New Habits Die Hard

There's an old myth about forming new habits, that you have to do something 21 times for it to become a habit, such as working out every day.

That's a load of baloney. For something to truly become a habit, it takes a lot longer than 21 repetitions. My doctor once told me it actually takes a full year of doing something before it starts to become a habit. (And let me add a quick disclaimer here for my family, many of whom immediately think there must be something seriously wrong with me every time I mention the world "doctor": she told me that a long time ago, not recently -- I haven't been to the doc since I last spoke with all of you!).

Having said all of that, I seem to have fallen into a bit of a habit since adding leg work to my routine a few weeks back, choosing Sunday's as the day to do legs. My thinking was that legs take a little longer to do, and Sunday afternoons would generally be days where I wouldn't be up against any time constraints.

Prior to adding the leg work to my exercise routine, I had begun doing my cardio in the mornings, usually every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The week immediately prior to starting legs I also did a Wednesday morning session.

However, that first week after doing legs, I managed a Monday morning cardio routine, but by Tuesday morning my legs were so sore and tired I slept an extra hour Tuesday and did my cardio for that day in the evening, after I got home from work. Of course, that meant no cardio on Wednesday -- there's no way I can climb on the stationary bike Wednesday morning, less than 12 hours after the Tuesday night session -- and I do a session of weight lifting on Wednesday nights.

Of course, the second week I did legs on Sunday, I fell into the same schedule, a Monday cardio session followed by some leg and knee stiffness, so I did cardio Tuesday night instead.

Last week, the same thing.

This week, however, was going to be different -- I was determined to be up early Tuesday morning, no matter what, so that all my cardio sessions were back to mornings.

Well, guess what? I was up too late last night, much later than I had planned, and just a couple of hours after going to bed I awoke again because of some pain in that knee, so I ended up skipping the morning cardio. By tonight, though, I was feeling okay, and with no weight training slated I ended up back at the gym for some cardio -- and it turned out to be a pretty good, hard-paced session.

So I don't know, have I now formed a new habit, always doing my Tuesday cardio at night for various reasons? I'd rather do the mornings -- fewer people crowded around at the gym, and that gets the work out of the way first thing, leaving my evenings free for writing.

But is just doesn't seem to work out for whatever reason. So maybe I've formed a new habit, after just three or four weeks. It certainly wouldn't be the worst one I've ever developed.

Anyway, enough of that...now for the details of the day!

Exercise
Cardio -- stationary bike
62 minutes (20 on level 6, 5 on level 4, the rest on level 5).
22 miles (or, on the gym's bike, 35.5 something or other -- I think kilometers)
805 calories

Food for the day

Breakfast
Coffee
Eggs -- 1 whole, 2 whites
Fresh cut pineapple -- 1/2 cup

Lunch
Roasted chicken breast (cooked in olive oil) -- 4 ounces
Brown Rice -- 2/3 cup cooked
Mixed veggies -- 1/2 cup

Snack
Fat Free Greek Yogurt

First Dinner
Roasted chicken breast in olive oil -- 4 ounces
Cheese -- 1/8 cup
Salsa
Salad mixture (lettuce, spinach, etc.)

Second Dinner
Sesame chicken and noodles (3/4 serving of whole wheat noodles, 5 ounces of chicken breast, 1/2 cup mixed veggies, all cooked in sesame oil)

Late snack
Real fruit, no-sugar added popsicle

Totals for the day
1,230 calories
33 grams fat
119 grams protein

Once again, I'm getting far too little protein, partly as a result of simply not eating enough, and partly from a result of not planning properly to have a higher protein-to-carb ratio.

Water -- 100 ounces
Diet soda -- 24 ounces

Well That Didn't Go As Planned...

I didn't blog yesterday (Saturday) because there wasn't a lot to write -- the cold was still lingering, well, no, that's not true, it's lingering today. Better, but I still am sneezing and coughing. Yesterday was the worst day of the cold -- sore throat, feeling really bad. 

Saturday, of course, is my off day from working out, so the wasn't affected, but I didn't eat a lot early in the day simply because I didn't feel much like it, and what I did eat isn't exactly bodybuilding food (tomato soup and crackers).

Still, by the latter portions of the day I was back to eating normal, and today I expected to go a little light on the leg work, but once I got into the gym things felt pretty good, so I actually went heavier on a couple of lifts. Kinda funny how that happened, and that's what I was referring to with the title of today's blog. 

Even before I was sick I had thought about dropping some in weight or sets in leg day, because I'd been so tired and sore afterward the past couple of weeks. And yesterday, when I was really feeling bad, I figured there was no way I'd do a full leg workout.

But once I was in the gym, doing that first set of squats...I don't know, things just kinda happened. I did go a little lighter on the leg presses, but did heavier squats, and an additional set, and it felt really good. Maybe tomorrow will be the real test, when it's time to crawl out of bed and head to the gym for some early morning cardio.

Otherwise, it was mostly a fairly sedate weekend -- not doing much Saturday but editing and writing (not for work, but for my fiction), and today mowing, working out, getting back into the swing of everything.

I'll go into my work, then today's eating, then yesterday's eating for those of you who like reading that sort of stuff.

Sunday workout -- legs

Squats (in the order I did the set)

135 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps

165 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps

225 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps

255 pounds -- 1 set, 6 reps

225 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps

185 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps

Leg press -- 380 pounds

2 sets, 8 reps each

Leg extensions

115 pounds, 2 sets, 10 reps each

Leg curls

70 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps

90 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps

95 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps

Standing calf press

410 pounds -- 2 sets, 12 reps each

Food for the day (Sunday)

Breakfast

K-cup cappicino

Lunch

Baked chicken breast, 4 ounces (cooked in a little bit of olive oil)

Long grain rice -- 2/3 cup cooked

Snack

Protein Drink with a banana chopped up in it

First Dinner

Lean center-cut pork loin -- 5 ounces

Baked potato -- 5 ounces

Diet butter -- 1 tablespoon

Snack

Lean center-cut pork loin -- 3.5 ounces

Total for the day so far (I'm sure I'll have something else before the night's over, I'll update when I do)

1,095 calories

30 grams fat

121 grams protein

Water -- 53 ounces

Diet soda -- 24 ounces

Saturday eating

Breakfast -- coffee

First Lunch 

tomato soup

crackers

Second lunch

Taco flavored grilled chicken -- 2 ounces

Cheese -- 1/8 cup

Salsa and corn -- 2 tablespoons

Kidney beans -- 1/4 cup

Salad mix (lettuce, greens, etc.)

Dinner

Baked chicken breast -- 3.75 ounces

Red potatoes baked with olive oil and rosemary

Second dinner

Bake chicken breast with olive oil

Cheese -- 1/4 cup

Tomato

Salsa (2 tablespoons)

Salad mix of lettuces and greens

Snack

Granola -- 2/3 cup

Almond mild -- 3/4 cup

Totals for day

1,435 calories

41 grams fat

105 grams protein (way low here)

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

Day 26: Changes I'm Noticing...

Well, I've been at this for nearly a month, and in reviewing some of my earlier blog posts I noticed a few differences in my workouts, and that got me to thinking about other changes I've noticed. That's my blog for today, some of the changes I'm seeing -- and feeling -- as I approach the one-month mark.

First, the obvious. I started this as a way to lose weight and, by extension, improve my health. I have lost weight. I'll wait until the official 30-day mark to tell you how much, but I've dropped what I considered a good amount, certainly near the upper end of what I thought might be realistic within a month.

I've experienced an accompanying drop in girth and inches. Remember my posts about finally fitting back into my belt, and then moving down to the second hole? Well, it's not just my waistline that's shrinking. My legs are a little smaller, my chest, hips, even my neck and face aren't quite as flabby. Don't get the wrong idea, I'm still really fat, but there's a difference I can see, feel, and even measure.

I am sleeping considerably better. Before I started this, it wasn't unusual to eat really, really bad food late at night. I'm talking a big plate of nachos, or a Big Mac and fries, around 11, 11:30 at night, maybe even midnight. If that's not bad enough, that was usually on top of already having eaten badly all day long. When you go to bed that full, sleeping is uncomfortable. In my case, I'd constantly be waking up, never getting into a deep sleep, particularly those first few hours of the night. I'd sometimes find myself not breathing as easy as I'd like, waking up just to shift position so I could breath clearer, or be a little more comfortable. My wife would sometimes poke me to get me to wake enough to stop snoring, because I was so loud I'd wake her up.

All of that seems to have gone away. I still eat a little if I get hungry late at night (and yes, I include those in my daily calorie counts on my blog posts), but it's a small amount, and it's something healthy. I'm never feeling overfull after eating. I don't wake up multiple times during the night, I'm not waking my wife with the snoring, and while one of the things I still do a really bad job on is getting enough sleep, that's not because I'm waking up constantly during the night.

Other differences? It's hard to explain other than to simply say I feel better. Before, I often felt tired, listless, doing easy little tasks became chores that I'd avoid. Most of that's gone away now, too.

I don't mean to suggest I'm ready to hop into a powerlifting competition or run a marathon, but simple, everyday tasks have become so much easier.

I've seen a difference in my workouts as well. My first day was a chest, shoulder and triceps day. Generally I do barbell bench presses as my main chest exercise, but twice since I started the bench at the gym has been busy, so I moved to dumbbells. Once was on my first day, and the other was four days ago, on day 22. Those are the only two days I've done dumbbells as my main chest work, yet here's the difference:

March 9
Dumbbell bench press,
50 pound dumbbells, 1 set x 10 reps
70 pounds, 3 sets x 10 reps each
70 pounds, 1 set x 8 reps

Include barbell press
115 pounds, 2 set x 10 reps

That was it, my full chest workout, and while only the last dumbbell and last incline set was actually done to failure, I can honestly say that was about all I had in me.

Now, here's last week's chest workout:

Dumbbell bench press
55-pound dumbbells, 1 set, 10 reps
85-pound dumbbells, 3 sets, 8 reps each
85-pound dumbbells, 1 sex 6 reps

Incline Barbell Press
115 pounds, 2 sets, 8 reps each

Flat-bench Dumbbell Flyes
40-pounds, 2 sets, 8 reps each

As you can see I've increased weight, increased sets, or simply added more overall sets to the mix. Remember, I'm waiting only about 30 seconds to a minute between each set -- I don't do that think where you do a set, then sit around and rest for 5 minutes before doing the next set. 

Most of my other workouts have seen similar results, more weight and more sets, 

Same with cardio. My first night I did 30 minutes on the stationary bike, all at level 4, and recorded 9.75 miles. That really was about all I had in me.

Yesterday, I did 50 minutes (levels 9, 8, and 7 one-minute each, level 6 10 minutes, level 5 30 minutes, lvl 4 the rest) covering 17.5 miles

So, with cardio I'm going longer, harder, and covering more "distance" on a per minute or per-five-minute or whatever-per-whatever measurement you want to take.

I'll be finishing up the first 30 days later this week, and along the way I may be looking at ways I can change things up, push a little harder (either in my workouts or my eating), see how much more I can improve in the second month.

But for now, finishing the last few days of month #1 strong, and enjoying the results, is pretty gratifying.

For the day:

Well, I took the day off, both from exercise and from eating entirely healthy. The exercise decision I made yesterday while I was on the bike. My knee started bothering me around the 30 minute mark, and given that I have a little mileage on the knees, and had worked pretty hard last week, I thought maybe a rest day might be in order.

As for the food? Well, I ate almost nothing today. By the point when dinner time rolled around, I'd have a grand total of around 540 calories on the day. My oldest daughter and son-in-law were down visiting, so we made that trip to Applebee's I was thinking about on Friday night. Still, I ate a much, much smaller meal than I would have a month ago (half-rack ribs, small amount of fries, and water rather than a diet soda).

So, tomorrow I'm back on it!

Thanks for stopping by.

Day 4 check-in: Losing weight and, well, still sore...

Today is the first day of this new plan where I'm not in my regular routine of getting up, going to work, being there all day, coming home, etc. That can be a more dangerous time when starting a new diet. It's not like we have tacos and pizza lying around the house in some buffet line ready for me to gobble it all up, but it's just different, easier to get off schedule with eating.

And it's also easier to sit around and watch basketball tournaments, which is okay except my old habits have always been to eat while watching basketball. Eat while waiting on the games to start. Eat after the games are over...

For now, though, I'm heading down to the gym to do some cardio. After that, I have some writing to do, some work for my regular job, and some basketball to watch (not to mention some laundry to do, cooking and planning for the week coming up, but that might wait until Sunday).

Anyway, just checking in for the morning...will be back later to outline my eating and working out for the day. Oh, yeah, I weighed myself today to see how it's been going since I started this and...oh, well, maybe you guys should come back later to get those results!

Day 2 workout, eating, and more SORENESS

Well, the end of Day 2 is drawing to a close, and I have two things to say.

I'm sore and I'm hungry!

Not much I can do about the soreness -- I was right in my post this morning, the soreness has gotten worse through the day. And I've done this enough to know it'll be even worse tomorrow.

As for the hunger, I'm going to get a snack soon. The worst thing you can do, I think, is let yourself stay hungry while trying to lose weight. That's a recipe for binge eating!

Anyway, here's my workout and food for the day.

The exercise was simple
Stationary bike, 30 minutes
Level 4 resistance
9.75 miles covered
312 calories burned

Now the food:

Breakfast
Coffee
Eggs -- 1 whole, 2 whites
Lean ham -- 1 1/2 ounces

Lunch
Sesame Chicken and Noodle (I'll post the recipe at the end of today's blog)

Snack
Big Salad (lettuce, cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, olives, bit of cheese, 1-1/2 ounces of lean ham)

First Dinner (I sound like a hobbit saying that)
Rice -- 3/4 cup
Boiled chicken breast -- 5 ounces
Veggies -- 3/4 cup

Second Dinner
BBQ chicken on noodles, which consisted of:
Chicken breast -- 5 ounces
Homemade BBQ sauce
Curly noodles -- 1 serving.

Snack
Salmon 4.7 ounces (yes, that's an odd snack, but it was in the fridge, already cooked, so why not?)
Fat free Greek Yogurt

Total for the day
1,861 calories
47.45 fat
177 grams of protein
Water -- 70 ounces
Diet soda -- 36 ounces

Notes and thoughts. I wouldn't have done the sesame chicken and noodles at lunch had I known we were doing the BBQ chicken over noodles at dinner -- that's a little too heavy on the pasta/carbs, and too many calories overall. And I was high on fat, though a third of it was from the salmon, which really is a healthy fat. I'm still a little low on protein -- I should, ideally, be in the 180+ gram range.

Sesame Chicken recipe (my version, for a single serving):
Whole wheat noodles -- 1 serving (4.2 ounces of cooked noodles)
Veggies -- 3/4 cup
Chicken breast -- 5 ounces
Sauce -- 1 teaspoon sesame oil mixed with 1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce.

Now, if I were cooking this in a big pot for multiple people, it would be the same basic ingredients -- noodles, chicken, and veggies (frozen mixed veggies, plus some chopped up onions and peppers cooked and put in). The sauce, however, would be different. It would be maybe a half-cup of soy sauce, 1/3-cup of honey and two to three tablespoons of sesame oil. You have to mix it up really well, because the honey tends to sink to the bottom. Once the sauce is mixed up really well, pour it over the whole thing and mix it up really well. If you really want to get fancy, you can throw a couple of tablespoons of sesame seeds on the whole thing and mix it up some more. If you really like the sesame taste, you can add a little more oil. If you like it sweet, add a little more honey.

Well, that's it for now folks -- thanks for stopping by! Any comments or questions, just leave in the comment section below and I'll respond.

Day 2...just one word to describe today.....

Well, I'll be on later to give more details about how it's gone today, what I ate, and the workout.

But for now, I have that one word I promised:

SORE.

Okay, it's not THAT bad. It's certainly not as bad as I expected. Last night on about the fourth set of dumbbell bench presses and my chest muscles felt like they about to explode, I was already dreading today and how sore I'd be. I'm tight, and a little sore, and that seems to be getting worse as the day goes along, but overall not too bad.