I am finally ready to get back to a more normal routine. After four weeks in the hospital, my wife is finally home for what promises to be a long road to recovery. 

I have had a chance to shop for my usual "diet" food and I am planning on trying to be as true to the program as I can be. 

Since I will be home all of the time, I hope to be able to supplement my normal workout program with some extra walking, bike riding and core exercises and at least get close to my goal. 

I had a very hard leg workout with my personal trainer Trevor Tieche of Bodi N Balance twice in the past week and really feel an increase in strength and range of motion. 

We are going to keep trying new and varied exercises to help me with my balance and flexibility, as well as increase my strength. 

I have had a number of occasions to meet people I have not seen in awhile and have had some very nice comments and congratulations, as well as many motivational comments made to me about this process and the contest and whether FIT magazine is going to do it again.  

The decision has not been made, but I believe FIT editor Brandi Barhite is trying to make it happen again for some very lucky people. You should keep watching for a final announcement. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. I am hoping for a positive monthly total to report to you soon. We are going to do some mid-month measurements next week, so I hope to have some positive results for you next week.

Another tough week at the Gipe household. My wife is still in the hospital —15 days now. She had a pretty serious operation Friday afternoon to correct some of the problems she has encountered with the pneumonia and associated complications.

She is now in the Intensive Care Unit at Firelands (outstanding care being given) and is making slow progress.

Needless to say, I have not had a workout since last week, but have returned to the gym as of Monday morning.

I did not gain any weight during my absence from the gym, so I feel pretty lucky. I also came down with some respiratory issues of my own Wednesday afternoon and missed three days of work and one day of not being allowed in the hospital because I was contagious.

I hope we are into the home stretch with my wife and we can get back to some sort of normalcy pretty soon. I hope to have a more positive and productive week and have something to report on next week.

The progress continues. The combination of the new eating plan and increased workouts, both with and without my personal trainer Trevor Tieche, has been pretty successful. 

I am averaging 2 pounds per week of weight loss and the measurements have finally changed. It has given me a little more motivation, except for the past few days with my wife in the hospital with pneumonia and a few other complications. It is hard to sit there and watch someone feel so poorly and watch TV and read without eating something. 
 

I have tried to take food with me, but it is easy to supplement that food with junk. Hopefully, she will get out in the next few days and I can get back into the routine. 
 

I have been getting at least one long (20 miles-plus) bike ride in each week, in addition to three weight workouts and one additional cardio workout at the gym.

I have broken into the 250s and am hoping to be in the 220s by the end of the year. I feel great and the clothes are getting looser all the time. The bodybugg has been very helpful and an extra motivator.

I just got back from one of the most fun, short vacations I have ever had. I went to northern Michigan with a group of guys fishing for salmon. We had a great time "roughing it" and doing a lot of fishing and storytelling. 

I got some very good workouts hiking into and out of the fishing area (very hilly), walking in the river, dragging fish (15-20 pound salmon) and having a very relaxing and enjoyable experience. 

The scenery was beautiful and relaxing. We were on the river by 4 every morning. The diet did not really suffer, but there was a lot of temptation, and I thought I did very well. 

In three and a half days, our group caught more than 100 salmon and that does not include the ones we released.

I met a lot of new guys; only knew three of 15-plus going into the weekend. I will plan on doing this every year from now on. 

I do not think I would have enjoyed it as much or been as successful as I was without being in pretty good shape. This is just another benefit of this whole process.