I've been utilizing another tip from my buddy Shaun and working some core exercises like this routine.
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=486
It looks really easy but that is where the easy ends.
I've discovered my weakness here is the supporting muscles in my neck. The ones that run from the shoulders up to the base of your skull...those bastards are killing me. I'm going to take a day off core today and look at some upper body free weights along with some body weight conditioning. I really like body weight conditioning to be honest in it's various forms and there are a few of them but the straight up old school stuff can be found here:
http://bodyweightculture.com/forum/index.php
Feeling wise: I've been feeling pretty damn good to be honest. I think I'm reaching a point where the garbage food I was eating is slowly getting replaced at the cellular level now and my fuel is just getting better and better by the day. Yesterday I was wondering what the half life of bad food in your system is and later lat night I came across some interesting stuff on youtube. The guy was kind of out there on several points but one thing he was questioning was the appistat (your bodies internal food usage director) and he was saying it might not be about what you ate yesterday or today that is driving it but what you ate last month.
My casual observations might agree with his logic but I don't know the real time line. But I do think it's a slow "dilution" process working here where the good food in is slowly working it's way in.....
ehh it's too early to do much more thinking on it right now but I will revisit it later.
For now everything is going as it should I just need to keep reminding myself to drink more water. I'm having to push the water constantly.Not because I don't like it just because I am not used to drinking fluids ALL THE TIME...it feels like I have to work at drinking enough water just staying mindful of it.
I'm off to get some water right now.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Pasta time
Had a pasta dinner tonight.
The Barilla Plus looks to be pretty good stuff and it delivers in the taste department in my opinion. I've had some whole grain pasta that has a real thickness to it that is hard to get down after a few bites but this plus is tasty. It's got good #'s in a pasta for protein, ala's, Omega 3, fiber...it is good stuff. The sauce came in on a tip from my buddy Shaun, a tip that at first didn't look so hot. This stuff is $5-$6 a jar and not the $2-$3 I normally pay. A quick look at the ingredients explains why it's worth the extra cash. It's got something like: Tomatoes, Extra virgin olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper. That's it. (totally worth the extra money to eat something as clean and healthy as this). It is not something like: Reconstituted tomato paste and water, hydrologized xanthium gum, high fructose corn syrup, and spices. Good clean sauce, a healthier choice in pasta and it was on the way to dinner time. We rounded it up with some steamed organic veggies of broccoli and butternut squash and the finish was some spinach leaf salad with red wine vinaigrette.
My portion strategy was to go smaller on the pasta, equal it with steamed vegetables, and make my big pile spinach. It worked out well except I learned that a little vinaigrette goes a long way. My old habits of adding a lot of salad dressing must have had me pour more than I needed but uhmm... Yeah, lighter on the vinaigrette next time for sure.
I've done good this week with meals sticking with healthy choices a quick sample list would be.
Stir fry on brown rice with veggies 4 to 1 over some grilled chicken.
Beans and rice (brown rice) and with chicken sausage.
Yogurt in several forms from plain to a mix with wild blueberries and a handful of shredded wheat n' bran thrown in.
Tons of water.
Green tea in the evenings.
I picked up some steel cut oats today (the 45min cooking time ones that are like tiny rocks) to try and get them in the rotation soon.
I also plan on trying to make some "powerhouse pancakes" that I might have on the weekends. I'm going to try and stick a lot of healthy stuff in there like overload style. Buckwheat pumpkin banana muscle milk pancakes anyone? I'm not so sure it will work but I do plan on working in buckwheat and pumpkin somehow real soon.
I'm not going to post any weigh in info until next Monday but I will say things are trending in the right direction and I expect to smash my first 10# goal on time and I will go over. Of course these are the easy days but every pound down gets me closer to the final goal so it's all good.
The Barilla Plus looks to be pretty good stuff and it delivers in the taste department in my opinion. I've had some whole grain pasta that has a real thickness to it that is hard to get down after a few bites but this plus is tasty. It's got good #'s in a pasta for protein, ala's, Omega 3, fiber...it is good stuff. The sauce came in on a tip from my buddy Shaun, a tip that at first didn't look so hot. This stuff is $5-$6 a jar and not the $2-$3 I normally pay. A quick look at the ingredients explains why it's worth the extra cash. It's got something like: Tomatoes, Extra virgin olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper. That's it. (totally worth the extra money to eat something as clean and healthy as this). It is not something like: Reconstituted tomato paste and water, hydrologized xanthium gum, high fructose corn syrup, and spices. Good clean sauce, a healthier choice in pasta and it was on the way to dinner time. We rounded it up with some steamed organic veggies of broccoli and butternut squash and the finish was some spinach leaf salad with red wine vinaigrette.
My portion strategy was to go smaller on the pasta, equal it with steamed vegetables, and make my big pile spinach. It worked out well except I learned that a little vinaigrette goes a long way. My old habits of adding a lot of salad dressing must have had me pour more than I needed but uhmm... Yeah, lighter on the vinaigrette next time for sure.
I've done good this week with meals sticking with healthy choices a quick sample list would be.
Stir fry on brown rice with veggies 4 to 1 over some grilled chicken.
Beans and rice (brown rice) and with chicken sausage.
Yogurt in several forms from plain to a mix with wild blueberries and a handful of shredded wheat n' bran thrown in.
Tons of water.
Green tea in the evenings.
I picked up some steel cut oats today (the 45min cooking time ones that are like tiny rocks) to try and get them in the rotation soon.
I also plan on trying to make some "powerhouse pancakes" that I might have on the weekends. I'm going to try and stick a lot of healthy stuff in there like overload style. Buckwheat pumpkin banana muscle milk pancakes anyone? I'm not so sure it will work but I do plan on working in buckwheat and pumpkin somehow real soon.
I'm not going to post any weigh in info until next Monday but I will say things are trending in the right direction and I expect to smash my first 10# goal on time and I will go over. Of course these are the easy days but every pound down gets me closer to the final goal so it's all good.
Monday, February 25, 2008
My cardio is hurting
I just cranked out some Burpee intervals from the RossTraining website.
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/rossboxing2.htm
It was very painful and I didn't get far enough to note anything yet other than "needs improvement".
To be fair this can't be a beginners workout and probably isn't where I should have started but it is. If I was more practical I'd start with straight burpees alone, omitting the jump even...but I guess I felt like jumping in with both feet. Ha ha jumping with both feet.
I think I'll stick with the intervals but modify it by doing declining sets of the burpee portion 8,7,6.. etc (adjusting as necessary) but keep the shadow boxing at 30 seconds. By the way 15 seconds into my second set of shadow boxing and I was really looking to shoot for a double leg takedown. :)
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/rossboxing2.htm
It was very painful and I didn't get far enough to note anything yet other than "needs improvement".
To be fair this can't be a beginners workout and probably isn't where I should have started but it is. If I was more practical I'd start with straight burpees alone, omitting the jump even...but I guess I felt like jumping in with both feet. Ha ha jumping with both feet.
I think I'll stick with the intervals but modify it by doing declining sets of the burpee portion 8,7,6.. etc (adjusting as necessary) but keep the shadow boxing at 30 seconds. By the way 15 seconds into my second set of shadow boxing and I was really looking to shoot for a double leg takedown. :)
Week 1 Monday weigh in
It's not really a correct week but in order to get on a schedule of posting weekly results i had to start somewhere so here it is:
Feeling: I'm feeling good. I'm feeling positive about the road ahead and think that I set enough things in place, enough foundation that I am going to make it to my goal. For anybody that has been on the weight loss ride you know that to launch a serious effort you have to have your mind right otherwise it's just a 2 week thing. I feel like I am resolved right now and I also feel like this could be my last ride down the line (one way or the other). If you have done the yo-yo and lost a LOT of weight but gained it all back and lost it again....you know there are only so many yo's that are not going to have a corresponding yo and you are going to eventually stop at one point. Sadly we know that chances are it works that one time you just don't have the energy to face another trip and just give up hope and stay heavy. I was wondering if I might be at that point last year....
Well, I was not because now I am here and a few things are different for this trip.
1) I've done this before so I know it can be done.
2) I have excellent resources in place that I have not had before.
3) I have leverage on myself because of a "wake up call" false alarm but it still got my attention.
4) I see the clock on the wall and know it's time RIGHT NOW.
The only thing I am nervous about is that the end goal is so...it's so big. It's not a "get real" goal or something that was padded on the front end for easier achievement. That is a stone cold serious goal and so looking past the monumental efforts that I already expected to be ahead I know there is a second set of efforts that look pretty daunting. However I feel good about it. Excited but nervous....It's going to be a trip.
First Monday weigh in: 265.0
start weight 270.0
Weight loss to date 5.0#'s
Now I'm going to drink some water. ;)
Feeling: I'm feeling good. I'm feeling positive about the road ahead and think that I set enough things in place, enough foundation that I am going to make it to my goal. For anybody that has been on the weight loss ride you know that to launch a serious effort you have to have your mind right otherwise it's just a 2 week thing. I feel like I am resolved right now and I also feel like this could be my last ride down the line (one way or the other). If you have done the yo-yo and lost a LOT of weight but gained it all back and lost it again....you know there are only so many yo's that are not going to have a corresponding yo and you are going to eventually stop at one point. Sadly we know that chances are it works that one time you just don't have the energy to face another trip and just give up hope and stay heavy. I was wondering if I might be at that point last year....
Well, I was not because now I am here and a few things are different for this trip.
1) I've done this before so I know it can be done.
2) I have excellent resources in place that I have not had before.
3) I have leverage on myself because of a "wake up call" false alarm but it still got my attention.
4) I see the clock on the wall and know it's time RIGHT NOW.
The only thing I am nervous about is that the end goal is so...it's so big. It's not a "get real" goal or something that was padded on the front end for easier achievement. That is a stone cold serious goal and so looking past the monumental efforts that I already expected to be ahead I know there is a second set of efforts that look pretty daunting. However I feel good about it. Excited but nervous....It's going to be a trip.
First Monday weigh in: 265.0
start weight 270.0
Weight loss to date 5.0#'s
Now I'm going to drink some water. ;)
Saturday, February 23, 2008
A work out on the fly
Angie wanted to look at some stuff in Academy so that had me wandering around for a while...
It's easier to kill 30 min in Academy compared to some other stores so it was not really a problemo.
First thing I did was check to see what my fist would look like in a UFC glove. They say this is the official glove but it looks really puffy to me... ?
After then I spied the dumbbell rack and did a set of curls. Took a walk to see what she was doing and she didn't look ready to go so I went back for a set of hammer curls.
Walk a bit....check on Angie....go up 5#'s and do another set.
This went on a few times until I worked my way to to one rep max set with the 50#'s and she still wasn't ready so I turned it into a pyramid set and started working my way back down alternating between reg curls and hammer curls.
Very nice bicep workout where there normally would have just been a lot of whining towards the end..."man come on, are you done yet".
She wound up with some new sneaks and I grabbed a "free" workout.
Sweet deal!
It's easier to kill 30 min in Academy compared to some other stores so it was not really a problemo.
First thing I did was check to see what my fist would look like in a UFC glove. They say this is the official glove but it looks really puffy to me... ?
After then I spied the dumbbell rack and did a set of curls. Took a walk to see what she was doing and she didn't look ready to go so I went back for a set of hammer curls.
Walk a bit....check on Angie....go up 5#'s and do another set.
This went on a few times until I worked my way to to one rep max set with the 50#'s and she still wasn't ready so I turned it into a pyramid set and started working my way back down alternating between reg curls and hammer curls.
Very nice bicep workout where there normally would have just been a lot of whining towards the end..."man come on, are you done yet".
She wound up with some new sneaks and I grabbed a "free" workout.
Sweet deal!
48 hours first results
I was thinking I would weigh in once per week (probably Mondays) to log results but this new scale has too many bells and whistles and curiosity had me check progress at the 2nd day here and this is what the display showed today.
265
44 % Body fat
41 & water
That gives me -5 #'s, -1% body fat and +1% hydration (I am going for 50+% hydration).
So slight changes but all numbers are going in the right direction!
I was prepared for no change or even having things trend the wrong way so early in so this is better and even as I know there are VERY early results it's encouraging to think things are going well so far.
Food wise we had Indian food last night and it was (I think) fairly healthy looking at the composition of it but also it was portion controlled fairly well so i walked away feeling good with what I ate. So many times in the past I would walk away feeling sick and stuffed to the max. I'd have serious acid reflux for hours after, feel like hell, and go back the next night to do it all over again....sickness. :(
I really enjoy walking away feeling healthy..like the food was clean and I ate a healthy amount. Not the huge viking sized portions of garbage that I can force down, but a good portion of good food. I don't really understand why that unhealthy cycle happens when it is all down side (other than the chewing and tasting) because you do feel so much better 20 min after eating better....
Oh well, onward I go.
265
44 % Body fat
41 & water
That gives me -5 #'s, -1% body fat and +1% hydration (I am going for 50+% hydration).
So slight changes but all numbers are going in the right direction!
I was prepared for no change or even having things trend the wrong way so early in so this is better and even as I know there are VERY early results it's encouraging to think things are going well so far.
Food wise we had Indian food last night and it was (I think) fairly healthy looking at the composition of it but also it was portion controlled fairly well so i walked away feeling good with what I ate. So many times in the past I would walk away feeling sick and stuffed to the max. I'd have serious acid reflux for hours after, feel like hell, and go back the next night to do it all over again....sickness. :(
I really enjoy walking away feeling healthy..like the food was clean and I ate a healthy amount. Not the huge viking sized portions of garbage that I can force down, but a good portion of good food. I don't really understand why that unhealthy cycle happens when it is all down side (other than the chewing and tasting) because you do feel so much better 20 min after eating better....
Oh well, onward I go.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Cart before horse
Normally I do a detailed planning phase before starting any new endeavor and in doing so I'd have had my first few days of food planned out.....
This time things worked differently and I was "in it", FULLY invested in the plan, and got going without much planning on the food for the first few days. I know that this is going to be a long road and my first goal is 5 weeks away so I will get it together quickly but not having a plan has hurt me already. :(
Here is a short food log so far: (I think I'm going to have to log as much food as possible for the first few weeks/months in order to have something to look back on later if needed.)
1st meal in was a dinner and we had to drop of my son somewhere that had us out and about. Great eating out for the first meal of a "diet"....swell.
I picked McAllisters Deli and did ok I think but could have done a lot better..
Wild Salmon Sand. on Wheatberry bread
small cup of chili
side of coleslaw
What I should have done is steamed vegetables and something else but this place is 20 yeards from the Road House where 99 times out of 100 I would have went there over the deli and had chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and cream gravy so it was a better choice but not excellent by any means.
For breakfast I've had 1/2 cup plain yogurt and 1 scoop of Muscle Milk with water. This is probably ok on paper as far as stats go but I feel the poor planning here and will get some eggs today. I'll get the best Whole Foods has until I can get better eggs at the farmers mkt. this weekend.
This time things worked differently and I was "in it", FULLY invested in the plan, and got going without much planning on the food for the first few days. I know that this is going to be a long road and my first goal is 5 weeks away so I will get it together quickly but not having a plan has hurt me already. :(
Here is a short food log so far: (I think I'm going to have to log as much food as possible for the first few weeks/months in order to have something to look back on later if needed.)
1st meal in was a dinner and we had to drop of my son somewhere that had us out and about. Great eating out for the first meal of a "diet"....swell.
I picked McAllisters Deli and did ok I think but could have done a lot better..
Wild Salmon Sand. on Wheatberry bread
small cup of chili
side of coleslaw
What I should have done is steamed vegetables and something else but this place is 20 yeards from the Road House where 99 times out of 100 I would have went there over the deli and had chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and cream gravy so it was a better choice but not excellent by any means.
For breakfast I've had 1/2 cup plain yogurt and 1 scoop of Muscle Milk with water. This is probably ok on paper as far as stats go but I feel the poor planning here and will get some eggs today. I'll get the best Whole Foods has until I can get better eggs at the farmers mkt. this weekend.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Starting where I am.
This is going to be a food blog.
A record of what happens from now until then whenever then turns out to be.
All I know about then right now is that I should weigh 185 when I get there.
I intentionally don't have much to say right now because this is the worst part of it right now. I'm (hopefully) as fat as I'm ever going to be right now so while the prospect of the future and being healthy is out in front of me the first obstacle is to decide how real I want this blog to be. If it's not going to be a fairy tale diary then it should be an honest account of what is happening day to day and that starts with an unpleasant reality. The reality that to get real I'll have to post real information...why lie to myself in a virtual world? Real info has real facts and figures in it and these first set of facts are pretty grim looking.
Pretty grim indeed but here I am and right now there is nowhere else I can be...
I am ready to work for tomorrow to be better and hope I don't ever have to face down numbers like these again but if I am going to put it all out there the time to do that is now....here goes.
02/21/08
Weight 270
Body fat 45%
Water & 40%
That is about all I can say right now but it felt like a lot. I think I'll be more talkative on another day.
A record of what happens from now until then whenever then turns out to be.
All I know about then right now is that I should weigh 185 when I get there.
I intentionally don't have much to say right now because this is the worst part of it right now. I'm (hopefully) as fat as I'm ever going to be right now so while the prospect of the future and being healthy is out in front of me the first obstacle is to decide how real I want this blog to be. If it's not going to be a fairy tale diary then it should be an honest account of what is happening day to day and that starts with an unpleasant reality. The reality that to get real I'll have to post real information...why lie to myself in a virtual world? Real info has real facts and figures in it and these first set of facts are pretty grim looking.
Pretty grim indeed but here I am and right now there is nowhere else I can be...
I am ready to work for tomorrow to be better and hope I don't ever have to face down numbers like these again but if I am going to put it all out there the time to do that is now....here goes.
02/21/08
Weight 270
Body fat 45%
Water & 40%
That is about all I can say right now but it felt like a lot. I think I'll be more talkative on another day.
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