OFF SEASON PLAN

OFF SEASON PLAN..LOL..Like I had  an ON SEASON this year.

This is the time of year when I usually sit back, watch football, eat like I did in college and pack on all the pounds that I took off during the summer. I have decided that this is not going to happen this year. I pretty much made the decision while watching the Badgers play a horrible football game against Utah State. I figured that while watching a good football game and eating crap may not be worth the weight gain..watching crappy football and putting on weight definitely is not worth it. So, thank you Badgers in helping to show me the light. The pathetic play calling and offensive line were the major factors in my decision.

However I am also turning 45 in a couple of weeks and although I am not feeling any older I have come to realize that I may have put on a few years without knowing it. Luckily I continue to get better looking with age but at some point I am sure that will start to reverse also.

I am newly invigorated for the sport of triathlon by my trip to Maine and the people I met. Thus I have made the decision to try another Ironman distance race next year. My hope is to do the rev 3 Cedar Point race next September with Jen from Maine. So what am I going to do different this year to make sure I get the results I want?

First of all I am going to hold myself accountable by weighing in online each week.Weight loss is the key to my fitness. Weight loss depends on better nutrition which will also hopefully keep me gout free.  My goal weight is 180 lbs.  I think I last saw that number in 1993..20 years ago!!  I'll figure out a day of the week and post my weight on that day along with my goals for the following week.  Feel free to mock or scold me if you deem it appropriate.

Second, I have come to know some experts in weight loss and fitness and have enlisted them to help me on this journey. With my nutritional habits I am sure I will be their biggest challenge to date. Thus, if I fail to meet my fitness and nutrition goals I definitely have people to blame.  (Including you Taco Bell and your tasty Dorito Tacos!! You are the devil.)  I will even share some of their nutritional tidbits, recipes and training tips with all of you.  And we all know this guy isn't going to be eating kale on a regular basis or become a vegan..so hopefully I will have nutrition tips for everyone..including my peeps in Wisconsin to benefit from. Thus my blog will be educational.

Note: I had a friend from Wisconsin post on facebook she was picking up salads to go with dinner.  Dinner was brats and the salads were "apple taffy salads" meaning apples, snickers bars and whip cream.   I checked with Dina at fuel4mance and she indicated to me that even though there were apples in the salad..this probably would not constitute a salad to anyone outside of Wisconsin or possibly the South.  See..you all learned something already.  But just in case you are interested..here is the link to the recipe...Apple Taffy Salad (This is not a nutrition tip)

Lastly, I plan on hitting the weights the next three months to try and get some lean muscle before 2013.The triathlon training does get me fitter but I do not feel like I am in good shape. More importantly I have come to the conclusion that I am never going to be fast..thus I just need to look good in lycra.  I am not going to try anything like crossfit (been there....done that) since the risk of injury and embarrassment is high. Instead just some good old circuit training and weight lifting with some help from my friend Jen.

UPDATE..yes to a blog I have not posted yet...The weigh in day will be Mondays.  Today I was at 220.2 lbs.  Also, I did a weight circuit today at lunch.  I cannot believe how weak and out of shape I am.  I apparently can swim 1.2 miles and ride 56 miles but bending down to pick up a 5 lb barbell almost caused me to have a heart attack..not to mention the stress of actually picking it up.  Then I did 25 sit ups..people were actually stopping  to see if I was ok because I was breathing so hard.  Good thing I had on my 2011 Barking Dog Duathlon shirt so everyone could see I was an athlete.  

Take care all.