Turning Grumpy into Happy

[GrumpyOne]

Everyone has their own trials and tribulations. After the deaths of multiple family members earlier this year, I sort of started eating more than I should and exercising less. The upshot is that, at the moment, I'm about 20 lbs and 10% body fat more than I want to be.

In order to make a change, I'm mixing resistance training (weights) with cardio. I detest treadmills and I'm not fond of stationary bicycles. I don't like staying in one spot and the city here is one of the worst in the world for smog so jogging is out. Yes, worse than LA. My cardio will be climbing stairs, which is really 1/2 cardio and 1/2 resistance.

I plan on mixing the training up a bit. Three weeks of two visits to the gym each week along with some number of sets of stairs (a set being six flights up and down, round trip) each week. Weeks four and five will be one more gym visit and about 3/4 of the cardio. Week six is a rest week, no gym or cardio, to recover. Then the cycle starts anew.

I plan on eating under maintenance, under by about 500 calories per day, during weeks 1-3 and eating about at maintenance for weeks 4-6. In short, weeks 1-3 are fat burning weeks, weeks 4-6 are muscle building weeks.

My goal is to lose 20 lbs and 10% of body fat over the next seven months before my trip to WDW this fall. I want to try to look decent if I head out to the pool.

I'm not going to kill myself trying to drop weight then get depressed when I stall. This is a long-term project but it's only 1/2 of what I'd like to do. I'd really like to work at getting down to 180lbs @ 8% body fat by May 2010 but that's a long-term goal and we'll see how realistic it is based on how things go this summer.

The first step is to lose six lbs and 3% body fat by April 10. Weigh-ins are weekly and BF% is calculated by a tanta scale although I'll probably get a set of calipers.

Running total

Feb 13: -1lb, -1%BF
Feb 20: -1.5lb, -1%BF

 

[GrumpyOne]

Day 1

My work has a gym and lockers that can be rented. I pay for the rental from now until my trip to WDW in Sept. I clean the locker since it was filthy, and put my gym bag and sneakers inside. There's a trainer so I introduce myself.

I've scheduled my 2x gym weeks for Sun & Wed, today being Monday and I have too many meetings. I do my first set of stairs today though. This being a short week, I've determined six sets (6 flights up and back, round-trip is a set) for this week is a good start and go to do the first two sets. Stretching occurs, I do my 12 flights up and back and I can feel it. Despite the stretching, I know I'll be sore but that's why I made this first week an easy one. Six up and back takes me a bit over 2 minutes and a bit over 5 minutes for all 12 up and back.

 

[GrumpyOne]

Day 3

Day 2 was a waste from a workout perspective. Had problems with my residence and needed to stay around to have someone come by and resolve those problems. Fotunately I've built in error time so it's not a total loss but it's a bit irritating.

I stayed on the diet for day 2 though, despite wanting to jump into a bowl of chips during the boredom.

Today was supposed to be the first trip to the gym but trying to get caught up from yesterday put that on hold. On an ordinary day I'd simply move the morning event to the afternoon but I have interviews most of today.

So instead, I did more stairs. I've scheduled 6 sets of stairs for this week and did my second set of two, leaving two more sets to be done tomorrow. Legs still ache a bit from the sets I did on Monday so I'm careful to stretch more. Need to remember to just stretch again this afternoon.

While weigh-in day isn't for two more days, I stepped on the scale out of curiosity. While I figure it's water weight, the two lb drop will help justify the hunger and detail.

 

[GrumpyOne]

Week 1, day 4

Finally made it to the gym! Stretched for a while since I didn't want to get hurt and reaquainted myself with the machines. Leg curls, leg extensions, abs, chest press, etc. I also threw in some free weights and took note of what other equipment they had.

Figuring out where to start weight-wise is always troublesome and I moved the numbers around several times. Two sets and I figured I was done for the day. I prefer to do three sets but since I'm just starting back after a very long time away, I didn't want to overdo it.

Tasks: Take a look and figure out a good set of exercises for each visit that will cover each muscle group at least once in a week.

 

[GrumpyOne]

At weigh-in: Down 1lb and -1% BF

 

[GrumpyOne]

Week 2, Day 1

Hit the gym and stay a few minutes more than last time. Rather than two circuits, I do three of a few exercises. Shouldn't be long before I'm on three sets of everything.

Because of the short week, I need to also do cardio today. I scheduled this week to be four sets of 12 flights but after doing 12 I wasn't as tired as I expected so I increased it to 18 flights of stairs. Very beat when finishing.

Must remember not to get overconfident or risk possible injury.

 

[GrumpyOne]

Week 2, Day 4: Not confident that I've lost any weight this week but we'll see. Managed to cut back on the snacking in the evening and have eliminated the beer so it's just a matter of time.

Previously did two sets of stairs for the last two days. Today I did an extra 1/2 a set for a total of 1.5 extra sets for the week. Been a bit lazy with the recordkeeping, need to do better.

Second trip to the gym this week was rough. Haven't done squats in forever so I do some sets just to practice the form. No plates, just an olympic bar. Will do a set like that again next time and then toss a bit of weight on and ramp up. Otherwise, I did long slow sets, emphasizing control of the weight rather than fast "bouncy" sets that tend to cause injury.

 

[GrumpyOne]

Down another .5lb and BF% stayed the same but it's still a success because almost every area measured lost inches.