Cardio Here I Come
March 30th, 2011 
Tyson Last year I did a lot of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). It was a combination of Plyo, swimming, sprints, jump roping, etc. I then read that just 45 minutes of walking while in a fasted state could do the same thing as 20 inutes of HIIT. So I stopped the HIIT and began doing the walk instead. As evidence of my increasing waist line, it didn’t work. I attribute some of that to bad diet and some to lack of cardio.
What’s Next?
I have been slowly been putting cardio back into my weekly routine. After the 1st week back, I realized that I really missed it. I really do enjoy working up a great sweat and being fatigued at the end. It makes me feel like I really accomplished something. Afterwards I feel fulfilled (and skinner). Could be all in my head but I really don’t care. I feel good and that is all that really matters.
My first week back to HIIT I did some hill sprints down the street from my office. I followed that up with a nice run over the weekend and another run on Tuesday. Tomorrow I hope to get in 30 minutes of intense jump roping.We shall see in a few week if putting the HIIT back into my routines has any effect on my weight and muscle tone.
Whoomp There It Is
I was looking through some old pictures to use on the blog when I came across a folder from a P90x Challenge that I sponsored last year. At the time I was doing P90x (again) with a somewhat strict primal diet. I started the challenge at a weight of 175lbs and by week 11 I was down to 170lbs and approximately 10% body fat. I quit at week 11 because of burnout and coincidentally started my leangains program shortly after. Below is how I looked at the end of the challenge.
Frustration Sets In
Seeing those numbers and the pics that went along with it depressed me quite a bit. Why? Well I am currently sitting at 181lbs and an unmeasured body fat (afraid to take it). That means in the last 9 months I have gained about 11lbs. During the P90x challenge I was eating healthy, doing weight training, and some form of cardio (Plyo, HIIT, running, swimming etc). In addition to that I was also fasting about once per week for roughly 24 hours at a time.
I went on Leangains as an attempt to get below the 170lb mark that I was stuck at. I was hoping that it would be my golden ticket to finally seeing some ab definitions. I will admit that at first I didn’t do it right. I was using the refeed window as a pure junk food fest. I gained 5lbs almost right off the bat. After that I took some time to really study the site and I thought I finally had it down pat so I tried again. I didn’t gain anymore weight but it didn’t fall off either. I wasnt getting the results that everyone else has seen. Frustration began to set it.
More Weight Gain
The last 6lbs came recently when I my son was born early. We spent 3 weeks in the hospital with him and had access to a wide variety of free snacks right outside our door. Everything from rice crispy bars, pop tarts, jello cups and soda. The stress combined with no exercise pushed my weight to where it is now.
Old School
Based on an old rap song from my childhood,
I’m talking it back to the old school
‘Cause I’m an old fool who’s so cool
If you want to get down
I’m gonna show you the way whoomp there it is
I am going to go back to what was working for me last year. I am going to start my day off with a healthy breakfast, healthy lunch, and end it with a healthy supper. Everything I eat will be primal of course and I will have a refeed day once a week to help keep my leptin levels up. I will reintroduce some HIIT (Plyo, swimming, sprints, etc). I am undecided on where my weight training will come from although I have considered doing P90x again. I hesitate on it because I am still feeling a bit of the burn-out I experienced last year.
I also have a 5k race coming up in a few months that I will be training for (post to come on that soon). That means I will probably also have some longer runs mixed in there as well.
Goal
My goal is to get back down to 170lbs in the next 8 weeks. I will be posting the progress on here of course so make sure you stop by often to see how I do. If this doesn’t work, then I will be fresh out of ideas to try.
So Sleepy
I am exhausted. Another night of broken sleep habits has left me chugging coffee like its water. My wife and I have a 4 week old preemie at home that is doing what babies do. Her and I take turns getting up with him but even that doesn’t allow us to get a solid 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. He is totally worth the tiredness but I still wonder what effect this sleep deprivation will have on my weight loss and fitness goals. As of late, my motivation and willingness to go to the gym as waned. I still get my workouts in but I feel like I am not giving 100% like I should be.
Sleep Loss Appears to Do Two Things:
- Makes you feel hungry even if you are full. Sleep loss has been shown to affect the secretion of cortisol, a hormone that regulates appetite. As a result, individuals who lose sleep may continue to feel hungry despite adequate food intake.
- Increases fat storage. Sleep loss may interfere with the body’s ability to metabolize carbohydrates, which leads to high levels of blood sugar. Excess blood sugar promotes the overproduction of insulin, which can lead to the storage of body fat and insulin resistance, a critical step into the development of diabetes. Borrowed from medicinenet.com Read More
This isn’t new to me and I have heard it all before. One of the Primal rules is to make sure you get adequate sleep. Ok. I understand that. But what do others do when that is not a possibility? I cannot be the first person to want to tone up during a time when good sleep comes at a price. Do bodybuilders take off a couple of months when their wives give birth? Has anyone reading this actually lost weight while not getting adequate sleep?
What Do I Do?
Here is the question of the day. Do I take a break from working out until my sleep patterns get back to normal or do I push myself harder and hope that the extra effort will counteract any negative effects the lack of sleep will provide? I could see pulling a muscle from poor form brought on by being tired but I don’t want to quit working out because of a “maybe”.
It’s just a matter of time before his sleepless nights will pass and I wouldn’t trade this time for anything. Just curious what I should do in the mean time. Take a break or push through.
Thoughts?
New Challenge
Overview
After a weekend of peanut butter popcorn balls (6), chocolate chip cookies (who knows how many), dairy, carbs, and very little sleep (about 3 hours at a time), I am ready to begin anew. Today marks day 1 of a challenge put on by members of my team at work. The rules are simple. Lose the most weight out of everyone in the 30 days and beat any one of the three managers and win $25 for each one you beat. Seems simple enough right? There are currently about 12 people signed up for the contest so it could be a challenge. Oh yeah, this is challenge number 1 of three. The opportunity to win some money is great. I like winning money.
In honor of this challenge and as a way to help me win this thing (to help pay for my new ipad) I have decided to start a somewhat strict paleo diet. I thought about doing the Whole30 challenge again but there are some items I just do not want to give up this time (protein shakes for one). Since I couldn’t do the whole30 challenge in its entirety I decided to just call this one a Paleo challenge. It’s simpler that way and I don’t have to worry about copyright infringement. Here is what I will try not to eat over the next 30 days:
Diet
- Sugar of any kind, real or artificial. (I am going to allow myself to add some sugar free coffee creamer to my morning coffee. With a newborn at home and very limited sleep, I am in need of some coffee in the morning and try as I might, I just cannot drink the crap straight up black.)
- Processed foods. (I will allow myself to drink protein shakes on this challenge. With my lack of time right now, I need to be able to grab something quick to fuel my workouts.)
- Alcohol, in any form. (I don’t even know the last time I had alcohol so I don’t think this one is going to be a problem.)
- Grains.(Already had some rice tonight. Whoops. It looked good and I was hungry)
- Legumes.
- Dairy. (Dairy hurts my stomach anyway so I have been trying to cut this out as much as possible.)
- White potatoes. (It’s cool. I am a sweet potato fan anyway.)
I am also trying something new calorie wise this time around. I have been doing the Leangains approach to intermittent fasting the last few months but with very limited success. I am going to attempt to do that same approach this time but may limit the capacity on it a bit. I am also going to reduce my calorie intake to around 15oo calories a day. When I try and do the recommended daily intake based on my fitness levels, I never seem to lose weight. In fact, I usually feel like I gain some. So I am hoping that by cutting my calories down, if even just for the next 30 days, I can really shed some of the fat that has built up around my midsection. I will also do carb cycling. Lifting days will see a higher amount of carbs while cardio days will see a lower amount of carbs. Today I consumed just about 150grams so I was right on track of where I want to be.
Workouts
This week my workouts are going to be a bit different. Next week I might start my Visual Impact workout again or I may try to find something new. For this week though, I am doing some density training. Basically I work a set of muscles in a push/pull fashion for 7 minutes straight with limited rest. This weeks workouts are as follows.
- Monday – Biceps/Triceps/Abs
- Tuesday – Cardio (5k combined with some hill sprints)
- Wednesday – Legs/Shoulders/Abs
- Thursday – Cardio (not sure what its going to be yet)
- Friday – Chest/Back
- Saturday – Cardio (again, not sure)
I like this format for now. It works for me, doesn’t take a lot of my lunch break and I don’t feel the burnout from going everyday that I was feeling a few months back. I am hoping the next workout program that I find will allow me to weight train on 3 days a week with light to no cardio on the other days. Any suggestions out there on what I could do? I have heard great things about the Adonis Index and I listen to their pod-casts quite a bit. If anyone knows them and would be willing to put a good word in for me so I could obtain some free training or be a case study on new programs, that would be swell!
That is all I have for now. Later.
It is 3am and I Am Not Perfect
Here is a picture of me from the other night (or early morning, however you look at it) at around 3 am. My wife and I had just got done with a feeding of our 3 week old son and I decided to snap a picture of how tired I am sure I looked. Why post that picture online for everyone to see? I will get to that in a moment.
I started this website almost 4 years ago. In its infancy, it wasn’t even a blog. It was an informational website that included articles on health and fitness, a personal trainer listing, and even a store. It didn’t do so well so I decided to go with a different approach. That was when the blog format was born.
Why a Blog?
I wanted to do a blog because I wanted to tell about my story of becoming fit and healthy. I was hoping to inspire people to ask me questions and seek me out for advice. It has always been a goal of mine to become a trainer and help people with their fitness and dietary needs. I felt that in order for people to trust me and what I had to say, I had to make myself seem perfect. Trying to make everyone think you are perfect can be very exhausting.
I’m Tired
I am tired of putting up a front. Losing weight is not easy for me and it never has been. There are times when I go off my diet. There are times when I just don’t want to work out. There are times when I obsess over every pound. There are times when I just want to give up. Luckily for me, those feelings never last and I continue on my journey of healthy living. But overall I am struggling just like most everyone else.
Why Am I Telling You This?
I have decided to blog about my day-to-day struggles of being an obsessive fitness fanatic. I want to show what it’s really like to live my life. I want to show everyone that my life isn’t easy and I have had to and continue to work hard to achieve what I have. I am hoping that my struggles will bring others peace of mind that they are not alone. The journey wont be easy and I may stray from the path from time to time. But I am human and I am not perfect. The picture above is not one of me at my best. I am not posing. I am not showing off any muscles or a great summer tan. It’s me at my most vulnerable. It’s showing me for me.
