Category: Fitness Journal

Weekly fitness Journal

As I planned way back in March, I finally began training at the Wat in September and I’m now a month into it. Training has been great so far. As someone new to training with a group, I started by taking the beginner classes and they have been very challenging. Kru Phil Nurse personally teaches the total beginner classes and there is a real mix of skill levels in the class. After a week or so I started taking the beginner- intermediate classes and have definitely noticed that I am playing catch up with the more experienced people.

Though I have a ways to go, I have noticed my running is really paying off. My conditioning is far better in the classes than I would have expected. I always feel fresh and ready to go which has been a big bonus. I’m really excited, already in a month I have noticed significant progress.

Workouts
Since I’m now taking Muay Thai classes 4-5 times a week, my running has tapered off a bit. I’m running 3-4 days a week. I work out with weights about 2-3 days a week.

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Weekly Training Blog

muay_thai Hello all, I want to begin by apologizing for the serious lack of posts. I’m back on track and you can expect regular posts again.

In my entire life thus far, I really only have one true regret. My one regret is that I didn’t play football in high school. This may seem a bit silly but it’s true. The reason for this is that I have always been a very good athlete and never truly had an outlet to showcase that athleticism. Ironically, my reason for not playing was that I didn’t want to wake up early and now I wake up at 5am most mornings.
     Since high school I have obviously embarked on a career in fitness and genuinely love what I do but I have always felt like something was lacking. As it turned out, what was lacking has been something which would push my body to it’s physical limits.
     In the past 6 months, I have gone through major changes in my life and I made the decision to finally make an attempt at reaching my physical potential. I made the decision to train and compete in Muay Thai which is a form of kickboxing that originated in Thailand. I have had a Muay Thai trainer for the past 3 years but have not trained at a very serious level. I love it and I decided that this would be the perfect outlet for me. Even though I have some experence, I begin training seriously in September and for all intents and purposes, my approach will be as if I was starting from scratch. Every week I will be posting updates chronicling my progress up to my first taste of competition.

That’s all for now, check in next week as I will be posting what my pre- training workouts have been like. Thanks for reading.

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Weekly fitness journal

So it’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks both in my business and personal lives. Add to it the pressure of making weight and I had a pretty stressful week. The goal for the past 2 weeks was basically to get my weight to 160 by the time of the photo shoot. Fortunately, I was able to make weight an the pictures came out great. We haven’t finished deciding which pictures to use but here is an example of what came out of the shoot.

Diet: With it being two weeks out and my weight at 169, I basically went to a no carb diet. As I have mentioned in the past, no carb diets are not good unless you have a specific date in mind and you understand that you will put the weight back on once you introduce carbs. Once I got to about a week out, I started to eat very low calories which meant no carbs, and very low fat. I also drank a lot of coffee to help boost the metabolism and give me some energy.

Sample diet:

Breakfast- Coffee and 2 hard boiled eggs.

Snack- Chicken Breast

Lunch- Turkey Chilli

Pre workout- Coffee and oatmeal

Dinner- Ground Turkey

Exercise
The exercise pretty much stayed the same for me. With re focus being weight loss, I was focused on cardiovascular workouts. In the days leading up to the shoot, I did focus more on workouts that would give me more of a pump.

Results:

I made the weight. I was at 160 lbs for the photo shoot so that was a 25 lb drop over the past 6 weeks. I will be updating the website with those photos over the weekend so be on the lookout.

Journal entry:
Strangely enough, the last two weeks were not as bad as I had anticipated. When I took a look back at my diet, in shocked that I was able to manage. I really had no bad urges and never felt too hungry. Even on the last day when all I had was some mixed veggies and tuna, I was perfectly fine. I guess it’s because I can get very focused on the task at hand and the hunger becomes a very minor thing for me. I was very happy with the result. The photographer was awesome and we got some really cool shots. It was definitely worth the struggle. I was also able to celebrate that night by going to my favorite Brazilian Steakhouse and I ate like a monster.
The next step for me is to work on a new goal and to keep moving forward. I’m happy with where I’m at now butbi need to fight against complaciency so there is a real need to determine a new goal and work towards it. Thanks for reading.

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Weekly fitness journal

This week’s goal was to majorly increase the intensity of my workouts as well as to cut the calories by a lot. I tried to split my workouts up each day by having a morning workout and an evening one. For the diet, while not too restrictive, I limited my carbs to breakfast and ore workout.

Sample workout
Part one (10:00am)
-Dumbbell press superset with plyometric pushups
-Cable flys superset with pushups on the physioball
– seated row superset with pullups
– standing pullover superset with modified pullups.
– cable crunches
– cable oblique crunches

Part 2 (6:00)
– 2 mile run
– 1,000 jumps with a jump rope
– various jumping exercises

Diet
The diet isn’t too much different from last week. The main thing is that I’m limiting my carb intake even more. At the end of the week, I’ll assess and decide where to go from there.

Results- Weight 169

Comments

I finally did it, I am below the 170 mark. When it comes to photos, I know that I need to be at 160. I’m pretty happy with the progress this week and again, it just shows how much your body can change when eating well for a couple of weeks. Surprisingly, I’ve been really energized. When I have a real goal, I get focused and it’s been that focus that I’ve been missing for the past several months. The increased exercise intensity has been manageable as well as the diet. The hardest part of the diet is the first few days. Now it’s pretty easy. This upcoming week will provide the real challenge as I need to drop about 9 pounds in a span of 10 days. The pictures will be worth it and it will be posted for everyone to see (good or bad).

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Weekly fitness journal: Do as I say…

It’s kind of ironic that last week I posted an article about the importance of not losing too much too fast. I should have prefaced that with a rule saying that extreme measures should only be taken if there is a very specific goal in mind and then only if you are prepared to gain the weight afterward. The irony is that I have a photo shoot scheduled in 3 weeks and I need to be at my goal weight by then. My goal weight is 160 and I now weigh 173 so extreme measures must be taken.

Diet- I’m now in a position where I need to cut 13 pounds in 3 weeks or about 4 pounds a week. From a dietary standpoint it means doing something I preach against, cutting carbs. I’m at a point where I limit myself to carbs at breakfast, before I work out and a little at lunch. This also means blame foods with little salt or seasoning an lots of water.

Sample diet
Breakfast- oatmeal w/water raisins and splenda
Snack- 3 slices of smoked turkey
Lunch- baked chicken w/ vegetables and a 1/2 cup of rice
Pre- workout- smoothie with strawberries, blueberries
Post workout- protein shake with skim milk
Dinner- ground turkey

Exercise- this week I’m pushing the calorie burning part of the workout so I have cut out any heavy strength training and replaced it with cardiovascular type work I’d interval training.

Sample workout
Warmup
1.5 mile run
20 minutes of tabatas
1,000 jumps with a jump rope
6 rounds of bag work
Abs

I can be very motivated when there is a goal so I should be fine. The real challenge will be that last week but I’m up for the task. As long as I’m prepared, the diet isn’t all that bad. I eat regularly so I’m never hungry. The workouts this week have been fun. I’ll never be the type to run 6 miles but my style of cardio is very effective. It intense and leaves me feeling like I just got run over by a truck. I will be at 160 by the end and kids, do as I say, not as I do 😉

Feel free to comment

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Weekly exercise journal

Diet: this week, my goal was to focus on the frequency of my diet. I had been feeling extra hungry for some time now and I believe it’s because I’m not eating frequently enough. Since my days can be very crazy and erratic, planning is key. So every day, before bed I looked at my schedule and created an eating plan that would fit. It’s a tedious process but it seems to have worked as I’m definitely not getting the bouts of hunger.

Exercise: this week I was focused on turning my sessions up a notch. I followed a compound set routine which is basically doing back to back exercises using the same body part. After strength training, I would follow that up with 1,000 jumps and 5 rounds of kickboxing with the bag. Much to my dismay, I even went for a one mile run.

Results: Weight- 175 (no change)

Journal: this was a frustrating week. I worked my butt off and had nothing to show for it. Obviously I understand why and intellectually, I get it but it doesn’t make me feel any better. It just goes to show that even with a professional, it’s very hard to handle not making progress especially when you have worked hard. I might be a little too focused on the weight loss but it’s my goal at the moment and I need to see some more pounds drop. The increased intensity felt good. I’m definitely not in the shape I was last year but I’m getting there. I did solid rounds with the bag and jumped rope. My goal next week is to lose a couple of pounds and get 5 solid workouts in. Until next week.

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Weekly Exercise Journal 3

Diet: This weeks goal was to build back some structure to my diet. Due to my hectic schedule, I’m constantly eating on the go which is a waste of money and way too many calories. This week was about going back to basics for me. I made a trip to trader Joe’s and got a ton of food. I prepared ground turkey, chicken breasts as well as sliced steak. I also got tons of fruits and healthy snacks. I’m making sure to have something to eat every 3-4 hours and for me I’m munching on whatever is in my refridgerator. I’ve been able to keep to it this week.

Exercise:The focus this week was to include some cardio. I was happy with the frequency last week but strength training is not enough. My goal this week was simple, one 1.5 mile run.

Results:

Weight- 175 (-3)

Bodyfat- 9.4 (0)

Journal: I absolutely hate running, it’s the bane of my existence. It must be a combination of thngs for me. First of all, I have asthma so I get short of breath quickly but that’s not a real excuse as I have no problem playing basketball for hours or sparring for 5 rounds. Second is after about 5 minutes of running, my body starts to itch sometimes violently. I’ve read articles about this being a medical condition but sometimes I think that it’s my mind messing with me because of my hatred of running. Finally, running is just boring and I don’t have the attention span to keep it up for an extended period. Even with all of these reasons not to do it, I realize that if I want to lose the weight quickly, I’m going to have to suck it up and run. This week I set a modest goal of 1.5 miles. I decided to do it outside as it was a nice day so I took my ipod, put on a sweatshirt, shorts and went out. About .5 miles into the run, the itching began and I started to feel winded. I was very much inclined to quit right on the spot. A minute later the itching got more intense and I could sense that I was mentally starting to give up. I had reached to proverbial fork in the road, I was either going to quit and likely not run again or I was going to push through and get past this barrier. I decided to put on my favorite song (Rosetta Stoned by Tool) put my head down and made the decision to push through. I made the 1.5 miles and hated every minute of it but in the end I was very proud of that accomplishment. It was a big moment for me to finish that run and I’m more excited than ever about what the future holds for me.

 

Please feel free to comment. Thanks for reading.

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Weekly Exercise Journal 2

Diet: My diet this year has been awful. I’ll eat anything and I’ve had a hard time specifically with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as well as unhealthy snacks.  Just as I preach to my clients, the focus of my diet is to make changes gradually rather than changing everything at once. In my case, since I’ve been doing this for so long, it will be at a bit of an accelerated pace. This past week, my focus has been eliminating the bad snacks. So no muffins, PB&J or anything like that.

Exercise
I always work out hard, so the intensity level has never been an issue. My problem is consistently getting to the gym. That had been a challenge with the combination of my work schedule and being tired. This weeks workout goal was simply to get into the gym 4-5 days even if it was for 30 minutes. My workouts were mostly Strength training so standard exercises and my rep range was 8-10. Starting next week, I will include a sample workout with my postings.

Results

Weight– 178 -6

Bodyfat- 9.4 -.6


Journal
I had a really good week. Its amazing how much better you feel just after a week of better habits. It doesn’t hurt that I lost weight rich off the bat. The diet change wasnt too hard. I’m an all or nothing kind of person so eliminating the junk all together wasn’t too bad. My substitution has been coffee with skim milk and splenda. I didn’t make any changes this week to my exercise routine but I did work out 5 days. That alone made me feel like a million bucks since I had been averaging 1-2 days for the last 4 months. So far so good but this being the first week, I know there is a long road ahead. Next week will be big as I make more changes and begin the thing I hate most,
Running. Thanks for reading.

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My Fitness Journal

We all go through it, even the mighty trainer. It’s that moment when you realize that you’ve let things get out of hand. For me, that moment occurred this weekend while trying to put on kachi pants that a year ago were almost too big for me. This time, I could barely get the thing on and it did not look good. Now I’m not delusional, I’m by no means in bad shape but ones body image is a very subjective thing and I have set a standard for myself which needs to be met.
It all started when I got back from my vacation in August. I gave myself two weeks of eating whatever I wanted. Somehow those two weeks turned into five months and suddenly I’m 20 pounds heavier, not consistently working out and barely fitting into my already close fitting clothes.
I’ve had a hard time getting motivated to get back into peak form. It’s very strange for me, being someone who normally coaches people to be the one needing the coaching.
I chose to chronicle my own exercise program to both serve as a form of motivation for myself and to show readers that everyone goes through this process. The psychology behind it, the ups and downs, this will serve as a insight for anyone that is interested.

I’m going to keep track over 3 months. I’m starting with my weight at 183 lbs, bodyfat of 10% and my waist is 34″. My goal at the en of 3 months is to be at 163, 4.5% bodyfat and 31″ waist. Each week, I’ll give details on my workout and how I’m doing with my program. Check back every Thirsday for a new Journal.

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