Sunday June 29, 2008 & Monday June 30, 2008

Had a rough couple of days, just glad that I will be able to get some sleep tonight.

Sunday

Breakfast – 1/2 Cup cereal with 1/2 cup Skim Milk

Lunch – Beef Stew with Onions, Carrots, Bell Peppers, and Potatoes

Dinner – Beef Stew with Onions, Carrots, Bell Peppers, and Potatoes

Exercise – Unable due to work being so busy

Cigarettes – (See Monday)

Monday

Breakfast – 3 Eggs, 2 Slices of Bacon, and 2 slices of toast with jam

Lunch – Turkey Bacon Sandwich

Dinner – 2 burritos with Beef, Black beans, Rice and Cheese on Whole wheat tortillas

Exercise – Fitness Trials (50 push ups, 50 Reverse Crunches, 20 Squats, 45 Second Plank, 20 Minutes Intervals)

Cigarettes – 18 (Before you think the worst let me explain. I’m counting all the cigarettes Ive had since I awoke on Sunday Morning as I’m not certain when I had which ones, and I have been awake constantly since then as well. So at 40 hours being awake I have had 18 cigarettes. I’m not proud of it, but I had a serious bit of weakness during my sleep deprivation.)

Saturday June 28, 2008

It was a good day for fitness.

Breakfast – Ham biscuit

Lunch – Arby’s Medium Roast Beef Sandwich Combo

Dinner – Roast Chicken with Brussel Sprouts and Parsnips with sun dried tomato pesto

Cigarettes – 6

Exercise – Moved a fence

Friday June 27, 2008

I had a good day on Friday with good eating and some good exercise as well.

Breakfast – 1/2 Cup Cereal with 1/2 cup fat free milk

Lunch – BBQ pork Sandwich with Baked Beans and Potato Salad

Dinner – Personal sized pizza with Sausage, Onions, and Bell Peppers

Cigarettes – 6

Exercise – 20 Minutes of Interval Running (60 Seconds Running : 60 Seconds Walking)

Thursday June 26, 2008

Had a good day on Thursday, got a little exercise, and ate pretty healthy as well.

Breakfast – 2 egg whites + 1 whole egg, 1 cup oatmeal with blueberries

Lunch – Roasted Chicken with roasted potatoes and Green Beans, and side salad

Dinner – Ham Burger with Baked Fries

Cigarettes – 6

Exercise – 1 1/2 hour walk with daughter

Week of June 23, 2008

It’s been a bit of a rough week. Work has been extremely busy, so I have not been able to get in a single half decent workout while there; I’ve also been sleep deprived while at work as well. So I haven’t felt anywhere near top shape this week. Amazingly I did manage to lose a little weight and I bit of width though.

Well there you have it. I still have not had time to complete my fitness trials for this week. So we are going to call them a bust for now. I will try again next week, hopefully things will go a bit smoother for me. I can’t help but feel like a failure for not finding/making more time for this somewhere along the way. Working 24 hour shifts and spending my off days watching a 2 year old just isn’t terribly conducive to a healthy lifestyle I guess. Just all the more reason for me to work even harder to try keep this up though. As I said in the video, I fear that I have plateaued in my exercise as I have been unable to break the 40 push up barrier despite trying for it for the past 2 weeks. I have to come up with a new strategy to help get myself over this hurdle.

Fitness Goals for the Week of June 23, 2008

• Push ups – 50 total using Stacked Reps (20, 15, 10, 5)
• Reverse Crunches – 50 total using Stacked Reps (20, 15, 10, 5)
• Plank – 30 seconds
• Weight Free Squats – 20
• Cardio – 30 Minutes HIIT (90 seconds High Intensity, 60 seconds rest/low intensity)
• Cigarettes – 6/day (No More)
• Weight loss – Anything so long as it is down

So real quick on the changes and additions I’ve made to my list. I changed my normal running to just straight cardio. Why? Because this way I can use the exercise bike we have at home while my daughter is taking a nap, so I don’t feel like I’m unable to get my exercise done. Planks are the starting position for a push up either with arms fully extended or elbows resting on the ground. (Extremely difficult for me to do at this time.) Squats I’ve added in to assure that I’m not falling behind on my lower body fitness. And I’ve changed my push up and crunch routines. Instead of doing a flat number all the way through I’ve decided to use more of a quasi body builder approach by doing multiple sets of the exercise with decreasing reps through out the sets. I hope that this will help me to get over the plateau I’ve been stuck on for several weeks.

As I promised for anyone interested you can find all the information you want on the 100 Push Up Challenge through their website. It is an interesting idea and given my experience over the past few months a hard one as well.

Wednesday June 25, 2008

I’ve had a decent day today. Unfortunately the best day all week for exercise, which isn’t saying much.

Breakfast – 2 Bacon Biscuits

Lunch – Chick-Fil-A Sandwich Combo

Dinner – Roasted Chicken breast with roasted Potatoes and Green Beans

Cigarettes – 6

Exercise – 1 Hour walk with daughter, 50 push ups total

Tuesday June 24, 2008

Busy day at work = not so good day for fitness

Breakfast – Granola Bar

Lunch – Turkey Sandwich from Jersey Mikes

Dinner – Turkey Sandwich from Panera Bread

Cigarettes – 8

Exercise – Small number of Push ups

Monday June 23, 2008

I had a great day, though not for fitness. Due to my schedule for Monday, this weeks fitness trials post will be pushed back till Wednesday. Sorry.

Breakfast – 2 Egg Whites + 1 whole egg, 2 slices of Bacon, Slice of toast

Lunch – 2 slices of Domino’s Supreme pizza

Dinner – Onion rings with Ranch BBQ dipping sauce, Pulled Chicken BBQ, Baked Beans, Fries, Cup fo Brunswick Stew

Theater – 2 Pints of Killian’s Irish red beer (during CSTS Screening of Serenity)

Cigarettes – 7

Exercise – Resting day

Sunday June 22, 2008

Horribly busy day at work affected my fitness for today. Had an extremely late lunch and was unable to have any snacks what so ever due to such.

Breakfast – 2 eggs, 1/2 cup grits, 4 oz Rib eye steak

Lunch (at 3:30 pm) – Stopher’s Lasagna bake

Dinner – Stir fry with chicken, broccoli, carrots, and onions

Starbucks – Venti Whole Milk Vanilla Latte

Cigarettes – 7

Exercise – Push ups, reverse crunches, 4 suicides (wanted to do more, but was too busy at work.)

I’m still concerned about tommorrow’s fitness trials as I have not had a good workout all week. I still don’t think that I will be able to make the push ups this week, and I fear my weight be up again as well. I guess we will have to wait and see.

Saturday June 21, 2008

I’ve had a busy day today.

Breakfast – Biscuit

Lunch – Turkey Bacon wrap with Zucchini Onion salad

Dinner – Sitr fry with chicken, carrots, onions, and broccoli with 1/2 cup Brown Rice and Bak Choy

Dessert – Slice of Key Lime Pie

Cigarettes – 7

Exercise – Push ups, Jumping Jacks, squats

I’m a bit concerned about weight loss this week, I don’t feel that I’ve done anything to warrant my weight going down or my waist slimming any. I guess we’ll see come Monday though. Also I’ve definitely notice a difference in my work outs between home and work. At home its more difficult for me to find time to work out, but since I have support of my family my work outs seem more productive and intense. While at work I tend to have more free time to work out, yet I receive no support (and in some cases I am ridiculed) for attempting to get myself in better physical shape and it affects not only my desire to work out (lowers it) but also the effectiveness of my workouts as well. It just goes to show how beneficial a good support system is to a challenge as big as checking one’s gut.