Hiatus

Hot 100 Goals Update #4

Yes, it seems to be time for update #4 of the Hot 100 goals challenge/contest.This for me will be the month of greater change and much greater progress. I did work on all my goals but really didn’t do well. It was a tough ten days for me. I am not worried about that though because it could be so many factors playing into that.

• Continue to eat clean. Did not succeed, had  some Halloween candy.

• Drink my 64 oz. of Water, or more. Drank 64 oz. and More. Sill no Soda.

• Journal my food intake, exercise and daily weight. I didn’t journal my food but I did keep track of my exercise and training portion. This is something that I really need to get better at.

• Get 1 hour of Cardio exercise in 5-6 times a week. I did meet this goal and even did more than an hour on each of the 5 days I did  do cardio. Plus I strength trained 4 times this week and pretty intense and hard at times.

• Continue to have a positive attitude about my health and fitness journey. Kept as positive and I could.

• No Binge or Self Pity Eating. None of that this week 

• Increase intensity of cardio on a daily basis. Increased my resistance and settings of advanced. Plus on 3 days I added back in the treadmill and did inclines of  15% and did some running as well.

• Plan and Prepare my meals on Wednesday morning. Did all of that on Wednesday, October 30th. Now I am ready for the week ahead. This is so beneficial for me and it alleviates a lot of time during my busy week.

• Strength train hard 4X/ week. Did Strength training 4 times this week.

• Lose 30 pounds. Total Loss of 4 of the 30 lbs. Stayed the same, weight wise.

• Eat No Peanut Butter ( A trigger food for me). Success as I ate no peanut butter. Deleted this goal as well. I found that if I just have 1 tbsp. peanut butter in my smoothie, the craving is not as strong.

• Watch and control portion sizes. New Goal for the next 10 days

Now I look forward to another  week ahead and hopefully find some newer goals to add to my list. I truly hope that everyone had a great week with their goals as well.

Some good Nutritional Information

Good morning everyone…

I just thought I’d pass on some great nutritional information. At least  I found it very useful and it’s information that I have adopted into my dietary habits for a bit of time now.  So if you want to read about this stop by Jonny Gets Fit blog and read the post Nutrition- what I know so far.  Johnny’s Blog is full of some great information and his workouts are pretty intense, quick and right to the point.

I believe that nutrition is a very important topic and I feel that one has to do what works for him/her.  This is just his view-point on what works for him and he has some great facts that back it up. he is doing a series on Nutrition so make sure you stop by his blog regularly so you don’t miss some valuable information. You just might find an”a ha” moment  that will help you in your quest  to get fit and provide you with some insight to your nutritional education. After all proper nutrition is just as important, if not more, than exercise. But if you do well in both areas your progress will greatly improve as well as your long-term success rate.

Now have a great day everyone!

Another great Cardio session 10/29/09

Well another day and another really good/great cardio session. I did step it up a bit on the treadmill again and ran/jogged a bit more than I did in yesterdays session. The knee is still holding up pretty well and that’s a good sign. I know  I still need to be careful and not overdo it, but that’s hard. I am learning though and I know that if I feel the slightest discomfort I will stop what I am doing.

Next week I do plan on changing up my cardio session though. I think I am going to spend less time on the elliptical and add in the bike and the rotating stairmaster. I will do that for a couple weeks and then change that up again as well and add in the rower.

I would like to try interval training or tabata training as well, but have yet to figure out how they would work for me and basically I am not how to design a program. I guess it’s something I can try to figure out when I have some extra time.

So my cardio session for today went like this:

• Elliptical Trainer @ 65 minutes, 4.31 miles and Program set at Fat burner mode.

• Treadmill @ 30 minutes, 1.86 miles, Average speed of 3.72 mph, 16:06/mile.

I am happy with that and now I just will rest up for the rest of the day, especially since my so-called week-end is over and I have to go back to work tonight. Tomorrow is sure to be another great day and I look forward to hitting the gym again.

Catch you all later..

Wednesday’s Cardio and Leg Day Workouts 10/28/2009

To day was another productive day and started bright an early, around 4 Am to be exact. I could sleep so what else was there to do but head out to the gym and work hard. That’s exactly what I did, even though I would have rather stayed in my nice warm bed. Especially since it was only 45° this morning.

Yes I am a bit spoiled. Living in Las Vegas always has provided me some really nice warm and comfortable temperatures, except this time of year. So I guess I’ll just have to deal with it, accept it and just keep pushing forward.

Since I did get to the gym early I did have a pretty good cardio workout. I usually don’t like to workout for more than an hour for my cardio but since I got there early what else was there to do bu keep pushing forward and get  a lot of calories burned.

So for my Cardio, I did:

• Elliptical Trainer @ 65 minutes. Maximum Resistance of 25, Average speed 3.14 mph and 3.40 miles covered.

• Treadmill @ 30 minutes. Incline 10-15% , Average speed 3.27 mph, 1.63 miles covered. I did vary my speed and I did do some running on and off. Just enough to push myself a bit more and to see how the knee held up.

From there I had a little break to rest and have something to drink before I headed back in to do my Leg Day training with my trainer. That went real well too and on a side note my knee really is feeling a lot better and I think I am going to try to increase my intensity, little by little.

So for “Leg Day” I did: 5 sets each….

• Squats @ 90-110 lbs
• Hack Squats @  90-110 lbs.

• Leg Press @ 210-585 lbs.
• Leg Extension @ 70-110 lbs.
• Leg Curls @ 70-110 lbs.
• Abs using weighted bench, for Core work

 

So with the two workouts I really do feel like it was a very productive day. One well worth getting up early for.

Now it’s time for me to rest a bit and hopefully have time later on to visit all the blogs that I have missed.

Have a great, fit and healthy day everyone!

 

Mondays Workout 10/26/2009

I know this post is a bit overdue but my motto, “Better late, then Never”. I did have a pretty good workout and because of the time constraints I didn’t have time to get any cardio in.

My workout consisted of 3 sets of each with a variety of weights, increasing per set.

So it went like this:

• Dumbbell push up with row @ 15  lbs.
• Dumbbell fly on stability Ball @ 15-20-25 pounds
• Chest Machine
• Assisted Dips
• T-Bar Row
• Bent over Row into an overhead Press using the straight bar @ 45-55-60 lbs.
• Assisted Pull ups
• Incline Bench into a reverse crunch to work the core using 45 lbs flat weight.

So that wrapped up that work out and I was happy with my progress and the high intensity of it.  I just seem to be getting stronger and stronger and that’s progress that I can deal with.

 

T Bar Row

 

 

Todays Cardio Workout 10/22/2009

Well today was my last day of my great little vacation and it was fun while it lasted. So I ended it with another pretty good workout. I changed it up a bit on the elliptical though and as must of you are probably aware that the elliptical has many different settings. Today I used the Fat burning zone setting. It really didn’t seem to be too strenuous so I didn’t care for it. I did stay in the zone though and kept my heart rate at 112-120. That is my fat burning zone and my cardio zone is a bit harder and that is at 138-145. Keeping my HR at that point is hard and it’s probably something I should try to do one of these days. I do like a good challenge

Now the one big draw back to going back to work is that my blogging suffers a bit, but not my workouts. I will do my best to visit your blogs but you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t comment as much. I will be back here on Sunday since it is a day off from my workouts and I’ll have a bit more time to spend on this computer.

So this is what I accomplished bright and early this morning:

• Elliptical @ 65 minutes, 4.25 miles, Fat burning zone with heart rate 112-122.

• Treadmill @ 20 minutes,1.10 mile, Incline of 5-12%, various speeds, Average speed of 3.32 mph ans 18:04/mile.

I did up the intensity a bit on the treadmill and hope to maybe even start doing a slow jog on it. Yes, I know it’s against doctors orders, but I do know my body and my limit. So why not!

I guess that’s all for now. Hope everyone has a nice healthy, safe and active day. Just remember any form of exercise is good for you. Staying active is the key to a healthy and long life.

Catch you all later.. Time for me to chill out a bit and make my nice green smoothie. Yummy!!!

Hot 100 Goal Update #3

Yes, it seems to be time for update #3 of the Hot 100 goals challenge/contest. I did work on all my goals and being on vacation helped out to some degree. That was I could concentrate better on them. I didn’t do to well on the weight loss, as I gained 2 pounds this week. I am not worried about that thought because it could be so many factors playing into that. Especially since when I went shopping the other day and bought a smaller pants size. To me that’s a good indicator of what it truly is.

• Continue to eat clean. As far as my meals I did good in eating clean. I did have some protein bars and shakes that contained some processed stuff so in that regards, I didn’t do as well. But they were organic and delicious
• Drink my 64 oz. of Water, or more. Drank 64 oz. and More. Sill no Soda.
• Journal my food intake, exercise and daily weight. I didn’t journal my food but I did keep track of my exercise and training portion. This is something that I really need to get better at. .
• Get 1 hour of Cardio exercise in 5-6 times a week. I did meet this goal and even did more than an hour on each of the 5 days I did  do cardio. Plus I strength trained 4 times this week and pretty intense and hard at times.
• Continue to have a positive attitude about my health and fitness journey. That is and will always be a work in progress and I did well on this too.
• No Binge or Self Pity Eating. None of that this week 
• Increase intensity of cardio on a daily basis. Increased my resistance and settings of advanced. Plus on 3 days I added back in the treadmill and did inclines of 12& at times.
• Plan and Prepare my meals on Wednesday morning. Did all of that on Wednesday, October 21st. Now I am ready for the week ahead. This is so beneficial for me and it alleviates a lot of time during my busy week.
• Strength train hard 4X/ week. Did Strength training 4 times this week.
• Do Push ups 3 times a week @ home. Only did this Once this week Arms a bit sore and I know that’s no excuse. Eliminated this goal since I do plenty of push ups with my trainer. Sometime at 100 or more per session. So I feel no need to do more than that at home.
• Lose 30 pounds. Total Loss of 4 of the 30 lbs. Gained 2 lbs this week.
• Eat No Peanut Butter ( A trigger food for me). Success as I ate no peanut butter.

Now I look forward to another  week ahead and hopefully find some newer goals to add to my list. I truly hope that everyone had a great week with their goals as well.

Workout = Leg Day 10/21/2009

Today was another day of my two workouts being:

1. Cardio Session
2. Strength Training = Leg/Back Day

Both of these workouts went pretty well and nothing out of the ordinary happened. It was a pretty productive day with that and so far with my eating too.

So for my Cardio I did:

• Elliptical @ 65 minutes, 3.47 miles, Average speed 3.21mph, I did the maximum level @ 25 with various inclines.

• Treadmill @ 15 minutes, .77 mile, Incline of 5-13%, various speeds. (No running was done)

From there I took a 15 minute break and had a banana to provide some nutrition and energy for my strength training workout. Leg day is one of my favorite days because it’s where I do my heaviest lifting and that just gives me an awesome feeling.

For this part of training we did:

• Leg Presses with each set with varied feet positions to work a variety of areas, including the hamstrings. We did a total of  9 sets with weights ranging from 225-495 lbs.

• Seated leg Curls: 3 sets, Weights 90-110 lbs
• Leg Extension: 5 sets,  Weights 90-120 lbs.
• Kneeling Leg Curls: 3 sets, 125 lbs.
• Stiff Leg Dead Lift: 3 sets, 30 lbs. dumbbells
• Abdominal workout

That wrapped it up for that workout and for the day at the gym. Now I’ll just be chilling out a bit and enjoying the last 2 days of my vacation.

So far the knee is still holding up and at the same time I am getting more frustrated. With it feeling better I just want to start running again and doing the things I did before the knee issue occurred again. I’ll just have to stay a bit patient until I meet up with my doctor again. Hopefully the knee will still be holding up then and he’ll give me th Ok to start running again.

Off I go now. I’ll be catching you all later..

Till then stay healthy and stay active…

My workout for Monday 10/19/2009

Well I made it to the gym bright and early as always for all my workouts. This post is a day late, but better late than never.

I am going to try harder to again post what I do for my workouts. That way it will give you all a better understanding of what I do and how and if I progress along.

I first started with my cardio and I did:

• Elliptical @ 65 minutes, 3.30 miles, Average speed 3.02 mph, I did the maximum level @ 25 and burned 950 calories.

• Treadmill @ 15 minutes, 1 mile, Incline of 5-9%, various speeds and burned 165 calories. (No running was done)

So with this part of the workout I did 80 minutes and burned 1115 calories.

As the doctor’s order I still did not do any running, even though I wanted to so badly. The knee is feeling much better but I’ll have to wait to do any running till I see him in November. In the meantime I will still take it easy on the knee and do as he says.

From the cardio workout I had a bout a 15 minute break till I met up with Chris to do my strength training. As I mentioned in an earlier post, my strength  training is going remarkably well. The intensity is picking up and so is the amount of weight I am pressing. I am not sure of all that we did and in the future I’ll try to keep better track of that as well. All I know is we did a lot

• Chest Press and Chest flies on the stability ball with dumbbells.
• Push ups with Dumbbells
• Leg Lifts, for the core
• Assisted pull ups.
• Decline bench pullover with 25lb. dumbbell
• Standing Dumbbell Rows
• Straight arm pull downs
• ??? Can’t remember the last one

I did a total of 4 sets with 15 reps per exercise. The total workout lasted about 75 minutes and I burned 1325 calories.

What a great workout that was and very tiring as well. I guess that’s the price you pay for progress. I am loving it though. Now On Wednesday it will be Leg Day, another favorite of mine.

Till then I do take Tuesdays off from my workouts so I can be reenergize for the rest of the weeks workouts.

Have a great day everyone and make it a healthy and active day.