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I’m exercising three (or more) days a week now. I rise early, usually by 6 and get my incredibly shrinking self to the gym for a good 1-hour workout. I spend about 45 minutes on the treadmill on the "Fat Burn" program. This runs your heart-rate up to 55% of your theoritical maximum (220 – [your age] = theoritical maximum). There’s another program for "Cardio" and it runs you at 85% and man…that gives me a run for my money—but I did it today for 30 minutes.

I recently scored a Polar T31 heart-rate monitor that I wear now while I’m working out. It’s wireless and transmits my current heart-rate to the treadmill (and other machines) at the club as well as a "writstwatch" device I wear. It is much more convenient than holding the metal pads on the machine. The machine uses this information to vary the elevation and speed of the belt. Works great and it’s a nice step-forward. What other gadgets can I attach to myself to make working out more fun?

So, the long and short is that I’m down to 316 from the 354 I started at in July. I started doing the MediFast program (see below) but sorta gave that up for a bit. No real reason, just sorta faded. The working out is going great, it’s proving to be an excellent way to start the day. And, soon I might work my way up to 6 days a week which should be really fun.

Wish me luck!

I stopped taking blood pressure medication when I started this new weight management program.  Since then, my blood pressure has moved to well within normal ranges.  My latest reading just a few days ago was 128/50 where the normal is 120/80—pretty darn close!  And, the well-schooled folks in white coats confirm that I’ve lost 19 "official" pounds so that’s great news as well.

Progress will continue and I hope to break 300 by October 20.  In any event, I’m throwing myself a "300 Party"...how cheeky.

So, after three weeks on the program I have some great news.  I’m pleased to report that my blood pressure is down to 148/50 from the previous reading of 180/60 just 3 weeks ago.  Additionally I’ve dropped 6 pounds.  I was hoping to get blood drawn yesterday so they could run a lab on it to see where Cholesterol is sitting, but my hunch is it’s down too.  Also, I was hoping for more weight loss by now, but I also know that I wasn’t 100% faithful on the program.  As I was entertaining out-of-town guests for a week total spread out over the three weeks I opted to eat normal meals during that time.  I’ve also taken up mild exercise include weight training and some treadmill and elliptical.

All in all, things are going great and I feel good.  The last week I’ve had another gout flare up in my left foot and this time it was really bad for a few days but it’s feeling pretty great today.

My next checkup is in a month and I’ll get blood drawn then so we can see a 7-week span from the baseline and see how cholesterol is doing along with the other readings.  I’ll have a home blood pressure monitor soon so I can update more often with those values.  In the meantime, it’s every 3-4 weeks. 

As of 2004 the CDC reports the average life expectancy at 77.9 years. If I’m smart, avoid getting creamed by a car running across Everett Mall Way, and try to life a healthy life I just might make it there. So, as I head into the latter half of my life it’s becoming very clear that I need to lose some weight. This might have something to do with my right and left feet tag-teaming me with Gout, one after the other. It’s at this point in my monologue that we pause for a station break—I weigh 354 pounds—there, I said it.

So, I’m going to give MediFast a good 3 month trial and see how it goes—the goal being a 12 month program. I am really amped up to get started and thankfully that looks like it might be Tuesday. Might strike you as odd to talk about this in such a public forum, I know, but I’m comfortable with who and what I am—and you should be too.

To keep me accountable I’m going to make weekly updates here on my blog where I’ll record my current weight and blood pressure. I’ll get monthly blood tests to monitor such things as cholesterol, uric acid (causes gout symptoms) and whatever else those white-coats normally do. Feel free to check back as often as you like. You’ll get to see a nice graph plotting these metrics and probably a picture of my face each week. As the pounds melt away the pictures will tell-the-tale and when I’m done with this project I’ll put them together into a nice time-laps animation to see 12 months in less than a minute. Fun, huh?

After a beautiful and somewhat snowy drive down Oregon Highway 58 I’m in Klamath Falls at a friend’s place.  Klamath Falls is a nice big small town.  It has a Wal*Mart so you know it must be great.  But seriously, it’s a nice place and I’m glad for the opportunity to travel and visit with friends.  Maybe some pictures tomorrow, as I’m traveling northeast to Walla Walla via Crater Lake…should be cool.  I got to use the slow version of my mobile phone’s internet and it wasn’t so bad.  But, all the patrons at Starbucks were asking "hey, do they have wireless here now?"...Sorta,

Somehow I managed two posts in one day.  Oh, and notice to the right I’ve got my latest Flickr images.  I’ll try to upload a few more tonight.  I’m in Springfield, Oregon at a relatively nice Extended Stay America.  It’s got a nice little kitchenette and I upgraded to double-occupancy to avoid a stinky smoking room.  Applebees hooked me up with a tasty steak dinner, and the slow but cheap wi-fi isn’t too bad but my cell phone goes faster believe it or not.  Off to Klamath Falls tomorrow morning, then to Walla Walla via Crater Lake.  Good times.

Oh, big deal.  I’m in Kaizer, Oregon…right near Salem.  Nice place, pretty girls.  I’m hanging at a Starbucks attached to a Target. I picked up a massaging seat "cushion" for 20 bucks so I’m glad for that. Uploaded some pictures to my Flickr account and I may add a side-bar to this site showing my latest pics.  But for now I’m heading back out into the insane rain making my way to Klamath Falls…unfortunately later than I had hoped.  On the flipside…

I’ll be traveling around the northwest for the next week on vacation. I’ll go as far south as Klamath Falls Oregon and as far east as Walla Walla, Washington. It should be a fun trip and coolest of all is that I’ll be able to blog from the road! My new Palm Treo 700w mobile phone allows my laptop to get online at ‘broadband’ speeds. So, I can upload photos and text quickly and easily from just about anywhere my trip takes me. I’ll visit Crater Lake for sure—should get some nice pictures this time of year. I’ll file everything under OnTheRoad and I’ll tag my pix at Flickr with otr. So, check back daily, and maybe even several times a day to see what it is I’m up to! Enjoy!

Zoundry looks like a pretty cool blog editor for Windows. Lately at work I’ve been charged with setting up a blog system for one of our company divisions. I’m tempted to switch it back to Wordpress but we’ll see how it goes.

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