New Workout Almost Killed Me!!!!

That is me post-workout.
Unfortunately my wife was not entertaining the idea of carrying me inside from the car :( 

This week was the beginning of my new circuit training routine and after one workout I have learned a few things, some of them very depressing. Here are the circuits I put together:

Circuit Training		Sets		Reps
Upper Body
Burpee		3		30s rest 15
Weighted Shadow Boxing		3		30s rest 15
Push-ups		3		30s rest 15
				2 min between sets
Dips		3		30s no rest
Pull Ups		3		30s no rest
Cable Curls		3		30s no rest
Battle Ropes		3		45s no rest
ab roll out		3		30s no rest
Plank		3		30s no rest
Lower Body
Thrusters		3		45s no rest
Dead Lift		3		45s no rest
Hanging One Leg Squat		3		45s no rest
Rowing		4		250 meters
				60s rest
Treadmill Sprints		6		30s:45s rest
	Incline Advance		0%,1%,2,3,4,5

Lesson #1: Careful what you eat
        I didn't get the chance to work out at my usual time today so I had to go after the kids went to bed. Not really thinking about it I ate a nice full meal, not a particularly healthy one either :( a couple hours before I went to the gym. Not a good idea. Almost lost it and felt a little sick for about an hour after working out. I think it also impeded my ability to give a full effort so that wan't good either.

Lesson #2: I am shamefully out of shape
        I knew that this new routine was going to be hard for me and that I don't have a lot of endurance but WOW I am really out of shape. I have been getting stronger and more defined muscles but I feel like I am starting from square one when it comes to endurance and core strength. I had to adjust some of the movements so I could even finish every set. Burpees became more of just an up down, push-ups became knee push-ups and by the time I got to the plank I could barely keep my body up for 10 seconds at a time. Honestly it was pretty depressing and I felt a little defeated but on the bright side I did finish the routine and now I know where I am at.

I am on a very long journey and the day-in day-out grind is very difficult at times but I have to keep putting my head down and moving forward. Tonight I realized just how much further I have to go to get healthy but that will make it all the more satisfying when I get there some day. Thanks everyone for reading and in the words of Red Green "We're all pullin for ya!"

The Things You Can Learn By Changing Your Intentions

Over the last two days I have been implementing my new goals: 2500 calories and alternating workouts. I have already learned some pretty exciting stuff. As it turns out I am stronger than I thought. This week I have changed from the 10-12 rep bodybuilding style lifting to a 4-8 rep strength focused routine. I haven't done this style of lifting in a long time so honing in on the right weight to use has taken some experimentation.

I am a huge RadioLab fan on NPR and they have this episode called "Limits." In it they talk about how the mental limits we set for ourselves sometimes keep us from doing things that we are actually capable of doing. Example, for years and years no one thought you could run a 4:00 minute mile. It was just believed to be outside of human capacity. Then in 1954 Roger Bannister ran a 3:59 and a mere two months later John Landy ran under 4:00 and since then it has become the standard for middle distance runners. Bannister broke a mental barrier and changed the parameters of the conversation.

I think I have broken a personal mental barrier this week. Instead of just adding a little bit of weight to each lift I do I decided to throw caution to the wind and just kept piling it on (of course I didn't throw safety to wind!). I have been hitting weights I didn't think I could even do a 1 rep max on, let alone do a set of 5. I am changing my parameters for how far I can push my body in the weight room and I think I am going to see some great results because of it.

Limiting myself to 2500 calories has also been a little different. I have actually been quite hungry a few times over the last couple days but sitting with that hunger has been a good experience. As an obese person I am used to eating a lot and eating all the time. I rarely felt hungry before because I was always snacking on something (and it showed). But now that I am limiting the amount of calories I eat, I have to be careful to spread them across the day which means sometimes I need to just wait to eat.

I have found this rather difficult but I am getting better at more effectively using my calories. If I cut out one of the eggs I eat in the morning that gives me about 100 calories I can use later for a small snack. I am also turning to more vegetables since they are low calorie but can be very filling. And finally portion control has become very important. We make some awesome homemade meals in my house (thank you wife for being a great cook and meal planner) but even homemade meals can get out of hand if I don't watch my portions.

I feel pretty good about the last couple days. I hope this change up gets me loosing weight again and helps me towards my path of living healthy.

And whenever I want to give up I just remember that this little girl wants to have her daddy around for a long, long time :)

Doin Some Curls for the Gurls

I figured I would throw my workout from yesterday on here real quick.

Tuesday: Arms!

I love arms day! Who doesn't want to have awesome huge biceps and a nice horseshoe triceps? Most people do chest and tris on one day and then do biceps with back or shoulders. I like to do them both on the same day because its really easy to super set since each muscle requires an opposite movement. 

Arms:

Lift	Pounds	Sets		Reps
Straight Bar Curl	70, 100, 100	3		12, 10, 10
SS Triangle Push Downs	130, 150, 150	3		12, 10, 10
Machine Preacher Curl	90, 90, 100	3		10, 10, 8
SS Overhead Dumbbell Press	80, 85, 90	3		12, 12, 10
Parallel Cable Curl	40, 40, 40	3		10, 10, 10
SS Rope Pushdown	120, 130, 130	3		10, 10, 15
Standing Dumbbell Curls	55, 60	2		8, 8
SS Skull Crushers	85, 85	2		12, 10
Concentration Curls	30	2		Failure
SS Kick Backs	25, 30	2		12, 12
SS Battle Ropes		2		Failure
HIIT	Treadmill	4		8.5 MPH

Week Three: Time For Some Numbers

The goals from week one and two have been going pretty well. I would say the biggest struggle has been keeping my snacks healthy. Getting all my fruits and veggies has taken some practice but curbing the desire for all the unhealthy snacks I usually have has been a lot of work. Solid progress is being made though!!
I think the next step in my mission is to get a full account of how much and what kinds of food I am eating every day. I have a pretty good idea of what I'm eating but I need some hard data to look at and then I can find problem spots. To get this data I am going to keep a food diary for the next week. I like to us the My Fitness Pal app to track my intake. I could simply write down everything I eat but I find that to be a bit of a pain in the ass. Using the My fitness pal app is so much easier. Anything with a bar code I can simply use my smartphone to scan it and the app knows what it is and has all the nutritional information. The app also has a very extensive library of foods so entering in what I am eating is really simple. I have tried a lot of different calorie counting apps and honestly My Fitness Pal is the best I have used.

Here is my breakfast and lunch for today!

Tracking my intake through the app is going to give me a lot of data. Calories, fat, carbs, sodium, sugar, protein, vitamins, etc. Pretty much it compiles all the nutritional info on what I ate and gives me a report. I have my goal on the app set for loosing 2lbs a week. The app sets my goals based on activity level, age, gender and weight. According to MFP, if I stay under 3800 calories a day I will loose 2lbs a week. I think I can do better than that in calories but I am more concerned about carbs and sodium.

On a bit of a side note you might be thinking that 3800 calories a day is a TON of calories. It is. That might give you a little insight into the physical differences between someone that is 365 pounds and someone that is 180 pounds. The typical adult should eat around 2000 calories a day to maintain where they are. I can eat almost double that and loose weight. That essentially means that my body is working twice as hard just to do the regular daily activity of being alive. Thinking about how hard my body is working just to keep me alive it seems obvious that extreme obesity would lead to heart disease, organ failure, arthritis, diabetes, etc. Sometimes I worry that I am to late. I can already feel the affects of years of obesity in my back, knees and ankles. I went to the doctor the other day and had blood taken to test all the general things like cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar. The yearly physical kind of stuff. The last time I had my cholesterol checked I was 24 and it was borderline high. I never got it checked again for a number of reasons but partially because I just didn't want to deal with it. I am now waiting to get my numbers back to see what kind of damage I have done. The doctor reassured me that even if it is high I am on the right track and as long as I stay the course it will come down. Thinking about all of this makes it tempting to sit back in self-pity about "O, I am overweight cause of this and that" and let the depression take over but that will not get my children's father to a healthy life. Regardless of what irreparable damage I may have done, I can stop doing more damage and fix what can be fixed. So here's to trudging forward for these guys!!!

Plus 2 more that hadn't been born yet :)