I'm W.I.D.T.H. Laurie

I'm down to my last couple of dozen note card pics, so now would be a good time for you to jump on the bandwagon. Why are you on this journey? Who are you doing it for? What's keeping your head in the game? Boil it down to a note card (or a reasonable fascimile) and send it to jacksh.tgettinfit@gmail.com (be sure to include a blog addy if you want it included).

Laurie @ Obsessed? Check. Compulsive? Check. Disorder? Nah...





























MGBER8NFX2GS

I'm Sorry, Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson

To all the pounds I've lost before,
And won’t put back on any more.
I glad I’m not obese.
I dedicate this piece
To all the pounds I've lost before.

To all the pounds there on my thighs,
That aren’t here at my smaller size.
For helping me to shrink,
I owe a lot, I think
To all the pounds I've lost before.

The way I’ve changed is reassuring.
It won’t let me go astray.
The way I’ve changed, so reassuring,
And I’m no longer scared to weigh.

To all the pounds that ruined my life,
And filled my younger days with strife.
I'm glad that time is done.
I dedicate this one
To all the pounds I've lost before.

To all the pounds that massed on me.
Who led me to obesity.
I’m living my life more smart.
Those fat rolls did depart.
Oh, all the pounds I've lost before.

The way I’ve changed is reassuring.
I’m glad I’ve found a brand new way.
The way I’ve changed, so reassuring.
Let’s not go to the buffet.

To all the pounds we've lost before,
And all those fat pants that we once wore.
We're sad they came along.
We dedicate this song.
To all the pounds we've lost before.

To all the pounds we've loved before.
It’s really too much to ignore.
We're out of that bad fog.
We dedicate this blog.
To all the pounds we've lost before.

W.I.D.T.H. Hunt

Maybe it's just my love of scrapbooking talking, but I really like this project. Seeing all the different reasons and all the kooky ways of communicating those different reasons... well, it really makes my socks go up, down and sideways. It's not to late for you to throw your note in the hat as well. Email me at jacksh.tgettinfit@gmail.com and be sure to include a blog addy if you want it included.

Adalita @ Fatty Fin to Skinny Minnie

Anne @ Lose2Live

Moving Mertle @ Diets and Sweat (Plus a Little Chocolate!)

Erika

Jamie @ Healing the Fat From the Inside Out!

Jen @ Jen's Lap Band Journey

Jenn @ Cooking Aweigh the Pounds

Patrick @ Responsibility 199

Mad Woman @ Looking For My Feet

Lynda With a Y @ Taking Less Space

H2Oh!

One liter, in case you're curious...

W.I.D.T.H. A Little Help From My Friends

If you've got a notecard (or a scrap of paper) and a Sharpee (or any other writing instrument), then it's still not too late for you to get in on the act here. Email me your pic at jacksh.tgettinfit@gmail.com and be sure to include a blog link if you want it included.

Jenn @ Ex Hot Girl

Birgit

GunDiva @ Just Another Perfect Day...

jafg @ I'm Just Another Fat Girl

Jil @ Shut Your Piehole...

Kaitlin @ Everyday Grace

Kristabelle @ Kristabelle Waning

Laura @ No More Weight For Me

Leslie @ Something Brilliant Is Brewing

MPax @ Wistful Nebulae

Stacie @ love, life, happiness

Stephanie

Gabby Glows @ Gabby Glows


And if imitation is the sincerest form of plagarism,
I guess I need to contact my attorney about this deranged chick.

Touching Base With My DirectLife Coach

The folks at Philips recently sent me a DirectLife activity monitor to try out. What's more, they hooked me up with my own coach to guide me through boosting my activity levels. I think we're off to a great start...

Hi! I'm Jen, your DirectLife coach. What would you like me to call you? Your email address is Jack - shall I call you Jack?

You are just about done your Assessment and I wanted to touch base as you begin your Plan. Sometimes people are surprised by their Assessment results and if this is the case for you please do let me know so that I can ensure it all makes sense as you get started.

I notice that you indicate that you are already active 5 times a week (at least). What activity do you currently do? You also indicate that you would like to increase your activity. What do you envision adding to your days to increase your activity? Taking a look at your goals you wrote that you want to challenge yourself, control your weight and become fitter. Do you have more specific goals that you are working towards?

Do let me know when you have some time to write and I look forward to being your coach in the program. Have a fun and active day!

Jen

Hi DirectLife Coach Jen,

Sure, you can call me Jack, since you now know more about my activity levels than anyone on Earth.

Yes, I put down my goals as "challenging myself, controlling my weight and becoming more fit" but my master plan is to become the most active man in the history of the world, so you've got some work to do! (unless my assessment shows that I'm already the most active man in the history of the world, in which case... go help somebody else!)

What activity do I currently do? I lift weights. I run. I play basketball. I do laundry. I take the stairs. I ride my bike. I root around on my hands and knees looking for the remote. I play with my daughter Pisa. Pretty damned active I'd say...

How will I get activer? I mean, more activer? Wait, that's not right... I don't know, DirectLife Coach Jen. I guess that's where YOU come in. Your challenge is to find some way to make me the activest person I can possibly be.

One question: is it a problem that I hooked up my activity monitor to my dog Dip's collar one day this week to try to bolster my numbers? It seemed like a good idea until Dip got out of the backyard and I wound up chasing her all over the neighborhood. I wish I'd been wearing my activity monitor, let me tell ya!

Well, thanks for getting in touch, DirectLife Coach Jen. I hope this is the beginning of a beautifully active friendship!

Take care,

Jack

Hi Jack,

Game on! Your master plan is....hard to measure. Who is currently the most active man on earth? Well, it could be you - I can't tell yet as you have not docked your device to upload your activity data. But, let's just say it's not you, then who are you aspiring to beat? Taking a look at some of the Tour de France riders' training schedules may mean that you will have to drop your day job and train, train, train.

However...I imagine that you would still like to keep some consistency to your current days so what my task with you is figure out how to help you become more active in your day to day. Of course you will keep up your current routine of basketball, stairs, weights...(this will help maintain your baseline) so what else is possible? Certainly putting the device on your dog (or daughter) will generate activity when you are sitting watching, but this is not really how this
works...

It's not about the score Jack, it's how you play the game. So, please keep the device on you, in order to get a real read of your activity.

Have you heard about treadmill desks? A few DirectLife participants spend all day working from those. Others have standing desks, take walking meetings, pace when on the phone change their mode of transport from car to bike to really get activity in. They bike on a stationary bike in front of the TV, never take the stairs, (or the moving walkway at airports), and purposely move things from downstairs to upstairs one item at a time to make themselves do more stairs.

Are any of those ideas already part of your daily routine? If not, do any of them sound adaptable to your current routine? I must admit Jack, I am trying to gauge your intent. Are you planning on adding all this activity to your days right away...or have you given yourself reasonable time to become so active? If you do begin to be as active as you can at all times, there is a risk that you will 'crash and burn', meaning that you will start out strong, but then your ability to keep up the activity (or your motivation to do so) will wane and then you will fall back off of the routine. It is much more sustainable to set small achievable tasks to gradually make your way up to being the most active man on earth.

I look forward to seeing your data when you dock and to hearing back from you about the above.

Until soon,

Jen

Dear DirectLife Coach Jen,

Thanks for saying I'm "hard to measure", DirectLife Coach Jen. I like to think that I'm an enigma, rolled up in a riddle, locked inside a mystery and twisted up in a taffy wrapper.

And way to throw cold water on my "most active man in earth" goal, DirectLife Coach Jen! When I said that, I meant in the USA, which disqualifies all the Tour de France riders. Besides, they're all doped up. Is it really fair to compare my activity levels with people taking performance-enhancing drugs? Do I need to pee in a cup, DirectLife Coach Jen, because I'm prepared to do just that.

My old basketball coach (Coach Sam) said that same thing to us: "it's not about the score, Jack, it's how you play the game." Well, the Spartans beat us 117 to 14 that night, so I'm not sure I quite agree with either one of you. That's one strike, DirectLife Coach Jen (not that I'm keeping score).

I'll agree with you that putting the monitor on the dog was a big mistake. He just naps in the sun room most of the day anyway...

Treadmill desks? Pardon me for asking, but are you drunk, DirectLife Coach Jen? That's just crazytalk. What's next? Elliptical beds? Stairmaster fridge? Fred Flintstone car? C'mon, I live in the real world...

We don't know each other very well yet, DirectLife Coach Jen, so it doesn't hurt my feelings that you suggest that I could possibly "crash and burn" by setting my activity goals so high. You don't know that I weighed nearly 300 lbs last year and have been on a mission to change my life for the past 13 months. I've cleaned up my diet, incorporated a great deal of exercise into my daily schedule and even blog daily about my health journey. I'm down 90 lbs and feel as though I have a new lease on life.

Maybe I can't really be the most active man on the planet, but let's at least see what we can do about getting me in the top 10.

I'm pumped up! Let's do this! Nothing's gonna stop the Jack-DirectLife Coach Jen team!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend.

Jack

C25K? No! JSC25K? Oh, Hell Yeah!

Now that I’m wrapping up the C25K program, I feel like I have the experience and wherewithal to go ahead and vastly improve on the popular (yet deeply flawed) program.

For the initiated, C25K stands for “Couch to 5K,” and by that it means that the participant is shot from a cannon from the sofa out onto the cold, mean streets with little preparation or warning.

I had been undertaking nearly an hour a day of strenuous cardio for a year leading up to my first C25K run and the program nearly polished me off nonetheless. A beginner program this most definitely ain’t.

Yet clearly that’s the intention. The name itself suggests an easy transition, a step-by-step progression from sloth to sprint. No wonder so many folks can’t complete the entire program…

That’s what led me to develop my own JSC25K program. Besides 50% more “couchiness,” it includes features to keep you interested and useful tweets you can tweet to let people know how much more awesome you are than they are and wraps the whole ordeal up in half the time of your regular C25K.

WEEK 1 DAY 1
Stretch for two minutes. Nap on sofa for 15 minutes. Scratch for one minute.
TWEET: Heads up, bitches! Just completed Week 1 - Day 1 of #JSC25K
(and I’m sorry I called you all “bitches”).

WEEK 1 DAY 2
You’re doing great! Stretch for one minute. Walk some of the way down the driveway. Stifle two sneezes.
TWEET: I very well may be our generation’s greatest hero. Just completed Week 1 - Day 2 of #JSC25K

WEEK 1 DAY 3
Quit stretching. You’re stretchy enough now. Walk for two minutes. Start to run but pretend you hurt yourself. Limp home.
TWEET: Jack Sh*t sure knows his sh*t. Just completed Week 1 - Day 3 of #JSC25K


WEEK 2 DAY 1
Celebrate completion of Week 1 with “rest day” and a can of frosting.
TWEET: Whew! It just gets tougher and tougher. Just completed Week 2 - Day 1 of #JSC25K


WEEK 2 DAY 2
Okay, we’ve put this off for long enough. Walk for 10 seconds. Run for 10 seconds. Walk for ten seconds.
TWEET: This sh*t just got serious! Just completed Week 2 - Day 2 of #JSC25K


WEEK 2 DAY 3
Walk 30 seconds. Skip for 15 seconds. Run for 15 seconds. Walk for 10 seconds. Run for 15 more seconds. Waitaminute… I didn’t say “Simon Says”…
TWEET: This is harder than childbirth. Just completed Week 2 - Day 3 of #JSC25K


WEEK 3 DAY 1
Walk 3 minutes. Run 3 minutes. Go get a haircut.
TWEET: Just a little off the top, please. Just completed Week 3 - Day 1 of #JSC25K


WEEK 3 DAY 2
Walk 3 minutes. Run 4 minutes. Walk 1 minute. Run 1 minute making that sound like the Six Million Man made while running. Walk 1 minute.
TWEET: I’m runnin’ my damn legs off. Just completed Week 3 - Day 2 of #JSC25K


WEEK 3 DAY 3
Walk four minutes. Run ‘til you puke. Cool-down walk until you’ve cooled down.
TWEET: Not sure if this was a mistake or just a bad idea. Just completed Week 3 - Day 3 of #JSC25K


WEEK 4 DAY 1
Warm-up walk for five minutes. Shoplift one box of Pop-Tarts®. Run until security guard gets tired and quits chasing you. Cool down walk for five minutes.
TWEET: Dammit! I grabbed the unfrosted ones! Just completed Week 4 - Day 1 of #JSC25K

WEEK 4 DAY 2
Do cool-down walk first, then warm-up walk, then run around in tight little circles until you fall down from dizziness. Keep pumping your legs for 10 minutes.
TWEET: I thought C25K was bad, but this is ridiculous. Just completed Week 4 - Day 2 of #JSC25K


WEEK 4 DAY 3
Run 5K.
TWEET: 5K! That’s right, bitches! Just completed Week 4 - Day 3 of #JSC25K (sorry about the B-word again, but I’m just so excited!)

Congratulations! You completed JSC25K without dying! You are now a RUNNER!



Now... can somebody please tell me how I stick this into an iPhone app and get filthy rich?