Tuesday 12^th 2011

I walked to the Washington Sports Club in Clarendon which is a 3 minute walk from my house.  The funny thing is I joined this gym about a year ago, and was thinking about canceling my membership.  I went there today with only one thing in my mind, “I HOPE THEY HAVE A FUCKING ARC TRAINER”.  Low and behold they have exactly 1 Arc Trainer exactly the same as the one at Fitness Ridge Malibu.  It looks like it doesn’t get much use so I am very excited.  To christen this experience I chose to do a mountain class. 

I warmed up at level 30 for 4 minutes, and then started my first progression at level 40.  From level 40 I worked my way up to resistance level 100.  For those of you who are uniformed Mountain is a cardio workout where you increase the intensity of your workout every 3 minutes for 12 progressions.  Once I finished the last 3 minute cycle I cooled down for 2 minutes then worked right into five 1 minute sprints, with 1 minute breaks in between.  I performed 3 of the sprints at resistance level 40 trying to maintain 165-170 strides a minute.  The other 2 sprints I increased the incline to level 20 and the resistance level 100. 

According to my heart rate monitor I burned just under 700 calories, and averaged 131 Beats Per Minute.   A decent start for my first workout back on the Arc Trainer, during my first week at the resort I would have never believed that I would learn to love this machine. 

Most of my day was spent playing catch up at work, and trying to formulate my weight loss plan further.  One additional physical goal beyond the 2 workouts a day, I am walking my dog twice a day for a total about 4-5 miles.  Today I was able to walk just over 5 miles with my mutt.  In wearing my heart rate monitor for about 5 walks so far I seem to be able to burn 200-300 calories per walk with the dog.  I have a goal of 100 miles a month with my dog.  I’m burning about 110 calories per mile so that means I’ll have the opportunity to burn another 11,000 calories a month. 

In the early afternoon I had a personal training session with a different training, the session primarily focused on boxing with a bit of core exercises.  Prior to the session I warmed up on the treadmill.  4 Minutes of 3.0 mph and no incline.  Then I raised the incline by 2 levels every minute until I reached an incline of 15.  Once I reached incline level 15, I did 5 20 second sprints at 5.3 mph, with 40 second breaks between sprints.

We started the session right at 4:30 PM; Ali wrapped my hands and wrist, and slipped on my gloves.  He called out various punch combinations and I worked to hit everyone flush, and strong.  The session would alternate between 5-10 minutes of boxing, and then roll right into core exercises.  The core exercises varied extensivley, from bridges on a resistance ball while doing chest presses, to starting in a plank position, and then moving down the length of a yoga mat maintaining the planked position.  Ali really tried to push me; the intensity was strong for a 1^st session.  Most 1^st sessions are almost a waste of time because the trainer is trying to figure out whether or not you are capable of doing certain tasks. 

I am hoping on Thursday, because he has a better understanding of my ability, he will start to push me harder to the point of dry heaving.   Three weeks ago I would have told you that dry heaving was a sign of needing to stop; now I am starting to think dry heaving is the best indicator of whether or not you really pushed yourself during a workout.  All in all I am happy to have found someone who gets it.  He’s not Sam but perhaps with a few more workouts he’ll be able to get me to the same level of intensity. 

My meals for the day:

Breakfast 7:30 AM

Go Lean 1 cup                          120

Almond Milk 8oz                        60

Banana                                    100

Total for Breakfast                        280

Lunch 1:00 PM

Chicken Italiano Bistro MD              345

1 Serving Mushroom Barely

Soup From Whole Foods                  60

Salad Total Calories                       109

1 Cup Mushrooms                 15

1 Cup Broccoli                      31

3 oz Grape Tomato              25

Green Mix                            3  

2 tbsp Salad Dressing          35                                                                        

Total for Lunch                         514

Snacks

Fuji Apple                           80

Fuji Apple                           80

Cliff Builder Bar                 270

Orange                               62

1 Hardboiled Egg                 70

2 Hardboiled Egg Whites      30

Total for Snacks                       530

Dinner 6:30 PM

2 Servings of Mushroom Barely

Soup From Whole Foods             120

1 Serving Sliced Turkey               60

1 Serving Sopressata                 100

1 Cup Mushrooms                       15

½ Cup Broccoli                         15.5

1 Cup Cauliflower                       25

2 tbsp Salad Dressing                 35

Total For Dinner                                 370.50

Total for Day                                                                                  1756.50

I think I’m doing a good job staying below the 2000 calories a day.  I’m feeling very satisfied yet decided that in order to keep things strong on the workouts I should simplfify the food consumption so I ordered 7 days worth of food from Diet to Go.  Diettogo.com delivers fresh not frozen meals once a week to a gym near where I live, I picked the low fat version of the 1600 calories a day.  I would have picked the 1200 calories but they have a promotion where you can get 20% off on your first order, I wanted to see the portion size difference for 1600 calories vs. the 1200 calorie meals.  Now I’m wondering if I should call them and change to 1200 calories and keep things more in line with what I have been eating.  This would also allow me to continue to eat salad, soup, and fruit.  It would also give me a little more leeway to eat snacks I like, and sneak in a Lorabar or Cliff bar before a workout.  As I am typing this I think that’s precisely what I’m going to do tomorrow morning.  Why change what's working right now?  Diet to Go Website

In changing to the lower calories it would also give me an opportunity to start making some of the soups in the Biggest Loser Resort cookbooks.  I hated beets, but I right now I have a craving for the beet soup, especially because the next day it gives you such a fantastic surprise on the loo (not me).  It’s so great you will think you are having a moment straight out of aliens, and you will look down in the toilet and wonder where the little alien creature went.

I just bought a book which I am starting to read tonight “Eat to Live” by Joel Furman, MD.  We shall see what Dr. Fuhrman says about eating and diets  I also wanted to throw something out there I found on a website which talks about the Paleo Diet.  The theory behind the diet is that the most efficient type of food for our bodies are the types of food similar to what man ate during the Paleolithic Period, and that through this diet our bodies run better and release better hormones and chemicals.  Check it out and let me know if anyone tries it out.  The Paleo Diet

I have my first hike planned tomorrow with my doggy Benny.  He’s a little White Westie and I’m almost certain the people in my building think I’m the big gay Asian with the little white dog.