Alright, one week down and the rest of my life to go. I’m feeling real good about the last week overall and can’t wait to jump into week 2. Before I get started on this review, I would like to thank everyone who has stopped by and read these posts and left comments. I didn’t realize it when I started this journal, but it has become a huge source of motivation for me, and I hope it has for you as well. In a little less than a week, there have been almost 1000 views of my journal, and that just floors me. I have also received emails from people telling me that I am motivating them, and you cannot imagine how much that makes me want to keep going and not fail. For myself and them. So again, thank you for your support & encouragement!
OK, so one with my recap of week 1. I started off strong but learned a real quick lesson with Monday morning’s Workout A. After making it through the first 2 supersets and starting my final superset, I found out that your body needs fuel to perform these programs. I did my workout in the morning, before eating anything and paid the price. I damn near passed out and threw up. In hind sight, I should have only done each superset once like Craig suggested, but my male ego got the best of me and I had to try and prove (only to myself) that I wasn’t as out of shape as I really was.
After that first lesson, I re-set my expectations for myself and re-evaluated my approach. In the end, I guess it’s good I got my ass kicked in the beginning rather than half-way through. Lesson learned, I went on with the rest of my week with no further incidents like Monday morning.
The intervals are tough. I’m sucking air by the end of the 20 minute one, but I feel great. That’s one thing I’m noticing at the end of this first week. The all over body aches I had earlier this week have been replaced by a feeling of energy and something else I can’t describe. It just feels like my body is stronger and it’s buzzing from the growth. I know it’s only week one, so I don’t think it’s that huge of a change. But since my body hasn’t been worked like this since the SEALS did their best to kill me in boot camp, I’m not surprised that just a little bit of this program has me feeling better.
As for diet, I’ve done pretty good. I’m not following the Belly Off! diet, but I am eating much better than my old self did. It’s been 13 days with no soda of any kind and the salt & sugar have been eliminated too. I’m having 6 meals a day and drinking close to a gallon of water. My wife and I did go out to dinner Friday night (got rid of the kids!!!). We just went to the local Applebee’s, nothing special. I did my homework before going though. I checked out Applebee’s web site to see if they had any nutritional info on their menu. As it turns out (and this was in a MH article), Applebee’s does not publish nutritional info on their regular menu items. That’s OK though, I was interested in their Weight Watcher’s menu. After finding out that my choices on that menu were all fairly decent, I went to dinner with my wife confident that I wouldn’t be sabotaging my gains so far with one meal out. I ended up having the Teriyaki Shrimp & Steak skewers with white rice and a huge helping of broccoli. I left the rice alone and devoured the rest. I was weak later that night. I had a piece of nutmallow (marshmallow & nuts covered in chocolate). It was a small piece, maybe 1″x1″, but I couldn’t resist. It was a Christmas present and it had been taunting me all week.
After having that one indulgence, I felt bad for a few moments. I was kicking myself for giving in but then realized what I was doing to myself. I can’t beat myself up for being human. It’s OK to give in and have something like that every so often. It’s not about what I can’t have. This is all about self-control and understanding. Understanding that if I have something like that, there are going to be consequences (more time on the treadmill doing intervals) and I have to be prepared to pay them. It’s not bad having to do those extra few minutes as long as I realize it’s OK if I put in the work (did any of that make any sense???)
I’ve been wanting to jump on the scale since about Friday this week. My belt isn’t as tight and my jeans feel better on me too. And then, on Saturday night my wife told me I sucked. She said that because I’ve only been working out for 1 week and have lost weight when she’s been doing treadmill work for months with no results (I’ve since got her doing intervals). Anyways, she said that she could tell I’d lost weight because when we were hugging, we were closer to each other than we have been in quite awhile. That had me pumped and riding a big high. Then came the suit.
I lector at my church on some Sundays. Lectors have to get dressed up so I put on my freshly dry-cleaned and pressed suit and had a reality check. The suite pants were still pretty tight and the neck of my shirt was too. After my high from last night, I came back down and was now worried about weighing in tomorrow. Had I lost anything? Was my wife imagining things? I’m not sure, though I do think my pants loosened up a bit (the were freshly cleaned after all). By the end of the day, those worries have been put to rest. I can definitely tell that my jeans are looser than they were last week.
So, it’s been a good week. I’m confident going into tomorrow’s weigh-in that I’ve lost something. My goal is 2 pounds per week, though I’d like to see more in the first week. It doesn’t matter though. Two pounds per week is my goal and I’ll be happy with that. Sticking to that plan, I’ll be 16 pounds lighter by the end of our 8-week program and that means I’ll be half-way to my goal of 30 pounds.
I hope everyone else has had a successful first week and is ready for week 2. Keep pushing yourselves (but have realistic expectations) and good luck!
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