I think in my last post, I mentioned I was looking at some opportunities for professional growth.  Well, I got them.  Yay me.

Sadly, these same opportunities mean that it’s 9:40 Central time and I am just now leaving work.  I’m also getting over a cold which sucked.  It wasn’t like the last cold where I could still work out.  This one put me on my rear end and I stayed there.  I was in bed by 10:30 or 11 every night which for me is RARE.

So, between the combination of lots of work and cold, blogging hasn’t been much of a priority.  Even over on BlogWellDone.com where I blogged every day in January.

But, I’m never one to back down from a ping.  So, let’s see.  The good.

1.  Depending on which scale you read, last wee I lost between 7 and 8 pounds.
2.  I got a report back from my nutrionist saying I was doing better with me eating.
3.  I didn’t stress eat which is hugely shocking.
4.  I’ve cleaned up my cube every night but one.
5.  I’m shaving (most days) which is pretty rare or me, too
6.  I met with a spiritual mentor for the first time.  I hope I can use faith to curb my least favorite part about myself: my temper.

So, all in all, a lot of the little things I tried to change have stuck.

Now, for the bad news.

1.  Due to my cold, I canceled training on Monday.  I went last week Thursday and I think it set me back a day or so.
2.  My food intake this week has SUCKED.  SUCKED.  Only once was it really stress eating.  The rest of it has just been opportunity eating.  There’s a post somewhere about dieting and the social activity of breaking bread with friends.
3.  My food intake this week has SUCKED.
4.  My food intake this week has SUCKED.

So to summarize, last week my weight loss was good.  I could see myself putting at least some of that back on this week.

With that said, I told me wife that all that badness ended tonight after dinner.  Until next Friday, I am detoxing like the first week of my weight loss challenge.  It’s going to be hard with Valentine’s Day, but I need to eat better.

I have to do better.

Okay, that’s the my check up.  It’s not great, but I’m resolved.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

For lunch, we tried a new Mexican place.  If you know me,  you’re already saying “uh oh.”   Mexican food is my passion and my vice’.  I would strongly consider trading my wife for a life time supply of good salsa and tortilla chips.  (Love you honey!)  This was a recipe for disaster.

I gotta say, when they plopped down that basket of tortilla chips and gave me my own bowl of salsa, I was tempted.  So very tempted.  I even started the internal negotiation process.  “Well, you already had a bad day, but that was for last week.  You can have another one.  What’s it matter?”

Then I remembered something… the number 17.  As in there are 17 grams of fat per basket of tortilla chips.  Seriously, look at the basket next time and think to your self “17 grams of fat.”  So, I’d like to say that I had no tortilla chips at all, but instead I instituted an old rule.  The 10 Chip rule.  As in when I go to a Mexican place, I can have 10 tortilla chips.  Which is probably 1/4th or 1/5th of a basket.  Not awful, but not great.

Oh, and for the record I only had 7 and everytime I ate one, I repeated to myself “17 grams of fat.”  Also, for the record my meal was chicken mole and I had left rice and beans on my plate.

So honestly, I don’t know how to score that.

Then there was dinner.  I was all set to have my leftover veggies, rice, and noodles from Shogun when I remembered that I had promised to make my wife steak wraps.  Now, normally this wouldn’t be a big thing.  There is about 3-4 oz of steak per wrap.  However, I am trying to perfect my recipe.  I can’t say why, but it’s critical that on Sunday I make the steak wrap of my life.

So I ended up eating maybe 12 oz of steak and some of those veggies.  Again, it’s not perfect, but I honestly can’t say if it’s a bad day.  I didn’t give in to overeating nor did I let food control me, but I’ve certainly done better.  Much better.

On the plus side, I burned 467 calories on Wii Active.  So today wasn’t a total loss.

What do you all think?

Eatingwise, that wasn’t too tough.  I remembered to eat my shredded wheat Fiber One cereal on the way out the door and slipped right into good eating habits.  I even took the boy out to dinner.  I had 3 sushi rolls, a side salad, and a little mushroom soup.  I also ordered some veggies, but I wasn’t even hungry for them.  That is a huge sign and I have a delicious lunch for tomorrow!

Doing the exercise took a bit more pushing.  I really have a love/hate thing going on with my Wii Active right now, but I’m still doing it.  33 minutes, 470 calories.  I don’t know if I trust the measurements, but whatever.  I worked up a nice sweat.  And went yard in baseball like 10 times.

Tomorrow…the scale.  Wish me luck?

I am definitely fighting off my son’s cold, but I did go ahead and work out.  I did the Wii Active since I can’t get out of my driveway, ruling out the gym.  378 calories.  Not too shabby.