Day 517

Progress has been made so far - now im back to around 225! Im gonna have to hold out strong on day 518, 519, and 520, and thurs, fri, and sats have always been my problem days. I re-evaluated my calendar, and its looking like the pioneer challenge is still on schedule - and unfortunetly for my spare tire - its looking like ill be there come may or june. Ultimately, Ive decided Id like to get to 175, but im going to work on 200, then 190, then 185, and finally 175 - it seems that will be the toughest.

As of today, my mom is gone. She's moved back to portland. I guess you could say this is a positive thing, im excited to see her head home. I feel so much more free now, I feel like I can really get out there and not have to worry about her. Its gonna be so much better having her 1000 miles away in portland.

I think today is a piviotal day in this 500+ day journal. When i started out, I had no idea it would take this long. Here I am, still 49 pounds away from the goal, and look at what ive learned.

Day 508

It was hard, but I had to do it. Today, I stepped onto the scale. I know things haven't been perfect in december, and while for the most part january has been good, ive still not been able to work out as much as I need. Regardless, I had to know. And the damage is in. Im up to 230 now. No arguing with this one. I was 218 back in the fall, and now Ive managed to pack 10+ on.

As I sit here in my disheveled apartment, waiting for another day of teaching to befall me, I look out my window and see the two towering palms over my apartment and the blue sky behind them. Im thinking - can I really get there? What are people going to think this summer if I haven't reached 190? Will they see me as a failure? Will I be able to lose the weight in time? How does my mom affect my weight and will her move to Portland change things? How can I work around my difficulties?

So now, Its up to me to answer these questions. First of all, Im going to clean my apartment right away, and the teaching will be easy today - mostly new students and continuations of things we've been working on, as always.

Answers:

1. Yes, I can get there, because that's where I should be.
2. If I haven't reached 190, people will still be impressed by my weight loss
3. No, they won't see me as a failure
4. Yes, I can lose the weight in time - its 15 weeks till the pioneer challege, and 20+ weeks until the tour
5. Eating out affects my weight, and thats what I do around my mom - after she's back in portland, im sure things will get easier for me without the temptation to make bad choices
6. Plan ahead, keep packing lunches, and keep driving back to Long Beach - its worth the gasoline money and time to come back down here for a workout - or keep an extra set of workout clothes in the escort.

If I try to lose 2 pounds/wk until my birthday, I can be 200 by the pioneer challenge and 190 by the tour - but I have to start this week!

Day 501

So far, so good this month, as I have worked hard on turning a new leaf. Practicing has come well for me the past few days, preparing for the new record this week has proved to be quite inspiring. My apartment looks great, Ive spent a lot of time organizing and getting off on the right foot.

Diet and excersize wise, had a decent week. A couple of days I forgot my packed lunch/dinner before I headed out the door. But I still managed to make wise decisions. I went to the YMCA a few days this week and really had a couple of great workouts. This next week, im going to focus on my lower body a bit more, and continue with the agressive cardio workouts I have been doing in the morning.

I still don't want to hop on the scale until the end of the month - I know if I continue to do what Im doing, then ill get closer to having both feet back on the ground. Im really shooting to reward myself come march, hopefully after getting closer to my goal.
I still think its possible to see some results come june or july, at this rate. While I know day 500 had originally been my intention to achieve the goal, sometimes we just can't forsee the results as much as we'd like to.

Day 496 cont. . .

What a productive day - had a great talk with Pat Martino on the phone, he's such a nice person, not to mention jazz legend. After tallying up the day, I totalled about 5 hours of practicing, maybe a bit more. I spent almost the entire day just playing be-bop. Tommorrow will probably be similar.

Excersize wise, as I said earlier, I got to go run today for a couple miles. Diet wise was perfect, having all the stuff thats in my zone.

Tommorrow, Im going to hit the Y early in the morning and work the muscles. Start off by doing about 20 laps in the pool freestyle, the doing upper body work and 100 crunches. Maybe spend some time on the eliptical and tredmill as well. I want to work my ass off.

Its hard realizing how far I still have to go, I really should get down to 180 or so. But for now, its just a matter of consistancy as that will get the results. Good night and good riddens!

Day 496

Yesterday, day 495, was a monday. A monday in every respect of the word. I was chased down by some random dude on the street and had to call the police, then I had to round-up all my students to remind them about lessons and in the process lost a few, I practiced for three hours, but then wasted two on the phone, only taught for an hour in irvine and spent two and a half hours in the car then another 30 minutes parking the car.

Luckily, I ended it on a high note - visiting Land up on 2nd street, and seeing Matt Otto and Adam Schroeder with a bunch of great cats - definetly a good hang. And I managed to get two sessions out of it!

Diet and excersize wise, I have really succeeded the past 9 days of the new year. Ive been able to resist temptation for certain foods, managed to excersize almost every day, and included new weight training over at the YMCA in Los Altos. I think Im going to join that gym since its the most economic for me.

As day 500 approaches, I am reminded of my long-term goals. While I didn't reach my penultimate goal for day 500, I am on the right track. This kind of health plan takes a much longer time to work itself through, and I figure by may or june I should be closer to the goal weight, if not there.

I guess the only thing stopping me right now is making sure that I don't eat out and that I pack all my meals to work/rehearsals/gigs/etc. I also need to figure out my excersizing on fridays and saturdays. Those seem to be the hardest days for me, but I know I can schedule it if I wake up earlier.

Music wise, I started my practice journal again. Today, Im going to compose a tune, review the new west book again for our upcoming record, possibly transcribe some Breaker off of "Two Blocks from the Edge" which Im listening to right now. I really want to go CD shopping - ill have to go in another couple of weeks.

Well enough for now - I have to get to work!

Day 492

Things going well into the new year! After a week of traveling down from Portland, my mom and I finally got to Long Beach. The rain was killer, and im so happy to be back in the sunshine!

Music wise, today I didn't get much accomplished as Im practically re-moving into my apartment and trying to get myself straigtened out as far as my organization is concerned.

Tried working out at the Los Altos YMCA today and I really liked it! I think thats the place for me, and Im going to join! Its great since I have a free week's pass there, im gonna see how easy it is for me to get over there. Today I swam 500 yards, ran 1 mile, worked on the eliptical for 5 min at a gradual intensity, and worked on triceps, did about 60 crunches, and bicep curls.

Tomorrow, im going to get up early, go for my run on the beach, fix my lunch to take to teaching, then come back and have a nice shrimp dinner here. My mom is my houseguest the next couple of days while her Sorority is doing some work.

So the final verdict, is that I gained some weight, im back to 230, but Im not fretting. I know Ill get to 200 by march, and 190 by april. So long as I can stick to eating at home, kill the soda pop, stop eating out, and excersize as much as I can. I guess I need to balance out the strength and cardio traning every-other day. Im going to get serious come another week - first I need to get into gear with the teaching and practicing.

Hopefully, Ill be blogging more about my music than my health, but then again, Im trying to track my progress with the health thing just as much, if not more, than my music goals.

Day 488 - Happy New Year/Here we go again!!

Well with a new year comes resolutions, and since practicing more and getting into shape seem to be once again this year's theme, im thinking this just might be my year!

So far today, Ive done over 100 crunches, 35 pushups, and a bunch of other abdominal exercises. Breakfast was kashi cereal and toast w/peanut butter. Hooray for a good start!

Be sure to keep an eye on the blog for my entries as I document and track my diet and health plan for all to see. I started this blog 488 days ago as a way to keep track of what Im doing, now its become more of a journal. I figured that if I had a bad day, then this blog would be a good motivator/embarrasser since I have to post everything I eat and how I excersized. Perhaps thats why the past six months have been rather unsuccessful - since Ive seemed to stop blogging as much. Its hard to be on my plan starting today since Im still on vacation for a week - but I still plan on working out and following through with as many healthy choices as I can.

Good luck to you all in the new year, and I know that you all can accomplish whatever it is you are setting out to achieve!