LIVIN' LARGE: Minimizing yourself and maximizing your life!When you have over 100 pounds to lose it can seem impossible to get started in the right direction.
__________________ It all starts with the mind, but the thoughts, the intention aren't enough. Action needs to come next. Dream it, believe it, plan it, execute it, celebrate it. - Wendy
Competitive Goal -
Never did find something to compete in. Not much happening in the middle of winter.
Some mixed results. The challenge was good and kept me motivated along the way.
I set what I thought were pretty lofty goals (esp. Strength) and to have completed one, getting close on one and have seen excellent progression on the other Im pretty bloody happy about it.
My mobility was a pretty big winner, with a nice little routine I do every morning now, helping lots.
Congratulations to everyone who completed the challenge.
Congratulations to everybody! Good jobs, all around!
Keep posting your results, or if you feel more comfortable, feel free to email them to me. rdenzel@gmail.com. Try to put 61DC and your screen name in the subject line so I can find you.
Also, please email me your stories, anecdotes, etc. about your friends here in the Challenge. I know many of you overcame obstacles, injuries, and achieved things beyond your expectations and goals. I want to hear about those things and follow up on that with you!
Don't be shy. Tell me about the people that inspired you, helped you, or overcame their own challenges in the past 61 days.
Remember, we've got a couple of special awards, too...
Quote:
Awards determined by secret email/private message vote by participants for:
"Most Improved"
"The Mahler Award for Motivation"
I need to hear from you!
Also, I need your shirt sizes and a shipping address. All the more reason to use my email (rdenzel@gmail.com), right? If you made past those first 40 days and/or were successful in your goals, make sure to drop me a message with your size, your points, and any other details that you care to share.
Once again, great job on the 61 days!
Hey, what are you going to do now? It's day 62, time to challenge yourself, right? Keep on going strong.
Who's going to be the one to start that next thread to tell us all what you've learned and gained from this experience? And, what the next 61 days might have to offer you?
My 61 Day Challenge was kind of a bust after I had to take a large chunk of June off from exercise to help heal a lower back injury. In fact, June may have been my least active exercise month in over 5 years. LOL!
My personal goal was to slowly drop about 8 pounds to get lighter for running/racing. I dropped about 3-4, which is fine. It's not an urgent goal, and I'm happy with my current weight. Actually, a photo of me about 10-12 lbs. lighter showed up in my 5,000 post thread, and I looked really skinny... which didn't exactly encourage me to keep dropping lbs!
I did meet my competitive goal - a 10K trail race from hell back in June.
My personal goal was to help my wife through her vertigo/ear infection/hearing loss problems. In looking back, I believe that I've been doing what I can....cook, chauffeur, monitor, listener, emotional support provider, advocate, researcher, data logger, appointment secretary, errand boy, medical community communicator, and more.......even, at times...shudder...purse carrier.....
She is doing considerably better now than she was through mid-July, but we both know that her ordeal is not over. We still have a long way to go in the battle to better manage the problems. As a result, I can not claim that I have helped her through it to a successful and happy conclusion, only that I did what I possibly could to help her through her latest round of this mess. That being the case, I will take credit for achieving my personal goal for the challenge and award myself the points, fully realizing that our trials are not over and that this will remain a major focus for us for some time to come.
__________________ "May you live every day of your life." - Jonathan Swift
Congratulations to everyone who attempted the challenge and an even bigger one to those who completed it.
I am unfortunately not one of the ones who did great. I had a strong start and then faltered half way through.
A change in work environments through me for a bit of a loop.
I stopped preparing meals ahead of time, I lost my gym access and despite my best intentions haven't managed to use my sled or even complete it.
I walk a few kms every day and try and skip some rope for a few minutes at night, but apart from that large amounts of physical activity are not part of my day to day.
Any weight and fat I lost is back. Pretty much at square one now.
Oh well. I am better settled now and I will have my gym back in a month or so. yay!
Og.
__________________ 2009: No races, No times. Slow year. So, now you're 96 cals short. You're now in starvation mode. Doomed. - LostDog
Blog entry: November 1, 2009, Pancakes LiveSTRONG daily plate log
I'm close on the abs, not all of the way there. I'm moderately happy with the way I look right now, so I will gladly take that.
Shot a 79 (we played best ball the whole week. Had a genuine eagle by myself though, that was sweet)
The "not for public viewing goal" was accomplished. Wasn't really executed, but I at least accomplished it.
So, overall, it was good. Could have accumulated more points in the last week or so if I wasn't working my butt off and playing golf so much. But I'll take 826.
__________________
Quoth David Banner: "Like a pimp"
It's not a beer belly. It's a gas tank for a sex machine.
Well, i'm not sure if i had mine set-up quite right, but here are my results, with the first number being what i achieved and the second number being my goal- i believe i gave myself to many personal goals, three in all, only one of which i accomplished 100 percent, the other two i missed by a smidge. not really sure how to tally the nutrition points, and just guessing at the others, so a little help would be appreciated. Thanks
*Final Nutrition 106/110 261? points 96%
*Final Bike Rides 62/64 124 points
*Final Workouts 21/26 52.5 points
*Weight this morning 246, goal 245 not met, missed by one pound, i had it on the 30th, but the 31st, i'd gained it back. 0 points
*Inches changed, 8 positive inches, lost 6 over waist hips and chest, gained one and a half over thighs, gained half inch on one arm, goal was 10 positive inches, so missed by two 0 points
*finished the competetive goal in the mini triathelon, 100 points
*caught all the fish i wanted to catch when i went to MN another personal goal, so, since i didn't make the others, i guess 0 points.
so that's 276.5 points not including nutrition(537.5 points with, if i did it right), so, if someone could check my math, i'd appreciate it.
My results:
Total Points official points 446.073770491803/771 58%
Total points I'd give myself if I were doing the scoring :p 596.073770491803/771 or 77% (see the personal goals for an explanation)
Total Inches Lost - 6.875
Nutrition
Blocks part of the challenge - 108/110 98% 266 points
Personal Goal eating when I got up instead of when I got hungry - completed. I'll admit to slacking a little in the last week or so, but I will be back in the habit after the trip.
Personal Goal of carrying the food I need - Base goal was 100 which was a B in my estimation and an A was 113 - I carried 112/126 meals so I got an A- on this one. Not too shabby.
Personal Goals - Not sure how to score this one. Input would be appreciated. I would give myself 150 pts for getting half of this done, but there's no way to do that on the spreadsheet.
1) Able to complete 30 pushups by my 40th birthday - I abandoned this goal after the energy tank. I mentioned that I had abandoned it, but never asked for an official can I change my goal please.
2) Add 1-2 articles/pages to my web site (dontbeapicklebump.com) - I'm happy to say I posted 17 new things on my web site.
Competitive Goal - 100 pt.
Completed a father's day 3k Walk.
All in all I'm pleased with the results. I did better than I expected and the challenge let me see where my problem areas are. I'm still not liking cardio any better. I'm further along in some areas than I thought and made progress on some personal goals.
The biggest personal challenge to me in the whole challenge was having to up my calories. It was really, really hard for me to eat at that level and see changes everywhere in my body but where I really wanted them. I know I did the right thing though and I have a rough plan in place for when I get back next week.
Me setting goals is much more helpful and gives me a measure of how I am doing.
__________________ It all starts with the mind, but the thoughts, the intention aren't enough. Action needs to come next. Dream it, believe it, plan it, execute it, celebrate it. - Wendy
the problem comes from having multiple personal goals, versus having just one. If you had 2, you could either complete 1 and call it 1/2 and get 1/2 points, or say you completed your personal goal and take all the points.
I had a bunch of things listed for my personal goal. I completed all but one. I took the points. I don't think that not doing one thing means I failed my personal goals.
you could either take 150 or 300 in my book, I wouldn't care either way. You worked your pushup goal to the best of your ability, you mentioned you were dropping it. *shrug*
Congrats, everyone, and a HUGE THANK YOU for participating and helping to push me along. There were quite a few times I didn't really want to eat right/work out/get back on track but I thought about sticking with the challenge, which changed my mind.
Nutrion: 98 out of 110, 89%, 241 points.
Resistance: 14 out of 24, 58%, 35 points. Should have done better!!
Interval: 1, no goal set, so 2.5 points.
Cardio (Mobility for me): 120 out of 122, 98%, 240 points. The shoulder feels pretty good!
Personal: I've worked on the book and my coauthor and I know where we want to go with it. Weight loss, however, didn't happen. I thought I 'd set up a pitifully small goal of 5 pounds, but I lost a total of 3.
Competetive: Participated in UMDF walk. Done.
Toal points: 618.483606557377. Can we say 618?
Overall % of Goal: 63%
It would be easy to say that my vacation really sidetracked me, but I also let it distract me when I got back home, too. I'm going to do some real self-reflection and try to figure out if I had set some goals unrealistically high, or if it was just pure laziness on my part.
__________________ The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same. -- Carlos Castaneda
I thought I would add to my results, since everyone else is posting a more indepth summary. So I have quoted what I posted earlier, and I'm adding commentary after that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mpm
Nutrition: 104/103, Pts: 256
Weights: 20/22, Pts: 50
Steady State: 16/16, Pts: 32
Personal Goal Complete: Yes, Pts: 300
Competitive Goal Complete: No, Pts: 0
Total Points: 637.7/740, 86%
Considering I didn't set a competitive goal, I achieved 637.7/640, 99%.
I would give myself an A- overall. I achieved everything I set a goal for.
Addendum:
Nutrition:
I met my nutrition goal and even went a little beyond the goal. I had 104 out of 122 possible points. My goal was to reach 103 which is 85%. I should have been able to do better than this, but with a holiday vacation and a few days of not caring it just didn't happen.
Personal:
I met my weight goal of weighing 150 pounds. I weighed myself today and was 150.8 pounds for a net gain of +7.6 pounds. According to my Tanita Scale, I've precisely stayed at the same body fat percentage (10%). So the majority of this weight gain should be lean muscle. In the near future, I want to work on putting my food intake on fitday again to see if I can further increase my weight. I've had good success with using fitday in the past.
Workout:
I met my goal of meeting 90% of my workouts. I made 16/16 long walks to relieve some stress and to get a little light work done. I made 20/22 weight lifting sessions. The weight sessions were great. I got my endurance back and managed to increase my lifts by 10-15 pounds on most lifts. Maybe more on some. One thing I do need to work on is keeping a lifting log so I can be more accurate on my improvement. I've done this in the past and found it really helpful. I don't know why I didn't this time.
Competitive:
One negative, in a sense, is I didn't meet my competitive goal. There wasn't really anything I was interested in doing, so I never set a goal. I can't stand the weather here, so doing things outdoors isn't very fun the majority of the time. I feel that if I would have truly set a goal and trained for it in order to complete the event, that it would have had a negative impact on my other goals.
All in all I am very pleased with my results. I can see that hard work really pays off. I'm going to take a week off I think and start over again. I started noticing that my workouts were fading a bit towards the end, so I either didn't eat enough before the workout, or I was starting to overtrain a bit.
Well, that about raps it up for this challenge. If there are any questions anyone has, I would be more than happy to answer them. Next time I hope to get some body measurements so I can see how much I've grown if any.
Thanks to Newman for the great idea and to Og for the spreadsheet, without which I'd have no idea how many points I had.
Nutrition 197 pts
Exercise 147 pts
Competitive 100 pts
Personal Goal 150 pts
Total 594
I started out pretty well with my nutrition but faltered at about the three week mark....as always. My will power rarely gets me further than that when I diet. I tried to pick it back up, but travel and vacation gave me too many "zero point" days. I must admit that my wife and I are eating better, more veggies and salads, but I do enjoy an oatmeal-raisin cookie midmorning.
My exercise was pretty good throughout. Except for vacation I got 3 or 4 resistance sessions per week and walked a lot with my wife or dog. I'm not sure if the walks did a lot for me physically, but they are relaxing after a workout.
My competitive challenge was a 3 on 3 basketball tournament in which we took some lumps. The old "whoever travels further is better" rule came into play when we lost to two teams from the DC area. We played both pretty tough but in reality they were just younger, early 30s, and better.
I'm claiming 1/2 credit on the personal goal. I was able to complete the 500 sq feet of hardwood floor installation on the night before my son's new girlfriend rolled into town for a visit. The 2 inches off the waist goal turned into 1 1/8". I lost a total of 10 lbs at my peak, but gained 2 lbs back after a wild July 28th party. I'd planned to pull an all day "Biggest Loser" exercise session on Sunday, but somehow the energy just wasn't there....damn beer.
My biggest take away is that I can drop fat relatively easily when my diet is really tight, but just have a hard time extending that for more than a few weeks. I'll probably try to put together a few good weeks before the end of the summer.
Thanks again to everyone who participated.
__________________ 'I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day. ' ~Frank Sinatra
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may create the illusion that you are tougher,
smarter, faster and better looking than most people.
I didn't get the personal because I didn't practice nearly enough swimming to get it. I started out strong, and then got my wires cross reading a totally different book. I now have a system in place so I finish one complete book before I go onto the next. Partly that's the reason I didn't finish Total Immersion, ChiRunning is taking way longer to get through that I had anticipated.
Nutrition = 113/110 for 278 pts
Resistance = 23/26 for 57.5 pts
Interval = 17/26 for 42.5 pts
Personal = No for 0 pts
Competitive = Yes for 100 pts
Total points = 481.9
Well, according to the numbers alone, I fell a bit short of my goals, especially the personal one. But, in hindsight, perhaps my personal goal should have been more fitness related. Looking back, this challenge, for me, was more about getting back into a good groove with my workouts and engraining that as a daily habit which I feel I’ve accomplished. I’m looking forward to my workouts, and can see my body responding to my efforts. That’s success enough for me. In terms of my nutrition, this challenge helped me realize that what I eat is not the problem, how much I eat needs work. So, my next 61 days will be to focus on that.
Overall, I’m amazed by and grateful for the friendships I’ve gained here on this forum. It’s been an amazing experience… offering an encouraging word when others needed a lift, laughing at the resident comics and consoling those who were down, and sharing in all the camaraderie that exists here. Regardless of how my numbers stack up, this challenge has been a complete success for me.
__________________
On Krista mistressing the chin-up, "It's amazing", said one gym source, "considering that for months she just hung there like a dead fish."
Roland,
I am in the process of sending you an email ... but I needed a little clarification ...
For the two awards, what are the criteria?
I assume for the Mahler Award for Motivation, the person who was helpful to lots of people providing motivation and inspiration ... right?
But I'm at a loss for what we are looking for in "Most Improved" ... most improved in what?
Thanks!!
__________________
Life's a Journey ... Enjoy the Ride!
Nutrition: Goal=110, Actual=111 (273 points)
This would have actually been higher, but I got thrown off initially when we came to Goose Pond.
Resistance: Goal=20, Actual=20 (50 points)
This was a struggle to get to. I have found it hard to get into the groove with exercise being away from home, but I did it, and it felt good!
Interval: Goal=20, Actual=20 (50 points)
Same with intervals, but I got them in. I think I am going to drop them for a while though as they really wipe me out for days afterward.
Cardio: Goal=10, Actual=10 (20 points)
This was easy to meet, and I actually did more, just stopped marking it down once I met the goal. I'll be doing more low intensity steady state stuff as it feels good and seems to boost my energy.
Personal:
Goals=
1. sleep 8 hours minimum 6 nights per week
2. waterski once a week after "moving" to Goose Pond
3. scale weight of 155
Actual=
The first two goals were met/exceeded. I made them a priority and they happened. The third one was problematic. When I saw my doctor in early July, she said that it is likely that my body would not shed any fat until my hormones are much more balanced, and that could be a while, like 2 years according to her as things are so far out of whack. When I told Roland this, he said that was an acceptable reason to change the goal. So I just dropped that portion of my personal goal. (300 points)
Competitive: Yes, did the Solstice Sprint 5K with Victoria ... we walked and pushed my kids in a jogger (80 lbs) and came in dead last, but we had fun!! (100 points)
Total Points: Goal=790, Actual=792.95
This has been a great experience ... thank you Newman for insisting that I join in! Thank you to everyone who stopped by my log with encouragement and comments ... I truly appreciate each and every one of you!!
__________________
Life's a Journey ... Enjoy the Ride!
And now we're all finished with the challenge and can go completely haywire. I'm thinking massive Indian feast tonight!
Bad timing for this to end as the Wisconsin State Fair starts today and it literally walking distance from my house plus I start a week plus of vacation tomorrow. Hopeully I won't put all 7# back on in the next 12 days.
__________________ -50# by 4/1/10 2 down 48 to go.
I assume for the Mahler Award for Motivation, the person who was helpful to lots of people providing motivation and inspiration ... right?
Correct!
Quote:
But I'm at a loss for what we are looking for in "Most Improved" ... most improved in what?
It's open to interpretation, so in any email nomination, a reason behind it should be included.
It could be, for instance, someone who came so much farther than they expected to. It could be someone who changed their whole way of life for the Challenge (well, hopefully for themselves...), going from eating like crap and sitting on their tush all day, to eating healthy and exercising.
This award is like obscene art: you know it when you see it.
It's open to interpretation, so in any email nomination, a reason behind it should be included.
It could be, for instance, someone who came so much farther than they expected to. It could be someone who changed their whole way of life for the Challenge (well, hopefully for themselves...), going from eating like crap and sitting on their tush all day, to eating healthy and exercising.
This award is like obscene art: you know it when you see it.
Thanks!!
__________________
Life's a Journey ... Enjoy the Ride!
Nutrition = 81/110 74% (I'm suprised I did THAT well) 199 points
Resistance Training = 34/25 136% 85 points
Interval Training = 30/20 150% 75 points
Cardio = 0/0
Personal Goal = YES 300 points
Challenge = YES (and I won it too) 100 points
Overall, I had a blast during this challenge. My nutrition was way off target due to lots of traveling and lots of slacking, but I'm okay with that. Good times.
Nutrition = 90% or 243 points
Resistance Training = 174% 100 points
Interval Training = 133% or 50 points
Cardio = 175% or 28 points Personal Goal = NO zero points!
Challenge = YES (although beaten, fair and square) 100 points
L'ilJ kicked my ass, I'll admit it. She may be l'iller than both Tina and me, but she's got the motivation to kick some ass. And, she did.
Overall, lots of fun, but the the six pack eludes me. It's whiley, it is. I could have done better on my nutrition, here and there.
I did get a lot leaner, I took progress pics along the way and there's an obvious difference, despite the fact that I weight the exact same weight today that I did 61 days ago! That's like supposed to be the perfect scenario, right? Whatever... I'd rather be 175 and have all six abs!
I did get a lot leaner, I took progress pics along the way and there's an obvious difference, despite the fact that I weight the exact same weight today that I did 61 days ago!
So why have you not posted them?
__________________
Life's a Journey ... Enjoy the Ride!
__________________ 2009: No races, No times. Slow year. So, now you're 96 cals short. You're now in starvation mode. Doomed. - LostDog
Blog entry: November 1, 2009, Pancakes LiveSTRONG daily plate log
61 Day Challenge - The Results
Time to post our results overall.
Should have done better!! 
Partly that's the reason I didn't finish Total Immersion, ChiRunning is taking way longer to get through that I had anticipated.
I'd rather be 175 and have all six abs!
Linear Mode
