Hi there ! Ok, I am back to update my check in, finally (!) ... and write a recap for the month of september ... First, the stats, it was a so-so month but in general, I was rather happy despite ups and downs, at least it ended very well. Most of the downs were in the middle part of the month, if I had been good there i would have lost 5 pounds this month easily.
I started the month at 210 and ended it at 208, so a 2 pound loss, not fantastic, but it's alright, I'll do better next time ... the funny thing is I wasn't even weighing in for a week straight before today thinking it would be a lousy result so I was actually pretty happy to see "208" on the scale this morning ... I ended the month quite well too with 4-5 good days in a row so now I feel confident I can lose another 4 pounds
in october if I apply myself. My usual problem is the up and down, I am good for 5 days in a row and then I have 2 bad days
and gain back whatever I had lost the 5 previous days, still working on that trying various things ... the main thing is the booze while watching NFL games and also pizza of course, the 2 go together.
September, big change lately with the booze situation : I have been cutting down on booze since the past 2 weeks and it seems to help, it's not the calories in the alcohol that can cause problems for me, it's the excessive eating ... that occurs sometimes when I am having too much of a good time.
For example I would have 5 beers during an evening watching football with friends and then I would have salt cravings and eat almost a whole pizza by myself ... so i cut down to 3 beers instead and i can handle it much better, I am able to resit the temptations better when I cut down the alcohol by almost half ...
I am still tempted by the pizza of course but since i haven't had that much alcohol,
I am able to handle it more easily. When you have a lot of alcohol, you don't really care about your diet, it makes you lose your self control ... since I have cut down by almost half I haven't had those problems.
I know in every diet book they say cut down the alcohol entirely but I lost 90 pounds within a year and I was still having a good time 4-5 times per month at least watching sports, moftly football, my favorite, hockey during the winter season. It's really alright
as long as I don't binge eat after having had those few beers or wine glasses ... when I don't binge eat watching sports I am losing weight even if I have some alcohol, I just have to be more reasonable so I cut down from 5 to 3.
2nd thing is I know I have a really hard time resisting certain foods so I am trying to ban buying excessive amounts of those foods ... I have trouble with cereals, salty crackers, cookies, peanut butter ... I'm not even talking about the usual suspects, chips, ice cream, cakes, donuts and whatnot because I don't even buy those at all but once in a while I see a good deal on crackers or cereals for example so I buy 4-5 boxes and keep them in the pantry thinking they should last a couple of months but of course that doesn't work and 2 weeks later all 4-5 boxes are gone and I have gained weight again, thinking, why did I do that ? It's stupid ... so I won't buy more than 1 box at a time of those items I have trouble resisting ... seems to help me right now, when the food is not available, I am not going through the trouble of going to the store and buying it, then coming back ...
September, exercise ... I was actually lazy during the middle of the month, I didn't exercise 9 days in a row, rare for me, happens once every 6 months. (I had the flu a few of those days but it was only for 4 days, not 9 !) The beginning and the ending of the month, I was spot on though, exercising 5-6 times per week. Also I was thinking maybe I was exercising too much actually,making me more hungry in the end ... during the month there was a study done somewhere revealing it's better not to train for more than 30 min. per day or else you get too hungry and the extra calories actually slow you down compared to only working out 30 min. and not overeating as much.
Plus I do high intensity stuff, interval training and whatnot where I am pushing myself as hard as I possibly can ... so even my 30 min. is probably worth an hour or more for someone who is not exercising with that intensity .... anyway. I try that at the moment too, no more than 28-32 min. very intense 5 times per week at least and I'll try not to go 9 days without working out as well (!) ... better to do a lil' bit, even 10 minutes, than nothing.
study here :
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/08/2 ... as-1-hour/
I am forced to move my work outs indoors now too with the cold temperatures, so i'm back with the no equipment
work outs inside, calisthenics are back replacing cycling and sprinting ... I do my beloved jumping jacks, squat jumps, push ups, planks, etc. Squat jumps are really good to get your heart pumping as well, doing those more now especially with my shorter work outs ... I need high intensity stuff that will make me sweat bullets and exhausted in a shorter period of time. I need exercises that I will only be able to do for 28-32 minutes, no more so they have to be hard to do, not easy.
Squat jumps, warning, if you have not done those before, try to do them but not excessively at first or else
your legs (quads) will be sore for 2 days later on ... I always say that, but I am always exaggerating and end up sore for 2 days anyway, don't make the same mistake I always make, be smarter, lol ! ...
The day after doing too many fast hard squat jumps for the first time in a while I am walking like an old man, especially going down stairs, that's quite painful ... but your body get used to it and after a few times its really not that bad. Now after having done them a few times I am not that sore the next day.
Squat jumps aka "Frog leaps" :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVaEhXotL7M
Those burn a lot of calories if you do them hard and fast and I was experimenting with them since last year when I wanted to find a no equipment exercise that would be good to get my heart rate way up, up in the 150's-160's even doing just 10 fast and jumping high too. Plus I always like an exercise you can do without having no equipment at all.
Ok, that's about it ... cya in a lil' while.
Marc
SW : 210 Sept. 1st, 2012.
GW : 200, by Dec. 1st 2012.
CW : 208, Oct. 1st 2012.