My son won’t go to bed, so this has to be brief.

Tonight, I had a miserable day.  A very bad, awful, rotten, no good day.

Instead of eating Ben and Jerry’s.  I went to the gym.

That has to count for something.

My trainer is a total sadist.  On the other hand, working out with him seems like it’s doing some good.  I am so, so tired.

So very tired, but it’s okay.  I feel reinvigorated after two bad weigh-ins.   That’s good.  Restaurant Week is almost over.  That’s better.

Okay, enough of that.  I have a couple of thoughts I wanted to share.  Namely, I want to pontificate over:

One Hour Work Outs

So, on Monday I asked my trainer what to do with a half an hour I had left over after our session (the one to which I was 30 minutes late).  He told me to get on the cardio machine and go and that I shouldn’t worry about lifting.  Instead, I should just burn calories.

I liked that answer.  I was also pretty happy he was all about getting in and working and getting out.  It’s a philosophy I share with him.  When I am at the gym, I am not there to mess around.  I am there to work.  So, here’s how I do it.

First, like everything at the gym, it’s 90% mental.  That may sound weird because you’re at the gym, the epitome of hard, physical work, but let me assure you, your mind is your strongest muscle.  If you go in with the right mindset: that you are going to work hard and not give up and won’t stop until the work out is over, then you won’t.

(Of course, I say that with the warning that you should always stop a workout if you feel light headed or have chest pains or are injured.)  But still, if you tell yourself you are going to work hard until through every rep or until the timer reads 00:00, you’re going to work harder and do better.  Even more important, if you go in with the mindset that you are there to work, you will work, and get out.

Also, the mental aspect goes beyond just the attitude.  You also need to have a plan.  Before you go into the gym, you need to know what exercises you are doing and how many sets and reps.  I have my whole week planned out.  The first day of the week, I do chest.  The second day, I do legs.  The third day, I do upper back.  The fourth day, I do arms.  The fifth day I shoulders and lats.  On the sixth, I just do cardio like a crazy person.

Now, with each of those body parts, I have three primary exercises:

1st Day – Chest

Bench Press
Incline Press
Decline Press

2nd Day – Legs

Squats (or Leg Press)
Leg Curls
Leg Extensions

3rd Day – Upper Back

Deadlifts
Lat Pull Downs
Decline Lat Pull Downs

4th Day – Arms (Okay, this is four exercises)

Arm curls
French curls
Reverse curls
Tricep pulldowns

5th Day – Shoulders and Lats

Shoulder Press
Upright Rows
Shrugs

So, with those three exercies I tend to do 4 sets of 20 reps, but you can do 3 of 20 or 3 of 12 if you prefer.  Just increase the weight accordingly.

Once you know what exercises to do, you’re almost ready to start off working out.  However, before you start to lift, you want to warm up.  (I cheat here.)  You should do 5-10 minutes.  I do 2. 

Okay, so that leaves me 58 minutes to work out.  That’s pretty good…except you also should do at least 30 minutes of cardio.  That leaves 28  minutes to work out.  (By the way, if you ever have less than an hour, make sure you get in your cardio.  It’s that important.)

That’s tight, but it’s doable.  Remember: just get in and get out.  No dallying.  Just don’t give yourself time.  In fact, you only want to rest 30-60 seconds between each set.  Part of the reason we’re doing high reps, low weight is so that we don’t have to rest as long between sets.  If we were doing a pure strength workout, we’d be resting at least a minute between sets.  Instead, we’re doing a lot of reps, little weight, and burning calories while we’re at it.

So, get in and do a set.  Look at the clock, your watch, or the time on your music.  Wait 30-60 seconds.  Then do the next set.  Wait 30-60 seconds.  Do another.  You’ll find that you have plenty of time to squeeze in your exercises.

Which brings me to my next point.  Once you’ve done your three primary lifts, check to see if you have time.  If you have 4-5 minutes left, go do 4 sets of abs.  Then hit the cardio.  Go as hard as you can without making yourself sick or dizzy.  Then you’re done!

It’s really that simple.

So what about the 10% physical?  Just get in there and lift.

Recap:

1.  Have a great attitude
2.  Have a good plan
3. Warm up!
4.  30-60 seconds of rest between sets
5.  Cardio, cardio, cardio

Now get to working!

So the tiredness continues.  I think I finally succumbed to my wife’s cold.

But I still did the Wii Active and frankly I feel worlds better now than I did before.  I think that’s a good thing.

Still, this Friday, the scale will not be my friend.  But it’s my own fault.

And in some ways, it’s good.  Eating like crap the past few days in the name of my food blogging has given me some perspectiveon how bad I can make myself feel by eating too much sugar, cream, butter, and all the things that make exquisite food so good.  While I would never advocate that you shouldn’t eat a great meal, I’ve eaten out 9 times in 5 days and I feel yuck.

I can get TMI-tastic on how I feel yuck or we can leave it at yuck.

Basically, since Sunday I’ve just been off.  I’ve been sluggish and lethargic and grumpy.  My motivation has gone to zero.  And I am pretty sure part of that is the cold, but it seems worse than that.  When I was eating well, even with my cold I had energy.  Tonight I could barely get past my workout.

So I keep asking myself, if this is how I feel now, how was I before when I ate like this pretty much all the time?  How could I be at my best?  What was I doing to myself?

The past five days have also taught me a thing or three about portion control and nutrition

Portion Control

Ohhhh….Portion Control…oohhhh (Sung to Prince music.)

And Nutrition

I had a big lunch on Sunday.  They had dim sum at Bo Lings.  So I ate dim sum.  A lot of dim sum.

Then I went to dinner at Zest because we had Restaurant Week reservations.  I had a full course meal.

I could barely walk out of there I was so full.  Which was bad.  What was even worse was that I had to work out that night and all I wanted to do was lay there in a food stupor.  It was then that it really slammed home why I had to have to get my eating under control.

Sure, I need portion control because I need to lower my calories, but I also need portion control because overeating makes me feel bad.  (See above.)  Having a grossly full belly saps my energy and really makes it so that all I want to do is sit.  Plus, I am about 99% sure that it wreaks havoc with my blood sugar because the more I overeat, the more I want to overeat and I live dangerously close to a Ben and Jerry’s retailer.  Just saying.

None of this is in any way profound.  I am sure a lot of you are saying “Well, duh!” But I don’t know.  Portion control used to feel like penance or something I had to do because Calories are EVIL!!  Now I’m starting to see health and fitness as being a whole lot more complex than just “Eat calories bad, burn calories good.”  For once in my life, I truly get that food is fuel and I need to give myself high octane petrol.

But don’t worry…I’m not one of those “food is fuel” guys who is going to advocate eating twigs and berries (though a raw vegan diet is pretty darn healthy.)  Food still has to taste good, but I am going to concentrate more on the nutrition part.

Again, it’s kind of an obvious “ah ha” moment, but now I see why Darya was so intent that I get rid of pretzels.  It’s not enough to eat to keep my appetite going, I need to eat good to keep my body running.

Okay, more tomorrow!

Restaurant Week continues…I feel sick.

Fortunately, it’s almost over.  I have a great post about portion size and how it’s key to everything.

Will let it wait since I am sooo tired.

I did work out with a personal trainer today for the first time.  Learned some good things.  Best thing, he and I agree on one thing: Get in, Work Out, Get Out.  It was good to hear.  More on that later.

So, day 2 of restaurant week.

I have little to report.  Today was my non-gym day due more to time schedule than lack of desire.  Mom was up, plus I had a radio show and two meals in restauants.  Plus, I wrote 8,000 words.  And a blog post.  And this check up.

Anyway, the reason for his check up that I wanted to mention that I really don’t feel so good.  I think the past 3 weeks of eating well has spoiled me and now eating all this junk food is making me kind of blah.

I consider that a win.

Um…yeah…

Mama always said there’d be days like this.

Let’s see…where to start.  The scale said I weighed 3 more pounds this week than last.  3 whole pounds.  That means either my weight training has been fabulously successful or I somehow consumed 9000  more calories than I burned.  I don’t see either being true.

I’m not ashamed to say I’m kind of discouraged.  I’ve always maintained that going to the gym is fun.  And it is, but partially because I day dream about the muscle-y thin guy I will become.  So far…bupkiss.  I think the 10 pounds I lost the first week had to have been my haircut.

To make matters worse, today began Restaurant Week.  That means I’ve got a lot of eating out to do.  Including twice today.  Plus I tried to make chips tonight to take to the radio interview I’m doing tomorrow … utter failure.

I knew Restaurant Week was coming…I was really hoping to have some positive momentum to build towards.  Nope.

(And in case you are wondering, I sort of have to eat out because of my food bloggerness.  Fortunately, the tasting portions aren’t huge.  They’re just not healthy for me.)

Anyhoo, I’m mainly venting.  I am going to go work out so I can keep burning calories and hope that next Friday I’m not back at 389.  Grrr.

The thing I keep telling myself is that I am developing muscles.  I can feel them poking out.  Also, I just feel better.  Healthier.  More energy.  So I’ll hang my hat on that for now.  Right up until the point I toss my scale out the window.

Wow, it’s been three day since my last post.  That’s too many by far.  The whole point is for me to post here so I can be accountable and I’ve done a poor job of that.

The good news is that my lack of posting here has been due to work rather than lack of performance in the gym or in eating.  It, sadly, has been due to my pursuit of Professonal betterment.  Or more to the point, the fact that my Professional goals have been dependent on putting in some CRAZY hours at work and my son is back from grandma’s so my schedule has gotten all out of whack.

However, in the last couple of days, some interesting stuff has happened.

First Health Report

In my intro post, I mentioned that Darya Pino at SummerTomato.com was coming on board to help me out with nutrition.  Using Google Wave I’ve been keeping a daily food journal in which I record what I ate, when I ate it, and how I felt afterwards.  If you are considering losing weight, I recommend trying it.  If you are honest about what you eat, you can be surprised how poorly your diet can be before you try to clean it up and how great it can be afterwards.  At least I was.

With Darya’s permission, I have posted part of the health report here:

Observations:

Hunger and snacks are primary concern that should be easy to address. Agree that calories might be too low, so fixing that should help with hunger issues. Chris could possibly be helped greatly by cutting back more on processed grains and adding more protein/fat.

 Positives: Good about sugar! Good integration of whole grains. Great attitude, committed to healthy eating. Awareness of “bad” choices. Integration of beans. Soup eating

Obvious places for improvement: I’d like to see more, varied vegetables. Improve nutritional value of snacks. Continue to cut down on processed grains. Replace with intact grains. Continue education on good nutrition.

First round of suggestions:

-Get snacks on track
-Add more healthy fats, especially at breakfast and snack
-Possibly switch breakfast cereal to muesli
-Banish pretzels
-More meal planning. Let’s talk about shopping…
-Eating out less. Let’s discuss reasons/options… 

I post this not to toot my own horn that I’ve done some things well, but to highlight my shortcomings in the hope that it will be helpful.  What I took away from this was that I need to change my snacks.  I’ve been trying to eat 5 meals per day: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two smaller “snacks.”  For the first two weeks, those “snacks” have been pretzels and Triscuits.  Both are low calorie/low fat, but they’re also processed like crazy.

So, now that I am getting the hang of 5 meals, I am going to try to do better.  That means fruit, nuts, and more yogurt.

Protein…And Fat?!

One of the things I mentioned to Darya was that I was usually hungry.  Towards the beginning of the week, my hunger was becoming overwhelming.  I spent most of Monday starving and after I went out to a nice dinners with my wife, I wanted to KEEP eating.  Like, I seriously wanted fast food because I was starving.

So, another thing I wanted to highlight from the report was that I need to eat more protein and fat.  Yes, fat.  Let’s tackle that one first.  Darya and I talked about this for a while.  In fact, she noted that I was doing a good job at cutting out the fat, though I might not be getting enough of the good fats (from say, nuts) and that were I to increase the amount of nuts I ingested, I might feel more full.  Darya’s recommendation was for me to try to eat about 10 nuts as part of a snack.  She is also pro-peanut butter as long as there is no sugar added.  (Yes!  Apples with peanut butter = crazy delicious.)

The other thing that really became apparent is that I am not eating enough protein.  I am weight training 3 times a week and hitting the Wii 3 times per week.  After the gym, I would make a protein “shake” (1 scoop of protein + water) and other than that, I would avoid most protein sources since they are often full of calories and fat.  However, like I said on Monday I was dying.  DYING.

So Tuesday, instead of my normal Fiber One cereal, I put two scoops of protein in water and drank my breakfast.  Later that day I had chicken.  Since then, I’ve made it a point to eat protein every day, even if it’s just a shake.  I haven’t been HUNGRY since.

My Gym’s Weigh In

So my gym is doing one of those fitness challenge things.  It’s free to enter and if I lose more weight than anyone else, I get some prize like free tanning or something.  I don’t really care about that, I just like the competitive nature of it.  Me versus the world.  I can dig that.

There’s only one problem.  They weighed me.  And while my home scale says that I am at 378.6, the gym scale read 397.  I was not pleased.  In fact, I was really not pleased.

Though the trainer was really encouraging.  When I mentioned the discrepancy, I was cheerfully reminded that this scale would still go down if I worked out.  That trainer is off my Christmas card list.  Grrr…

In Need of a Sign

Fresh off a 397 weigh in, a rough week at work, when I got up this morning, I was in need of a sign.  A sign that maybe I’m doing this right and that I won’t be 370+ the rest of my life.

Sometimes signs come from add places, like the laundry.  I put on one particular shirt this morning.  It’s red with black stripes.  I like it.  It used to not fit to the point I almost threw it away. 

It fits now!  Whether that is because I am losing weight or because I am working on my abs, I don’t know.

But it was  a sign!

Tomorrow’s Weigh In

Tomorrow is Friday, which means it’s weigh in day.  As of January 15th, I weighted 397.6.

Tomorrow…tomorrow I have no idea what I am going to weight in at.  Absolutely none.  I might be up 100 pounds.  I might be down 100.  I don’t have a good feeling about it, but we’ll see.

I mean there’s a big part of me that wants to treat tomorrrow like a fighter trying to make weight.  For a good second I considered waking up tomorrow at 4am and doing Wii Active in sweats and a heavy coat so I can sweat off a few pounds of water.  And as tempting as it sounds, I am not going to do it.

I will face whatever the scale tells me tomorrow and if I don’t like the results, then I’ll just try harder next week.  Eventually I will reach my goal.

Real quick…

Sorry for the silence.  My son has been out of town and I’ve been alternately working and spending time with my wife.  Fortunately, I got a workout in on Sunday and today.

Even better, my wife and I went out for a nice dinner and though I ate more than I should, it was all pretty calorically neutral.

My workout today was the bench press.  Tomorrow should be legs.

More later!

Also known as the day I wished my coworkers would have called during my workout.  And those inconsiderate jerks didn’t.

Yeah, I worked myself to DEATH at the gym.  Bench press, incline press, decline press and abs.  I wish I had had a spotter because I think I could have eeked out a rep or two more, but I didn’t for fear of crushing myself under the 155 pounds of metal.

Still, it was a day of ups and downs.

The scale wasn’t as nice to me as I’d hoped.  I was only down .8 pounds.  That makes my total weight loss 10.4 pounds.  Not a bad two week total, I was just really hoping I’d show a little more progress.

But, I vowed not to let myself get too down.  Fact of the matter is that I don’t know what’s going on with my body, really.  The fact I didn’t repeat my 9.6 pound loss could be due to the fact all my water weight is gone or that I am adding muscle or that I had a bunch of water the night before.  There are lots of reasons other than I didn’t eat well and my workouts were ineffective.  So I keep telling myself.

However, I did get back on track with the eating.  My food intake was almost perfect.  For that I am happy.

So was my work out.  In the end,  I returned to work sweaty, exhausted, and full of adrenaline having burned a nice 571 calories.

10 Ways To Get More From Your EA Sports Active

So I’ve been thinking a lot about EA Sports Active work outs (which I sometimes call just the Wii Active) and how after I finish one, I’m sweaty, out of breath, and generally feel like the 30 minutes I spent arguing with my “virtual personal trainer” were worth it. 

But it occurs to me that part of the reason I get really good work outs from the EA Sports Active isn’t necessarily because of what it tells me to do.  I have a whole litany of things I do outside the workouts which burn extra calories.  As I’ve gotten comfortable with EA Sports Active, I’ve really started to concentrate on doing these little extras and I thought I’d share them here so you can get the most from your EA Sports Active workouts, too.

10. Add Your Own Soundtrack to EA Sports Active’s

You know, I debated making this my #1 tip, but I realize not everyone loves their music as me, so I’ll lead with it.  EA Sports Active does have a decent soundtrack, but I find that there is a certain set of songs that really gets me going (see My Playlist above), so I turn the volume down until I can just barely hear my personal trainer’s voice and then I turn on the tunes.

Listening to that music always gets me going and makes the Very Long cardio runs I do go by A LOT quicker.  And, frankly, there are only so many times I can stand hearing the trainer say “You’re running that track like you own it.  WORK IT!” anyway.

9. Bring Water

You should always rehydrate during exercise, but with the EA Sports Active, there are small pauses between each exercise.  I found it was kind of difficult to have a really dry mouth waiting for the next exercise to start, so keep a glass of water close and drink after every one or two exercises.

8. Don’t Stop Moving

For the most part, the exercises in EA Sports Active take between 90 seconds and 5 minutes.  That means over the course of a 30 minute period you can expect to have up to 20 or so times when you are not doing being told to work out.  Don’t stand there!  Keep moving, even if you just pace or dance to the tunes you are blaring, make that body move.  Why?  Because you are going to burn extra calories.

As an added bonus, I find it reduces wear and tear on my body if I don’t have to constantly start and stop moving.

7.  Finish Each Exercise Strong

If you can, try to do the last 30 seconds of an exercise, the last 3 at bats, or whatever you are doing as hard as you can.  Pushing yourself means that you can expand your horizons a lot faster.

6.  Move As Your EA Sports Active Avatar Moves 

If you watching your virtual person on the screen, you’ll notice that he (or she) is up on the ball of her toes during tennis, swaying the music during dance, etc.  Mimic that movement!  Again, this extra movement will allow you to burn more calories.

5. In Fact Do More Than Your Your Avatar Does

I feel like I’ve worked harder if I really over exaggerate the moves on screen.  So, when I am catching balls I really reach for them or crouch down and really go for that ground ball, if I am dancing, I am really swinging my arms out there (don’t concentrate on that image too much).  I’m sure it doesn’t burn more than a few extra calories, but I am sure they’ll add up over time.

4. Practice with the Thigh Strap

I wish someone would have told me this when I started.  The biggest pain in the rear end with EA Sports Active is the thigh strap.  If I have the thigh strap high, the sensor doesn’t seem to work.  If it’s too low, it doesn’t seem to work.  Plus, it took me a few tries to figure out how to get the nunchuk in it.

It took me about 4 workouts to really feel comfortable with it.  So, practice a bit.  Put the strap on before you play the game.  Work on getting the nunchuk in and out quickly so you’re not standing around a lot in between exercises.

Also, no matter how much you practice, you’ll probably have trouble the first time you do a squat.  It’s cool.  Just move the strap up and down until the EA Sports Active decides you really are squatting.  Eventually you will get it!

3. Give Yourself Room to Move 

I try to clear myself a wide space, especially because I do a lot of cardio running.  That way instead of running in place, I run forwards and backwards over about a five foot space.  It hurts my calves less, my avatar moves faster, and I feel like I am working harder.

2. Adjust the Difficutly Level

If you make your own workout, you can adjust the difficulty settings.  Every exercise has 3 difficult levels: easy, medium, and hard.  If you find there is a certain exercise that doesn’t really make you work hard, but that you enjoy (like me and baseball), bump up the difficulty and you will get a better work out.

1. Workout At Least 30 Minutes

 Talk to any exercise scientist, personal trainer, and me and we’ll all agree: work out 30 minutes.  Your body needs about that long to get warmed up and the cool thing is that once it gets warm, it will start to secret enzymes that burn fat!

But that doesn’t happen quickly.  Give yourself time to let your body do its thing.

Now, what are you waiting for?  Get active!