Went to a Dietitian

Workout wise everything is on track. My long run included 3 laps of stairs, went for 1 hour and 32 minutes and took almost 7.5 miles. Next week we go for 3.5 laps. 

Big news of the week is that I went to a dietitian. Take aways:

1 - I weigh 220 pounds. 

• I weighed 195 for the Beast last year. 
• I gained 25 pounds
• I need to get to 200 pounds to be better at body weight exercises

2 - Lose 10 pounds between now and Jan 1.

• Still concentrate on strength since I don't have time in my training schedule to do it at another time
• Tracking calories with MyFitnessPal
• Add carb to breakfast (whole grain toast)
• No fruit on the bottom in smoothie - just plain yogurt
• Fat free milk in smoothie
• Don't eat late - try to stop at 8 or the earlier, the better

3 - Get from 210 to 200 Jan - March with conditioning

• New split: Lower / Conditioning / Ba Duan Jin / Upper / Conditioning / Ba Duan Jin **with heavy carry endurance on weekend
• Use Milk bottles (quart, 1/2 gallon, gallon) with sand for kettlebells - get back to my kettlebell routine
• Ba Duan Jin to Kung Fu workout DVD

4 - Increase athleticism April - June (nothing to do with weight loss but thinking out loud)

• Strength 3x5 with conditioning finisher
• Power day: Keg toss, Weighted sprints, burpee long jumps, loaded carries
• Explosive Calesthenics
• Explosive Kung Fu book / DVD

 5 - Kung Fu training in July - should be able to put some foundation work to good use

Tough Mudder Philly & Week 3 of Diet

Quick notes from this week are:

1 - I am not sure if this diet is going to work. Something does not make sense about increasing calories though protein. I scheduled a meeting with a dietician at our supermarket. It sounds silly but hopefully she will be able to give me guidelines as to what and how much I should be eating in order to support strength gains while not gaining weight.

2 - Did the Philly Tough Mudder on Sunday. I am disappointed still in my upper body strength and grip but I continue to work on it. What really stood out to me is my lack of explosive strength. This is in the plan to work on, along with conditioning, after the new year and into the summer.

3 - I am finding great success and am very happy with my new interest in learning how to move. My hips and shoulders are really opening up and I felt a lot better at the Tough Mudder. I felt as though I had more control over my body. 

Finally, here is a Monday morning picture of results from my diet and exercise program. I don't feel as though I am making progress but I am just starting out.

Oct 12 Update

I am doing more on this diet and getting used to meal planning and tracking my macros. It is not too much different from what I was normally eating but planning and tracking helps me pay attention to what I am doing which should lead to results. 

My workout routine is coming along well and I feel like I have a lot more flexibility and mobility. This week was a great week for pistol squats but I have a lot of work to do with getting my opposing leg forward and straight. This will also help me with L-Sits. 

My run was excellent. Although I started getting pain in my shins in the beginning, I walked a couple of times and once I hit the stairs that pain went away. I did 2 & 1/2 laps of the stairs this time. Pace was great since it didn't take me much longer than doing it twice. 

Here is my weekly selfie:

10/5 - Weekly Update

Since I am not giving day by day accounts of my workouts, maybe I will give a weekly progress report. 

First, this has not been the best week for me working out. Last week my brother and his family was in town and we were all in Ocean City NJ with y parents. A lot of resting and eating. This was followed by my daughter having surgery this week which meant no sleep, more rest days and more poor diet. 

I think that I am putting on weight in the wrong places so I am going to try to tackle my nutrition. I bought a $40 program with recipes, a calorie calculator and a tracking sheet. Simply, I set a 2,500 calorie per day target and will now write down what I eat. This can be easy if I plan things correctly. I won't graze since I will know when my next meal is coming. Good in theory, now need to execute.

To measure my progress, I will be taking pictures and posting them on this blog weekly. Hopefully I will see some progress.

As far as workouts go, I am focusing on less killer workouts but being able to work out every day. This starts with Qigong warm up, stretches & the 5 Stances and then is finished off with either:

Upper:

• 5x10 Rows
• 5x10 Sandbag Push Press
• 5x10 Pull Ups - assisted to make sure that I get 5 full sets of 10

Lower:

• 5x5 (each side) Pistol Squats - assisted for balance
• 5x10 Single leg Deadlift / Front Squat circuit

or

• 5x10 Single Leg Squat / Good Morning circuit

On the weekend, I do a long run using the Port Imperial stairs. This week:

• 5.94 miles
• 1 hour, 12 minutes
• 12:07 pace

My improvement came in duration and the fact that I did the set of 2 staircases twice as opposed to 1 &1/2 times.