Hey there Cord - glad to hear you are back on track after a not so great week, it's the getting back on the horse that matters, not the falling off part

Swimming is so much harder than it looks, I am not a great swimmer, and I find it nearly kills me everytime I do go swimming LOL I sink like a stone, some people have natural bouyancy, I am the opposite.. natural Anchorage!!!!

Yes, I'm a huge fan of Buffalo - lean, tasty and it doesn't come from a feedlot so it is a lot better for you.

There are quite a few buffalo ranchers in BC, actually.

You can get buffalo (or bison - same thing) at Margett's Meats.

Edit - you can also get buffalo burgers in the frozen section at Save-On. Just make sure you get the "Grande Prairie" kind (in a square black box) rather than the other ones (name of which I can't recall), because the Grande Prairie ones are meat and nothing but meat, while the other ones have a variety of additives.

June 15

Just another day, I suppose, although I am trying to settle into a more regular exercise programme.
I also looked at myself in the mirror as I was working out in the gym tonight, and could swear that I could see some real changes in my body. That was cool.
I have also bought some new shirts, one size smaller than I was previously wearing. I was wearing 3XL, but my wife always said that they looked too big and baggy on me, but the 2XL felt tight. Well, now the 2XL fit nicely. That's gotta be some kind of progress, right?
Almost forgot - My khaki shorts are starting to slip down off my butt. Going to have to start wearing a belt - or buy new shorts. Also, the chinos I stopped wearing a couple of years ago because they were too tight now fit tolerably well. Bye-bye track pants!

I had my wife take some photos of me back in early April when I just started all this. I will get her to take some more at the end of the month and I might even post them for you all to see - if I am brave enough.

Okay, on to the day's story.

breakfast - steelcut oats with agave nectar, 2oz roast beef

snacks - 1 banana, 22 cherries

lunch - 1 cup mashed potatoes with margarine, 4oz buffalo sausage

snack - 1oz cashews

supper - 2 slices whole wheat bread with butter, bowl of salad with light caesar dressing and feta

dessert - 2"x3" Nanaimo bar, 1/2 cup milk

Exercise:
I'm trying to get myself worked into some kind of regular exercise programme, as opposed to previously when I just did whatever I felt like whenever. So my plan is to alternate swimming days with resistance training days. So, this evening I hit the gym.
I did what I'm going to describe as circuit training:
stretching
5 min warm-up on treadmill
bodyweight squats x12 (for now I think my bodyweight is plenty)
pushups x20
lat pulldown 60lbs x12
DB lunges 20lbs x12 (each leg, alternating)
DB stepups 20lbs x12 (each leg)
DB shoulder presses 20lbs x12
DB woodchoppers 20lbs x12
pec-dec 40lbs x12
reverse fly (blue exercise band) x12
DB curls 20lbs x12
tricep pressdowns 50lbs x12
cardio intervals - 6 min on rowing machine doing 30/60 second intervals

Then repeated the whole thing, except:
raised lat pulldowns to 70lbs
raised tricep pressdowns to 60lbs
failed on cardio intervals after 2 min, so finished up with 5 min cooldown on the treadmill.

I was pretty tired after that.

I'm sure the programme I scribbled down could use some streamlining for efficiency - I'm sure I'll get there.
I also want to develop two different resistance programmes, one for the gym and one for home. For the one above I could do everything at home except for the 3 machine exercises (lat pulldown, tricep pressdown, pec-dec). I could substitute flat flys for the pec-dec, I imagine - not sure about the other two but I will do a little research.
For the gym version I am going to focus more on the cable work, and maybe even barbells when I progress that far. I prefer using dumbbells as much as possible, and the gym will still be useful once I exhaust the potential of my home set which only go up to 25lbs.
For the gym sessions I want to primarily do stuff that I can't do (or can't do as easily) at home.

Off to bed now - 'night all.

Good job on your food and wow to your exerciseIve been such a lazy ass lately towards my exercise, i gotta get serious but maybe now since i got the food under control i can get my exercise under control again...

U are so much like me...if my exercise is crappy, i can't get into the proper eating part of healthy living (at least not as much as I could be) I do best when I can find a happy balance between both (less binges or poor choices)

Cord, you are showing such huge determination *even if you have those days where you would have liked to have made some better choices* U always get right back to the hard work... good for you!

Ya i dont have the balance much, lol...either i do great with exercise or great with food but not as a combo but maybe this time i have it...who knows...

June 16

Overdid it a bit over the last couple of days. I hate being too out of shape to exercise at the rate and intensity I really want to.

Breakfast - steelcut oats with hemp seeds and agave nectar

Morning snacks - 1 banana, some mixed nuts

Lunch - 2 cups lentil stew (my wife makes this amazingly tasty lentil stew), big salad (tomato, apple, cucumber, spinach, with lime juice for flavour and to keep the apple from turning brown).

Afternoon snack - some dry cereal

Supper - 6" chicken teriyaki sub, large order of fries (yeah, I know)

Dessert - nanaimo bar

Late night snack - 1.5oz Rose's over crushed ice

Exercise - at work I managed to squeeze in a 13 minute walk. I did one circuit of the ring road - a couple of months ago it took me 15 minutes to do so.
During dinner I suddenly reached down and got a pain in my lower back. I suspect it is due to the training I did the day before, which may have been too intense for my current body.
Like an idiot, I ignored the pain and went for an evening swim. Didn't push the swimming - did 1000m in 40 minutes, then a soak in the hot tub for 10 minutes.
However, my back hurt a lot more when I got home, and continued to hurt through the night as I slept. It hurts still this morning.
Damn! This is what I get for trying too hard, I guess. Now I am going to have to take some time off from working out, to let my back heal. I'm thinking about going to the bonecruncher.
The thing I really don't want to do is to be too messed up to do the 10k on Sunday.
Doesn't it suck when your ambitions exceed your capabilities?

Yeah, I've mucked up my back.

Went to the chiropractor this morning, and will go again tomorrow, and again on Saturday.

No serious exercise for the next few days. Sigh.

Doc says stationary bike is okay if I'm careful, and walking is fine as long as I listen to my back - ie don't go too hard.

I hate being stalled on the exercise front, but I have the Dave Jacobs run/walk on Sunday (I'm doing the 10k walk), and I really don't want to miss that. Therefore I have to take care of myself so that I can be healthy enough to go.

Argh.

Owch Cord! Im horribly sorry to hear about your back man, seriously, listen to your chiro and take good care of it!

I have a recurring slipped disc and end up at the chiro at least every other year. Sometimes it comes out so bad its basically crippling, ill fall face first on the floor unable to move my legs properly for the pain.

If the doc says dont stress it follow that advice man. Back pain really sucks. But making back pain worse is the most aweful espescially when your looking at being active.

Your better diet and no pop will still help you lose weight even without alot of excersize! Also the few days rest will let all your muscles pretty much totally recoup and help you feel supercharged and ready to go when your backs up to it again!

Hope its better for you on your next visit! And hope you get to make the walk!

-Cheers

Thanks, NotSoSlim.

I know I need to take care of this. I'm going to work really hard at taking it slow for the next couple of days.

I really want to make the walk on Sunday.

Has my second chiropractic session this morning. Things are moving better, I am in less pain, and I am hopeful that I will be able to walk as scheduled on Sunday. I slept better last night, too.

June 17

Breakfast - corn muffin with butter, 1/2 cup milk

Lunch - 1 doughnut, a handful of pretzels, 3 pieces ryvita with almond butter, 1/2 apple, 1 cup milk

Supper - 2 scrambled eggs, 1 hamburger patty, 1/2 a buffalo burger patty, hash browns, 2 slices brown toast with butter, 1/2 cup chocolate milk

Late snack - 1.5oz Rose's over crushed ice

Exercise - took the day off to let my back heal. Only went for a 15 minute walk with my family, to go down to the river valley trail and release the salamander that crawled into our basement last autumn and we had been caring for since.

Today is weigh-in day, and I came in at...

....wait for it...

279!

That's 5.5 lbs less than last week, and incidentally, puts me past my initial goal of 280.
In my original journal post I gave myself 4 months to get here, but really wanted to do it in 90 days.
Well, I did it in 78 - I'm really pleased.

Now it is time for breakfast. Hope everyone is having a great day!

YES! Congrats man! I know its always nice (after that moment of "OMG IT BETTER NOT BE HIGHER!) to see positive results on the ebil beast! (scale).

Grats and keep it up! Hope your back's up for the Dave Means Walk on Sunday!

Hey, thanks for the feedback, by the way. It sounds like your pretty straightforward and realistic with your goals. You know what you want, and how to get there. Execution, of course, is the hard part. Good luck to you and just remind yourself of why your doing this every single day, especially when your having a craving or a moment of weakness. I'm not an expert at this stuff, but I can lend you an ear

cord my man, sorry about the neglect on your thread. Sorry about the back issues and great job on the weight loss! you are catching up with me! anyway. hope things are going well and keep it strong. I appreciate the post in my thread, keep em coming! lol. Anyway. good job again. i hope to be under my 269 even though there was no way i didn't gain over the week i was away. i had too much fun! i guess we'll find out on monday!