As I’ve been saying these past few nights, I am really coming to grips with the fact that I am growing older. There has been some positives that have come out of this. One is the fact that I am finally beginning to take care of myself for what is maybe the first time in my life. The results over the past year have been rather impressive.
I’ve been seeing a personal trainer for the past year. Well, actually several trainers as I had two of them quit on me within two months. That is rather discouraging especially given that it happened within my first few months of working out. It’s wonderful when the guy who is motivating you just looks at you and goes, “That’s it. I’m out of here.” But I did finally settle in with a trainer and have been working out with one for two to three days a week on average. This is pretty incredible given that I have barely ever lifted weights in my life. I’ve certainly been cautious about lifting after having spent enough time with an orthopedic surgeon to buy him a boat. I have to say though that I am seeing results.
Now admittedly these results are along the lines of approaching three digits on a bench press and being able to do multiple pushups without dying. But over the course of a year I have seen my strength increase and I swear that I have more muscle tone. What is most impressive to me is that certain exercises that I despised when I started working out have now become favorites. It is as if my muscles finally realized “Oh, this is how we are supposed to work in tandem.” Anytime I do a workout and think back to what my reaction would have been a year ago I am proud of myself. I still have a great distance to go but I have certainly improved.
I have made even bigger strides on the weight front. I maxed out weight wise at roughly 215, which doesn’t sound that bad given my height but it was all sitting in my belly and I looked bad. Between exercise, a focus on what I was actually eating, and admittedly using Weight Watchers I was able to get down to 180 pounds. I’ve slipped a bit over the past few months and gained a few pounds but I can say that I have been under 190 pounds for the first time since I’ve turned 30 at least. It also means that from a BMI standpoint I am no longer overweight. I never thought that I would be happy to have to donate clothes because they were too big. It has been a nice change of pace.
What I like most about this is that for the first time that I can ever remember I can actually start to think of myself in terms of being athletic. I was always one of those kids who was picked last for sports, which sucked given how much I loved sports and really wanted to be good at them but I just wasn’t. I’m still not a top athlete or anything and I never will be but the fact that I can go to the gym in the morning and push myself makes me feel that I have accomplished something. Especially given that my only opponent in this is myself. I’m not worrying about what anyone else in the gym is doing. I just want to make sure that I have pushed myself as hard as I can.
Showing posts with label Working Out. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Working Out. Show all posts
Monday, May 07, 2012
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Hitting the gym
Sorry for the break between posts but as you obviously know it was The Gathering of the Juggalos this weekend so I had to make my way to Cave-In-Rock to hang out with my fellow ninjas. Dude, they had a ferris wheel there this year…
(I’m scared for the people who will actually get the reference. For a while there whenever anyone asked me about where we were going on our honeymoon I would answer “Gathering of the Juggalos, best honeymoon ever.” It would result in either a) blank stares or b) people backing away very slowly. The things I do to enjoy myself….
By the way, honeymoon was in Alaska.)
So, since I took my break from posting I have gotten on a huge workout kick. (Kim has as well and she is just doing amazing.) As I’ve written about before I’ve been trying to get my weight under control and I am proud to say that I am now at 185 pounds, basically 30 pounds lighter than I was at my heaviest last year. This is the lightest I have been for at least five years and maybe closer to ten. It is nice to have clothes that no longer fit because they are too big.
I am working with a trainer. Well, more like trainers. I’m on to my third different trainer in Chicago as the first two both left the gym under mysterious circumstances. I am not making this up. I’d go to the gym for my usual appointment only to be told that my trainer no longer works there. Given that I’ve only been using the gym for less than four months this is a pretty big degree of turnover. It sucks in that I have to get used to a new trainer and start over again but I have learned a few things in the process.
Basically I am working on building muscle and improving my flexibility and balance. I am pretty bad at all three at the present moment. I have no flexibility in my legs at all and I am embarrassed to say that simply standing on one leg without tipping over can be a challenge at times. I’ve never really carried much muscle and because of my injury history I’ve been more than a little frightened about lifting weights. I have been surprised at how well the weight lifting is going though. My shoulder and hip aren’t bothering me too badly and I’ve been making progress.
Cardio is still where I am best. Not that I am particularly fast on a treadmill or the elliptical. I can just go for a long time. Not sure if this is because of my training or the fact that I have a high tolerance for boredom. It takes a certain type of person to go for an hour on a treadmill and being an athlete is not really one of the requirements.
What has been so good about this is that it hasn’t really been about losing weight. I am happy that I am and especially that I am no longer, medically speaking, overweight but I am really focused on how I feel and what I can now do. I’ve been making huge progress and really look forward to my workouts (even my 7 AM sessions with my trainer.) It is a great stress release and I just feel so much better. It is pretty amazing that I am going to be turning 38 and might possibly be in the best shape of my life. Not a bad time to get in shape.
(I’m scared for the people who will actually get the reference. For a while there whenever anyone asked me about where we were going on our honeymoon I would answer “Gathering of the Juggalos, best honeymoon ever.” It would result in either a) blank stares or b) people backing away very slowly. The things I do to enjoy myself….
By the way, honeymoon was in Alaska.)
So, since I took my break from posting I have gotten on a huge workout kick. (Kim has as well and she is just doing amazing.) As I’ve written about before I’ve been trying to get my weight under control and I am proud to say that I am now at 185 pounds, basically 30 pounds lighter than I was at my heaviest last year. This is the lightest I have been for at least five years and maybe closer to ten. It is nice to have clothes that no longer fit because they are too big.
I am working with a trainer. Well, more like trainers. I’m on to my third different trainer in Chicago as the first two both left the gym under mysterious circumstances. I am not making this up. I’d go to the gym for my usual appointment only to be told that my trainer no longer works there. Given that I’ve only been using the gym for less than four months this is a pretty big degree of turnover. It sucks in that I have to get used to a new trainer and start over again but I have learned a few things in the process.
Basically I am working on building muscle and improving my flexibility and balance. I am pretty bad at all three at the present moment. I have no flexibility in my legs at all and I am embarrassed to say that simply standing on one leg without tipping over can be a challenge at times. I’ve never really carried much muscle and because of my injury history I’ve been more than a little frightened about lifting weights. I have been surprised at how well the weight lifting is going though. My shoulder and hip aren’t bothering me too badly and I’ve been making progress.
Cardio is still where I am best. Not that I am particularly fast on a treadmill or the elliptical. I can just go for a long time. Not sure if this is because of my training or the fact that I have a high tolerance for boredom. It takes a certain type of person to go for an hour on a treadmill and being an athlete is not really one of the requirements.
What has been so good about this is that it hasn’t really been about losing weight. I am happy that I am and especially that I am no longer, medically speaking, overweight but I am really focused on how I feel and what I can now do. I’ve been making huge progress and really look forward to my workouts (even my 7 AM sessions with my trainer.) It is a great stress release and I just feel so much better. It is pretty amazing that I am going to be turning 38 and might possibly be in the best shape of my life. Not a bad time to get in shape.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
In Soviet Russia Blog Writes You
Do you know how tough it is to raise 300,000 in bail money on a moment’s notice? As a result of my neverending devotion to Lindsay Lohan I now know the answer to that question. I also now know that having a slightly successful Disney film when you are ten will guarantee that you will never go to jail no matter how many times you violate your probation. As my good friend Yakov Smirnoff used to tell me, “America, what a country.” That was before we deported him for having a lapsed visa of course.
(Here is my favorite Yakov Smirnoff story. Back when I lived in Kansas City I would occasionally turn on the television only to be met by a commercial advertising Yakov Smirnoff’s show in Branson. This led me to realize that a) I lived close enough to Branson that I could do it as a day trip and b) I was now considered to be part of Yakov Smirnoff’s target audience. I must admit it, that second part caused a little bit of me to die that day. Well, that and living in Kansas City in general.)
I don’t have much to report on this weekend. As much as I make fun of my time in KC at least the weekend would produce one good bar story. Now I just spend my weekend nights in Delaware at home because, well, I’m not sure that nightlife technically exists in Delaware. While it is nice to have a bar where everyone knows your name Delaware is a state where everyone knows your name. I think there are only three dozen people here; thus explaining why it might be possible that we will become the first state to elect a practicing witch to the senate. I’d write more about the election but then I remember that my blogging during the Funkhouser campaign (best known for my proposed slogan of “Bringing the Funk back to Kansas City) resulted in my actually receiving emails in which I was described as an “influential blogger”. Yeah, I have no clue how that happened.
Anyway, I did put four and a half miles in on the treadmill while watching the Notre Dame game on Saturday. I figured that given that I knew that watching the game was going to be painful I might as well make it a total body pain experience. I have gotten back into workout mode though my weight has plateaued at just over 200 pounds. It’s been good though as I have my cardio up to a nice level and I have actually started to, gasp, lift weights. It is a bit weird that I would rather hit the treadmill than lift weights but I’ve been so concerned about my bad shoulder that I’ve avoided lifting for years. But I’ve taken it nice and easy and am pretty happy with the results so far. Maybe one day I will actually have something that might be considered muscles. I am at least hoping to be in better shape when I am forty than I was when I was twenty. The scary thing is that is entirely possible.
Best of 120 Minutes (9/26/1993): We could use some more Echo and the Bunnymen in our life. Not sure why, but we just could.
The five random CDs for the week:
1) The Polyphonic Spree “The Fragile Army”
2) Iris Dement “The Way I Should”
3) My Morning Jacket “Okonokos”
4) Old 97’s “Alive and Wired”
5) Kelly Willis “One More Time”
(Here is my favorite Yakov Smirnoff story. Back when I lived in Kansas City I would occasionally turn on the television only to be met by a commercial advertising Yakov Smirnoff’s show in Branson. This led me to realize that a) I lived close enough to Branson that I could do it as a day trip and b) I was now considered to be part of Yakov Smirnoff’s target audience. I must admit it, that second part caused a little bit of me to die that day. Well, that and living in Kansas City in general.)
I don’t have much to report on this weekend. As much as I make fun of my time in KC at least the weekend would produce one good bar story. Now I just spend my weekend nights in Delaware at home because, well, I’m not sure that nightlife technically exists in Delaware. While it is nice to have a bar where everyone knows your name Delaware is a state where everyone knows your name. I think there are only three dozen people here; thus explaining why it might be possible that we will become the first state to elect a practicing witch to the senate. I’d write more about the election but then I remember that my blogging during the Funkhouser campaign (best known for my proposed slogan of “Bringing the Funk back to Kansas City) resulted in my actually receiving emails in which I was described as an “influential blogger”. Yeah, I have no clue how that happened.
Anyway, I did put four and a half miles in on the treadmill while watching the Notre Dame game on Saturday. I figured that given that I knew that watching the game was going to be painful I might as well make it a total body pain experience. I have gotten back into workout mode though my weight has plateaued at just over 200 pounds. It’s been good though as I have my cardio up to a nice level and I have actually started to, gasp, lift weights. It is a bit weird that I would rather hit the treadmill than lift weights but I’ve been so concerned about my bad shoulder that I’ve avoided lifting for years. But I’ve taken it nice and easy and am pretty happy with the results so far. Maybe one day I will actually have something that might be considered muscles. I am at least hoping to be in better shape when I am forty than I was when I was twenty. The scary thing is that is entirely possible.
Best of 120 Minutes (9/26/1993): We could use some more Echo and the Bunnymen in our life. Not sure why, but we just could.
The five random CDs for the week:
1) The Polyphonic Spree “The Fragile Army”
2) Iris Dement “The Way I Should”
3) My Morning Jacket “Okonokos”
4) Old 97’s “Alive and Wired”
5) Kelly Willis “One More Time”
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Battling Entropy One Room at a Time
Please pray for and give what you can to the people of Haiti. A 7.0 earthquake striking the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with the epicenter ten miles from the capital cannot be a good thing. All of the reports are sketchy right now mainly because the entire communication infrastructure is down. It is going to be a long night for the people in that country and my heart goes out to them.
Switching gears I have done one of those things that I always seem to do at the start of the year and that is get organized. This year has been more severe than in past years. My apartment just became a complete mess over the holidays as all of the boxes from gifts that I bought online continued to pile up and dishes sat in the sink and clothes were left on the nearest flat surface. It was making me depressed to just look at it.
So over the weekend I went into complete cleaning mode. Went room by room picking up and throwing out and placing items in equal piles. It is one of those moments where my OCD actually comes in handy. When I get focused on organization I really can’t stop and at least with this obsession at the end of the day I am left with a clean apartment albeit one in which the cereal boxes are now in alphabet order. I even finally donated the bags of clothes that had been stored in my guest bathroom. The fact that they stayed there for months and months gives an indication of just how often I have guests over.
What I find interesting is just how liberating it is to just have everything clean and organized for once. For the past few days I have just felt happier knowing that I am coming home to a clean apartment. Every night the dishes are done and the mail is put away and all of those little things that can pile up are simply not piling up. I know that some people strive on chaos and disorder and I’ve certainly lived in that environment for many years but sometimes it is nice just to know that everything is where you want it to be.
It also probably helps that I am working out again. Like I said last week I have to lose weight for the wedding and reduce the size of my gut. I’ll have to admit though that I am not starting off tough at all. I am on Easy mode on EA Active which basically has me going through exercises like “stand up without falling over” and “see if you can walk towards the television without having to stop and catch your breath.” I know that I could push myself harder but after several months of no activity at all I’ve decided to start slow and expand from there. Hopefully this will reduce my risk of injury while building the routine of working out every night. Add in my cleaned up diet and I am starting the year on the right foot. Let’s see what happens from here
7th Best Album of the Decade: Cat Power “You are Free”: Ok, I’m not even sure if I can describe Cat Power. I believe that I have mentioned that when listening to this album you should not operate heavy machinery or be near sharp objects. This album can get really, really dark but it is beautiful nonetheless. I’m not sure if anyone this decade made music quite the way that Chan did but she is well worth a listen.
Switching gears I have done one of those things that I always seem to do at the start of the year and that is get organized. This year has been more severe than in past years. My apartment just became a complete mess over the holidays as all of the boxes from gifts that I bought online continued to pile up and dishes sat in the sink and clothes were left on the nearest flat surface. It was making me depressed to just look at it.
So over the weekend I went into complete cleaning mode. Went room by room picking up and throwing out and placing items in equal piles. It is one of those moments where my OCD actually comes in handy. When I get focused on organization I really can’t stop and at least with this obsession at the end of the day I am left with a clean apartment albeit one in which the cereal boxes are now in alphabet order. I even finally donated the bags of clothes that had been stored in my guest bathroom. The fact that they stayed there for months and months gives an indication of just how often I have guests over.
What I find interesting is just how liberating it is to just have everything clean and organized for once. For the past few days I have just felt happier knowing that I am coming home to a clean apartment. Every night the dishes are done and the mail is put away and all of those little things that can pile up are simply not piling up. I know that some people strive on chaos and disorder and I’ve certainly lived in that environment for many years but sometimes it is nice just to know that everything is where you want it to be.
It also probably helps that I am working out again. Like I said last week I have to lose weight for the wedding and reduce the size of my gut. I’ll have to admit though that I am not starting off tough at all. I am on Easy mode on EA Active which basically has me going through exercises like “stand up without falling over” and “see if you can walk towards the television without having to stop and catch your breath.” I know that I could push myself harder but after several months of no activity at all I’ve decided to start slow and expand from there. Hopefully this will reduce my risk of injury while building the routine of working out every night. Add in my cleaned up diet and I am starting the year on the right foot. Let’s see what happens from here
7th Best Album of the Decade: Cat Power “You are Free”: Ok, I’m not even sure if I can describe Cat Power. I believe that I have mentioned that when listening to this album you should not operate heavy machinery or be near sharp objects. This album can get really, really dark but it is beautiful nonetheless. I’m not sure if anyone this decade made music quite the way that Chan did but she is well worth a listen.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Hitting the gym
Editor’s Note: Apologies if my post last night made your browser go kablooey. Apparently the Alejandro Escovedo video I posted completely screwed up my formatting and I didn’t notice it until I was at work this morning. I’ve replaced the video with another one and now hopefully everything will be back to normal with my profile in the correct place. Also, let me know if my onslaught of YouTube videos is messing around with the load times. I could cut back on the number of posts on the front page (right now you get the past month in Battling the Current history).
It’s always wonderful to work out during the first few weeks of January. You learn so much about the human condition and how we are influenced by calendars during those first two weeks. Because it really is the invasion of the resolution people.
Now I’ll start off by saying that I’ve been working out regularly since October usually hitting the gym in my apartment four times a week. It’s not like they are good workouts or anything but I do cardio and am now lifting weights and my doing anything is better for me than sitting on my couch. The most incredible thing is that I now look forward to working out. I was very happy to be on an exercise bike for half an hour tonight and I can’t stand those things. So while I’m not a fitness fiend I do use the gym on a regular basis.
As with any gym there is a regular crowd. Everyone works out at about the same time and while you don’t know anyone by name you know the elliptical woman and the weight lifting guy and the woman who decides to walk on a treadmill at 1.5 miles hour just to annoy everyone. There are at most two other people with you at the gym at the same time and you never have an issue getting a treadmill. That is big because I usually use the treadmill. Speaking of which…I have a story to share.
There are two treadmills in my apartment complex. Ever since I started working out I always chose the one on the right. Over the past few months I kept on increasing the speed and incline and was very happy with my progress. I was so proud over the improvement that I had made since I left KC. Occasionally someone would be on my treadmill and I had to use the other one. For some reason those workouts always sucked and I ended up having to stop the workout early to save my legs.
Well, a week or two ago I go to the gym to find a sign on my treadmill saying that the motor is broken and it is out of service. So I now use the other treadmill regularly and have discovered that the challenging workouts that I could easily tackle on the old treadmill are now impossible on this one. So either a) my physical capabilities are dependent on my being three feet to the left of my preferred position or b) the other treadmill was calibrated badly and I was actually going slower than I thought. Talk about disheartening.
Anyway, back to the New Year’s Resolutions people. As a rule, the worst week to ever be in a gym is the first week after New Year’s because that is when everyone is trying to get in shape. Instead of two or three people in the gym now there were eight or nine; half of whom are trying to figure out how to work the machines. Or doing one of those “I’ll be on this machine for five minutes then switch to another and then another” workouts. And they even feel like talking in the gym. No one talks in the gym. We all have on our headphones (and I even have one of those armband things for my Zune now) and have no desire to admit that other people exist.
But tonight? Back to the same three of us that there were in December. They lasted one week. It’s nice that I’ve reached the point that I can laugh at other people’s exercise program. Sure, I’m still far from being in shape (and somehow have gained a few pounds since I’ve started lifting) but I am working out consistently. I feel better as well and that really is all that matters. Just wait until I start doing Yoga. Yes, that is on the list of things to do now. We here at Battling the Current do pretty much anything that is recommended to us in the comments.
It’s always wonderful to work out during the first few weeks of January. You learn so much about the human condition and how we are influenced by calendars during those first two weeks. Because it really is the invasion of the resolution people.
Now I’ll start off by saying that I’ve been working out regularly since October usually hitting the gym in my apartment four times a week. It’s not like they are good workouts or anything but I do cardio and am now lifting weights and my doing anything is better for me than sitting on my couch. The most incredible thing is that I now look forward to working out. I was very happy to be on an exercise bike for half an hour tonight and I can’t stand those things. So while I’m not a fitness fiend I do use the gym on a regular basis.
As with any gym there is a regular crowd. Everyone works out at about the same time and while you don’t know anyone by name you know the elliptical woman and the weight lifting guy and the woman who decides to walk on a treadmill at 1.5 miles hour just to annoy everyone. There are at most two other people with you at the gym at the same time and you never have an issue getting a treadmill. That is big because I usually use the treadmill. Speaking of which…I have a story to share.
There are two treadmills in my apartment complex. Ever since I started working out I always chose the one on the right. Over the past few months I kept on increasing the speed and incline and was very happy with my progress. I was so proud over the improvement that I had made since I left KC. Occasionally someone would be on my treadmill and I had to use the other one. For some reason those workouts always sucked and I ended up having to stop the workout early to save my legs.
Well, a week or two ago I go to the gym to find a sign on my treadmill saying that the motor is broken and it is out of service. So I now use the other treadmill regularly and have discovered that the challenging workouts that I could easily tackle on the old treadmill are now impossible on this one. So either a) my physical capabilities are dependent on my being three feet to the left of my preferred position or b) the other treadmill was calibrated badly and I was actually going slower than I thought. Talk about disheartening.
Anyway, back to the New Year’s Resolutions people. As a rule, the worst week to ever be in a gym is the first week after New Year’s because that is when everyone is trying to get in shape. Instead of two or three people in the gym now there were eight or nine; half of whom are trying to figure out how to work the machines. Or doing one of those “I’ll be on this machine for five minutes then switch to another and then another” workouts. And they even feel like talking in the gym. No one talks in the gym. We all have on our headphones (and I even have one of those armband things for my Zune now) and have no desire to admit that other people exist.
But tonight? Back to the same three of us that there were in December. They lasted one week. It’s nice that I’ve reached the point that I can laugh at other people’s exercise program. Sure, I’m still far from being in shape (and somehow have gained a few pounds since I’ve started lifting) but I am working out consistently. I feel better as well and that really is all that matters. Just wait until I start doing Yoga. Yes, that is on the list of things to do now. We here at Battling the Current do pretty much anything that is recommended to us in the comments.
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