So my big break through Wednesday didn’t happen today.  I woke up late today, so the hike didn’t happen.  After doing PT with my mother she was in dire need of getting out of the house so I spent a couple of hours helping her to return her sanity, so my 1:30 PM Cross-Fit session didn’t happen.

I did get to my 6 PM session with Ali.  We’ve decided that every other day will be dedicated to lifting, with the non lifting day concentrated on maintaining a higher rate.  Today was the day where I got more of a cardio oriented workout.  I started to warm-up on the treadmill, walking and then I ran at 6 mph for a minute, and then walked again for another minute.  I repeated this twice.  My body was right at the point of almost starting to break a sweat, when I had a sudden urge to poop. 

Something I’ve noticed during my weight loss is that first, I am far more regular (set an alarm to it) than I used to be, and that I poop less frequently.   I used to poop all day long, often times I would sit on the toilet and “shart”, afterwards it would feel as if I had more to give, yet nothing would find its way out of my bum.  I think the type of food I was eating was causing internal discomfort, and digestive problems. 

In the last two months I always poop once in the morning, and almost never go throughout the day.  I wish I had been keeping track of how often I was pooping during my weight loss weeks.  The burning of fat deposits has to create some type of waste which my body evacuates, I’m curious if I have days like today where I have a sudden rush of poop needing to leave my body if those are days where I am losing “dead weight”. 

I realize that this was probably more than you ever wanted to read about my pooping habits, but I’m trying to learn as many indicators as I can from my body which will tell me when my body is in a normal state versus a moment of flux or transition.  I wonder what percentage of weight loss occurs through direct energy expenditure, and what percentage is expelled through your body’s natural evacuation systems. 

After my unexpected poop, which by the way took less than a minute, something else which has changed and become the norm, I put on the boxing gloves for a deeper warm up.  The first 15 minutes of the workout was boxing.  The rest I think has helped immensely, as I was able to speed up my punches while maintaining the power.  I worked hard today to rotate my left side into my left handed punches.  By the end of the first boxing cycle, I was able to throw the left handed cross with power, and coordination, it’s almost as good as my right handed cross.

From the boxing, Ali had me work with the agility ladder.  That’s the white strips of plastic, tied to black nylon straps, which trainers lay on the ground and tell you to dance like a circus bear.  We did three combinations of foot motions; I was surprised to find by the last exercise on this apparatus, I was moving my feet quicker than I thought I could.  I regret not recording it, because when I finished I was proud of well I had moved through the ladder.  The loss of 50 lbs can really make you feel  nimble.

The agility ladder was followed by air punches while I held dumbbells, starting with 15 lbs I punched into the air for as long as I could hold my arms up, Ali would then move the weight down and I would have to continue to punch.  With fatigue rapidly setting in, the lighter the weights got the harder it became to punch.  The weighted shadow boxing was followed by a standing shoulder press.  When I put the dumbbells down we put the gloves back on and started doing several punch combinations.

After the second round of boxing I had to do a squat and upward cable row, along with mountain climbers.  The cable machine also was used to do a standing lat pull down, and a back row using a resistance band.  We picked up the boxing gloves again, moving into a few other exercises designed to use body weight resistance.

The highlight of my workout was the end.  I asked Ali to do cart pushers.  I wanted to do 1 minute of cart pushers, followed by 1 minute of boxing, the pattern would repeat itself one more time, and be capped off with a final minute of cart pushers.  Ali was more than happy to oblige.  Little did I know that during the car pushers Ali was standing behind me, and using his foot as an additional break on the treadmill, causing the belt to move even slower. 

Today’s workout with Ali was one of the best ones I’ve had since I’ve been home, I felt invigorated, and challenged through the entire workout. 

My Core class started right after my session with Ali.  Today’s core class had a concentration on chest work.  While we did do quite a bit of variations on crunches, we also spent a great deal of time on the resistance ball doing chest presses. 

The core class was also a bit of a boost.  While I still struggle with side planks, and reverse planks, I am finding that doing crunches is significantly easier.  In the class we did crunches on the ground, on the resistance ball, with weights without outs, and even did a negative resistance sit up ( starting from the up position you move backwards slowly trying to hold the position as long as you can).  This is one part of the class I felt I was excelling, where as the planks are hard on my shoulders. 

The workouts today although there were only two, I had good results from both workouts.  Maybe doing 2 hours a day of exercise is feasible over the long term. 

My eating went well, and I finished the day just below 1900 calories.  This week is going well; I think the scale will be kind to me on Sunday.  BTW I think I found my new physical guru.  Mark Twight who is a well known climber, and started a private training business called Gym Jones in Salt Lake City, UH.  His training methods apparently are renowned and his system is most noted for training the actors and stunt men for the movie 300.

Mark Twight Website