Week 7 Day 6

Posted on March 26, 2011 by admin

Today was a great day for surprising success! I slept in late and was 1 hour late to the gym. You would think with a start like this the day ain’t going your way. I stepped onto the scale and there was no weight lost. Not a shocker after the amazing drop the day before, but I was not building any steam towards awesomeness today. I got on the treadmill and decided I would do a mile, walk the balance of the 30 minutes then do 20 minutes on the elliptical since I needed to be somewhere around lunch time. I jogged my mile and needed to have the speed at 4.7 mph instead of the 4.6 I normally do. Hey no complaints, but I was concerned I would tire before the 1 mile mark. SHOCKER! I felt good at 1 mile and kept going. I did 2 miles in under 26 minutes. That was incredible. It has been years since I jogged 2 miles constant. I walked the remaining minutes at 3.3 mph until I reached 30 minutes. I then did use the elliptical trainer for 20 minutes and kept the sweat going strong. I checked my heart rate twice today. Once right after jogging and it was 151 bpm. That is what I remember to be right when I used to really run regularly at multiple mile distances. I was glad to see it was not at 157 or higher. Why? because that would be an extreme effort on my part and I am not trying to burn out or exhaust myself so I don’t feel like doing anything for the rest of the day. The other time I checked my heart rate was while I was cruising along on the elliptical trainer. I was in a range of 133-137 depending on if I was trying to go fast for a minute or cruise along at a comfortable pace. In times past I have checked my heart rate on the elliptical machines at work and have found if I start exercising there my heart rate is 119-130 bpm unless I am doing a maximum effort that I can barely do for 1 minute at a time then I can hit 140-143 bpm. I have learned that for me the elliptical machines need to be second string for cardio workouts. The stair stepper machines are a very close second to the treadmill for heart rate and sweating, but I don’t feel the total body effort I feel when I am jogging. For cardio, for me, the treadmill is the gold medal winner of exercising.

I guess I rambled enough about that stuff. The rest of the day was some resting, eating out with the wife and her brother, and moving some more furniture and stuff from one place to another. What I did was not a workout but it was an activity and it did burn a few extra calories. Tomorrow holds a lot of promise. The Cherry Blossoms are in bloom in DC and I expect me and the spouse will be doing some urban hiking to see what there is to see. The fun part is that the weather forecast originally had snow in the mix as a possibility. It really is something to have 60 degree days and to have temperatures drops. It is a whole different experience to see snow being called for. Oh well I expect we will be out here unless it rains hard. Snow don’t stop our fun! Time to call it a night and get some rest, my wife is going to walk the hell out of me tomorrow!

One thing I did forget to mention, My calories for the day were 2449 calories. Higher than I want, but I allow myself 1 meal on the weekend to be outside my normal nutritional plan. Tomorrow might be a subway kind of meal for eating out but it will be better than the Mexican place I ate at today with Steak Fajitas.

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Week 7 Day 5

Posted on March 25, 2011 by admin

Just when you think things are going good and you feel great, BAM something happens and it is UNBELIEVABLE!

That is something great to see.  I knew I had a good workout yesterday, and that I ate well and stayed in my calorie  range.  I just did not expect to see more than a pound lost from one day to the next.   I felt my normal self.  My energy levels were fine despite getting 4.5 hours of sleep.  I was not even tire come lunch time when I could have caught a 15 to 20 minute power nap.   I am dragging some now and will sleep in tomorrow.  

My morning workout was split between 3 different cardio machines.  I started by working 15 minutes on the lower body only elliptical machine.  This was not enough of a challenge to me so I moved on after 15 minutes.  I then got my jog on.  I did a mile in 13 minutes, 4.6 mph  with a little bit of pushing it the last minute.   I really got my sweat going here.  My breathing was labored and I knew I had done something.  I quickly moved to the stair stepper machine and continued my sweat for another 20 minutes.   That kicked ass!

After a good hot shower I enjoyed my new favorite breakfast.  I am in a good routine of eating 3 hard  boiled egg whites, 2 turkey sausage patties ( sometimes morningstar fake sausages which are higher calories) and 1/2 serving (5 pancakes) of aunt Jamima mini pancakes.  This is 310 to 350 calories and then I add a piece of fruit and sometimes even some peanut butter.  When I feel like a change I swap out the mini pancakes for some instant oatmeal.   I know the frozen and instant stuff is not the best nutritionally compared to preparing fresh and whole grain stuff  at home,  but this is more of a reality that people could easily follow, and it fits my schedule and work lifestyle perfectly.

My afternoon workout was a cardio  blast on the elliptical trainer for 30 minutes followed by 15 minutes of bench pressing.  I wanted to get some sets in since I was not able to get them in yesterday.   The benches were full in use so me and my buddy swapped in the Dip Press Machine.   That had me doing some chest exercises 3 days in a row so I went light today and reminded myself I will not be lifting again until Monday.

I will not bore anyone with all the food details today but I totaled 2,290 calories for the day.   My protein (and fat)  intake was lower than what I was going for and my carbs were higher than I wanted but I did not have it in me to eat a can of tuna today to help rebalance my ratio.  I was not feeling hungry or in the mood for tuna so I will do better tomorrow.   Tomorrow, tomorrow, i’ll do better tomorrow, it’s only a day away!

And here is a little video to usher in the evening

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Week 7 Day 4

Posted on March 24, 2011 by admin

“To accomplish great things one must attempt great things”-unknown

That thought was in my head today.  Don’t know why.  Doesn’t matter either,  but I figure it sounded like something to share.  Something else to share…..another picture.

This is 28 pounds down now.  Looks like I might be serious about this weight loss, yep.  Hearing folks talk about weight loss almost sounds wrong.   Things that are lost are usually things that are important to you and things you want to find.  Love lost, keys lost, money lost and my favorite, sanity lost.  Weight lost  seems to sound wrong, doesn’t it?  Diet sounds wrong and negative to.  The begining of the word is DIE!   That does not sound good at all.    Well the truth is if you don’t lose weight and maintain a healthy weight you will die sooner rather than later.   That does not sound good at all.   OK that is enough rambling for now back to my day.

This morning started in the gym for me as usual.  I jogged another mile at 4.6 mph then moved to the stair stepper to workout for another 30 minutes.  For me jogging is where it is at.  I hope to get back to jogging 3 miles or more in the mornings.  Especially if I can be doing it out through my neighborhood with my wife when the majority of folks are still sleeping .   There is next to no traffic, and you can hear the birds chirping, see fox, rabbits, raccoons and cats all doing their thing in the cover of darkness.   The sky is full of stars and the moon and everything just seems better.  That is where I plan to be at as soon as possible. ( WOW bonus ramblings).

Food today was the regular stuff with the added bonus of the triple protein combo at lunch.  That was the leftover chicken, shrimp and bacon over salad.  It was good and I enjoyed it but I really enjoyed it more last night.  Total calories for the day were 2,128 calories.   I feel good and full of energy so I must be doing things right.    

I had a really good afternoon workout today.  I did 15 minutesof  walking and jogging on the treadmill to get the heart pumping then hit the weights.

Leg presses

180lbs-12

270-12

360-10

450-10

540-10

450-10

360-10

Assisted pull-ups

+200lbs 5

+180-5

nuetral grip

+160-3

+200-5

Leg extensions

170-10

190-10

210-10

170-10

Dip press machine

180-10,10

165-10,10

I  was spent after this.    My intentions wereto do regular bench pressing but the benches were in use.  Dip presses are an acceptable substitution for me on a lifting day that is back to back of a lifting day.   If I feel good tomorrow I might sneak in some bench presses, or it might just be cardio only in the afternoon. 

The days really seem to fly by now with so much to do and I like it!     Have a good night!

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Week 7 Day 3

Posted on March 23, 2011 by admin

Damn that blood blister!  Why can something so small cause so much discomfort!  

OK enough complaining,  that is not me today.   I did NOT jog today.   I did 30 minutes on the stair master to get things going.  I had put a small bandage with some ointment on it to try to east the friction.   It worked a little bit.  I finished my morning exercise with 20 minutes on the elliptical machine.  I was able to keep my strides wide and minimize the rubbing.   After exercising I noticed I had rubbed the bandaid off during my workout.  Oh well it helped.  After showering I put on a much bigger bandage and that lasted all day.

My food for the day was all decent meals spread out evenly.    All my meals were under 500 calories except dinner which was 575 calories.  I did something different for dinner.  I combined 3 different proteins together to top my salad with.   I used bacon, chicken, and shrimp.  I cooked them all together so the flavors would meld together and really liked it.  Bacon is not something I eat regularly.  It is too fatty and mt wife does not eat bacon or like the smell of it cooking in the house.   But my honey was meeting with her brother for dinner so I had the perfect opportunity to enjoy some bacon.  I made enough so I will be having this trio of protein again  for lunch tomorrow.  Dispite all I had today I only ate 2,197 calories.   That is great for me. This morning was off to a good start when I stepped on the scale and say I was 327 pounds. 

 I keep inching along as I need to and before I know it I will be at my goal.  Then I can eat all the cholate cake I want!  YES!    Nope just kidding.   Did I have you there for a minute?  That is something folks do though.  They bust their butts to get to a place on the scale  then go back to doing what got them in trouble in the first place.  Duh, not smart. 

OK back to my meals.   I have not posted any pictures lately of food I have made so I wanted to add one of my triple protein combo of Bacon, Chicken, Shrimp.  Perhaps I should just refer to it as BCS.   I bet that will take off just like GTL  did on the jersey shore.   I’m not holding my breath on that one.

I almost forgot to give my afternoon workout information.  I guess the bacon went straight to my head!

Squats

95lbs-7

135-7

185-5

135-7

Squats with 45lb plate held to chest  10,10

Over head presses starting from the from ground

95-6,6,5

overhead presses from chest

95-10,6,5

Dead lift

135-6,6

185-5

Triceps cable curls

150-10,10,10

130-15,12

Triceps cable curls over head

80-10

70-10

60-10

EZ-Bar curls with 50 pounds of weight added

10,10,10

I was completely done after this.  I think not jogging as a warm-up helped my squats today.  They felt much better.  My buddy tried to jog after squats and his legs were less willing.  I don’t think he is going to go for that again, but it sure worked for me today with the blood blister.   I feel alittle bit stiff and sore, and that is a great feeling.  I will sleep good tonight!  As long as the thunder and lightning don’t keep me up.  Have a good night!

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Week 7 Day 2

Posted on March 22, 2011 by admin

I want to start today’s post with a special shout out to a buddy from work.  Yeah you know who  you are.   You are the champion’s champion, gentleman’s gentleman and overseer of the masses!  Howdy buddy, nice of you to stop by.  Congrats on your workout successes!  30 pounds?   I am jealous and hope to be there soon.

This morning was another jog on the treadmill followed by 45 minutes on the elliptical machine.   A solid performance for sure.   I did suffer an injury though.  Not my ankles, not my knees, not my toes,  can you guess what? can you guess where?  No? OK I’ll tell you,  I got a blood blister on my inner thigh.    This bigger than a pimple problem has been throbbing all darn day.  The seam on my jeans managed to rub the nub all day.   My shorts kept on scratching it when I worked out in the afternoon and by the time I got home all I could think about was popping the bugger.   I hate needles and the sight of my own blood.  You know what I had no problem sticking a sanitized pin into the problem to get the pressure out.   That was cool,  so I thought.   The bugger bled then stopped.  I poked it again and gave it a squeeze.  more blood and no puss,  cool.  Nope not cool the damn thing would swell back up after a minute or so and hurt like I just got stuck with a needle.   Tomorrow is going to be interesting.  I am walking funny in shorts because of it.  Maybe tonight the swelling will go down.   I can only hope.

Now that I got the crazy out of me let me tell you about today.    I ate well all day and totaled 2,468 calories for the day.  On the higher side but not bad at all. still in my zone.   My afternoon workout was also a cardio workout.  I had planned on running some.  My plan was to walk a minute jog a minute for 30 minutes then go do some sit-ups.  How it actually went was I walked and jogged for the first 10 minutes before I quit that idea.  My blistery friend was being rubbed too much  so I switched to just walking.   even that was not fun.   The best part of the workout today was doing sit-ups.   That is something you will not hear  me say to often.

Have a good night!

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Week 7 Day 1

Posted on March 21, 2011 by admin

Today is Monday, weigh-in day!

Things are progressing right on schedule.   I also have a myspace page and post some stuff there too and post in some of the forums.  I have been chatting with folks that have also lost some significant weight.  Some hoave dropped 30 pounds and others have dropped 80 pounds.  All great accomplishments.  The most important thing I have taken away from my time there is that there are many paths to nutritional success and that you have to find what works best for you.   Some folks have lost the weight over a year or more.  Some have changed their goals before reaching what they have set out to do.  One new friend decided he did not care about what the scale says as long as he looks good with his shirt off.    Different paths, different nutrition, different exercises, same result, they set goals and worked towards them.  Some faster than others.  Some stumbled along the way but regained their way to their goals.  I do not know where I will be at the end of my 100 pounds of weight lost.  I could still be a fat guy, just a less fat guy then I am today.  I might be looking to drop another 20-50 pounds, or I might decide I need to work on building some serious muscle…   I just don’t know yet.  But that does not matter now as I am on my way to getting where I set out to be, 100 pounds lighter.

Today at the gym I repeated my ability to jog 1 mile straight.  I felt good.  I walked after that for a while the jogged 5 more minuted to finish my time on the treadmill.    I moved to the stair stepper for 20 minutes and kept the sweat going.  It was a good workout.  I need to now see if I can jog the day after doing squats.  I don’t need to be jogging every day, yet.  I will need to be jogging 3-4 times a week though to improve my time and my distance.   In the past running has been key for me to lose weight.  I also have had some unfortunate pain in my achilles tendon 2 times in the last year and a half  from jogging so I need to be careful not to over do it.

My daily nutrition was good I kept to 2214 calories for the day.   Just like times past I ate a banana, apples, chicken, spinach, half a sweet potato, low fat yogurts, egg whites, turkey sausages, salad, steak, onions, red pepper, mushrooms and even a Special K bar through out the day.  I feel good and I am where I want the calories to be so it was a good day for sure.

My afternoon workout started with a treadmill warm up for 15 minutes.   I jogged 8 minutes then walked the remaining 7.  I could have pushed it but Squats were the first exercise and I wanted my legs to feel ok for them.  Here is the break down:

Squats 5 reps at each weight- 95lbs, 135, 185, 135.

Deep squats with 35lb plate held to chest  10 reps 2 times

Dumbbell Bench press

45lbs-10

55lbs-10

70lbs-8

85lbs-5

70lbs-6

Bent over rows

+80lbs -5,5

+70lbs-5

+45lbs-10

That wrapped up my gym time for the day.  I know I keep saying it, but today was a great day!

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Week 6 Day 7

Posted on March 20, 2011 by admin

Today was not the day I thought it would be.  I planned to jog in the neighborhood this morning and maybe hit the gym before beginning any other activities.  That did not happen.  I was up late and I could not fall asleep.  The house felt really cold and I did not feel warm under the 2 blankets.  It was a night of tossing and turning.   I slept in and when I did get up I felt like laying on the couch for a while.  Before I knew it I at my breakfast which meant I was not going to the gym any time soon.  My wife got up after me and felt like she had a cold and was all for resting on the couch some.  The temperature was in the low 40’s and that was not motivating us any.   We finally did get out and we enjoyed a hike that took 2 hours and 15 minutes.  That was great but we both were cold for some of it and my body was sore on the way back home.  After that we did some grocery shopping.  So we did have some good activity today, but it was not as I had expected it to be.    My meals totaled 2617 calories for the day.   That is higher than I should have done for a more relaxed day.  It is not a big problem though,  I have another workout to look forward to tomorrow morning to get me going for the week.

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Week 6 Day 6

Posted on March 19, 2011 by admin

I am 25.6 pounds down as of today, March 19th, 2011.  I am 25% into accomplishing my goal of losing 100 pounds in 26 weeks.

I love it when a plan comes together!

I don’t know if it was a high from seeing the scale or if my body was just ready, but this morning at Bally’s I pushed it on the treadmill.   I jogged a mile nonstop at 4.6 mph, walked at 5% incline at 3.3 mph until the 20 minute mark then jogged another 9 minutes straight, then walked my last minute to cool down.     I know that is not much, but right now that is huge!  I broke through the mental/physical barrier that has prevented me from jogging longer than a few minutes at a time.   I now can see I will be getting to 1.5 miles straight before I know it.  I need to focus on upping my endurance so I can do more distance but I also need to up my speed so I can do my distance faster.

Being today was Saturday I enjoyed cooking my breakfast fresh.  I decided on 2 eggs scrambled,turkey sausage crumbles, a slice of cheese, and some part skim ricotta cheese all mixed together.  I also had an apple and 1 slice of double protein bread toast with a small amount of peanut butter and jelly on it.  This was a whopping 670 calories.   Bigger than it should be, but for today it did work out ok.

Today was a day including 3 hours of house work helping family clean out some old stuff for a renovation.  There were times of lifting and moving heavy furniture, times of standing around, and also trips out to the dumpster with items no longer needed.  This burned some calories for sure, but I do not know how many.  During all the action we missed lunch, but I did have a special K fruit crisps bar and a banana (221 calories).   Once dinner rolled around we all went out to eat at my favorite middle eastern place.   I had a Chicken kabob, rice, chick peas, some bread and also some chicken haleem.  I also drank a bottle of ruby red grapefruit juice.  I did not finish my meal and brought food home for tomorrow.  I used my daily plate at livestrong.com to calculate my calories for the meal.  I totaled 1,392 calories for the meal.  I did not eat the full servings of my meal and guessed to the amounts of measurements and rounded up.   My total meal was less than this but since I was not sure I figured go larger to be on the safe side.  Later in the evening I had a serving of rainbow sherbert.

Even with the huge dinner my total calories for the day were 2415 calories.   Not bad.  If I skipped the juice I would have been 260 calories lower, but I really wanted the juice and figured today was the day to drink something other than water for one meal.

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Week 6 Day 5

Posted on March 18, 2011 by admin

Happy Friday!  I weighed in this AM to see 331 on the scale.  I am doing good and keeping the progress moving.  My morning workout was a good one.  I did 20  minutes on the treadmill of walk a minute and jog a minute followed by 10 minutes of walking at 5% incline at 3.3 mph.  This got the sweat flowing and I moved to the Stair stepper machine for 20 minutes to keep it going.  My legs were burning all day!  Today after work I had a few errands to run so I did not go to the gym.  Instead once done I lifted weights in my garage for a light workout, 20 minutes long.  I chose to do 3 sets with lighter than my normal workout weights, for a few more reps than I normally do.

Overhead press   70lbs- 10,10,10

barbell curls 46lbs  10,10,10

bent over rows  70lbs 10,10,10 (felt too easy)

Triceps bar curl, behind my head  46lbs 10,10,10

Lat pull downs   107 lbs 10,10,10

The odd ball poundages are because I was given some cement in plastic weights (for free on craigslist) and was trying to set up multiple bars and equipment so I do not need to waist time moving plates around in the small space I have in the garage.   I still have move plates available to use and will need to swap things for when I do squats, but this setup will allow me to work out and only made a weight swat one time.  The next couple times I should be able to dial in the weights  and adjust things to where they need to be.

My diet today was solid.  Breakfast was 1/2 a serving of Aunt Jamima mini pancakes with 2 turkey sausage, 4 hard boiled egg white and a small apple and large grapefruit.  514 calories and very filling.

For Morning break I had a small salad with a 4 oz of chicken breast and a special K bar for 238 calories.

Lunch was bigger.  I had a big salad with chicken, some pasta, almonds, cherry tomatoes, corn,  portobello mushrooms, red pepper,  baby carrots and balsamic vinegar.  I also had a nectorine.   All this for 600 calories!

Afternoon snacking was bad, I had 2 servings of rainbow sherbet and one pretzel rod for 320 calories.    I had a craving and it was there and available so I went with it.  It lacked nutrition but it was not devastating calorie-wise.

Dinner was not a salad!  I know hard to believe but I had two today and that was enough.  I cooked some more chicken breast as well as frozen spinach and canned chick peas.  After the chick peas cooked enough I mashed them up so most of them were smashed, some were mushed into paste.  This is similar in consistency with how the middle eastern place  does it and with the garlic, onion, pepper, cumin and some chicken base it tasted amazing.  My wife and I also ate some pistachio nuts with dinner and I totaled 854 calories for the meal.

My total calories for the day were 2527 calories.  Slightly higher than I would like but within my acceptable range for daily intake.   I felt good all day except for felling tire once I got home.  A 45 minute nap solved the problem and gave me the energy to do the light weights workout in the afternoon.   Tomorrow is supposed to be a great day with warn tempertures  so I expect to do some hiking after the gym in the morning and after our home chores are done.   Another great day.  I have been feeling better more and more.  I don’t mean from my hospital trip,, I mean in general.  Clothing are becoming loose,  I have been wearing some stuff that was too tight on my last year and can see the progress when I really have to tighten my belt each morning.  Things are heading in the right direction.

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Week 6 Day 4

Posted on March 17, 2011 by admin

I had no idea how badly I was constipated.  I knew I was not pooping like I normally would, and I felt no pain or discomfort, but WOW!   I sure got cleaned out last night after taking 1.5  doses of Exlax yesterday during the day and a glass of apple cider once I got home.

It is amazing the difference a day can make.   I feel better seeing the scale now.  Today was right back to where I have been at working out.  In the AM I did 30 minutes on the elliptical machine then 20 minutes on the stair stepper and I had a good sweat going.   I ate well all day but missed my morning break meal due to work assignments.  Not a big deal, I ate some of the snack food with my lunch.   The afternoon gym time was great as well.  My buddy was back today so we started on the treadmill.  I walked 10 minutes at 5% incline at 3 mph the did 5 minutes at 10% incline.  It warmed me up without over working my legs. 

Squats

95lbs-5

135-5

185-5

135-5

deep squats with 35 pound plate held at chest (wow did this burn my leg muscles!)

10,10

Over head presses from ground

95lbs-6,6

over head presses from chest

95lbs-10,8

Bent over rows

+45lbs-10,10

+80lbs-8,8

Smith machine Lateral raises

+50lbs-10,10,10

My legs were trembling from the deep squats on.  I still feel it in my legs 4 hours later.  I hope I can walk tomorrow.  

Dinner was an easy meal tonight.  My wife and I had aleft over chicken breast that we added to a vegetable stir fry made with Portobello mushrooms, cabbage, and red peppers.  We each had a large bowl of salad that we topped with the chicken and stir fry.  I added 1/2 serving of almonds to mine.   We each packed a salad and stir fry portion for tomorrow to have as lunch.  We both felt like we needed some more protein so I heated some Quorn Fake chicken nuggets.  I mixed some honey with mustard as a dip for the nuggets.  Dinner turned out great.

It is time for bed,  so bring on the sleep!

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