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Tag Archives: Exercise

Yoga

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I realized I started practicing Yoga 10 years ago thanks to a friend dragging me out to a class. Prior to that class my knowledge of Yoga was what I had seen from the old PBS 70’s show and Street Fighter. To my surprise it was a lot better than the PBS yoga but sadly not as cool as spitting fire and stretchy limbs. Over the years my Yoga practice has fluctuated from dedicated to nonexistent but what is great about yoga is you always carry it with you. For me it has always been about the breath and meditation. The physical aspects of yoga are cool but secondary to my practice. In time I will need to master them all but for now I am calm and happy with my breath and meditation.

Progress?

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So not really progress. In the last 2 weeks I have gained 2 pounds and my BMI went up by 2%. Not exactly the number progress I was working for. Now if I go for appearance some parts of me have thinned out some and my arms and legs have a lot more muscle. I also learned how to use one of the workout equipment pieces I was unsure of this weekend which add a few more weight exercises to my routine. Its not all about the numbers. Still going and working hard.

220

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This morning I weighed in at exactly 220lbs. Since I started I have lost 60lbs. Since I have started weighing myself with my Fitbit scale I have lost 20lbs towards my goal. My current goal is 210lbs which I feel is very attainable though perhaps not by my birthday. I had a few weeks of staying steady at 225 and that kind of put me off target. I cut back this week on my caloric intake which I was apprehensive about at first but I found to be easier than I thought. I switched up my breakfast to be a little bit lighter as well as lunch and dinner and cut out a chai latte and reduced the size.

Once I hit my goal weight I may aim for another 10lbs lower but I will pretty happy at 210. Like I have said before I am lighter than I have ever been in my adult life and most likely thinking back probably mid-high school.

As it gets colder here getting in my walks outside have been switched to walking in circles in my apartment. Not that exciting but I have my tv going while I do it and so I am able to catch up on shows as I walk. I still try to get in some strength training with pushups, planks, mountain climbers and crunches but they are not that exciting.

30 Day challenges and stuff

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As I have lost a bunch of weight over the last few months with just diet and some walking, I have decided I need to add some weight training in to my regime. I probably should add some cardio too but baby steps. For the last 15 days I have been doing two different 30 day challenges. An arm and an Ab one. They have been really good and I can see the changes which are nice. I will probably keep going, or at least change them up once I am done with them.

Sadly I have stalled on my weight loss. Which means I either need to up my activity or lower my caloric intake. I know a couple places I could lower caloric intake (Chai, I am looking at you) but really I am pretty happy with the amount I am taking in so I will try and focus on upping my activity level. That means either more walking or some cardio or a mixture of both.

It is getting cold here faster than I would like which may mean I need to find a lot more indoor activities I like for keeping this going or invest in some snow shoes.

Anyway still going, toning up and working towards my goal but it is now not targeting for my birthday. Without doing anything drastic I may just have to live with that and be happy I am still seeing physical changes that are positive beyond weight.

State of the Chris

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So life has been good. Today I earned my 15lbs lost badge on Fitbit. This based on from having my Aria scale for about a month now so the amount lost is from my highest weight I hit while having it 153 and I am now 137. Which is great and an all time low for my adult life. I keep repeating this because seriously I have been obese all of my adult life. That is kind of crazy to think about but it is true. The reality is I was obese all of my teenage years and a good portion of my youth. So now at 35 I am making the right changes to make that not the case. I am well on target for a personal goal I want to achieve before the end of this month. Then I have another for my birthday in November.

I was gaining weight or really maintaining weight and not really understanding why. I was doing lots of stairs, doing my 10k of steps and 5 miles a day. I thought I was tracking my calories correctly (no reason to lie to myself about what I was eating). I cut out fruit, I briefly cut out my Chai Lattes and still just standing still or losing then gaining.

So I looked at my intake and realized I was missing some important information. Liquid Calories that were not being recorded. I drink a lot of water but I also drink Almond milk because it is way tastier than water. I was drinking a lot of it. Since it is 80 Calories a cup and I was pounding down more and more a day I was not tracking it well enough to realize I was blowing through extra calories. So I cut out the Almond milk, increased my water, had a chai or two and looked at my portions as a whole and BAM back to a steady weight decrease.

For food I have cut down my breakfast portions slightly. I was doing 2 eggs and 3-4 pieces of bacon for breakfast and then a bunch of fruit for a snack in the morning. I now moved to one egg, 2 pieces of bacon and a banana for breakfast. No more fruit. Lunch is still baby spinach salad and I add raw mushrooms and some grilled chicken strips. Dinner this week has been a small pork chop and some Brussels sprouts and carrots. Keeping the portions reasonable and recorded. I might now be over estimating my calories vs before where I was underestimating but that is ok.

I still try to do 9 flights a stairs at a time but if not I at least do bursts of 4-5 at a time. I am averaging about 40-50 flights of stairs a day. I am steadily doing 10k steps a day with the occasional rest day. Like Saturday I did 500 steps total which was me moving from my bed, to kitchen to couch to bathroom etc. It was a blissful rest day. I watched a lot of episodes of the Vampire Diaries. This week I have been working on going to bed earlier and waking up earlier to fit in some Yoga in the morning. So far it has gone well and have done it 3 days in a row. I started some Yoga in the evening as well right before Bed. We will see if that one lasts but I do like that I am able to add some more healthy habits as I go along. I may get back to Dance Central as a periodic cardio thing to break up the other stuff or as an addition but for now I feel I have made great strides from being sedentary to being more active.

Every day is a change for the better. Any step backwards I analyze and improve upon. I will be the perfect me.

Bitch loves his Fitbit

Fitbit-logo-1024x337So I have to say I love my fitbit. Since I acquired the fitbit I have been trending towards a more active and balanced life. Doing paleo is great and I feel better and eat better but it wasn’t getting me to be more active. Or maybe it was but not to the extreme I have taken things at this point.

I actively strive to hit my daily goals. Over the last few weeks I have been slowly hitting my goals across the board. It makes the experience very personal and something I enjoy. Where I would have just sat on my couch when I get home, I instead look at my fitbit and go for a walk instead. If I see I am near an achievement I will put in some extra time to do it.

This week I hit a number of cool goals. I lost 10 lbs on my aria scale. I did 75 flights of stairs and then the next day I did 100 flights of stairs. I have made it into the top 5 of my friends which is kind of hard since the 10 3 exceed my 7 day totals by a good bit but in time who knows.

I also balance out my eating plan by tracking my daily intake. Not something i have to do but something I do just to get an idea of my eating habits and see when I may stray. I am being honest which is important because when I see fluctuations in my weight I have pretty good idea how it happened and now what to cut out as I go forward.

There is probably a bad habit of checking numbers and my scale. I weigh myself every morning. I may be a little obsessed with it. I am ok with it though because it keeps me on track and don’t get discouraged I get encouraged and determined to better myself.

Where I am at.

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I feel bad for neglecting this space so I will write a few things here.

As I said in an earlier post I got a fitbit. I will post more on that soon. So far I love it.

I was on vacation and was a little bad about eating. However I have gotten back on track. I am very happy with what I am doing.

Right now besides eating Paleo I am counting calories and watching my intake. The great thing is I really dont have to but to give myself a better idea of how I eat and how it affects me I am logging it on fitbit.

I realized contrary to my earlier belief dairy does have an effect on me. So I am cutting out my chai latte. I may have one once in a while but I was lying to myself that I could have one every day. Besides being 320 calories I also wasnt feeling great after drinking them. Now that I listen to my body more I am making sure to listen. So chai latte out.

Walking to work and home from work everyday now. The walk is getting better back home. I still feel like I want to die a little but I get something like 25 flights of stairs on my fitbit from doing it. So win.

I stopped stairs at work up from the bottom floor but decided to try it after lunch today. It wasnt awesome but it wasnt awful. We didnt end up moving to the 5th floor so  I am still on the 9th floor. That walk is a beast but it is good for me. I will work harder to sneak it in.

Still no Yoga. Need to work on that.

Buying a fitbit scale this weekend so I can actually track my weight and not guess.

That is all.

Fitbit

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I was on vacation last week and decided to pick up a fitbit since a good number of my friends have been doing it. So far I really enjoy it. It lets me see how active or inactive I am. I can set a goal for weight loss and I can keep track of my calories eaten and those burned. With the weight loss tracking it sets a limit on my calories in which is great. I like when I burn more by being more active I can take in more calories to balance it all out or not. For the game designer in me I really like all of the gamification aspects of this product.

It tracks my number of steps and gives me a daily goal of 10000. I have yet to reach that but get pretty close each day and I am sure I can do it once I actively put myself towards that goal. I have 10 floors of step goal which is easy for me to hit. I have water intake goal which I fail at. Calorie goals, miles walked goals and all of it just helps motivate me to do more.

I can add in more activities I might do like Dance Central or Yoga. I like that a lot.

Really the Fitbit is just one more thing to help me stay on track and be a healthier me. I will report more on it as I go but first week with it and I love it so far.

You can add me as a friend on fit bit at cmmifsud at gmail dot com.

Dance Central Day 3 and 4 again

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So Day 3 didn’t see much progress. I got really close on Now That We Found Love and Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg to get 4 stars but it wasn’t happening. So I jumped over to some non-story mode songs and had some fun. However today I was determined to get to the Macarena. Oh it would be mine. After a few tries I got 4 stars in both Now That We Found Love and Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg unlocking the Macarena. Let me just say I owned the Macarena with 4 almost 5 stars. This propelled me to the 2000’s where I was greeted with Get Low. I crushed that one as well with another 4 stars starting my journey into the new decade and new dance craze. I leave you with the Macarena:

I am not trying to seduce you
When I dance they call me Macarena
And the boys they say que soy buena
They all want me
They can’t have me
So they all come and dance along with me
Move with me
Chant with me
And if your good I’ll take you home with me

[Chorus: x2]
Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena
Que tu cuerpo es pa’ darle alegria why cosa buena
Dale a tu cuerpo alegria, Macarena
Hey Macarena

But don’t worry about my boyfriend
He’s a boy who’s name is Victorino
I don’t want him
Couldn’t stand him
He was no good so I

Now come on, what was I supposed to do?
He was out of town and his two friends were sooo fine

[Chorus: x2]

I am not trying to seduce you

[Chorus: x2]

Come and find me, my name is Macarena
Always at the party con las chicas que soy buena
Come join me,
Dance with me
And you fellows chant along with me.

[Chorus]

Dance Central Day 2 again

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Another morning and another great start with some Dance Central. I was actually wrong in my assessment of my dance prowess of the 90’s so far. I had 11 out of 15 by the end of yesterdays session because I had a mere 2 stars in Ice Ice Baby. Well I brought it this morning and got a solid 3 stars and then 4 after a lot of tries. I jumped to Now That We Found Love from Heavy D and the Boyz. I was on a steady stride to hit 4 stars but I fell short after too many attempts and stopped. So I ended my session 13 stars out of 15. Tomorrow I swear I will have victory and do the Macarena. Until then here is Now That We Found Love from Heavy D and the Boyz

Now That We Found Love by Heavy D & The Boyz
Yeah [yeah-eah]

(Now that we found love what are we gonna do)
[what are we gonna do] (with it) [with it]
(Now that we found love what are we gonna do)
[hey-eay] (with it)

(Now) One two, tell me what you got
Let me slip my quarters inside your slot to hit the jackpot
Rev me up rev me up
My little buttercup
We can tug sheets snuggle up and get stuck
Believe it or not
Here comes the brother with glow
A strugglin’, bubblin’ overweight lover hurt prone
So what’s it gonna be
Me or the TV
Now let me take time to set your mind and your body free
(Now) So why don’t you just stretch
Stretch for a sec
Played ??? so I could cop a quick rec
Shake me, Shake me
Baby baby bake me
No need to fake here I am
Come on and take me
Wind your body
Baby move your body
I see you slip sliding
Come on now do it hottie
I’m not quite sure as to what is going down
But I’m feeling Hunky Dory
’bout this thing that I found

(Now that we found love what are we gonna do with it)
(Now that we found love what are we gonna do
with it) [come on Heavy, come on Heavy]

(Now) I dig the way you wiggle
You don’t jiggle
Once you jiggle
So hand over your love
Cause it’s heavier
Than it’ll
Move her like a mover
she wanted to groove so I grooved her
then she wanted to learn so we did school
and I schooled her
(Now)[Mary had a little lamb]
But not like this
We can waltz and turn
Rumble tumble and twist
Then you think you gonna give in
Phantasies relivin’
So lay down and relax
[yeah baby, that’s it]
(now) Lover my lady
Lady love of my baby girl
Spread your wings
So we can fly around the world
Harmony, charm of me
Your fingertips are callin me
When you drop me kisses
You’re so cute you drop the bomb on me
(Now) Stretch it, stretch it
Flex it, flex it
Gimme the permission
Okey, dokey
I’ll bless ya
Blessin’ like buddha
Buddha as the bless
You can lay down on the Lover
Put your head on my chest [now that we]

(Now that we found love what are we gonna do)
[what are we gonna do] uh, yeah (with it) [with it] uh
(Now that we found love what are we gonna do)
[come on and tell me] (with it) TR, get em up one time

(Now) Uh, keep it funky
yeah [keep it smooth] like this
(Now) Uh, here we go

(Now) What can we do
What are we gonna do
Roses are red and Violets are blue
Love is good and plenty
If you get plenty good lovin’
Kiss you where you’re hot
to what I got to keep you bubblin
(Now) Do me right
Do me right
My lonesome dove
Tell me one more time
What is this thing called love
I’m not quite sure
As to what is going down
But I’m feelin’ Hunkey Dory
‘Bout this thing that I found [yeah]

(Now that we) [now that we] (found love
what are we gonna do) [girl tell me] tell me
(with it) [what are we gonna do with this]
Teddy Riley in the house
(Now that we found love) c’mon, c’mon (what are we gonna do)
G Wiz, DJ NF [tell me what are we gonna do with this]
(with it) let’s flex

(Now that we found love) c’mon, c’mon (what are we gonna do)
yeah [tell me somebody got to tell me] (with it) and you don’t stop, keep it on
(Now that we found love) [I need to know] c’mon, c’mon (what are we gonna do)
[somebody got to tell me, got to tell me] yeah (with it)

[what are we gonna do with this love, oh sweet love] yeah [oh love] c’mon
oh yeah, uh… shake it shake it
(Now) oh yeah, uh
[c’mon do the right thing baby] shake it, shake it

Uh (Now that we found love what are we gonna do) here we go
(with it) keep it funky for me [somebody need to tell me]
(Now that we found love) put your hands together, c’mon
(what are we gonna do) uh, uh [I don’t know baby] (with it)
[I don’t know babe] bring it back one time

(Now) All up in money
my furnish was decades
you hear what I’m sayin
Oakland, Bronx, Queens, Manhattan
[what are we, what are we gonna do]
the whole New York City
I said I love you to death
And you don’t stop
And you don’t quit
you got keep it on to the dip dip
do it like this
And you don’t stop
And you don’t quit
[what are we, what are we gonna do]
you got keep it on and on and on and on

(Now) Uh yeah yeah aye aye, ha ha
Huh, [c’mon] oh yeah
(Now that we found love what are we gonna do with it)