I guess I get to join the club - workout journal

[DrPizza]

Thanks, spamsk8r. I attempted to do all the same lifts tonight. I started 20 pounds below what I maxed at last time & it was killing me. Dropped 40 more pounds off, still a lot of pain, so figured I'd rest one more day. Good to see that at least doing something; maybe just benching 100 pounds to avoid pain, would be better than nothing.

Official weight this morning: 224.5: 14 pounds lighter in 14 days.

 

[mechBgon]

Official weight this morning: 224.5: 14 pounds lighter in 14 days.

Wow! How's your energy level?

to take my mind off the monotonousness that is riding a bike & not having any change in scenery.

If you have a laptop, you could watch NetFlix or a YouTube playlist or DVD. On the eliptical, what might go really well with that type of motion is a cross-country ski video, there must be some on YouTube you could make a playlist out of.

 

[DrPizza]

That's actually a great idea - I should preload a few movies onto my laptop before I go to the gym. Energy level seems pretty good. I've got a fairly nasty cold right now - last night I was beat after about 75% of my workout. But throughout the day, I feel more energetic than I did prior to starting to eat healthy & exercise daily.

 

[mechBgon]

Well that's a win-win, then.

I did some lower-intensity bike-trainer workouts this week while watching full-length movies for distraction, and it worked out better than I expected. I thought I'd lose focus and unconciously lower my effort level, but my pedal RPM "powerband" has a practical lower limit, so it basically takes care of itself since I only shift gears on purpose.

 

[bhanson]

http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/showthread.php?t=28264

At first I thought this was you, but I guess there's more than one DrPizza on the Internet.

 

[DrPizza]

Yeah, all these imposters are annoying!

Been continuing with the cardio & weights (leg curls, extensions, press) with the legs. Took a while since my son's attempt at patricide before I was really able to get into upper body weight lifting. But, in hind sight, the extra effort on the lower body has helped - those larger muscles burn more calories.

I've gotten away from long distance cycling every day; today, 5 miles on the exercise bike, sprinting the 1st mile, going pretty fast the 3rd mile, then sweating profusely in a really high gear in the 5th mile, averaging about 250 watts of output. I combined that with 15 minutes on the elliptical, 2 sets of 25 situps, and 3 sets each on about 10 different pieces of nautilus equipment, plus some weights (leg curls, leg extensions, bicep curls, a couple things for triceps, chest, etc.)

Friday night, went out for a big dinner; Saturday night went to a benefit with steak dinners (and rolls, and a huge piece of cake, and even a can of soda/pop, and salad with dressing, and salt potatoes), and Sunday... well, by request I rolled out a batch of dough at the pizza shop to help them meet the demand... and who can resist some of the best wings you can get, not to mention a couple pieces of pizza, and more homemade (from the shop's ingredients) pizza during the superbowl, cheese, summer sausage, pepperoni, crackers, mmmmmm, and two 12 oz beverages (of the light variety) - Yet, I weighed 2 1/2 pounds less Monday morning than I did Friday morning. Woot! 18 1/2 pounds gone; goal is 20 by Wednesday's weigh-in. I'm leading our biggest loser contest; hopefully with 8.4% lost after 4 weeks. And, as an added bonus, blood pressure is lower, resting heart rate is lower.

 

[DrPizza]

Dare I think about it? I was looking for a century ride in the area (within 3 hours) and ran across a triathlon in August. 1500m swim, 40km bike, 10k run. I did an event with similar distances when I was young (and took first in my age division) - dare I entertain the idea that I can be in decent enough shape to finish one of these by August?

 

[DrPizza]

1 month and just a little over 20 pounds lost. Just started an Atkins diet yesterday (because the wife is on one & it'll make the meal planning easier.) Those Atkins shakes are pretty damn tasty!

I'm getting pretty sick of salad. Have stopped the "night off" from the diet; now a dinner out means a healthy dinner. 58 days until I win, and then I'm rewarding myself with a bag of chips with chip dip, a big dark chocolate candy bar, and a dozen chicken wings.

Oh, and a pizza. How could I forget the pizza.

 

[Howard]

For entertainment, you might want to read J. Kenji Alt-Lopez's one-month vegan log over at seriouseats.com, which he just completed.

http://www.seriouseats.com/tags/The Vegan Experience

Also, the Food Lab articles are amazing (except the one on risotto).

 

[DrPizza]

Woohoo! My wife decided at the grocery store that the Atkins diet isn't helping (other than for the first couple weeks.) Back to nice balanced meals. I missed oranges, apples, etc. Had a week off from school, which threw me out of my routine; only lost 1/2 a pound that week (actually, went to visit my son, ate out at restaurants, went out to eat with his fiance's parents, birthday cake.... I was lucky to have actually ended up 1/2 a pound down after the week. Lost 3 more the next week; right around 25 pounds gone so far.

Exercise bike - sprint speed is improving; tried to maintain 28mph for a mile tonight, but died after half a mile (didn't warm up first.) Finished with an average of 25mph. Then a few cycles through all the nautilus equipment; frequently increasing the amount of weight on that equipment, and finished with a short 14 minute, 5 mile ride.

 

[DrPizza]

28 pounds down, 12 to go to meet the goal. (And only 22 days to do it; but I seriously slacked off over the school break.) I don't think anyone can touch me in the school's biggest loser contest. Able to sprint 30mph in half mile bursts now.

Also hitting the nautilus equipment quite a bit. Managed to do the entire stack x 5 reps on the whatever the heck it's called where you spread your legs apart (hip abductor?) I don't know if that's good or not, but I haven't seen anyone at the gym do anything close to that, so don't burst my bubble. Doing 3 or 4 sets of 10-12 reps on leg extensions at 300 pounds. I can do more, but am having knee problems (still.) I've doubled the amount that I'm pressing on the double chest thing.