Day 68

Weight- 263lbs

I woke up this morning and went to the doctor to see about a problem I have been having for quite awhile now and have just been living with it because it didn't bother me that much. My throat pops in and out of place occasionally. It is kind of an off and on problem that has been more on then off lately. The doctor really had never seen this before so he referred me to a ENT specialist. So I will go to that appointment tomorrow hopefully he will know what is going on. They took my blood pressure (which was a little high the last time I took it when I finished my last challenge) I was at 141/86 I think which she said was pretty good. She also took my pulse and said I had a slow heart beat which I took as a good thing.

After my doctors appointment I went to the gym and spent 20 minutes on the stair mill had a really good workout. It was the type of cardio workout where you want to quit after 5 minutes and just push through it. After the gym I went to Sam's to stock up on some food, then back home to get ready for work.

Work went by pretty quick which was nice. I got in my car after work and noticed that a couple of CD cases sitting on my passenger seat (not where I left them.) I thought it was kind of odd but just thought my room mate who also works at the Mart must have been looking for something of his he left in my car. So I gave him a call he said he wasn't in my car I immediately looked down and noticed my CD players face plate was missing. The last week or so I hadn't been locking my car because it the door locks got stuck again. Tuesday I picked up new locks that I was going to change out tomorrow. One day too late, oh well. I was really mad driving home with no music just made it worse. I wished I had gone out to my car for lunch and caught the person who did it. Thinking about it just made me angrier. So I decided to say a couple of prayers for the person, because he obviously is troubled and doesn't have a very good life. Whether the prayers help him or not they helped me cool down. The funny thing is I had my locks sitting on the passenger seat if he would have stolen those he could have gotten $40 bucks or so from them on Ebay.

Long day tomorrow so I better hit the hay!

Day 66

Weight-267lbs

Today went well at work sales have been pretty good the end of this month. After work we went to Rugby it started raining and there was some lightning so we headed for shelter and waited till it passed. After it passed we went back to rucking drills. Dave and I went against each other and I squared up and lowered my shoulder as he made contact hit heads and I split my ear open. Really it was my fault more than his I just need to learn how to take a hit, it is different than football without helmets. So that was the end of practice for me. I went to the ER and had it glued up also got my tetanus shot updated. It wasn't bad just can't have any contact for a week which sucks. Now I am cooking for tomorrow and doing a little homework before bed.

Day 61

Weight-259

This morning I went to the gym and do my LBW things got shifted around this week because yesterday I was just too tired to do my LBW. So tomorrow I will do my UBW and Saturday I will do Cardio. I am very excited to see my weight continue to drop. I can't wait to see what my BF % is at. I really hope by the end of this 12 weeks I am under 20% we will see. Work was work I just really have a tough time on Thursdays. I have a lot to do tomorrow cleaning bills errands etc. Tomorrow night we will go out for my sister-in-laws birthday so it will be good to see everyone.

Day 59

Weight- 264lbs

Had another pretty good day at work. After work Dave and I went to Rugby practice it went pretty well I am learning but still have alot to learn. I am going to go to a Rugby clinic with Dave here in Omaha there will be some great coaches so I should learn alot. There will be a guy there from the New Zeland All Blacks which is the equivalent of learning football from a former Green Bay Packer. Just got my grades back from my last class another A things are going well as I work toward that 4.0.

Day 58

Weight 267lbs

This morning I went to work which went pretty well, I had a good day sales wise. After work I stopped by complete nutrition and got another case of Myoplex turns out they sell it a little cheaper than DPS nutrition online, got it for $70 instead of $73 and shipping. After that I went to the gym and did my cardio then got stuck in the locker room for awhile because of Tornado warning. After that I went to Sam's and picked up some chicken and salmon. Overall an uneventful day, but fairly productive.

Day 56

Weight- 262lbs

This morning I woke up early to go do a stadium workout w/ Jon unfortunately the UNO's football team was using the field so we decided to go after climbing. I had a tough time on the climbing wall today I was trying a one of the harder routes that I tried last week and didn't make it too far. Jon was right I really focus to much on my hands and not enough on my feet, it is a learn process I suppose. after the "real" climbing Jon and I tried to jump up and grab on to the "Dynamo" Basically it is a hold near the floor that you try to jump off of and reach a hold that is about 10 feet up the wall. I couldn't do it on the run but was able to do it by standing at the bottom of the wall and jumping up off the hold. Then we had a little chin up contest off of the hold. First I did 3 then Jon did 13 (show off). One of the girls that worked there was taunting me to do 5 so I tried again and was able to squeeze out 5. I honestly didn't know if I could do one unassisted chin up let alone 5 so that was a pretty nice surprise.

After the climbing we headed to the stadium and did our workout it was pretty intense my legs were killing after my LBW yesterday. This is what it consisted of.

25x push ups
2x High steps up the stadium stairs
1x lunges 30yds
20x dips on a bleacher
30sec front planks
5x tire flips
3x 30yard side shuffle
30yrds reverse lunges
2x sprint stadium stairs
1x 100 yard sprint
then we did it again.

I was dead but felt so good after a shower. After my shower and a quick Myoplex my roommate and I went around looking for a sponsor for our Rugby team. Sounds like the Marleybone is interested so that is great news with our season starting in 3 weeks.

Day 55

Weight- 263lbs

Today was kind of a lazy day for me. I went to the gym and had a great LBW I almost got to the point of failure on the hip sled. I think it is a mental block for me. I know I can get to that point but I don't want to land on my butt on the squat rack. After that I shot some hoops and went to the pool for awhile. Tomorrow is my free day but I plan on doing a stadium workout and climbing. I am also going to eat a little cleaner on my free days as well.

Day 54

Weight-264lbs

Finally the weight is dropping this week! I hit one more milestone 265lbs was the lowest weight I was as a senior in high school. However judging from my gut I had more muscle mass in high school than I do now. I didn't have a six pack but if I remember right (it has been that long) I at least could see the vague outline of one. So I guess I keep pressing on.

BFL is getting to be kind of like golf for me lately. At times the weight loss is just non-existent, but then I have a week where I loose 3-4lbs and it energizes me to keep going. In golf most of my the time I slice the ball, but every once in awhile I will step up to the tee and hit a 300 yard drive straight as an arrow and it keeps me coming back.

Tomorrow I am going to do my LBW and swim a little possibly climb if the wall is open. Saturday is my free day but I am going to do a stadium work out at UNO with Jon The football team has a bunch of tires down there so I have a feeling we will run some stairs run around the track and flip some tires, should be "fun."

Day 51

Weight- 267lbs

I finally am getting back into my schedule. I got to the gym this morning around six and hit the stair mill hard. After that I went and shot some hoops for a little bit but was too tired to make anything so I got frustrated and headed to the steam room for a while. Work was ok I am starting to get bored with my job to be I think, either that or I was just in a crabby mood. I came home got some homework done and am cooking for tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be my first official rugby practice so we will seehow that goes. The sport is similar to football but then again nothing at all like it. I have a lot to learn! Better get some rest.

Day 50

Weight 267lbs

Today went pretty well I had a great leg work out tonight. After I did legs I shot some hoops for about an hour worked up a pretty good sweat. The clock is winding down on my second challenge I am proud of my progress but not happy with it if that makes sense. My first challenge really spoiled me. I am working harder with less results. The good thing is that there are results. That is all that matters this isn't a sprint its a marathon.

Day 48

Weight 268lbs

Today was my free day, but with my competition over half way over I have decided to make my free days a little more clean. Not only do I plan to eat a little cleaner but I plan to go to the gym and do something a little more fun then the stair mill.

Today I went to the gym with Jon and got a lesson in climbing. It wasn't pretty but it was fun. First he belayed me on a pretty easy wall. I went up the wall pretty fast, at least I thought it was fast. Once I got to the top I was a little nervous about leaning back and repelling down. It wasn't that I didn't trust Jon its just that Jon weighs about 180lbs and I weight 268. Once I leaned back it was no problem hopping down. Next he wanted to show me the auto belayers which are hydraulic lines that can allow climbers from 100lbs to 350lbs to climb with out a spotter. The first one I went up was pretty tough I made it up about 1/4 of the way relaying on my upper body way too much. I tried to make jump to reach a hold and couldn't hold on and dropped back down to the floor. It is was a pretty weird feeling. I tried another wall that was a little bit easier this time I made it up a little over half way with the same result but I can tell that this will type of workout will definitely help me. I was going to go up again and got in line for a different route on an auto belayer there was one kid on the wall and 3 in line in front of me. The kid on the wall made it to the top and came down i looked the other way for one second and another kid jumped in front of me in line. I wasn't going to say anything because its not the kids fault, his parent should have told him to get in the back of the line. I turned around again for a second and there was another kid in front of me so I just gave up.
So Jon and I decided to swim a couple of laps. We raced a 4 times Jon beat me once. It's good to know that I am faster then him at something.
After we went to whole foods to find a grain that is similar to rice. The cool thing about this grain is that is supposedly better for you then brown rice, apparently vegetarians eat alot of it because it is high in protein 24gm per cup. I also picked up a vegetarian chili mix they sold in bulk that had about 32gm of protein per cup about 400 calories. I had the chili for dinner tonight. It was pretty good I could taste vegetables in it, but there was also something in it that tasted like chicken. I don't know if it was chopped up beans or what.

Photo

I saw this old photo of me and had to post it next to a picture of me the other day. Man if that doesn't make you want to eat another chicken breast I don't know what does.

Day 46

Weight 268lbs

Today was interesting to say the least. I was running behind for work today so this is what my meals consisted of Myoplex, Myoplex, Myoplex, Salmon brown rice green beans, Myoplex, EFL BBQ chicken Pizza. It might get a little expensive if I continue to eat that way. My workout went really well today I am focusing on making the most out every workout. I can see a difference in my body (no abs yet) Time to take photos it has been awhile so I will try to post those on Saturday.

Day 44

Weight-272lbs

I am struggling to get back into my normal routine after vacation. I stayed up to late last night working on homework to get up at 5:30 this morning to workout so I went after work. I had a great LBW, I always know I am doing a good job if I can work up a sweat during the middle of my first exercise. After my LBW I jumped on the Stair mill for about 10 minutes, then shot some hoops. What shot I had in the past seems to be slowly coming back.

After I got back from the gym I hit the books and finished up my homework for this week. Eating is going well and I need to turn it up a notch to finish my last 6 weeks strong.

Day 43

Weight- 272lbs

I woke up this morning with my ankle swollen from rolling last night playing basketball. Walking wasn't going so well so I decided to go back to bed and do my cardio tonight. Over the day the swelling started to go down and and it started to feel a little less stiff. So tonight I went to the gym and worked out on this weird elliptical machine. It was a good decision because there wasn't much pressure so it felt all right. Boy is my upper body sore from yesterday's workout. I went to the gym with my room mate who by the way has dropped from 254lbs to 232lbs since starting BFL. Our workout was so intense it is always great to have a spotter, I can really push myself to the limit, and I am sore all over.

Vacation was great it was 7 days of relaxation. We went fishing and golfing and just hung out. My mom stuck on the diet with me and exercised every day I was really proud of how she is sticking with it. The roads are pretty flat around that area and on one of my cardio days ran a personal best 3 miles. That is the farthest I have ever run in my entire life so that was a big accomplishment. My brother and sister in law came with Ace and he did really well. He only woke me up once the entire trip. All the kid does is sleep.

Day 31

Weight- 269

So today went really well I have decided to stop swimming for now and use the stair mill for cardio. The combination of 2o mins on the stair mill and a really intense LBW yesterday made me walk like I was 80 all day. My mind is on vacation right now even though I have a couple days before I leave for Minnesota. Speaking of which I need to do some packing tonight. So I can go back home after work tomorrow night. Eating has been great lately and my weight is finally taking a nose dive. This will probably be my last journal entry until Aug. 6th when I get back from the vacation. I am going to make sure to have a relaxing vacation while keeping up with my workouts and eating. I will loose weight while on vacation. It is going to be fun to get the whole fam on lifting and working out with me on vacation. Maybe we can do group workout sessions in front of the cabin. lol. OK I have a lot of work to do right now so I will talk to you all in a week or so!

Day 30

Weight- 272lbs

After talking to Jon about my eating I have decided to change things up a bit on lifting days. I drank a Myoplex right when I woke up this morning (about a half hour before the gym). Then right after my workout which was pretty good, I drank a serving of whey protein and ate a banana. Work went well today a little slow but not too bad. After work I ran some errands and went home did some homework and watched some TV pretty much the usual. Time to go pack my lunch!

Day 29

Weight- 274lbs

I woke up this morning and headed to Lifetime to do a little swimming cardio. I bought some ear plugs the other day because I kept getting water in my ears and people were wondering why I was leaning my head all day. It's funny I was thinking back to my days in 4-H washing my show pigs, they always taught us not to get water in their ears or they would lean their heads during the show.

I had a good work out in the pool but just couldn't go 20 minutes so I went outside and ran some sprints on the turf. There were a couple of guys walking around outside and I almost bit it slowing down one time. I wasn't wearing any shoes and the turf was a little damp, just about had my feet fly out from underneath me. Those guys would have had a pretty good laugh. After my workout I got ready and went to work.

Around 9am my personal line rang it was an odd area code I think 614 but I get calls from customers all over so I didn't think any thing of it. I answered "Phone Sales this Craig" the voice on the other end said "Craig Staley?" I said, "yeah how can I help you?" He said, "Craig this is Shane Thomas from EAS and Body for Life." Then my ears really perked up. I thought hmmm Shane Thomas that's the guy who signed the certificate of achievement, (along with Porter Freeman) I received in the mail for finishing the challenge. I was pretty dumbfounded at this point to say the least.

First he congratulated me for being one of the featured challengers. I told him that I said seen that and thought it was pretty cool. He said something to the effect of well we think what you have done so far is pretty cool. He asked me if I was still going strong, of course I said yes. He also asked if I planned on sending another packet in, in September like I said in my essay. I told him of course. Then he asked me how the six pack was coming along. I laughed and said well I am not quite there but working on it. He asked me what my buddy Jon thought about my improvements. I told him that he was pretty proud of what I had accomplished and that I had worked hard for it. He told me he really liked the first couple lines of my essay. He read it off "I remember early February I was out drinking with my friends and realized this is not at all what I wanted my life to be. Don’t get me wrong I love my friends but I was on a dead end road." It gets a little hazy from there but we talked about other people around me that had started BFL, like my family and my room mate.

Just seeing my photo and essay on the BFL page was a huge boost and just validated all of the work that I put into my transformation thus far. But this was really special to have a judge of the competition call me up interested to hear about my transformation, and checking up on me to make sure I was going strong. It finally hit me after that call what I have actually accomplished so far. Before I guess I kind of visualized the judges reading my essay looking at the pictures and saying this guy did pretty darn good and going on to the next one, but for them to stop and say hey check this out, and then posting it on the bfl page that's just really cool.

As you might imagine I spent the rest of the work day with a big smile on my face and couldn't wait to tell someone. After work I hurried home and grabbed some stuff and went off to my Brother and Sister in laws to give my brother his birthday present and of course Ace needed another present for making it through his first week. I spent a few hours with them, Jessica made me a special grilled chicken salad so I could eat with them which was very nice of her. That is one thing I don't like about BFL I don't want to be a burden when someone asks me to stay for dinner, even though I know she didn't mind.

It was great to see Ace he has gained a pound already up to 10lbs 6oz. I left their apartment around 9 and headed home. On the way home I called my buddy Jon to let him know the news. We talked about some stuff and that leads me to my computer here. Now I have to pack my lunch and head to bed I have to kill the legs tomorrow, a lot of extra motivation if you know what I mean. :)

Day 28

Weight 274lbs

This morning I went to the gym before church to do my upper body workout. I really pushed myself and had a great workout. I almost got sick at the end, I don't think it was because of my intensity I think it was from the Pizza hut I ate on my free day. Never again... Pizza Hut has now made it to my list of can never eat again foods. Too much grease just doesn't agree with me. After my workout I went to church and then back home to eat my first meal. Then off to work; it was kind of slow today, probably because it was so nice outside. After work I wen to my softball game, we lost, man we are horrible! lol Oh well, time for bed early swim tomorrow.

Day 27

Big news today turns out I am one of the round 2, 2007 featured competitors on the BFL website. What great motivation this is for me as I near the half way point of my second challenge. Here is the link! http://www.bodyforlife.com/challenge/2007/07Featured2.asp

Weight 273lbs

This morning I woke up ate some cereal and did my homework for the next couple weeks to prepare for vacation. Later in the day I ran some hills w/ my room mate and another guy that are looking to get in shape for rugby. I think I will practice with them but don't know how much I can play because the game schedule contradicts with helping my Dad during harvest. I was beat the rest of the day I think it was a combination of free day food and those dog gone hills. I honestly didn't even feel like journaling :(. The cool thing is I was rewarded when I hoped on the computer and went to visit my message board friends. Mark found me on the BFL website and sent me the link. Wow, that was a huge surprise and boost for me!!! It's time to kick it up another notch.