Lose weight, get in shape - The Exercise blog by Matt

Lose weight, get in shape - The Exercise blog by Matt

by Matt | Published on August 30th, 2006, 8:05 am | Life

Well I debated about writing this but perhaps it'll motivate me more.

I want to drop some pounds. Plain and simple. I've had buy some clothes that are bigger size to fit and when I went to the doctor the other day, I was quite shocked what the scale said.

So I've decided to put myself on a "program" to see if I have the discipline to do it.

My biggest issue is how/what I eat. I'm a habitual night-time snacker. That and I dump too much on my plate and have a compulsion to clear it. Thanks a lot mom!

Wait you mean I can't blame someone else because I eat like a pig? Damn the luck!

So here's what I think will get the job done:

-I like to run. I used to run 20+ miles a week before I screwed up my feet and knee. They are good now and I bought some top-of-the-line shoes. I've started running again and want to get 10 miles per week minimum to start. That's about running 3 miles every other day for 3 days and then taking 2 off. I'll try and stick to that but if I miss that, I'll at least get the dog out for a brisk walk or something.

-Weight training. Lean muscle burns a lot more calories than fat. Not to mention the calories burnt and metabolism gained by weight training. I don't have the time to be at the gym every skinkin day (I do my running on thread mills). So I'm going to do push ups and pull ups at home. My goal 100 push ups in a session. I'm in good shape muscle strength wise and am up to 90. I try and get 10 push up, rest 1:45 minutes, and then do 10 more. Doesn't sound like a lot but when you get around the 6th set, you really start to feel it. After I get the push ups to 10 sets of 10, I'll make it 9 sets of 11 and so forth. I'd like to get up to 4 sets of 25 but that might be reaching a bit far. We'll see.

The pulls ups I'll add in after I get my push 10-10 goal. I'll do 1, rest 1:45, for a total of 10. Then build up. Sounds like nothing at first but you have to start somewhere. Pull ups have always been hard for me.

-Eating. This will be the hardest one. I do good up until super time. Then I really start cravings. So I'm trying to grab a piece of fruit before I leave work so the cravings will not be so bad. To get your body to really metabolize, you need to eat small meals often. I'm going for eating 3 meals plus 2 smaller "snacks" during the day. The snacks pretty much consist of a protein shake (GNC has a great sales right now) and a piece of fruit. Then I'll try not to eat after super except maybe for low fat stuff if I start feeling hungry. I get headaches if I get too hungry. Maybe slightly hypoglycemic. Maybe just a will-less pig. Who knows.

So there it is. Will it work? We'll see.

I've ran twice this week. Oh man was I sucking wind last night. But I got 3 miles in about 33 minutes each time. 600 calories each seesion. I have to keep remembering to stretch after each run. That really keeps your muscles and joinst from getting sore. But I was absolutely wiped after that run. I did get the stretching in though.

I got up to 90 Studay on the push ups. 9 sets of 10 were a little tough but not too bad. Figured I get 10-10 on Monday with some extra effort. Nope. Crapped out at 60. Try again tonight.

AUGH!!

I'm trying to eat better and the freaking accountant comes around dropping handfuls of candy on everyones desk. Bastard!

augh! Is the world against eating right today?

I brag my lunch, 1/2 of left over subway from last night, out of the fridge and eat felling most self righteous for eating a lean sub loaded with veges.

Then one of the groups of people I supervise announce they are having a hot dog lunch and I'm invited. I flaked on the last one so I had to go to this one and have a dog. I supervise all women so they all baked and brought deserts which I was requested to sample.

Then I get home, and my wife bought Chick-fil-a shakes for the kids and us.

Geez!!!

Well I only had a few sips of the Chick-fil-a shake last night and then put it in the freezer. But damn it was good!

Eating to boost your metabolism is weird. The first couple days you feel stuffed during the day. Like you're eating way too much.

But in the 3-4th day, like today, your body starts adapting to your routine and starts expecting the food to come at regular internvals. That expectation is called: hunger!

This morning I had the same breakfast I always do during the week: cereal. At about 8:10 I started getting hungry. I mean like really hungry! But I've held off until now to get the protein shake going so I keep on schedule. I'm trying to eat at around 6am, 9am, noon, 3pm, 6pm, and then that's it for the day.

Didn't get all 100 push ups last night but got closer: 76. So I'm taking that as progress. I may jump back down to 10 sets of 9 or may like 20 sets of 5 if I can't get the 10 of 10.

Going running again today. Hoping I won't be struggling so hard to get the 3 miles. I think I'll do better because I do feel like I have more energy even though I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. Did my push ups way to late and it took my body a long time to settle down so I could sleep. But the sleep I did get was good.

Run into the wind of the Hurricane, that should give ya a work-out.

I was going to but damn if it didn't track east of here.

All this talk about exercise is tiring me out.

I know! I feel so lazy now. August 31st, 2006, 4:04 pm Reply with quote

I know! I feel so lazy now.

I hit 3 this afternoon and wasn't completely having a heart attack, so I trotted to 3.25, then had a heart attack.

Good thing for gyms, treadmills, and TVs in the workout room. How elese would I get it done?

Good day yesterday eating decent. We had Mrs. Winners Chicken for super and I behaved pretty good not eating the skins. But that's some mighty good chicken. Much better than KFC.

No one was trying to stuff candy and milkshakes down my throat so that always helps make things easier.

Gonna go for the 10-10 set of push ups again tonight. I'll take a break from running and push ups Saturday and maybe Sunday to. You can't exercise hard every day. You're body needs time to rest and recover.

Man do I need the rest too. Damn power went out at my house around 10:50 as I was getting ready to get in bed. So I had to set watch alarms and get flashlights ready for the morning.

About 1:30am, power came back on...with the lights and radio coming back on and scaring the crap out of me. So I reset the alarm clock and tried to settle back in. Kept waking up to see if the power was still on or if the clock was flashing. Not a good night for sleep.

got home friday and just was too wore out to do much of anything.

But ran today and had about the best feeling run I've had in months.

well I finally got my 100. But not the way I wanted. Got to 60 and I knew I was going much further. So I added an addtional minute between sets and made it.

At I can say I got there. Now just have to narrow the rest period.

Well I got my 3 miles today. Didn't do any extra because I shaved about 1 minute off how long it took. That was hard. Between that and the push ups yesterday, I pretty much hurt all over.

Tomorrow will be rest.

Behaved with the diet today. So much that I'm freakin craving everything right now. Trying to decide if it's hunger or just cravings. If I do cave in and eat something, it'll be some cereal. I get headache if I get too hungry.

Good news is my energy level is still staying pretty high. I haven't cut carbs to nothing but I've been trying to curb them a little. I jsut believe all the Atkins crap. It works for a while but you get it right back if you eat carbs again.

So I'm just trying the "reasonable" approach.

The clothes can start loosening up any time they want! Hard to stay patient with that.

Well my bowl of cereal turned into a bowl of ice cream.

It was a smaller bowl than normal. Does that count? :roll:

Well it's "cutover" time.

This is the time when you're body has been with eating better for a few days and starts craving the junk food.

I think it's because the body always wants to maintain what it has. So it starts trigger cravings for whatever you gave up or reduced.

Right now I'm craving like a pizza or hot pocket. Something with hot melted cheese. This is the time that it gets really tough sticking to eating better.

damn football. Diet pretty much went out the window yesterday.

But I did run for 35 minutes, got well over my 3 miles, and felt great.

The running is going good. I look forward to doing it.

But the push ups....I don't know. I just can't seem to break through. It got frustrating to the point where I skipped doing them.

So a change is order. Last night I just went to sets of 5. And then after each set, I did one, yes only one pull up. Good Lord it's been a while since I did those and when I got to the 8th set, I had trouble even getting my forehead up to the bar.

I'm going to be sore. But hopefully working in the lower number for a while will keep the psychological trouble out of it.

On the diet front, man that's hard to change old habits.

I came across your blog. As someone who dropped 60 pounds of fat and spent years getting from doughboy to being in above average shape, I just wanted to say keep up the effort. You will save your body a lot of pain in the future as the ageing process (a.k.a the gradual breakdown of organic processes) continues.

As far as diet - obviously your achilles heel. Cravings are tough. It's tough, especially when you're into melted cheese.

From personal experience, I suggest trying a week long detox diet. Detoxing clears toxins out of your body, and gives your liver and other vital digestive organs a much needed break. Additionally, the break from high carbohydrate foods and sugars stops the biological reactions that cause you to crave sugary, carby and fatty foods.

It just takes one week and will do wonders for you. For 7 days, just cut all meat, all dairy, and all wheat products out of your diet. Drink lots and lots of water. Eat fresh fruit (don't think that you can substitute fruit juice, because that is all the sugar with none of the fiber), vegetables, soups, etc.

This Web page has a detox plan. http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/di ... x/plan.htm

It's a handy list of foods you can and cannot eat during the 7 days of detox. If you want to be intense (I do this) start the first two days with semi-fast - only drink loads of water, and eat no foods other than snacking on nuts (unroasted, unsalted) or fresh fruit. Then the next 5 days stick to the foods specified in the plan.

This will kill your cravings. 7 days, after which you can eat normally, minus random cravings.

Anyway, if all this sounds too punishing, well good luck anyway! Personally, I find it easier to go through seven days of that then continue to suffer sabotage to my health plan and the psychological letdown of breaking a diet again and again due to literally uncontrollable cravings caused by pancreatic secreations and spikes in blood sugar...

- As'ad

Haven't updated this in a while.

Was out of commision for a while.

Matt's advice for the day: Don't try lifting a 100 pound tv with someone who doesn't know what they are doing. They will drop their end forcing you to hold the entire load when you're not ready and screw your back up.

I've been doing better with the dieting. The issue I have most is eating too much at night.

Have lost 11 pounds in 2007 so far and hoping to stay on track with my "routine" to keep it going.

10 more by the end of May would sure be nice.

Can you lose some for me too? March 12th, 2007, 12:42 pm Reply with quote

Can you lose some for me too?

I've been trying to "get in shape" virtually all this year. FINALLY, I'm making some good progress with losing weight.

Oh I've been used to walking at lunch every day for years. I usually get at least 1.5 miles every day. In the dead of winter, at the urging of my minister friend, I started morning swims. I started off slow, but kept pushing my limits every week, until now I put in 600 meters of freestyle swimming every day. That's peanuts, compared to my friend, who swims around 2 km when he comes in... but it's a start. In the meantime, I've found that my stamina has increased wonderfully, which is very good all by itself.

Still, I went for a very long time, keeping my weight unchanged, which I found surprising. Maybe at my age, cellulite becomes a force to be feared.

Then I decided that I HAD to get some serious movement in the area of weight. Then came spring and lawn mowing. Which is darn good exercise... only you can't mow every frickin' day. Finally I have settled on a good routine for evenings: wogging. I can get in a 1-mile wog (increasing my jogging component once a week) and still have plenty of time to settle down after a shower.

And avoid all evening snacks.

So I've finally started losing weight... 10 lbs in the past 3 weeks. Things are looking MUCH better for the summer. At least as far as vacations are concerned. Now if only I could get work to be fun as well... :mrgreen:

That's awesome. Congrats. I'm right now (as of this morning) down 30 from the new year. I lost 15lbs just the week we were in London. Unfortunately now that I'm back at the call center for 10 hours a day, the loss has been much slower and I'm lacking any kind of stamina when I roll in the drive-way at 6pm to exercise. Luckily my diet is still doing okay, and I'm amazed by the number of fat-free stuff I've exchanged in my life.

The other night we had hot dogs, because it's one of the kids favorites, and there is no doubt if this was P.L. (pre-london) it would have been a 40g of fat meal with the regular stuff, but since we use fat free hot-dogs, fat-free sharp cheese, wheat buns, and mustard, the most fattening part was the left-over chili I made from a day ago. Even that, I'm going to try to make a low fat version.

I'm just trying to be more active, limit my time on the laptop, and walk more places when possible. I've been a little bad about jogging on the treadmill this week, but I can still run/walk a mile in about 15 minutes which for me is good as the leg I previously had sciatica in still doesn't have the thrust it did when I was 20.