The Best Shape of My Life!

So all of last week I was fighting my fall allergies. The weather patterns changed dramatically, and whatever it is that I’m allergic to is in full swing. Congestion, nose issues, throat soreness, breathing problems, and the cough–that’s the worst part of all. A dry, heaving cough that tenses my whole body. Painful, actually.

I’ve been taking the anti-histamine that the dr. prescribed a long time ago (I’m supposed to take it continuously), and I’ve added some pain killers periodically, throat drops, etc. This infection hasn’t been as serious as some of the others I’ve had, but still, enough to make me feel miserable. And it doesn’t help that I can’t really be less productive at work. My studnets need their lessons, and I need to keep up with them. So I’m forced to plug along and do the best I can. I almost lost my voice at the end of Thursday, but I made it through.

I’m feeling a lot better now, but I’ll probably go through most of this week with the voice/throat issue, and the cough will probably last another two or three weeks. The asthma part of all this is that I can’t breath properly, so I cough to force the air out of my body. I’m very thankful for the inhaler at times!

Last week, I didn’t do a whole lot as far as exercising. Always felt exhausted, or couldn’t breath. I’m hoping this coming week I’m able to get back into the gym and do something. I’m losing a bit of weight, so that’s a good sign. Not that I wanted to lose any weight, but I know I’ll probably have to lose some of the weight in order to drop the bodyfat. I’m not lucky enough to be able to keep the nice weight and turn it all into muscle like some guys.

Oh well, the important thing is that I can start doing things again. I feel so much better about everything when I can just go do something. I hate being limited/restricted, and I hate being so worn out all the time.

Food Counts Diary……

Totals (based on 6 days…..one day wasn’t logged):
18,505 calories
956.1 g Fat
1740.1 g Carbs
791.2 g Protein

Averages (based on above numbers) PER DAY:
3084 Calories
159.4 g Fat, 46%
1740.1 g Carbs, 37%
131.9 g Protein, 17%

Notes:
Obviously, I have some work to do. I need to cut out some of the fat (a considerable amount is saturated still) and add more protein. I’m trying to do this without massive supplementation, as I don’t consider that to be "natural." And they’re expensive. But I’m fighting the war with not getting enough protein, and I think I’m losing.

Temporary Goals:
1. Consume less than 3000 calories per day.
2. Consume > 120 g of protein per day.
3. Drink > 72 oz of water or flavored, non-carbonated (and non-sugared) water.

We’ll see what next week’s numbers show me. Little by little, I’m determined to get better at this!

I wasn’t going to type a review of this week, but then I thought……why not? So here it is. Overall, it was a very stressful week. Sometimes I think I have really overextended myself in everything that I do at my school, but every time I try to eliminate something, I can’t think of any reason to do so. GGGRRRR. Anyway, went on an out of town trip this weekend, so I had to adjust my workouts. Since we left early Friday morning, I couldn’t do a workout that day. So I did two weight workouts, combining my Wednesday and Friday into one workout on Thursday.

My back was pretty sore all week, so that limited me in what I could do to some degree. Doing two weight workouts was probably better for me anyway, hopefully giving my back some time to recover. I’m still not sure what I did to it, but I probably should go see a chiropractor and a massage therapist. My insurance will pay for it, it’s just a matter of making the appointment.

So last Sunday, I spent about 30 minutes in the pool doing some intense swimming. Monday’s workout is on my tracker (weights), and Tuesday I took off completely due to my back. I really missed going to yoga, and I regret not doing it, since it probably would have helped more than hindered. Lesson learned, I guess. Wednesday’s workout was a light core/flexibility training session, in which I incorporated some yoga holds. Thursday was my second weight workouts, which is posted on my tracker.

I still managed to get in four good workouts during the week, so even with an odd schedule, I stuck to it. I’m really excited about getting back into shape, and I’m hoping that by my 28th b-day in June I can continue to say that this year is the best of my life. Optimism has always come fairly easy for me, so I’m still in good spirits that, at 27 years of age, I can still make progress, and I can still become the person (physically and psychologically) that I want to be.

This week will throw off my schedule just slightly. Today I did go swimming, though it was with my wife and daughter, so not really intense. But I enjoy doing that, and it gives my family some good bonding time. That, too, is important for general health and fitness. Tomorrow, Wednesday, and Friday will be my normal weightlifting sessions, and Tuesday will be, once again, the yoga class. Thursday’s workout will be dropped this week due to an early morning meeting.

Later tonight I’ll be taking my measurements, as today was the target date for my short-term goal. I know I didn’t make the 10% bodyfat mark, but I’m hoping that I’ll start seeing some improvements to the BF as well as some body measurements and strength measures. Hopefully I’ll have all those items posted by tomorrow night.

Another week, another chance to be all that I can be. With God’s grace and some dedication to what is good for me and my family, I know I’ll make it through, and I will continue to improve. It is a great thing to know that there is always hope.

I’m up about 1,000 pounds lifted from last week. I lifted 45,420 lbs this week, short of my goal to get to 50,000. I was hoping I’d be able to make some more progress than I did, but there were a lot of factors preventing that I think. First, I haven’t been able to get a whole lot of sleep this week, as it was the week of my annual invitational debate tournament. Managing a large event requires a lot of work, and is extremely stressful. So with all that, plus just everything else that normally goes on in my life, I think I can explain why my progress wasn’t as good as I had hoped.

I still did extremely well this week. I was able to maintain everything I did last week, plus build on it. I still feel really good, and I know I’m making some progress. I think I’ve lost a couple pounds or so of weight, but haven’t officially weighed myself since last week. So we’ll see how that goes. I’m hoping that in about four more weeks I’ll have my bodyfat back down to at least 11-12%. I’m not going to make my Mar 1 check-in at 10%, but I think I still have that or lower by my 28th b-day in June, which is my major yearlong goal. So overall, I’m heading in the right direction.

Pullups are difficult, but that’s what I expected. I’m aiming to be able to complete 10 in a row, without assistance, by my 28th b-day. So I’ve still got about 4 months to get that going. I can do 2-3 per set, and I can complete two sets if I push myself. But I have to cheat a little and kick with my legs sometimes. But hey, everyone has to start somewhere, right?

Well, week 3 looks to be pretty good, too. I know I won’t be able to lift as much weight this week because I’ll only be doing two weightlifting workouts. I leave early early Friday morning to take my debate team to a tournament that is out-of-town. So I won’t be able to get into the gym. But that’s ok, because I’m hoping going swimming later today, I’ll have my weights on Mon and Wed, yoga on Tue, and a freestyle core/cardio workout on Thur.

I just hope that I can keep the steam that I started with a couple weeks ago. Sometimes I get burned out, and then I think about quitting. But now I’m riding pretty high, and I hope I can keep it going.

Yeah……I did it for a week! That in itself, for me, is an accomplishment. This week was the first for me to head back to the gym after rejoining our local Y. I completed 5 morning workouts before heading off to work every day, and I feel GREAT! I’m a little worn out today, and EXTREMELY SORE, but overall I feel awesome, and I can tell that it has already begun to make a difference. I know I won’t see major results for another couple weeks or so (presuming I stay consistent), but I have already achieved quite a bit.

1. Strength levels. On the machines, I was able to lift nearly what I was lifting when I quit doing it regularly last summer/early fall. I was expecting my muscles to have lost their power/strength, but to my surprise, they picked right back up where I left off. That made me feel really good.

2. I had the energy to complete 5 workouts early in the morning. That’s tough to do, especially lifting fairly heavy weight for me. Being able to last an entire week is amazing, considering I haven’t been that intense in a long time.

3. I tweaked my diet somewhat and ate much healthier this week than I have in a long time. I’m hoping to really work on this more so that I can balance out my protein/carbs to get better results. I still have a ways to go with diet, but slowly and surely, I’m getting there. I’m almost to the point where sodas are entirely out of my diet. When I can get to that point, I’m going to start really hammering out the chocolate/extra sweets.

4. Yoga on Tuesday was AMAZING! I need some good flexiblity/core training, and yoga is one of the best ways to do it. I’m so happy that the Y offers a yoga class early in the mornings. I think I’m going to stay with it.

5. My seasonal downturned mood was lifted quite a bit this week. I started feeling better about myself, about my job, family, etc. Though I’ve never been officially diagnosed with SAD, I believe I do have quite a few of the symptoms for it. Getting into the gym really gave me a positive outlook for the week, and I noticed I have begun feeling better about everything I do.

6. My muscles are TIGHT. I still have fat I need to get rid of (one week isn’t a miracle cure for anything), but along with the soreness has come some of the tightness that I remember. I’m hoping to drop some of the excess fat I’ve developed over the months and show some more of the definition, along with add some more muscle mass. One day/week at a time, I know, but the tight, muscular feeling that I get from working out is a super positive, and I feel really good about what I’m doing.

SO…..What about Week 2?

I don’t know if I’ll continue numbering the weeks (I hate counting, really), but I am looking forward to next week. I have Monday off from work (advantage of working in a public school I guess), so I can do a really good workout on Monday. I’m also hoping to get into the pool either tomorrow or definitely sometime next week. All the workouts will stay relatively the same, but I’m hoping that I can up the weights/sets/etc. We’ll see. I think I might go all out on Monday, leave Wednesday for the light weight routine (with bodyweight exercises as well), and then see what I can do to hammer out everything I’ve got on Friday. Yoga’s on Tuesday, and cardio is on Thursday.

I feel great, and I know that in a couple more weeks or so, I should start looking a lot better too.

ONWARD AND UPWARD!