right foot.  As I have mentioned before, I am eating clean (have been for nearly 100 days now) and exercise regularly.  I also drink only water, Crystal Light, and soy/almond milk.  So it is frustrating to deal with this.  My foot last night was swollen, red, and throbbing with pain.

My wife (who is a nurse) did some research on my medication.  Right now I take medication for hypertension (the medicine I take is a combination of two pills in one) and one for gout.  What she found was that one of the side effects of this medicine is actually gout!  Zestoretic, the medicine I am taking, is basically a water pill.  It helps my body prevent taking in too much salt. As you know, high sodium intake has a bad effect on blood pressure.  But to go in with an issue of gout and not have my other medication addressed is beyond me.  Why wouldn’t a doctor know that and monitor that, especially after going in twice for this very reason?

Going to call the doctor today and see what I can do about adjusting my medication because this pain is getting to be too much.  I have worked too hard and traveled too far down this path to be healthy just to hit a roadblock like this.

All of this is proof that you absolutely have to pay attention to your health.  Not just your weight, but what you eat, exercise, etc.  It is all an engine and while one part may be able to function while another is down or performing slower, at some point there is going to be a big breakdown.

I am wearing a shirt that I have not been able to wear in over 2 years.  Normally when I wear dress shirts and ties, I have to wear a collar extender to give me breathing room.  Not today.  The shirt feels great and I am not choked by my tie.

I just signed up for my 2nd 5K.  Will run on April 2nd.

Today I started Couch to 5K.  Despite completing my first 5K last weekend, I still feel as if I need this extra coaching.  My time was the best I have had yet running a 5K, but there was walking involved.  I want to cut out all of the walking which I feel would improve my time overall.  Since I have been running some already, I didn’t start with day 1 of week 1.  What I did, I liked.  A lot.  I was able to use the app while Nike+ ran in the background to track the progress.  The audio alerts were very helpful. 

Today’s routine looked like this: warmup, run 3 minutes, walk 90 seconds, run 5 minutes, walk 2.5 minutes, run 3 minutes, walk 90 seconds, run 5 minutes, cool down.  The last 5 minute run was the hardest and I wanted to start walking.  Without the app I most likely would have.  But I knew in the back of my mind that I was pretty close to being able to walk anyway and that helped keep me going.

This is one of my favorite snacks and super easy to make.  This was from the Biggest Loser 30 Day Jump Start book and I was a little apprehensive at first.

• Take a whole grain pita, slice that joker up, and then put the triangles on a pan
• Lightly put Extra Virgin Olive Oil and some seasoning.  I used this awesome Tequila Lime seasoning my buddy Peto bought for me, but Mrs. Dash works as well.
• Bake on 375 for 5 minutes, flip the triangles and mix them up, bake for 7 more.
• Serve with hummus.

I couldn’t believe it.  The scale actually hit the 245 mark.  When I started I was at 290, so seeing this I had to do a double take.  After working out I got in the shower and weighed again.  It was the same.  It was real.  45 pounds gone.  15 left until I hit my goal weight.

When we started buying groceries for our journey to health, we used The Biggest Loser 30 Day Jump Start as our food Bible.  It laid out 3 meals and 2 snacks every day for 30 days.  Since we followed the book, we did not eat out.  At all.  We waited until the 30 days (even though the book recommends waiting only 2 weeks) was over to have our first cheat meal.  One comment I heard (and still hear) over and over again was “It costs a lot to eat that way” or “It costs too much money to eat healthy”.

I am tired of hearing that.  Here is why…

Before we changed up what we were eating, my wife would eat breakfast out almost every day of the week.  She would grab dinner at a fast food place on her way home from work at least 3 times a week.  She estimated breakfast to be $5 and dinner around $7.  That is about $46 a week for her alone.  I usually brought my lunch to work, but would think nothing of getting fast food on my way to work, maybe 3 times a week.  I would eat lunch out maybe twice, but my lunches cost a little more because I always had the extra-sized value meal.  We estimated that I would spend $35 a week eating out.  On the weekends, we ate breakfast at home on Saturday and Sunday, but typically ate out the other meals.  For our family, that meant at least $35 a pop or $140 a weekend.  Oh, we budgeted $125 a week on groceries.  If you add that up, a conservative estimate would be about $340 - $350 per week in food. 

Approximately 65% of our money was spent eating outside the home.

Yes, eating healthy and buying health foods from the grocery store costs more money.  Yes, our grocery bill is considerably higher than it was.  We now budget $250 per week for groceries and some weeks we do go over.  However, we are not eating out.  We do not get fast food.  We plan our meals and take our food to work.  We eat meals together at home.  While our grocery bill is higher, we have no other food expenses because they have all been eliminated.  So what we budget at the grocery store is what we eat.  End of story.

According to my math, that is a savings of $100.  Doesn’t look like it costs more to eat healthier after all.

This past weekend I ran my very first 5K.

I was nervous.  Woke up at 3am and had a hard time getting back to sleep.  The 5K started at 8:30am and it was a really good one for me to start off with.  There were about 60 runners total and it did not feel like a major competition. 

I finished with a time of 38:08:38 which is about a minute less than my previous attempt.  Not winning any awards with my time but that is not the point right now.  The point is getting out and getting healthy.  Besides, my first attempt at running since we have been on this journey to getting healthy was back on Feb. 11th and it took me 28:03 to run 1.66 miles.

Man, oh man, was this a rush.  A good friend (who took the photos you see here) had a sign made that said “Go Team Morrison” and had it taped on a mailbox.  When my Nike+ said I had 200 meters to go, I turned a corner and saw the finish line.  My power song kicked in on my iPhone and I ran full speed with all I had left.  I had friends there cheering me on and some showed up just to see me finish.  All of those emotions and adrenaline kicked in at the last minute and really made this run a special one.

I have never been a runner.  Never.  This was a huge accomplishment for me.  I still have weight to lose.  I still have goals to meet.  But putting my insecurities aside for the morning and hitting the concrete was some of the best therapy I have ever had.  I look forward to the next one!

Breakfast:

• Veggie sausage sandwich on english muffin with egg whites and cheese
• Strawberries

Snack #1:

• Pita triangles with hummus

Lunch:

• Tofurky sandwhich on multigrain bread with sprouts, tomato, onion, and spicy Dijon mustard
• Baby spinach salad with reduced fat feta cheese, cherry tomatoes, and light dressing

Snack #2:

• We skipped this one today since we got so busy running around.

Dinner:

• 2 Fiber One pancakes (plain)
• 2 pieces of Applegate turkey bacon with no-nitrates
• 2 hardboiled eggs

I took the advice of a friend at work who told me the other day to go through my closet and get rid of all my “big” clothes. She said do it and never look back. So I did.

Here is what doesn’t fit any more: 4 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of jeans, 2 pairs of shorts, 8 dress shirts, 11 polo shirts, and 1 jacket. All too big.  All of it gone, donated to charity. Out with the old.

Yesterday was one of the most amazing days in quite a long time.  Will write about that soon enough, but to top it all off, I have lost another 3 pounds.  That makes a total loss of 43 pounds to date.  I am the thinnest (If I can use that word about me) I have been in about 10 years, dating back to when my wife and I started dating.

This week I have been dealing with some pain in my right foot.  I have also been unusually tired.  Normally my morning workouts really get my system going and fuel me for the day, but this week has been tough.  Following some advice on a checklist I found on Active.com to prepare for your first 5K, I took the day off to rest my body.  I slept in this morning and it really felt great.  My foot feels better this morning, I feel rested, and I still have the energy and drive I need for the day.

Weighed in this morning and lost another pound, making the total 41 pounds lost to date.  It put me at 249lbs and I have not seen the 240s in years.  The rest, good news at the scale, and an overall great feeling was just the start I needed today.

For those who are curious, I have created a “Progress” page showing photos of my health journey along the way. Check it out!

I have been dealing with some rather rough pain in my right foot this week.  Perhaps because it is embarrasing to admit, I have not told a lot of people that several months before I started my journey to become healthy, that I had several issues with gout.  This post is a little lengthy so read the full post after the jump.

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This has become one of my favorite meals, and it is super easy to prepare.

• 1 whole grain pita
• 4 ounces ground turkey
• baby spinach
• 1 slice of onion
• 1 tablespoon spicy Dijon mustard
• 6 asparagus spears (I like to lightly season mine with low-sodium soy sauce)

If you are wondering what the red stuff is, that is sriracha sauce. It is hot, but very flavorful and I use it in moderation.

You can eat healthy and still enjoy dessert.  And yes, it can still be tasty.  This is something I made from one of the Biggest Loser cookbooks.  It was fast and tasted amazing.

• 1 banana
• 1 tablespoons of reduced fat peanut butter (or almond butter)
• 1/3 cup low-fat Boston Cream Pie yogurt
• 2 tablespoons of crunchy, high-fiber cereal (I used an organic oat cereal)

Calories: 294

For my journey to being healthy, I have taken it in two small phases.  The first being correcting how I was eating.  The second, and what has come on board over the past month or so, has been the exercise.

When my wife works (she is a cardiac nurse on 12-hour shifts) she has to leave the house pretty early in order to get to work.  Which means that if I wanted to go to the gym, I would have to get up at 4am just to be able to workout and get back home before she left.  That ain’t happening.  Thankfully we have an elliptical machine in our bedroom, so on the days she works I take advantage of that.  That allows me to workout but also be at home with our girls.  On the days my wife is not at work, I get up and hit the gym.  The gym is close enough for me that I can go workout and come home and have time to shower, get ready for work, and eat breakfast.  On gym days I do a circuit workout with weights/machines and then run (typically 2 – 3 miles).  I like the variation between the days and feel that each challenges my body differently.

What would I recommend?

• Find the time.  Ever heard “you make time for whats important to you”?  Yea, I hated hearing that when I was not working out but it was true.  I just had to find the time that worked best for me and my family’s schedule. You may not like to get up early and workout and an evening workout would be better for you.  But find the time.
• Make it a habit.  Even though the book we bought covered a month of exercises, I only exercised 4 times and did not follow the book.  I was not interested in it.  One week I decided I was going to set my alarm and workout in the mornings.  No distance, no time, no competition.  Just getting up and doing it.  Now it feels odd NOT working out.
• Mix it up.  If you are like me, you will get bored doing the same thing over and over again.  So mix it up.  Run outside one day.  Run indoors.  Change machines.  Change weights.  Change times.  Adding some subtle variations to your routine can keep it interesting and challenging.
• Set a goal. Once you get more in the habit of working out, set a goal.  For me, I signed up for my first 5K.  That has given me the desire to run and exercise more so that I can prepare.

Got up and hit the gym.  45 minutes on the weights and then a 2 mile run.

Breakfast:

• 3 egg whites (egg beaters)
• Strawberries
• 2 strips of Applegate turkey bacon w/no nitrates
• Bagel thin (plain)
• 8 ounces of vanilla soy milk

Snack #1:

• Chobani yogurt w/Mango
• 2 organic cheese sticks

Lunch:

• California brown rice sushi
• Baby spinach salad with reduced fat feta cheese & light dressing

Snack #2:

• Apple
• 2 tablespoons of almond butter

Dinner:

• Salmon
• 1 cup of wild rice
• 1 cup of steamed broccoli

This weekend my wife and I went to try on new clothes.  She never wants to do this so I knew she was feeling good about her weight loss.

She has lost 21 pounds and 3 sizes in clothes.  I have lost 40 pounds and 4 sizes in the waist.

What amazed me, and nearly brought me to tears, was the fact that I put on a pair of 36s.  Yea, they were tight.  But they were buttoned!  Even though my wife said they looked great on me, they were still a little too tight for me to feel comfortable wearing them out anywhere.  The important thing for me was that I had them on.  Going from a 44 in the waist to a 36 is a major milestone.

Also, I have lost a shoe size.  I never really thought my feet would be losing weight but they have.  I have gone from a 13 down to a 12.

I got some new running gear.  Looking forward to my first 5K this weekend.