No weigh in today
Sorry for the long gap in posting. I've been pretty busy with work and home stuff, but that's not really an excuse. I just haven't had much to say in regards to fitness or diet lately. I guess my mind's just been elsewhere. That's not to say I've been phoning in my diet; quite the contrary, actually. I've been eating a lot more whole foods and increasing my fresh vegetable intake. I've been preparing almost all of my meals at home with less cheats (I think I've had 2 cheat meals in the past week and a half). So far, so good.
Exercise has been an issue, though. I've basically been gym-free since I finished moving. But that's changing. My girlfriend got a gym membership, and we'll now working out together 3-4 times a week. She was a competitive swimmer in high school, so she has been athletic in the past, but she's never done any form of weight training. She is eager to learn, though, so I'm teaching her all the fundamental movements: barbell squats, deadlift, bench and shoulder press. We did squats on Sunday, and she really enjoyed the experience, so I'm hopeful that we can make some good progress. Having a partner and an actual workout schedule should help me to be consistent with my workouts, as that is my weakest area. Our routine for now is solely strength based, with skill work added before and after. After a few weeks I will start introducing high-intensity workouts (Crossfit style, of course) when I feel that we are both ready to do so. Then we will split our gym sessions into 2 strength, 2 metcon per week. I'm hoping that by the time summer comes we will both be leaner, stronger, and fitter than ever.
I weighed in at 204 yesterday, so I've kept of the 3 pounds that I lost 2 weeks ago. I'm hoping to be back under 200 by the end of April, and as long as I'm consistent in the gym and in the kitchen I know I can get there.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Moving is not fun
No weigh in today
My scale is still packed away and I haven't weighed myself since Thursday, so no useful information there. This weekend was killer. We spent 12 straight hours moving on Saturday, then another 6 hours cleaning the old apartment, returning the moving truck, etc, on Sunday. I'm incredibly sore today, mainly in my calves, biceps, and forearms (from carrying heavy stuff up and down stairs). It was a lot of hard work, and a bit of frustration.
Diet this weekend was terrible. Pizza, tacos, McDonald's breakfast. Just awful. I'll be unpacking all my pots, pans, and spices tonight so I can get back to cooking again. I can't handle any more fast food.
Other than that everything is great. I'm really enjoying the new place. It's a good deal bigger than my old apartment, and we're about 2 miles from the beach now. And the kitchen has more counter space, which makes cooking a lot easier for me. Now I've gotta get back into a good routine after shaking things up so much.
My scale is still packed away and I haven't weighed myself since Thursday, so no useful information there. This weekend was killer. We spent 12 straight hours moving on Saturday, then another 6 hours cleaning the old apartment, returning the moving truck, etc, on Sunday. I'm incredibly sore today, mainly in my calves, biceps, and forearms (from carrying heavy stuff up and down stairs). It was a lot of hard work, and a bit of frustration.
Diet this weekend was terrible. Pizza, tacos, McDonald's breakfast. Just awful. I'll be unpacking all my pots, pans, and spices tonight so I can get back to cooking again. I can't handle any more fast food.
Other than that everything is great. I'm really enjoying the new place. It's a good deal bigger than my old apartment, and we're about 2 miles from the beach now. And the kitchen has more counter space, which makes cooking a lot easier for me. Now I've gotta get back into a good routine after shaking things up so much.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Mid-week update
Today's Weigh-In: 203.4 lbs.
3-Day average: 205.3 lbs.
Well I've dropped 4 pounds since Monday somehow. I guess I must have been pretty bloated from my recent over-consumption of processed carbs. The last few days have been excellent diet-wise. I've been consistently keeping my calories under 2200, and have mostly been eating unprocessed foods. I did eat some leftover lasagna last night, but since we're moving my fridge is looking pretty bare, and it still fit in with my calorie goal.
No workout on Tuesday due to packing, but I did manage to get a pretty intense workout at home last night. I went out on my balcony, grabbed the kettlebell, and did this:
3 rounds of:
30 KB swings (1 pood KB, 35 pounds)
15 push-ups
25 squats
I didn't time myself since I left my stopwatch in my truck, but I went as fast as I could. Kettlebell swings get my heart rate up so fast it's unbelievable. After I was done I ended up laying on my floor for 15 minutes just trying to slow my heart down and catch my breath. It was really good.
So that's where I'm at. I probably won't get another real workout in this week because of the move, but I'll be getting plenty of exercise actually doing the move, so I don't feel too bad about that. My eating is going to be more of an issue, since we don't have a lot of food left in the house, and we'll be packing up the cookware tonight. If I have to eat fast food I'll make sure to stick with high protein/low carb items such as El Pollo Loco chicken. I should be okay.
3-Day average: 205.3 lbs.
Well I've dropped 4 pounds since Monday somehow. I guess I must have been pretty bloated from my recent over-consumption of processed carbs. The last few days have been excellent diet-wise. I've been consistently keeping my calories under 2200, and have mostly been eating unprocessed foods. I did eat some leftover lasagna last night, but since we're moving my fridge is looking pretty bare, and it still fit in with my calorie goal.
No workout on Tuesday due to packing, but I did manage to get a pretty intense workout at home last night. I went out on my balcony, grabbed the kettlebell, and did this:
3 rounds of:
30 KB swings (1 pood KB, 35 pounds)
15 push-ups
25 squats
I didn't time myself since I left my stopwatch in my truck, but I went as fast as I could. Kettlebell swings get my heart rate up so fast it's unbelievable. After I was done I ended up laying on my floor for 15 minutes just trying to slow my heart down and catch my breath. It was really good.
So that's where I'm at. I probably won't get another real workout in this week because of the move, but I'll be getting plenty of exercise actually doing the move, so I don't feel too bad about that. My eating is going to be more of an issue, since we don't have a lot of food left in the house, and we'll be packing up the cookware tonight. If I have to eat fast food I'll make sure to stick with high protein/low carb items such as El Pollo Loco chicken. I should be okay.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Good start
Today's Weigh-In: 207.2 lbs.
I wanted to thank you all for the comments on yesterday's post. I've always known that many of us have had issues with maintaining or regaining weight, and I just never thought it would happen to me, especially so quickly. All I can do is keep moving forward and build up some momentum.
I did get to the gym yesterday, which is good. I did squats and deadlifts, and then did some sprint intervals on the track. I'm finally getting some use out of my interval stopwatch that I bought a year ago :)
Food choices yesterday were really good, no cheating at all. I had eggs and bacon for breakfast (my standard morning meal), some taco meat and veggies for lunch, and salmon and spinach for dinner. Overall my calorie intake was around 2300, which is right where it needs to be. I had forgotten that small pang of hunger that comes with calorie restriction, and it kind of sucks, but not enough to give in to eating garbage.
One day on the books, now to make it a streak.
I wanted to thank you all for the comments on yesterday's post. I've always known that many of us have had issues with maintaining or regaining weight, and I just never thought it would happen to me, especially so quickly. All I can do is keep moving forward and build up some momentum.
I did get to the gym yesterday, which is good. I did squats and deadlifts, and then did some sprint intervals on the track. I'm finally getting some use out of my interval stopwatch that I bought a year ago :)
Food choices yesterday were really good, no cheating at all. I had eggs and bacon for breakfast (my standard morning meal), some taco meat and veggies for lunch, and salmon and spinach for dinner. Overall my calorie intake was around 2300, which is right where it needs to be. I had forgotten that small pang of hunger that comes with calorie restriction, and it kind of sucks, but not enough to give in to eating garbage.
One day on the books, now to make it a streak.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Disheartened
I'm back. Has it really been 2 weeks since I last posted? For shame.
I'm not going to lie and say that I've been doing well, either. I've been doing pretty crap as far as weight-loss and fitness go. My manager changed my work schedule so that I can't make any of the classes at the Crossfit gym, so I haven't been there in almost 2 weeks. Unfortunately I haven't been to the globo-gym either, so there's been a dearth of exercise in my world. I haven't been tracking my calories either, and we all know what happens when we forget to do that. All in all, it's caused a net gain of a few pounds. I'm fully over 200 again (probably around 206-208) and that's bad times. I'm having to use the 2nd notch on my belt instead of the 3rd as a result, and that just feels bad.
This is very disheartening for me, because I always felt that once I got my crap together that it would just flow for me easily the rest of my life. But now I find how easy it is to start back down that slippery slope of laziness and fast food.
I've got to get back under 200. Have to. There's no real excuse for going over. I just haven't made myself do the work that I need to do.
I've started counting my calories again today. I'm aiming for 2200-2400, which is what I was eating when I was losing weight before. Getting into the gym is going to be a bigger challenge, because this weekend I am moving to a new apartment, and I have to take care of all the crap that comes along with that, including packing, which limits my free time quite a bit. I'm hoping to get out of work early enough to get to the gym tonight and just do something. I don't have a good plan right now, which is making it hard to get motivated, but I know that if I just get in there I'll come up with something that'll get my heart racing, and I'll feel better when I'm done. I need to learn to make better use of the things I have at home as well (such as a kettlebell and pull-up bar) instead of making excuses. I'll try to keep a consistent posting schedule to at least keep myself accountable. No better time to start than today.
I'm not going to lie and say that I've been doing well, either. I've been doing pretty crap as far as weight-loss and fitness go. My manager changed my work schedule so that I can't make any of the classes at the Crossfit gym, so I haven't been there in almost 2 weeks. Unfortunately I haven't been to the globo-gym either, so there's been a dearth of exercise in my world. I haven't been tracking my calories either, and we all know what happens when we forget to do that. All in all, it's caused a net gain of a few pounds. I'm fully over 200 again (probably around 206-208) and that's bad times. I'm having to use the 2nd notch on my belt instead of the 3rd as a result, and that just feels bad.
This is very disheartening for me, because I always felt that once I got my crap together that it would just flow for me easily the rest of my life. But now I find how easy it is to start back down that slippery slope of laziness and fast food.
I've got to get back under 200. Have to. There's no real excuse for going over. I just haven't made myself do the work that I need to do.
I've started counting my calories again today. I'm aiming for 2200-2400, which is what I was eating when I was losing weight before. Getting into the gym is going to be a bigger challenge, because this weekend I am moving to a new apartment, and I have to take care of all the crap that comes along with that, including packing, which limits my free time quite a bit. I'm hoping to get out of work early enough to get to the gym tonight and just do something. I don't have a good plan right now, which is making it hard to get motivated, but I know that if I just get in there I'll come up with something that'll get my heart racing, and I'll feel better when I'm done. I need to learn to make better use of the things I have at home as well (such as a kettlebell and pull-up bar) instead of making excuses. I'll try to keep a consistent posting schedule to at least keep myself accountable. No better time to start than today.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Rainy Monday morning musings
Ugh. While most people have today off, I'm in the office working. And it's raining. This is not a good start to my week. However, I still got up this morning and got in a good workout, and I feel a lot better for it. I'm finally starting to get used to waking up early, so it's not as much of an issue as is has been. The cold weather in the morning is still annoying, but that's just something I can't do much about. I'm also starting to get my fitness level back up to the point where I'm not nauseous after workouts any more. Puking sucks, a lot. I did a full workout this morning with near max intensity and didn't feel like throwing up at all. The other guys at the gym really pushed me, to the point where I didn't think I could keep going, but I did. That's the best feeling, when you just break down that mental wall that tells you "stop, you'll die if you keep going." You won't die. Your heart won't explode, and your lungs won't fail you. You'll feel like crap for a few minutes, but your fitness will increase by leaps and bounds. This is something that I have to re-learn, and it's hard, but the benefits far outweigh the difficulties.
No weigh-in today, but I'm probably about the same. I had a fun weekend, but me and my lady ate out quite a bit. I stayed really active on Saturday with cleaning my apartment, but was too sore from Friday's workout to do anything more than that. Right now I'm really focused on staying healthy, keeping my energy levels up, and getting my strength and cardio back up to the levels they were at a few months ago. To facilitate that I've been eating a bit more than I need to lose weight, but the extra calories help my recovery so it's a fair trade for the time being. I think by the beginning of March I'll be able to start honing the diet without sacrificing the ability to get in a good workout. We'll see.
No weigh-in today, but I'm probably about the same. I had a fun weekend, but me and my lady ate out quite a bit. I stayed really active on Saturday with cleaning my apartment, but was too sore from Friday's workout to do anything more than that. Right now I'm really focused on staying healthy, keeping my energy levels up, and getting my strength and cardio back up to the levels they were at a few months ago. To facilitate that I've been eating a bit more than I need to lose weight, but the extra calories help my recovery so it's a fair trade for the time being. I think by the beginning of March I'll be able to start honing the diet without sacrificing the ability to get in a good workout. We'll see.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Wednesday
Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of updates this week. Been really busy with work and just haven't found the time. I didn't get a chance to weigh in before I ate this morning, so no numbers for today. I've been tracking my caloric intake and have been doing pretty well at keeping them under 2500 for the last few days or so. The weekend was definitely not good, though, with hot wings, french fries, and beer. So I'm making up for that a bit this week. I've gotta get better at limiting my cheats to one meal per week and not stretch it out over a few days. I used to be really good at this but it's hard to get back into that routine, especially when you're around other people who aren't as concerned with what they eat.
I got in a really good workout this morning, and I'll be doing some heavy deadlifting tomorrow, so that should be fun. I'm still having a hard time with getting up in the morning, but it's something that I have to do or else I won't reach any of my goals. Just gotta suck it up and go.
I got in a really good workout this morning, and I'll be doing some heavy deadlifting tomorrow, so that should be fun. I'm still having a hard time with getting up in the morning, but it's something that I have to do or else I won't reach any of my goals. Just gotta suck it up and go.
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