One of the Greatest Gifts of Fitness

For most of my 10-year-old daughter Mary's life, I was an "on again off again" smoker who hovered between 250 and 280 pounds. While some of the daily life examples I exhibited were positive (getting up and going to work every day, paying the bills on time, keeping the house and the yard in order), the examples of health and nutrition were horrendous. As far as pre-9-year-old Mary knew, here are the instructions for what an adult should do every day:

• Get Up
• Drink Coffee
• Go to Work
• Come home and eat dinner
• Clean kitchen
• Sit in chair
• Watch TV
• Snack, snack, and snack some more
• Go out on the back porch for a cigarette every hour or so throughout the entire day
• On the weekends, subtract work and add lawn mowing to the repertoire

Fortunately, as a former athlete, I did stress the importance of sports with Mary, and she has been swimming since she was five years old. That said, when not swimming, prior to last year, Mary did start adhering to some of her dad's life habits. While she didn't gain the weight, she was learning the behavior. Yes, "pajama" days are great every once in a while...but not every weekend!

Well, one of the gifts of changing my life in November 2011 and getting back in shape is seeing the positive influence these actions have had on Mary. In an earlier post, I wrote about how in January, Mary and I ran a 5K together at Disney; and just yesterday, Mary competed in her very first endurance event on her own...a Kid's Triathlon. Here are a few photos from the day:

Heading to the Swim (Where she was 10th fastest out of about 1,000 competitors)!

Just Finished the Bike...Heading to Transition!

Finishing Up the Race!



A Happy Triathlete!

I can't tell you how good it feels to have changed my own habits and to be raising Mary in a new environment of health, fitness, and nutrition...and it's impossible for me to express how proud I am to be this little girl's dad. She has expressed to me that she wants to run a Disney half marathon with me when she's old enough (14), and it is my sincere hope that she still feels that way in four years!


June Weigh In

Okay, so I jumped on the scale this morning for my "official" monthly weigh in, and the news was positive:

Weight - 186.8 Pounds!

Total Loss in May - 7.6 Pounds

Total Loss since January 2012 - 88.8 Pounds


And here are the workout results from last week, as well as this week's schedule:

May 27 - June 2 - All Completed!

Monday - 4.10 Mile Run (10:48 Pace)
Tuesday - Stationary Bike (45 Mins, Hills, Level 7), Abs (4 Exercises, 3 x 12 Reps)
Wednesday - 3.13 Mile Run (10:17 Pace)
Thursday - Stationary Bike (45 Minutes, Hills, Level 7), 30-Minute Cybex Circuit
Friday - 6.72 Mile Run (10:52 Pace)
Saturday - OFF
Sunday - "Family" Run of 2.60 Miles

Total Distance on the Pavement - 18.3 Miles (Includes Warm Up and Cool Down Walks)


June 3 - June 9

Monday - 3.13 Mile Run (10:03 Pace) - COMPLETE
Tuesday - Stationary Bike (45 Mins, Hills, Level 7), Abs (4 Exercises, 3 x 12 Reps)
Wednesday - 5 Mile Run
Thursday - Stationary Bike (45 Minutes, Hills, Level 7), 30-Minute Cybex Circuit
Friday - 3 Mile Run
Saturday - OFF
Sunday - "Family" Run

While I am indeed proud of these continued accomplishments on the road, in the gym, with losing weight, and all that good stuff, I have also become proud of the influence I'm having over others...and particularly the influence I'm having over my own family. One of the greatest gifts of health and fitness is hearing from others that I've "influenced them to start running/walking" or to get themselves back in shape. This formerly obese guy is humbled every time he hears that people are following his fitness lead...so humbled, in fact, that he must refer to himself in the third person. :-)

But an even greater gift is seeing my 10-year-old daughter get up early to compete in four events in a swim meet on Saturday and then follow that up with waking at 5:00am on a Sunday morning to compete in a triathlon (and have a blast doing so).

That sure beats the heck out of any "pajama" day...


Until next time, everyone, enjoy your journey...