June 1st->8th 2010 Daily Update

Just started the blog so a big of catch up before moving to possibly more frequent updates. June has started off well with some form of exercise every day except the 3rd June when I had a 10 hour drive from Toronto back to home. Always good to have a break from the exercise every week or two to help the body recover so I don't mind. Summary below

1st June - 702 cals at the hotel gym
2nd June - 673 cals at the hotel gym
3rd June - 0 cals - driving home
4th June - 623 cals at home
5th June - 1029 cals at home - good session over the weekend
6th June - 1247 cals - good session over the weekend
7th June - 918 cals
8th June - 791 cals

month to date is 5983 cals.. a good start!

Bought and/or ordered a few items during the week back from Toronto.. posts to follow however as a summary:

• couple of hula hoops - large and heavy ones to help work the core and abs
  
• a foam roller from my local Sports Authority to help with stretching and massaging the muscles
  
• Perfect Push up V2 from my local sports authority... they really work!
  
• Body-Solid G4I Iso-Flex Home Gym... pretty expensive but comes highly recommended... should arrive soon
  

Stamina Ab / Hyper Bench

May 2010 was a success on the exercise front so I can treat myself to some new equipment. The hotel gym in Hilton Toronto was pretty good with a wide variety of equipment and has given me some ideas of what I want for the home gym.

I spend a lot of time sitting in a chair and have some lower back stiffness and pain so I'm looking to strengthen the back muscles. The gym had a good Hyper Extension piece of equipment that I used with good results even in the few days we were there.

My ideal selection for home would be the Body Solid 45° Hyper Extension (GHYP345)



However one of the comprises of a home gym is typically space and I don't have the room to have the number of individual pieces of equipment I'd like. After some research I settled instead on something that fulfills a number of roles.. back extensions, ab crunches and as a stable platform for using dumb bells. So welcome to the Stamina Ab / Hyper Bench courtesy of Amazon. The bench is multi-purpose, can fold away, has good reviews and is half the price.

My Approach

Losing weight comes down to simple maths.. calories burnt by the body needs to be greater than calories taken into the body.. sounds so simple!

Getting fit comes down to pushing the body, mind and spirit to exceed itself through aerobic and mental exercises... You can have a very muscled body but still be unfit...

My approach is to tackle both of these..

Increasing the calories my body burns. This will be achieved through:

• specific exercises (i.e. the gym, cycling etc!)
• considering my day-to-day life (taking stairs instead of elevators, ensuring I get off my chair in the office and stroll around every hour etc)
  
• physiological changes (increasing my muscle mass, drinking more cold water etc)

Calories being taken in. I'll moderate and be aware of the calories I put into my body (i.e. food and drink).. I won't use the word 'diet' as that has negative connotations and people may relate this to starving, giving up all the fun stuff etc... although there will be some tough decisions being made just to get me moving in the right direction quickly.

Getting fit. Through a mix of exercises that will change as I begin to expand our home gym. There are a couple of commercial gyms near me however I've decided this time around to take a different approach and set up a gym at home.. Why.... well a few reasons.

The gym is near the office, so many office people will be there... For me gymming is a personal commitment and personal time. I like the gym environment and there will be some challenges at home due to more limited equipment and the different environment. However I'd rather not be pushing myself hard in a gym and find myself surrounded by colleagues..

Our set up at home means I can watch whatever TV, movies, music I like and I can tie my regime into watching programs I enjoy rather than having to share a few TVs with many people and end up watching programs that do not encourage or motivate me.

I would like my wife to share this journey, and it will be easier for us to do this from home.

So my decisions are made.. there will need to be some additional money spent on equipment to provide me some of the tools and equipment I need, however the cost is minimal compared to the benefits... How much money does the average person spend on eating out, drinking, smoking a year... I don't know but my budget for exercising will be less than $5000.

The decision to change

My birthday, among other reasons including my lovely wife made me realise it was time to change (again). I've lost weight and got fit before... very fit.. however I've always struggled to get fit and have a successful work/career. Typically the times I've been fit is when I've taken sabbaticals. I'm the type of person who has moved jobs every 3 years or so as opportunities have arisen and I'm taken challenging roles that have consumed me.

So what is different this time... Yes I'll get fit... however this time the goal is to stay fit and have a successful career at the same time. No more one or the other... Why will it be different this time... my approach has changed and I have a fantastic wife who will be my guide, my coach and my supporter...

So imagine it is back in March 2010... although I'm writing this in June 2010...

I'm 85kg, 25% body fat. I've moved to a country where obesity is almost the norm, where portions in restaurants are huge, where the food is full of fat, sugar and salt and even salads are lathered in rich, fat, unhealthy dressings... A bit of a challenge!

The tools I have are my mind, my stubbornness, my wife, a couple of dumb bells and a Vision 6200HRT Elliptical Trainer we bought in Australia and hardly used...

Background on my fitness

Over the years from University to leaving the UK in 2006 my weight had yo-yoed from 70kg / 154lbs to 85kg / 187lbs and body fat moving from 14% up to 26-28% and the waist from 30 inches up to 37 inches.

I emigrated from the UK to Sydney, Australia in August 2006 and took a 6 month sabbatical to enjoy the new country, spend time sailing and continue with my fitness regime. Arriving in Australia I was around 74kg / 163lbs and 17% body fat. Over the 6 months I was taking time off I was active with a typical week being:

• at the gym 5 times a week on aerobic and some weight training.
• 1-2 times a week indoor rock climbing
• sailing

and I reached my target of 70 kg / 154lbs and 14% body fat.

In February 2007 I started work again for a global firm and over the next 4 years my weight gradually grew to 85kg / 187 lbs and 26% body fat. I was a member of a gym, but never found (made!) the time to go even though it was in the same building as my office...

Now I'm in the USA it is time to change.....

The beginning

My first post on my first blog. Welcome to my life for those who stumble across this blog. This world I'm writing is for myself, however feel free to read or comment if you wish.

So why a blog? So why the title for the blog? Who am I? Why should anyone care? Over the coming posts these will be answered, perhaps not as well as people would like or care, but they will be answered.

My initial goal of the blog is to help ensure my continued focus and motivation in becoming fit (again). Over time the blog may dwindle and die, it may grow and cover broader topics and views... only time will tell.

May 2010 Summary

As I've start posting to a blog in June, this post is a summary for May 2010. From June onwards the posts will be more regular and with current thoughts.

May begins on a strong note. The first two days of a month are a weekend that makes it easy to exercise on both days. Those two days along equal 25% of the total calories burnt in each of the last two months...

On the work front I have a couple of weeks of workshops which makes things a little trickier as they involve early starts and later finishes plus the inevitable back log of the day-to-day work that doesn't get done... e.g. emails.. There's also a week spent on the West Coast of the USA in San Jose, California and Redmond, Washington. A chance to try and workout in the hotels. The month also sees our 2nd Wedding anniversary so we pack the car and take a short break, traveling to Canada and visiting Niagara Falls, Lake Huron and Toronto. For the days we stay in hotels I exercise, for the few days we spend in a cottage the exercise includes kayaking for several hours and hiking. The calories burnt outside of the gym are not recorded.

The results for this month are much better. Over twice the calories burnt and many more days of the month seeing at least some exercise. Good days see around 600-800 calories being burnt in around 90 minutes of cardio exercise on the elliptical and recumbent bike, plus some dumb bell use.

While at the hotels I use their gyms. The fitness centre in the Hilton and Westin are both ok with the Westin in Bellevue (Redmond) being impressive.

The results for the month speak for themselves.. I'm also beginning to feel the difference, my posture is better, the energy I walk around with is stronger, the wife says my belly is definitely shrinking...

During late April I made the decision to take a break from drinking alcohol. Not an easy decision however by the end of May it hasn't proven much of a struggle. I've had a number of work dinners, that is the hardest time, as I end up drinking sparkling water when my colleagues are imbibing a few glasses of wine... as I said, there needs to be some sacrifices in the short term. My wife hardly drinks anyway so it isn't that difficult a decision.

I'll cover nutrition in a separate post, however during May I have begun to pay much more attention to what I am eating. This typically means no more gorging on unhealthy food and instead looking at the menu for the more appropriate options.

By the end of the month the scales show a weight of around 82-83kg, so I've lost around 2-3kg and 2-3% body fat. A start, 2-3kg of weight lost!!!!

Month Summary
Days exercised during Month: 18
Elliptical calories burnt: 7553
Recumbent bike calories burnt: 3456
Total calories burnt: 11009

Year to Date Summary
Days exercised during Year: 39
Elliptical calories burnt: 12404
Recumbent bike calories burnt: 6778
Total calories burnt: 19182