well we're sort of standing still here on the homefront, and i think that's largely because i didn't work all last week, thus my training and eatin' schedules were weird. pretty sure i did not eat enough each day, and what i did eat was not ideal. too many carbs, not enough protein, and at very irregular intervals. the good thing is i go back to work tomorrow and my schedule should be more precise.
i'm gonna be running a st. patty's day 5k this saturday morning and i have also been trying to get ready for that, mostly by increasing the distance i run for cardio without the usual hi/lo intensity pattern, which means while i'm technically burning more calories because its a longer distance, its less than what it could be if i were doing that pattern, but i need to get used to that distance, so i will be running that at least 2 more times this week, and then i will take a cardio break on friday and hopefully get a decent time on saturday. i've been staying pretty conservative in my pace, getting anywhere from a 10.5 min. mile to a 12 minute mile on each run, so i'm thinking if its a real world run rather than treadmill, i will probably get anywhere between the 37 or so minutes i've been taking on the treadmill to maybe 45 minutes, considering the fact that pavement is a much different story than the silly treadmill.
hopefully this pseudo carb fast will drop about 5 pounds this week and i will be in a better position to do a full 5k. gonna keep my goals in sight and work hard to get there. there's a great way of lookin at it that i recently read from a letter my missionary cousin sent to my aunt.
"there's no growth in the comfort zone and no comfort in the growth zone." -elder austin eaquinto.
keep calm and carry on ;)
sincerely,
fat guy, little coat
Monday, March 12, 2012
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Ye Shall Obtain
very true that is ^
so it has been awhile, and this seems to be a common trend, which is not good, but i like to think that this is all due to my increased efforts in the gym making it too hard for me to get on the computer and post updates about said efforts. but of course that ain't true. i have plenty of time for it, i just haven't. go ahead and judge me, i don't care.
take, for example, the fact that i finished that paragraph last night and i started this one this morning. and now it's the next day and i am still working on this paragraph. anyway, i should really put an update here because lots of things have happened and changed. first of all, and i don't know whether i already mentioned this or not, but my trainer, thiago, quit working at gold's, and so i got a new trainer, scott. he's a big guy, and is incredibly strong. his program has definitely built my strength but it has been much slower to fire up the fat burning...well, that's not entirely true; it's been much slower to burn the fat down. i have definitely seen a lot of toning up and my legs arms and chest getting much leaner. just not so much in the gut area. which i don't necessarily care about, but what it means is that rather than losing weight, i've had a weight shift from fat being lost but the difference made up by muscle gained. that's actually a really good thing to have happen in the long term, because it makes the metabolism more steady and consistent, but it can be just a bit frustrating when the scale says there hasn't been a change.
on the bright side, the last 4 weeks have been a big change in that pattern, and i've actually gone down nearly 12 pounds in that period, with about 2 pounds that have kind of hovered back and forth. what is making the difference? certainly the increased cardio activity is taking effect. 2-2.5 miles ran in hi/lo intensity intervals really burns it down. another thing i think has made a difference is the amount of classical music i have on my ipod. it helps me to stay calm, focused and to really keep my form and intensity up, without being too intense to think through what i'm doing. i find it does a bit better than the heavy metal and such that i have historically used to keep me going strong and hard at the gym. there's something about beethoven, mozart and schubert that happens that doesn't happen when you listen to the musicians of today. it makes the pain less painful and weight less difficult.
i have a week off from work next week, so the hope is that i will be in the gym twice a day all of next week, a light session and a hard one. hopefully this will mean another 5 pounds off in the next 2 weeks.
one thing i have kept in mind as i have gone through these past few months at the gym is the lyrics of a favorite hymn:
And while I strive through grief and pain,
His voice is heard: "Ye shall obtain."
pain is temporary. spirit is forever. you can damage the body, you can kill the body, but you cannot kill the spirit. it is invincible, and by it the body will achieve glory. the only catch is that the spirit must strive. strive, folks. strive and live.
so it has been awhile, and this seems to be a common trend, which is not good, but i like to think that this is all due to my increased efforts in the gym making it too hard for me to get on the computer and post updates about said efforts. but of course that ain't true. i have plenty of time for it, i just haven't. go ahead and judge me, i don't care.
take, for example, the fact that i finished that paragraph last night and i started this one this morning. and now it's the next day and i am still working on this paragraph. anyway, i should really put an update here because lots of things have happened and changed. first of all, and i don't know whether i already mentioned this or not, but my trainer, thiago, quit working at gold's, and so i got a new trainer, scott. he's a big guy, and is incredibly strong. his program has definitely built my strength but it has been much slower to fire up the fat burning...well, that's not entirely true; it's been much slower to burn the fat down. i have definitely seen a lot of toning up and my legs arms and chest getting much leaner. just not so much in the gut area. which i don't necessarily care about, but what it means is that rather than losing weight, i've had a weight shift from fat being lost but the difference made up by muscle gained. that's actually a really good thing to have happen in the long term, because it makes the metabolism more steady and consistent, but it can be just a bit frustrating when the scale says there hasn't been a change.
on the bright side, the last 4 weeks have been a big change in that pattern, and i've actually gone down nearly 12 pounds in that period, with about 2 pounds that have kind of hovered back and forth. what is making the difference? certainly the increased cardio activity is taking effect. 2-2.5 miles ran in hi/lo intensity intervals really burns it down. another thing i think has made a difference is the amount of classical music i have on my ipod. it helps me to stay calm, focused and to really keep my form and intensity up, without being too intense to think through what i'm doing. i find it does a bit better than the heavy metal and such that i have historically used to keep me going strong and hard at the gym. there's something about beethoven, mozart and schubert that happens that doesn't happen when you listen to the musicians of today. it makes the pain less painful and weight less difficult.
i have a week off from work next week, so the hope is that i will be in the gym twice a day all of next week, a light session and a hard one. hopefully this will mean another 5 pounds off in the next 2 weeks.
one thing i have kept in mind as i have gone through these past few months at the gym is the lyrics of a favorite hymn:
And while I strive through grief and pain,
His voice is heard: "Ye shall obtain."
pain is temporary. spirit is forever. you can damage the body, you can kill the body, but you cannot kill the spirit. it is invincible, and by it the body will achieve glory. the only catch is that the spirit must strive. strive, folks. strive and live.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
new year, new y- SHUT UP!
if there is anything in this world that i really detest it is new years resolutions. it's not that i think it's a bad idea to identify one's weaknesses and try to improve upon them, but because so often in this country that weakness happens to be one's weight. and of course this means that at the first of the year, they have to make the customary visit to the gym, where they stay consistent in going for about two weeks, and then drop off as if nothing had happened. they accomplish nothing, they do nothing, they change nothing, they become nothing but a detriment to those of us who are constantly and consistently going to the gym, who are really serious about being there and actually know a thing or two about how machines run, and how a good workout is put together, rather than wandering around aimlessly, doing 2 or 3 reps on this machine, a couple more on that machine, and, as i have said, accomplishing nothing.
as for myself, i am just going to try to keep plugging along on those things i have been doing for months, but will put much more of an emphasis on my diet and do my best to keep it structured the way that it needs to be to keep burning fat and building muscle. i will set a new goal of losing twenty pounds by the twenty-second of february. pass the spinach.
as for myself, i am just going to try to keep plugging along on those things i have been doing for months, but will put much more of an emphasis on my diet and do my best to keep it structured the way that it needs to be to keep burning fat and building muscle. i will set a new goal of losing twenty pounds by the twenty-second of february. pass the spinach.
Friday, December 30, 2011
christmas cheer
i swore that i would not be impeded by the past couple of holidays. i did pretty good with thanksgiving simply because i wasn't here; i took off to new york to visit my sister and we were not sitting much. we were traveling all over to upstate new york and out to massachusetts. after that, i went out to california for a week and visited my cousins. luckily there was a nice mountain trail there that i could do some running on a few days i was there, so i did pretty well. then christmas came. and i've gone up a few pounds. just couldn't say no to those danish butter cookies....mmmmm.
but all is well. i have a purpose in this endeavor that supersedes any other purpose that could ever drive one to make this kind of a change or development or commitment in their lives. when i was doing good last year losing lots of weight, i was being driven by two things: health and image. not for anyone else, but for myself. i knew that i needed to make some improvements for the sake of simply being able to live and to live comfortably. i also wanted to be able to look in the mirror and think 'damn thems some muscles.' the trouble is that both of those desires and purposes are very fleeting. your health can be great and yet your life can be taken in a moment. you can achieve that figure you desire and yet time will still get the better of you in the end.
so i have come to the realization that this needs to be about something more than myself or my health. there is an excellent line from a song that comes to mind; it is the impossible dream, from my favorite play, the man of la mancha, in which don quixote is telling what he believes makes a good knight. my favorite line is, 'to be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause.'
that is what this has to be about. if your body is a temple, then it should be dedicated as such. if you would not go spraypaint on a temple, you should not have a tattoo; but likewise, if you would not take a bucket of tar into a temple then the things that are detrimental to ones health should not be taken into one's body, and constant work must be done to keep the form of the body whole and healthy.
this has to be motivated by a religious desire for self improvement. it has to be something spiritual. if the spirit is made healthy, all other things will follow. i draw a lot of inspiration from this verse, and you don't have to be mormon to appreciate the significance of it or the value of the truth within it; it is rather universal.
1 nephi 17:3 And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.
that verse is what it's all about now. it's time to not only obey the big three commandments within the word of wisdom, but more especially to make the dietary guidelines a priority and to put my body into the kind of shape it needs to be to be of better use to God.
here's to a new beginning.
but all is well. i have a purpose in this endeavor that supersedes any other purpose that could ever drive one to make this kind of a change or development or commitment in their lives. when i was doing good last year losing lots of weight, i was being driven by two things: health and image. not for anyone else, but for myself. i knew that i needed to make some improvements for the sake of simply being able to live and to live comfortably. i also wanted to be able to look in the mirror and think 'damn thems some muscles.' the trouble is that both of those desires and purposes are very fleeting. your health can be great and yet your life can be taken in a moment. you can achieve that figure you desire and yet time will still get the better of you in the end.
so i have come to the realization that this needs to be about something more than myself or my health. there is an excellent line from a song that comes to mind; it is the impossible dream, from my favorite play, the man of la mancha, in which don quixote is telling what he believes makes a good knight. my favorite line is, 'to be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause.'
that is what this has to be about. if your body is a temple, then it should be dedicated as such. if you would not go spraypaint on a temple, you should not have a tattoo; but likewise, if you would not take a bucket of tar into a temple then the things that are detrimental to ones health should not be taken into one's body, and constant work must be done to keep the form of the body whole and healthy.
this has to be motivated by a religious desire for self improvement. it has to be something spiritual. if the spirit is made healthy, all other things will follow. i draw a lot of inspiration from this verse, and you don't have to be mormon to appreciate the significance of it or the value of the truth within it; it is rather universal.
1 nephi 17:3 And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.
that verse is what it's all about now. it's time to not only obey the big three commandments within the word of wisdom, but more especially to make the dietary guidelines a priority and to put my body into the kind of shape it needs to be to be of better use to God.
here's to a new beginning.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
thus it is
so we had a bit of progress starting a couple weeks ago. i lost about 9 pounds over the course of 2 weeks. then i went on vacation for 2 weeks. surprisingly, i only put on about 3 pounds thanks to a bit of walking in boston and new york, and some good running on a hilly trail on the side of lake mendocino in california. however, this past weekend was full of lackluster dieting and half-ass efforts at the gym. starting tomorrow, it changes. gonna march into hell for a heavenly cause.
march on, people
fat guy, little coat
march on, people
fat guy, little coat
Monday, November 7, 2011
long time no talk of fat.
the story has changed a bit folks. i decided to stick with the gym a bit longer rather than trying to do workouts on my own at home. we all know that shiz don't work. so now i have a new trainer, good old travis quit. the new guy is named thiago (think tee-ah-go), from brazil, and pretty damn good at what he does. got some good new regimens going and the diet is a bit more solid, at least during the work week. plenty of carbs in the morning, not so much in the afternoon.
rock on.
rock on.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Leg 1 - Progress...
...is slow, but it's happening. Here we have some new pictures. As I have said in the last post, Leg 1 is the stretch from 280 lbs. to 270 lbs. I am happy to announce that I am at 278.6 as the photograph shows. Apparently something is working. I think I need to find a more intense cardio format. I changed it up a bit for all of last week and did the same this week, starting with a 5 minute jog on the treadmill, moved up speed for 3 minutes, then higher for 2 minutes, back and forth for 20 minutes with a 5 minute cooldown. I think it is working better than the 20 minutes on the aerobic setting of the stairmaster and some of the other treadmill stuff I've done recently.
My awesome face. I shaved so that you can see my awesome double chin. That's what we're trying to get rid of here.
Front view. Awesome.
Side view. We loves us some bacon!
Upper thigh or quadriceps. Still hairy.
Bicep
Progress, my friends.
My awesome face. I shaved so that you can see my awesome double chin. That's what we're trying to get rid of here.
Front view. Awesome.
Side view. We loves us some bacon!
Upper thigh or quadriceps. Still hairy.
Calf.
Bicep
Progress, my friends.
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