I hope your workouts went as well this week as mine did. They were very challenging and sweat inducing, that much I can tell ya. As you’ll see I’ve been favoring Circuit Training again this week. It may seem like I’m in a bit of a rut but I don’t think I am … yet. Because circuits are constantly changing during the entire routine my body is forced to adapt. Another thing to note is that I’ve been rotating through two different circuit routines and I’m investigating adding more, maybe even P90X soon.
This Past Week
Here’s what my workouts looked like this past week.
- Saturday, Morning (65 min)
- 15 min 1 rep max upper body weights, 25 min running on treadmill @ 5.0 mph, 5 min walking @ 3.0, 10 min stationary bike > 100 rpm, 10 min elliptical. It felt great to run again but that night my right shins were really sore and made it hard to walk. OH the joys of overweight running, am I right?
- Sunday, Morning (55 min)
- 25 min high resistance on the ARC trainer, 10 min stationary bike high resistance > 100 rpm, 10 min on Nortic Track incline trainer ~40% incline @ 2.5 – 3 mph. I wanted to run today but my shins were still bothering me so instead I pushed it on the ARC and tried the new incliner trainer, it was fun.
- Monday, Evening (40 min)
- 5 min warmup, 25 min circuit training, 10 min upper body circuits. I had a lot of trouble even working out tonight, I was in a lazy mood. Instead of giving up though, I thought of my Wednesday weigh-in and all of the progress I’ve made. That motivated me to move my butt and do the workout.
- Tuesday, Evening (35 min)
- 35 min of upper body weights. I did 6 sets of 12, 10, 8, 6 of one movement/body part to failure with <60 seconds of rest followed by a superset of 12, 12 of the same body part but a different movement with no rest between those sets. I did the entire upper body including chest, shoulders, back, triceps, and biceps.
- Wednesday, Morning (50 min)
- 5 min warmup, 45 min circuit training (6 exercises * ~30 seconds * repeat twice * 7 different circuits). I skipped the cool down as I was running a bit behind schedule.
- Thursday, Off Day
- Nada, zero, zippo exercise today.
- Friday, Morning (50 min)
- 5 min warmup followed by 45 min of circuit training. I really like working out on my free meal day. It makes me feel less guilty of that meal.
So I did pretty good this week … there were no major snafus in terms of workouts. I did have trouble hitting my running goal I set last week though (I wanted to run on Saturday and Sunday). Saturday went really well but as you can see Sunday my shins were really sore so rather than make them worse I decided to not push it. It wasn’t the kind of pain that required pushing through. It was the kind caused by overweight running stressing my body … I knew to not push it.
My other goal of the the 20/20/20 commercial exercises was half successful as in I did it about half of the time I was watching TV. Something is better than nothing right?
Goals for next week
Since I’m participating in the Weekend Warrior Challenge I’ve already set the goal of running 2.5 miles this weekend so there’s that.
I also want to set the goal of doing a hardcore lower body weight workout. I notice I’ve been favoring my upper body in the past few weeks. I use lower a lot in the circuit training but I don’t want to ignore the lower in terms of weight training. So I’m going to change-up one of my weekend weight training sessions to a hardcore lower body session.
That’s about it … have you set your fitness goals for next week?
I thought it would be helpful and fun to make a new blog entry every Friday about the things I learned or want others to learn in health & fitness. Things that’ve helped me through the week, month, or years. I’m calling it Learn(ed) Fitness Friday, or LFF for short.
So lets get to a few things that hit home for me this week.
- Constant change is good
- The past few weeks I’ve been constantly changing up my workouts. As a result my muscles are often sore, I’ve yet to be bored with my workouts, and I’ve had some really great losses every week (averaging over 3 pounds per week). Forcing those adaptation responses by your body by constantly confusing it really works.
- Don’t wait until you your in that rut to change your workouts. By that point you’ll already be frustrated, confused, and may even be ready to give up.
- Planning is your crutch
- This week was very busy at work and home … crazy deliverables on projects and preparing for our new sons arrival is quite draining. As a result I’ve been tired each and every night. I’ll be honest, it was hard enough working out. Had I not planned the meals and workouts for each day I’m certain I would have been forced to make some hard restaurant based decisions. That decreased temptation meant the healthy decisions I made by planning paid huge dividends.
- It takes time to get it right
- Finding that groove with any life change, especially losing weight and getting healthy, isn’t easy. For me it’s taken years of starting and restarting and restarting and restarting. Every time I’ve failed I’ve tried to learn something and adapt next time. Heck, over time I even made the same mistake multiple times. I’ve perfected failure, there I said it.
- Don’t be afraid of failing, it comes with the territory. If this was easy everyone would lose weight … heck, they’d never gain it in the first place right? Honestly … my failures were almost all due to not planning but it took many failed shortcuts to figure that out.
- Sometimes you need space
- I’ve failed so many times that I’ve grown tired of talking with my family and friends about it. I’m not embarrassed, seriously I’m not. I just need to live it before I want to share it this time. They know I’m working out and losing weight but I don’t think they understand my resolve this time around.
- Smoking stinks
- Last but not least, Charlotte had a rough week trying to exercise near a human smoke stack and lived to tell the story. If you smoke, please do us all a favor … nuke the clothes, take a shower before working out, or take the treadmill in the far corner.
“The difference between a rut and a grave is the depth” — Gerald Burrill
“Failing to plan is planning to fail” — Winston Churchill
“In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.” — Henry Miller
“Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.” — Joseph Campbell
I hope those weren’t too cliché or simpleton. I know they could be seen as generic but they nevertheless were fundamental to helping me through the past few weeks.
If your interested in sharing some of the things you learned this week (or in the past) and want to participate in Learn(ed) Fitness Friday you can do any or all of the following:
- Post a Comment — Just drop on down below and post a comment on something you learned this week. As the list grows I’m going to post some of the best user lessons learned.
- Post on Twitter — Create a tweet using the tag #LFF sharing a lesson you learned. I’ll use some of the best tweets in my weekly post.
- Post on your Blog — On your own site just reference Learn(ed) Fitness Friday and link back to my site, preferably one of the LFF posts.
Did you learn something new this week? Share it with everyone and participate in Learn(ed) Fitness Friday.
Do you set goals? I mean seriously challenging yet realistic weight-loss, health, or life goals?
I been putting a lot of thought into my goals and dreams lately. I’ve been updating my weight-loss timeline with my short, medium, and long term weight-loss goals for the year. I’ve also been trying to update my life goal list with anything and everything I’ve ever wanted to accomplish or experience. You might have seen similar lists over at other blogger sites like Kepa, Mary, or Ann.
It’s always difficult to set goals that keep you motivated over long periods of time. They have to be achievable but not so remedial that you treat them as inconsequential. They should be large enough that they challenge you to grow yet not so large that you can’t ever attain them. It’s also ideal to have a high level of self-efficacy when achieving them.
So many people say they’re going to do something and might even call it a “goal”. Until they actually write it down though, they’re just pissing into a worm hole, unsure where in time and space it might land.
Goals vs. Dreams
So what separates a goal from a dream, or pissing into a worm hole as I call it?
Dreams are things you wish would happen but don’t really control. Goals are things you can achieve by making realistic plans that define how and when you will complete them. This usually entails defining dates and intermediate goals (or milestones) targeted at getting one closer to reaching said goal.
“Goals are the bridges that span our dreams.”
This is one of my favorite quotes ever. It really concisely encapsulates what a goal is in relationship to your dreams. Without this perspective you might never see how goals can be used to achieve your dreams.
You won’t likely find someone who sets a goal to watch TV or answer a ringing cell phone. Instead you set goals that are meaningful and help you to attain or reach something of importance. The most motivating goals are the ones that help us reach our dreams … those things that make us or someone else feel amazing or maybe even experience something completely new and interesting.
Setting Goals
One of my biggest pet peeves is listening to someone say that they want to lose weight and yet they do nothing about it. They’re just pissing into that wormhole again.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been there and hindsight is indeed 20/20. But how can someone expect something like weight loss without putting in any effort?
Instead they should set some goals like losing 15 pounds of weight in 8 weeks by working out 3-4 days per week and eating 5-6 good healthy meals daily. At least then they’d have something to measure their success or failure against and adjust accordingly.
Have you created goals for the next 4 weeks? 12 weeks? 6 months? If so fantastic, if not, why not?
Maybe you need some practice, what if you started out with something small but substantive. How about setting a goal to comment on every fitness blog post you read that hits home or makes you smile? It’s something that will make others feel good, your learning about being healthy & fit, and is easily attainable.
Maybe you envision something larger like setting a goal of running a 5k race in the next 3-6 months. People of all shapes and sizes are able to run races so don’t immediately think no way can I do that. Instead try setting some incremental goals like walking 1 mile @ 3 mph, then bump it to 4 mph, then jogging 1 mile @ 5mph. From there you can bring the distance up and speed back down and move forward in a stair type pattern or you can just increase the distance.
The most important thing to realize is that there is no right an wrong way to set goals, you just have to set them and hold yourself accountable. It’s all about your comfort level with finer or coarser grained goals. Are you comfortable saying you want to lose 10 pounds this month and leave it at that or are you a person who wants to set a week to week goal of 2.5 pounds and adjust from there?
In the end you can’t get it wrong but you have to actually start somewhere. Remember, there is no shame or harm in failing or missing a goal.
“I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.” — Benjamin Franklin
Are you ready to stop pissing into your wormholes?
Before we get to the pants, it’s that time of the week again … the assault of the scale. I’m coming off a few weeks of 3 pounds losses and heading into today @ 315.6 lbs. I’m hoping to continue the trend but mentally also preparing in case I hit a plateau soon.
I had a good week, I’d put my exercise workouts at a 9/10 and my food at a 7/10. The reason the food isn’t higher is because my weekend lunches and dinners still aren’t firing on all cylinders. I always find myself eating something I regret or know I shouldn’t like a baguette from Panera. I know I don’t need or want the calories but damn if they aren’t tasty dipped into their soup.
Anyhow, I digress … on to the numbers. Today I weighed in at 311.4 lbs. That means I’m now down 4.2 lbs for the week and 78.6 (138.6) lbs to date. Nice, much better than I had thought!
Another 11.4 lbs and I hit a pretty huge personal milestone, 300 lbs baby! It’s been something like 15 – 16 years since I weighed that much. I can’t even imagine what it’s going to feel like but I’m extremely excited to be getting closer to it.
Pants on the ground
I was forced, against my will I might add, out of my house this weekend to purchase a new outfit. I usually wear jeans (or sweats) on the weekend since I can’t during the week, damn day job. Anyhow, my wife had finally had enough of my pants falling off me. Despite my belt they were just too big on me, nothing I could do.
So she kicked me out of the house and go buy some new pants, said I had earned them. Off to the Big & Tall store I traipsed in search of a new outfit. What I found upon arriving was surprising and very exciting.
I somehow fit into 44″ pants. Now don’t get me wrong, that’s still big but you have to realize I started out in 58″ pants. You also have to realize that Big & Tall stores start around 44″ and go up from there.
I then realized that the next time I buy clothes it’s highly likely I’ll be able to buy from a mainstream department store like Macys or *gasp* Banana Republic. I haven’t shopped at a normal store in so long I can’t imagine the label not saying “Big & Tall” somewhere on it.
Weekend Warrior Challenge
I figured this would be a good time to announce my participation in Weekend Warrior Challenge by Brandon (@solongfatass). The goal of the challenge is to help us all make it through the weekend without regretting the decisions we made. The weekend is a period of great temptation and relaxation that has killed oh so many weight-loss and fitness dreams.
My goals for this challenge are:
- Lose Weight — Any amount of weight, I’m not picky. It’s important to realize that Friday evening is usually when I partake in my free meal for the week. It’s important that I make healthy decisions the rest of the weekend so that meals doesn’t cascade into the next few.
- Run 2.5 Miles — I’ve been trying to run more but sometimes my body stops me, damn shins. Anyhow, I want to get in at least one running session where I run further than last week which was 2.0 miles @ 5 mph.
I’m excited for the challenge and can’t wait to see how everyone else does. Look for an update next week on how we all did.
This past weekend was full of new food recipes, some good and some bad. I started by planning meals for the week and decided to not just pick one new recipe but to shoot for four. I don’t know what got into me but it was worth a shot and they all sounded good. I was really excited about two of them in particular though, the snacks!
The Good, I Dream of Coconut Balls
They look good don’t they? The Cocoa and Coconut Snacks are what I tackled first and the adage of saving the best for last was completely inverted this weekend. These were the best snack I’ve ever made period. They are just the right combination of sweet and nutty and really satisfy my hunger cravings.
If your slightly shopping dysfunctional, like me, make sure to add some extra time to your trip for finding ingredients like Coconut Oil. Maybe your grocer is more intelligently arranged than mine or maybe you’ve purchased it before. I however had the double whammy of a poorly laid out store and having never even seen what the darn stuff looks like. Funny thing, when I arrived home with the bottle of Coconut Oil my wife mistook it for suntan lotion, I swear.
It even looks like Coppertone doesn’t it? Yes, before you even ask those are indeed plier marks on the bottle. I don’t know what the manufacturer was thinking but I was completely unable to squeeze out the oil from the tiny little spout provided. I put every ounce of muscle I had into squeezing that bottle and barely got 1/2 a Tbsp so I resorted to manly engineering methods.
Note to self — Next time your buying a new ingredient, like Coconut Oil, don’t buy the pretty bottle … instead buy the functional one.
While making the the nut mixture (step 1 mind you) I thought I had messed up … I know, how hard is it to mix nuts right? Seriously the recipe said that after blending the nut mixture to put the powder into a separate bowl.
I don’t know what nuts they bought but my mixture of nuts at that point certainly wasn’t a powder, it was more like a clumpy mess of nut particles. No matter how much I mixed them in the food processor the oil in my nuts was too high to allow them to turn to powder. No worries though, even though they were clumpy they worked out great since they were thoroughly mixed.
One mistake I did make though, other than using pliers, was not making small enough balls. The recipe called for a dozen balls and I doubled the recipe so I was expecting two dozen. I ended up with only 18 which in itself isn’t bad … just be aware that nuts have quite a few calories so my 18 balls come out to about ~200 calories per ball.
Personally I know everything in them is 100% healthy and the fat calories are some of the best you can get (from nuts and coconut oil) so I feel zero guilt eating two of these as a snack.
I did tweak the recipe slightly as I was unable to find any Brazilian nuts at our fancy new ethnically diverse grocery store. Even without them they tasted great so don’t be worried if you can’t find them either.
In short I see this new nutty snack becoming a part of my staple snack regiment and likely will replace any meal bars in the future as well. I just to buy a cleaner pair of pliers to cook with.
The Bad, Garbanzo Gaboring
I’m not sure why but I was very excited about making these Crispy Roasted Chickpeas. I think it’s because I’ve tried chickpeas as a dried snack before and they were pretty tasty, these however turned out to be everything but.
I don’t have any witty or fun stories about this recipe. It went uneventfully and I was really confident while making them that I hadn’t messed anything up. In the end though I was expecting some pop of flavor but was left with a empty dull nothing. Maybe I didn’t let them get crunch enough? That might explain something but certainly wouldn’t explain the lack of flavor. Any ideas what I can change to improve them?
