Fit Report – March 26th, 2012 – Cardio Day

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Greg

wicWell, just like that, winter is back. I guess the Starks were right, at least in the short term.

Come back Spring!

What the heck, amIright? 17º C yesterday, 3º C today. Brrr. Fortunately it’s not cold in the gym. Back for another cardio day today, and the raw throat that comes with it. Not nearly so bad as my first try back a few weeks ago, but my full-length cardio days are still playing hell with my throat and my breathing. It is getting better, so I won’t complain about it. Too much…

I still need to make my appointment with the doctor to determine if I’d benefit from custom orthotics. I really need to get on this, because I want to be able to run again this year, after taking a couple of years off. I miss it, but that might just be tinted with nostalgia. I’m sure once I start again I’ll be thinking “Why did I want to do this again? Did I actually like this stitch in my side? Damn it’s hot out here…”

In the meantime, stuck inside on the ArcTrainer. At least I burned a few more calories. Here’s what I did on it today:

  • ArcTrainer – 45 minutes at level 9 (~790 cal)
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Fit Report – March 23rd, 2012 – Abs/Core

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Greg

Hey! Another week with more than one workout! Go me! Someone give that man a hero biscuit!

What? It’s a start…

Really had to make myself go today, though. I can’t wait until this becomes habit again, and I don’t have to have this internal struggle with myself. I can hear this little voice in my head trying to justify to me why I shouldn’t go to the gym today. Of course, most of those reasons come down to “I don’t wanna!”, so that’s not really an effective argument. (Or it shouldn’t be. You’d be surprised how often that argument wins.)

But hey, I went, and I’m glad I did. Made a bit of progress, I think. Progress in that I increased some weights, and some reps, and that even though it hurt I stuck it out and finished my routine. I even remembered my watch today to time planks, although I almost forgot it at the gym. Only noticed that I’d left it on the gym floor when I was getting dressed to go back to work…

One nice thing about today’s workout was that the gym was pretty much deserted. Not sure why that was, but I’ll take it. I don’t like having to wait for equipment, so days like these are fantastic.

Gonna try and do at least three workouts next week, possible four. I don’t have any appointments through the week, so barring illness or the unforeseen, I should be able to do it. I think for the time being, I’m going to concentrate on abs/core, legs/back, and cardio. My arms tend to get a pretty good workout on the legs/back days, so I think I’m getting most of my muscle groups in those days.

FR0022Oh, one more thing. I had my physical on Monday, and my doctor asked me if my shoulder was feeling better since the last time I saw him. I couldn’t say that it was feeling 100%, so he’s sending me for an MRI a month from today to get it looked at.  Thank goodness for socialized health care. You may have to wait a bit, but at least it doesn’t cost you your home.

He’s also given me the name of a doc to go see about custom orthotics for my shoes, to see if I can get back to running without knee pain. Hopefully this guy can help me out (and I can probably get a shoe recommendation as well).

Read on for today’s workout breakdown. …but wait, there’s more! »

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Fit Report – March 21st, 2012 – Legs/Back

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Greg

omamThe best laid plans, eh?

Last week’s cold did indeed end up sidelining my workouts for the week. I actually took a sick day from work on Wednesday (on what, to that point, had been the nicest day of the year. Yeah, stuck inside with a cold on a warm, sunny March day…).  Fortunately, my fears over giving the cold to Lily seem to be mostly unfounded at this point. She’s had a few sniffles, but is none the worse for wear.

But man, am I feeling sluggish these days. Tired, run down, you name it. And I can’t really blame it on the cold, or a lack of sleep (if there’s anyone lacking in sleep, it’s my poor wife; the late night feedings take their toll). I’m pretty sure it’s my lack of exercise, and my less than stellar food choices.

I’ve already talked at length about getting back into the routine, so I’m not going to bore you with that again. I’m surprised at how hard it’s been to make myself get back to the gym, though, and how hard it’s been to watch what I eat. The afternoon snacks and the dinnertime portion control (or lack thereof) are hurting me, and I’m having trouble with the healthy eating commitment. Maybe it’s time to think about bringing back the food journal. That was a pretty good tool for helping me to keep myself in line. Definitely have to think on that one.

As for the exercise, I just need to start forcing myself to go. So today I did. Actually did better at my cardio today, and increased weight and tried to improve my form on my exercises. The form thing makes a huge difference. It’s amazing how much more difficult an exercise can seem once you start doing it the right way. It’s like you’ve been fooling yourself into thinking you’re lifting or pulling a certain weight, because you’re allowing your body to cheat at the exercise, by getting other muscles involved besides the ones you’ve been targeting, or by not doing the full range of motion on an exercise. Gotta watch out for that. Nothing like bad form while lifting weight to hurt yourself. No thanks.

Anyway, read on for today’s workout breakdown. …but wait, there’s more! »

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Fit Report – March 12th, 2012 – Cardio Day

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Greg

I’ve discovered that a great way to pass the time while slogging it out on the cardio equipment is watching me some Game of Thrones. It really melts away the minutes, while I try and melt away the pounds.

It’s a good thing I’m watching it on my iPhone, though, instead of a tablet or something larger like that. Nothing says awkward like watching some drama, or some action-y part and then out of the blue, ‘OMG SURPRISE BOOBIES!!!’  Of course I’ve read the books, so this shouldn’t be a surprise, but then you can’t really know what’s going to make it into the series, or how they’re going to edit it. Thank goodness for the (really) small screen.

Speaking of the cardio (since that’s the topic today), I made myself get back to full-length, full resistance (back to what I used to do). Made sure to have a water bottle handy this time, too. The machine shuts off if you jump off it for a minute to get a drink from the fountain, and then you have to guess at your time/calorie count when you resume. It was a tough slog, but I’m glad I did it.

Good thing I chose today, too. I’m starting to get this scratchy feeling in my throat, which I’m sure means a cold.

ias

Not that Scratchy, although I'm sure my throat will feel like they've been at it soon enough.

So looking forward to feeling like crap, and then feeling like crap emotionally if I manage to give it to my daughter. Not looking forward to that, but it’s not like I can avoid her, either. *sigh*

Anyway, here’s what I managed to do at the gym today:

  • ArcTrainer – 45 minutes at level 9 (~785 cal)
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Lillian at Two Months

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Greg

Wow! Two whole months! Our little girl is growing up so fast!

LDA00002She’s changed so much since last month. She’s much more alert, and she smiles! Oh man, the smiles! She’s been smiling to herself for a while now, but these days she smiles in reaction to things that we do, and in that instant you forget how she was up half the night fussing, or screamed all afternoon, and you just fall in love all over again.

She’s getting so big and strong. She holds her head up on her own when you hold her upright, and she’s a pro at tummy time already. And she loves a good game of ‘hold me up while I kick off of your lap’ (hopefully your lap; sometimes her aim is a bit off, and the game has to pause for a minute). She’s about 10 and a half pounds, and is growing out of a lot of her 0-3 month outfits. Time to take inventory on our 3-6 month outfits and see if we have enough.

She still spends most of her alert time looking at anything but Mom and Dad, but she’s concentrating on us a lot more than she was a month ago. And she has so much more of that alert time. Unfortunately, a bunch of it is fussing time, which seems to fall in the late afternoon/early evening most days, but hopefully she’ll grow out of it soon.

I have to say I’m so grateful for FaceTime on my iPhone, because it lets me see my little girl during the day, and it’s so nice to see her looking at my image on my wife’s iPod and responding to my voice. Makes the workday just that little bit better, ya know?

I’ll leave you with a little video that my wife took during Lily’s photo shoot. We were given a couple of Sing-a-ma-Jigs for our baby shower, and they certainly hold her attention.

We love that little noise she makes after she sneezes. Kills us every time. :)

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Fit Report – March 9th, 2012 – Abs/Core

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Greg

Hooray! First time I’ve worked out two days in a row since October! Jeez, that’s sad. Had to convince myself to go, but I did manage to get over there and put in an abs workout.

This is going to take some doing to get back into this routine. For the first little while, I’m going to be very sore, different muscle groups every day. Already I’m sore from yesterday. But I’ve done that before, and I can do it again. It’ll only hurt for a little while, and it’ll be worth it.

FR0021

Sometimes I swear I can hear them saying this...

It’s tough when you haven’t done it in a month. I stuck with what I said yesterday, and increased weights on some exercises, and yes, I did do my planks, although I forgot my watch and so had to count out the time in my head. I’m sure it wasn’t terribly accurate.

Read on for today’s workout breakdown. …but wait, there’s more! »

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Fit Report – March 8th, 2012 – Legs/Back

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Greg

Oh man, I am beat. Tired and sore.

I decided I needed to push myself a bit at the gym today. No pussyfooting around, no easing myself back into it at the leisurely pace I was before. No, I’m going to push myself just a little bit harder than that.

Not too hard, though. I’m not crazy. Okay, maybe a little, but that’s beside the point.

wf_c2

Shut up, tranked out Will Ferrell, you don't know me.

Anyway, the lighter side of pushing myself included going right back to my maximum resistance on the ArcTrainer and adding two minutes to my cardio, plus adding back some more weight and two more exercises to today’s back routine. I’m going to add more weight each time I work out, at least for a little while, at least until I can’t get in the total number of reps I want, and work my way up from there. My body can do it, it just needs to remember how.

So yeah, more weight, new(old) exercises. Added back one set each of step-ups and lat pull-downs. Oddly enough, it didn’t seem to be the major muscles I was trying to work out with these exercises that suffered. My back and legs, while absolutely getting a work out, handled the exercise fine. My forearms, however, were no longer used to making my hands grip that much weight that hard. That’s probably going to be the hardest part of adding weight to those exercises.

But I will do it! See if I don’t. You don’t believe me? I’ll show you, imaginary pessimistic Internet people. And shut up, Will Ferrell, that’s enough out of you!

Ahem…

Anyway, I think tomorrow will be my favourite (read ‘most hated’) workout. Gotta get back to doing abs/core. And I’m writing it down here, so I can’t back out of it. I will do planks tomorrow. Guaranteed.

Read on for today’s workout breakdown. …but wait, there’s more! »

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A Shot in the Arm

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Greg

Well, actually two shots. In the legs. And an oral vaccine.  But not for me. For my little girl.

And I gotta say, she was a trooper.

My wife and I were both nervous going into today’s doctor’s visit.  Neither one of us was particularly looking forward to having the doc jab needles into our baby, but it had to be LDA00003done. (Not getting into a debate about vaccinations here.)

Now many friends and family members had told us of their experiences with shots. Their baby didn’t even notice, their baby only cried for a second or two, their baby got a fever and aches, their baby had no reaction at all, their baby was inconsolable for days, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The lesson we took away from all of that is this: every baby is different. Which, when it really comes down to it, applies to almost every experience you’ll ever have with your baby, as far as I can tell.

I had to suck it up, be the brave one and hold her as she got her shots. As for our little mite, she took the first one surprisingly well, barely a flinch. Then as Dr. B got the second syringe ready, he said “She probably won’t like this one. The medicine stings a bit”, and sure enough, that one elicited a small cry for a few seconds. Strangely enough, the oral vaccine he squirted in her mouth caused the largest outcry, but then we know she doesn’t like strange objects in her mouth (she only occasionally tolerates a soother). In fact, the car ride home was probably the most traumatic part of the whole ordeal. (Our baby is a speed demon. She likes car rides as long as the car is going over 80 km/h, and doesn’t ever stop.)

Now that the hard part, such as it is, is out of the way, we wait. Wait to see just how Lily’s system reacts to the shots. Hopefully there’ll be no fever, and aches and pains will be at a minimum. She’s already going through a fussy phase where she wants to be held all the time, and I can only imagine that this will make it worse for a few days. Could be a sleepless night or two in store for us.

Oh well, if there are, they won’t be the first ones, and they certainly won’t be the last.

Now to do it all over again in two months…

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Fit Report – March 5th, 2012 – Cardio Day

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Greg

Okay, it’s time for shit to get serious.

wss

Supervillains ask all the really tough questions. Like 'What's so wrong about blowing up people who annoy you?'

That’s a really good question there, Joker.

Why so serious? Well, a couple of reasons. Let me expound on this for you.

  1. I have a physical in just over two weeks.
  2. I haven’t worked out in over two weeks.
  3. Since my last weigh-in, I’ve apparently gained 4 lbs. Holy hell, WTF is up with that?

I can tell you what’s up with that. A few things, really. First, like I said, I haven’t been to the gym all that often. At this point we might as well say ‘at all’.  Why is that? Yes, I’ve been tired, but in reality, thanks to my wife’s Herculean efforts, I haven’t been missing out on too much sleep. Work hasn’t really been getting in the way, and we’ve only had one appointment for our tiny overlord in the last few weeks. The simple answer is I’ve been lazy. I’ve been using the baby as an excuse to not go to the gym, because I’d rather sit at my desk and read a book at lunch.  That stops today. Back to working out 3-4 times a week.

Secondly, I’ve been eating terribly. Absolutely horribly. I’m talking outsized portions, seconds, snacks, fast food, calorific treats from Starbucks with my afternoon coffee. Eating beyond the point at which I feel full. Old habits that I thought I’d conquered, but have reared their ugly heads again. Old habits that will probably be hard to break again, but hopefully not as hard as they were to break in the first place.

And as for that physical, I’ve been putting it off for about three months. I shouldn’t have been, but part of me wanted to wait until I reached my target weight. I know that’s silly, but there you go. Probably would have put it off further if our doctor hadn’t said “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you” when we took Lily for her first visit last week, so I made an appointment on our way out. I’d really prefer to be back under 160 again by the time the 20th rolls around, so I’ve got two weeks to shed a couple of pounds. I should be able to do it if I stay disciplined with my exercise and eating. I can do this.

It’s time to get serious.

Anyway, as for the gym, today I decided to get myself back into it with some cardio. Nothing major; 35 minutes on the ArcTrainer at level 8, approximately 500 calories or so (ArcTrainer shut off when I stepped off to get a drink, so I’m guessing here. Need to remember to bring a water bottle with me next time).

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Fit Report – February 16th, 2012 – Legs/Back

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Greg

Okay, so yeah, it has been over a week since the last(first) time I went to the gym this year. Shame on me, I know. Stuff gets in the way, though, and we move on and get back when we can. And today, I could. So I did.

Okay, I gotta say that I take a kind of perverse pleasure in watching the Food Network while I do my cardio. Usually when I’m at the gym, though, it’s not cooking shows on, so much as it’s Iron Chef, or Restaurant Impossible or something. I tend to find straight up cooking shows a bit boring, myself. Today, however, I happened to do my cardio while Paula Deen’s show was on. My gawd… I swear to you I could feel my blood sugar rising, my arteries hardening, and my IQ dropping just watching that show. Remember, “Fat equals flavour, y’all…”. Yeesh.

pd

Paula will eat your soul. But first she'll drown it in butter...

Alrighty then, back to the workout. I decided today would be a legs/back day because for the last little while, I’ve been getting that impingement kind of feeling lately in both of my shoulders (as opposed to just my right), and I think I’ve figured out why.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been walking around in the early morning and the evening holding our daughter and rocking her to calm her down when she fusses. And that’s putting a strain on my shoulders, arms and chest, while doing nothing for my back (other than providing middle back pain). Can you believe our little girl weighs over nine pounds now? Imagine holding that weight cradled to your chest and bouncing it up and down for 20 minutes straight. It’s a heck of a workout.

I basically did my usual legs/back routine, but I had to cut off the last two exercises due to time constraints. Like my recent(ish) abs/core workout, I reduced weights since I hadn’t done this since the end of October… *sigh* 

PS. Cardio went much, much better today than last week. I’ll probably stay at level 8 for a few more sessions and then bump it back up to 9.

PPS. Seriously Goodlife? This is what you’re advertising in the locker room? It was bad enough when you were trying to pass off chocolate milk as an after workout energy drink… (apologies for the motion blurred image)

 

LS_deal

Anyway, workout breakdown is after the break. …but wait, there’s more! »

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