Confused.

Surprising to say, but I am having a hard time keeping up with my daily caloric intake. The other day I had a 1,000 calorie deficit. Then yesterday I had a deficit of 250 calories. In order to lose 2.4 pounds per week I'm supposed consume 1,697 calories per day. At least this is what it says on the daily plate from LiveStrong.com. Now I can consume over 2,000 calories in a day, but I have to take into consideration both of my workouts during a day (burning on average about 1,200 calories in one day).

So I am going to cut out one of my cardio (elliptical) workouts and just do one instead. This should help, because there are some days I just don't feel like eating that much and I would hate to put my body into starvation mode. That's the exact opposite of what I want to do.

I've also been reading on the forums at LiveStrong about a High Intensity Interval Training (or HIIT) routine. You can read more about HIIT by going to IntervalTraining.net. I think I might incorporate this into my workout routine instead of doing cardio every single day. It says you can supplement your workouts by doing weight lifting on the off days, but to keep it light enough so your body is resting. I have to say that my weight lifting routine isn't that strenuous on my body.

Time to go workout. I'm doing weight lifting today and some cardio on the elliptical. Will keep doing this until I can research more on this HIIT routine. Until next time!

Exhausted.

Okay so I woke up around 2:30pm today. In case you did not know I work nights. Had some Special K Yogurt cereal and ran for 31 minutes. The elliptical says I burned 545 calories, I'm not sure how accurate it is, but if I do that twice a day then I'm burning an average of 1100 calories just by running.

After that I took my son to the pool to go swimming. Yes, the water was cold! It was sunny and warm out though, a nice 76 degrees. Tomorrow should be even warmer, so I guess another day in the sun is in the plans already. I have to take advantage of this weather to try and get a tan!

Beginning to See the Difference.

Today (March 29th-morning of 30th) I did a full routine, which included running two times, weight lifting, sit ups, and push ups. According to my calorie intake I was under 1,000 net calories. My sodium and fat intake was well over the daily recommendation so I'll need to watch that a little more. On the upside I drank more than enough water so I think that should help a little with the sodium intake.

The last few weeks I've seen more definition in my arms and legs. Just recently I've begun to notice a little more difference in my gut. It's starting to 'decrease', for a lack of a better word. I added a little 10 pounds to the rear weight bar (which is used for all of my weight lifting except for the preacher curl and bench press). I notice a little difference, but I think I may add a little more weight anyways.

I know that last weigh in was very disappointing because I gained half a pound, but I do know for fact that muscle weighs more than fat. Not to mention my calorie intake for those five days wasn't necessarily watched too carefully. Last night I ate chicken wings with a Budweiser wing sauce. I had them with Blue Cheese dressing for dip. Big mistake. If you get Blue Cheese dressing make sure it's a healthier light alternative, because the stuff I have is very fattening.

Anyways I'm tired now so I think I'll take my shower and head off to bed. Today was my last vacation day, so now back to the normal every day grind. Until then.

The Routine.

Elliptical: 30 minute run with resistance, usually about a mile. Done twice daily once when I wake up and once at least a couple hours before bed. After each run I walk .4 miles (1 lap around neighborhood) to cool down.

Sit Ups: 3 sets of 15 on a balance ball to enhance the core workout. Done daily in the morning, increasing by 5 each set after a week.

Push Ups: 3 sets of 10. Done daily in the morning, increasing another set each week.

Weight Training: Done every other day.
Inclined Bench Press - 7/7/5 sets with 95 lbs plus bar
Seated Row - 3 sets of 15
Rear Deltoid Pull - 3 sets of 15
Upper body circuit - Tri-Pull Down (3/15), Pectoral Fly (3/15), Preacher Curl (3/10)

The Way.

Here are a few things that I am focusing on in order to help me along the way to my goals.

• Maintain a healthy caloric intake based on my nutrional needs.
  
• Drink a lot of water.
• Increase my daily physical activities.
• Get sleep.
• Maintain a safe exercise regimen.

I am using a website called LiveStrong.com which I was pointed torwards by my best friend a few weeks ago. It's a website created by the Lance Armstrong Foundation. It has a lot of tools and features that are useful in reaching your fitness goals. The best feature of the site is a tool called 'My Plate'. It is a free tool that allows you to keep track of your caloric intake. It has a lot of cool features like graphs, calories by the hour, percentage of calorie type. Any food imaginable is in its searchable database. All you have to do is say you ate a particular food, how much, and it will do all the adding of the different nutrients and calories for you.

I have rid myself of most if not all caffeine consumption. I drink only water on a regular basis. Sometimes I'll have juice, milk, or tea with some meals. It is said that a person should drink one cup of water for every 14 pounds they weigh each day. So I keep a water bottle close to me wherever I go to keep myself properly hydrated. To tell you the truth I can feel the difference in the lack of caffeine in my system. It's a good feeling.

I am trying to do more physically active things during my day. Instead of sitting around all the time around the computer (outside of blogging of course) I am beginning to go outside more often. Going somewhere that requires me to walk around is a major plus. Just getting out of the house will usually uplift my spirits some as well as help me get fit.

The required amount of sleep for an average adult is 6.5 hours uninterrupted. However, the more uninterrupted sleep the better. I need at least 7-8 hours of sleep to feel good after waking up. Anything less than that and I feel irritable, depressed, lathargic, and just down right bad. Since I'm becoming more physically active my body needs a little more sleep to recuperate.

Exercising is now one of my favorite things to do. I love to feel like I'm doing something. Knowing that the end result will eventually come from the efforts I put into exercising gives me a high after doing a routine. Not to mention some hormones are released during exercise that give you a natural high.

The Goal.

I am currently 240 pounds. I started out three weeks ago at 250 pounds. I don't know what my measurements are because I don't have one of those measuring strips to take them. However, I will try to get one soon and post ASAP.

Goal Weight: 185 pounds. (65 lbs weight loss)

Will weigh in every five days.

I'm Back Baby!

That's right! I started a blog to track my fitness about two years ago. Well I stopped my workout routine for a week and guess what, I never started back up again. So here I am now to reach out to others through my written thoughts and ideas.

I am by no means an expert or professional in every day fitness. I am just a humble man who is trying to put his life back together. I have been following a particular workout routine for over three weeks now. I have so far lost 10 pounds (I think most of it was water weight). I will try to blog at least once a day, as each day I will do something physical to train myself to be a more active individual.

If you don't know me then you've either stumbled upon this blog on accident or searched for 'fitness' on Google and went to the 1000th site in the list. I do hope that some of this might inspire someone to start their own fitness routine or to get themselves active. I hope that if you would follow this blog and give me any insights you might have.

You can find me on Facebook also, I will add a link on the right navbar. So here goes something!