Chapter 13 Fit Happens: Closing the Door on The Flab Four

I can remember January 1st like it was yesterday.

Jen and I had just gotten home from a wedding evening in Lasalle/Peru. I put on my "workout clothes" (I put this in quotes because in order for clothes to be classified as workout clothes, you need to, you know, work out) and walked to the elevator to begin my first workout while Jen relaxed after we had a long fun night the night before.

There was only one other person in the gym, which had three treadmills, a stepper and about 10-12 different weight machines for the various muscle groups. Most importantly, there was a television, which allowed me to watch the bowl games that were on (most of which I had some kind of bet on). The only thing that got me through the pathetic struggle of my first workout was the fact that all of my bets hit that day (several while I was in the gym for that 40 minutes or so).

At that time, I weighed in at over 235 pounds. 235.6 pounds to be exact. The first workout, along with about the first 2-3 weeks worth of workouts, showed me just how much I had gotten out of shape compared to my recent fitness focus from November 2008 through July 2010, where I was able to shed my weight from 220 to a low of 175 thanks to a rigorous workout routine - 5 times a week in the gym, with many one hour runs on the treadmill that spanned 6-7 miles.

My initial thoughts on January 1st brought me down to earth and realized that I had to get my ass back in shape. Sadly, 4 mph on the treadmill was tough at first, but after a month or so, I was able to run back at my normal 6 mph pace. As you've seen through the blogs before this, the pounds shed as the workouts became more intense.

Fast forward to now, and I am much better off for my Fit Happens experience, as are the others. While we all had our slight regression towards the end, we've all developed better habits (exercise and diet) that can carry over in the future months.

The Final Standings

User	lbs	%
Dave	-22.2 lbs	-7.69 %
Hippo	-19.5 lbs	-7.9 %
LionEsquire	-28.2 lbs	-11.56 %
B-Bo Knows Weight Loss	-32.6 lbs	-13.84 %

The good news for all, aside from the good amount of weight we all lost, was that no one will have to face any punishment.

And also good news for me is that as a result of winning the contest as well as three of the five recorded months (no monthly winner for June), I was able to score $220 profit from the others. Which is funny, because a part of me was motivated by the money at the beginning.

But as I stood on that treadmill January 1st, I knew it was much more than about money at that point. It was about making a lifestyle change while I could before long-term health damage could take place.

Sure, I still have my share of bad diet habits that will likely never go away. However, as long as I am physically able, I will make sure to continue my workouts/runs to ensure that getting fat has disappeared into thin air.

Nike Fit App

Since I have yet to join a gym, I have been relying on my runs to keep in shape. I have found the Nike Fit App to be a great tracker of all of my runs. And the nice thing now is that I have a few friends who are on the app, possibly because of me.

I admit there were a few times I ran this month when I saw my closest competitor in miles creeping up on me. In all, I ran a total of 24.17 miles on the app for June. A great total, which I only hope will improve on a monthly basis.

Next month, our first month away from the contest, I am aiming to get 35 miles of running. This would likely require me to run about 20 times. With my cost-cutting efforts likely keeping me away from the gym for the time being, I will be focusing on running even more to keep myself in shape.

Also, seeing my friends adding to their running stats will get me going for sure.

The Next Steps

So what becomes of the Fit Happens crew?

If I have anything to say about it, we will still keep in touch about our goings-on. Some of us are using Chris' wedding date in October as a platform for our next set of weight loss goals. At that time, I hope to be about 190-195, and the other gents have set similar reasonable goals to reach by that time.

In the coming days, I will have some exit interviews from the Flab Four, including what experiences we gained from the contest as well as our next steps in improving our health.

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.