David thanks for the question about P90x and for helping me get motivated to write. This is actually my second round of P90x and it is kicking my a$$ more this time than last. In the first 90 days I did the "lean" rotation which has more cardio days than resistance days. This time around (just starting week 7) I am doing the classic rotation. Like last time around week 6 or so I started feeling pretty run down. I haven't missed any workouts in the last 2 weeks but the moves are getting harder to perform. I feel like my body is bonking especially in the push up, pull ups, and triceps department. I definitely know I am getting stronger cause I can do 4 un-assisted chin ups now and my weight amounts I am lifting are going up. But like I said a few sentences ago I am feeling flat energy wise. My diet has been good on the weekdays for the most part but I am still struggling some on the weekends here and there. I weighed myself this morning and I am still sitting at 206. So I am still doing the workouts but haven't really made any huge changes diet wise since my last post. I know if i want to loose weight I have to eat less but for some reason I am having a hard time with that right now. I guess mentally I need to get frustrated enough with not seeing much progress to change my diet. I have no excuses its just what it is. We did Plyometrics last night which has to be one of the most taxing workouts in the P90x program. I think towards the end I started to feel a little asthma which I haven't felt in decades (since I was a kid, kind of freaked me out). I do have the a little bit of a cold hanging on and wondered if it contributed to is slightly. It wasn't like this was the first time I have done that workout. I think since I have a friend doing the X with me it has helped me up the intensity which is a good thing. We also help keep each other accountable making sure we get our workouts done.
The rest of January is a pretty busy month for me. I have the PDX lan this coming weekend (3 solid days of computer gaming). This is the first time I have ever attended something like this so it should be interesting. I know I wont be able to pull the hours all the youngsters will be pulling. Plus I have a family to be with too. I wont miss any workouts cause the guy I am working out with is attending the LAN also.... The following weekend is our annual friends trip to Sunriver and Mt Bachelor for some snow skiing. Its going to be interesting trying to get my workouts in while I'm in Sunriver. I am sure diet will be tuff both weekend too.
Well I guess I have rambled long enough. Hope everyone else is doing well.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
The Longest Ripx Post Ever...
Will Someone Pull the Trigger???
For the last few weeks I have been madly searching for a plan diet wise. I am very happy with where I am workout wise and I will touch on that later. I think I am settling in on a Low Carb/Low fat/High Protein diet. I did the Atkins thing before but just can't stomach the high sat/trans fat thought mentally or physically. I know that lower carbs works for me cause I have done it in the past with the most success. The only question in my mind is the possibility of it working because I wasn't eating enough. Last time I got so sick of eating just meat and veggies that I would just skip meals. I don't really want to do that again but I really want to loose weight. I am also afraid of loosing the lean body mass I feel I have put on if I get too low calorie wise. The crappy thing is its a catch 22. I totally agree with Will on the subject of loosing weight and gaining lean body mass not going hand in hand. I think I am a perfect example of that over the last 3 months or so. As I have said before even at my lightest I have the skinny fat look (just soft). With that said I think I need to touch a little more on my last 6 months....
The Workouts...
So for the last half year or so I have been using some beachbody workouts to get moving. I didn't really say much on this blog cause I didn't know how it would be received. I was skeptic about any workout dvd program being a gimmick. Anyway I saw the P90x infomercial ( yeah infomercial I know ) up late one night and thought it looked pretty good. I liked the fact that it appeared to use large body movements allot (squats, lunges, pull ups, push ups etc). It's what I already believed worked and it produces the type of body I would like. A defined not overly large sport physic. This workout was something I could do at home also, which was important to me. Anyway I felt that given my current condition P90x was probably too extreme so I went the P90 route instead for the first 90 days. I followed there diet and exercise regiment to a T for the most part. It worked and I lost 29 pounds in 90 days which was really good for me. The only bad thing about the P90 workouts is they get very repetitive (not allot of variety). After those 90 days I ordered the P90x. Let me tell you these workouts are some of the hardest workouts I have ever done in my life. They are not a joke in any way shape or form. I was having to pause several times during the workouts or else I would puke... The beauty of the majority of the workouts (12 in total) is they are scalable. Meaning you up your intensity or weight depending on what you need. They are very hard but very good I would highly recommend them.
Back to Diet.
With P90x the diet is very laid out too. The only difference is they have you eating way more than when you doing your P90 workouts. So I adjusted thinking I would just try and follow what they said. I have very slowly lost another 8-10 pounds (the ones I keep going back and forth on). So my thought is I need to get back in a calorie deficit but they strongly advise against that. I agree that working out 6 days a week is going to take substantially more calories but I am not loosing as fast as I would like too. I want to be at 1.5-2 lbs a week weight loss until I hit my goal weight. I guess to their credit they don't market P90X as a weight loss routine but more of a get in great shape routine. I know at this point its not a goal weight but most likely a body fat percentage. As I mentioned in my last few blogs, my current body fat is around 30% which is absurd in my eyes. That high of body fat percentage is not good for anyone and it says to me that I am still very un-healthy.
What does all this mean?
I don't know... I feel like a racer standing in the gate waiting for my own stupid brain to pull the trigger. My diet is what is holding me back and the reason I cant get out of the starting blocks at this point. So I guess at this point I need to suffer along with a low carb/low fat/high protein diet and get on with it. I really feel like I can maintain my weight well with exercise. I just cant reduce it with a sensible diet and exercise. I am really scared to loose the lean body mass I have gained forfeiting my last 3 or so months working out. I don't know what all this rambling means to any of you, if anything at all. To me its what's been rattling around in my head for some time. I need to piece it all together and get out of the gates. What do you all think?
For the last few weeks I have been madly searching for a plan diet wise. I am very happy with where I am workout wise and I will touch on that later. I think I am settling in on a Low Carb/Low fat/High Protein diet. I did the Atkins thing before but just can't stomach the high sat/trans fat thought mentally or physically. I know that lower carbs works for me cause I have done it in the past with the most success. The only question in my mind is the possibility of it working because I wasn't eating enough. Last time I got so sick of eating just meat and veggies that I would just skip meals. I don't really want to do that again but I really want to loose weight. I am also afraid of loosing the lean body mass I feel I have put on if I get too low calorie wise. The crappy thing is its a catch 22. I totally agree with Will on the subject of loosing weight and gaining lean body mass not going hand in hand. I think I am a perfect example of that over the last 3 months or so. As I have said before even at my lightest I have the skinny fat look (just soft). With that said I think I need to touch a little more on my last 6 months....
The Workouts...
So for the last half year or so I have been using some beachbody workouts to get moving. I didn't really say much on this blog cause I didn't know how it would be received. I was skeptic about any workout dvd program being a gimmick. Anyway I saw the P90x infomercial ( yeah infomercial I know ) up late one night and thought it looked pretty good. I liked the fact that it appeared to use large body movements allot (squats, lunges, pull ups, push ups etc). It's what I already believed worked and it produces the type of body I would like. A defined not overly large sport physic. This workout was something I could do at home also, which was important to me. Anyway I felt that given my current condition P90x was probably too extreme so I went the P90 route instead for the first 90 days. I followed there diet and exercise regiment to a T for the most part. It worked and I lost 29 pounds in 90 days which was really good for me. The only bad thing about the P90 workouts is they get very repetitive (not allot of variety). After those 90 days I ordered the P90x. Let me tell you these workouts are some of the hardest workouts I have ever done in my life. They are not a joke in any way shape or form. I was having to pause several times during the workouts or else I would puke... The beauty of the majority of the workouts (12 in total) is they are scalable. Meaning you up your intensity or weight depending on what you need. They are very hard but very good I would highly recommend them.
Back to Diet.
With P90x the diet is very laid out too. The only difference is they have you eating way more than when you doing your P90 workouts. So I adjusted thinking I would just try and follow what they said. I have very slowly lost another 8-10 pounds (the ones I keep going back and forth on). So my thought is I need to get back in a calorie deficit but they strongly advise against that. I agree that working out 6 days a week is going to take substantially more calories but I am not loosing as fast as I would like too. I want to be at 1.5-2 lbs a week weight loss until I hit my goal weight. I guess to their credit they don't market P90X as a weight loss routine but more of a get in great shape routine. I know at this point its not a goal weight but most likely a body fat percentage. As I mentioned in my last few blogs, my current body fat is around 30% which is absurd in my eyes. That high of body fat percentage is not good for anyone and it says to me that I am still very un-healthy.
What does all this mean?
I don't know... I feel like a racer standing in the gate waiting for my own stupid brain to pull the trigger. My diet is what is holding me back and the reason I cant get out of the starting blocks at this point. So I guess at this point I need to suffer along with a low carb/low fat/high protein diet and get on with it. I really feel like I can maintain my weight well with exercise. I just cant reduce it with a sensible diet and exercise. I am really scared to loose the lean body mass I have gained forfeiting my last 3 or so months working out. I don't know what all this rambling means to any of you, if anything at all. To me its what's been rattling around in my head for some time. I need to piece it all together and get out of the gates. What do you all think?
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Field "GOAL" Attempt - Missed Wide Right
Thanks for the question Roder, it helped spur me to blog today. I have been meaning to write a update for the last few days but I haven't been motivated since I kind of tanked it last week. I will cut strait to the chase and say I cant hit my sub 200 by January 1 goal. It does suck that I couldn't pull my shit together enough to do it. Christmas week here in Portland, OR area was a mess. We had record (most in 40 years) snow fall, freezing rain, and just crappy conditions over all. It pretty much crippled everything. The office that I work at was shut down the entire week and I was homeward bound. I only hit 4 out of 6 of my workouts last week. Then on top of that I had a few bad days of eating on xmas eve and xmas day. Not horrible but I wasn't really watching what I ate as closely as I normally do. I had some scotch with my dad, some xmas candy, etc etc etc.... I just re-read the last few sentences and its all a bunch of lame ass excuses (yes I know it). On the positive note I have hit 22 out of 24 workouts I had planned for the last 28 days. As usual I know my downfall is in my diet. All the equations I have used to try and calculate calories needed seem to put me in a 2500+ a day category. So I have been trying to do that and I think its just too much food for me to loose weight. The diet equation is the one thing that has always plagued me. I know I can loose weight if I go low cal/low carb but then I just become skinny fat. If I try to keep my cals up I stay the same weight and maybe gain a little muscle but its a really really really slow process. As my last post said I am currently around 30% body fat (give or take a few percent). So I need to cut fat off my body in a really bad way. If I eat to little calories than I don't feel I have the energy to really nail my workouts. If I eat to much I stay the same which almost makes my workouts meaningless (I know the health benefits are there but you know what I am saying). I got to figure out a way to kick start my weight loss again. I don't know if its my genetics or what but how my body reacts to workouts and food really po's me. Ok I have rambled enough to probably make my short list of readers not read. Bottom line I am not giving up and I plan to meet my goals in 2009. Nothing else I can do but just that, there is no other choice. FYI 206lbs today....
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Pissed
Well my wife and for some stupid reason decided we wanted one of those body composition scales (Omron 510) as a joint Christmas gift. You know the ones that tell you your weight, fat%, visceral fat level, muscle% etc. The good thing about the scale is it weighs me really close to the same as our old one (within .5 lbs). The bad news is it measured my body fat at 30%... I really expected somewhere in the mid 20s. Even my friend whom I am working out with seemed shocked that my body fat was that high (he guessed me at 23%). He is just starting his workout regimen and is only 27 via my diabolic fat% scale. So yesterday I walked around really down on myself and frankly pretty pissed and feeling pretty damn defeated. I still did my workout but ended up having a cup of chai tea/nog (lite eggnog of course). So this f-ning scale tells me I have 61 pounds of fat on my body still. Realistically if I want to see 10%bf I would have to loose 40 more pounds of just fat. That would put me at 165 on a 6 foot frame..... That seems really crazy to me. I know these scales are not 100% accurate but I have been told they come pretty close. Anyway I will quit bitching about my fat A$$. Only thing I can do is get off it workout and eat right. Now does someone have a sledge hammer I can borrow???? My scale needs to meet the sledge!
Monday, December 15, 2008
A little Over 2 Weeks Left
Well I am still kicking and screaming trying to hit my sub 200 goal by Jan 1 2009. This last Saturday I saw a 203 (new low) on the scale. However last night I had a pretty good slip up diet wise. I had one of my all time favorite dishes "Phad Thai". Its not so much the Thai food that I have the issue with but the size of the portion I ate. It was probably enough for 2 or 3 meals. It was pretty tasty and satisfying. I didn't weigh myself yesterday or today. I will jump back on the scale tomorrow after a good day of eating and a good workout. My mom made a comment to me about "looking like I am putting on some muscle". She said my arms and shoulders look more broad and defined. I was wearing a polo shirt that I hadn't worn in some time. It was kind of nice to hear as I spend at least half my time working out trying to add lean body mass. I do believe I have some pretty good muscles if I could only get rid of the inch or so of sea lion blubber that encases my entire body. Some where under it there lies a lean tone body.
We just got smacked by a arctic front blowing down from Canada. We are supposed to be in the teens to 20s for the remainder of the week with more snow come mid week. The roads were pretty dicey here in Portland, OR this morning. If it's worse on Wed this week I am working from home or not working at all.
Keep fighting the good fight. Glad to see a few of you picking back up the torch.
We just got smacked by a arctic front blowing down from Canada. We are supposed to be in the teens to 20s for the remainder of the week with more snow come mid week. The roads were pretty dicey here in Portland, OR this morning. If it's worse on Wed this week I am working from home or not working at all.
Keep fighting the good fight. Glad to see a few of you picking back up the torch.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Incoming
The battle continues.... Well the thanksgiving pounds I gained were not as easily lost as I had hoped they would be. I am finally back down into the 205-206 range after about 10 days. Diet has been really solid and workouts have been 100%. I have only had one rest day (Sunday) since I re focused. I feel good about what I am doing and am really hoping it will pay off and help me reach my goals. I am thinking of adding a second workout on a few of the days, maybe a short round of HIIT or something real early in the morning. I feel like I really need to jump start the fat loss.
I am really enjoying the holiday season this year. My oldest son is 3 and is totally in the spirit of things. He even helped pick out our Christmas tree this year and has had many questions about baby Jesus and Santa Claus. It's pretty wonderful to watch the season through his eyes. Anyway hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday. Below is the pic we are using on this years Christmas Card. Since I don't have all my FAT blog buddies addresses etc have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Monday, December 1, 2008
So It Begins
Well the Thanksgiving holiday is finally over.... It was a extra long weekend (wed - sun) at the 
Oregon Coast with family. For me it was pretty much dietary suicide this year. I ate and drank a ton of shit that I shouldn't have. I skipped all my planned workouts (did get in a couple unexpected workouts). So, did I think about my decisions or feel bad about them. On all accounts yes.... I pretty much felt like a bloated whale thurs-sunday. The workouts I got in were brutal because I was running on total garbage food and alcohol. Those workouts reminded me every time why I need to put good fuel in my tank. I had for the most part forgotten what heart burn felt like until this weekend. It was a good time with family and friends and helped me remember why I am thankful for the weight I have lost so far. I weighed in at 210 this morning.... most likely 4-5 of those pounds will hopefully fall off fast. As I am sure I didn't gain 5-6 pounds in 5 days.
I know I don't have a ton of clout around here besides the fact that this is my blog. I have had allot of failures and allot of success in the time I have spent in this blog sphere. With all that said I am going to take another route that many others are backing away from. I am going to go out on a limb and say I am going to finish 2008 strong. I am going to kick ass in both the diet and exercise dept. I have every intention on hitting sub 200 before 2009 opens the door. I am not going to say I "might" do better. Today is the day I say I "will" do better. The day I will start another drive to hit my goal of 180 or so pounds. I am not waiting to make another lame new years resolution.... Who's in for a kick ass December?
Oregon Coast with family. For me it was pretty much dietary suicide this year. I ate and drank a ton of shit that I shouldn't have. I skipped all my planned workouts (did get in a couple unexpected workouts). So, did I think about my decisions or feel bad about them. On all accounts yes.... I pretty much felt like a bloated whale thurs-sunday. The workouts I got in were brutal because I was running on total garbage food and alcohol. Those workouts reminded me every time why I need to put good fuel in my tank. I had for the most part forgotten what heart burn felt like until this weekend. It was a good time with family and friends and helped me remember why I am thankful for the weight I have lost so far. I weighed in at 210 this morning.... most likely 4-5 of those pounds will hopefully fall off fast. As I am sure I didn't gain 5-6 pounds in 5 days.I know I don't have a ton of clout around here besides the fact that this is my blog. I have had allot of failures and allot of success in the time I have spent in this blog sphere. With all that said I am going to take another route that many others are backing away from. I am going to go out on a limb and say I am going to finish 2008 strong. I am going to kick ass in both the diet and exercise dept. I have every intention on hitting sub 200 before 2009 opens the door. I am not going to say I "might" do better. Today is the day I say I "will" do better. The day I will start another drive to hit my goal of 180 or so pounds. I am not waiting to make another lame new years resolution.... Who's in for a kick ass December?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)