Week 4 Day 7

Posted on March 6, 2011 by admin

Today draws the end of my first 4 weeks of traing and eating right.   I feel better and judging by my before and after picture I am looking better.   I still have a long way to go.

My workout today at Bally’s was a bonus workout since originally I thought Sundays would be a rest day from the gym.  I have reconsidered this and know I still need to get 1 hour in on Sundays  atleast until better bicycling weather is here and I can do a 2-3 hour ride on the weekend days.   Today is the second day I was able to walk/jog for 30 minutes.  I think that is here to stay in my workouts.  I hope in the next month to be jogging 1 mile straight, no walking.  I think that is a reasonable goal to add for the next 28 days.

Sunday also means itis time to do some shopping for groceries.   I now seem to be buying mostly from the fruit, veggie, dairy, and meats area skipping most of the store.  I used to go up and down each isle and picking things up along the way.  Now I shop with a purpose and buy less crap.

I had a really late breakfast today, 11:15 am.  I had 3 eggs scrambled, some feta cheese and some ricotta cheese mixed into the eggs and 2 morningstar fake sausage patties.   I really like the taste of the maple flavored ones but laugh when I think there are more calories in the fake product compared to turkey sausages.  I also had a banana.

Lunch was my leftovers from the middle eastern dinner last night plus a tangerine.

Dinner is going to be some flounder over a salad.  I have not had flounder in a long time I hope I still like it.   If not I did pick up some salmon as well and will cook it if I need to.   I had bigger expectations for today, some PS3 gaming with buddies online, a nap,  but things did not go as planned.  I needed to make 2 trips to Bestbuy for some computer stuff and the day just passed me by,  Oh well there is always next weekend for games,  my healthy life is more important.  

That is the thing people  “WANTING” to lose weight miss.  Life throws you things all the time.  There is not enough time in the day to do all you want to.  You need to make fitness a priority.  Make it your number one thing you are doing for yourself and you will no longer be “wanting” to lose weight,  you will lose weight and get healthier.

Have a good night!

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Week 4 Day 6

Posted on March 5, 2011 by admin

Today was a monumental day!  I went to Bally’s to work out and weighed myself before and after.

It was great to see more progress and it was an incredible workout today.  I sweated almost 2 pounds out.  Sure it is just water weight,  but it is also a measurement of how hard I worked out.  I had been averaging about 1 pound lost as sweat during workouts.  This was about twice the amount and I had pushed it today.

I started with 20 minutes on the treadmill.  I did 5 minutes at 5% incline walking 3.3 mph.  The next 10 minutes were at 10% incline  and the last 5 minutes were back at 5% incline at 3.5 mph.    I was really inspired by all the folks that were jogging on the treadmills today and decided to do a little myself.  I have had pain and discomfort in my knees and ankles before trying to jog.  I have been avoiding it.  Today that changed.  I put the treadmill to 1% incline and jogged 2 minutes at 4.5 mph.   Sure that is not  a lot but it was a start.  I then walked 2 minutes the went to jog one walk one.  I did this for 30 minutes.   My jog speeds were 4.5, 5.0, 5.2, and 5.5 mph in cycles.   At jog time I would do the 4.5   then the next jog time I would do one of the higher amounts.    Something else changed.  I was able to let go of holding onto the treadmill while jogging.   That was huge for me.  I was actually jogging freely as I had been doing years ago.   Once 30 minutes passed I moved to the elliptical machine and did another 20 minutes of cardio since I was feeling so good. 

I ate a banana on the way home because I was starting to really feel my empty stomach talking to me.    Once home I made a two egg omelet with 3 turkey sausage links and 1/2 serving of ore-ida tater tots.  I added some red pepper to the omelet and put hot sauce on it for some spicy seasonings.     Lunch today was at IKEA and I had a Waldorf chicken wrap AND a veggie wrap,  I was hungry!  and for dinner we bought some middle eastern food that I packed half away for tomorrow ( I used to eat it all at once)  and made a big salad to put the chicken haleem, chick peas, and white rice over.   WOW it was tasty.  I am still under calories for the day and might have an apple with some peanut butter as an evening snack.  

I took another picture today and cropped it next to the one I am using as my profile picture on myspace.   I ca see the difference already!    What do you think?

For some reason my pictures are being stretched taller and make me look thinner in both before and after shot here.   in the admin area to edit the post they show normal.  Strange.

I plan on going to Bally’s again tomorrow for a bonus workout.    Have a great night!

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Week 4 Day 5

Posted on March 4, 2011 by admin

Today was a great day,  I  got to the gym, hopped on the scale and this is what I saw!

That makes 16.2 pounds down since starting this process.   I am doing well and on track to lose 100 pounds in 26 weeks.   After having been doing this for almost a month now I don’t even think about the vending machine and all the crap that I would eat when I was too busy to got better food, or feeling like I wanted to “treat” myself to junk, or when my body craved the routine of getting the stuff out of habit.   I keep health choices with me at my desk, in my truck and at home.   I even have some borderline OK choices like pretzel rods, and 100 calorie pringles pizza stix at home and I don’t crave or think about them at all.   I have had a few pretzel rods  in some past evenings, but it was more to give me a little bit of carbs rather than a true desired snack.

The rest of the day was a typical one.  I packed turkey sausage, hard boiled eggs, fruit, and leftover chicken with Broccoli, onions and portobello mushrooms.    I also had some ground beef,onions, red peppers, black beans and salsa left over from the day before.  I learned a very valuable lesson as did my co-workers in our small office.    I should NEVER eat broccoli and black beans within a couple hours of each other.   Nobody was a winner with that combination.  We do not have windows that open in our office.   fortunately half the crew was out at the time of my internal combustion.

After work I headed to the gym for some bonus workout time.   I kept it really short since I  had the potential to cause a stinker that no own breathing hard doing cardio should have to endure.   With it being Friday afternoon there was only about 1/4 of the folks that would normally be there.  I felt like doing  triceps cable curls   and free weight curls with the EZ curl bar.    I did 10 sets of 10 of the triceps exercise  and 4 sets of 10 curls.  I still had some time so I did 12 minutes on the Stair master machine.    The motion did my belly no favors so I hit the bathroom then hit the road to beat Friday rush hour traffic home.  I skipped my apple on the drive home since I was not hungry.    Once home I worked on making dinner.  Tonight was crushed Pistachio nut chicken thighs with cous cous and golden raisins topping a salad with balsamic vinegar.    This meal was a bit higher in calories then I would have liked but it was tasty.   Next time I will either use chicken breast or I will skip the cous cous to save on some calories.   I had originally planned on Brussels sprouts to go with this meal instead of the salad but today was not the day to eat Brussels sprouts.

The weather for tomorrow is supposed to be rainy so I (and maybe my wife) will go to bally’s to get atleast 45 minutes of cardio in.   If the weather was nice we would have been thinking more along the lines of a bike ride or hiking for a few hours.  Time for some sleep!

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Week 4 Day 4

Posted on March 3, 2011 by admin

I am now under 340 pounds!   Darn is that good to see.  

I started my day with some typical cardio.  I did 20 minutes on the elliptical machine,  20 minutes on the treadmill walking at 3.3 mph at 5% incline and then I did 20 minutes on the lower body elliptical machine.  My legs are still sore from the squats I did this week.  Hopefully this weekend thy will start feeling like they normally do.  Walking around is weird feeling like my muscles could give out.  It is not that bad but it does feel rough.  I don’t remember feeling like this during Football or Wrestling practices,  or the BJJ classes I took in 2006. 

Today’s meals were all packed.   I felt like some apple and peanut butter for breakfast and I also had 5 mini links of Aidell’s chicken and apple sausages.   They are a nice change from the normal breakfast turkey sausages or Morningstar fake sausages.  The calories are only 110 per 5 mini links and they taste good too.    The rest of the day I ate well including yogurt, part skim ricotta cheese, salad, 1/2 sweet potato, beef and veggie chili, and baby carrots.

The afternoon workout was a good one too.   I hit the gym with a co-worker and he is really good natured with doing the routines  I pick.    Today was mostly that way as well.   I really do not want to lift 2 days in a row, I prefer to do a cardio day in between the weights but he does not stay on Fridays  Which meant today was weights after the 15 minutes of cardio to warm up.

Today we did the following:

Leg presses:

180 lbs- 10

270–    10

360–    10

450–   10

assisted pull-ups:

+230 lbs- 7

+210–     5

+230–     5

+200–    4 (I changed my hand grip from pull-ups to neutral grip  I could have also tried chip-up grip, maybe next time)

Leg extensions:

150–10,10

170-10

190-10

Bench press:

135–10

185-5

225-2,1

We were both done after this.  My buddy worked out up to 245 lbs for 2 which was great.   I used to be able to press 245 9 and a little more)  but 225 has been the recent max I have been pressing.

On the ride home I enjoyed a banana and  once home I worked on dinner.   I did not feel like salad since I eat at least on every day so I steamed some broccoli and sprinkled a table spoon of Parmesan cheese on it, and I grilled onions with some portobello mushrooms  and then cooked some chicken breast.

It was delicious and I know I will get to enjoy it again for tomorrow’s lunch.

It feels good to see the scale moving again.  I also feel the muscles in my legs growing.  I was worried that I was swapping out my fat with muscle and not loosing weight.  I know muscle is better to have.   But I don’t want to be a 4xl muscular guy,  I want to be a 1xl or 2xl sized muscular guy.   So I do need to continue to drop weight.   My calories for the day are  2238 consumed.  I had to have burned around 1,000 calories exercising twice today so I might see the scale move a little bit more tomorrow morning.   I can’t wait.

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Week 4 Day 3

Posted on March 2, 2011 by admin

Wow another great day!   I started my morning with my favorite thing to do….CARDIO!  I walked at 10 % incline at 3.2 mph   and walked at 5% incline for twenty minutes at 3.5 mph.  Then I did 30 minutes on the lower body elliptical machine.   a good workout with minimal soreness in my legs.  I still am feeling the squats I did on Monday!

My Afternoon workout was weights with 15 minutes of walking on the treadmill at 5% incline at 3.2 mph.  My legs were spent.  Here is why,  my weight workout for the day:

Squats:  slow count down and slow back up

95   lbs- 5

115 lbs-5

135 lbs-5

155 lbs-5

135 lbs -5

Overhead Press

95  lbs- 8

115 lbs-6

95  lbs-9, 7, 6

Deadlifts:

135lbs-6, 6, 6, 6

Sit-ups–12, 12, 8, 5  I started gagging like I was going to puke so I stopped doing them at 5.

I ended the workout with 15 minutes walking at incline on the treadmill.

The weights I am pushing here are light for people much lighter than me.  I have never done squats before in my whole 39 years of life and I have pulled muscles in my back before requiring an emergency room visit.  Of my  trips to the ER none were caused from weight lifting but I do not want this to be the first and derail my progress.  I don’t plan to become a power lifter from exercising like this.  Especially since I am trying to lose weight. I expect to get weaker as the weight comes off,  with the exception of actually getting into better shape and the gained strength of being in shape.  I will find my workout weights that are right for me after doing this routine for a few weeks.

One more thing on lifting heavy,  Don’t be this guy!

Dinner tonight was a big bowl of letuce salad with balsamic vinegar on it.  I topped it with a mix of ground beef, salsa, black beans, cooked onions and red pepper that I had made the night before.  It was good!    Time to call it a night!

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Week 4 Day 2

Posted on March 1, 2011 by admin

Today was a good day.  I started with 20 minutes on the Stair Master  followed by 10 minutes on an exercise bike and then did 20 minutes on the lower body only elliptical machine.   My legs were sore from doing squats the day before.  I expect this to happen for the next week or two then things should be back into a groove for me.   The afternoon workout was also a cardio workout.  I walked 15 minutes on the treadmill at 5% incline at 3.3 mph  then did 15 minutes on the elliptical trainer.    Not a big workout but it was bonus cardio.  Tomorrow afternoon it is back to the weights.

Meals were all packed and healthy today and my total calories  consumed for the day were 2,259.  I know I burned some calories today with 50 minutes of cardio in the AM  and 30 more minutes in the afternoon.   I am looking f0rward to the Friday weigh-in to see if I am back on track.   If I am still at my plateau I will look to decrease my daily calories by 250-300 calories.

Today’s status update is a short one, I am tired and need some rest.  Tomorrow will be a better day since I already cooked dinner today.

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Week 4 Day 1

Posted on February 28, 2011 by admin

Being today is Monday that means a new week started.  That also means weigh-in and pictures.   My cell phone pictures are looking worse to me so it might be time to start using a real digital camera.   As I weighed in I was disappointed to see I am up 1.2 pounds.  Not what I wanted to see but I do understand.  I did eat out for 2 meals on Saturday and then on Sunday I finished my wife’s leftovers from Saturday.   Bundle that with a rest day on Sunday and there it is I gained a little over a pound.

I don’t see progress yet but I expect I need to drop atleast another 15 pounds for it to be noticeable.  I think once I am at 50 pounds down there will be a big difference in my profile view.

This Morning I started the day with 50 minutes of cardio.  I ate well keeping my calories where they should be.

Breakfast                      424 calories

Morning snack             318 cal

Lunch                            628 cal

afternoon   snack         164 cal

evening snack              130 cal

dinner                           631 cal

That gives me a total of 2296 calories for the day.  Once you subtract out my workouts I am right where I need to be.    This afternoon workout started with 15 minutes of walking at 5 % incline at 3.3 miles per hour.   After that warn up I started a 5X5 workout.    Today was squats, dumbbell bench press and bent over rows.  5 sets each.  My legs are really feeling the squats.   I can’t wait to see how I feel tomorrow.   I plan to follow this 5×5 lifting only 3 days a week.  I will do additional cardio on the afternoons that I am not lifting.  I plan to follow this for at least 4 weeks.   Something new to shock the body some.

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Week 3 Day 7

Posted on February 27, 2011 by admin

After a really busy day yesterday I decided today would be a day of rest.   I took it easy catching up on some TV shows and even played some Killzone 3  for about an hour.  I also took a nap for an hour since I was really not getting enough sleep all week.

My activity for the day was grocery shopping for an hour.  I know that it is not much but it got me moving and carrying the packages, bending and squatting to put items away, and then working on my feet to cook dinner and do some meal prep for the week .    I feel like sometimes rest is a good thing to get your mind right and it did make my muscles feel better too.  I was less tense all day.  That was cool.

I kept my calorie intake at 2000 calories today.    I did eat two huge bowls of lettuce salad with my salmon and a bowl of grapes for dinner.  I wanted to keep it on the lighter side since my breakfast was the other halfof my wife’s turkey sandwich from Quiznos, and my morning break was the other half of my wife’s middle eastern leftovers that included white rice.   Lunch was a can of tuna, 1 tea spoon of light mayo, 1/2 serving of honey roasted almonds and a Healthy choice frozen meal (310 cal).   It might have been too many calories since I did not do more active things today, but the weather is getting warmer here and soon both weekend days are going to be outdoor days.    Tomorrow starts week 4!

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Week 3 Day 6

Posted on February 26, 2011 by admin

I went to Bally’s total fitness for a morning workout.   I weighed myself and was 339.4 pounds. 

Very weird.  I ate more yesterday up to my limit of calories and I dropped a little bit of weight.   So then i moved onto my exercise.    Today I did 30 minutes on the elliptical machine and 15 minutes on their stair master.  The stair master at Bally’s kicked my butt!   I was only able to have it on level 1.   That was a humbling experience.

When I got home I was frinding for some food.  I made a 3 egg omolet with some potato and turkey sausage.  I also had a chopped banana with some honey.

Today was an all day shopping day.  We are looking for a new couch and love seat for our small living room and visit 5 different stores and returned to one for a second time. My wife’s brother joined us in the fun.   My wife wore her pedometer and we walked 3.7 miles and did plenty of sit downs and stand ups.   We had stopped for lunch at a favorite middle eastern place and I enjoyed Haleem, chick peas, rice and bread  with a ruby red grapefruit juice.  After hours of more shopping we ate at Quizno’s for dinner.  I had the classic Italian foot long.  Not the healthiest choice but it was something different from the chicken sandwiches I would get at Subway and I wanted something different.    I enjoyed it and feel quite satisfied.   So in the end we have not found the couch for us.   I don’t think I will be spending another day like I did today shopping for couches.  The things we do for love.   Tomorrow will mostly be a rest day with a possibility of light cardio at the gym and a quick grocery shopping trip.  I did pick up 2 new video games and play to get some gaming recreation in tomorrow.  Good night for tonight!

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Week 3 Day 5

Posted on February 25, 2011 by admin

This morning was a bummer.  I weighted myself and I was still 340 lbs.  No weight loss for the week, yet.  I knew a plateau was inevitable.    Here are the most likely culprits for the stagnation.

1. I am not eating enough.  my metabolism is slowing down.
2. I am eating too much.
3. I am not exercising enough.  maybe not enough cardio and weightlifting?
4. I am working out too much.  My muscles are not burning fat, my body is
burning muscle which causes me to burn less calories.
5. My body has adjusted to my current meals and workouts.
6  A combination of the above.

Monday through Friday I do 45 min to 60 minutes of cardio in the morning before work.   Monday through Thursday I weight lift after work for 30-45 minutes.  I also add 15 minutes of cardio as a warm-up at least 2 of the 4 days before weights.

I am exploring some new workout routines to try with the weight lifting.  I have been doing what I have been doing for years without diet changes and got nowhere.   I have changed my diet now to something very reasonable and made it a lifestyle change.  I have  exercises that I never used to do to get more body parts working.   I am at a plateau.  I know it will not last and the scale will start moving again.  I also know this is the perfect time to change my weight workout.   I either need to scrap what I am doing completely of add some new lifts and delete some others.   I have begun seeking advice from others that have walked in my shoes.

Today was a regular day except I was hungrier than I have been in the past.  My morning breakfast and lunch were slightly under 600 calories each and my morning break was a little over 500 calories.   My afternoon break meal was a salad with black olives and low fat feta cheese.   My caloric intake ran 37 calories over my limit.  Not huge but over is still over.  I use My Plate on livestrong.com to track food intake.  I like how it does a lot of the things you would need to look up individually and then calculate all automatically for you.  Not having to do math while keeping track of your food and exercise is great!  Plus it saves time.

I expect to do some more research into my workout routine as well as enjoy some outdoor activities this weekend.   Here is to having a better tomorrow than the day I had today.

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