The Road to Fitness - A Personal Journey

Another Time

2008-03-30T23:38:00.001-05:00

Fitness News - Irregular Exercise May Add Pounds

2008-03-11T21:55:00.004-05:00

I was reading some news and ran across an article with the head line "Irregular Exercise Pattern May Add Pounds". It basically said that a new study done by the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory determined that the weight gained during an exercise hiatus can be tough to shed when exercise is resumed at a later date. This of course it bad news for me. As you might have read I have a habit of getting in shape and just letting myself go when I get where I want to be.

This only goes to show us that the only way to lose weight and keep it off is not fad diets and get skinny quick schemes, it can only be done by conscience effort and a change in life style.

If you want to read the article: DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (February 1, 2008). Irregular Exercise Pattern May Add Pounds.

On the Road Again!

2008-03-10T21:45:00.003-05:00

Well I just thought I would check in, my wife and I have been working out every other day. I also found my magic bullet! For my sister it was switching from Coke to Diet Coke.

For the longest time I thought that I didn't have a magic bullet, I only drink water, I don't eat many sweets. But I found it... I was eating out for lunch most days of the week. Now, I was trying to eat good, turkey wraps, chicken sandwiches, salads. But for a test I decided to bring food everyday for a month.

I have decided that even though I was eating good food, I was eating too much. I am now following the weight watchers points system for my food intake. I have lost 8lbs.

I will try to get a now post with my stats up soon!!!

Starting Over

2008-02-24T11:05:00.003-06:00

Well, I can't say that I haven't been working out completely but I have fallen into my old trap...

I said that I wasn't going to let it happen and now it has been a month since I have posted last and I haven't been working out on a regular basis. The only good thing is that I have been dieting. A bunch of people from work went on weight watchers and I have started to hang out with them and eat that they are eating.

I will have to reassess and begin again...

Adjusting my Goal!

2008-01-14T23:03:00.001-06:00

My original goal was to build a workout routine that is sustainable long term and that gives me what I will call functional fitness.

I said "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!!!"

I think that that goal is a very good goal for any one starting to get in shape. But at this point I feel like I have hit that goal. I can take the steps two at a time with ease. I can hold both kids at once with very good arm strength.

As of next week Tuesday it will have been two months. My new goal is to now lose weight while maintaining the strength and stamina I have gained. I am going to increase the time of my cardio to help me burn more calories.

Feeling good, but still have a long road!

Push-up Testing

2008-01-10T22:28:00.000-06:00

I was getting reacquainted with my ACE Personal Trainer Manual today, I was reading through the Testing and Evaluation section. I ran into the push-up test! This test is to test the upper body strength and endurance. Here is the chart with norms for my age group using the number of push-ups completed.

Age 30 to 39 for males
Excellent = >30
Above Average = 22-29
Average = 17-21
Below Average = 12-16
Poor = <11

I know you want to know how many I did... Well I did 23!!! That makes me above average, hooray!!! On that note it is time for bed!

Great Workout! Harsh Motivation!

2008-01-09T22:37:00.000-06:00

Today I finished my workout and I felt like I had a renewed vigor! I don't know maybe it was just the idea that I realized one of my biggest problems the "feel good" issue and I know it and am working on over coming it.

I am not sure if I mentioned but I have been taking occasional picture to have photographic evidence of my progress. I am going to really try to take them once a week from on now. I know you want to see my picture but I am not ready for that... Still too much weight to lose... :(

But the reason I mention the pictures, there is no greater motivation the a picture. No matter what the scale says, no matter what our body fat percent reads, at the end of the day a photo or mirror really gives us the whole picture... Sure I feel good, but I won't be getting any second looks like this! For me I look at the picture and see what a wonderful gift god gave me. No matter what I look like now, all 300 lbs! But I think of it as a rare stone in the ground. Yes god gave it to me but with a little polish, I can really make it shine! I just have to keep pushing, because no one can do it for me.

Tipping Point

2008-01-08T23:06:00.000-06:00

Well it has been eight days since my last post and I have been working out but slacking on my cardio. I see the signs of quitting in the future. So I will be posting daily again to help keep up my conviction and keep reminding myself...

Even if I FEEL GREAT and feel like my goal of functional fitness is within reach, now is not the time to slack. I have to make a conscience effort to follow through with my goals. Feeling good is not enough, I have a lot of extra weight that when gone will make me feel even better then I do now.

When I say that I feel like my functional fitness goal is within reach, I mean to say the flexibility and strength feel like they are there. I can pick up my kid with one arm and hold him, no problem. I trot up the steps at work with little effort. I just have to remember, like I said losing the weight will make a bigger difference and make me feel even better!

I think that I have mentioned this I a previous post but typically this would be a hard time for me. The small goals give me confidence and I feel like I can slack off and would eventually stop altogether. But this time will be different, I am blogging my experience, and am aware of the "feel good" issue and will not fall into that trap!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T22:29:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year to all! I has been a few days since my last post so I will just fill you in. I has been a great holiday season for me, but a bad holiday season for my workouts and exercise. I had 4 family gatherings that I attended. I do have to say that I did a great job staying away from the snacks and junk food.

In fact here is a tip, stay out of the kitchen or the area where the snacks are put out, out of site out of mind. Make sure to talk to relatives and family, play games, these will help keep you busy so you don't miss the junk...

New Years Resolution: I have been thinking about this very hard, and I don't need to do the normal I will lose weight, because that is already on my list of thinks I am doing! So I think that I am going to resolve to re-study everything I need to get my Personal Trainer Certification and pay to take the test to become a certified trainer. I have yet to decide if I will continue with the American Council on Exercise (ACE) certification or the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) certification. For now I will start to brush-up using the ACE materials I have already!

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-22T10:32:00.001-06:00

Hey all, I know it has been a few days since I posted last but with the holiday season it has been busy. I just wanted to take the time to say happy holidays and an have a great new year.

Make sure to add a little time to your cardio so that you can indulge a little more at all of those holiday partys that happen this time of the year!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Feliz Navidad, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Holidays and have a great New Year!!!

Enjoying your Workouts!

2007-12-18T20:57:00.000-06:00

Enjoying your Workouts!

Well I was thinking about this a bit... As time goes on many people eventually get bored with there routines and stop. Here are a few tips that I though might help me.

Audio Books
This is my personal favorite, I love to listen to books while I workout. Sometimes I’m so into the book that I don’t want to stop working out because I want to see what happens in the book. These days there are books on just about every topic so it’s easy to find something you like!
Music
Music can literally move you. Make sure to pick music you like to listen to but make sure it has a fast beat to it, something you like to dance to! For myself I have about 20 playlists setup, each about 30 +/- a minute or two. There is lots of variation in the music so I will listen to what moves me on that day. My playlists range from Techno to Hard Rock, Reggae to punk. I like it all, just depending on my mood!
Workout Variation
This is a great way to make your routines not get boring. Change them often. When I say change them, what I mean is you don’t always have to do the same exercise to get the same workout. Example: If you want to work the chest, you could do push-ups, dumbbell flies, normal bench press, incline presses, or decline presses.
TV
Get a TV in your workout area. It may help you enjoy the time you spend working out. I used to run on a tread mill and watch tapes of my favorite sitcom.
Anything you can do to make it interesting!
If there is anything you can do to make your workout interesting do it. If you like baseball, join a team near you. Any sport might give you jus that little push to workout harder. Maybe even bowling or golf. Heck you might even get a little off the main line sports and choose something like boxing or a martial art! If it keeps you interested and gives you a reason to work out DO IT!

Status Update #1

2007-12-17T22:49:00.001-06:00

I know it has been a few weeks, but here are my new stats!

Remember my body fat goal is 20%.

MY STATS (sad but true)
Age: 32 Height: 5’11”
Weight: 308.5 Body Fat: 32%
Body Water: 45% Waist: 44”
Abdomen: 53.25” Chest: 54”
Right Bicep: 16.25” Left Bicep: 16.75”
Right Calve: 18” Left Calve: 18.5”
Right Quadriceps: 26.5” Left Quadriceps: 26.5”

Well my weight has gone up 1lb... But I lost abdomen size and gained chest size.
I will have to make sure to do my aerobics.

End of the first week!

2007-12-16T22:42:00.000-06:00

Well so far so good! I can really tell that I am getting a good workout. I have been a little sore, but its a good sore! I like it! Sometimes I feel that it is hard to take days off, I keep feeling that if I just keep working out I can lose the weight that much faster. But I know that it won't work that way, I'll burn out or worst overtrain... I just have to know that it is working and stick to the routine!!!

I do have to be careful to make sure I take my supplements everyday. I missed taking them on Thursday and by Saturday I could tell that I missed a day. I felt tired and just not on, like I had no energy. I feel find today and will not forget again!

Aerobic fitness

2007-12-15T23:15:00.001-06:00

Work hard to burn fat, using aerobics. Increasing your aerobic fitness will help make your heart stronger, increase your lungs ability to get oxygen and make your body create new blood vessels to transport oxygen throughout your body better. This will make it easier to do many tasks like running to first base, running to catch the bus, or just spending the day walking around the mail shopping.

Any physical activity that increases your heart rate is considered aerobic. Activities like jumping rope, walking, running, biking, swimming, dancing, kick boxing. I am going to try to aim for at least 45 minutes of aerobic exercise 4 days a week.

I think I read that they are now saying that the 30 to 60 minutes they recommend of aerobic exercise doesn’t have to be all at one time. If I recall correctly you can do four 15 minute routines and that is just as good as doing it all at once. I’ll see if I can find that information and write something on that!

Muscular fitness

2007-12-14T23:47:00.000-06:00

Muscular fitness is another one of our main areas that make up a balanced workout routine. The more muscle you have the more calories they burn. So by regularly doing strength training we can help reduce body fat. Building muscles will help to protect our joints from injury by keep them stable and in line. It will also help us in our day to day life, carrying groceries, lifting our kids, moving a box of files, putting the water bottle on the water cooler, etc.

I know that most people think about going to the gym when they think of muscular fitness but if you have been with me since the beginning you will know that there are other things you can do beside traditional weights at the gym. Are own body weight works great for most people. I was doing push-ups, crunches, pull-ups and leg squats. Once I get strong enough that I need to add weight I ordered a resistance bands kit. I know I could order a full set of Olympic weight but I want to keep this with in the $$$ reach of anyone reading this. I bought the GoFit Ultimate ProGym with DVD for $30. What I liked most about this is the fact that more then one band can hook to the handles so you can combine the bands to get higher weights.

Stretching

2007-12-13T23:45:00.000-06:00

Why is stretching important? Stretching increases your flexibility, improves the range of motion of your joints, and promotes better posture and circulation. Regular stretching can even relieve stress and help prevent injury, especially if your muscles or joints are tight.

Just think of it this way, even if you didn’t eat right, or work to increase strength or aerobic fitness, just doing stretching will make you feel so much better! I think that just doing the stretches helps to increase the functional strength that will help everything you do come just a little bit easier.

When I first started working out a few months ago I started with a book called “The Shaolin Workout – 28 Days to Transforming Your Body and Soul the Warrior’s Way” by Shi Yan Ming. I bought the book because I have always been interested in the martial arts and this was a book about Shaolin Kung Fu, I thought it would be sweet. Well I can tell you the book does many things, but for the body workout, most of it is stretching and building strength using just your bodyweight.

I think if you wanted to start to get in shape and didn’t think you could this book might be a great place to start. Not only does it start slow and build up to anything hard, but it also has a “Meditation” to go with each day that talked to me as a person and for me personally was really good for my soul. Not to mention helped to keep me motivated. Here is one of my favorite quotes from the book, which happens to be a topic for one of the meditations. “If you want to do it, nothing is difficult. If you don’t want to do it, nothing is easy.”

Strengthening Your Core

2007-12-12T13:51:00.001-06:00

What is Core Fitness? The core refers to the trunk of your body and all of the muscles associated with your trunk including the abs, back, and pelvis muscles. A strong core can make it easier to do most physical activities. Training these muscles to work together will help you move more efficiently and prevent strain on your spine. Also, establishing a strong core will stabilize your posture, which helps prevent back pain.

Think about all of the activities that a strong core will affect; walking, running, lifting, your golf swing, baseball bat swing, just about everything you do.

A stability ball is a great tool to help strenthing our core. I have the GoFit 65cm Professional Stability Ball that came with a DVD. I will be adjusting my routines to include some abs work with the stability ball.

A Balanced Workout Routine

2007-12-11T23:41:00.000-06:00

There are 4 main areas that make up a balanced workout routine.

Aerobic fitness
Muscular fitness
Stretching
Core stability

Each is like a piece to a puzzle, leave one out and you don't get the whole picture. Over the next few days I will talk more about each one. I will explain why each is important and what I am doing in my routines to get a all the pieces together!

First day of the new routine!

2007-12-10T23:42:00.000-06:00

Today I did Routine #1 and I love it... I was a little tired today but I feel better now that I have worked out!

This is an intermediate to advanced routine, so I am taking it easy for the first week. Now I don’t want you to get the idea that I am slacking, I am just taking it easy. Most of the exercises I did with the lowest band weight I could or just body weight. For instance one-leg squats are one of the exercises that I had to take it easy… I used a chair next to me for support and balance to make sure I had proper form… I will work into doing them with no help. If you have a similar goal to me, then you have to pick exercises that you can do and do properly. For example if you’re not ready for one-leg squats, do normal two leg squats. And start with NO weight and go all the way to the floor. Once these get easy you can work your way up by adding weight, then switching to one-leg squats.

I guess that shoe company said it best, you just have to do it, and then keep doing it! Eventually you will love doing it and won’t want to stop! I mean I love it when you notice changes, like squatting down and picking up my two year old and standing up, like he weighted nothing! Hopefully the cardio will help the weight start going down!!! I know that at the start of something like this you can feel discouraged when the weight doesn’t fall off right away, but remember you are building muscle, so use the mirror, check your pant size, or even get a body fat tester like the Omron HBF-306C Fat Loss Monitor .

Just keep at it, it will all be worth it!!!

Split Routine #2

2007-12-09T20:41:00.001-06:00

Heres what I will do Tuesday and Saturday.

This will be my Back, Shoulders, Bicepts, and Forearms day. I will still do the normal warm-up of jumping jacks and streaching before my exercises. After I do the below routine I will finish up with 15 mins of jump rope.

Resistance Band Rows
Lateral Rows with Resistance Band
Resistance Band Front Deltoid Raises
Resistance Band Shoulder Shrugs
Elephants
Close Grip Chin-ups
Resistance Band Curls
Resistance Band Reverse Grip Curls
Resistance Band Forearm Curls
Resistance Band Reverse Forearm Curls

Split Routine #1

2007-12-09T20:39:00.000-06:00

Here's what I will do Monday and Friday.

This will be my Legs, Glutes, Thighs, Chest, Tricepts, and Abs day. I will still do the normal warm-up of jumping jacks and streaching before my exercises. After I do the below routine I will finish up with 15 mins of jump rope.

Single-Leg Squats
Standing Back Leg Swing
Heel Raises
Toe Raises
Jumping Lunges
Push-ups with feet up
Resistance Band Flys
Triceps Extension with Resistance Band
Hanging Knee Raises
Twisting Crunches

Adjusting the workout.

2007-12-07T23:37:00.000-06:00

Originally I said 2 on 1 off 2 on and repeat. I am finding it hard to remember what days I am on so I am changing this to 2 on 1 off 2 on 2 off. That’s four days a week to workout and by adding the cardio I hope to start dropping the weight! Another thing I am going to change is I am also going to make create a second routine. I will post about the new routines later! But for now here is the new schedule.

Monday Routine 1
Tuesday Routine 2
Wednesday Off
Thursday Off
Friday Routine 1
Saturday Routine 2
Sunday Off

Sticking to the Plan

2007-12-06T22:12:00.000-06:00

One of my biggest problems with weight loss and fitness is getting great results. I know thats sound weird, shouldn't getting great results not be a problem? It shouldn't but lets paint a picture, I start a fitness program, I start to feel better lose a little weight, maybe fit into some pants that I haven't fit into in a while... Everything is great... Then it happens, life, something comes up and I feel so good and am seeing results.. I can skip a day... The next thing I know I haven't worked out in a week? The reason I am telling you this it to help me break this habit.

Feeling good leads to the "It's ok to skip a workout" and then next thing I know I have gained back the weight and have to start over! As long as I am posting here, that will not happen!

This time it will stick!!! If not for me for my grand kids!

Thinking about Cardio

2007-12-05T22:54:00.000-06:00

The next thing to add to my workouts to really make my weight loss a reality is some cardio. Cardio comes in many forms like jumping rope, running, biking, aerobic kickboxing, etc.

I’m sure you can tell that one of the things I am trying to do is make this a low cost workout routine that anyone can do. I could lay out a bunch of money and get a gym membership, but besides the cost, there is also the time, driving to and from the gym, waiting on equipment.

So my low cost choice is jumping rope. I bought a GoFit Weighted Jump Rope from Amazon. Many people think of jumping rope a something kids do but jumping rope is a great cardio workout. For example a 175 pound man will burn 225 calories in just 15 minutes. If that doesn’t motivate you think about rocky and all the other boxers using a jump rope to prepare for fights. This should do the job and is a great price!

Feeling Good!

2007-12-04T23:17:00.000-06:00

I know that it hasn't been long since I started the new workout routine, but I want to make sure everyone know that I feel great!!! I mean, you would think all the working out would make you feel tired. But, it has just the opposite effect, I feel GREAT!!! I have more energy and sleep better. This weekend I will weigh in again and see of we have lost two pounds yet!

Supplements

2007-12-03T08:04:00.000-06:00

I use a one a day vitamin and fish oil. Many people know that it is good to take a vitamin but don't know much about or never heard of fish oil.

Fish oil is recommended for a healthy diet because it contains the omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA).

Benefits include anti-inflammatory properties and positive effects on body composition. Some experts also believe that taking fish oil (in any form) can help regulate cholesterol in the body.

What made me a believer is my own experience. I hurt my left knee during football many many years ago and every so often when I am walking up the steps at my office I get a twinge of pain. I have been taking fish oil for 2 months and I have not had that pain at all. I will keep you updated on this, but as of now, I love it and will continue to use the fish oil with a daily vitamin.

One more note about vitamins. I know that they say most of a one a day vitamin is just expelled from the body, so I should take a two a day or something like that. For those not familiar with a two a day vitamin, they just make the pill with half the dose. The idea behind that is when your body digests the vitamin you get some of what you need and some doesn’t get digested and just passes out the body. By splitting the does to twice a day, you end up getting more useable vitamins that get digested and less that gets passed out of the body.

I know this make a two a day better, but for me is was just one more pill to have to remember to take and quite a few times I would forget to take the second one. So that’s why I switched back to a one a day.

I am still checking into powdered vitamins. I hear that they absorb into the body easier so you don’t end up passing they vitamins out and in turn waste money. But I will post more info when I get done checking on that!!!

I am also currently looking into a few more products, Glucosamine, Chondroitin, and MSM. Once I figure out if I will take these products for Joints I will post about them.

Water: Not only good for you but necessary for a healthy life.

2007-12-01T21:15:00.000-06:00

The human body is mostly water, so making sure I am drinking enough is important. I have heard that most people can’t tell the difference between being thirsty and being hungry. And since being even being mildly dehydrated can sap your energy and make you tired. We want to be careful, since we are exercising we sweat more then normal so we should be getting more water then the recommend amount.

Daily Water Requirements: Drink 50-75% of your body weight in ounces. Sedentary people: 50%; Active people: 75%

I will use 56% as my number. 307.5lbs * .56 = 172.2oz of water a day.

After doing the calculation I need 172.2 oz. of water a day. If we assume an average diet, about 20 percent of that water should come from the food I eat. So I need an additional 137.8 ounces of water daily. On average I am awake 16 hours a day, so I need to drink 8.61 oz. of water an hour to get the water that I need. This works out to be slightly more then a cup an hour that I need to drink.

After thinking about this and doing a little checking online, it seems that this formula is the closest to something that might work. It only works because there is a huge % range. The reason for this large % range is because there are so many things that might effect how much water you need. Here are some of those factors:

How active you are (How much you sweat)
What you eat (Some foods have more water in them then others)
Illnesses or health conditions (such as fever, vomiting and diarrhea, cause your body to lose additional fluids)
Environment (Hot or humid weather, dry air like in wintertime or the desert)
Pregnancy or breast-feeding (Women who are expecting or breast-feeding need additional fluids to stay hydrated)

So as you might guess with so many factors it might be impossible to get an exact amount. But if you look at the factors above and guesstimate the % we should be able to get close…

Changing your Diet

2007-11-30T23:57:00.000-06:00

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.

Setting Measurable Goals

2007-11-29T22:36:00.000-06:00

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.

Current Workout

2007-11-28T19:12:00.000-06:00

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!!!

Starting to Exercise

2007-11-28T18:24:00.001-06:00

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...

My Goal

2007-11-27T23:19:00.000-06:00

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?

2007-11-27T22:07:00.000-06:00

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!!!

Getting Started

2007-11-26T11:25:00.000-06:00

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!