Fittness

Ok so I haven't done so well writing on this lately, but I am making progress. To fill in. I've moved, thanks to my wife's wonderful cooking, to what I'd call a mostly vegetarian diet. We'll say about 98% no meat. Still eating dairy and eggs and while we don't eat chicken much, I'd still find it acceptable. But between the diet and walking to work at least 3 days a weak I'm down to about 24lbs. I was sick last week so I expect to gain a pound or so back but even before that I was down to 242lbs. Going well here but looking to get a bit more of a workout here in the coming weeks.

Workouts

Last I wrote I was in quite a lot of pain even considering a visit to a chiropractor, something I don't do. But Friday morning I changed up the workout opting to do some nice stretching yoga poses and then just one set of unweighted squats before taking a long walk to work. Then Saturday it was still nice so we all went for a walk with our dog Tank. Between the walks and the yoga I got my back issues sorted out I'm considering doing yoga every morning and then another workout card and strength at night before bed. That's difficult though because I often drift off to sleep on the chair before the kids do at night. By y the way I weighed in sat morning at 248.8

Workout

30 minutes on the bike this AM. God my back is hurting.

Two sets of squats, two sets of push-ups, mule kicks, two sets of rows, one arm get-up off backs, two sets of lunges, two sets of curls at 25# and 30#, two set of standing tricep raiders at 40#, arm circles for shoulders.

So it appears that I have caught the lifting bug again. I really like the way it feels. It's the way I worked out when I was a kid. Feels good!

Squats, pushups, arm circles (for shoulders), lunges, rows with bands, sit ups, mule kicks, Out if time going to church

Ok so I had a bad workout weekend and I misses a couple of blog entries. So here goes, no weekend workouts but warm weather on Monday allowed me to walk to work and I broke a sweat scooping the very wet snow when I got off work. This AM I was up early for quick 20 min on the elliptical.

Did not pop out of bed today. But I did get 30 minutes in on the elliptical right before supper tonight. Included intervals at :30 to 2:00. It's nice having the readout on the machine if just to see my rpm's at high vs. low intervals. My motion is getting smoother and my endurance is building. Weighed 250.2 lbs this am.

Got a great workout on the elliptical this morning. I did almost 25 minutes of :30-2:00 intervals. The elliptical seems to be more comfortable at higher speeds with more resistance. So during the rest cycles I run at 50 to 60 rpm with 4 to 6 clicks of resistance. Then during the sprint cycle kick it up to to ten or eleven clicks at 80 or more rpm's. Anyway I really got a good sweat so I plan to do more for the next couple days. Also, I've been weighing myself every day so I'll add that I was at 250 this am.

Tuesday's workout consisted of walking to and from work and some snow removal, as planned. This morning I made it out of bed early and hit the elliptical trainer for 35 minutes. I managed to keep it at 6 clicks of resistance for most of the workout felt pretty. Can't wait for more tomorrow. Will likely throw in some sort of exercise such as push-ups or the like at the end.

Missed my workout today, bummer. My son woke up little after three am. So I spent the rest of the night trying to put him back down before I had to head to work. Anyway running low on sleep and frustrated so will likely skip tomorrows workout too in favor of walking the two miles to work and then it looks like I'll have plenty of snow to scoop when I get off work.

Today's workout was five thirty second sprints on the bike with a 90 second active rest period between each, so 10 minutes on the bike. Then 20 min on the elliptical trainer. About ten minutes into the elliptical I was feeling a little awkward like I was just kind of flailing at it so I bumped up the resistance witch allowed my stride to feel more purposeful. I was at about six clicks of resistance so I'll try to start out around there tomorow.

I'm scheduling my weeks workouts for four AM so that I can be done and cleaned up and on my walk to work by five thirty. To pull this off I have to have every thing lined up the night before. So I'm going to set alarms to remind me to set out my clothes and lunch for the next day the night before. And have alarms to keep me on track for what I need to be doing. The times may have to be adjusted but at least I have a plan.

I also need to get batteries for the elliptical display and would like to get a computer hooked up to the spinner so that I have some idea or intensity or speed.

Today is a Saturday and I got up early anyway to get a workout in. I snuck out of bed where my two boys and wife were still sleeping and headed for the basement and the elliptical machine. I just want to get back into the habit of setting aside some time every day so I did away with the intervals so that I could log a solid 30 min or so. I made it to 30 min without any big deal but I'll tell I had to laugh when around 20 min I was feeling a little spent and wanted to dial down the resistance but it was already as low as it would go for my hole whole workout. I've felt pretty hungry and have been grazing and snacking all day.

So I actually had my first workout in a long time just before the new year. I programed some intervals on my phone and headed to my spinning bike to try it out. I made thirteen minutes ding aak all out sprint for 30 seconds every 2 minutes. So i got like 5 good sprints in before I was too winded to continue.

Fitness blog

Well it's a new year and I'm sliding into my 37th year late this summer so my perceived need to be in good health and shape is unusually acute. And I'd like to document my journey back into fitness in this blog. The point of blogging it is mostly to hold myself accountable, but also to document the challenges and successes of how a not grossly obese ( although the gov. calls my bMI obese) mid thirties working class dad of two young boys gets his mojo back.

So here we go : first of the new year I'm 6'1" tall that won't change and tipping the scales at 252 lbs. My xl t-shirts are getting snug and seem shorter and I've grown out of all my size 36 jeans. My 38's are snug and I have stooped as low as to buy some 40 for work.

Where I want to be: Ten years ago I was a regular jogger and had worked my way down under 220 lbs. I felt pretty fit then I'd like to at least return to that point and likely surpass that. Also I just really want break into that box of smaller clothes that I have packed away and feel good wearing them again.

I plan to do this mainly by upping my activity level. And being more structured with my diet and time management