I'm back! Yes, I know this update has been long overdue. My blog updates have been lacking over the last few months, but my training program has been going full steam ahead.
Back on september 6th 2008 I went back and had a second Hydrostatic Body Fat Test. During my initial visit on January 22nd I had weighed in at 329 lbs. My follow up visit showed that I had trimmed down to 284 lbs with 223.8 lean Lb. My body fat had shrunk from nearly 32% to 21.2% as well. This came out to be a net loss of 45 lbs with almost no lean body mass loss. In other words WOW!
With my first milestone out of the way I decided to set a new goal for myself. On December 6th, 2008 I am planning on going to Hawaii on vacation and it is my goal to arrive in full AWESOME mode! My next target Hydrostatic Body Fat Test will be November 22nd, 2008. Once those results are in I will post my results and then keep on chugging until I reach my trip date.
Once I return from my hawaii trip I'm planning on taking a small break in order to give my body a break both physical and mental. Afterwards I will start the final leg of my journey toward getting BACK TO AWESOME!
See you all in the new year!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
Its been a while, but im back!
First of all, I would like to apologize for my big break in the blog. Unfortunately, I have ran into some severe personal and financial problems over the last two months and they have distracted me from writing my blog entry. Luckily, I was still able to focus on my training and diet goals. But more on that later in the blog.
Today I want to talk about something different. A few weeks back I had caught an episode of "The Biggest Loser" on T.V. I had never before seen the show, but I have seen commercials for it numerous times. After watching an episode I was quite honestly disgusted by the show. That show is worst at portraying accurate dieting then a fashion magazine is at showing what a woman should look like. Let me explain. It portrays an absolute extreme in dieting that is both unrealistic and completely unhealthy for 99 percent of the population. To me it is nothing more then a circuis that tries to make the general public feel happy for these contestents that lose all this weight. I mean sure, if you take people ISOLATE them from their real lives on a luxury location with the best nutritionists, trainers, and not to mention the TV CAMERAS that watch your every move then of course you will get results. Hell, you better! Unfortunately, unless you won the lottery and can afford all that, it is such a grosely unrealistic standard for dieters that it makes the skeletor figures from your average Vogue magazine look more obtainable for the average person. It creates unrealistic expectations for people, and when people see their modest (in comparison) results to these T.V. shows then they get demorolized and lose their drive, or worse quit all together.
Most peoples realities are far from isolated wonderlands. People have families, jobs, responsibilties, and unexpected emergencies. All these things create road blocks that make losing weight much tougher "then it appears on tv". While getting a personal trainer is within reason for a lot of people, having doctors on staff 24/7 as well as cameras around you is a whole different story. And trust me, just having those cameras around would be a huge motivator for the majority of people.
What im getting at is simple. Whether you are getting in shape for the first time ever, or are a former athlete that is trying to get back to being their best, the rules stay the same. You have to accept that life will knock you down. Its your job to get back. Will you cheat on your diet? Of course you will. Did I? Of course I did. Its youre responsibility to do your very best and never give up. No matter how bad things may get, its important to always keep chugging along. Even if its at 25 percent capacity. Its easier to kick it into higher gear after cruising for a while during tough times then trying to restart from scratch because you "gave up". We so often put such tremendous pressure on ourselves to be "perfect" that the second we don't live up to our expectations we give up. The truth is that you must never give up. Remember even one step forward and two steps back is still better then just two steps back.
Finally, to tie all this together I would like to share my experience over my first 12 weeks of my project. Even with all the hardships that I had endured, as well as my shortcomings I had still weighed in at 301 lbs after 12 weeks. Considering that I had started at 340 lbs I had made a 39 lb drop in that short period of time. My cardio vascular endurance is light years ahead of what I started at. Im sure that if i was on an isolated island with no worries about bills, along with personal cooks, coaches and doctors I could have lost even more, but that would have been an unrealistic representation of what can be truely achieved. You can never judge yourself by the "best case scenario" for your dieting. This is the real world, the world where you have to balance family, your job, your sanity and everything else that goes with it. Its not always easy, but if you stick with it then progress will occur.
While my initial 12 week plan may be over, my journey and my blogging is far from over. I am hoping to continue to post my experiences as I aim for my goal weight of 260 lbs. And for everyone reading this remember that its never too late to start. Its never to late to get back to awesome!
Today I want to talk about something different. A few weeks back I had caught an episode of "The Biggest Loser" on T.V. I had never before seen the show, but I have seen commercials for it numerous times. After watching an episode I was quite honestly disgusted by the show. That show is worst at portraying accurate dieting then a fashion magazine is at showing what a woman should look like. Let me explain. It portrays an absolute extreme in dieting that is both unrealistic and completely unhealthy for 99 percent of the population. To me it is nothing more then a circuis that tries to make the general public feel happy for these contestents that lose all this weight. I mean sure, if you take people ISOLATE them from their real lives on a luxury location with the best nutritionists, trainers, and not to mention the TV CAMERAS that watch your every move then of course you will get results. Hell, you better! Unfortunately, unless you won the lottery and can afford all that, it is such a grosely unrealistic standard for dieters that it makes the skeletor figures from your average Vogue magazine look more obtainable for the average person. It creates unrealistic expectations for people, and when people see their modest (in comparison) results to these T.V. shows then they get demorolized and lose their drive, or worse quit all together.
Most peoples realities are far from isolated wonderlands. People have families, jobs, responsibilties, and unexpected emergencies. All these things create road blocks that make losing weight much tougher "then it appears on tv". While getting a personal trainer is within reason for a lot of people, having doctors on staff 24/7 as well as cameras around you is a whole different story. And trust me, just having those cameras around would be a huge motivator for the majority of people.
What im getting at is simple. Whether you are getting in shape for the first time ever, or are a former athlete that is trying to get back to being their best, the rules stay the same. You have to accept that life will knock you down. Its your job to get back. Will you cheat on your diet? Of course you will. Did I? Of course I did. Its youre responsibility to do your very best and never give up. No matter how bad things may get, its important to always keep chugging along. Even if its at 25 percent capacity. Its easier to kick it into higher gear after cruising for a while during tough times then trying to restart from scratch because you "gave up". We so often put such tremendous pressure on ourselves to be "perfect" that the second we don't live up to our expectations we give up. The truth is that you must never give up. Remember even one step forward and two steps back is still better then just two steps back.
Finally, to tie all this together I would like to share my experience over my first 12 weeks of my project. Even with all the hardships that I had endured, as well as my shortcomings I had still weighed in at 301 lbs after 12 weeks. Considering that I had started at 340 lbs I had made a 39 lb drop in that short period of time. My cardio vascular endurance is light years ahead of what I started at. Im sure that if i was on an isolated island with no worries about bills, along with personal cooks, coaches and doctors I could have lost even more, but that would have been an unrealistic representation of what can be truely achieved. You can never judge yourself by the "best case scenario" for your dieting. This is the real world, the world where you have to balance family, your job, your sanity and everything else that goes with it. Its not always easy, but if you stick with it then progress will occur.
While my initial 12 week plan may be over, my journey and my blogging is far from over. I am hoping to continue to post my experiences as I aim for my goal weight of 260 lbs. And for everyone reading this remember that its never too late to start. Its never to late to get back to awesome!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
4 Week Mark: Training part 1
I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines day and extended weekend to those lucky enough to work for the goverment. First a confession. I went out to dinner for Valentines day and I had a wonderful steak dinner. Unfortunately, I caved in and had a piece of cheesecake for desert! doh! Then of course guilt got the best of me and I ended up doing an extra hour of cardio on friday. Was it worth it? Nope! it was a horrible tasting piece of cheesecake. Let that be a lesson, if you are going ot have a cheat meal make sure you know its good in advance!
Moving on, I would like my next set of posts to be a response to the numerous requests I have had pertaining to my training routine. Over the next few days I will go over my current workout schedule along with some helpful tips. Please note that everyone is different and what works for me may or may not work for you. I also make sure to change up my workouts on a regular basis so this is simply just one of my varied training setups.
During my current dieting phase I am training on what I call the "A.B.C.D. split". Its four completely unique workouts that over a seven day week allow you to hit your whole body once. This type of routine allows you to pay extra attention to each body part as opposed to trying to rush through multiple body parts in one day. Its also important to note that I believe a weight lifting workout should last between forty five minutes and an hour and fifteen minutes. In the past I had expiremented with longer workouts but they would lead to over training or at the very least "lazy" workouts that ended up being wasteful and inefficient.
For those of you who do not want to read through the detailed descriptions I have also provided a summary of the workout at the bottom of this blog.
My first workout, workout A, starts the week on monday with total chest training. Generally, I spend a few minutes warming up my shoulders with some rotator cuff excercises. In the past I have had to deal with numerous shoulder and elbow problems and I know that some of those could have been avoided if I properly warmed up.
My first real chest excercise is the flat bench press. I normally work out with a workout partner so I prefer the freeweight method over a machine but if you are training solo then I would recommend a bench press machine if available. In my opinion the freeweight bench flat bench press is the best overall chest excercise as long as you have a workout partner or a personal trainer to spot you. I highly recommend against doing this excercise without a spotter. I also prefer a really wide grip. The wider your shoulders are the wider your grip should be for optimal results. You will notice that going with a wider grib will make the excercise much harder, but in the end you should notice better results. If you are really tall or really wide in the shoulders you may find it hard to get a wide enough grib. For this you may want to look for specially designed bench presses that are shaped to be about 20 to 30 percent wider. Spectrum here in Santa Barbara has such benches, but im sure other locations do as well. I also do not believe in full range of motion when it comes to the flat bench. I generally go down until my elbow hits parrallel to my shoulder level. I found that going any lower tends to put an unnessary strain on the shoulders and the additional benefit to the pectoral muscle development is not worth the chance of injury.
After a proper grip and form I find it imporant to emphasize the importance of warming up. Most injuries during this excercise occur when people dont take time to warm up the chest muscles and rush to increase the weight with sloppy form. I generally do two light sets of twelve repetitions to warm up. After my warm ups I tend to continue with three more sets increasing in weight while maintaining proper form. If I cannot complete eight reps at a specified weight I generally go down to a weight that allows me this rep range.
My second excercise is the incline bench press depending on the day I rotate between doing this excercise with a barbell or dumbbells. With the barbell you will have easier stability and will generally be able to push more weight. With dumbbells you will be able to go down further and get a better stretch. As with the the flat bench I generally do not drop the weight all the way down to my chest while performing this excercise with a barbell. How deep you go is a matter of personal comfort. I prefer to do a slow repetition and feel for the moment where the chest is stretched out to the max and I sense the shoulders take over. At this point I ease up and start to press up.
With the incline press I am already warmed up from my previous excercise so i generally only do one set followed by two to three sets with increased weight. Again, my rep range is strictly between 8 and 12 reps during most occasions.
My third excercise is the decline press. Personally, I prefer to do this on a free motion press machine, but you can also do it with a barbell, dumbbells or on a hammer smith machine. Unfortunately if you are tall you may have trouble fitting comfortably in a smith machine and some decline benches tend to feel a bit "off" as well. The nice thing about a free motion cable machine is that it allows you to sit up straight while maintaining constant pressure on the muscles creating an atmosphere that is both effective and comfortable. I dont know how many times I have gotten up dizzy from doing a set of heavy decline press from all the blood rushing to my head. Not too fun.
Similar to the previous excercises I will start with one light set followed by two to three heavier sets. You may notice that most of my exercises tend to be a warm up set in this manner. I do this intentionally during dieting. Whenever you put your body in a caloric deficit you will generally be weaker and more prone to injury. During these phases I prefer to stick to more conservative workouts.
For my fourth excercise I like to do the pec deck or pec flys as some people know them. This excercise can be done on a pec machine or with dumbbells lying on a flat bench. I personally prefer to do this excercise on a pec deck machine at the end of my workout. Because you are on a machine your stabilizers dont have to work as hard and therefore you can push your chest to your limit without worries of injury. Since it is traditionally my last excercise I will do a "burn out" on this exercise. As before, I like to perform three to four complete sets. The difference being with the repetitions. I start with a moderately heavy weight and attempt to do 15 to 20 repetitions. My second set i will slightly increase my weight and push it until I cannot complete any additional repetitions. Generally this will fall in the 12 to 15 rep range. My third and fourth set I will go to failure except that I will have my workout partner assist me in completing 3-4 extra "forced" reps. This allows me to make sure that I work my chest as hard as possible while still maintaining a safe environment during my diet phase.
Finally, I like to finish my workout with some core training. My favorite tool for abdominal training is the balance ball. Here I will simply do ball crunches for 3 sets with 25 reps per set. The key here is to focus on the contraction at the top of the crunch. It is easy to rush and cheapen the excercise. Take the time on this excercise and you will feel a huge difference. After the crunches I will lay down and raise/hold my legs up at roughly a 30 degree angle for a count of 30 second. Its much harder then it sounds. As you get better you can continue to increase the count to 45 seconds and then 60 seconds.
Workout Summary:
Intended for two people.
Estimated completion time: 45 minutes to 1 hour
Excercise 1: Flat bench press
2 warmup set 12 reps
2-3 sets 8-12 reups
Excercise 2: Incline bench press
1 warm up set 12 reps
2-3 sets 8 -12 reps
Excercise 3: Decline press
1 warm up set 12 reps
2-3 sets 8-12 reps
Excercise 4: Pec Dec
1 set 15-20 reps
1 set to failure
2 sets to failure + 3-4 forced reps with partner assist
Moving on, I would like my next set of posts to be a response to the numerous requests I have had pertaining to my training routine. Over the next few days I will go over my current workout schedule along with some helpful tips. Please note that everyone is different and what works for me may or may not work for you. I also make sure to change up my workouts on a regular basis so this is simply just one of my varied training setups.
During my current dieting phase I am training on what I call the "A.B.C.D. split". Its four completely unique workouts that over a seven day week allow you to hit your whole body once. This type of routine allows you to pay extra attention to each body part as opposed to trying to rush through multiple body parts in one day. Its also important to note that I believe a weight lifting workout should last between forty five minutes and an hour and fifteen minutes. In the past I had expiremented with longer workouts but they would lead to over training or at the very least "lazy" workouts that ended up being wasteful and inefficient.
For those of you who do not want to read through the detailed descriptions I have also provided a summary of the workout at the bottom of this blog.
My first workout, workout A, starts the week on monday with total chest training. Generally, I spend a few minutes warming up my shoulders with some rotator cuff excercises. In the past I have had to deal with numerous shoulder and elbow problems and I know that some of those could have been avoided if I properly warmed up.
My first real chest excercise is the flat bench press. I normally work out with a workout partner so I prefer the freeweight method over a machine but if you are training solo then I would recommend a bench press machine if available. In my opinion the freeweight bench flat bench press is the best overall chest excercise as long as you have a workout partner or a personal trainer to spot you. I highly recommend against doing this excercise without a spotter. I also prefer a really wide grip. The wider your shoulders are the wider your grip should be for optimal results. You will notice that going with a wider grib will make the excercise much harder, but in the end you should notice better results. If you are really tall or really wide in the shoulders you may find it hard to get a wide enough grib. For this you may want to look for specially designed bench presses that are shaped to be about 20 to 30 percent wider. Spectrum here in Santa Barbara has such benches, but im sure other locations do as well. I also do not believe in full range of motion when it comes to the flat bench. I generally go down until my elbow hits parrallel to my shoulder level. I found that going any lower tends to put an unnessary strain on the shoulders and the additional benefit to the pectoral muscle development is not worth the chance of injury.
After a proper grip and form I find it imporant to emphasize the importance of warming up. Most injuries during this excercise occur when people dont take time to warm up the chest muscles and rush to increase the weight with sloppy form. I generally do two light sets of twelve repetitions to warm up. After my warm ups I tend to continue with three more sets increasing in weight while maintaining proper form. If I cannot complete eight reps at a specified weight I generally go down to a weight that allows me this rep range.
My second excercise is the incline bench press depending on the day I rotate between doing this excercise with a barbell or dumbbells. With the barbell you will have easier stability and will generally be able to push more weight. With dumbbells you will be able to go down further and get a better stretch. As with the the flat bench I generally do not drop the weight all the way down to my chest while performing this excercise with a barbell. How deep you go is a matter of personal comfort. I prefer to do a slow repetition and feel for the moment where the chest is stretched out to the max and I sense the shoulders take over. At this point I ease up and start to press up.
With the incline press I am already warmed up from my previous excercise so i generally only do one set followed by two to three sets with increased weight. Again, my rep range is strictly between 8 and 12 reps during most occasions.
My third excercise is the decline press. Personally, I prefer to do this on a free motion press machine, but you can also do it with a barbell, dumbbells or on a hammer smith machine. Unfortunately if you are tall you may have trouble fitting comfortably in a smith machine and some decline benches tend to feel a bit "off" as well. The nice thing about a free motion cable machine is that it allows you to sit up straight while maintaining constant pressure on the muscles creating an atmosphere that is both effective and comfortable. I dont know how many times I have gotten up dizzy from doing a set of heavy decline press from all the blood rushing to my head. Not too fun.
Similar to the previous excercises I will start with one light set followed by two to three heavier sets. You may notice that most of my exercises tend to be a warm up set in this manner. I do this intentionally during dieting. Whenever you put your body in a caloric deficit you will generally be weaker and more prone to injury. During these phases I prefer to stick to more conservative workouts.
For my fourth excercise I like to do the pec deck or pec flys as some people know them. This excercise can be done on a pec machine or with dumbbells lying on a flat bench. I personally prefer to do this excercise on a pec deck machine at the end of my workout. Because you are on a machine your stabilizers dont have to work as hard and therefore you can push your chest to your limit without worries of injury. Since it is traditionally my last excercise I will do a "burn out" on this exercise. As before, I like to perform three to four complete sets. The difference being with the repetitions. I start with a moderately heavy weight and attempt to do 15 to 20 repetitions. My second set i will slightly increase my weight and push it until I cannot complete any additional repetitions. Generally this will fall in the 12 to 15 rep range. My third and fourth set I will go to failure except that I will have my workout partner assist me in completing 3-4 extra "forced" reps. This allows me to make sure that I work my chest as hard as possible while still maintaining a safe environment during my diet phase.
Finally, I like to finish my workout with some core training. My favorite tool for abdominal training is the balance ball. Here I will simply do ball crunches for 3 sets with 25 reps per set. The key here is to focus on the contraction at the top of the crunch. It is easy to rush and cheapen the excercise. Take the time on this excercise and you will feel a huge difference. After the crunches I will lay down and raise/hold my legs up at roughly a 30 degree angle for a count of 30 second. Its much harder then it sounds. As you get better you can continue to increase the count to 45 seconds and then 60 seconds.
Workout Summary:
Intended for two people.
Estimated completion time: 45 minutes to 1 hour
Excercise 1: Flat bench press
2 warmup set 12 reps
2-3 sets 8-12 reups
Excercise 2: Incline bench press
1 warm up set 12 reps
2-3 sets 8 -12 reps
Excercise 3: Decline press
1 warm up set 12 reps
2-3 sets 8-12 reps
Excercise 4: Pec Dec
1 set 15-20 reps
1 set to failure
2 sets to failure + 3-4 forced reps with partner assist
Optional:
Core abdominal training
3 sets crunches on balance ball 25 reps
3 sets leg elevations 30 seconds each
Join me next time as I go into detail on my diet time workout "B" and as always feedback and questions are greatly appreciated.Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Being Sick - and "Emotional Eating"
Today I wanted to touch on two subject that are no fun while dieting; being sick, and eating. Allow me to go into some more detail.
It's never fun to be sick, but when you are on a strict diet and training program it hits you even harder. Ever since Sunday night I have been feeling under the weather. On Monday I went to my usual cardio sessions and tried to eat normally but by the evening I was down for the count. On Tuesday I spent most of the day in bed sleeping. I was only able to get one meal into my stomach. What was worse is that my sleeping schedule got completely messed up. Hence, here I am at 3:30 AM writing a blog. Sadly, it was the only productive thing I have been capable of doing since Monday. My best bet is to rest up some more and hope I can get back to training. Under normal circumstances being sick for a day or two would not be a problem, but with all the pressure I have put on myself to get in shape I feel like every moment counts. I am also focusing on getting back to normal meals as soon as possible and drinking lots of water. At the very least taking in protein shakes and some oatmeal to get me back on my feet for some real training! If you get in a postion where you get sick in the middle of a training program do your best to stay calm. Its easy to get down on yourself for not being able to keep up with your normal diet and training. The most important thing at that point is to get healthy then you can worry about your diet and training. Remember, while recovering form sickness your body is under tremendous stress as it works on getting healthy. Trying to "tough it out" will often times make your situation worse rather then better.
All this talk about being sick makes me want to bring up another topic. I am speaking of "Emotional Eating". If you are one of those lucky people that choose to starve when you are depressed or stressed then this post may not be for you. I am talking to everyone else , like myself, who is cursed with the every day temptation of "Emotional Eating". If you suffer from it, then you know exactly what im talking about. And sadly its never "Emotional Eating" of cellary or yams. Its always sweets and fats. Its also the arch nemesis of dieting.
Complicating the matter more is mother nature. Even though its hard to tell sometimes, it is winter time in Santa Barbara. A time when we get our once a year rain/flood, and its cold enough to where you actually have to put on some clothes when going outside. The inhumanity! In fact, studies have shown that winter time and the "Holidays" are the most stressful time of year for people, even in Santa Barbara. Everyone is getting sick, people are stressing out over traveling, family, and relationships. Its even said that a very high percentage of break up happen right after the Holidays. And we just got over the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years hurdle. I think they should add another Holiday after new years called "OMG I Survived Day". All of this combined with the fact that most people put on weight over the holidays puts a tremendous stress on people. High stress leads to unhappiness and, you guessed it, "Emotional Eating".
The real question is how do you deal with "Emotional Eating". I have been a victim of my taste buds for years. What makes things worse is that the bigger you get the bigger your cravings become. The bigger you become the worse these emotional binges hurt you. As you can see its a snowball effect. Luckily there are things you can do to cut back on the damage that your emotional eating has on you.
The first thing that you can do to help out is make sure you are well fed. What i mean by this is make sure you schedule three to five meals daily regardless of your cravings. If you have a eating schedule you are less likely be be caught "starving". There is nothing worse then feeling like you are starving and then being hit with EE (emotional eating).
Second, make sure you drink lots of liquids. Water is preferable, but i truely believe you need to drink whatever you can make yourself drink. The only thing i would note is that you may want to make sure to keep the sugars low or you will be inviting a case of EE rather then fighitng it off. When you are properly hydrated your body will feel more "full". Since your mind can't tell the difference between appetite and hunger and so most over eaters often are simply dealing with an over abunder appetite that isn't being dealt with. By controlling your appetite with water intake you can start to listen to your hunger pains rather then your appetite cries. If you are still having trouble keeping track of things then simply make sure you have a healthy meal planner every 3-4 hours, this should keep your hunger pains at bay and also make sure your metabolism is working at its peak potential.
Finally, make sure you have healthy "emergency" alternatives for your EE session. The truth is that emotional eaters will always be emotional eaters. You can see how if you are starving (point one) and dehydrated (point two) and a case of EE hits, then you have almost no chance of surviving without eating bad. Especially since we never seem to think straight under emotional distress. We see that McDonald's drive through and head right in. It never ends pretty. So lets assume that you are working on point one and two as mentioned. The last safety net for protecting you will be your emergency meals. They have to meet three criteria. First, they have to be quick and easy to make. Second, they need to feel like they are at least a little bad. A stick of cellary will never quality. Finally, they have to be healthy. Duh! It sounds harder then it really is. Trust me, from a scale of 1 to 10 in "food preparation" competancy I am probably a 3 and even I was able to find some quick EE fixes. Here are two personal favorites that you may never have tried.
1. Cottage cheese a la yummy : This one is simple, take 1/2 to 1 cup of regular or low fat cottage cheese. Take 3 packets of splenda. Take a spoon and mix the three packets of splenda into the cottage cheese. Vuala! You have cottage cheese that taste like a desert. It may sound weird, but it really takes away the bitterness of the cottage cheese and tastes almost like a dieters cheesecake (yes I know im stretching here). I told you it was going to be simple!
2. Oatmeal fruity crunch: For this you need two ingredients. First you need basic uncooked oatmeal. I normally measure out 1/4 to 1/2 cup. Second, I recommend Smuckers Simply Fruit. It comes in tiny little jars for about $3.50 but its worth every penny. Its basically a jam, but its all fruit. Unlike jams, it has no sugar added so you get a very healthy fruit based fast acting sugar that compliments the slow acting oatmeal perfect. Take about 1-2 table spoons and put it in a bowl with the oatmeal. At this point you need to mix the two up. Keep mixing with a spoon until you have no simply fruit clumps left. The consistancy should be semi thick and you need enough simply fruit so that there is no dry oatmeal left. It should be an almost cookie dough consisteny. Now you are ready to eat! This is a great meal for people that traditionally dont like oatmeal. With raw oatmeal you dont get that porage consistancy and the meal tastes really sweet so it comes off like a treat. Try it out. Best part is just like my first recommendation its quick to make and requires absolutely no cooking skills to make. Enjoy!
Theres one more thing I want to say before I finished with emotional eating. You have to remember that eating habbits are something we have developed over our lifetimes. Its not easy to change your diet around, and its especially hard to deal with stress coping mechanisms like emotional eating. If you fail and eat bad from time to time don't beat yourself up. If you can resist that burger or ice cream bar every other time or even every third time then you have made progress. Do your best to be prepared and in time you will make improvements. Those little improvements add up to real progress over time. Remember, even small steps forward move you in the right direction!
It's never fun to be sick, but when you are on a strict diet and training program it hits you even harder. Ever since Sunday night I have been feeling under the weather. On Monday I went to my usual cardio sessions and tried to eat normally but by the evening I was down for the count. On Tuesday I spent most of the day in bed sleeping. I was only able to get one meal into my stomach. What was worse is that my sleeping schedule got completely messed up. Hence, here I am at 3:30 AM writing a blog. Sadly, it was the only productive thing I have been capable of doing since Monday. My best bet is to rest up some more and hope I can get back to training. Under normal circumstances being sick for a day or two would not be a problem, but with all the pressure I have put on myself to get in shape I feel like every moment counts. I am also focusing on getting back to normal meals as soon as possible and drinking lots of water. At the very least taking in protein shakes and some oatmeal to get me back on my feet for some real training! If you get in a postion where you get sick in the middle of a training program do your best to stay calm. Its easy to get down on yourself for not being able to keep up with your normal diet and training. The most important thing at that point is to get healthy then you can worry about your diet and training. Remember, while recovering form sickness your body is under tremendous stress as it works on getting healthy. Trying to "tough it out" will often times make your situation worse rather then better.
All this talk about being sick makes me want to bring up another topic. I am speaking of "Emotional Eating". If you are one of those lucky people that choose to starve when you are depressed or stressed then this post may not be for you. I am talking to everyone else , like myself, who is cursed with the every day temptation of "Emotional Eating". If you suffer from it, then you know exactly what im talking about. And sadly its never "Emotional Eating" of cellary or yams. Its always sweets and fats. Its also the arch nemesis of dieting.
Complicating the matter more is mother nature. Even though its hard to tell sometimes, it is winter time in Santa Barbara. A time when we get our once a year rain/flood, and its cold enough to where you actually have to put on some clothes when going outside. The inhumanity! In fact, studies have shown that winter time and the "Holidays" are the most stressful time of year for people, even in Santa Barbara. Everyone is getting sick, people are stressing out over traveling, family, and relationships. Its even said that a very high percentage of break up happen right after the Holidays. And we just got over the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years hurdle. I think they should add another Holiday after new years called "OMG I Survived Day". All of this combined with the fact that most people put on weight over the holidays puts a tremendous stress on people. High stress leads to unhappiness and, you guessed it, "Emotional Eating".
The real question is how do you deal with "Emotional Eating". I have been a victim of my taste buds for years. What makes things worse is that the bigger you get the bigger your cravings become. The bigger you become the worse these emotional binges hurt you. As you can see its a snowball effect. Luckily there are things you can do to cut back on the damage that your emotional eating has on you.
The first thing that you can do to help out is make sure you are well fed. What i mean by this is make sure you schedule three to five meals daily regardless of your cravings. If you have a eating schedule you are less likely be be caught "starving". There is nothing worse then feeling like you are starving and then being hit with EE (emotional eating).
Second, make sure you drink lots of liquids. Water is preferable, but i truely believe you need to drink whatever you can make yourself drink. The only thing i would note is that you may want to make sure to keep the sugars low or you will be inviting a case of EE rather then fighitng it off. When you are properly hydrated your body will feel more "full". Since your mind can't tell the difference between appetite and hunger and so most over eaters often are simply dealing with an over abunder appetite that isn't being dealt with. By controlling your appetite with water intake you can start to listen to your hunger pains rather then your appetite cries. If you are still having trouble keeping track of things then simply make sure you have a healthy meal planner every 3-4 hours, this should keep your hunger pains at bay and also make sure your metabolism is working at its peak potential.
Finally, make sure you have healthy "emergency" alternatives for your EE session. The truth is that emotional eaters will always be emotional eaters. You can see how if you are starving (point one) and dehydrated (point two) and a case of EE hits, then you have almost no chance of surviving without eating bad. Especially since we never seem to think straight under emotional distress. We see that McDonald's drive through and head right in. It never ends pretty. So lets assume that you are working on point one and two as mentioned. The last safety net for protecting you will be your emergency meals. They have to meet three criteria. First, they have to be quick and easy to make. Second, they need to feel like they are at least a little bad. A stick of cellary will never quality. Finally, they have to be healthy. Duh! It sounds harder then it really is. Trust me, from a scale of 1 to 10 in "food preparation" competancy I am probably a 3 and even I was able to find some quick EE fixes. Here are two personal favorites that you may never have tried.
1. Cottage cheese a la yummy : This one is simple, take 1/2 to 1 cup of regular or low fat cottage cheese. Take 3 packets of splenda. Take a spoon and mix the three packets of splenda into the cottage cheese. Vuala! You have cottage cheese that taste like a desert. It may sound weird, but it really takes away the bitterness of the cottage cheese and tastes almost like a dieters cheesecake (yes I know im stretching here). I told you it was going to be simple!
2. Oatmeal fruity crunch: For this you need two ingredients. First you need basic uncooked oatmeal. I normally measure out 1/4 to 1/2 cup. Second, I recommend Smuckers Simply Fruit. It comes in tiny little jars for about $3.50 but its worth every penny. Its basically a jam, but its all fruit. Unlike jams, it has no sugar added so you get a very healthy fruit based fast acting sugar that compliments the slow acting oatmeal perfect. Take about 1-2 table spoons and put it in a bowl with the oatmeal. At this point you need to mix the two up. Keep mixing with a spoon until you have no simply fruit clumps left. The consistancy should be semi thick and you need enough simply fruit so that there is no dry oatmeal left. It should be an almost cookie dough consisteny. Now you are ready to eat! This is a great meal for people that traditionally dont like oatmeal. With raw oatmeal you dont get that porage consistancy and the meal tastes really sweet so it comes off like a treat. Try it out. Best part is just like my first recommendation its quick to make and requires absolutely no cooking skills to make. Enjoy!
Theres one more thing I want to say before I finished with emotional eating. You have to remember that eating habbits are something we have developed over our lifetimes. Its not easy to change your diet around, and its especially hard to deal with stress coping mechanisms like emotional eating. If you fail and eat bad from time to time don't beat yourself up. If you can resist that burger or ice cream bar every other time or even every third time then you have made progress. Do your best to be prepared and in time you will make improvements. Those little improvements add up to real progress over time. Remember, even small steps forward move you in the right direction!
Sunday, February 3, 2008
A Quick Note and Thank you!
I am not quite ready to roll out my next progress blog as of right now, but i could not help myself but write a quick thank you for everyone who has been giving me such motivational support in person, over the phone as well as via email. The response from my ad has been nothing short of astonishing. I greatly appreciate and welcome all your kind words and stories. I never thought i would get this level of support from our great little community. Thank you so very much. I will do my best to not disapoint anyone, including myself, in my battle of getting back to awesome! I look forward to giving you continued updates on my progress as we enter the next week of the project.
Heck, if the Giants can win the Super Bowl then my task should be no problem , right?
Heck, if the Giants can win the Super Bowl then my task should be no problem , right?
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Another week and body fat testing!
Last Tuesday I decided to head down to Los Angeles for some advanced body fat testing. Unfortunately mother nature decided to intervene and bless us with the worst rains in years. Luckily I survived and after spending a total of six hours in traffic (I was only heading down to irvine!) I made it home mostly intact.
But let me go into my visit to the body fat test center some more. I had made reservations for three different type of tests. The first one was to test my resting metabolic rate. During this test they sit you in a comfortable massage chair and then stick a tube in your mouth that can only be described as a cross between scuba gear equipment and the gear used in the Rocky 4 Russian training montage! After fifteen minutes of ackward breathing I was done with the "easy" test.
The second test is best described as chinese water torture! It is a method of weighing someone while completely submerged in water, or more commonly known as the "water dunk test". This test is a lot harder then it sounds, you literally have to go under water and expell ALL of your air. Then you have to hold it for a few seconds, its a feeling of near drowning that took me a few attempts to get right. Then again how do you get "nearly drowning" right? Luckily after a few minutes it was all over. The good news is this test is the most accurate way of body fat testing. With margin of error being +/- 1 percent. Most other methods including caliber can be off by between 3 to 6 percent, which as you can guess is grossly inaccurate. So if you want accurate body fat testing, all you have to do is nearly drown! What a deal.
Finally came what I like to call the "iron man" test. This is where they put a mask gizmo around your head so that you can keep a breathing tube in your mouth. It makes you look really cool and sound like Darth Vader. Other then that it allows the computer to monitor your oxygen consumption as you traverse the treadmill. They also give you a heart rate monitor to check your heart rate during the test. The test consisted of increasing treadmill speed and incline as they pushed my heart to its limited. By the end of the test we peaked at around 191 beats per minute, or as I like to call it the, "gee I think im going to puke" zone.
Now that all the testing was done, I had the to sit down and look at the printouts of my performances. As predicted they were pretty scary. Before my downhill slide I was in excellent health when it came to body fat as well as my cardiac endurance. I was really shocked at the degree i had degenerated to in a mere two years! As promised I am 100 percent candid about my experience and below I will list all my results as they were given to me by the testing center. As a side note I need to note that the test center scale had me weigh in at 329 while my local gym had been reading 326. For the testing purposes every statistic is based on 329, further updates to my blog will be based on my local gym's scale so results may be slightly scewed by +/- 2 lbs.
Test Date: January 22, 2008 12:42 PM
Sex: Male Age: 25 Height: 75.25 inches Weight: 329.5 lbs
Ankle Circumference: 11 inches
Resting Pulse: 70 BPM
Water temp: 33 C
Water WEight: 6100 grams
Hydrostatic Evaluation:
Body Fat %: 32.1
Fat Body Mass: 105.8 lbs
Lean Body Mass%: 67.9
Lean Body Mass: 223.7 lbs
NOTE: The system recommended an ideal body fat percentage of 15%. If lean body mass is maintained during dieting, this would entail losing 66.3 lbs to settle at a weight of 263.2 lbs. Currently I am what I would consider "really REALLY fat" so there is a lot of room for improvement. Always look at the bright side of a situation!
VO2 Testing Results
Cardio strength:
start AeT AT Peak
VO2 (ml O2 / kg/m) 8.9 13.9 15.0 25.2
Heart Rate (BPM) 105 124 128 191
Calories Per Hour 384 601 647 1090
Fitness Level Very Low
AeT = Aerobic Threshold AT = Anaerobic Threshold
NOTE: For all those who prefer the easy explanation over the numbers above, the analysis basically says im in horrible shape. I am currently the polar opposite of Lance Armstrong. While i have never been a runner, in the past my cardio was in great shape and I am set on reaching my goal!
Fitness Level Scale for Age 20-29
Very Low Low Fair Good Excellent Superior
<33.0 (thats me!) 33.0 - 35.6 36.5 - 42.4 42.5 - 46.4 46.5 - 52.4 52.4
Target Workout Zones:
Moderate Zone (optimal for fat loss): HR 124-128
HIgh Zone (optimal for cardiac training, not optimal for fat loss) HR 128 - 175
NOTE: From analyzing the above data you can deduct that the optimal cardio for body fat loss is a slow cardio. When I started doing cardio sessions recently it was easy for my heart rate to settle into the 140 to 150 BPM range. keeping my heart rate at around 128 was a great challange because for me it was a walking pace. And "walking" never felt like much of a workout. To assist me I bought a Polar Heart Rate Monitor which has helped me greatly in the last week. The only downside to this method is that you have to do cardio for longer periods to burn more calories then before. The reality is that running or going faster may be good for your heart but you will burn more muscle and less fat during the activity. So slow and steady wins the body fat race!
Target Caloric Zones
Recommended Daily Caloric intake for Weight Loss Zone: 2731 - 3413 calories
Maintenance Zone: 3413 to 4436 calories
NOTE: Please note that my caloric intake requirements are much higher then the average person. Even though I am over weight I still have almost 225 lbs of lean body mass which is more then most peoples complete mass. This is an important fact to realize for anyone who starts out "larger". Most diet fads out there have you go down to 1500 or even 1000 calories per day. For anyone that is above average in natural size this could be a medical disaster. Starvation is not the key to diet. In fact, it will bring your metabolic rate to a halt and hamper your fat loss instead of assisting it.
Resting Metabolic Rate: 3413 calories
Lifestyle & Activities: 1023 calories
Excercise: 426 calories
Total = RMR + Lifestyle + Exercise
My Total = 4862
NOTE: THe lifestyle & Activities as well as Excercise numbers were calculated by questions I had answered before my test. the 426 calories burned would be the equivolant of my body performing 30 to 45 minutes of cardiovascular activity at 128 BPM.
Calories IN vs Calories Out Comparison:
Calories IN 2732 VS Calories OUT 4862
Caloric Deficit: 2130
Calories in 1 lb: 3600
NOTE: From the previous calculation you can see that simply by keeping my diet to roughly 2732 calories and doing moderate cardio each day I can lose upwards of 2/3 of a lb of weight a day. An important thing to notice here is that there are a lot of hidden variables to this sytem. If my caloric intake drops below recommended levels it can slow my resting metabolic rate. Additional cardio can increase my daily excercise caloric output as well as weight training.
During the remaining weeks of my Getting Back To Awesome Project I will keep all these numbers in mind as I continue to battle toward my end goal. This trip was like a rude awakening that forced me to look at myself and evaluate my health. The journey will only get tougher from here but I confident that in the end i will be victorious. I hope you will follow me on my journey and as always I greatly appreciate the feedback and support.
But let me go into my visit to the body fat test center some more. I had made reservations for three different type of tests. The first one was to test my resting metabolic rate. During this test they sit you in a comfortable massage chair and then stick a tube in your mouth that can only be described as a cross between scuba gear equipment and the gear used in the Rocky 4 Russian training montage! After fifteen minutes of ackward breathing I was done with the "easy" test.
The second test is best described as chinese water torture! It is a method of weighing someone while completely submerged in water, or more commonly known as the "water dunk test". This test is a lot harder then it sounds, you literally have to go under water and expell ALL of your air. Then you have to hold it for a few seconds, its a feeling of near drowning that took me a few attempts to get right. Then again how do you get "nearly drowning" right? Luckily after a few minutes it was all over. The good news is this test is the most accurate way of body fat testing. With margin of error being +/- 1 percent. Most other methods including caliber can be off by between 3 to 6 percent, which as you can guess is grossly inaccurate. So if you want accurate body fat testing, all you have to do is nearly drown! What a deal.
Finally came what I like to call the "iron man" test. This is where they put a mask gizmo around your head so that you can keep a breathing tube in your mouth. It makes you look really cool and sound like Darth Vader. Other then that it allows the computer to monitor your oxygen consumption as you traverse the treadmill. They also give you a heart rate monitor to check your heart rate during the test. The test consisted of increasing treadmill speed and incline as they pushed my heart to its limited. By the end of the test we peaked at around 191 beats per minute, or as I like to call it the, "gee I think im going to puke" zone.
Now that all the testing was done, I had the to sit down and look at the printouts of my performances. As predicted they were pretty scary. Before my downhill slide I was in excellent health when it came to body fat as well as my cardiac endurance. I was really shocked at the degree i had degenerated to in a mere two years! As promised I am 100 percent candid about my experience and below I will list all my results as they were given to me by the testing center. As a side note I need to note that the test center scale had me weigh in at 329 while my local gym had been reading 326. For the testing purposes every statistic is based on 329, further updates to my blog will be based on my local gym's scale so results may be slightly scewed by +/- 2 lbs.
Test Date: January 22, 2008 12:42 PM
Sex: Male Age: 25 Height: 75.25 inches Weight: 329.5 lbs
Ankle Circumference: 11 inches
Resting Pulse: 70 BPM
Water temp: 33 C
Water WEight: 6100 grams
Hydrostatic Evaluation:
Body Fat %: 32.1
Fat Body Mass: 105.8 lbs
Lean Body Mass%: 67.9
Lean Body Mass: 223.7 lbs
NOTE: The system recommended an ideal body fat percentage of 15%. If lean body mass is maintained during dieting, this would entail losing 66.3 lbs to settle at a weight of 263.2 lbs. Currently I am what I would consider "really REALLY fat" so there is a lot of room for improvement. Always look at the bright side of a situation!
VO2 Testing Results
Cardio strength:
start AeT AT Peak
VO2 (ml O2 / kg/m) 8.9 13.9 15.0 25.2
Heart Rate (BPM) 105 124 128 191
Calories Per Hour 384 601 647 1090
Fitness Level Very Low
AeT = Aerobic Threshold AT = Anaerobic Threshold
NOTE: For all those who prefer the easy explanation over the numbers above, the analysis basically says im in horrible shape. I am currently the polar opposite of Lance Armstrong. While i have never been a runner, in the past my cardio was in great shape and I am set on reaching my goal!
Fitness Level Scale for Age 20-29
Very Low Low Fair Good Excellent Superior
<33.0 (thats me!) 33.0 - 35.6 36.5 - 42.4 42.5 - 46.4 46.5 - 52.4 52.4
Target Workout Zones:
Moderate Zone (optimal for fat loss): HR 124-128
HIgh Zone (optimal for cardiac training, not optimal for fat loss) HR 128 - 175
NOTE: From analyzing the above data you can deduct that the optimal cardio for body fat loss is a slow cardio. When I started doing cardio sessions recently it was easy for my heart rate to settle into the 140 to 150 BPM range. keeping my heart rate at around 128 was a great challange because for me it was a walking pace. And "walking" never felt like much of a workout. To assist me I bought a Polar Heart Rate Monitor which has helped me greatly in the last week. The only downside to this method is that you have to do cardio for longer periods to burn more calories then before. The reality is that running or going faster may be good for your heart but you will burn more muscle and less fat during the activity. So slow and steady wins the body fat race!
Target Caloric Zones
Recommended Daily Caloric intake for Weight Loss Zone: 2731 - 3413 calories
Maintenance Zone: 3413 to 4436 calories
NOTE: Please note that my caloric intake requirements are much higher then the average person. Even though I am over weight I still have almost 225 lbs of lean body mass which is more then most peoples complete mass. This is an important fact to realize for anyone who starts out "larger". Most diet fads out there have you go down to 1500 or even 1000 calories per day. For anyone that is above average in natural size this could be a medical disaster. Starvation is not the key to diet. In fact, it will bring your metabolic rate to a halt and hamper your fat loss instead of assisting it.
Resting Metabolic Rate: 3413 calories
Lifestyle & Activities: 1023 calories
Excercise: 426 calories
Total = RMR + Lifestyle + Exercise
My Total = 4862
NOTE: THe lifestyle & Activities as well as Excercise numbers were calculated by questions I had answered before my test. the 426 calories burned would be the equivolant of my body performing 30 to 45 minutes of cardiovascular activity at 128 BPM.
Calories IN vs Calories Out Comparison:
Calories IN 2732 VS Calories OUT 4862
Caloric Deficit: 2130
Calories in 1 lb: 3600
NOTE: From the previous calculation you can see that simply by keeping my diet to roughly 2732 calories and doing moderate cardio each day I can lose upwards of 2/3 of a lb of weight a day. An important thing to notice here is that there are a lot of hidden variables to this sytem. If my caloric intake drops below recommended levels it can slow my resting metabolic rate. Additional cardio can increase my daily excercise caloric output as well as weight training.
During the remaining weeks of my Getting Back To Awesome Project I will keep all these numbers in mind as I continue to battle toward my end goal. This trip was like a rude awakening that forced me to look at myself and evaluate my health. The journey will only get tougher from here but I confident that in the end i will be victorious. I hope you will follow me on my journey and as always I greatly appreciate the feedback and support.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Week One Reactions
Well, it has been a week since the beginning of my project and it has already been full of triumphs and failures.
Going into this project I knew it would be a big test for me both mentally and physically and it definitely has not disappointed. This week has been a build up to my week two and three where my cardio training will be in top gear. This week I trained with weight four times; Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. I also have ramped up my cardio dramatically from my previous light cardio training. I managed morning one hour cardio workouts on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I also managed to get night cardio sessions Monday and Wednesday which really pushed me to a new level. During this time I found my new favorite cardio machine, the Nautilus Treadclimber. If you haven't tried this machine then you have to give it a try! it will kick your butt! Its like a hybrid stair climber/treadmill. What I like best of all is that I can get a high intensity cardio workout without hurting my knees like running or the stair climber have done for me in the past.
When it came to diet I definitely had a lot of mental demons to overcome. During the months before this project my diet was never horrible but I had a bad habit of eating too much good food. And no matter whether a meal is healthy or not if you take in more calories then you burn then you will gain weight over time. Clearly my previous diet was tipped the wrong way when it came to a caloric balance. In order to keep my diet manageable I decided to keep my meals simple. My week one arsenal included mass prepared brown rice, mass prepared chicken breasts, protein shakes, and protein bars that I used as treats. My goal was to get in a minimum of 4-5 meals per day to keep my metabolism peaked as well as keep myself from feeling like im starving. Even with the numerous meals, the combination of cardio plus limited diet on my huge frame created a large calorie deficit so if I ever went too long without a meal I would feel extremely weak and winded. Fortunately, after a few days my body learned to adjust to my new diet and training regiment and recovery times have improved. Time will only tell how i am able to adjust as i increase the intensity of my training and add a few surprises to my training regime over the next few weeks.
The good news of all this hard work has been dramatic results since my start. Since the day that I took pictures for my ad I have dropped 10 lbs already. I started at 336 lbs and on monday I weighed in at 326 lbs. This Tuesday I will be heading down to Los Angeles and getting body fat testing in a water tank (the most accurate body fat testing method available). I will also be testing my VO2 max as well as my resting metabolic weight. Once I return from the trip I will post my results and at the end of the twelve weeks I will return in order to get comparison results. I am very excited to see where I stand and then what kind of improvements I can make over the next 11 weeks!
At the beginning of my blog today I mentioned that this week has been full of triumps ans defeats. And there was a great defeat indeed, but it was not a failure with diet or training. It happened sunday in Green Bay when my Green Bay Packers lost by a field goal to the NY Giants in OT. It was a sad day in Packer Town to be sure. Rest in Peace GB.
Going into this project I knew it would be a big test for me both mentally and physically and it definitely has not disappointed. This week has been a build up to my week two and three where my cardio training will be in top gear. This week I trained with weight four times; Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. I also have ramped up my cardio dramatically from my previous light cardio training. I managed morning one hour cardio workouts on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I also managed to get night cardio sessions Monday and Wednesday which really pushed me to a new level. During this time I found my new favorite cardio machine, the Nautilus Treadclimber. If you haven't tried this machine then you have to give it a try! it will kick your butt! Its like a hybrid stair climber/treadmill. What I like best of all is that I can get a high intensity cardio workout without hurting my knees like running or the stair climber have done for me in the past.
When it came to diet I definitely had a lot of mental demons to overcome. During the months before this project my diet was never horrible but I had a bad habit of eating too much good food. And no matter whether a meal is healthy or not if you take in more calories then you burn then you will gain weight over time. Clearly my previous diet was tipped the wrong way when it came to a caloric balance. In order to keep my diet manageable I decided to keep my meals simple. My week one arsenal included mass prepared brown rice, mass prepared chicken breasts, protein shakes, and protein bars that I used as treats. My goal was to get in a minimum of 4-5 meals per day to keep my metabolism peaked as well as keep myself from feeling like im starving. Even with the numerous meals, the combination of cardio plus limited diet on my huge frame created a large calorie deficit so if I ever went too long without a meal I would feel extremely weak and winded. Fortunately, after a few days my body learned to adjust to my new diet and training regiment and recovery times have improved. Time will only tell how i am able to adjust as i increase the intensity of my training and add a few surprises to my training regime over the next few weeks.
The good news of all this hard work has been dramatic results since my start. Since the day that I took pictures for my ad I have dropped 10 lbs already. I started at 336 lbs and on monday I weighed in at 326 lbs. This Tuesday I will be heading down to Los Angeles and getting body fat testing in a water tank (the most accurate body fat testing method available). I will also be testing my VO2 max as well as my resting metabolic weight. Once I return from the trip I will post my results and at the end of the twelve weeks I will return in order to get comparison results. I am very excited to see where I stand and then what kind of improvements I can make over the next 11 weeks!
At the beginning of my blog today I mentioned that this week has been full of triumps ans defeats. And there was a great defeat indeed, but it was not a failure with diet or training. It happened sunday in Green Bay when my Green Bay Packers lost by a field goal to the NY Giants in OT. It was a sad day in Packer Town to be sure. Rest in Peace GB.
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