I'm excited about (and at the same time dreading) going grocery shopping for the first time since my new. . .ummm. . .diet plans. It's still not totally correct to call it a diet. I'm kind of counting calories and trying to keep it around 2,000 a day, but none of my calories are good still. I'll be getting some fruit to cover the "snack" sections of the day and maybe getting some yogurt of some sort (I'm not even sure if that's good for you) and some breakfast things so that I can try to keep my breakfast calories below 700. That would be good.
As far as meals go, I have no idea what I'm gonna do. I mean, I've never cooked, I've never grilled. . .I can't just buy a bunch of chicken and hope that I can bring it home and make it taste good. Plus, mentally, I'm not prepared to prepare food. That doesn't make sense. For the past 20 years of my life it's been like this. . .I fix myself something to eat and eat it and the whole process takes about 9 minutes. Three sandwiches takes me an astonishing 30 seconds to make. It's really an interesting thing. I should video it and put it on youtube. It would rank up there with those people that can juggle 9 balls at one time. . .the guy that can put mayonnaise on 3 slices of bread in about 10 seconds.
So wish me luck with the grocery shopping. Since I know you can't wait to hear what I got, I'll be sure and post it on here first chance I get.
Oh, and I did the interval thing on the treadmill again tonight. I basically did the same thing I did yesterday with the 10 mph thing 10 times then upped it to 10.5 then 11. But tonight I noticed my heart rate only got up to about 165 the whole time I was at 10 mph. I think that's good. I'm not sure if that will be good in 6 months, but I remember it getting up to 180 quick when I first started this interval thing. So hopefully my body is kind of getting the idea that I'm about to start beating the crap out of it (in 20 minute sessions).
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
the genius that is. . .me!!
Today I did another ~20 minute interval thing on the treadmill. Here it is:
It was hard. All the stuff I've looked up about interval things say you should do your routine 5-8 times. Well, at 30 seconds apiece, that would've only been 5-8 minutes. So I wanted to do it for 20 minutes and doing it the way I did, including about a minute of a cool down slow jog to walk it took about 22 minutes. By the time the stupid treadmill read my heart rate it was already down to 145. It seriously took it over a minute to get my heart rate. I gotta get a heart rate monitor. Those stupid handle things on the treadmill are crap. I try to get my heart rate during my 30 second rest and half the time it never even tells me what it is before I have to start running again. I can't spend money on a heart rate monitor when I'm not even sure if I'm gonna be doing this in another month.
Oh, and after the gym, me & the kids went to CiCi's Pizza. Awesome. I'm a genius!!
warm up with 1/2 mile at 6 mph
30 seconds at 10 mph
30 seconds rest
10 times
30 seconds at 10.5 mph
30 seconds rest
3 times
30 seconds at 11 mph
30 seconds rest
2 times
It was hard. All the stuff I've looked up about interval things say you should do your routine 5-8 times. Well, at 30 seconds apiece, that would've only been 5-8 minutes. So I wanted to do it for 20 minutes and doing it the way I did, including about a minute of a cool down slow jog to walk it took about 22 minutes. By the time the stupid treadmill read my heart rate it was already down to 145. It seriously took it over a minute to get my heart rate. I gotta get a heart rate monitor. Those stupid handle things on the treadmill are crap. I try to get my heart rate during my 30 second rest and half the time it never even tells me what it is before I have to start running again. I can't spend money on a heart rate monitor when I'm not even sure if I'm gonna be doing this in another month.
Oh, and after the gym, me & the kids went to CiCi's Pizza. Awesome. I'm a genius!!
this is HARD!!
I'm just being brutally honest here. I'm terrible at dieting. Counting calories is actually kind of fun and enlightening. Keeping up with what I eat and counting out exact amounts of certain foods isn't necessarily my problem. Here's the problem (one of them). . . my body is used to eating ~4,000 calories a day and now I've got to keep it right around 2,000. I mean, it's not unusual for me to have 2 Totino's pizzas for dinner. That's over 1,400 calories without drinking a Mt. Dew or 2 glasses of Kool-Aid or sweet tea or whatever. Now that I'm counting I'm realizing that an average meal for me is around 1,000 calories. Quite often it's over 1,000. And I eat when I get hungry. So before this "diet" – it's not really a diet yet, I'm in a research and development phase right now – I would eat at least 3 times a day and snack all throughout the day. And by snack I mean a Fudge Round, or a pack of Skittles. Nothing like an apple, or an orange, or anything resembling a healthy snack.
And now I weigh 200 pounds.
When I get up, I'm hungry. My normal breakfast, I'm realizing, is around 800 calories. And I'm fine with not eating again until around 4:00. Because I'm in a band and can't go to bed at a decent hour, I usually get about 3 hours of sleep at night. So when Addison (my almost 3-year old) takes a nap at noon, I nap with her. EVERY DAY. So I get Austin (my 6-year old) to school around 8:30 and we lay down for a nap around 11:30. We get up from the nap and go pick Austin up from school around 3:00. So my next available time to eat is around 4:00. And since I've only had one meal (breakfast around 9:00), by 4:00, I'm starving. So I'll eat a 1,500 calorie "lunch". Well, my normal bedtime isn't until around 2:00 or 3:00. That's 10-11 hours from the last time I ate. So around midnight (8 hours after my last meal), I'm starving. Keep in mind, my midnight is like a normal person's 7:00. So while Erika eats her dinner around 7:00, my dinner is at midnight. Eating 2-3 hours before I go to bed isn't the problem, obviously. The problem is that I had an 800 calorie breakfast and an over 1,000 calorie lunch so I'm at my limit for the day. 2 meals is my limit.
Again, research and development. . .
So what I'm gonna focus on changing first is the amount of calories I take in with each meal. If I can do a ~700 calorie meal 3 times a day, that would be fine. That leaves no room for snacks though. Dang it! And now by snacks I mean healthy stuff. So my first plan of action is figure out how to eat a meal that's not 1,200 calories. The second thing I'm gonna try to do is burn about 500 a day exercising somehow. Not 500 a day. 500 about 3-5 days a week. If I burn 2,000 calories a week exercising that's about 300/day. That's a Mt. Dew.
I'm done talking for today. I'm not frustrated yet because I've only been doing the calorie counting thing for about a week, but I can already see that's it goes way deeper than the calorie counting. There's something in my brain that's off. If I don't change the way I think about all this, counting the calories will totally get to me and I'll be like everybody else that loses weight then gains it back a year later, or whatever. Maybe my first plan of action should be to change the way I think about it all.
UUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!
And now I weigh 200 pounds.
When I get up, I'm hungry. My normal breakfast, I'm realizing, is around 800 calories. And I'm fine with not eating again until around 4:00. Because I'm in a band and can't go to bed at a decent hour, I usually get about 3 hours of sleep at night. So when Addison (my almost 3-year old) takes a nap at noon, I nap with her. EVERY DAY. So I get Austin (my 6-year old) to school around 8:30 and we lay down for a nap around 11:30. We get up from the nap and go pick Austin up from school around 3:00. So my next available time to eat is around 4:00. And since I've only had one meal (breakfast around 9:00), by 4:00, I'm starving. So I'll eat a 1,500 calorie "lunch". Well, my normal bedtime isn't until around 2:00 or 3:00. That's 10-11 hours from the last time I ate. So around midnight (8 hours after my last meal), I'm starving. Keep in mind, my midnight is like a normal person's 7:00. So while Erika eats her dinner around 7:00, my dinner is at midnight. Eating 2-3 hours before I go to bed isn't the problem, obviously. The problem is that I had an 800 calorie breakfast and an over 1,000 calorie lunch so I'm at my limit for the day. 2 meals is my limit.
Again, research and development. . .
So what I'm gonna focus on changing first is the amount of calories I take in with each meal. If I can do a ~700 calorie meal 3 times a day, that would be fine. That leaves no room for snacks though. Dang it! And now by snacks I mean healthy stuff. So my first plan of action is figure out how to eat a meal that's not 1,200 calories. The second thing I'm gonna try to do is burn about 500 a day exercising somehow. Not 500 a day. 500 about 3-5 days a week. If I burn 2,000 calories a week exercising that's about 300/day. That's a Mt. Dew.
I'm done talking for today. I'm not frustrated yet because I've only been doing the calorie counting thing for about a week, but I can already see that's it goes way deeper than the calorie counting. There's something in my brain that's off. If I don't change the way I think about all this, counting the calories will totally get to me and I'll be like everybody else that loses weight then gains it back a year later, or whatever. Maybe my first plan of action should be to change the way I think about it all.
UUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
My plan
I've always been interested in science, nutrition, and health. I planned on being a pharmacist until my band sidetracked me for 15 years. So every time I get into exercise, I spend a good bit of time looking up workouts and new info about new diets and philosophies about health and nutrition. Well, this time, I'm all about interval training. Here's why. . .
I enjoy running. Enjoy might be an overstatement. I don't enjoy exercising. I dislike running the least of any exercise I've ever done. I HATE lifting weights. So when I heard about this interval training thing (I'm BRAND NEW to the concept so please comment and correct anything I say about it), I knew it was perfect for me. I enjoy a challenge (I bought P90X and did it for about 15 minutes one day), and kind of enjoy running, so the interval thing is a match made in. . .purgatory? ? ?
Here's a list of the things I've done so far:
A trainer told me to do this:
jog a mile at a comfortable pace
run at 8.5 mph for 30 seconds
walk for 30 seconds
TWICE
run at 9.0 mph for 30 seconds
walk for 30 seconds
TWICE
run at 9.5 mph for 30 seconds
walk for 30 seconds
4 TIMES
run at 10.0 mph for 30 seconds
walk for 30 seconds
TWICE
I enjoyed this. It was totally doable (not necessarily easy) at 8.5 mph and got really hard by the time I reached 10 mph. Every time I did it (I've done it maybe 5 or 6 times), my heart rate (based on the crappy thing on the handles of the treadmill), got up to about 180. I enjoyed it.
Then I looked up interval training on the Internet and didn't find a single routine that said to run and then walk at 30 second intervals. Most of them were something like run for a minute, then run slower for 2-4 minutes, and none of them increased the speed every time. So a typical thing I found was like run at 8.5 for a minute, run at 5.0 for 4 minutes. Repeat 5 times. So I made up my own and did this one day:
jogged about half a mile to get warmed up
run at 9 mph for 1 minute
run at 6 mph for 1 minute
I did that about 6 or 7 times, then
run at 9.5 mph for 1 minute
run at 6 mph for 1 minute
I think I did that twice
Then I talked to a trainer at DAC (the gym I go to) and he said to sprint then rest. So he was saying to run at around 10 or 11 mph then hop off the treadmill. So yesterday I ran at 6 mph for about 3 minutes, then did this:
run at 10 mph for 30 seconds
rest for 30 seconds
about 7 or 8 times
run at 11 mph for 30 seconds
rest for 30 seconds
I think I only did that twice
So, I've done 3 different versions of interval training, and I liked all of them. The last one was definitely the hardest. As far as the title of this post goes (My plan), I plan on doing the interval training (one of these three or anything else I hear from anybody with an educated opinion) and eventually adding some weights and other things. I also want to start running outside again. The treadmill is terrible for anything over about 30 minutes.
MyFitnessPal - Free Weight Loss Tools
Friday, January 27, 2012
I'm a fatty
I'm starting this blog because I assume there are lots of people out there thinking the same thing I am. I don't mean that in a conceited (or whatever it sounds like) way, but here's my deal. I'm in my mid-30's, 35 to be exact, and I've just started gaining a little weight. Here's my weight history. . .it's pretty simple.
I'm a male, 5'11", regular build. In 1995 I weighed 165 pounds. I went to Spain for 3 months and gained 20 pounds because I ate like a man. 3 meals a day, and good meals. Lots of bread, fish, cheese, meats, and healthy stuff like that. No skittles, no Mt. Dew. Anyway, quickly after I got back from Spain and went back to my normal eating habits, I dropped down to 175 and I weighed that for about 13 years. That takes me to about 3 years ago. Around 2008, I got up to about 180 and stayed at 180 for about 3 years. Over the past year, I've fluctuated like crazy, directly proportionate to how much I exercise. So take a look at this:
May 1995 - 165
August 1995 - 185
January 1996 - 175
January 2008 - 175
July 2008 - 180
January 2010 - 185
January 2012 - 200
So what happened over the last 2 years? Well, I'm 35 for one thing. I started exercising (mostly running) in January 2010 and ended up running a half-marathon in November of 2010, and at that point, I was very happy with my weight and shape. I weighed about 180 then, and just knew that running was the answer to all my problems. I didn't really change my eating habits at all (which are TERRIBLE–another post) and kind of enjoyed running and the challenge of the half-marathon. I did the same thing in 2011 but didn't train or run at all during the year, so the half was an embarrassment. I walked over a mile and hopped about 2 miles. And the not running during the year also meant I wasn't burning off the crap I'd been eating (still didn't change my TERRIBLE eating habits).
Along with the absolute total absence of exercise in 2011, near the end of the year I started working way less. My work is one of the ways I burn tons of calories. I play guitar in a band and I'm the type to kind of jump around and act a fool all night long. So based on something I saw in myfitnesspal and some other calorie counting website, I figured that playing guitar for 3 hours the way I did burned about 800 calories. And we were a full time band. Played at least 3 times a week, usually 4. So I was burning about 3,000 calories a week at "work". Well, "work" kind of died off at the end of 2011, so I was playing 2 days a week, and sometimes not at all. Going from burning 3,000 calories a week to about 800. And still not changing my TERRIBLE eating habits.
Summing up, all of the preceding situations have led to my being uncomfortably overweight. Now, if I don't take my shirt off, somebody that knew me 5 years ago probably wouldn't notice a difference. But, I see myself in the mirror and see a drastic difference. And that's what's important. I jokingly call myself fat to kind of avert attention away from it by joking about it, just like I do with my big ears. But the fact is, my BMI is too high, my weight is too high, and I'm uncomfortable with myself. And I have a 6 year old boy and 2 year old girl that I plan on playing sports with through their college years, so I've got to do something. More posts with plans coming!!!
I'm a male, 5'11", regular build. In 1995 I weighed 165 pounds. I went to Spain for 3 months and gained 20 pounds because I ate like a man. 3 meals a day, and good meals. Lots of bread, fish, cheese, meats, and healthy stuff like that. No skittles, no Mt. Dew. Anyway, quickly after I got back from Spain and went back to my normal eating habits, I dropped down to 175 and I weighed that for about 13 years. That takes me to about 3 years ago. Around 2008, I got up to about 180 and stayed at 180 for about 3 years. Over the past year, I've fluctuated like crazy, directly proportionate to how much I exercise. So take a look at this:
May 1995 - 165
August 1995 - 185
January 1996 - 175
January 2008 - 175
July 2008 - 180
January 2010 - 185
January 2012 - 200
So what happened over the last 2 years? Well, I'm 35 for one thing. I started exercising (mostly running) in January 2010 and ended up running a half-marathon in November of 2010, and at that point, I was very happy with my weight and shape. I weighed about 180 then, and just knew that running was the answer to all my problems. I didn't really change my eating habits at all (which are TERRIBLE–another post) and kind of enjoyed running and the challenge of the half-marathon. I did the same thing in 2011 but didn't train or run at all during the year, so the half was an embarrassment. I walked over a mile and hopped about 2 miles. And the not running during the year also meant I wasn't burning off the crap I'd been eating (still didn't change my TERRIBLE eating habits).
Along with the absolute total absence of exercise in 2011, near the end of the year I started working way less. My work is one of the ways I burn tons of calories. I play guitar in a band and I'm the type to kind of jump around and act a fool all night long. So based on something I saw in myfitnesspal and some other calorie counting website, I figured that playing guitar for 3 hours the way I did burned about 800 calories. And we were a full time band. Played at least 3 times a week, usually 4. So I was burning about 3,000 calories a week at "work". Well, "work" kind of died off at the end of 2011, so I was playing 2 days a week, and sometimes not at all. Going from burning 3,000 calories a week to about 800. And still not changing my TERRIBLE eating habits.
Summing up, all of the preceding situations have led to my being uncomfortably overweight. Now, if I don't take my shirt off, somebody that knew me 5 years ago probably wouldn't notice a difference. But, I see myself in the mirror and see a drastic difference. And that's what's important. I jokingly call myself fat to kind of avert attention away from it by joking about it, just like I do with my big ears. But the fact is, my BMI is too high, my weight is too high, and I'm uncomfortable with myself. And I have a 6 year old boy and 2 year old girl that I plan on playing sports with through their college years, so I've got to do something. More posts with plans coming!!!
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