Day 80: Matt vs. Life Fitness (continued)

I had all intentions of running this morning. I set the alarm, I got up, and it was raining.  Yes, ladies and gentleman, surprise, surprise… it was raining.  Thunderstorms rolled in somewhere around 3:45AM and continued on through the morning and well into mid-morning. 

How was the drive into work, you ask.  Well, thanks for asking.  It was awful.  A simple 40 minute drive up the highway took me about an hour and a half.  Stop and go and stop and stress.  Yes, I hate traffic, I despise traffic.  Traffic is my arc enemy.  If I was a super hero I would fight traffic and traffic jams.  My super hero alias would be The Un-Jammer (or maybe Traffic Man).  I don’t know but the point is my superhero power would be the ability to un-jam freeways and let my people drive at 90 miles an hour.  Is that too much to ask?

Okay, so traffic stress makes me tense and I needed to blow off that stress after work.  Rewind for a second:  The drive home was awful as well.  Cops and Hero Units (around Atlanta we have rapid response units to traffic accidents because the police are so slow to respond called Hero Units) everywhere.  It was exhausting.

Queue the corny montage of me getting home and changing.  I took a few minutes and played around with my USB drive again.  Life Fitness has a code as deep as the Di Vinci code and I must crack it.  Convinced that I had (even though I had not watch the tutorial videos available on the web side,  who has time for that) I rushed out the door to the gym to burn off the days traffic stress. 

I think I did a good job only to find my USB workout still didn't work. I made up my own treadmill set and it went something like this:

Start at 5.5 mile and hour for one song.

6.5 and 3 incline for one song.

5.5 and 6 incline for one song.

5.5 and 8 incline for one song.

3.8 and 10 incline for one song.

3.5 and 0 incline to catch my breath.

6.0 and 0 incline for 4 minutes.

7.0 and 0.5 incline for two minutes

8.0 and one incline for one minute.  (Thought I was going to die)

Cool down.

I got my heart rate up to 167 beats a minute.  It was almost too much.  In the end I tried to maintain a heart rate of over 140 although several times I topped 150.  It felt good tough.  In the end I was a spent and sweaty mess.  I needed it to burn off my traffic stress and relax a little. 

So that was my day.  Not all that great thanks to all the Atlanta drivers who insist on turning our interstate system into a red neck demolition derby.  I swear sometimes its personal and they do it just to anger me or maybe it’s just me.  Either way, I don’t know. 

Daily Recap:

Matt:  Stressed in Traffic… Killed it on the Treadmill 36 minutes.

Kelly: 30 minutes with a Personal Trainer then 30 minutes on the treadmill.    

Day 79: Kayaking Lake Peachtree

It was a beautiful day one that could not be squandered inside working out in a gym.  No, a day like today needs to be experienced and enjoyed in the sun.  What better way to spend some of the day than out on the water again in the kayaks.

We unloaded at the boat dock and hit the water.  At first we thought we had made a mistake since the water was extremely choppy.  If you have ever had to paddle a boat in choppy water it is no fun.  You spend most of your time fighting the wind. 

A water skier went zooming by throwing up quite a wake.  I took it head on and the nose of my kayak dipped causing me get soaked.  The water felt great.  It was about the tempratture of bath water.  I envied the people in the boat. 

Once we got away from the main body of the lake and the skiers the water calmed and became like glass.   It was smooth paddling clear to the dam.  We turned and headed back for a loop around the island. 

Once we exited the back of the island the water got choppy again.  My back and shoulder muscles were feeling the brutal paddling I was putting them through trying to get speed and completing about 60 strokes before tiring. 

The skiers went by again and forcing us to fight their wake across the widest section of the lake.  You find yourself fighting large rippling waves that are pushing against you. 

In the end we were back at the boat dock a little tired but happy to have gotten a chance to get out on the water again before the rains returned. 

Daily recap:

Matt & Kelly: 1 Hour hard core kayaking on the lake.  

Day 78: Matt vs. Life Fitness Web Site

Life Fitness has supplied more gyms with exercise equipment than you can shake a stick at.  I have seen Life Fitness machines in everything from my old apartment gym in Florida to hotel gyms to the one I am currently a member. 

Every time I step up to one of these machines I see a USB port.  After looking at this for over a year I decide to do a little research and find out what this port can be used for.  I have noticed the machine ask me if I would like to save my progress and certainly there has to be more to it than that.

It took me several searches on the internet to find the LF Connect website where you can sign up for an account.  This allows you to do numerous things including: Creating a Workout Calendar, Creating Custom Workouts, and Tracking Your Progress.

The first thing you have to do is create a workout.  You do this by clicking on the center My Workouts button which gives you access to your Workout Library.  Then you have to add a workout.  When you go into the add workout menu you have to select  Custom Interval Workouts and then either home or professional  and what type of machine you plan on using. 

I chose Exercise Facility and then Treadmill.  From here you have two main choices they are: Speed Interval or Heart Rate Interval.  I chose Speed since I will be using guidelines set by Kelly’s personal trainer.  From here it was pretty simple to set up the work you.  Simply put in the total time you plan on working out and the intervals. 

Although in the end I did find the website easy to use it took me several minutes to find what I was looking for and nothing is really explained it’s almost as if they expect you to know exactly what you are doing when you use their site.  If I found it slightly confusing at first I imagine someone with only mediocre computer skills would be totally confused in trying to figure the site out. 

I would suggest a Brief Tutorial section with links to YouTube on how to operate the site.  It would make it much more user friendly. 

With that being said I finished my workout and now needed to load it onto a USB drive, which again took me a minute to figure out but was quite simple after I discovered how to do it.  The work out is downloaded in a zip file which I unpacked and loaded onto our USB drive. 

At the gym neither of our treadmills found our workouts.  I am assuming that I needed to load the zip file and not unpack it but it would have been nice to have some brief explanation.  After all that we were unable to use our custom workouts and I will try it all again on our next gym outing.  We did save our progress to the USB drive. Now I have to figure out how to load them. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: 30 Min Tread Mill I chose a random setting like running up foot hills

Kelly:  30 Min @ 9AM with Personal Trainer and again @ 6PM with me 30 Min Tread Mill using the personal trainer’s custom workout  

Day 77: A Beautiful Day on the Lake

To run or not to run that is the question I asked myself this morning.  I decided against it for two reasons. 

One, my knee has been bothering me a little.  Not much but another day of rest would probably be a good idea.  I don’t want to overdue to a point where I would have to stop jogging since jogging is my number one physical activity.  So much so, I set a new goal in RunKeeper of 25 miles in fourteen days. 

Two, we had planned on kayaking this afternoon.  Thankfully we were able to get the boat out on the water for a nice little paddle around the lake.  It was a beautiful day and I think everyone who could put a motorized boat on the water was out. 

See, Lake Peachtree is one of those where you have to have a house that has lake rights in order to enjoy the lake.  If you don’t have lake rights you are only allowed a trolling motor or of coarse anything that is human powered.

We were on the water about an hour and I felt my weight workout from the day before.  My shoulders were burning and my back lats were tiring out and feeling sore.  It wasn’t a debilitating pain like I have had in the past, but rather one of those pains were you just feel like you worked it a bit too much. 

This evening I realized I felt my porch weight workout all over.   In addition to my upper body being doubly sore from the kayaking and such but I could feel the Dead Lifts and squats in my gluts.  Over all my body is feeling good and I really don’t have any complaints.

Tomorrow I am going to hit the gym in the evening and try to get in some treadmill time.

Daily recap;

Matt and Kelly: 1 hour out on a beautiful day kayaking.  

Day 76: Combining Activities

Some days, time and everything else will just get the best of you and you will find yourself facing an almost no win situation like I had today.  My problem was complete and total lack of time with completely poor planning on my part. I fully admit that I should have planned better but I didn’t so sue me.    

At 7:30 I still had to cook dinner as well as having multiple things going on at one time there wasn’t any way I could get everything done and go for a jog and then it hit me.  What if I combined two of my activities to get my work out in. 

In this eureka moment I went to my garage and got out my dumb bells.  Now, thanks to my genius,  on the back porch while I was grilling I was able to get in a complete total body work out.  My set went something like this. 

Shoulder Press

Put the veggies on the grill. 

French Curls

Bent over rows

Put the steaks on the grill.

Push Ups

Flip the steaks.

Bicep Curls

Dead Lifts

Flip the steaks

Squats

… And Done

Shortly after the completing my squats I plated my steaks and grilled zucchini and ate dinner.  During all this we had three pots of spaghetti sauce on the stove.  In all, including today’s harvest, we have harvested, off of 5 Roma Tomato bushes,  almost 24 pounds of tomatoes.  I would think there is still another 20 to 25 pounds of tomatoes out there right now waiting to ripen. 

Pretty amazing considering the amount of rain we have had has all but killed my zucchini bushes and cucumber vines.  My green beans are doing well although not producing quite like they did last year. 

Well that was about it for today and yes I am patting myself on the back for thinking of combining activities to ensure I got my daily work out in.  Life sometimes seems to work hard to get in your way and you sometimes have to get creative to get around it. 

Daily Recap

Matt: Full Body weight workout while grilling steaks and zucchini. 

Kelly: TBD

Day 75: Aspartame and Mowing Grass

I love half day Fridays.  I think they may be the most productive day of the week.  I spend a half day at work and then come home and spend a half day working at home.  Last week I knocked out a good portion of my water pipe problem.  Today I got my whole house cleaned and a ton of yard work done including front and back yard mowed. 

Meanwhile on Facebook…

A friend of mine posed a question about aspartame. There has been so much misleading information about this particular food additive that I didn’t know where to start.  Aspartame has been blamed for some many health issues that it’s not even funny.  The only problem is that it has never been linked to any of the health issues that pop up.

Aspartame is one of the most widely used and widely studied food additives in the world.  It has been in our food since 1981.  If it could be linked to any health issue at all a class action law suit would have been won by now but it hasn’t. 

What do I think of aspartame?  Personally I try to keep consumption of products that contain aspartame to a minimum.  Why?  Well, while I feel that aspartame is perfectly safe when you eat paleo you try to keep consumption of anything that is now 100% natural to a minimum.  I don’t condemn anyone who decides to consume a couple liters of diet soda a day or whatever, that is a personal choice. 

Online I have seen the signs that link aspartame to everything from Alzheimer’ to diabetes to brain tumors.  It is always painted  as one of the most evil substances on the face of planet.  A little research and you will see that it is not tied defects to any, nor has been proven to cause anything at all in the human body.. 

I trust you to make decisions that are right for you and your family.  Research all foods and additives and see if it is something that you really want to put in your mouth and body. 

As I have said before when they interview someone who is at a centennial position in their life they never, ever say that they made it too 100 years of age from proper colon cleanses and vitamins.  It is almost always from drinking beer and eating cake. 

If that is the real recipe to eternal life then I should pretty much live forever.

And now please welcome the…

Daily Recap:

Matt:  I will count my two hours of yard work where I pushed myself and for the first time I got a side stitch while mowing the grass. 

Kelly: TBD

Day 74: An Unexpected Trip To The Vet.

I have talked about life getting in the way and today was one of those examples.  My 7 year old Great Dane, Isabella, was not acting like normal cheery self.  Anyone who has ever owned a giant breed dog knows that when they don’t act right you take them to the vet.  There are too many things that can go wrong with a dog that big. 

As it turns out everything seems to be okay.  But it’s better to be safe than sorry.  That means that I didn’t get my jog in until 7:30 and when I was finished I still had to run to the store to get something for dinner. I didn’t get a chance to eat dinner until 9:00.

After I cleaned up from dinner, showered and got ready for bed it was past 10 and I am usually crawling into bed at 9.  It’s amazing how you can get into a routine and then having to take an unexpected hour and a half detour your entire evening is thrown out of whack. 

At least when I was finally able to jog the sun was far enough down that my entire route was in the shade.  I am still working on building speed.  I went back and looked at my saved jogs on RunKeeper.  And I am trending faster with each jog. 

That was my day and it was not fun.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Daily Recap:

Matt: 30 Minute Late Evening Run

Kelly: TBD

Day 73: Enjoy McDonald's

I read an interesting article today.  The premise was simple: Could Fast Food Save Us?

The author compared some of the meals that he eat at trendy healthy farm fresh restaurants to McDonald’s and actually visits McDonald’s headquarters and has a discussion with their head chief. Of the more fascinating things that I found in the article was the breakdown of calories of the supposed “Healthy” food to the junk food. The healthier food had more calories than the junk food.   

In one of the examples that he used was the good ole’ fashion smoothie.  His 100% pure organic fruit smoothie had at one place had roughly 300 calories.  He then had a smoothie from a vegan restrauant that to paraphrase his words, it was the color of grass and tasted like bitter celery, had over 250 calories and he couldn’t finish it because it was nasty.  Finally he had the best smoothie of the three.  The first two cost well over $5 while the last one was only $2 and some change.  Calorie wise it was right at 200 per serving and the real kicker was that it came from McDonald’s. 

Then there was the conversation he had with the McDonald’s nutritionist.  Does anyone remember the McLean?  It was McDonald’s attempt to offer a healthy hamburger choice.  It had less calories and less fat than any other hamburger on their menu and it was also the worst selling product they ever offered. 

Side rant:  Anyone remember the McDLT. This was my favorite hamburger from McDonald’s.  If you remember it kept the hot side hot and the cold side cold.  You were free to put your own condiments on it and you had to finish assembling it yourself.  It was awesome and it also failed.  Side rant end.

The McLean failed but McDonald’s marketing learned a very important lesson:  No one likes what is supposed to be good for them.  With that lesson in mind McDonald’s, while unknown to the public, continues to strive to make its products healthier and reduce the calories. 

Some of the things they have done is incorporate more whole grains into their breads and find ways to cut fats from their meals.  They offer healthier choices to their menu like a yogurt parfait and apple slices.  Now when they add healthy choice options they never, NEVER, mention that it is healthier out of fear that it will kill sales. 

In a nutshell that was the article.  The poor in this country tend to be more obese and they tend to eat more fast food.  Instead of vilifying fast food we should encourage them to find ways to make their food healthier.  Not everyone can afford to drink, nor would they necessarily want, a $9 wheat grass smoothie so we should encourage options that they would purchase be made healthier. 

Some people vilify all fast food but it is unrealistic to think that all the suddenly everyone is going to eat completely healthy and organic.  If fast food chains can cut 100 calories from one of their most popular items it is a start. 

Personally, about once a year I get a craving for a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese and a large Fry.  I eat it, it makes me happy, I feel sick for a few hours, and life goes on.

Daily Recap:

Matt: 30 minute jog. Same as usual.

Kelly: TBD

Day 72: A Little Late for Safety

After almost passing out the other day I have been thinking about workout safety.  I believe my problem was as much from heat as maybe dehydration.  After completely soaking a shirt in the sun while working in my garden I should have rehydrated and rested before I headed out.  I won’t make that mistake again. 

Here are some basic safety tips:

ü  Wear the proper clothes and shoes – I own several of the moisture wicking shirts and they work great.  They are lighter and breathe better than cotton shirts.  Proper shoes are important as well.  You should foot ware appropriate to the activity you are preforming. 

ü  Divide your work out – With most of the country experiencing record heat, if you like to jog outside like I do divide you jog into two shorter jogs you will still burn the same amount of calories.

ü  Move Indoors – This seem like a no brainer but I would have probably been better if I had gone to the air conditioned gym and hit the treadmill.

ü  Rehydrate Often – This is a big one.  I recently read that as much as 75% of the population is dehydrated at any given time and 30% spend their lives in perpetual dehydration.  Losing just 2% of your body water can give you a headache, trouble focusing, short term memory loss, and aggravation so stay hydrated!

ü  Know Yourself & Listen to Your Body – I did that, when my I got dizzy I went in a cooled off immediately.  You know the mantra “No Pain, No Gain” would depend on your pain. If your pain is from challenging yourself that is good but if it’s debilitating it’s not good pain you should probably get that checked out.

There are others like “Always stretch and warm up” or “Never work out on an empty stomach” but you can find conflicting information about these.  I, for one, never stretch or warm up.  At least not like a full warm up routine.  Before I go for a run I will usually jump up and down a couple of times and swing my arms and then go.  That’s it.

As for working out on an empty stomach I believe I have covered this.  Some experts will tell you never do it while others will say it’s okay as long as you don’t go over 30 to 45 minutes.  I usually never go over 30 on an empty stomach and I won’t lift weights.  I will do cardio, yoga, or Pilates.

Today, though, I mowed the grass again for exercise. I had to before it rained yet again. The rain won’t stop and it looked like a cold winter day outside with a high being 86 degrees.  In July and August we usually see days in the mid 90’s.  I remember this orange ball in the sky that used to give off heat and light.  I haven’t seen it in so long I am starting to get a vitamin D deficiency. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: 36 minutes Push Mowing

Kelly: TBD

Day 71: Cracking a Sub 13 Minute Mile

Today was one of those days where I woke up feeling great.  It’s rare that I have mornings usually I wake up tired and it takes me a few minutes to get going, really about 15 minutes.  I am just not a morning person.  In addition it was one of those weird nights were I woke up several time so I should have been tired. 

I wonder if it is my diet.  Over the last five days I went back on my Paleo Diet and I always feel better skipping grains and beans.  My energy seems to go up and I sleep better (except for last night).  Even after all the exercise I went through. 

I do have a hard time saying I am on a “Paleo Diet” since I don’t consider it so much a diet but a dietary choice.  Take tonight for example; I had BBQ chicken, Backed Sweet Potato, and a Salad.  Does that sound like a diet to you?  Maybe it does.  I had gained a few pounds back and by going back strictly paleo in the past five days I have lost all of them. 

Now for my exercise today I hit the pavement trying to break that thirteen minute a mile mark and did quite well through the first half.  According to Run Keeper I was keeping a 12:27 pace and felt good.  Unfortunately I couldn’t keep that pace up.

I put my head down and tried to power through it but the harder I ran the harder it became to run.  My lungs were not a problem it was my legs that were failing me.  I guess I was asking too much of them to carry my girth at the constant speed I asked them to.  They weren’t ready to repeatedly pound the pavement fast enough to beat my pace. 

My legs failed me.  No matter how hard I pushed them they were not going to give me what I needed.  I needed more speed.  In the end it just wasn’t there. I finished my two mile jog with a 13:04 minute mile.  Maybe tomorrow. 

I feel like the more weight I lose the faster I will be able to go after all that just makes since to me.  Way back in the day I could carry a ten minute pace. 

So, retuning to paleo and cranking up my speed hopefully will give me the benefits and time that I am looking for.

Daily Recap:

Matt: 30 Min at a 13:04 minute pace even though I pushed my legs to the limit. 

Kelly: TBD

Day 70: Don't Pass Out!

I over did it today and almost passed out from the heat.  This is what happened:

We were yet again under a thunderstorm watch but it was bright and sunny outside and there was work that had to be done in the garden.  For over an hour I pulled weeds, cleaned up cucumber vines and zucchini plants, and picked tomatoes.  When I was done I was drenched in sweat.  I looked like someone had dumped a bucket of water over my head. 

I could see clouds starting to gather and I still had to get my jog in.  I ran in, changed and hit the pavement. The clouds blew over and the sun came out in full force.  As you can guess the temperature went through the roof as well. 

The last five minutes on my way back to my house I started feeling weak.  By the time I got back to my house I felt sick to stomach and started getting blurry vision.  I ran inside and stuck my head under the sink to cool off.  It took a few minutes but slowly I returned to normal.

I had a protein shake afterwards and that helped as well.  Too much heat and not enough water, remember to always hydrate!

That is my lesson for the day. 

The run was actually pretty good until the end I managed to keep up a 14 minute mile.  My goal is to move it 13 and so on until eventually I can run keep up a three mile 10 minute a mile run.  If someone can break a 4 minute mile I should be able to do a 10 minute mile. 

Unfortunately that is all I have for today.  Maybe tomorrow I can dream up something more entertaining to write about but for now I am going to bed.

Daily Recap:

Matt: 41 min. 3 mile jog

Kelly: TBD 

Day 69: I Dug a Hole

Yes I did. Today I’m counting digging a hole as exercise.  This was no ordinary hole, no sir.  It was a big hole and there was a very distinct purpose for the hole that had to be dug. 

As you know I have a leak.  After five hours of re-plumbing yesterday I discovered that I had to replace a portion of the main water line into my house.  That required digging.  A lot of digging

In the end, the hole I had to dig was about two feet by three feet and about three and a half feet deep.  That is moving quite of a bit of earth.  I sincerely thought that afterwards I would go to the gym, since yet again, we were going to have rain, however, I did not anticipate being as complete and totally worn out as I was. 

Physically I was shot.  My back hurt, my legs hurt, my hands hurt, heck, my whole body hurt.  I was worried that I wasn’t going to be able to get my 30 minutes of exercise in, but  as I was filling in this massive hole I had an “ah ha” moment.  On the Biggest Loser they have advocated moving furniture and other everyday activities as exercise.  One of these exercise in particular popped into my weary mind.  If you have seen the show you may already know what I am talking about.  It involves a 5 lbs sledgehammer and a giant tractor tire.  A contestant hits the tire over and over again and they consider this exercise. Well considering the amount of sweat and energy expended I am counting digging a hole as exercise. 

You may be interested in knowing that my plumbing problem is fixed now and I have no leaks.   Two days and ten hours total and a complete reworking of not just the water pipes under my house but the main delivery pipe in, I now have no leaking pipes (golf clap). 

After clean up and some gardening I was exhausted and there wasn’t any way I would be able to do much else.  I felt guilty but not for long. Mowing and digging, both fall in to the same category, a category I would like to call everyday life. No matter how hard you try sometimes there are things that just get in your way and it is up to you to decide if they are obstacles or opportunities. 

I am counting digging today as an opportunity since it allowed me to work some core muscles and burn a massive amount of calories. 

Daily Recap;

Matt:  Digging one huge hole and working against an incoming storm to complete a very important home project.

Kelly: TBD

Day 68: It Was a Tough Day

It was one of those days where the last thing you want to do is exercise.  As you may know during the summer my company does half day Fridays.  I thought it would be a good day to tackle a leaky pipe that I have at my house. 

If you have ever done any plumbing or construction of any kind before you know that a simple problem does not always have a simple answer.  It went something like this; five hours later and a massive re-piping I still have a leak.  Tomorrow I get to dig up the main water pipe to my house, replace a portion that enters my crawl space and if you are wondering, no this is not the first time I have ever done this.  It is the first time to my house but I worked in construction for nine years so I know what I am doing.

Sweating, hunched over, sawing, and everything else what goes with manual labor is what I spent five hours doing today.  I was a sweaty mess and after it was all done and I still had a leak, not only that but I still had 30 minutes of exercise to do. 

I didn’t want to but with the water to my house still off I changed and went for a jog.  When I was done I was able to turn the water back.  That is when I found out that I was only half done and new pipe leaked.

That was my day and now I am tired and I have a lot to do tomorrow. 

Daily Recap:

Matt:  Had to re-plumb a section of his house and still went for a 30 min. jog.

Kelly: TBD

Day 67: Wendy’s Weight Watchers

You know when you are trying to watch what you eat it seems like the universe conspires against you.  While on my normal commute what do I see?  A giant billboard advertising Wendy’s new hamburger with at pretzel bun.   It looks delicious.  You know you’re fat for a reason when you see a picture of a hamburger and you wind up thinking about it off and on throughout the day.  It’s enough to make me want to write a letter:

Dear Wendy’s

I am trying to lose weight and get in shape and it seems that you have no interest in helping me.  Why else you decide to come out with a delicious looking new hamburger at that particular moment in time.  Do you have my house and phone bugged? 

From the evidence I have before me you knew what I was doing and you have blatantly set out to sabotage my efforts.  I must inform you that it won’t work.  For now, I am resisting the temptation and plan on not eating your hamburger.  As for the source of the temptation I am going to have to respectfully ask that you take down your billboard.

Sincerely,

Matt

The next thing I feel compelled to share is the Weight Watchers lady.  There is a Weight Watchers next to my grocery store.  As I am pulling into the parking lot I see one of their clients leaving.  She gets in her car and drives 200 feet closer to the store where she re-parks in the same parking lot, gets out, and walks into the store.  I thought to myself, it’s not Weight Watchers you need maybe it is a little exercise. 

As I am checking out she gets behind me and starts unloading her cart.  I saw the following items:

A frozen pizza

Two bags of chips

A twelve pack of diet coke

A tub of ice cream

It blew my mind because there is no way she has the points for that.  (If you have ever been on Weight Watcher you know what I mean)  I can only hope she was shopping for someone else, but to be honest you never know. 

As people we do all kinds of crazy things that we know we shouldn’t.  Why?  I don’t know.  I personally am an emotional eater and a stress eater.  If I get worked up or stressed about something fruit tastes awful.  What I need is a big piece of cake.  I mean, come on, you know how much I love cake.   A big slice of cake would be the perfect desert to Wendy’s new pretzel burger.  Now I am thinking about cake.

I thought about both the pretzel burgers and cake as I mowed my lawn today.  That is what I did for exercise.  Both the front and back yard and as a bonus I jumped on my scales before I mowed the lawn and after.  I lost over two pounds pushing my mower. 

Daily recap:

Matt: 1hour 45 minutes mowing the lawn

Kelly: TBD

Day 66: The Things We Buy To Get In Shape

My mind wandered today to exercise fads and all the craziness we have seen over the years associated with separating people from their money.  I have always believed that if you see a piece of exercise equipment on an infomercial you should avoid it like the plague.  Over the years we have been subjected to some of the worst ideas in human history pertaining to getting fit and the best part is we buy them. 

Do you remember the Thigh Master? This single piece of equipment was dedicated to exercising just one set of muscles on the body and people bought it like crazy.  I don’t know anyone who would admit to owning one but someone had to.  It made Suzanne Somers a fortune.  She still sells the thing online.  Her website claims that over 10 million have been sold and while I find that hard to believe I also wonder what that says about us, as in the human race.  Order yours now for only $29.99.

Does the name Tony Little mean anything to you?  If it does chances are you watched one of his Gazelle commercials back in the 90’s.  I looked it up and he still sells this thing.  It’s basically a swing set for your legs.  I have no doubt that you can exercise with this thing but it offers zero resistance.  Personally I think you would be better off with an elliptical machine.  In addition to the Gazelle he hocks another piece of equipment called the Total Body Shaper and it looks like a medieval torcher device.

There is also all the things you shake to get in shape.  Awesome products like the Shake Weight which I find hysterical, why you can’t just pick up something heavy and shake it don’t know.  My favorite is the BodyBlade.  Yes, they still make this product again I had to look it up.  I love the fact that you can become a certified BodyBlade instructor from their website.  There is a section on the website where you can find gyms that offer BodyBlade training and you can find one close to you buy putting in your zip code.  Sadly there were no gyms offering BodyBlade training within 100 miles of me.  So I tried several different zip codes and came up empty.  Finally I just switched to map view and was shocked.  There are no official BodyBlade facilities in the WORLD!  Why even have this feature on your website.  Hopefully it was just broken and we are surrounded by gyms where you can take your BodyBlade for a workout.

Finally, have you seen the Hawaii Chair. Their motto is “If you can sit, you can get fit.” It’s a chair that takes you through the motions of hula hooping and people who have used it said it’s like riding a mechanical bull. Do yourself a favor and YouTube the infomercial it’s horrifyingly funny.

Daily Recap:

Matt: 31 min. jog this afternoon. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get it in with all the clouds and rain. 

Kelly: TBD

Day 65: Are You Tired Too?

I am having an off day.  Do you ever feel like not doing anything?  When I got up this morning my body screamed at me to go back to bed, it was by sheer will alone that I forced my fat self out of bed and laced up my shoes. 

My time this morning was dismal.  I could barley keep up a three and a half mile an hour pace, much less a four mile pace.  My jog hurt and I was tired.  Not just tired but exhausted just as I am tired now. 

I am paying for this weekend.  I had a friend of mine over and again we drank too much beer and ate out too much.  When I stepped on the scale this morning I was up three pounds.  Now I am fighting to remove all that weight. 

It is amazing how just a few meals can pack on the pounds.  Why is that?  If I eat a good diet for a week I may lose a pound or two, but   if I eat fatty foods and things I really shouldn’t I can put on three pounds in three days.  That is not fair!

Well enough for today on with the recap…

Matt: 35 minute jog AM (no rain)

Kelly: TBD

Day 64: Rain and Sand Bags

The rain is killing everything.  My garden is suffering as well as my mental faculties.  The rain wears you down.  Every day for over two weeks we have had rain.  I am tired of the rain!

I was going to run this morning.  I got up early mentally ready to go for a good jog and it was raining.  Off and on all day we had precipitation with thunder and lightning.  When I got home it had just rained.  My front yard is in desperate need of mowing and that is what I was going to do when I got home today, mow it.  However with the grass soaking wet all it does is bog down the mower engine and stall the mower. 

Okay, so taking care of my front yard was out.  No problem I will just go for a jog in the stifling humidity except just as I laced up it rained again!  We had rain from about 5:30 to 6:00 and as soon as it stopped I headed out. 

I hit the pavement without Run Keeper out of fear of damaging my phone if it stormed.  Just outside my neighborhood and down the street from the library and Church you won’t believe what happened…  Have you guessed?  I won’t hold you in suspense any longer: It rained.

It was a light sprinkling but enough to wet my hair.  Then the sun came out in full force and I could see the steam rising from the pavement in front of me.  In addition to all this it was a tough jog.

My legs again felt like lead.  If I had to run from Fat Matt today I am sure he would have caught me.  I tried to push myself but it was like trying to will a boulder up hill.  It just wasn’t happening no matter how hard I tried.  My legs simply wouldn’t allow it.  They didn’t hurt, no, it was more like it had sand bags tied to them.  Why is it some days you feel great and others like you have been run over with a truck?

I completed the run and that was that.  I am going to bed early tonight and I hope its not raining in the morning. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: 40 minute run even though Fat Matt didn’t want to do it.

Kelly: TBD. 

Day 63: Curds and Whey...

I started using whey protein today.  I used Kelly’s trainer’s recommendation I went in search for a Whey Isolate protein with no added sugar.  It seems like that should be a standard item at any health foods store. 

My first stop was GNC.  You always have to be careful and specific when going into a GNC.  Like any retail establishment they have a quota as well as products to push.  If you must go into a GNC do your own research, go in knowing exactly what you are looking for, and don’t ask the sales clerk for help other than finding your item.  If they don’t have it leave, or else they will try to sell you a product that is either on special or sale that they have to get rid of. 

My GNC guy tried just that.  I wasn’t able to find what I was looking for on my own so I asked for help.  His first stop was the discount bin.  Where he read me some ingredients and said, “This on is actually on sale,” yes, I bet it was.  I politely told him no and I had a specific thing I was looking for.  He then combed the store and couldn’t find anything completely sugar fee.  I left. 

Several days before Kelly and I had found whey isolate in the health food section of Kroger.  I made that my next stop and sure enough I found it again. It’s sugar free and gluten free and tastes pretty good.

What I got:

The whey protein that I bought is called IsoFusion from Gaspari Nutrition. In one 1.6lbs container you get 23 servings of 25 grams of protein per shake.  In addition to being both sugar free and gluten free it is also free of artificial colors and flavors.  It is supposed to be Vanilla Ice Cream flavored but it smells like vanilla cake dough to me. 

It foams excessively when then I put in a shaker although I have not tried to make a true shake of it yet in the blender.  Maybe I could add some strawberries or blueberries but I don’t like making shake out of berries because I have found that there is always a mouth full of seeds at the bottom of the cup. 

Gaspari Nutrition was founded by Rich Gaspari, a former body builder who had a successful career winning title after title and won the first every Arnold Classic, as in Arnold Schwarzenegger.   Hopefully he would know a little about nutrition.  I guess we will see.

Like I said the whey powder I got tastes pretty good and I am cutting a serving in half.  I do half pre workout and half post workout. 

Dailey Recap:

Matt: 43 minutes and 3 miles.  I was able to increase my time keeping a better than 4 mile and hour pace today.  Also it was an AM jog first thing in the morning after I go up. 

Kelly: TBD

Day 62: Run, Fat Boy, Run

Today was hot and overcast all day with, yet again, the threat of rain gloomily hung over head. Several times throughout the day it sprinkled just long enough to increase the humidity and make the heat almost unbearable.  Around 3PM I became convinced it wasn’t going to rain anymore and I decided to head out in the steam and high temperature for my daily exercise. 

Let me also just say right here how hard it was to run today.  Not hard as in physical, I mean, that it was a mentally hard day to get out the door and to convince myself to just do it.  With all the gloom it would have been a perfect day to just sit on my couch and nap or watch TV. Why is it that gray days seem to suck the life from you and ?  Forcing my fat body out the door was a real chore. 

With the jog already feeling like a burden, I have to admit that the first five minutes felt like I was running in a swimming pool.  There was also my sore muscles from the heavy weight full body work out that I did yesterday at the gym.  The jostling with every step brought a reminder from my chest muscles and lats that I may have overdone it a little bit. 

Although my legs felt tight they didn’t hurt anywhere near as bad as they did the first time I worked them out with heavy weights.  Still when it came to moving my bulk, my pace wasn’t all that great.  I only maintained a little less than four miles an hour pace.  It took me 47 minutes to complete my three miles. 

Days like today I find extremely hard to motivate myself.  This blog is still serving as external motivation for me.  I am not sure I would have ran today if I wasn’t being held accountable somehow.

My pace increased the longer my jog went and by the end I felt pretty good.   

Daily Recap:                                                                                                                                     

Matt: 3 Mile Run in 47 minutes

Kelly: 30 min. am exercise

Day 61: Heavy Metal

It was your average ordinary day.  I worked my half day Friday, got my teeth cleaned, and hit the gym.  I decided to do a heavy lift day and really ramp up the weights. 

I did a full body workout starting with my shoulders.  I did presses and increased the weights until I couldn’t lift any more.  On the last set I lowered the weight and increased the reps to 15 my shoulders were burning by the end. 

I moved on to chest next.  Piling on the plates and going as high as I could go and still do a minimum of six reps. 

Next was I did back.  I used two different machines and hit both my upper and lower back going as high as 180 pounds.

What I am most proud of is what I did next.  I like to do legs before I hit my triceps and biceps since usually they are shot from bench-presses and back rows.  I was going to hit the free weight leg press but there was someone else on it and I didn’t want to wait for them to finish. 

I made my way over to the machine press.  Last time I tested myself on the leg press I was able to do 360 but, if you remember, I paid dearly for it. My legs hurt for three day.  Today was different.  My legs felt good so I started at 260 and was shocked at how easy it was. 

I increased the weight to 300 and still had to problems.  To make a long story short I eventually maxed out the leg press machine.  395lbs.  I did three sets and was spent. 

For triceps I moved on the cable machine and wound up sharing it with another fellow gym goer.  We traded off since the rest of the cable machines ere occupied. 

I finished by blowing out my biceps and left tired and worn out.  Tonight I feel my workout but it’s not killing me… yet.

Daily Recap:

Matt: 45 minute total body weight lift

Kelly: TBD

Day 60: Salt is Good | Fish Oil Kills

Day 60 brings with it some shocking revelation.  Since I have been thinking about nutrition lately I started paying attention to articles on food.  What crosses my path today blew my mind.

It seems the CDC is getting ready to correct an error of monstrous proportions.  For years we have been bombarded with information on salt and how terrible it is for you. Even though it is a vital component for life the wizards of smart blamed salt for just about everything that ailed you.  High salt intake was blamed for high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks, etc. 

Hindsight, which is always 20/20 finds that for the most part a lot of what we believed about the evils of salt were anecdotal (wait, didn’t we learn about anecdotal science from the Hot Diet?) It seems that a person can consume up to 3 teaspoons of salt a day with no problems and that the average person’s diet doesn’t come close to maxing it out. 

Interestingly enough it was found that not consuming enough salt had adverse effects on a person’s heart and blood pressure.  Really, if you are using anecdotal evidence as a basis of scientific conclusion are we, as people, not walking bags of salt water?  Why else would soaking in salt help aching muscles or help heal minor cuts and bruises?

Now on to fish oil: We have been told that we all need to consume more fish oil.  Again the argument was that fish oil helped with your heart and cardio vascular system.  Fish oil is supposed to help prevent arthritis, prevent behavior problems in children, and even boost your brain power.  Well, we have a story from our friends across the sea and it turns out that maybe we should lay off the fish oil.  Not only that but you may not want to consume fish as much as originally thought unless you want to get cancer.

It turns out that by taking an omega-3 pill a day may increase your chances of getting prostate cancer, the aggressive kind, by 70%.  Even in low doses of omega-3 increase your chances of low-grade prostate cancer by 44%.   

The story may have come from the UK but the “science” was done at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington.  Fish, like red meat, now needs to be only consumed in “moderation.”  My favorite part of the story is when they concede that they still don’t know what it is in omega-3’s that may suppress the immune system, damage our DNA, or how it may aid tumours in growing and spreading. 

The main reason why I am pointing this out is because it all goes back to what I have been saying.  We really don’t know exactly how our bodies use nutrition or what exactly we need to do to properly fuel out bodies.  The only thing we are sure about is burn more calories than you take in and you lose weight.  Maybe??

You can check both stories out yourself. 

For Salt click HERE.

For Omega-3 click HERE.

Daily Recap:

Matt: Mowed the yard 45 minutes

Kelly: Treadmill Cardio Workout 30 Minutes. 

Day 59: Still Going!

I don’t dispute that nutrition has a major role to play in weight loss it’s just that the more and more I think about it, it seems that it might be the lynchpin in the whole equation.  Without bogging down too much let me just go back a little to a time where my doctor told me that paleo may be the way to go for me. 

Scene: Me… Shirt off… Doctor with a stethoscope…

Doctor: You know you hear of people living to very old age (my Doctor is of foreign decent)

Me: Yes, I know. (I also know I have high blood pressure and perhaps high cholesterol)

Doctor: It is all about their diet.  The foods they choose.  It will help you (he takes a deep breath and thumps his chest) live longer.

Me: Okay,  what should I do?

Let’s be honest, who doesn’t what to live longer?  Now a certified Doctor of Medicine is telling you that they have the potential key to everlasting health and beauty (maybe not beauty and to be honest he never told me I would live longer).  But anyway, who doesn’t want that?

My Doctor told me to get a book he ever gave me a copy of the pages where I could order it on Amazon. Thus my paleo diet is born.

I have realized that since I have been paleo that milk, in particular, bothers me.   If I eat anything with milk, cheese, yogurt it upsets my stomach.  I felt that way for a while now which makes me sad since I love cheese and crackers.  Bread, as well, makes me feel awful.  I spent all those years that I thought my upset stomach was from eating too much and now I believe it was actually the food I was eating that was making me sick. 

I am mentioning this because I am still thinking about nutrition and how I can get more calories from good food.  I am becoming convinced that part of my lack of weight loss is from not eating enough. Some of the problems not eating enough calories causes are:

·         Slowing thyroid production

·         Lowering testosterone levels

·         Decreasing leptin levels

·         Decreasing muscle mass

·         Decreasing energy

Today when I came home from work I just didn’t feel like jogging.  It was one of those days where I had to fight with myself to change clothes and lace up my shoes.  My body kept saying, “I’m tired” and I kept telling it that it was because it’s fat.  Maybe I should feed it more?

In the end, I banged out 35 minutes at a moderate jog.  My legs felt well compared to everything else. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: 35 minute jog in the PM

Kelly: TBD. 

Day 58: Break Dancing Like It's 1984

I am going to make this quick since time has gotten away from me and it is late. 

Kelly and I went to the gym. There we saw crazy break dancer guy which neither of us understand.  This guy continually does weird stretches and break dancing moves in the middle of the gym on an unclean floor face down and laying all over it.  Why?  Well, the only thing I could come up with is that we have several movie and TV producers and such that work out at our gym, a friend of mine actually got a job just by being seen, and he is hoping someone compliments him on his mad skills and he can go to Hollywood. 

We followed one of the treadmill workouts prescribed by Kelly’s personal trainer.  It was challenging.  I pushed myself and got my treadmill to a 10 incline and 5 miles an hour. I got a side stitches and felt like I would fall off the treadmill.

That is all I have for right now as I am feeling spent. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: 30 minute treadmill workout while witnessing crazy breakdancing guy.

Kelly: 30 minutes with a personal trainer | 30 minutes on the treadmill. 

Day 57: The Lake and Vitamin D

Finally the clouds parted and revealed this giant orb in the sky that produces heat by converting hydrogen to helium.  I was afraid I would never see it again.  In celebration of it not raining for almost 10 hours I rushed home and loaded the kayaks.  It was time to soak up some vitamin D and get in a killer arm workout.

If you have never been kayaking you are missing some serious fun.  When the lake is still you can get some serious speed out on the water.  It’s quite and hard for other people to get to.  You can go at a leisurely pace and enjoy the wild life (on the back side of the island in the middle of the lake we have seen turtles, fawns, deer, and ducks.) Or you can make it a rowing work out like we did today. 

We set in at the boat dock and made our way to the dam which was over flowing pretty hard since we have had all this rain.  There were others out on the lake enjoying the warm sunshine, several boaters, a couple of paddle boarders, plenty of swimmers.  From the dam it was a nice paddle to the island and around to the other side.

When we got around the island there were storm clouds gathering in the distance and we both thought we saw lightning.  It was fun while it lasted.  Our brisk paddling became an all-out sprint back to the boat dock to beat both the rain and lightning.  I was paddling so hard my hands grew numb.   I felt it burning in the back of my shoulders. 

Right now my arms are whipped, but it was worth it.  I would gladly trade sore arms for an hour out on the lake in the sunshine after the last week we have had.  I am eagerly awaiting it to stop raining to resume my morning jogs.  I miss them. 

I really mean to add more weight lifting to my routine.  I was thinking about adding it in on Wednesday evening, Friday evening, and Sunday afternoon.  The reason is, as always, time.  If I stick to this schedule then I only have one day a week where I have to hit the gym directly after work.  Since I am currently on summer hours I only work half days on Friday meaning I could come home and get a work out in before most people get off work. 

That was my day.  Below is a map of what we did on the lake thanks to run keeper. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: 60 minutes rowing

Kelly: 30 workout with a personal trainer 60 minutes rowing

Day 56: Enough With The Rain Already!

We are going on six days of continuous rain and it is really starting to wear on me.  Every day it is steel gray skies and pouring rain.  I am starting to hear that song in my head from the movie, The Crow,  the lyrics are: “It can’t rain all the time.”  Apparently it can and has been.  According to Weather.com it won’t stop until Thursday. 

This morning when it stopped Kelly and I were pretty excited.  We threw on our running gear; I was all amped up for a three mile jog.  In the fifty feet it takes to get to the bottom of our driveway it started raining again.  It’s enough to make you want to scream.  We settled for plan “B.”  Twenty minutes later we arrived at our gym and walked in the rain through the parking lot to get in.

I decided to change it up some since starting, stopping, and changing exercises is said to burn more calories.  I combined the treadmill and weight workout dividing my time between the two.  It also helped with treadmill boredom.

I ran for 10 minutes cranking the pace up to 7 miles an hour for several minutes at a time.  After the first 10 minutes I worked my shoulders and chest.  After the second treadmill secession I worked my back and triceps.  Finally I did my biceps and let me tell you I was spent at the end of an hour.  I was truly exhausted. 

In addition I feel like I have been burning calories all afternoon.  Several times I got really hungry. 

Our gym has a section called Cardio Theater.  They play a movie on a big screen with booming surround sound like you were in a theater except there is no were to sit.  The darkened room is filled with bikes, treadmills, and elliptical machines.  That is where Kelly went today and she split her time as well between the elliptical and treadmill. 

I have no idea how many calories I burned today but I am willing to bet a thousand easily.  By dinner time my stomach was completely empty despite the big lunch we had to help combat all the exercise. 

With Kelly now seeing a personal trainer and their discussion on diet I have thinking about mine.  I don’t think I get enough calories during the day. The ubiquitous “They” always say breakfast should be the largest meal of the day and most days I don’t think I get three hundred calories.  Sometimes breakfast is just a banana. I know that is less than 200 calories.    

Over the next few weeks I am going to ramp up my breakfast intake to determine if that will help me lose weight.  I have been stuck at the same weight for a while now and I know I have to change something up.  Diet may be just the thing.

Daily recap:

Matt 1 hour at the gym switching between cardio and weights

Kelly 1 hour at the gym switching between the elliptical machine and treadmill

Day 55: And the Rain Never Stops...

When do I turn the corner?

Do you ever wake up exhausted?  I do.  Today was one of those days were I was just plane tired.  I don’t think the fact that we have had 5 days of almost continuous rain the reason for my exhaustion, but I am not ruling it out. 

Rain. It steals your motivation and destroys your plans for the day and it doesn’t even feel guilty about it.  We had a mid-day reprieve from these summer thunderstorms that have been plaguing us like something out of scary children’s fairy tale.  If the trend that is predicted by meteorologist continues then we will have had 8 days of rain.  That is enough to make a person stir crazy.

Then there is the issue of the both the garden and the grass.  Our garden seems to be draining well but today I got out in it and started weeding and it is a jungle.  The back yard is a total mess as well and the vast majority of the non-raining part of the day had to be dedicated to attempting to save them. 

Humidity wise it was off the chart since I am pretty sure you can’t surpass 100%.  Not only was it hard to breathe at times, but also you had to deal with the heat.  My veggies my love it but for a living warm blooded creature it is pure pain. 

I was able to pick a large amount of veggies before the rain bullied it way in. 

I am counting the time I spent outside today.  I wouldn’t be able to jog and was zapped by the Georgia July heat to do much of anything else.  Maybe it is a cheap way of getting in my exercise but I can assure that tonight I am whipped. 

Our total time out doing yard work was 3 hours.

Daily recap:

Matt:     Garden, Including turning it  by hand 45 minutes

                Vegetable tending 45 mins

Kelly:     Mowing grass 45 Min

                Tending the flower beds 45 mins

Day 54: I Don't Feel So Good.

I woke up this morning feeling very sick to my stomach.  It was so bad that I wasn’t able to really eat anything until about 2PM, for this reason there was no AM exercise.  It had to be done after I got home from work. 

Yes, it is still raining non-stop and I was going break back out the Wii and get in some Wii Fit Yoga. Luckily around 2:30ish the clouds broke and the sun came out for a little while.  Our poor dogs have been cooped up for the last three days and needed a walk. 

We did almost a mile and had to return them home, they were both panting pretty heavy.  Kelly and I kept going and got in 43 minutes of total walk time. 

For the life of me I can’t figure out what made me so sick.  I believe it was the usual suspects, aka all the crap that only eat on a holiday.  Let’s see, that list included two types of homemade ice cream, a banana and a Heath bar toffee, pasta salad, brownies, baked beans, shall I go on.  Why do we do this to ourselves every holiday?  Why are the holidays full of food that we shouldn’t eat? Who started this tradition of stuffing ourselves until we can’t move?

I wish I had an answer.  All I can say is I am tired of it.  I was thinking yesterday that I should make up the Quarter Cup rule.  It would go like this. 

On holidays I could eat a little bit of everything, but no more than a quarter of a cup and absolutely no seconds.  Would this have helped yesterday?  To be honest I don’t know it was just a thought. 

I know that I am not the only one who feels like something is missing if I don’t partake in all the holiday food.  Why is it so easy to say no to a chocolate brownie on June 29^th but impossible to do so on July 4^th?  What changes in 5 days that makes a brownie so irresistible? 

All these questions and I still don’t really have answers. 

In addition, I am sore from the 360lbs squats.  Walking hasn’t been painful but I have felt it all day.  I feel like I get stronger every day.

Dailey Recap:

Matt & Kelly: 43 minute walk.  

Day 53: Independence Day!

I did a total body workout at the gym including pushing my limits on the leg press and upping my weight to 360 pounds.

Then in the tradition of Independence Day I ate way too much and drank way too much and that was it for the day. Why do I do this to myself?  Now I am miserable and I have to get up early to go to work.    

It’s short since it is late and I have to get up and go to work tomorrow. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: Full body workout at the gym

Kelly: 30 Minutes on the elliptical machine at the gym

Day 52: A Wii Little Workout

Rain.  It poured from the skies like buckets being dumped on the Earth.  Rain and more rain that was the forecast for the next few days and since I couldn’t get out I decided to do something in. I have a Nintendo Wii and a Balance Board for games.  There is a game called Wii Fit.  You actually exercise to a video game.  After I hooked everything up and turned on the game it informed me that it had been over 1300 days since I had last worked out.  How did it know? 

It has been more than a little while since I used my Wii Fit to get in shape (which obviously it didn’t work) so I had to do the perfunctory “Body Tests” that it calls for.  It started by asking me to stand still while I closed my eyes.  This test would gauge how well my center of balance was.  I wasn’t off by much and the game told me to envision gazing into the distance to focus on standing completely still. 

Next it asked me to walk in place 20 steps and from there it could tell if my balance was off.  No chance, my balance was spot on.  The game went on to inform me in a gleeful voice that I was most definitely obese. It said so in those exact words.  I quote: “Obese, Obese.”

Did I mention that every time I stepped on the balance board it made a grunting sound?  I am not kidding.  Enough with the measuring and it telling me I am obese, let’s get on to the exercise. 

I chose the aerobic exercises.  My first exercise was a step game where you had to time your steps on and off the board with the music.  The close you got to the beat the better your score. I did well enough to unlock the tougher mode.  Next I tried the harder mode.

It was indeed harder.  It included side steps and changing tempos as well as a step kick routine.  After all this the “game” deposited fitness coins into my bank.  I moved on to a 5 minute jog. 

You have to put the controller into your pocket and the game decides your pace and how well you are keeping up with your virtual trainer.  It seems easy but running in place made my calves sore and I was starting to get a little fatigued towards the end.

I moved on to the Hula Hoop game.  You have to stand on the balance board and make believe you are trying to keep a hula hoop going while other people throw more hula hoops at you.  I was swaying like Elvis and only managed to score in the middle of the pack.

Finally there was boxing.  My virtual trainer, who I thought of as Apollo from Rocky ran me through a series of punching drills.  I had to time both my foot work and my punches.  We went through two rounds and midway through the second my shoulders were burning a little. 

When I turned off the game I was surprised to find I was sweating, maybe I am getting fit after all.

Daily Recap:

Matt: 30 minutes with the Wii Fit Personal Trainer

Kelly: 30 minutes with a real personal trainer.  

Day 51: Getting Ready for the Holiday

Is it just me or is it every time you decide to go on a diet there seems to be a holiday hidden like a ninja just around the corner that makes you wonder as to why you ever contemplated dieting to begin with.  That was a mouth full but true.  A quick review of the past months shows how useless it is to try to stick to your diet and reveals that the scales are almost always tipped in the favor of not watching what you eat.  Let me play devil’s advocate for you.

January. The new year starts with this month but what is the new year without a few beers?  Resolution made… resolution broken.

February. Valentines day equals chocolate.  Enough said.

March. St. Patrick’s Day is for beer and Shepard’s pie.  Green beer is best if you can find it.

April. Easter, cake, chocolate, pie.

May. Memorial day barbecue and Mother’s day dinners.

June. The first summer BBQ’s and Father’s day.

July…Where we are at now. 

Independence Day is always a day for BBQ’s, hamburgers, pasta and potato salad, and homemade ice cream.  (Side Note: Why is Independence Day the only holiday that we mention by date?  We don’t refer to Christmas as, “Are you ready for December 25?”) Call it what it is.

Beer and wine, drinking with good friends and family, eating way too much, these are all things that mark this holiday. Does anyone really modify their diet on that day? Who would?

It seems to be a part of life that we over indulge.  Whether it be food or drink or sweets it is something we all share as part of the human experience.  Too many hotdogs, bratwursts, cake, ribs, whatever your family tradition is, we always over do it. 

Just one of the thoughts that crossed my mind as I jogged my three miles today.

Daily Recap:

Matt: 3 mile jog

Kelly: 1 hour Spin Class

Day 50: Where Have All the Good Times Gone?

Has it been 50 days already?  What have I accomplished? I guess it depends on what exactly you mean by that question.  Let’s do a quick look back.

I can jog longer than I could 50 days ago.  When I started my legs were killing me and I was sweating butter in the first 15 feet.  I am now able to jog 3 mile without a problem. I had a hard time doing 5 push-ups and now 25 is no big deal, as a matter of fact that is half way to 50.  Sit-ups hurt big time. Now, sit-up still hurt but not as bad. 

I had a weak power core and now, well, my power core is still not so powerful.  I got extremely sore when doing a full body work out and now, it not so bad.  If I had to rate myself on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being totally out of shape and 10 being completely in shape when I started I would put myself at a 2..    

Let’s be honest I was jogging a mile when I started how many people could do that now if their life depended on it.  Not too many.  Alright, so I was at a 2, what would I rate myself now after 50 days?  This may be a little hard on me but I am only moving myself up a notch.  I would rate me a 3. 

I know I could run a 5K right now although my time would not be good and I feel good enough to run a 10K and my time would completely suck so I am still way down on the fitness totem pole.  What is my overall goal you ask?  Well that is a good question.

I am aiming for a 7 or 8 when all is said and done.  I rate 10’s to be professional athletes and unless you are making money at a sport reaching that echelon is almost impossible.  The sad part of the whole thing is I think that a person who is at a fitness level of a 5 or 6 is going to be in better shape than 80% of the population. 

Today is a good example.  I wasn’t able to get up at the crack of dawn and jog due to forgetting to reset my alarm.  However when I came home from work I did over an hour and a half out mowing my back yard which was beginning to look like a section of amazon rain forest.  I was starting to fear that one of my dogs would get lost out there and I would have to organize a recue party to go after them.  We have has continuous rain, it even rained today I had to cut a wet lawn. 

Pushing my mower was like pushing a boulder through mud.  I actually go a side stitch at one point I think it was because the humidity was unbearable. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: 1 ½ hours Mowing the grass and hating every minute of it.

Kelly: TBD