My Fitness Journal - Week One

Ok, so I had this great idea last week to keep track of everything I was doing at the gym. And so I am going to follow through on this. Unfortunately, this week, I will have to say I totally screwed up. Wish I could say I did wonderfully. Wish I could say a lot of things. Usually, the first week of diet and exercise I attempt after not working out for a while, I lose 5 pounds.  Well that is somewhat problematic for me this week. I will go into the particulars here shortly. But woah what a week. And yeah I'm working at this and it's been a pain in the butt.  But let's begin with my Friday.  Or maybe slightly before my Friday.

So I have to admit that I cheated... kind of. Last week I wrote my blog on the evening before Friday because it is the easiest day of the week to go to the gym. Maybe it's not quite cheating but it feels like it is because I know I can do it without a doubt.   So I kind of went to the gym a little high on myself.  I was going to the gym and everything was going to change. I've done it before I can do it again.  What could possibly go wrong?

Well, I got to the gym and I started in on elliptical. This would be an easy 30 minutes going around and around, pumping those feet.  Well you have to decide what pressure you are going to start at. I began at 7 but decided it wasn't enough.  I moved myself to 10, then 13, then 16.  And about 5 minutes later I was out of breath. First, this meant I was out of shape. Second, It meant I am stupid. Not the unintelligent kind of stupid. The proud stupid who doesn't then move back a few levels because I can do it. I did it. Woohoo!! Colapse!!

No I didn't fall on the floor. I just made it to the men's locker room before I made it to a bench. Whew!  So now would be the time to go home right? I'm out of breath and barely standing. It's the perfect time. But did I listen to my inner mind? No!! Heck no!! I made a promise to myself, which makes me extremely smart, extremely proud, or extremely stupid. And maybe I was a bit of all three.  But I was going to do that half hour on weights.

So I sit down on the Hammer strength machine, which is basically a crunch machine although you are actually lifting weights with your legs as well as your arms, moving into a crunch position.  I decided to test my limits, as if I hadn't already. And I did it at 60 pounds. I'm sure that once I do this for a few weeks I will get to lifting 100+ pounds. But for now, I'm going to be forgiving to myself as I'm getting back into the swing of things.

Then I move over to the abdominal crunches, pull downs and back extensions, working my core and a little bit of my arms over the next half hour.  Finally I move on to doing the bicep curls. I didn't know how I would be doing because I used to curl at 140 when I last stopped so I cut back quite a bit this time.  This time I did it at 80. I could have pushed myself harder but I didn't want to wake up the next day unable to move my arms.  I know that's why you are supposed to alternate what area you are working on as far as weights, but I'm trying to pretend I know what I'm doing... at least for a week or two. Then I can break down and talk to a fitness expert.

So I finish up my bicep curls and whoops!  Holy crap!?!? I know that crap isn't holy, and I'm certainly not going to set it aside like Mr. Hanky Poo a la South Park. But wow!!! Going back to the gym after a week makes me feel weak. I have got to see this through. What's even crazier is that I feel like my arms are all tucked in like a weight lifter who can't carry his arms close enough to his body because of all his muscles. And I don't even have that many muscles. What gives?   At least I kept up what I wanted to do as far as exercise.

But after that? Epic fail!!!

Well at least it was a mini Epic fail.   First I have to say that I kind of screwed myself when it came to exercising this week. I cannot blame my daughter, but I really wasn't feeling all that well and I worked all weekend.  I finally did get back to the gym on Tuesday and did another hour, with mostly the same gym machines only I upped the weights I was lifting a little more.   But then I skipped Wednesday again. (It wasn't my fault, exactly. I had to ask myself whether I wanted to go to my daughters concert at school or the gym? It's not that hard a call.) And on Thursday morning I got up early and was ready to go. But then I was side tracked. By the time I did get out the door I had to deal with an accident on the road and it pushed me back as far as time even further. I only got a half hour of cardio completed before I had to go to work.  So as far as my exercise this week, I was off a day from my goals and I didn't get to do weights all three days either.

As far as counting calories, I'm going to say no comment. It is a pain in the butt to try to count calories when you are making your food.  And then when you aren't making it and relying on someone else for the calorie counts, you probably aren't eating healthy.  So this week was mostly based on guessing. Guessing is not a long term solution so I'm going to have to either invest in one of those expensive calorie counting machines or I'm going to have to be more vigilant. I'll let you know again next week.

Ultimately success or failure comes down to my weight, how I look, and how I feel.  As far as weight, I didn't move the needle at all. This is disappointing but not too unexpected based upon how I counted calories this week.  A couple people commented that I looked trimmer. I didn't see it but if I do then that's a small win.  And I do feel like I have slightly more energy. That's definitely a win.  Hopefully next week I will have three wins. Either way I know I'm moving in the right direction.

How did you do with your goals this week?  What things are you going to change for next week? What does your ideal self look like?  I hope I hear some good stories from you as well. It's always great to hear other people's success stories.  They inspire me to keep my own goals.

Hope you are all having a Good Friday, or had a good one. I'm going to sign off again for today. Looking forward to the weekend with my daughter. This is me signing off.

David Elliott, Single Dad's Guide to Life

If you like my writing, as I have changed website locations, please visit me at singledadsguidetolife.wordpress.com

Fitness Friday's - Or Not Another Fitness Blog! Ugh!

I was working on what I was going to write for today... maybe an anti Super Bowl screed. Not because I actually hate the Super Bowl. I actually think the game is ok, the commercials are interesting, and parties are fun to go to. But because I wanted to be contrarian. There I said it... I like to make people nervous.  Now that I got that off my chest I figured I would go in an entirely new direction for today.

I know last week I posted "Fitness Friday" on my social media.  And to be honest I haven't been going like I should have been. There have been a million reasons for this. But I decided that I'm going to stop giving myself excuses and take Fridays to blog about my fitness update.

So right now I'm going to lay out all my goals for the weeks ahead, and then I will keep myself accountable through this to follow through on them. I will also be talking about the things I chose to do during workouts for the day, and the process I took doing them. Finally I'm going to be covering my meal plans. Try not to judge me too much. I still eat meat.  So I'm not turning vegetarian here but I've lost weight before without having to do that.

I'm also not giving up Diet Coke.  I'm going to take a whole paragraph for the haters of Diet Coke. If you hate soda altogether I'm ok with that. I understand your misgivings, and your aversion to drink it, especially after the video depicting the miraculous way it cleans pennies. (As does Taco Bell hot sauce and that saved someone's life before... just saying)  But for those who still drink Coke as if it's somehow a better drink, while running around telling people Diet Coke causes people to gain weight, I have a thing to say. I lost almost 100 pounds before while still drinking the Diet Coke. So for me, it's not about Diet Coke or its properties. It's about my will power. Besides, if my only vice is Diet Coke, I'll deal with it.

As far as exercising this week, I'm going to do a half hour of cardio and an hour of weights. I don't Have a specific schedule as far as working on arms, legs, or abs.  Maybe I will make that along the way but this is the first day of my goal setting so I will cut myself some slack.  My goal is to be able to go five times a week but I will be happy with four if I get back into the habit. I used to do two sessions a day, six days a week so I know I'm not pushing myself too hard, or trying to lose weight too quickly.  I'll put the specifics of what I did in the weekly blogs later.

Also this coming week I'm going to make sure my caloric intake does not go above 2000 calories. This should allow me to lose some weight by the diet alone. I don't want to lose too fast, but my goal is to get to 200 lbs by the end of June. This means regular exercise. I know this takes dedication but it can be done and I have done it before.

I'm going to track my food choices every day for the week and hopefully I will start making better ones. Planning and preparation are going to go into this and if I can inspire anyone else to doing this, I will consider the whole thing a success. This does not mean that this is going to become a fitness blog.  This is my weekly personal journal about getting into shape, preferably not the round kind.

I know that when I have my daughter, things will be difficult, and this has been what has derailed my exercise regimen in the past. But I don't intend to let that happen this time. I'm doing this whole exercise and diet for my daughter and not in spite of my daughter. I still want to be healthy enough to keep up with my daughter as she gets older and wants to do bigger things. I want to be healthy enough so that when she gets married I can do the daddy daughter dance and not embarrass her. (This might also mean dance lessons but shhhh!!! One big hurdle at a time.) I want to focus on the right things that make me into the person that draws people to me. And I believe improving my health is the start of this.

I'm not going to try to do some fad diet to then push some companies stuff on my blog. I'm also not going to try to induce some celebrity to complain about my blog to get notoriety. (Even though I know you want to Christian Bale and Channing Tatum. You.  Want.  To. Or maybe I just meant Kevin Hart.) Someone already did that with the Rock and it is not my intent here.

I'm doing this for me, and maybe to inspire a few of you. I know I'm going to screw up at times and eat a cheeseburger at McDonald's.  But I'm laying down my marker here. I challenge you to change up something that you do for the next 21 weeks. And I want to hear about your successes or failures during this time. I'll be here tracking my progress every Friday so that's my pledge to you, and to myself.

So here I am again, on the precipice of Super Bowl Sunday, signing off.

David Elliott, Single Dad's Guide to Life

If you like my writing, I continue to blog at singledadsguidetolife.wordpress.com