Sickness Bad, Kale Good

I have not been that sick in a LONG time!  I've been sick since Wednesday, the 16th and finally started feeling a little better on Saturday.

Here's what I can tell you.  I ran on about 1.5 miles on Wednesday (against my conscience telling me not to), felt even more awful about a hour after, and then took Thursday off from work and working out.  Then, I took Friday off as well from exercise.  At this point I was feeling extremely ill and absolutely exhausted.  To give you an idea of how bad I felt, let me tell you that I usually sleep about 6 hours a night.  Thursday night to Friday, I slept no less than 13 hours.  It was fantastic!

This brings us to Saturday.  I was feeling a bit better so I jumped back into the routine.  I ran 3.5 miles (indoors of course) and got my diet back on track.  I even bought a Kitchenaid blender and started whipping up Kale & Fruit smoothies.  I never knew such a strong vegetable could taste so good in a shake.

Want the recipe?

Add frozen mango, pineapple, and strawberries to blender.  Add orange juice (never from concentrate).  2 heaping tablespoons of Low Fat Vanilla yogurt.  1 heaping scoop of protein powder. 2 cups of chopped kale*.  Throw in a few ice cubes and blend that sucker up.  Yum!

*Chopping the kale is necessary because most non-industrial blenders can't cut through the dense walls in kale leaving you with poorly blended leaves.


Without further ado I give you my exercise list for the weekend:

Saturday:

1. Ran 3.5 miles

Sunday:

1. Dumbbell Cleans - 10 x 3 sets*
2. Bench Press - 10 x 3 sets*
3. Shoulder Press - 10 x 3 sets*
4. Dumbbell Curls - 10 x 3 sets*
5. Lat Pulldowns - 10 x 3 sets**
6. Seated Row - 10 x 3 sets**
7. Pectoral Fly - 10 x 3 sets**
8. Reverse Fly - 10 x 3 sets  **
9. Ran 1.0 miles

*20 Jumping Jacks between each set

**5 Pushups between each set

 

Week of May 18th, 2012

Week of May 18th, 2012

I've been doing a lot of research on Tough Mudder (TM moving forward) and have started formulating a strategy for training.

I read a lot of blogs and forums this last week that indicate the key areas to focus on are arms, legs, back and core. So, I've come up with a workout model that will be focused on dumbell weight training one day and cardio another, with body weight exercises mixed in (hopefully) every day.

What I need though to accomplish this is two things.  One is for people to stop stealing the dumbells from the gym at my apartment complex.  The other is a pull-up bar.  I should have the latter resolved shortly though with nothing more than a short trip to Ross.

"Ross?" you may say, yes, Ross!  Multiple reputable people have told me that Ross and other similar stores have a great selection of exercise equipment.  Let's just hope my door frame is strong enough, otherwise the monkey bars at the local school will need to suffice.

Below is my exercise and diet journal.  I'll post again with info on the pull-up bar I choose when I get it setup.

5/13/12:


Workout:  


1.) Walked 1 mile to the store
2.) Swam in the pool with my 2 year old for a hour.


Diet:


Breakfast - I may have skipped it in the midst of all the Mother's Day craziness.  Must not let this happen again.

Lunch - We went to Rainforest Cafe for Mother's Day.  We shared the Awesome Appetizer Adventure and I ate 1/2 of the Bama's BBQ wrap.  I also drank a rum and diet coke.

Dinner - Thai Chicken Wrap.  Link to the recipe: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/thai-chicken-roll-ups-10000000223714/

5/14/12:


Workout:






Diet:


Breakfast - 2 scrambled eggs, banana

Lunch - Chicken salad with poppy seed dressing, orange

Dinner - Taco Salad

5/15/12:


Workout:


1.) Ran 1.5 miles on treadmill

Breakfast - Whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter and honey.

Week of May 11th, 2012

Happy Hump Day!  To give everyone an idea of what I look like now and how far I've come I've included the before & after image below. The image on the left is after I had been traveling for work for a few months in 2009.  The right-hand picture was taken at the top of the forest fire lookout at Gobblers Knob on Mount Rainier in 2011 after losing about 50 pounds.

                           

I'm trying to decide on the best way to track and present my workouts and what I'm eating.  We'll start with a week view which I'll just edit from day to day as needed.  Meals will be broken out into breakfast, lunch, and dinner where snacks (fruit, yogurt, etc.) will be added to the closest meal.  We'll start with Tuesday.

5/7/12:

Workout:

1.  Wii Fit for 1 hour - Yoga, Strength Training, and Cardio
2.  Ran - Factoria to Enatai Beach Park.  This is about 1.7 miles each way.  Paced ~10 minute mile.

Diet:

Breakfast - Homemade ham & egg sandwich on a whole wheat english muffin

Lunch - Chicken lite-Caesar salad, Apple with cinnamon, banana

Dinner - Baja fish tacos with Mexican rice

5/8/12:

Workout:

1. Ran - Factoria to Enatai Beach Park.  Paced ~10 minute mile.  Fastest mile = 9 minutes 51 seconds

Diet:

Breakfast - Homemade ham & egg sandwich on a whole wheat english muffin

Lunch - Leftover fish tacos, handful of Sea Salt and Black Pepper Quakes rice cakes, half Superfood Odwalla bar

Dinner - 3 fried eggs and 2 pieces of toast

5/9/12:

Workout:

1. Push-ups - 3 sets of 15
2. Push-ups - 3 sets of 15  (I need to make this into a 10-15 minute ab routine)
3. Bench press - 3 sets of 15
4. Shoulder press - 3 sets of 15
5. Bicep curls - 3 sets of 15

Diet: 


Breakfast - English muffin with peanut butter and honey, 1/4 of Superfood Odwalla bar

Lunch - Handful of Sea Salt and Black Pepper Quakes rice cakes, Turkey sandwich, Salad w/ Lite Caesar dressing, Handful of Kashi Zesty Salsa crackers.

Dinnner - Turkey taco salad with ground turkey, black beans, whole chili beans, tomatoes, lettuce, onion, jalapenos, guacamole, fat free sour cream and salsa.

5/10/12:

Workout:

1. Ran 4 miles w/ a 10 minute pace on the treadmill.

Diet:

Breakfast - Homemade egg & cheese sandwich on a whole wheat english muffin, banana

Lunch - Leftover taco salad  (see ingredients above), orange, 2 Salt Free rice cakes, handful of Kashi Zesty Salsa crackers

Dinner - Seasoned chicken breast with lettuce and onion and a lite caesar dressing.  A handful of tortilla chips with guacamole.

5/11/12:


Workout:

1. Dumbbell Cleans - 10 each side x 2 sets
2. Pushup Position Row - 8 each arm x 2 sets
3. Overextension Kickbacks - 8 each arm x 2 sets
4. Dumbbell Curls - 10 each arm x 2 sets
5. Dumbbell Lung with Lateral Raise - 6 each leg x 2 sets
6. Bentover Row with Back Extension - 8 x 2 sets
7. Golf Squat - 10 each side x 2 sets
8. Pectoral Fly - 10 x 2 sets
9. Lateral Pull Downs - 10 x 2 sets
10. Seated Rows - 10 x 2  sets
11. Push-ups - 10 x 2 (more of these later this evening along with abs) 

          Ran 1.5 miles from Chaplin's VW to Visible after dropping off the car.

Diet:


Breakfast - Homemade egg & cheese sandwich on a whole wheat english muffin and a banana.  I know this has been a staple this week.  It'll check this weekend.

Lunch - Homemade chicken salad with lite caesar dressing, orange, 2 salt free rice cakes, last handful of the Kashi Zesty Salsa crackers

Dinner - BBQ sausage, macaroni salad, potato salad, handful of Lays chips and beer.  *Not my finest moment this week.

5/12/12:

Workout:


No running or lifting today.  I mowed my parent's yard though and went swimming with my son.

Diet:


Breakfast - Nothing

Lunch - Turkey Sandwich

Dinner - BBQ chicken breast , baked beans, corn on the cob, and salad.

Do or Do not. There is no try.

This is my first blog post ever so what would be a good starting point?  Maybe we should start with where I've come from and where I'd like to go.  


I'm 27 years old and work your typical Seattle desk job.  In high school, I was in the peak of my fitness playing baseball and water polo on a daily basis while fighting sitting still as much as possible.  Since then, things have deteriorated quite a bit. After traveling for work with a major wireless carrier, I hit my worst. I was weighing in at 230 lbs!  Things had to change.


After my son was born I knew I had to get healthy for him.  My greatest fear as a new dad was not being able to keep up with my son to play sports with him, coach his teams, and provide a good example of healthy habits.  So, I started hiking.  Then, hiking led to running.  I had never been good at running.  I used to actually collapse in PE when running the 1 mile.  This even led to a few ER visits in my early school days.


This brings us to about a year ago when my current workplace put together a team for the Gladiator Rock'N Run.  I registered, I trained, and I kicked its ass!  I even dropped down to about 180 lbs! It felt great and I wanted more. That is when my friend introduced me to the Tough Mudder competition.  Here is a brief description for those of you unfamiliar:


Tough Mudder events are hardcore 10-12 mile obstacle courses designed by British Special Forces to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie. With the most innovative courses, half a million inspiring participants, and more than $2 million dollars raised for the Wounded Warrior Project, Tough Mudder is the premier adventure challenge series in the world.

Link to Seattle challenge map: http://toughmudder.com/events/washington-2012/


So that is the challenge and it goes down on September 29th & 30th.  I'll be updating this blog with entries about my training, what I'm eating, and all the challenges along the way.  I hope you'll follow along!