DAY 28

4 weeks and 16 workouts down! And I'm still moving in the right direction. I'm up to 181.5 lbs and I lifted more weight in my exercises this week than last.  That said, I did run into a few snags.

DAY 28, March 4th, 181.5 lbs

American Idol has ruined me... This may sound lame to a lot of you, but I have kept up with just about every season of this show since its first season 11 years ago.  The show comes on around 8pm every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night and usually lasts until 9:30 or 10.  If you've been following my progress in these last 4 weeks, you know that I have been waking up at 4am to get to the gym before work.  I was able to DVR all of the American Idol auditions in the past few weeks and watch them the next day, but now that they are doing live shows 3 nights a week I feel like I have to stay up and watch.  If I record them to watch later, it just doesn't feel the same.  Plus, I risk having the show spoiled the next day by a friend, family, or the news.

I stuck to my morning routine Monday and Tuesday, but by Thursday I was way too exhausted to hit the gym.  I told myself I would go Friday and Saturday instead, but I felt just as tired Friday and another aircraft carrier with 5000+ people pulled into the base.  The traffic was ridiculous. My quick fix - I did both my Thursday and Friday workouts all at once on Saturday. The result - I'm incredibly sore.

Just for your information, this is what my routine looked like this past week:

Monday-Strength Training with Legs/Core

Tuesday-Strength Training with Chest/Upper Back/Core

Wednesday-HIIT/Sprints

DAY 1, February 6th, 178.4 lbs

Thursday-Rest

Friday-Rest

Saturday-Strength Training with Lower Back/Legs/Shoulders/Chest/Core + 1 hour basketball

Sunday-2 hours of beach volleyball

This week, I'm going to have to figure something out.  I'm going to go in the morning again tomorrow and Tuesday, but I am not sure what I'll do when Thursday rolls around.  I guess I'll plan on going on the afternoon Thursday and Friday.  I have 2 more weeks of my strength gain weight lifting routine.  After that I will have a short break before I start a 6 week long hypertrophy plan.

I guess my quick words of advice for you are... If something sets you back, try to make up for it in the short-run, but more importantly, you need to make a plan to keep it from setting you back again.  Keep moving forward and keep improving!  I'm moving slowly, but I can't beat myself up for moving in the right direction.

Let me know! What makes it hard for you to keep a good workout schedule?

DAY 15

I spent the end of last week traveling with family, so I did not have much time for working out or eating properly.  I did the best I could with getting enough calories and protein and I even did a full workout with dumbbells in a Marriott hotel gym in Victoria, Canada.  It's not too difficult to keep at it while you travel! You have 168 hours in your week. You can at least use 4 of those hours to get some exercise! 

DAY 15, 180 lbs

I'm excited to be starting a new 4-week strength training routine this week.  I'm very happy to have recruited a friend of mine to join me.  We'll be getting up at 4:30 every morning to get in the gym before work.  We'll be doing a lot of high weight with low repetitions (i.e. 4 sets of 4 reps).  The workout comes straight out of The New Rules of Lifting: Six Basic Moves for Maximum Muscle, so, unfortunately, I can't share it with you. However, I urge any weight lifters (from beginners to intermediate lifters) to purchase this book! It is an excellent resource for up-to-date lifting routines and techniques. It has given me a whole year of very effective weight lifting routines!  If you already have the book, I am using the Strength 2 routine for these next 4 weeks.

The only thing that the book lacks is proper instruction on working the core and the abdominal muscles.  I substitute crunches for planks for working my core. Crunches and sit-ups are highly ineffective.  I'll write a post on this soon!  For now, just start doing more planks.  If you can easily hold plank for a minute, try putting your feet on a bench or a swiss ball.  You can also try lifting one hand and the opposite foot for 10 to 15 second intervals.  There are tons of variations of the plank to help with core.

Let me know! How do you work your core?

DAYS 9 and 10

DAY 9

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope y'all made time to look good for your significant others.  I know I couldn't thank my wife enough for the love and support she gives me.  I can honestly say I don't always enjoy lifting weights, but I am motivated each and every day by her.  I work hard to make sure that we will have a long, healthy, and happy life together.  I love you, Lee-Cassie.  I can't wait to see what the future holds for us!

Valentine's Day was no excuse to miss a day a training.  I squeezed a great workout into my busy schedule.  I feel like my body is starting to head in the right direction now that I have the right food to fuel me and the right schedule to get proper rest.  One set-back has been the crowds in my gym lately.  I workout in a shipyard, so when we have more Navy ships docked, there are more people in the gym. I plan on starting to workout early in the morning this Thursday. We'll see how that goes.

DAY 10

My sweet wife went grocery shopping for us this week after I compiled a list of the types of food I should be eating every week to fuel my workouts.  Below is my personal 7 day list if you're curious. I don't have too much time to write tonight.  I'm getting to bed early so I can get in the gym bright and early tomorrow morning.   

FRUIT
Apples
Bananas
2 Pineapples (precut)
Plums, Pears, or Oranges
Berries

VEGGIES
5 Bags Fresh Spinach
3 Bags Baby Carrots
7 Potatoes
1 Onion
4 Red Bell Peppers
Cucumbers

DAIRY
1 Dozen Eggs
2 Large Containers Plain Yogurt
4 Cartons Egg Whites
Sliced Sharp Cheddar
2 Gallons Milk

MEAT
3 Packs Chicken or Turkey Sausage
4 Pounds Extra Lean Ground Beef
Large Bag of Chicken Breasts
Fish

GRAINS+NUTS
Whole Grain English Muffins (NOT ENCRICHED)
1 Box High-Fiber Cereal
Walnuts
Cashews
Quinoa
Steel Cut Oats
Spaghetti Noodles

OTHER
Banana Cream Syntha-6 Protein Powder

Sports Drink Mix
Fish Oil Capsules (EPA + DHA = 300 to 600mg)
1 Bottle Flax Oil
Green Tea
Spaghetti Sauce

Let me know! How is your workout going? What does your grocery list usually look like?

Invest Now!

You probably already have a good understanding of basic finances,

right? Then you know about compounding interest - earning interest on top of interest.  Wait, isn’t this a health blog??? Yes. Bear with me!

Let’s say someone is planning on retiring at 65.  If someone puts $1,000 in a retirement account when they are 25, that $1,000 would turn into $45,000 by the time they get off the job. If they wait untilthey’re 35, they would only have $17,000. Delaying the investment by only 10 years led to barely getting one third as much at retirement!

You probably see where I am going with this.  Your body is much like an interest-bearing account.   It is incredibly important to develop
healthy habits as early as possible.  People that do not take time to invest in their body early in life have a lower life expectancy, are generally less happy, and are often much more prone to diseases. You save money so you can live a comfortable life once you have retired. There is little point in saving this money if you are not going to be alive and well when you’re done with work.  If you wait to exercise and eat healthy, you are doing your body a horrible disservice.  If you are older, however, don't make excuses. It is never too late to start! Take time to develop life-long healthy habits today.  You will be thanking yourself later in life!


Here's a list of a few healthy habits you could work on tonight:
1) Exercise at least 3 to 5 hours a week (elevate your heart rate!)
2) Eat only lean meats, whole grains, nuts, fruits, and vegetables 90% of the time
3) Be less sedentary (find hobbies that let you get outside and move around)
4) Get at least 7 hours of sleep every night
5) Eliminate clutter so you can focus on the people and things that you love
6) Surround yourself with people who also want to live a long, healthy life

A Healthy Body in 10 Words

FOR EVERYONE
Drink water.
Eat whole foods.
Do enjoyable cardio.
Lift weights.


FOR WEIGHT LOSS
Drink water.
Eat whole foods.
Do more cardio.
Lift weights.


FOR SKINNY GUYS
Drink water.
Eat more calories.
Lift more weights.
Rest hard.


APPLY THE 10 WORDS
Apply these 10 words to your life. Make them your absolute priority and all good habits. This is all it takes!


Let us know! Are these all priorities in your life? If not, what are you struggling with? What is keeping you from living a simple, healthy life?

My Journey - Hitting a Wall

I have taken a lot of time to give all of you some of my best tips on exercise and nutrition, but I haven't found time to tell you about my own journey - until now.

ABOUT ME

I'm a 22 year old mechanical engineer. I live in Bremerton, Washington with my beautiful wife, Lee-Cassie. She has a blog herself, so check it out! [www.asoutherngirlsguidetoskinny.blogspot.com] I have been exercising and improving my nutrition off and on for the last 8 years, so I definitely know what it's like to go through slumps.

Okay, so don't hate me when I tell you this... Do you promise?....Fine. I have always been skinny. No matter what I have eaten my whole life, I have always been lanky, scrawny, a bean stalk, ectomorphic, or whatever you wanna call it. I have grown up on thousands of pizzas, pounds of mac and cheese, and tons of fast food. I've always thought (as a lot of people do) that skinny means healthy. Here's a quick fact though: Our bodies were made for natural whole foods, not the man made science experiments all of us are guilty of stuffing our faces with. Skinny, obese, strong, or weak, there is no way to bypass this fact. If there is anything I've learned in the last 8 years, it's that skinniness is definitely not directly proportional to health! My family has a history of high blood pressure and heart issues. I knew if I continued to eat poorly, I would be on a fast track to high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and arteriosclerosis among tons of other issues. It's amazing how eating correctly can affect your life.

My freshman year of college (5 years ago), I was 6' 2" and 144 lbs. I added 20 pounds of muscle over my four years at Auburn University (War Eagle!) by improving my diet and being a little more consistent with weight lifting. My engineering courses made it nearly impossible to stay consistent, but my schedule got much better once I graduated. My work day is usually 7:00 am to 3:45 pm. It leaves me plenty of time to hit the gym before dinner. Since I finally had the time, I had to set goals. I ordered "The New Rules of Lifting," written by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove back in July. It helped me strip my workouts down to the most effective exercises and helped me lay out a one year plan. I'm now 23 weeks into the program and I'm 185 pounds and much stronger than I've ever been. I have seen close to 40% strength increases in several exercises, like deadlift, squat, and bench press. The results have been great so far, but I have recently hit a wall. Before I tell you about the wall, let me tell you about my personal goal.

MY GOAL

My goal is simple; be as healthy as I possibly can be. For me, this includes physical, emotional, and spiritual health. It's very important for me to find balance in all of these. I don't want to spend so much time focusing on my physical health that I end up dumber than a box of rocks. Some day down the road I want to be as fit as a professional athlete, have a PhD in engineering, and be a leader in my church. I'm a firm believer in self-improvement and I try to find at least one thing to improve upon each day.

To find a balance in my life, my goals are to:
-Live a long, healthy life with my wife
-Grow stronger in my Christian faith
-Improve the lives of those around me
-Be successful in my career
-Travel the world

Fitness and nutrition is obviously a small slice of my goals. So why am I writing on it, you ask? Because there is so much information out there about nutrition and fitness and it takes a crazy amount of time to find out the correct ways to eat and exercise! I've had to devote a ton of time to find out how to be physically healthy. This is time I could have been spending focusing on all of the other aspects of my life. I'm hoping this blog will help save you a ton of time by giving you simple information, so you can spend time doing all of the other things you enjoy.

HITTING A WALL

I have not gone to the gym in the last 10 days. This doesn't sound so bad, right? I know, but I think it definitely is. I started this 52 week program 23 weeks ago. I haven't missed a single planned workout since I've started. I have skipped the last 6 planned workouts and now I feel almost no desire to pick up any weights. I am having a hard time convincing myself that I need to keep going and I'm continuing to make tons of excuses. I've had a pretty bad cold since last Monday, the gym was closed due to snow for a few days last week, and I went out of town this past weekend. Also, I will start working 9 straight days of 13 hour night shifts this coming Monday. I'm a little worried I'll never get back!

BREAKING THE WALL

So here's my plan. I won't have much time to devote to the gym during the next two weeks, so I'm going to eat especially healthy and hit the gym hard as soon as I'm done with the long shifts. I'm being a huge hypocrite because I firmly believe that you should never put things off, but February 13th will be the day.
I will have 6 weeks of strength exercises, 1 week off, 6 weeks of hypertrophy workouts, 1 week off, 4 weeks of strength workouts, 2 weeks off, then 6 weeks of fat loss exercises. This has me ending sometime in August. I need you guys to help hold me accountable!

Let us know! What's the longest plan you've ever had? How do you break through your walls? What are your goals?

Making Your Workout Plan and Staying Motivated

Before I start talking about motivation and planning, let’s address the word no one likes to hear - Procrastination. We all procrastinate - let’s just get that out in the open. There’s not a one of us who doesn’t, to some degree.  When you’re starting a new workout or any new good habit at all, just take Mr. Procrastination and punch him right in the face!

How many times have you had the following thoughts? “I’ll start exercising next Monday” -or- “I’ll start eating well after the holidays.” If you’ve had these thoughts, did you actually follow through? Chances are you did not and, unfortunately, Mr. Procrastination won yet again. There is no reason not to start these habits RIGHT NOW. If you want to start working out, go to the gym TODAY. If it’s too late, go ahead and get your workout clothes together for tomorrow. If you want to start eating well, throw out all of those bad foods TONIGHT and get a grocery list together for healthy food.

PLANNING

When I started lifting weights about 8 years ago, I would go the gym whenever I had spare time with a few exercises or body parts I wanted to work (usually abs, biceps, and chest like any teenager wanting a ‘beach body’). I had no real plan at all. I would do this for a month or two and hardly see any results. Without a plan, I was completely frustrated, tired of exercising, not to mention, totally wasting my time.

When you begin weight lifting, making a plan is essential. Just follow these 4 simple rules:

Make a 1-week schedule that works all muscle groups: You have to decide whether you want to lift weights 2, 3, or 4 days per week. Keep in mind that resting is very important because it gives your muscles much needed time to repair. Do not lift weights more than two days without taking a rest day (a lower intensity exercise is still ok). Make sure you work all muscle groups (shoulders, chest, back, biceps, triceps, legs, abs) within this week. You could split these groups into 2, 3, or 4 separate days.

Continue doing your 1-week schedule for 4 to 8 weeks: This 4 to 8 week routine gives you time to see progress. You’ll be able to do more weight each week. Your technique will improve and so will your body. The problem is, as you near the end of this routine, your muscles will start to get used to each of these exercises and you will begin to plateau.

Create another routine at least a week before your current routine ends: This new routine will keep you from plateauing! Plus, I always get bored doing the same thing for a long time, so I’m always excited about changing my workout.

Take a week off after your 4 to 8 week routine: By now you have probably not had a single day without being sore in some part of your body. It is very important that you take a break for both emotional and physical reasons. Some of you will be thinking “Thank goodness about time for a break,” but most of you will be excited about getting started the next week. Just know that when you work hard, you have to rest hard as well!

STAYING MOTIVATED

I’ve been lifting weights for the past 6 months with 5 different 4 to 8 week routines, but this past week I hit a wall. I took a two week break during the holidays and when I started back, I did not want to be in the gym. My current routine starts on Monday by working legs and I really hate leg days so that probably didn’t help. I didn’t like it, but I stayed in the gym and finished my workout anyways. That night, I couldn’t have been happier and more proud of myself. Now I’m more excited than ever about my plan.

Set goals. What kept me motivated when I hit that wall were my goals. 6 months ago, I made a somewhat long term (I say ‘somewhat’ because the ultimate long term goal should be lengthening your healthy life!) goal to lift weights for a year without skipping a single day of workouts. The fact that I have already been through 6 months without missing a day holds me accountable. I think to myself “I can’t give up now!” I also make weekly goals. I take a log sheet with me to the gym every day to record the weight I lift. Not everyone does this, but I highly recommend it. Recording my weight allows me to beat myself each time I go to the gym. If I don’t beat my weights from the previous week, I’m losing and no one likes losing! Think about how much you could progress if you continue to beat your past weights for 6 consecutive weeks. I’ve seen more than 30% strength gains in my 6-week routines before!

Workout with a partner. If you have a partner in crime, you will always have someone to spot you for one, but, more importantly, you will have someone who can pick you up when your down. It is unlikely that you will both lack motivation on the same day. I always thought I needed a partner to hold me accountable each week, but not everyone needs one. I haven’t been able to keep a steady partner  since I started 6 months ago, but I’ve learned to stay motivated by other means (above).



Look back in time.  Sometimes looking at old photos of how you were before you began training, losing weight, and building muscle are more than enough to keep you motivated. This also works with recorded weights and numbers.  

Tell people about your goals. Just vocalizing your goals can make it a lot easier for you to stick to them. They suddenly feel more real and tangible. Plus, you do not want to fail in front of your friends and family or let them down. I’ve seen people that post their goals on Facebook. The people (men and women both) who I’ve seen post their weights and weight goals on Facebook have all obliterated their goals and have all been more excited doing so. I’m sure the same would definitely work for guys with strength goals or guys trying to put on muscle mass.

Let us know! What are your fitness goals? Weight loss? Gaining strength? Gaining muscle mass? Try writing them all down and use your new planning skills to make a plan to achieve them!