Dippity Doo!

So, last week I saddled up to a bench and managed to squeeze out 3 dips; more than I thought but not really sufficient to be doing as an exercise. Today, however, I got 8 on my first set, and 2 sets of 6 (ish) following. WOW! I don't know about you, but I'm sure proud of me :)

I have to say I feel Amazing - I had a great workout today, I'm stronger and I feel like I really accomplished something in the gym today.

Do it right or don't do it.

Goals, comments, etc.

I talk about goal setting a lot, how about I actually set some?

I posted these goals in another forum, but want to get the most accountability I can out of these. I'm a little concerned about breaking the first one (the weight loss part), but I do think I can do it.

GOAL 1 - end of 2007 (I'd be happy w/ jan 2 or so):
*lose 12lbs to be under 260.
*BP 135 for 8 reps (11/25/07 - doing 2 reps and 3rd assisted)

GOAL 2 - couch to 5k program. Start in mid-january or latest feb 1.

GOAL long term - participate in sprint triathlon (I'm thinking for my bday in September)

GOAL long term 2 - Be at 190 weight by Sep 10, 2008 (31st bday).

And on the subject of comments; I don't know if anyone is reading this, but if you are please feel free to comment. Knowing that people are visiting and hearing the feedback really helps to motivate me to keep this going and to stay on track. Don't be shy! :)

Do it right or don't do it.

It caught up with me!

Well I gained a pound this morning, much to my dismay. I was holding steady and figured I'd weathered Thanksgiving without a hitch but it appears I was not correct. Not a big deal, but it puts the pressure on to meet my end of year goal. I ended up hitting legs a bit too hard last week, and thinking some cardio would help I hopped on the elliptical for 45min Friday. Too much resistance though, b/c today I'm still sore and my knee is giving me trouble. Probably take tomorrow off.

Other than that, things are going great! The holiday was fun and good to see family, I'm pretty settled in the new place and looking forward to staying good on this blog. The tough things, I'm lacking some motivation to completely finish unpacking and to work on this part-time gig I have, and money is tight as hell. All this will straighten out, but it's frustrating right now. Enjoy!

Do it right or don't do it.

Preparing for the Big Day...

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, woo-hoo! An awesome holiday, I get a 4-day weekend and get to see the fam for a few days. Unfortunately there will be a TON of delicious (and NOT healthy) food that my body just isn't used to anymore. I know I'm going to eat like crazy, but I'm starting to get a little worried about all the carbs and fat that I'm going to be eating. I'll try to fill up on the turkey :)

To prepare, I'm working extra hard in the gym these 3 days prior. Monday I went and did an exhaustive chest workout to failure (several times), and supplemented with some shoulders and tri's, and 20min on the elliptical. Yesterday I did legs, and also really pushed myself, adding a lot of weight to every exercise over what i did last time. Now today I will do another chest workout. I'm going in a little sore, which I try to avoid, but with 3 days off of lifting I think I will have good recovery time. I'm hoping to get some cardio in Friday, and maybe I'll try taking a jog in the AM on the days I'm staying with the rents.

Ohter than that, I'm still not completely unpacked, but I'm at the point where I have everything I need in it's place and should be done and settled by the end of this weekend. I went a little overboard at target getting supplies/necessities for the new place and am hoping to make my last $60 stretch through next week - ouch!

Do it right or don't do it

Movin' Right Along...

Well, this was 'move' weekend and it went great! I'm all moved into my new apartment, and after entering my 'domestic activity' all-day workout on my traineo page, it appears I burned about 5,000 calories yesterday! I'm not taking that one to the bank, but at the very least I can say that moving is great exercise.

We started off at 9am at my storage area (where all my stuff was - long story), and we were an interesting group! I have been sick and am just getting better, my friend Erik was there who is just getting sick and was not a little hung-over, Kenn who is also getting sick showed up to help out, and Rick came by, who has an injury from this year's flag football season (sprained achilles + broken heel). So together we were about 2.5 healthy people :) The load went incredibly well and I showed off my new gym muscles by lifting my tv on my own without any trouble. The 32" tube TV has been the bane of my moving for several years now - I can't tell you how many times I've yelled "I think I'm going... I'm dropping it!! I dropped it, STOP!" We threw the bed at the back of it all and it was off to pick up a sectional couch I'd found on Craigslist. The couch was bigger than I remembered, so after much pushing/pulling/tugging/swearing, we crammed everything on the truck, and with Erik, Kenn, and myself holding it back while we shut the door, it was off to my new apartment...

The unload went incredibly well too, except for poor Erik who started pushing himself a bit too hard as his hangover subsided. Before I knew what was going on, he was 'christening' my kitchen sink and sitting on the tile floor for the next hour or so. I thought I broke him, but he seemed all right today so we're good! Wave 2 showed up, the parents and another friend, and we managed to get my whole kitchen unpacked and put away. I got to eat some pasta and meat balls my mom brought over (along w/ a whole chocolate cake, a cream pie, and brownies) - it was the first time in a month that I'd had pasta and it was delicious, but I don't think she understands my diet or my dedication to it. Most of this chocolate is going to have to get thrown away unfortunately.

Later I worked on starting the bedroom and moving things around, picking up some essentials, and finally broke a little after 9pm; it was a long day! Off to the bar to make up for that calorie deficit I created earlier :)

Now today I didn't get much done, but I have tomorrow off and I think I'll be all done before I go to bed.. I didn't make the gym today, but will for the next three days for my holiday eating prep!

Do it right or don't do it.

*Yawn*, This is getting old....

So, again I got paged for work, 6am... Every other day it isn't a big deal, it gives me a reason to take my time in the morning and that's when I would get up anyway. But today is Saturday and I would have liked another hour of sleep! Oh well, I'm moving today into my new apartment in Middletown and I'm pretty psyched :)

Back in the saddle...

As you can see, I haven't really provided any updates since the first week - I'm sorry!

I think I was a bit overwhelmed as I've been moving and still trying to maintain my presence on Traineo.com and to keep up with my new healthy lifestyle (and it's working!).

As of this morning, I've lost 26lbs. I also decided to set a short term goal of losing about 12lbs by the end of the year - I want to be under 260 and staying there, so it is the 12-13lb weight loss that I need (stabilized at 258-259). This has come because how daunting it is to realize that my goal is so far away! 26 pounds out of the total 107 does not seem like a lot, and this can be discouraging - I was sure feeling it. But instead, I'm dedicating myself to a short term goal that will help me meet that long-term one and give me something to look forward to along the way. I am actually getting anxious about making my goal weight in time (odd concern since it's still 11months away!). So this new goal will help!

I am also, once again, involved in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life at a local university. I do this every year, and next year I want to be able to run my laps around the track! The event is May 3 and 4, so I am setting a tentative goal of being SCSU Relay website.

All right peeps, that's all for now, but be sure to check out my Quick Start Guide (below) - it's time for everyone to stop thinking about being healthy and to start being healthy.

Do it right or don't do it

Quick Start Guide!

I know I have had the problem that you just don't know where to begin; you read a lot of information and everyone has a story about what works for them or what diet to try. There are things you should be doing in the gym, and things you shouldn't, things you should eat and things you shouldn't. Then someone says "everyone is different, you have to do what works for you" - but you don't know what works for you! Can you really even listen to all that advice?

Boy, that's frustrating!

Not only that, but you end up spending your time trying to figure out what to do and not doing anything. STOP. Now START, exercising and eating right that is. This is a relatively simple, organic process; you learn as you go and adapt to your results.

First off, let me call bullshit! Everyone is not different to such an extent that you cannot take the same formula, apply it to 95% of the population, and achieve quantitative results in all cases. There are things you should do, no matter who you are (barring some illness, handicap or genetic disorder!).

This is a quick-start guide for getting fit, to give people a place to start. This is best for the first 6-12 weeks, to give you time to learn about your body and how you respond. You don't ever really have to get more complicated than this, but as you progress towards your goals you will find that there are more advanced topics you want to learn about and try, and you will want to 'fine-tune' your results.

There are three parts to being healthy and losing weight/getting fit - your goals, your diet, and your exercise. Your diet isn't a traditional 'diet', but describes how you eat, approximately how many calories you are eating, and where you are getting those calories from. Exercise is both traditional cardiovascular, as well as resistance training; and they both need to be a part of your program.


Goals

What do you want and when do you want it? You're not going to go anywhere, if you don't know where you're going. Set a long term goal, and then set a couple short term goals that will help you there.

My birthday is in September, and I turned 30 this year. For some reason that made me feel more accountable for myself; I decided I needed to change what I saw in the mirror. I've always been pretty happy with me, but I know I'm very overweight and unhealthy in that respect. I weighted 297 lbs - quite a lot for someone who is 5'8" (pretty much). Since I've been interested in health and fitness for about 13 years, I have studied it and, at times, practiced it quite a bit so it was only a matter of applying myself and taking a bit of a refresher. I decided that I wanted to weigh 190lbs by my next birthday.

Since then (two months ago), I have made smaller goals like working out 3x per week, increasing my weight in circuit training, moving from circuit training to targeted muscle days. These have given me things to look forward to. I am now setting a tougher, more focused goal of weighing less than 260 by the end of the year. This is a little aggressive as it will require me to maintain a 2lb/week weight loss, but I know I can do it. I'll be doing more cardio and keeping up with my healthy eating. But setting this goal helps me to reach my ultimate goal, and helps keep me from getting discouraged that my ultimate goal seems so far away (though 1 year is really insignificant, it's hard to tell that at this end of that year!).

Long story short - give yourself something to work for! If the reward of reaching the goal isn't enough, create other awards: new clothes, night out, lessons for a new hobby...

Diet

Eating right does not just mean eating less. It means you need to determine how much you should be eating, and then make healthy choices about where those calories come from. Then you need to fuel your body in a manner that is going to make you happier, healthier, and full of energy!

So, how much should you eat? There is a way for approximating this number, and it is called your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) - the amount of calories your body will burn at rest during one day. From that you can figure out how many calories you should eat daily to stay at exactly the same weight. There are a few ways of doing this, but the one I like is at this website. Then, you take this number and use a multiplier (The Harris Benedict Formula) to determine how many calories you burn in an average day. Use the following chart:


Sedentary (little or no exercise) : BMR x 1.2
Lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : BMR x 1.375
Moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : BMR x 1.55
Very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : BMR x 1.725
Extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : BMR x 1.9

Now we know how many calories we can have each day without gaining or losing weight, but how do we lose weight? It takes a 3500 calorie deficit to lose 1 pound, which is why people commonly say it is only safe to lose 1-2lbs per week; any more and you are likely not getting the nutrients that your body needs. That said, if you are just starting out, you will likely lose more in the first few weeks due to water weight and your body's initial response to the change. To adjust your calories, try trimming off about 20% from your daily intake. My number is about 2400, so I try to eat 2000-2100 calories per day. Weekly, I have created a deficit of approximately 2100-2800 calories. Just in that step I'm losing over a pound every two weeks! Adding exercise will make up the rest, and we will go into that in the next section.

Important: DO NOT STARVE YOURSELF! If you eliminate too many calories from your diet, your body will think that it is not getting the nourishment it requires and react accordingly. Unfortunately, accordingly is to store fat and burn muscle for energy. Yes, you read that right. Muscle requires energy to maintain where fat does not, so to be more efficient your body will dump that muscle and hang onto fat as a way of preserving itself. This is horrible on two accounts - not only do you technically get fatter, but you think you are losing weight because you are dropping pounds. The net effect is that you have less muscle, more fat, and your metabolism is much slower... It can even be a good idea to occasionally eat your full calories or more (not much more) so your body knows that it's all right to keep burning that fat away.

How much to eat daily is only a part of the equation, now we need to know how to eat it!

First rule - eat 4-6X per day! This is important because it helps to increase your metabolism and stabilize your blood sugar - both improving your body's ability to burn calories and helping to control cravings throughout the day. It is also important to ensure that you are properly hydrated. You should be drinking at least a half gallon of water daily. I tend to drink about 96oz of water on a normal day, and up to about 160oz+ on days that I work harder in the gym.

The last part of all of this is what to eat. The first recommendation for that is to take a multi-vitamin! You will be altering your diet and adding/subtracting foods so it is important to supplement your vitamin intake with a decent quality, time-release multi-vitamin. The rest is to begin making better choices about what you put in your body.

You should also know where your calories come from. There are 4 categories: Protein, Carbohydrates, Fat, and Alcohol (basically a carb, but without any nutritional value). Respectively, 1 gram of each corresponds to 4, 4, 9, and 7 calories. A common model to follow is to get 40% of your calories from carbs, 30% from protein, and 30% from fat. I like to switch the carbohydrates and proteins and aim for at least 40% from protein, while minimizing the others as best as possible. Remember that you still need carbs and fats for your body to function so you don't want to eliminate them. For the sake of simplicity, try to eat 40% protein, 35% carbs, and 25% fat. There are a lot of useful tools out there to help you keep track of these things, I find that the online community, Traineo, is a great forum for discussion, and the website, FitDay, is perfect for logging your daily intake.

Time to start eating better. Some simple rules:

DO NOT:
Eat Fast Food
Drink Soda
Eat 'white' or highly processed carbs (white bread, sugar, regular pasta)
Eat foods high in saturated fats

Those few rules will go a long way to helping you reach your goals. You should be looking to increase your lean sources of protein, as well fruits and vegetables, while trying to limit your carbs to those that are high in fiber and low in sugar. Eat brown rice instead of white rice, whole grain bread instead of white; add things like lentils and barley to your diet. This is very important because these types of foods take longer to digest, require more work for your body to turn into energy, and leave you feeling more full. By eating sugar, you provide your body with a quick boost of energy that leaves you craving more sugar. If you want to learn more about healthier carb choices, do some research on the Glycemic Index of foods. To give you a quick primer, here is some information from The Glycemic Index website:

• Low GI diets help people lose and control weight
• Low GI diets increase the body's sensitivity to insulin
• Low GI carbs improve diabetes control
• Low GI carbs reduce the risk of heart disease
• Low GI carbs reduce blood cholesterol levels
• Low GI carbs can help you manage the symptoms of PCOS
• Low GI carbs reduce hunger and keep you fuller for longer
• Low GI carbs prolong physical endurance
• High GI carbs help re-fuel carbohydrate stores after exercise

This isn't too complicated so far, right? And don't worry, you can do this simply and without spending much more money. To give you an example, here is a daily meal plan (very restrictive, but I enjoy it):

7:00am - Breakfast - omelette w/ 4 egg whites, 1 whole egg, cup spinach and either low fat cheese, cottage cheese added. optional - lean turkey or chicken that you happen to have in the fridge.

10:00am - snack - two pieces pepperidge farm 7 grain light bread with PB, small serving of almonds

1:00pm - lunch - bone/skin-less turkey or chicken breast with 1/2-3/4 cup of beans and a vegetable (usually broccoli). maybe some fat-free refried beans as well.

4:00pm - snack - apple or banana, small serving of almonds or peanuts. maybe another apple if I'm still hungry :) The low-fat string cheeses are also a good snack.

5:30pm - gym... 6:30pm - protein shake after workout

7:30/8:00pm - veggie burger with salsa and cottage cheese


This keeps my metabolism up and I've lost 26lbs in the past 2mos eating very much like this every day. Simplicity here is key - you don't need a lot of different foods. Yesterday I had 2 slices of pizza for lunch (and maybe a brownie after) and still lost a pound this morning, so remember that you can still eat other things, but your core diet has to be as healthy as possible while you still enjoy it.

Now, go shopping. Throw out your soda, white rice, white bread, etc. Start reading nutrition labels and planning meals for the week.

Exercise

The gasoline for your fire! To really see the success you want, you should be 'moving' 4-6 days per week, for a minimum of 20 minutes each time. This makes up for the rest of your calorie deficit and allows you to lose those 2lbs every week. I cannot overstate the importance of doing resistance training here - you need to increase your lean muscle mass to improve your body!

Adding lean muscle mass attacks the weight problem by speeding up your metabolism. Remember that it takes more energy to maintain muscle than fat? So that means, when you add muscle to your body, even when you are sitting in front of the TV you are burning more calories than when you didn't have that muscle.

So, incorporate circuit training into your schedule 2-3X per week (with at least a day of rest in between), and the other days do whatever cardio you like - go running, jogging, jumping jacks, elliptical - so long as you continually challenge yourself to go farther, faster, harder, etc. For this section I am going to assume you have access to proper gym equipment.

But what is circuit training? Basically this means that at each session, you work out your whole body. It is an efficient way to train and will also burn a lot of calories. Starting out, you shouldn't worry about sculpting your body, your goal is to add lean mass. Each exercise should be performed in 3 sets of 12 repetitions, with perfect form, resting about 90 seconds between each set. The weight depends on the person - you want to use a weight that is heavy enough so that you can do your last rep with perfect form, but you could not do another without a break. I would recommend doing some research or enlisting a trainer for a session or two if you are not familiar with the exercises. For the basics of form, remember to move the weight in a slow, controlled manner, exhaling as you lift the weight and inhaling during the negative resistance.

Do the following:

Bench Press 3X12
Seated Row 3X12
Military Press 3X12
Squat 3X12

As you progress, or if you have time, it is not a bad idea to do a second circuit for the same muscles, but with slightly different exercises:

Butterfly or Incline Press 3X12
Bent Row or Lat Pull-Downs 3X12
Lateral Raise 3X12
Leg Press or Deadlift 3X12

If you do not have access to a gym, the following can start you off:

Push ups 3X20
Pull ups (as many as you can do, or 3X12)
Dips (as many as you can do, or 3X12)
Squats 3X20
Lunges 3X20
Crunches 3X20

These exercises will work compound muscles, or those large muscles that incorporate the most muscle fiber and give you the most 'bang for your buck'. Increase the weight as you progress, and always work with intensity.

A note on intensity... The word intensity isn't entirely tangible, but there are some important factors to consider to ensure that you are indeed getting an intense workout. When lifting, always maintain control, go slowly, and continually push yourself. It is imperative to be focused during your workout, on your goal for the session and on each contraction. Visualize your successful lifts and what it is doing for you. Intensity applies to cardiovascular workouts as well - don't just go through the motions. Make sure that you are pushing yourself, set goals of extra minutes, more resistance, etc. A handy tool to have is a heart rate monitor, so that you can monitor your target range and track improvements in your cardiovascular health.

If you're going to be doing resistance training, take a few minutes to warm up and stretch. A 5-minute jog on the treadmill will get your blood flowing, and some passive stretching before and after will help to keep you injury-free. If you decide to do both cardio and resistance in the same session, save your cardio for after your lifting as the weight training is the highest priority on these days.

Fin...

There, that will work for just about everyone! Now there are no more excuses - get out and do it. If you get started, you can work on fine-tuning and improving your routine as you go along; you can't do that if you never start.

Do it right or don't do it.