by admin on March 30, 2008
One of the things I have been doing to help me enjoy the gym is bringing my wife’s Apple iPod to the gym for my workouts. This allows me to listen to my favourite music and really get me excited and focused on something other than the exhaustion and muscle burn I am putting myself through.
The great thing is that I also have a few movies and television shows on it which allows me to distract myself visually while I am on the recumbent bicycles for the cardio part of my workout. Anything that makes me stay at the gym longer, working out more is good in my book.
The only issues I have is that I wish it had an FM tuner so I could listen to the televisions that are in the gym, and I wish it was the iPod touch or a similar small form computer so I could connect to the wireless Internet access and keep on top of my e-mail while out of the “office”.
I highly recommend having music when working out though. In my last workout, I was at the gym for almost ninety-minutes before I realized I was supposed to be back home half an hour earlier.
And in case you were wondering, I listen to mostly hard rock, classic rock, and alternative music. Sometimes I through in a bit of techno for the beat, but that’s about it.
by admin on March 30, 2008
So my weight continues to go down. I have to admit that I binged on a bit of junk food yesterday that I know I will pay for, but all in all I’ve been really good with regards to my diet and exercise. I am going to continue to try to crank it up as I work towards being thinner than I have been in around four years once I get under the 240 pound mark.
I owe a great deal of how well I am doing to Ryan for supporting me through this as well as Tom for his continued support and advice.
I still have a long way to go before I am my ideal weight, but watching the needle drop slowly but surely is very exciting. Here’s hoping that I have a great week at the gym and am able to knock down another few pounds to beat out Ryan in our small weight loss competition.
by admin on March 25, 2008
I recently had a fairly depressing day, as I “fell of the wagon” so to speak. I ate a fair bit of Easter chocolate. Add to this the fact that I haven’t been as strict with my diet as I should be, and I am feeling bummed about my progress. I have gone up in the last week by one pound. And so I am now sitting at 256 pounds, which is down by a pound from when I started the competition with Ryan, but still heavier than my last week weigh in.
It is frustrating that I am not doing better. I really dislike being so over weight, and I just want to blame everyone and everything other than myself. Either way, I haven’t been having fun lately, and the Easter holidays made that worse.
Hopefully, this week I can get back on track. I already went and spent a nice chunk of time at the gym today, and I am watching what I eat. I just wish this process was easier.
by admin on March 20, 2008
So I have gone ahead and added some advertising on Blogging Weight. This advertising is to help me purchase some weight loss equipment for my home as well as some things I want to try out such as weights for use at home, vitamins, supplements, energy drinks, protein powder, artificial sweeteners, and pretty much anything else in the weight loss, health providing industry.
The advertisements are through Show Your Ad Here, a very useful and popular service, and the cost is $5 per week, or $20 per month to advertise in one of the two available spots. I probably won’t be adding any additional advertising, and if you want to donate to this site, using this service and putting up any advertisement you would like, even just a banner wishing me good luck, would be greatly appreciated.
by admin on March 20, 2008
So Ryan and I did another official weigh in today, and he destroyed my early lead with having some good days on weight loss. His approach has been building muscle, cutting down on extra calories, and Yoga. I have been working hard on cardio and my own eating habits. I thought that I would have all the advantages in this competition but Ryan is proving to be very competitive.
So we are tied currently with three pounds lost each. The one thing I am really surprised about is how fast we are losing this weight. I had many weeks with one or two pound losses, and now in less than a week, I have dropped three. I am very happy about this, but wonder if everything I am doing is sustainable after this competition is over. Maybe I will have to find others to compete with to keep my own competitive spirit alive in this weight loss journey.
by admin on March 19, 2008
In my last gym workout I worked my arms really well, but this time, I also made sure to work my triceps. Those muscles, under your arms, the opposite side of your biceps are pretty weak, and not used that often, but to build muscle properly, I was always told you should work both sides as best you can, so you remain even, and balanced.
I did three sets with the ten pound barbells and yesterday and today my triceps are in agony. It didn’t hurt at the time, nor was it all that difficult, but now I am suffering for it.
Sometimes the smallest of muscles can create the biggest pain, and just because it doesn’t feel all that difficult, doesn’t mean you aren’t really working certain muscles hard, as supporter muscles might make it feel easier than it is, even with targeted weight lifting.
by admin on March 18, 2008
So today Ryan and I weighed in, and while he hasn’t seen any results yet, his focus and drive in this challenge will make him a difficult competitor. He has already told me he has dropped all liquids from his diet that aren’t water, and is exercising more. Since yesterday, I have gone down around a pound since our last weigh in. This puts me a bit ahead, with only nine pounds to go.
One thing we talked about is weight lifting. In a competition like this, the best thing for both of us to do would be to kick our cardio into high gear to burn as many calories as possible, but we both enjoy weight lifting more than cardio, and so that means we might actually put on a little weight as we push forward with this contest.
The end goal might be a bit further away, but by increasing our muscle mass, we should burn more calories, even when we are sitting still.
Have a look at College Startup for Ryan’s first post on the competition.
by admin on March 17, 2008
There are always races to a finish line, whether we set that line ourself or others chose it, there is no difference. The spirit to compete is still within us, and Ryan Caldwell has brought out mine.
When I am at the gym, and I see someone biking faster than me, I speed up, and it is with that in mind that Ryan has challenged me to a weight loss race. We are both looking at losing weight, and we have decided that we want to race on losing ten pounds. The first to lose the weight wins and of course the other one loses, but in the game of weight loss, surely we will both be winners in the end.
Ryan is at a slight disadvantage as he isn’t all that heavy for his size, weighing in at the start with a tiny 181.6 pounds in a 5′9″ frame, and then there is me with 257 pounds packed into my 6′2″ frame.
The winner will receive ten hours of the losers time to do with as he pleases. If Ryan wants me to act like an idiot on a live video for ten hours, that’s his choice.
If I win, I will have access to someone I consider to be a great internet marketer, as well as a brilliant blogging related businessman. His skills in monetization, search engine optimization, and a myriad of other things would make his ten hours invaluable to me and my slow growing business. The things he has done with Performancing, PopCrunch and College Startup have always amazed me.
So the thought for today is how I can drop the necessary weight in a healthy but speedy way?
