It is hard to believe it is already September. We finished the last commercial recently and less than two weeks left in the challenge. I know for sure I will miss everyone involved in this challenge from our sponsors and the other competitors as well. I hope after this is over with we all find a way to communicate because even though we may have met our goals our journey to being healthy still continues.

My progress is going great and I am very excited about where I am now in my health and my daily routine. I know that when I go to University and get on that scanner there will be some big changes and I am so excited to see those results. Throughout this process I have learned ways to exercise and eat well even when I am busy, traveling, or nursing some type of injury. I did not use an excuse as I may have in the past instead I found a way to get it done. Being able to go to a restaurant, party or even travel to San Antonio River Walk and making better choices has been a real eye opener. I have learned that this is not a diet but a lifestyle change. It is not a punishment but a way of life.  This change has helped be project a better person by making it easier to smile everyday. Not only has my physical appearance changed but my mind has as well. I think one thing that has happened is I really have goals now not just in my health but in career, music and all. Yes I will eat a burger again just not everyday. I will have that piece of pecan pie just not the whole pie.

One reward I have got since this is that I am enjoying it is shopping for me. Before I did not like to look for clothes and shop for me now I am having a good time picking out new clothes for myself. Anyway keep tuning in we are almost at the end of this challenge and I am excited for all the contestants cause from what I have seen we all are winners.

<——- new commercial update

-Russ

Mastering the taping of the foot + great running shoes + bucket full of ice water = 10k in Sept and 5k in October.

I think I finally have my foot taping down to relieve some of the pain in my left foot. Last couple of days I have been able to run straight on my treadmill (not gym quality) for over 10 min and run up and down the Leander hill of pain without my foot being my issue. Seems like my endurance issue now is asthma and the humidity does seem to help but I am determined now that I have no physical excuses I can get my breath back in time to do the upcoming 10k and 5k races.

Looking forward to the next few weeks we are almost at the end of the challenge journey but not at the end of mine. The upcoming 10k is a personal goal that I decided after I did a 5k and the October 5k supports colon cancer which has hit my family so is personal as well.

Russ

Well it is Friday. Really good week this week.

Last Saturday I had the wonderful opportunity to ride bikes with my son and wife. Last time I got on a real outdoors with air in the tires bike was when I bought my (still looks new) bike close to the same time my son got a new bike couple years ago. I decided I should go with him however I only made it to the end of the block and I was in pain. After that I threw his bike in the back when we went to a park and he rode and I sat the bench. Since that time I have been working out inside bike stuff  so did not know what to expect and was a little worried to be honest. Here in Williamson County Texas there is a park that runs from Twin Falls YMCA all the way to Round Rock. I think the total one way is 7 miles. Beautiful trails and bridges.  It was amazing to me anyway how I just took off. I stopped a couple of points to wait for my family but other than that I hit the hills hard and all. Anyway we went to Brushy creek park which is only about midway and came back so 6 miles total. I know that does not sound like much to all who ride bikes every day but for me it was impressive. More than so much for me but for my son as well. Connor has Asthma and he try’s to support me as much as possible and in fact the first 5k I ran he did a 1k and really had some bad Asthma going on. During this bike ride he rode hard and was able to handle it very well so I am thinking he has found a sport that he can do and do really well.

Life is still busy and only few more weeks in this challenge and still quite a bit to go but I am confident I will do what I planned to do. Everyone during this experience from the Contestants to all the Sponsors are great. Only thing I can complain about is my subway allotment runs out in the first week of every month. My whole family loves Subway and I am there pretty much on a daily basis.

I still have ongoing foot pain but I am learning to deal with it. I am hoping to decide soon if I will do a 10k in Sept along with a 5k in October that supports colon cancer.  Anyway looking forward to the next few weeks and should have a new commercial coming out soon.

<———- Oh and notice my weight finally changed again however I think that was a couple weeks ago. Down some more but there is always a delay on updating the page.

-Russ

Big thanks this week to my wife Rose and son Connor. Love you guys.

Last night I learned even more about my wife. She has worked so hard the last weeks and I am so proud of her.  I saw a lady who had started with a goal and finished with grace. She showed true character and stayed true to who she is to the end and all who know her understand this. After all decisions were made I saw the woman I love stand in front of over 200 folks take pictures with grace. I can only imagine what she was feeling inside. She could have got a male model to escort her and she chose me. I am also thankful for my mother that came out to support Rose. Her back has been killing her and she sat throughout the pageant and watched Rose with pride. My son Connor also proud of Rose. He yelled her name and raised her picture every time she was on stage.

No matter the outcome  last night I was the true winner cause I get to go home with a woman who’s real beauty and character is on the inside.

Now that this is over I have her back to full support in what I need to do in the next few weeks and I am so much looking forward to this. She is my biggest supporter and all I can say is lookout. I am down 42 pounds now with 6 weeks to go. Now is my time to show her who I really am.

Looking forward to the next weeks. There are 4 other contestants that are all great folks. It is a honor to watch them meet their goals. Unlike my wife’s competition our contest is a competition about meeting individual goals not about how we sell a crowd or judge. We can all be winners and I would not be surprised if that were to happen.

Thanks again for Subway for all the healthy choices. It is great to have this type of place to go to when you are busy and can not cook for yourself. Thanks also to KVUE and Amanda and Peggy from Scott and White

Thanks to all who came out last night and supported Rose.

-Russ

Well less than a week for till my wife’s pageant.  I am so proud of what she already has accomplished. This week is busy with all she has for this event. She will be with the other contestants at a dinner with the Mayor of Austin and I get go along so it means I have to dress up (Dress up means no gym shorts for me these days   ) Also at the pageant I am not allowed to wear shorts. Will be good to see all our friends and family there. My mom and sister are driving up so look forward to that as well.

Also this week we have to film another commercial so it will be extra busy this week keeping up the workouts. My foot injury has come back so this week I am not doing any running. I am taping, icing, stretching anything that helps. Most of the cardio I am doing this week is on the bike. Just glad to be in the mid 200′s instead of over 300.

-Russ

Well yes it is Monday. Last week we had another great nutrition class and I have been really putting in the workouts. Rose has been busy with pageant and my son busy with a new puppy. His mom had bought him a puppy and being a new puppy he brings it to my home and the puppy likes to keep him up at night. Saturday about 2:00am he woke me up wanting some relief so I set him up on the couch and the puppy in his room listening to elevator music. Seemed to work.

Only 2 weeks till Rose’s pageant and 2 weeks till I have to escort her across a stage and I actually have to dress up. Some reason her evening gown and my Bermuda shorts did not go over well with the pageant folks so guess I will need a tux or something. Anyway I have had the opportunity to witness some of the practices so anyone who is going is up for a treat. The ladies have put in lots of work.

Rose impressed me when she wanted to run the hill in Leander that I have been running recently. This is big support and I actually did not want her to until after the pageant. If you are following the other contestants they are doing so well. Most of us only see each other about a month and I can tell you they are progressing well. If you do not read their blog please do. We are all suppose to film another Subway commercial with KVUE this week.

Anyway thanks again to Subway, KVUE team and Scott and White team for their Time. You are all doing great.

-Russ

Lots of changes going on in my life. I have had to go shopping which is something I always hated to do for myself but now I am asking my wife to go with me to help me pick out stuff which is usually the other way.

Last couple of days I have been sick with some kind of bug so not much in the way of exercising for the last couple of days. I always worried what would happen if I got sick and was off for a couple of days but I am actually looking forward to getting back to it today. This has been a busy week as well. Besides music I also work with a team of individuals investigating haunted locations. One of the things we have done this summer is we have been invited by several Libraries to speak so this last Tuesday I was at Round Rock Library to speak to a group of teens about this topic. One thing I noticed is my confidence to speak in front of a bunch of people is much better now that I have lost some weight. I also need to go to Houston to investigate a location down there this weekend and from what I understand there is another magazine that will be there to report on us. Last time this happened there was a big picture of me at 300 pounds (not a very good picture). In the past on investigations I would buy so much snacks and energy drinks filled with sugar to get me through the night but this time I will make better choices. I am actually going to go down tonight to get rested up and hit the gym in Houston tomorrow morning to make sure I get my workout in.

On the Music side of my life personally things are going great. By loosing weight and eating right I have found myself so much more creative and filled with ideas. I have come up with so many songs in the last few weeks and is a great feeling. Things are for sure not moving fast enough for me with the band so I have come up with a plan to keep me busy with music even when I am not with them. A couple of opportunities have come up recently in music so I am keeping a open mind here to see how it goes.

I just want to think my wife again. She really supports me 100% and keeps up with what I need as well as what she needs. She has so much going on in her life with her pageant but she still supports me, I only hope that she feels I am supporting her as much cause I know how important this pageant is to her.

Recently I mentioned my brother has Cancer. He will be starting treatment soon. Also recently my sisters husband had a heart attack. Please keep them in your thoughts.

-R

Week is starting off well and looking forward to the holiday next weekend. We are planning on going to the coast to visit with family and looking forward to it.

The weekend started off with a great workout from the Scott and White team. Thanks Jill and Amanda. Got to see David, and Karina who are both looking great. My wife Rose came as well and participated in everything. Was a great time and great workout. They had us running down by Lady Bird lake and running up and down a hill.  My wife and I started off the morning eating a banana and a nutrition drink. I promise her breakfast after it was all over. She ate T-bone steak and eggs and I had harvest grain pancakes and turkey bacon.   She then went with me to practice and after all that I thought I would take her shopping and at this point my feet was killing me.  Anyway was a long day we did not get home till late Saturday night and I made sure I rested up on Sunday.

I think it is important when going through this process that I mentioned challenges as well as successes. I think this week is the first week that has been a little out of control for me. This past weekend we had a great weekend with my mom who had had some recent surgeries so seeing her and how good she looked was great. Now it is Wednesday and Monday my son was in a car accident, then last night my brother was diagnosed with Cancer. My son is doing well just little bruised.

There is a point when things like this happens that you can go back to the old habits or get motivated to doing what you need to do. In the past if something in my life stressed me a cheeseburger and beer would go a long way to help me.  At this point I am motivated. I know how hurt I am as well as my family. My Brother is a husband, father and grandfather. He is a strong man who I know would do anything that he can to beat this and I know for sure he will have to go through so much more to beat this  than I have to get healthy.  I know for sure this is hard on my mom but like I told her we all need to be positive about this cause I know there are many things we don’t understand and miracles happen.

I know I am not the only one with health problems or any other stress issues. These are all battles that we all need to go through. For myself I know if I want to be healthy for my family I will need to keep doing what I am doing. I am motivated and I am shifting gears.

Russ

Hope everyone had a wonderful Fathers Day as I did.  I actually went down to visit my mom who had been through lots of things recently. I was unable to come down on mothers day so I wanted to spend this time with her and my wife and son. My mom is 81 and she has had some health issues and I am happy to say she looked great. She has lost some weight and looking at her refrigerator I can tell she has taken a healthier way of eating.  I really want to thank my family that live around her for helping her get there. She moved to a more healthy and positive place to live. Speaking of this place I tried to run here. She is living close to NASA houston and I tried to run in a nice area that has some great running paths. I got out there at 6:30am and thought this would be good however there were many runners all in better shape than I and everyone of them ” good morning”,  “Hello how are you” oh and when I passed them again ” good morning again” don’t get me wrong was great to hear however I was running in a more humid place than I am used to and I am breathing heavily. It is very hard for me to get these words out.

Next night we decided to stay at a hotel so Fathers day morning I woke up at 3:30am and went to the hotel gym. I was the only one there and had great time. Came back to room afterwords and watched my wife and son sleep while I had a cup of coffee.

One of my Brothers has some health issues that we are waiting on the results so all the family is somewhat stressed including my mom. Sometimes is hard to think positive when you have had so much loss in your family but I think it is the only course of action to be positive until you have the facts. He has had some results that say everything will be ok but they are still running test to be sure.

I also sat down and figured out how many times my wife, son and myself actually go to Subway each week. I was suprised. But to think about it when we are out and need something to eat I ask where they want to eat and is the first place they mention. So between breakfast, lunch and dinner we are averaging about 10 times a week as a family.

Things are still going well. New commercial

<——– is posted on the blog this make 3. It should start running on KVUE this week. Another busy week ahead of me and my wife. She has so many practices ahead of her this week for the pageant as do I with the band. I also plan on kicking my exercise up another gear due to “I feel goooooood”

Have a great week.

Russ

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