smallkine blogger

So here I am, having another great week of eating right, going to the gym in the mornings before my day really starts and then the weekend comes. Saturday morning I’ll get up, go get some breakfast for my daughter and wife from mcdonalds, and ofcourse myself. Although I do have my usual saturday golf game to keep me moving throughout the day which is always a good thing to burn off all those calories I got from eating mcdonalds breakfast.

Heres another slight backstep though:
While I’m golfing with a couple of my friends, I’ll have a couple of beers and some water, just to stay hydrated throughout the day. When it comes to florida weather, you have to keep drinking water but the beer is somewhat of a ritual since I’ve been playing with the same friends for the past 11 years. Could be anywhere from 3 to 6 beers during the day so you could say its quite a downshift to trying to live healthy.

And sometimes when saturday night rolls around we’ll get together with our neighbors since they have kids that are pretty much the same age as my daughter and let our kids play upstairs or watch a movie while we hang out and have a few drinks. Dont get me wrong, it’s a great time when we hang with the neighbors and I love every single moment we do, but I feel it when i have to put it in overdrive in the next workout and thats just one of the things I have to struggle with.

Sunday morning
I wake up and immediately make coffee, having it the same way I’ve been drinking it….black and just a bit of sugar. It actually tastes good to me that way. I’ll do the normal routine I do on a sunday. Go to the grocery store, get back - fire up the grill - throw a nice piece of steak with some grilled asparagus to compliment that. Is such a week bad for me doing it that way over the past few weeks? I hope not - but I do know that I’ll have to step it up another notch to see some real difference because Im blessed with the slowest metabolism…..sarcasm at it’s finest. stay tuned…

So far from day 1 (mar 3rd), I’ve stuck to what I planned on doing and I think it’s going just fine. Especially monday thru friday, where I saw myself waking up before the alarm (5:40am) which was normally 5:20am or so and actually liking to get out of bed and drive to planet fitness. But first, Im trying to speed up the fat burning process by taking 1000 mg of carnitine, 500 mg of green tea extract just before going to the gym. Part of the thing that drives me to go is that every single morning, I see the same exact people 98% of the time which makes me think “If he can do it…..”

Ofcourse I do the normal stretching of the legs, this and that and then it’s either the treadmill or bicycle to get things going. Whichever one I do decide to start with, I’ll do it for 30 minutes that includes short, quick bursts of intense training for a couple minutes, followed by a few minutes of cool down, then hop on the other and continue for another 20-25 minutes. (HIT) or High Interval Training is one of the main reasons why I see a little difference in the way I feel nowadays, and hopefully I can stick to it like I wanted to do.

Breakfast Time
By this time it’s around 7am, when I get home I’ll make myself a 16oz glass of Mega Whey protein shake from GNC. It contains atleast 40 grams of protein and it doesnt taste that bad, especially chocolate flavor. Also I’ll eat a boiled egg

Around 10am or so I’ll head to the pantry to make a bowl of oatmeal to hold me over. Portion control is what I’m trying to do and alot of health fitness experts say that eating small meals, preferably 5-6 times a day is good for you since it speeds up your metabolism which is what you want to do to burn more fat. And since I’m very lucky to have the chance of working from home I can stick to this routine daily, of eating the right foods, stretching, whatever it’ll take to get me where I want to be….living a healthy lifestyle.

Lunch Time
Heres the thing about lunchtime. I’m trying to eat good by grilling a nice breast of chicken, with a bowl of salad. I just picked up one of those little george foreman grills’ thats perfect for your countertop so It’s like “wham-Bamm” and wallah!!…..a nice grilled breast of chicken. With the salad I’ll get some field of greens type of salad, add in a little chopped tomatoes, cheddar cheese, some bacon bits and top it off with some ginger dressing.

And so as the day goes on, Ill eat some fruit, perhaps a nice apple, orange or whatever I have in the fridge but trying to maintain that 5-6 times a day eating rule. But thats my usual routine that I’m trying to stick to, and so far so good. I prefer not to weigh myself but to see the results by the way I feel and how my clothes are fitting after 2-3 weeks of this.

Soon I’m going to add a little bit of weight training, but not too heavy since I’m trying to slim down and get more ripped then bigger. Maybe on mondays I’ll do back and shoulders, wednesdays I’ll do chest and arms but thats something I definitely want to add into my routine. Anyways, stay tuned!!!

My common fear is that strength training will add bulk and therefore add weight, and I’m bulky enough as it is. But this is a myth. Strength training will build lean muscle and burn some of that fat. So in the long run, you not only become stronger, but you can lose weight as well. Women, in fact, are more likely to tone up from strength training rather than bulk up.

So what part of the body should you work? All of it – your upper body, core, and lower body.

Your upper body is made up of your arms, chest, shoulders, neck, and upper back. This is easily the most popular part of the body to work for strength training. Here are some possible exercises for the upper body:

• Pushups
• Dumbbell Side Exercise
• Chest Press
• Dumbbell Shoulder Raise
• Lat Pull Down
• Tricep Kick Back
• Dumbbell Shoulder Press
• Bicep Curl

The core is very important because you derive much of your balance from the middle section of your body. Plus a strong core allows you to do other exercises better and more effectively. When it comes to your core, almost everyone takes care of their stomachs with sit-ups. But there is much more to your core, including your obloquies, lower back, hips and groin. Here are a few exercises for the core:

• Crunches
• Crunch w/Twist
• Reverse Crunch
• Bird Dog

Last but not least is your lower body. While the legs are sometimes forgotten during strength training, they are also very important. The reason for this is large muscle groups like the ones in your legs burn more fat and help you last longer during aerobic exercise. The key is finding exercises that specifically work your quads, hamstrings and calves. Here are a few lower body exercises:

• Forward Lunges
• Ball Squats
• Leg Press
• Wall Squats
• Calf Extension
• Leg Raises

Make sure to give your body a rest after a strength workout. Whichever part or parts of the body you work, give it two days’ rest before you work it again. This gives the muscles time to repair themselves and allows your metabolism to do its thing. And before you know it, you will not only be strong, but on the way to hitting your weight goal.