My perspective on working out has been changing quite a bit as of late. I have officially had 10 personal training sessions. With only 2 more sessions left I am kinda sad that I will not be working out with Beth one on one anymore. I am optimistic that I will be able to continue working out at least 3 days a week and I might even do one of her boot camps that she offers. What Beth has taught me over these past 5 weeks will stay with me forever.
At the beginning of this whole getting healthy journey of mine (back in August of 2009) I was pretty convinced that I should be going to the gym and just doing as much cardio as possible. Everything I read said that I should be counting my calories coming in, then burn as many calories as possible at the gym to create a calorie deficit and subsequently loose weight. While I did this for a couple of weeks and it seemed effective I quickly grew tired of it.
I was too focused on loosing the weight, on changing my external appearance and I eventually stopped making progress and started gaining weight back. Since the beginning of January I have been going doing full body workouts with every visit to the gym. My workouts have been dominated by body weight and free weight resistance exercises with a typical warm up of running on the treadmill for at least 20 minutes. The goal here is to build muscle, strengthen my core, and get my body moving.
The changes I have seen in my body since January 3rd (my first workout of the new year) have been so inspiring and motivating. I have begun to see definition where there wasn’t any before and the weight is coming off again! One of the advantages of working out like this is that as I build more muscle my body will automatically burn more calories throughout the day. The more muscle mass that I have the higher my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) which is the amount of daily energy expended while at rest. How cool is that. Essentially the more muscle I have the more calories I burn while sitting on my but watching a movie. Plus, after a full body resistance workout (which is what I have been doing) your BMR is elevated for the following couple of hours compared to a cardio workout where it is only elevated for the next 45 minutes or so.
All of this means that if I continue to do these types of workout and continue to build muscle that my body will continue to burn calories at a higher rate. If I can just control what I am eating and focus on healthful whole foods most of the time the weight will keep coming off and I will continue on the path of being a healthy vegan.
I got on the scale this morning and it said 249, I have lost a little over 1 pound in the past week. This was a bit surprising, I didn’t think I did that well this week. It’s hard looking back to the first time I dropped below 250 and how exciting it was, I didn’t think I would be here again. But, I am moving forward, I’m gonna keep loosing and continue to be positive.
What I have done for the last three weeks in a row, is go to the gym for three days. That’s right, I have been to the gym at least nine times in the last three weeks. Some people say that you have to do something for three weeks in order to create a habit. Hopefully I can stick with this habit and keep up the good work.
One of the things that has been keeping me going is that I can feel and see my body changing. I can see slightly more definition in my arms and shoulders, this is a great incentive to continue working out.
I will be going to the gym tonight with Michelle for an excellent full body workout and am looking forward to more weight loss next Friday!
I guess it’s time I fess up and explain why I have not been putting any weigh ins on the site in a while. After making a conscious decision to take a break over the Holidays I got home from vacation and I weighed 258, I was ashamed.
I let myself go and I shouldn’t have. Every new day is an opportunity for becoming healthier and I made a lot of poor decisions concerning food over the week and a half that I was back in Maryland visiting family. Initially I was hoping that it was water weight or something like that and that I would be back to under 250 in a week or so, then I would put a weigh in up on A Healthy Vegan. A week went by and I did loose some weight, I went down to 252.4, a pretty big drop in a week. I have no doubt that this weight loss is do to my personal training (Thanks Michelle!).
Then we arrive at today, my “official” weigh in day. I stepped on the scale, sucked in and I had lost a little under 2 pounds since the last Friday. The scale said 250.2, I am disappointed but at least I am still loosing.
I will check in with you next week, I promise.
This is what I looked like after my second personal training session. I was sore all over and wanted nothing more than to just lay in one position for the rest of the night. Even though I was exhausted I was really proud of myself.
Heading to the gym last night I was a bit concerned because there was still a lot of soreness from my previous workout. It didn’t matter though, I even got to the gym early and worked out on the elliptical for half an hour before my actual session. To be honest I was kinda hoping that this 30 minute warm up would mean we could move right into the resistance training, not so much. We started on the treadmill, switching between jogging and walking, I kept pushing myself and was jogging much faster than I thought I would be able to, we did that for 10 minutes to get really warmed up.
I enjoy resistance workouts more than cardio, it’s just more interesting. Yesterday we were doing 3 sets of 15 reps on various different machines to get a full body workout. It always seems that the weight I start with is lighter than it should be, but by that last rep on the last set it becomes clear that it is usually just right. On a couple of the exercises I pushed myself a little further and did an extra rep or two. I am trying to prove to myself and my new trainer that I really want this, that it is finally time. In addition Beth seems to think I have excellent form when working out, which makes me very happy. I have always heard that it is more important to have good form than to do a lot of heave weight.
Today I am much less sore than I was after my first session so I guess my body is getting used to the idea of a Tom that works out. My third day to the gym this week will be Friday and then I am meeting with Beth again on Sunday morning at 7:00AM (I can’t believe it either).
I have already started this new year off with a bang. While I may of drank too much and eaten too much over this past holiday season I am making some very important steps to getting back on track. On the first Monday of 2011 I had an appointment with a personal trainer, my first of 12. These 12 appointments are a gift from my wonderful wife Michelle. For the next 6 weeks I will be getting my butt whipped into better shape 2 times a week, and I will go by myself for a 3rd day that week.
Last night we did a light warm up on the treadmill and then moved quickly onto the free weight and body weight exercises. Bent over rows for back strength, bench press, push ups, sit ups, and squats were all on the roster, among others. To be honest I was a little surprised that I was not stronger. After doing a few of each of the exercises it became clear how out of shape I am. Beth, my new awesome personal trainer, was very encouraging though. She said that most people would be surprised how out of shape they are and that I will get stronger fast.
With one personal training session done I woke up less sore this morning than I expected. My triceps were killing me but the rest of the muscles we worked were not so bad. As the day has gone on that has changed, my muscles are now sore even when doing simple tasks like opening a door or scratching my head. I like the feeling though, (for the most part) it reminds me that I did some work and that it’s good for me.
Thanksgiving did a number on me. For quite a few weeks now my weight has remained pretty stable around 243 and I was content with that for a couple of reasons. Today though I weighed in at 248.4, I am not content with this. 248 is dangerously close (I know 243 kinda is too) to my first big goal of 250.
Over the years I have become quite an expert at being able to ignore certain problems; like my weight, eating habits or lack of exercise. Since hitting 250 and congratulating myself I have sort of been ignoring the fact that I still need to loose a serious amount of weight. I feel kind of like a broken record writing this lately, blah, blah, blah I am slacking off; blah, blah, blah I can’t get motivated. In a way this here blog has kind of backfired a little bit. I created it, in part, to have some accountability with friends and family and now I don’t write when I think it will be boring to read. But, this will change.
I have started doing some small things to get back on track with my weight loss and fitness. First of all I have been walking to the T stop from work everyday (unless it is rainy). The walk is a little over a mile and according to an application on my phone a leisurely walk burns almost 150 calories, which I know is not a lot but it adds up write? In addition I have gotten back onto green smoothies for lunch and breakfast.
My big problem lately is hunger. I get home from work and I am so hungry that I go on these binges and it seems as though I can’t stop myself. Sometimes I will do awesome at work, drink lots of water have my smoothie for lunch and then I get home and it all goes out the window. This has been the hardest thing for me to tackle of late.
I am planning on getting my butt to the gym this weekend and I have found that the more I work out the more I am willing to make better food choices so hopefully that will help.
This morning I weighed in at 243.8 not much change from a couple of weeks ago. I may be a little too optimistic for my own good but I’m kinda happy that I have stayed at 243 for some time now.
Unfortunately staying at 243 is not my current goal though that would be nice. My goal for now is to weigh 199 pounds and if I am going to get there I need to get to work, I need to find motivation, I need to pay more attention. I also need to forgive myself and be able to move on from my mistakes.
It seems like every week I plan to start fresh on Monday and then Monday comes along and it life gets in the way. This needs to become a priority in my life, it needs to become part of my life. It’s on my mind everyday, I just haven’t been putting it into practice.
There’s always tomorrow.
I tweeted last night that when I weighed myself this morning I would have gained weight. After all I ate out quite a bit this week and was not always in control of what I was eating. But, I did do some calorie counting and I have not had any soda this week, just all water all the time.
So, what did the scale say this morning? 243.2, that’s right a whole .6 pounds less than last week. I was pleasantly surprised this morning considering I was sure I was going to gain weight. Let’s be honest though, it’s only .6 pounds. I have a long way to go and I am all starting fresh. I love making excuses for things like this. I’ll say to myself oh I’ll start on Monday or I’ll start next month. Well November is coming up and the 1st of the month also happens to be Monday, how much more perfect can I get?
I will report back on Monday with my plans for the week.
