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I have to admit, I’m really enjoying the weight lifting routine.  I had a rough day at work yesterday and just wanted to unleash some aggression somewhere.  I had some errands to run beforehand because my car was ready at the body shop.  So I had to go turn in the rental car and go get my car.  I thought the rental car guy was going to kill us all when he drove me over to the body shop.  That dude is a maniac.

Anyway, I get to Roger’s house and he was still messing around with making some deer jerky.  So I head down to the basement to warm up and stretch.  I was still pretty sore from Monday’s workout.  After some stretching, I decided to beat around on his heavy bag a bit.  That really works up a good sweat in no time.  I was really trying to get the soreness out more than anything at that point.

Once we started lifting, I did pretty good.  I wrote down all the weights I used last time, so this workout was more efficient and a lot smoother.   I was OK with everything until those last 2 exercises, the shoulder press and lat raises.   By that time, I was bushed.  We had made it a point to whip through the routine without much rest.  Roger is in much better shape than myself, so he did good.  I made it through the end, but I was hating life those last 2 exercises.  However, after we were done and I had a little chance to rest, I was OK.  I even put in 30 minutes on the treadmill for good measure.

When I got home, I was beat.  I took the dog out for a walk while my dinner cooked.  Once I got back to the house, I was done for the evening.  I sit down on the couch and pretty much couldn’t move from there.  Eventually I made it to the bed.

—–

In other news, I have to go grocery shopping tonight.  I’m going to the good grocery store so I can load up on some veggies.   I struggle with eating my veggies.  I’ve never been a big fan.  However, there are plenty that I have never tried too.  Who knows what I’ll end up with.

One thing I want to make sure to get, though, is tuna.  I don’t know why I’ve never liked tuna in the past.  I don’t guess I’ve ever really given it much of a chance.  My Mother gave me a can the other day and I enjoyed it.  It’s an extremely efficient meal for lunchtime.  I’ll probably be packing tuna for the next week or so.

Cross Posted on The Anti-Jared

I am not big on writing about current events. I usually do not talk about politics, or the world economy, or anything going on in Hollywood. The truth is, I am not very good at it. My brother is good at that kind of stuff, I am good at taking the same idea and re-writing it 3,989 times. Yes, it is usually about weight loss.
So I guess this blog entry ties in with both. I have gotten some emails that I should give Oprah advice. Are you serious!!! Me, advice for Oprah!
Now, I have been reading a lot of bloggers writing about Oprah, and her weight gain.
Truth be told, I do not read O Magazine, nor do I watch the show that often.

The last time I watched Oprah, it cost me money because we made our house energy efficient. The other time was “Oprah’s favorite thing-a ma-bobby’s” which cost me more money. Oprah costs me money.

Anyway, my wife loves her, as do so many people in America.Heck, I love her too. She is great! Her show is well produced, and she has some fantastic topics on her show (Per my wife). She is the definition of inspiration!
So recently, or for a little while, Oprah has been gaining a couple of pounds. 40 to be exact. She was a fit 160, and now she is 200 pounds. She does not look bad, but there is a difference in her pictures.
Anyway, everyone in the blog world wants to chime in on her loss, and give her tips and advice.They want to be superstars by saying what she did wrong, and what she can do to fix herself. I read a blog where the author wanted to give Oprah hope. One other blogger wrote that she knew how she could help Oprah lose weight. So here is my opinion:

I have none!

That is right. Who am I to give Oprah advice. Actually, who is anyone to give Oprah advice. We are all struggling with weight loss (I have busted my rump to still weigh 23.4 pounds more than Oprah!) and eating right. Since when did everyone become such an expert! We do not know what it is like to live her life….

Wait, there is someone who knows!

There is hope for Oprah!

I have two words for you, girlfriend!!!!

Ricki Lake!

That is right. Ricki has lost 125 pounds through hard work, and eating right (and something called “Fresh Dining”). She had a pretty successful talk show, although everyone was kicked to the curb on her show (I still love the theme song…doooooo,do,do,do!)
She looks great, and she stays busy. She has been struggling with weight loss for 20 years (Like Oprah). She was 260 pounds at one time (Oprah was 240). Ricki even had a baby, and still dropped a few afterward.
She could give Oprah some advice.

I couldn’t. Oprah still has kept off more weight that I have.

Cross posted on waste the waist

Another day, another no drop on the scale. And I was good yesterday! I tracked my calories and didn’t overindulge! I went to the gym! Bah. Bodies are just funny that way I guess. It’s kind of sweet to micromanage me when I’m losing on the daily, but when I gain or like today I have no change? Weaksauce.

Last night I got almost all my Xmas shopping done. Yay! I love giving gifts to people, so I really like shopping for others, thinking about them, what they might want. It’s fun. Strangely, I *hate* receiving gifts. I always have these weird reactions. Maybe I didn’t always, but at some point I guess I did, then I became self-conscience about it and now I just hate getting stuff. I feel like a weirdo when I open the package. Am I alone with this? Is this common? I’ve never discussed it with anyone, so I don’t know if this is just one of my many idiosyncratic characteristics or if it’s more common than I’m aware.

I was up late because of the shopping and doing a bit of freelance work on the side, so I fell asleep hard at 11. Getting up on time was quite the chore this morning, but I made it into the gym and got a good arm day done. I was on the elliptical machine and felt something weird in my right knee at around the 15-minute mark. Don’t know what it was, but after I got off the machine I had a slight limp. Thankfully it went away in the next 10 minutes or so. Then we were doing some standing curls and we used a machine to do them. We used the straight-bar attachment that we normally use for reverse curls, and I found that it was a bad call. The straight bar forced me to over-rotate my wrists - turns out there’s a reason that standard curl bars have the 45° kinks in them. So by the third set, my wrists felt strained. Next time? Curl bar attachment.

I think that’s it for today - be well.

Cross Posted at The Anti-Jared

I am passionate about music.

I have never been the kind of person who “loves” an artist. My brother loves Bruce Springsteen, my Mom loves Elvis, and my wife loves Madonna. There is no artist that I love. I do, however, love certain songs. They put me in a place in the past, or they remind me of a place I want to be in the future. here are some examples:

“Lost in Emotion” Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam- This song reminds me of being an eleven year old, 200+ guy at the seventh grade dance, standing on the side of the gym not dancing.

“This is How We Do It” Montell Jordan- This was the song I heard the first time I lifted weights. I was bench pressing 95 pounds, and could not lift it off of me. My friends were laughing.

“Cats in the Cradle” Harry Chapin- How I will always be there for my family, just like my Dad was there for me.

“Walking in Memphis” Marc Cohn- My brother Joe told me that I would like this song. I always idolized my brother, so it did not matter if I really did like it or not, I was going to like it because he told me I would like it.The good thing is he was right, I really did like it.

“Smack That” Akon- Okay, so this song does not motivate me at all!
Is it me, or has Akon made every single song in 2008. Every song is sung by, featuring, or remixed by Akon. Also, is he the same person as T.I. and T-Pain.

My favorite song of all time is Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror”.
Ever since I heard that song when it came out twenty years ago, I loved it. I liked the beat, and at the time, the “King of Pop” was cool. Well, he was starting to become weird, but to a chubby teenager, he was cool.
I was reminded of that song today when I was at the gym. I was working out, when I looked in the mirror, and saw someone that I have never seen before next to me. He was working out hard, and wearing the same stupid black had that I was wearing.
That guy was me!
For the first time ever, I did not recognize myself. I looked good! I looked confident. I was not the same person that I was before. I was thinner, and did not look 33 years of age.
I have heard people tell me I have lost weight, and I look better, but sometimes it goes in one ear and out the other. It is not to be mean, but sometimes it is hard to believe.
Today I believed it. For the first time in nine months, I saw a huge difference! When I saw myself, I thought of the first lyric of “Man in the Mirror”:

“I’m gonna make a change, for once in my life”

That is exactly what I did. I finally did the impossible. I have been diligent with eating and working out. I have made a commitment, a true full commitment.
For once, I truly made it. Who knows, maybe one day I will be on those talk shows talking about my weight loss. Or I will have a 30 minute infomercial about a piece of workout equipment, or I will be a district manager for WW, or some other weight loss company.

I am not sure about that. I was working out to hard to ask the man in the mirror.

I managed to lose 1.5 pounds this week. I,ve been working a lot of hours and my eating has gone to shit. Oddly I was hoping for a gain this week, something small to shock me back in to eating the way I did in the start. I need to go back to salads for lunch and a light home cooked dinners. I guess as long as I am losing I am going something right, right?

Start weight - 298lbs
Current weight - 271lbs
Last weight - 272.5lbs
Lost this week - 1.5lbs
Total lost - 27lbs

Posted by:

Jim Bradley http://huskyhiker.com

Chat: Google Talk: jimbradley AIM: kaboomcult

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This is cross-posted at Waste the Waist.

One of the things that goes with writing this blog daily is being accountable. To myself. Sometimes when I have an off day scale-wise, I’m tempted to not post. Such is my situation today. However! It is days like today that I realize I need to post the most. I need to be honest with myself (and honest with all six of you who read this - thanks!).

The thing is, it’s not really bad. I’m only up three-tenths of a pound today. It’s nothing. For all I know, it’s a full bladder or a stool on the way.

But I know it’s not.

Yesterday I had a Mountain Dew on my way to work. 210. Then for lunch I skipped the salad and got a sandwich. Only 100 calories more than the salad, but fewer vegetables. 620. And then I got an apple for 80, and *then*… I was feeling like a little something sweet, as if the apple isn’t sweet enough. I poked my head into the bakery and found a pastery with some blueberry danish thing. I’m guessing in the neighborhood of 400. Then a small fruity coffee for 450. That’s 1760 and I’m not even home yet! For dinner I did a 12″ Club from Subway (640, though with cheese and mayo I’m thinking somewhere around 900-1000). Then I got two waters, and a bag of Doritos - 280.

So… 2940 calories yesterday. I believe that my basal metabolic rate is about 2500. So I created a caloric deficit of… plus 440. Lol! I did my workout, which should be around 400 calories burned, but still… I waaaay overindulged.

Today I’ve had a Mountain Dew (210), an apple (80) some terrible sushi (300) and a coffee (450). That’s 1040 so far today. I’ve also had 24 ounces of water. Tonight I’ll have a sandwich and water. I should be right around 2k for the day, and with the 400 calories burned this morning I should be in a good place tomorrow.

Daily vigilance people! I hate that I’m a scale slut, but at the same time when I see an uptick it serves as a nice early-warning sign that I’m not paying as much attention as I need to be. And in retracing yesterday’s steps, I see where I bonked. I’m not beating myself up over it, but I’m aware of what’s going on so now I’m able to course-correct before things get too terribly out of whack.

Cross posted on The Anti-Jared

I had a few extra minutes today, so I decided to go to Weight Watchers to weigh in before work.I couldn’t make it to my normal meeting yesterday, so I did everything I could to go to the one today.
I had a good week with eating and working out, but for some reason I just had this feeling that I gained weight this week. I have had this feeling before, and not sure why, but this week I was SURE that I gained a couple of pounds.
So I went to the “Tuesday Edition” of WW, to see a whole new class of 100 year old women. None of them knew who I was, which in a way was kind of cool.
I went up to the leader, and handed her my little booklet and card. It is like the passport of points! I was not to excited to get weighed in, but mainly because I have been so worn out from
work. I really did not care if I gained, I would just work harder.

I got on the scale, and the leader said “Okay, you can get down now.”

Now, at WW, the leader/receptionist is the only one that can see the weight. You don’t even get to see it. You just get to hear it from the person behind the desk. They tell you how much you have lost, usually in this fashion:

“Wow, 4 pounds lost. That is great, but remember that 4 pounds is not normal every week!”

“1.6 pounds lost, right on track, fantastic”

If you gain, you hear:

“Okay, you can get down now” (Otherwise known as gaining a couple)

So she said this, and was still typing away. She did not tell me how I did at all, which was the first time that this has happened TO ME at a WW meeting. Finally, I said “So how much did I gain?”

The leader, who was not so nice, sighed and said:

“Well, you only lost .2 pounds.”

What??? Let me get this straight. I have gotten beaten up for losing to much weight each week. now I am getting beaten up for not losing enough?
I am supposed to be disappointed for a loss? I do not care, nor have I ever cared how much I lose, as long as I lose, or maintain.
Then I realized something, and that is so many people get so frustrated for “small” losses. I have never been that way. I read a blog about someone who was so mad that he lost 10 pounds in three months. He lost 10 pounds! He should be disappointed if he gained 8 pounds in a month, or 3 pounds in two months.
Why would anyone be disappointed in any loss? Let me tell you, it is still a proud moment when you can tell someone that you are meeting your goals, and you lost .2 pounds in a week!
I have lost 197 pounds this year, but I would be just as content if I lost 20 pounds, or 100 pounds. The reason being is because of the lifestyle change I have. How I am active, and I have a new passion for living. I have told people I am happy now, and if I maintain for the rest of my life, I will be content.
After my weigh in, the leader gave me some books on the new WW program called Momentum. I am sure you have heard about this, so I am not going to bore you any more about it. The leader told me “You will like the new plan, it has more flexibility!”

Nah! Not for me! I liked the plan that helped me lose .2 pounds this week! I think it is called “Kind of Core with a F-Factor Twist.”

Cross Posted on Pick on the Fat Kid

I’m sick of winter already.  I’m not even sure it’s here yet (isn’t it the 21st or something?).  However, it seems like every day I’m walking in some sort of precipitation.  Last week I dealt with snow and ice.  This week, more ice, lots of rain.  Last night, it was huge gusts of wind and rain.  I’m really looking forward to the day I get home from work, walk outside and see sunshine.  That’s a few months away though.  For now, I’d be happy to walk outside and see the stars.  No rain, no snow, no ice.  Hell, I can deal with the temperature.  I’m not picky

Despite my bad luck with the weather lately, I’m not going to let it stop me.  I refuse to make it an excuse.  I refuse to make excuses for anything to do with this journey.  I’ve always been one to use “time” as an excuse not to exercise.  This seems to be pretty common amongst other people I talk to as well.  “I’d exercise if I had the time” or “As soon as I’m done with XXXX, I’ll start exercising”.  I’ve used those excuses myself many times in the past.

When you actually start breaking down your day, it’s really not hard to find time to exercise.  It really doesn’t require any creativity, just a little sacrifice.  Think about it: how many millions of Americans never seem to have time to exercise, yet have the time to watch American Idol every week.  You never miss an episode of Lost? Me either :)  Why is it that we don’t have time to exercise, yet we have the time to drop everything and sit in front of the TV for an hour?  Finding time to exercise is more psychological than anything.

I’m still finding time to watch my favorite TV shows.  I still find time to play poker.  I still find time to hang with my friends and family.  I’ve just been able to break that psychological barrier in my brain that allows me to MAKE time to exercise.  My normal work day is 9 hours long (1 hour for lunch).  Plus I have a 2 hour commute (1 hour each way).  So it takes me 11 hours out of the day to work 8.  Subtract 7-8 hours for sleep and I’m not left with much.  However, I still find the time.

I’ll admit, it was tough at first.  However, my brain has reprogrammed itself somewhere along the way the past few weeks to just do it.  First thing after work, I grab the puppy’s leash and hit the trail.  I also have another trick up my sleeve that I’m going to start using on Wednesdays to get my walk in.  1 hour lunch! Who needs an hour to eat a turkey sandwich or a piece of chicken?  I have plenty of places to walk around the office.  I’m going to start going to the airport and walking around there.  Hopefully the TSA guys don’t think I’m some fat terrorist.

The bottom line is that I’m done with excuses.  Excuses don’t help me do anything.  They just help me rationalize for not doing something.  If I don’t accomplish something, then there’s no need for an excuse.  I’ll learn my lesson and move on. 

It’s been 2 1/2 years going to Weight-Watchers and I had hoped to be further along than I am now. I think I may be beating myself up too much, but I had thought I was doing good this week. Then I recall the dinner with family on Saturday night, lunch on Sunday at Cantina Laredo, etc. However, I don’t think that is all.

Weight-Watchers began a new program which combines the Flex plan and the Core plan into one, bringing together the best of both plans. So now I’m back to tracking points, but the emphasis is to eat more filling foods (foods that were on the core list), whole grains and lean meats. It’s been a while since I’ve tracked points, but I think I need to jumpstart this whole thing again.

And that brings me to what I was saying at first, I believe part of my problem was my activity points. You see, doing exercise allows you to “bank” additional points to be used in that day. I am almost certain I have not been using my points on those days (sometimes getting in a good run makes me want to be better in my food choices and so I don’t eat as much). Essentially, I may have been putting my body into starvation mode without realizing it.

For example, my run on Monday was 1 full hour of high-intensity (for me) running. I sweat the whole time. Based on the Activity Points slide rule, that gave me an additional 13 points to use that day. That is a LOT of points. I know I was watching what I ate on Monday for the most part and didn’t consume nearly that many points.

The other problem is that on the core plan, you are limited on the food choices and I have a difficult time sticking to just the items I should eat. Unfortunately, I was cheating a lot on the plan, because I had convinced myself that I was doing core and was just using my 35 weekly points sparingly. In some ways, I was keeping my body on a roller-coaster.

No more. Tomorrow is the beginning of the new program and I plan on sticking to it. Amy, my wife, is also looking forward to something new. We got our farmer’s co-op delivery today and have some new vegetables we have not actually purchased on our own willingly. Now that we have paid for them, we will figure out a way to use them (I’ve never cooked eggplant so that will be a challenge).

As for the Sugar Strike, I’ve been slacking a lot. It sounds like I’m contradicting my earlier statements about starving myself, but it’s only because one day is starvation and then the next is excess (”after all, I did really good the day before so I deserve a treat”). I’m going to limit my sugars to the Skinny Cow treats we bought this evening and that is it for the next week. I’m not putting back on another 7 pounds or more just like I did over a month ago. I refuse.

We now return to our regularly scheduled Sugar Strike now continuing (after a slight unintentional hiatus) for week four. Below is a list of this past week’s daily journey entries:

• Wednesday, Dec 3rd
• Thursday, Dec 4th
• Friday, Dec 5th
• Monday, Dec 6th
• Tuesday, Dec 7th

Starting weight: 319.0 lb
Previous weight: 268.0 lb
Current weight: 270.6 lb
Current loss/gain: +2.6 lb
Total loss/gain: -48.4 lb
Distance to 60: 11.6 lb
Distance to WW Goal: 20.6 lb

Cross-posted to WebCudgel.com

Cross Posted on Pick on the Fat Kid

Last night, I did my first weight training program.  Adam set me up a workout to get started with.  The idea was to do 12-15 reps, 3 sets of each of the exercise with only a minute or so in between sets.  Sort of a circuit type thing I guess.  Whatever it was, I really broke the sweat and today, I can really tell I worked out hard yesterday.  I’m not what you would call sore, just my chest, triceps, biceps, and shoulders feel like they don’t want to cooperate today.  Washing my hair this morning was tough.  I had to dip my head down and meet my hands half-way

The best part of the whole deal is that I have my best friend, Roger to work out with.  In fact, I’m working out in his basement.  He has several benches, a ton of free weights, various bars, dumbbells, and a multi-function machine where we did the Pec Deck, Lat Pull Downs, Tricep pushdowns,  and a Machine press.  It does other stuff, but I believe that’s all we did on that machine.

My buddy Roger has been lifting for several years, but then had not been doing it the past year or so.  He just finished up his schooling and wanted to get back into it, so we decided to work out together.  I made it over to his house before he was ready, so I figured I’d better start stretching.  That would keep me from getting sore!  I also banged around on the heavy bag for a few seconds to get a sweat started.

The actual weight training went well.  Having lifted before, I knew that good form is better than a big ego.  So I focused on using good form with the exercises as opposed to seeing how much weight I could fling around.  I did have some problems selecting the right weight.  I always did a warm-up set with very little weight and to get a feel for the exercise.  I had a good idea of what weight I was using doing these exercises several years ago.  However, that really didn’t fly here because I am definitely weaker now than I was.  I tried to select a weight that made that 12th-13th rep difficult to do.  On most of the exercises, I was able to get the first two sets in with 12-15 reps, but the 3rd set I struggled.

One thing I also did was try to only rest 1 minute in between sets/exercises.  This kept my heart pumping the entire time (and the sweat dripping).  The time also flew by.  All in all, I had a blast and can’t wait to do it again.  My plan is to do this 3 times a week.  Right now, it’s looking like Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays are my best options.