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  ;-)