Day 6

Day 6 is coming to an end.  I’m very irritated by my shoulder but it will be ok.  Read previous post.  I did have a couple of shots of jaeger this evening.  wee…

Calories, I went around 2500 for the day but possible I’ve maintained a deficit, no matter I didn’t go overboard at all.  I’m done eating for the day.  Tomorrow will be a test though.  Going to a party so I gotta watch it big time.

No exercise today with it being Saturday and all.  I did manage to do a tad bit of yardword.  With my shoulder paining me I will take it very easy on workouts for a couple of days and go from there.  If nothing else, I can keep my eating strong and shore up some of my nibbling habits.

I am down a pound or so though, slow and steady makes for happy people.

Plan for fitness

Fitness is a scary word and if it were a four letter word it’d be more fitting.  Fitness, to me, does not mean sporting track pants chugging water every waking hour of the day.  The truth is that most of us don’t want nor can we actually live like that.  It’s like a movie, fiction, fairytale.  Sure some can, like professional athletes.  We’re not professional athletes.  We’re professionals at living our lives.  The key to succeeding is to plan, plan and plan.  This isn’t stressed enough.  Before you do anything, at all, you plan.  Period.

What are your goals?  Short-term, long-term?  You can’t go into a mindset of “after 12 weeks I’m done for good”.  You should have short term goals but you should think long term as well.  In planning and following carefully that plan, you set up good living habits.   These good habits will establish themselves into your life and follow you.

For years upon years there have been too many schemes and scams to get us into shape.  Sadly, an overwhelming majority of them do not work or even make things work.  I had one of those Ab Roller things a few years back.  All of the people in the commercial were ripped or flat bellies using this thing.  Well I fell for it and bought one.  I used it once.  Ok, I used it twice.  Three times would have been way too much!  The point is, we’re easily bought and sold with this idea that getting something nice requires hardly any effort.

Well how do you plan?  You have to know your limits.  You have to know how much time per day/week you can devote towards exercise.  You must plan your diet out and track it.  It’s not as bad as it sounds.  Lets start with exercise.

Exercise

The system I follow is something I picked up from the Body-For-Lifeprogram.  It mixes cardio exercise with strength training.  Now, as I’m typing this, I am currently restarting this program!  I fell off the wagon for a few years and honestly it was my fault.  Now, back on track.  The system I use might not be right for the next person or the next.  I know a couple of people that have added it to their routine.  I suggest researching this program if it sounds up your alley.

The most important thing is to make time for exercise.  I’m serious that you can get a very good workout in a 15-30 minute period depending on what you’re doing.  A key here is to make sure you’re doing your exercise correctly.  I am not a morning person, so I prefer evening workouts.  You might prefer mornings, it’s up to you.  If you want to achieve your goal then you simply must make time.

Between diet and exercise it’s really hard to say which is more important.  They’re both immensely important.  If you eat just right and do zero exercise, you will lose weight probably.  The problem is you might end up losing muscle.  That’s a very bad thing because muscles metabolise fat, they make us strong and in the end make us look and feel better.  If you exercise your face off but eat horridly, you’ll have a fair amount of strength but it’s likely to be hidden under layers of fat.

Diet

Now with my eating, I also fallow the BFL method.  I eat 6 or so small meals a day.  I really try to keep them balanced using the 40/40/20 method.  This means the ratio of calories is 40 protein, 40 carb and 20 fat.  Lets say my calories for the day are 2000.  I’ll have 800 from protein, 800 from carbs and 400 from fat.  You don’t have to be dead on, just in the general area.  This is important to keep you feeling fuller longer and also providing necessary nutrition to power and build your body.

I recommend something like www.fitday.com to help track food intake.

Now, must you track it for the rest of your life?  No!  You do have to teach yourself how to make wise food decisions.  Do not give up if you’ve given in to a bad food decision.  Never resort to the “tomorrow I will start” syndrome.  Start now and start by planning now.  Make sure you are capable of what you plan.  If you want realistic results, then a realistic plan is what you need.  It can take months or even years to reach your fitness goals.  You have to start somewhere and if you’re going to start, then you need to _____!  Correct answer: Plan!

I really hate typing these things up this late.  I feel like I leave things out and jump around a tad.  I am not a doctor or a fitness expert.  I’m an abnormal nerdy guy who wants to take care of himself and family.   This blog is a chronicle of my journeys through fitness and slaying debt.  I like the idea of being able to inspire others through success.

Well, stop reading, start planning!

Plan day

I’ve laid out most of my plan.  I want to do it in 12-week increments or phases.  The goal is to reach a maintenence phase.  See, acheiving a goal is only half of the battle.  Staying at your goal is where a staggering 95% of people go [95% of people who meet their initial goals].  Why?  I guess it’s because old habits are resumed and for a while it doesn’t show.  Then one day you go to zip your pants and what the duece?!  They must have shrunk in the wash…  Yes, those 3 year old jeans, shrunk… in the wash.  Likely story, turns out most of us just inflate in size when we are “done”.

The truth is, we’re never “done”.  One never stops living until they die.  I know that’s profound but life is an ongoing continual thing.  We take the things in life we can’t control and accept them. Then we take the things in life we can control and take them by the horns.  Otherwise, life will control us.  That is something I’ve battled for years.

So I wanted to sort of make myself into an experiment, journal the results and show them in numbers and images.  I want to get all my measurements taken, hopefully tomorrow (i.e. body fat%, height, weight, waist, etc).  I want to get them measured each week of the 12 week Phase I.  I’ll post the results and hopefully be able to show a nifty little chart.  I have some software I’ll track all my stuff with (www.fitday.com).  I’m going to portion meals and water.  I’m going to schedule my exercise.  I’ll see about posting that as well.  The last thing I want to do is hopefully make a video of the day to day images that chronicle the results for each phase.  There was a guy that did it but the site escapes me.  It was really cool to see his transformation.

Again, transformation is but half of the equation.  Getting to your destination and staying there is the other half.

Well, here we go.

Separate, yet similar goals

Well today it dawned on me that she and I have different goals over the next several months/years.  What also occurred to me is that they are kind of symbiotic.  5 years ago when we lived in the ATL our lives were very different.  We didn’t have “goals”.  We got into shape, that’s it, big woop.  That doesn’t embrace the aspects of the life we now have.  To say we are going to do “1″ thing together is a thing of the past.

As she begins to share her coupon madness with our friends, she’s found something she enjoys and has made a hobby out of it.  Through that hobby we can move towards debt freedom and break those chains.  The ultimate financial goal for us is to be able to purchase with cold hard cash (if at all possible).  What about me?  I need something personal to strive for as we both embark on our journey towards debt demolition.  Well I’ve found it!

I’ve already told her that she doesn’t have to do anything to make me think that she is already more beautiful than she is.  Ok, say that sentence 10 times.  GO!  In short, I only wanted her company on our fitness journey but her goal isn’t fitness.  I’m not saying I’m going to be buff hardcheese but I want to be in shape.  I have valid reasons, particularly 2 reasons, one almost 5 years old and the other approaching 1 year.  Yes, I want the energy to keep up with my two boys.  I don’t wanna be a slob and make an imprint on the couch on a sunny Saturday afternoon.  By the way, I took the pre-5 year old, yes, pre-5, to play golf with me.  That was exciting for him!

Ok so what am I getting at.  It’s midnight and I’m babbling.  The point is that I want to journal my progress and what better way than… a blog!?  Hey I can host multiple domains with unlimited DBs on this bad boy hosting plan, I’m getting my 9.95/mo. worth!  It will hold me accountable and a sort of semi-public way.  I have tried to do this a couple of times but not exactly in the way I’m going to do it this time.  I’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple of years doing things for others on this here interweb.  Damn it I’m doing something for myself!

So pretty soon I’ll have yet another blog for you to link to and I want to do something really cool after the 12 week day to day incremental updates.  Ok, seriously tired now.  Beds to be made and maids to be bedded *rimshot*.  (MST3K joke…)

Sweat

I remembered what that felt like yesterday evening.  It is all of the 3rd time this year going to the gym.  If you’ve read these blogs long enough you’ll know that between all the weeks of sickness we’ve had, it’s no surprise.

I wanted to work out last night to feel good.  It wasn’t for a smaller waist size.  I want the better fitting clothes to be a perk or a plus.  I want the energy and overall wellbeing to be the main benefit.  That’s what initially motivated me years ago.  When it turns into vanity, it’s doomed to fail, for me at least.

Our priorities and schedules have changed up and we’ve taken steps to fit fitness in where it can.  We got a set of cast iron dumbells at home now.  Pound per pound they’re old school workhorses of strength training.  I love them because they don’t feel flimsy or breakable.  In LRussia, dumbell blreaks YOU!  That plus walking at lunch a couple of times a week plus a couple of heart pumping cardio workouts will go a long way.

Exercise also has the benefit of easing my anxiety.  That alone is reason enough.

Thinking ahead

5 Years ago I would have been weary of a hybrid automobile.  10 years ago no one really knew what one was.  Today though it’s a popular buzzword.  I’ve finally come around on these contraptions because I’m very interested in what will energize our world in the next 5-10-25 years.

Today, it’s oil.  People love gasoline and burning it.  All pyromaniac jokes aside I’m not against burning gasoline.  If you have the means to afford a Hummer and afford to fill it up every two days, more power to you.  Some people actually do have more money than they know what to do with.  I don’t and even if I did, I’d much much rather put it away for my children’s college, bigger retirement, you get the idea.  Plus the damn things hog the road! Ok enough about that, we’re talking about hybrids.

This blog is about fitness; money, mind and body.  I read there is a car that can get 150mpg and Saturn has a concept vehicle that gets 400+ miles on 1 tank of gas.  To a money concsious consumer this is huge!

Remember when gas was about 1 dollar per gallon?  Yeah, hard to believe right?  Lets say you got 25mpg at 1 dollar per gallon.  Well now you’re spending 3 dollars and getting the same lousy 25mpg!  What if you’re auto got 75mpg?  Guess what?  Now you’re spending the equivalent of 1 dollar per gallon again!

Bad news is that gas will continue to get higher, possibly.  Good news though!  Fuel efficient hybrid technology will only get better.  Oil will run out one day, perhaps not in our lifetimes or our childrens’.  But one day it will.  The human race needs to prepare and research and master new ways of creating energy.

My main objective of buying a hybrid (at some point)? It’s my subtle way of telling OPEC to jump up my butt.

L

Day 14: The Gym at last

In a mix between necessity and necessity I finally went to the gym.  I haven’t had a valid excuse for nearly two weeks.  It also prompted me to be more productive in another way which I’ll mention later.

The workout was good and I was able to really keep up with the pace I’d left off with.  Good feeling it was.  Yoda I am not. 

What amazes me the most is the positioning of one of the machines in there.  It’s the leg press machine where you kind of sit with your legs up and leaned back.  Well it faces the ENTIRE gym.  They really should turn it to face the wall.  I’m saying this because I have a favorite elliptical.  It’s on the left side near a column and a large tree plant thing.  Well it never fails because girls go in there wanting to look CUTE.  God forbid anyone look like they’re actually working out.  They get on this thing in their little shorts and put their legs up and … well lets just say all imagination goes on vacation.

Normally I wouldn’t complain but there is a time and a place, people!  I can’t just stare.  It makes me feel so awkward because I am trying to focus and at the same time there’s this little voice saying “she asked for it!”  Eh, well last night I didn’t even mean to look and bam, I saw it clear to China.  Oi, I just wanna workout, OK?

Did I mention they were twin sisters? Yeah…

So on to the productivity.  I developed a system of having the gym get me updates for their website.  It was very hit or miss month to month and we both hit a point of wanting to better streamline the process.  I already rebuilt their site for such purposes.  It should be a lot easier to maintain the site as long as the updates are sent to me in a timely manner.

In other news.  We’re still waiting on our oldeset to work that hungry hungry hippo ball out.  He hates wearing long sleeve shirts.  Noted.  We’re about to beat Zelda.  We’re just gathering hearts and powerups prior to the final showdown.  I fed the little one this morning and he fell asleep on me.  It makes me not want to get up because he looks so peaceful.

Time to work

L

Day 7: Semi-routine

Everyone is healthy.  Finally.

Our oldest went back to school today and we’re all back to work.  The holidays are all but a memory now.  The last remnants will be the Christmas lights, most of which I took down this morning.  I should have gotten a picture of them.  Oh well, next year.

What was supposed to start last week is going to kinda start this week.  That is, keeping track of things, finances and diet info, etc.  All this while maintaining the fragile balance of our routines.  The more people you have to care for, the more dynamic things become.  Now, in a few years we won’t have to hover nearly as much.  We have to make it there first!

So I’m going to lay off the technical diet/fitness posts for a bit and just post about real life.

Day 6: End of wonky house

Well we’re all better now or close to it, somewhere around 90% I’d say.  I was reading a magazine this morning and it had “11 steps to better eating in 2008″.  As I read through them I realized that we already had the fundamentals of eating healthier as a habit.  I’ll summarize a little bit.

Eat several meals a day.  Why?  When you eat a large meal your body will only use a portion of that meal as energy, the rest gets stored away as, you guess it, fat.  Eating several meals keeps your body in a constant state of energy consumption.  You don’t get the ups and downs of eating 3 large meals, or worse, some people eat 1 gigantic meal a day.

Balance your meals.  This is a combination of a couple of the points in the magazine.  When I say balance I mean you have ratios of each nutrient you intake.  The three big ones: FAT, PROTEIN, CARBOHYDRATES.   Balance does a couple of things.  First it helps regulate blood sugar and keeps you from getting a rush then crashing.  Second, protein is essential to good health because your lean body mass (muscle) is built/maintained/repaired from it.  Some diet plans have different ratios (zone, atkins, etc).  You’ll see them like this 40/40/20  or 30/40/30  (carb/protein/fat).  We try to stick to 40/40/20 with each meal and if each meal isn’t that ratio we try to end the day with the ratio.  It is literally a balancing act!  FitDay provides a chart to show you ratios.

Drink water.  This should go without saying but water is vital to the body.  We’re mostly water and all of our body functions depend on water.  A half gallon a day is sufficient but if you train or if it’s a very hot dry day, you might need more.

Caffeine!  This was a little surprising to me as I’ve heard that this one is sometimes frowned upon.  A little caffeine in the morning with a meal is something of a catalyst for the metabolism apparently.

That was just a couple of the pointers the article gave.  Small balanced meals with sufficient water intake is probably the keystone to healthy nutrition.  The other half of the total equation is actually training and since I haven’t been the gym in a couple of weeks… I’ll hold off on that topic for now!

until next time . . .