Got a little better

I was able to drag myself out of bed again this morning and give the Bill Phillips cario another try this morning. I started off a little slower today and tried to get through all 20 minutes. Yet again I didn't quite get there but I did get a bit closer than I did yesterday. Like Bill says in his book, getting the perfect workout and plan over the next 12 weeks is a constant adjustment and I think I should be in good shape to get through it Tuesday before bible study. Today I have to stop by Best Buy to return a Blue Ray player and if time permits I am going to stop by vitamin shoppe and pick up a few things that I am going to need for Body-for-Life. This weekend I don't see myself doing any type of exercise like I said yesterday because I want to be fresh and read to go to start my 12 weeks. Take a look at the blog on Monday to see if I was able to get through the first workout and how it went. Wish me luck

Taste of what I have gotten myself into

It was harder than I thought it would be but this morning I got out of bed after deciding that I would give myself a little taste of what I was going to be doing on the Body-for-Life challenge. When I finally got out of bed and ready I decided that I was going to do the 20 minute cardio exercise Bill Phillips recommends for people doing the 12 weeks. For those of you that may not know here is how it is broken down. You spend the first two minutes warming up at what he calls an intensity level of 5 then each minute after that you increase the intensity level by one, either by going on an incline or running faster etc.  You do that each minute until you get to a level 9 then in the 19th minute you push it to level 10 and in the final minute you slow back down to level five to cool down and that is it. It is only 20 minutes and it sounds like it would be fast and pretty easy but that is not the case. This morning when I did it I started a little to high on the intensity and by the time I was working my way through the second set of increases I could not go any further and had to walk home. I figured since I was only out there for about 15 minutes I would go up stairs and do a little weight training so I grabbed my resistance bands and did some bicep curls and shoulder presses then I grabbed the pull up bar to give some chin ups a try. I am happy to say that I was able to do  3 whole chin ups. I know it does not sound like much but for a guy that has never been able to do chin ups in his life it is a pretty big deal. One last thing because this is going to make the post long....as I have been saying I was going to get the Body-for-Life questions from the book answered so I can post them here to refer back to as well as share with anyone that reads this, well here they are. Answering these questions has just made it me more ready to start this on Monday. I have not decided what I am going to do for exercise tomorrow yet but once I do that should be all I do until Monday so I can have the weekend to get my body ready for what it is about to go through. I still need to stop by Sams or the vitamin shoppe and pick up some Myoplex power and bars so that eating six times a day will be a little easier so I stay on track but I plan on getting that done this weekend.

Here are my answers.
 Have you made the decision to change?

I made that decision 10 months ago and this is the next big step

What are your reasons for making the decision to change?

To finish getting into shape and putting myself into a position to stay in shape so I can be around for a long time for my wife and child

When you look at yourself, do you honestly like what you see?

No, I can stand to look at myself in the mirror now, which is a huge change from the start of the year, but I don’t yet have the body I envisioned when I started the journey

How do you feel deep down inside?

That I am letting myself slip back into my old patterns that got me out of shape

How do you really feel about yourself?

That I have made huge strides to a better lifestyle but have a little way to go

Are you confident, energetic, and strong?

I am confident that I can do this; I have more energy than I once did, and I know I need to work to become stronger

Do you often wonder if you are on the right path?

Not like I used to

What are the pros and cons of continuing in the direction you are going?

I will continue to have energy; I will be diligent about minding how I eat.

I may get bored with the same exercises over and over, worried that I will obsess over what I am eating everyday.

Would you like to create a brighter future?

Yes

What are the five most important, specific accomplishments you need to make, within the next 12 weeks, for you to be pleased with the progress of your body and life?

Lose the remaining fat on my body

See a noticeable change in my build

Gain strength

Make this a new lifestyle for

Complete the 12-week program

What changes in your body and life to you wish you could create within the next 12 weeks?

Muscle tone, strength building, and menu changes

Lose fat gain muscle

Which three patters of action might prevent you from reaching your goals?

Grazing on bad food at the office

Missing meals because of work

Not being diligent in planning meals and workouts each week

Which three new patters do you need to establish to reach your goals?

Organization

Planning

Fore thought  

Weight Training Today

So I was thinking to myself yesterday that I was going to finish my run that was interrupted by rain today but when I woke up I thought better of it. I didn't want to get my legs too sore before going for my normal almost 8 mile run tomorrow. I decided that I would do a little weight training today with my EA Active since it had been almost two weeks since the last time I did it. It ended up being a pretty good workout, I added a few tips from Body-for-Life things like slowly lowering the weight rather than letting gravity take care of that for me and even though I know that is the proper workout technique I caught myself not doing that. It defiantly added something extra to the routine and I found that my heart rate stayed up higher and I got a much better sweat than I have in the past. Body-for-Life also mentions that the body burns calories up to one hour after a workout so when I was done I decided to shower and read the bible a little bit before heading to Panera for bible study. On the way to the study I had a protein shake then I had a bagel and some coffee when I got to Panera. I figure this gave my body enough time burn a few extra calories before breakfast. I know I keep mentioning that I am going to post the Body-for-Life answers and I was planning on answering them yesterday before bed so I could post them today but the work I was doing for my second job took a lot longer than I expected. Even if I have to stay up a little later today I am going to get it done. I am in the planning phases of my 12-week program and want to get all of that taken care of before the weekend so I can start the program on Monday. Yesterday at the end of the day I spend a little bit of time printing out the journal pages so I can build up my binder and start the process of getting ready. I am also thinking that I will go to the rec center and join that so that I can be ready for my first workout Monday as well. I am getting more and more excited about starting and seeing the changes my body is going to go through as long as  I stick to the program. If everything works like it should I may even post a picture of how I look after the 12 weeks. Keep an eye out for the Body-for-Life answers and how my run in the morning goes.

Great for lawns bad for running

Today I start back to work after being on vacation last week. I woke up today energized and ready to go and went to bed looking forward to running this morning. I was making a good pace and was feeling good about my run when I entered my third lap and it started to rain. I was hoping that it would be just a drizzle or a light enough rain that I would be able to continue running but as it turns out that was not the case. Just as I passed my house about 100 yards or so into the third lap is started coming down enough to cover the roads with little effort so I figured it was time to call it a morning. I finished the third lap around the small loop in my neighborhood came inside. I had my run keeper app going while I was running but when I went to get my phone out of my pocket to log my results I tapped the search button bringing it to Bing and losing my run data for this morning. I ended up plotting it manually but if you have been reading this blog for any length of time you know that I am not a fan of doing that. It gets the distance right but it is not all that accurate when it comes to pace and calories burned so I don't know where I am there. Tomorrow morning (what would normally be a walk day or upper body day) I am going to run again before bible study and finish this mornings run. I won't do four laps but I am planning on doing the same distance I did today. The good news about the run today and the length that it was is that I don't feel sore or tired like I would after the 4.5 lap run that I had planned to do this morning, as a matter of fact I would go as far as to call today's run and easy run. Even though I forgot my body for life book when I went to the beach I did finish reading it this weekend only a few days behind schedule and I am going to start all my planning and quest answering this week so I can start it next week. Keep an eye on the blog for the answers to the body for life questions and my plan for the first week of the 12 week program. As for this week I am going to get back on track and wake up to exercise on way or another everyday like I used to. I feel like I have been a slacker in that sense, not that it is a bad thing, but as everyone knows I want to continue to maintain this lifestyle I have set for myself so that I can be around for a long time and enjoy every moment with my wife and child.

Went on a bike ride yesterday

Yesterday I got on a bike that was left at the place I am staying at and took it around the bike trail. I have now ran the trail and biked the trail and I have not figured out how to go in a circle on the island. I went ahead and tried to plot my activities as best I could to see how far I traveled on my run and on my bike ride, from what I can tell I went just about 5 miles on my run and just about 8 on my bike ride. Funny thing is I feel like all I have been doing since getting here is gaining weight even though I know that is not the case. The bike ride was fun but the seat on it was so bad that it still hurts for me to sit down after that ride but I am glad that I did it. I have been trying to rent another bike so my wife and I can ride together but he have had no luck with that the entire time we have been here. Today if the weather allows it I want to take a walk with Whitney just to have a little quite time just the two of us and be able to take a look at what else the island has to offer before we leave. When we get back Saturday I am going to sit in front of my Body-For-Life book so I can get it finished and start on the program and really see my body change. When I look at myself I normally take a look at my stomach and see how far it appears to be sticking out, and lately I feel like it has been sticking out a mile, which is also why I feel like I have been just gaining weight since I left. I guess I will know for sure when I get back home and can get on the scale this weekend.

Went on a new run today

Today I woke up and went on a new run that I have not been on before. I found a bike trail and decided to run it. This was not a normal bike trail by any means I ended up getting off the trail and getting lost, I think that I ended up running somewhere around 5.5 to 6 miles which is pretty good for a new run and  not running a great distance in a while. It was a great way to start this week and I am feeling really good about it. Tomorrow I plan on running again but don't think that I will go as far as I did today. I will save that for Tuesday. I wanted to use my run keeper app but there is not enough cell signal where I am for that to happen so I can't post a picture or know calories burned or anything like that, but somehow life will go on. I am a little unhappy with myself because I forgot to grab my Body-for-Life book so I won't get it read this week so I can start the program next so I guess I will have to wait another week to start the program which sucks a little bit by worse things have happened. Later today or this week I think I am going to rent a bike and go for a ride with the family and just relax and enjoy the time with them. I am looking forward to that just like a short run with my wife tomorrow. I will let everyone know what else I get done this week in the way of staying fit. Trust me yesterday I didn't do a whole lot of anything to stay fit if you knew the awful list of fried food and fries I ate you would understand why I was so happy to run today.

Another big day!!

It appears that today is another big day, not because I did something amazing when it comes to fitness but because this is the first time that I have been able to post in a few days and I see that I have broken the 1000 page view mark. Thanks everyone that has come by and taken a look at my blog here. I woke up this morning and did a little bit of upper body stuff but not too much, I have not ran since Monday and I am not all that happy with myself for it but I figure it is good to get the extra sleep before I embark on my upcoming 12 week journey. That being said I also wanted to be able to spend a little time reading my Body-For-Life book so that I can get through it, start planning and get started on 12 week program a week from Monday. The chapter I was reading today asks the reader to answer a few questions about why they are wanting to get started on the program and what the results they are looking for are. Once you have those answers you are to write them down and  read them each day in the morning and at night to keep you on track. I have answered the questions in my head but have not gotten them on paper yet. When I do get them on paper I plan on posting them here as well so that everyone can see what is going through my head and why I am doing what it is that I am doing. I am very excited to get started on this and have already know what some of my potential pitfalls are and am already making plans to over come them. I really hope that I see the same results that the people in the pictures in the book have seen. A bit of the book focus's on fat loss but I am not going for that since I have already done that, I am just ready to watch myself get big. I'm shooting for about 25 pounds of muscle weight gain. I will keep everyone posted keep an eye out for the answers to the Body-for-Life questions in the next few days

100th Post extravaganza

Thanks to all 5 followers and the readers of my little blog here for keeping me motivated enough to now post a 100th entry. I have had a really good morning today and am feeling good. After my run yesterday I have a little bit of soreness in my legs but not nearly as bad as I would have though so I guess the recoup is working. I set my alarm and woke up this morning again, two for two this week, I was planning on doing a two lap run but once I started to walking around the house and getting ready I noticed that my legs were a bit tender still and didn't want to push it so I decided to walk instead. I did a full lap around my neighborhood then a small lap around the circle that I live on for a total of 2.5 miles. As much as the runkeeper app would have you think otherwise, I was sober when I walked this morning but I am guessing that I was having a little trouble with the AT&T GPS connection which is why my little red line is all over the place. Anyway, I just wanted to keep my legs from getting stiff which is why I was OK with walking rather than running this morning. Tomorrow I am going to do the same 7.5 mile run I did yesterday and see how I do with the extra distance again. I am not kidding myself, I know it is going to be harder than it was on Monday but the harder I work the better I feel. If I have enough time today I am going to stop by a book store and pick up Body-for-Life and the success guide that go with it so I can read it again next week so I can plan menus and shopping lists to start it the following week. Tomorrow starts school back up so I am not going to kid myself about how busy I am about to get but it is worth it since it lets my wife stay home. I am very glad that I have started getting up in the mornings again it has re-kindled my desire to stay healthy and I am already looking forward to the run tomorrow as well as getting started on Body-for-Life so I can get cut up. Thanks to everyone that reads this and enjoy the picture of my staggering around the neighborhood this morning.

Finally got up in the morning again

Today is going to be quite the test for the Elite Recoup that I have been taking when I am done exercising, I set my alarm this morning for 4:15 and unlike last week I did in fact get up and go out for a run. When I started the run I had no pain or soreness (since I have not ran since last Saturday I guess) so I told myself that I would try and add a little more distance at the end of my fourth lap if my legs felt up to it. I got through the four laps around the neighborhood and decided that I had a little more time so I added a fifth lap around the small circle that my house is on. That got me to almost 7.4 miles ran this morning, which brings me back to my first point. I am feeling a bit of soreness in my legs and thighs after a run like that (as you might imagine) so I drank the post workout amount of the Recoup to see if it does what it is supposed to do and reduce the soreness and toxins that muscles release after a workout. Now that I got back up again I am a little upset with myself for slacking the way that I have been but at least I was doing something when I was not running.I forgot just how good a state of mind I get into while running and when I am finished so I am pumped and ready to start this week off right. Tomorrow morning I have my bible study at 6:30 in the morning but I am going to get up again and walk or do a short run (depends on how the legs feel tomorrow) so I can keep this post exercise high going. Like I said on Friday my birthday has come and gone and I had a great weekend, I did have to go to school for a teacher meeting that lasted all day and kind of sucked but other than that it was good. My wife got me a massage Friday night and it has mad my shoulder stop hurting for the first time in about a month. I did not get the P90X I was shooting for but did get a $100 gift card to Amazon and I was thinking about using it to get the P90X but I am cheap and decided not to since it was going to cost me about $50 dollars out of pocket. I have now decided to try something I tried several years ago with no luck that takes the same 90 days to complete. I am going to start the body-for-life challenge in two weeks from today. I know some people that have done it and gotten the same results as people that have done P90X. The best part is I won't have to buy much of anything to do it, just some visits to the rec center in the morning for the workouts. The reason I didn't have luck with it last time was the eating 6 times a day, not that it is all that hard since you can use protein bars and supplements to get to the 6, when I tried it last time I was still bartending and bartending is not conducive to eating 6 times a day. I don't know if the job I have now is much better since I don't know where I will be most of the time but I guess we will see. Keep an eye out for my body for life posts in the coming weeks.

Feeling better today

For some reason I am feeling a bit better about myself and what I have been doing today than I have the last week. I am thinking it is a number of things, 1. it is Friday and this very busy week I have been working is almost over. 2. Just had a good upper body workout and am feeling like it had an impact already, 3. it is my birthday so there is no way you can feel bad on your birthday. Yesterday I came home to my family and my in-laws waiting for me to get there so we can go to dinner. My in-laws got me a swiss army red executive knife that I was very excited about and a 130 piece tool set that I was really needing, not to mention I got to go home and see my wife and child so I was in a great mood. We ended up going to cracker barrel for dinner where I was a good boy and got the grilled chicken platter with pinto beans, green beans, and carrots. This morning my alarm went off like it has been and I hit the snooze button a bunch of times like I have been so I didn't run but I did wake up and do my EA upper body workout. I tired using the recoup stuff I drank the last time I did the workout and it tasted better than it did on Wednesday so I am guessing that the broken cup had a bit to do with the flavor. Don't get me wrong it didn't taste great but it didn't make we want to gag like it did Wednesday. I might be bad and go to firehouse subs for lunch today since they give you a free sub on your birthday, we will just have to wait and see what time I go driving by the shop. Tomorrow I have to wake up to do something at my second job, so I might set my alarm a little early and actually run so I can say I did it at least once this week. Hope everyone has a great day today, keep working on getting healthy I know I will.

Don't really know what is going on with me

I don't really know what is happening but it has finally been cool enough the raining has stopped that you would think I could start running again but I have not. The alarm went off this morning and I hit the snooze button for almost an hour before just getting up and showering and heading into work early. (I have already been here for 20 minutes) Lately I have felt worn out and unmotivated to get out and run, I know a lot of it has to do with the way work has been going lately but the running used to help me clear my head and put me in a better place but I can't seem to even get out of bed anymore. On top of that I have not been eating as well as I could be and am starting to get scared that I am about to open the flood gates and gaining weight. The good news is I have not stopped working out totally and have been working the upper body this week so at least I am doing something. Yesterday I went to lunch with the guys from work and had a turkey burger (good) and fries (bad). I have gotten back on the N-O and protein as part of my workouts and it is paying off again, I am seeing some definition start to show up in my arms and shoulders and there is a bit less jiggle when I hop. I also tried a supplements that I bought a few weeks ago that is supposed to be drank while you are working out called Advanced Recoup. It has all kinds of vitamins and other minerals that are supposed to support faster muscle recovery and reduce soreness after workouts. I am a little sore this morning but not too bad so I think it may be working. I will use some more again tomorrow when I wake up to exercise and we will see if the results are the same. Once thing I can say about the Advanced Recoup is the fruit punch flavor does not taste very good at all. I am waiting to see if it is more of the same tomorrow. For someone who weighs as much as I do the directions are to have three scoops with 8 to 10 oz of water so I had to use one of my wife's large water mug from the local hospital. As it turns out I grabbed one of four mugs that has a crack in it so I think I was tasting a little bit of the stuff that is in the cup  to keep in insulated. I tossed that cup in the trash and will see if the taste of the Recoup changes at all. One last note of good news to end on a high note, I don't feel fat and gross this morning and yesterday I was able to do two sets of 10 push ups and a two (count them two) pull ups. I know not all that big of a deal but I have never been able to do a pull up in my life so it is a big deal to me.  I will let everyone know how tomorrow's birthday workout goes.

Had to go to the backup plan

So I woke up this morning hoping to do some running for the first time in a few days but it was still raining and has been since yesterday. I ended up going with my backup plan which was to do my new upper body custom workout I made on EA Active 2. I stated yesterday that I was going for two sets of 10 rather than 1 set of 15 for each set of exercises but it seems I made a mistake when creating the workout so I ended up doing two sets of 12 for each exercise. I was going to change it but I figure that it is ok to do the extra reps so I decided to keep it. While I was doing to workout I realized that I need to change it a little bit because I left out the second set on one or two of the exercises so I will take care of that today. I thought that it was funny that it has been so long since I have done EA Active but one of the things that annoyed me before still annoys me now. It only has to tell me once that the batteries in the arm strap are low not three or four times in the workout. Anyway, at first I didn't think I was getting the best workout but I knew that the muscle building workout does not burn a lot of calories. Now that the day is going on my chest and arms are getting a little sore so I guess it was not all that bad a workout. I am hoping that I can run tomorrow but will have to wait and see what the weather does, I feel like I am going crazy not being able to run and blow off some of that steam but I do feel better that I have been able to do some kind of exercise even with the weather the way it is. Honestly, if I have to choose between running and getting some water on my lawn I would rather get the water so I will just keep doing what I am doing and hope I get some results that way. Don't have a whole lot more to say about today but I will post what I end up doing tomorrow. For a little bit of old school I have attached my graph from today's EA Active workout. It seems that I went over the 20,000 calories burned all time with EA Active 2 and NFL Training camp with my workout this morning....go me.

0-fer this holiday weekend

So I had intended to start running more often and longer starting this weekend, and to try my next "run in the sun" after Saturday's run but neither of them happened. I didn't run yesterday because I decided that I wanted to spend that time with my family and I was not able to run today because it has rained the entire day and has not slowed down, as a matter of fact it started raining evening harder just a few minutes ago. I am still worried about the steep slop I am on and I didn't do anything today to make that any better. I ate quite a bit more than I should have today, I had a burger, baked fries, a bunch of pickles, a triple berry tart desert, and three cookies. I am pretty sick with myself just thinking about it. The one good thing about all the eating is most of it came from a new website my wife found called skinnytaste.com which has all kinds of low cal and low fat recipes. I didn't want to do nothing these last few days with all the extra eating an no running I have been doing so I busted out the old EA Active 2 and did my upper body workout that I created way back in April. I was able to get through a lot more of it strongest resistance bands than I was able to do the last time I did it but I was not able to get through the entire thing with the hard bands. Now I have yet another goal, getting through the upper body workout with the heavy bands. I did make a little bit of a change to the workout to see if I can get through it with the heavy bands, instead of doing one set of 15 reps of each exercise I am going for two sets of 10 of each exercise. I am also going to get back on the N-O and protein to get some muscle built. I would like to continue the running but I don't know that the weather is going to allow that for the next few days. I will let everyone know what end up happening and how it goes over the next few days. Right now my number one goal is to get of the eating slop I am on before I start to get fat again. That is the last thing I want.

Trying something different

So I think I have decided to try something a little different today, normally I am running in the morning during the week and will continue to do that. In each of my morning runs I am aware that any of the races that I do are not going to be at 4:30 in the morning when it is dark and the weather is cool. I have decided that on days that I don't work I am going to start running in the morning or afternoon when the sun is out so I can get used to the heat and humitity. As some of you might remember I tried doing that about a month back but did not have the best of luck. I did it again today and although I didn't do what I set out to do I did much better than the last time. I got just under 2.5 miles, that dissapointed me a little bit but I have to remember that when I started running in the first place I didn't always get as far as I set out to. Ok, now that  I am done feeling sorry for myself lets focus on the good news. Today short run got me over the 10,000 calories burned since I started using RunKepper, My average pace on the run was an 8:22 mile. Tomorrow I am going to get out and run again and make sure that I push myself to get through the two laps when the sun is out, once I do that I will feel better about the up coming race for the cure next month. Lately I have been feeling a little like I am going down a steep slope, I have been eating more than I feel like I should, hitting the candy drawer at work every now and again, and have ate out a few times this week. Nothing I am eating has been unhealthy for me and I know that I went further than I intended to on my weight loss and need to put some weight back on but I want to put it back on correctly and don't want to start to get fat again. I am trying not to get a complex about it but I do want to make sure that I stay healthy for my wife and little girl. If I get time to post tomorrow I will let everyone know how my second "run in the sun" goes.

Hit one of two milestones today

I went into this morning excited about running, when I took a look at my RunKeeper profile I saw that I was fast approaching two pretty big milestones and if I had a good run I could hit them both this morning. What are those two milestones you ask? Well the first one is 100 miles ran and walked total since I started using the RunKeeper app, and the other is 10,000 calories burned since using the app. I am happy to report that I hit 101 and one miles traveled this morning and am very close to the 10,000 calories (I am sitting at 9,985) so I will hit that number tomorrow. The running around the neighborhood is getting a bit easier but is still a challenge.  I was able to keep my average mile time below 10 minutes today but when I look at the times from mile to mile they began to get longer as I ran further which is what brought the total average up just a little bit. I am hitting my goal of a 1 hour 10K so I am not complaining at all, just watching the mile times is giving me ideas about new goals for running so that I don't get bored or tired of it. I am still shooting for being able to run 10 miles before the end of the month but I don't think I am going  to try and add more distance to my current run until at least next Friday (which happens to be my birthday). Right now I want to see about keeping a more consistent pace through the entire run. I am six minutes away from doing the four laps around my neighborhood (almost 7 miles) in an hour so I think I am going to shoot for that over the next week. I did kind of mess up my total running days by taking yesterday off so I may do two laps around the neighborhood this weekend to see how fast I can run them. If anyone out there has any suggestions on how to bring your run times down I am open to hear them and welcome them. I am trying to come up with a fitness plan for this weekend since I have a three day one and don't plan on doing a lick of work while I am off. Anyone reading out there trying to lose weight or get fit just keep doing what you are doing, it paid off for me and I am sure it will pay off for you was well.