The Best Shape of My Life!

Went swimming tonight for 25 minutes. Very exhausting. And I think I’m getting sick, so that’s not good. I’m hearing a ringing in my ears, and my right ear is clogged and can’t pop. I do get swimmer’s ear every now and then from swimming (which sucks because I love the water so much), but I don’t think that’s the full issue. With the changing weather, I think I feel my allergies acting up again. GGGGGRRRRR!

It felt great to swim, dive, and just be in the water again. I was wanting to do another workout at home (bodyweight), but I have not found the energy. I’m sitting like a zombie now in front of the computer typing this. I really need to finish reading a section of a book for my thesis, but I’m looking at the words and nothing is making sense. Maybe to bed, then.

Pray that I don’t start getting sick.

8/27

Very long day at work. Back-to-School Night, where parents come and meet their kids’ high school teachers. We run through the schedule for them, introduce ourselves, hand out a syllabus, etc. It’s kind of fun, but it makes for a VERY LONG day, and I’m usually totally exhausted by the end of it. I did get some needed grading done and some planning done, though, so by work standards, it was a good day.

Not so good on fitness/health. I had trouble waking up with my alarm, and so didn’t have the energy and/or time left to complete even a 20 minute morning workout. I regret that, but what can I do about it now? I ruined the opportunity, and I’ll never get it back. Needless to say, I was NOT going to do a workout when I got home late at night.

8/28

Today was a much better day all around. I was still tired most of the day, but I completed a 20 minute treadmill workout in the morning before work, did some pushups during my very short breaks at work, and then completed a 25 minute bodyweight/garage tennis workout when I got home. Then my wife, daughter, and I went to the zoo for a fun evening. I was just happy to get in the 45 minutes total of exericse that I did. I went to bed last night thinking I wasn’t going to get anything accomplished.

I don’t think I’ve ever been happier for a weekend than I am now! All I want to do is relax, but I know I can’t afford to do that. Too much work to do on my thesis, and I brought home some school stuff to work on (I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help it). I’m planning on doing yoga Saturday morning, church on Sunday morning, and then weights and/or swimming on Sunday afternoon. Beyond that, everything is up for grabs. But if I get two good workouts completed (40+ minutes each), I’ll be in a good place to end this week. Especially since it has been such a long and exhausting week!

Two more days left. Hopefully I wrap it up well.

40 minutes of exercise today.

20 minutes in the AM stretching/yoga.
20 minutes in the PM treadmill, 1.84 miles.

Not exactly what I wanted to do, but I guess it will work. The plan was to go to the gym in the PM and swim for 30-40 minutes. But my wife got mad and wanted me to stay home, so I busted out on the treadmill. I hate running, I’m not good at it, and I can’t concentrate that long. So I didn’t have a great workout, but I did sweat some of the frustration out of me. Tomorrow I hope to hit the weights, even though I have a long day ahead of me (evening work event). GGGRRRR.

This has been a long week so far. Long work hours on the second week of school only add to the stress and frustration levels. But hopefully there will be a calm in the storm next week and I can really begin to refocus. I need some sleep and energy, so I’m trying to hit the sack by 10 PM every night.

Diet……

Sucks. No other way to say it. I’ve tried over and over and over again to make good changes to my diet, and I fail every time. I’m aiming at this point to just consume less calories than what I have been doing. Taking in extra fruits and veggies just isn’t going to work. As much as I really do like them, and as much as I know they’re really good for me, my body has been trained long ago to not eat them as a priority. Sure, it’s psychological, and I could reprogram my mind I’m sure. But it’s much harder than anyone realizes, and I guess I’m just not strong enough to overcome my desires for desserts and junk food. So if I can limit the junk as much as possible, I’m going to consider it a success. At least for now.

Still aiming to get 250 total minutes of exercise this week. At mid-week I have 105. With Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday still left as workout days (plus short workouts in the mornings), I should still be able to reach the goal. I think that will really help. I feel great after exercising, so if I can reach this 250 number, I will be able to reason with myself that I’m really starting to do something. Then maybe I can start to tackle the other hassles in my life (like the diet and sleep issues that I can’t get resolved).

We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

This is the start of Week 3 of my new, invigorated program. I’ve been doing 20 minute workouts in the mornings before going to work, and then trying to get in at least 30-45 minutes of exercise in the evenings to help relax and destress from the day. So far I think it’s working. I haven’t seen any major weight gains/losses, muscular shifts, bodyfat drop, or anything…BUT…I have been feeling much better about myself lately, and I’m feeling a lot tighter than I had been.

The last two weeks I have not done anything on Monday, so I’m really happy about spending 65 minutes today exercising! It really help set the tone for the rest of the week.

Tonight, I lifted weights. I lifted 270 lbs on the leg press for 3 sets of 12, which is the most that I can recall ever lifting on that particular exercise. I’m also making some strength gains on the seated cable row (50 lbs/side x 3 sets of 12) and the BB incline bench (115 lbs x 3 sets of 10-12). There were other lifts, but these were the big ones for me tonight.

Tomorrow, I hope to get in the pool and swim for a good 30 minutes. Might even do some diving again. I used to be able to do flips and 1.5 flips, but it has been quite a while since I’ve been that brave. Even just diving is great exercise (even though you’re not constantly moving), so I’m hoping that I can get in and get a good workout done.

Overall goal for the week is >250 minutes of total exercise.

First, a correction. In my last blog, I noted that I had logged 160 minutes of exercise last week. But I didnt log Sunday’s workout, and I count Sunday as the last day of the week (Monday starts a new work week for me). With everything logged for last week, I completed 185 minutes of total exercise. That’s a huge improvement over what I had been doing during the summer! So if I can keep that going well into the school year, I think I’m going to see some really good changes.

Now, for the mid-week review. The second day of the new school year is over, and already I’m totally wiped out!  I forget over the summer how exhausting and completely draining teaching really is. Probably a good thing, because if my memory held out all summer long, I probably wouldn’t still be teaching. Ok, not really. I love my job, but there are moments when all I want to do is SLEEP!

So far I have logged only 65 minutes of exercise, but there are 4 days of the work week remaining, and I’m planning on doing something every one of those days. I did nothing today, so that was disappointing. When I woke up, I couldn’t even get myself to do the 20 minute workout that I am holding so dear to my life right now. That may have been why my day was pretty lousy, and why I had a headache for a good portion of it. So I’m hoping to get myself in gear and do the 20 minute deal in the mornings for both Thursday and Friday. I’m also planning on hitting the weights Thursday, swimming on Friday, and yoga on Saturday. I should be able to hit my week goal of 250 minutes or more of exercise.

At any rate, I’m doing much more than I had been. My body (and mind, to a degree) are rebelling like crazy, but I feel really good about it. One step at a time!

That’s the number of minutes I spent exercising this week. And it felt GREAT! Here’s what the week looked like as far as workouts are concerned.

Tuesday: 20 minutes AM, 20 minutes PM (bodyweight, home workouts)
Wednesday: 20 minutes AM (bodyweight, home workout)
Thursday: 20 minutes AM (bodyweight, home), 40-45 minutes PM (weights, gym)
Saturday: 40-45 minutes AM (yoga, gym)

I love fitness! Over the summer I got lazy and lathargic and never wanted to really give my body what it needed. Now that I’m back onto my school/work routine, I have a schedule where I can force myself to get back into it. Funny, it is, how I always end up enjoying the workouts only after I force myself to get into them.

Yoga this morning was AMAZING! I hadn’t done yoga in a couple months, and it was just an awesome experience! I feel much more relaxed, stretched, and flexible after just one workout. The instructor conducts the class a bit differently than previous ones I’ve had, but it was great. The way we worked our bodies was just exhilerating and breath-taking. I am planning on returning.

Next week, my goal is to get in more exercise sessions. I’m trying to set a schedule for simple 20 minute workouts in the early morning when I wake up. Nothing overly profound, heavy, intense, etc. Just enough to get my body going for the day and to last me till I get in a good workout in the evening. Those 20 minutes I know will add up over time, and add the other stuff that I hopefully will do (classes, weights, etc), and I hope to see some nice differences in my body by mid-September. I’ve already dropped about 6-7 pounds (depending on the scale and when I measure), measuring only 193 lbs instead of the 200 (for all those who use SI, that’s about 87.7 kg instead of 91 kg).

I have to be able to keep wearing the jeans/pants that I have. The nice thing about the weight gain is that I have been filling out my shirts better. But the extra fat isn’t exactly what I wanted, so I’ll probably lose some of the nice upper body "filling" when I start dropping some bodyfat. Oh well. To be lean is always the better, healthier option than just being big. Size only matters in a race against a train at a crossing.

Well, where did the summer go?

School starts back up next week (well, teacher work days do), which is exciting. I’m ready to get back into what I do best. And along with the job comes the daily routine, which I really like to have! So I’m hoping to find a pattern that works well for me this year. Besides work, I’ll be completing a master’s thesis, so that will consume a good amount of my time, too. But I’m pushing for shorter, intense workouts, hopefully multiple times throughout the day. And having a fairly solid, predictable schedule will really help reinforce that.

Right now I’m still aiming for 12% bodyfat by the end of the year. I’m working on making subtle changes to my diet, but that is going to take some time. Bad habits are hard to overcome, especially when they involved sweet things (junk foods). Little by little, I’m making some positive changes, and I know those changes over time will influence my bodyfat percent a lot. Add that with a routine for fitness and I think I’ll start to be in much better shape.