Photos by Marty

Don't mess with my coffee! I need my flipping caffeine!

Wish you were close so I could support ya!

We love you too Matt. But in all seriousness, good luck on your finals.

Who the hell replaced the high-test coffee in my office with decaf? Four cups and I'm still falling asleep here at the office.

Usually around 11:00 they lock the front gate, but in a worse case scenario you can sleep in the back of your fan at the front gate. A number of us should be there Friday night.

Hells yeah I'm there. Friday - Tech and pictures Saturday - Tech and pictures Sunday - Tech and pictures Looking forward to getting outdoors and shooting images of you bastards! Don't be cheap and buy a CD (every round please). Looking forward to Testing my version of the "DiggerCam" in 13 if all goes to plan. Heading to NL this weekend for their safety training day so that I can break-in any noob corner workers so that they know who the hell I am.

Congrats. Doing my first 5K this month and my CPA twisted my arm into a halfie in November.

forgot one important thing I did as well, I quit smoking too.

time for a new keyboard.

That's cool Steve! I wish I took off a few days this week with my kids being on break as well.

I'm 50/50 for Sunday, depends on the "honey-do" list at my house. Saturday's dead as I have to finish my taxes, go buy some running shoes for mini-me and taking in a Gladiators AFL game that night (free tickets so why not).

Thanks Shady. Yeah she is easy on the eyes but that's the part that fools you. Once in the gym, all bets are off.

As promised, progress pic and the rest of the story. I knew that the road would not be easy, but I had to do something! Let’s take a quick trip back to March 2011. Got home from work and wasn’t feeling good, but attributed the pain in my side to having a few to many spicy wings while at lunch and figured it was indigestion. As the evening progressed I started to feel worse and worse. I couldn’t lay down, it hurt to stand up and I started to realize that it was my right side that was hurting me, not the left side. Called the nurse-on-call for our medical group and talked with her briefly. She was concerned and had the doctor-on-call get in touch with me. By this time it hurt to breath, but beyond that and the pain in my side I felt fine. The doctor called and didn’t like what they were hearing from me and advised me to go to the ER and make sure it wasn't appendicitis. Sure enough after a few tests and a scan of my abdominal area it was confirmed; inflamed appendix, I’m not leaving the hospital and will have surgery in the morning. Woke up around 4:30 in the morning with severe paid and hitting the call button to get the nurse into my room and get me some more pain killers. No dice, having surgery in an hour so I have to grin and bear it. At that point I ask the nurse what my weight is. That’s when I knew I was in trouble. 290 lbs., she’s got to be wrong, but deep down inside I knew that was probably right. I didn’t do too much in 2011 to start reversing the process. Yeah I talked about it and thought about it, but didn’t do any thing about it. Now it’s January / February 2012 and I know I have to do something, this is getting ridiculous! Just by chance I clicked on either DailyDealCleveland or one of those coupon-type sites and saw a coupon to try out the boot-camp style workouts at a reduced rate. To make sure it wasn’t the type of place that pushed strict diets, supplements and other stuff like that I dropped them an email to feel them out. After reading their response I knew that I was going to try it out and if I liked it that I would sign up for more sessions. I hit my first session on a Thursday night and lasted only half the class, I was beat and couldn’t lift my legs or my arms. Friday came along and man I was sore! Saturday morning, got my butt out of bed and got in for the 8:00 session and you know what, I survived the whole class! Man I knew I found the right place to get back in shape! The instructors pushed you hard, but they made sure you were doing it right. After a few months I met my current trainer for the first time at a Saturday class. At first when I saw her in there I though she was a participant. BOY WAS I WRONG! Fast forward a little bit into 2012 and things changed but it was a blessing in disguise. No more boot camps and the focus changed over to personal training. I showed up one evening hoping for a boot camp, but no luck. Instead I was offered a personal training session with my current trainer. I figured that it couldn’t hurt. Yeah I was wrong on that one the next day! I consider myself to be very fortunate that by pure chance I ended up getting “teamed up” with her. When I started working with her I was at 247 lbs. in August 2012. Not bad, but still a ways off of my goal. About two weeks later and I’m down to 243 lbs. and dropped three inches. I’m feeling better, but still a ways to go to reaching my goal. Two months later (November 2012) and I’m down to 241 lbs. and a little disappointed in myself. But I had to remind myself that It took years to get to where I was in 2011 and that it would take time to get to where I wanted to be. Before 2012 ended I decided that I had two goals in 2013, Tackle the Tower was in February and I was determined to do it and I decided to start training for a 5K in May 2013. After the New Year rolled in, I decided to see if my trainer would join me in doing Tackle the Tower in February. Deep down I was hoping she would say “no” so that I had an excuse not to do it (oh great here I go again making excuses). Out of the blue she gave a rather enthusiastic and surprising answer of “yes” to doing Tackle the Tower with me. On February 2, 2013 my trainer and I competed in Tackle the Tower. Before I reveal my stats for that day I have to give congratulations to my trainer for her 3rd place finish in her age group. I saw my trainer take off on the first flight of stairs and my start was 10 second after hers. She disappeared from sight and I knew that it was now-or-never. All I heard was the word “GO” and I headed up the 38 flights of stairs that awaited me. My first goal was to finish and the second goal was to finish in less than 20 minutes. 9 minutes and 52.8 seconds later I saw my trainer waiting for me at the top. I survived but had to wait to see what my time was until about 4 hours later. When I saw my time later that day I just about fell out of my chair as I didn’t think I would do that good. On March 9, 2013 I got weighed again and to my surprise, 221 lbs.! I have to thank my current trainer and a few others at my gym for getting me this far in just one year. If it wasn’t for the constant pushing, motivation and positive reinforcement I don’t think I would be where I am at today, only 21 lbs. away from my goal. I also have to single out my trainer at this point in time. She’s been a HUGE inspiration with her hard work on her goals that she has. If anyone doubts what they can accomplish, just re-read this write up! If after 20 years of being a lazy bum I can be within stiking distance of my goal, anyone can get there!

PM sent.

Picked up a GT 29er last month and looking to getting it out this weekend. It is a hardtail but has a front suspension with 100mm of travel. I'm 5'7" and need to watch-out for the boys when I stop and put my feet down. The bike's pretty light-weight and when I was messing around with it a few weeks ago found out just how well the brakes work compared to by 20+ year old Schwinn by almost going head-over-heals.

Thanks Rider! Steve, ya gotta share with John, sorry bud. I'm trying to get R1Nutswinger to utilize my trainer. If you're willing to commit, I'll get you in touch with her as well (don't have to go twice a week like I do). This hasn't been easy, but I'm really starting to get addicted to it. I actually had my trainer tell me to take this weekend off from running. I did two runs last week (5K each) but strained my right calf muscle each time, so to avoid really screwing up right now I guess I'll listen to her! Had mini-me join me for each of those runs and he's doing a 5K with me at the end of this month. When I get a chance I'll post up "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say as to how I got motivated and it might help motivate some of you who are trying to get motivated.

Thanks Mutt! Started the boot-camp workouts in February. Twice a week until August and then switched to the one-on-one training. Boot-camp workouts were never the same ones twice, but they were P90X-ish. Go hard for a minute, rest for 20 seconds, repeat. First classs I did I last only half of it (45 minute classes). Did the next one two days later and lasted the whole class but had muscles hurting two days later I didn't know existed! The one-on-one training is a different workout each time. On leg days I can count on a wide variety from walking lunges, regular lunges, box squats, squats, burpees, jump-squats and others I just can't think of right now. On arm days I can usually count on lat pull-downs (either rope handle or regular bar), 21's, rack runs, curls, planks (up to two minutes right now), chest presses, overhead presses, rows, TRX bands, medicine ball slams, dips, pull-ups and others as well. On core (ab) days its planks, back extensions on a stability ball, crunches on a stability ball, push-ups, toe taps and few other things thrown in as well. Occassionally when my trainer's in a mood we'll do all three in a session or mix up two of the three in a session. I tend to shoot myself in the foot with my trainer as I tell her to mix it up and just keep increasing the intensity levels. Usually end up paying for it the next day like today (having a hard time putting my coat on!). As for diet, trying to pre-plan meals so I can avoid going out for lunch. If I do go out for lunch it's usually a salad with red wine vinegar for dressing or if at Subway I get their veggie delight on flatbread with no cheese or mayo and just red wine vinegar as well. if I go somewhere else like QS&L, I'll do up a big salad from the buffet and only 1 order of 8 wings. I save QS&L for days that I have session with my trainer. If you're into tuna salad switch out the mayo for plain greek yogurt. Eating more turkey (have a killer spicy turkey sausage recipe), eating more fruites and veggies and rarely have pop. I end up drinking between 1 to 1.5 gallons of water a day. The wife and kids went to DQ yesterday and I skipped it. I've also cut my portions way back when I eat at home or on the road. I have another goal already in the works and it's going to take every ounce of dedication and energy I have in my body to get it done. That goal only my trainer and my wife know of (and no it's not doing both of them at the same time, but I wouldn;t pass that up:D) and I have 12 months to get it done. My wife jokes that my trainer has created a monster but I'd admit to it! I;ve told my trainer that if I wine or complain to just kick me in the ass and thankfully she hasn;t had to resort to that. The client before me yesterday was driving me nuts, so I know my trainer's gotta to be a saint with the patience she had with that client.

I'm in on this thread as well. Started last year at 290 and as of last month I'm at 221. Started with a boot-camp style workout and now working with a trainer twice a week. My trainer seems like such a sweetheart outside the gym, but damn she is vicious once the work starts! The goal is another 20 lbs (at least) and I've already hit two goals this year. Did Tackle the Tower (running up 38 stories) in February and a 2 mile race last month. Up next is a 5K at the end of this month and one in May. A buddy wants me to do a half-marathon with him in November. Started doing cardio 5X a week in the morning before work (averageing 5.25 miles) and then with my trainer I do strength training twice a week. I usually do a a light cardio workout before my trainer kicks my ass as well. Picked up a new mountatin bike to start riding around the track when I take pcitures as opposed to using my trusty 125 chinese POS. Damn firewall at work blocks access to my filesharing account so once I get home I'll get a progress pic up. And if anyone is interested, my trainer is developing an on-line program and I'd recommend her without hesitation.

I can recall a few ass-whoopings I got for doing stupid shit growing up and as far as I can tell I turned out okay so far. If they had "time-outs" when I was growing up it would just give me the chance to think of other shit to do in order to piss of my parents. Every once in a while my kids get an earfull from me but that's about it as I just know that some neighbor would go calling the police and accuse me of child abuse. As for the pussification of this country, we're all screwed. Had a 'burb up here cancel their all-star baseball game to avoid hurting the feelings of those kids who were not selected. WTF? What's next, no grades in school?

Can't you just get along John, Steve and Kevin? Damn soap opera around here I tel ya.

John if you didn't live 2 hours away I'd slap ya. Oh wait, you might enjoy that.

Anyone in NEO needs paint, let me know and I'll get it done for you.

That's either RVT or R1Nutcrusher.

Gunner I agree with you. However as you well know that's when there's a real attack on our right to bear arms!

:popcorn::popcorn: Brian must be busy with some boring work-related stuff.