peelout

I CAN SIT ON MY AZZ OR KICK AZZ. MY CHOICE. 1/10 Wt: 187.6 Was my day a success? Yes. I was right about the late evening wrap and my wt gain yesterday. Sure enough, the wt dropped back in the 187's this morning. I did decide I wanted something different than salad and meat for lunch today. So I went to McD's. I'm alright with that. It's my first time for eating crap this year, so not a big deal. Decided to cut down on the intensity of my strength workouts. I like the idea of getting exercise daily, but it just can't be intense everynight. I've been ramping up my cardio/core lately, so I'm going to cut back on the strength w/o intensity some. I've cut out one of my flexibility exercises that I think was hurting my back (one where you sit on the floor w/ a leg extended and try to reach as far fwd as you can). I think I'm also going to reduce the wt on the machine where you do twisting against a weighted resistance. This may be a contributor to the pain and twisting against heavy resistance may not be something the spine is even designed for. Did some more SolidWorks training this morning prior to work (I go in early to work on this). Trying to get into the habit of working 1 training module in each morning. I've got a few favorite people I follow on NF, but last night I was looking for others that might spark my interest like unusual types of physical activities they were into. I read some that had like 7 pages of posts and barely any mention of fitness or any of their goals after their first post. To each their own though. Workout: Back focus Eating: Breakfast- Protein shake Lunch- McD's Dinner- Salad and pork chop Before bed- Probably a pear and 1 slice of cheese b4 bed. 1soda

Looks like I've missed some background on you. MMA? Boxing? WWF?

I saw your meals and had to smile. It looks quit a lot like mine. Reducing carbs has different meanings for different people. Some say eliminate carbs and they mean eliminate sugar, startches, breads, vegys, fruits - pretty much every carb like on atkins. For some, like me, I'm just eliminating most of the crap sugar (candy, cookies, that sort of thing) and starch carbs. Lunch and dinner for me is just salad and meat. But my salad has romaine, spinach, grapes, tomatos, a mandarin orange, and a sprinkle of cottage cheese. Good luck on keeping on track.

1/9 Wt: 189.0 Was my day a success? Yes. Even though I gained 1.6 lb. No issue though. Part of big drop yesterday was due to water loss from my hike Sunday. Plus, when we went out, my meal was around 6:30 instead of my normal 4:30 or 5:00. So the entire chicken/bacon wrap was probably still in my stomach this morning. Tonight was cardio/core. I added an extra 3min tread at the end so now I am doing six 3min powerwalks on the tread and 5 core exercises. Lower back was giving me some pain. I'm going to quit the stretches where I feel any pain for a while. I'm pretty sure that is the cause. Ate well. Pretty much the same meal plan everyday. Salad plus a plain meat. I did some SolidWorks training this morning at work. I usually am at work 9hours and 30min. I go in about 1hr before most other engineers. I was doing actual work during this period, but I've gotten annoyed at some of the policies where I work and decided to spend the extra hour developing a new skill I can put on my resume. Thinking of looking for a new job later this year but I want to say I can use SolidWorks first. Workout: Cardio/core Eating: Breakfast- Protein shake Lunch- Salad and burger patty Dinner- Salad and pork chop Before bed- Probably a pear and 1 cookie before bed. 1soda

Have to agree. I didn't expect the salad thing to start at the same time as the exercise. That was a new one for me. I've never been able to create a habit from other events (or maybe I haven't tried it that hard). My cue for daily exercise last year was to keep my gym bag on my passenger seat. Always there to remind me. After a few months, I kept it in the back seat as I no longer needed it. My body is getting much more cranky at 57. Even stretching can annoy it. I'm starting wonder if my incline situps are part of the problem as well. Hope not, they are the closest exercise to replicate the motion of pulling the body up to the kayak to get in position to roll back up.

I was going to ask whether you kicked azz and exercised today or dusted the couch with your azz today, but then I remembered you have the plague so I'll give you a pass if you sat on it all day. But only if....

1/8 Wt: 187.4 Was my day a success? Incredibly. First, my wt dropped from 188.2 yesterday to 187.4 today. I have to believe some of that is water wt though. During my 1.5m trail walk in the snow yesterday, I got pretty warm and probably lost water through sweat. Still, I did do 2 w/o's yesterday, and I ate well, so some of it was probably fat loss. Tonight my daughters boyfriend invited my wife and I to eat out at Avanti's (a popular local Italian restaraunt). This made me nervous but I persevered and ordered the healthiest thing I could find which was a chicken wrap with bacon, romaine lettuce, tomatos, ranch dressing, and a spinach wrap. More calories that I would have had if I stayed home, but much better than ordering ravioli and eating a lot of their delicious bread (I had one bite of bread). So I'm happy with that. Due to the late meal, I had to use my placeholder w/o - 10 freebody squats. It does nothing for fitness. The point of the placeholder is so that the mind is constantly reminded that exercise is a daily event. I find habits that are meant to be done everyday easier to develop than 3-4 day/wk habits. In fact, I did my 10 squats half way through the above paragraph. I only use the placeholder 2-3 times/month. It also forces me to take a day off now and then. I was thinking about habits today. Those who have read my past stuff know that I'm obsessed with trying to understand them. Couple things I've noticed. Obviously habits don't always stick. Early last year I worked out everyday for about 4-5months, then fell out of that and stopped. Something that starts to become second nature to you can still stop. However, once something has been a habit, it is much easier to pick up again. Take addictions like smoking and alcohol. People can stop these for years, then fall right back into them. My definition of a habit is something that occurs automatically. I wake up and pretty much always follow the exact same routine: shower, dress, brush teeth, shave, and eat. I never think about what I am going to do in the morning. They are habits. Well, early last year, I worked on the habits of daily exercise and eating at least 5 salads/week. When I started back working on the habit of daily exercise 8 days ago, it was very easy to move back into daily exercise. What I did not expect and was not a goal or habit I intended to work on this month was the eating daily salads. Early last year, after a few months of working on the daily exercise habit, I started working on eating a daily salad. I only set the target at 5/wk, but I was eating a salad almost 7 days/wk. I did this for several months then quit when I stopped working out. What fascinates me is that even though the only habit I have focused on for this month is the exercise, the salads just started up automatically. I think my mind associates eating daily salads as part of the daily exercise habit. I focused on daily exercise and used will power to get started again (always dread the first few workouts where you have to drag the body to the gym). But the brain remembers the habit and says "oh yeah", eating salad goes with that. Which is why I automatically started eating salads when I started working out again. Workout: Placeholder Eating: Breakfast- Protein shake Lunch- Salad and burger patty Dinner- Chicken wrap Before bed- Probably a pear and 1 cookie before bed. 1soda

Missing my daily dose of Xena-spiration.

Curious as to why the name Machete?

Weekly summary: Very happy with my first week. Eating was excellent - my main meals were all salad + plain meat. And I broke out of my habit of eating at McD's every work day for lunch (huge calorie reduction) 7 days of workouts. (Increased my cardio/core workouts from 3 intervals to 5 intervals (each interval is 3min treadmill + 1 core exercise) 3.4lb wt loss (much of that was just getting my stomach from its normally filled to capacity condition down to just enough to get by to my next meal capacity). I'm so happy I'm going to get out of my box and post a gif:

1/7 Wt: 188.2 Was my day a success? Yes. Same wt as yesterday but I didn't expect to lose everyday. Glad it didn't rise. Was getting a little bored at the gym so I decided to mix up my routine slightly. Whether its chest night or back night, I always start out w/ 6 sets of cable pulldowns and 3-4 sets of DB bench. Tonight I cut back to 3 sets of pulldowns. Then I do DB bench and then machine flyes. Normally do 3 sets of each, but tonight I worked up to my normal wt, the repeated each wt back to starting wt for about 6-7 sets on each. Can't remember the name for that, but I have a feeling I will be sore tomorrow. Then just to burn a few more cal's, I hiked 1.5m in the snow which left me very winded. Eating was great as well. Hoping for a drop tomorrow. Workout: Chest focus Eating: Breakfast- Protein shake Lunch- Salad and pork chop Dinner- Salad and chicken Before bed- Probably a pear and 1 cookie before bed. 1soda

The habit I'm working on now is daily exercise (which means every day). I like what you said about even "one set of pushups, 10min walking - just needs to be purposeful". I realize that there will be days it's impossible due to schedules, sickness, etc to get my planned full workout in. What you said about "one set" is what I call my placeholder w/o. I just have to do 1 set of anything from freebody squats or even curling a pencil (if I've got the dreaded and totally debillitating man cold). It does nothing for fitness, but everything for developing the habit - anything, just as long as its mindful. I'm coming along for the ride.

Thanks, it definitely feels good to back at. Is Teancum for the Nephite military leader or is there another meaning to the name you chose?

I find I'm at my best when I'm updating daily. I stick mostly to the facts of what I did. This gives me strength many times during the day when I want to cheat on diet or skip w/o cause I know I have to report something each night and I want to report something good. So daily would be my recommendation, even if is short and too the point (which I prefer to read, sometimes I can't figure out if people actually accomplished anything during the day even though they write lengthy posts). I go the smoothie route for breakfast as well. Mostly cause I can make it the night before and leave for work faster in the morning, but also because I think its pretty healthy. I go w/ strawberries, bluberries, some milk, and protein powder. It's actually pretty filling. I've never tried adding spinach, but I eat 1-2 salads a day and they always include spinach.

Curious as to what type of workouts you are doing. Great job adding 15min. What type of MS course are you going to take?

Follow through? If not, your punishment should be no posting emoji's or gifs or whatever else they are called until you do. And you know how much I love those. lol

I like the format you are using to knock things off your list. I may borrow that in the future. It's a way to keep things you need to get done staring you in the face. What is meant by out-sourcing to GB?

1/6 Wt: 188.2 Was my day a success? Yes. 0.6 lb loss since yesterday. Outdoor grilled 8 pork chops and 6 hamburgers for all of next week. Also stocked up on salad stuff. Still eating away at the rotissorie chicken my wife bought at Costco. I really like their chicken. Got my workout in. Not much else exciting going on. May go to a movie later. If so, there will be a small bag of buttered popcorn to give me some needless cals. Need to find a theater w/ a salad bar. Son and wife went to Carbondale to visit my daughter. I needed to work a bit this morning so stayed home. Son is consuming 4000 cals a day and is ripped. Oh to be young again. Workout: Cardio core. Eating: Breakfast- Protein shake Lunch- Chicken Dinner- Salad and chicken Before bed- Probably popcorn and soda at movie. 1soda

The plague? How does that compare to the dreaded "man cold"?

1/5 Wt: 188.8 Was my day a success? Yes. Wt dropped to 0.2lbs. Thank goodness for digital scales. My stomach is officially emptied the tons of crap it was carried so now I will start counting the drop in wt as real fat loss. Looking forward to jumping up in the morning to see how many tenths of a lb I lost. Nothing notable about my w/o tonight. I'm getting close to maxing out the quicky increases in strength you get when you first start back working out. Once you've reached the end of the neurological strength improvements, the drudge of trying for tiny improvements start. Workouts start becoming less exciting then. Workout: Back focus. Eating: Breakfast- Protein shake Lunch- Salad + burger Dinner- Chicken Before bed- Might have some more chicken later. Kind of hungry since I skipped my salad with my chicken at dinner. 1soda

Treadmill at a pace just under jogging (guess I'd call it power walking). 3min tread 10 crunches 3min tread 10 incline situps 3min tread 10 machine twists 3min tread 10 ab machine 3min tread 10 plate lift/press/behind neck curl/return to floor. No rest at any point. I'm pretty winded when I get done.

1/4 Wt: 189.0 Was my day a success? Yes. Wt dropped to 189.0. My stomach is probably cleared out now. For me, losing wt is like keeping your vehicle gas tank very low. You only put enough in so that you don't run out of gas. With food, you want your belly only full enough that when the next meal time rolls around, your stomach is genuinely wanting food. If I don't feel a very slight growl in my belly at my scheduled eating times, I probably ate to much at the last meal. Stuck to the eating plan. Wife bought some tasty broiled chickens from Costco which went great w/ my dinner salad. Experiencing some lower back pain that I attribute to (of all things) stretching. Some stretches like toe touches, and ham string stretches encourage bending the back to try to reach just a little further. Don't know why I fall for that everytime I start stretching after being off for an extended period. Important to keep the back straight and head up and not bend the spine to reach further when the intent is to work the ham string. By the way, I used to hate salad. Then I discovered romaine and spinach w/ fruit added, and now I love them. Low cal, healthy, filling, and tasty. Workout: 5 cardio/core intervals. Eating: Breakfast- Protein shake Lunch- Salad + burger Dinner- Salad + chicken Before bed- Some type of reasonably not to unhealthy snack later, maybe cheese and crackers and maybe a banana. 1soda

Yes, mayonnaise is my Krypton. Thanks Just a lifetime to go. Thanks.

I don't think anyone can tell someone else what the "target" should be w/o having a deep understanding of their genetics, life situation, goals, speed at which they want to lose, etc. Personally, I've never bothered counting. Cut out the crap and reduce food until you start losing at the rate you want. But for some, having a target is important. Just don't worry about what others say your target should be. Maybe reduce some, and if that doesn't cause wt loss, reduce some more.

Didn't know you climbed. Got into that for about 2 yrs, mostly as a way to spend time together w/ my son. Also went Rock climbing a few times. Didn't take long for my son to quickly surpass me. Fun sport.