March 23, 2010 1

Get Lucky 7K and a diet update

By Alex in Uncategorized

Last Saturday, Heather and I dragged ourselves out of bed before dawn to drive up to Minneapolis. The reason? We were running in the inaugural Get Lucky 7K, put on by our friends at Team Ortho. These are the same folks who put us through bitter winter temps on New Year’s Day for the Polar Dash, and last fall we also ran their Monster Dash on Halloween. They always put on a great race, with lots of helpful volunteers and awesome swag! We added to our collection of sweet medals for the year (incidentally, adding the Get Lucky 7K gives me four races this year, so I can complete my medal pie! Heather already was going to have one complete because she’s running the Minneapolis Marathon) Here are our results:

Me, and Heather

We certainly didn’t break any records, but it was a helluva fun time! Here’s the view from the start line:

The start line at the Get Lucky 7K

Heather also just came down with bronchitis earlier in the week, but she was determined to push through it…brave or foolhardy, you decide! ;) I was glad to have her there, at any rate! We are back into the swing of things after battling some illnesses, and worked out this morning at a great intensity. I’ve also started biking to work, and I forgot how much I miss it! I think eventually I’d like to walk to work in the morning, bike home to see Heather over lunch, and walk home again at the end of the day. It would be a nice time to clear my head…something driving to work can’t really do for me.

It’s been pretty hard getting back into working out since our honeymoon…these past few weeks haven’t been the best for us! Determined to turn over a new leaf, Heather is slowing transitioning into a vegan diet, to see what that does for her. I am also trying to phase out meat, but man! is it hard. We watched Food, Inc. recently, and we just finished reading the Skinny Bitch/Skinny Bastard books, so those are also providing the impetus to change (even if it is by grossing us out/guilt tripping us). I’m ordering “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan today, so when that arrives, perhaps it will give us even more information to use in our quest for health and knowledge.

Coming up this weekend is the Fools’ 5K, put on by our local race organization, Trekman Racing. Hopefully all the trails in George Wyth Park aren’t underwater come race day! I will keep you all updated with race results.

Challenge your beliefs. Learn from those whose opinions differ from yours. Take what is useful and discard the rest. Build yourself a library of knowledge you can apply throughout your life. Stay strong and train with purpose!

March 10, 2010 1

This morning’s workout and a quick way to increase the effectiveness of your pushups!!

By Alex in Exercise, Nutrition

Just wanted to drop everyone a line to tell you about my workout this morning, and one quick way to increase the effectiveness of your pushups! First off, I did workout B from Turbulence Training’s Buff Dudes & Hot Chicks program. Let’s run through the progressions. Same format as yesterday:
Watch Craig’s runthrough of today’s workout [...]

March 9, 2010 0

The most efficient machine

By Alex in Exercise

Well, if you’ve read much of any fitness blog, you’ll know where I’m going with this. Your body is a marvel of efficiency. It hates change, so when you introduce something new (different diet, new exercise) it quickly becomes proficient at expending the least amount of energy possible to do it. Your key to seeing [...]

February 18, 2010 2

Day 45: Leaving, on a jet plane

By Alex in Uncategorized

Alright, Judgment Day is upon me, and I have fallen short. After my last post, I vowed to myself not to weigh in until we leave for Des Moines. That may have been detrimental to my progress. I also had a few disaster days that left me more discouraged than rewarded. HOWEVER, I stepped on [...]

February 11, 2010 1

Why Intermittent Fasting is so important to a healthy lifestyle

By Alex in Nutrition

It’s another fast day today, and I wanted to sit down to break down some of the myths and facts surrounding fasting, at least as I understand it. I don’t have a degree in nutrition science, but I, as a fitness disciple, have learned from the experts, and I want to share what I know [...]

February 5, 2010 1

One more look

By Alex in Goals

Here are side-by-side comparisons for your (and my) viewing pleasure!

58 more days until the Turbulence Training Transformation contest is over. On track to meet my 200 lb. goal by July 4th. Life is pretty good. Going to allow myself a fun reward meal at the Super Bowl on Sunday, but I think I will try [...]

February 4, 2010 0

Day 31: Pictures and measurements

By Alex in Goals

Alright, I didn’t have time to do this last night, but here are the 30 31 day pictures:

Well, I can definitely notice the tan! I weighed and measured myself this morning as well, and here are the results:

Date
01/04/10
02/04/10

Weight, lbs.
258.0
242.0

BMI
34.04
32.8

Neck
16.5
16

Bicep
15
15

Chest
49
47.5

Waist
45.5
44

Hips
42
41

Thigh
27.5
26

Calf
18
17

I’m pretty happy with these results. I would like to see my weight be a bit lower, [...]

February 2, 2010 0

Day 30: Counting down to the honeymoon!

By Alex in Exercise, Goals

Hi folks! Just wanted to touch base with you all again and see how you’re doing. I’m feeling stronger every day, and the results are finally appearing in the mirror. Now, after a pretty great start, my weight loss has dropped back to more reasonable levels, but I’m still shooting for 240 by Sunday. That [...]

January 26, 2010 1

Wow…I am sorry folks

By Alex in Exercise, Goals, Nutrition

Oh man, apologies time. It’s been quite a while, obviously, since I last updated you folks. And that was some of this and that. Partly I got busy. But let’s be honest. I could’ve squeezed a post in here or there. Mostly, I lost my focus for a bit. I’ve been kick-started again because of [...]

January 11, 2010 0

Day 8: Double-up

By Alex in Exercise

Whew! Today was intense. I made the unwise decision to work out twice. I went to bed early to offset waking up early, but I slept poorly and 6 am came too soon. I got up and did the first workout from Turbulence Training 2K10, a legs workout. Here’s the breakdown:
Warmup (for all 2K10 workouts)

Jumping [...]