Category: Uncategorized

  • Fitness Update – October 4th, 2026

    Fitness Update – October 4th, 2026

    Progress! This week I finally saw some progress. My weight stayed around 236lbs (+/-3lbs) all week. I lost 1 inch from my waist. I also nearly met all of the goals I set for myself last week. 

    The goals I set for myself last week were right about at my current capability levels. The gym was hard to make all 4 days. I ended up going 3 days, and one day of intense workout at my house. At home I have a walk pad, weight bench with dumbbells, and rubber bands. Walking/running for a minimum of 5 hours was a total slam dunk. I ended up doing a combined 5 and a half hours total of walking/running mixed. Regarding pushups, I give myself a 71% to goal. I missed 2 days this week. With that though I’m going to increase my pushup target to 7 per day.

    I’ve also started using the Strong app to track my progress. It has all of the settings I would like in an app. For example, it graphs out each exercise and body measurement. This will be how I track and report on progress overtime. The photos at the bottom will show with that looks like. 

    Next week I plan on keeping the same goals. They seem to be working so I have no need to change them. I would like to eventually focus more on nutrition, let’s get through October first. 

    Personal challenges for next week :

    1. 4 Gym Days (2 Cardio, 1 Lower Body, 1 Upper/Core Body)
    2. 5 total hours of walking/running 
    3. Daily Pushups (7 per day)

    Personal challenges for next month (October 2026) :

    1. Run Pace of 7mph
    2. Weight of 230
    3. Weekly Fitness Planning
  • Fitness Update – September 27th, 2026

    Fitness Update – September 27th, 2026

    Fitness Update – September 27th, 2026

    I missed the post last week and did not do much this week. Last Sunday (post day) I spent most of the time packing for this week. This week I was in Atlantic City, New Jersey for a work function. It’s easy to blame work, however, I own some responsibility for the lack of boundaries that lead to stress. 

    Let’s review the week before last. I had a few goals; gym, cardio, and pushups. For the Gym I ended up going two days out of 7. I missed my target of 4 days, resulting in a 50% success rate. The two days I did go were focused on legs and arms. For cardio, I achieved 2 out of 10 hours in my goal. That’s 20% success. My ambition was high when I set the goal at 10 hours. On pushups I did one pushup 5  of the 7 days, roughly 71% success. I missed Friday and Saturday. 

    The week of 9/14/26 to 9/20/26 was mostly a failure based on my targeted goals. 

    Last week I did not get to exercise as much as I’d like. Most of the week was spent traveling or in meetings. As much as I enjoy my job, the travel is very unhealthy. On Tuesday morning at 7am (PST) I flew from Portland, Oregon to Philadelphia, PA. Immediately on landing I drove 1 hour to Atlantic City, NJ. I had a dinner as soon as I got into the city. That dinner lasted until 9pm. The next day I was up at 5:30am (EST) and worked until later in the evening. There was no time for gym or personal time. I had a similar schedule on Thursday. Friday was spent in transit from 6:40am (EST) to 2pm (PST) before I got home. Once I got home I worked into the evening. Saturday was a rest day. I simply over extended myself last week. 

    Sunday (today) I finally made it to the gym. I did run 1 in the watch to 5k sequence on a treadmill. The run that’s 1 minute running and 1:30 minutes walking. For the walk periods I maintained 4mph, when running I maintained 6.5mph. I’d like to push my running pace to 7mph in October. 

    Next week I need to push myself to be better than last week. I’d like to continue on the gym plan by copying the first week. Eventually I’d like to make a monthly plan for aerobic, resistance, and flexibility training. I’d also like to shoot for a more realistic 5 hours of cardio in the week rather than 10. With 5 hours being a goal I can push myself to complete the goal at the weekend if needed. Lastly, to stay consistent I want to give myself a goal of 5 pushups per day. I like filling in the pushup boxes on my whiteboard each day, it’s motivating. 

    Looking ahead I’m going to implement some stretch goals for the month of October. I’d like to get my running pace to 7mph. I’ll continue on the watch to 5k program. My target weight for the end of the month will be 230lbs. This will require me to maintain a proper diet. Creating a fitness plan ahead of time for November is my final stretch goal. It would be nice to have one going into October but I don’t. It’s a journey that I’m making up and learning as I go. Forcing myself to make my own tools helps me understand my personal goals. 

    Personal challenges for next week :

    1. 4 Gym Days (2 Cardio, 1 Lower Body, 1 Upper/Core Body)
    2. 5 total hours of walking/running 
    3. Daily Pushups (5 per day)

    Personal challenges for next month (October 2026) :

    1. Run Pace of 7mph
    2. Weight of 230
    3. Weekly Fitness Planning
  • Fitness Update – September 13th, 2026

    Fitness Update – September 13th, 2026

    Fitness Update – September 13th, 2026

    This week was light on the gym and fitness activities. Even though the week was filled with personal disappointment I did have a couple good wins. I ended up purchasing a standing desk and an under-desk treadmill pad. The standing desk is working wonders for my slight back pain from sitting all day for work. I’m only two days in with the treadmill pad. The treadmill pad seems like a great addition to the space.

    Let’s deep dive into the treadmill pad. I purchased this from a neighbor who was having a moving sale for $85. I wanted one within the hour of setup my standing desk and realizing it’s a possibility. It was very much an impulse purchase. The first day on this pad I ended up walking for 90 minutes at a speed/level of 2.0. Unfortunately I jumped on and did that exercise barefoot in the morning. My feet were killing me and very dirty afterwards. I’m currently on day two of using the walk pad. As I type I’m 30 minutes into a 60 minute targeted indoor walk, with shoes this time. Because it’s low intensity my Apple Watch does not track the workout the same as a normal treadmill workout. This kind of frustrates me. I just keep telling myself that any workout is better than no workout. 

    On the topic of misses this week I’d attribute everything to a stressful workload. The workload was higher than usual because we’re one person down on the team I’m on. I know this is temporary but being one person down for a full week feels like an eternity with non-stop emails, calls and meetings. I picked up 1/7th of this persons customer base but about 70% of their workload. The one customer is a major customer with lots of needs. All of this while catching up from being out of office for essentially 2 weeks. On top of all of that the sales channel that I cover is starting to show issues with service levels that I need to resolve quickly. All this to say, I have not had any formal gym or fitness time this week. I’m probably also going to be stressed for another two weeks. Looking ahead to next week I need to prioritize myself a little bit more. 

    To keep myself focused I list out three challenges below that I’d like to follow up on next Sunday in my post. 

    Personal challenges for next week :

    1. 4 Gym Days (2 Cardio, 1 Lower Body, 1 Upper/Core Body)
    2. 10 total hours of walking/running 
    3. Start Daily Pushups
  • Restarting My Fitness Journey

    Restarting My Fitness Journey

    Restarting My Fitness Journey

    In October of 2021 I weighed 184lbs, ran a 5k almost every other day, biked frequently, and went swimming any chance I got. Fast forward 5 years later and I weight 240lbs and live a mostly sedentary life. The one big change, a successful start of a career. In 2022 went from freelancing to selling consumer packaged snacks and beverages (CPGs). The image below shows my weight journey during that time between 2021 and 2022. 

    Ricky's weight from 2021 to 2022 timeframe. Average of 202.6lbs

    It’s not entirely the career that caused my falling with fitness. The career change just presented an obstacle in the routines I had instilled in myself prior to the career change. Before jumping into CPG sales role I had a pretty good habit of going to the gym every day and running every other day. My habits changed as I went from working in the office daily to making in-person sales calls and driving an average of 4 hours per day. When my habits changed I lost the momentum I had built in my fitness journey. 

    Recently I have become interested in fitness again. Mainly because of a desire to have children in the next few years. I’d like to be able to keep up with my future children. 

    I currently struggle with breaking the 240lbs mark. This is likely because of diet. In the last few months I have also started to wear my Apple Watch and Oura ring again. The motivation to close the rings and push for a high “readiness” score is encouraging. Zone training is also something I’ve been focused on recently. Primarily zone 2 and 3. Below is from a recent indoor bike ride I took on September, 6th, 2026. 

    Indoor bike ride with heart rate and zones. September 6th, 2026.

    My goals are fairly simple. I’d like to get my weight down to 180lbs. During that journey I would also like to achieve a few fun milestones. It would be fun to do a public 5k, 10k, and maybe a marathon. I also want to learn how to better manage my diet and stress. 

  • Tim & Rand Video

    Tim & Rand Video

    I was going through some old family photos today working on a project and came across this video that my uncle Tim made with Rand Hooban.