In just a few minutes, the green flag will drop for the Great American Race, the Daytona 500. Way back in November, before the winter winds blew, I set a goal for myself to walk 500km between the end of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Season, and the start of the 2015 season. Here is the final look at my grid
.As you can see, it is a good thing I forced myself to get up on Friday morning and go to the gym. I was feeling low that morning, and ended up taking a sick day from work, but it did put me over 500km. I decided to shut it down for the weekend, but I hope to be back and better than ever at the gym tomorrow.
Since starting the challenge, I lost a total of 12.6 pounds. That included the time over the holidays, when I used my challenge as a way to keep myself going to the gym. I used my nephew’s basement treadmill over Christmas, and visited the fitness center in my hotel in New Orleans. I had some days were I went to the gym multiple times to keep pace. I increased my walking pace to 3.8 miles per hour, from the 3.5 where I started. I feel better than I have in years.
Lenten Update
For lent I had said that I would avoid all snacking, or all eating between meals. My wife noticed that I have been eating more at dinner than I usually would, and she thinks I may be over compensating for how hungry I am as a result of not spreading my eating out during the day. So, I am altering that commitment. Instead of not eating between meals at all, I am going to just eliminate 3 snacks from my list: nuts, popcorn and granola bars.
I am not doing this to alter my diet. This is about self-sacrifice for the season, and self-denial. I will instead only eat fresh vegetables or fruit for snacks (all other snacks I have already essentially eliminated from my diet anyway).
Well, it is about 11 minutes to the drop of the green flag, so I am off. Hope you all have a great race day
Boogity, Boogity, Boogity, Let’s go racin’