The A1C War Begins! - The Upper Body Battle

[AndadorArnoth]

This is my first try at a challenge and I'm feeling ready to go!  I'm a type 2 diabetic and my overall quest is to get my A1C number back down to 6.  I've done it before but in the last year it has jumped back up to over 9.  My next checkup isn't scheduled until late March so I'm not going to set an A1C number as the specific goal for this challenge.  In the past setting specific performance goals has served me well, so that is what I will do here.

 

Stats/Current Fitness Level

 

Male, 31 years old, 6'2" 172 lbs.  I currently run at least 3 times a week, usually 3-4 mile intervals.  For strength training I do mostly bodyweight exercises about 3 times a week.  

 

Main Quest

 

Increase my max outs on the following exercises:

 

Pull-ups:  Current - 13, Goal - 20

Chin-ups:  Current - 21, Goal - 30

Hand Stand Pushups:  Current - 13, Goal - 20

 

Goals

 

1. Maintain running at least 3 days a week.
2. Keep a log of everything I eat.
3. Strength train 4 times a week.

Life Goal

 

Get my wife out for more dates.  We've been married 5 years and now have two young daughters (2 and 4), so we don't get out much.  My primary motivation behind all of this is to make sure I can be there for all my girls for many more years but I have to make sure we actually take the time to enjoy each other along the way.

 

*Edit - Grading system below added on 1/21/2014

 

Grading

 

Goal 1:

• Every run workout of 3-5 miles = 4 points
• Runs over 5 miles = 5 points
• Lesser runs can receive a 1, 2 or 3 based on combination of whether they included hills or intervals

Goal 2:

• Food log is incomplete, or a large amount of junk food is consumed - 1 to 3 points
• Food log is complete for the day - 4 points
• Food log is complete and no junk food was consumed that day - 5 points

Goal 3:

• Workout includes some strength training but does not meet or exceed reps and/or weight in a previous workout - 1-3 points
• Strength workout meets or exceeds a previous workout - 4 points
• Strength workout sets a new PR - 5 points

Points:

1 - F

2 - D

3 - C

4 - B This would be the point where I am meeting all my goals

5 - A Only for when I exceed goals and display true Badassery!

 

Battle Log Point Sheet - I've learned you're not truly nerdy about your fitness until you do something like this!

[alienjenn]

you can do it

[moomin]

Wow! 21 chin ups and even handstand push ups! Awesome!

You must have already been training! Good stuff! You've got this!

Lovely motivation and I love the part where you make taking your wife out a side quest. Good on you! The important people are the ones we tend to forget

[jeremyrf]

Awesome, man!  Stellar overall goal.  Sounds like a really great personal Quest.  I look forward to following along.

[AndadorArnoth]

So far Day 1 is going ok.  My blood sugar has not been great, I started the day at 186 and after part 1 of my workout it jumped to 238.  I am trying very hard not to get too frustrated, I started a new medication recently and I know it will need some time.  Despite the bad sugar, I think my choices today have been pretty good.

 

Workout:

 

Snow shoveling - I am in central IL so my driveway had some nice 3' drifts this morning.  It was about 30 min of actual activity, though I broke it into smaller increments since the windchill was around -40 F.  Over the last 6 hours the wind has completely erased all my work so I'll get to do this one again tomorrow!  The windchill then should by around -20 so hopefully I don't die of heatstroke 

 

Strength focus - Handstand pushups

5 sets - 15, 15, 15, 11, 11  This felt really good, I totally blew away my old PR in the first set so that goal of 20 is really looking doable.  

 

Circuit Training - 15 min.

I'm giving an app called Sworkit a try.  It gave me a random selection of bodyweight exercises and was an ok workout.  It's a decent goto when the weather makes my other usual options unavailable.

 

Diet

 

Breakfast

3 egg omelet with green peppers and cheese

 

Early Lunch (2nd Breakfast?)

Chicken Chili - homemade a couple days ago

 

Later Lunch 

Greek Yogurs w/ Protein Isolate Powder

 

Afternoon Snack

Celery with peanut butter

 

That's all I've had so far, I'm thinking if I write it down I have a better chance of sticking to my plan for the evening

 

Dinner

Turkey Burgers (no bun) and mixed vegetables.

 

Night Snack

Cottage Cheese

[alienjenn]

I don't know if you've experienced this before... your blood sugars can tend to be super weird when you change your exercise program... you can have spikes and drops where you don't expect them... it's your body adjusting to the hormones of working out (insulin is another hormone)... it should stabilize soon... but I wouldn't worry terribly... just keep tracking and being awesome it'll settle itself in the end

(sent by the phone. .. all mistakes are the phones fault)

[pumazealy]

geekshow says hey! I saw you post on CK's thread before. I'm a listener from NZ

 

I can't imagine how hard it is for you to try and balance your diabeties with your workout.

Your goals are awesome though, handstand push ups and pull ups! i'm very impressed you can do so many.

 

how are you getting along with your date nights?

even though my boyfriend and i don't have kids we still try and spend a night out for dinner and a movie at least once a month.

[AndadorArnoth]

Thanks for the encouragement pumazealy!  We actually did get out for a group date on Monday (conversation with other adults, double bonus!).  Since then we have pretty much been snowed in.  I think we are all getting cabin fever so I need to try to schedule another one SOON!

[AndadorArnoth]

Day 2!  Blood sugar numbers weren't good again, but I gotta keep giving that some time.  Here's the stats!

 

Food:

 

Breakfast:

Oatmeal, 1/2 apple, 1 fried egg

 

Lunch:

Spinach salad

 

Afternoon snack:

Celery, 1/2 apple, peanut butter

 

Dinner:

Pesto Chicken w/squash, mixed vegetables.

 

Am planning to have a couple scrambled eggs later this evening.

 

Workout:

20 min shoveling snow

 

Chin Ups:

I put on a backpack holding a fairly large laptop, an external hard drive, and a couple books.  I had the bright idea of weighing myself with and without the backpack, but when I stepped on the scale it insisted that I weigh 29 lbs, so I guess I need to get a new one of those...  Anyway my guess is the backpack was around 20 lbs or so.  Here's the sets:

12,10,9,8,7 then one more set of 10 without the backpack

 

Running:

2.18 miles 8:18 pace (which included the extra time of me having to dig the phone out of the layers of clothing where it was buried.  Like most of my neighbors, I think I'm ready to be done with winter.

 

 

 

[TheArrow]

Stopped by after your post, I may have all the shiny features but I want to be on your level when it comes to the workout. A single handstand push has been a long time goal of mine and you are talking 20. Good job, very impressive

[NapalmBurn]

Good luck with the pull ups. I really suck and should probably do some more of that.

 

Also good luck with your full quest. 

[AndadorArnoth]

Day 3 - First day back to work, blood sugar was a little better than yesterday, and the business made it much easier to resist the urge to snack constantly.  Overall a good day!

 

Food:

 

Breakfast:  3 Eggs scrambled w/cheese

 

Morning snack:  baby carrots

 

Lunch:  Spinach salad

 

Snagged 2 small pieces of candy mid-afternoon

 

Dinner: Lasagna, lettuce salad

 

Evening snack (post workout):  3 eggs

 

Workout:

 

Now that school is back in session most of my workouts will need to be later in the evening, so the challenge will be to stay motivated even if its been a long day.  No excuses!

 

Pull Ups:

13, 10, 10, 8, 8

 

Circuit Training (Core Focus): 

20 min

[AndadorArnoth]

Day 4!

 

Blood sugar stayed below 150 all day.  This is the first time that's happened in a while and it feels good!

 

Workout

 

3.41 mile Run - Roads were full of snow, I may need to change my character to a Nord...

 

Diet

 

Breakfast:

3 eggs w/ cheese

 

Lunch:

Chili - The faculty at my school had a chili day, and one of the other teachers brought in a Paleo recipe, low carb and tasty!

 

Snack:

Celery

 

Dinner:

Pesto Chicken w/ squash, mixed vegetables

 

Snack:

Summer sausage and cheese

 

Stayed up way to late editing a video created by some 5th graders.  I will post it tomorrow!  Wait, just checked the time, I mean later today.  Goodnight!

[beefit]

All the best, dude! And thank you for introducing Sworkit to me

[AndadorArnoth]

Day 5 - Weekend is here!

 

Workout:

Rest Day, although I do plan to do a bit of stretching later this evening.

 

Diet:

Breakfast:

3 eggs scrambled

 

Morning Snack:

Celery w/ Peanut Butter

 

Lunch:

Spinach Salad

 

Afternoon Snack:

Celery w/ Peanut Butter

 

Dinner:

Pizza & Beer - Hey, it's Friday and I've been really good this week.  I also had a salad so it wasn't all bad.

 

Snack:

May have some popcorn, the blood sugar has been good all day but will see how much the pizza spikes it.

 

I teach at an elementary school, and today some of my 5th graders and I finished a character ed video we've been working on the last few weeks.  The student body loved it and I am really proud of all the students that worked on it, even if they didn't get the Karate Kid joke when I first mentioned it.

 

 

[AndadorArnoth]

Almost forgot the video!

 

 

 

[AndadorArnoth]

Day 6 - Week 1 Achieved!

 

Today I completed my 4th strength workout for the week and my 3rd run, so my workout goals have been achieved!  My food log is up to date so as long as I fill out everything tomorrow I am at 100% for the week.

 

Workout:

3.04 mi Run - first time all week I got to run on asphalt instead of ice!

 

Hand Stand Pushups:

My goal for set 1 was to get 16.  Got to 15, was feeling good so I decided to go all out.  New Record!

22! 15, 10, 12, 8

So, since I have already hit my goal with the pushups, I guess I need to take it up one more notch.  I did these with my hands on the floor, getting my head down to a couple inches off the floor each time.  I'm going to figure out a setup so I can start doing strict pushups with my head going past my hands, go for 20 that way.  FUS RO DAH!

 

Diet:

Breakfast:

3 eggs

 

Lunch:

Chili

 

Snack:

Sautéed some smoked sausage and zucchini

 

Dinner:

Balsamic pork chops and mixed vegetables.

 

On top of everything else the blood sugar numbers were pretty good, still not great but nothing like the spikes I've been having for a while now.  I know not every day of the challenge will feel this good so I'm going to enjoy this without any guilt!

 

[pumazealy]

awesome first week!! well done.

 

and love the superman cup

[AndadorArnoth]

Day 7 - Week One is officially in the bag!

 

It was awesome seeing improvement within the first week, but I think meeting so many great people in this community has been even better.  Thanks again CitizenKade and Geekshow!  I look forward to laughing my ass off as usual tomorrow morning!

 

Workout:

Heavy Bag: 12 x 3 min rounds

 

Diet:

Breakfast:

3 Egg Omelet w/ cheese and green pepper

 

Snack:

Peanuts

 

Lunch:

Sautéed smoked sausage, zucchini and green pepper 

 

Snack:

Celery and peanut butter

 

Dinner:

Honey Chili Beer Chicken, mixed vegetables

 

Planned Snack:

Sausage and cheese

[Zarklin]

Great first week! What kind of peanut butter do you eat? My dad is diabetic as well and that was one of his favorite foods but his beloved Jif spikes the blood sugar a bit too much so I'd love to find him an alternative.

[Thom Stépan]

Taking on diabetes, way to go man. I am the black sheep in my family in that I am not diabetic yet. My Mum, brother and Dad are all diabetic. So the the odds are there for me to become diabetic. NF is going to help me there as well as with my arch nemesis The Black Dog of Depression.

[pumazealy]

awesome first week!!

 

the new ep of geekshow is pretty great, was listening to it at the gym this morning - and about to continue while mowing the lawns in a few.

good luck with week 2

[AndadorArnoth]

I started my day off with it as well, which can get kinda tedious if Shannon opens his mouth at any point while I am shaving.

[pumazealy]

hahaha, yeah i can imagine that would be quite bad. it's hard enough not to laugh out loud at the gym, sometimes i do without realising and everyone looks at me.

[AndadorArnoth]

Day 8 - Start of Week 2

 

Today is a day I appreciate this community.  Work was exhausting and I came home to find my wife was sick so I did my best to keep our daughters busy so she could rest.  After putting them to bed I was really not feeling the workout, but knew I'd then have to explain myself on here.  I actually feel a lot better now that it's done.

 

Workout:

 

3 mile run

 

Weighted Chin Ups:

Increased the weight in the backpack a bit but I still haven't replaced the scale so I don't know how much it weighed

13, 11, 19, 9, 8 then a final set of 11 without the backpack.

 

Diet:

 

Breakfast:

3 Eggs w/ tomato sauce

 

Snack:

Celery w/ Peanut Butter

 

Lunch:

Spinach Salad

 

Snack: Celery and Peanut Butter

-I also snuck in 2 pieces of bite size candy

 

Dinner:

I was incredibly hungry at dinnertime, I had a couple pieces of cheese and some almonds while cooking

Leftover Honey Chili Beer Chicken, Steamed Broccoli

1 Chocolate Chip Cookie - My wife had some recipe that is supposed to be better than usual cookies.

 

Snack:

Getting ready to scramble a few eggs after I finish this post.

 

Goodnight!