Before, after, insanity.

So since I have hit a milestone I wanted to recap where I have been, where I am now, and where I am headed.

Here I am at an unknown weight, probably around 260 lbs.





And here I am now, at 230 lbs. :)





Excited about the progress I have made. I am really happy with where I am at. I still have a bit to go to where I will be at my goal, but definitely nice noticing the strides I have taken.

I have now started doing "INSANITY" with some guys at work on our lunch break. I consider Insanity P90X's ugly cardio ridden cousin. So far it has been one of the best workouts I have done, ever. It is such a trip, so much fun, so challenging and just long enough to work you out, but short enough that you arent begging for it to be over most days.

I need to tighten up my diet a bit to see some great results from it, but so far, I am loving it.

Sweat it out my peeps.

30/30 WHAT?!

It is with much excitement, pleasure and happiness I can report to you today that I am down 30 lbs as of today, December 21st, 2010. I started my journey back on May 21st, 2010.

The last time I weighed this little (on record) was March of 2005, and it shows. Before moving to phoenix I had put a bunch of clothing that I really liked, but no longer fit me into a bag and stored it. It all now fits again and my wardrobe has doubled in size!

I only have 30 more lbs to go to get to my goal weight and it feels pretty good getting this far. I remember looking forward to being down 30lbs and thinking, that would be cool, but its a long way away. Well - here we are!

At the end of the day, I don't care who wins the weigh in on Thursday (even though I will ;) ), I am just glad I have gotten this far!

Pato Beware

Dear my dearest father Patrick,
You are going down. Yes, I do realize you are ahead of me. Yes I do realize you could win this. BUT, you aren't going to. My evil plan? Catch up and push the deadline to march.

I have number I am down. Its not where I want to be come Christmas, but it's a number and I bet it will be bigger than yours come Tuesday, December 23rd.

Just want you to know that.

Cheers - enjoy a beer or 3 at the eagles game. Maybe go have some fudge mom made too.

Your soon to be weight loss champion son,

John

Sweat it out, peeps.

Back in the Saddle?

Again - long time no write. My apologies.

It's been quite a while since I last wrote. Pretty exciting things are happening here in Phoenix right now. I am doing things I would have never imagined I could do. We have a fantastic crew here and I enjoy working with them every game.

It has been a pretty difficult transition, though. I really got settled in Rapid City. Making the move, not knowing anyone and being disconnected has really been a struggle. With the stress of moving, came... DUN DUN DUNNN... weight gain.

I gained 5 lbs back and decided a few weeks ago that I wasn't done losing weight. I have had a terrible time (even with a pending weight loss competition between myself and my dad about to come to a close) trying to lose weight. I cant seem to get settled into a routine down here with the gym. I have no motivation or care to go to the gym right now. I hired a personal trainer, started getting some success with him, lost some weight and now? he now just left for a different position. here I am lost without a support system again. My gym that promised "a free personal training session a month and nutrition support!" just got bought out by LA Fitness - thus losing all of the fantastic benefits I had (not to mention the SOMEWHAT affordable personal training).

I read the letter I wrote to myself when I was 257 back on June 9th. Its amazing to believe that I am almost 20 lbs down since then, but I still have a very long way to go and with a tough hockey season schedule, my motivation is absent.

I know there are a lot of excuses... I am just hoping at some point I can buckle down and really commit to losing the rest of this excess weight. It just seems so unattainable right now.

Off to the gym to try and feign a workout tonight.

Sweat it out my peeps.

The rush of a lifetime.

It's been quite a while since I've updated this and for good reason, too. Part of this whole blog was to follow my weight loss journey as part of the Ripped workout at Stretch Studio in Rapid City, SD. On July 29th, 2010, I was offered a job with the Phoenix Coyotes as the Event Presentation Manager for the 2010-2011 season of NHL hockey.

I had an incredible time in Rapid City over two years, learning a lot about hockey and game entertainment, but mostly about myself. I learned that I am capable of putting together a fun entertaining show, but at the same time can handle almost anything thrown my way. After going away parties and saying goodbye to many friends and people who were my family away from family for two years, we packed up my stuff and I drove to Colorado to pick up my dad to take the 17 hour trip to Arizona head on. It's been a long long ride getting to Phoenix for a job I consider my dream job. I have watched hockey since I was 9 years old when the Colorado Avalanche had their inaugural season in Denver. I remember pretending we were hoisting the Stanley Cup, but in reality it was just a milk crate, and we were in my front yard.

Little did we know that only 15 years later I would end up working for another outstanding NHL franchise. This time with dreams of winning the cup on the office side. Through all of the teasing I went through in junior high and many friendless days in high school I hoped that some day there would be something bigger out there for me. My mother and father, bless them for their patience, always told me 'John, you will grow up to do great things, just wait and see. I never knew where I would end up, or for that matter what I would end up doing. I never had a true passion for anything but entertaining people and music. I got so lucky as to fall into a career that is centered around entertainment and music. So here I sit, in the 110 degree Arizona heat, preparing for the biggest adventure of my life. We're two days in and I can tell you already, there's not going to be a dull moment.

I will update you with more as the weeks go on and as I get acclimated I will battle on in the fight against fat. :)

Have a fantastic week.

Putting all new meaning into 'sweating' it out.

John

What happened to the kool-aid?

It's been a little over a week since I posted last and although I don't have any real results to post, I do want to write and catch up. The last two weeks have been an absolute roller coaster and weight loss has honestly been the last thing on my mind. Yes, the kool-aid I drank at the beginning to motivate me has somehow magically run out and I am starting to lose interest in the whole weight loss situation. My mind has been elsewhere this week and hopefully I can muster up a little bit of energy to pull together a workout or two. The positive fact is I have remained active and haven't gained, I just haven't lost anything either. It's not that I haven't enjoyed my successes, Its just hard to focus on the gym and working out right now. I am still riding my bike places, going to play hockey and whatnot, but just not motivated to do much more than that.

So while I search for the magical kool-aid of inspiration to workout more and lose more, hope all is well and have a great weekend!

And they keep on coming...

Two weeks after the one month mark I have weighed in again and again I have had success. The past week and a half have been "cutting" workouts and the pounds have fallen off to show it. In the past two weeks I have lost 5lbs and 3.5 inches putting me at a total of 19lbs lost and 11.5 inches in just 6 weeks of Ripped!!!! One more lb. and I am out of the 240's forever and on my way to being smaller than ever before.

I love how my clothes are fitting, some of which, like my business suits from last season, are going to have to be gotten rid of because THEY DON'T FIT!! I am fitting into things that I haven't fit into since college and its freakin great!

I am going to try and battle through the 5k in spearfish canyon this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes!