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GETSTRONGRRR's Recent Blog Entries
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Saturday, March 17, 2012
Well, so I don't want to get too excited here, but....I may have gotten below 180 lbs....for the first time in probably 10-15 years!
Before I go changing tickers and all, I want to get back home and check it out on my "known quantity" scale. The one they've got here in this upscale gym I've been using looks pretty accurate and legit....but I've known machines to have variations before. But if so, then I'll have lost almost 6 lbs in about 3 weeks.
If this turns out to be the real deal, then I've got some serious re-evaluating to do on how I do business. Granted I've been working out a lot more, but it's really with the diet that I've made some big changes. Lot's more fruit & veggies, little to no "processed food" snacks (e.g. peanut butter), lot less processed carbs (e.g. bread), and a conscious effort to limit foods with high sodium.
Of course today I threw all that out the window! I woke up and instead of my usual putzing around routine, I went to the gym so I could weigh in and get in a workout....this meant no water, no coffee, no snack until after the weigh in. All good so far.
Then I hit the cardio for an hour, drove over to Starbucks for some morning Joe, came to the room, showered, shaved, sparked....and holy moly it's almost 1100 and I haven't eaten a damn thing!
Then the craving started.....
.....I wanted breakfast....
....a big breakfast.....
....a breakfast that included; eggs.....bacon.....pancakes...syrup...
I felt like a hungry shark, thrashing through the ocean looking for a wounded surfer flailing in the surf with a bloody, open gash.
In other words, I found myself driving down I-35 looking for a Cracker Barrel!
I won't lie to you....it was good...real good....sweet, salty, crispy, buttery good.
Of course, once the feeding frenzy was over, I faced the music, right there at my table with some ad of a doe-eyed cherub from a 1930s vegetable carton smiling smugly down at me as I ran the numbers on the iPhone.
That was a 1210 calorie feeding frenzy my Spark friends! See, nothing good ever comes from getting hungry!
So the rest of the day I spent in penance. Went shopping for some more veggies & fruit for smoothies, read some on the veranda (yeah, it's pretty cool, this hotel has a veranda!), then hit the gym for a second workout of HIIT and abs to sweat out the salt....and the fat......and the syrup....and the, oh you name it!
The cool part was I spotted an old friend tucked away in a corner of the gym I hadn't yet explored....the True Stretch!
Just what I needed after a double workout and Momma's Pancake breakfast! I did almost every stretch they showed on the machine:
Then I came back to the room, did my "perfect pushups", cleaned up, and made me a smoothie for dinner......so all told, I've stayed under calories today, but man was it close!
On the push-up challenge.....well today marks day #6 of doing 4 sets of pushups every day....except for Wednesday when I did 8!
Have a great night Spark friends!
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
So I am really digging this hardcore routine I'm in the middle of right now. The work project I have going on here is pretty regimented; we have set hours we have to be in, set hours when we have to break for lunch, and a hard stop at the end of the day so that the support staff can take care of everything in preparation for the next day's load.
For me, it's like a freaking miracle! You mean I HAVE to take an hour & 15 min off for lunch? SURE! You mean we have to be DONE every day by 5:00 PM? SURE!!! I can't remember when I've ever had it so good....it's like spring break as an adult in the workforce!
So far that has translated into me getting in some pretty incredible gym sessions.....twice a day during the week. I can get in a quick 45 minutes at lunch, then another hour or more after work. I try to balance straight up cardio with ST, add in some HIIT every few days, and if the timing works out, take a spin class in the gym next door.
But the cool part has been my eating habits. I've got a pretty good system of making a big batch of green smoothie in the AM, having a glass or 2 for breakfast and filling a 24 oz travel mug to have during the day for lunch & snack. The first few days I did this, I noticed I was still pretty hungry during the day and so I needed some augmentation.
Well over the weekend, I talked to my 25 year old gym rat son who's goal is to GAIN weight so he can be a 190 lb hunk of burning love.....at about 8-10 % body fat!! (Youth really is wasted on the young)
Anyway, in between his stories of protein powders and vitamin supplements he says, "Dad, if you've got a fridge in your room and you don't want to go out to eat or cook, go look in the frozen foods section for "Tyson's Grilled & Ready chicken breasts". They're all cooked, taste great, and it's chock full of protein with hardly any fat"
From the mouths of babes! So I went out and bought a bag....and next thing you know old Jed's a millionaire! They are not bad at all....just slightly salty, but they taste pretty darn good.
So now, I've got veggies & fruit and some protein during the day, and it comes out to about 700-800 calories that tide me over very nicely till dinner.
I've been pretty successful with eating out. There's a damn good Vietnamese place that make a mean Pho (about 500 calories of broth and rice noodles) that I've been to 4x so far in almost 10 days and I've been able to make due with some very tame meals....my worst dinner so far was a 900 calorie serving of some pork & chicken fried rice that I suddenly got a craving for. But overall, I have stayed below my max calories, and even closer to my mins, for most of this trip
So now I'm trying to figure out how I can translate this back to my "normal" routine when I get back home.....I've got some ideas. I know I won't be able to do the hardcore 2 a day workouts like now (I wish!), but it's the eating part I need to work on. I do some of my best thinking during my cardio sessions, and today I started laying the ground work for how I can "normalize" the better eating habits I've got going....more to follow....
Have a great night Spark friends!
Monday, March 12, 2012
Well now I don't usually procrastinate on too many things, but I am now paying the price for putting off something I should have done a while ago....buy new pants!
Slowly but surely, even though my weight is only incrementally declining, my body measurements keep shifting around and my clothes have been feeling quite loose. Now I'm not much of a shopper, so I've made due with tightening the belt a few notches and staying comfortable in my duds.
But this past week, I've found myself pulling and tugging up on my pants like a teen-age street thug. Then today I got a glimpse of myself in an unfamiliar full-length mirror....and it looked like I was swimming in a zoot suit!
I guess my spartan lifestyle this past week has had some dramatic effect. The problem is I'm too fussy to just go out and buy some emergency shirts and pants. So here I am on the road for the next few weeks with one suitcase full of clothes....what to do?
Well after work today I found a quick turn alteration store and had the nice Latina lady nip and tuck, stitch and sew and waited while she put Humpty Dumpty together again. I think I can make due these next 2 or 3 weeks with what I've got, but I can no longer put off the inevitable.
So now I have no choice.....I totally underestimated my condition.....it's amazing how you get used to seeing yourself in familiar mirrors and spots....all it took was for a totally different lighting condition and distance from the mirror for me to realize that, "Yikes, this is now serious!"
Of course, if I'm going to go that route, then hell, I might as well keep powering through this week and next with my new routine and see what happens....maybe I can just go dig out those size 32 jeans I've had buried in the back of the closet for 10 years and be done with it!
Have a great night Spark friends!
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Well this was certainly one of the more relaxing weekends I've had in a long time....hardly knew what to do with myself.
I'm away from home in wonderful, if rainy, San Antonio, with a free weekend to enjoy. Yesterday these wicked storms blew through and the temperature plummeted to the 40s. Spent most of the day on hotel couch reading my Kindle, made some smoothies, took myself out for dinner to a local Vietnamese joint for a bowl of piping hot Pho.....and still had time to get in an AM and a PM workout.
Today was almost the same except; 1) the sun came out, 2) I took a leisurely afternoon stroll to enjoy the sun and 70 degree weather, 3) had a piping hot bowl of chicken tortilla soup, and 4) went to go see a movie (Act of Valor....makes you proud to be an American! SEALS can't act, but they sure can shoot straight!)
I've never enjoyed Daylight Savings Time.....a ridiculous concept that saves nothing and pisses off most of the population....but at least today was an easy way to ease into it.
Tomorrow....back to our work project.....back to 2 a day workouts....back to pushups....back to abs.....and looking forward to a few more lost pounds!
Have a great night Spark friends!
Friday, March 09, 2012
Well week one of three on the road has shaped up quite nicely. Our daily work routine is incredibly manageable. We're cruising right along with our project (I wanted to get us all to power through the weekends so that we could get done in 2 weeks instead of 3.....I was almost voted off the island for that idea....sheesh!)
I've got a great routine going, got in 2 workouts/day on 3 days this week. Some days I can work out early in the AM, but I've found a better schedule. I like my quick & intense lunchtime workouts....it keeps me revved up for the afternoon workload we have and I avoid a big meal. Breakfast & lunch consist of large, green smoothies. After work, I get in a more leisurely workout that consists of either ST or more cardio (I alternate days).
It's also been a great opportunity to check out some exercise apps I've been collecting. My current faves are:
- Nike Training Club - the 15 min abs routine is all I do on this app....it's still a bear!
- Six Pack Promise Abs - short, but intense, each workout is different, and it hits ab muscles I never knew I had!
- Stronglifts 5X5 - a very cool weight lifting app. You do 5 sets of 5 lifts. You do 3 exercises a day (say squats, deadlifts, and rows or bench presses, rows, and shoulder presses). The app automatically adds weight each time if you progress or leaves you where you're at.
100 pushups - still the one to beat. I started back on Week 5 day 2 today
So this weekend is pretty free. I'll get in some more workouts and stay on track with the eating. The funny thing with the green smoothies is that I find myself NOT craving the usual dining out types of foods. The other night I went to Outback and had their salmon & veggies along with a cup of french onion soup. Everything from the bread on tasted wicked salty and artificial.....need to do some more study on that one. If anything, my food cravings have been for more fresh & untainted meals. Hmmmmmm......
Well, looks like I'll have plenty of time to study up on that this weekend!
Have a great night Spark friends!
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