31 Days – Update 3

John    Life    

Well, it’s update 3 and here I am actually sitting down to write this on an early Saturday evening. I’m impressed that I’ve kept up with the posting. Hopefully you all have been catching the updates, if not, look at the Category 31 Days to read the posts.

Today is just my personal update. I forgot to let Toni and Katy know that I’m updating every three days. I think to save space (and my fingers) I’ll have them post every other update, so be on the lookout next Tuesday for their progress.

Fitness

Well, after taking a short hiatus from training I got back on the ball Friday morning. Due to some things going on at work I was woke up around 4:00 AM on Friday. I decided that instead of going back to bed I would eat breakfast and go to the gym. I did just that and was very proud of myself. I spent about 15 minutes on the treadmill warming up and then switched to 30 minutes of HIIT on an elliptical machine. So, being at the gym extra early I finished and it wasn’t even near time for me to hit the showers so… I decided I’d go look at some of the resistance training equipment/area of the gym.

Now, let me be the first to state that I’m “resistance training stupid”. So I often have a fear of looking stupid while trying to figure out what to do. Thankfully all the weight machines have instructions and are laid out according to the body area you wish to work out so navigating the equipment wasn’t as hard as I thought. Now, coming up with a training plan is a whole other story (more on that later). I hesitantly sat down at the back extension machine to give it a try first. I was kind of nervous because again, I wanted to keep from looking like the gym newbie or making a fool of myself. Then I remembered an article I read the other day about training that said that the first thing you should do at the gym is… chuck your pride at the door. I’ve learned to do that and I’ve also learned that no one cares what you do. Did I feel like an idiot as I did triceps extensions with only 20lbs of resistance? Yep. Did any of the 15 or so people who paraded by me notice or care… not so much. I did about twenty minutes of resistance training when I decided that was enough and it was time for work.

I headed to work and found myself energized and confident to start the day. I have noticed so much more energy throughout the day and I have slept so much better at night. Now granted there have been a few evenings that I’ve taken a nap but I think that’s my body getting adjusted to the fact I went from zero physical activity to 45 – 60 minutes per day now (with a rest on Sunday). It’s getting better, I only took an hour nap today but I did go to the gym for an hour and half (and did resistance training for an hour… can you believe that?) then came home and washed the car in the blazing sun then forgot to eat and ate “lunch” at 3:30… I think that kind of pushed me over the edge. 

Did I mention that I drink water like crazy now? I’ll have a diet drink maybe once or twice in a week… that’s it. I’ve noticed a lot of benefits of the water drinking. I’ve always had dry skin and that has slowly began to clear up without me changing anything besides the increase of water intake. I also agree that drinking water helps you not eat as much. I drink water all day long at work and don’t find myself as hungry as I once was and then eat less at each meal.

I have some tasks this week to do in relation to 31 days and thought I’d share them with you:

1. Create a new eating plan.
   Currently I’m doing what I would call “clean eating” or “making healthier choices”. I cut out fast food, fried food, and all the other things we think of when someone says “bad food for you”. I’ve increased to eating six small meals a day with a good snack before bed (like cottage cheese) and not eating dinner real late. 
2. Create a formal resistance training plan.
3. Increase interval cardio to 45 minutes and change the intervals

Finance

Faith

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