I Did it! My BMI is back in the normal range!

By no means is my journey back to a healthy weight and lifestyle over, but this morning I met my goal of getting back into the healthy "Normal" BMI weight range (18.5 to 24.9). At my highest point, I weighed 220 with a BMI of 34.5, which is considered Obese.
I started making positive changes to regain my fitness, lose weight, and eat better back in March of 2009. Well, it's 1 year and 2 months later and I've lost 62 pounds, and have regained my fitness and definitely am eating better. As of today, I weigh 158 with a BMI of 24.7 (I'm 5' 7").
I ran into a bit of a roadblock after the first 30 pounds as I was trying to be physically active in all of the ways I was used to when I was younger. I got back into hiking, but found my aerobic capacity to be limited, and my knees were screaming at me (mostly when going downhill), which wasn't any fun. I tried mountain biking again, but had a wreck due to an equipment malfunction and came close to breaking my wrist.
At this point, I decided I had better try something else that wasn't so demanding on my body. But, what? I pondered this for a month or so and thanks to an STC acquaintance and a colleague at my workplace, I was reminded of swimming and the proverbial light bulb went on.
I swam competitively in high school and have been a recreational swimmer all of my life, and swimming is something I absolutely love, but for some odd reason, I hadn't even considered getting back into it seriously. Well, that has definitely changed. I joined Life Time Fitness within a week or so of my revelation, joined a Masters swimming group and haven't looked back. I lost another 32 pounds and I don't think I'm done. My body feels so great -- so great in fact that I feel like I'm 35 again! Parts of me look much younger, but it's going to take some time for my skin to catch up in a few places. :) Here's a before and after:

Mt. Graham, AZ in September of 2009 after losing 30 pounds and today, another 32 pounds lighter and much, much fitter!

Reading is Sexy!

I was at IKEA this past week and noticed this bumper sticker on a car in the parking lot. I must say, I agree 100%.

Waldo Has Made the Journey Across the Rainbow Bridge

At 3:30 this afternoon, Waldo was allowed to cross the Rainbow Bridge. Now she is at peace and free of pain.

What a special cat she was. Seventeen years ago, my oldest daughter, Cheryl, found her under a bush along a creek in Morgan Hill, CA. At first, I thought she was a rat, but after Cheryl's urging, I went back to investigate and found a teeny, tiny, scrawny kitten, barely 4 weeks old who was close to death.

We took her to the vet who cleaned up her infected eyes and gave her a couple of shots and we took her home. She's been with us through thick and thin and several moves over these past 17 years. She always had a hint of wild in her and was never sick a day in her life. She just got old, and it was time for her to have release from her age-related problems. She will be missed.

Here's a picture of her resting peacefully in Cheryl's arms just before taking her final steps across the bridge.

Waldo Juracich

May 1993 - May 2010

Now THAT'S a Strawberry!

My youngest daughter stopped at Wal*Mart the other day to do some grocery shopping and came across some incredibly huge strawberries. Check this out!

My daughter is tall with long slender hands, so the strawberry she's holding is easily 4.5" in height! What a monster. She sent me this photo from her cell phone with the caption "only from Salinas!"

We used to live in northern California, and really miss being able to go and pick strawberries in Watsonville and the surrounding area. Salinas was further south from us, but they grow their fair share of strawberries. In this case, they outdid themselves this season!

When I first saw the photo, I immediately thought of the crazy sacrifice scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, where the insane priest is holding the still-beating heart in his hand that he just reached in and yanked out of the chest of the guy being sacrified! Yikes! This strawberry could be used as a stunt double for a scene such as that one!

Happy Times at ASU

I'm taking a 4-session class out at ASU this month, which focuses on working on freestyle technique, starts and turns. Even though I've been swimming for 6 months with my Masters group at Life Time Fitness, I really felt the need to get some coaching from another source -- kind of like getting a second opinion as it were.

The first session was awesome. Our instructor/coach, who swam in Britain and for ASU (and yes, she's young enough to be my daughter) had us doing drills that were new to me, but they immediately showed me where I needed to make changes in my stroke, kick, and breathing.

My oldest daughter came along to observe and snapped a few photos with my cell phone. I wore my "Happy Hour" cap that I got from participating in the One Hour Postal swim, which was hosted by the Tamalpais Aquatic Masters (TAM). In the last picture it looks like it is glowing. :)

Listening to Amy

Other than having my fingers up my nose, this shot isn't half bad. :)

Finishing a drill

Swim To Be Fit!

Since coming back to swimming 6 months ago, I've been toying with the idea of changing my personalized plate to a reflection of where I'm at today. I've had several personalized plates over the years, with my most recent being DEBARU that I used on two different cars over a period of 4 years. But, given where I am in life right now, the time has come to make a change. My new plate is:

I really got lucky on this photo. The sun had just ducked behind the clouds and the reflection in my rear window was absolutely perfect.

My First Open Water Swim Competition

Waiting for my turn to swim

What can I say! It was totally awesome. I grew up swimming in open water, but this is the first time I actually focused on swimming 2000 meters continuously (no stopping, standing, hanging onto the side of the pool, or flip turns). It's so much different from swimming workouts in a pool! The event I swam in is the first in a series of five put on by DCB Adventures. They did a great job with the event. I can't wait for the second one, which takes place at the end of May. I'm hooked!
I came in 1st in my age group and 7th overall in my division (non-wetsuit), and beat my time goal by 3 minutes! It's always fun to swim an event the first time, 'cause your time is always a personal best!

My Masters swimming buddy, Ken, decided to swim the event with me and I finished just a couple of minutes ahead of him. We were both so stoked to have done it. There's always a bit of trepidation when attempting to do something new for the first time. But, as Jake said in Avatar -- "I was born to do this". I can't wait for the next swim in the series.

I ran into a professional photographer, who was taking pictures of her finance who was competing in the 1K swim and she agreed to take pictures of me and will get in touch with me once she has them available. So stay tuned for an update.

Here's a nice aerial view of the 1K course. I swam two laps in my race.

Here are a couple of pictures I took using my cell phone during the start of the 1K race. Click the images for a larger view.

Last minutes instructions from Dave Benjes of DCB Adventures

Go!