Whoops!

I made the mistake of checking my weight on a non-weigh in day. We had a number of people come over all weekend and there was a lot of eating out (meaning there were a lot of Burgers ordered). Throwing in going out to the bar one night and I feared that some of the work I did over the week was undone.

I stepped on the scale and it was showing several pounds heavier than the previous official weigh in. From experience I know this isn't to be worried about. I feel like I'm still getting the toxins from this weekend out and Monday's was shorter.

Either way, I rev'd it up today, added in a few other exercises and increased the speed in my cardio. Feelin' good now, will definitely hurt tomorrow.

Process Trusted

3 Week weigh in, down over 5 lbs. #TRUSTthePROCESS and time to enjoy this one.

But not too much enjoyment. Gotta get after it for next week.

UPDATE. Just worked out. Fun's over. live look at me eating dinner.

#TRUSTthePROCESS

Today sucked. Tomorrow is a scheduled weigh in. Gotta #TrustTheProcess

THE STUDENTS ARE BACK

I work at a college and the students are officially back from winter break. The gym is always packed with those who held off on their New Years resolution until they got back to school. It is always swamped and weights are everywhere from new kids coming in and being reckless.

I'm not sure how long it takes for the New Years group at a normal gym to trail off, but here it's usually mid February when the numbers begin to slide.

The biggest problem isn't the increased activity, but the ratio of Stay Puft Marshmallow Men (me) to Average Sized/Fit Humans (them) is thrown way off in favor of the latter. I gotta start working my way up that ratio to the Not Impressing Anyone but Not Embarrassing Yourself area.

Sick Fitness

I woke up with a sore throat this morning and have had a stuff up nose all day. This one was a little harder than normal.

I'm starting to get into the habit of eating a banana on my way home after I work out. It's worked wonders of curving gorging my face when I open the door. This is the difference between a PBJ with chips and PBJ. 

But tonight we dine on frozen blueberries, milk and Nyquil.

New Years Resolutions - Lets Work Out Together

This happens every time right after New Years - a couple decides their resolution is to work out together. The only thing is they are mismatched. One of them isn't on the same level as the other and tries to do the same work out as their counterpart.

In today's tale we had a guy that is pretty fit and a girl that weighs no more than a ghost. Poor thing was trying to do 35 lb lunges throughout the the gym to match her man. She could barely hold the weights in her hands. By the time she was done her arms were shaking from holding that weight.

The guy kept trying to give me the evil eye like I was staring at her when I was simply staring at the situation. Every time they finished a set they kissed like a fifth grader, simply mushing their faces together for 10 seconds.

Moral of the story is: don't be a fat almost dad, or else you'll have to witness stupid stuff like this because you have to spend extra time on the bike to drop weight.

Sore vs. Hurt

One of the most important things I've learned while doing this is do not let up after a tough workout. Yesterday I did a high intensity workout for the first time in awhile. It was hard to get up this morning without feeling some pain.

But the pain was from being sore and not hurt. In the past whenever I felt this way I always figured "well this hurts now, might as well take a few days off." A few days would then turn into 3-4, then to a week, then to not even going to the gym.

Certain parts of me were sore this morning, that's for sure. But I still knocked out 30 min of cardio. It helped loosen up some of the parts that were sore, but it worked out other parts as well.

The key is knowing the different between sore and hurt. The one time I ignored being "hurt" I tore my calf during a half marathon. If you are hurt, rest and rehab. If you are sore, don't be a wuss and get back out there.

I Want To Die

High intensity training today

I want to die

Back at it tomorrow

Outside?

Sure. Running outside was a great idea today. After the temperature dropped 25 degrees and the wind picked up. You dummy.

Don't Be A Dorkus

I held my first weight lifting session of this little experiment. My normal routine is three sets of three different exercises at a time, then move on to the next three and so on. The entire time I kept an eye out on this machine to close my final exercise:

Two dorkuses that looked no more than 14 were on it the entire hour I was lifting. As I was closing in on my final three tasks,  I asked "you guys almost done?" One of them dorkusly snarked "we have 8 more sets."

I honestly didn't care as I was tired of lifting anyway. But I guess I wasn't the only one waiting on them. In came two big dudes who yelled "You've been on it for an hour, you're done."

For some reason my reaction towards them was something like this:

They gave me a weird look and scampered off.

Moral of the story - don't be a dorkus in the gym, especially when there are some big guys and a Winnie the Pooh looking guy waiting behind you.

P.S. I didn't even do my last work out. My arms are going to to have the same amount of strength as this guy tomorrow:

Laundry

Holy shit I forgot how much a regular workout plan also increases your laundry doings.

I'm a sweaty dude. x10 when I'm working out. My drive home from the gym is about 30 min so I usually bring a "going home shirt" so I'm not going outside in the cold in a damp shirt. After three days in this plan I already have to do a load of laundry of just work out cloths.

I need to drop some weight faster than I anticipated so I can comfortably fit into some shirts I used to work out in.

Setting the Bar & Picking Your Battles

Most times I've tried to start a weight loss program, I tried to rid of all my "vices" at once. No more this, this, this, this and this and more of that, that, that and that. The problem with going too extreme all at once can work on the short term, but it usually comes back to bite you in the ass in the end.

The only time I've had success when trying to embark on this type of program is when I set the bar and went to accomplish something on a weekly/monthly basis.  That is what I am doing this week. I am 4 years older and heavier than the aforementioned 2012 "Shedding for the Wedding" - the only time this has worked for me. What I did at the start of that program isn't necessarily going to work this time.

So this week we are setting the bar and learning which battles to pick early on. Next week I will aim to accomplish a bit more than I did this week and maybe take on another battle. Some battles are worth tackling monthly. It's all about doing better than last time and not comparing to years before.

Case in point: If I compared my 30 min run yesterday to ones from 4 years ago at this time, I would be completely deterred as I covered much less ground in the same amount of time. What I will do is use that distance as the bench mark and continue to improve upon it.

This goes for food as well - I know my diet isn't the greatest - that is why I am in this mess. But completely getting rid of everything is never the answer for me. It usually leads to huge binges down the line. That's why I start to ween out/reduce some of the bad intake and replace them with some good in take.

Update: Stinson Legs

This just happened to me after sitting for 15 minutes.

My wife had to yell up to make sure I was ok and laughed when I told her what happened.

This should be fun.

Here We Go Again

For the second time in four years, I am starting a blog about getting back in shape and losing the lbs. The first time I did this, I was determined to drop weight by wedding: 4 months to lose 30 pounds. I achieved it and thought well my fat days were over.

Well, here we are again and another big life moment is about to begin. If all goes well I will be a dad in 7 months. And once again I need to drop the lbs. This time I'm looking to get down at least 40 pounds.

There will be some differences in the way I go about things this time. There will be triumphs, there will be failures. There will be some laughs and a whole lot of pain. But there will be this blog to follow all along the way.

My last blog - Shedding for the Wedding - seems to have been deleted as I haven't used it in some time. For those who remember it - this will follow much of the same.

In the end, I've completed day one: 30 min of semi running. Now for a hot shower and contemplate what I've gotten myself into.