Today was an off day, but I wanted to talk a little about diet. I know for me to be able to meet my weight lose goals, exercise alone will not be enough.
I will start small, the first thing I will do is try to eat smaller meals more often. Smaller meals will help keep me feeling like I have enough to eat so I don’t pig out. Starving is NOT the way to lose weight. If you don’t get enough food you body goes into starvation mode and will save all the calories it can. That is defiantly something we want to avoid. At this point I want to change a little at a time so smaller meals more often is a good start.
I will also try to watch what I eat, instead of the breaded chicken breast; I just have the grilled… Starting with the little things will help me stick with the new changes. I know if I change my diet too much to fast I will burn out and fall back into the rut I was in before!
At some point I will have to count calories but for now baby steps.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Setting Measurable Goals
I think that my goals are clear but we need a concrete way to measure and evaluate our progress. Most people use the scale as a way to measure success, but in this case that may not work. Over the last month I have lost zero pounds, and yet I went down a pants size. The reason for that is losing fat and gaining muscle. So a better way to gauge success is using a bioelectrical impedance body fat tester (Omron HBF-306C Fat Loss Monitor).
The ACE (American Council on Exercise) uses these general Body-fat % categories.
Classification Women (% fat) Men (% fat)
Essential fat 10-13% 2-5%
Athletes 14-20% 6-13%
Fitness 21-24% 14-17%
Healthy 25-31% 18-24%
Obese 32% and higher 25% and higher
I will also use a few body measurements to help me gauge my journey. I might actually do some other tests also but I will talk about them another day. My body fat goal is 20%.
MY STATS (sad but true)
Age: 32 Height: 5’11”
Weight: 307.5 Body Fat: 32%
Body Water: 45% Waist: 44”
Abdomen: 54” Chest: 51.5”
Right Bicep: 16” Left Bicep: 16”
Right Calve: 18” Left Calve: 18.5”
Right Quadriceps: 26.5” Left Quadriceps: 26.5”
I will update these once a week... so we can keep track. I will also get the camera out and get some photos. I plan to keep one week photos so at the end I can make a little movie so we can see the change happen over time.
The ACE (American Council on Exercise) uses these general Body-fat % categories.
Classification Women (% fat) Men (% fat)
Essential fat 10-13% 2-5%
Athletes 14-20% 6-13%
Fitness 21-24% 14-17%
Healthy 25-31% 18-24%
Obese 32% and higher 25% and higher
I will also use a few body measurements to help me gauge my journey. I might actually do some other tests also but I will talk about them another day. My body fat goal is 20%.
MY STATS (sad but true)
Age: 32 Height: 5’11”
Weight: 307.5 Body Fat: 32%
Body Water: 45% Waist: 44”
Abdomen: 54” Chest: 51.5”
Right Bicep: 16” Left Bicep: 16”
Right Calve: 18” Left Calve: 18.5”
Right Quadriceps: 26.5” Left Quadriceps: 26.5”
I will update these once a week... so we can keep track. I will also get the camera out and get some photos. I plan to keep one week photos so at the end I can make a little movie so we can see the change happen over time.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Current Workout
When I started this blog, I changed my workout from 3 times a week to 5 times. I am doing two days of exercise and 1 day of rest, and then repeat! Here is my current list of exercises. The workout takes me 15 to 20 minutes.
Warm-up:
Jumping Jacks for 1 minute 30 seconds
Rest 30 seconds
Jumping Jacks for 1 minute
Stretch:
Four-Way neck Twist and Tilt
Shoulder Shrugs
Arm Circles
Calf Stretch
Hamstring Stretch (left, right, and middle)
Butterfly Stretch
Workout:
20 Crunches
20 Twisting Crunches to the left
20 Twisting Crunches to the right
20 Lying Leg Raises
20 Supermans
10 Push-ups with my feet elevated on a 1 ½ inch box
Rest 30 seconds
10 Push-ups with my feet elevated on a 1 ½ inch box
5 cheating chin-ups
In case you are wonder what a cheating chin-up is, here’s the skinny: Because I am not strong enough to do a regular chin-up, I move a chair behind me when I am about to do my chin-ups. I hang from the bar and then bend my knees and put my toes on the seat of the chair. This way I can use my legs to give myself a little push to help me do five chin-ups. In a few weeks I should be able to remove the chair and do normal chin-ups, but you have to start some where!!!
The cheating rule helps in other places too. When you start working out you might not be able to do a push-up, try doing them on your knees. Once you get good then switch to normal push-ups. Once you get good at normal push-ups then elevate your feet to make it harder...
Good Luck! I have to go workout now, its day 4 for this workout!!!
Warm-up:
Jumping Jacks for 1 minute 30 seconds
Rest 30 seconds
Jumping Jacks for 1 minute
Stretch:
Four-Way neck Twist and Tilt
Shoulder Shrugs
Arm Circles
Calf Stretch
Hamstring Stretch (left, right, and middle)
Butterfly Stretch
Workout:
20 Crunches
20 Twisting Crunches to the left
20 Twisting Crunches to the right
20 Lying Leg Raises
20 Supermans
10 Push-ups with my feet elevated on a 1 ½ inch box
Rest 30 seconds
10 Push-ups with my feet elevated on a 1 ½ inch box
5 cheating chin-ups
In case you are wonder what a cheating chin-up is, here’s the skinny: Because I am not strong enough to do a regular chin-up, I move a chair behind me when I am about to do my chin-ups. I hang from the bar and then bend my knees and put my toes on the seat of the chair. This way I can use my legs to give myself a little push to help me do five chin-ups. In a few weeks I should be able to remove the chair and do normal chin-ups, but you have to start some where!!!
The cheating rule helps in other places too. When you start working out you might not be able to do a push-up, try doing them on your knees. Once you get good then switch to normal push-ups. Once you get good at normal push-ups then elevate your feet to make it harder...
Good Luck! I have to go workout now, its day 4 for this workout!!!
Starting to Exercise
Unfortunately my journey to fitness started about three months ago! It just so happens that this week decided that a journal would help me keep up what I started. So let me tell you how I got to this point…
I began small, three times a week, just doing push-up, crunches, and squats. All of the exercises where just using my body weight. At the very start I just did what I could. I was just spending five minutes a day exercising. After a few weeks, I was doing the 10 of each exercise.
I then started to add a little cardio. I would do jumping jacks for 30 seconds to warm up, then do some stretching, and then do the exercises. Eventually I upped my warm-up time to one minute of jumping jacks. I will tell you jumping jacks didn’t come easy to me my calves would burn. I just made sure to stretch them and keep going. Over time the jumping jacks got easier and I still get a little burn at the end of my second minute of jumping jacks.
After a little bit I decided I better even out my workout. So I added some other core (abs) exercises. I did crunches, crunches to the left, crunches to the right and leg lifts (10 of each to start with). I also added supermans. A superman is a lower back exercise where you lay on your stomach and put your hands out in front of you (like you were flying like superman) and bend backwards so your chest comes off the ground. This movement is the exact opposite of a crunch.
I also just recently bought a GoFit Chin-Up Bar that mounts in a doorway. I have played with this but still can hardly do even one. I’ll talk more about this in my current workout post...
I began small, three times a week, just doing push-up, crunches, and squats. All of the exercises where just using my body weight. At the very start I just did what I could. I was just spending five minutes a day exercising. After a few weeks, I was doing the 10 of each exercise.
I then started to add a little cardio. I would do jumping jacks for 30 seconds to warm up, then do some stretching, and then do the exercises. Eventually I upped my warm-up time to one minute of jumping jacks. I will tell you jumping jacks didn’t come easy to me my calves would burn. I just made sure to stretch them and keep going. Over time the jumping jacks got easier and I still get a little burn at the end of my second minute of jumping jacks.
After a little bit I decided I better even out my workout. So I added some other core (abs) exercises. I did crunches, crunches to the left, crunches to the right and leg lifts (10 of each to start with). I also added supermans. A superman is a lower back exercise where you lay on your stomach and put your hands out in front of you (like you were flying like superman) and bend backwards so your chest comes off the ground. This movement is the exact opposite of a crunch.
I also just recently bought a GoFit Chin-Up Bar that mounts in a doorway. I have played with this but still can hardly do even one. I’ll talk more about this in my current workout post...
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
My Goal
I know I said my goal is to "get back into shape". But I wanted to clarify that a little bit. I don’t want to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. But what I do want to do is build a workout routine that is sustainable long term and that gives me what I will call functional fitness. I want to be able to run up a flight of steps at work and not be gasping for air. I want to be able to play tag with my kids in the yard and not get winded. I want to be able to pick up my two-year old and carry him in the grocery store with out feeling like my arms are going to fall off. I want to be around to see and play with my grand kids!!!
Who am I?
Just some background about me! I am an average American with a wife, two kids, and a full time job that takes 45+ hours a week. I am 5' 11" and at this moment weight about 307.5 lbs.
You might wonder what makes me think I can loose the weight and get fit on my own. I was not always like this... In high school I was very athletic. I played offensive guard and defensive linebacker during football, was a state qualifying heavy weight wrestler, and was a shot put and discus thrower during track season.
Wrestling was by far my best sport. I have many metals and have the record for most pins in a season. My strategy was easy, I was a light heavy weight about 206 lbs, very strong and very conditioned. So all I had to do was keep out from under the big guys and wear them out!!! In case you don’t know much about wrestling the heavy weight division was 190 lbs to 275 lbs. And believe me when I say the 275 lbs was the max… You wouldn’t think that there are high school students that weigh that much but once I wrestled a guy who had to run to make weight. Again if you don’t know much about wrestling, that means this guy weighted more then 275 lbs and had to put on a rubber sweat suit and run around the gym before weigh-ins to sweat off a few pounds to make weight.
After I got out of college I was a gym rat! Two of my best friends and I went to the gym religiously three or four times a week for a little over two years. So I know what it takes to be in great physical shape. My free weight bench press was 325 lbs and free weight squat was 600 lbs.
During the two years of being a gym rat I was working on getting my ACE (American Council on Exercise) Personal Trainer certification. Like so many other things in my life my follow through was lacking. I went through all of the materials I was sent from them, I learned a ton of stuff but felt like I got the knowledge I needed and didn’t bother on spending the extra $219 to actually take the test and get the certification.
It has been many years since I have been in great shape. I am a desk jockey at work and spend most of my time sitting front of a computer. I have gained 100 lbs since high school and now I have MADE THE DECISION TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!
You might wonder what makes me think I can loose the weight and get fit on my own. I was not always like this... In high school I was very athletic. I played offensive guard and defensive linebacker during football, was a state qualifying heavy weight wrestler, and was a shot put and discus thrower during track season.
Wrestling was by far my best sport. I have many metals and have the record for most pins in a season. My strategy was easy, I was a light heavy weight about 206 lbs, very strong and very conditioned. So all I had to do was keep out from under the big guys and wear them out!!! In case you don’t know much about wrestling the heavy weight division was 190 lbs to 275 lbs. And believe me when I say the 275 lbs was the max… You wouldn’t think that there are high school students that weigh that much but once I wrestled a guy who had to run to make weight. Again if you don’t know much about wrestling, that means this guy weighted more then 275 lbs and had to put on a rubber sweat suit and run around the gym before weigh-ins to sweat off a few pounds to make weight.
After I got out of college I was a gym rat! Two of my best friends and I went to the gym religiously three or four times a week for a little over two years. So I know what it takes to be in great physical shape. My free weight bench press was 325 lbs and free weight squat was 600 lbs.
During the two years of being a gym rat I was working on getting my ACE (American Council on Exercise) Personal Trainer certification. Like so many other things in my life my follow through was lacking. I went through all of the materials I was sent from them, I learned a ton of stuff but felt like I got the knowledge I needed and didn’t bother on spending the extra $219 to actually take the test and get the certification.
It has been many years since I have been in great shape. I am a desk jockey at work and spend most of my time sitting front of a computer. I have gained 100 lbs since high school and now I have MADE THE DECISION TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!
Monday, November 26, 2007
Getting Started
The reason for doing this blog is simple; I want to get back into shape. I have tried many diets and workout programs, but none have really stuck. Many of the books I have read say that I should keep a journal of my exercises and eating habits. So I am going to do just that in the form of this blog.
I figure that there must be people that have the same problems with weight and fitness that I have. So I decided to make my journal open to all, if this works out maybe this will help others to figure out something that works for them!
I figure that there must be people that have the same problems with weight and fitness that I have. So I decided to make my journal open to all, if this works out maybe this will help others to figure out something that works for them!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
