Day 1A -- 60 in 60

That's right, since I had a bit of a false start with the original Day 1, this will be day 1A.

Of course, even this is late. I usually try to do my blog at the end of the day, late at night, but was simply too tired last night. So, you get the LATE Day 1A blog. Since it's late, I'll be quick and to the point.

Monday I did weight training for the workout, and did okay on the eating. Perhaps even came in too low there. And remember, many days I'm going to spell out exactly what I do, exercise wise, as well as what I eat. I figure if anyone wants to give this a try, this can be a bit of a model to follow (though if you're not used to working out, you might want to go easier on the weights at first).

Also, I'll share some good, tasty, healthy recipes along the way!

Here's my workout for the day (Monday)

Weights (Chest, shoulders, triceps)

Bench Press
135 pounds -- 10 reps
165 ponds -- 8 reps
195 pounds -- 8 reps
225 pounds -- 6 reps
195 -- 8 reps

Incline Bench
115 pounds -- 15 reps
100 pounds -- 12 reps

Seated flyes (machine)
95 pounds -- 2 sets, 12 reps each

Shoulders
Seated rear shoulder flyes (machine)
120 pounds -- 2 sets, 15 reps each

Seated side raises (machine)
85 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each.

Triceps
Cable press-down
130 pounds -- 15 reps
130 pounds -- 12 reps
130 pounds -- 10 reps

Weighted, seated crunch (machine)
95 pounds -- 15 reps
95 pounds -- 12 reps

That's it for the first day. You'll notice I do some work with machines. I prefer free weights, but the machines sometimes offer two advantages. First, I've got a bit of a forearm issue from an injury a couple of years ago, and if I put too much stress on it (such as doing standing flyes with dumbbells), I can find myself out of workouts for a week or two.

Second, they can offer a little bit of a cardio effect. Last night I was working out with my youngest son (usually both of my sons work out with me, but the older one was working). So during the shoulder portion of the workout, we each took a machine, did a set, then switched and did a set of the next exercise, then the next, then the next, with no rest breaks in between. Same with the triceps and ab work. That's hard to do with free weights because you have to change weights on the bar, which gives you a bit of a rest time. With machines, you just pull a pin out and slip it back it on the weight pack and you keep on moving.

We also probably went a little light on the shoulders. I wanted to do some overhead presses, but some older guy was more or less camping on the over head press machine (By that, I mean he would do a set, then just sit there for four or five minutes, like it was his living room sofa, before doing another set, then just sitting there. Man, do the work and move on!) We could have done presses with the barbell, but we were running a bit behind, so we just skipped it.

As for the eating? Here's how the day played out.

Breakfast
2 whole eggs
2 ounces lean ham

Lunch
Check breast, grilled, with some spicy coating -- 6 ounces
Black beans -- 1/4 cup
Mozzarella cheese -- 1/8 cup
Mixed lettuce/greens salad

Snack
Greek Yogurt (light, fat free)

First dinner
Lean Pork (grilled, light olive oil-based marinade) -- 5 ounces
Mixed veggies -- 1-1/2 cup

Second dinner
Stuffed zucchini (recipe below)

Snack
Baked tilapia -- 5.5 ounces

Totals
1,240 calories
38 grams fat
163 grams protein
Water -- 60 ounces
Diet soda -- 48 ounces

Well, clearly I need to up the water and cut back on the diet soda. Otherwise, I was a little low on total calories and protein for the day. I had intended to also have oatmeal at breakfast but ran out of time, a banana with my yogurt for the afternoon snack but wasn't that hungry, and I had intended to eat the fish, along with a sweet potato, for dinner. Unfortunately, I was running late from work when I got home and we went to the gym, so when I returned home I was too hungry to wait for it to cook, so I just had the stuffed zucchini for dinner, the fish for snack, and no sweet potato.

Oh, well, the diet's a work in progress.

Here's the recipe for stuff zucchini:

A zucchini cut in half length-wise, hollowed out, then stuffed with a mixture of 1-1/4 ounce lean ground beef, tablespoon of tomato sauce, tablespoon of spaghetti , a sprinkling of mozzarella cheese, all baked in the oven).

Well, I'm off, flying into Day 2A. Thanks for stopping by, come on back tonight to see how the day goes.

A Lost Month? Maybe...

Well folks, it's been a while since I wrote, and things haven't been going nearly as well as when I was writing every day.

I don't mean to suggest I've dropped off this fitness plan entirely, but I've been far from consistent over the past month, especially with the eating.

For a quick recap, on May 11 I weighed 238.2 pounds. Now, for a guy my height -- 5'10" -- with a generally medium-sized build, that's way, way, way overweight. However, it represented a 41-pound loss in just 9 weeks (well, okay, 9 weeks and 2 days). I recently went to see my doctor and she was amazed (my normal disclaimer goes here: for my family, who believe every time I mention the word "doctor" I must be suffering from a dozen different diseases and be on the list for a quadruple organ transplant, this was a regularly scheduled check-up).

Heck, the nurse kept asking me question after question after question about my eating, my exercise -- not out of professional curiosity either, she simply said whatever I was doing, she needed to do as well.

Over these past four weeks, though, I've not been eating terribly healthy, at least not with any consistency. I've fallen back into my old habits of eating badly for a few days, or eating healthy at work then eating bad at night. I went two weeks between cardio sessions at one point.

The long and short of it is I've gained back a bit of weight. I stepped on the scales this morning and was surprised at how much I'd put back on -- I weight 250.2 pounds. Yep, I've gained 12 pounds in four-and-a-half weeks.

Remember all those times I said I was the king of yo-yo dieting? THIS is what I was talking about. It's just so easy to fall back into old habits, and those old habits don't take long to wreck everything.

What frustrates me most is not just the fact that I'm 12 pounds heavier, but I'm 20 pounds heavier than I could have been at this point. Maybe more.

If I had just stayed the course, even with an off day every week, at the rate I was going I think it's safe to assume I would have continued losing 2 pounds a week or so, maybe more. It's not unreasonable to think I could be sitting here talking about being 230, 228, even 226 pounds at this point, That's still a fair bit off my goal of 199, but at that point it's within sight -- almost within reach.

Instead, I've still got 51 pounds to go. Heck, I'm closer to where I started (279 pounds) than my goal.

The news isn't all dire. I did get back in the gym last week for three full weight workouts, and two cardio sessions on Thursday and Friday. I played a little basketball yesterday and felt pretty good. Heck, I even managed a nice little acrobatic lawnmower maneuver yesterday that would put some Cirque Du Soleil performers to shame (and I discovered my mower turns a lot faster on sharp corners than I had anticipated). None of which I could have done three months ago.

So it's not as if I've fallen all the way back to where I started.

But I could, easily enough, I suppose, though that might be harder this time. I've said before one of the things that inspired me to do this blog as I make another attempt at losing weight and getting in shape was the Dude Who Ate Like The Rock for a month, Mark Webster. I thought it would be kind of fun to chronicle my successes -- and failures -- along the way.

I also thought that if I put this out there, writing most every day, it would be more difficult to fail because people would know who I am, know what I was doing, and know if I fell short. You know, it's not the failure that bothers us sometimes, but the idea that everyone knows we failed is most troublesome.

And guess what? It's kind of worked. Over the past week I think I've had about a dozen people who asked me what was up, what was happening, why haven't I been blogging. Even Mark, The Dude, sent me a tweet to check on how I was doing. The director of our gym, who follows my blog, ran into me the other day and asked. One of my sisters called me to see what was up with the missing blog. Several others, most of whom only know me from this blog, have done the same.

So, you know, if I'm not going to have to look down in shame every time I see these people, it's time to get back to it, which I started today. I've finally made it all the way through a whole day on my healthy eating plan, and I think one good, solid day will get me back on track. Now my goal is to see how fast I can get back to where I was at 238, and then charge on back toward my original goal.

Can I get back to that 238 in a week? Two?

We'll see.

But for now, here's what I did today.

Workout
(No cardio -- back's still a little sore from the lawnmower acrobatics)

Chest/shoulders/triceps

Chest
Dumbbell Bench Press
60 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
85 pounds -- 2 sets, 8 reps each

Flat Bench Barbell Bench Press
185 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
195 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps (If we'd known the bench was going to be open so soon, we wouldn't have done the dumbbells).

Incline Barbell Bench Press
105 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
115 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps

Flat bench dumbbell flys
40 pounds, 1 set, 10 reps

Shoulders
Seated Barbell Shoulder Press
95 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
105 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps

Machine rear delt flyes
125 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each

Machine seated side raises
110 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each

Triceps
Tricep cable pressdown
150 pounds -- 1 set, 12 reps
140 pounds -- 1 set, 12 reps

Seated Tricep Machine Dips
255 pounds -- 1 set, 15 reps

Machine Crunches
110 pounds -- 1 set, 20 reps

Eating for the day

Breakfast
Eggs -- 1 whole jumbo, 2 regular whites
Lean ham -- 1 ounce
1/2 cup blueberries

Lunch
Boiled chicken breast -- 4.5 ounces
Rice -- 1/2 cup
Mixed Veggies -- 1/2 cup
Sesame Seed Oil -- 1 teaspoon
Reduced Sodium Soy -- 1 tablespoon
Fat Free Greek Yogurt

Snack
1 cup red grapes

First dinner
Boiled chicken breast -- 4 ounces
Rice -- 1./2 cup
Mixed Veggies -- 1/2 cup
Sesame Seed Oil -- 1 teaspoon
Reduced Sodium Soy -- 1 tablespoon

Second Dinner
Lean ground turkey -- 4 ounces
Mixed veggies -- 1 cup

Snack
Raisin Bran -- 1 cup
Almond Milk (unsweetened) -- 3/4 cup

Totals for the day
1,380 calories
40 grams fat
132 grams protein

Water -- 74 ounces
Diet soda -- 24 ounces

That's it for the day! Thanks for stopping by, and I'll be back to this every day for a while now, so come on back!

And the Wednesday Blog moves to Thursday...

Yep, in keeping with the week's theme of blogging a day late (and being far more than a dollar short), I bring to you the special Thursday edition of my Wednesday blog.

Same story -- busy with work, with writing, with working out, and next thing I know the clock's on the upward swing toward 1 a.m., so I didn't manage to get back online for my blog last night. I do PLAN to blog again tonight, but here's the quick scoop on how Wednesday went.

The workout today was particularly challenging. You know how some days you just have it, and some days you don't? Well, this felt like a "don't" day. I did increase my weight and reps some during the chest workout, but really seemed to run out of gas about the time I hit shoulders, so the rest of the night was a struggle, and I even fell off a bit on the weight or reps.

Workout
Chest, shoulders, triceps

Chest
Flat bench press
135 pounds -- 10 reps
185 pounds -- 8 reps
225 pounds -- 6 reps (yeah! My first time back to 225 pounds in a good, long time!)
210 pounds -- 8 reps
200 pounds -- 8 reps

Incline barbell press
135 pounds -- 8 reps
145 pounds -- 6 reps

Flat bench dumbbell chest flys
40 pounds, 2 sets, 10 reps first, 12 reps second

Shoulders
Seated Barbell Overhead press
95 pounds -- 8 reps
105 pounds -- 8 reps

Seated machine side raises
110 pounds -- 10 reps 1 set, 8 reps second set

Seated Rear Deltoid Flys
125 pounds -- 2 set, 10 reps each

Triceps
Tricep pressdown
160 pounds -- 10 reps
150 pounds -- 10 reps

Seated machine tricep dips
255 pounds -- 15 reps

And that's about it for Wednesday. Thanks for stopping by, and check back in later for the actual Thursday blog on Thursday. I'll get it done...really...I think...most likely...

Eight-week Weigh-In And Meeting a Blog Reader!

Today marks exactly eight weeks since I officially started the weight loss efforts, and I weighed in this morning at 245 -- that's 34 pounds less than when this started. That's a lot, at least to me. I still have a long way to go, with a goal of losing 80 pounds of fat, but I'm getting close to the half-way point!

I also met someone in real life who's been reading my blog. Well, I mean other than relatives. When I walked into the gym tonight the center's director, a guy named Greg Hampton, was working with a new member, walking the person through a workout on the Nautilus machines. But when I walked in he stopped for a minute, told me he'd been reading the blog and enjoyed seeing my progress. (I would put a link to him here, but some folks don't like that, and since I met him in real life and not online, and didn't ask if it would be okay, I'll forgo that).

A little bit later, after Greg was done with the new member, he came over to where I was working out to chat a few minutes, mostly just to see how it was going, make a few encouraging comments on my work and progress, that sort of thing. I have to say I really appreciated him doing that. Devotees of my blog will know that I've made little comments from time to time about a piece of equipment there not working, or some other little problem, but all in all it's actually a really nice facility. I work out at The Carroll Wellness Center, and it's really more of a community center than strictly a gym. 

Don't get me wrong, they have a lot of weight equipment, and some big dudes working out hard, just like you'd see at a more hardcore gym, but they also have an indoor swimming pool, a gym, indoor and outdoor walking tracks, and a lot of activities for kids and families (they even have a child care service so parents can get a break from their kids to workout).

It's not perfect -- but then whatever is -- but it's a good center and some really friendly staffers. It's hard to go in or out of there without getting a smile and a hello from at least two or three of them. Anyway, I'm not trying to turn this into a commercial for the center, but it is a nice place to workout, with a load of alternatives for whatever you want to do -- my wife and youngest do Zumba there three or four nights a week, and several of our crew occasionally utilize the basketball courts, so we definitely get a lot out of the center.

For today, I was on my own working out -- my son was a little under the weather so he decided to sit out. 

Today's schedule:

Workout

Weight training -- chest, shoulders, triceps

Chest

Flat bench barbell press

135 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps

185 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps

210 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps

200 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps

190 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps (just barely -- not having a spotter is great motivation to finish off that last rep!)

Incline barbell bench press

135 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each

Flat-bench dumbbell flyes

40 pound dumbbells -- 2 sets, 10 reps each

Shoulders

Seated barbell press

115 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps

100 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps

Machine side raises

115 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each

Seated machine rear delt flyes

140 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each

Triceps

Lying curl bar tricep extension

50 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each

40 pounds -- 1 set each

Seated overhead dumbbell extension

60 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps

Abs

Seated Machine Crunch

125 pounds -- 2 sets, 15 reps each

Food for the day

Breakfast

Coffee

Eggs -- 1 whole, 2 whites

Oatmeal -- 1/3 cup dry

Lunch

Chef Salad (not in the plans for the day, but I rarely get to eat lunch with my wife, so yeah, I went out today for lunch because she was around, and the chef salad was the ONLY thing on the menu that would qualify as healthy, clean eating)

Note: The salad was about 3 ounces turkey, 3 ounces ham, 1/4 cup cheddar cheese, lettuce, some grape tomatoes, and a few onions. NO dressing.

Snack

Fat free Greek yogurt

First dinner

Center cut pork loin, 4 ounces

Mixed veggies -- 1/2 cup

Second dinner

Garlic chicken -- 5 ounces (and I do mean GARLIC --I could walk through a room full of vampires right now and be safe)

Baked potato -- 5 ounces

Diet butter -- 1 tablespoon

Total for the day

1,270 calories

45 grams fat

124 grams protein

water -- 65 ounces

diet soda -- 30 ounces

I might get a little snack before bed, if I do I'll update. If not, that's it for the day.

Well, this wasn't in the plans...

Today was a bit of a struggle, with a bad cold. Actually, it started yesterday, and by the end of the day I was feeling pretty bad, and it only grew worse overnight and into today. Bad sore throat, stuffed up sinuses...you know the drill. Haven't felt like eating as much either, though I forcing it down.

Anyway, as you can imagine, the workout wasn't the greatest. I had already decided to forgo cardio this morning because of the knee (which is doing much better), but I went a little lighter with weights tonight as well -- fewer reps in some cases, fewer less weight in others, and just not as much as I normally do. I thought I'd be able to do a regular workout, but about two-thirds of the way through the chest portion of the work, I was already feeling like I was running out of gas, so not a great day with the weights.

I did weigh again today -- 246 pounds, or THREE more pounds lost since Sunday (well, 3.5 to be specific)!

That's about it for the day. Here's my workout and eating:

Weight training -- chest, shoulders and triceps.

Chest

Dumbbell bench press

60 pounds -- 1 set of 10 reps

90 pounds -- 2 sets 8 reps each, plus 1 set of 7 reps

Incline barbell press

135 pounds -- 2 sets, 8 reps each

Machine seated chest flye

125 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each

Shoulders

Seated Barbell press

115 pounds -- 1 set, 6 reps

95 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps

Seated machine side raises

110 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each

Triceps

Press down 

150 pounds, 2 sets, 12 reps each

Abs

Seated weighted crunch

125 pounds -- 1 set, 15 reps

Food for the day

Breakfast

Coffee

Eggs -- 1 whole, 2 whites

Southwestern hash browns -- 2/3 cup

Lunch

Ground chicken -- 2 ounces

Kidney beans -- 1/2 cup

Cheese -- 1/8 cup

Salsa and corn

All on a mixed green salad

Snack

Fat Free Greek Yogurt

First Dinner

Lean pork -- 4.3 ounces

Brown rice -- 2/3 cup cooked

Second dinner

Baked chicken breast -- 3.75 ounces

Red potatoes baked in olive oil -- 6.5 ounces

Totals for the day

Calories -- 1,220 (plus whatever might be in Dayquil and cough drops)

Fat -- 31 grams

Protein -- 120 grams

Water -- 85 ounces

Diet soda -- 24 ounces