A Big Day!

Forget my little daily reports about weight loss, eating healthy and working out. Today, it was all about this:

This was the crew celebrating my oldest graduating from college. Well, this was a few hours after graduation, at the conclusion of dinner at Kabuki's and the restaurant staff came out with a little cake for her. The happy grad is front and center, and the rest of the crew are my kids, son-in-law, sister and brother-in-law. Big Day!

And yes, I stayed on the eating clean plan, though probably a few too may calories (and I did NOT even touch the cake).

More later about my eating and calories for the day, but for now, this is what we did today!

Ready For The Big Weekend (Or, How Many Times Can Plans Change?)

All those plans I outlined yesterday to shift things around to get all of my weight training and most of the cardio this week, in light of the weekend plans (YEAH ERICA -- my oldest getting her bachelor's degree Saturday!!!)?

That's changed again. We're having to leave earlier than I had anticipated tomorrow, and the gym doesn't open until 8 on Saturday mornings, so no cardio tomorrow or Sunday. Oh, well, I still managed to get the weight training in -- even a little extra on the legs this week. My biggest challenge, of course, will be on the eating front this weekend. Somehow, some way, I'll stay clean -- I'm just a few days away from that 30-day cleaning eating mark!

Today was a pretty blah day -- long day at work, normal workout (though having to make a few concessions to a sore forearm), and lower-than-normal eating.

Here was my day:

Workouts

Cardio

Stationary Bike -- 52 minutes

18 miles

675 calories

I did this a little differently today. Usually I select a "manual" program, and punch in just a constant level of resistance and go all-out most of the time, bumping the resistance up a little higher for a few minutes during the session.

Today I selected the "interval training" program, and while it was okay, I really didn't feel like I worked as hard. It started out at level 2 for a minute, level 3 for two minutes, and at the end went to level 3 for two minutes and level 2 for the final minute. In between, the program would have me at level 4 for three or four minutes, followed by level 7 for four minutes, then back to 4, repeating that cycle. 

I might try it again, but if I do I'm going to set it for slightly higher levels.

Weight training

Back and biceps

Back

Seated machine row

130 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps

200 pounds -- 2 sets, 8 reps each

Wide-grip row

160 pounds -- 3 sets, 8 reps each

Bent-over dumbbell row

60 pounds -- 1 set 10 reps each

Biceps -- didn't do much here, just a token set, because of the forearm.

Curl bar curls

50 pounds,1 set of 10 reps

Abs

Seat machine crunch

125 pounds -- 2 sets of 15 reps each.

Food for the day

Breakfast

Eggs -- 1 whole, 2 whites

Lean ham -- 2 ounces

Lunch

Lean pork loin -- 4 ounces

Mixed veggies -- 2/3 cup

Fat free Greek Yogurt 

Snack

Fat Free Greek Yogurt

Dinner

Chicken breast cook in olive oil -- 3 ounces

Cheese -- 1/4 cup

Salsa -- 2 tablespoons

Salad mix

Snack
Granola -- 1 cup
Almond milk -- 1 cup

Totals

1,095 calories

30 grams fat

96 grams protein 

Wow, I had no idea I was that low on everything until calculating it all here. Well, I did say I was trying to cut down a bit over these past several days, just in case we have a few extra calories tomorrow.

Water -- 80 ounces

Diet soda -- 24 ounces

That's about it. Very light day on eating, though I'll probably have another snack before bed -- if I do, I'll update the list.

Thanks for stopping by!

Altering The Routine for a Big Weekend Ahead

One of the things I'm learning through this process of losing weight and getting fit is that one of the keys to success is planning.

It's hard to eat right during the day if you haven't plotted out your menu, cooked the food and packed everything up in the appropriate-sized servings. And starving when you arrive home from work, or after a workout, without having planned what you're going to eat -- and ensuring it's ready or can quickly be prepared -- are recipes for disaster.

Working out is similar -- you can't hop out of bed at 6 in the morning to head to the gym if you didn't go to bed until 2 that morning. And you have to look down the road at potential obstacles to your regular workout routine, occasionally making some changes to your normal schedule to accommodate those obstacles.

This weekend is one for me -- a big obstacle in sticking both with the 30-day clean eating plan and my regular workout routine. Saturday my oldest daughter is graduating from Radford University (YEAH!!! -- more on that in a later blog), and then Sunday is Mother's Day. 

Thankfully, Radford U. is less than an hour's drive from where we live, but we'll be hitting the road somewhere between 9 and 10 that morning and won't be back until sometime late that evening. Since Saturday is normally my off-day for workouts, that shouldn't matter, right?

Well, on Sunday we'll be taking my wife out for Mom's Day, and since my oldest son has to work that night, we're limited to lunch. And since the gym is only open 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, that means I can't get in for my regular leg workout -- and there's no way I'm going to go two weeks between workouts (from last Sunday until the Sunday a week after Mother's Day).

That's where planning and shifting things around a bit come in. Thursday is usually one of my two long cardio days. However, today I did a leg workout. A little bit lighter than normal for a Sunday, but still a pretty good, taxing workout. Afterward, I did a light, easy cardio workout (probably ridiculously easy for most people). 

Tomorrow, Friday, I plan to do my regular morning cardio and evening weight training, then Saturday I'll go down to the gym as soon as it opens, get a quick, hard 30-minute cardio routine in, and use Sunday as my off-day.

Then, next week, I'll probably do another, abbreviated leg routine either Tuesday or Thursday, followed by full legs that Sunday, and then I'm back on the regular schedule.

In re-arranging the schedule like this, I'm probably sacrificing a little in the cardio work, and maybe even getting a tiny bit more work for legs. If I didn't do this, though, I fear I'd end up missing legs altogether this week. At this point, I'm willing to give up a little on the cardio in exchange for keeping the weight training on target. 

I'm also doing a little advance work on the eating front, as well. I'm not going to slip on the 30-days of clean eating, although it's likely I might end up taking in a few more calories each day than normal. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow I've tried to cut my calories a bit, just about 100 to 150 fewer calories each of the three days, from what I might otherwise take in. 

I've also checked out nutritional values on the menus of the places we'll eat (both my daughter and my wife long-ago made it known where they wanted to go on their respective big days), so I'll know what I'm going to eat before getting there. And, at the reception my daughter's department will have for their grads after the ceremony, when everyone else is munching on cookies and punch, I'll be sneaking bites of a protein bar (though, if they have any fresh fruit among the refreshments,, I'll probably partake of a few bites).

See, just a little bit of planning and these things can be handled just fine.

Now, for today's workout and eating!

First, let me note that I did some treadmill walking today, after doing the leg workout, for my cardio. I've learned the hard way to take it easy after a leg workout, so I did the walking instead of the bike. I have to be careful with walking, however. I'm so big and fat when I try walking fast, or for long distances, I get terrible shin splints! I mean, some serious soreness and pain in the shins that takes a long time to go away. And it's not muscle soreness, not the good kind of soreness. 

Anyway, I've lost enough now I can throw in an occasional walk, and I plan to do that from time to time to vary the cardio a bit, but when I walk it'll be short, relatively slow, and not all that difficult, until I lose more weight and build up to it. The folks at The Carroll Wellness Center tell me the new cardio equipment will be in late this month, and I'm looking forward to having a working stair climber. I actually enjoy doing the stair climber, and I can do that without any shin issues!

Workout

Cardio

Treadmill walking

22 minutes

1 mile

155 calories (yeah, not a lot)

Weight training -- legs

Squats

135 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps

185 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps

225 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps

245 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps

205 pounds -- 1 set, 8 reps

Leg extensions

110 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each

Lying leg curls

70 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps

100 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps

Standing calf raises

450 pounds -- 2 sets, 12 reps

And that's about it!

Eating for the day

Breakfast

Coffee

Eggs -- 1 whole, 2 whites

Lunch

Lean center cut pork loin -- 4 ounces

Sweet potato -- 5 ounces

Mixed veggies -- 1-1/3 cups

Snack/first dinner

Chicken breast cooked in a bit of olive oil --4 ounces

Salsa -- 2 tablespoons

Mixed salad -- mixture of multiple lettuces, spinach, and other green stuff)

Second dinner

Chicken breasts again, cooked in a bit of olive oil -- 5 ounces

Cheese -- 1/4 cup

Salsa -- 3 tablespoons

Mixed salad -- bunch of green stuff again

Snack (which I haven't eaten yet, but I'm going to do that as soon as I post this)

Granola -- 2/3 cup

Almond milk -- 1 cup

Totals for the day

1,260 calories

34 grams of fat

119 grams of protein (far too few, but it's hard to get enough protein on less than 1,260 calories).

Water 60 ounces
Diet soda -- 24 ounces

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.

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

21 Straight Days Eating Clean....

Yep, it was exactly three weeks ago today when I started my 30 consecutive days of clean eating, which came on the heels of dropping 21 pounds during the previous month. That first month, of course, I ate pretty low-calorie most days, with what amounted to an off day each week, where I ate whatever I wanted.

This second 30 days I decided to go with no off-days, staying clean the entire month, while concentrating on eating a little more in the way of complex carbs each day. I was a little worried that eating clean -- and eating more food -- would end up slowing my weight loss, but that hasn't proven to be a problem. While I didn't weigh today, last week I crossed the 246-pound mark (245.8 pounds on April 29) which means I'd already dropped more than another ten pounds about 18 days into the clean-eating month. My goal this month was to drop another 14, and I'm closing in on that.

Okay, that's a lot of numbers. I guess the long and short of it is I'm still losing weight at a pretty decent rate, though admittedly I've not been eating as much as I had planned so far during the second month of my weight loss efforts.

Today was also the day I promised to give you an update on the legs -- I did go a little harder in some respects yesterday, and I have had some soreness today, but nothing like the past couple of weeks, and I've certainly not been as worn out today as last Monday, so maybe the idea of no cardio on leg day (Sunday) along with eating a little more after the leg workout is helping.

Oh, and one note on the bike that's now measuring in kilometers instead of miles: another guy who works out at the gym and uses the bike a lot stopped me and asked if I had noticed the bike measuring "funny," (you might recall a couple of days ago I mentioned the one stationary bike the gym now appeared to be measuring in kilometers instead of miles.) Seems he's kind of frustrated, too, that no one at the Carroll Wellness Center much cares about getting anything working properly because of this long-promised all-new cardio equipment upgrade. We'll see...

Cardio
Stationary Bike
50 minutes
28.5 "miles" (which I think should be kilometers because of the screwy, broken bike at the gym -- which would actually be just a shade under 18 miles if they would fix the bike)
685 calories

Workout
Back and biceps

Seated Row
130 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
200 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each

Wide-grip seated row
160 pounds -- 2 sets, 8 reps each

Lat Pulldowns
90 pounds -- 2 sets, 10 reps each
NOTE: This is the first time in a while I've done regular lat pulldowns, because the angle I hold the bar stresses the forearm. Thought I'd give it a try tonight, and things seem to have gone okay, though I have to use lighter weight, and just go really, really slow and controlled to make the work harder,

Biceps
Curl-bar curls
40 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
60 pounds -- 1 set, 10 reps
Note: The forearm felt okay tonight, even with a little more weight. If all continues well, I may try adding a third set next time.

Abs
Machine seated crunch
125 pounds
1 set, 15 reps
1 set, 12 reps

As for the food, here was what I took in today:

Breakfast
Coffee
Eggs -- 1 whole, 2 whites

Centercut lean pork loin -- 5 ounces
Rice -- 2/3 cup cooked
Mixed veggies -- 2/3 cup

Snack
4 ounces chicken breast, cook in olive oil
Lettuice/spinach salad mix

Snack 2
Fat free Greek yogurt

Dinner
Sesame chicken (i serving whole wheat noodles, 5 ounces chicken breast, sesame oil)

Snack
Raisin bran (1 cup)
Almond Milk -- 1 cup

Totals for the day

1,420 calories
46 grams fat
121 grams protein

Far too low on protein, high on carbs today.

Water -- 95 ounces
Diet soda -- 24 ounces

Well, that's about it for Monday. Thanks for stopping by. Keep checking in -- one day this week I'm going to blog about new studies that show scientifically why people who lose weight often have trouble keeping it off -- through no fault of their own.

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)