One Month More

So the wife and I just came back from a nice Sunday Wog. The weather down here in Houston, boys and girls, is wonderful. It's been what I imagine San Diego is like. The difference is we only get weather like this a few weeks a year, hence the affordable housing here in H-town.

We are one month away from the Rock & Roll San Antonio Marathon and 1/2 Marathon. My wife is a little concerned. As you may have figured out by now, we have not prepared as well as we would have hoped. But as we were Wogging today we realized that we both feel a little better. Perhaps we're not as consistent as we would like, we are however exercising more than we were. I would say most importantly, we have been doing this together and are spending more time together. This may be the best gift we have gotten from me convincing my beautiful bride into doing this with me.

Hopefully this is something we can continue doing and make part of our life together. When we go Wogging together we can plan, talk,hold hands, and be away from life for a little bit. The health benefits are lagniappe as our Louisiana friends might say. Others might call it gravy. I like it when my life is full of gravy.

Sleeping with the Enemy

In terms of health, I did night two of the sleep study. I slept with "the machine" on. For those not in the know, "the machine" would be a C-PAP. Basically you wear a mask while you sleep and it forces pressurized air into your breathing passages and it cures sleep apnea. Once I get used to the mask I should sleep better. This is what the mask is like:

As you can imagine this is not the most comfortable thing I have ever done. Indeed, it reminds me of being in a science fiction movie.

But I actually slept ok. So I can only hope that this is part of then whole "living a better Life" journey I have been on.

Success Story

So I saw an old friend last night and he looked great. I asked him what he had been doing and he said he had been walking and cut his portion sizes in half. This has lead to him losing 37 pounds in 3 months. How encouraging is that.

So if you have been feeling like you can't do it, here's someone who did, and they did it with no bells and whistles. 12 lbs. a month is really a big deal.

Ok Woggers, we will see you on Thursday. I hope I just keep on feeling better and progressing. I'm trying not to focus on what I have not accomplished but on what I have. And most importantly, I've accomplished it with my wife. Yay me!

Water Falls from the Sky?

UPDATE: I have not forgotten about you Woggers. It's just been a very busy week. Tune in for Monday's Wogger's World and I will update you on the Weekend's Wogging and Sleep Study Part 2!

Hello fellow Woggers! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and that your work week is off to a great start.

I have noticed that there is a difference between Wogging on a treadmill or eleptical and actually going out and pounding the pavement. The actual Wogging is, I think, a bit harded than the simulated. The reason for me is, again I think, because of my weight. I have a lot of weight to shift around and I think that the treadmill helps me negatethat.

My point is this: My wife and I are trying to get out and Wog for distance during the weekends. This is a good plan and last week we had wonderful success and if you recall, I said we thought we had turned a corner in terms of our workouts. If we did we turned down the wrong street.

Saturday was just one of those days where we had so many obligations that the Wogging had to get cut (again with priority issues). No problem we thought, we'll go on Sunday. Well who knew we would get storms and heavy rain all day. We're in the midst of the worst drought ever down here in Texas. Why would I plan on heavy rain all day?

So anyway, we're down a bit on Woggin for the week, however, we both have noticed we are also down on some pounds! We think the better eating habits have helped that. I have to keep reminding myself, this is not just about a 1/2 marathon. This is about lifestyle change. Indeed, we had to go to a birthday party on Saturday and I chose a veggie burger. A VEGGIE BURGER! For those that know me, they can testify, this is a big deal for me.

Sleep with the Fishes

So for those that are keeping score, you may recall that Thursday night I spent the night in a sleep clinic. Well, just to update: I hated it. It was very surreal and I felt disoriented and tired in Friday. The good news is that I get to do it again tonight. Yay me!

You know, there's nothing more relaxing than having electrodes taped all over you and sleeping in an office building. I guess I should just be thankful they didn't need to keep track of my temprature, if you know what I mean. Plus knowing you are being recorded makes it all  the more peaceful. But hopefully they can figure out the problem, fix it and then I will have more energy which will allow me to Wog better  which will allow me to lose more weight. Which will allow me to sleep better. Which will give me more energy ...

Reminds me of the cocaine ad from the '80s.

Ok Woggers. I will see you Thursday and let you know how both the Wogging and the Sleep Study Went. Til then, keep on Wogging.

UPDATE:

Did you her about this woman who had a baby a few hours after finishing the Chicagp 1/2 Marathon? suddenly all my excuses not to exercise have lost all credibility. Even the ones that were credible.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Woman-gives-birth-hours-after-completing-Chicago?urn=oly-wp756

To Sleep and Perchance to Dream

Good Morning Woggers! I am writing this bright and early for a change. I hope everyone has a wonderful day.

My wife and I were talking about how we feel like all the salads and Wogging are starting to pay off. We both feel better, clothes fit a bit better and I am starting to field the question everyone loves: Have you lost weight? (Unless you've been diagnosed with a terminal disease. Then you're not so down with that question)

So the next exciting news is that I indeed going to be this guy:

You remember this guy. It was a picture I ran of some poor dude who was going to do a sleep study. Well guess where I will be spending the night tonight? And Monday night too.

The exciting this is I might actually start feeling better and hopefully this will lead to better Wogging and lifestyle in general. It's just odd to me how life takes these twists and turns to alleys we never thought we would enter.

Well I will let you know how it goes. My wife and I plan on Wogging 6 miles this Saturday and 4 on Sunday. Wish us luck. I wish you all the best for the rest of this week. Houstonians, let's continue enjoying this awesome weather, we deserve it after the furnace blast that was this summer.

See you Monday Woggers!

You Can't Handle the Truth

Hello Wogger's!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, or if you are reading this on Monday (or later in the week - and if you are why aren't you reading this on Monday?) I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

I don't know what the weather is like in the rest of the country but we have had beautiful weather down here in Houston this weekend. And my wife and I took advantage of it.

Alright fellow Wogger's. It's time for a little truth. I was going to try and tell you that this is what I now look like after training for the 1/2 marathon:



While Mr. Craig and I may share the same first name, the truth is the similarities end there. The truth is I still look more like an Avocado.

The sad truth is I have not been as faithful to training as I would have like. There is some good news though. My wife and I still have six weeks until Judgement Day. And, we just had our best Wogging Weekend ever.

Originally were going to try and do an 8-mile Wog on Saturday but we just could not budget the time, but we did do a 4-mile Wog. But wait, the news gets better, we couldn't really budget tine on Sunday either, yet we did. We shuffled some things around and got all our stuff done and we did another 4-mile Wog. That's right, we did 4-miles on back to back days.

The even better news is that we both feel better about our situation and I think we are both a little excited. I know I am (after 15 years of marriage I have learned not to assume how my wife feels).

So while there is some truth that I have not wanted to face, namely that I have not trained enough, I feel that after today I am on the path to the lifestyle change that is so important in living a healthy lifestyle.

We also decided to switch up our plan a little bit. We both decided that morning Wogging does not work for us so we are just going to have to carve out some time in the evening. I think we have a good schedule. We are going to Wog Sunday afternoon in between church and our daughter's choir practice. We will exercise in the eve on Tuesdays and Thursdays and we will do our long Wogs on Saturdays. Next Saturday we are going to do six miles.

I wish we were further along but we are where we are. I would love to break  three hours when I do the 1/2 but I am just going to have to be content with breaking four. I can handle the truth and the truth for me is that I have a lot of work ahead of me and I am just going to have to take it one step at a time. And I'm okay with that. If I think about it in terms of where I was vs. where I am now (Wogging 4-miles a day, two days in a row) I need to be proud and not worry about what else I could have done.

So Wogger's before I let you go I do have a question for you. There is a Warrior Dash coming up. It's like a 5k obstacle course. Should I do it?

http://www.warriordash.com/register2011_central_texas.php

Let me know what you think.