Health & Fitness - Wednesday, March 27, 2012

This was not a stellar fitness day. But, it could have been much worse, too. No morning cardio, exercises or stretching. And, we went out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, unexpectedly. Somedays it just "is what it is." So, here is what it was...

Food Log:

• 08:00 - Egg whites-12 oz. / small green apple
• 10:00 - Tuna Creations (Sweet & Spicy)-2 servings / .5 C brown rice
• 12:00 - Egg whites-12 oz.
• 14:30 - Blueberries-2 C
• 16:30 - Toll House Wheat Crackers-6 crackers / 1 oz. swiss cheese
• 17:30 - Almonds-.5 serving / Cashews-.5 serving
• 19:00 - Texas Roadhouse: Grilled Chicken Salad, 2 Rolls, 2 oz. Olive Oil, 1 T butter
• 22:00 - Muscle Milk

Nutrition:

• Calories: 2,548
• Fat: 91.5g
• Carbs: 196.6g
• Protein: 186.3g

Workout Tracker:

• 21:00 

1. Cardio: Elliptical-20 Mins.

Weekly Totals:

• Cardio-65 mins.
• Resistance-1 hr.

Health & Fitness - Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Today was a good day. I seemed to get a little hungrier this evening. But, I notice my carbs are a tad high. Perhaps that was the issue? I considered it a rest day from lifting. But, here goes...

Food Log:

• 08:00 - Egg whites-12 oz. / 4 oz. unsweetened applesauce
• 10:15 - Chicken breast-4 oz. / 2 C frozen blueberries
• 12:15 - Tuna Creations (Sweet & Spicy)-2 servings / .5 C brown rice
• 13:30 - Sugar Free Jello
• 14:30 - Snickers Mini
• 15:30 - Grapefruit
• 17:30 - Almonds-.5 serving / Cashews-.5 serving
• 18:00 - Smoked Turkey Breast-4 oz. / Swiss Cheese-1 oz. / Parmesan Cheese-2 t / Mixed Vegetables-4 servings
• 20:00 - Muscle Milk

Nutrition:

• Calories: 1,815
• Fat: 47.2g
• Carbs: 166.8g
• Protein: 179.1g

Workout Tracker:

• 06:00 

1. 20 Crunches
2. 20 Hip Thrusts
3. Cardio: Elliptical-15 Mins. to kickstart metabolism

Weekly Totals:

• Cardio-45 mins.
• Resistance-1 hr.

The Quest for Fitness Begins

In the last post, I shared the early days of my ongoing battle with weight and struggle with fitness. During my seventy pounds weight loss on the Prism program, I developed a habit of exercising 30-minutes at least three days per week. In addition to the health benefits, I was motivated by the fact that by adding the exercise increased my allowed calorie intake to move from 1,500 per day to 1,800. Hey, 30-minutes of exercise was definitely worth more food!

"To Be" State

One of the activities in Prism was to visualize on a daily basis what you would look like when you reached your target weight. In order to do this, we were instructed to find a picture of what we thought we would look like in our "future state." Being somewhat of a perfectionist and techy, I went on an online search for a male body 5'9" tall, my build and my goal weight of about 170. I came up with this model and superimposed my face. It really did help to plaster this vision into my psyche on a daily basis.

After I lost the weight on Prism my father was diagnosed with dementia and lung cancer. I was working a full-time job and attending school full-time completing my undergraduate degree. I lost focus and started packing on some weight. After it crept back up to about 205 pounds, I contacted a personal trainer. That is when my quest for fitness truly became jump-started. Next post, we'll start talking about that transformation.

Today's Takeaways:

• Eating "clean" is the first step to fitness
• Exercising allows you more calories, or food
• Visualize where you want to go to provide clear focus of who you will become

Until next post,

Mike