Week 3 Workout 2

Instead of posting everything I ate today because it's become routine, I'll just say I ate the same thing as yesterday, the same meals even, just off by an hour or two. My sense of taste isn't great, and I can eat the same thing day in day out for quite a while before needing a change.

The workout today wasn't as bad as I expected, but still tough. The weight vest made things a bit more challenging, and you can believe that my legs burned after each relevant set. The running, as always, was the worst. I really LOATHE running, but let's face it, I DESPISE being fat, and in vocabulary, loathe is less bad than despise. So, I ran. 3 minutes warmup, 6 sets of 1 minute hard 1 minute easy, and 2 minutes cooldown. The first three sets I did at 7.5 mph and 3.2mph, the last two at 6.5 and 2.5. I was pretty beat, my legs feeling a little rubbery, and I didn't feel like face planting into the treadmill. I was definitely sucking eggs by the 4 set though.

In other relevant news, I finally saw progress today. Since the last three weeks were 190 lbs, I was extremely frustrated. I was and am committed to sticking the program out, because at the worst I'd be in better shape if still having a gut. I'm pretty ecstatic about seeing that one pound drop though. For the time, it's instilled a new hope in me that should help me keep going.

Time constraints

The schedule was simple today: class work class work class class videogames. Yes, I literally only had time in that order, for that many things.

The eating went alright today. 3 eggs and toast for breakfast, almonds for a snack, ham sandwich + orange + cheese stick for lunch, no snack, 2 eggs and chicken breast for dinner, cheese stick for snack. It's about the same as the day before, so it ranges about 1000 - 1100 calories.

I've been told that maybe I'm gluten intolerant. It could be true, but I sure hope not. I've never been such before, and I'd hate to give up anything with carbs for my future. I'm hoping right now that it was just a cardio issue, and we'll see how that pans out over the next week or two.

Otherwise, today was just another day.

Frustration

I weighed in yesterday and today, you know, for the "how much do I weigh this week" part. Yesterday I got a reading saying I'd gained weight, but since the day starts at 3 for me and I weighed in at 9, I gave it a pass. I weighed in today, and apparently I have not lost any weight, but at least it's not saying I've gained.

As you can guess, this is a bit frustrating. I've stuck with the diets at least 95%, never blowing out on calories on one meal or a snack except at the VERY beginning. I've done all of the workouts and cardio and never cheated. Still, it appears as though there is little progress being made.

One thing I have noticed is that my cardio doesn't leave me sucking air. I remember that the whole reason I bought the jumprope is because running would leave me that way, and completely tired, and burnt. Jumprope has been having a smaller effect, ie getting my heart rate up, but not killing me for air or leaving me jelly-legged for several hours.

This week, one top of increasing repetitions for the A and B workouts, I'll be artificially increasing my bodyweight by using the 12 pound vest I've got. To further change things up, I'm going to switch from jogging to running. I REALLY hate running, but I'll be plain and admit that I hate being fat enough that I'll run to get rid of it. I'll have to do it later at night though, because running when it's 108 F outside is a stupid proposition at best.

*****

Calorie Counting for the day

Breakfast: 2 eggs and toast. 80 + 80 + 50 (yes, the bread is 50, I checked) = 210
Snack 1: Almonds (about 100)
Lunch: Ham Sandwich, cheese stick, orange. 200 + 90 + 30 = 320
Snack 2: skipped in lieu of the workout
Dinner: chicken breast with a can of green beans, orange ( 180 + 70 + 30 = about 300 )
Total: 210 + 100 + 320 +300 = 930. This is friggin crazy, because I ate ALOT today, just alot of low calorie stuff. I also ate mostly protein today. I didn't purposely try to cut my calories, that's just how it turned out.

*****

The Workout

 

Today was Workout A. As opposed to previously, I made the workout harder by wearing a 12 pound exercise vest. Actually it feels like 20. I'll find out. Time to complete workout A was 20 minutes. After working out, I'd also resolved to run instead of doing jumprope, so I got on the treadmill, walked real fast for 3 minutes, then did my intervals: 30 seconds very hard, 30 second easy. I didn't really cool down, but I did sort walk around panting my lungs out. I did not wear the vest for this; that would have been suicide.

End of Week Workout 2

Yesterday I chose to delay the end of week workout until today. The Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday-Friday schedule is really bad with my class schedule. So, I changed the workout to Monday-Wednesday-Friday-Saturday.


I pretty much kept with my calories yesterday, except for those fries I mentioned.


Today I had a PB sandwich and a cookie for breakfast. At 6am I can a of fish (500 calories worth), and at some points later through the day I had a ham sandwich with horseradish mustard, a cheese stick, and for dinner a chicken breast, a can of peas, and an orange.


So the end of week workout today was the Bodyweight 100 twice, like last week just double with no rest between. I ended up taking my rest throughout the workout. The first round went fine until I got to the jumps, where I studdered twice, then moved on. I studdered next at squats at number 12, then at pushup number 10, then jumps several times for fear of not being able to stand on landing, then partway through lunges, then twice through the close grip pushups.


Basically it means my endurance is lacking, which means that even though the reps in the workouts haven't increased, they should have. So, as said before, I'll be increasing reps. I think I'll up 10 to 15, 12 to 18...I guess every exercise times 1.5.


Total time to get through the workout: 6 minutes + 9 minutes. Yeah. Not what it could have been, not what it should have been.

Week 2 Workout 3

I'm writing this a day late. So some things will be off.

So for the calorie count yesterday: yesterday was a Pb sandwich, two oranges, the Pb and J sandwich, a slab of meat, some mashed potatoes, a can of green beans, and a can of peas. I don't really know what the total calorie count was, but I'd be willing to bet it was about 1200. I wasn't worried about the mashed potatoes because there wasn't much of it.

As for the workout (B today), it took about 30 minutes to complete the workout and the cardio. It's not wearing me out as much as it used to. Some sets, like squats/walking offset pushup are actually kinda easy at this point. And since I go into the cardio right after the workout, I tend to skip the 4 minute warmup. It's fine, the warmup doesn't do anything for your metabolism, unlike the actual intervals.

So, I've got a choice: I can add more reps to the workout, or I can add weight to workout. I've got a sand filled weight vest my sister got me for Christmas, so I think that will work nicely for now. It's about 12 pounds, but wear it through a workout, and it brings everything right back to 'painful, miserable, but I'm gonna do this thing'.

Today is supposed to be the end of the week workout: the bodyweight 100 twice. We'll see how that goes in terms of time. I think I might crunch through the first 100 easy enough, but that second bit is gonna BURN.

It's SO hot

Yeah even for me it's hot, and that's saying something since I'm usually ok in 100 degree heat. I got in my car today, and I must have sweat out 5 pounds, because I'm sure it was 140 in there to start.

No workout today, nothing special going on, gonna stretch a little later. Did a total of about an hour of walking around in 106 degree weather today, so that's good, but it left me pretty tired, and I was already tired from waking up today.

Breakfast was eggs and toast. I'm really liking making myself a real breakfast these days, makes the day seem better than if it was just a PB sandwich or worse, a bowl of cereal, a dish I often just mindlessly crunch and slurp through.

Snack time was almonds. Lunch was a Pb and J sandwich, surprisingly only at 160 calories (100 for the bread, 50 for the PB, 10 for the jelly, it's sugar free). Second snack once home was a can of tuna and a few carrots (chalk 150 tops), and then dinner was a double burger (two patties, two slices of bread. Not real sure, but let's guess about 500).

Not alot to report today, and I think that in future off days will be quick and dirty posts. Straight calorie counts, successes and failures, unless I feel something else really needs said.

Week 2 Workout 2

Tuesdays and Thursdays I have class starting at 8am. I had set my alarm for 6:30, stupid early by my standards since I slept until 9am most days this summer. I ended up feeling rested at 4am, then went back to sleep and back awake at 6:30am. So, I feel pretty tired today. On top of this, my classes go until 6:30pm tonight, so I should get home about 7, get the workout done by 8, maybe homework done by 9, and a little bit of my video game in for another 1-2 hours.

I started the day out with 2 eggs and toast. I packed a PB and J sandwich and orange for lunch, with almonds as the snack before and after lunch. I'm pretty unclear what dinner will be since my last today is from 3:30-6:30pm. Quite. Long.

So far, total calories consumed is this: 330 + 160 + 350 + 160 = 680 + 320 = 1000.

*****

Today was workout A of the weekely workouts, week 2 being BABC. Until I get the workouts posted somewhere more useful, workout A can viewed here.

I got home a little earlier than expected, so I got the workout done by about 7:40. Workout A was a bit easy today, so the next time I do it I'll have to increase reps. It took me about 30 minutes to complete the workout. Worst case though, it got my heart rate up, and that's always a good thing for exercise!
 

As for dinner, that was just after the workout. A chicken breast, two eggs, and a can of young peas with a 20oz bottle of orange juice! I was famished, and it was delicious. total calories from that is 180 + 160 + 240 (can of peas was 240, why?!?!?!) = 580. Add the orange juice, and lets call it an even 700. Total for the day then 1700. Armed with my newfound knowledge of protein absorption rates of various sources however, we can easily discount 170 calories as pure waste, not going to muscle or fat. I'll justify the orange juice with the fact that one is allowed in the diet per day, and I'll justify the can of veggies with the fact that the daily dose of veggies is supposed to be a "heaping portion" to accompany the protein portion, so as to fill you up and be good for you while not being waste sugar.

First day of Class

So when I went to class today, on my way I checked how many pullups I could do at 200 pounds (10 lb backpack). The answer is three in a row.

Started off the day with 2 eggs and a piece of toast. chalk up about 300 calories. Had some almonds for a snack, then lunch with the pb and j sandwich + orange. Got home, no snack, dinner was the legs and wings of a rotissere chicken. I had a yogurt a little afterwards. All in all, I'm chalking calories to about 1100 or so. Given my level of inactivity for the day, except for walking around sweating in 108 degree heat, I feel ok about that.

The guy who's place I park at for classes was showing me Arnold's workout, and by Arnold I mean Schwarzenegger. It was a really old book, maybe from the 70's or 80's, about half the size of the Yellow Pages. He was telling me how he did those workouts when he was thirty. He was scarfing 5500 calories a day, putting on muscle like crazy, losing fat like nothing. He gained like 34 pounds of muscle he said, and he looked good (he says also). Given the workouts, which I saw, I believe it. And he had a quote which I like.

"I mean, if you can't trust Arnie to get in shape, who CAN you trust?" -Dave

I decided then that once I was done with this 8 week bodyweight workout, I'd do Arnie's workout. I've never been BUFF before, and I think it could be an interesting change, not to mention that it'll definitely be challenging, plus I can eat whatever the hell I want aside from raw vegetable oil by the quart because my body is going to NEED it. Ok, so that last part was a lie, I'll actually have to watch my diet quite carefully, but if you're packing down 5500 calories, and mostly protein since your body seems to only process 38% of egg protein (a little more for chicken, even more for fish, beef is less than eggs), you can imagine how much food you're cramming down because you need some x number grams of protein per day for the all the muscle you have / want to build.

In 7 weeks, when this program is done, I'll have the workouts ready to copy paste. It's an intense workout, not for anyone who wants to stay slim and toned. This is a mass building project. Dave said that his shoulder blades were entirely hidden by his trapezius muscles, that he gained inches on his forearms and biceps, and his chest gained like 14 inches. That's NUTTY buff, and that happened after 5 months of Arnie's workouts and diets.

It sounds cool. Maybe a nutty, but cool.

I didn't do any stretching today, my left hip was feeling a tad stretched, so I took the day off everything today. It should be better tomorrow.

Until tomorrow then!

Week 2 Day 1 + report

First off, the weight report. As you probably noticed, I have not lost any weight. This doesn't mean something's gone horribly wrong, however. I don't remember if not losing weight the first week is typical, but weight loss is only measure of success. Other signs have shown themselves. I've been sleeping better, I've had more energy, my thinking has been a little clearer and I've been more motivated at work and in play. Getting to that final notch on my belt was pretty difficult before but isn't difficult now, fairly easy in fact. I was probably starting to push into size 37 and I've stopped that slide, holding at 36.

Maybe next week we'll see some weight loss. I don't expect alot, just some. I'm going to attempt to be more aggressive my diet as well: more fruits and vegetables, more protein, nothing but water for a drink.

Some reasons I might not have lost weight are because I had a hard time completely eliminating diet soda. While I consumed maybe 1/10th as normal, I still didn't completely cut it, and soda does have this nasty tendency to make people gain weight. There was also the Lucky Wishbone incident, as well as the big lunch yesterday. Still, I don't think I would have scarfed those down if the body wasn't screaming for it. At least the big lunch was mostly protein.

***** 

Today is Week 2 Day 1 of the belly off workout. Since last week I went ABAC for workouts, this week it'll be BABC for workouts. As I've not posted the B workout yet, here it is:

The workout took me about 40 minutes. It's still difficult, even though the reps haven't increased.

*****

Calorie Count for the day.

Cherry cheese danish at 3am, can of peas at 5:15am, munching on bits of stuff until 9am. My guess would be 450 + 240 + 100 = 700. As soon as I got home, I went to sleep. I woke up around 2pm and had a bowl of hamburger meat with green beans, likely another 350 calories, and then an orange, about 50 calories. Later that night I had 2 eggs and a tamale and an orange for dinner, about 240 + 160 + 50 = 460 calories.

Total: 460 + 700 + 400 = 1560.

Bodyweight 100, Week 1 Finale

Let's get the calorie count outta the way.

For breakfast, at about 3am I dug into a PB sandwich, followed shortly by a cookie at work. After that, at about 6am, I worked my way into a can of peas, and from then until 9 I munched on small bits of chocolate. Coming home, I made a Tamale and 2 eggs, and then dug into the remnants of some Greek pita thingy. 

Total calories for the day: 300 + 200 + 240 + 50 (bits of chocolate) + 460 + 300 = about 1500. Clearly, my body is revolting every time there's easy access to food around. Thankfully, I've got at most 6 hours left in my day at this point at 2:30pm, so I think I can get away with more calories, so long as I'm only munching and it's very few calories. Lunch was the big problem, with the 760 calorie intake. I pretty much blew it right there. Thankfully, about half of lunch was protein, so after my workout, the protein will be put to good use and not go to waste or body fat.

Tomorrow I'll report my weight. I'll do so every Sunday and post it in the "about me" section as well.

*****

today I was supposed to do the bodyweight 100 with a target time of 7 minutes. I didn't time myself, but it took at most 7 minutes, and it honestly felt like 6. Here's the workout.

 

The 20 squats took about 40 seconds. 20 pushups, the same. 20 jumps, my legs were feeling pretty rickety at 15, but I grunted through it, another 60 seconds. No chinup bar, skip. 20 lunges, this took about 2 minutes given about 3 seconds per plus needing some breaks because my legs were noodles at this point. 15 close grip pushups amended to 20, took about 20 seconds (10 pushups), a 10 second break, then 20 seconds (10 pushups).

Total estimated time: 140 +120 + 40 = 140 + 160 = 300 = 5 minutes.

Believe it or not, it did kick my butt a little. My breath was raw afterwards, my legs still worn out. Pretty fast test of strength and endurance though. Endurance is a tad lacking, but should be remedied by next week enough that I can grind through the bodyweight 100 2x next week.

I will do pullups at school tomorrow, just to see how many I can do in a row, and I'll report it in the next entry.

Cheat Day

Today started out good. PB sandwich for breakfast, famous amos cookies to munch over 3 hours, tamale and eggs for lunch. Dinner was a disaster though: Lucky Wishbone. I DEVOURED a completely unhealthy Chicken Breast dinner from Lucky. that meal itself was probably about 1500 calories, putting me at maybe 2500 for the day.

Can you say FAILURE. Hahaha. Oh man.

The diet does allow for a cheat day, within limits. The limits usually go in the way of eat whatever, but stay in calorie range. I pretty much failed at that. Thankfully, when you eat excess calories, if you go way outta whack, most of that doesn't go to fat. Most of it actually gets thrown away. Why do you think it takes a month or two to put on all that weight?

So, while I was planning on some Tiger Stripe cake for my off day, I'm gonna have to forgo it this week. I burned my cheat day on fried chicken, fries, and garlic bread.

Either today or tomorrow I'm supposed to do this bodyweight 100 workout. I think I'll do it tomorrow, as I don't particularly feel like doing it today.
 
In regards to the Lucky Wishbone, the parents were running out to get some, and offered to me one. It's a childhood favorite meal, I held out for about 10 seconds before my mouth betrayed me.

Week 1 Workout 3

So the way the workouts work is this: 4 a week. the first week is A B A, the second B A B, and so on through 8 weeks. So this week had me repeat Workout A, ie the first workout. I'm not sure yet if the reps will each increase for each exercise over time, however, I'd be surprised if they didn't. Below is Workout A.

 

The workout was actually somewhat easy today. Not much to say about it, but as I say this I realize that the bodyweight 100, the end of week workout for Week 1, is going to kick my ass, especially given that I have 7 minutes to complete it. 20 squats, 2 pushups, 5 pullups, 20 jumps, 20 something else, and 15 something else. It's a no holds bar sprint for the finish.

As for today's eating, I haven't yet had dinner. PB sandwich for breakfast, a literal bowl of cooked hamburger with some green beans. Yeah, I know, my diet is pretty simple right now. I haven't yet actually gone out and done some shopping for the diet part of this program, so until I do, I'm just wingin' it with the concept. The concept was largely portion control, mostly protein, low-carb (fruits are ok), and some fat in each meal to keep the hunger away and reduce cravings. For instance, one of the recommended snacks is a handful of almonds, a food with a good deal of fat considering how many you're supposed to eat for a snack.

Off day #2

I kinda messed up today. I didn't keep with my successes and kinda went with my failures, both categories from the previous day.

I woke up a little early, so I had a 3 egg McMuffin, 180 + 240 = 420 calories for breakfast. Given that it was whole grain bread and otherwise all protein, I feel alright about that. I didn't have anything else to eat until 2pm though, so I failed at munching and keeping the stomach churning. Lunch was a chicken breast and a tamale: 200 + 300 = 500. Not the best way to do it, but my failure earlier resulted in me needing the eat more at lunch. 

Around 6pm, the parents drop a brownie on my desk. To say self-control abandoned me is an understatement: it slashed its wrist and threw itself off the the 9th floor of some tall building. I downed that brownie like a pack of hyenas on old meat. After that, dinner at 9, a simple PB sandwich. My guess is the brownie was 300, judging by size and the ones we have at work, and the PB sandwich is another 30 abouts. So 1600 for the day.

1600 in itself ain't bad, it's the portions and that blasted brownie at the end.

After dinner, since it was pretty light, I stretched for about 30 minutes. I did legs, groin, arms, stomach, and shoulders. I did it all twice, so hopefully that limbered me up some.

Starting tomorrow, I'll post links to the vids for my workouts, as they also include demonstrations of the exercises.

I don't consider today a real success, but not a real failure either. Maybe just somewhere in between. It could have been much better though, if I had an inch of self-control.

Week 2 Day 2

Started off my day with another PB sandwich. Hey, don't look at me cross-eyed, it's standard breakfast fare for me. It's easy to make with only 2 ingredients, and I like doing things pretty much as simply as possible. Anyways, that was at 9:15.

Once I got to work, I bought that pack of Famous Amos Cookies. It cost a buck, and I had it in change. I snacked on it from about 10:30 to 12, so I didn't wolf down the cookies too fast. I spread the calories out , so chances are it won't all go to fat.

Total Calories so far: 550.

Well, that sorta sucks. That's like a 3rd of my limit already, and I still gotta get lunch and dinner sometime. Lunch is probably going to happen about 2pm, since that should be about when I make it home. Dinner will probably happen about 6. Hmm, maybe I should work out WHILE I make lunch, that could work! (I'm still at work, but it's a slow point right now as I wait for the computer to finish what it needs to do, as I can't do anything until it's done.)

***** 

I skipped lunch. It's not the best choice, but at 2pm, and with dinner around the corner, a snack was a better option. I had a can of tuna (in water) and a yogurt, both 100 calories, totaling 200. After my workout, I had a Chicken breast and a can of green beans with some salsa. That's 180 + 60 + maybe 10 for the salsa. It's 8pm now, and I'm not going to eat anything else for the day.

Total Calories for the day: 550 + 200 + 250 = 1000.

Failures for the day: I didn't even consume 1200 calories, only hitting 1000. That's not quite enough. I need to watch that more closely and stay closer to 1200 so that weight loss doesn't plateau.

Successes for the day: I didn't overeat at any point, so most likely none of what I ate today went to body fat. Also very important is that I didn't have any mass cravings because I kept munching at appropriate times. I need to make sure I keep this behavior up.

*****

Today was Week 1 Day 2 of the workout.

Warmup: (2 sets, 30 seconds rest between)

10 Squats, 10 pushups, 10 stick ups, 10 mountain climbers, 10 lunges, 10 bows.

Set 1: (2 sets, 30 seconds between)

15 prisoner squats, 16 (8 each side) walking offset pushups

Set 2: (2 sets, 1 minute between)

12 split squat (front foot elevated), 12 inverted rows (I had no bar, so I substituted that for wall-pushoffs)

Set 3: (2 sets, 1 minute between)

12 (6 per side) stability ball jacknives, 12 stability ball leg curls

Set 4: (2 sets, 1 minute between)

16 (8 per side) spiderman pushup (subbed regular pushups for this), 30 (15 per leg) 1-leg hip raises

Cardio:

3 minute warmup, easy level

3 sets of 1 minute hard, 1 minute slow

3 minute cooldown

It's official, my body did not agree with me today. Almost hated me in fact. The warmup pretty much sucked, and during the split lunges my legs were killing me, almost giving out. Nevertheless, I managed to get everything done on time without cheating. I didn't have a stability ball, so I used a computer chair for the ball. It's a little harder because the chair doesn't want to go where you tell it, but it works out and saves buying a stability ball.

At the end of the workout, I felt pretty tired. Pretty beat. I didn't feel like I was going to die or hurl though, so that means I did good. Worked out just hard enough, not too little, not too much. With this complete, and tomorrow an off day, I'll be stretching again, hopefully everything this time.

My dad asked me if I lost any weight so far. Technically speaking, I've lost two pounds. Chances are it's water weight though. See, I used to drink nothing but diet soda prior to this week, so I'd bet right now that the majority of weight loss will come from that. 

That's all for today, I'll be back tomorrow.

What to do on an Off day

I started this morning at 9:15. I picked up another PB sandwich and water and rolled into work. Jot down 250 calories for the morning.
Nothing at work was there to get in the way except for the $1.10 I had in change laying around at work. "Monster energy drink? Nope, it's 2 bucks. Soda? Wish I had another 15 cents. Cookies? ugh, must. have. cookies." I managed to resist, wrapped myself up in a little more work, then bee-lined it for the car in the parking garage and went home.

Lunch, once I got home was a Beef Tamale with 2 and a half eggs. Half an egg because I meant to have two, but accidentally busted one and spilt half of it. 1.5 eggs wasn't going to cut it for me, so I had to crack another. I'm not real sure on the calorie count of those tamales, but I'll be generous and say 300 per since they're homemade. Dinner ended up being the same, minus the half egg.

Total Calories: 250 + 500 + 460 = 1210

Supposedly, caloric intake below 1500 is pretty bad, but to be frank, I didn't feel the need to eat more except for the times in between meals, but without anything to snack on, there's nothing to be done about it. Given that my metabolism is wrecked from switching sleep schedules twice a week as well, well, you could imagine how my body reacts to the recommended 2000 calories a day: I gain weight. 

Let's see how this plays out. I'm not purposely trying to starve myself after all, just trying to reduce how many calories I take in at any one meal.

Since today was an off day for the workouts, I decided to do the opposite of what the workouts do. Strength training has this side effect of binding your muscles even tighter, reducing flexibility. This is why so often warm up exercises involve stretching, to counter this effect somewhat. Quite frankly though, I've only gotten hurt in some fashion doing stretching as a warmup to a regular strength training workout, so I stopped entire many years ago.

But, as mentioned before, it wasn't a strength training day. After doing what I do for enjoyment, and having left TV for last, I put on the TV and stretched for about 25 minutes. Just my legs really, even though I should have done everything else. Stretching works the muscles in the opposite fashion of my workouts, so I think this will be quite good. I can workout every day without over exerting any of my muscles. 

As a side benefit, I'll be more flexible. Usually a trait desired in women by men, I can't say it'll hurt to loosen up my muscle-bound body. (The term muscle bound brings to my mind a Mr. Universe, but I think it actually just means that your muscles are reducing your flexibility because you don't stretch.) After all, martial artists have to be strong and flexible, it only makes sense then to stretch, right?
Tomorrow is the second workout of the week, and I think I should talk a little about my diet and what I shop for tomorrow as well.

Till tomorrow then.

Temptation, thy name is Easy Access

Total Calories: 0. - 2:30am

I went to bed last night at 9:30pm. Got about 2 hours worth of sleep between then and  2:30am, so I was feeling incredibly groggy. Made a peanut butter sandwich and grabbed a water, and ate it on the ten minute drive into work. +1 for me, PB sandwich is relatively low calorie while being fatty enough to help make you feel full and still have some protein.
Total Calories: 200. - 2:50am

I pop into work at 3, and get into the cooler at 3:10, and what do I find there but a nice helping of Tiger Stripe cake sitting out, knife there, already sampled, and demanding I eat some. I lose all self control and scarf down 2 thin slices of it before pulling myself together. I had to get rid of it: out of sight out of mind. I put it on the top shelf, and being above my eye level, was much easier to ignore. That little failure probably added another 200 calories to my already 200 calories from the peanut butter sandwich.
Total Calories: 400. - 3:15am

Throughout most of the work shift, I keep myself relatively under control, catching a lot of those moments where out of habit I'd pick up a piece of whatever (cookie, pastry, chocolate) that had broken off of that item, and just toss it back without a thought. Because of how quickly I move combined with the habitual movements, I missed a few, having already ate the item before realizing it. Given that I ate what amounted to about 50 calories of bits of food, I'm going to call that a major success.
Total Calories: 450.- 5:30am

5:30am, I was starving. I went and bought a can of peas and ate it. Tick off another 200 calories for the day. After that, keeping my sanity was quite a bit easier. Drinking lots of water helped a lot too, giving that stuffed feeling that keeps me from eating more. I managed to make it through the rest of the shift and get home at 9am and get some more sleep.
Total Calories: 650.- 9am

I woke up at noon and made an egg McMuffin. 3 eggs are 240 calories, so total calories is about 300. After this thing I've got right now, I expect to crunch through the workout in about an hour and a half.
Total Calories: 950. - 12:30pm

***********

Dinner was a piece of fish cooked in some sort of onion and butter, with a side of mashed potatoes and green beans. The old diet doesn't allow for carb heavy stuff such as mashed potatoes, but I've found over the years that only rice and LARGE portions of pasta seem to affect me in terms of gaining weight. I'd tack the total calories of dinner at about 400 calories, despite how bad it sounds.

Total Calories: 1400 - 6:30pm

As promised, I started the workouts today. While it's easier for me to just pass you along to the belly off workout on men's health, so that you can see what it entails, here's the basic structure of the program: every week has 3 weekday workouts called A B and C, all different workouts, and all followed by about 15 minutes of cardio. The fourth workout of the week is a measurement workout, where you test your strength and endurance as quickly as possible. Each week, the difficulty of the A B and C workouts increase, as well as the end of week workout, which keep pushing you and keep you from plateauing. Perhaps most importantly, all the workouts are geared at using your own bodyweight, so you don't need weights or machines, just your body, a floor, some old phone books or a non rolling chair, and a rolling chair or ab crunching ball (medicine ball?). Your nearby park has all the bars and benches you might need for chin ups and such, so that's helpful too if you don't happen to have those at home.

 

I started week 1 of the workout today. I feel pretty crappy right now, just goes to show how out of shape I am. So what was the workout?

Warmup: 

2 sets of - 10 squats, 10 pushups, 10 lunges, 10 mountain climbers, 10 waiter's bows, 10 stick ups. 30 seconds rest between sets.

Superset 1:

3 sets of  - 10 shoulder press, 24 step ups, 1 minute rest between sets

Superset 2:
3 sets of - 16 RDL, 20 mountain climbers, 1 minute rest between sets
Superset 3:
2 sets of - 10 inverted rows, 20 pushups, 1 minute rest between sets ( I skipped the inverted rows, as I don't have a place to do these, but the pushups are harder anyways )
Interval Cardio:
Warmup for 3 minutes
6 sets of - 30 seconds hard paced cardio, 30 seconds easy paced cardio. ( I like to jumprope, as I can still watch TV, but mostly because I loathe running. In terms of swimming, this equates to a sprint 50 then easy 25 repeated 6 times. )
Cooldown for 3 minutes.

Total time to complete: roughly 40 minutes.

Week 1, Day 1 complete. Here comes Week 1, Days 2, 3, and 4!

Introduction

Hi, my name is Mark.

A while ago, I'd decided that I wanted to lose to weight. About a week ago, I decided that I was tired of the way I looked, how I felt, and how much I weighed. 

About two years ago I was down to 180 pounds, typically my low weight point for moderate exercise. I was exercising every other day, eating what I wanted, and generally felt pretty decent about myself. And then all of a sudden I stopped working out. I think I stopped then because I felt like I had no time, between classes and work, and an MMO I play, which I'll be honest, is quite literally the most engrossing thing I've encountered in terms of a game.

It's taken two years for my weight to rise back up to 190 pounds, and how I feel now pales compared to back then. I remember how great I felt at 160 pounds though: full of energy, usually up for doing things, and almost always in a great mood. My prospects with women were also a great deal more open than they have been for some time, nevermind my general mood about dating at all, which for years has been bad.


I've tried twice (on my own) in the past to lose weight, and to a degree, those attempts were successful. The first dropped me from 200 to 180, and the second from 210 to 180. This is to be my third, as I find myself on the path to 200 yet again, but am taking action before I get there. My goal in those previous cases was 160, and I'm making it my goal this time as well.

I think, in the past, I've not tried hard enough to lose weight beyond 180. The exercise I was doing was great up until I hit 180, and then the plateau hit, and after no results for some time, I gave up. I think this is mostly due to my lack of motivation at that point. I've always had a hard time motivating myself to do things that need to be done, but if I can find a way to make it seem like I'm being forced to do it, then I do great at what I'm trying to achieve. That's the purpose of this blog.

Previous attempts have never included a mechanism that brings my status out to the public, whether it be progress or failure. With no pressure of any sort, it was much harder to motivate myself to do something, and the results are clear. With this blog, I'm hoping for some real pressure to keep me motivated, but at the worst case, there's always going to be that phantom pressure pushing me. "Is someone secretly reading this? Are they reading this for motivation? Are they waiting for me to slip up?"

I'm going to be starting the first 8 weeks with the Men's Health Belly Off - Classic workout, along with a diet pretty close to what I remember from the first time I did it. I know this program works, I've done it twice. But, it only lasts for 8 weeks. I'll typically find myself at about 180 around week 7 or week 8. After that, I'm not certain by any means what I'll be doing. I will be posting daily about what I eat and what I do for exercise.


On to today though, I had planned to get my diet going right just prior to actually working out. This didn't really go well though. See, I work the 3-8am shift on the weekends, and I only got 4 or so hours of sleep before leaving for work. I got to work tired and hungry, and promptly munched down on a cookie and donut at work. Later, still at work, about 7am, I munched down another donut and a cheese bagel. I'm pretty sure I've destroyed any hope of a decent caloric intake, probably cresting over 2000 with just those items. Self control at the bakery can be extremely difficult. I followed up this particularly bad set of choices with a 3 egg McMuffin I made at home, a hamburger, and a yogurt.


Since I was starting for real tomorrow, Sunday the 15th, I don't feel horrible about it, but still bad. Let the rage commence.