One down Eleven more to go...

January is now in the books and time sure has flown on by. So I'm a good month into my program and I've only lost 10 pounds so far. Its not too bad, but I need to step up the workouts, start doing more weights, and watch what I eat more.

My lunch times at work involve walking around the building for about 20 - 45 minutes each day. The way I see it, that's 20 - 45 minutes I'd normally be sitting on my ass. I can still try and make it to the club after work and I'll already be about 20 - 45 minutes ahead on my daily workout.

It feels good getting out and moving around some each day. Nathan (a friend an co-worker) has even started walking at the same time and it sure beats me walking and talking to myself. I'm also limiting my going out to lunch to no more than once a week. Saves money and allows me to keep up the daily walking.

Soccer Champs return
I find it hard to step away from the game and so I've decided to at least return for one more season. I have the new baby coming in about 9 weeks now and towards the end of June the APHA World Show kicks back up and will take up a huge portion of my time. I'll have to take it one game at a time, but for now I'm back for at least this season. We played our first game this past sunday and came away with a tie. Should be a good season for us, this week we have a bye week due to the Super Bowl game.

Championship game draws near

Less than 8 hours till the Championship match up for my indoor soccer team. The Rookies are a co-ed team playing in one of the bottom divisions at Apex Indoor Sports Center. I've played for them less than a year now; my 2nd time to comeback and play the game of soccer after many years of not playing at all.

We've done fairly well and won more games than we have lost for the past few seasons that I've played. Pretty much sticking in the middle of the 8 team league each season.

It has been a blast for the most part and I've enjoyed helping setup goals, stop some people from scoring and even knocking a few in for the team. Last weeks game was a really good game for us with my co-worker, friend and team mate playing in goal (Something he normally does not do) and helping us get another win for the season. Tracy guided us every step of the way from his goal and as a team we shut out our opponent for a win. I even managed to knock a few shots in for our team.

Then it became a waiting game with a record of 6-1 and the first place team sitting at 6-0 and facing us next Sunday. On Thursday afternoon I had to call and see how they did and to my surprise they lost last week. No longer would it be us trying to beat them and give them a loss and winning the season by beating them and a tying record. No this weeks match comes down to us facing a tied 6-1 team now and the winner becoming this seasons champion.

I'm trying to think back if I've ever come down to a game like this before. I think the closest I've come was a 2nd place team. It's always about having fun and will always be that for me. Tonight is where the fun continues as we face the Revolution to see who can score the most and keep the other from scoring. We've had a really great season and win or loose it has been so much fun. I just hope tonight can end with a victory for us.

The Program begins

Time to go full force now with the getting is shape for 2006. The National Body Challenge has started and its time to commit to eating right and working out. I've started early as of the first of the year, well even a bit before that with dropping all sodas at the first of September 2005.

I'm planning on walking at least 4 days of the week during lunch at work. I eat my light lunch and spend my time walking around the building for 30 to 45 minutes at a nice pace. I can make about 4 to 7 complete trips around during this time.

So far I've made it to 4 Tai Chi sessions in a row now (twice a week) and find it a nice work out as well as very relaxing. Plans have come up this week and I'll miss one of my sessions for this week. I guess it says something if I'm a little bummed out about missing the class.

My goal is to keep up the classes, keep up the walking at work, increase my workouts during the evening times, and watch what I eat. Pretty much moving more and eating less and with a goal of dropping the pounds.

The Hard part will come later in the year, finding a way to keep up some of the routine during this years World Championship Paint Horse Show. I'm just not sure how I'll get my work outs in during this time. Once the show is over, I need to make sure I get back into the routine of working out again. I'll keep things updated here as I progress over the next few months as well as blog on other subjects that come to mind.

New Highs and Lows for 2006

It's time to get back to my routine of a couple years ago. We had a family challenge to see who all could loose the most weight and I pretty much won that challenge. I did not try any crazy diets like eating all of this or all of that. What worked for me was fairly simple to a degree, but it did take discipline to achieve.
My secret to loosing 43 pounds was to eat less and move more. I watched the portion sizes and I got my self active. In eating less, you take in less calories and in moving more, you burn more calories. This formula is what allowed me to start dropping the pounds.

The next year I fell out of the habits, I found myself moving less and eating more and that brings me to this year and the weight is back. So I'm making it a goal to drop the pounds and hopefully stick to the routine for the whole year.

I've also started taking a Tai Chi class and I'm really enjoying that. I've also joined the Discovery National Body Challenge again to help track my progress. I'm even setting a goal to try Rock climbing at the end of the challenge and see how that goes.