Big Changes

I’ve decided to pick up healthy new hobbies.  In light of that, yesterday I went to Hill Country State Natural Area (first link!) with my friend Steve.  In some ways it was awesome, in other disastrous.  Mostly, it was awesome, but I completely over-packed and ended up heading out with a pack that weighed close to 60 lbs.  Any backpackers reading this know that this is ridiculous.  But it was my first time out and I had a really good time.  I learned a lot and next time my pack will be much lighter.  

This morning I was up at 7:30 and hiking by 8:30 (after breakfast).  We saw all the trails we wanted to, probably hiked between 7-10 miles, then headed back to camp, shut down and went home.  All in all it was a really fun time.  I took lots of pictures, which I’ll link to later.

Right before I began writing this post, I weighed in at 264.4, which tells me I’ll probably weigh in under 264 when I weigh myself tomorrow morning.  I’d been hovering around 265 all week, so this is good news.  Eventually I’m going to start recording this info on an excel sheet and show charts of this.

These were taken this morning, shortly after I woke up.  I want to thank my sister for being the photographer.  I weighed 268.2.  I’m not sure what I did to put on the extra pound, but I’m sure it had something to do with drinking massive amounts of water last night.

Me, Relaxed

Me, Relaxing

Me, Flexing

Me, Flexing

This morning, I was at 267.2.  I’m still above 30% BF, but I forget exactly what the readings were from this morning.

As previously mentioned, I skipped my workout on Wednesday due to too much soreness, but I did weights yesterday and cardio today.  That puts me on track to do weights tomorrow, cardio Sunday, then back to weights on Monday, which is back on schedule.

The food’s been going pretty well.  I’ve yet to have a slip-up there.  I’m actually worried I’m not eating enough.  I’m going to try to up my protein intake.  This week, I’m going to up my carb intake, though I still expect these to come mostly from my veggies and the oats in my after-workout shake.  

Pictures tomorrow!  (Like anyone’s excited about this.)

Meta: I don’t know if this is going to be a daily blog, but I doubt it.  I think I just don’t have a lot to do this week.

Milestone: Under 270 lbs.  Before starting all of this, I’d seen the scale tip over 283.  I didn’t take accurate measurements when I started this, so I’m roughly estimating my weight to be at 280 when I began this.  This means I’ve officially passed the 10 lbs. lost mark.  Additionally, to get the most accurate readings possible, I’m going to start taking a BFP/BMI reading in the morning when I weigh myself.  I weigh myself every morning as soon as I wake up with no clothes on, to remain consistent.  This morning I weighed 269.8.

Failure: I didn’t workout today, even though it’s Wednesday which is officially a weight-lifting day according to my schedule.  This is due to a couple of reasons.

1. I didn’t do my workout as well as I’d planned on Monday and my legs were too sore to do any squats.  This was probably compounded by my walk/jog yesterday.  I don’t like doing only partial workouts.
2. I ate too much dinner and wouldn’t have been able to do a partial workout anyway.

I was active today: I went for a bike ride with my sister and then helped my dad for a couple of hours to break down our fireplace.  I plan to workout tomorrow morning and also do my running in the afternoon.  I’m going to strive to be careful in the amount of weight I use.

Today, I walked/jogged 2 miles.  I jogged approximately a quarter of each mile, though not straight.  I broke it up into a quarter of each half mile (there’s a half-mile track by my house).  It took me 28:20 minutes.  Speaking of, I’m going to break out what my workout schedule looks like.  I’ll detail each section more thoroughly later on.  

Monday/Wednesday/Friday:  Weights.  Before, I alluded to the fact that I have a weight set in my garage.  I just purchased it recently.  It’s 300 lbs. of weight, a squat rack/bench, and a cable system for isolation exercises as well as lat exercises (pulldowns).  I also have a couple of dumbbells that I can load some weight on and a curl bar.  A pretty solid setup, so if you’re in San Antonio, you want to lift weights, and I know you, give me a call and we’ll set something up.

Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday:  Cardio.  I intend this to take two forms: running and gaming.  By gaming, I mean basketball, football, whatever I can convince my friends to play (lazy bastards).  As far as running, the half-mile track at the nearest park is very convenient.  As in, within-three-minutes-walking-distance convenient.  I want to get back into running shape, where I can pick a 5k and then go out and do it.  Toward this end, I intend to run every one of these days.  Even on days where I game somehow, I still intend to get out there and run for 30 minutes or so.

Life:  I want to get a little more active in general.  I’ve let myself get somewhat sedentary; I’ve been too happy lounging around the house.  Now, this doesn’t mean I’m going to start taking the stairs instead of the elevator or any such nonsense.  But, I’d like to get out there and do more, whether it’s rock-climbing or hiking, or even something ridiculous like kayaking.  Maybe I’ll start going out dancing again.  

Measurements:  This morning I weighed 271.2 lbs.  I bought a “fat loss monitor” today which tells me my body fat percentage and BMI.  My BFP is 31.4% and my BMI is 35.8.  I’m a fatty.  But it’s ok, because I’m going to improve!  Pictures this weekend.

As I write this, it is Jan. 6, but for me, the day is from when I wake up until when I go to sleep.  This post, therefore, applies to Jan. 5.

When I woke up this morning, I as at 271.8.  I’ve lost a little bit of weight so far and ever since New Year’s Eve, have been very consistent with my diet.  No failures so far there.

Why did I wait until today to workout?  What was wrong with any of the four previous days?  There’s no good answer to that.  I just didn’t have the motivation.  I finally yelled at myself (internally) enough to get myself into my garage and lifting weight.  I’m doing everything at about 80% of what I think I can do and only doing half the reps (that is, 3 sets of 6 reps instead of 3X12).  I want to ease myself back into working out without getting too sore this week.  Being sore is a very strong motivation to skip a workout, and I’m looking to establish habits.  Next post I’ll start discussing the exercise regiment I plan to follow.  Maybe later I’ll discuss my diet.

The workout went fairly easy.  I worked up a sweat and got my heart pumping a bit, but nothing was too hard, which is as it should be.  Tomorrow, I plan to run.  On a track, not for political office or anything.

This site is being created for two reasons:

1. To chronicle my progress as I lose weight due to a healthier lifestyle and more working out.
2. To motivate myself so that there is actual progress to be chronicled.

The chronicle will include some of my current statistics as well as monthly (maybe biweekly) photos.  It will also include little stories about my successes and failures in my quest to look super-hott.  

The first several posts, at least the ones with pictures, will be scary.  That’s my warning before I post these:

Me, relaxed

Me, relaxed

Me, flexing

My back, flexing

I currently weigh 275 lbs.  I’m wearing size 40 jeans and XL shirts.  This will improve.