Tommy Vallier

So, if June 17th was #fitin15 day 1, that would make today day 7… but I’m allowed to enter tomorrow, too… So I’m confused. In any case, it’s been a few days since I’ve posted a #fitin15 update so I thought I’d break down a small recap.

• Day 1: June 17th – Went for a 25 minute walk alongside my wife and dog. Media captured was a series of images on Flickr.
• Day 2: June 18th – Did walks and runs up the stairs of doom for 15 minutes. Captured (then edited) some video, and tossed it onto YouTube.
• Day 3: June 19th – Went for another walk with my wife today. Media captured? None. Forgot every piece of tech I had at home (Cell phone included). Was kinda nice to unplug.
• Day 4: June 20th – Took today ‘off’ because my legs were still burning – I blamed the stair exercises from Day 2. Spent 5 hours cleaning the house (Including vacuuming and hauling stuff up and down the stairs). I consider this a missed day, though I probably did more of a workout than most of the others.
• Day 5: June 21st – Had originally planned on spending ab hour or more wandering aimlessly around the local conservation area. That didn’t happen. So I spent 40 minutes “Fake DDRing” instead. I used the same song and steps that I used to do daily. Captured the video (Full 40+ minutes) and have it on my computer. Not sure yet what to do with it – speeding it up messes up the music.
• Day 6: June 22nd – I promised myself that I wouldn’t use biking during the #fitin15 challenge – outside of the house, I bike more than I walk. So if I was going to bike, I had to do something extrodinary – a lap around the city, perhaps… Or 15 rides up Fort Henry Hill… Or attaching an extra 15 pounds to the back and going for 15km. I did the later. Why? That’s a long story. Photos of the battery on the bike are on Flickr.

And that brings us today – which will be another post in a little while.

So, today’s Fit In 15 was a video. You can find it at the end of the post. I decided that it’d be a lot of fun to run/walk up and down the dtairs for 15 minutes. I wasn’t too concerned. My wife said I was underestimating the challenge. Boy was she ever right.

I mentioned yesterday that I’d go more into my secret weight loss challenge – so here goes. Once upon a time, I weight 264 pounds. Those who only knew me as a real young guy may be laughing – I was skin and bones back then. But it’s true. See, I had discovered not long after getting my first part-time job that spending money = my choice of lunch. And that often was poutine. Or pizza. Or burgers. And chocolate milk. Lots of chocolate milk. When I actually gave up my 10-15L weekly intake of chocolate milk, well, it wasn’t pretty.

In any case, shortly after I graduated high school, I decided it was time to do something about the weight. With the help of a dietician I got my food in line, and then I hit the gym arcade. Really, nobody was fooling anyone – I wasn’t going to be found in a gym. Still wouldn’t. But Dance Dance Revolution? That I could do. The regimen was a strict 42 minutes/day at home, (The length of a specific set of songs) 6 days a week, and a 2-hour free-for-all down at the arcade on Sunday nights. The setup was a blast – I got an incredible amount of exercise and got a guaranteed slot of time with my friends. It was a lot of fun getting an audience around too.

In time, that technique brought me down over 50 pounds. I nearly passed the 200 mark once, but didn’t quite make it, and eventually seemed to settle atound 210. That’s yo-yo’d between 205 and 220, but I’ve yet to see 199 since… thinking about it now… Considering I graduated in 03.. It’s probably been 7 or 8 years.

That’s coming to and end this year. More on the goals and such another time. For now, here’s me making an idiot of myself running and walking up and down the stairs.

So, I was perusing Twitter earlier today and spotted a tweet from Bob pointing to a recent blog post about the www.fitin15.ca challenge. It seems pretty simple – commit to doing 15 minutes/day of exercises from their website, and blog it, photoblog it, video it and so on. Not a bad idea.

So I commented on Bob’s post that I’d been secretly trying to lose weight and get healthier for a while now, and that this would be a great way to go public about it. My current goal is 199lbs – a weight I haven’t seen in nearly a decade, and I’m using everything at my disposal to get there. More on that, though, another day.

I also thought it would be a great way to help me blog more regularly. So this is my day 1 Fit In 15 post. I may not post daily. Tonight, I went for a 25 minute walk with my wife and dog. About half-way through, she took a few pictures of me walking (and jogging) to publish. Click on the picture to see today’s full set.

That’s it for now!

PS – If you haven’t wandered by the site in a while, I’ve got a bit of a new look. I’m still tweaking a few things and will make a more formal post about it when it’s done. :)