This post is part of my ongoing “Get Fit” series, an effort to lose a little weight/tone up, and save money by reducing the number of meals I eat out.

It’s been a while since my last “Get Fit” update so I thought I should get on the ball. On a good note, just before I started to write this post I checked my eating out expenses for the month and am under budget by $24 and that’s fantastic! The question is, can I avoid eating out for the next two days? Doubtful, but who knows.

My last update outlined a pretty hardcore workout schedule that I was doing for skating, and I’ve kept a similar schedule for most of the month. Up until last Thursday I was skating indoor practice four times a week and outdoor four to five times a week. Some days I’d do indoor practice immediately followed by outdoor practice. The back to back indoor and outdoor practices are no joke and most definitely test your mental strength.

Thus far, my training has been on schedule for the regional competition I’ll be taking part in May 15 – 16, but I sure felt like trash at practice last night. I hadn’t skated for a few days due to the weather (outdoor was canceled twice) and you’d have thought I’d have felt fresh, but that wasn’t the case.

In any sport, you have ups and downs… especially if you’re following a strenuous training regime. It’s safe to say that I’m on the down portion of the curve at the moment. In theory, this is a good thing as I’ll start to peak around regionals, but admittedly, now that I’m a bit older than when I used to skate, I hope my body reacts the way it needs too.

Hopefully in a few weeks I’ll be able to tell you that I feel great and that all of the training paid off.

This post is part of my ongoing “Get Fit” series, an effort to lose a little weight/tone up, and save money by reducing the number of meals I eat out.

The last month has been quite a struggle, primarily due to an inline speed skating crash that resulted in a severe back injury four weeks ago. Three of the four weeks went with no exercise as I was happy to simply be able to walk.

My back still hurts, but the weekend before last I decided I was going to either have to suck up the pain or put my skating goals on hold for the season… and that’s not something I wanted to do.

That being said, I hit the ground running and worked out extremely hard over the last seven days. Here’s how things played out:

• Monday – casual 20 mile bike ride to see how my back felt
• Tuesday – indoor skating practice followed immediately by outdoor skating practice (400 meter track)
• Wednesday – outdoor skating practice at a local park that has a decent amount of hills
• Thursday – indoor skating practice
• Friday – late night indoor skating practice (10 – 11:30 pm)
• Saturday – 40 mile bike ride (10 am)
• Sunday – outdoor skating practice (400 meter track)

The schedule was intense, but the only thing that about made me crack was the 40 mile bike ride. The speed was pretty intense as I had a 21.5 average for the ride and my legs had not yet recovered from the late night skating practice. I survived, but it was ugly, not to mention it caused my back to to amp up a couple notches.

It looks like I’ll also be skating outdoor practice with the team again today, so I won’t be getting an off day until Wednesday (if that). I don’t necessarily recommend a scheduleof this nature, but it’s what I need to make up my three week deficit and to make sure I’m on par for the regional competition that’s a month away.

My skating goal for the year is to have myself in shape so that I’m competitive at the National competition in July. The catch is, you have to make it out of Regional’s to skate Nationals – think of it as a qualifier, so not being in shape isn’t really an option.

The process of getting fit has highs and lows, but it’s how you deal with the lows that will determine the highs.

PS – If you’ve been following this series you know that part of my goal is to also reduce the amount I eat out which will help me save money and reduce the amount of fried food I eat. I spent less than $50 eating out last week, and to that I say woot woot!

This post is part of my ongoing “Get Fit” series, an effort to lose a little weight/tone up, and save money by reducing the number of meals I eat out.

The photo to the left was taken last Tuesday (3-16-10) night after receiving a shot Dilaudid at Urgent Care, the result of an inline speed skating crash earlier in the evening. I don’t recall the photo being taken or anything else that happened after around 9 pm that night. If you missed it, here’s a quick video I shot last week Wednesday describing my crash and the resulting back pain.

Since then I’ve gone to the hospital (last Friday) to get further x-rays, which showed bruising of the bone and severely pulled muscles in my back. My ability to walk and stand up/sit down has improved, but unfortunately the back pain is still there. In addition, for some reason there’s a slight pain down my right thigh and groin area… I’ve got no clue what that’s all about.

I went to inline speed skating practice last night to roll around on my skates and see how things felt, but unfortunately I only skated around 10 laps before conceding to the fact that it hurt too much. You might be thinking, “Give it a rest,” but the thing is, I’m supposed to skate a competition Easter weekend.

At the event I’m scheduled to skate my division races, which I could easily bow out of, but I’m also supposed to skate five relay events. In regards to the relays, if I don’t skate it pretty much messes up the relay teams and other folks will have to sit out as well. At this point, only time will tell if I lace up my skates and compete next weekend.

I can only hope that a little more time will allow the pain to go away and things will go as planned next weekend, but if I can’t skate (yet) I can’t skate… and I’ve accepted that.

One thing is for sure, since this has happened I’ve thought about being paralyzed more times than I’d like to admit. I’ve never fallen while skating and not gotten up. More so, I’ve never fallen in such a way that my first thought was, “Make sure you can move your legs.” It was scary and something I hope to never experience again.

I’m going to keep this short. I started inline speed skating again late last year and am training for a national competition later this year. I fell last night during a sprint exercise at practice and the first thing that hit the floor was my back… and the pain was instantly excruciating.

This short video highlights what happened, what’s hurt and where things currently stand. I’ve had a lot of falls throughout my many years of inline speed skating, but there’s never been a time that I physically couldn’t get up from a fall – that’s a scary feeling.

This post is part of my ongoing “Get Fit” series, an effort to lose a little weight/tone up, and save money by reducing the number of meals I eat out.

It’s all About the Turkey

If you’re a regular reader of this series you know that I’ve managed to save $200 – $300 a month by bringing bread and turkey to work every Monday so that I have the makings for a sandwich at lunch. For whatever reason, I didn’t do this the first week of March and got off to a terrible start for the month. I think I dropped $120 in the first week alone…

I was able to get back on track last week and actually didn’t spend a dime eating out until Friday, which is my designated cheat day. Actually, I should be more clear about Friday – Sunday. I allow myself to eat out on the weekends (not every meal) simply because it allows me to be social and around friends.

The heading for this section could have easily been, “It’s all About Being Prepared.” At the end of the day you have to figure out what your stumbling block is and then come up with a solution for getting around it.

Workout

In the last post for this series I wrote,

“So, I’ve decided inline speed skating is my thing this year. I still plan to cycle this summer as it’s a perfect cross training sport for skating, but I’m going to spend a decent amount of time on my skates, both indoor and outdoor.”

I’ve been on my skates quite a bit and my performance level is headed in the right direction, but there’s still a long way to go. I practice with some of the top skaters in the United States and their fitness levels are down right amazing. From endurance to speed, they really have it all.

Skating with top athletes (this is true for just about any sport) helps me get back to where I need to be because it provides a constant challenge. On the other hand it can also be mentally draining at times, especially for an older athlete making a comeback, because you’re constantly getting beat or a couple steps beyond exhaustion.

At this point I’ve reduced the number of cycle classes I’m doing to one to two a week. As a result my weight training has decreased, and that’s not exactly a good thing. In terms of skating, I’m training (on a typical week) Tuesday, Thursday, Friday (I skip this day sometimes as it’s a late night practice 10 pm – midnight), Saturday and Sunday. Saturday and Sunday’s training sessions are outside and tend to be a bit grueling.

Mental Fitness

I think at times we forget how mental getting in shape is and don’t learn how to get over the hurdles. Let me elaborate on that a bit.

At our outdoor practice yesterday we started with a 40 lap event at a medium pace (10 miles), followed by a 20 lap event at a fast to faster pace. I gave the first event maximum effort and lapped the pack (tough on a 400 meter track) a couple times, but it hurt… bad.

I actually found myself wanting to quit after the first event, but managed to find the motivation to skate the second. I stayed with the pack and all was well, but I was spent. Needless to say I sat down, took off my skates and didn’t skate the third and final event.

As I was driving home I processed the training session, what went well, what didn’t and the fact that I wasn’t feeling motivated. During this processing time I started thinking about the rest of my day. I could easily go home, nap, do nothing and have a lingering feeling that my motivation had faltered. But that just isn’t my style, or at least I don’t want it to be.

By the time I got home I’d somehow talked myself into visiting another team’s practice last night (meaning two training sessions in one day) in an effort to try and overcome my lack of motivation. This decision didn’t come lightly because my legs were already hurting from skating outside…

Needless to say I went to the practice, hurt a decent amount, worked through the pain and woke up today feeling absolutely exhausted… but I don’t feel the lack of motivation that I felt yesterday.

Thanks for reading my ongoing “Get Fit” series; hopefully it will motivate you in some way or at least give you insights to someone else’s training highs and lows.

This post is part of my ongoing “Get Fit” series, an effort to lose a little weight/tone up, and save money by reducing the number of meals I eat out.

If you’re a regular reader of “Get Fit” you probably know that I’ve started inline speed skating again. This is a sport I took part in when I was a bit younger, but I’m now 30 and haven’t competed in about nine years.

I think I’m in shape, but that is completely different than being in “skating shape.” Inline speed skating is one of the most grueling things I’ve ever done, and nothing, and I mean nothing, has ever allowed me to take my body to the limit like skating has.

I’ve skated about 10 practices thus far and took part in a competition last weekend. The low amount of practices is the first thing I had going against me at the meet, but to further the chaos I also got a brand new skate setup hours before the meet began. In skating it’s important to be comfortable on your equipment – if not; you could be completely off your game.

Oh, and I should also mention that I went from 84 mm wheels to 110 mm wheels. The change in wheel size is like going from a Mini Cooper to a monster truck, and the speed is a lot faster. Click the photo to the left so you can get an idea of my old skates versus the new ones.

I did pretty well at the meet, and after my first race it was nice to hear my coach say something to the effect of, “Well, you certainly didn’t embarrass yourself.” I didn’t place, but what I did do was hang with guys that have been training and skating for quite a while. That felt good.

Now, what didn’t feel good was the time I got taken out by another skater (it happens and is normally by accident) which resulted in a nasty floor burn. Click the photo to the left to get the full “ouch” effect.

So, I’ve decided inline speed skating is my thing this year. I still plan to cycle this summer as it’s a perfect cross training sport for skating, but I’m going to spend a decent amount of time on my skates, both indoor and outdoor. There’s a national competition in July, which is where the best of the best compete, and I’d like to put myself into position to possibly place overall. It’s a pretty big goal because my division is pretty tough, but it might just be doable.

If last nights practice (3^rd time on my new skates) was any indication of things to come, I’m very excited. Not only did I have a blast, I was able to take myself past my pain threshold and gave the practice maximum effort. At one point during a relay event I rolled past the coach and said, “Tony, I’ve only got a few more laps in me.” He then quickly responded by saying, “This is where it starts Ryan.” He’s 100% correct, which is why I worked through the pain.

Thanks for reading about my adventure of trying to get in shape and save money by not eating out so much. I hope this series motivates you to continue getting fit or taking steps to do so.

This post is part of my ongoing “Get Fit” series, an effort to lose a little weight/tone up, and save money by reducing the number of meals I eat out.

I officially started this series on November 20, and want to give you an update as to how it has impacted my financial life.

First, let me backtrack a bit.

In late November I decided to start tracking my eating out expenses using FinanceWorks, a great money management tool provided through my credit union. When I saw that I’d spent $718 eating out in the month of September I nearly fell out of my seat… and I’m dumbfounded by simply typing that figure.

The amount dropped a bit in October, and in November I still managed to spend $615 eating out, which is still an insane spending level for a single guy that doesn’t drink alcohol. Thankfully in November I started the “Get Fit” series and really became committed to eating out less and getting in shape.

Note: Keep in mind that I ran for political office last year and was hardly ever at home – one of the many reasons I ate out so much.

My eating out expenses since September.

As you can see by looking at the chart above, I have nearly cut my eating out expenses in half since September. I currently budget $350 a month for eating out, and have gone over just a bit the last two months, but I’m committed to hitting the goal in February (one out of town trip might mess that up slightly).

If you consider $350 a month a lot for eating out, keep in mind that I only budget around $200 for groceries. My lifestyle simply doesn’t permit me to eat at home every night (three to four nights a week at best).

So, is the “Get Fit” series helping me accomplish my goal of toning up and saving money? Absolutely.

Thanks for reading and I hope you find this series to be helpful.

This post is part of my ongoing “Get Fit” series, an effort to lose a little weight/tone up, and save money by reducing the number of meals I eat out.

Here’s a bit of good news. I weighed myself this morning and I’ve lost right at 5 pounds during the month of January.

If I was looking at progress simply from a weight standpoint, that number wouldn’t seem very impressive over a two month period. It’s important to remember that when building muscle you actually might put on weight, meaning that losing fat and adding muscle might make your weight stay unchanged for a bit.

But I’m not simply looking at my weight as the success factor, so all is well.

Skating

I’ve only skated once this week (Tuesday), primarily because I’m still experiencing a significant amount of pain in my left ankle from where a previous boot hurt my foot. I’m taking a few days off to let that settle down…and hopefully my new boot will arrive at some point next week.

After all, I have a skating competition in Hickory, NC in just under two weeks… which will be very interesting.

The Trap         

I don’t know if you’ve fallen into this trap before, but I most certainly have. You lose a few pounds or have a stretch of eating healthy… and you suddenly feel like you can cheat a little more than you have been. Then, the next thing you know you’ve been cheating for a month and gained all your weight back.

That stinks!

This trap has me debating whether or not my cheat day (Friday) does more harm than good. Part of me says yes, but on the other hand it also seems important to reward yourself. I’m not making any decisions on this just yet, but it’s definitely on my mind.

Thanks for reading the “Get Fit” series and I hope you find it to be helpful in some way.

This post is part of my ongoing “Get Fit” series, an effort to lose a little weight/tone up, and save money by reducing the number of meals I eat out.

I thought I’d do a midweek update to let you know how things are going this week. I’m doing pretty well from an eating standpoint; although, I guess I did technically cheat twice this week.

Monday night I had a pretty hard cycle class and was starving afterwards, and I was hit with a rather large craving for pizza. And it most certainly doesn’t help that I live around the corner from a Mellow Mushroom. I ended up having pizza, but did so with the condition that I had to wake up at 5:30 am on Tuesday and do 30 minutes on the elliptical… something I despise doing. What’s humorous is that I know one of the employees at the Mellow Mushroom, and when he saw me he said, “This isn’t part of your get fit program is it?”

I skated pretty hard Tuesday night and had to make a quick trip to the grocery store right after practice. While waiting to checkout I decided to treat myself to a Coke and a Mr. Goodbar, so I did.

Other than those two steps off of the path, this week has been pretty good from a food standpoint.

Now, allow me to possibly redeem myself a bit and point out that I’m exercising a good amount. Below is this week’s workout schedule that I posted on Monday – items crossed out are things that have been completed.

Monday – Cycle class, weight train (chest, back and core)
Tuesday – (added: 5:30 am 30 min elliptical session) Indoor skating practice Wednesday – Cycle Class, weight train (arms, core and easy legs)
Thursday – Indoor skating practice
Friday – Indoor skating practice
Saturday – Hope to skate outside
Sunday – Full body weight training workout (nothing hardcore), Indoor skating practice

For the rest of the week the only thing I might potentially have to skip is the outdoor skating on Saturday. You have to have a certain type of wheel, and I’ve not been able to get my hands on any just yet.

Oh yeah, did I mention that my friend tried to tempt me with ice cream and cupcakes last night? That’s just pure evil! And no, I didn’t give in!

This post is part of my ongoing “Get Fit” series, an effort to lose a little weight/tone up, and save money by reducing the number of meals I eat out.

Last week was probably my least successful week in terms of eating since starting my “Get Fit” series. I didn’t go out and eat Wendy’s every day, or have a huge relapse, but I did eat a hamburger and fries on a couple of occasions.

I could give you a handful of reasons for the relapse if I wanted too, but I won’t. There is fundamentally one reason my week was not as successful as past weeks in terms of food consumption.

Altered my Routine

In past weeks I’ve made a routine of going to the grocery store over the weekend and buying the essentials that would help me eat lunch at work and dinner at home throughout the week. I skipped that routine last week and I kept saying, “I’ll go to the store tonight,” but it simply didn’t happen.

I’m not typically a fan of getting stuck in a routine, but this is one time that I feel it’s important. It’s not rocket science. If you don’t have food readily available at home our chances for eating out skyrocket.

Back on Track

Thankfully I made it to the grocery story on Saturday and am once again having a turkey sandwich, 100 calorie pack of Doritos and bottled water for lunch.

My coworkers have enjoyed laughing at the size of the Doritos, but they seem to give me the fix I need. I put a chip on top of the sandwich so you could see how small they are.

Workouts

If you’re following this series you probably know that I’ve started inline speed skating again. The sport has changed a great deal since my younger competition days, which has required me to upgrade my equipment.

In skating, the boot (boot, frame, wheels) is a wildly important aspect and can be a huge pain, literally, if you don’t have the right fit. I’m still in the phase of getting the right setup, but hopefully that is coming to a close. The previous boot I tried caused a great deal of discomfort and was preventing me from skating as much as I’d like too. Thankfully I have another solution on the way.

Ideally I’d like to be skating three to four days a week inside, and one or two outside, but that’s not been the case so far. I’ve been doing one to two thus far… but that’s about to change.

If all goes well this will be my workout schedule for this week:

Monday – Cycle class, weight train (chest, back and core)
Tuesday – Indoor skating practice
Wednesday – Cycle Class, weight train (arms, core and easy legs)
Thursday – Indoor skating practice
Friday – Indoor skating practice
Saturday – Hope to skate outside
Sunday – Full body weight training workout (nothing hardcore), Indoor skating practice

That’s a pretty intense schedule for me at the moment, and I’ll definitely be worn out. You’ll notice that I’m only doing leg weight training one day this week. Doing so allows me ample recovery time in between skating practices (again, this is simply what works for me). Keep in mind that getting in “skating shape” is what I’m going for right now.

As always, thanks for reading this series and I hope it helps you in one way or another.