Greg's Running Blog

4 days are gone and here we go again. I’m posting another photo of me in my boxerjocks. Not a very flattering look at this weight but this is the only way go gauge progress by being consistent. I see a bunch of people posting on message boards about their transformation and they don’t even post the same pose let alone clothing and lighting. There are days when I feel the pictures are a true drag to take, today was one of those days. I knew that there would not be much if any visible change from the last set considering just how great the last set was. And I was right. There really isn’t much difference in my look and the numbers show the same. Now that I have slowed down my fat loss to under 2 lbs (0.9 kg) per week the change is much less visible. I did manage to drop a quarter of an inch from my chest but that is it. Nothing else changed in terms of the numbers.

02/27/2010 Transformation Picture

Today was my son’s first soccer practice of the season. It really doesn’t have anything to do with my transformation but I just wanted to tell you all about my son’s soccer practice. This is going to be his third season playing soccer. He’s not the best player on the team but he’s not the worst either. And as long as he wants to go play I’ll keep taking him over there. He could hardly wait to go for the first practice so we showed up at 5:00 and off he went.

He is playing with kids that are almost a year older than him, U6, when he should be playing in the U5 as he just turned 5 in November but since I really think his coach is great I’ll let him play with the older kids just to stay with his coach. I am very grateful that we ended up on his coach’s team the first season and we got to hang with him. This is his third son he’s coaching and he is really into it. He buys training materials about how to teach young children to play soccer and he keeps the practice very entertaining for the 5 year old boys who have the attention span of a puppy.

And while I was over there at the field I had nothing better to do so I went to do my last run before my race. In previous seasons I’d just sit around and wait for the practice to be over but this season I think I’ll try to get a run in instead of warming the bench. Tomorrow is going to be rest day so I will be in fully rested condition come Saturday morning. The run was pretty short, I only ran 2 miles as all I really wanted to do is get some blood flowing in my muscles but I didn’t really want to wear myself down or heaven forbid injure myself at this point. I ran a bit faster than I probably should have but it really gave me confidence in my ability to make my target of 48 minutes Saturday. I really hope it’ll be a good run.

My son’s coach saw me running and asked if I was going to run in the weekend race at Cowtown. He asked if I was running the Marathon and I told him that I’ll be running the 10K. He said he signed up for the half Marathon and he’d be there too. He also commented on that I must have lost some serious weight as he had not seen me since I embarked on my transformation. It was pretty cool to surprise people like that who have not seen me in such a long time. 50 lbs is 50 lbs any way you look at it. When I told the coach my 5K time from the last race and my goal time for the 10K he thought I should be running a half Marathon instead.

I know I could probably run a half Marathon but I much rather run a great 10K than a half assed half Marathon. I prepared for the 10K, I have trained for the 10K and I am ready for the 10K. I’m sure I could drag my butt through the finish line on a half marathon at this point and I would probably finish in the top half but I have goals that are much bigger than that. And I know that I will run that half marathon when I’m good and ready. And it won’t be for another couple of months before that happens. I actually have trained more for my 10K than coach Steve trained for his half Marathon. His goal is to beat his 1:58 time from last year by at least a minute. If I’ll run a half Marathon I wouldn’t want it to be above 1:40.

Oh and my host just informed me that they have moved my account to a new server! I’m pretty excited about the move as my site seems to be a heck of a lot faster than it was on the old server. Thank you DreamHost! Hopefully you can see the speed difference too. I think I fixed everything that got broken in the move but I can’t guarantee that everything is fully working. I’ll just have to keep an eye on it and hope that everything is 10-4.

And since I’ve been talking about my son and his soccer training here are a couple of pictures of him from last season:

Here is my latest update! This is the first set of pictures where I can actually see hope that I will eventually shed my love handles, muffin tops of whatever you want to call the fat that is dangling right around your waist over your belt line. In this picture set they are barely visible! I’m pretty excited about that. I’m also happy to report that my bicep is still holding strong at 13.5″. I can also see that my hams are leaning out tremendously now. I have dropped another 0.25″ from my thighs and from my hips. I’m really starting to feel good about my physique. Oh, and I got a haircut too, it was just getting way too long again. All in all it was a great visible progress from the last set which is very seldom nowadays to see this much difference from one set to the next.

02/23/2010 Transformation Picture

Here is today’s photo update. I can’t really see much difference as usual. Well maybe in my hams I can see a bit more definition but other than that there is really not much changing. My bicep is now barely 13.5″ next time I think I’ll just have to claim that it is down to 13.25″. None of my other measurements have changed except my thigh is back to where it was a week ago. While a lot of people would look at this and get discouraged I don’t. I just compare today’s photo with a month ago and I can see drastic changes. That keeps me motivated more than anything.

02/19/2010 Transformation Picture

It feels like I just posted my last photo update yesterday. But I have actually had a nice 4 day weekend thanks to the snow break in between this set and the last set of photos I posted. Slowly but surely I’m thinning out. My weight is still on a steady decline but not a whole lot changed since yesterday. I have dropped some size again from my hips and thighs which clearly indicates that is where the fat is dropping from this time around. My chest, bicep and calves are pretty much staying steady. My waist really hasn’t been moving much lately.

02/15/2010 Transformation Picture

While some people are bathing in the sun and running in shorts we got some massive snow here in Texas. I think we beat the record for most snow within a 24 hour period, I certainly have not seen this much snow in Texas ever. Not being able to run is actually a bit less painful now that I couldn’t really run outside even if I wanted to because the last thing I need is a hip fracture. On a side note my foot is feeling better and better but it’s still not 100% so I’m staying off of it as much as I can and there is still no running in my very near future.

Here is what my street looks like this morning:

And here is a picture of our backyard:

Just another photo update today. I really haven’t changed much this time either, with no running and no cardio I’m just glad to see my weight declining at a very slow pace. I really need to get cardio going again if I want to lose the rest of my fat. My bicep is down to 13.5″ again and my hips and thigh has dropped another 0.25″ from last time. What these underwear pictures can’t show is just how great I feel in clothes now. A lot of stuff I wear now is downright baggy. I don’t know if my leather jacket was always this big but now I feel like I’m getting lost in it. It does not fit me at all any more. All the new stuff that I have bought on the tight side lately is now starting to fit perfect and feels great.

02/11/2010 Transformation Picture

Today you not only got my weekly status update but you get a photo update as well. I have taken a fresh set of photos and I must say I’m kind of happy with them.

Well the technical execution wasn’t all there today, I left the camera in continuous focusing mode from this morning when I took pictures of my son running around in his PJ in the game room and it caused my rear shots to be out of focus. You can’t really see it in the web size photo but it certainly shows up in the original. I already put everything away and I was in no mood to re-shoot them so these will just have to suffice for today.

My bicep is growing, it’s up to 13.75″ again which I haven’t seen since 1/22/10. It could be just measurement error but at least I can feel good about it. My chest is down half an inch and the rest of the measurements haven’t changed at all. My lats are showing a lot better now and it’s just amazing how much more muscular I look now than I looked before. I have also noticed two big veins in the back of my forearms that I haven’t seen before. I’m definitely getting leaner and leaner. Now that I’m only losing 2 lbs a week the photo update every 4 days will be even more excessive. I’ll keep shooting them but I’m seriously contemplating going to every 8 days instead.

02/07/2010 Transformation Picture

Today I took another set of photos. I actually took a whole set last night too as I thought it has already been 4 days but it turned out today was the 4th day from the last set. I could have skipped both sets actually if I was looking for visible differences between this set and the last set. There just simply isn’t any. My measurements are actually identical to the last set from 4 days ago while my weight has dropped a bit over 1lbs. While I haven’t changed much in the past 4 weeks I know that it wasn’t wasted time. In the long run the difference will show and has been showing for sure.

02/03/2010 Transformation Picture

Here is another 4 day photo update. I can’t really see much difference from the last one. According to the scale I have lost some weight and according to the tape measure I have lost a bit from my chest and my thighs. I have increased my caloric intake and decreased my cardio so I’m not surprised that the pounds aren’t melting away at the same rate as they used to. I’m certainly not disappointed with it, I have different goals now. Slow and steady with maintenance of muscle and increase of endurance. So I’m still pretty happy about my update even if the pictures don’t show a vast difference. I also like to compare my photos with prior ones and it’s amazing just how much difference one month can make. I thought I looked pretty good a month ago but when I look and compare I feel that was just another fat slob. I’m sure I’ll feel the same way about today’s picture in a month or two.

01/30/2010 Transformation Picture