Looking for life beyond the edge.

Back in the day when I was young and very into blogging I used to write in series. It’s been quite some time since I’ve done this and decided that August would be the perfect month to do this. I wanted to do something that was informative yet personal. What better than three important things in my life – Fitness, Finance and Faith.

In talking with people within my circle of friends it seems that I’ve inspired a few to join me on this journey, at least in the fitness aspect. I have two people joining me and we thought it would be cool to bring you the progress of three different people and their 31 days of fitness.

Well, first, you have me. A twenty-something, male, with no previous gym experience and/or resistance training. According to my recent fitness assessment I have a goal of 50+ pounds to lose. I also personally am working on building core and upper body strength at the same time.

Then we have my friend Katy, she’s a twenty-something female who is going to focus on increasing physical activity using the Wii Fit. She’ll be joining us later in the posting as she’s waiting for her new Wii Fit to ship to her.

Finally we have a co-woker of mine who due to the fact that I forgot to ask her if I could use her name, we’ll leave it at co-worker for now. She is recovering from knee surgery and has limited mobility when it comes to exercise. She was excited to take this challenge and wanted to share some of her point of view as to what she is doing to accomplish her goals.

Technically we began on August 1, 2008 but since this wasn’t formally planned I’m going to say the first weekend was transition. Since I’ve not been able to meet with the other two I’ll share five things I’m doing for the 31 days:

1. I joined a gym. I work out 5-6 times a week alternating between weight training and cardio. I tested it out last week and find that I prefer to work out before work because it seems to give me energy for the day.
2. I committed (for the most part) to a regular sleeping schedule. I’m not quite getting 8 hours, but very close. I am now getting up at 4:30 AM and going to bed at 9:00 PM. Tonight being the exception because I had a small allergy issue this weekend and the meds I was on caused me to sleep… A LOT. So I’m wide awake right now but soon will head off to bed.
3. I stopped eating out. I get one meal per week that is not from home (typically on Friday, lunch and whatever I want). Again, tomorrow being the exception for lunch because I was so busy this weekend I couldn’t get to the store. What I do eat will be on my eating plan.
4. I’ve developed and committed to an eating plan. Based of Men’s Health “The Abs Diet” and all around healthy eating I’ve decided to eat much better. I wouldn’t call it a “diet” per se, it is a new way for me to eat. I’ll be sharing more about this in the coming days.
5. I’m “reassessing” all my bills and reducing where I can. Finding ways to save money and/or easily make extra money.