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.