So I weighed in today at 221 lbs. I took it easy yesterday so that today I could really push myself to do legs. I started out like usual on the recumbent bike and did 40 minutes. Then it was on to a 4 mile run followed by leg strength training in the gym along with some plyometrics. I don’t know if you are familiar with plyometrics but they can be extremely brutal to the body. Basically it is a type of training that involves explosive body weight movements like jumping, lunging or throwing. I was doing a frog jump type of exercise which is crouching down near the ground and springing up as hard and fast as you can up into the air and coming back down into the same crouching position. You do this over and over again as long as you can stand it. For me this is about 6-8 times. After that it becomes difficult to breath or walk. If you do too much you can easily pass out. When I got home I was feeling a bit more tired than usual and very much in need of food. Before the workout I always have a fruit smoothie and a half peanut butter and jelly sandwich. After arriving home and crouching down to greet Tinker a few times I noticed when I stood up I felt more dizzy and light headed than normal. One of these times I actually fell down and almost completely fainted. A bit scary.

Excerpt from Lois Lanes first interview with Superman:

Lois – “How big are you… how TALL are you?”

Superman – “About 6′ 4″”

Lois – “And.. how much do you weigh?”

Superman – “Around 2… 225”

Lois (grinning sheepishly) – “2… 225?”

Yes I did reach 225 today and I am indeed 6’4″ tall. I started out at about 285 two years ago and have been pounding on my body hard 18 hours a week running, cycling, skating, and weight lifting. My longest distance run thus far has been 10 miles but that was very difficult and I don’t think I will be doing that again any time soon. On a normal day I will cycle for 40 minutes which usually covers about 10 miles, then run 4-6 miles, followed by a grueling gym workout rotating between a leg workout, a push day (chest shoulders and triceps), and a pull day (back and biceps). Core training is also worked in about every other day. Diet generally consists of a cyclical type of calorie restriction where I restrict somewhat heavily during the week and then reload glycogen on weekends with considerably more calories. Meals are consumed every 3 hours with the heaviest of calories consumed in the early and late morning. Lighter meals usually are restricted to no more than 3-4 bites of a healthy meal of fiber rich carbs, proteins and lots of water. I do not count calories nor do I count macronutrients. I think I would go insane if I tried to do that. Every other weekend I will have a cheat meal where anything goes.

I made a goal today to run 6 miles. I normally run only 2 miles as my hips start to hurt a bit after 2 miles but I wanted to test myself in a more grueling distance and see how I would faire. It may also have something to do with a documentary film I saw recently called ‘Running the Sahara’. Three guys ran an average of 40 miles per day for 111 days straight to cross the Sahara desert. Truly beyond my understanding of what the human body is capable of. I learned a lot from it and I highly recommend checking it out. Seeing the kind of punishment these guys were putting up with I knew I could increase my own mileage and see what happens. It definitely hurt, but I did it. I have a feeling I will be paying the price in the morning.

When you walk into a health club or start a program with a personal trainer, one of the first questions you are asked is “What are your fitness goals?”. I have worked in several health and fitness clubs and our sales people always had a sort of script they would run through with all new potential customers that would take the club tour. This script was largely designed around the greatest potential to make the sale rather than address the customers individual needs. But these questions that come from not only fitness sales people but also from many trainers and instructors is a sure way to failure. You see our brains are wired for a sequence of things when we think about setting a goal. We first define the goal, then we start the activity and take the necessary steps to reach the goal. Once that goal has been reached, the activity is no longer necessary. Most people’s answer to the fitness goal question is “I want to lose X number of pounds” or “I want to fit into a certain article of clothing again”. I’m not saying you shouldn’t set any goals at all. But you should be very careful and specific about the kinds of goals you define for yourself. It’s kind of like asking “What are your sleep goals?” or “What are your personal hygiene goals?”. Well I would like to feel well rested and I want to be clean and not smell.  When you reach these goals do you stop sleeping or stop bathing? Of course not. Because if you did then you would soon get very tired and start to stink again. The only way to truly achieve permanent weight loss is to make weight loss unimportant to you and make health of primary importance. The weight loss will come anyway. If you are going to set any kind of goal right at the start then it should be something to the effect that you are going to partake in a consistent routine of exercise and healthy eating until it becomes automatic and permanently integrated into your lifestyle. In my mind this sounds much less like a goal, and more like a plan.

How many advertisements for weight loss products do we get thrown up in our faces on a daily basis? Pills, diets, kettle balls, ab devices, vitamin supplements, gym memberships, etc etc. They hit us from all sides. “30 days to the summer body of your dreams”. Television, magazines, newspapers, billboards, web sites and the sides of buses. Engaging in any type of fitness or eating program with the goal to lose weight is a sure way to failure. Why? Because it’s temporary. Health and fitness is not temporary. Health is with you until you die. You either have poor health or you have good health, but either way our health is something we all have and it needs to be taken care of all the time. Weight adjustments should only be viewed as a side effect of good health management.