I’m heading to the gym this weekend to begin my workout program.  This is where things get tricky because I’ll need to increase my caloric intake enough to balance off the extra calories burned while working out so my body doesn’t go into “starvation mode”.  If that happens, it will slow down my metabolism to conserve energy so it can keep vital organs such as the brain and the heart going for as long as possible in the face of a perceived threat…..which would be me starving myself accidentally, but my body doesn’t know that….lol While it will burn fat for fuel, it will also start burning lean muscle mass for fuel, which will slow down my metabolism even further and I do NOT want that to happen.

I’ll base my caloric intake on a workout that burns ~700 calories and start there.  More to come…..!

I haven’t hit the gym just yet, but I plan on starting this weekend.  I wanted to take things a little slower this time and really focus on one thing at a time….ok so two…smoking and food.  :)  Almost 2 weeks of healthy eating again.  It’s not a diet, diets SUCK.  I am just modifying what I eat.  Lots of greens and fruit!  Well, there is one exception… I fit in a few beers on the weekend…hehe  I mean c’mon!!  I live in Wisconsin!!

I’ve also been going over my old posts on this site and my old spreadsheets to figure out how I want to start my workout regiment again.  That’s pretty sad… I’m doing research on myself to see how I started working out..lol  Although, I was able to do it last time with no troubles, so I’m hoping it won’t be too difficult.  I’m not looking forward to the joint/muscle pain for the first few weeks, but whatever…I’ll get over it!

That’s all for now, more on weigh-in day Friday!

715am - 2 packets of instant oatmeal, topped with a teaspoon of honey, glass of 1% milk

930ish - pear and package of light & fit dannon yogurt

noon - “Crook’s Goulash”  (which tastes awesome!) package of supreme lean beef 95% fat free, package of 7-grain sketti noodles (Ronzoni), and a jar of heart smart (Prego) onion and garlic sauce.  I also add some spices in it as well to get the taste I like, but good stuff!  I also portion it out into a few meals.

3pm - banana and yogurt

6pm - Goulash

The goal is to spread out your meails 2.5-3 hours apart during the day to keep feeding your body.

What now?

Last Saturday, I woke up in bed and was laying there thinking to myself….”I hate this” and I decided that I can’t continue to live like this.  It’s unhealthy and let’s face it I’m not getting any younger here.  There aren’t going to be any waving of any magical wands to make these necessary changes.  This is going to take a tremendous amount of effort (again) and I hope I can do it.  All I can do is not give up.

After contemplating my next steps, I got my ass out of bed and threw away any bad stuff in the fridge.  Then I then got dressed and marched my happy ass to the store with a nice long list of the stuff I “used” to eat before getting on the shit wagon again. I drove home and made myself a nice, healthy breakfast and felt much better.  Since last Saturday I haven’t had any shitty foods and I already feel a lot better.  I’m actually on par to lose about 5-6lbs this week.  We’ll see what the weekly Friday weigh-in wizard says in the morning. I have been weighing myself the last couple of weeks and it’s pretty much what I expected.  Thankfully, it wasn’t as bad as I thought, but it was bad enough. 

Next steps?

The smoking thing is next on my radar and I’ve already hit up the doc for the smoking cessation drugs.  I just need to pick those suckers up, probably tomorrow or Saturday.  After that I pick a quit date and that’ll be back on track again.  I haven’t been “serious” at the gym for…. yeah that’s how bad it is.. I don’t even remember.  That will be within the next week or so because I want to make sure I’m allowing enough time to prepare all my food and get that into a routine.  The gym will be some comical shit let me tell you….lol  I’m gonna be that guy that looks like he’s going to die - yep that guy.  You know what though, that’s ok.  I’ll take it easy and I’ll get there again.

So, I’ll be publishing here certainly on Friday’s sometime after my weigh-in’s and possibly more during the week depending on availble time.  If you want to stop by and give me some encouragement it would be appreciated and motivating, or if you want to stop by and tell me to go eff myself, that’s also fine as well…lol

If you are bored, you can read my old stuff here when I was on my way to being a rockstar last year.  Hopefully, I’ll get there and surpass it this time.  Only time will tell.

Everything below here is from 2008…..

I’m trying something new (to me), which is called belly or diaphragm breathing.  Instead of inhaling and exhaling with my chest,  I’m using my stomach to breathe so my upper body barely moves at all when I’m breathing.  I have to tell you, it’s awkward as hell, but I forced myself to use it during my run.  It works - plain and simple.  My breathing was controlled and I was getting more air than I normally do.  I didn’t feel like my breathing was out of control at all or not getting enough… well until the end…heh

If you want to try it, lay on your back and put your hands on your stomach.  When you pull in a breath, push your stomach out and keep your chest still.  Then when you exhale, use the same muscles in your stomach to squeeze all the air out.  That’s it.  Simple, but not so simple when you are teaching yourself while you are running.  It’ll get easier!

Here’s an article as well:  http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=9546