Fit Happens Chapter 6: Participant Profile 2 (Hippo)

Looking to take the belt of Fit Happens Champion

As you may have read in Chapter 5, we are nearing the halfway point of the contest. In that chapter, you read about Chris, who shared his goals and challenges in the contest so far.

Next on the profile docket is Hippo, who is close on my tail as far as the overall percentage lost is concerned. To his credit, he started losing weight outside of the contest in December, so all things considered, he's lost the most weight of all of us the past four months.

He shares some of the same goals and concerns as Chris, as we see in the latest edition of Fit Happens, Participant Profiles.

1.       What made you decide to do Fit Happens?

I have been overweight my whole life, and as the years pass by it becomes more and more difficult to lose weight. I basically came to the conclusion that if I didn't get healthy now, I never will.

 2.       What were your goals to come out of this?

I want to be "healthy". No matter how many pounds it takes me to lose, or how much time it takes, I want to be able to walk into my doctor's office and have them tell me I am healthy. 

3.       What changes have you made to your daily habits during the contest?

First and foremost I am eating a more "normal" amount of food. In addition to that I am eating more fruit and less extremely bad foods. I am also exercising a few times a week. Most importantly I am trying to break my obsession with stuffing myself.

4.       Have you ran into any difficulties during this contest? If so, how have you overcome them or trying to overcome them?

It's definitely been hard, but it gets easier every day. Getting through the first few weeks and getting to the point where I could eat less was definitely the biggest challenge. Staying motivated has also been an issue. After the initial rush of losing a bunch of weight wore off, it's hard to keep it going day in and day out.

5.       When the contest is over, do you think it will be hard to keep up this level of intense workout and/or diet?

It will be hard for a long time. I don't plan on stopping when the contest ends because I won't be at my goal. But once I get there I won't be confident that I can keep it up for a while.

6.       Entering the second half of the contest, what are your goals for the next three months? Have you had to adjust them as time has passed?

No new goals. Just keep up the same routine, keep losing weight and trending in the right direction.

7.       What do you expect your final weigh-in to be?

Originally I wanted to drop around 30, but I am already there, so I have moved my target to 50 pounds. But as long as I am still moving in the right direction I will be happy.

8.       In your honest opinion, who do you think is going to win the contest?

Honestly, my money would not have been on B-Bo, but he has absolutely dominated so far. Chris was at a massive disadvantage since he already worked out so much. And while he is definitely in the best shape now, and will be when it's over, I think it will be tough for him to lose too much more. Even if he doesn't win, he will have still accomplished a lot. Dave doesn't seem to care enough at this point, and even though he is behind if he wanted to he could easily catch up. I like my own chances at this point, but B-Bo has gone the extra mile so far, and he is the favorite at this point. Ask me again in a month though.

Fit Happens Chapter 5 - Participant Profile 1 (Chris)

The third month of Fit Happens is about to wind down. For all four of us, it has been the most challenging month as far as weight loss goes. The toughest part of the contest by far - where motivation amid lower weight loss than previous months enters into the equation. It looks like it will come down to me versus Hippo for the monthly winner - a mere 0.03% difference in our total weight loss for March entering the last 5 days. I will provide an official blog at the beginning of April for March's results as well as the overall standings.

As the contest has entered its halfway point, I wanted to profile each of the contestants aside from myself. The only one to respond so far is Chris, who was kind enough to answer some questions about the inspiration for the contest as well as some goals and challenges he has faced as the contest has developed.

Chris cooking up some results in the weight loss category.

1.       What made you decide to do Fit Happens? I needed to lose some weight.  On a binge eating experience with Hippo and Magic Bus, Hippo started talking about a weight loss program he was trying.  That got the ball rolling.  Before too long we were creating a contest.  The motivation to lose weight as already there, the contest just made it more serious and urgent

2.       What were your goals to come out of this? To lose weight and look skinnier.  I had a goal weight in mind, but I think my number one goal is just to look and feel better.

3.       What changes have you made to your daily habits during the contest? The biggest thing I have attempted is to eat less and eat slower.  I have not modified my diet all that much in terms of what I eat.  I just try to eat less and by eating slower, I recognize when I am no longer hungry and am able to stop.  Before I would regularly shovel food as fast as possible and would stuff myself way too often.  I'd feel sick afterward.  Honestly, there have only been 1-2 times during fit happens when I felt that way.  Major progress from my few times per week before the context.

4.       Have you ran into any difficulties during this contest? If so, how have you overcome them or trying to overcome them? The only difficulty I have had is the recent plateau.  We all shed a bunch of weight in the first few weeks/month.  After that it is much more of a slow burn.  There is less motivation when you lose half a pound in a week than when you are seeing multiple pounds per day come off.  I am just trying to keep up with the diet and the exercise intensity so that it continues to come off, even if it is only a small amount at a time.

5.       When the contest is over, do you think it will be hard to keep up this level of intense workout and/or diet? I should easily be able to maintain the diet.  I just need to remember to take it easy at meals and eat slowly.  My exercise regimen has been pretty intense.  I work out a minimum of 6 days/week right now.  That will be difficult to maintain, but I should be able to keep up at least a 4X/week program without much issue.

6.       Entering the second half of the contest, what are your goals for the next three months? Have you had to adjust them as time has passed? My goal is exactly the same - lose as much weight as possible.

7.       What do you expect your final weigh-in to be? Aspiration - 210; realistic - 215 (both much lower than I anticipated)

8.       In your honest opinion, who do you think is going to win the contest? B-Bo is on a tear, but Hippo is right on his tail.  I'd say that Magic Bus and I are comfortably out of the money.  I will leave it at that.

Goals/Bucket List Re-analyzed

A nice and easy blog - gonna look at my goals through the first 20 days of the year

1. 100+ blogs - this will be blog 10 in the 20th day of the year. While I don't think I'll be able to keep with a blog every other day pace, it looks like I will be more consistent than last year in posting blogs. Keep with the feedback and I'll keep with the writing.
2. 3000 Tweets & Gain 50 Followers (Go over 100) - I started the year with 1022 tweets and 58 followers; currently at 1222 and 75 (although some of these followers may disappear since they appear to be fake accounts). I'm at 10 tweets/day, so I'd beat my year goal by 2 months. The followers stat may be deceiving, but hopefully I'll continue to get some legit followers.
3. Get a Mac Computer & Become Solid at Final Cut Pro again - working on this - the time of the year I get this depends on the Niners making the Super Bowl
4. Listen to all 4500+ songs on my I-Pod at some point this year - I'm through 440 songs in 20 days (22 songs a day). At this pace, I'd finish my playlist in July. With how often I drive to and from the city these days, it's very possible I get this done before the summer ends.
5. Learn to design a website - looks to be an end of year goal.
6. Keep getting better/more knowledgeable about sports gambling - work in progress

Updated bucket list

1. Baseball Road Trip (Achieved)
2. Watch the Final Game of a Sport (Achieved)
3. Attending NFL Playoff Game (Achieved) - And what an achievement it was. Best. Game. Ever.
4. Attend MLB Playoff Game (Achieved)
5. Yankees/Red Sox
6. Duke/North Carolina (NCAAB)
7. Packers/Bears (not achieved) - working on these. Would like to hit up at least one of these 3 by the end of the year.
8. Big Ten football stadium outside of Illinois (likely Mich vs. OSU) (not achieved) - work in progress
9. SEC football (LSU, Bama or Florida) (not achieved) - work in progress; doubt I'll get to this in 2012.
10. The first weekend of March Madness...
11. and the Super Bowl....in Vegas (not achieved) - goal is to get one of these achieved in 2013.
12. The Super Bowl (not achieved) - this may be the surprise item that gets eliminated first. I got some great news from the boss about a bonus that could cover most of the costs for this. My dad/mom say I should use the money for student loans, but I've been responsible enough with money for so long, it's gonna happen if the Niners make it there. I've already talked myself into this.

So far, I'd say my goals/bucket list are progressing nicely. I hope your goals are going just as well. Hopefully you've set some reasonable ones that you can reach.

Thanks for reading once again.

Goals vs. Resolutions

Four days into the new year - how's your New Year's Resolution looking?

Did you set a concrete goal - like losing 20 pounds this year as opposed to abstractly saying "lose a lot of weight"?

Did you set a reasonable goal? This goes a long way in how hard you decide to go forth with a resolution.

I think a lot of times, New Year's Resolutions are people setting goals that they have no intention on meeting. It is procrastination at its finest.

Why are people compelled to make goals at the beginning of the year moreso than any other time of the year? Do they feel the need to change with the change of the year?

As with any change in life, you have to want to do it, not force yourself to do it because the calendar year changes.

Saying you are going to change something in your life on June 21st is just as good as saying it on January 1st. There's no reason to delay these major changes for the beginning of years.

If you want to run a marathon, you don't expect to just run one without some training. You have to build up to that goal over a set of monthly goals. Likewise, with other goals, you need to pace yourself with accomplishing some things.

I've learned that if I set unreasonable goals or goals I'm not really committed to, much of this short-term work to accomplish it will go to waste.

Just because you don't accomplish a goal doesn't make it a failure either. If you set out to lose a certain amount of weight and you lose 5 less than that in say a 6 month period, that's not to say you can't keep at it and try readjusting goals.

My Own Goals

Not all of them are important or life-changing goals.

1. 100+ blogs again - I'd like to keep my writing sharp and keep getting better at my craft. I'd like to write about variety of topics, although I'm sure I'll continue to weigh in more on sports topics.
2. 3000 Tweets & Gain 50 Followers (Go over 100): I had 1022 Tweets in 7 months last year & got 58 followers, so the goal is 4022 total Tweets and 108 followers by the end of the year. The reason for these goals is to gain a larger following for my blogs and like the blog goal, to keep my mind fresh. (It's @BrianBolek, to keep pushing this)
3. Get a Mac Computer & Become Solid at Final Cut Pro again:  I want to get back into video editing. I already know of one editing project that I have to do - editing the pre-video of pictures/music for my brother's wedding. I'm hoping this leads me to get back into editing other videos and uploading some videos that get me some notice.
4. Listen to all 4500+ songs on my I-Pod at some point this year: I have yet to accomplish this in the several years I've had my I-Pods. Usually what happens is I end up skipping songs. I'll see how long I can go without skipping songs. So far, through 22 of 4506. Currently listening to Lucky Boys Confusion "Mr. Wilmington".
5. Learn to design a website: I need to market myself more. Even if it doesn't help with finding a job in video editing or whatever, it can't hurt to have some self-created content (a la these blogs, YouTube videos, etc). I'm not sure how easy it will be to do this, but I will put forth effort to learn at some point.
6. Keep getting better/more knowledgeable about sports gambling:  As much as I'd love to become a professional gambler, I know that I can't handle the ups and downs of it. To see whether this goal is going well, I suppose I'd look at profit - or perhaps this is one of those subjective goals that is more about gaining knowledge than actual profit. Over the past couple years, I've gotten better at staying disciplined as a gambler, knowing my limits & executing research before placing most of my bets.

I hope you're able to achieve your New Year's Resolutions, but make sure you're constantly making reasonable goals throughout the year, not just saving it for January 1, 2013.

Good night to you all.

Blog about NFL General Managers/Coaches and Playoff picks to come either tomorrow or Friday.