Lose weight by eating right

Ever since taking a more serious approach to my fitness, I genuinely see that diet is indeed the majority of a good fitness plan. Unfortunately, food is very much my weakness. So I approached my diet as I would approach a casual financial budget. Save some early in the period so you have more to spend later.

I'm sure if you do some research, you will find a smorgasbord of diet plans and eating theories. But if you're looking to lose weight, then it's really simple math. Burn more than you consume. If you create a deficit of 3,500 calories per week, that would equate to 1 lost pound. Now 500 calories is a lot to cut from a day, but if you cut 250 calories and workout to burn 250 calories, there's your 500 calorie deficit for the day. As for the actual food, well that can get complicated.

We've all heard of the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet, the Weight Watchers diet. There's a whole lot out there. And we can get into all the counting of the protein, the carbs, the fat. Whether you do 40/40/20 or 60/20/20 or any other ratio(protein/carb/fat ratio). But I'm just not that detail-oriented in terms of food at the moment. I do use quite a bit of common sense. Junk food? No-brainer. It has the word "junk" in it. Limit these a lot. Same for sugar. You don't really need more than what you can get in regular food. As for carbs, aim for whole grain/complex carbs and try to consume the bulk of it in the early part of the day. You know, things like that.

As for the actual budgeting part of my eating, it's quite simple. I know I don't eat the best outside of work, so I make the most of what I can do when I'm at work or at home. Here's a typical work day for me:


Breakfast: Cheerios w/milk - I aim for skim, but I do 1% if it's on sale. You should really train yourself to like at least 2% milk. Go to skim if you can take it. You don't need the fat and lower fat milk has higher calcium content.

Mid-morning snack: Varies. I try to do a handful of nuts. Sometimes, I'll do a protein shake if I know I'm going to do a hard workout later in the day.

Lunch: I try to bring this meal from home. If you didn't make it, you never know what's in it. So I usually do 1-2 servings of veggies with some protein (usually chicken breast). Occasionally, I'll have rice with it if I'm not lazy to cook it.

Mid-afternoon snack: This has been pretty consistent for me. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It's made with one slice of whole grain bread with Skippy's Natural PB and Smuckers Sugar-free preserves. A quick 200 calories of goodness. If I was lazy, then I'd take a protein bar. It's less calories than a candy bar and has a lot more nutritional value to it. And no sugar.


I don't really count calories, but I limit my snacks to 250 calories or below. No reason for more for a snack. Also, my eating during the day usually doesn't have a lot of fat or sodium. I skimp on those because I know I'll probably eat that stuff later on. In fact, I apply some rules 24/7 to "budget" for indulgences later. Dinner out or dinner at my mom's can get pretty unhealthy. So my little rules are:

-Remove skin from chicken
-Eat a lot of vegetables
-No sodas, if you must avoid full sodas; aim for diet
-Avoid cream sauces/dressings
-Avoid white bread (except sourdough...I love sourdough)
-Eggs are usually poached. I do over easy sometimes.
-Ice water. Lots of it.

So, nothing crazy in my eating habits. Just doing the best I can to work with what I got. I love food, so I try to cut down wherever I can. Another habit you must get into is weighing yourself regularly. Pick a time and the conditions and do that consistently once a week. That will give you an idea if you need to adjust your eating. In fact, think of eating as fueling and your body as a machine. Pick up on how you feel and how you weigh and tweak the fuel to maximize performance.

In the end, don't go too crazy with any eating plan. You need to have a cheat meal/day, and you need to allow yourself small mistakes. Otherwise, you'll be overwhelmed and burn out. So pick a good eating plan, couple that with a decent workout regimen, and get lean, strong, and fit!

Weekend of biking!

Well, last week was a bad week for running again. I fit one run in Sunday later in the day, but haven't had a full run for the rest of the week. I did a quick cooldown run on Tuesday, but that's it. I did, however, did quite a bit of biking. Here's the breakdown:

Sunday: Chest/back/abs, calf raises; run
Monday: None
Tuesday: Shoulders/triceps/biceps; cooldown run
Wednesday: None
Thursday: Pullups
Friday: Pushups/pullups, heavy weights, pushups/chinups
Saturday: Minuteman Bike Trail (Bedford to Arlington and back)

The long bike ride fell on Sunday, so that'll go on next week's update. I must say, after 60+ miles of biking, my butt is sore from the saddle. The long ride made me reevaluate my bicycle, too. I currently ride on a Trek 6500 mountain bike. Don't have all the specifics, but it's pretty decent. Mostly Shimano parts, three-gear crankset with a 9 speed cassette. It does have mountain bike tires on, and I've never minded it before. But after doing a 45 mile bike ride, there are some things I would definitely like to change.

For one, my tires are overkill for what I usually do with my bike. I have never gone on an actual mountain bike ride, so the tires are actually inefficient for what I usually ride. I do appreciate them whenever I find myself cutting through a dirt/gravel path, but most of my riding is on paved surfaces. So, I am planning on switching out my tires with some road tires. Also, my horizontal handlebar made supporting some of my weight on my hands a bit difficult. I get numb fingers once in a while. So to fix that, I will add some bar ends. I thought about swapping out the bar with some drop handlebars, but that would require new shifters, which may require a new drivetrain. Shifters and drivetrain components can be expensive, so not a cost-effective solution for me.

You're probably thinking why I can't just get a road bike or a hybrid bike. It's a fact that no matter how many parts I change on the bike, it'll never be up to par with a road bike. The frame just wasn't designed for that purpose. Well, there's the cost. A decent road or hybrid bike will set me back at least a few hundred dollars. A nice one, $1,000+. I'm also not at the point where I need/want a road bike. The tires confine me to certain road surfaces, and I'm big on flexibility. The road tires I picked out for my Trek are good enough for the road yet sturdy and grippy enough for the occasional dirt/gravel path. Another reason to just "hybridize" my mountain bike is that total cost of the "upgrades" will only set me back $89.00. Not bad huh? So, I'll tweak my bike first, then when I need another bike, I'll go shopping.

As for the rest of my fitness update, my weight workouts are doing fine. I did wind up at the gym for my shoulders and arms workout and discovered that my 30-lb dumbbells at home weren't quite comparable to the 30-lb dumbbells at the gym. Not sure which one's correct, but I sucked it up and went with the 25-lb dumbbells to preserve form. Form over pride, people. Without good form, your reps mean nothing. Pullups-wise, I'm up to 3 sets of 11 (though on the last set, the last couple reps really really kill). I've added some diamond pushups for my chest and back workout that I do with my heavy workout, so that's pretty cool.

I'm pretty happy with how my legs held up during the bike rides, and I largely attribute this to my running and stair climbing at work. So I will make more of an effort to run more and use the bathroom downstairs at work (I like taking the stairs two at a time back up when I'm alone). My heavy workout consists of squats and lunges, so that'll continue. I did skip last weeks leg section in anticipation of the demands on the legs from the riding. That was a great decision.

Diet-wise, I took one extra protein shake between my breakfast and lunch. I was feeling I'm under for my protein intake. I did wind up gaining weight, but my cousin came and we did three straight nights of drinking. So that skewed the effects of my diet change. I'll see how this week goes. I'm still taking glucosamine twice a day.


Last weigh-in:
172.0 lb

Back on glucosamine sulfate for my shoulder

After feeling something in my shoulder every now and then, I decided to get back on glucosamine sulfate. My shoulder doesn't hurt, and my range of motion is fine. But I'm paranoid. I'm not sure what's wrong with it, but my strength is still there too. Maybe it's just one of those injuries you don't get back to 100% from. I'll just keep working at it until I get a better feel for it. I'm taking 1,000mg twice a day and reevaluate in a week or two.

Here's my breakdown for last week:

Sunday: Chest/back/abs, calf raises
Monday: None
Tuesday: Shoulders/triceps/biceps
Wednesday: Run
Thursday: Pushups/pullups, heavy weights, squats/lunges, pushups/chinups
Friday: None
Saturday: None

Again, not too good with the cardio. But yesterday, I've already ran once so this week is looking good. As for my weights, my emphasis is more on my the heavy days now. I've lost some weight and some fat, but I'm feeling my muscle mass isn't where I want it to be. So I'm going to focus on increasing my workouts on the heavy day. To reiterate from previous postings, my heavy day isn't really that heavy either. My recovery from my shoulder has forced me to take it easy when adding weight back. Right now I'm using 45-lb dumbbells for the "heavy" workouts, which are mainly chest, back, and leg workouts. The heaviest I've gone are my elevated pushups and my full-body pullups. So that's probably about 75-90% of my body weight for the pushups and 170.0 lb for pullups. Not bad, but I'd like to improve with my chest press and squats.

I also changed my Sunday workout to incorporate more of my body weight. So we'll see where these changes will take me. Changes are good anyway, since you don't want your body to get used to any one program for too long. That's when plateaus happen.

I'm pretty comfortable with my weight hovering around 170.0 lb. I know I set a new weight goal of 165.0 lb, but I think I'll focus more on strength gains and body fat loss for now. I'll monitor my weight to ensure I'm not falling too far off track. So, new goals:

-Bench press body weight
-Work up to 15 pullups


Last weigh-in:
170.0 lb

Working out with an injury

We've all experienced it. Whether you're a casual weightlifter or an experienced weight maniac, we've all been sidelined with an injury before. I've had my share of injuries when I was younger. Back then, I lay off the weights for 2-3 weeks and get right back to it. The wonders of a young body. Well, during the time I was doing mainly mini-workouts, I managed to injure my right shoulder (which I've injured twice before). The road to recovery this time was long and quite insightful.

First thing I did after the injury was go in denial. I wrote off the injury as general tightness. I continued with my mini-workouts, which at the time was a day of pushups alternated with a day of pullups during the work week. I also did some dumbbell workouts at home that targeted the shoulder (raises, shoulder presses, etc.). When I started feeling discomfort during the dumbbell work, I started to realize I had an injury. I took out the weights, but still continued the pushups and pullups. But soon I started feeling discomfort in everyday movements.

During this time, the injury confused me. It was unlike anything I've experienced. There wasn't any real pain. It it didn't feel like a strain, and I couldn't really remember what caused it. I remembered tightness, but that was it. I tried various stretches to see if I could target the muscle, but couldn't find a stretch that worked. Finally, I decided that maybe it was a rotator cuff injury. I put weights back into my workout program, but kept them at 5 lbs (by this time, that was all I could lift with my shoulders anyway). I added rotator cuff exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff. I went on a program that alternated chest/triceps with back/biceps/shoulders. Then one day I heard my shoulder move during an exercise. It sounded like the ball of my humerus moving in the shoulder socket. Something was definitely wrong.

As bad as things sounded, my doctor had already reassured me that things seemed fine. I even took a week off as suggested. But after some more thinking and reevaluation of my workout, I determined that I was overworking my shoulders. I wasn't giving it enough rest for it to recover. From there I changed my entire weight program. I then started basically from scratch. All my exercises from chest to back to shoulders to arms now were set strictly to 5 lb dumbbells. I focused on sets and started with 8 reps each, focusing very much on form.

I realized that this injury was somewhat of a blessing in disguise, because I lost most of my weight during this recovery/"rehab" period. I would increase 1-2 reps every week until I hit 15 reps. Then I increased weights by 5 lbs per dumbbell and start at 8 reps again. I slowly rebuilt my strength and range of motion one small step at a time. It was a painstakingly long process before I hit 20 lbs again. But the focus on form and slower reps to avoid jerking the shoulder really helped. I'm up to 30 lb dumbbells and I'm leaner than ever with my cardio workouts.

So what did I learn from this injury and the recovery? A lot. If you find yourself injured, do this:

-RICE. If you catch the injury early, do the traditional RICE method. Rest. Ice. Compression. Elevation. Forty-eight hours should be good.

-Rest. By all means, don't be stubborn or go into denial. If it's not soreness, rest. Depending on how fast your body recovers, this can be as short as 2 weeks or 8 weeks. And when I mean rest, it means nothing. If it's an upper body injury, don't do any upper body workouts. Believe it or not, a seemingly unrelated exercise is still somewhat tied to the injured area. So do more cardio and lower body exercises. The same applies vice-versa with a lower body injury.

-Keep moving. While resting, don't immobilize the injured area. Try to mimic the exercise motions without any weight. Try to slowly increase range of motion if that has been limited. Get the blood moving to help speed recovery. Carefully stretch the area regularly.

-Take anti-inflammatories as needed, especially right after the injury. I don't really believe in this as I like to keep aware of what might be hurting so I don't do things to hurt it more. I rarely take pain medication, and when I do, it's usually for a headache. But if it helps during the early stages of the injury, go for it.

-Ease back into action. When you're ready to get back to action, start slowly and lightly. Light weights might seem really silly, but you don't want to risk re-injury. Aim for higher reps, while keeping overall stress low. Be strict with your form. This is the perfect opportunity to correct any bad mistakes and habits you might have had. Keep at it until you're back where you were before injury. It's worth it to focus on neglected areas before.


So that's it for my injury tips. One other thing you might want to keep in mind is to lower your calorie intake. Since you might not be working out at your peak, this will help keep your weight gain down. Other than that, good luck!

Broke the 170 mark

Well, at my last weigh-in, I broke my short-term goal of 170.0 lb. It took a while to go from 175.0 to 170.0, but persistence paid off. Here's the breakdown:

Sunday: Chest/back/abs
Monday: None

Tuesday: Shoulders/triceps/biceps

Wednesday: Run

Thursday: Pushups/pullups, heavy weights
Friday: None
Saturday: None

I've been bad again at the cardio. Only ran once. I did, however, manage to stay on top of my weight workouts. What a surprise, huh? Part of it is that it's tough to wake up in the morning and get to the gym. Yeah, I can run outdoors, but it's been bad outside in terms of weather. Then this past Saturday, I had to decide between running and showering or cutting my hair and showering. I decided on the latter as I was due for a cut.

The good news is that I've hit 15 reps for my "light" workout and 10 reps for my "heavy" workout. So as of today, I've increased my weights and dropping my reps. I'm going to increase the reps by 1-2 per week until I'm good for the next one. Increasing weights is good, because with my weight loss, it means I'm getting stronger while leaning out. I still need to work more on cardio endurance. And my diet? Argh. That part is so hard. Food is too good. Haha. But it is true. Diet is 80% of your fitness regimen. I'm just going to have to keep on top of what I'm doing.

Next weight goal? I'm gonna see how I feel at 165.0 lb. I'll reevaluate then and see what I want to do from there.


Last weigh-in:
169.5 lb

To supplement or not?

I've weight lifted since I discovered I had a lanky frame when I was in middle school. I started with pushups and chinups and eventually went into weights. I've started reading fitness magazines as well. And if you've ever picked up a fitness magazine, I'm sure you've seen the ads for supplements.

Lifting all these years, I've done decent research on how this whole thing works. Along the way, I've briefly read about all sorts of supplements (for the life of me, I can only remember creatine right now). Early on, I made the decision to try to build a decent body with no more than working out and a multivitamin. When I had trouble packing on weight, I added protein to the mix, but never more. Then of course, we all know the story of how I eventually stopped working out. With that, the supplements stopped. Yeah, I took a multivitamin here and there, but that was it.

Now that I'm older, I realize my body needs certain things to respond how I want it to. I do try to take a multivitamin everyday. It only makes sense. I try to eat well, but just in case I take one. And now that I know more about weight loss and how half the weight I lose is muscle, I take protein after every workout. I need to do what I can to maintain muscle mass while I'm losing weight. When I had my shoulder injury (which I would say is about 90% healed), I went on glucosamine sulfate for a while to ease discomfort. But that is still all I took. Sure I see ads for products that help you look super ripped and all that, but I don't want to put too much stuff into my body. It seems so artificial, you know?

So, bottom line: Eat well, train hard, take a multivitamin, and don't forget the protein (whey or casein)!

New concentrated blog

I've been writing about my fitness thoughts and experiences for a little big on my personal blog. In fact, I've been blogging for a bit. But I'm noticing that I write a lot about my fitness workouts. So I decided to put them in a "fitness" blog instead to help concentrate things a bit. You can still access all my old fitness posts here.

In case you're new to my fitness postings, I'm like any average American. I was somewhat fit throughout high school. Gained a few pounds in college. Then hit the workforce and just watched my weight go up. As life got stressful, workouts decreased. Then one day I stepped on the scale and saw my weight at 189.0 lb. Standing at 5'9" and having started this involuntary journey at 155.0 lb in high school. I was mortified and disgusted with myself. Then there was the fact that I barely summitted a mountain that I've done easily before. Thus, started my fitness journey.

It's been a slow gradual journey, but I am now at 170.0 lb and leaner, stronger, and fitter than ever! Stay with me while I continue on this lifelong ambition to remain that way.