Chris Kotsoglou

Its interesting to feel the emotional changes that come along with such a physical commitment as Stockton Biggest Loser.  I’ve felt accomplished and discouraged all in the same day.  I’ve felt hope and despair.  I’ve felt good and bad physically.

But its this new feeling that I am trying to understand and cope with that has me in a funk:  hate.

I’ve been at nearly the same weight for basically five weeks now.  Over that time, I have logged nearly 50 workouts.  I have stuck to this diet plan so religiously, it has my significant other thinking I’m nuts.  But still, my weight refuses to move south, or at least with any significance.

I know, I know.  Plateau.  Blah, blah.  So I looked online to see what could help me out, since diet and exercise haven’t been.  Almost every site I checked said to change my workouts to two things:  high intensity interval training and yoga.

The two things I am doing.  I am fucked.

So over these last few weeks, this new feeling has started creeping over.  I hate the fact I wont hit a goal I set once.  I hate the fact I have worked out so much and stopped losing weight.  I hate the fact that I have stuck to a diet, and I am still frozen around 285 pounds.  I hate the fact that I feel within striking distance of my first big goal of 275 pounds and cant get there.  I hate my body for being so messed up nothing is working.  I hate myself for letting me get this bad in the first place.

It’s hard to concentrate.  These things usually pass, but it comes to the forefront every time I workout or am eating.  It has me almost more frustrated than anything else I have ever done.  But its forced an introspective.  I need to come to terms with myself before I can move on.  I haven’t faced the hate I feel at myself for my situation, since there is no one else to blame but me.  So until I can come to terms, my workouts and diets are going to do nothing.  My mental clarity has now turned into the most important things for me to work on.  And I think that’s my first step, is realizing what is wrong and trying to fix it.

Wish me luck.  My internal battle will be harder than the physical one.

I just wrapped up my first full week of the contest.  On my personal scale, I know I’m a little behind my personal goal of being 290 lbs.  But not by much.

This next part is the mental part where I have to push through.  I hit the weight plateau quickly.  In weight loss, you’ll lose 10-15 pounds easily, without even thinking about it.  Then, you’ll hit a certain weight and stick around it for a while.  As long as you stick with it and power through it, then the real weight loss comes.

99.9% of people will stop any diet or weight loss program because of the plateau.  When I wrestled many moons ago in high school, I had the same issue.

I set high and low goals for myself each week.

Week 1:  High-under 300 lbs, low-10 lbs

Week 2:  High-under 290 lbs, low-10 lbs

I’ve hit both my low goals.  I’m really going to push this week to hit my next (and first) high goal, of 280 lbs.  Either way, I had some success actually fitting into a couple of shirts I havent been able to ear in months.  That’s a good start.

After talking about it  for a long, long time, Dan (Muff209) Congrave and I put together the first of what we hope our schedules will allow to be many Kings centered Podcasts.

Join us as we discuss the changing face of the franchise, the draft, and what we think the Kings will do in free agency.

Just like a rookie, the only place to go is up.  Unless your name is Darko.

http://kingskast.podbean.com/mf/web/x9j2s/KingsKast1.mp3

Game one of the 2010 Finals, and the Lakers lead by nine.  Its a tale of two teams (duh, department of redundancy department) but the Lakers have the lead for a couple of reasons.

First, The Lakers are attacking the hoop.  More free throws, and they are putting pressure on the officials to make a call in a physical game.  Boston, conversely, is settling for jumpers.  Ask Vince Carter how that works out.

The length of the Lakers is making a difference.  Gasol has three blocks, more opportunistic blocks on rotations, but he’s doing his job.

The biggest problem the Celtics face coming into the second half is the Lakers perimeter defense is just rotating faster.  The Celtics look slow mo on their moves to the hoop, which is not the case for the purple and gold.  C’s might want to look to rotate a side pick and roll with Rondo and Garnett, and possibly look to put KG on the block.  He hasn’t been effective, but you have to see if you can attack the Lakers.  Second, attack the basket.  Ray Allen and PP are good free throw shooters.  Get some cheap points at the line to get going.

For the Lakers, look for the C’s to take it up a notch physically.  You know this team will rough you up; if they want to continue with some strong play, they really need to step up to the challenge.  The first five minutes of the second half will set the tone.

Sometimes, baseball can amaze me.  A game time of 2:28, where two teams combine for 26 hits and 16 runs just seems out of place.  Both pitching staff’s were working fast, if not efficient.

Things got off to a fast start, with Sean Williams, the second batter of the game in the top of the first, taking David Rowse (8-2) yard.  The Tigers responded quickly, getting two in the bottom of the first, and I settled in for what felt like a nice, long, high run game.  Pacifc, through the first three innings really got to UCSB starter Mario Hollands (5-5) sending seven men to the plate in the first and third innings.

Then Hollands remembered who he is, or Pacific hitters came back to reality.  Although his line might look deceiving (7.0 ip, 12 hits, 6 runs, 4 earned, 8 k’s, 136 pitches, chased in the top of the 8th with two on and no outs) after the first three innings he started an absolute tear, retiring 13 of 16 at one point with seven strikeouts, and a couple of scattered hits though that stretch.

Although Hollands had a great outing in his final start of the year, the Gaucho batting order had that much more power.  Of their 12 hits, nine went for extra bags (four doubles, one triple, four home runs).  Marty Mullins had a strong game for UCSB, with two home runs and and one of the rare singles.

For Pacific, they continued a trend of dropping the opener of a series, and have now done it in six of their last seven series.  Head Coach Ed Sprague switched things up for Pacific, looking to get them going strong and have Rowse take the Friday starting spot.  His goal was to have Hunter Carnivale pitch twice this weekend in relief.  However, being the final series of the year and the final series for Pacific’s seniors, the nerve’s ran high.  Rowse leads the Tigers with eight wins this season, and was a strong emotional leader on the hill.  But, last night was a game of contrasts.  Rowse threw some of his best pitches of the year, beautiful change-ups and a wicked curve, only to leave something hanging in the zone that UCSB hitters knew what to do with:  blast it over the fence.  That combined with Hollands getting into a grove, would prove to be the undoing in the opener.

It wasn’t all bad for the Tigers.  Senior’s Ben Gorang, Mike Walker, and Joe Olivera were all strong at the plate.  Gorang had a two-run double, Walker was 2-5 with a run and an rbi, and Olivera had a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth in a desperate attempt to get the Tigers back into the game.  Pacific’s first three hitters in the line-up, Nick Longmire, Brett Christopher, and Brian Martin, went a combined 3-12 in the game.  Dont expect that trend to continue.  Pacific is one of the best hitting teams in the Big West, and they always respond after a rough outing.

The goal for the Tigers is “two out of three.”  They always want to take two out of three from every series, and they still have a chance to do that.  Pacific hosts UCSB tonight at 6pm in the second game of the final series of the year for both teams.

From the broadcast side of things, this might have been one of the wildest games I have ever done.  Before the game started, I was checking the box, and for some reason our phone lines were dead.  Pacific’s been on the road the last three weeks, so this was my first home game in a month.  In the meantime, Pacific has hosted some other college and high school baseball events.  When I got into the booth, whoever was in my broadcast room had taken everything:  phone lines and internet cables.  After finding replacements is when we discovered the problem with the phone lines.  We checked box after box, still nothing.

Eventually, we ran a phone line and I called the game in on…a telephone.  No fancy headsets here folks.  After doing the first two innings on the phone, we ran it online and we were finally up and running.

To finish things up, my ordeal ran so long I got two great pre-game interviews that I was unable to use, so I’ll post them here.  The first one is Pacific’s Freshman DH John Haberman, talking about his first year and his offseason workout program.

John Haberman Interview

The second interview was with UCSB head coach Bob Brontsema, who is finishing up his 29th year with the program.  He’s been involved in every which way possible with UCSB baseball, and couldn’t have been a nicer guy.  And he was very talkative considering I started him off with a very tough question.

Bob Brontsema Interview

Cal State Fullerton is a perennial powerhouse nationally when it comes to baseball.  What’s more amazing, is entering Big West Play, they were only one game above .500 (12-11).  They ripped through the Big West, and are now back up to being ranked 6th.  Having sat in the booth for their three game series with Pacific, I came away very impressed.  Top to bottom, its a very solid program.

But with any college sport, the life blood is the recruiting trail.  Sergio Brown, head of recruiting for the Titans, takes some time to discuss what they are looking for in a Fullerton recruit.

Thanks to ESPN Los Angeles for the link.

Talkin’ Titan Baseball with Sergio Brown: Recruiting from FullertonTitansTV on Vimeo.