EAT. TRAIN. REST.
Thursdays, by rule, are not much fun.
Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE my kids. But when my wife works from 7AM to 7PM, and I am left to tend to the girls for every need, I kind of go insane before the day is out. Get them both up, dressed, fed, and out the door to school. Then pick them up, feed them again, get them off to cheer, and generally tend to every whine, complaint, and need in between… Ahh, I am just being negative.
Candy says I am too negative on here. Perhaps that is because making losing weight my singular focus DAY AFTER DAY begins to take its toll on me. I worry about every bite I eat, every step I take (or lack thereof), and every workout.
I apologize for the extra negativity today. Just a looooong day.
Cheer practice was closed to parents, so I spent a wonderful two hours with my 5 year old wandering aimlessly around the mall to kill time. It helped get in my steps, but did nothing for my mood. I actually enjoyed most of it, but I am just exhausted from being on my feet most of the day. Despite that, I am sitting at 8,000 steps and heading to bed. No exercise.
I ate well except for the trip to Paradise Bakery for half a walnut sandwich, cup of broccoli cheddar (with roll), and a chocolate chip cookie (Yummm!). So good. Maybe it will help to rev my metabolism up like it seems to do some weeks. Or perhaps it will grind my week to a halt. I would have liked to have gotten on the treadmill, but it didn’t happen.
No real dent to my program. I know these days will come, and I don’t feel like giving up in any sense. I’ll be back tomorrow.
I need to push hard these last two days into the weigh-in on Sunday. That will be difficult with another cheer competition all day Saturday, but if I managed it last week, I can do so again.
I REALLY want another down week, because the following weigh-in will be much more difficult. It will be my week off from the weight room, and the week ends with an out of state trip to Palm Springs for a huge national cheer competition. Zero home cooked meals. High stress. Busy schedule. Such a fun weekend, but potentially deadly to my program. At least I don’t have to survive a super bowl party instead.
Posted January 27, 2012 at 1:13 AM. Add a comment
I thought I had used every excuse in the book for not getting to the gym, but I almost added another to the list – blocked by the secret service.
The day started out hectic from the word “go”. I had to wake up 20 minutes earlier than usual to get my daughter off to school to take part in morning announcements. This was a first for her, and she was absolutely thrilled about it. Me? I just missed my bed. Before delivering her off to school, however, we all realized that we had zero food in the house, no money to buy lunch, and had to leave ”NOW!”
So I drop the girls off, run to Sam’s Club for some groceries, stop at the bank to make change for the girls to buy lunch, and then drop off the cash in envelopes at the school office. By the time I made it home to eat breakfast, it was almost 11:00AM. Uhh, starving!
Fast forward three hours. We had plans to take our 5 year old to swimming lessons at the gym directly after school (followed by our workout for the day). Umm, that didn’t happen. Apparently, Obama was in town, and traffic was ridiculous. By ridiculous, I mean downright NASTY! Every time we tried to head West, we kept getting pushed more East. We completely missed the swim lessons. The road rage that had held me in its grip for the previous hour trip to the gym was almost enough to make me just throw my hands up and drive home. Obama definitely lost any future vote from Kara for making her miss her lessons, but I couldn’t let that derail me (even if I sooooo wanted to be derailed).
So long story short even longer, I DID make it to the gym and had a great workout. Right up until the very first deadlift, I was ready to just walk it out (my slang for “going through the motions”). As usual, however, I decided not to waste my time now that I was already there. So I pushed. Whew. Tough workout.
Oddly enough, Obama was done doing whatever he came to Arizona to do by the time we finished, and so we got caught again in the same DEAD STOPPED traffic on the way home. Sigh. Our roundtrip to the gym to workout cost us over four hours of the only real day we have off this week. Even worse, we never did finish the grocery shopping, so I had to go out at 11PM and spend another hour at Walmart. At least I ended the day just shy of 12,000 steps. All that running around counted for something, I guess.
Rough day. I am tired, hungry, and pissed off, but it is all beginning to wear off finally. At least I am headed for bed…
Posted January 26, 2012 at 1:09 AM. Add a comment
Ironic and prophetic.
My post from yesterday comes back to haunt me. I had a few things come up this afternoon, so I put off my cardio session until after my daughter’s cheer practice. By then I was exhausted and lacking motivation. So I did nothing.
Today is the second day off in just the third day of the week. Not a great start, but still within the boundaries of my program – barely. I have no more rest days left. That puts some added pressure to the week, but I know what I have to do. Finish consistent and strong.
Off to the gym tomorrow for another weight workout – the last one of the ”break in” phase. Deadlifts and step-ups. Yeah!! (insert sarcasm here)
No more excuses this week. I must fight it out to continue the downward trend.
I’m up for the challenge though. In fact, I look forward to it.
Posted January 25, 2012 at 12:29 AM. Add a comment
Back to work.
I have made a habit of working out late in the past. Occasionally, things would come up, or I simply lost the motivation by waiting too long. Then I was against the wall, requiring superhuman will for a midnight session, or I simply ended up skipping the workout. Either way, it is a recipe for disaster.
So it felt really good to get off to the gym this afternoon. The craziness and stress of the 6PM weight room was gone. We simply took our time, killed ourselves, and then left.
Squats and lunges. Wow. Brutal today. I almost didn’t finish my last set of lunges, falling dangerously toward the rack, just able to push the bar up over the supports before my legs gave out. Whew. I loved it. I was really able to push today. I felt invincible afterwards.
I am actually starting to ENJOY working out. And right on cue, a week off is coming. One more weight workout this week, and I will get complete the “Break In” first phase of my lifting program. Then a quick week off before jumping into much more serious programming. I look forward to it.
As a sidenote, I absolutely hate sets of 15, although that is all I have been doing in the weight room. I can’t wait to get back to higher weight and lower reps of eight. Or even better – five! I’ll talk a bit more about the next phase during my off week. For now, I have to concentrate on finishing out this week.
So I am out. I have another 1,000 steps to hit my 10K goal, and them I am off to watch a movie before I grab some sleep.
It is apparently just like that when you workout early. You have the rest of the night to do other things. Who knew?!
Posted January 23, 2012 at 10:52 PM. Add a comment
It will happen eventually, but I’d prefer not to have gaps in my blog history. So although I didn’t post yesterday, I will offer a quick recap.
It’s really rather simple. I woke up a bit sore from the previous week, and after pushing so hard for 7 straight days, I decided to make it an easier day. No intervals. No menu planning. No pedometer. I even allowed myself to eat on the higher side of my calorie range – about 2600 calories. The extra food, however, was all clean and nothing outrageous at all. I absolutely believe that you need a high calorie day now and then to keep your metabolism up. That isn’t an excuse to gorge on pizza and donuts, of course.
So that was yesterday.
Posted January 23, 2012 at 10:36 PM. 2 comments
It has been an exhausting week, but the extra late push was well worth the two pound loss that nudges me (barely!) into the 320′s. Great results.
No time to rest now, of course. Week 4 calls…
STARTING WEIGHT: 342.2
PREVIOUS WEEK: 331.8
CURRENT WEEK: 329.8 (-2.0)
TOTAL POUNDS LOST: (-12.4)
I am 5.8% complete and down 12.4 total pounds.
Posted January 22, 2012 at 10:11 AM. 2 comments
LONG day filled with screaming young girls, loud repetitive music, and all the cheer routines you can handle. I loved it.
I am a devoted cheer dad. Anyone who knows me will tell you that’s quite the understatement. After a huge breakfast (the same old eggs, bacon, and PB toast for me), all of us packed in a car, drove 45 minutes away, and cheered on our teams for the next 6 hours. I knew food would be rough, so we packed lunches. For me, that meant just an apple and some cashews. That held me over until we got home for a healthy dinner. Then I spent the next 6 hours editing video shot during the day.
By midnight, I was exhausted and spent (and frankly, a little sick of cheer). Fortunately, it is DAY 21, and I have some will power at this point. Had I not been a few weeks into the program, I doubt I could have made myself jump on the treadmill for a grueling interval session.
Well, tonight ends the perfect week I promised. No skipped workouts, no skipped cardio sessions, averaging over 10K steps each day, and no cheat meals. NONE of that. I get to see the positive results from this week tomorrow morning. Once again, I am looking forward to locking in another drop in weight. It won’t be much, but I am certain I did enough to overcome the strange weight gain mid-week.
Now off to get some sleep. I earned it today.
Posted January 22, 2012 at 12:51 AM. Add a comment
Today almost wasn’t.
I had really wanted to get out to the gym during the afternoon as I knew the day could easily get away from me. Well, it did. Tumbling practice for both of my girls, followed by dinner, and preparations for a big cheer competition tomorrow just killed the evening. It was 10:30PM, and I had given up on deadlifts for the day. I half asked my wife if she thought I could still sneak a workout in. To her great credit, she convinced me. She didn’t have to say much. I just needed a push in the right direction.
So, off I went at 11:00PM to the gym. At first I thought about just going through the motions. I didn’t want to skip a workout, but I also didn’t want to actually work very hard. However, during the 25 minute drive there, I rolled down the windows, cranked the music wayyy up, and arrived ready to tear things up. Is it wrong to get really motivated by Selena Gomez? Whatever works, I guess. LOL!
Great workout. There were maybe 10 die-hards in the weight area, so I enjoyed the company. No one talked. No one looked around. Everyone was intent on what they were working on. It felt great to get in a solid workout, even increasing the weight in every lift.
And bonus – I hit 10,000 steps once again.
Tomorrow will be crazy. I’ll be at Grand Canyon University for a cheer competition all day. I can grab a good breakfast, but then nothing solid until almost 5PM. I am NOT resorting to the nachos, hot dog fare being sold there. I guess I will have to sneak something in. I’m thinking cheese stick, an apple, and some cashews. Cardio tomorrow night and weigh-in Sunday morning. I still seem to up weight this week, although I can’t imagine why? No matter. Looking forward to nailing down another week in the books, regardless of the outcome.
20 days in. Not a bad start. Soooo far to go, but I am trying to focus on each single day for now.
As promised, I am crushing this week.
Posted January 21, 2012 at 1:34 AM. Add a comment
I was surprised to wake up so sore this morning.
Not at all like the pain from week one of this program, but still sore nonetheless. My legs were very tight while my pecs are actually a bit tender thanks to an overzealous incline press machine.
So, I made use of the day off and did NOTHING. I loved it.
As mentioned yesterday, I make sure to schedule at least one or two days as necessary per week to rest. The timing today was perfect and well deserved.
I will take a good half hour to stretch tonight, but otherwise, I look forward to lots of rest, a long soak in the shower, and the growing motivation to crush the rest of the week heading into Sunday’s weigh-in.
Posted January 19, 2012 at 9:16 PM. Add a comment
Frustrating week of sorts.
I have OWNED this week so far. Perfect nutrition, workouts have been intense, and I have been active every day. Yet, I am up 3 pounds at this point. I understand logically that it is water weight and the general trend line will continue downward. Nonetheless, it hurts to see that number move in the wrong direction. I still have a few days before I have to log in an *official* number, so I will keep at it and hope to turn things around. Nothing needs to change. I guess I just need to allow my weight loss to catch up with my fat loss.
I have actually noticed a difference in my clothes. I didn’t expect that so soon. I have several favorite shirts that have become too tight to wear. One is a sleeveless workout shirt that I love wearing to the gym. 18 days ago, I felt uncomfortable in it. I wore it today, and it was even a bit roomy. That’s success, regardless of what the scale says.
So today was another great workout at the gym. I am finally able to push quite a bit harder and still feel it in my legs hours later. I did get the ”joy” of hearing some idiot at my gym complain about the fat people today. He said the busy gym looked like a Biggest Loser episode with all the fat people working out. Of course he waited until I went for water to announce that gem, within earshot of my wife and a few others. That may have been the source of my added intensity, so thank you idiot, whoever you are.
Good day on the pedometer too. I actually cruised in with 13,000 steps today. To do that on a lifting day is just HUGE.
I am thinking about taking tomorrow off. I know I have one or two still to schedule this week, and I really don’t want to take off later in the week closer to the weigh-in. To be honest, I kind of want to keep pushing. I am not sure if I NEED to take one this week. Of course rest is always important, but I feel so strong right now. I guess I’ll force myself to clip off from the pedometer and stay away from the treadmill. Maybe get in a walk or something.
Sometimes, taking off is actually hard to do. But as the tag line goes… EAT. TRAIN. REST!!!
Posted January 19, 2012 at 12:16 AM. 2 comments