Diet

Today:

• Bowl of Kashi GoLean Crunch with 1/2 cup of milk; orange juice
• Sobe Adrenaline Rush (sugar free)
• Piece of carrot cake with icing
• Cup of lentil soup

Will probably have something later. I've been eating like crap all last week, and not exercising. In my defense, everyone around me is getting sick and I am conserving my energy. I don't want to worok out so hard that my body gets tired, run down and then sick...

But I'll start again soon.

First Findings

• Kashi GoLean Crunch! is really good. Seriously, truly tasty. It's got a real "crunch!" to it, as the name makes clear -- but after the initial crunch, it's got this understated sweetness about it, a mixture of cinnamon and maybe a little honey. Mmmm. A bowl is very filling, and here's the amazing part: it actually KEEPS me full. For hours. Yesterday I had a bowl with milk in the morning, two South Beach bars over the course of the day, and a bottle of Lipton Green Tea with Citrus. That was enough to keep me satiated until late at night!
  
• My SuperPanda General Tso's Combo (w/ soup and an egg roll) tastes very good in moderation, but if I actually try to eat the whole thing, I feel like SHIT for the rest of the day.
  
• My standard meals have turned into this: Breakfast - Kashi; Lunch - Sandwich (tuna/turkey); Dinner - Chicken breast with rice, olive oil and some form of hot sauce (currently I love Uncle Brutha's Fire Sauce No. 9). Perhaps a yogurt or two. Not bad.
  
• Once I'm at the gym, I work my ass off. The problem is getting to the gym. Not physically -- it's right downstairs -- but intellectually. Forcing myself to get off my tired butt and go to the gym. It's a matter of psyching myself up, but on a more practical level, it's a matter of finding a time when a) I am energetic enough to exercise, and b) it is not so late that the exercise will keep me up forever, thus making me very tired tomorrow, sparking these problems anew.

Oh well.... off to the gym!

ADDENDUM

I did like 4 mins on the bike, couldn't pick up any steam, and then I sneezed and for some reason that made my entire body ache. Like, deep down in my muscles, almost like a weird cramp. So I got off and laid on this massage table thing for a while. Like 10-15 minutes. And I watched the rest of the news on TV. And then after a while I decided, ah well i should probably push myself for a while. I mean I'm down here in my shorts and everything. So I got back on the bike and still couldn't get going -- UNTIL I put on my iPod. FatBoy Slim. Praise You. That's all it took. Twenty-five minutes later, I was drenched. And then I followed that with several dozen crunches.

Actually, after I left the gym and started walking toward the elevator, it turns out I was relaxed and rested AND i had tons of energy. I almost wanted to go back in there and workout some more. Instead, I jogged up and down the apartment hallways a few times to burn off the excess energy!

Baby Steps to a Healthy Weight

I visited Michigan last weekend, and saw that my mother -- who has been going to the gym a few times a week and eating healthy -- has lost a ton of weight. I'd say it's 30 pounds in the past 6 months. She is starting to get her girlish figure back. It is so fantastic! But in seeing her success, I became ever more aware of my weight loss woes. Since I shaved the beard off, I can't hide it anymore, and the 210 pounds I'm carrying around really do not look good.

So I'm trying to lose weight again. I'm not a big fan of Body for Life style challenges, because -- as successful as I once was -- they are incredibly hard to stick to. Six meals a day, six times a week at the gym, busting your ass every single time... it's a nice plan in theory, but in reality you're exhausted all the time for at least a month. I can't handle such exhaustion. So I'm going to try to tone the plan down a bit -- maybe only exercise 4-5 times a week as opposed to 6 times, and maybe not *kill* myself as much as the plan calls for.

Why? Because I have only once been able to stick to the plan. In the summer of 2001, that was the number one most important thing in my life, and I lost a bunch of weight and felt great. But right now I have some other pressing things to take care of -- school, work, the bar, finding a legal job, etc. I can't make fitness THE most important thing. But it is still important.

I'm just going to try to make conscious efforts to eat right and work out on a regular basis. Yesterday I went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of healthy-yet-tasty food. Last night instead of ordering a pizza or something, I had a couple very tasty chicken breasts, an Activia yogurt (the kind with all the good bacteria), and some carrots and hummus. This morning for breakfast I had Kashi GoLean Crunch!, which I've never had before and is actually quite delicious and very healthy (lots of protein, lots of fiber). Now I'm going to get on the recumbent bike and do some cardio for a while.

The goal here is to get from my current 210 pounds and an unhealthy 27.7 Body Mass Index (BMI) to 180 pounds and a healthy 23.7 BMI. Not only will I look better at 180, but I will have a lot more energy and generally be a happier person.

Check back here for the Continuing Saga of my weight loss efforts. Until I post again, please feel free to occupy yourself with this nifty graph of my weight loss over the last week. :-)

Two days in a row

• Tuesday, 10/3: CARDIO -- 15 minutes on the recumbent bike
  
• Wednesday, 10/4: WEIGHTS -- 50 minute upper body workout

Today I am a little sore but I feel good. I was planning on doing cardio before work today, but surprise surprise, my body preferred as much sleep as it could get. I will do a half hour after work today.

Log:

Starting the day with Energy

I have been very sluggish for the past week or two. History has shown that this happens whenever I ignore exercise for several weeks. History has also shown that my fatigue is easily curable. So this morning I rolled out of bed and forced myself to head downstairs to the apartment gym, and I did 15 minutes on the recumbent bike. I didn't push myself too hard, but just enough to break a sweat. And ya know what? I arrived at the office refreshed and energetic. True, the energy is starting to wear off now, but it lasted for almost 4 hours and this was due to just ONE moderately intense (probably a 7 intensity out of 10) 15-minute session on the bike!

I'm tired of people pointing out that I have a tummy now. I'm tired of feeling tired. And I don't much like the fact that my MOTHER is now working out far more than I am! (Of course I'm ecstatic that she has finally chosen to follow my advice and get to the gym, and I am so proud of her. But still, I'm ashamed of my own lackluster efforts.) All it takes is a simple change in habits -- roll out of bed and stumble downstairs to the gym. Get on the bike and watch the morning news for a half hour. Feel energized for the rest of the day. Bonus: the pounds will start to melt off.