12 days to go, and only one goal remains

With 12 days to go, I am down to just one remaining goal - run/walk 1,000 miles before the end of Project David 2.0.  Since I started walking on September 30, 2011, that gave me 9 months, 17 days to complete that goal.  With 12 days to go I have just another 38.12 miles to get there.  Since I carry a Fitbit tracker, people have asked if I was counting the miles that it reflects on a daily basis.  The answer is no.  I've only counted the running and walking miles from my workouts.

The last goal you ask? Yes.  But wasn't there another goal to be completed? When I wrote my last entry there were two remaining goals - 1,000 miles and my revised (upward) weight loss goal of 71.6 pounds.  Well, happy to report that on the morning of June 22, as we were getting ready to leave for our road trip to Oregon, I stepped on the scale and learned that I had lost - drum roll please........ 72.8 pounds!!!  An extra 1.2 pounds!!  10 months, 7 days.  More to come on that as I am preparing my Project David 2.0 "recap" blog entry for July 17, my "go live" date.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

30 days to go!

There are 30 days left in Project David 2.0.  How have we done? There are two key goals remaining - run/walk 1,000 miles, lose 71.6 pounds.  Are we going to make it? Well, we have 100.73 miles and 0.8 pounds to go.  I have no doubts that I will make these two remaining goals.  This nearly year long project has been about success!  And we're not stopping short!

If you've been following along with me, you know these are not goals that I set last August when I started this journey. If you are new to my blog, let met tell you where these goals came from.  The weight goal was 61.6, but I decided along the way to increase it by 10 pounds. Why? Because as I got closer to my original goal, I thought there was room for an extra 10 pounds. The 1,000 miles? Yeah, not in the original plan either. In fact I had no exercise goals when I started. At the end of September I started walking every night.  I logged all of my walking sessions. In January I decided that maybe I would try running. Walking 4 miles a night was taking about an hour. If I could run, I should be able to cut that down. So I started the C25K training program.  This is designed to get a non-runner ready to run a 5k in 9 weeks.  The 1,000 miles? Inspired by my good friend Bob Stanke.  In 2011 he set and achieved a goal to run 1,000 miles. I decided that take that one on - but in a combination of walking and running.  Since I wanted to hit my original goal date, July 17, I only had 9 1/2 months to complete the task.  Kind of aggressive for someone who was not a runner.

So how has the running gone? On Saturday I ran my second race.  This one was a 4 miler.  Beat my goal by 2 minutes, running it in 35:53.  I'm working towards a 10k, and a co-worker is trying to talk me into a 10 miler.  I think I am ready for the 10k.  Tonight was a 5.25 mile run.  It felt good.  It was my longest run to date. Adding another mile shouldn't be an issue.  Up next is a 5 mile race on the 4th of July, a 4 mile race on July 7th, and another 4 mile race later in July.  And I'll be entering the lottery for the Medtronic TC 10 Mile in October.  I have time to get from 5 miles to 10 miles by October. Keep your tigers crossed that I can get in.  It's very popular. Some will say that once I get to 10 miles, I am probably ready for a half marathon since I'm only 3 miles away.  Pretty amazing that a guy who has never been a runner, and 6 months ago just started running, could be working towards running 10+ miles.

I'll keep you posted on my progress!!

Thanks for reading!

Last bag of flour!!

Another accomplishment today.  I reached the 7th and final bag of flour.  70 pounds.  That leaves 1.6 pounds to go to hit my revised goal.  39 days to go and reach that mark.  Pretty sure I won't need that much time!

Additionally, I am 864.37 miles towards my goal of 1,000 miles walking/running.  This was a goal that I added in January, about 5 months into Project David 2.0.  I started with walking on September 30, and then started the C25K program in January because walking 3-4 miles a night was taking too long.  :-)  Since that time I've done a combination of walking and running to get this far.

More goal updates as they occur!  Thanks for following along with me on this journey.

With 2 months to go......

Thursday marked two months to go in Project David 2.0.  It also marks one month since I hit my original goal weight.

So what's happened in the last month? Well, we continue to drive to our final (David 2.1) goal of 7 bags of flour.  That would take us to a total of 71.6 pounds.  Over the last month we've lost another 4 pounds.  (There was an amazing Mother's Day brunch in the mix that might have had an impact on the weight loss. Might have had something to do with dessert. A chocolate layer mousse cake.) So we have two months to lose the last 6 pounds.  Pretty sure we'll get there.  And once we do we'll continue to focus on toning and strength.

What about the other goals? Well, the running continues, sort of.  I am planning on 2-3 5k runs this summer.  Schedule has been such that it's been limited, but we are continuing to walk.  I am up to 758 miles since I started walking/running on September 30th. That's like walking from Minneapolis, MN to Knoxville, TN.  In January I decided to see if I could get to 1,000 miles by July 17th.  I'll need 242 miles over the next two months.  Going to be tight since I am averaging about 100 miles a month.  Need to pick up the running to increase my daily totals.

People frequently ask me how I did it.  Did I use one of those commercial weight loss programs? Nope. I did it by diet and exercise.  I tracked everything I ate using MyFitnessPal, working against a reduced calorie diet.  I tracked all of my activities with a FitBit tracker.  The really nice thing is the MyFitnessPal app and the FitBit tracker sync together.  My activities log on MyFitnessPal and calculate my net calories letting me know how I need to adjust my diet.  And as you can see on my blog page, MyFitnessPal updates my blog with my total weight loss.  Great tools.  Check them out!  I highly recommend them.

GOOAAAAALLLLLLL!

On August 15th, 2011 I kicked off Project David 2.0. A transformation project with two major goals - personal transformation and professional transformation. My goal was to complete Project David 2.0 by July 17th, my 48th birthday. As I've previously shared, I hit my professional transformation goal when I started a new position with Best Buy on November 28th.

Today I am excited to share that I have reached my personal transformation goal. I set the goal to lose 61.6 pounds, and today, 8 months and 2 days, and 6 bags of flour later, I have achieved that goal!! 3 months early! Unbelievable.

It has been an incredible journey, but I am not done yet. Along the way I added several goals to reach before July 17th. Stay tuned as I continue to prepare for my first 10k run, try to lower my A1C to the point that I can get off of the oral meds, and get one more bag of flour!!

Thank you to my family and friends for all of their support along the way. I couldn't have done it without you all!

You've lost how much?

How much weight have you lost? I hear that question pretty frequently. So how much have I lost? Well, let's just say it's....

more than a 4 yr old, more than a 6 yr old, and more than 6 bags of flour.

As of today I have lost 60.6 pounds. 1 pound away from my original Project David 2.0 weight goal, and three months ahead of my goal date. But I'm not stopping there. I've decided to go for another bag of flour. Why? I still have some work to do to get to where I want to be. And I am still working on bringing down the body fat number as well. That has some room in it.

I am feeling great. I can't remember when I've felt this good. I am enjoying the running. Really enjoying how it feels when I finish up a 4-5 mile run. For me, an amazing accomplishment. Two reasons. I never had the desire to run, and with all of the walking and running that I've been doing since the end of September, I've not had any problems with my knees. Something that has been an issue for 30 years. Maybe it has something to do with dropping 25% of my body weight. Now that I've got my first 5k under my belt I am "training" to do a 10k. I'll keep you posted on how that progresses.

Each day I continue to be amazed at what I've accomplished in the last 7 months. When I started Project David 2.0 I just hoped that I could come close to my goals by July 17th. Today I am celebrating another milestone in a growing list of milestones and accomplished goals. I wouldn't have gotten this far without the support of my family, friends, and the vision I have for myself.

It was about more than just the shirt.

With my wife and kids cheering me on at the finish line, I accomplished something today that I never really thought I'd do. Something that 60 days ago I couldn't believe I would do. Today I became a runner. Today I ran my first 5K race, the St. Patrick's Day Human Race in St Paul. Not bad for a guy that 60 days ago struggled to run for 5 minutes, let alone 3.13 miles. My time, 28:25. I'll take it!! It was an unbelievable feeling as I came down the last few yards to the finish line. Seeing my kids jumping up and down cheering me on, giving me another burst of energy to "sprint" home. What a feeling. It was about more than just the shirt (although I proudly wore my first race shirt).

It was also about another accomplishment in my Project David 2.0 journey. It was an amazing day. I can't wait for the next race, and looking down the road to improving my distance and time and working towards a 10k.

I am 7 months and 3 days into Project David 2.0. An 11 month project. On Saturday I hit the scale, down 57.6 pounds. 4 pounds away from my original goal. So close to a goal that I hoped I could reach by the middle of July. And today I accomplished another goal - I earned the shirt.

3.38 miles - an incredible feeling!

Today marked another milestone in Project David 2.0. This one was did not involve flour. This afternoon I did something that I haven't done in more than 30 years. A road run. I've never been a runner. Now I've run before. Back in 7th grade. My last road run would have been while playing soccer in 7th grade. I went to school at Oak Grove Jr High in Oregon and soccer practice was at North Oak Grove Elementary. Every day we had to run to the other school for practice. A distance of about 3/4 of a mile.

As I've shared before, I decided I wanted to change things. 9 weeks ago I started the Couch to 5K program (C25K). So, over the last 9 weeks I've been working to go from a person that walked 4+ miles a day on the treadmill (since September 30th) to someone who could run 30 minutes three times a week on the treadmill. My goal, to run a 5K (it's about the shirt). Running on the treadmill I reached the 30 minute sustained run mark. And with a combined run/walk I've covered the 3.13 mile distance in 37 minutes. A major accomplishment for me. I had been told that running on a treadmill was different than running on the road. It was easier. Works the muscles differently.

Having accomplished the goal on the treadmill, it was time to take it outside. The weather forecast this week was looking good for today. A high near 60. And amazingly, no kids activities tonight, so I was going to hit the road. Last week I mapped a route that would cover roughly 3.13 miles. My practice 5K. Biggest question - how fast could I run it. At 5:04 this evening I walked out my front door, hit start on the Nike+GPS app on my iPhone headed down the driveway. 36:07 later I had covered 3.38 miles. Wow. Unbelievable rush. I can't wait to get out and do it again.

New goals for Project David 2.0: faster and farther.

Milestone Day: 50.2 pounds!

Today marks another milestone - 50.2 pounds. It's flour time. Took a little longer to get to the fifth bag of flour. I think a number of things need to be taken into consideration on why it took a little longer to hit the next milestone. But considering we went through the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Holidays, and during the holiday window, I only gained 0.6 pounds. I have to consider that a win. To have enjoyed the feasts of the holidays, in moderation, and basically come out at the weight I went into them, that's a win.

During the past month I also made a couple of other changes. First one is that I started the C25K - Couch to 5K - program in an attempt to become a "runner". My goal, to run my first 5K in mid March. The second is that I started strength training on January 3rd. Don't know if that has had any impact on the slow down in my progress, but I do know it is making a big difference in how my clothes fit. So while the pounds aren't coming off as quick as they did during the first 40 pounds, the inches are. The Wellness Zone on the Best Buy campus has a fitness contest called Drop it Like it's hot. I signed up for it. It's a 12 week contest. Next week is the 6 week check in and I am very curious to see how things have changed in 6 weeks.

Next week marks 6 months of Project David 2.0. It's been an amazing journey so far. Hard to imagine what can happen during the remaining 5 months of this project. I know I can't wait to find out!

I'm running? What's up with that? It's about the shirt.

I've never been a runner (well, there was soccer in junior high), and I never planned to be one. Of course I never planned on Project David 2.0. That all changed 4 weeks ago when I decided I was going to run a 5K before my project goal date, my next birthday.

4 weeks ago I started the C25K - Couch to 5K - program. I had seen tweets about it, and decided to check it out. The concept, for those that are not familiar with this program, is a running program that takes you from the couch, or a non-runner, and in 9 weeks gets you ready to run a 5K or 30 minutes non stop. Since I've been walking 60+ minutes a night since the end of September I jump straight to week 2 of the program. My wife asked me why I wanted to run since I've never shown any interest. Told her it was about the shirt. You always get a shirt when you participate in a 5k. The real reason was that I wanted to shorten the amount of time I have to spend on the treadmill each night, so I needed much a faster pace. I was already walking at 4.2 miles per hour, so I was going to have to start running. Tonight was workout of 2 week 5:

00:00-5:00: Warmup walk

5:00-13:00: Run

13:00-18:00: Walk

18:00-26:00: Run

26:00-30:00: Cooldown Walk

I continue my usual walking for another 30-40 minutes beyond the C25K program. I don't have the speed there yet. More focused on actually being able to sustain a run. I figure the speed will come once I can reach a sustained 30-40 minute run. So far in a combined run/walk on a treadmill, I can cover a 5K in 42 minutes. That's with 16 minutes of running in that 42 minute window. The next workout, on Friday is a 20 minute run. Crossing my fingers that I'll be able to make it!! In a little over 3 weeks I'm supposed to be at a 30 minute run. That will be amazing. My first goal will be to run a 5K in under 40 minutes. There are two in St. Paul around St. Patrick's Day, and I am thinking that maybe that will be my first. I think I need to commit to that in the next week before they close registration.

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it - another goal added to continuing to be successful Project David 2.0.

402.97 miles down, 597.03 to go.

I am 22 1/2 weeks into Project David 2.0. 6 weeks after I started I added cardio to my plan. For me, someone who was not a runner, that meant walking on the treadmill. Tonight I went over 400 miles. I don't count all of the walking that I do during my work day, just the miles from my focused treadmill sessions. As of tonight I have walked 402.97 miles. That's the equivalent of running from Minneapolis to Kansas City.

I didn't not set a mileage goal when I started this project but having watched my friend Bob Stanke set and achieve a goal of running 1,000 miles last year, and now setting a goal of 1,200 miles for 2012, I thought maybe I should consider a goal. So tonight I am announcing my goal of walking/running 1,000 miles by the end of Project David 2.0 on July 17, 2012.

Can't remember the last time I saw that.

This morning was a major milestone in Project David 2.0. This morning the scale showed 199.6. Yes! No leading "2" on the scale. It's probably been 20 years since that has happened.

This project, as those that have followed me in this journey know, has been about milestones. A bag of flour at every 10 pound increment, 25 pounds by Christmas, getting my weight to match what my driver's license has shown for the last 15 years, and removing the 2 that was at the front of the scale. There are several other goals, and I'll do a "project status update" soon, but this was a major one for me. So much so that I left a message for my wife this morning announcing it - wrote "199.6" in big numbers in lipstick on the bathroom mirror!

Happy to arrive at the new century!!

Week 12: Major milestone - more flour

Why is this man smiling? Because today marks 12 weeks on Project David 2.0, and as of today I have lost 30.8 pounds. That means two things. First, it's time for another bag of flour. Second, I am officially at the half way mark of my original goal of 61.6 pounds. That goal will be increasing.

Holding those 3 bags of flour I continue to be amazed at how big those 30 pounds are. I can set those down, but 12 weeks ago, it was part of me. I can't even being to imagine what another 30 or 50 pounds is going to look like.

What have been the keys so far? Diet, exercise, and water. I continue to use the myfitnesspal app and web site to track everything (almost) that I eat and record my exercise. I continue to make smart food choices, and continue to avoid things like soda or Halloween candy. As for exercise, on September 30th I started walking on the treadmill. Averaging 50 minutes and close to 3 miles a night. I have walked 116.12 miles since I started. I did not set a goal for walking during this project, but maybe I will. We'll see. The other key is water. My daily is 12-16 8oz glasses of water. I've found it is much easier to get all of my water in during the week. I take two 32 oz water bottles to work each morning and they are both easily gone by the middle of the afternoon. Drinking another one in the evening is no problem. On the weekends for whatever reason, I struggle to get all of my water in.

In the next couple of weeks (before Thanksgiving) I am going to go in and have my A1C tested to see if this loss has made a difference yet. I have to believe it will.

The challenges will be coming over the next several weeks - Thanksgiving and Christmas. Around here, like for most of you, it is a feeding frenzy. It's going to take a lot of will power to manage my portions. I love the foods that my family prepares for these holidays. But I am also loving how the first 30 pounds gone feels!

It's flour time! Total loss now at 20.2 pounds.

Today marks 8 weeks since I started project David 2.0 (What is David 2.0?) and today also marks the second 10 pound bag of flour added to my desk! As of today's weigh in, I've lost 20.2 pounds. Can't believe how big those two bags of flour are, and that used to be part of me.

When I started this project I had hoped to lose 25 pounds by Christmas. I thought that would be a major accomplishment. I had no idea that I would be this far a head of my progress goal. I have no idea how the pace will continue as I work towards my goal of 61.6 pounds. I will not assume that it will continue as it has, but I am hoping that the daily cardio work out I started on 9/30 will help keep it close to this pace. I'm not a runner, but I am walking for 45 minutes every night and the pace has me up to 2.6 miles a night.

I feel great. I had no idea that taking 20 pounds off would feel this great. When I lost weight several years ago, it was over an extended period of time, and I don't remember really being aware of the changes. Maybe in part because I still should have lost more weight, and in part because it was much more gradual and the results were not as obvious. Today, my clothes are clearly getting too big. I joked that one of the goals I set was to donate all of my clothes by Spring. Not sure I'll be able to hold out. I've already dropped a shirt size. Pants are starting to hang on me, and when I needed to wear a shirt and tie a couple of weeks ago, I had extra room in the neck!! I know what will be on my list for Christmas - the gift we hated getting as a kid, clothes.

25 pounds is my first goal. At 30 pounds I'll be close to half way and plan to go in and have my A1C tested (Type II diabetic) I am not sure how the weight loss and diet change will impact it, but I am hoping that at some point I'll be able to reduce the medications that I am on. And maybe it won't be much of a change until I get to the 61.6 pound goal. Can't wait to find out!

"Small" victories in David 2.0

Today marks 7 weeks since I launched David 2.0, my personal and professional transformation project. I am well on my way towards my goals. As of this morning I have lost 17.4 pounds. This has translated into me dropping a shirt size, getting close to running out of holes in my belts, and an overall increase in energy. This past Friday I finally introduced a key component - exercise. Blew the dust off of the treadmill in my office and started walking. Boy did that feel great!

Another small victory is that for the first weekend my weigh in this morning was the same as it was on Thursday. Usually on Monday's I weigh in 1-2 pounds more than I did on Thursday/Friday. This puts me behind for a couple of days while I work that off.

Three things occurred this weekend. I walked 45 minutes each night, made "better" food choices, and did a better job of drinking. Water that is! To come out even this morning was huge. Saturday night my wife and I enjoyed the company of some good friends and had dinner at McCormick and Schmick's followed by drinks at The Local. Now my wife and I did share an entree, I did skipped the calamari - hard to do, and did enjoy a glass of wine and a fabulous upside down apple pie with ice cream (shared as well). This was followed at our next stop with a couple of high calorie, high carb beers. All enjoyable - friends, food, and drinks. Part of what helped was making wise choices through out the day on Saturday, knowing that I was going out that night, and making fairly wise choices at the restaurant. The shared entree was a perfect portion, supplemented by a salad.

Overall a great weekend that showed me you can enjoy when doing it smartly, making wise choices, and planning for the bump in intake through out the day.

Small victory on the path to an overall new David 2.0

Fair food not fair game: Updated

Over the weekend we took the family down to Spencer, Iowa to go to the Spencer (Clay County) Fair. This is something my wife's family has done for years. One of the nice things about this fair is that they have a good sized machinery hill (John Deere, Case IH), and the tractors are open so that you can climb on and in them. This is a big draw to my 4 year old son. He can't get enough of the tractors. He's a John Deere boy thanks to his Papa who retired from farming a couple of years ago.

One of the other things about the fair is the food. 3 weeks ago we went to the Minnesota State Fair. I went conservative at the state fair, only had 3 mini donuts, but did have about 3/4 of an order of cheese curds. Add in 3 glasses of milk at the all you can drink milk stand (2 white, 1 chocolate) and just 2 Sweet Martha's cookies. Needless to say, for the day I was over on my calorie goal by 50%. It could have been much worse. That calorie violation fhad a negative impact on my weightless for the week. For whatever reason I hit that Monday up 2 pounds, resulting in a week that was spent getting me back to the previous week's loss total. A price to pay.

This weekend I knew going in I was going to have one of the Nutty Bars that they sell at the Spencer Fair. Vanilla ice cream on a stick, dipped in chocolate and covered in peanuts. This was going to be a given. No mini donuts this time. No cheese curds. I did have a gyro for lunch. Not very calorie friendly either (it's the pita). I haven't figured out yet how bad I violated my calorie limit for the day, but I know I went over. Sunday added another challenge. A church potluck. You know how those country church ladies like to bake. So many salads and desserts to choose from. I tried to do as best as I could given the temptation. But there was a cherry cobbler that was to die for. :-) Dinner was very sensible tonight. Chicken breast and spinach. Like I could really balance this against the cherry cobbler!!

So what does all of this mean? I've been working on my weight loss for 5 weeks. I've been very dedicated to controlling my food intake to honor my daily calorie goal. As of Friday morning I've lost 13.4 pounds. A good pace. I'm not sure what the scale will say on Monday morning. Going into this weekend I expected to take a hit. Why? Because I was going to allow myself a little food pleasure. Now I know that I will never hit my goal if I continue to take these little holidays from the calorie control. But I also know that to completely deny yourself some of these treats creates the risk that you will go overboard at some point and over consume. Don't get me wrong, this is not something I plan to do every 3-4 weeks. And I'm not beating myself up for the extras this weekend. I just know that I've got to stay true and continue with the overall discipline that I have been working under and stay focused.

My goal is 60 pounds by August 14, 2012. (I'd like to hit that by my birthday in July). My second goal was 25 pounds by Christmas. I have 3 months to get there, and there is no reason that I shouldn't be past that - that's a pound a week. And there are no more fairs between now and Christmas!

UPDATE: On Monday morning the scale told me that I over indulged on the cherry cobbler and other things. Weight was up 2.4 pounds. Now I know I didn't eat that many more calories. One other thing I left out was the fact that I didn't drink near the amount of water that I usually drink on a daily basis. Guessing that also had an impact.

Thanks for stopping by and reading.

Day 30 of David 2.0: Progress update

Day 30 update

Today marks day 30 of my journey to physical transformation. As of this morning I have lost 13 pounds. So what is my goal? Have I set one? The answer is yes. I've set a goal to lose 60 pounds in one year. I set an incremental goal of 25 pounds by Christmas, and am well on the way there.

Why 60?

The short story is that when I looked at a Body Mass Index (BMI) I found that even in losing 60 pounds I was still classified as overweight, but only barely. Now I know that this is not a very good indicator as it does not take into consideration muscle mass, but it is a general indicator. 60 is a round number, and one that I honestly believe I can hit in 12 months. My starting weight was 246.6, so actually I plan to lose 61.6 to get to an even 185. In 2003 I was diagnosed as Type II Diabetic. At that time my weight was around 290-295. Over the next 12-18 months I lost 50 pounds through mostly diet changes. I've maintained that weight loss plus or minus 5-7 pounds since. Now its time to take control and take the next step.

How am I doing this?

The tool. To accomplish this I have been following a reduced calorie diet. To manage this I am using the myfitnesspal application and recording everything that I eat. I've also tried the very similar livestrong app, but just like the myfitnesspal one better. I've found it easier to use, easier to add foods not found in the database, more accuracy on the nutrition values of the foods in the database, and one of the nice functions is that it can scan barcodes on food packaging and then pull the nutrition information from the database. I've logged every meal and snack for the last 3o days and it just becomes automatic. I know meal by meal how I am tracking for my daily calories, and can adjust my eating based on this. Myfitnesspal also looks at my calorie intake, activities, and weight loss and recommends changes to my daily calorie allowance to help manage my weight loss in support of my goal.

Food choices. Since I am recording everything I eat, I am really paying attention to food values - calories, fat, protein, fiber, and carbs. I find I talk myself out of eating certain things because I know it will have a negative impact - too many calories or not enough substance to fill me up, and don't want to risk going over my daily allowance. If I know I'll be having something for dinner that might be a little heavier in calories, I can work backwards and adjust through the early part of the day to help keep me on track. It's the little things. Eliminate the cheese, or skip the sauce, or sometimes skip the bun. It's looking at what makes up the calories in a meal and determining what you really want to eat. I'm not claiming perfection in this. I went to the state fair and paid the price. Cheese curds, mini donuts, a couple of Sweet Martha's cookies, and the all you can drink milk pushed my over my daily calories but almost 50%. Amazing how that impacted the weight.

Water. Water is key. I am averaging 12-16 glasses a day. I've found that by drinking the water I've reduced those hunger feelings that I experience in the evening.

Exercise. I have not added exercise yet, but that is the next step. I've dusted off the treadmill. I'm not a runner. In the past I've typically done 30-40 minutes of walking every night, gradually increasing the pace. That's the plan, and my 60 day progress update will include how I've done with exercise.

That's where I stand today. I am fired up about this. I did not expect to see the results that I have in the first 30 days. I don't believe I will continue to see the same pace of loss, but believe it will be close, especially adding exercise. Each day it gets easier and the results really help drive me.

What's with the 10 pound bag of flour?

A bag of flour you ask? Yes it is. A 10 pound bag. This represents the 10 pounds of weight that I have lost since August 14th, the start of my physical transformation. Actually at 10.8 pounds as of this morning. To help me visualize the progress towards my goal, I decided that I would purchase a bag of flour every time I hit another 10 pound increment. The bags of flour will be stacked on my home office desk, which is also the room where my treadmill is located, to give me a constant visual reminder of my progress.

It really hit me as I was carrying the bag with the flour in it out of the store and across the parking lot. While it might only be 10 pounds, it was noticeable as I was carrying the flour. Then it hit me, I was constantly carrying this 10 pounds a month ago. I can't imagine what a few more bags will feel like. But I can't wait to find out!!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

As I stated in my first post, my transformation consists of two components - personal and professional. Ok, so what does that mean? One thing it means is that I turned 47 this year and realize 50 is not that far away. But what else does it mean? There must be more. There is. I've spent a great deal of time over the last year in personal reflection and this is what has led me to this transformation plan.

Personal Transformation

In a nutshell it means that on the personal side I have made a commitment to improving my health which includes weight loss and a goal to reduce my dependency on my diabetes medication through dietary changes and exercise. I have a target weigh loss goal, but want to provide a little background before I disclose my goal. I believe this will have a great impact on other areas of my life.

Professional Transformation

On the professional side it means that I am going to answer the question - what do you want to be when you grow up? I've been successful as a Technical Program/Project manager for several years. The last 8 years as a consultant. Something's been missing though. I still haven't found what I'm looking for. I have some ideas as to what that is. And I have some ideas on what it will take to answer this question and I am ready to implement those ideas.

David 2.0

And with that we have the building blocks of David 2.0. Reaching the goals in each of these transformations will be very rewarding and life changing, but I believe that the two are interdependent and that success in either one will drive the success in the other.