The Best Shape of My Life!

Activity…

Weights, appr 50 minutes
7 total exercises, 19 total sets, full body routine

Very good workout. I wanted to do BB Squat, but the equipment at the Y isn’t really set up for it, and the power rack (closest thing they have to a real squat rack) was taken by some guy doing all kinds of sets involving the shoulders. During the entire 50 minutes I was at the gym, he had that thing taken up for a good 40 at least! Actually, he had two large pieces of equipment taken, and would take his time going back and forth. GGGGGRRRRRR. Oh well, I did leg press instead, my next favorite lower body lift. I did some good weight (up to 280 for 10 reps), which is nice considering it’s been a while since I’ve done that lift.

This workout was purely for weightlifting, except for the wobble board stand I threw in during the arms triset. Most of the time I mix in athletic speed/agility type drills or exercises into my weightlifting routine, or some yoga positions, but I didn’t for this one. It was pure iron (and cables)…and a board.

Nutrition…

I drank over the 72 oz of water that I aim for daily!

Veggies weren’t so great today. Only had one true serving. But I did take in three servings of fruits, which are the next best thing. (Not juices mind you.)

Only had one 12-oz can of diet soda today (Coke Zero). Feeling good about that!

Ate out for supper, Applebee’s. I had a steakburger with fries. Not the best thing in the world to have, I know. On top of that, I shared the boneless buffalo chicken "wings" appetizer with my wife. Sure, it was good (I didn’t care much for the steakburger’s flavorings), but had a LOT of excess calories that I don’t need. GGGGGGRRRRRR. Oh well, can’t blame anyone but me. I could have had a salad with olive oil and a grilled chicken breast, but did I order the HEALTHY thing on the menu? ABSOLUTELY NOT! One of these days I will learn.

Daily Rating: 8

I’m rating this day an 8 because of my workout and water. I feel really good about where I’m going with my training, and I’m pumped about meeting my goals. I’m also feeling better about my fluid intake, and especially about limiting sodas. Now if I can keep myself out of the restaurants and force myself to fix my meals, I will do a whole lot better with nutrition. All in good time, I guess.

My goals for Sunday…
1. To eat >3 servings of veggies.
2. To drink >72 oz noncarbonated, nonsugared fluids.
3. To complete 45 minutes of activity.

Goal 1: Veggies
MET!

I ate veggies (and fruits) pretty much all day long. Used them as a snack, part of my lunch, and definitely part of my supper. In fact, my evening meal consisted of potatoes, squash, zuchini, various peppers, and onions. All grilled, which adds a great flavor to them! I did grill up a pork chop just to have some protein, but I only ate about 4 oz, which is a good serving size. Eating veggies felt great, and I’m starting to understand why it’s important to add more and more of them into my diet.

Goal 2: Water
MET!

Maybe it’s just the heat, but I’m getting better about drinking plain water, or flavored water. Either way, it’s noncarbonated and nonsugared. I have a tendancy to drink a lot of soda, especially during the winter (diet), and it tends to make me sick in the extreme heat. So during the summer, I lay off the soda as much as I can. I’m hoping that I can continue this trend, though, throughout this upcoming winter. I would love to see me get to the point where I am not dependent on soda, even diet! I love it, don’t get me wrong, and sure, every now and then, it’s all right. But I typically have consumed way too much. I know that water is better for me, but getting my sweet tooth the drink it is quite another thing. Slowly and surely, though, I’m getting there.

Goal 3: Activity
MET!

30 minutes = mowing yard
30 minutes = bike riding

Yes, mowing my yard counts as exercise. Sure, it’s not hardcore like bike riding or weight lifting can be sometimes, but get out in the heat of the day and push a mower around a yard, and it can get to you. I don’t think people really understand how much exercise things like mowing, landscaping, tree trimming, and gardening really are. Of course, they may not understand if they use fancy lawnmowers where they sit on them instead of push them, and fancy tilling machines in their gardens instead of a good quality hoe. But anyway, I can save that rant for later.

The bike ride felt AWESOME! I haven’t ridden my bike in a long time, and my neighbor and I went out for an evening run. About four miles worth, which for me, was plenty. We have a through road here in the city that goes from north to south, and I’m kind of in the middle. So we headed south on it, which is great because it has a lot of hills. My thighs were killing me when I got back, and my heartrate was definitely running high. I should have measured it, but I didn’t even think about it. I used to ride my bike all the time, and I think it really helped shape my legs, so I’m going to try to get back into it. It’s fun cardio, not boring like running to death on a tradmill.

Daily Rating: 10

I had a great day overall! I woke up a little later than I wanted to, but that’s okay. With the later evenings we have in the summer, I can afford to do that. I was outside most of the day, and spent a good portion of it watching my daughter play on her swingset or with the neighbor kids. She loves spending time outside, especially on her playset and in her pool, or at the neighbor kids’ house. So they all went back and forth between our house and theirs, and it was fun just watching them play. The energy that they have is astounding! And it felt great to just be outside all day, or at least a good portion of it. It wasn’t too hot or muggy, so it was actually enjoyable. And, without the use of sunscreen, I did not get burned.

I met all three goals for today, which made me feel even better! My motivation is picking up, and I’m getting more and more serious about being healthy and fit. As I continue reading Marion Nestle’s book, I’m trying to incorporate the principles of nutrition that she outlines. My overall mission is to prove that a proper diet (based on what nutritional experts say, not what people who think they’re nutritional experts say) can really provide amazing results. It’s a hard challenge, especially coming from a guy who has apparently been blessed with a great metabolism, because my diet has traditionally been a lot of junk food (i.e. sweets). So making the changes isn’t easy, but one day at a time, one step at a time, I’ll get there. If I fail this mission, I’ll have no one to blame but myself.

Hope everyone had a great Sunday! God has truly blessed me, and I’m finding this out more and more every day. I hope that everyone has a great week, and may God show His great mercy to us all in ways that we have never seen before.

N

Log for 6/27/09

Nutrition…

1. 72 oz of water or more. MET!
2. Three or more servings of veggies. NOT MET.

I did eat a bit healthier today that I have, so that’s good. I had a nice salad for lunch and a bowl of chili (yes, I eat chili during the summer). For supper, I had some breaded chicken strips and potato spuds, so that wasn’t all that great, but I did enjoy some strawberries and grapes, so at least I got in some good fruits. Changing a diet to a healthy based more on grains and veggies is NOT easy when we’re surrounded by the false mantra of "eat meat and protein." But nonetheless, I am still going to try.

Activity…

I did go to the lake with my neighbors and had a good time. Other than that, I didn’t do any exercise. But it felt good to get in the water, swim a little, and just relax.

Overall…

I’m still consuming too many calories (I can tell just by the things I’m eating), and I’m not moving around enough. For some reason, getting motivated during the summer months is almost worse than during the winter months. At least then I have the daily schedule of work, which forces me to do a workout in the morning. Now, with nothing to do (well, at least not "work,") it’s hard for me to get in the gym, or even just outside on a bike, and move. I need to work on that.

Goals for next week…

1. Continue to change diet…eat less calories, more veggies, and a bit more grains.
2. Keep trying for more than 72 oz of non-carbonated, non-sugary fluids.
3. Exercise for a total of 315 minutes or more (that’s 45 minutes/day).

I’m running on at most 3 hours of sleep right now, maybe a bit more. Didn’t get to bed till late because my in-laws came up to spend the night so my wife and I could take them to the airport early this morning. Didn’t mind doing it, but I didn’t even get to bed till about 1 am waiting on them to show up, and then had to wake up at 4 am. Well, I kept waking up during those few hours, so I know it wasn’t a full three hours of sleep.

When we got back home this morning a little before 8, I immediately went to the basement couch and slept some more. Woke up about 9:50 am for good, but I had been waking up intermittently all morning. So who knows how much sleep I actually got.

I have a headache, I can’t think straight, and I’m greatly worn out. Not to mention my toe’s problem, though it doesn’t hurt really at all this morning. Just slightly uncomfortable when I put pressure on it. Hopefully, I’ll be able to function today. I need to mow the yard and do some other things, and I’m hoping to go to the lake if my neighbors decide to go. But swimming in this condition is pretty much worthless.

WAKE UP! Or maybe I should be wishing to actually get some good sleep.  ???????????

Well, today was an interesting one. Let’s look at the goals I set for today…
1. Drink water, and lots of it.

Didn’t happen. I actually didn’t drink much of anything today, which isn’t good. For some reason, I wasn’t motivated to drink a lot. Don’t know why, but it’s not good for me. I was doing pretty well with getting fluids in me, but not today. And yeah, I feel kind of dried out.

2.  Eat lots of veggies.

This goal I did meet. I had a salad for lunch (with lettuce, pepper, onion, carrots) and then I had lettuce for my supper (along with chili). For each salad, I added peanuts and olive oil, and for the lunch salad, I also added some pinto beans. Tasty, at least I think so. Though not a veggie, I also had a good serving of cantalope and cherries.

3. Go swimming.

Didn’t happen, but not because of motivational lacking. I injured my middle right toe today pretty bad while moving furniture from one part of our house to another. Cut it open pretty badly. Still hurts, but near as badly as it did. Put me out of commission completely for a few hours. Had nothing better to do but take a nap, try and rid myself of the pain. Well, not only was I wiped out and inured, but one of the rules for public pool swimming is that you cannot have open wounds. So that’s out. And I wasn’t about to go to the gym and try and run on a treadmill or lift weights! GGGGGRRRRR. Life always seems to have other plans for me! But alas, I will prevail.

Goals for Tomorrow…

1. Drink lots of water (72 oz or more).
2. Take care of my toe. Light exercise if any. Might go to the lake with my neighbors.

Nutrition…

Not quite as good as I had hoped. I woke up at around 2 am because of my dog, and I suddenly felt hungry and thirsty. So what did I do? I grabbed the first snack pack in the pantry, which happened to be a 250 calorie dense pack of oreo cookies. And since I can’t have cookies without milk, of course, I had a cup of milk. GGGGRRRRR. And that was just the start! I ate out twice, once for lunch and once for supper. The healthiest items I ate today were 1 Tbs peanut butter and a double-shot chocolate protein shake (which I despise greatly).

I also logged at least a pint of ale and a cosmo. I know, small amounts in the grand scheme of things, but still……calories and alcohol.

To end a horrific nurtitional day, I ate 4 more oreos (my wife bought them when she went grocery shopping) and another cup of milk AFTER midnight!

Total calories have to be above 3000 for sure. Maybe even close to 4000 (which I’m trying to avoid). Can I just delete this day and start over?

Activity…

I had a great workout today though! Weights.
10 total exercises, 17 total sets, 192 total reps.

Going into the gym, I was still sore from Tuesday’s workout, which was extended yesterday by my light intensity work I’m sure. At any rate, I pounded out some good weight, and I pushed myself to do a bit more than I thought I could. For the first time in quite a while, I completed a set of incline barbell bench presses (I typically stick to DB’s because of safety issues and balance). It felt good, but I probably won’t do it often.

For Friday…

1. DRINK WATER, and lots of it!
2. EAT VEGGIES, and lots of them!
3. Go swimming (and actually do some lap swimming, etc., not just light stuff with my fam).

Nutrition…

Total calories = 2100-2350
Good news is that I’m eating less overall. I think it’s because of the heat, but I’m not as tempted to eat food as I am during the winter time. Psychological, I know. At any rate, I’m hoping that the less amount of food helps. The only problem is that the foods I’m eating aren’t the healthiest. I have a lot of junk food left over in my house that is sitting around. I’ve debated whether to toss it all or just eat it in small dosages to get rid of it. I’m opting for the second option because 1) I bought the food, might as well eat it, and 2) quitting cold turkey on the stuff I love the most would pretty much set me up for failure. So slow and steady, here we go.

I am drinking a lot more noncarbonated fluids now, though, which is great! I logged at least 60 oz today. Obviously, I drink other things like coffee and soda, but I’m beginning to limit those and drink more water (albeit mostly flavored). Again, small steps.
Activity…

Swimming at the Y = 45 minutes. Light intensity, with family. RPE maybe 2-5.
Bodyweight exercises at night = 20 minutes or so. Light intensity, mostly stretches.

I’m sore from yesterday’s weight workout, which is good. I don’t measure a good workout by how sore I get from it, but I needed to give my muscles a shock yesterday. I hadn’t done a workout in over a week. So I was happy about that. I wanted to do something a bit more intense today, but I’ll settle for now. I want to save my energy for yoga and another weight workout tomorrow.

Overall…

I’m making changes so that I can hopefully drop the bodyfat to 13%. I’d like to be 10% again, but I’ll settle for 12-13 now. I kind of like being 200 lbs (91 kg), but I don’t like the fat, and I don’t like that my waist has expanded. But we’ll see where it goes. As I drop the fat, if I drop the weight, well….then that’s how it’s going to be. As long as I’m healthy, that’s the important thing.

to be back in the "game." I went to the Y today and did a weight workout, and I’m feeling it really well right now! I’ll probably be sore tomorrow, but that’s ok. It’s been over a week since I’ve been into the gym for a hardcore weight workout, and so I was pretty excited to get back in there today.

I was going to go swimming today, too, but decided that after my awesome weight session that I’d save that for another day. Maybe tomorrow.

My diet still needs work, but there are a lot of issues I’m going to have to work out first. Slowly, I’m trying to make changes, which involve a lot of restructuring and rethinking about what I eat and why. This book I’m reading is really getting me pumped about proper nutrition, and I’m trying to take the angle she provides that food should be enjoyable, not a hassle.

The first goal for my diet is to eat less. Sounds pretty basic, but it’s pretty hard to do. I got used to having 3500 to 4000 calorie days, and that’s just not good for me. Sure, if I were an elite athlete and exercised or practice for 4-8 hours per day, that might do me some good. But so far all it’s done is added weight in the form of bodyfat. So I’m trying to lessen the food I eat, and in the process, making sure that what I eat is of good quality. That’s the harder part to control, but with work, I think I can get somewhere.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

After spending the past couple weeks out of town, it’s crunch time again. It’s so hard to be healthy when you’re on a trip, especially in a city that is absolutely HORRIBLE. But please, spare me the digression into the detest I feel towards Birmingham, and let me focus for now on the more personal issue: weight.

I weighed myself tonight, and I have officially broken 200 pounds! Part of me is excited, and part of me is incredibly worried. For quite a while, I have been wanting to weigh 200, but I never thought I’d actually get to that point. And now that I do weigh 200, it’s not exactly the type of weight I want. Being a personal trainer, I know how to conduct the bodyfat tests, which are an important measure of overall health and fitness. Currently, I’m just above 16%. So what does that mean? It means that approximately 16% of the 200 pounds, or roughly 32 pounds, is fat weight. If you were to take it out, I would be ripped and lean at a mere 168. That is partly disturbing since when I weighed 180 a while back with 10% bodyfat, I was only carrying around 18 pounds of the stuff with 172 pounds of lean body mass. I’ve dropped the lean stuff and added the fat stuff since then. I’m NOT happy.

But I can only blame myself. On my quest to get bigger (and finally be able to fit into large-sized t-shirts), I have been pretty careless with my diet. No one’s fault but mine, and I’m not wanting to sound like I’m complaining here. I’ve never had a real weight problem, and if anything, I’ve always been rather under weight. Well, let me explain. According to the "Ideal" bodyweight charts, I’m only supposed to weight 140-160 pounds at 6′ tall. To be quite honest, I disagree heavily with this. I used to be 160, and I was so skinny a lot of people thought I was somewhat anorexic. So I’m not wanting to go down that far. Forget about the charts (published by INSURANCE COMPANIES, by the way…not by health professionals), but I do think that if nothing else, the bodyfat issue needs to be taken more seriously.

So this week, it’s back to the drawing board. Intense dieting and intense exercising…well see how it goes. With any good fortune (and a lot of dedication), I’ll be able to start making a dent in the 32 pounds of badness that I do not want hanging around. If I drop back down to 180 or so, fine. I’d rather be smaller and lean than larger and unhealthy. But beyond that, as long as I keep feeling good, and can see some positive results, I’ll be satisfied.

A LOT ABOUT FOOD! I’ve spent this entire week thinking about food actually. Out of town for a school trip, I’ve had to eat pretty much all my meals at a restaurant. It’s a curse, I know, but what can I do, eh? Anyway, I took the week off officially from logging all the counts, and I also took the week off officially from all workouts. I have done a few workouts, but nothing greatly intense. Mostly getting in the pool, which is actually conducive to swimming laps.

Anyway, back to the food part. My diet has been bugging me for a few weeks now, and I’ve been asking around for a lot of information. Not surprisingly, I have received multiple viewpoints, often contradictory to each other. No wonder people are so confused about what to do nutritionally! Being a personal trainer, I know the basics of nutrition, but only that. Beyond the basics (eat less, move more), I’m by no means an expert. So I started doing some internet research for journal articles, textbooks, and general website information. I gained about the same information that I had received from the people I had asked. So at least people are reading/viewing the information. Comforting? No, not really.

While waiting on my student to compete one day, I went to a Barnes and Noble. I love that store! And I love books. There’s something about the permanency of a book that lends it an automatic credibility. Especially if it is a research-based book written by a credible author. So I went to the diet/health section of the bookstore and starting skimming. After about two and a half hours, I found a book that I had to buy. It’s titled "WHAT TO EAT" by Marion Nestle. After reading only the introduction and chapter 1, I am hooked! She has ripped apart everything that I ever thought about nutrition, and more importantly, the food industry.

A week off can give a guy some new perspective sometimes. This week has definitely opened up my mind to a few things. Despite all the fancy research and advertising pitches that we’re bombarded with, the basic fundamentals of living a healthy life and being in great physical condition, the "rules" are still the same. And anyone can follow them.

1. Eat less! Need I explain?
2. Move more! Need I explain?
3. Get rest, and plenty of it!

So here’s to a new start, right after turning 28. I’m still young, and active, and full of energy. And now that I’m beginning to understand more about the food industry and their manipulative marketing tactics, I’m beginning to realize that I don’t have to follow THEIR rules to be healthy and physically fit.

I’M TIRED OF SUPPLEMENT COMPANIES AND FOOD MANUFACTURERS TELLING ME WHAT I NEED TO CONSUME IN ORDER TO BE HEALTHY AND FIT. I’M TIRED OF TRYING TO FIT A MOLD, FOLLOW SOMEONE ELSE’S PLAN, AND LIVING SOMEONE ELSE’S LIFE. TODAY IS MY DAY, AND I WILL LIVE IT ACCORDING TO MY RULES.

Now that I have said that, I feel so much better! So here’s to healthy living, the right way. Wish me the best…I’ll need it.