Weekly Retrospective and Challenges
This weekend is going to be the start of a pretty rough few weeks for me. Today is my daughters second birthday, which means a party of course, and on Monday we’re having our second child. As a lot of you can attest to, your life changes pretty drastically right after any child and I’m sure this one will be no different.
My only goals during the coming weeks is to stay 100% committed and on track with my 6 weekly workouts and 5-6 daily meals. No matter how, I will do it and stay motivated. Food will not become a crutch or excuse under this change.
The last few months of rigor and dedication are now coming to their first test, wish me luck!!
Tools of the trade
I’ve had a few people drop me emails this week asking about the different tools I’ve been using to lose my weight. I put together a list of tools and while I was at it I figured out how to put my whole gym playlist on a single page as well, instead of just the sidebar. I hope you enjoy them … I tried to be as honest as possible when I wrote about each piece of equipment.
This Past Weeks Workouts
I wanted to post my workouts for the week since I’m not sure when I’ll post next. Perhaps I’ll have a few moments on Sunday but there is no telling after that. Anyhow, here were my workouts this week.
- Saturday, Morning (55 min)
- 35 min of lower body weights doing sets of 12, 10, 8, 6 with <1 min break between each followed with a superset of 12 + 12 with no break. I followed that up with 20 minutes of high resistance hills on the ARC trainer. I’m liking this machine, this is my second time using it and its a nice change of pace from the Elliptical
- Sunday, Morning (55 min)
- 30 min running @ 5mph to hit my 2.5 mile running goal for the warrior challenge. I then walked for 5 min and did 10 min of high cadence on the stationary bike at a middle resistance. After then trying elliptical for a few minutes I gave into the foot pain.
- Monday, Morning (50 min)
- 5 min warmup and 45 min circuit training. I was running a bit late this morning so I didn’t do the cool down. I really like the Jillian Michaels DVD I’ve been doing for circuits. It’s challenging and I get a crazy big sweat going by the time I’m finished.
- Tuesday, Morning (40 min)
- 40 min upper body weight training following the normal 12, 10, 8, 6, 12 + 12 pattern. In case you’re wondering this training regiment for weights is inspired by Body for LIFE which I followed exclusively for a number of years. It’s still a great program to learn and get motivation from, I just needed to tweak it to fit my lifestyle.
- Wednesday, Morning (50 min)
- 5 min warmup and 45 min circuit training. I bumped my weights a bit with my circuits going from my 8’s to 10’s. Not a huge change but you have to realize each circuit is 6 min using that weight nonstop.
- Thursday, Morning (50 min)
- I took my two Boston Terriers for a walk this morning. The weather was reasonably warm and they’ve been going nuts being locked up all winter. I got rained on three times but it was a nice walk. It was the first time I’ve worn my Vibram Five Fingers outside and was definitely interesting. Feeling every crack, rock, and bump certainly takes some getting used to.
- Friday, Morning (50 min)
- 5 min warmup and 45 min circuit training. This was my third circuit training exercise for the week and it felt great. I’ve been trying to do all of my cardio workouts at home as circuit training. It has weights, which I really want to grow, and the cardio is so hard I sweat like mad.
I hit my goals last weekend though I wasn’t really happy that I ate bad. In the end it’s about progress not perfection so I really tried to push it the rest of the week. As you can see I decided not to take a day off from working out this week. I figured I’d need the extra momentum going into the coming weeks.
That’s about it … feel free to drop by in the coming weeks to give me a drop of motivation, I know I’ll probably need it.
Congrats on the new baby coming on Monday! Having 2 kids can definitely be a challenge, but lots of fun too. We just had our second in December, and our oldest is almost 2 1/2, so it’s a similar age spread. It can be difficult to find the time to exercise and take care of yourself, especially during those first few weeks. But if you are determined, and can keep yourself motivated, I’m sure you’ll be fine.
Brandon´s last blog ..Challenge updates and other marginalia
Thank, I’m certainly going to give it 100%. My wife is completely behind me so I think that’ll go a long way. Keeping my mind on why I’m doing it and taking care of my family are my #1 priority.
Thanks for the support!
I’m so happy for you. I pray all goes well with the delivery. You will do great these next weeks – you will be so busy that you probably won’t even think about food! Take care – it’s such a special time.
Diane Fit to the Finish´s last blog ..Freezing Can Help You Prepare
Thanks, I hope its goes well … My wife is amazing. I’m going to try to stay on top of the food even if I have to leverage shakes and bars more than a single meal per day.
Good luck with your upcoming challenges but I’m sure you’ll do well. And congrats on the baby arriving tomorrow!!! I myself have three boys close together in age, and it’s so awesome.
Carla´s last blog ..5 things I did right this week
It’s great to get comments from people like you and Diane who have been there done that. It reassures me that I can get through this without falling off. I greatly appreciate your support.