Monday, November 5, 2007
First monday update
So, this is turning out to be a whole lot harder than I remember it being. The exercise isn't as hard as the dieting. We still have a lot of delicious desserts in our place, and my roommate is, for the first time in his life, taking his time eating them. So, I've broken down a few times and helped demolish these sweet treats. I had the biggest wake-up call today: 210 lbs on the bathroom scale. Granted, this scale sometimes gives and sometimes takes 5 pounds, but I'm not taking any chances. Even though my other measure pant size (and which hole I can fasten my belt onto) is unchanged, it's time for drastic measures. So, taking some advice from my friend Julia and her hubby-to-be Vasiliy, I'm cutting processed desserts out of my diet. This means no more candy or chocolate. No more excuses about how I can have a few wafers and a jam sandwich with tea. Now I'm going to have to satisfy my sweet tooth with natural sugars: apples, grapes, and a smidgen of natural honey every now and them.
Fitness-wise, my biggest turning point of the week came on saturday when, finally, after days of trying to force myself to get to it, I went to the gym.
I've never liked going to the gym but for the simple fact that I'm usually the fattest one there. There are cross-country runner girls and massive weight-lifter guys occupying various parts of the facility, so there's no escape from my own comparative lack of fitness. I don't want to imply that I want to be like either one. The question I had to pose to myself having realized this was, what do I actually want to achieve with this program? I've decided that while visual evaluation will be a decent guide of progress, I need to set a fitness goal to guide what sort of build I am after. So, after much internal debate, my fitness goals will be two pronged:
1. Complete the Pigman triathlon on Sunday June 6th, 2008 in Palo, Iowa.
2. Have usable strength for daily activities
The second point is a bit harder to define, but it works into my everyday life. I like working on cars and bikes, and a lot of times, it takes a bit of brute strength to manhandle a part into place, or to move an engine by hand from one end of the garage to another. Besides, I'm sure that these two goals will become more refined as I work my way into this regimen.
So, looking good has fallen to a close second behind fitness goals, which may or not be a good thing. Ask me again in a couple of months if you want to know the answer to that.
The gym routine is going to work out great. It's a 1.5 mile run to the gym, a full workout, and another 1.5 mile run back home. I've figured out that it takes me about a mile to warm up before I hit my rhythm for another 2 miles. I can run a good pace for this distance, and I'm going to focus on increasing my speed over the 5K. I am, however, trying to switch to going to the gym in the mornings. With this, my internal clock is having a conniption - I'm used to going to bed around 1 or 2 am and waking up just in time to be late to my 10:30 class. So, this is going to be down to establishing a routine and sticking to it. It's alright so far, but I still have a long way to go. Picture update to follow tonight.
By the way, I'm really looking for advice from you, my readers, on fitness, on dieting, and most importantly, on mp3 player playlists.
Fitness-wise, my biggest turning point of the week came on saturday when, finally, after days of trying to force myself to get to it, I went to the gym.
I've never liked going to the gym but for the simple fact that I'm usually the fattest one there. There are cross-country runner girls and massive weight-lifter guys occupying various parts of the facility, so there's no escape from my own comparative lack of fitness. I don't want to imply that I want to be like either one. The question I had to pose to myself having realized this was, what do I actually want to achieve with this program? I've decided that while visual evaluation will be a decent guide of progress, I need to set a fitness goal to guide what sort of build I am after. So, after much internal debate, my fitness goals will be two pronged:
1. Complete the Pigman triathlon on Sunday June 6th, 2008 in Palo, Iowa.
2. Have usable strength for daily activities
The second point is a bit harder to define, but it works into my everyday life. I like working on cars and bikes, and a lot of times, it takes a bit of brute strength to manhandle a part into place, or to move an engine by hand from one end of the garage to another. Besides, I'm sure that these two goals will become more refined as I work my way into this regimen.
So, looking good has fallen to a close second behind fitness goals, which may or not be a good thing. Ask me again in a couple of months if you want to know the answer to that.
The gym routine is going to work out great. It's a 1.5 mile run to the gym, a full workout, and another 1.5 mile run back home. I've figured out that it takes me about a mile to warm up before I hit my rhythm for another 2 miles. I can run a good pace for this distance, and I'm going to focus on increasing my speed over the 5K. I am, however, trying to switch to going to the gym in the mornings. With this, my internal clock is having a conniption - I'm used to going to bed around 1 or 2 am and waking up just in time to be late to my 10:30 class. So, this is going to be down to establishing a routine and sticking to it. It's alright so far, but I still have a long way to go. Picture update to follow tonight.
By the way, I'm really looking for advice from you, my readers, on fitness, on dieting, and most importantly, on mp3 player playlists.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
I am the "Before" picture
So, here I am, up for your review. I am a 22-year old college kid. I ride a motorcycle. I have a bird. My room is a perpetual mess.
I'm also fat. I know this. You know this.
My 22nd birthday was last week. So, I've decided that this is as good of a jumping-off point as any to get in shape.
So, instead of doing the usual fat guy thing and wallowing in self-pity, I'm going to give myself two new excuses to complain - diet and exercise.
You all know how many different diet plans, pills, magic bullet workout machines there are out there. The "Get six pack abs while knocking your testicles around with electric shocks" belt comes to mind. I had one. I used it. I didn't get six pack abs. Probably shouldn't have been polishing off packets of deli meats while I was using it, huh?
So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to try every weight loss method I can think of until I find one that works.
So, now that I've gotten the basic idea out of the way, let's lay down some ground rules:
1. No pills or supplements (that's cheating)
2. No machines or other expensive purchases (nothing more than a gym membership - I'm a poor college student)
3. If it didn't work already, I'm not doing it again (screw Atkins!)
Basically, this leaves diet and exercise. This isn't to say that this limits my options all that much. There are as many forms of diet and exercise as there are people dream them up.
I've got to start somewhere, though.
So here's the first exercise regimen:
1. At least 1 mile run every morning
2. At least 2 gym visits per week
3. At least 10 miles biked per week
4. Body weight exercises every morning (push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, stuff like that)
And here's the first diet:
1. Reduce food intake to three small meals per day:
- breakfast: sandwich (two slices of meat, one slice of cheese, can be substituted by hummus)
- lunch: nothing over 200 calories
- dinner: 1/2 fist size portion of meat, 1 fist sized portion of salad or other veggie side dish, and 1/2 fist sized portion of delicious but fattening food (like rice or salat olivie)
2. Drink a minimum of 6 glasses of water a day
3. limit of one portion of desserts a day (i.e. 1/2 cup of ice cream, two smallish tiles of chocolate)
Now here's the part I'm dreading. I've got to put my own fat ass out there on the internet. With any luck, the guinea pig shown in the pictures is the "before" picture. Time to start working on the "after."
I'm also fat. I know this. You know this.
My 22nd birthday was last week. So, I've decided that this is as good of a jumping-off point as any to get in shape.
So, instead of doing the usual fat guy thing and wallowing in self-pity, I'm going to give myself two new excuses to complain - diet and exercise.
You all know how many different diet plans, pills, magic bullet workout machines there are out there. The "Get six pack abs while knocking your testicles around with electric shocks" belt comes to mind. I had one. I used it. I didn't get six pack abs. Probably shouldn't have been polishing off packets of deli meats while I was using it, huh?
So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to try every weight loss method I can think of until I find one that works.
So, now that I've gotten the basic idea out of the way, let's lay down some ground rules:
1. No pills or supplements (that's cheating)
2. No machines or other expensive purchases (nothing more than a gym membership - I'm a poor college student)
3. If it didn't work already, I'm not doing it again (screw Atkins!)
Basically, this leaves diet and exercise. This isn't to say that this limits my options all that much. There are as many forms of diet and exercise as there are people dream them up.
I've got to start somewhere, though.
So here's the first exercise regimen:
1. At least 1 mile run every morning
2. At least 2 gym visits per week
3. At least 10 miles biked per week
4. Body weight exercises every morning (push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, stuff like that)
And here's the first diet:
1. Reduce food intake to three small meals per day:
- breakfast: sandwich (two slices of meat, one slice of cheese, can be substituted by hummus)
- lunch: nothing over 200 calories
- dinner: 1/2 fist size portion of meat, 1 fist sized portion of salad or other veggie side dish, and 1/2 fist sized portion of delicious but fattening food (like rice or salat olivie)
2. Drink a minimum of 6 glasses of water a day
3. limit of one portion of desserts a day (i.e. 1/2 cup of ice cream, two smallish tiles of chocolate)
Now here's the part I'm dreading. I've got to put my own fat ass out there on the internet. With any luck, the guinea pig shown in the pictures is the "before" picture. Time to start working on the "after."
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