Wellness Log - Mar. 18

Exercise: [we’ll see…]

Food:
Breakfast – bowl of Fiber One Original, glass of V8 Fusion juice
Lunch – Olive Garden: Herb-Grilled Salmon, steamed broccoli, salad w/Italian dressing, 1 breadstick, 3 lasagna frittas, 2 glasses of Diet Coke
Dinner – box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Spirals, 1/2 can of Bush's Original baked beans, glass of milk, 6 brownies
Snacks – small carton of Whoppers Mini Eggs, 2 cans of Cherry Coke Zero

Challenges:
30 – 40 grams fiber – 14 + 1 + 15.25 = 30.25 g fiber

Other: Up at 9:30 AM; day of reading, grocery shopping, new comics, and more reading; in bed at ?

Wellness Log - Mar. 17

Exercise: walk - 11:50 PM; 2 miles; 25:37.51 minutes; temps pleasant in the 40's; was an amazing, invigorating - and quick - walk after 9 days of no exercise; just what I needed to reignite my drive to workout

Food:
Breakfast – bowl of Fiber One Original
Lunch – Papa John's: 3 large slices of thin crust Ultimate Pepperoni pizza, 1/2 bag of Peppercorn Ranch Sun Chips
Dinner – can of Campbell's Chunky Sirloin Burger soup, can of Cherry Coke Zero Snacks – bag of Act II Buttery Cinnamon popcorn, Keebler Fudge Stripes cookies (26), 2 cans Cherry Coke Zero

Challenges:
30 – 40 grams fiber – 14 + 13 + 8 + 5 = 40 g fiber

Other: Up at 9:00 AM; day of reading and TV watching - lots of both; finally - FINALLY - back to exercising with a quick, 2 mile walk; in bed at 12:50 AM

Wellness Log - Mar. 16

Exercise: none

Food:
Breakfast – bowl of Fiber One Original
Lunch - Z'mariks: fettuccini alfredo bowl w/broccoli, glass of Diet Pepsi
Dinner – Donnelley’s Pub: 4 fried chicken sliders, sweet potato french fries, 2 glasses of Diet Coke
Snacks – raisins, Fiber One oats and chocolate chewy bar, bag of Act II Buttery Cinnamon popcorn, 6 Keebler Fudge Stripes cookies, can of Cherry Coke Zero

Challenges:
30 – 40 grams fiber – 14 + 5 + 5 + 16.6 = 40.6 g fiber

Other: Up at 7:30 AM; spent the day in Iowa City; was not in the mood to workout tonight when back from Iowa City; NEED to make it to the gym this week; in bed at 11:30 PM

Vacation Plans

Check out the vacation plans for the week.

There will be more workouts (twice as many) this week as part of my vacation. I'll also be developing some type of workout routine and diet plan. Return here for twice the content, daily, this entire week.

Week of Working Out - Mar. 15

Here is a list of the exercise I completed during the past week,
March 9th - March 15th.
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Monday: rest

Tuesday: rest

Wednesday: rest

Thursday: rest

Friday: rest

Saturday: rest

Sunday: rest
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As you can see – there was no exercise completed this week. No injuries. No good reason I can put out there to explain it. Laziness. LAZINESS.

(I should change it from "rest" to NOTHING.)

Progress Report XI - Mar. 15

Weight: 204.8 lbs.
Loss/Gain: + 4.6 lbs.

34.8 lbs. to Goal (170 lbs.)

Exercise Hours: 0 hours

Exercise Distance: 0 miles

March Wellness Challenge progress: 33.4 + 42.75 + 42 + 41.25 + 41.45 + 30 + 44.55 + 45.58 + 51.65 + 44.23 + 40.18 + 24.3 + 32.9 + 32 + 17.9
243.16 g of the 210 – 280 g fiber maintained weekly for the month.
518.56 g of the total 930 – 1,240 g fiber needed for the month.

After a self-congratulatory post last week, I went and threw a wrench into the works of the machine of health and wellness I’d become. I fell, and was ground under the treads of the bad habits of yesteryear. As I racked my brain to find any good or reasonable excuse for this lapse in judgment and apathy toward progress, I found none. Honestly, I simply gave up.

For the week. NOT for the year.

All weeks will not be perfect. I’m not going to dwell – much – on this week. I’ll accept responsibility for it, and move on.

This week I am on vacation from work. This gives me the time to add in extra workouts, the time to find the foods that work for me (and not against me – I’ve not felt this bad, my stomach this upset, in months), and the time to renew my overall attitude.

To that end, look for daily nutrition tracking and daily workout summaries this week as I right the ship and continue on course toward a life of loss and health.

Nothing Good

Not even going to talk about the first part of this week and the exercise and diet. I simply have nothing good to say, and no reason for my bad behaviors.

Too many snacks, not enough exercise.

I need to snap out of whatever this is that I'm in. And soon!

What's My Deal?!

The whole idea of training for this half-marathon has completely killed my once healthy - mostly healthy - obsession with going to the gym. Last week I suffered unplanned bouts of rest, and tonight isn't looking like a promising start to this week.

It would be a simple run tonight. 3 miles at an easy pace (they suggest a pace of 5 mph - which is about 1.5 mph slower than the paces I've been running). Why am I dragging my feet?

And not helping matters: I ate a huge - for me, recently - snack after supper. I had two single-serve bags of popcorn and half a Hershey's bar. 485 calories of snack I didn't need, but ate simply because I was sitting in front of the television.

It is not too late to go to the gym. The short story review can be done afterward, and bed can still be found in the 11's.

Go boy. GO!

Week of Working Out - Mar. 8

A new feature I've decided to add - my fitness work, broken down by day and activity.

Here is a list of the exercise I completed during the past week,
March 2nd - March 8th.
---
Monday: rest

Tuesday: WEIGHTS - on machines at Anytime Fitness for 22:59.89 minutes; focus upper body w/minimal ab work (hanging crunches, 3 sets of 15 reps); low weight (20-40 lbs.) at 3 sets of 15 reps each machine; focused on breathing and fluidity while lifting…RUNNING - 50 minutes total run/walk; 4.42 miles, 640.8 cal; walk .75 mile warm up, then 2.5 mile run at 6.5 mph: mile 1 was 9:11.88, mile 2 was 9:13.04, and .5 mile was 4:32.10 (last .25 was at 6.7 mph), cool down walk with 1.17 miles to end, all walk was at 4.4 mph, except last 5 min cool at 3.7 mph

Wednesday: WEIGHTS - on machines at Anytime Fitness for 22:59.89 minutes; focus upper body w/minimal ab work (hanging crunches, 3 sets of 15 reps); low weight (20-40 lbs.) at 3 sets of 15 reps each machine; focused on breathing and fluidity while lifting… BIKING - (recumbent) 25 minutes (5 was cool down, but pace was unchanged), 5.64 mi, 210.5 cal, entire ride at a relaxed and easy pace of 80's rpm

Thursday: rest

Friday: rest

Saturday: WEIGHTS - on machines at Anytime Fitness for 21:15.22 minutes; focus upper body w/minimal ab work (hanging crunches, 3 sets of 15 reps); low weight (20-40 lbs.) at 3 sets of 15 reps each machine; focused on breathing and fluidity while lifting…RUNNING - 65 minutes total run/walk; 5.55 miles, 785.9 cal; walk 1 mile warm up, then 2.5 mile run at 6.6 mph: mile 1 was 9:07.06, mile 2 was 9:06.04, and .5 mile was 4:29.00 (last .25 was at 6.8 mph), cool down walk with 2.05 miles to end, all walk was at 4.4 mph, except last 5 min cool at 3.8 mph…BIKING - (recumbent) 65 minutes (5 was cool down, but pace was unchanged), 15.77 mi, 586.4 cal, entire ride at a relaxed and easy pace of 70's rpm…ELLIPTICAL - 15 min total at pace in 6 mph (3 min cool down at pace 4-5.5 mph); 1.54 mi, 154 cal

Sunday: rest

Progress Report X - Mar. 8

Weight: 200.2 lbs.
Loss/Gain: - 4.6 lbs.

30.2 lbs. to Goal (170 lbs.)

Exercise Hours: 4:47:23.37 hours (biking: 1:30:00 hours; running: 45:39.12 minutes; walking: 1:09:20.88 hours, weights: 1:07:23.37 hours; elliptical: 15:00 minutes)

Exercise Distance: 32.92 miles (biking: 21.41 miles; running: 5 miles; walking: 4.97 miles; elliptical: 1.54 miles)

March Wellness Challenge progress: 33.4 + 42.75 + 42 + 41.25 + 41.45 + 30 + 44.55 + 45.58
275.4 g of the 210 – 280 g fiber maintained weekly for the month.

This was a surprising week of loss. I didn’t make it to the gym nearly as often as I had in previous weeks. There were four days of rest due in large part to apathy (and once to unexpected sleep). I still managed to get in a few hours of working out, but I thought the lack of consistency would change my weight loss results. Also, increasing the number of sets from 2 to 3 stretched out the entire weightlifting process, adding about 8 minutes of lifting and probably twice that to the elapsed time spent moving between machines and resting. This impacted the amount of time I have available to do other exercises. On the food front, the only big change was the massive increase in fiber. I thought this would also have some impact, as I was eating more carbohydrates than ever. Maybe if you are doing the right things all other things work out?

And yeah, I’m over HALFWAY to my goal weight. In just 9 weeks! (The first week there was no weight loss or gain.) I’m impressed. And as everyone has told me: it shows.

I also decided to train for a half marathon starting on Monday. I found a training plan in an issue of Runner’s World to adapt. It’s a plan for 10 weeks, but I only have 7. Still, the working out I’ve been doing has built me the base I need to follow this plan. Once I get the plan finalized I’ll post it up here for you to follow. I’ll have to cut back on some of the cross training (less elliptical and biking) for the next 7 weeks, but the walking, running, and weights stay firmly in place.

This blog – this challenge – has been an amazing project for me. Thanks for all the support.