When you get into a diet and exercise routine it's easy to lose sight of the whole reason that you may have started your regimen in the first place. Many of us get into a fitness routine for litany of reasons: lose weight, gain muscle, extend your life, improve the quality of life, train for an event, etc. However, its easy to get caught up in the moment and forget the real purpose of exercise. It should be fun and it should make you feel good.
At some point or another, all of us will have days where we suffer from a lack of motivation. Days where our desire to hit the track, pick up the weights or do whatever, is near absolute nil. This is a danger zone. Once the motivation begins to wane, your desire to exercise goes down and once your desire begins to fade you'll find it easier and easier to make excuses not to do it. It's easy to say, "Oh I ran twice this week, I can take a day off" or "I lifted Monday and Tuesday, do I really need to lift today?" This is the point where its easy to fall out of your routine, especially in the beginning. This is where it's up to you to be creative. You need to find a way to make it fun or better yet, figure out ways to keep it fun so you don't get to this point in the first place.
For example, I'm not a huge fan of running and it's often difficult to find the motivation to get out there and do my roadwork. So, I have to find things that make me want to go out and hit the pavement. I have a ton of little tricks to spike my motivation. I'll download a new song that I want to add to my playlist. I'll watch a movie that inspires me (almost anything with Stallone does it for me). I'll change my route. I'll change the way I train. I watch videos on youtube of people that inspire me (all I have to do is watch one video of Miguel Cotto training and I'm out the door).
If I get out there and I find I'm still lacking, I do things to make it fun. I'll shadow box and throw some punches while I'm running. I'll put on my music from "The Crow" soundtrack and I'll pretend I'm Brandon Lee jumping across rooftops and I'll leap from side to side (this is also good for conditioning anyway). I've run up the stairs at the Lincoln Memorial and acted out the stair scene from Rocky. I'll put on music from the Avengers and pretend I'm Iron Man shooting aliens with my repulsors. I'll have a good laugh at how stupid I probably look to the average observer, but I've accomplished my mission. I'm smiling, I'm having fun and before I know it, I'm through my miles.
If none of that works, do something different. The farther it is from what you normally do, the better. If you're a runner, do some body weight exercises like burpies, squats, planks, and push-ups. If you're a lifter, go for a run or do a high intensity interval training class. Go jump rope, take a yoga class, ride a bike, take a walk in the forest preserve, just do something. Get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself, but have fun. Exercise should be fun, whether it's getting up that hill you never made it up before or knocking out that extra rep on your bench that you failed to get last time.
Which brings me to the other half of the equation: Diet. First and foremost, a diet is not something you go on or go off. Your diet is what you consume everyday. It's the lifestyle you lead. If you're going to go lowfat, that's what you're diet is. It doesn't mean in six weeks you get to start eating shit again. If you're going low carb, guess what? In two months you don't get to start eating pasta and rice every day. Now, don't get me wrong, it's ok to cheat. I cheat all the time. In fact, I cheat almost daily. Hell, I just got done eating a bowl of Doritos and I had half a piece of German chocolate cake earlier. And you know what? They were fucking delicious. I ate the shit out of those motherfuckers and I'm not even sorry about it.
Do you know why I'm cool with that? It's because I'm not going to eat that stuff everyday and when I do, I know I have to compensate for it some place else. A slice of German chocolate cake means an extra mile tomorrow and it means no peanut butter in my protein shakes. It's ok to cheat. It really is. The idea you have to remember is to monitor your calorie consumption and what you're eating in general. The basic formula to remember is that you get 10 calories for every lb of your ideal body weight. If you want to weigh 150 lbs, you get 1500 calories. However, don't get pissed at yourself for drinking that Mocha Cookie Crumble from Starbucks (especially when you consider that they're fucking incredible), drink that shit up and love it, but make it a tall or go for skim milk and compensate for it some place else. It's not too difficult. I'm won't push a particular diet because everybody has their own beliefs, but if you're going to choose a diet make sure it's healthy, it's realistic and that it's something you can see yourself doing, well, forever.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Where it all began...
Where to begin... hmmm... Well I guess I'll start with how I got here. I kind of plan on making this a straight forward blog that talks about my training philosophies, diet regimen and, if anybody's interested, I'll answer a question or two. I'm not a very serious individual, nor am I very inhibited. I want this blog to be honest, fun and most important, humorous. So, I guess I'll just dive right in and talk about where I started.
Today was my first obstacle race and my first competitive race in about 5-6 years. Up until about two years ago, I was... well... a slob. I ate what I wanted, when I wanted with little regard for the consequences. I smoked, I drank and I sat around on my ass listening to it get bigger. Then I got, what I thought was, a wake-up call. The husband of one of my wife's friends, who is about my age, had his second open heart surgery. I was practicing several of the same habits that lead him down that path, so I decided it was time for a change, but how?
I had struggled with my weight for a long time. At this point, I was close to my all time high of 200 lbs, which may not sound like much, but it's a lot for a 5'7" - 5'8" frame. With that much weight, I felt like running was out. Besides, I hated running anyway. I decided to start with elliptical training. I even went so far as to buy an elliptical trainer for the house. I trained hard, too.
I kept up with the human hamster wheel for about six months and I was happy with it. I had "quit" smoking years before, but during this period, I finally kicked the habit permanently (well, I haven't had a cigarette in the last 15 months anyway). I kept drinking and I kept eating, but I felt like I was doing something. It was around this time that I met Renae from the Pentagon Athletic Center (PAC).
Quite frankly, Renae is a boss. She's in her mid-50's, a grandmother, she's tougher than my drill instructor and high school wrestling coach combined and she's in better shape than most 20-somethings. She runs the circuit training class at the PAC, which to this day, is the best workout I've ever had. Renae made me fall in love with fitness. It was her circuit training class that got me back in shape.
Her circuit training class focuses on hardcore, high intensity interval training (HIIT). She combines cardio conditioning with weight training into an intense, heart thumping, ass kicking hour long class. I credit her class for the endurance I now possess. It was after starting her class I decided to give running another chance. Thanks to her and her HIIT classes, I went from running 10-minute miles to 8-minute miles.
I think I'm going to end this first blog with my first experience in Renae's class. It was a Monday afternoon and I was standing outside, waiting for the class to start (I would later learn that her classes tend to start a few minutes late) and I saw a bunch of fat bodies who were also going to attend the class. The fat bodies were complaining about how tough the class had been on Friday and how they were still sore. I was chuckling inside. I was supremely confident in my elliptical training. I knew my phenomenal cardiovascular conditioning would make this instructor rue the day she ever met me.
When I walked in and saw this tiny woman, I knew for sure I would own this class. I went over to the sign-in sheet, signed in and grabbed the requisite equipment. The music started and we did some easy calisthenics for warm-ups and then we jogged around the room. After that, it was a blur of nausea, pain and sweat. I made it to the 40th minute of the 60 minute class before she pulled me aside and said "You're not looking so good and you're sweating a lot. This can be kind of intense if you haven't done this before. You're feeling dizzy, aren't you?" I responded, "Actually, I'm a little nauseous." She said, "Why don't you sit this one out?" and me, being utterly broken by this tiny woman, relented and said, "Yeah... Ok." Meanwhile, the fatbodies were still moving along while I sulked off on the side.
Today, a little less than two years later, I finished 21st out of a field of about 2500 in Run Amuck. In addition to the love I get from my family, the training I do on my own, and the litany of support I get from a host of other areas, a lot of the credit for my performance today goes to that little bitty ball of energy that knows how to kick ass. Thank you, Renae. You'll never know how much you've helped me.
Today was my first obstacle race and my first competitive race in about 5-6 years. Up until about two years ago, I was... well... a slob. I ate what I wanted, when I wanted with little regard for the consequences. I smoked, I drank and I sat around on my ass listening to it get bigger. Then I got, what I thought was, a wake-up call. The husband of one of my wife's friends, who is about my age, had his second open heart surgery. I was practicing several of the same habits that lead him down that path, so I decided it was time for a change, but how?
I had struggled with my weight for a long time. At this point, I was close to my all time high of 200 lbs, which may not sound like much, but it's a lot for a 5'7" - 5'8" frame. With that much weight, I felt like running was out. Besides, I hated running anyway. I decided to start with elliptical training. I even went so far as to buy an elliptical trainer for the house. I trained hard, too.
I kept up with the human hamster wheel for about six months and I was happy with it. I had "quit" smoking years before, but during this period, I finally kicked the habit permanently (well, I haven't had a cigarette in the last 15 months anyway). I kept drinking and I kept eating, but I felt like I was doing something. It was around this time that I met Renae from the Pentagon Athletic Center (PAC).
Quite frankly, Renae is a boss. She's in her mid-50's, a grandmother, she's tougher than my drill instructor and high school wrestling coach combined and she's in better shape than most 20-somethings. She runs the circuit training class at the PAC, which to this day, is the best workout I've ever had. Renae made me fall in love with fitness. It was her circuit training class that got me back in shape.
Her circuit training class focuses on hardcore, high intensity interval training (HIIT). She combines cardio conditioning with weight training into an intense, heart thumping, ass kicking hour long class. I credit her class for the endurance I now possess. It was after starting her class I decided to give running another chance. Thanks to her and her HIIT classes, I went from running 10-minute miles to 8-minute miles.
I think I'm going to end this first blog with my first experience in Renae's class. It was a Monday afternoon and I was standing outside, waiting for the class to start (I would later learn that her classes tend to start a few minutes late) and I saw a bunch of fat bodies who were also going to attend the class. The fat bodies were complaining about how tough the class had been on Friday and how they were still sore. I was chuckling inside. I was supremely confident in my elliptical training. I knew my phenomenal cardiovascular conditioning would make this instructor rue the day she ever met me.
When I walked in and saw this tiny woman, I knew for sure I would own this class. I went over to the sign-in sheet, signed in and grabbed the requisite equipment. The music started and we did some easy calisthenics for warm-ups and then we jogged around the room. After that, it was a blur of nausea, pain and sweat. I made it to the 40th minute of the 60 minute class before she pulled me aside and said "You're not looking so good and you're sweating a lot. This can be kind of intense if you haven't done this before. You're feeling dizzy, aren't you?" I responded, "Actually, I'm a little nauseous." She said, "Why don't you sit this one out?" and me, being utterly broken by this tiny woman, relented and said, "Yeah... Ok." Meanwhile, the fatbodies were still moving along while I sulked off on the side.
Today, a little less than two years later, I finished 21st out of a field of about 2500 in Run Amuck. In addition to the love I get from my family, the training I do on my own, and the litany of support I get from a host of other areas, a lot of the credit for my performance today goes to that little bitty ball of energy that knows how to kick ass. Thank you, Renae. You'll never know how much you've helped me.
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