Staying Active

As mentioned in my last post, I laid out of boot camp for the last 2 weeks due to doctor’s orders to prevent stitches in my back from scarring or popping. I had no plans of just sitting around, but waking up early and driving to Smyrna just to jog around a track didn’t seem worth it.

I’ve been doing a lot of introspection and soul searching lately. Most of my energy the last 6 months was focused on getting ahead at work and boot camp. I excelled in both, getting promoted and losing 45 pounds. Unfortunately, I became complacent in a lot of other areas of my life including nurturing important relationships, stimulating my mind with activities and hobbies, and just “getting outside the house.” I got stuck in a rut, especially on weekdays. Wake up, go work out, head to the office until 6 or 7 p.m., come home and cook a healthy meal -- more likely heat up leftovers -- then watch some TV before heading to bed. I became a boring hermit without much balance in my life. I hate that it took my 3 year relationship going south to realize my complacency but I should know better than anyone that you don’t know you need to make positive change in your life until you hit rock bottom or have some internal stimulus.

The last two weeks away from camp have given me the opportunity to start regaining a semblance of balance in my personal life.

One Saturday morning I walked a mile to try Alon’s Bakery in Morningside for the first time. The bagel was so fresh and delicious. There was a local farmers market going on across the street whose aromas and sounds drew me in so I went to go explore. The next day, I jogged the mile from my apartment to Piedmont Park then took a leisurely stroll around the 1.75 mile trail inside, taking in the sights of people enjoying the park before having a tasty beverage at Park Tavern then walking home.

I went to Nashville on the weekend of the 4^th to see an old college buddy. We explored around Vanderbilt’s campus and some nearby parks for two solid hours one morning without any real ambitions, just shooting the shit and catching up. Later, we'd walk almost a mile from one side of town to another, just to go see some cool restaurants and new construction. On my trip home from Tennessee, I decided to pack a lunch and hike up Kennesaw Mountain. I’ve lived in Kennesaw for most of my life and think I’ve only visited the trails there once previously, and probably never in the last decade. That mile hike up to the 1,808ft peak sure kicked my ass but seeing the top of the mountain was so gratifying, both for the panoramic view and knowing that I overcame fatigue on a hot, muggy day to conquer a goal.

My point isn’t that any of these examples are real strenuous exercise that can replace the benefits of an intense boot camp workout. All of these adventures took me out of my comfort zone, brought me loads of happiness along the way, and I should be doing them in addition to boot camp. My point is that I never would have fathomed doing any of these things a mere 2 months ago. I wish I could say that I don’t regret anything that I have or haven’t done, but if I answered truthfully I probably would say that I do. All I can do is move forward and try to keep from repeating the mistakes of my past. Right now, I think that means to stay active mentally and physically, both at SIU workouts and outside of them.

Left Me In Stitches

I had a dermatologist appointment this morning to follow up on two moles we attempted to cut off my back about six months ago. The pigmentation was back so we took a new approach to get rid of them. Hopefully this will get rid of them for good or else we’ll have to try a more comprehensive approach that will leave a big scar.

Unfortunately the current procedure still required a few stitches to be sewn with doctor’s orders to avoid strenuous activities that cause my back muscles to flex and pop the stitches before we take them out in 2 weeks. I’m not a fan of going to see doctors and generally try to avoid it when possible—who wants to be told to lose weight all the time? – but when I do give in I try to follow their directions to the T. Why pay the medical bills if you’re not going to follow their advice?

So what does this mean for my exercise regimen? It definitely rules out push-ups, dips, and other upper body exercises. Most ab-work that we do really expands the back muscles so those wouldn’t help either. I really don’t want to drive to Smyrna at 5 in the morning if I’m just going to run on my own, so I may take a sabbatical from the actual boot camp. I plan on getting up before work and split days between distance and interval training. We’ll see if I can stay motivated on my own. If I can’t, I may suck it up and just drive to Smyrna…

Stress Test

The past 2 weeks have been brutal, professionally and personally. I logged 140 hours over the previous two weeks for the client. Personally, it hasn’t been any better, but I’d rather stay away from that topic in this forum*. Put the two together and I haven’t spent much time sleeping or eating well, let alone drinking empty calories since Memorial Day weekend. I’ve lost 7 pounds since the last test date but the stress levels required to do so have not been worth it. Luckily, work is getting back to normal levels and I don't have much choice but to work through the personal stuff. In the chart below, you can see that I actually increased in a few areas from the May 27 post test because of the week off and the dry weekends. I revised goals as appropriate.

Exercise	May 27	Original July 1 Goal	June 6 Test	New July 1 Goal
Weight	325	310 (weighed 323 on 6/1)	318	310
Mile Run	12:15	11:30	DNF**	11:30
Regular Pushups	64	70	66	75
Regular Dips	--	40	43	50
Sit Ups (in 1 minute)	27	30	31	35
Planks to failure	2:10	2:30	2:48	3:00

* If you are concerned and do not know what happened, please talk to me in person, give me a call, or shoot me a text.

** I did not finish the mile because I was not feeling well.

May Post Test Results

Another month is in the books, and the wheels are starting to get a little traction after spinning in the mud for a few weeks. Proof is in the table below! I’ve been working a crazy work schedule, billing 78 hours in the last 7 days! Luckily, we have an off-week this week, or I would be even more exhausted than I already am. One of the “benefits” to the crazy hours is that even though there hasn’t been any time to do anything productive like work out or blog, there also hasn’t been any time to party or otherwise screw around. I went for a mile run this morning and it felt really good, especially for not doing anything since Friday. The client catered breakfast, lunch, and dinner over the holiday weekend, so my diet has been full of take out and fast food lately. Despite the high calorie meals, I still dropped a few pounds since Friday because I can count all the beers I’ve drank in the same timeframe on one hand! I weighed in at 323 (-2 from the table) this morning after my jog. Combined these results are interesting food for thought going forward and some motivation to curb my weekend adult beverage intake.

Exercise	May 9	May 27	July 1 Goal
Weight	330	325	310 (weighed 323 on 6/1)
Mile Run	13:12	12:15	11:30
Regular Pushups	53	64	70
Assisted Pushups	0	0	0
Regular Dips	34	--	40
Assisted Dips	0	0	0
Sit Ups (in 1 minute)	24	27	30
Planks to failure	1:51	2:10	2:30

Ryan has threatened to "push me even harder" in the next boot camp to make sure I get out of my plateau entirely. Should be fun, a little miserable, and ultimately rewarding come July first. For those astute readers, if I make my weight goal for July 1, that means I will have lost 56 pounds in 6 months! I already get lots of compliments from friends and coworkers who have not seen me in a few months, so I can't wait to tell them I've lost 50+ pounds. Its a huge milestone and half way to my original, long term goal of 100 pounds. Crazy awesome! If you're on the fence about starting to Step It Up, the results definitely come to those who are willing to put in the work. Get motivated, and get lean!

Whoops! Haven't overslept in a while...

Guess I'll be going to night court - err, camp - tonight!

Plateau...Or Getting Lazy?

This Monday marked the start of the next Boot Camp session. I weighed 330 pounds, which means my actual weight loss for the April camp was 6 pounds and well shy of my 10 pound goal. Losing weight is better than gaining, but it’s a little bit of a reality check that reaching my long term goals are going to be hard work filled with ups, downs, struggles and successes.

Why didn’t I make my goal last month? It’s probably a combination of the two choices in the title. I hear you saying, “C’mon Paul, getting lazy? You’re busting your ass 4 times a week!” While true, most of my laziness last month is properly attributed to my diet. Grocery shopping trips became infrequent so I wound up eating fast food more than I did the past 3 months. And that chicken breast will be delicious if its smothered in BBQ sauce! And it’s 75 and sunny all weekend, how about a round of golf washed down with more beers on the 19^th Hole? All of these little things (and some big!) really added up in April.

How about the exercise goals? Let’s go to the chart!

Exercise	April 8	May 9	May 27 Goal
Weight	336	330	320
Mile Run	12:15	13:12	11:30
Regular Pushups	47	53	60
Assisted Pushups	0	0	0
Regular Dips	--	34	40
Assisted Dips	--	0	0
Sit Ups (in 1 minute)	21	24	30
Planks to failure	2:01	1:51	2:20

This is probably where the plateau diagnosis comes into play. Everything stood pat for the last month. I’m not worried about the large increase in the mile time. On Saturday, I went for a jog and took a little detour. I jogged the mile to Piedmont Park and instead of turning back for home, I decided to go around the park exploring. My best guess is that I ran/walked at least 3 miles by the time I returned home. By Monday, my legs felt so lead-heavy the Mob may have been getting ready to send me swimming with the fishes.

Even though this camp is only 3 weeks long, I’m going to try to play some catch-up on my weight goal by really hunkering down on the diet. My hope is the 5 days/week X 3 weeks schedule shocks my system enough to overcome the small fitness plateau I’ve run up to. We shall see!

Jerry Rice Inspires Campers

This week we've been hanging out at First Baptist Church of Smyrna. Why? Because Ryan wants us all to be the best NFL Wide Receiver ever to play the game.

Huh?

Not quite. But FBCS does have a lot more hills than the football field at Campbell HS and I'm sure the Spartans thank goodness for that! Jerry Rice was notorious for taking his other teammates to "The Hill" and leading them up and down hills in the San Francisco area, absolutely killing these professional athletes. Check out the first half of this video.

We weren't quite running 2 miles up a hill, but damn did it hurt! Yesterday we did "House of Pain", which were various length sprints uphill with a bunch of exercises in between sets. Then this morning we kicked it up a notch. We paired up and did towel runs, where your partner wraps a towel around your waist and provides resistance while you run. First, we did some flat sprints, then some with a slight incline, then the "Jerry Rice" incline. Ouch!

A Spartan Workout

This morning we ran 300 yard shuttles and circuits of sprinting and ab work called, "Ab Blasters". After one session, you look like this:

Getting Through the Golf Swing

Last Saturday, my dad, brother and I hit the links at Cobblestone Golf Course in Acworth. It was an absolutely gorgeous day to spend 4 hours outside chasing little white balls all over creation. As my dad says, "You can't beat it, we can't repeat it!"

Each golf season I get out to the course for about 5 rounds. I'm usually a poor-to-mediocre golfer who tries to shoot Bogey-ball, equaling a score of 90. Normally, I miss that goal and wind up in the high 90s. Last year I was even worse, mainly because of my fitness. My posture in the stance was terrible because I was carrying so much weight around my midsection. I had to reach down to the ball at the waist as opposed to being in a nice, balanced position a bit more upright. My core and leg strength was nonexistent so I would tire quickly. Lastly, my gut flat out just got in the way of my swing; it was hard to get through my downswing with a keg nestled beneath my shirt and I couldn't turn because I didn't have any flexibility in my core. Needless to say, I didn't hit many good shots and I didn't have a ton of fun last summer on the course.

Fast-forward to Saturday. Holy cow, what a difference! I've got a long ways to go before my gut is completely gone, but the improvements I've made since January are definitely noticeable when I swing a club. Not saying I lit up the scorecard (hello, 103!), but I could actually "get through the swing." My stamina was noticably improved. Last summer I would have struggled to make contact from fatigue later in the round. On holes 17 and 18 this Saturday, I took my backswing back further than I had all day. My torso flexibility was better than I was giving myself credit for through the first 16 holes. Man, did those last two drives soar!

SIU really is making my quality of life better and more enjoyable, even if I was muttering curse words under my breath at Ryan this morning for adding the last set of exercises. For example, I was able to meander around Philly with college friends last month without bitching and moaning about how out of shape I was. Now SIU is helping me – indirectly – with my golf game. Who can complain about that?

Mastering My Goals – March Posttest

See what I did there with these last two titles? Enough with the puns, on to the results!

The entire class absolutely rocked our post-test this morning. Ryan asked who improved their mile time and it seemed like almost the entire group raised their hand. Most of us were able to keep our hands up when he asked, "By 30 seconds? By a minute? By two minutes?" We had similar results for the planks and pushups. Great work gang!

Exercise	March 14	Goal	April 8
Mile Run	14:00	12:00	12:15
Regular Pushups	30	40	47
Assisted Pushups	20	10	0
Regular Dips	--	30	--
Assisted Dips	--	10	--
Sit Ups (in 1 minute)	22	30	21
Planks to failure	1:20	2:00	2:01

• My mile improved and I barely missed out on my goal. I ran most of it, but still walked about half of a lap. Hopefully next month I won't have to walk any part of it.
  
• My upper body strength had a breakthrough this month after the last few months being more or less stagnant. I told myself that I wasn't going to do a single assisted pushup. I cranked out my first 35 or so pushups really quickly, then spent the last few seconds working to failure instead of taking the easy road and doing the assisted.
  
• Sit-ups stayed about the same but I hit my goal for planks!
  

This month, especially the last two weeks, felt like we focused more on strength and sprints at the expense of "ab days" and some more intense core workouts. My results definitely suggest this was the case. We don't want the body to get too familiar with the workouts, because that's when plateaus occur. Thanks Ryan!

Tomahawk Chopping the Pounds Off

Another Boot Camp is in the books! I'm rewarding myself by going to the Braves game tonight. I've never been to a Braves home opener before, so I'm jacked up to see the Ted full of life.

When I left you last, I weighed 340.5 pounds on March 25. If you remember, my goal was to get down to 336, or 30 pounds since January and 10 for the camp. Last Friday the odds didn't look too great. After our Friday AM workout, I was only at 339, or about a pound from where I needed to be based on my weight loss trend (2lb/wk) the last three months. How was I going to lose three pounds in a week when I limped in at a pound and a half the week previous?

I'm not sure if I plateaued a little the week before last or perhaps my diet sucked that week. I worked out at home on Monday instead of making it in to camp due to weather, so my intensity level was less for one of my workouts. Regardless, the belt was tightened this week and really paid off. Yesterday morning I was down to 335! Groceries were sparse at home/work, so I wound up eating out for two meals yesterday. I was back at 336 after our post test this morning, or exactly making my target weight.

Achieving my goal feels great, especially when I believed myself to be in danger of failing even just a week ago. My long term goals are to lose 10 pounds a month for the rest of the year. If I can pull that off, hoo-boy I'd be lookin GOOD!

New Campers! What’d you think?

We've had a ton of new people this month, so I'm curious how other newbies are handling their first month. What do you guys think so far? Have you gotten through your soreness yet? Did I give a realistic picture of what it Boot Camp entails? Share your thoughts in the comments; it's always great to hear how others are doing because someone else is probably thinking the same thing!

March Camp Goals

I thought I'd release my March goals out into the wild so you all can keep me accountable. Going to try and keep it short and sweet.

1. I will do at least one day of the homework workouts each week for the rest of the camp.
   
2. I will weigh 336 pounds or less on April 8. That will bring my total weight loss to 30 pounds in 3 "boot camp months" and a hair over 3 legitimate months. We started back on January 4.
   

This morning, I weighed in at 340.5 pounds. This is on track with my 2 pounds per week that I've averaged thus far and will get me to 336 by April 8 if I can keep dropping at my current pace. I really think the homeworks are going to make a huge difference. I don't think I'll have to use Monday and Tuesday to whip my butt back into shape from the weekend. It would be great if the homework gets me to 336 by April 4, which would be three months on the dot!

I should be able to average 10 pounds a month for a while. Hell, I'm carrying around a spare tire around my stomach and waist. I'd love to be down to my long term goal of 266, or 100 pounds, by Halloween. That seems so far away but actually more realistic than I would have guessed back in December. I'm going to count on Ryan to push me through the plateaus if they come. He switches up our workouts so frequently I don't see them as a huge risk.

P.S. – Boy, are my legs sore from all the squats we did on Thursday!

March It Up!

"Tomorrow's" update took a while to write, eh? I'm just going to skip the Mini-Camp post, but know that it was brutal. We did lower body exercises just about every day, so I was pretty sore all week. Last week was Spring Break in Cobb County, so SIU had a true off week. I planned to get out and jog Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning before work but only made it out on Monday. Normally I never hit the snooze on my alarm. Last week was a different story. My bed felt too good to leave when I had the opportunity to stay under the covers for a few more minutes. A positive side effect from the week off is that my ankle is feeling better. I haven't noticed it the past 2 workouts which is the first time since January 20^th!

That brings us to this month's boot camp. I'm beginning the camp weighing 344 pounds. This is down 4 pounds from my March 3 post and 22 pounds since January started. My weight has consistently dropped 2 pounds per week for a while now, so I hope I can keep it going at least at that pace. It can be frustrating hearing about other people losing huge poundage in a week or month, but my weight is coming off safely, the changes I've made are sustainable, and my fitness level has skyrocketed. Not only that, but there is plenty of room to improve my diet still. Last weekend was especially bad and it showed in my Pre-Test fitness results, as you can see below.

Exercise	February 25	March 14	Goal
Mile Run	--	14:00	12:00
Regular Pushups	35	30	40
Assisted Pushups	5	20	10
Regular Dips	19	--	30
Assisted Dips	8	--	10
Sit Ups (in 1 minute)	26	22	30
Planks to failure	1:50	1:20	2:00

At the end of February we did 55's instead of the mile, and in March we skipped the dips, presumably because we had so many new faces this month that space on the benches were too limited. That's a great problem to have!

The real differences in February and March tests are not likely as severe as the results indicate. Some days are good and some are bad, and Monday definitely felt like a bad day. I mentioned above that I didn't eat well last weekend. SIU's Nutritionist Bethany says food is the gas for your body. If you put junk in, you'll get poor performance. I ate out just about every meal, drank lots of beer, and didn't exercise at all. I'd say that qualifies as junk. Those statistical losses should be quick to recover and may already have. Towards the end of today's workout my body started responding better and it should be no surprise that I ate cleanly since Monday.

Check back soon to see my goals for March! It shouldn't take me two weeks to post again, I promise.