Race for the Cure and start of week 5

Had a whole lot go on this weekend between how busy I was at work on Friday, which is why there was no post, and everything I had going on the days following I have been moving. Friday morning I got to work and went through my lower body workout, I was thinking to myself that I was going take it a little easy on myself since I was running the Race for the Cure the next day. Once I got into the weight room I decided that I wouldn't do that, I didn't want to do that to myself because I knew I would be upset with myself the rest of the day. I told myself push forward and deal with the pain the next day at the run.

The day of the run came and I got there just after 6 AM and it was about 32 degrees outside. I was not all that sore from the day before but as I stood in the 32 degree weather for an hour I started to not feel my toes and my legs were starting to hurt pretty badly from tightening up with the cold. After a while I finally decided that I was going back to the car and turning the heat on to get warm again. I got my picture taken with the firm's race team and eventually got in the starting line. The run started about 20 minutes late and I was able to finish it in about 26 minutes. I think I would have gotten a little bit better time but the amount of people bunched up at the start slowed me down while I was weaving through them to get up to pace. It felt good that I was passing a lot of people while I was running but at the same time I was getting passed every now and again as well. I did rally enjoy the run and will do it again next year. There is a lot more to take in other than the run when you go to the village and see the vendors and the survivors. Some of the teams get very creative with what they were wearing and some of the shirts were just funny. One thing I did get to do for the first time was drink a 5 hour energy, in case you are wondering that will be the last one I drink as well. It felt like it worked like it should by it does not taste good at all. The rest of the weekend was also a blast spending it with my wife and child and getting pictures of Haley in her costume was a lot of fun.

That brings me to today, got up this morning to start the first day of week 5 of body for life. I am now past the 1/3 mark and starting to get to the halfway point. This morning was an upper body workout and I think that I did a pretty good job of pushing myself further. I was able to do more reps on a lot of the exercises and one of the shoulder exercises I went up in weight when I was not planning to. I didn't compare it to the number of reps that I did last Wednesday because I don't know that it would have been a good comparison, someone else was in the room with me so I had to make some changes to some of the exercises that I did so not to hog the bench up. I still got the good burn I was looking for and this morning my arms, at least to me, look more firm than they ever have. I took Friday off work to get things done around the house and will be using the rec center to workout that morning. When I finish that workout I will compare weight and reps to Wednesday's workout. Keep an eye out of Friday to see how it goes.

Don't know if wasted is the right word

Yesterday everyone was talking about just how cold and rainy is was going to be today and tomorrow so  I made the decision to come to the office and use the cardio equipment here. When I got here this morning I was surprised to see that nobody was using the treadmills and I would actually have a chance to use one. I became quite excited by this because I have been wanting to really push myself on the cardio and I figured the treadmill would be the best way to do so. I happily jumped on it and started, that was the end of the happy. I did get an OK workout but it seems I started the speed I was running at too slow so when I was supposed to be reaching high points I was really just at an easy brisk jog. I still got an OK heart rate and a little bit of a sweat but I know I could have done way more. I was thinking I was just going to push up the speed so that  I did get the high points but the book says if something like that happens make not of it and adjust for next time. That is exactly what I am going to do. When I start next time I am going to start at a MPH faster than I did today and push up from there. This should be a lot better and I hope to feel like I accomplished more at the end of that workout. I just need to hope that I am able to get a treadmill again so that I can try it. My free day/ Race for the Cure is coming up Saturday and I am pretty excited about both. Last week I was really wanting some candy and it felt like the candy drawer was just screaming out to me all week. I got the smart idea to grab a bit of it and throw it in my lunch box so I could bring it home Friday night and chomp on it all day Saturday. The idea worked like a charm the only thing that was not good was the drawer didn't really have any chocolate in it so I ended up with skittles and star bursts. That is not the case this week, yesterday I watched the drawer get stocked with peanut butter cups, 100 grands, gooders, and chocolate covered raisins so each time I have been by the drawer I have grabbed a few and brought them to my office. I have quite the little pile building and look quite forward to eating them all down throughout the day on Saturday. And I am wondering if my wife thinks I have forgotten about candy corn somewhere in the house. When I find it I plan on helping myself to that as well. Tomorrow is my lower body workout the day before the race. I don't know how I am going to feel about it since there were some exercises that I could have raised the weights on but decided not to so my legs would not be too sore for the run. I expect to still get a good workout since it took until this morning for my legs to stop being sore from Monday. I guess we will see tomorrow.

Inside the numbers

As always, I look the most forward to my upper body workouts and today was not exception. As I was going through the workout I felt like I was pushing myself pretty had and was bringing my muscles to failure on just about every exercise. When I finished and got ready to show and finished showering it was taking me a bit of effort just to lift my arms to wash and dry off. I figured with all of this effort and how my upper body is feeling right now that I did great. When I was done with all of that I did what I always do and sat down to plan my next workout. When I finish planning my next workout, if I didn't get to a point where I was finishing reps or adding weight to the routine I will check the workout against the last one I did. This is where my feelings of accomplishment went away. I think on one set of reps I did more reps than the last workout, most I did the same amount of reps, and on a couple I actually did less reps. Needless to say this did not make me feel all that great, as a matter of fact it is kind of the opposite of what I am going for. I am working this hard to build strength and muscle mass and when I see results like that I can't help but to feel like I failed in the respect today. I am sure that is not the case and come Monday when it is time to do the upper body again I will do better. I have to think that I perhaps lied to myself a couple of times when writing down the number of reps I completed when I had to stop and do half reps as my muscles began to fail. I had some good muscle burn throughout the entire workout and am already feeling it this morning and am sure I will feel it even more tomorrow so I just need to get out of my head. With today's workout finished I am now halfway through week 4 and only have 8 weeks to go after that. I know that it is going to be hard but I think that starting a 12 week program for fitness right before the holiday's was a good idea and should help keep me from gaining all kinds of weight as food will be flowing a plenty here shortly. Tomorrow is a cardio day and I think I am going to do it at the house to make up for not going four laps yesterday. I guess we will just have to see how the weather is.

Found a great way to wake up

Tuesdays are always my busy days, I have a bible study that I go to today that starts at 6:30 which means I have to wake up a little early in order to get my workout in before I head out. Tuesdays also happen to be my 20 minute cardio day so I know there is no chance that I will want to do the 20 minute run after working which is why I choose the morning. This morning it just happened to be 41 degrees outside when I went out to run, so I had a couple of options, 1. suck it up and run in the cold 2. go to the rec center and run on a piece of equipment in a nice heated room. I went with the first choice, let me tell you a run in that temp will wake you up pretty fast. I did the distance of 2 and some change miles again today but I didn't do it all in laps since I didn't want to end far from the house and my legs are a little sore from yesterday's lower body workout. It was nice to cross off yet another day on my calendar, it is fun to think that after tomorrow I will be halfway through my 4th week on this. Tonight I will be putting together my food for Thursday and Friday then I will be all set for the rest of this week. Today I am spending a full day at a client so I need to put what I am eating and when on my Google calendar so I don't forget what and when to eat then I get to go home and go to a Halloween party with the wife and kid. I can't wait to see the fun we are going to have there today. Well, don't have a whole lot to say today but keep an eye out tomorrow, I have another upper body workout and I am going to push myself hard to try and get to the 12 reps I have been falling short on with some of the exercises.

Already on week 4

These 12 weeks are going to fly by if the first three are any indication of how the last nine are going to go. I woke up and got to work this morning to do my lower body workout and when I was done and showered I grabbed my calendar and put the next X through today's workout. As I looked at it I couldn't believe that I am already a quarter the way through the 12 weeks and am starting on week 4. I was excited about this workout today since I had added a little bit more weight to most of the exercises and I wanted to know how it goes. I ended up getting a really good workout and I feel like I achieved what I set out to do. One thing I am noticing and I was telling my wife yesterday is that I may need to bit the bullet and join the rec center. Some of the exercises I am doing in the morning I will be needing to up the weight again after the Friday or next Wednesday lower body which isn't a big deal but at the pace I am adding weight two things are happening. First, the room at work only goes up to 50 lb dumb bells so when I need to go over that they won't be there, and second my lower body has always been much stronger than my upper body so even though my lower body can handle the weight my upper body won't be able to hold it through the workout. I guess we will know what to do after next week. When I was done with my workout today I was thinking that there may have been an exercise or two that I could go up on the weight with for the next one but as I sit here and my legs start to recover I decided not to increase the weight since I have to run the 5 K on Saturday and I don't want to be too sore to do it when the time comes. Tomorrow's 20 minute cardio will let me know for sure if I will be able to add the weight for Friday. If I can get through the cardio a day after the workout I just had the 5 K will be a cake walk. I guess I will know more tomorrow. Well off to eat some sauteed turkey with scrambled eggs, oatmeal, and an 8 oz protein shake. I will let you know how the legs feel tomorrow.

Week 3 in the books

Yesterday was my free day and I think I took much better advantage of it this week than last week. I got through all the cravings that I had this week, mostly candy, but didn't go so overboard that I felt like garbage this morning like I did last Sunday. I still feel bad about how my free days affect the rest of the family, I don't think that it is fair to them that they have to eat the crap that I eat on those days so I need to do a little thinking to figure out the best way to take care of my cravings without ruining their healthy eating. I don't think it would be great if my getting healthy caused my wife and child to get unhealthy since it was my wife and her weight loss that inspired me in the first place. After dinner at five guys yesterday we went to a halloween party at a childhood friend of my wife's house. One of the people there baked candy corn cupcakes so I had to try them and trust me they were good. They also had Oreos there so I decided that I would have one. I don't know that I have ever mentioned it but Oreos are my all time favorite cookie and I have not had one in almost a year. Let me tell you when I had the first one it was like an addict getting back on the stuff. As soon as I at it the flood gates opened and I had 5 more before I left the part 30 minutes later. Today I had to do my 20 minute run after I ate some scrambled eggs and waffles for breakfast. I can't tell you just how glad I am that the cardio workouts are only 20 minutes because I really don't like them. I would rather do an hour long 8 mile run than the 20 minute body for life run because it is much harder than just keeping the same pace for an hour. Next Saturday is the race for the cure and I am getting pretty excited about it and can't wait to see how it goes. Keep an eye out for the post from next weekend to see how week four went and how the run went.

Great workout today

I woke up a little sooner than I would normally wake up on an upper body workout day today because I have been looking forward to today's workout since Monday morning and had full plans on pushing myself to the limit going into the weekend. I tell you what, that is exactly what I did today. I took a look at my workout sheep from Monday and compared it to today and I was able to add at least two reps to each of the high point muscle failures from Monday so it looks like some muscle building got done over the week. As I sit here and type this I am suffering from a major case of noodle arm. When I was taking a shower today I was having to work just to keep my arms over my head so that I could get clean. I have already planned my next upper body workout for Wednesday and am hoping that when I am finished I will be able to add a little more weight to an exercise or two. This morning when I was done with the workout, shower, and planning I took a look at my first planned meal and saw that it was hard boiled eggs and an orange. I woke up this morning a little hungry and when I was done with the workout and shower I was starving because my body was wanting fuel after that workout. I went ahead and added an 8 oz protein shake to my morning food so bringing my first meal protein intake to about 48 grams (just about as much as a myoplex ready to drink shake). Going back through Bill's book that would count as a meal protein portion so I don't have to think I cheated and I may start adding an 8 oz shake on other workout mornings to really fuel the rebuilding process. Just like every morning I am still excited to be doing this and loved crossing out day 19 on my calendar. I am starting to see more definition on my arms and upper legs this early so I am even more motivated than I was when I started two Monday's ago. Tomorrow is my free day but I really don't know how I will use it. I have not really had any cravings this week but I am sure I will take full advantage of the day as the opportunity arises. Funny my next free day on the 28th I will be spending running a 5K, do you think I would get some looks if I was running it holding a bacon cheese burger from 5 Guys?

Day 18 and still going strong

It is a pretty cold morning here in Middle Tennessee, when I woke up and took a look at my weather app it showed me that it was right about 43 degrees outside. I am sure that running in that type of cold wakes a lot of people up and feels great but I was in no mood to find out first hand...enter plan B. I got ready and headed off to work to run on the treadmill since as anyone that has been reading knows I have been trying to use the treadmill for my cardio workout since I started this thing three weeks ago. That was not in my cards this morning, when I got to the workout room, just like last Thursday, there were two of my co-workers on them so I found myself using the elliptical again. Not a big deal, with the resistance that thing can offer I get a really good cardio workout from it so I just jumped on and got started. I was huffing pretty good when it was all said and done but also made a note that if I find myself on it again it is time to push up the intensity level. I am getting pretty excited that there does not seem to be any type of flatness happening in this program, when you start to see and feel the the exercises are getting easier you just make a note and plan your next workout for more weight, or a faster pace. I am at a stage now where I am adding to my intensity level after each workout so I know the results are there. Right now it is what is really keeping me honest and going on this journey. I still have 66 days to go before I am finished but at the pace I am going and the hard work that I have been putting into it so far I know I am going to be happy with how I come out on the end of this. I am starting to get my energy back again and am able to get right out of bed and get started on my days like I was the first few weeks of this. I am guessing that the rest of the junk I put in my body this weekend has found its way out and I am back to myself again. Another thing I am happy to say is that I didn't wake up this morning nor did I go through any of my day yesterday absolutely craving something so it looks like I pushed through that first challenge. I am sure more will come but now that I have pushed through it once I know that I will have no problem doing it again. Bring it on, I am stronger than the cravings.

No high points today and lesson learned

Today was my next lower body workout and I was out of bed and at work by 6 AM to get it done. I had a really good workout this morning but did not hit any high points so it looks like it is time to add weight again. I am feeling  a little tired in my legs after the workout so I expect to see a little bit of soreness in the morning when I wake up for cardio. After I do the next lower body on Monday I am going to compare my weights used on that first workout and see how the progress is going. I am starting to see some change in my arms and a little bit in my legs so that is making me happy. I also got to wondering today just how far I am going on my cardio runs in the morning so I plotted the run from this morning in RunKeeper and it turns out that the four laps around my neighborhood came to 2.24 miles in twenty minutes so the cardio is adding to my run speed and I am running a sub 9 minute mile. Can't wait to see how the run with tired legs goes tomorrow. One thing I will be honest about is that I am only halfway through the third week and I don't quite have the energy that I did when I was waking up the first week and it seems like temptations for cheating are showing up more and more. I don't know if that is really the case or if it just seems that way since I am getting deeper into this. I guess this is the phase in the book Bill writes about crossing the abyss and staying strong to remain on the plan. I am planning on doing just that and to continue to ignore the temptations and push forward. I guess I will just have to make sure that  I am taking full advantage of the free days, making note of the cravings that I am having though out the week and hitting as many of them as I can on that free day. The one thing I don't want to do is affect the eating habits of those around me when I am eating all that I want on those free days. Wish me luck in staying strong.... only nine and a half weeks to go.

Almost made it to the goal

I woke up this morning and went on my 20 minute cardio run before getting ready and heading off to bible study. I told myself that I was going to push a little harder today and try and make it around my block 4 times in the twenty minutes which would be right around 2 miles. I did a pretty good job of it and only fell short by about 10 feet or so. Depending on how the legs feel Thursday after tomorrow's lower body workout I am going to push myself even harder to make it that last 10 feet. I am feeling good this morning and can feel the muscles in the upper part of my body rebuilding after yesterday's workout, which makes me happy. Yesterday when I had a few minutes I compared the weight I was lifting and the number of reps I was able to do on my very first upper body workout compared to the one that I did yesterday and I am happy to say that on some of the exercises I am lifting more weight than I was on that first workout and on the exercises that I am not lifting more weight I am completing more reps so I can feel that I am getting stronger and am seeing my arms and shoulders getting more defined. I can't wait to see how tomorrow's workout goes since I will be doing just about every exercise with more weight than the last time I did them. I guess we will see.

Starting week three on a high (points)

This morning was the upper body workout I have been looking forward to since Wednesday. If you don't recall I decided that it was time to add a bit of weight to some of the exercises for this mornings workout. Turns out that adding the weight was a great idea, I hit every high point that I was shooting for this week. On some of the high points I didn't finish all twelve reps before I had a muscle failure but hey that is what Bill Phillips says is a high point, the point where there is no way you could do one more rep. I am going to keep the weights that I used this week the same for my workout on Friday and see if I can't get more if not all of the 12 reps completed on some of the high points in each of the exercises. I figure this will be a good goal and keep me on track for these next few workouts. I have to first get to all 12 reps on the high points I didn't get to that number to then I have to get to the point that the 12 reps are no longer giving me an intensity level of 10. Once I get there it is time to add more weight and just continue gaining strength and muscle mass. I expect that I will be feeling this morning's workout tomorrow as my biceps and triceps are both weak now and it was a bit of a chore keeping my arm up long enough to finish getting ready this morning. I have planned my menu out for the week and already have today and Tuesday packed and ready to go. I plan on getting the rest prepped and packed up tonight or tomorrow then I will be in the same good shape for this week as I have been the first two weeks. It was nice to put the X through the next workout this morning and seeing that day 15 is done. I already have a goal for my run tomorrow and will be pushing myself to complete it so I can know there is progress there as well. Wednesday's lower body workout also is going to be a new one with added weight so I hope that I finish it feeling as good about that workout as I did about this one. Keep an eye out tomorrow to see if I made it to my cardio goal during tomorrow's run. I am starving since my muscles seem to want to eat right now so I am off to have some scrambled egg whites and a apple for my first meal. 

Feeling all kinds of bloated today

Yesterday was my free day and trust me I took every advantage of it I could. I pretty much ate whatever I wanted all day long, I started with two chocolate chip via tops, some zucchini bread and an apple for breakfast. I don't remember what I had but I know I snacked my way through Sam's while we were shopping there. For lunch I had some brown rice and two and a half chicken enchiladas and finished it off with the cup cake I had been thinking about all week. I also finished the frosting off of my wife's cup cake and my daughters cup cake as well. For dinner I had pasta and meatballs, a salad and something like 5 cookies to finish it off. I went to bed feeling quote full and pretty uncomfortable. When I woke up this morning I was not all that hungry but had to eat since I am on the last day of week 2! I ate some whole wheat eggos and hard boiled eggs now it is almost time for my second meal. After breakfast I waited about a half hour and went for my 20 minute run, this time I pushed myself a little harder than the last run and almost made it around my neighborhood 4 times before the twenty minutes were up. I really got the workout I shot for this morning doing that. I am starting to feel a little more like myself but I think it is going to take the rest of the day to really get there. I have to make a few changes to my menu today since when I planned it I didn't plan of finishing the leftover enchiladas yesterday and forgot that we were leaving the house for a family adventure. Not a huge deal since I already have planned what I am going to do to still get my six meals in today. it is almost time for my next meal and I don't know that I feel up to eating it yet but I have to so I will start making it soon. In the body for life book Bill says he wants us to have the free day so that our bodies know there is always food available so that it does not go into starvation mode and to remind us how we felt when we were not eating right and exercising like he has us do in his program. I can tell you I feel like I used to when I was overweight today and I don't like it one bit. I am looking forward to the week moving forward so I can get back to the high energy Justin I am used to feeling like and not this bloated uncomfortable Justin that I feel like now. If I learned one thing from yesterday it is that I don't feel worried that I will slip back into my old habits and put the 115 pounds that I have lost this year back on. In order to do that I will have to feel like I did at the end of yesterday and the first part of today a lot more often than I would care to. Tomorrow is my next upper body workout and I have added more weight to a lot of the exercises again and plan to really push myself, come back in the morning and see how it went. I am hoping for some big results.

Week 2's weight training done

Today was the last bit of weight training for week two. I did my lower body workout today with the increased weight that I had set. I did pretty well on each of the exercises and feel like I got a real good workout. I should be a little sore tomorrow but nothing like I was after my very first lower body workout. I always feel full of energy and ready for the rest of the day when I start my day out like this. I am so excited about how things are going that this morning I made the copies and set up the next three weeks of pages in my Body-for-Life binder. I know that it is only week three coming up but this weekend I will be planning my food up until the Monday of week four so I wanted to make sure that I was prepared. I have been very happy with my decision to start this program, each morning I wake up with more energy than I have had in a long time and I am already starting to see a change (all be it a small one) to my upper body. Today I am going to be at a client site pretty much all day I have set up Google calendar events so my phone will let me know when it is time to eat and what it is that I have to eat. I am sure I will get a few weird looks while I am there since I will be eating every few hours but I would rather have the looks than miss the meals and perhaps start a slope of falling off the program. Tomorrow is my free day and I have been looking forward to it since about Tuesday. Right before I started this I had a taste of a cup cake I bought my wife and I have been thinking about it pretty much ever since so I am going to see if the shop has any tomorrow and if they do rest assured I will be having one. If they don't I may just got o Sweet CeCe's and get some frozen yogurt either way I see sweet yummyness in my future tomorrow. Thanks again for checking it out.

Day 11 in the books

Had a little bit of a change of plan this morning, when I got to the workout room this morning I was quite surprised to see that there were two other people in the room and both of them were on the treadmills so I didn't get to use them like I had wanted to. I ended up getting on the elliptical machine and using that for my 20 minute cardio today. I was quite surprised to find that I think I nailed the intensity setting for it on the first time that I used it, each time I had to bring the intensity up I would jump the resistance on it up two notices by the I was at the peak of each intensity level it felt like I was trying to walk through mud. Before I knew it I was huffing pretty darn good and had a good sweat going on. So far as the morning has been going on I have started to get a little tender in my chest and arms so it looks like I broke the upper body muscles down better than I thought yesterday. I am already looking forward to my next two weight training workouts since both of them are going to have added weight to them. I am totally expecting to have a solid week of soreness in my legs again this week but this time I am hopeful that it will not be quite as intense as it was last weekend. After that it is FREE DAY, I do look forward to my Saturdays when I don't have to worry about when the next meal is and what I am scheduled to eat. Last week I went to Newks which is a cafe that I enjoy and had a BBQ chicken pizza with bread sticks and a couple of bites of caramel cake. Don't know what I am going to do this weekend but I know I will be doing it with the family so whatever it is it will be great. 

Yep time to add more weight

So I got my upper body workout in this morning, I have been looking forward to the workout since last week so when it came I got right out of bed and headed to the rec center since I have a client visit this morning. I didn't hit any of my high points this morning which is a good and bad thing. The good thing is it is time to add more weight to the exercises, the bad thing is I didn't get the best workout I could. What I look forward to is adding the extra weight and comparing the weight I started with to the weight I end with at the end of this month. It is nice to have the rec center as an option for mornings like this where I have to be somewhere, it saves me from having to miss my workout or try to fit it in at lunch. I made a mistake today and left my binder at the house when I rushed out the door since I was so behind but it was not all that big a deal since my wife was good enough to text me my meal for the day. One of the most satisfying moments each morning for me is putting the X through the next day when I finish my workout and now I am already half way through the second week, before I know it the 12 weeks will be over and it will be the holidays. Tomorrow morning begins my new intensity push. As long as nothing unexpected comes up I am going to go to the little workout area here at the office and use the treadmill for my 20 minute run so I don't have to worry about running up and down hills and I can focus on adding the intensity by adding the speed. The last time I did the cardio on a treadmill (several years ago) I thought I was going to pass out when I was finished. I am in a lot better shape now than I was then so I don't think it will be that bad but I do hope it is intense. Keep an eye out for tomorrow to find out.

Second week going well so far

Day two of my second week and so far it is going well. After yesterdays lower body workout my legs are feeling much better, I have a little bit of soreness but nothing like I had last week and today I was able to do my 20 minute run around the neighborhood without any issue. In the 20 minutes I went about 2 miles so the pace was OK. I think I lost a minute somewhere again but that is OK I came pretty close to hitting my high point at the end of the run and when I was finished I was huffing pretty good and was sweating pretty hard. The only note I gave myself was to run a little faster at each of the minutes to get an even better workout next time. Thursday is the next 20 minute cardio and right now I am planning to get it done on the treadmill here at work but you never know that might change depending on how the rest of the week goes. I have all my meals planned out and prepped this week so I am ready to go on that. I have to take a minute to thank my wife for being kind enough to help me out to get it knocked out in a pretty short amount of time. I always feel better after my meals are planned out and prepped for the week, it give me a little comfort that  I will stick to the 6 meals a day through the entire work week. Tomorrow is my next upper body workout and I am looking forward to it and hope that I get a little bit of soreness going when I am done, I want to make sure I am building the muscle that I am trying to get. Last night I decided it was time to start to step up the intensity and push myself a little further out of my comfort zone so tomorrow will most likely be the last upper body workout using the weight I have been using and come Monday I am planning to add a little more weight to push that intensity up further. Keep a look out for how tomorrow went and how the rest of my week goes as I push myself harder .

Starting the second week

So today is the first day of the second week of my Body-for-Life challenge. This morning I was scheduled to do the lower body workout again. I was a little worried about it since it took almost 5 day for the soreness from Wednesday to go away and this morning I woke up with the soreness gone but was still a little stiff. The stiffness was a little but of a challenge when it came to my workout today since it made going through the entire range of motion pretty tough. I sucked it up and got trough the workout so that made me happy an I was able to do it in the 42 minutes scheduled for the workout. I am happy to say that all the soreness this week paid off because I built strength in my legs and will be adding weight to all four exercises when I do the lower body workout again on Friday. I am a little upset about my upper body workout from Friday, it felt like it was a good workout and I felt like I pushed myself hard but I didn't have one bit of soreness which according to Bill Phillips means the muscles didn't get broken down as much as they could have. I added a few pounds to my high point sets for Wednesday's workout and I am hoping that I get some good muscle burn. Tomorrow I will be running around the neighborhood for my 20 minute cardio before heading off to bible study. Wednesday through Friday I am planning to get my exercise done here at the office so I should get a real good cardio workout on Thursday. This week is looking like it is going to be pretty busy so I am worried that it might be more of a challenge to get my six meals a day in than it was last week. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Day 5 of Body-for-Life

Today started day 5 and my alarm went of just before 5 as it has been doing each day this week. I can't say that I jumped out of bed this morning but I did get up without any issues and not hitting the snooze button once. This if the first time in a long time I went an entire week without hitting the snooze button and getting up when I wanted to. I know it has only been 5 days but I really feel like this program is making a difference for me. I seem to have more energy than I have had since I was a kid, I am waking up feeling refreshed each morning and am always looking forward to the day. One of my favorite things to do each day is to put the X through the calendar day on my body for life schedule after each workout. Just like yesterday I am still a bit sore in my lower body but I think that I am on the going away side of it now. When I was at work last night and standing up it seemed like I was at the top of my bell curve of soreness and when I woke up this morning I couldn't believe how stiff I was and how difficult some of the most basic things were. As I started to do my upper body workout today the soreness in my legs seemed to have started to get better. It is not to say that I am not sore anymore but I'm not nearly as sore as I was when I first work up this morning. I have a bit more hope that I will be done being sore before Monday and my next lower body workout. Today was my second upper body workout. I went through each exercise with the modified weight that I came up with after the first upper body workout. For most of the exercises I nailed what weight I should be using and hit high points on almost each of the exercises. I just changed one or two little things here and there for the next workout on Wednesday so I think it will be a great workout. This morning's workout was a good one, I feel like I really pushed myself and achieved what I want to, I can feel it in my muscle groups that I did a good job of breaking down the fibers and now I look forward to the rebuilding so that I can continue to get stronger. I have a pretty good feeling that after Wednesday's workout I will be adding some weight to a couple of the exercise groups since my strength should be starting to climb. I don't know if it is just me or if I just want to see it so I am but when I was getting ready today I noticed some good form in my biceps so I really do feel like I am doing a good thing here. I have enjoyed this first week of Body-for-Life and continue to look forward to the results I get from it. If anyone is thinking of doing a workout program to lose weight or to gain some tone I say you should give it a shot. It does require a lot of planning each week but so far it has been total worth it.

Man am I hurting today

So I woke up this morning after my lower body workout and got ready to do my cardio 20 minutes today. Like each day this week I have jumped right out of bed to gotten ready for exercise. One thing is for sure, doing this program and eating six times a day has given me plenty of energy this week. I have not felt so ready for the day after teaching the night before as I did this morning when the alarm went off. When the alarm went off I went to move and get out of bed and  I was correct, I was very stiff this morning and very sore, I am walking quite gingerly today and sitting down and standing up is a task in and of itself. I am so sore today that I am starting to wonder if it will stop hurting before Monday and my next lower body workout. Since walking has been such a challenge I figured that running for my cardio was going to be out of the question. It have me the chance to check out the rec center and see what I thought of it. I have to say it is pretty darn nice and since it is as cheap as it is I know for sure that it is a no brainer on joining it. Don't be surprised if a donate button shows up on the blog, it is only 150 dollars for the year so if enough people throw in 2 or 3 bucks I should get there no problem. Anyway today's cardio was good and I was able to get a pretty good sweat going in just 20 minutes. I don't know that I hit an intensity level of 10 which I really wanted to but my legs were screaming and it was all that I could do just to get through the twenty minutes on the bike. So far these first four days on the program have been great and I look forward to the next day each night. I have done very well in planning and today I was smart enough to bring all my clothes that I will be wearing to work tomorrow with me today since I will be getting home late tonight so all I will have to remember to bring to work with me tomorrow is my lunch  box and my shoes. I will let everyone know how my upper body workout goes tomorrow with the changes I made to it after Monday's workout. As much as I don't like it I would like the same level of soreness I have in my legs today then I know I broke the muscle down real well and they can start to process of building back up stronger. Keep a look out.

Thinking about cutting them off

What am  I talking about you ask.....my legs. I did the first lower body workout in my Body-for-Life program this morning and now that I am done, compared to how my legs feel after an 8 mile run I would rather run 8 miles everyday. I nailed the weight on two of the for exercises and hit my high point twice today. Lunges I found out I had the weight way to high on so I have backed that down for my next lower body workout on Monday. I didn't have enough weight on my calves so I added more to that set and all in all I think Monday's lower body workout is going to be a good one. Thanks to my wife's smart thinking I have the rest of my weeks food packed and ready to go so that each morning all I have to do is grab my lunch box throw an ice pack in it and head out the door. That is going to make the next two days where I have to eat all six of my meals away from the house a lot easier for me to do. These next few days are going to be the most difficult I think since I have to work 14 hour days twice in a row and still get up early enough to get my workout done before starting work. I will let everyone know how that goes. I am pretty confident that I should be ok since I seem to have a whole lot of energy since starting this and it has only been two days. My alarm has gone off three times this week and I have not hit the snooze button once. I do have a feeling that I will be going to the rec center in the morning for the cardio workout since I am counting on my legs being so sore I will hardly be able to walk tomorrow let alone run the way Bill Phillips wants me to. I figure if I go to the rec center I can jump on a stationary bike for my 20 minute cardio and still get the same results as long as I push. One thing I am a little scared of after today is the race for the cure at the end of the month I was looking at my training calendar and I am scheduled to do another one of these lower body workouts the morning before the race which means that my legs should be good and sore the morning of. Speaking of soreness, the soreness in my upper body is starting to go away. I am not sore when I move the muscles I worked yesterday just when I press them with an ok amount of pressure which means I should be on the tail end of the rebuilding that my body is doing and should be all ready for my next upper body workout on Friday. I am looking forward to that workout to see how it goes now that I have made adjustments from the first day's workout. Keep an eye out for how it goes on Friday. One last thing, I want to thank my wife one more time for supporting me through this and helping me with the menu planning and prep. I am 100% confident I would not get through this without the help and support she is giving me.  Love you

Day two on my Body-for-Life journey

I have been feeling good each morning since starting this and as a matter of fact I have had plenty of energy and have been in a good mood since yesterday. It is funny that the book calls the program a 12-week body and mind change and so far that seems to be the case. I was able to eat all six meals yesterday and only began to feel a little hungry near the eating times of the last two meals of the day. I drank somewhere around 300 oz of water yesterday which means I spent a lot of time running to the bathroom. I told everyone I would let them know how I was feeling this morning after yesterday's workout, rest assured that if it is on my upper body it is sore this morning. According to Bill Phillips that is a good thing that means that I was able to break down my muscles and now my body is in the process of repairing them and building more bulk. My chest and biceps are the most sore which is a little surprising as  I figured it would be my shoulders or triceps since those are my weakest muscle groups, I guess I will just have to push those harder on Friday. When my alarm went off this morning I jumped right out of bed again and got ready for my 20 minute cardio workout for today. All day yesterday I was dreading it since the two previous times I tried to do it before starting this I was not able to finish. This morning I dialed down the intensity a little bit to make sure that I could get through it and I might have dialed it down a little more than needed. Don't get me wrong it was still a good exercise but I could have pushed a little harder. I will be doing that on Thursday. Today is going to be a good test when it comes to the eating schedule since I will be at a client for the first part of the day so we will see if I will be able to spend extended periods of time at clients while still being able to stick to the eating plan. I am excited that I feel like this is having an impact on just the second day and I can't wait to see how I look and feel at the end of each month. Tomorrow is a lower body workout and if those muscles are going to feel like my upper body muscles feel today it is going to make Thursday's cardio pretty tough since I will be running on sore legs. I guess we will just wait and see.

First day starts with a bang!

Well this morning the alarm went off and since I have been so looking forward to starting the Body-for-Life I didn't hit the snooze button at all. I just jumped out of bed, brushed my teeth, shaved, and was out the door to get to the office and do my upper body workout. On a side note I did not forget to grab my lunch box or my sandwich so I have all the food I need to be able to eat 6 times today (4 while I am here at work). Let me tell you about how the workout went today, First of all it is supposed to take 46 minutes to complete, it took me 59 to finish but I don't really care about that I was making sure that I was going through the motions with the weight slowly to ensure that I was working each muscle group correctly. As I suspected my intensity patters were all over the board depending on what group I was working at the time so on some of the exercises I had too little weight and on others I had too much. The two I had too much weight on were my shoulders and my triceps, but I know those two muscle groups are weaker so I figured that would be the case. I had a too little weight on my back muscles, it seems that picking up a 30 lbs child helps with that set of muscles. As I was going through the workout today I was thinking about Bill Phillips and the way he describes his workout and how he is sweating pretty hard by the end of the first muscle group. I was not sweating all that much throughout the workout so I was worried that I was either not pushing myself hard enough or I was doing something wrong. I know better now that I am sitting here typing this out  I can already feel my muscles have been worked pretty good and that I expect to be pretty sore in the morning. When I finished my workout I had my breakfast burrito and a couple of glasses of water and a black coffee. It is nice to have ate it and feel satisfied but not bloated after a workout like that. I am excited to go after the 20 minute run tomorrow and actually finish it and write about it for all of you to read. Keep an eye out, I plan on trying to write up each day of these next 12 weeks to keep up with my progress and body change.

Tomorrow is the big day

Well tomorrow starts day one of the 12 weeks of Body-for-Life I am about to start out on. This weekend I decided that I would not do any exercise and ate pretty much what I wanted so that I didn't go into this thing hungry or craving anything and I am pretty darn sure that it worked. In his book Bill Phillips says the number one thing to do in order to get through the 12 weeks is to plan and that is exactly what I did. I have my first 4 days of workouts planned, I am talking about what exercises I am going to be doing, the weights that I will be using, and the amount of time it should take to get each one done. The only reason I don't have the whole week planed is because I have to see how I react to the weights I chose and adjust them if needed for the next workout. Tomorrow I will be doing the upper body workout. Tuesday will be the 20 minute run I am still yet to complete, Wednesday will be the lower body workout, and Thursday will be another run. I made it to Sam's this weekend and bought the Myoplex he suggests so I was able to plan every day of eating for this week. I am using Saturday as my "Free day" to eat and do whatever I want. I have to thank my wife for planning the dinner menu with me this week to make sure that everything we are going to eat is allowed on the diet. That was one of my biggest concerns, I wanted to be able to do this without impacting what my wife and child were eating too much and with her help I was able to do that this week. In case anyone is wondering that is only one of the many reasons why I have the best wife in the world. This first day means that I have to plan on bringing a lot to the office tomorrow. I want to really try not to forget anything so I packed a bag with everything that will not spoil and already have it in the car so that in the morning I only have to put my workout gear on, grab my lunch box, and get my frozen breakfast sandwich. My biggest concern is the sandwich but since I keep obsessing about it I am sure that it will be remembered. As a matter of fact I even wrote a note and put it with my wallet to make sure that I remember. I am pretty excited to see how the eating six times tomorrow goes and how I feel at the end of the workout. I am shooting to hit at least one high point tomorrow. I am sure that I will write something about it in the morning when I am done.