2XYS’s BodyBlog

Today, my official weigh-in revealed I gained 14.6 lbs [266] from my last posting on BB.com. Between my office visit with the doctor (12/05-Friday afternoon) and my admission into in the hospital  (12/08-Monday morning), I lost 12 pounds [233].  This is crazy, but my weight loss goal will be set from my official weigh-in.  What a setback, but what a challenge it is to overcome.  It is a challenge because the doctors want me to do 20 minutes of exercise every three days at the gym.  Ten minutes of cardio; followed by ten minutes of weight training.  Will I follow the doctor’s orders?  Yes, I will even though I know it takes at least 20 minutes to begin a good cardio work, and you need at least 30 minutes to tone the muscles.  Now, you see where the challenge comes in.  I will take it one step at a time.  On this journey, I have come up with an alternative solution; I will split my workout by doing 20 minutes of weight training in the morning; followed by 20 minutes of cardio training in the evening, until things return to normal.  I know that I am up to the challenge because when I think back to last year at this time; I weighed 297.  Between January and March (280), I had lost 17 lbs with the assistance of weight-loss supplements.  I started weight watcher because my doctors believed it was a better alternative to using weight-loss supplement. It was said that there were no clinical studies which illustrated how the wieght-loss supplements would work with my medications.

This is a new year; I really don’t have a resolution, but I have set some goals, and they are: to become a better, rounded-person, to work on strength and endurance, to have respect for all mankind, and never stop learning.  Learning is a life-long process.  I believe that I have an excellent trainer so I must give it my all, despite my shortcomings.  Someone once told a few things that I try to keep in mind, I hope you find them useful as well.

or guys that are relatively new to the gym, here are a few tips that I hope might be helpful:

• There will always be someone bigger (talking muscles here) and stronger at the gym.  You’re only competing with yourself.

• Watch people whose bodies you admire (I said watch, not cruise) to see what exercises they do and how they do them.

• Mix up your routines.  Vary the exercises, order, weight, number of sets and repetitions.  Keep you muscles “surprised” to avoid plateaus.

• Be aware of what primary and secondary muscles are being exercised to allow for both to have enough time to recover before working them out again.

• Better form gets you better results.

• Location, location, location.  Chose a gym close to home or work.  If you need to  file a flight plan to get there, you’ll be more likely to make up excuses not to go.

• What you read as the “ultimate” workout this month will be replaced by a new “ultimate” workout next month.