Day 10 - Improvements

For going back to work, the food has been going very well.  We have been to balance out the foods that we are eating pretty well.  Erin seems to be less irritable during the day.  I myself seem to be less high strung and stressed like I used to be.  It has got to be because of all the sugar that I am not taking in now, as well as the soda.  Erin has noticed that I am not in my "tunnel"as much now and I am actually taking care of things that need to be attended to before she has to ask me to.  This is not only making her happy, but myself and Ellie as well. 

Nutrition and exercise can really make a positive change to you and your families life.  

Working to Be Healthy

Brad and Erin

Day 9 - Much Better

Today went a little bit better for the both of us.  We both did walking during our lunch breaks as well as together around our neighborhood after work.  And we were also able to do jump ropes outside in from of the house.  My cravings have decreased a little.  And I think I have found a groove for how to eat my meals throughout the day.

Erin is still in a lit of pain between her knee and back.   Her foot is actually getting better.  As for me, I am looking forward to going to the doctor on Thursday.  But I seem to be doing better on the steps.

I would like to know if there is anything that I can do while I am sitting at my desk everyday to help with exercising.  Just sitting there makes me think that I am not progressing and will fall behind.  I am looking forward to finding out about more exercises that can be done with the medicine ball and the inflatable ball as well.  The more we learn, the better variety we have.

Erin thinks that the food is going really well.  I feel the same.  We have not gotten to a point where we are saying that we are bored with what we eat.  We are planning ahead a lot better on the meals to allow us to be able to be together more and to get other tasks done as well.


Working to Get Healthy
Brad and Erin

Day 8 - Adjusting

Unfortunately, this will be a quick posting, as it is late....again.  We are at a point where we are trying new foods and adjusting to the return of work.  We really need about 4 more days of vacation to adjust again.  It was very difficult to work today as I have to sit at my desk for 8 hours a day.  For the fact that for the past week, we have been constantly moving, this is like getting hit by a Mack truck and stopping in our tracks.  But on the plus side, I was able to walk up 8 flights of stairs twice at work and I only used the elevator twice.  Erin has been doing a lot of walking on her part but she is extreme pain right now with her knee and foot and back.  I spent 10 minutes rubbing Icy Hot on her back.  We really hope that this is a phase.

One accomplishment on my part was I did 200 jumps in one session with the jump rope tonight.  And Erin was able to do her jump roping in the gym at school.  That s a cool perk to working at a school.

On the down side.... We tried new Greek yogurt.  I'm at a loss of words.  It certainly is a different taste and will need some additional ingredients to make it really enjoyable.  And also as a plus, we are now eating tomatoes.  I'm impressed with myself.  Sorry it took so long to enjoy them mom.  So it's time to sleep again.  We need to start going to bed sooner.  We just have so much to catch up on.


Working to Get Healthy
Brad and Erin

Day 7 - The Numbers

Alright, I know we post at night, but have breaking news.  First, what we did today.

We woke up, went to Grey's Lake with the Dearduffs, who are also working with Daniel and Rebecca.  And we went around the lake.   1.9 Miles....BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!  I so miss working out in Arizona.  I couldn't feel my face after running.  But, it was good to get it out of the way so early in the morning.

Came home and faced the scale.  Erin reminded me that this was not the Biggest Loser and we are supposed to lose about 2 pounds a week.  I know, but when I stepped on the scale I saw the numbers going up and was waiting to go to commercial.  Then I looked down.

I have lost 5 pounds this week from the trip, and I feel great!!!  This is an awesome start and I know I can do a lot more!!!!!  Eating healthy and exercising right, will make a difference if you put your mind to it.  I was ready to go for another walk.

Erin also weighed herself and has lost 5.4 pounds as of today.  She is feeling great and excited.  She is still concerned about the knee and foot.  We did a lot of impact walking and running and stairs that might have effected it a little.

She is on the phone as we speak with Rebecca and getting some questions answered.



Later on, we will post another blog.

Day 6

Well, vacation is over :(. We are back in Iowa, at home and ready for bed.  I know, we are supposed to be in bed an hour ago.  But we have been trying to get cleaned up and organized for the week.  So i'll be brief since nothing much happened today.

Rebecca said that we get one day off a week.  This was the day.  But it was crazy.  To start off, because we were running late, we had to have an egg and cheese biscuit from the airport.  But fear not, we only had half of the biscuit.  And when we were on the plane, because I never trust airplane water, I got a Diet Coke.  So did Erin.  For a short time.  She spilled it all over our legs in flight.  So that must have been a sign.  I would have preferred someone leaning over and saying, you aren't supposed to drink that.  But I drank it, and you know what?  I really wasn't impressed with it.  I guess I really didn't miss it.  My bad.

So we got home and back to normal.  We emptied out all of our JUNK food and un-edible foods.  Erins' parents took a huge Rubbermaid of food with them, including.....sigh...... the Girl Scout Cookies.....We don't get cookies Samoa.  I know, they changed the name, but forever in my heart, that is what I call them.

Tomorrow we start a new challenge.  We are meeting with an old high school friend of mine who has been working out with Rebecca and has lost a lot weight so far.  We are to run 1.9 miles around Greys Lake.  With some walking involved.  But rise and shine, 8 AM...no matter what the weather.....We're gone!!!!

Oh, and he is going to show us how to use the medicine ball the right way.  This is going to be awesome!!!

Working to be Healthy
Brand and Erin

Day 6

Wow, that zoo really did one in for Erins foot from yesterday.  She was in so much paid today and could hardly walk at the beginning of the day.

This is going to be a very quick blog.  We are on our way to bed and leaving tomorrow morning to head back to sunny Iowa....I think....Someone was telling us a joke about how they got like 6 inches of snow, but it melted.  Better stay that way.  We need to start running outside.

So we went to the flea market today and did about 3 hours of walking.  And again, it barely showed.  And to top it off, when we worked out tonight, Erin's bodybugg didn't register the 5 minutes that she did on the Eliptical machine and then 20 on the bike.  But we know she did the work.

I am concerned to know if we can ever hit the 10000 steps a day that Rebecca asked us to try to do.  I'll have to talk to her when we get back.

Tomorrow, we head back and I am really anxious to get on the scale to see how we did.  We will keep everyone posted.



Brad and Erin

Day 5

So here is the summary of highs and lows for today.  Lets start with a high.  After my father in-laws brother Bill started reading our blog of progress, he went and enrolled in a health club center.  He said that if we can do it, so can he.  That is great inspiration and motivation that we have created has made us want to do this even more.

Ok, one more high point.  This day is to be marked in history that I ate Broiled salmon today.......AND LOVED IT!!!!  I am not a fish lover.  In fact I really cant stand it.  But it was done my my mom and it was awesome.  DISCLAIMER: (Mom, I'm sorry for giving you grief for the past 38 years about the not wanting to eat fish).  She said, you should try catfish....Ok I draw the line somewhere.  I can't fathom eating a fish that is overly ugly.

Now the bad, but good at the same time.  Erin, Ellie and I went to the Phoenix Zoo today by about 10AM and didn't leave until 5PM.  The minute that we walked in there, Erin thought she was going to lose her mind with the smell of Kettle Corn fuming throughout the zoo.  Those poor giraffe have to smell it every single day.  They are right next to the food court.  But on to the problem.

We ended up walking close to 7 hours for the day.  But here was the work out count on me:

Activity: 38 minutes
Calories: 2700
Steps: 6500

Erin met her Calorie burn goal but I was way off.  7033 Steps for Erin.  She also had to push Ellie in the zoo cart, so she had a little extra force to work with.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!?!?!  We walked that whole zoo.  And, we went on the paddle boats and I did all the paddling.  But it was only clocked at 2 minutes of activity.  My foot was in extreme pain.  And I was sweating and breathing a little hard.  That is not an easy thing to do.  SO WHAT THE HECK?!?!?!?!?!  We got home and I was willing to do the band stretches that we do every other day.  But even though we did a lot of stop and go, we still did some harsh walking.  There were some hills that posed a great challenge.

We can't do anymore today.  Not after the zoo.

So we are going to plug in our numbers and go to bed.  This has been a very hard day for our bodies with all of the walking.  I can understand this is wrong if we only did an hour of walking but that was not the case.  We were on our feet in the sun and it was warm there.  We are not giving up, we are just in a slump for one day.

Oh and by the way, Erin said that she had 1 calorie left to burn while we were eating dinner.  So she put down her fork and started doing arm reaches while sitting to get that last calorie in.  Her Bodybugg alarm went off and she finished dinner.  We all laughed, but all I could do was pout because I would have to flap my arms like a chicken until I burn mine.  As I am writing this blog though, I have 66 calories left to burn.

Thanks for reading.

Working to be healthy
Brad and Erin

Day 4

We went to bed Tuesday night with some ibprofein and ice packs.  Between her knee and foot and my foot, we made a sore couple.  Yesterday was extremely big in our workout level.  We walked around a park across the street which I believe was over 3 miles.  The steps were harsh at the end again.  Someday, we will dominate those steps. 

But this morning, our bodies actually spoke to us.  They said...Ouch.  Once we stretched out and did our workout around the same park, this time with Ellie, our muscles loosened up.  As they say no pain, no gain.  But we are concerned that there might be a little too much pain right now :)  Just kidding.  So, now it's time for our lunch and then nap.  Hey, we are on vacation, we have to rest sometime :)

The beginning

Welcome to the Feingold Whipit 180 Blog.  This blog is to show the progress of our ongoing fitness challenge with Wellmark.

One week ago, we sent out a mass email and Facebook update to ask for everyones support in voting for us to become finalists for the Whipit180 Challenge.  For one week, people voted and now the voices are heard.  We have been selected to be the finalists for the Challenge.   For the next 5 weeks, we will train our body and our minds to better ourselves and become the healthy family that we need to be.

The purpose of this blog is to keep you updated on our progress.  To let you know of the highs and lows of our journey.  We are a couple days off for the blog but here is a general 3 day update.

We met with Rebecca Meyer and the film crew.  This was a very exciting and also very scary at the same time.  The fact that I am normally behind the camera and now in front of it was really a different experience.  She showed us great new ways to stretch and warm up and also presented us with the prize package.  Then, the hard part, she opened up our fridge.  We felt really guilty when she found the Cadbury Eggs and Girl Scout Cookies.  But on the bright side, at least we didn't eat them all and we helped the Girl Scouts raise money.

We arrived and started fresh.  The first major challenge was shopping for food.  I know we shop weekly, but never like this.  We had to make sure that we picked out the right foods.  Looking at the calories, the fat, the sugar and more.  I never realized that so much goes into eating healthy.  And the food that we chose was different from what I ever expected.  Humus, for example.  I never thought that I would be eating that. But with the right cracker, it is not bad....Still adjusting to the taste.  Another new food was Greek yogurt.  For some reason, this is becoming a big thing.  But without a chunk of fruit in it, I can't see why.  We also are doing something that I wasn't sure I was able to handle.  We are now sort officially  soda free.  While we have our water substitute, I myself have been craving a Diet Coke a little.  But we have found a energy drink that is like Crystal Light but better.  So that problem is resolved.

Now on to the exercise.  Again, something that I really haven't committed myself to in a while.  And we have tried using fitness clubs before.  We decided that Arizona is the best place to jump start our journey.  With the exception of rain yesterday, we have been able to work outside for 2 out of the three days.  We have walked several miles so far including the Fashion Square Mall.  It's really big.

But the real challenge began to se how long it would take both Erin and I to run a mile.  For me, it was 17 minutes.  Erin was also at 17 minutes.  Considering that the last time I ran a mile was in 6th grade and that took me 45 minutes.  But now we are walking and doing running spurts to help get us moving on to a good pace.

We have also vowed to use the elevator only once a day.  This is also challenging because my parents have a condo on the 6th floor.  Going down was the easy part.  It's going back up after walking over 3 miles is what can be challenging.  We are also jump roping.  Again, something that we haven't done since we were kids.  The first time I did it , it took a while, but now I'm at a better pace.  As for Erin, it is very difficult for her to do the jumps because of her brace and sore foot.  But we are able to get through it and we are not completely sore.  Her knee is a little sore and I have been having problems with my left foot as well.  But all in all, we are off to a great start.  We really haven't had many bad cravings.  The more we are away from the sugar, the more that we really aren't interested in it.  And this is a big challenge since my mom has a huge jar of mini candy bars in the kitchen.....  "Control, control, you must learn control." - Yoda

So we are off to the train park and will come home and have another healthy meal and then off to bed.  Thank you to everyone for your support, and we will try to keep everyone updated daily.

Brad and Erin