Power 90 Day 23 – My Pre-Workout, Workout

Well this morning I experienced one of those days where I remember why I try to wake up early to workout.  This morning I thought I would sleep just a few extra minutes, which turned into a few extra hours which turned out to be 10:00 am.  I got myself ready to work out and grabbed my phone where I had a message waiting.  It was a request for me to help move drywall.  They wanted to move the drywall between 10:30 and 11:30 which was enough to keep me from having time to work out first.  By the time we started moving drywall it was noon, and drywall is heavy. We worked for about an hour, and I was sore and wore out, but still had to go work out.  

I hit the gym about 1:30, it was a good thing it was a cardio day because there is no way I could have done all the lifting after that.  And cardio was rough enough.  I got through it without puking, which I felt was an accomplishment.  I also had my second day of 100 crunches in Ab Ripper 100.  I even did the bicycle, which is intense.  For a comparison, on day 2 I did 40 crunches with several breaks and could only do 3 of the styles of crunches.  On day 23, I did 100 crunches with 8 of the styles of crunches.  

To be honest, I was feeling pretty good about myself after powering through Ab Ripper 100.  And while I was lying on the ground afterwards clutching my gut and drinking my protein I had the idea to watch Ab Ripper 200 since is wouldn’t be long before I started it.  Ab Ripper 100 is 100 crunches in 4 minutes, so how much worse could Ab Ripper 200 be?  It’s worse.  Ab Ripper 200 is 200 crunches in 6 minutes, basically double the crunches with only 2 more minutes.  So I guess I still have a long way to go. 

Oh and on a good note the scales moved for the first time in two weeks.  Sure it is only ½ a pound, but 301.4 is a lot nicer than 302 so hopefully I will get a couple more half pounds this week, and things will open back up, I still really want to see a number with a 2 in front of it.  Hopefully it’s not far off.  

Here’s a look at my Food Journal for Tuesday, I went with Subway again because it seemed to do the trick yesterday:

Post Workout:  Protein Drink (1 scoop protein powder, 8 oz skim milk ) (220 Calories)

                        Breakfast:   Kashi cereal, milk, (275 Calories)

Lunch: Tuna on Slimwich with Cottage Cheese (1 can tuna, light mayo) (335 Calories)

Afternoon Snack: String Cheese, banana (165 Calories)

Dinner:  Subway - Oven Roasted Chicken Breast Sandwich on Wheat Bread with Light Mayo and Provolone, Spinach, Olives 12 inch (830 Calories)

Evening Snack: Strawberries (140 Calories)

Well that about covers today.  Needless to say I am less excited about moving to the 3-4 level of Power 90 as it looks like a big jump forward.  That being said, the fact that I am this much closer to being able to do it I find exciting.  So we will see what things look like in a couple weeks.  I may move to the 3 – 4 level one workout at a time, as I have the extra 30 days now.  But we will see… Till Later…

Power 90 Day 22 – Things are Going to Start Happening to Me Now…

Despite a bad two weeks in weight loss, I woke up today feeling positive about everything.  Now I try not to vain, but it definitely helped yesterday that half a dozen people came up to me and asked if I had been working out or something because I was looking in better shape (This was of course at the reception after I had taken off the long black robe.)  As I said not to be vain, let’s face it I’m no Sly Stallone, but at least all the hard work feels worth it, if there is something different about me.  

With new energy I was able to hit it early this morning and power through circuit training, completing all the weight reps and even passing the 21 pushup mark, and no those are still not consecutive.  Although I can push through 6 – 7 consecutive pushups now, considering I am still lifting 300 plus pounds, and could only do 1 or 2 in a row when I started this is pretty amazing to me.  

After the workout, the day was a full one with teaching, work at my radio station, and work in the garden.  Eventually with my wife at a wedding shower, and my son at his grandparents.  I couldn’t bring myself to cook for just myself, so I headed out to Subway.  As always the meatball sub looks amazing, but I went with chicken on wheat with spinach and black olives.  This is becoming my new favorite sub.  Although you get some pretty serious carbs with the bread, it does claim to be whole wheat so they are better carbs then I have been eating.

Here’s a look at my Food Journal for the day:

Post Workout:  Protein Drink (1 scoop protein powder, 8 oz skim milk ) (220 Calories)

                        Breakfast:   Kashi cereal, milk, (275 Calories)

Lunch: Salad (Mixed Greens, ¼ cup Cheese, Croutons, Bacon Bits, mushrooms, 2.5 oz Turkey Light 3 cheese ranch dressing) (393 Calories)

Afternoon Snack: String Cheese (60 Calories)

Dinner:  Subway - Oven Roasted Chicken Breast Sandwich on Wheat Bread With Light Mayo and Provolone, Spinach, Olives  12 inch (830 Calories)

Evening Snack: String Cheese (60 Calories)

Also as promised, my upcoming challenge group.  I’m not sure if I mentioned it, but I did not come upon Beachbody on my own.  Its true an infomercial inspired me, but I never would have watched it if not for my good friend Randy Barton.  Randy is a Beachbody coach and runs thing at Extreme Faith and Fitness (http://www.extremefaithandfitness.com/).  I say all this to say that he is forming a Summer Challenge Group for 5 people using Beach Body programs and supplements.  I have decided to join this group starting July 2^nd.  This means July 2 I will start a new 90 day challenge.  However since I won’t be stopping in-between, what I’ll be doing now is a personal 120 day challenge.  I will continue to show weekly and monthly results and will do a big write up of my experience at 90 days, as well as 120 days.  Hopefully I will lose some more weight in the next 97 days and not end up looking like the Big Show…

Tomorrow is Cardio and Abs so I’ll have more to tell you then…

Power 90 Day 21 – Graduation Day

Well as usual Sunday is my rest day.  I usually take this opportunity to share with you my weeks weight loss, however as I stated yesterday, I have had none this week.  Although I have teams of people working on it.  Today however was one day I didn’t have a lot of time to worry about it, as it was my graduation day.  I finished with what would be considered a Masters of Ministry.  

The day was full as I went from Church 10:00 – 12:00, Getting prepared for graduation (I had to speak at my ceremony) 1:00 – 2:30, Graduation 3:00 – 4:30 (I was long winded),  From 4:30-6:30 a open house type of thing, Then off to the in-laws until almost 10:00.  It was a full day.  Unfortunately, this killed my usual eating schedule.  (It’s a good thing I don’t food journal on Sundays.)

I will admit, I did have a small piece of cake.  I had only eaten a sandwich by 5:00 and I was really hungry.  That being said, I turned down the ice-cream, as well as the punch and candy.  So I feel I did pretty well on the not eating pounds of junk food.  

Well I will cut this short and sweet (like the cake I ate).  And invite you back to read tomorrow’s blog where I get back to work on my 4^th week of Power 90.  I also plan to share with you my exciting news about the Beach Body Challenge Group I am joining.  As I’ve said a number of times before, I love competition and a good challenge.  But more tomorrow on that.  Till then…

Power 90 Day 20 – The Questions Continue

A little over one year ago I realized a need to lose weight, and I started this journey.  When I started keeping tract with daily weigh-ins is was September 2011.  From September 2011- December 2011, I worked out three times a week and used My Fitness Pal daily, keeping my carbs in check and my calories in the loss zone.  During that time I didn’t have a single week where I didn’t drop any weight.  Now that I am back on the train 6 months later, I have had my first week.  Its true tomorrow is my official weigh in day, but I just felt the need to vent now.  Week 1: 9 pounds, Week 2: 1 pound, and now for week 3 I am looking at .2 pounds.  This, as every good math teacher knows, rounds down to nothing.

I have had a number of guesses as to why this is happening, all I know is I want it to stop.  There is nothing more discouraging then to work your butt off every morning and to pass on most of the junk food that comes your way the rest of the day and have nothing to show for it.  It seems just by doing the math that if I continue to burn more calories each day then I take in, (and significantly so) then I should be losing weight.  I would worry my body is in shut down, starvation mode, but I do not feel any more tired or lethargic than usual.  If anything I have more energy, and am finding it harder to sleep at night.  

If there is a positive thing about the lack of weight loss, it continues to make me push myself harder and harder to see some results.  I pushed hard through today’s workout, even doing 100 of the 100 crunches.  Although I still can’t do all the styles (like the bicycles and the full body crunches) I replaced them with others I could do and did all 100.  I still don’t have washboard abs though…maybe next week J. 

Here is my Food Journal for today:

Post Workout:  Protein Drink with Strawberries (1.5 scoops protein powder, 12 oz skim milk ) (394 Calories)

                        Breakfast:  Kashi cereal, milk (276 Calories)

Lunch: 2 medium scrambled eggs, blueberries & Milk  (248 Calories)

Afternoon Snack: Popcorn(330 Calories)

Dinner: Chef Salad (Mixed Greens, 2 oz Deli Ham, Croutons, bacon bits, mushrooms , 3 cheese ranch) (546 Calories)

As far as the popcorn goes, you probably guessed I went to the movies.  Usually I see movies in my little theater, where I know they use coconut oil for the popcorn, and I know the calorie count in the small box.  This trip, I made the mistake ordering the bigger popcorn to split with my son, I figured I could just eat a small’s worth and then let him have the rest.  Well when I have that much extra popcorn sitting in front of me, I have trouble not eating it, and although I did keep my calories where they needed to be for the day, I did go over on my popcorn calories for the day.  That being said, I really enjoyed Men in Black III. 

Power 90 Day 19 – A Day in Need of Grocery Shopping

We’ve all been there, or at least I have been there a number of times, it’s time to get groceries, and we don’t have time to get them today.   Normally this is OK; I have a freezer full of hash browns, a cupboard full of soups and canned pastas.  I even have sausage and other processed meats in the freezer.    So it is not that we were out of food, it’s we were just out of food I could eat.  To make things even more difficult, my wife was out of town, so I had to miss the morning workout and stay home with my kids.  Teaming these two things together and I was off to a rough day. 

Well I worked my way through, found a slice of bread to toast and finished off a little cereal, but ended up having to grab dinner on the go.  Now fast food has always been a weakness of mine.  If you have ever seen the show King of Queens, where Carrie finds out about Doug’s pre-dinner whopper:  that was me, except I would eat a pre-dinner McDouble.  Why?  Because it was only a buck.  Sometimes I would grab a couple as an afternoon snack and I would often order one with my value meal as well.  I was that guy who ordered the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese large sized with and extra McDouble and a Diet Coke.  When I talk about life style changes, that is one Tim I want to be done with. 

Instead of being that guy, I ordered a Grilled Southwest Chicken Salad, and used ½ of the dressing.  I also ordered a fruit and yogurt parfait, instead of a summer favorite, the Rollo McFlurry.  As a family, we got parfaits and apples for the kids as well; and even convinced Emmy to go with the chicken instead of the burger.  I don’t want to just change the way I see food, but help my kids grow up with a healthier view of it as well… all in all not a great way to eat, but in a pinch it worked. 

Here’s a lookout at what I did end up eating today:

Post Workout:  Protein Drink with blueberries (1.5 scoops protein powder, 12 oz skim milk ) (396 Calories)

                        Breakfast:   Kashi cereal, milk (276 Calories)

Lunch: 3 medium scrambled eggs, 1 slice whole wheat toast (260 Calories)

Afternoon Snack: Apple Sauce (120 Calories)

Dinner:  McDonalds Southwest Salad, Fruit and Yogurt Parfait (540 Calories)

If you noticed the post workout drink, I did end up hitting the gym about 7:30 that evening and got through another great workout.  Although I can’t seem to lose any weight, I will be the most in shape 300 pound guy out there before long.