Bod Pod Testing

Well today was the day. Almost two weeks since the holidays and I headed in for another body fat and fitness assessment. My point was that you can continue to lose weight and get through the holidays. The results were better than I expected. I am down 4 lbs since November, my body fat level is now at 17.7%, weight 178.3 and my lean muscle mass has increased about 1%. I am on track to reaching my goal of 14% body fat by my 50th Birthday in April.


Now the real work begins. How do I tweak my workouts to push the other 2% of fat out of my body. I need to do some adjustments to my diet and my workouts. My diet will need to be adjusted with more lean protein and I need to eliminate the lousy carbs from my diet. My workouts will need to include more weight training while keeping the aerobic exercises at about the same level. I may need to increase the number of workout sessions to twice a day in order to reach my goal. I will set up an appointment with the Wellness Center coaches in February to discuss the changes and see what they can recommend.

I will update my training on this blog once I figure it out.

Well what a lousy weekend. Starting on Thursday I had a toothache that kept me up all night into Friday. The pain was very intense on the right lower side of my mouth, so I got into the dentist. I found out that I have an abscess in my lower jaw. Great!!. So he gives me antibiotics and pain medicine. 2 days later and my jaw is still killing me and i am not getting any sleep. Looks like i will be back at the dentist tomorrow to get something else. He is planning on a root canal but that has to wait until the infection is down. This whole episode is really screwing with my training. I had it going so well too. I am down to 177-178 lbs. My runs have increased in distance and speed. I have more energy than every before, and I love it. I am schedule for body fat testing again on January 15 and hope to be down to 16 %. I need to get through this problem with my teeth because I can't get any exercise in when my mouth is on fire. More to come tomorrow.

Twas the week before Christmas

Here it is the weekend before Christmas. Are all presents wrapped and under the tree? I think I am ready. This is a special Christmas season for me. For one, I have my family all together this Christmas. Next is that the one person I care so much about is really working hard at getting in shape and taking care of herself. For her birthday this month I bought her a FitBit Force. Since then she has been incredible and working out every day.
A few weeks later I also bought one. I love it. I have set my goals pretty high. My minimum steps per day is set at 13000. Since the purchase I have met that goal and have been averaging about 18000. I have been working hard at maintaining my balance of in calories vs out calories. My weight is maintaining at 179 lbs. I do feel better everyday and I believe my body fat % is slowly coming down. For the next 3 weeks I will be working out harder than ever. I have another body fat measurement coming up the 15th of January. I am really hoping to hit my goal of 16% body fat and be down another 3%.
I have changed my routine quite a bit lately. I am still working out 6 days a week. On Tuesday and Thursdays, I do the new T25 workout. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I do bodyweight and weightlifting exercises. Targeting key body parts each of those days. On Saturday, I get in a long run or bike. Sunday is my recovery day, I still get in my 13000 steps but I do not go all out. 6 days a week I also get in a full ab routine in the morning before work. Occasionally I have been fitting in an extra aerobic workout right after work. With all the work I am putting in I am seeing the results. Life is too short to give up and get lazy and fat. God gives us a body to take care of. It does not honor Him when we don't take care of ourselves.
I have a few ideas of what I may be getting for Christmas. But no matter what I get, I already have what I need. I have a loving wife and great kids. I love my job and i have a wonderful home. What more could make me happy. Nothing.

Where the heck have I been? No blog in over a week. No, I am not ignoring anyone, I have been super busy and have had some family issues that were a priority. My fitness program has not suffered much though. I have still been able to work out about once per day, sometimes twice. Tomorrow I should be back to full speed again.
The weather did have some impact on my training. The extreme cold in Colorado was enough to stop my outdoor runs. So I became a slave to the treadmill. I don't know about you but I get real bored on a treadmill. What an evil invention, I think the first treadmill was tested in a dungeon in Europe somewhere. With the warming up of the weather for this weekend I should be able to get outside again.
School has increased my stress level again. I had that two weeks off and the beginning of the month and got some rest but now I am twice as stressed in this class. sometimes I feel that the school tries hard to keep you from passing and graduating. I will be updating the blog this week on my fitness progress and plans for the coming month. Stay with me. This is going to be fun.

Post Thanksgiving

What a weekend. Some good things happened and some real bad things. I won't go into the real bad things because it is not over yet and is family related. Besides that though, it was not a bad extended weekend.
First off I did pretty good with my diet over Thanksgiving. I did eat more than I usually do in a day but I ate far less than I have in the past years. I also made sure to get in some exercise in the morning. My wife and I did a walk/run of 2.3 miles. This simple exercise is enough to power up the metabolism for the day. Without it, metabolism would be much slower and would not increase through the day. I also kept my alcohol intake minimal, that right there is a big change from years past.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday I was able to put on some running miles. Felt good to run even with a headwind. My runs are finally gaining speed and distance as well. For me running and biking are a great way to burn calories and build my endurance.
This week will consist of 3 days of weights and core exercises. Along with 3 days of abdominal work this should help to burn off a few extra fat cells. This will be a pretty stressful week for our family. Stress is not good for weight loss and/or fitness. Stress activates cortisol, a steroid hormone that will cause water retention and weight gain. More to come in my next post.

Happy Thanksgiving

To describe my day, well, so much for dieting today. Way too much turkey. Will need to exercise for.... 8-10 hours tomorrow. Just kidding. Have a great night.

Short Week

What a wonderful week, only 3 days of work and now I am off till Monday. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, there is so much to be thankful for in my life. so much, that this entire entry could be full of what I am thankful for. Tomorrow is a test, can I limit my calories on Thanksgiving. it is going to be hard but it is possible.
Before I get to the rest of my week, I want to talk about were I started this year. So earlier this year in January, I participated in a metabolic testing / body composition tracking program at the Wellness Center at Ft. Carson. This test consisted of several different tests including; body composition testing, VO2 max testing, metabolic resting rate testing and a few strength tests. At that time I was exercising on and off with no real direction or focus. I though I was in pretty good shape at the time. Well I did pretty good at the VO2 max test with a respiratory fitness level of 56.2ml/Kg/min. For my age, >50.4 is considered superior. My resting metabolic rate was 2094Kcal/day. So this is considered fast, and  I burn a lot of calories. On the downside of the test, I was 190.7 lbs and had a BMI of 26.5. This placed me in the overweight category. Worse than that is my body fat was at 21.4%, this placed me in an excess fat category. After getting all this information I was determined to lose weight and get lean. I started working out aerobically and changed my diet. At first I think I did it well and I lost weight fairly quickly, I pushed myself with cardiovascular training and cut back on bad foods. As the spring and summer came I started riding long distance on my bike. My diet was not doing so well though, in an attempt to lose weight faster I cut my calories too much. My body rejected that by losing muscle weight and storing fat. I originally thought, wow, I am losing alot of weight. I was down to 176lbs at one point and felt I was doing OK. Soon I was back for a recheck of my body composition. Boy was I in for a shock.
My repeat testing in July was a disaster. Results showed I had lost weight, I was down to 181lbs. But, and there is a bad but, I had gained body fat and was now at 23.1%. My lean body mass was down as well. So, I had so screwed up my training that I had lost muscle mass and gained body fat. What a depressing day that was. But it was an eye opener for me, time for me to change. This was a defining moment.
From that day on I changed my workout routine. I changed my diet and the way I approached life. From that time forward I started planning my workouts closer. I started doing weight training 3 times per week in addition to cardiovascular training. I changed my aerobic exercises to include running, biking, elliptical and stairs. I changed my diet to include good foods, high protein content with the addition of good carbs. Later I added an additional morning workout 3-4 times per day. I added exercises I had been avoiding to include pull-ups, chin-ups and chest dips. I started to feel stronger, leaner and had more energy. Then it came time for another test.
What a change in my numbers. My training was finally showing. My body fat was now down to 19.6% that was down almost 4%. My weight was constant at 182.3lbs. This places my lean body mass at 80.4%. Now I can say I am on the right track. I am down to the Moderately Lean category.
Body composition testing can be a great way to monitor your training and training. I feel that the information that I am receiving is helping to guide how I train, what I eat and the changes that i need to make.
My goals are easy. In less than 6 months I will be 50 years old. I will continue to work as hard as possible to bring my body fat percentage down to 15%. I want to be in the best shape of my life. That is all. I owe it to God and myself to continue to take care of the body that he provided me. I do this as a tribute to Him. For this I am thankful for. I will succeed.