A personal training & food journal. Read about our weight loss progress at Train With Ron in Chicago, our nutritional habits and the life changes we're making to get in shape and stay healthy!
October 28th
Get Stronger... Lose Weight... Both?
After benching 270 pounds this summer, I set a goal for myself to get to 300 lbs by next June. Right around the same time, I set a goal for myself to lose that last stubborn 40 lbs that I have been wanting to lose since I got started. Guess what… these two goals don’t lend themselves very well to each other. What I have found is that I’m not making much progress on either side.
In June I started taking Wing Chun martial arts classes, thinking that would replace some of my cardio workouts at Train with Ron. I’m finding that, at least at this early stage, I’m not burning as many calories doing it as I thought I would. That, plus my less than disciplined eating habits over the last two months, has resulted in my not feeling very good about how I look. Now, I haven’t gained any weight since I started the weight loss goal – in fact, I’ve lost about 5 lbs since I started it – but after seeing myself in pictures lately, I have noticed that I’ve lost ground in the battle for control of my waistline.
I also finished my most recent round of Pure Steel by failing to bench 275 lbs… I was very disappointed there too.
I have also found myself strapped for time in terms of working out, so I need to rearrange some things in my busy life to accommodate for all the exercise, rest, Wing Chun, and music that I want to squeeze in and still make time for Monika and I to have some fun together.
So, all that said, it is time to press the ‘reset’ button. I will not give up on my goals, but I must recommit to them and I think I need to revise the weight loss goal to make it more manageable.
I am going to start with a weight loss goal of an AVERAGE of losing 2 lbs per week for the next 12 weeks (so, 24 lbs off by end of January), and over that same period I am looking to AT LEAST maintain my current strength level by benching 270 at the end of my current Pure Steel round. If I can get stronger while losing the weight, that’d be fantastic but I’ll have to be satisfied with maintaining for now. At the end of January, I’ll still have 5 months to build up the strength to bench those last 30 lbs and I am pretty sure that Matt will be able to help get me there, as long as I stay committed to it!
December 22nd
Took me 8 months to accomplish this goal!
I did it!
After my third – and abbreviated – Pure Steel cycle, I bench pressed 250 pounds last night and got myself on the board at TWR! This was a major victory and big time progress for me. After my first full twelve week cycle, I was able to get 195 pounds up. After the second full twelve week cycle, I got 237.5 pounds, which would have been 240 except I screwed up and left a 2.5 plate off the bar. That’s a 22% jump, which I was really excited about. Well, that odd number is no longer my personal best… although I now check the bar before every lift since that incident. This cycle was 8 weeks long, but I went up another 5% in maximum weight. The total jump was about 28% over the last 6 months of the year. That’s a lot!
When Matt first approached me about joining Pure Steel, I was excited, but apprehensive, too. I had seen those guys over there, the “real” workout guys who were building muscle and lifting what looked, to me, like extraordinary amounts of weight. I’d seen guys at the gym doing it before, and I’d even lifted some weights earlier in life, but never in an organized, well run, documented, and planned program. (more…)
December 5thHi Gang,
Monika and I started this blog about 14 months ago. So much has changed since then – physically, mentally, and spiritually. We’ve made a lot of friends at the gym including – especially – Ron, Matt, and DB. We’ve settled into a routine of being at TWR regularly, taking that long climb up the steps, and sweating it out for an hour. We are glad to see new people coming all the time and we love seeing our friends and also the familiar faces of those we may not know as well – but who are on the same difficult path of working out hard and eating healthfully.
It’s gotten very comfortable – very comfortable, indeed… and that, for me, is a red flag.
Getting “too comfortable” was what got me into trouble physically in the first place. I stopped eating well and exercising because I was comfortable – comfortable in my relationship, comfortable with bad eating habits, comfortable with a sedentary lifestyle… and slowly but surely I got very UNcomfortable. Right now, I think that comfort level is manifesting itself in the lack of continual process of “body sculpting”… I’m working out twice as much and twice as hard as when I first got to TWR but have been stuck at around 225 lbs., the same waist size, and same body fat percentage for at least two or three months. When we first started I was eating very carefully at every meal – I’m still eating pretty carefully for breakfast and lunches, but with some dinners and certainly after dinner/before bed, I have gotten lackadaisical. As a result, I’m figuratively “running to stand still”.
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November 15thI started out writing about cheating last week but chickened out after I noticed that I started to sound judgmental and kind of like a hall monitor. That was not my intention, so I erased it and wrote that short about my workout instead. Here’s the deal though, I am not here to start handing down judgement or tell you that I am the example of all things correct. Let’s get that straight right now, I certainly am not. I try to do my best and I share my attempts at that, with you.
Now, there are several things you may think of when I say cheating; Tiger Woods, blackjack, a high school math test or maybe even an ex. While those definitely qualify in the cheating department, I am referring specifically to cheating when it comes to working-out. You know, just to keep in line with the theme of our journal 
. So it’s cheating like, you’re supposed to do 30 push ups but you only do 25, then instead of 100 on the jump rope, you do 80. Just shaving little bits off here and there. Next thing you know ta-da! You’re at the head of the class.
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November 11thI think word got out that I’m back to feeling myself again. This week we put that rumor to the test. It has been the first week this past month that I’ve felt more positive. I’m glad, it’s really discouraging to have to talk myself into getting up in the morning and into the gym. It can happen so I’m glad I know I can push through it and get to the other side. Of course it hasn’t hurt that the weather’s been really nice. In the 60s and 70s, so running up to the gym is still not something to dread. I shouldn’t say that, but I just KNOW Chicago winters and … well let’s just say I’ll do my best.
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