Day twenty. (In which I realize that I missed my Monday update.)

So I might have forgotten to update on Monday. I would say that there was a good reason, but there is none. I simply forgot. Regardless, it's been a busy few days. The weekend was great, which started with a great breakfast prepared by one of mine and The Lovely Fiancee's friend. The two of them went to go try on wedding stuff while I grabbed a quick meal at one of the food places near by where they were. We also went and saw Inception, which was fantastic and very entertaining. I recommend, strongly recommend, it to everyone. Due to how busy of a day it was, The Lovely Fiancee and I decided to take that Saturday off instead of Sunday.

Sunday, we simply went to the gym and did 33 minutes on the elliptical to keep active.

Monday, we did a quick workout and tried a free protein bar. It sucked.

Tuesday, was a quick 33 minute elliptical use.

That brings us to today. I'm about 75% sure that the tRainer is trying to kill me and The Lovely Fiancee. He's getting results and doing what he is supposed to, but everything hurts while working out. More so than usual. We did a lot of arm work as well as abdominal work and didn't use any of the machines whatsoever. It's shocking how much you can do while barely using any weights and how much it can help you in order to get more/back into shape. The reason I believe that the tRainer is trying to kill me is because after finishing the last set on the circuit training and giving my all to complete said final set, the tRainer looks at us and says those horrible words, "Give me six minutes of going hard on the bike, then you're done." Now everything hurts and I'm still trying to summon energy to do simply things.....like hold up a book.

Not sure if I'll be updating Friday but I'll try to get one more in during the weekend. If I am unable, have a great weekend and see you Monday.

Day fifteen. (In which I reveal that I am a nerd)

Today me and The Lovely Fiancee finally got the training session we have been trying to get all week! It hurt. But that's to be expected. We did circuit training for a full hour and by the end of it all I was pretty much one mass of sweat being held together by clothing only. This was also partially due to having the heat index today being the hottest day of the year at roughly 103 degrees. Fortunately, I was somewhat prepared for this by growing up mostly in Virginia, where not only is it constantly in the 90's to 100's rang in heat in the summer, but it also is amazingly humid. You want hell? Try football from 6AM until 6-7PM on days like that in Virginia in full pads. That's hell.

Regardless, it was a great workout. Circuit workouts are the best way to go, in my opinion. What these entail, basically, is work hard, get your heart rate up and never let it go down. This help burn calories/fat much faster while building muscle. But as I have gone over this before, I shall stop there.

Today was also a picnic that The Lovely Fiancee had with her work place. Mandatory Fun as she/her co-workers called it, as they had to be there no matter what. I got to meet a lot of people and and had lots of fun.

Tonight, I believe, is a bar night. Though this is different than usual. Normally, I'll go out with friends to go drinking, however this time is for trivia. Not normal trivia, mind you, but comic book trivia. And thus, my geekdom/nerdness is revealed. Tonight is "Heroes," tomorrow is "villians," and next Friday is "Comic book movies." Have a good weekend everyone, see you Monday.

Day thirteen. Slow Day.

Not much to tell today. Me and The Lovely Fiancee were supposed to have a day with the trainer but that never happened. We went to the gym at the time we were supposed to have the session but turns out that another trainer was supposed to call us to reschedule so basically our session was canceled and the person who was supposed to call us never did. In theory we have an appointment tomorrow...if she calls us to set it up.

So we'll see what happens tomorrow, see you Friday.

Day eleven. (Hardee's now has a footlong cheeseburger!)

Sorry that this is being posted so late!

The Lovely Fiancee and I have decided that Sunday will be a day of rest from now on. This is a good idea because now I can workout and do cardio and lifting Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and not mess up my rotation. So not only will I be updating here on those days, I'll also be doing an intense workout with cario and lifting. It also seems that Wednesday is also going to be the personal trainer day.

In other news I appear to be losing weight. I know that in the first post I said I was 300 pounds. Well, when I went to the gym and used the scale there it said 302. However, when I weighed myself today I was at around 298. A loss of about 4 pounds in about a week and a half.....this pleases me greatly. I hope to keep it up. Eating right and going to the gym as well as listening to the trainer has really helped and I'm starting to feel better. I've pretty much stopped going to fast food places. At least for the past month or so I haven't been to one. My snacks are no longer fattening or unhealthy items like cookies. Instead they have been replaced with yogurt or a piece of fruit. And the food I make tends to be filled with flavor caused by spices or food combinations and not fat or grease.

I'm also doing really well at the whole eating in the morning thing. I'm also not eating huge huge meals and am instead having smaller meals supplemented with health snacks. Any sodas I drink are now diet (hey, let me have this one, at least I'm not downing chocolate with fruit and claiming it to be healthier than regular chocolate because of the fruit part). I did not realize that regular sodas had so many calories. I'd rather drink something that has 0-3 calories in it than 150-180 in it per can. And while I still drink soda (diet...we've been over this) I'm not really craving sweet things. I don't drool over Snickers ads on tv or get a dreamy look in my eye when a Dairy Queen commercial comes on. I feel that after a week in a half this is a good sign. While this may not last, I'm still glad that I have no sugary cravings. Meat on the other hand....oh boy. It's probably good that I cut back on the red meat anyway.

Recently my mom sent me a cherry pitter that I was having trouble finding. This now mean that I can have fresh cherries, maybe with a small scoop of ice cream, without looking like I just left a murder scene due to pitting them myself with a knife.

Maybe tomorrow I'll pick up some cherries. They do sound tasty.

Day eight. (Dreaming of a double cheeseburger, extra cheese)

Today I got up somewhat early so I could get my workout done early. This is due to the fact that a friend is coming to visit and it would be irritating for them if The Lovely Fiancee and I were at the gym around the time when they show up. Unfortunately, since I was in a rush to get out the door I forgot to eat something to get my metabolism started. I made a note to myself to get food as soon as I got home.

The workout plan for me today was a quick heart pumping workout on a stair climberesque machine to quickly get my heart rate up. Immediately after I got my heart rate up for the amount of time I wanted I jumped off and went to lift weights. I lifted weights for upper body and lower body today and found that I can do 360LBS on the leg press. Not as good as I used to be able to do back in high school when I still played football. But more than I though I would be able to do. Carrying all this extra weight though out the past few years has kept my leg muscles strong. I went quickly between machines doing 3 sets of 10 constantly keeping my heart rate up. After I was done lifting I jumped onto the elliptical machine for 12 minutes to finish out my workout.

By the time I got home I was exhausted. I drank some water and took out the Corgi reheated some leftovers from last night and proceeded to sit for a bit to regain some energy. Tonight will hopefully bring tasty stir fry food and the movie Inception. See you Monday, have a good weekend.

Day six. (I would murder for a huge steak)

Today was another day of working with my trainer. Instead of half a workout like last time I did a full work out which nearly killed me. We started out with a quick stair climbing exercise to get my heart rate up. Immediately after we started the workout.

This was done in order to keep my heart rate up and keep moving to help burn more calories. After about 35 minutes of the 45 minute session I had to sit out the rest of it due to feeling light headed. The trainer looked at me and asked "reminds you of football huh?" The answer was yes. He continued to work with my Lovely Fiancee while I sat and reminded myself that the work out was not nearly as hard a one football field suicide.

In case you don't know a football suicide is where you start at the back of one endzone and run to every line on the field. Basically, from the back of the endzone to the goal line, back to the back of the endzone, to the five yard line, back to the back of the endzone, to the ten yard line.....they are more or less one of the worst things ever.

My Lovely Fiancee and I decided that we will go with the plan where we meet with a trainer once a week with the option of going for six times a month without the price jumping to $200+. Therefore, the Lovely Fiancee and I will workout with a trainer four times a month and continue going to the gym everyday.

Day four or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the pain.

The first training session went amazingly well! I learned a little more about what exactly I should do to reach my goal in a way that won't kill me. My favorite part was when the trainer said that diets tend not to work because you aren't doing what is natural for your body. He stressed to eat healthier and to more or less just stay away from the things that are clearly fatty. For example, a Double Whopper with extra cheese or a Bic Mac. This will not be too difficult for me seeing as I tend not to eat a lot of fast food or candy. My problem is that even though I may be eating something healthy, I'll eat about 2-3 or even sometimes 4 times the amount I should be eating.

Anyway, back to the trainer. He seems like a nice guy and not a trainer that is more or less a drill instructor or someone who will be easy to push over and be able to cheat myself out of a workout. Hopefully, with his help at one time a week (all I can afford) he'll keep me in check as well as provide sheets of what I should be doing when I come to work out on days that are not my scheduled time. He will also help me by keeping track of how I'm progressing as the weeks go on. While the trainer is somewhat expensive, hence only being able to use home once a week, at least I will be getting my monies worth with all that he provides. All in all, I think having the trainer would be a great help in me reaching my goal.

Day three.

I've been working out for three days in a row now and I have to tell you it hurts like hell. I've forgotten just how painful working to lose weight and create muscle actually is. There is good reason for this. When you work out to gain muscle, you don't actually strain the muscle to make it stronger...you tear it. As you lift weights you create tiny little tears in the muscle that as they heal build itself back up. This is why your muscles can be incredibly sore the next day. However, if you are working out and and feel a tear that causes immediate intense pain, please, get help, that's a little too much tearing.

So far I've been averaging 2.22 miles on the elliptical machine, which is good. Previously my average mileage was 0.00 miles a day. That's kinda how I got into this whole mess in the first place. I can safely say that I'm already feeling effects. The first day of the elliptical I thought I was going to die. Not a sense of doom, but a feeling of the heart saying "screw you, I'm out," lungs burning, thighs aching and that metal taste in your mouth after you've pushed yourself while running. However, today I felt pretty good. While I was sweating the same, I didn't feel like I was about to keel over. I take this as a good sign.

Tomorrow I have a free personal training session which I believe is to last an hour. More on that later.

Day one. Again.

Two posts in one day. An anomaly, I assure you. Anyway, the previous post was from a time past mid-night making it today. This post is about the first work out.

Today I went to the Anytime Fitness that is where I plan on working out for the next few month/years. Yesterday I went there just to look around and get a feel for the place and walked away with a membership. Oh, and a free pen. The free pen was key. Since I signed up for the gym, I decided to go down there today and try it out. Other than the couple of times I worked out at the gym at my college, this was the first time doing a serious workout since high school. This gym had much more advanced equipment than that of my high school, which made it easier to use to work out because I didn't have to use only free weights.

I started off with using an elliptical machine. Though out the course of the day I ended up going a total of four miles on it totaling an hour and six minutes. In case you don't know, an elliptical machine simulates running on sand more or less. This causes less stress for the knees (which I need due to a football injury) and is an overall good way to burn calories.

After using the elliptical for 33 minutes, 28 workout and 5 cool down, I turned my focus to the weight machines. Back when I was in high school it was always stressed to do a day on and a day off. This meant that one day I would do upper body and the next day I would do lower body. This gives the upper body a day to be sore and heal while still working out a different muscle group. This, obviously, works both ways. So since this worked well last time, I decided to continue with this method.

I worked my upper body, pushing myself, which I know I'll pay for tomorrow when I wake up.


For comparison in the future, here is a picture of me as a before shot.

Day one.

I'm fat. Just putting that out there. I'm not one of those people who look in the mirror and think "I could stand to lose a couple of pounds." No. I'm 300 pounds. I past overweight years ago back around the time I was applying to colleges.

I used to play football back in High School. Those were the days when I was working out everyday, if not on the field, than in the gym. And because of the constant workouts, I was constantly hungry, so I ate accordingly. I got to the point where at my peak, I could bench press about 250 pounds. However, I stopped playing. This meant that while I was no longer playing football and constantly burning massive amounts of calories in doing so, I had not stopped eating the same way. This is part of what lead to me to gain so much weight.

But this is while I was still at home eating good meals that were prepared for me. Meals that were nutritious and balanced. However, I went off to college. With college came the cafeteria. This was not a college where there were many options of food. I went to a small liberal mid-west college that had one dining hall that was done in a buffet style. Even the healthy options really weren't the best. This was mostly due to the fact that food had to be made in large quantities so the best ingredients were not always used in favor of cheaper ingredients that could be bought in large quantities. Due to my new found freedom of all-you-can-eat dining, I quickly gained even more weight. Over all, I gained about 70 pounds, while at the same time I was losing muscle as a result of not continuing my workout as I had while I still played football.

While this is more or less the condensed version of how I got to this point, the idea behind this blog is that this is where I will keep myself on track in losing fat and gaining back muscle. My ultimate goal is to lose about 100 pounds though doing so could take years, if I ever even reach my goal.

I will be honest with what I do and chronicle my journey of losing weight. I'm pushing for updating Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. But as I go I may update more or less. So here I go, time to lose some weight.

Starting weight: 300lbs