Running

This will be a back to back post.  Two days in a row is a record for me.  It got me to thinking of a question.  What actually motivates me to run?

1. I am stuck in front of my desk all day.  I have to get up and move.
2. I know it has to be burning some calories.
3. Surely, it makes me healthier.
4. Sometimes it helps me think.
5. Sometimes it helps me NOT think.
6. I don’t want to go to lunch and eat “good” but, unhealthy food.
7. I like to run in the fun runs that serve beer, wine, chocolate, foam, or mud.
8. Most importantly, I am going to the beach in a month.  The sun is out and I am very pale.  I run to soak up some rays.

What motivates you to run?

Magic Diet?

I have been slacking but, I really have not had much to say.  Yes, I have had 2 workout of the week that I didn’t post so, here they are:

1. 4 rounds for time:  My time was 10:03.7.
   • Push-ups x 10
   • Squats x 20
   • Alt Leg Raises x 30
   • Jumping Jacks x 40
   • Plank Holds x 50 seconds
2. 21-15-9 reps for time:  My time was 1:30.8.
   • Jump squats
   • Push ups

I wrote about my wife and Pinterest in this post, Social or Not So Much.  Well she is not quite addicted but, over the weekend she found this on Pinterest, The Military Diet and wants to try it.  It pretty much is 3 days of strict dieting and then 4 days of eating anything within reason.  Has anyone tried it?  It claims you can lose 10 pounds a week.  Normally, I would try it with her because it is always easier to stay on a diet when your significant other is doing it with you.  Ten pounds in a week and you are supposed to eat hotdogs and vanilla ice cream sounds a little too good to be true.  She is all in and I will support her and if she does lose 10 pounds, I will join her eating hotdogs and all.  For now, I will just keep eating my salads, veges, fruit, eggs, chicken, fish, and protein lattes.

Creature of Habit

If anyone follows this blog you have heard me say that I am a creature of habit.  I guess that makes me pretty much a boring person.  I figured I would explain my weekly routine.  The only part of a schedule on the weekend is that my weekends are so chaotic that I consider them a habit of chaos.  At least I know it’s going to be chaos.

Monday through Friday I pretty much do the same thing.  This is so exciting I thought I would write about it so you can see the inner me.  I know scary, right?  Don’t fall asleep!

• I wake up at 4:40.
• Brush my teeth and splash water on my face.
• Undress
• Dress for Kettlebell workouts in the front room so, I don’t want to wake anyone else up.
  • Compression shorts
  • Outer shorts
  • Old shirt with my work logo (I don’t want to ruin good clothes and they don’t make cute workout clothes for guys and I doubt cute clothes would help this ugly mug)
  • Sweatshirt
  • Socks and Shoes
• Drink my pre-workout drink at 4:55 on my way to my workout.
• Swing, snatch, pull, squat, etc. a kettlebell from 5:15 to 6:00.
• Back to home and throw matching clothes into the washer (darks or whites) and set the washer to wash in 8 hours.
• Swallow some BCAA’s.
• Shower, deodorant, body spray, and get dressed.
• Fix my infamous Vanilla Latte with 2 scoops vanilla protein powder and coffee and another large travel mug of black coffee.
• Grab my lunch from the garage fridge.
• Head to work by 6:30.
• 8:00 eat an egg.
• 10:00 eat plain DRY old fashion oatmeal with a half scoop of vanilla protein and a small handful of flaxseeds.
• 11:30 eat Lunch
  • Spinach or Spring Mix Salad
  • Tuna
  • Egg
  • Leftover veges and/or couscous or quinoa
  • Salad Dressing – lately it’s been Bolthouse Farms Chunky Blue Cheese Yogurt Dressing.  Other times it’s Maple Grove Farms Sugar Free Balsamic Vinaigrette.
  • Fruit
    

    Today’s Salad! Broccoli was my left over topping today.

• 1:15 pm workout at my office’s gym.
  • 20 minutes elliptical between 9 and 10 mph.
  • 20 minutes quick arms, chest, back, shoulders, or legs strength workout – rotate through the week.
  • Shower and dress again
  • (Sometimes I run for 45 to 50 minutes if it’s nice outside.)
• Swallow some BCAA’s.
• Back to my desk by 2:15.
• Another infamous Vanilla Latte.  Only one scoop of Protein Powder.
• 3:00 Fat free non-flavored Greek yogurt with frozen fruit.
• 4:00 driving home while eating sunflower seeds.

Once I am home my schedule is a little less structured but, it is pretty much the same every night.  I put the laundry in the dryer.  I snack on way too many nuts until I eat whatever my wife makes for dinner.  It’s usually fish or chicken with vegetables and some sort of “good” carbs.  Then it is off to some sort of practice for the kids.  Back home again to fold the laundry, pack my lunch, put workout clothes in my car for work and set out clothes for the morning kettlebell workout.   Read my one year New Testament Bible.  (Yes, I am still doing my new year’s resolution.)  I am usually asleep by 10:00pm.

This is my daily week schedule in a long winded nutshell.  On the weekends I am horrible with my food choices.  I usually go to a Saturday Kettlebell class and try to get some sort of run in on Sunday of about 5 miles.  I am ok with my bad food choices on the weekends because I know my week schedule is only a couple of days away and my food choices are pretty good then.  So, now you know all of my dirty little daily secrets…Actually, they aren’t secret nor are they dirty but, I AM a creature of habit.

Spring Break

After the 9 inches and counting of snow we are getting here in Indiana, I am ready to head to Florida.  What I am not ready for is the 15 to 16 hour drive with three kids.  Anyone want to guess how long into the trip the question of “Are we there yet?” gets asked?  Like father like kids, their attention span is pretty much non-existent.  I just hope that staying with my in-laws in their small condo won’t dampen my our vacation.  Normally, my ideal location in Florida would be a place right on the beach.  To get to a beach we will have to drive about an hour.   With kids at various ages, I like the freedom of hanging out at the beach but if they get bored we can go back to the condo or pool.  We will not have that luxury but, we WILL still have fun.

Another thing I will miss is the local restaurants, the ones on the beach that have fun names and stores where you can buy shirts. I hope to drive to one at least once or twice.  I guess the positive thing about that is that I might actually force myself to eat close to normal most of the time.

The retirement community, where we will be, does have a nice exercise room.  I am not sure I will have access to it since I will be a guest but, I hope I can use it.  I know I will need some time away so, hopefully, it’s the gym and some running.

Whatever happens I get to sport my new swimsuit.  It’s a good thing the suit is not the speedo bikini type.  I am not sure the retired people would be ok with that but, everyone needs a good laugh and why not laugh at me?

Banana + Eggs = Pancakes (huh?)

That is what I first said after talking to my workout buddy.  We were thinking of going to a pancake house after our Saturday workout when I mentioned the oatmeal cottage cheese pancakes.  He said he likes those but, when he is pressed on time he goes for banana and eggs.  That isn’t what comes into my mind when I think of pancakes but, I will try anything once or five times.  This was easy to make you simply smash one banana completely.  Then you add 3 eggs.  I threw in some cinnamon too.  You mix those all together and then pour a small amount into a hot pan.  Let it set for a couple of minutes and then flip.  My first try I didn’t let it set long enough or the pan wasn’t hot enough.  I should have taken pictures of these but, I kind of ate them while I cooked them…whoops.  I am not good with pictures.  Who would have thought eggs and bananas together could make some sort of yummy, bready texture thing that can be eaten like pancakes?  One of these days I am going to save some pancakes and use them as a bun to make a chicken or fish sandwich.  Have a good week everyone.

Dead Lifts

This morning’s workout was going great until my coach saw me doing my dead lifts.  He told me I was rounding my back.  I need to keep my chest up, shoulders back and keep my back straight or I would hurt my lower back.  I thought I was doing that so, I concentrated on doing what he said and BAM! There went my lower back.  I have always had problems with my lower back.  I can’t even sleep  in my Sleep Number Bed without waking up with my back hurting but, my nights sleeping on the couch is fine…go figure.  On a side note my wife probably likes I am not sleeping with her.  I wandered off topic.  I do not doubt my form for my dead lifts were bad but, I think I concentrate on my core to protect my back.  When I switched to try to concentrate on other things the coach told me, I guess I forgot to protect my back.  So, now I am trying to keep my back from stiffening up.  That is hard to do when I sit in front of my computer all day.  I have a Thermacare HeatWrap on now and keep getting up to stretch.  I hope it won’t keep me from working out.

I follow a lot of blogs that show pictures of some awesome food.  I always say I am going to try to make it but, I rarely do.  Why?   I really hate cleaning up.  I have no problem making stuff.  I like to cook but, I just really don’t like cleaning dishes especially when there are dishes in the drying rack already.  I go to the extreme on this.  I try not to take the last bit of leftovers in the fridge.  Why?  Because if I take the last bit I will have to wash the dish that it was being stored in.  See, I am bad.   But if I get my wife to make something, I am totally devouring it.  I even help make it.  Brings me to what we made over the weekend.  She made pancakes.  We are trying to eat better – no sugar, no white flour, no white bread, the bad white stuff yada, yada, yada.  These pancakes were from a pin on Pinterest…she is becoming an addict.  I can’t remember the recipe exactly but it was something like:

• 1 C – rolled oats
• 1 C – fat free cottage cheese
• 6 – egg whites
• Sugar
• Vanilla
• Cinnamon

Put those in a blender and blend until smooth.

Wow.  I wanted to use these as buns for my chicken breasts or my tilapia fillets.  I ended up putting peanut butter on them and eating them that way.  I was totally shocked at how much they really tasted like pancakes.  I wanted to add some protein powder to it but found out these were already high in protein with some good fiber to boot.  My next post might be exactly what I eat every day.  Hint…no pancakes.  I am pretty boring.

Just Say No

Every once in a while we tend to stock up on some munchies at work.  A little here and a little there adds up throughout the day, week, and months and it’s really bad because I like peanut butter pretzels, animal crackers, cheese puffs,cheez-its, and chocolate covered pretzels.  At least there are pistachios in the stack of temptations.  I have made a commitment to do this  “Totally Fit Life” program.  I am saying “NO” to it all.

Temptations

Instead I am drinking my protein shake, eating a couple of hard-boiled eggs throughout the morning and eating this great salad of turkey breast, red peppers, cucumbers and hot salsa as the dressing.  After my afternoon workout, I have another protein shake.  For an afternoon snack I have a fruit.  This week it is a grapefruit.  Sometime I eat chobani greek yogurt.  That is my usual day of eating at work.

Lunch

 

 

Following My Wife

So, my wife and I have made it through the first part of the “Totally Fit Life” program.  This program is being hosted at a local church.  We are not actually paying for the program.  We are just following some of my wife’s co-workers who are in the program.  So, pretty much I am just following what my wife says.  I am such a good hubby.  This program is more than just a diet.  It’s about a lifestyle change building on faith, diet and exercise.

The diet portion uses the glycemic index.  Which is kind hard to compute but, I figured out is pretty much no sugar and low carb (but good ones).  They give you a chart with three columns the first column is green (low GI).  The second column is yellow (medium GI).  The last column is red (high GI).  As you can imagine the foods in the green are good to go, yellow food caution, and the red foods you should stop and think before you eat them.   This first part we were to stay in the green.  I pretty much had eggs, fish, chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, peppers, onions, chick peas, beans, mushrooms, protein powder and water.  I should have taken a picture of my dinner or lunch.

The exercise portion they wanted you to work out 10 days straight.  I am not real sure why exactly but, maybe this was just to get you used to working out or getting into a habit of exercising or of a way of not thinking about eating sugar.  I changed my workouts up some.  I love running not really because it’s good for me but, just because I like to see, smell, and feel the outside.  That being said the treadmill has gotten a bit old.  So, now on top of my Kettlebell Bootcamp for total body workouts, I am doing an elliptical machine for a fast 20 minutes and then strength training one part of my body per day for 20 minutes.

The faith part of the program I really have no idea what they are doing for this.  They might meet for devotion or something before they have the group work out.  I am not sure.  I am still keeping up with my daily reading of the New Testament.  I just finished reading about when the Son of Man is going to come back riding the clouds of heaven with all of his angels.  It sounds pretty scary but, I and ready and will have my camera.

Speaking of a camera, do you know how hard it is to try to take pictures of yourself with a four year old wanting to know WHY?  Why do you have your shirt off?  Why does the camera keep going off?  Why do you keep deleting the pictures?  Why can’t I be in the pictures?  Sometimes, you just can’t win.  I am better taking pictures when I am messing around as opposed to self-posing.

After the first round of the program I lost 4 pounds.  I am down to 151 pounds.  I will just keep following what my wife says and see where this ends up.  Sorry, I ramble a lot.

Phase 1

Kettlebell Workout – 6 minutes each exercise (40 seconds on 20 seconds off)

1. Squats
2. Snatch (20 seconds per arm)
3. Figure 8 Swings
4. Press (20 seconds per arm)
5. Swings

I used a 25 pound kettlebell for the first 5 minutes then used a 35 pounder the last one.

Finisher – 5 minutes each

1. Battling Ropes
2. Assorted Abs

I am just about done with the first phase of my “diet”.  My boys call it a diet because we wouldn’t go out to eat at BW3’s and didn’t have any fun stuff to eat during the Super Bowl.  To me it really isn’t a diet.  This program follows a low glycemic index food type of eating which in turns to be my normal way of eating.  I have stayed honest and not had any sugar and other types of bad carbs.  That is where the word “diet” really comes into play.  When I know I am to follow a strict guideline I don’t cheat.  Normally, I would have eaten that last bite of corn dog or would have had a cup of the kids’ sugar, fat, and fruit loaded smoothie they made for the game.  Now I just threw it away.  Since I am doing this with my wife, we both said no.

Along with this diet we are supposed to workout 10 days straight to go along with the low GI foods.  Again, this is not really new to me except I usually take Sunday off.  Sundays are my days to get caught up on laundry and a little (very little) house cleaning.  Since I am following a “Totally Fit Life” program, I dug out one of my Insanity videos.  Again, this kicked my butt.  A perfect photo op of me dying in a soaking wet shirt.  I am a horrible picture taking person.  When I weigh in after my 1^st phase, I promise to post a picture just in case you forgot what my ugly mug looks like.

Different Eats

Another day off of work, yeah. I could get used to this. I was supposed to clean the garage Friday but, I didn’t do that until today. Now I have to wait for the Heating and Air guys to come and work on my heater. They were supposed to be here the first thing in the morning, grrr. I guess their mornings are different than mine. I hate waiting but, now you get to see what is up with me.

A co-worker of my wife told her that she was going to do a Totally Fit Life program and wanted to know if she wanted to join with her. The meetings conflicted with my wife’s schedule but, said she would look into it. Upon discussing this with me and her co-worker she decided she would follow along with her but, not attend class. The good news is I get the benefits as well. I get to try a new eating plan and hopefully my wife will get bitten by the health bug. She is healthy but, sometimes we have a few too many cheat meals. When cheat meals become the main meals I don’t think they can be called cheating anymore.

We decided to start this Sunday. I was hoping for one last cheat meal of pizza. As a couple it’s easier to change our food together and since I told her I would do this with her, no more pizza. Well the first 10 days of this is called boot camp. We have to exercise everyday and they prefer it to be done early morning on an empty stomach. No problem for me this fits my schedule most days. The food part is going to be a bit tricky for me. No sugar, no alcohol, mostly water, and low glycemic foods. I am not used to measuring foods using their glycymic index. To make this easier for me, I will problem just stick to my chicken, eggs, and fish. Then for the other “good” foods I will eat whatever my wife says is ok to eat according to the guidelines. She took a lot of measurements of herself and we both weighed in Sunday. My weight, gulp is 155 pounds. I took some measurements a couple of months ago so I will just stick with those.

On a side note I wrote up a small little leg routine that I did with my oldest son.  I am going to whip him into shape.  The workout consisted of wall squats, lunges, planks, calf raises, alternate leg raises and some jumping jacks.  I felt some burn while doing it.  Nothing to bad.  I just hope he was able to walk today.