Maestro Diary

M

Maestro1

New member
Just posting a quick intro to my diary. I've practically copied and pasted my my introduction post. At any rate...

I've been a bit on the heavy side for quite a while. Being 5' 5" and weighing around 185 or so pounds. However, I was always a big weight lifter. Recently I talked with a recruiter and have been working towards receiving a commission with the Air Force reserve (not easy). The maximum weight I can be is either 160-165 depending on how tall I measure at that time (haha), so I started my diet and running program. Instead of lifting 4 days a week, I run instead. I love lifting, but I can see that it's way more important to have good cardio conditioning. I still do 2 days a week of lifting to try to maintain some muscularity.

So starting at around 185, I'm now around 170 and loosing 1-3 a week. I'm either running or weight lifting every day so that I'm always in a state of exercising. Before I started running, I couldn't complete a mile without walking. Just a few days ago I was able to run 6mph at 1% incline for 2 miles on the treadmill. After that I walked another 20 minutes at 7%+ incline. Calorie burn was over 400 according to the meter on the treadmill. Hard to say :) I've got to get consistant 2 minute laps (.25 miles) so that I can get a 1.5 mile run in under 12 minutes. I'm not "built to run" so I hope I can reach this goal. I want to be able to run it "easily" and not just "barely". I'll keep working. Also, I've really reduced my calories. Mainly eating grilled chicken and fish as my main meats with conservative side dishes.

At any rate, the running is definately much improved. I prefer to run at the track near the house instead of the treadmill. It's much harder and more enjoyable. Usually I run the track on weight lifting days. Routine looks like this:
  • Monday lunch - Treadmill
  • Tuesday lunch - Weight lifting Evening - track walk/run
  • Wednesday lunch - treadmill
  • Thursday lunch - weight lifting Evening - track walk/run
  • Friday evening - track run
  • Saturday - track run/walk
  • Sunday - REST

Some runs are intervals where I do 1 minute of hard running followed by 30 seconds of walking, rinse, repeat. Others are just distance runs of 1.5-2 miles (+ if possible)

Great site by the way. Thanks to the admins who created it and thanks to all of you who post.

Weight Goal: In the "150s" by 9/1/07. Preferably around 155.
Running Goal: 11:59 or less 1.5 mile runs (consistently!)

Pics @ 185 (starting point):



Spreadsheet/Graph to track progress:



I hope to add a journal entry at the end of each night that summarizes my diet and excersize for the day. I've had a few positive weight gain days, but I don't want any more of those if I can help it. Also, I bought a new VERY ACCURATE scale that measures by .2 pound increments instead of .5 pound increments.

Updates to follow (starting tonight)!
 
[Wednesday, June 18th 2007 - Current Weight 169.8]
I got talked into going to lunch with a friend. We went to Uno's pizza (deep dish). I ordered a personal 'shroom pizza with unsweet tea. I knew I did some damage because I knew I couldn't make it to the track that evening since I had obligations. So there would be no exercise for me. Out of curiousity, I checked the nutrition on the Unos web site. OMG...that pizza was 2,100+ calories LOL. The damage was done.

I decided that was enough food for the day. I didn't eat anything else for the rest of the day and felt fine. I still felt full. It was a rather large lunch, ya know.

I weighed in this morning and the weight is exactly the same as yesterday on my .2 lb scale. SHEW...crisis diverted!

Summary:
Big lunch
No excersize :(
 
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[Thursday, June 19th 2007- Current Weight 169.8]
It's 12:46pm and I just got back from my lunch workout.

Lunch
3 sets of bench @ 185lbs for 8 reps each
4 sets of cable presses. 2 incline, 2 decline
4 sets of lat pulldowns starting @ 130lbs, moving down to 120lbs. 8 reps each
5 sets of weighted crunches
3 sets of weighted "twisting" exercises. Not sure what to call it. :) For the obliques.

PM
Ran 5 laps in a little over 12 minutes (~6mph or so). Slowed down and ran a slower pace for another 8 minutes or so. Probably around a ~5mph pace. 20 minutes running.
Walked 15 minutes after that. Total of about ~35 minutes of exercise this evening.
 
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Howdy Maestro, welcome to WLF! Your plan looks good to me. Good luck on reaching your running goals and your weight goals.

Griff
 
Thanks Griff :) You keep rocking on also. I love that quote in your sig..too funny.

Pics at 170. Working on the stomach flab! Pardon the non-shave. It was a Saturday haha.
 
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[Friday, June 20th 2007- Current Weight 168.4]
Overall a good day. I was talking to a guy at work who has done/does a lot of running. I didn't realize that they measure .25 miles on a track from the inside lane. 've been running and timing myself in the 4th lane. :doh:

With my new realization at the track, I ran and timed myself on the inside lane. I was able to do a mile in 8 minutes and some change instead of my usual 9:45 or so. So basically by switching from the 4th lane to the 1st lane, I dropped over a minute on my time. Now that 12 minute 1.5 mile run goal is much more reasonable for me.

Had some good chicken based meals today for lunch and dinner with some rice, apples, and other goodies.

Also today I went to a running shoe store and tried on several types of high end running shoes. They ran me on a treadmill, observed, and all of that fun stuff. I picked out a pair that feel much better than my current shoes.

(Saturday AM) Weighed in at 168.4 this morning. So for the week of 7/15/2007 - 7/21/2007, I dropped 2.1 pounds. My goal is 1-3 a week and that's right at par. So a good week indeed!

Hope everybody else has had a great week and I hope everyone has a great upcoming week.
 
Maestro said:
[Friday, June 20th 2007- Current Weight 168.4]

With my new realization at the track, I ran and timed myself on the inside lane. I was able to do a mile in 8 minutes and some change instead of my usual 9:45 or so. So basically by switching from the 4th lane to the 1st lane, I dropped over a minute on my time. Now that 12 minute 1.5 mile run goal is much more reasonable for me.

Had some good chicken based meals today for lunch and dinner with some rice, apples, and other goodies.
Click to expand...

Those are always nice realizations to make. Good luck on making your goal for running. That lunch sounds good, what was all in there? I am always looking for different ideas for food and the such. Have a great day.
 
Thanks David.

I went to "Showmars" for lunch. They're kind of a psuedo fast-food/sit down place. Since I have to eat out at lunch, sometimes its hard to find decent food, but I found a great dish there. It was grilled chicken mixed with some rice/onions/peppers (stir fry idea). With that I had a bowl of applesauce and a bowl of mashed potatoes. For dinner I had grilled chicken breast along with a baked potato. Seems I'm a bit heavy on the starch/protein but not on the veggies and fruits. I need to do better at that. The beautiful thing about chicken is that there are so few calories, yet it's a good meat that makes you feel full. I think a 6-7oz breast is like 100 calories or so. That's why it's a staple of my diet. That and grilled fish are the only meats I eat right now. I stay away from the red meats.

Btw, I meant to mention that not only are we the same height, but also the same age, and damn close to the same starting weight!
 
Maestro said:
[(Saturday AM) Weighed in at 168.4 this morning. So for the week of 7/15/2007 - 7/21/2007, I dropped 2.1 pounds. My goal is 1-3 a week and that's right at par. So a good week indeed!
Click to expand...

Congrats on the great week and the 2.1 pounds!!! You are doing great, keep it up.

Griff
 
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Maestro said:
Thanks David.


Btw, I meant to mention that not only are we the same height, but also the same age, and damn close to the same starting weight!
Click to expand...

That is great to have someone in the same situation as I am. That will be great as we can be helpful to each other (Hop efully I can help in some way)

Congrats on the weight loss that is excellent.
 
[Saturday, June 21st 2007- Current Weight 167]
Thanks for the encouragment guys. I hope I can encourage you as well.

Today (Saturday..even though I'm writing after the fact) was a horrible day. Not so much that I ate to much...quite the opposite. I ate way too little! I had to go into work this evening. My company is expanding the server room and I had to keep an eye on and manage the contractors doing the work. As things go...it didn't go smoothly.

To summarize, around 11:30am, I had a great lunch. 2 blackened groupers and small sides. Then it went down hill from there. I didn't get a chance to eat again! I went to work around 4:00 and got completely tied up. Since I work downtown, everything was closed. I couldn't find a place to grab something quickly and I had so much work to do. I basically ate a pack of peanut butter crackers to keep me going. Between Saturday and Sunday, my weight showed 167 pounds (-1.4 pounds). Not good, not healthy. I was probably partially dehydrated. I didn't get home from work till near midnight.

No problem though...dusting that day off my feet and moving on.
 
Maestro said:
[Saturday, June 21st 2007- Current Weight 167]
Thanks for the encouragment guys. I hope I can encourage you as well.

Today (Saturday..even though I'm writing after the fact) was a horrible day. Not so much that I ate to much...quite the opposite. I ate way too little! I had to go into work this evening. My company is expanding the server room and I had to keep an eye on and manage the contractors doing the work. As things go...it didn't go smoothly.
Click to expand...

What do you do for a living?
 
I'm the company programmer/system analyst/network admin/system admin/help desk tech/etc... Basically I am the only technology guy on staff, so I wear all I/T hats. My primary job though is in-house programming. Do you happen to be in I/T?
 
Yes, I just graduated with a bachelors degree in Information System Security. I am more heading towards the way of Network Engineering. I am working on my Cisco Certifications now. We will see how that goes. I currently work for a company that provides WAN services.
 
And the similarities continue.

Gratz on your degree! I'm currently working on my Master's in Info Systems. About 1/2 done so far.
 
That is pretty funny with the similarities. That is awesome that you are working on your masters, I figure I will take a couple of years break from school and go and do that. I am just working on the Certifications now though. Have a good start of the week..
 
[Tuesday, June 24th 2007- Current Weight 167.6]
Yikes, went up a bit on weight this morning haha. No problems though. I fully expected it.

Monday, I ordered that grilled chicken from Showmars again. It was so good last time that I couldn't resist. I picked up my order and went back to my desk....guess what? It was steak instead of chicken! Oh well, I was hungry. Down it went. Way heavier in calories than chicken would have been.

That evening around 9:00pm...the wife brought me a large cookie dough frozen yogurt from TCBYs. That joker went down too.

I did run for 30 minutes yesterday, but overall I had a bit of a calorie surplus based on the scale. By the way, if anybody is in the market for a scale, this is the best scale I've ever used:


I did a TON of consumer review reading, fitness site recommendations, etc...on scales and this one was by far the winner. I bought it and absolutely love it. I don't pay much attention to anything other than the weight, but it does supposedly read body fat and water.

Anyway so I had a bad day, doesn't bother me. I found a good way to stay motivated after having 1 or 2 bad days is to either add up your daily gain/loss for the week and focus on that number (which should be a negative number...hopefully!) -or- you could just use a 5 day rolling average. As long as those numbers continue to move down, you can still feel like your progressing. You can see my Excel spreadsheet image in one of my first posts to illustrate.

Today has gone well. I had a plain chik-fil-a sandwich (chargrilled) and at lunch I did some chest/ab work as well as some hill intervals on the treadmill for 20 minutes. I was amazed that I had the energy to even do intervals after my weight workout. I can tell my body is really starting to get "healthier". Breathing is easier, energy is higher, endurance is better, etc... Now overall strength is weaker, but that should be expected with the calorie deficit and focus on running that I am doing. Just seeing where I couldn't even run 20 minutes straight on a treadmill 3 months ago and now I can do it after a fairly intense weight workout and with the treadmill on incline interval settings.

Hope everyone is doing well and had a better start to their week than I did!

Edit: I have a hair appointment scheduled tomorrow. Gonna shave it with at least a 2-3 guard (we'll see how it goes with 3 and decide from there). That may be a .5 pound loss in 1 day :)
 
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Maestro said:
However, I was always a big weight lifter. Instead of lifting 4 days a week, I run instead. I love lifting, but I can see that it's way more important to have good cardio conditioning. I still do 2 days a week of lifting to try to maintain some muscularity.

So starting at around 185, I'm now around 170 and loosing 1-3 a week. I'm either running or weight lifting every day so that I'm always in a state of exercising. Before I started running, I couldn't complete a mile without walking. Just a few days ago I was able to run 6mph at 1% incline for 2 miles on the treadmill. After that I walked another 20 minutes at 7%+ incline. Calorie burn was over 400 according to the meter on the treadmill. Hard to say :) I've got to get consistant 2 minute laps (.25 miles) so that I can get a 1.5 mile run in under 12 minutes. I'm not "built to run" so I hope I can reach this goal. I want to be able to run it "easily" and not just "barely". I'll keep working. Also, I've really reduced my calories. Mainly eating grilled chicken and fish as my main meats with conservative side dishes.

At any rate, the running is definately much improved. I prefer to run at the track near the house instead of the treadmill. It's much harder and more enjoyable. Usually I run the track on weight lifting days.
Click to expand...

Thanks for reading my diary and replying. Anyways, that got me to read your diary.

Funny huh? Cause we are exact opposites in our work outs. You-loving to lift weights, and then there's me, I hated lifting weights and only ran. Anyways, we've both realized that you need to incorporate both. which I have started. I now lift at least 2 times a week with a class that is offered at my gym. And I love it. Anyways, since we are opposites, I think it's awesome because we can give each other advice in our expertise of exercise.

First off, way to go on your improvement in your running. I'll tell you this, the treadmill, is a death sentence, in my opinion. when you run outside, the time just goes by so much faster. there's so much to see and think about when outside rather than looking at the same thing when on the treadmill. Plus, running on the treadmill is definitely a lot worse on your legs. The reason being, the treadmill is going fast as you are lifting your legs, and when you land, you have to land harder so you don't fall. So it's a lot more pounding on everything, shins, knees, etc. therefore causing potential aches after a while. I'm not saying that running outside won't cause those, but prevention will do your body a whole lot better. always run on asphalt rather cement. asphalt is a lot softer and absorbs the landing better on your legs. grass is the best out of all three, but the only bad thing about grass is that easy to twist your ankle since it's not always consistently flat. anyways, the whole, I'm not "built to run". I use to think the same thing, that was before, i ran daily, half marathons and then a full 36.2 mile marathon. I really think running, like any other exercise is all mental. If you think you aren't the type to do well in whatever sport, activity, that mental block, will stop you. However, humans are so conditional. Train, and work hard at anything and you'll eventually get in shape.

Woah, sorry so long...anyways, keep up the good work. I am embarrassed to post pics....I know I should to make things more realistic. Maybe one day.
 
Thanks for checking in and thanks for the running advice. I do run on the track very often and prefer it to the treadmill definately. It's just logistically harder to get to the track than hit the treadmill during lunch :) I usually hit the track on Saturday AMs.

Based on your advice, I will try to keep a more positive attitude towards running. I'll work on convincing myself that I can "be a runner" if I want to be! It is funny though, I'm almost at the point where i enjoy running more than weight lifting. Never thought I'd see that happening. I think it's because I see so much MORE benefit on my weight and overall health than I ever did with pure weight lifting.

Thanks again for stopping by!
 
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