Well, I made it this far - (New Blog Chapter)

[Pork Chop]

Well I finally made it to Texas.
It's been kind of a rocky road, but I'm happy about my prospects.
The last month or 2 has been a lot of eating, a lot of drinking, and even some smokin.
I'm about as out of shape as I have been the last few years.
I think I'm pushing 245+ right now.
I finally found a new kickboxin gym last week and I think I'm finally ready to start over again.
My goal, as always, is to lose weight and fight.
My plans for this are 3 fold: skills, fitness, and diet.

Skills
I started with a new thai gym. the guy really seems to know his stuff. i've gotten a lot of correction in the few classes i've been there. i'm a little worried coz it's really hard to get out of work to make it in time for the workout. I'm still trying to hit this class up 2 to 3 times a week for now. Eventually I'd like to make it there Tuesday through Saturday. At the moment i'm only going for an hour or 2 at a time, eventually I'd like to increase that as well, going for possibly 3 to 4 hours a day.

Fitness
I've got a great fitness center and jogging trail right outside my front door. It's so convenient i really should've made it more before now. My fitness goal is to lose fat & get my cardio back up. I'm going to do that 3 ways: jogging, sprint work, and weights. Ideally I'll jog twice a week, sprint twice a week, and lift 3 times a week. I'm trying to start slow, which means 2 to 3 weight sessions a week, 1 or 2 jogging sessions, and if i still can- 1 or 2 sprint sessions a week.

for weights I'm using the general fitness workout in Bill Pearl's getting stronger. I think it's a good primer for breaking back into weights. Basically, after 6 months, i should be able to jump into a more serious program. It's broken up into 3, 8-week levels. The first level is 15 to 20 reps each set, 1 to 3 sets each exercise, and a nice fullbody mix of exercises. The first day (today) had me suprisingly beat. At first glance the workout may seem a lil soft, but it's really good for someone like me who's worried about overdoing it.

for jogging I'm using the trail by my house. The distance is between 3 and 4 miles. It's a pretty easy jog; it's just hard to do coz my dog can't/won't do it with me, so i end up leaving him home. For the beginning time I think I'll be happy with 1 definite jog a week.

for sprinting, coach recommends 20 10-second sprints. I may make that closer to 20 second sprints to get it more in line with tabata's. my gym's got a versa climber for this. I will probably also use the elliptical crosstrainer.

Diet
Okay i hate dieting. I love to eat. If I don't eat what I wanna, much of the joy of my life just goes away. yeah, i'm a fat b@stard, so what? I think one way I can improve my situation is looking at certain foods as "supplements"; ie that there are certain foods that I should eat every day. My list of supplements are as follows:
1 bowl oatmeal
1 cup of yogurt
1 salad
2~3 pieces of fruit
I figure after eating that, I'll be hungry for whatever protein I can get.

[Pork Chop]

Day 1 on the plan:

diet went okay. I ate small to medium sized meals frequently throughout the day. Met my fruit quota, but no oatmeal or salad. Also i forgot to add "1 40g protein shake" to the list of requirements, specifically for days I lift. Wing Stop Boneless wings are REALLY good, not too much batter and their sauces are teh roxxors.

Like I said, I've had a hard time getting out of work by 4:30 in order to go to the kickboxing gym for their 5pm level 1 course. Yesterday, even the 6 o'clock level 2 course wasn't feasible.

Instead, I went home, busted out my "Getting stronger" book by Bill Pearl, and took his intro workout. See, "Getting Stronger"'s a good starter book for getting into lifting as well as beginning sport-specific weight training. I use Arnold's Encyclopedia mainly as reference- i mean his "beginner" program is a 6-day-a-week lifting schedule.

I cruised up to the gym by 6:30.
Warmed up on the elliptical cross trainer for 5 minutes doing a faster-than-normal clip.
My big emphasis right now is on getting in there, but not pushing too hard, coz my body's just not ready yet.

After that it was on to the lifting.
The routine was 1 set of each exercise, and 15 to 20 reps: like I said, a starter program.

• Dumbell swings: 40lbs, 20 reps - not too easy, not too hard, nice start
• Incline Situps: 20 reps - relatively easy
• Bend and touch opposite foot w/ dumbell: 25lbs, 20 reps - easy
• Barbell Lunges: olympic bar, 15 double reps (each leg done separately) - ow
• Bench Press: 95lbs, 20 reps - this was pathetically easy
• Upright Row: ez curl + 40lbs, 20 reps - medium effort
• Assisted Pullups: 140lb assist, 15 reps - I can do 10 reps with a lot less assist, but this really hurt.
• Standing Dumbell Tricep Extension: 40lbs, 20 reps - medium effort
• Barbell Curl: ez bar + 20lbs, 20 reps - medium effort
• Pushups: 20 reps - my elbow was feeling tweaked doing this one

I was hurtin by the time I walked out of the gym. I coulda sworn I was supposed to do some deadlifts, maybe i skipped it when i was writing down the program, I definitely wasn't missing it as I got in my car.

After that, I went home, got some food, worked on my linux box a bit, and got to bed bout an hour later than I wanted- coz the linux box was givin me headaches.

As I write this I realize how much I miss my gf- not for the usual reasons of wanting someone to help with the dog and to share the housework with; but I really miss her company and hangin out with her. She'll be moving here in 2 weeks or less, so things will get better. I think this has been a good experience for me; I realize what I want, I probly appreciate her a lot more, I tried "playing the field", but at the same time I didn't screw anything up, and I got some of my doubts outta my system.

[Chief Fox]

Sounds like you're getting back into it. That's great. I see in your goals that you mention increasig cardio and burning fat. So I have only 1 recommendation.

Once a week I do a timed workout.
One round consists of, a 500 meter row, 20 box jumps and 20 push presses. I do 4 rounds. I'm pretty much breathing really hard and almost dying by the end so much that I have to lie down on the ground for a few minutes.

Here's the beauty part of this workout. Because it's timed I can gauge my progress.
For example: when I first started doing this work out I could only do three rounds. I would finish in about 17 minutes or so. After a few weeks, the time for 3 rounds came down to about 14 minutes so I added another round. Last week I did 4 rounds in 19:24. Today I did the same 4 rounds in 18:25. Now I'm thinkning about adding another exercise in another couple of weeks.

This type of workout is quick and is a great measure of progress. So my recommendation is select three different types of exercises and create a workout like this to test your fitness level every so often. Maybe something like 3 rounds of a 1/4 mile on the eliptical, 20 dumbell swings and 20 air squats.

Just a suggestion. It sounds like you're off to a great start. Keep it up.

[Pork Chop]

hey thanx I'll start doing the modified version of your 3 round thing you suggested on sundays. Will try to do frog jumps instead of just plain squats.

Day 2 of this blog.

Breakfast went well.
My salad wasn't looking good so i kinda skipped it.
I think I'm going ot have to buy salads from work if i'm going to eat them, going with the prepackaged salads is really not working- they're inconvenient without a fridge and look pretty nasty after a day or 2.

for lunch i had a big lunch of brisket and chopped beef. Probly a bad idea but i was craving the protein.

I did manage to get sore after yesterday's workout, hobbling a lil today. I don't think a day beween workouts is too much to ask; or doing too little rather.

Made it to the kickboxing gym. I was tired before I even got there. My body was aching from yesterday's trip to the gym and i was suffering my late afternoon sleepiness. Ideally I would probably take a nap from 3 to 5 and then get on with my day, but i doubt i could work that in.

The workout was hard. I pushed it as hard as I could. Got the nice familiar burn in the gut of lunch from 5 hours earlier threatening to come up.

Afterwards i was sitting, but that was a bit cramped and hot, so i laid down. The ceiling fan was feeling good. A few minutes later, I sat up to join in on some discussion that was going on and puked. Luckily it just filled up my mouth, so i was able to make it to the bathroom. It was real weird to have that happen a good 10 to 15 minutes after I'd stopped working out.

I'm wondering if the reason I'm having so much trouble getting back in shape this time around is due to the heat? All the extra flab can't be helping my body cool itself off. None of the gyms I've worked out at have been particularly cool, both opting for fans instead of AC. Tonite I couldn't go home from the gym for a good 30 ~ 45 min. Everytime I stood up or even sat up straight I got dizzy and nauseous.

I still feel a lil nauseous writing this, 2+ hours later.

I decided not to head back for another weight workout today so that i don't risk overdoing it too early. I'm still kicking around the idea of a jog; but doubt that'll happen either. Kinda feel like my body's sayin "hey, save that motivation for tomorrow- make it a constant habit and eventually it'll get easier".

So I'm gonna hit up kickboxin tomorrow.
fitness gym's only open till 8 on fridays, though a jog might not be a bad idea.
saturday i can hit a kickboxing workout at 11 and then rest up to hit the fitness gym in the afternoon; followed by a fitness test on sunday.

Feel weird. Have this feeling i should eat, but still feel pretty nauseous. I need to invest in some gatorade.

[viper]

I love thai pads its great workout man get in there doin great work good to see someone says im doin it and actually does it.

[Pork Chop]

thanks for the encouragement viper

wish i had better news to report.

friday i could barely walk.

i think it was the lunges- my hamstrings and glutes were shredded.
my buddy from work also helped me fix my car after work.
Long story short, i didn't work out friday.

this morning (saturday) my dog had a grooming appointment.
i dropped him off real early- around 8:45.
Workout was supposed to be at 11.
got breakfast and got home around 9:45.
at that point my legs were still hurting a lil (much less than friday but they still hurt even now) and i was just tired from goofin off too much friday night.

diet's been crud

I do have some good news... no i didn't save a bunch of money on my car insurance... my gf quit her job and is en route to moving down here to texas.
i'm finding i have a hard time knowing what to do with myself when she's not around. i get bored and lonely all the time and go do stupid stuff.

Arnold said something in his encyclopedia of bodybuilding that setbacks can be a good thing because they define our limitations. I think this early failure will steel my resolve a bit. with my gf here i can't help but think that it'll get easier from here on out- even if my body's not really cooperating; coz she'll keep me grounded.

Next weeks' gonna be better.