Day 75, a day of infamy?

Could today be a day that goes down in infamy? As I said earlier this week we are having dinner at a friends house tonight and I have no idea what is being served. I had to make the decision about a free day today and working hard this weekend, well I decided not to take a free day today and I have already ate once and got my upper body workout in. The question is will today's dinner (at 75 days of the 84 into Body-for-Life) be a cause for me to not follow the diet on a day that it should be. I guess we will just have to find out. It is not a big deal if that ends up being the case since even the book says not to dwell on it and just keep moving forward, but I think it would be pretty cool to say I made it all 84 days without a single slip up or missed workout. Yesterday I was faced with a challenge I had not had to face since starting this, we went out last night at the time I would be eating my fifth meal and then stopped for dinner after that. This was a total chance for me to fall off the wagon and not stick with the diet yesterday but thanks to my amazing wife (she was good enough to pack a sandwich and some carrots) I was able to eat at my scheduled time and when everyone went to dinner after the fact I chose not to order anything since it was not the time for me to eat yet and I stayed the course. I am pretty happy with myself for that one. Today's upper body workout was really good, I got to the little fitness room and when I was done with my first couple of sets of chest exercises I was feeling pretty strong. I still didn't get to the final 12th rep on the high points but I got closer and I was able to finish all the reps leading up to the high points so there is still progress there. When I was done with the workout I got ready for work and as I was looking in the mirror I could see a big difference in my arms and shoulders so that just motivated me more to work harder next week and finish those reps. When I sat down to eat and plan my workouts a thought came to me, when I planned and wrote down my upper body workout it was the last one for this 12 week program. When I do my workout on Wednesday I will be done with the upper body workouts and almost done with the program. I am so very excited to get to that point, not because I am tired of doing it (although it is wearing on me a bit) but because I will be able to say that I saw it through to the end and really accomplished yet another goal I set for myself since deciding to get in shape. As a matter of fact I am already starting to thing about what fitness goal I want to set for myself next year. Once I have them you can bet you will be able to read about them on here. One last thing, keep an eye out on the blog near the end of the year. I am trying to find a picture of how I looked at the start of the year and get a picture of how I look now so everyone can see the difference a year can make when you work hard and stay dedicated to what you want.

Feet hurt today

Well I woke up a little sooner then normal today so that I could run a little further than I have in a while. When I got to work I was shooting for a 6 mile run and wanted to get it done in under an hour. I got on the treadmill around 5:45 or so and started a 6.3 MPH run. As most of my treadmill runs go I started to waiver on how long I was going to go just before the three mile mark. I started thinking to myself, well I will just go 40 minutes again today, or once  I get to 5 miles that will be fine since it is almost a mile longer than I went last time. I had to continue to tell myself that I could hit the distance I was shooting for and to just keep pushing. I went past the 40 minutes and continued to go, next I decided that 55 minutes would be good enough and that it would be plenty of run for the morning. That is what  I decided to go with but then something happened, When I got to the 55 minute mark I had gone 5.76 miles and knew I would not be happy with myself if I didn't finish the six miles when I had come that close to getting there. I decided that I would finish the six miles and call it a day. I ended up finishing the six miles in 57 minutes so I get both the running goals I was trying to get to when I started. Now that I am done my feet are hurting a little bit and my toes are a little raw from moving in my running shoes but that is OK because I got it done. Thinking back on it I wish I had gone just a little bit further, 6.2 miles is a 10K and I was almost there this morning, I guess I will do that on Sunday weather permitting. I very much enjoyed going around the neighborhood last week and would like to do it again this week but I think it is supposed to rain on Sunday. If it doesn't and it isn't too cold  I will be running outside and shoot for three or four total laps around the neighborhood, we will just have to see how the legs and body feel after the Saturday free day.

To free day or not to free day

Yes, that is the question, I have a decision to make for Friday. We are having dinner at a friends house and I have no idea what will be served but I am willing to be it will not be something that will fit nice and neat into my Body-for-Life diet. This is the situation that I find myself in. Do I take the free day on Friday and enjoy my first day at the office in 11 weeks were I can eat what I want go out to eat where I please, and even hit the candy drawer. Do I stay the course and try and make what gets served Friday fit into my diet and risk not eating right if I can't, or do I stick as close to my diet as possible and let it come as it may. That is the question I have to think about and I guess it is a good thing I have the time to do just that over the next few days. Anyways, I did set my alarm for 4 AM this morning so I could get up and run before bible study, I did not however actually get up and do that. I didn't fall asleep until almost midnight last night and wanted to have more than 4 hours of sleep  before going into another long day today. I ended up using my lunch time to run, I decided to run for forty minutes and just go as far as I could in that time. I didn't make the pace all that bad, I went at 6.2 MPH and ended up running just over 4.1 miles. That is the longest that I have run in some time and it felt good to get it out of the way. Tomorrow is a lower body workout and it looks like I will be doing it at the rec center tomorrow as I have scheduled a new client visit close to the house in the morning it it would be foolish to drive all the way up to the office to workout so that I can turn around and drive 30 miles south for the visit. I am ok with the rec center as it will let me use some different machines to do my workout rather than doing the same squats and lunges that I do each lower Body-for-Life left. I am glad that I did it and know that I will get through it but I am looking forward to it being over.

Until next time

Day 71 done and a good start to the week

Well today was day 71 and it started off with an upper body workout since it is an odd numbered week. I got to work a little after 6 and got right to it. The first thing that I did notice is that I was able to do more and better reps than I did on Wednesday last week. I am betting it has to do with getting more than 4 hours of sleep before the workout. I am already beginning to feel the stiffness in my chest and biceps and am pretty sure I will be feeling it tomorrow. When I was finished working out and getting ready for work I noticed more of the same that I noticed last time I was getting ready at work. I am beginning to see some real defined muscles in my arms and a little bit in my chest. I still know that I am not going to be where I wanted to be at the end of this in less than two weeks but it is like a switch got flipped and muscles are starting to show where there was once no muscle at all. Tomorrow morning I am going to wake up early and go for a run around the neighborhood before bible study rather than fit a run in at lunch like I have been doing. There is a two fold reasoning behind this, the first being I don't have to get all sweaty and gross and wait to cool off at work. The second is my days have been getting so busy lately that I am afraid that I may miss it again and have to double up on a run and a weight train like I had to do last week and I really don't want to have to do that again after two days in a row of teaching. In just a little bit I am going to plan my Friday upper body workout, I don't see that I will be adding any weight to any of the exercises and it seems that I am kind of at a stand still but am still getting the reps I need to get in so as long as I can get the number of reps up just a little higher before the end of this I will be happy. My final goal is to get through all 12 reps on on the high points I have not made it to yet by the end of this. I guess we will just have to see how it goes. Keep an eye out tomorrow to see if I actually woke up early and ran before bible study.

Almost done

So today I woke up one of the first things I did was break one of my rules, what rule is it you ask? The "Only run outside if it is above freezing" rule. I decided that I do in fact live in a part of the country that does get cold in the winter and will continue to get cold each year. I got all kinds of layers on and headed out to run around the neighborhood like I said that I wanted to do earlier this week. Here is a run down of what  I was wearing, I had a white tee-shirt on, a long sleeve shirt on over that, and a sweat shirt on over that. I also had a pair of running shorts on and some sweat pants on over those. If that were not enough I had ear muffs on and and hat. It was still a bit cold but not as bad as I thought it would be. I ended up running four miles in less than 30 minutes so even though doing this Body-for-Life program has made my distance running fall short I has totally increased the pace in which I run so I am ok with that. I will just now need to work on getting the distance back up. On Tuesday I am going to go and run outside again before bible study, today I did two laps around the entire neighborhood and a third small lap around my block, on Tuesday I figure I will do three full laps around the neighborhood and slowly start to work the distance back into my runs. Tomorrow starts week 11 of Body-for-Life and this makes me happy for an number of reasons, First there are only two weeks left and I can say that I finished the program without breaking the diet, missing a meal, or missing a workout. Second this is the last week of school until after the new year. This means that I only need to take a lunch box of 6 meals two more times (Tomorrow and Tuesday) then I don't have to do it any more since I will be off the Body-for-Life diet. I know I have said it before but the last day of the 12 weeks is on Christmas day then I am going to take the week off. After that I will decide what I will do next to remain in shape. The folks I am on the B4L forum on are talking about doing another 12 week challenge but I don't know that I can do it again so soon. The eating started to really work on me at about week 5 and I don't think I would make it another 12 weeks. I figure I can eat well without being forced to eat just what B4L tells me to eat. I guess we will just have to see who Christmas goes and decide what to do. I am looking forward to the week after Christmas since I took the whole thing off, I won't have to work, teach, workout, any of that I can do whatever I want that week. Tomorrow is one of my last three upper body workouts, I am hoping that it goes better than my last one but I am sure that it will since I will have more than four hours of sleep this time.

Busy couple of days

So the last few days have been a little bit hectic to say the least.Tuesday I ended up getting crushed with requests for my time from clients and ended up missing my run so I had to make it up yesterday along with my upper body workout. I just started teaching a new quarter at school so now my two long days are on Monday and Tuesday nights. Wednesday I had to be in KY very early in the morning and since I needed to fit in a run and a full body workout I had to wake up earlier than I normally would in order to get both in. How early did I wake up you ask? I was up at 4 AM after not falling asleep until almost midnight the night before. In case you were wondering I was quite tired after all that. I also got to find out that being sleeping during your workout has adverse affects to said workout. On just about all of the exercises I ended up getting fewer reps on pretty much every exercise except the triceps. I finished the upper body workout feeling like I completely wasted it, I am not feeling like that as much today, my triceps are pretty sore and so is my chest and back. When my upper body workout was done I jumped on the treadmill to run and I ran a total of 4 miles in about 30 minutes before then called it a day. 4 miles is the longest I have run pretty much since starting the body for life program so I was feeling it a little bit yesterday and a little bit more today when I was doing my scheduled run. I only went the 20 minutes and ran just a hair over 2 miles before I stopped so I could get ready to make it to KY again. Tomorrow is my next lower body workout then a run on Sunday, I would like to do it outside if it is not too cold outside. I do like the running but doing it on a treadmill begins to wear on me since there is always a clock to look at and it ends up making me feeling like time is standing still if I run outside I don't have that problem. I guess we will see how I feel and what the temp is like Sunday to decide where I am going to run. If I run outside I would like to do it around the neighborhood so I can try and do the 4.5 labs like I used to before starting Body-for-Life. I guess we will see what happens.

On the final bit

Today started week 10 of my 12 week challenge and I got to start it off with a lower body workout. I went into this workout knowing that I was adding weight to my lunges and my leg extensions. In case you were wondering I felt it pretty darn good and I expect that walking tomorrow will present a bit of a challenge. I will be moving up the weight on the leg extensions again on Friday so I should go into the weekend really feeling it. I was looking at my schedule today and it looks like I should be back on track to have my free day on Saturday and a run on Sunday. This week I used my yard work as my cardio, not something I normally do but I had such a great weekend with the family that I didn't want to miss out on any time by having to go to the rec center or run around the neighborhood. Since I used Friday as my free day this week I went to the rec center on Saturday morning to get my upper body workout in. Some of the exercises I was not able to get through all the reps of on Monday due to adding weight I was still not able to get through but I was able to more than I did on Monday. I don't know if it had anything to do with eating before working out, normally I eat after I workout, or if it was just that I am getting stronger. I guess we will know the answer to that on Wednesday when I get to the office in the morning to do the next upper body workout. I love looking at my little 12 week calendar and seeing that I am now less than three weeks away from being finished. As much as this has been a good experience and I am seeing great results, I am ready to have it be over, the one thing that is keeping me on track is looking forward to the last few workouts and pushing harder to finish them and add weight so I can see where I was weight wise when I started and where I am weight wise when I am done.

One last thing, I would like a moment of silence for a fallen brother....The binder I have been using since I started this whole thing took a fall off my desk and now the rings do not close correctly like they should. I am now forced to go get a different binder from the office and use it to finish my last three weeks. It is a sad day Mr. Binder started this journey with me and now he is not going to be able to finish.....These next three weeks are for you Mr. Binder!!!!! You will not be forgotten.

Not the cardio day I expected

So I got the 40 minutes  I was shooting for in this morning and ran almost 4 miles but I didn't do it the way that I wanted to. I was trying to go at 7 MPH for 30 of the 40 minutes but that didn't happen. When I work up this morning my legs were quite stiff and sore from yesterday's lower body workout. I ended up going 6.5 MPH for some of the run and 6 MPH for the rest of it. I am a little disappointed with myself for that but at the end of the day getting the exercise in is more important than reaching the goals every time you go out and try. I am feeling good this morning after the run and I have a lot of energy which is nice since I have a to do list for today of 14 items and that does not include anything that is going to come in while I am working on that list. I don't quite know I am going to get it all done  today but I will do my best since I am taking tomorrow off for my anniversary. I am also debating if I want to wake up in the morning before everyone else and get my upper body workout in then and do my planned split free day like I was going to do on Thanksgiving or if I just want to take the whole day off. I guess I will see how I feel in the morning and make the final decision. Well, I am going to try and get an early start to the day today so I can try and get it all done. Until next time.