Sunday, Monday, and today I am unable to go to the gym due to the holiday and my holiday shifts. It works out, because I tore a lot of leg muscle from Saturday with my cross step session. Family has been cheering me on for my progress and many of my clients from the office have taken notice about me “rapidly” losing weight. This has kept my spirits high and I am glad to see the fruits of my progress. I have been grateful for the whey protein that I have supplemented into my diet as a booster to my body’s healing needs, as my downtime for muscle recovery has gotten shorter from it. I am looking forward to returning to my routine by Wednesday and pushing forward with my training.
I have been a little more calorie conscious as far as food goes and I have been watching my intake. I do enjoy eating, but I don’t eat until I pass out… I have learned better portion control and the work outs have seems to make me want smaller meals at more often intervals. I don’t hunger as badly as I did before but I have been learning to eat before I am totally famished. My “caloric burn” calculation has kept me on par or with me going a wee bit over… hopefully I can get it to 80% of my daily requirements. Here are rough approximations of my “requirements” for calories:
Base calories: 2000 (for basic body functions)
200 calories for bodily healing
200 calories during work
100 calories for driving (add an extra 50 – 75 depending on duration of drive time)
350 average work-out calories
Total: 2850 calories required daily
Dietary changes have been at work so my intake has consisted of more grains and clean proteins. I am trying to increase dairy into my diet, because I have a feeling that it does help from memories of when I was working out and eating yogurt. I have minimized takeout to a last resort issue when possible. If I have a desire for take out, I try to stick to sandwich shop with minimal meat and dressing to keep clean. I have learned that “cheat days” are not bad, because they keep my morale up… I am happy with losing 5 lbs so far and hopefully I can be down in 140 to really make things count.
Today’s session was rather impressive on the cardio end. The caloric burn off today was amazing and that was a pure hour of feeling and loving the burn. It was great to accomplish that much work from just 1 hour. On weigh-in before starting my session, I was at 150 lbs. That was exciting to see me lose 3 lbs from proper diet and exercise. Who’d have thought that adding something as simple as yogurt, more grains, and eating more often with smaller portions could achieve that end… I took it easy on the weights as I was just beat after that hard session of cardio.
Tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday I am out of action due to work and the gym’s holiday hours. Expect me to resume on Wednesday and carry onwards! Happy holidays to those who are fans of my progress!
Work has scheduled me early and doing the closer, so I lost out on 2 days: today and tomorrow. This works out great though, ’cause I am low on petrol until 12am Friday. Boo to random bills.
This, in turn, has become a mixed blessing. At the office, I have been watching the number of clients increase, but this in turn has caused an increase of my exposure to the illnesses of others. From some Chinese medicine enthusiasts, to exert excess energy while the risk of illness is high is not a good thing as it weakens the immunity. I have taken my 1,000mg of Vitamin C and a shot of Airborne in addition to my daily vitamin regimen. I hope that things will be well and I don’t catch anything from my clients.
Today, I decided to take it easy on myself and just do a brisk workout with the total body cross step machine as I finally recovered from the food poisoning. The machine’s perks are that it works the arms, shoulders, and legs as well as being a cardiovascular workout. I weighed in at 153 lbs today, so from this weekend’s antics of food and fun, I only gained a pound. That to me is surprising, considering I really had fun and thought I may have destroyed my entire workout in a span of 2 days. It is almost startling that from just a week of working out, my metabolism has kicked into high gear. It’s almost like a rebirth of my teenage years, but except I look much more mature and less like a boy.
My back muscles are healing rather rapidly and I have noticed a positive change in my posture as well. My arm muscles have finally had time to heal properly and I can feel a slight increase in my dexterity from it. My leg muscles are quickly going back to how they were in my younger days. The increase in progress is amazing and startling at the same time. I hope that for the rest of the week to push my all and continue this great progress! It is great knowing that every little bit does really help. Oh yes! My redline is now raised as of today… Hit a new record of a maximum heart rate of 222 beats a second. That was amazing on its own!
I don’t know if it was something I ate last night for dinner at the work party, but I have felt like throwing up and in miserable pain all day. Last night I couldn’t sleep from how irritated my stomach was. It was the same gut wrenching boiling pain all over again. I am not about to make a spectacle of myself and embarrass myself at the gym. Today, I will concentrate efforts to just take in plenty of fluids and try to palette something down because I don’t know how much I can eat in solids, if I can even hold down solids.
I hope by tomorrow I am back in better spirits and ready to take on the day.
On talking to a few friends who have weight trained, they have asked that I take it easy on myself before I seriously hurt something. I had told them that I am pretty sore all over and zapped of energy. From their observations, they have felt that I have not given my body adequate time to rebuild the torn muscle fibers and for them to re-adjust for the healing process. Today will be another day spent relaxing and just plain taking it easy on my body to promote good healing and positive muscle growth.
My friends have also voiced their opinions that I should alternate training days as my body is still trying to cope with me getting back in shape. I may just do that for this week to further promote the healing process. Thanks to those who have been supportive of my progress, it really means a lot to me!
Today, I am going to take it easy and enjoy the day… My legs are throughly worn out from all the cardio and my upper torso is sore from the building I have done there. Tomorrow, I plan to resume in full force and get back into things again. Plan to attack harder than yesterday, because I am starting to see the seeds of progress. Initially this week, I weighed in at 155 lbs. As of yesterday before workout, I was weighing in at 152 lbs! For 5 days of adding hard cardio, that is really astonishing! I can’t wait for the new week to begin. I just hope that with working weekends… It won’t screw with my routine.
I am proud of my great progress and hope to get even further. Until June… talk about killer suspense to see ultimate progress.
Workout notes: I woke to sore muscles all over and with exams having me running with “insomnia mode”, my body was not healing properly. So I ended up waking at 9:00 rather than the 6:45 I was hoping for. I feel much better though. The workout is short, but I do not intend to skimp on any cardio, because I do need it. I know my “redline” for my heart rate… At the moment I top out at 182 beats per minute and I can keep this state of redline for almost 40 minutes straight. Hopefully, I can get some sleep tonight and seriously get a great work-out tomorrow.
Total Body Crossramp Machine
371 Calories
Crossramp Level 6 (to train major leg muscles, arm muscles, and chest)