How Much is Too Much?

Is there such a thing as too much exercise?

This is a question that was put to me by a friend the other day when I mentioned that I was hoping the rain would hold off so that I could get in a little jogging or bike riding in the evening. I had explained a bit about the program, alternating weightlifting with cardio during the week. My friend noted that I had done weights in the morning and was suggesting that it might be bad to do cardio the same day AND do it again the next morning.

I forgot to mention that this friend is about a hundred pounds overweight and would rather cut off a finger than take a stroll around his block.

I can agree that too much of anything is not a good idea. At my age, I certainly pay attention to what my body tells me when I'm lifting weights or slinging around a kettlebell. I can't recover from injury like I use to and pushing beyond my limits could seriously put me out of action for weeks. Cardio is the same, I suppose. I mean, I don't want to push to exhaustion but I'm finding that my body enjoys the activity. It needs to move. It needs to sweat. The whole point of doing this thing is to be more active...after all.

I dunno. Still....how do you answer people who give fitness advice that they obviously do not take themselves?

Without hurting their feelings of course.

Blended

One of my most important piece of equipment in this transformation is a blender. I gotta have it because my biggest problem is eating. I love to eat. I love food. That's not a bad thing but, over the years, I've been pretty indiscriminate about quantity and quality. I would eat carrots or cheesecake with equal pleasure and abandon. Now, with the goal of losing lotsa weight, I have to be careful about what I eat during the day. Every calorie counts since I'm limiting myself on how many to take in every day.

That's where the blender comes in. A couple of my meals every day consists of a Myoplex shake mixed with some fresh fruit. It's quick. It's easy for a cooking impaired person like myself. Clean up is a breeze. It's relatively cheap. It's very nutritious, probably the most balanced meals I have most days. And...it's yummy!

213.8 lbs this week.

and my pants are loose again

Mouth - Stomach Synchronization

The interesting thing about trying to achieve a transformation is that I get to take a long look at myself and, especially, my body. I'm trying to figure out why my body wants one thing while my brain is wanting something else. It's complicated.

Fer instance.

I'm eating well. No starvation diets for me, I eat plenty of good foods all during the day. But...even though I'm basically full, not hungry, my belly is satisfied...my mouth still wants to chew something. Snack attacks! They are with me all the time. I sit at my desk at work and have incredible urges to eat chips, sweets, whatever I can find (and it's really easy to find too).

I dunno. Maybe it's an emotional need. Maybe I'm bored. Or stressed. Or just want to do something else besides write some twenty pages of reports.

Two for one

I'm finding it is possible to push away my plate at a restaurant and ask for a doggie bag.

I can't avoid eating out. Earlier this week, my new sister-in-law came to town for a visit. Now, being a new member of the family and wanting to be a good host, I couldn't very well offer Myoplex's all around or go all out with a bit of tuna and brown rice. So yeah, let's go out to eat at a nice place.

What's that? Oh, she likes Mexican food. ummmm....okeedokee

Get to the place. I order something that, while not exactly low fat, at least is low in carbs. The waiter plops down a platter piled high with more food than I have right now in my fridge. It was good too. I ate half. Okay...I ate a little more than half. I then put the rest into a carry-out carton for lunch the next day.

Then yesterday, my team at work wanted to go out for lunch and do a little bonding. Where to? Why an Italian place. ooooooohhhhhh.

Same thing. Order the best I can that was available. No pasta. Eat half and save the rest for an evening meal.

It's not the ideal way to eat but it keeps me from completely going of the tracks when I have to divert from my carefully planned meals

whoopee doopee

I lost one fifth of a pound last week.

I think my trouble might be the free days. I still think it's a good idea, but perhaps I need to be a little less free....as in not trying to cram a week's worth of junk down my throat in 24 hours.

I need a new movie maker.

I swear, either this movie maker of mine is a piece of junk or I'm just too stupid to figure it out.

If you're placing bets...I'd go for the latter.

Two Weeks Completed

I know I haven't been keeping up with this blog like I should. It just seems like time is flying by. Why...already two weeks have passed.

My weight today is 215.2 lbs. That's only 0.8 lbs this week but still almost five from my starting weight. Plus, my bodyfat percentage is going down.

Got Milk?

I've never really liked milk all that much. I don't hate the stuff, just not wild about milk. One of the things I'm trying to do, however, is find some variety to my diet...to help me stay with it. Milk is a good food source loaded with good protein, vitamins, and minerals. Trouble is, milk has a lot of fat and I cannot stand no-fat, skim, or 1% milk.

I do like chocolate milk.

So I came across this soy milk at the grocery the other day. All the goodies of milk with none of the animal fat and chocolate to boot. "Worth a try", I thought to myself.

It's good! A great treat for myself that I can have every day without drifting from my plan.

Lost Four Pounds

Only 46 lbs to go. At this rate, I can get there in the next eleven weeks.

Of course, I know that isn't the way it's going to happen. I just love starting a program because the first week is always dramatic. The body really responds to being treated well....good food...activity and such....so just about everybody loses at least a couple of pounds almost immediately after starting any type of program. That's what sells diet schemes.

The trick here is to not think that, since I've lost a chunk of weight, I can slide back into some bad eating habits or slack off on the exercise. I'm readying myself for much less impressive weight losses, or even slight gains, for the next few months.

It's all about the big picture.

Whine

Okay...I know that it's a familiar whine and really no excuse, not really....but my job sure makes it hard to stick to a BFL schedule.

I spent a lot of time planning out the day's meals. Packed them all in a cooler and headed off to work, thinking of when I would be eating what during the day. I get to work and up pops an email saying that I need to attend a mandatory training at another building across the city for half the day....at a location where I cannot take the cooler, or any food, or even have a bottle of water.

Of course, everybody gets the assumed "lunch hour" at high noon but I miss two meals.

It's bullshit. I'm going to get a few Myoplex bars even though I really don't care for them all that much (I'd rather eat some real food) and DEMAND that I be allowed to eat one every two hours or so no matter what the location or situation.

I'm fed up with living in a three-meal-a-day world. Let everybody else adjust to my six for a change.

Can't Do Squat

I suppose I must have gotten a fairly good workout with my hike yesterday because my legs feel like there are a thousand tiny hammers pounding away on them. Not able to do much of a lower body this morning, little more than agonizing stretching, but I did do some abdominal crunches.

Like the Doodah Man

Cardio day...and what to do. I'm pretty much out of shape and didn't really want to go to the gym to hop on some piece of equipment, with the chance of hurting myself this early in the challenge. I also needed to go to the store and pick up a bit of cat food since the cats are certainly not restricting their caloric intake.

So I thought to kill two birds with one stone. The store is about a couple of miles with several hills in between. I timed my walking speed and hit several high points along the way as planned with a cardio. When I returned home I was drenched in sweat and my heart-rate was in a good zone, so I guess it worked.

By the end of this challenge, I would like to be able to do that same four mile walk...but running.