Steve, Rebooted

I weighed in at 244.5 lbs. today. That’s 2 lbs. less than the last time I weighed myself (and when I blogged about it).

I received a 5-day free pass to Gold’s Gym in the mail and went there today. It’s good to go to different gyms, and competitive bodybuilders do this purposely for the change of scenery and different equipment, etc. It actually helps keep your training fresh and you are less apt to suffer from training burnout.

I only have 18 lbs. left to go to reach my goal of losing 40 lbs. by 12/15/09. I’m going to set a new goal right here, right now and declare that I will lose a total of 50 lbs. by 12/15/09. There I said it. I made the affirmation. Now, I just have to stay on course and do the work!

Train conservatively, intensely, and prepare for success.

I did 50 lb. flat dumbbell presses at the gym on Saturday for 10 reps and it felt great…almost easy. I haven’t done that in a long time. My goal is todo the 70s with ease. If I can do that, I’ll be happy….well, then there’s the 80 pounders….

I weighed in at a new low this morning. 246.5 lbs.!!!

Total weight lost since 6/8/09: 20.5 lbs.

I’ll be doing motivational seminars soon!

I stopped at a nice little coffee shop in the quaint town of Monroe, CT, called The Last Drop Coffee Shop and had a delicious Buffalo Chicken Salad. The chicken was grilled, not breaded and fried and instead of the chunky bleu cheese dressing that comes on it normally, I opted for their homemade balsamic vinaigrette. The chicken had some good “heat” and overall it was a very satisfying meal.

They have free WiFi (incidentally, I’m writing this posting while sitting in the cafe) and the staff is cheerful and attentive. If I worked for Zagat, I’d give them the highest rating.

If you are in the New England area anytime soon (and specifically, Connecticut, which is where I grew up), I suggest you stop by for great food, great service and a nice country town atmosphere.

Running has never been my thing. Cardio has always been particularly difficult for me. I love to lift, but doing sustained cardiorespiratory conditioning for any length of time has been particularly torturous to me. The good news is, in personal training circles, there is a movement that states long, extended bouts of cardio are not the best or most efficient way to lose fat and may even be detrimental to your joints, connective tissues, and ability to build and maintain lean body mass (i.e., muscle). I have researched this thoroughly over the past 4 or so years, and it makes sound scientific sense. Instead of marathon cardio sessions, the research suggests that shorter, more intense bouts of cardio done interval style elicit more fat loss and are just as effective for cardiovascular conditioning. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is the process of cycling your cadence from, say, a brisk walking pace to a jog or run for an interval of 30-90 seconds. Then, you bring it back down to the walking pace. You do this for a period of no longer than 20 minutes.

Since I have such an aversion to cardio (probably more psychological than anything), for the first 2 months or so of my training, I only did very short cardio sessions, non-interval style to let both my body and brain get acclimated.

So, I was doing a short cardio session the other day, and I cranked up the speed and ran for a few minutes. I didn’t HIIT verbatim, but it was a start for me. I’m going to look to become more vigilant about doing my cardio in true HIIT fashion, and I should begin to see the fat melting off.

Slow and steady wins the race.

I’m happy to report that once you get into your fitness routine, it really isn’t that hard to keep it up. You must make it a priority and schedule it just like you’d schedule a client meeting, doctor’s appointment, or other important life event. Once you become acclimated to your fitness regimen — which doesn’t take long at all — you will notice that the progress you are making is motivation to make you stick to it and strive higher. I noticed an immediate improved sense of well-being, higher energy levels, greater mental clarity & focus, and an overall better outlook by the second week from when I started. Though every person is different, and I can’t promise everyone will respond to the exercise stimuli in as little as two weeks, what I can tell you is that it is well known in the medical community that exercise does boost the mood as it has a profound positive effect on brain chemistry.

The key is to make sure you are exercising with the proper intensity level. Intensity is a subjective thing, and everyone has a different threshold for intensity, but you should look to challenge yourself with each workout, without overtraining and burning out. To help people with this, I am going to create a site where I will have articles, workout plans, social support, and other information to make sure people are on the right track and embarking on their fitness programs correctly, safely, and with purpose. I will announce when the site is up and will provide the web address at that time.

Stay tuned and train hard for total life ascension!