STRONGER
Well I decided to stop whining about being overweight and actually do something about it. Time to follow my own advice!
According to the site that provides the above graph I am "marginally overweight" at 63 inches tall and weighing 147lbs. "Marginally" does nothing to reduce the fact that I am bitterly unhappy with both my self control and my physique. I feel bad in myself so my motivation is low, this means I haven't been exercising or eating properly, but because I haven't been exercising or eating properly, I feel bad in myself and my motivation is low... time to break that self destructive cycle and take the control back!
Diet... it's not as clean as it used to be years ago, but it's much better than it has been in recent years. I've cut out all of the junk and comfort food, cut out the coffee (caffeine) and am close to cutting out the (de-caff) tea too - mainly because I think the soy milk needs to go, or at least be limited to cooking. I've increased my water intake too, and of course started training again. I will be using this section of my site to record my physical activities and weight lifting progress as well as any random thoughts I feel like sharing.
25th December 2009
Two hour long walk
26th December 2009
Bench Press 3 x 12 x 20kg
Squats 1 x 10 x 20kg 2 x 10 x 15kg
30th December 2009
Chin ups 3 x 7
Hanging leg raise 3 x 9
31st December 2009
Six hours of intense housework - I figure this counts as exercise!
1st January 2010
Two hour long walk
2nd January 2010
It was really difficult to train today, I just didn't have the motivation to do anything. This is my biggest ssue at the moment, but I WILL beat it.
Five mins on the stepper as Mystery cat was curled up on the bike saddle - legs hurt after two mins but made myself do five before moving Mystery and doing twelve mins on the bike.
Stretching followed by -
Bench Press 3 x 12 x 22kg
Squats 3 x 12 x 17kg
followed by another five mins on the bike.
3rd January 2010
35 minute brisk walk (in the freezing cold, with Zeus, wearing my favourite jeans that I've not been able to fit into for ages!).
4th January 2010
20 min brisk walk with Zoobalicious dog
5th January 2010
20 min brisk walk with Zooby
6th January 2010
30 min walk with Zooby-doo
No longer "marginally overweight" - hooray!
8th January 2010
30 min brisk walk in the snow with Zeus
9th January 2010
10 mins on bike followed by 6 mins on stepper
Three sets of chin ups to failure 11 - 9 - 8
Straight leg Swiss ball raises - 3 x 8
As you'll see from the graph at the top of this page, the weight is slowly and steadily coming off. I'm going to start taking measurements now too because focusing on weight alone is misleading when you are exercising. This is simply because muscle weighs more than fat so you can easily be getting heavier while your body is getting smaller - weight loss is not always healthy, fat loss is.
11th January 2010
45 min brisk walk with Zoobie
15th January 2010
Life got in the way of training for a couple of days... but graph at the top of the page is looking good! I'm going for exhaustion on all exercises now instead of aiming to do a certain amount of reps each time - when I can do 3 x 12 of whatever, then I'll up the weight.
5 mins on stepper, 5 mins on bike
Bench press 2 x 9 x 24kg - 1 x 5 x 24kg
Squats 3 x 12 x 19kg
3 mins on bike
Upped the weights today but still managed to do 3 x 12 squats - am always paranoid about my knees so tend not to push myself too hard with squats... but maybe I should start pushing myself more? I'll see what my knees are like tomorrow after today's workout...
19th January 2010
10 mins on stepper followed by 5 mins on bike
Three sets of chin ups to failure 7 - 7- 6
Three sets to failure straight leg Swiss ball raises 9 - 8 - 8
Four mins on bike
I'm wondering if my decreased performance was down to me drinking just water throughout training instead of a glucose solution... or was it just because my eating hasn't been ideal this week?
23rd January 2010
I'm struggling with motivation again at the moment - knees are really painful again which doesn't help. Seems to be something to do with sitting down for most of the day during the week as it's nowhere near as bad at weekends.
Not looking forward to training today but am gonna make myself do it anyway. Couldn't do it yesterday, tried making excuses today but talked myself out of them. Oh well, off to train I go...
6 mins on stepper followed by 4 mins on bike
Bench press - three sets to exhaustion: 12 - 9 - 8 @ 24kg
Squats - 3 x 12 x 24kg (VERY hard work so not upping the weights just yet)
Three mins on bike
24th January 2010
90 min walk
14th February 2010
OK so I've been a bit slow updating this page... I had a couple of weeks off training due to health problems and bad period pains, then on 6th February we walked in the woods for about 90 mins - 7th February I did: -
Ten mins on bike
Lat pull downs 3 x 9 @ 35kg
Hanging leg raises 3 x 8
Five mins on bike
Really felt it in my lats/abs for the next few days too!
On 11th February I did: -
Thirteen mins on bike
Bench press 10 - 10 - 6 @ 24kg
Squats 3 x 7 @ 24kg
Seven mins on bike
Instead of trying to match or beat match how many reps I did previously, I'm just focusing on doing as many as possible each set. Still sticking with the rule that when I can do 3 x 12 it is time to increase the weight. This is what I did with the squats last workout and I was really feeling the effects of the increased weight yesterday and still am feeling it today!
Yesterday (13th) I did 32 mins on the bike - happily peddling away as I read some of my book.
17th Feb 2010
12 mins on bike
Lat pull down 3 x 9 @ 35kg
Swiss ball leg raises 3 x 12
7 mins on bike
I need to buy some new clothes...
20th Feb 2010
I was meant to be doing a workout today... but took Zeus out for a run instead - me on bike, him run run running. Bit saddle sore now but was good fun.
22nd Feb 2010
18 mins on bike
Bench press 10 - 9 - 7 @ 24kg
Bulgarian split squats 3 x 7 @ 3kg (!!)
6 mins on bike
The split squats were seriously difficult at the time (hence the low weight!), but didn't feel them much afterwards... think I'll be alternating between them and regular squats from now on.
Saturday 6th March 2010
Not trained for a while, been suffering with a really nasty cold / flu type bug. Not been eating properly because of it so have been feeling weak, would not be sensible to attempt training when I'm struggling to stand up... I'm hoping to restart training very soon, but am not going to push myself into it until I am physically well enough.
Sunday 7th March 2010
Still haven't trained, but have worked very hard physically over the last couple of days - I actually feel like I've done a seriously hard workout but then some. Gonna be sore tomorrow!