My Three Part Workout Revisited

Well I’m a month into the whole fitness thing and it is time to revisit my three part workout routine that I decided to try out. Overall I have been pleased with the results of this routine, I’ve just gotten bored with only 3 exercises to do. Thus the reason why I have departed from it quite a bit over the past 2 weeks. It is still good workout that I am able to do from home fairly simply and quickly. And it still tires me out switching between Push ups and Sit ups so often. I have failed to see the results I would have liked to from this simple workout though, I guess it just goes to show that simplicity although a good thing will not always get you to the end. So what are my feelings on it. Well I would say that it is definitely a good starting workout for someone who is just getting back into fitness as it does work the total body to the point of exhaustion. But I wouldn’t recommend it for more than a few weeks as I have stopped to seeing increasing strength from it as I did for those first two weeks. Since then I have basically plateaued in my strength and endurance. So I would recommend it for anyone who is beginning to get themselves back into shape. And even as a quick workout when you have no other options (after all something is better than nothing). But this should not be the core of anyone’s workout for a long duration of time. Myself I’m going to keep this as a part of the core of my exercise while adding in more exercises to help round out my workouts to take advantage of my full range of motion in my joints and better strengthen all my muscle groups.

Friday May 30, 2008

I had a good day on Friday. I didn’t get in a workout as I would have liked to, but I got my exercise in during training for work. We had to do Haz-Mat training which involved us spending a good portion of the day in full chemical suits while performing different physical activities. So I definitely got some exercise and sweated more than I should have. Of course during lunch I ate my fill to restore some energy which had been sapped from my body by this time. And after class I went for 2 mile hike that rejuvenated my spirits.

Breakfast – Breakfast Shake & Multi Vitamin

Lunch – Tuna Kit, Apple, single serving bag of chips, 2 cookies

Dinner – Pork chop, 1/2 black beans and Brown Rice, and 1/3 corn

Cigarettes – 10 (It is proving much more difficult to drop 2 cigarettes a day than the initial 10.)

Thurday May 29, 2008

I had a productive day of rest. No formal exercise, nor formal dieting. I just let my body have a day of rest today and caloric refueling. I didn’t realize how much I had put my body through the past few days till I woke up this morning completely sore and stiff.

Brunch – Biscuit with saw mill gravy, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup grits, a slice of country ham

Dinner – 9 oz Lamb sirloin, 1/2 cup herb mashed potatoes, 1/2 cup mixed sauted vegetables

Cigarettes – 8 (right on target today)

Tomorrow I will be making up for the caloric binge I had today as I have 8 hours of training inside of a Chemical suit to perform. In case you are unaware a chemical suit makes you sweat even more than a suana suit because you are completely sealed in from head to toe and their is absolutely no air movement into or out of the suit, which means the more you sweat the hotter you get so therefore the more you sweat. FYI. The weather forecast is Sunny with a High of 89F. Every year we end up with at least 1 person falling out from dehydration during this training class. I just hope it’s not me this year.

Wednesday May 28, 2008

It has been an insanely busy day at work, only another 10 hours till this 36 hour shift is over. I wasn’t able to get any type of good workout in today due to being so busy and although I did get in a few reverse Crunches and push ups in between lifting and carrying heavy people all day. I’m exhausted right now. Meals weren’t the best today as I didn’t have a lot of time or choices.

Breakfast – Chicken Fillet Biscuit Combo from Bojangles

Lunch – Personal sized pizza with salami, pepperoni, and Italian sausage

Dinner – 8 oz lasagna

Snack – single serving pack of oreo cookies

cigarettes – 9

Hopefully I will have a chance to get in a good workout tomorrow, since I missed one today.

Tuesday May 27, 2008

I had a good day today. I got to spend the majority of it with my lovely daughter before getting to work to begin a 36 hour shift. Eating went well for the most part, I did have a small indulgence with dinner though. And I got in a decent workout once I made it in to work tonight.

Breakfast – 1/2 cup cereal with 1/2 cup 2% milk & Multi Vitamin

Lunch – Tried one of the Hormel Completes (Meatloaf) but I couldn’t even get half way through it do to the high salt content, and the crappy meat (tasted like cat food) so I had a single burrito with beef, peppers, onions, rice, black beans, and a little cheese on a whole wheat tortilla.

Dinner – 6 inch Chicken Onion Teriyaki Sub from Subway and 2 peanut butter cookies.

Snack (After workout) 1/2 cup trail mix

Cigarettes – 9 (Cutting back to 8 is going to be pretty difficult for the first few days I fear.)

Exercise – 30 Minutes on Recumbent Bike, 10 Push ups, 20 (painful) reverse crunches, 25 jumping jacks (had to cut it short again due to work)

I returned to pull up bar I had purchased last week today realizing that I would be better off picking up a different style that I could carry with me to work and home, but when I went to get the new one after returning the old one they had none. Guess I’ll have to look around some more to find the style I’m looking for.

Surprisingly I’m not terribly sore today as I normally am on Tuesdays after going through my weekly fitness trials on Mondays.

Fitness Goals for the Week of May 26, 2008

Well here we are 1 month in and my health has improved overall. I’m sleeping better, I have less problems with heartburn, my weight is down, and my strength and energy levels are way up. I would definitely say that this little experiment has been a complete success, despite the pitfalls I have experienced up to this point. Now lets see how I did this week…

Well there you have it. I didn’t make my weight goal for the week, but at least the weight moved in the right direction this week. I almost made my push up goal, an increase of 24 push ups in a month is astounding to me. And I didn’t have the chance to finish my run, thanks to work. Unfortunately I don’t have access to a treadmill anywhere but here, and that will be changing next week, so I will have to come up with something else to fill in for the running. My smoking has decreased nicely, so much so that I’m not nearly as obsessed with trying to conserve my cigarettes for the day, I’m just naturally smoking less, its a good thing.

So My Goals for next week are this…

• Lose 3 pounds to bring my weight down to 194 pounds overall
• Push ups – 35
• Running (if I have access to a treadmill) – 25 minutes
• Reverse Crunches (new exercise) – 25
• Smoking – No more than 8 per day

So there it is. Increase my strength and endurance a bit more. Reduce my smoking and weight a bit more. And add in a new exercise as well. I’m going with the reverse crunches because I’ve been experiencing a small amount of neck and shoulder strain with regular crunches and sit ups despite my best effort not to move my head and neck during the exercise, so I’m going to use the reverse crunch to help prevent this from continuing on. The reason I am uncertain as to if I will have access to treadmill next week (or any other time soon) is because with my job we transfer to different stations ever 3 months or so and I will be transferring to a Float position which means that every day at work I could be some place different. So I have no idea where i will be stationed at until the day before my duty shift. I just hope that I will be able to have internet access and a treadmill so that I will be able to keep you all updated properly.

Monday May 26, 2008

I had a good day today. I ate a bit extra to give my body a calorie boost before my weekly fitness trials. (Those went well by the way.) Work has been busy today, so it did interfere with my fitness trials, but thats what I get for doing this while I’m at work.

Breakfast – 1/2 cup cereal with 1/2 cup 2% milk & Multi Vitamin

Snack (more like a second breakfast really) – Ham Biscuit and a Bo Berry Biscuit from Bojanges.

Lunch – 6 inch Roast Beef Sub on Wheat from Subway

Snack – 1/2 Cup Trail Mix

Dinner – Pint of Lo Mein from local Chinese Take out place (mix of Chicken, beef, pork, and Shrimp)

Cigarettes – 11 (I had too many today. I’m not proud of this at all. And will make my goal for next week all the more difficult.)

Exercise – I performed my weekly fitness tests with push ups (knocked out 29 before my arms gave out, and did 2 other sets of 15 throughout the day) & running (until work forced me to stop early despite the fact I know I could have made it) went well. If I have a chance I may get up a video sometime this week of me doing my full 20 Minutes of running.

Play don’t Work out

Do you remember when you were a kid and you could eat all you wanted and never gain an ounce in weight? And adults would always tell you to enjoy your fast metabolism while you have it as it will catch up to you when you get older. I certainly remember those days, and how I thought they were all lying to me. Well now I understand that they were, partially. They didn’t know the truth behind things. My metabolism has slowed down, not because I got older, but because I’m not nearly as active now as I was then. No longer do I spend my days riding my bike around town, running through the woods with friends, or climbing trees. Instead I have traded in my youthful vigor for a more mature lethargy. I was speaking with a good friend of mine about this one day and we came to the realization that the reason we were not over weight when we were younger is because of the things we did such as riding bikes, playing ball, climbing trees, and so on. Instead now we drink high fat lattes and play video games. So my advice to you, and I will follow it as well is this:

Stop Working Out! Go and Play instead.

If you enjoy what your doing you will be more apt to continue doing it. On a recent vacation I decided I would swim a few laps in the pool as I always enjoyed swimming. I have gotten in such bad shape that I could barely make it across a 20 foot pool once before I ran out of steam. (I haven’t been in a pool in nearly 10 years.) I use to spend nearly every day in a pool swimming laps for hours, because I enjoyed it. Now I’m looking at joining the local YMCA so that I can have access to a pool consistently, because despite the fact that it was exhausting to swim what little I did I still enjoyed it. So stop working out, after all the word “work” is in there and we all know that work is bad. Think back on the things you loved to do as a child and start doing them again. Go to the park and climb on the monkey bars. Get in a pick up game of what ever sport you enjoyed playing, act like your Joe Montana again. Play Cowboys and Indians, or freeze tag, or what ever else with your kids in the yard. Go for a hike in the woods. Take up rock climbing. The point is to get out side and get moving and have fun while your doing it. You’ll be surprised at how much better exercise you will get without realizing how long you’ve been at it. No counting reps, or concentrating on your form, just you having fun.

Now I don’t mean to do this only and not get in a good workout several times a week. But think of this as your daily exercise and your workouts as your excuse to have another slice of cheese cake.

Sunday May 25, 2008

I had a decent day today for my diet. I had an extremely light day for exercise to let my muscles recover from the big workout I had yesterday.

Brunch – 2 eggs, 1/2 cup grits, 5 oz Sirloin steak, 2 slices of toast

Snack – 1/4 cup trail mix

Dinner – Seafood platter from local restaurant with 2 slices trout, 5 shrimp, 3 deviled crabs, fries and hush puppies.

Cigarettes – 8

Just did a few push ups and jumping jacks today to keep myself limber. We’ll find out tomorrow how I’ve done this week. I hope better results than last week.

Saturday May 24, 2008

I had a great day today, both for diet and for exercise. I tried having a small snack a half hour before my workout today to help boost my energy level throughout and it seemed to work great for me.

Breakfast – 1/2 Cup Cereal with 1/2 cup 2% milk & Multi vitamin

Lunch – Corned Beef Ruben on Rye

Pre-workout snack – 1/2 cup trail mix

Dinner – 1/2 cup pulled Pork with French fries, potato salad, & hush puppies

Cigarettes – 10 (I swear work causes me to smoke more)

I got in a great workout today involving treadmill, recumbent bike, some weights and calisthenics. I’m not certain that I will make all of my fitness goals this week either, although I am feeling better
about myself and my progress this week.