Preparing for September - Physical Condition

If you didn't catch my post the other day about drawing a Utah limited entry elk tag... it is a tag that I had targeted for several years now and I knew going into the application period that I had a very good chance at being one of the top point holders, so I was expecting to draw this year. Knowing that my chances of drawing were good I actually began preparing around the New Year. I knew that I had to get myself right physically.

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I am part of the predominant religion here in Utah and in my local congregation I was called to work with the Deacon's Quorum (12 & 13 year old boys). The Church rolled out a new program for the youth and since I was working with them I decided to also participate and set some goals for myself. One of the goals is "Physical" and sometime between Christmas and New Year's Day I stepped on the bathroom scale and saw a number that I had never seen before... 225. At 6'2", 225 isn't bad if you are an NFL safety... but I'm almost 40 and have a desk job!

For the last couple years I had told myself that I wanted to weight 185lbs again. I felt that I had the motivation to actually do something about it this year. I decided to start small and for the month of January I eliminated soda and candy (Dr. Pepper and Swedish Fish are my cryptonite). I also decided to try a "Push-Up Challenge" of doing 100 pushups a day for 30 days. January came and went without me drinking any soda or eating any candy and doing 100 pushups every day. On January 31st I stepped on the scale and it read 219.4lbs. Not too bad for my first month and the best thing about the pushup challenge is that it got me into a routine of doing something daily.

In February I continued with the goal to not drink soda or have any candy and to replace the pushups I decided to take it up a notch and do a "Burpee Challenge" where I did 100 burpees a day. February came and went and on Feb 29th I stepped on the scale and it read 211lbs. But at this point I was starting to see plateaus in my weight-loss so I knew that I would have to step up my physical activity.

In March I began to finish three bedrooms, a home office, and a family room in my basement so I took advantage of the physical labor. I also began doing specific workout routines alternating by doing core specific routines M/W/F and High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) routines T/Th/S and taking Sundays off to rest. I would work on the basement in the afternoons right after work, then after the kids went to bed I would do my workout routines. I really started to see the physical changes during March... the love handles started shrinking, the spare tire was shrinking... it felt good and I liked looking in the mirror and seeing some real results. Interestingly though, I didn't see a huge difference in March on the scale because on March 31st I stepped on the scale and it read 207.8lbs... but I knew that even though the sheer weight loss wasn't as high as the previous months I was going through what the fitness experts call a "body recomposition".

In April, I stepped it up again and included a weight lifting/training component to go along with my core workouts on M/W/F. And man, did that accelerate the "body recomposition" and the weight loss that I was seeing continued. On April 30th I stepped on the scale and it read 200.2lbs.

The first time I stepped on the scale and saw a number below 200 was May 3rd... 199.8lbs.

May has been tough, I've gotten away from my routine a little bit because we were in a time crunch to get the basement ready for carpet so there was about a week where I was up until 1 or 2 am painting and didn't do my usual workouts. Once you get out of routine it's so easy to just let it go... and it's so hard to get back into the routine. I also developed a nasty case of tendonitis/tennis elbow from all the mudding, sanding, and painting so I haven't been able to do any of the weigh training without re-aggravating it and setting myself back. I really want to get back to the weight training soon.

To date my lowest number on the scale has been 196.8lbs on May 22nd. I'm trying to get back into the routine but I'm finding that now that the kids are officially out of school and summer has started that I don't get that time in the evening between when they go to bed and when I go to bed. I'm going to need to be creative in carving out my workout time again and getting back into the routine. The workout routines put out by FitnessBlender.com are great, I've created a profile and identified a number of "favorite" videos for core, HIIT, and lower body specific routines that I really like and that push me. I generally look for workouts lead by the male instructor because those seem to be an intensity level that are a better fit for me. My wife has been a huge support, she has been exercising religiously for a while now and has even started training for a half marathon this summer. We support each other mutually... she knows if it's a "core night" or "HIIT night" for me and I know which days are her "run days" so we can keep track of each other.

In five months I have lost nearly 30 pounds and I'm creeping closer to my goal weight of 185lbs... and hopefully that means that I am in good physical condition to go up and down the mountain on my elk hunt this fall. I've got about 12 pounds to go and I'm hopeful that over the next couple months I'll be able to shed that weight and reach my goal before my hunt starts.

Zoleo Satellite Text Messaging Device

I have spent a decent amount of my free time debating on whether or not it would be necessary for me to invest in a device that would enable me to communicate with my wife and loved ones while I am hunting the back country. One of the major deterrents for purchasing such a device was price. The Garmin inReach Mini and Delorme/Garmin inReach handheld have been readily available for years. I was also almost ready to pull the trigger on the BivyStick Satelite communication device.

All of the mentioned devices approached the $300.00 range for purchase and they also required subscriptions for service. I had previously owned a Spot 3 device and it failed to send a check in message to my wife resulting in a couple nights of tears and funeral plans. After that experience, she  insisted that I needed a 2 way device so that I could confirm that she had received my messages.

I carefully considered the existing devices for purchase and then one night while browsing Instagram the Zoleo device appeared on my social feed.  I was astonished to see that the device was listed for $199. After seeking reviews I noticed that there was only 1 review on Amazon at the time. After careful consideration, I concluded that the difference in price between the Zoleo and the other devices was enough to send it through the check out process on Amazon. 

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One of the major features that sold me on the Zoleo device was the fact that it had buttons to check in and call "SOS" in the event that my cellphone became compromised. 

When the device arrived, I downloaded the Zoleo app and I was pleasantly surprised to observe how quickly the device connected to my cellphone. I got online and entered my credit card information to start my Subscription. Zoleo charges $40 to activate your account and then from there you can select one of their three plans:$20/ Basic, which enables the device to send and receive 25 messages;$35/In Touch, which enables to the device to send and receive 250 messages; $50 Unlimited, which enables unlimited messages. The Basic and In Touch plans allow users to pay $.50 for any additional messages that get transmitted in excess of their plans limitations. All plans include Satellite SOS alerts and GEOS SOS Monitoring Services. 

Upon powering up the device I discovered that the device has an audio component to it and it sounds off at activation. When you send messages the device will first determine if you have either Wifi or Cellphone reception to economize your precious limited satellite messages. If a message must be sent via satellite the device has four lights to indicate transmission and message arrival. The Zoleo app is amazingly simple and it displays all the information that anyone would ever need. It provides battery Status in both bars and numerical percentages, and satellite connectivity. The contacts in my cellphone automatically transferred over to the Zoleo app and I could instantly text any of my contacts. Upon sending my first message in Airplane mode, I was pleasantly surprised discovering that the device plays an audible tone indicating that the message was successfully sent and received. There are green checks that display when a message has been received by the recipient. 

In my opinion this device does 100% of what I would ask of it to do. On a recent bear hunt I was able to send and receive messages from the location at the center of the image amongst the rockslide.

Using this device is as easy as turning on the device and opening up an app and sending text messages. 

I would like to add that Zoleo has not sponsored this blog submission and I am not compensated in anyway for providing this review. I just feel that it is a great product with enough merit to write about. 

Utah Draw Outcome

There should have been some measure of excitement to receive notification of a $285 pending charge on my credit card. There should have been confirmation of that excitement when the official DWR email was received. I read posts with exclamations of excitement and/or disbelief from guys who have drawn one tag or another. There I sat in front of my computer staring at the open email... SUCCESSFUL... and I wasn't excited about it. The thing is though, I don't get excited about drawing tags. I just don't. For whatever reason I've always just taken the results and moved on to the next phase. But even this was different. As I notified friends & family and they expressed their excitement for me, but I felt something very different... pressure.

You need to understand something here and now... I have a score to settle with that mountain. That mountain challenged my ego in 2014 and won, go back and read about my grandfather's limited entry elk hunt (here, it's the 2nd story from the bottom titled "2014 Central Mountains, Manti Early Rifle Elk"). This is personal and I'm not too ashamed to admit that this is about my pride. For my grandfather's hunt I was asked to gather all the information and put together a plan but as you can read there were circumstances and weaknesses (both physical and quite honestly mental) that prevented us from fully carrying out that plan & without a thoroughly thought out back up plan we floundered. This time however, this is my tag, this will be my plan, things will be done my way. I need to atone for the extremely unpleasant taste in my mouth from that past experience. The pressure likely comes from this. I want revenge. Redemption. Vindication.

So, I feel it. I feel pressure. I feel a ton of pressure as I begin preparing for this hunt. I feel pressure to have the kind of experience that warrants the years of waiting for this tag for what equates to the entirety of my adult life. I feel pressure to prove to those that were part of that hunt in 2014 that my planning and preparation was up to snuff, that it was good enough to kill an animal then & that it will be good enough now. I feel pressure to legitimize myself to you, to prove to you that this "online persona" I've created (whatever that means) through this blog and on the forums I frequent isn't a complete farce. I feel pressure from my wife to not completely waste almost $300 that could have been used to purchase actual food should I return home with empty coolers. It's cathartic to write about it (even though I feel silly saying cathartic).

All in all, I am far more excited now that I was a week ago & if past experience is any indication of the future my excitement will continue to grow through the summer. The early scouting process has begun and there have been many text discussions with the two friends (Cody and Doug... both regulars on this blog) who will be my "wingmen" on this endeavor. I'll try to give regular weekly(ish) updates on my scouting and preparation efforts leading up to opening day, sign up to receive email notification when posts are published.

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