The 5 Minute Plank ...........will crush you

I took a one week break from working out because I had a big deadline, I am back now... Did a lot of research on working out this weekend, I found the following video on youtube and though it would be a piece of cake......ha, how wrong and ignorant I was.....
First watch this video



Looks easy right....go ahead try it. I tried it and I can tell you I was shaking like I was being tasered after only 2 minutes. My shoulders were burning like crazy. It is incredible that something this simple can cause so much pain and discomfort....but I am hooked I need to be able to do this for 5 minutes myself


The following plank has a lot more variety, here is what is involved

1. front elbow plank (FEP)
2. FEP w/ right arm elevated
3. FEP w/ left arm elevated
4. FEP w/ right leg elevated
5. FEP w/ left leg elevated
6. right arm and left leg elevated
7. left arm and right leg elevated
8. right side plank
9. left side plank
10. right side plank with leg up
11. left side plank with leg up
12. top of pushup position (TOPP)
13. TOPP w/ right arm up
14. TOPP w/ left arm up
15. TOPP w/ right leg up
16. TOPP w/ left leg up
17. TOPP w/ right arm and left leg up
18. TOPP w/ left arm and right leg up
19. right side plank, elbow locked
20. left side plank, elbow locked

Get more details for the second plank here http://physicalliving.com/the-5-minute-plank-for-core-strength-stability-and-rock-hard-abs/

Week 4 progress

The last two weeks have been uneventful in terms of my weigh loss goal. Today my weight was 183.6 on the scale, yes this is lower than last time I wrote a post but it is still only .2 pounds less than 2 weeks ago. So all in all I have lost 5 pounds since I started this 4 weeks ago. The last two weeks were also very busy at work and at home. I did manage to sneak in a considerable amount of junk and this really doesn't make me too happy.

The good thing about all of this is that I have stuff written here, I can look back on this and use it as motivation. I am glad that I still lost weight but I must admit that it does fluctuate, sometimes I will have a difference of 2 to 3 pounds between 2 days. I haven't really done any cardio in the last two weeks. I will try to run outdoors for 45 minutes this weekend, I just hate running on the treadmill and prefer the outdoors except when it is over 90 degrees and very humid

Finally, just like Tim Mitchel did, I am changing my weigh-in day to Friday.  The other #gethawt people all check in on Fridays

Week 2 progress

This week I only lost 0.3 pounds compared to last week, my total weight loss to date is 5.1 pounds. Between last Sunday and this Tuesday I actually gained almost 2 pounds. Looking at the bright side...I lost 2 pounds since Tuesday....

Now I understand why on the tv show The Biggest Loser...almost everyone gains in week two. Week one is pretty easy...almost effortless. Then in week two you take it a little easier and bam..you almost don't make any progress.....a lot of this also has to do with the fact that in week one you will lose a lot of water

I am 183.5 pounds right now..I am shooting for a 2 pound reduction by next Sunday. Unlike last Sunday and Monday, I will not be a pig this week and watch my portions.

Also as a 'fun' thing to do I decided that I would do 500 push-ups today, I did 110 so far and it is not even 9 AM :-)  I remember once as a kid we played poker but instead of money we did push-ups....I believe I had to do 400 or so in a two hour period, some people had to do more. The next two days was torture for all 4 or 5 of us, almost nobody could move there arms in a pushing movement without being in excruciating pain.

The book and DVD that I ordered last week did not arrive yet either...I blame the snow...would have been nice to watch it while it is crappy weather outside.

All in all I am happy that I weigh less this week than I did last week, I am not as happy about the fact that I almost didn't lose anything at all this week, but then again at least I didn't gain anything either.

Halfway through week 2

On Sunday I weighed 183.8 pounds, yesterday I weighed 185.6 pounds and today I weighed 185 pounds. The wine over the weekend weekend and my pig out lunch for Martin Luther King's day made me gain some weight. I am not really worried about this, I hope to be at 181.8 pounds by Sunday so that this week I will have lost 2 pounds. This means I have to lose 3.8 pounds by Sunday

I haven't worked out since last Wednesday but I just came back from the gym and am eating my lunch now. I have sweet potatoes and sauteed pork with onions and jalapeno slices for lunch. Did you notice that if you eat really spice food that you eat much slower than usual, if you eat really fast you sometimes overeat because your brain hasn't got the signal from your stomach that it is full

I have been also looking at stronglifts and their 5x5 program, it looks interesting and I might give it a try
I have also puchased the Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training DVD yesterday to help me with my technique in the deadlift, this DVD will arrive on Friday so I know what I will be watching Friday night. Talking about watching, I saw Black Swan last night...what a weird movie, reminded me a little bit of Vanilla Sky

I am definitely cutting out all the junk for the remainder of this week, this also means no wine this weekend, my goal is to make that 181.8 pounds weight...no excuses

A better coleslaw

Until I came to the United States I have never ever eaten cabbage that had mayonnaise in it. The version I used to eat is much healthier for you. Here is how you make it. Cut the cabbage in small pieces, add pepper, salt, olive oil and red wine vinegar. Put this in the refrigerator and let it sit for at least 2 hours, this will make the cabbage soft. I usually prepare it the night before, put it in the fridge and use it the next day. My kids love it and it is much healthier than the version with mayonnaise. Of course you can also make this with green cabbage. Bring it to work have it as a side with your sandwich instead of chips or fries

Week 1 progress

So today is the start of a new week. I have lost 4.8 pounds so far. I feel kind of embarrassed because I only worked out twice this week. I also had some junk food, here is a list of what it was for the whole week:

• Two small bags of chips
• A handful of M&Ms
• One serving of chocolate chip ice cream
• Five chocolate coins
• Two cans of soda

I did make sure that I did not overeat, I did not even once feel that I was really full.This was a very easy week and I am sure that most of the weight loss was water weight. Let's see what week two brings, I think three pounds for week two is a realistic goal.

Almost halfway through week one

I am almost halfway through week one, so far I have almost lost one pound. I decided to put a pic up here so that I can see the difference later, notice the big smile in the picture? Me, neither!

I cut out most of the junk so far, I haven't had soda since last year and to tell you the truth I don't miss it. I am drinking tea  instead of soda to get my caffeine fix. Today is a day off from the gym for me so this post will be pretty short

Reddit’s Guide to Fitness Infographic

Here is a real cool infographic that someone put together from all the posts on Reddit. I now know that GOMAD = Gallon Of (Whole) Milk A Day. They recommend this if you want to gain weight. There are a lot of things covered in this infographic, here are just a few

• What to do when you are gymless
• Equipment
• Cheapest diet for bulking up
• Food choices

This is just a part of the infographic

You can find the whole infographic on Mashable here: http://mashable.com/2012/01/02/reddit-guide-to-fitness-infographic-fittit/

Day two

Today was my second workout. Again I warmed up by running one mile. I ran this mile today in 8 minutes and 11 seconds, this is 17 seconds faster than yesterday. My goal is still to run this mile between 6 and 7 minutes by Memorial day.

After I warmed up I did a quick workout because I had to take care of some things back at my desk. I did one giant set four times, I did rest for one minute after each giant set


Giant Set
---------------
Squat
Pulldowns
Step up on bench
Shoulder presses
-----------------
Rest one minute


They way you do this is you do the squat, then you immediately do pulldowns, followed by the step up and finally you do the shoulder presses. You do between 8 and 12 reps for each set. You do not rest between these 4 sets. When you are done with all 4 sets, you rest for one minute. Now you repeat this three more times for a total of 16 sets.

I am focusing on the big muscle parts for now, it is much harder to do squats than bicep curls. Your biceps and triceps will get a workout when you do chest exercises and back  exercises anyway. I am not working out to become Mr Olympia anyway  ;-)

The first day......

So today was really the first day that I started this new way of living. I had oatmeal with a little cinnamon for breakfast. I walked 40 minutes to the train station, there I grabbed a van to work. At work I had an apple as a snack and then I hit the gym. To warm up, I ran a mile on the treadmill, it took me 8 minutes and 28 seconds to run that mile. This isn't terribly bad but I hope to shave a minute or two off by memorial day.

After I warmed up, I did a quick workout. The workout consisted of two giant sets (supersets)

The first giant set consists of four exercises, these are done without rest, after you get to the last one, you rest for 1 minutes. This is repeated 3 more times for a total of 16 sets

Giant Set One
Deadlift
Explosive push up
Bulgarian split squat
Two Point Dumbell Row Elbow out

The seconds giant set consists of four exercises, these are done without rest, after you get to the last one, you rest for 1 minutes. This is repeated 1 more times for a total of 8 sets

Giant Set Two
Deadlift off box
Dumbell bench press
Lunge side bend
Cable seated row


After this was done, I did some crunches, showered and went back to my desk.

Now this is how you do pistol squats

Pistols squats are probably one of the hardest body weight exercises that you can do. It involves balance and muscle control, go down to fast and you will fall over. It might look easy when you look at it but I bet you you won't be able to do even one of these the first time you try it. Here is how you do it
 

 Simple right? Go ahead try.....and fail miserably..I did the first time, you will too :-) After you try and fail, watch this video, it is insanity

 

Mighty Leaf Tea, one of my favorite teas

For someone who does not drink coffee there are not many choices to get their caffeine fix, you can drink tea or you can drink soda. Since I cut out all of the soda I am stuck with tea. I either drink my tea hot or cold. The once I drink hot are Lady Grey, Earl Grey and other breakfast teas. The ones I drink cold are green and white teas. I discovered Mighty Leaf tea when I was staying in a hotel in Pennsylvania.I like Mighty Leaf Tea, I think their teas taste great. The teas are indvidual wrapped as you can see in the picture below

I like Organic Spring Jasmine and White Orchard. Amazon has these teas, so does Wegman's, I did not find them at Whole Foods. I think you should try it, you will be pleasantly surprised.

Cholesterol and triglycerides

The real reason I started this blog is really because I want need to lower my cholesterol as well as my triglycerides. Here is what my numbers look like from my checkup 2 weeks ago

Triglycerides 190
Total Cholesterol 240

• LDL-Cholesterol 166 
• HDL-Cholesterol 36 

Cholesterol /HDL-Cholesterol ratio 6.66

The ratio between total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol  should be below 5, mine is 6.66 (240/36)

As you can see these numbers are pretty bad for a person who is 41 years old. I basically have to cut out the sugars and most of the bad fats from my diet. The problem is that I don't really eat bad fats, I think it is mostly hereditary. My blood pressure was excellent as well as the rest of the blood work

188.6 points, my current weight

At this moment I weigh 188.6 pounds, my height is 5 feet and 10 inches. For the last 5 or 6 years I have not been very active, I would not call myself obese or even overweight but I could definitely loose some pounds.

So this year I decided to do something about it, my goal is to be 160 pounds by memorial day.

I decided to tackle this in a couple of ways.

1. Weigh myself daily and put it into an excel sheet and watch the chart
2. Write down all the foods that I eat
3. Keep a workout journal
4. Maintain a list of banned foods

Weigh myself daily and put it into an excel sheet and watch the chart

I bought a new scale, it is the Eatsmart Precision Plus Digital Bathroom Scale with Ultra Wide Platform and Step-on Technology. It is a nice scale, it got good reviews and it does increments of .2 pounds. I will weigh myself daily, plug the numbers into Excel and then I will insert a chart, hopefully the chart will go down not up over time  :-)

Write down all the foods that I eat

To understand why you don't loose weight, you need to keep a journal of all the food you eat, if you see that you don't loose weight, you can look back at the food that you ate.

Keep a workout journal

It is important to switch your workouts, you can't do the same workout day in day out for weeks. You need to alternate between workouts so that your body is not used to do the same thing over and over again

Maintain a list of banned foods

Some of the foods that I will not touch until I reach my goal are

• Sodas and diet sodas
• Junk food...I don't really eat any so called fast food like McDonalds, Wendy's or Burger King but I do like my chocolate and other sweets like cake.
• I also think I eat too much portion wise, I need to control that, maybe I will eat at a slower pace that way I won't overeat

That is it for this post