Hi everyone. I'm just looking for peoples opinion on what I'm currently doing to see what I can do to improve my workout routine.
Background- I've only just begun anything resembling "working out" 4 weeks ago. Prior to this, I was someone who didn't care about health and fitness at all and I would eat cake for dinner and candy for breakfast. I'm not kidding. There were plenty of days where I would just eat some cake for dinner because I felt like cake. So considering all that, I was in pretty darn good shape. Like a Greek God. The Greek God of Eating Cake for Dinner. I'm 5'9 and was 195 when I started and now I'm down to 186. The only place the fat really shows is in my belly due to my being a big drunk on top of having the culinary skills of an 8 year old. The only reason I began working out was out of sheer boredom at night and wanted something to take up my time after work.
I signed up at Koko Fitclub due to the convenient location and late hours, despite it not being the most macho of gyms and I'm clearly the youngest person anyone has ever seen there, and I'm 34. It also seemed like an excellent club for someone who has no idea how to use exercise equipment. Like this guy. I really enjoy it there.
Anyway- The Important Stuff
So here's what I'm currently doing-
1) 30-40 Minutes of Strength Training / Weights every other day, followed by 1 Mile of cardio on the treadmill
2) On the days I DON'T do Strength Training, I do 2 Miles on the treadmill.
3) Currently I'm not taking any days off- I go to the club every day for either Strength + Cardio, or 2x Cardio.
Currently I'm comfortably running 12 minute miles, but can do a single 10 minute mile if I'm going for speed. C- Needs Improvement.
Nutritionally, I've been cutting a lot of calories out of my diet. Instead of snacking on half a bag of Doritos after work I eat a bunch of rice cakes or cucumbers. Instead of eating the 6 Serving Family Size bag of Tortellini, I make half the bag and save the rest. I try to eat better dinners- Salmon with Asparagus or something like that.
I'm also starting to do protein shakes immediately after my workout. I hear people do that, so now I do that.
Goals!
Boredom alone isn't enough to get me to go to the gym every single day, so I needed extra motivation.
1) Obviously, get into a more "normal" weight range according to that bmi stuff. The calculator still tells me I'm too fat =P
2) Lose the belly- Ties into #1
3) This is actually the one I care the most about and is what is motivating me to drop $80/month in gym fees and then more cash on muscle shirts, running shoes, and protein powder. I want to do Spartan Races. I'm already signed up for the Fenway Park Sprint in fact. I'm not like "I'd like to run a Spartan Race just to say I finished one" I kinda want to make this a regular thing and run as many as I can in 2015. (Assuming I don't hate it after the first one...) So hopefully I can move up to the longer Supers and Beasts eventually. Long term goals. I'm not concerned with speed though, I just want to be able to finish the races on a regular basis.
So I'd love to hear what you experienced people have to say- Is there anything I'm doing wrong so far, anything I could add or improve upon? Thanks!
Background- I've only just begun anything resembling "working out" 4 weeks ago. Prior to this, I was someone who didn't care about health and fitness at all and I would eat cake for dinner and candy for breakfast. I'm not kidding. There were plenty of days where I would just eat some cake for dinner because I felt like cake. So considering all that, I was in pretty darn good shape. Like a Greek God. The Greek God of Eating Cake for Dinner. I'm 5'9 and was 195 when I started and now I'm down to 186. The only place the fat really shows is in my belly due to my being a big drunk on top of having the culinary skills of an 8 year old. The only reason I began working out was out of sheer boredom at night and wanted something to take up my time after work.
I signed up at Koko Fitclub due to the convenient location and late hours, despite it not being the most macho of gyms and I'm clearly the youngest person anyone has ever seen there, and I'm 34. It also seemed like an excellent club for someone who has no idea how to use exercise equipment. Like this guy. I really enjoy it there.
Anyway- The Important Stuff
So here's what I'm currently doing-
1) 30-40 Minutes of Strength Training / Weights every other day, followed by 1 Mile of cardio on the treadmill
2) On the days I DON'T do Strength Training, I do 2 Miles on the treadmill.
3) Currently I'm not taking any days off- I go to the club every day for either Strength + Cardio, or 2x Cardio.
Currently I'm comfortably running 12 minute miles, but can do a single 10 minute mile if I'm going for speed. C- Needs Improvement.
Nutritionally, I've been cutting a lot of calories out of my diet. Instead of snacking on half a bag of Doritos after work I eat a bunch of rice cakes or cucumbers. Instead of eating the 6 Serving Family Size bag of Tortellini, I make half the bag and save the rest. I try to eat better dinners- Salmon with Asparagus or something like that.
I'm also starting to do protein shakes immediately after my workout. I hear people do that, so now I do that.
Goals!
Boredom alone isn't enough to get me to go to the gym every single day, so I needed extra motivation.
1) Obviously, get into a more "normal" weight range according to that bmi stuff. The calculator still tells me I'm too fat =P
2) Lose the belly- Ties into #1
3) This is actually the one I care the most about and is what is motivating me to drop $80/month in gym fees and then more cash on muscle shirts, running shoes, and protein powder. I want to do Spartan Races. I'm already signed up for the Fenway Park Sprint in fact. I'm not like "I'd like to run a Spartan Race just to say I finished one" I kinda want to make this a regular thing and run as many as I can in 2015. (Assuming I don't hate it after the first one...) So hopefully I can move up to the longer Supers and Beasts eventually. Long term goals. I'm not concerned with speed though, I just want to be able to finish the races on a regular basis.
So I'd love to hear what you experienced people have to say- Is there anything I'm doing wrong so far, anything I could add or improve upon? Thanks!
