Week 3 Day 4

Posted on February 24, 2011 by admin

WooHoo!  I got over being sick.  That is a relief.  This morning for cardio I decided to change things up and start on the recumbent bike for 20 minutes.  After that I went to the lower body elliptical machine for 35 minutes.   This felt good to do though I did not sweat as much as when I am on the treadmill.   The bike felt more like my leg muscles were being worked out instead of a cardio workout, but it is still something I need to add into the mix every couple weeks just for some change.

My meals today were all repeats of stuff I have had since starting to eat well.   Fruit veggies and protein.   I am completely comfortable with my meal choices now.   At some point I will really need to evaluate my diet to see what I can do to get more protein into me during the day.  I am working otu plenty, maybe even too much, but I am ok with losing some muscle with the majority of fat I have on my body.   If I see myself getting weaker in my workouts I will make some adjustments then.

My afternoon workout started with some exercises to shock my body.  I did pushups, sitouts (think wrestling and hitting a switch from the bottom position), situps and jogging in place for 5 or 6 minutes.  My heart was racing and I was breathing hard.  My buddy wanted jump rope but the gym did not have any jumpropes for us.   I am not sure how my ankle would take to it but I would try and if it did not work out I would jog in place for the duration.  After that we moved to Lat pull downs ans chin up pull downs,  weighted rows, then leg presses and leg extensions.  Before we knew it 45 minutes had passed and it was time to go.   I had done some reading today about a program called 5×5.   It includes exercises I never do like pullups (I can’t do one), squats (never tried them) and dead lifts (tried them a couple of times but never added them to my routine).   I am intrigued by this workout system and may try it once I hit a plateau or start to lose strength in multiple current workout exercises.   With the workout done it was time to head home for dinner.

I enjoyed an apple on the drive home and then cooked up some top sirloin cubes to go with some stir fry veggies I also made fresh tonight.  I had cabbage, onion, pepper, carrots pineapple chunks, and portobello mushrooms.  I used the canned juice from the pineapple as the sauce for the stir fry.   It was good and I will have the second half of it tomorrow for lunch.   Tomorrow is the last weigh-in for the week.   I hope to see continued success.

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Week 3 Day 3

Posted on February 23, 2011 by admin

It was a rough night of sleep.  I went to bed at 10:00 pm and was up at 2:00 am with nasal drip and congestion.  I debated whether to call in sick but decided to go in.  I figured I could always go home sick if I needed to.   At the gym I was feeling pretty good.  I did the stair master for 25 minutes and then I got on the treadmill for 30 minutes.  I decided it was time I try to incorporate some light jogging in with my walking.   I walked a minute, then jogged for 4 minutes followed by 2 minutes of walking.  I did the jog 4 walk 2 for 4 sets then jogged 2 walked 3 minutes to finish.  So I did 18 minutes of jogging with 12 minutes of walking instead of all walking.  Not bad for a starting point.

Meals for the day were all reasonable.  

 Breakfast was         460 calories

morning break        350 calories

lunch                         416 calories

afternoon snack     292 calories

My afternoon workout was 16 minutes on the treadmill walking and jogging 2 minutes each for the first 12 minutes then I walked the last 4 minutes.  Next came the weights.  I started with triceps cable curls for 4 sets of 12 at 150 pounds.  I moved to the  Smith machine with an adjustable bench that goes from full upright to fully flat in 8 adjustable positions and pressed 155 pounds at each position.  I started at the overhead press position working down to bench press position.  In the beginning 3 sets I was only able to press 3-5 reps but as the incline got closer to flat bench pressing my repititions increased to 8-9 reps.  My next exercise was also using the Smith machine. I did lateral raises for 3 sets of 10 repetitions with 95 pounds.   My last exercise was standing curls with a curl bar that had 2  25lb plates on it.  I did 4 sets with 10 reps the first set, 8 reps, 6reps then 8 reps to finish.  WOW were my muscles burning. time for the ride home and a snack on the way followed by dinner.

evening snack       165 calories.

dinner                     491 calories

That gives me 2174 calories for the day.  Subtract out my exercise for the day and I should be in a weight loss zone.     I feel pretty tired but not ready for bed.  My cold symptoms seem to be gone.  My wife is crediting the garlic cloves we added to our last two dinners.  I don’t know but am glad I feel better.   Time to get some rest.

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Week 3 Day 2

Posted on February 22, 2011 by admin

Back at work and back to my normal gym.  I did a quick check on the scale and was 8/10th a pound heavier than at Bally’s.  Maybe it was the scale or maybe it was my dinner last night.  Either way I did lose weight over the weekend.

Today’s cardio was 30 minutes on the elliptical machine and 30 minutes on the stair master.  I had a good sweat going and I was breathing hard.  I checked my heart rate while on the elliptical machine and it topped out at 142 beats per minute.  I felt good and was happy with the effort.

Breakfast was delicious. It included 2 hard boiled egg whites, 2 morningstar fake sausage patties, half a baked potato,  an orange and some ricotta cheese.  Morning break was a light yogurt, a nutri-grain bar and some baby carrots.  lunch was a salad with leftovers from last night.  There was ground turkey, cabbage, tomatoes and curry lentils.    I was feeling hungry at afternoon break and I had one Special k bar, one nature’s valley peanut butter granola bar, a yogurt and more baby carrots.

After work today I did weight lifting for 30 minutes.  I did bench presses, standing overhead presses, dumbbell lifts (from my waist to shoulder height directly in front of me), flaps (weights lifted to shoulder height out sideways of my body), dip press machine, and finally the butterflies machine.  I was done!

Once I got home it was time to make some dinner.  I started with a salad, grilled chicken breasts, portobello mushrooms and presses garlic cloves with a splash of white wine.  I added salsa and an avocado to my meal.  I also oven roasted asparagus to top my salad.  I had 2 helpings.   Based on calorie counting on livestrong.com my whole meal was less than 900 calories.  And wow it was filling.

I have been sneezing all day with a running nose so I am on my way to having a cold.  Hopefully it will pass in a day or so.  I do not feel like it hurt my workout today but fear it will effect my sleep tonight.  I am calling it a night early so I can get some extra rest!  Good night.

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Week 3 Day 1

Posted on February 21, 2011 by admin

Today was a day off with it being Presidents Day.   I was not sure what I was going to do today for exercise since the weather was looking to be bad.  My goal was to do a bike ride through the neighborhood but that was not to be.    I really wanted to go to the gym but with the post closed I did not have that as an option.  Then I remembered  I do have a membership at Bally’s that I never use,  so  off to Bally’s I went.  I checked my weight and was happy to see I lost more weight, but since this is not my regular scale I don’t know if it is exact.

If the scale is right then I am down 14 pounds so far!  I like it!   Seeing the scale really motivated me to do something different this morning.  I decided to do 90 minutes of cardio instead of 60 minutes.  I walked the treadmill at incline for 30 minutes, did and eliptical cross trainer for 30 minutes, then a lower body eliptical machine for 30 minutes.  I felt good and was even thinking of doing 30 more minute just to be crazy with the exercising but thought better of it.   I do not want to be too sore tomorrow.   Breakfast and breaks went as usual.   for Dinner we did ground turkey cooked with shredded cabbage and cherry tomatoes, and I also made curry lentels to go with it.  We took lettuce leaves and scooped some of the turkey mix with the lentels and rolled them up and ate them that way.  After dinner I had some ricotta cheese with sliced strawberries and drizzled some honey on top.   All of it tasted great and I have some left over for tomorrow’s lunch.

      The only thing left to do is document my pictures without my shirt.

That does it for me tonight, I’m beat and look foward to tomorrow!

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Week 2 Day 7

Posted on February 20, 2011 by admin

Today was a relaxing day.   We did some grocery shopping  and I did 30 minutes on an exercise bike for a workout.   I ate reasonably well.  Because my activities were low I ended up being 28 calories over my limit.  Not a huge problem, but something to work on next weekend.   I have tomorrow off for the holiday so I will make an attempt to do some bonus time exercising.  My wife gets workout dvds from the library and we also have a few that we purchased.  If nothing else I know I will be out to run errands for a few hours.  Weather permitting I may do a bike ride through the neighborhood.     Tomorrow is destined to be another great day!

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Week 2 Day 6

Posted on February 19, 2011 by admin

It felt great great to sleep in this morning.   There is something special about not getting up at 3:30 am.  Today’s 50 degree weather was accompanied by winds over 40 miles per hour.   The plan for the day is to park near the Pentagon and hike over into DC and walk the Mall and Monuments area.   So to get ready I had a good breakfast of instant oatmeal, turkey sausages, a yogurt, apple and a heaping spoonful of peanut butter.

The hike lasted a little over 2.5 hours (not including our lunch break).   The winds were viscous.  My wife and I were walking like a couple of drunks.   There were white caps on the Potomac river and in the Tidal basin.   The water was splashing up onto the walking path at the Tidal basin!

For lunch we packed tuna salad sandwiches and I also had a Special K fruit bar.  We knew we were going to be out for a while and did not want to rely on hotdog venders for out nutrition.     With is being President’s day weekend there were lots of folks out and about.   Tourists, regulars, and many folks out for a jog.   I hope to get back to jogging.   When I was jogging I always got out early to beat the crowds and it looked like some of the runners were wishing they did the same.

The rest of the day was relaxing at home.  There was even a small nap to be had on the couch.  Afternoon snack was leftovers of the BBQ beef and veggies,  Dinner was a wild greens salad, steamed carrots and Quorn fake chicken nuggets with one table spoon each of honey and mustard.   Later in the evening I had a banana with a heaping table spoon of peanut butter.

All in all today was a great day!

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Week 2 Day 5

Posted on February 18, 2011 by admin

Here I am,  my second official weigh-in for the week.    This will help judge my weekend results.

Down another pound!  That is 10 pounds down!  Woohoo!   You got to love results.  I felt good today.  My ankle though sore was not terrible today.  My morning routine was off a little bit today with it being trash morning and I needed to stop and get gas since my gas light came on.  That got me to work about 10 minutes later than normal and on Fridays I don’t normally do an afternoon workout so I park on the opposite side of campus.  This little hike adds another 4 or so minutes to getting to the gym so I only did 45 minutes of cardio.  I  chose to do the Lower body eliptical machine.  It was hot in the gym and I got a good sweat going.  At the end of work me and my coworker decided to hit the other gym on campus and do some sets on the universal gym equipment.   It felt good to do something somewhat different.  We did 30 minutes of all upper body.  4 or five sets at the overhead press, chest press, lat pull downs, tricep pull downs, chinup pull downs, and curls.  it was good to get some extra time in.

I did the normal packing of foods for the day and enjoyed 5 egg whites, half a baked potato and some part skim ricotta cheese to get me going.  I am going to try to cut and past my daily food journal to see how it looks:

Today
2,407 calories consumed

• Hard Boiled Eggs With No Yolk x
You ate 5.00 servings, which is 85 cals
1 egg is 0 cals

• Baked Potatoes x
You ate 0.80 servings, which is 88 cals
1 medium (148g/5.3oz) is 0 cals

• Sorrento Part Skim Ricotta Cheese x
You ate 1.25 servings, which is 125 cals
1/4cup is 0 cals

• Baby Carrots, Raw x
You ate 0.33 servings, which is 12 cals
3 oz. (85g/about 14 pieces) is 0 cals

• Red Delicious Apple x
You ate 1.00 serving, which is 80 cals
1 is 0 cals

• Yoplait Light Yogurt x
You ate 1.00 serving, which is 100 cals
1 Package is 0 cals

• Baked Turkey Breast x
You ate 1.50 servings, which is 255 cals
4 oz (112g) is 0 cals

• Asparagus Asparagus x
You ate 2.00 servings, which is 50 cals
12 medium spears is 0 cals

• Bertolli Extra Virgin Olive Oil x
You ate 1.50 servings, which is 180 cals
1 tbsp. (15ml) is 0 cals

• Lettuce, Romaine x
You ate 2.00 servings, which is 20 cals
1 cup (47g) is 0 cals

• Kellogg’s Special K Fruit Crisps – Blueberry x
You ate 1.00 serving, which is 100 cals
2 Crisps (25g) is 0 cals

• Del Monte Raspberry Flavored Chunky Peaches x
You ate 2.00 servings, which is 160 cals
1/2 cup is 0 cals

• Baby Carrots, Raw x
You ate 0.50 servings, which is 18 cals
3 oz. (85g/about 14 pieces) is 0 cals

• Yoplait Light Yogurt x
You ate 1.00 serving, which is 100 cals
1 Package is 0 cals

• Top Sirloin x
You ate 1.66 servings, which is 262 cals
3 oz. Separable Lean Only, Trimmed to 1/4″ Fat, Cooked, Broiled is 0 cals

• Green Bell Pepper x
You ate 0.50 servings, which is 17 cals
1 large bell pepper (164g) is 0 cals

• Yellow Onion x
You ate 0.50 servings, which is 32 cals
1 Medium (160g 5.65 oz) is 0 cals

• Portobello mushroom x
You ate 1.00 serving, which is 26 cals
100g is 0 cals

• Corn Cob x
You ate 1.50 servings, which is 167 cals
1 cob (7 inches) is 0 cals

• Peas x
You ate 1.00 serving, which is 55 cals
4 oz (113g) is 0 cals

• Smart Balance Smart Balance Light x
You ate 1.00 serving, which is 45 cals
1 TBSP (14g) is 0 cals

• Bertolli Extra Virgin Olive Oil x
You ate 1.00 serving, which is 120 cals
1 tbsp. (15ml) is 0 cals

• Gala Apple x
You ate 1.00 serving, which is 130 cals
1 large (242g/8 oz) is 0 cals

• Skippy Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter x
You ate 0.75 servings, which is 143 cals
2 Tbsps (32g) is 0 cals

• Herr’s Pretzel Rods x
You ate 0.33 servings, which is 40 cals
3 Rods (33g) is 0 cals

That is a full day breakdown of the food today.   Tomorrow is supposed to be a great day with warm tempertures so it looks like my wife and I will get out for a few hours and hike the Monuments in DC.   The flat grounds will be welcome since my foot is not 100 percent.   Tomorrow is another day to make progress!

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Week 2 Day 4

Posted on February 17, 2011 by admin

I hopped on the scale this morning to see how things are going.

Sweet!   I am down some more.  Tomorrow is the second official weigh-in for the week so I can gage my weekend success.  Will it be the same?  higher?  Lower?  I am hoping lower.

Today was a good day at the gym.   My achilles tendon in my left foot is feeling really tweaked.  I did this once before and it took weeks for it to feel right.  I was able to cruise through my morning workout without any foot drama which was good.    I did 20 minutes of the stair master and then 40 minutes of the lower body eliptical machine.  I felt great except for when I was walking to and from the gym.   Work was as usual.   The day came and went.  My food for the day was all packed and leftovers from other meals.  I had 2 salads today, one with tuna fish, one with rice, chick peas, and ground turkey with salsa.   Breakfast was instant oatmeal, two turkey sausages a yogurt, an apple and some baby carrots.  I felt great all day and not sluggish or too full.

The afternoon workout today was just weight lifting.  I did not want to push it on the ankle this afternoon.   I did benching, dip press machine, flies machine, triceps,  and curls.   It was a full workout for us.   My buddy was fired up after an email from an ex so he was driving the intensity and workloads for today.  It was good.

And that brings me to dinner.  Tonight’s menu was grilled turkey breast, asparagus, portobello mushrooms over lettuce.   Balsamic vinegar with a table spoon of honey and also musturd was the dressing.   It was very satisfying but too light on carbs so I had one pretzel rod after the salad.

I am happy with how I am progressing.  I don’t feel hungry or crazed throughout the day and that is important.  I remenber cutting weight in wrestling.  That was tough to feel hungry for days to make 171 lbs my junior year of high school.  I don’t want to struggle like that.  This diet change is a lifestyle change.   It is becoming a habit.  It is a habit now.  I like that.

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Week 2 Day 3

Posted on February 16, 2011 by admin

I checked my weight this morning and I weight -in the same as yesterday.  Dinner last night was too heavy and too much rice/carbs.   Live and learn.  I brought in more of the leftovers in for lunch and morning break but decided to skip it at breaktime and instead had a banana and a Yoplait light yogurt.   I also took it easy at lunchtime with the food.   I will divide up what is left tomorrow and have it for my two breaks.

The morning workout was a good one.  I did 30 minutes on the eliptical machine and 30 minutes walking on the treadmill at incline.   I maintained a light sweat for 60 minutes and felt good after it.    My afternoon workout was decent.  I did 20 minutes on the eliptical machine the 3 sets of hack squats, 5 sets of leg presses (270 lbs- 20 repititions), 5 sets of leg extensions,  and 3 sets of calf raises.    for the bonus I did 3 sets of situps.   I was done!  My Buddy was done too.  Today a third co-worker expressed interest in going to the gym this afternoon but was too busy when the time came.  Maybe tomorrow.

Today meals were all packed from home.  I explained aerlier about lunch and a break, breakfast was 2 morningstar fake sausage patties, 2 hard boiled eggs, 1/2 a baked potato with salsa on it.   Afternoon break was a yogurt and an orange.  Nothing fancy, just some good nutrition.     Dinner was a big bowl of lettuce with some ground beef, black beans and Newman’s own Peach salsa with a few splashes of balsamic vinegar.   Very nice.   I checked my calorie counts at My Daily Plate and saw I was low on protein for the day so I also had some chicken breast ( approximately 4 oz) with a table spoon of honey and musturd so I had something to dip the dry chicken into.  I did not consume all the honey musturd so I mixed it into my vinegar for tomorrow’s salad dressing to give the vinegar a different zing.   

I feel like the eating healthy has really taken hold of me.  I do not even think of the vending machine anymore.  When I go into the small store on post I only only look for water and hot sauce if needed.   No cravings for chocolate or potato chips.    That is a good thing.

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Week 2 Day 2

Posted on February 15, 2011 by admin

Another great day!   I started at the gym with 20 minutes of the stair master.  This really gets me breathing heavy and sweating.  Next I did an upright exercise bike that also has the upper body attachment.  I did 15 minutes then moved to the  lower body cross trainer/eliptical machine for 25 minutes.   I felt good after one hour of cardio.

Meals were all packed for today.  This really is the way for me to go.  When I don’t have bad choices in front of me while hungry and making food choices, I don’t make bad choices.   I had some hard boiled eggs, turkey sausage patties, an apple and some ricotta cheese.  This was healthy and felt satisfying to eat.    I had other fruit and yogurt to eat today as well as tuna salad for a snack.  Lunch was a salad with a ground turkey chili on top plus some red wine vinegar as a salad dressing.

Today’s afternoon workout was a low weight high rep routine.  We did the smith presses with the adjustable bench.  After cycling through the 8 positions we did not feel the need to do a second go through even though we were only using 95 lbs.   Last week we did this routine with 185lbs followed by 135lbs.  Today felt more difficult.  Funny how that is, but I guess we pushed more reps into muscle failure than when we did the heaveir weights.   Next we did lat pull downs and chinup pull downs with light weight weight then moving to a machine that is an overhead pulldown motion that has pads under your arms, and that is where you press downward to cycle a repitition.  We ended the day with 15 minutes on the treadmill.  I am walking at incline gradually increasing the incline and speed.   I can’t wait for tomorrow to do more cardio!

I was hungry on the way home and had a banana.  Once home my wife and I decided to go with a middle eastern themed dinner.  We used ground turkey and combined it with Amy’s organic black bean vegitable soup.  We also had some goya chick peas, frozen spinach and white rice.  We heavily seasoned the meal with Garlic, onion, cilantro and cumin.  The chick peas get mostly mashed up.   The meal was great.  My wife even went back for seconds and that never happens.

This was a heavier, denser meal that what I am looking for, but it was one I feel my body was craving.   Tomorrow will most likely be a chcken over salad night so I do not feel bad about enjoying what we had tonight.  In the future I will need to have a salad first then have some of this meal to better balance what I think I should be doing.   I will get on the scale tomorrow just to see if I did dinner wrong.   Until tomorrow!

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