My Journal

Week 23 Day 3

Posted on July 13, 2011 by admin

I feel good…..I knew that I would……I feel good….I knew that I would….

This morning was a gym day and I even woke up before the alarm. I started with the treadmill for 25 minutes the the elliptical stepper for 30 minutes. I was sweating! But I felt good, and you know what? I knew that I would…Thank you, thank you very much, I’ll be here all week.

My PM workout was a garage lifting session. I did over head presses starting from the ground, bend over rows and finally body weight deep squats. It was 90+ degrees out and the garage was hotter so of course I sweated. I knew I would. Yep I had to keep beating that dead horse.

Nutrition today was pretty good. I ate hard boiled egg whites, turkey sausage and instant grits and topped it off with a small amount of fresh pineapple. Lunch was a tuna salad with 2 cans of tuna, light mayo and some cherry tomatoes. My morning and afternoon snacks were special k bars and an apple. Dinner was the best. I cooked Tilapia with some corn meal and served it with collard greens. It was a great combination and left me plenty of calories for snacks of fresh fruit and special K cracker crisps later in the evening.

Work was even OK today. I give today two thumbs up! a standing ovation, a blue ribbon, a gold medal, that’s all I got.

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Week 23 Day 1

Posted on July 11, 2011 by admin

Another day of loving life and trying to do right. As with many things plans are made and “stuff” happens that derail you. I work at a facility that is being closed through the BRAC process. I have been there for about 10 years now and have really grown accustomed to being there. I know folks, I know all the ins and outs of my job and the way to get things done in the different buildings. Today struck home the reality that I will not be there much longer. I have been working off site for the last few months but had to return for a special project and was excited to go to the gym and see my morning workout buddies, and to weigh myself on the scale that started my progress tracking. As I drove near the building I saw the lights out. That was strange to see so I expected it to be due to the removal of a nearby building/trailers. I went to the lesser fitness center and found it to be open but things were not right. I talked with folks and found out the other gym is now permanently closed. Gone. I will never walk through those doors again to exercise. That was sad.

I got my jogging in and did 30 minutes on the elliptical machine but could not help feeling depressed when I thought that facility might be closed the next time I come back to the post. The atmosphere was not one of excitement and progress. It was more like waiting for bad news from a doctor. Oh well what can you do.

Work was an intense day for sure. It was 95 degrees out and I spent it working in an unventilated mechanical room that felt hotter than the outside air. I was soaked from head to toe. I drank 5 bottles of water during the time and still felt incredibly drained. So much so that when I finally got home I took a shower and did not do an afternoon workout. That was an intense day.

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Week 22 Day 7

Posted on July 10, 2011 by admin

What an amazing summer day. This morning my wife and I went on a good bike ride for the AM workout. We were slow to get going so it turned out the turn around point was where we ate the lunch we packed. We rode for 1 hour and 37 minutes. It felt good for the most part but I did get saddle sore on the trip back to the truck.

Today was great for another reason too. I needed to buy new clothes and am now a 2xl. I bought some new T-shirts and gym shorts. I am 77 pounds down from my starting weight and wonder where I will be once I lose the rest of my goal weight. I am thinking I am not going to stop at 254. As of now I think I am going to look to get down to 225lbs. I know, meet the first goal first.

After getting home I did a cardio garage workout for 20 minutes. It was pretty hot in the garage but I wanted to try out the free elliptical machine I picked up road side. It was OK but the bugger is noisy. I did 10 minutes on it the 10 minutes on my exercise bike. I wanted to see if I still felt saddle sore. It was not bad but 10 minutes is not long enough time to really tell.

I ate well all day and totalled 2,220 calories for the day. Right where I need to be. The best meal of the day was dinner. I cooked 2 packages of chicken breasts, half a fresh pineapple, a red pepper, an orange pepper, an onion, and asparagus.

Dinner was later followed by a bowl of cherries and a pretzel rod. I have been eating up all the seasonal fresh fruits. Cherries are my favorite now and my wife is hooked on watermelon.

Tomorrow I will be reporting to my normal assigned work site. I have not been there for months and look forward to using the gym facilities there and to see some friends. It is only a one day thing then I will be back to my temporary work site. Many folks have not seen me since I have lost weight. I hope tomorrow is a fun day.

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Week 22 Day 6

Posted on July 9, 2011 by admin

HEALTH UPDATE! Today I had my blood pressure measured and I was 111/74 with a pulse of 67. That is normal! A few years ago before I was at my heaviest my doctor wanted to put me on blood pressure medicine because I was in the high side of pre-hypertension. This says a lot about what my diet and exercise has done for me. This is incredible.

I weighed 277 pounds at the gym today! I some how managed to not take a picture of it with my new phone, I hit the wrong button. Oh well another pound down.

Today I was inspired by three different strangers all doing their thing on the treadmill at the gym. One lady was very short and well over weight. She jogged continuous for 60 minutes. I was in awe. She had true determination and I am sure she is going to reach her goals with a work ethic like that. The second person was an older man running at 7 MPH for over 20 minutes. He was cruising along one foot after another that I had to look twice to read his display to see it was 7 MPH. I was jogging step for step with him but I was only going 5.3 MPH. That was something to see. The final amazing stranger was a younger lady taller than my 6 foot self. She was athletically thin and started her run at 8.2 mph. While running she was playing with her MP3 player, changing songs and looking like that was barely an effort. I was shocked and inspired. Then she cranked it up to 10 MPH and really got moving.Three strangers, three different places in life, three incredible motivators to see in action.

My gym time was 3 miles on the treadmill starting at 5.1 MPH and cranking it up every 5 minutes or so until the last few minutes when I was going at 6.3 MPH. I finished the three miles in 34 minutes. I felt good with that. I then got on the elliptical machine for 26 minutes to give me a full hour of cardio.

I got home ate, showered and got on with the chores of the day. I had it in my mind I wanted to go fishing today. I have not fished in a while and really wanted to go. My wife at this point did not workout and wanted to be more active than fishing. We decided to go to Pohick Bay in Virginia so I could fish and she could rent a kayak, win-win. We once tried a canoe there for me to fish and us to paddle around together but it did not work well, I wanted to fish more, she wanted to move more and we were both disappointed with the compromise. This way worked out better. I did not catch any fish but still got out there and had fun. My wife felt the same way. Afterwards we went to Mason Neck park a few miles away and hiked for 80 minutes. It was good. We were mostly shaded in the 90 degrees and was able to see more squirrels than we thought possible, some deer, fish and a blue heron. Really cool. By the time we made it back to the truck we were both tired and ready to go home.

I was bad with nutrition today. I had 3 meals and no snacks. I ended up eating 2,702 calories in those 3 meals. I just can’t do that. I might need to eat a snack before going to the gym on the weekends so I am not so hungry when I get back at 9:30 to 10:00 am. I seem to feast then and still eat a large lunch around 1pm. I then am good until dinner but then over do it again. I need to get a better grip on the weekend eating and I think a snack before the gym will be the way since during the week I am used to eating breakfast at 5:30 am compared to the 9:30 am on the weekends. I bet that will help me. Here’s to tomorrow being better than today.

Posted in fitness, Uncategorized, weight lifting, weight loss | Tagged 100 lb challenge, Bally's Total fitness, biggest loser, exercise, Fat, Joe Reda, joes100lbchallenge.com, losing weight, nutrition, Washington DC, weight lifting, weight loss | Comments Off

Week 22 Day 5

Posted on July 8, 2011 by admin

So the day starts as usual, the alarm goes off, I get up and get ready to workout and my wife follows a little bit later. Today we decided on a jog together. My wife has been having an uncomfortable feeling in her knee for a little while but felt OK to jog so we did. Along the way she stepped off the curb and into the grass edge and did not like the feedback her knee gave her. We shortened the jog to 2 miles ( Wow that sounds so funny to say or hear) . Along the way we came across an elliptical machine curbside with a sign on it saying free! So I tried it out along our run and decided to go back with the truck and now I am the proud owner. That rocked!

My workday was uneventful and I was hitting the gym for my afternoon workout before I knew it. I wanted to make up for slacking in the morning run so I did 55 minutes of exercise. I jogged for 15 minutes to get the sweat going, 20 minutes on the elliptical machine to reduce the impact on my knees and then 20 minutes on an upright bike to work my leg muscles and get them used to pedaling. By this time in years past I was riding 10 to 30 miles at a time. Right now 1 hour is painful in the saddle. I need to build back up some seat endurance.

My nutrition today was kept in check. I consumed 2,238 calories. I was able to eat a bunch thanks to my grilled onions and peppers at lunch. They were very filling and the 3 Italian turkey sausage were only 330 calories themselves. Dinner was also a winner with pan grilled Tilapia fillets served over a bed of lettuce. Winner, winner chicken dinner! I see I need to pay a little more attention to food choices and I can really enjoy meals and flavors but not be overwhelmed by calories and fat. Beef or pork sausages would have been much higher in calories and fat and I could not have had 3, THREE of them.

Tomorrow is going to be a great day. I will be sleeping in, hitting the gym and going out to buy some workout shorts that fit. The 4x are way to big now. I might be a 2x now.

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Week 22 Day 4

Posted on July 7, 2011 by admin

Today! Yeah! Heck yeah! Today!

So my AM workout was OK I did 15 minutes jogging to warm up then I walked some inclines for 3- 5 minute intervals at 5%, 10% and 15% inclines. From there I got on the elliptical machine for 20 minutes and continued my sweat. It was good to be inside because it was 70 degrees out with 90% humidity.

My afternoon workout was an hour long wight lifting session. Here is what I did:

Bench press
135lbs-12
185-5,5,5,5,5,5
135-15,8

Assisted pull-ups
+115lbs-8,6,5,5,5
+130-8,6

Assisted dips
130lbs-8,8,8,8,8,8,8

EZ-Bar curls with 50lbs
8,8,8,8,8,8

60 lb Dumbbell dead lifts
8,8,8,8

Wow that was intense. My muscles really feel worked.

Today was not so great with the food. I ate too much and consumed 2,626 calories. I over ate dinner then snacked too much later. WHY? WHY? I know why I ate too much dinner. I cooked some delicious pork tender loin chops with spinack and mac and cheese. Dinner was 1,000 calories.

What really put me over the top was a bowl of cherries and 3 servings of special k cracker crisps. They are my new nemesis. I lack the control to eat them properly when alone. I had pork since my wife was out and does not eat pork. That also meant I finished it all myself instead of sharing it with her. Tomorrow will be better, I bought fish for dinner.

It is another late night and I need to get as much sleep as I can, here’s to seeing tomorrow in the morning!

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Week 22 Day 3

Posted on July 6, 2011 by admin

Here is the breakdown for the day:

AM workout–20 minute jog on the treadmill and 35 minutes on the elliptical trainer

PM workout–45 minutes on an elliptical trainer

Calories for the day were 2,214 calories consumed.

I feel good about the day and feel like I ate well and worked out a good amount. I got my sweating in and my muscles are aching a bit. I am purposely keeping this one brief to give me a chance to hit the hay early.

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Week 22 Day 2

Posted on July 5, 2011 by admin

A long weekend with an adventure at night is not conducive of a good night sleep! But it was fun! My wife and I rode our bikes to the Air Force Memorial to see the DC fireworks. The Air Force band was there and playing a concert! We had bonus entertainment. While the music was playing we were able to stare out in to the horizon and see many far away towns doing their fireworks shows. The DC show was cool to see and once it was done it was a mad rush to get home, hey it was a school night! We thought we were smart by biking there and going down the hill did made it easy. Leaving when thousands of local residents are all walking out was not so great though. We got really lucky as a fire truck needed to leave and cleared a path and all of us on bikes rode the vortex before it closed up into a see of zombies slowly stammering home. You could actually hear Brains, Brains BRAINS!. Ok so that part might not be historically accurate. When riding home we hustled up the hill and a pace I could not believe, with me as the leader. My wife and I had someone stay with us the whole hill with others turning off to their side street destinations. Once home We were soaked from sweat and I was not able to get to bed until 11:00 pm and did not fall asleep right away, even after a hot shower. Oh well that is why I was so tired all day.

So that was last night, here is today…

I got up with little sleep and headed to the gym. Damn it was closed. The do not open early on Mondays and now it seems the day after holidays either. Curses, I rush home to catch the wife before she starts her workout DVD. So we go for a 2 mile jog in the AM instead. Not bad but not great. We did not time it and it is a shorter distance than what I need for a real workout.

SO I make it through the day and get home with the intentions of rushing to the gym to lift. Well after about an hour I make my way to the gym and the street parking is all full. Full I say! So I headed home for a garage weights workout. I guess it is not my day.

Here is what I did:

Body weight squats
10

squats
90lbs-10,10,10
139-10
167-6
139-10

Overhead shoulder press
90lbs-6,6,6

overhead press starting from the floor
70-10,10,10

35lb dumbbell overhead shoulder presses
6,6,6

I was done! when I left the garage I realized the 87 degree outside temperature felt cool compared the garage/oven. After a shower it was time for dinner. We had steak stir-fry using Birdseye asparagus stir-fry frozen veggies. It was good but bland.

I had added portobello mushrooms and garlic cloves in with the meat and this meal had it all. The stir-fry veggies are 90 calories per serving with 3 servings per bag. Not bad at all, and then you add you favorite meat/protein and some seasonings and dinner is ready in no time at all.

It is late and I need some sleep so see you tomorrow.

Week 22 Day 1

Posted on July 4, 2011 by admin

Happy 4th of July!

This morning my wife and I went out for a little jog. We went to a local park and did a loop in 16 minutes. So this was not a major workout but we wanted to get back for the local parade through our neighborhood.

Some of the kids and parents went all out with decorations and the parade ended at a park with a picnic/BBQ and moon bounce for the kids tp play on. Fun for all.

Once the parade was done we had some erronds to run and a neighborhood bike ride to enjoy. We went out for 45 minutes and zig zagged through the streets a block at a time. It was an activity but it was also leizurely.

It was dinner time before we knew it and went with the BBQ theme. We had turkey burgers, turkey hotdogs, chicken sausage, baked beans, corn on the cob and fruit as a make your own fruit salad. I took it easy with the buns and only had one on my burger, the hotdog and sausage I ate with just some ketchup and musturd.

The night is not over yet as we plan to ride our bikes to see the fireworks in DC. We are looking at another 30 to 45 minutes of bike riding before the night is out.

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Week 21 Day 7

Posted on July 3, 2011 by admin

What a crazy week. My weight is not doing everything I expect it to. Days wen I feel light I weighed in heavy, and then two days later I am much lighter. I am at a new low, drum roll please…

So I am now 74.6 pounds down. Unbelievible! So whle at the gym I decided to jog a mile in under 10 minutes. I have done it 2 or 3 times now and decided I needed to push myself more and that is one way to do it. It was tough but I did it in 9:50. I could have pushed more in hopes of beating the 9:26 I did the other day but I was looking for more of a workout and less of a record run. After the mile I walked a minute to catch my breath and check my heart rate. My heart was beating 148 beats per minute when I was done and was dropping below 140 once I started jogging again at 5.5 mph. A few months ago 5.5 was really fast for me. How about that. After 20 minutes on the treadmill I went to the elliptical machine for 25 minutes. My heart rate was between 126 and 140 for the 25 minutes. Not bad.

So I head home after the gym and make some breakfast.

I felt like something a little fance and had 2 whole eggs scrambled, spinach, ricotta cheese and one slice of american cheese as a scrambled egg omlet with 2 morningstar sausage patties. I topped it with ketchup and hot sauce and had some cherries and canteloupe as a bonus snack.

Today my wife and I decided to go hiking and went on one of the Billygoat trails along the C&O canal. We hiked for 2 hours and the heat and humidity really weighed us down. We packed light lunches and some veggies to snack on. I had a Peanut butter and jelly sandwich and snacked on cherry tomatoes and baby carrots. Nothing incredible, but somethimes that is the best way to go. We saw some cool stuff. There was this one bug like one we have never seen before: