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!
March 24thI have been truly terrified to step on the scale since Sunday, when I last wrote. To state the obvious, I was afraid that my numbers were unchanged, worse yet, be higher. So I avoided it. Up until just about 15 minutes ago. It had to get done. It’s Wednesday already! I have worked out twice this week already and kept up with my diet. But somehow, I just felt that my numbers weren’t going to be where I wanted them to be. Argh, it’s frustrating. OK, so I step on the scale and the numbers start rolling on the digital display. It feels like Vegas and I just put a token in the slot machine and pulled the lever. First, the weight…. Unchanged… Frown.. Then.. the body fat %…. It dropped 3%…. Smile…Happy…. Ecstatic? Maybe a little bit, yeah. I would like to have lost more than a pound but loosing 3% of body fat is huge! That’s something I’ve been wanting to improve. And look, I have!
I’ve got 2 more workouts this week and a little secret is that I am hooked on the Shaun White Snowboarding game for the Wii and have been playing a couple of hours pretty much each night. So I’m looking forward to weighing this weekend. I’ll continue to push hard at the gym, keep up with my diet and stay positive. That last one’s pretty important.
January 21stHello All! Sorry for the long wait between posts, but I had to go to Orlando, Florida for a sales convention. I left on Saturday last week and just returned last night. Since I normally hit TrainWithRon on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, this trip really messed with my workout schedule. No problem though, I figured I’d work out at the gym in the hotel and push myself with my normal warm up and a few of the basic strength and core building moves that Ron, Matt, and DB frequently walk us through.
Much to my dismay, the hotel did not have a gym in it! I was kind of aggravated. What hotel doesn’t have at least a rudimentary gym in it? (Apparently, the Caribbean Beach Resort at Disney doesn’t.) So I had to improvise. I ran 1.5 miles on Sunday, with frequent stops for burpees, push ups, sit ups, and mountain climbers. I did 3 more on Monday (but no stops) and 1.5 on Tuesday (again, no stops). I was pretty pleased with myself, especially on Monday and Tuesday since I had to walk the show those days and probably did about 5 miles walking between the two days… minimum. I had blisters on both feet and they hurt like hell but I powered through the runs anyway. I felt so good about it…
Eating healthfully on the trip, however, was even more difficult.
Just about everything served was institutional (understandable since they were feeding 4000 people) – processed meats, everything was in some kind of sauce or gravy… they had salads but the greens and tomatoes and cucumbers weren’t really fresh, lots of white bread, some vegetables (cooked and soaking in some kind butter or oil without exception) fruits from time to time (which were excellent)… there were times when I was forced to eat less than healthful fare. I tried to stick to the veggies and fruits but I found myself starving quite a few times. (Even as I am writing this, Monika placed in front of me a very green, leafy salad with bright red tomatoes and delicious, sweet cucumbers… excellent!) I had two nights where I went to dinner with my account managers to Wolfgang Pucks and I had a steak, salad, potatoes, and vegetables. It wasn’t the most healthful meal, but I needed something of substance and OH GOD was that steak delicious. If I had to grade myself on eating well, I’d give myself a C+. I could have done better, but I could have done worse.
I ran into quite a few people who I hadn’t seen in 6 months and got quite a few “whoa, are you working out” comments – very satisfying! Also talked to a co-worker who hurt his ankle and gained some weight, and we talked about changing his diet and activity level together. I hope he does it!
Tonight I returned to the gym and DB took my weight upon arriving… 250 on the nose according to the TWR scale, so I only lost a single pound since about 11 days ago. I’ve kind of hit a bit of a plateau here, hopefully I’ll break through it soon because I’ve been in this 250ish range for quite a while now. I continue to lose size though… I’m taking about 4 pairs of my dress pants to be taken IN this weekend (TAKEN IN!!! NOT OUT… IN!!! WHOOOHOOO!!!!) and I’m very excited about that. None of my jeans fit at all anymore, even the ones that I finally got back into a few weeks ago… they’re all too big. When I started this I was kind of squeezing into a 46 waist… now a 40 is about right – so 6 inches off the waist!!!
Just gotta bust through this plateau…
January 9thHappy New Year everyone! The year is new but the routine has been the same – three rigorous personal training workouts per week at Train With Ron. During the holidays we were a little bit less careful than usual with all the chocolate and what not going around, but we got right back to it this week and ate carefully. This morning, DB put us through what he called the “Body Weight Decathlon” which consisted of 30 sit ups, push ups, switch lunges, step ups, low-bar pull ups, suitcase sit ups, mountain climbers, squat thrusts (burpees), squat jumps, and dips… all with the clock running. I can tell you that after the first three movements, the clock was the last thing on my mind. It was tough but both Moni and I got through it – and that was only about 1/2 of our workout for the day. I ate well all week, the usual whole foods (rabbit food). During the holiday weeks, I only lost a pound or two, but it was MUCH better than gaining weight from eating poorly.
Today, DB started “The Biggest Loser” contest at TrainWithRon, when I was there today DB had over 45 people registered who had weighed in, gotten their body fat / BMI measured and their waistline measured, as well as blood pressure and resting heart rate. Whoever loses the highest percentage of weight over the 8 week period wins everyone’s entry fee ($25 per person) so about $1000 or so at stake… should be really fun to compete in this… I am of course going to try to win by continuing to eat healthfully while perhaps adding a day or two to my exercise plan.
Also, Matt runs a program at the gym called “Pure Steel” – its a bench press based upper body strength training program – but that’s all I know about it… I’ve been meaning to ask him more about it and will do that next time I’m there, which will be Monday. In high school I could bench about 210 (I weighed about 150)… I’d be interested to see how far beyond that I could go, if I trained for it.
This coming Saturday I am going out of town for about 5 days for work, so I will be missing my Saturday training session, but I’ll be at a hotel with a gym and plan to take full advantage of it while I’m there. I’m going to try to push myself while I’m there for a full hour just as if i was at the gym with Ron, Matt, or DB training me and see how I do.
Just to throw the totals out there: I currently weigh 251 lbs (lost 27), 32% body fat (down 10%), and have trimmed 5 inches off my waistline. I would love to drop about 10% more weight over the 8 week period (about 3 lbs per week) during the Biggest Loser contest, that would take me down to 225 or so. That’s my goal… I don’t know if losing 10% would be enough to win the contest but it would certainly be enough to be proud of…
I’ll keep you posted!
