Back on Track

My diet was 100% totally clean today, no junk or processed food. 50% carbs, 30% proteins and 20% fats... can't get any more perfect than that.

For my workout I did alternating sets of Push-ups and Pull-ups, each set to failure and on my last set of each, I couldn't do a single one... so obviously I did a more sets of Push-ups than Pull-ups. I'm going to work on getting my Pull-up numbers up there.

Tomorrow I'm definitely going to go for a Bike ride... It's May 1st and the 1st of  this years "Bicycle Sundays", where they close the Bronx River Parkway to traffic and open it to pedestrians, rollerbladers and cyclists. The only decision I'll have to make is if I should drive to the start or ride from my house, which would add another 8 miles and another 45 - 50 minutes to my ride. Maybe on the 1st Sunday I'll drive down and on warmer Sundays I'll ride from my house... that sounds like a plan.

Re-Focusing

It's time for me to re-focus on my long-term and short-term goals... I've really been lax lately, so it's time to buckle down. I have just a little more than a month before my daughter's wedding and I could stand to lose another 5-10 lbs. before then. Of course on the wedding day I'll put that weight right back on at the reception.

I think part of my laxness is due to not being able to lift weights because of my shoulder and not being able to ride because of the weather... but it's time to stop making excuses and do what I can do instead of concentrating on what I can't do. So there you go...

My weekend is over and It's back to work tonight... so I gotta get off the computer and get ready to try and sleep. Later

Summer Goal

I need a goal to work towards to get me re-motivated. I'm not sure yet, but I'll probably sign up for the Golden Apple Century ride. It's a 100 mile ride across Scenic Northern Westchester County... it has over 7000 feet of climbing, so I will have to do some hill training for sure, along with some longer training rides. But the ride is in September, so I have plenty of time to train.

I've done this particular ride once before and I finished it in 6.5 hours with a little help from an experienced century rider I just happened to pick up along the way... she stuck with me through the rough parts of the ride right through to the end... at the end she said, "Good Job!!" and disappeared into the crowd... never to be seen again.

This time I'll see if I can hook up with a small group of riders of approximately the same skill level or a little better than me. When you ride with a group you save about 30% of your energy by drafting, which is how I was able to ride this ride at 16.5 mph the last time... my fastest time for any ride I had ever done. We were switching leads back & forth, so the back rider was in the front riders slipstream being pulled along at a 30% energy saving... of course during the last half of the ride I think my ride partner was doing most of the pulling and I was doing most of the drafting. I really had no clue as to how hard 100 miles with hills would be... I bit off more than I could chew for sure.

This time I plan to train for this ride and maybe even ride the route in parts beforehand. First goal is to get some riding in... the weather should start to cooperate soon, May is next week already.

Wine & Chocolate

People only read what they want to read, and hear only what they want to hear... Take Dark Chocolate for example... all they know is that Dark Chocolate is good for you, but they don't know how much they can have before it becomes bad for you. First of all it has to be at least 70% cocoa and you shouldn't eat more than 45 grams or 1.6ounces a day.

Same with red wine or beer, it's good for you in limited quantities. For a male, no more than 8oz of wine or 2 beers a day and for a female it's half that amount... 4 oz. of wine or 1 beer... so for a couple, a 6-pack every 2 days works out perfectly.

Also Sea Salt, people think they can use as much sea salt as they want, but it still has the same amount of sodium as regular table salt.

It's just ignorance, they read the headlines but not the accompanying article that explains the headline. They see, "WINE IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEART."  then underneath they see, blah blah blah, blah blah blah. Drink wine.

Now I need a drink, good day!

You Are What You Eat!!

Even though I relaxed my usually strict lifestyle this week, I'm still eating pretty healthy. I had my Oatmeal for breakfast, Turkey on Whole Wheat for lunch, my usual apples, bananas and almonds for snacks and desserts... and now I'm going to have my turkey chili w/beans for dinner. So my diet is basically the same, I'm just not weighing everything or keeping track of the micro-nutrients.

After awhile I won't even need to keep a close eye on everything I eat... I can pretty much tell how many calories I've taken in for the day. I can even get a pretty close estimate of how much Protein, Carbs & Fats I've had. But I'm a statistic nut... I like to go over stats, examine them, compare them and tweak them. I like to be able to see what I ate and compare it to how I felt that day. Or if I wasn't feeling so hot or sluggish one day I can see if it had anything to do with what I ate... there's usually a correlation.

What you put into your body has a big effect on what you get out of your body, on a whole lot of different levels... healthwise, attitudes and moods, energy, appearance, just about everything. You are what you eat!!
Anyway, that's my strange world... I hope everyone has a great day.

Leftovers

I'm going to ease up on my normal routines for the rest of this week... I'm not going to go totally crazy, but just relax my self-imposed rules for dieting & exercise until Saturday. This will serve a few purposes... one is to rest my shoulder a bit more... I get the feeling the inflammation is here to stay, unless I rest it for an extended period of time... which is out of the question, unless I take a vacation from everything, including my job... or the other option is surgery, which to me is the last option. I'll just have to baby my shoulder and rest it every once in awhile.

Another purpose for taking this week off is to get rid of all this "slightly less than healthy" Easter dinner leftovers. Including some alcoholic beverages, I won't lie, LOL. But come Saturday, it's back to business. I'll have just about a month to lose a couple more pounds before my daughter's wedding and then put a few pounds back on at the wedding, LOL. Ahhhh, life just goes round and round.

Happy Easter!!

Hello everyone... as I mentioned yesterday, my wife is having her side of the family over for Easter. So I'm relaxing my diet today, that's the 2nd day this week... I'm just going to hell with myself, aren't I? Oh well... this is why you work-out and why you maintain a clean diet most of the time, so you can enjoy yourself when it counts... when you're getting together with friends and family. It would look pretty weird anyway, weighing my food and then entering everything into my food log in front of the guests, LOL.

I still have to go to work tonight, so I'll have to try and sleep through all the festivities and it's accompanying noises, although, once I'm asleep, I'll sleep through anything & everything..  So everybody enjoy... and I'll be back tomorrow.

Out to Lunch

Another quick blog update today... Easter get-together is at my house as usual, my wife's side of the family comes over every year. So I'm helping cleaning up the house, I got bathroom duty to start.

I'm taking a break for lunch and writing this blog update... if my wife complains I just tell her I'm union, LOL. I think she was just pleasantly surprised that I offered to help after working all night.

So anyway, for lunch I made a huge green salad and sliced up some left-over chicken breast, threw that in, sprinkled some extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar over it... even though the greens take up most of the bowl, it still comes out to under 100 calories and the chicken breast was around 450 calories and the oil & vinegar about 150 calories, so you can see, you can fill up on all the green vegetables you want without adding too many calories to your day. Just take it easy on the oil, that's 120 calories for 1 tablespoon.

Bloated Cheater

I feel bloated from yesterdays cheat meals. I always enjoy my cheat meals but I don't enjoy the "less than my best" feeling the day after. Same with alcohol, I enjoy the beer & drinks, but not the groggy feeling the day after. But that being said, I think cheat days are important, not for your physical health, but for your mental health.

This is only my 3rd cheat day since September, so I do enjoy them when I allow myself one. Obviously, my daughters wedding in June will be another one coming up. There are other ways of enjoying cheats... if you got the will power and you can trust yourself to stay on target, you can use a 90/10 method. Every day get 90% of your calories from good, clean healthy foods and 10% from whatever else you want. So if you're taking in 2000 calories a day, you can have a cheat snack of no more than 200 calories. That would be a candy bar, or two of those 100 calorie snack bags, or a can of soda.

Personally for me, I couldn't use that method, I have an "All or Nothing" personality when it comes to things like that. So I'll stick to my clean diet and have a cheat day every once in a great while. Like they say, the best method is the one that you will stick to.

Quickie

Short update today... I have to go get fitted for a tux for my oldest daughter's wedding in June and then maybe we'll go out for lunch... I feel a cheat meal coming on.

I am so glad I am 35 lbs. lighter for this wedding, I know it's all about my daughter and her groom on that day, but I would have felt self-conscious all day about my belly sticking out over my belt... not too mention opening the jacket for more room. I've been through that many times, but this time it's important. I can concentrate on my daughter and her day.

Of course there is the vanity thing, LOL... I wanna look good in the pictures also... for generations to come. Now all I gotta do is find all my "fat" pictures and destroy them, LOL.

D.A.R.E.

The most popular prescribed drugs in America are Pain Killers, Anti-Diabetes Drugs, Statins for treating High Cholesterol, High Blood Pressure medicines... why eat right or exercise when a doctor can just give you a pill to keep what's ailing you at bay. It's easier... the hardest part is getting the cap off the bottle.

The top drugs are mostly for preventable diseases, mostly diet related, but also sedentary lifestyle related. Not only that, but drugs are expensive... it's much cheaper to eat good food.  D.A.R.E. (Drugs Are Really Expensive).

61% of adults are taking at least 1 type of medicine for a chronic health problem. That's 15% more than 10 years ago. And more than 1 in 4 seniors take at least 5 medications daily. Those drug ads for Lipitor, Avandia, Boniva, etc.. are probably helping to boost drug use also.

I know some medicines are totally necessary and I might need a drug or 2 in the future also, but I'm willing to bet most can be avoided through lifestyle changes by losing weight, eating better and getting regular exercise. The irony of it all is that all those people that kicked the habit back in the 70' & 80's are back on them now... legally.

Push-Ups and Chicken Breasts

I did a total of 500 push-ups today... I'll have to start something similar with Pull-Ups/Chin-Ups, it won't be anywhere near 500 though... well, not yet anyway... then I'll just have to add in something for legs, unless I rely on climbing hills on my bike.

I made my Chicken Breasts differently today, instead of Honey-Mustard, I did Balsamic Vinegar and Honey... same ratio, 50/50 plus spices and seasonings, it came out very good... 400°F oven for 45 - 50 minutes... the only thing is it's not as thick as the Honey-Mustard, so it tends to run off the chicken onto the bottom of the pan... so it might be better as a marinade, or you can baste it a few times during cooking... it was still delicious and enough of the juices stayed on the chicken.

I guess you could use more honey than vinegar if you want... or even use half honey and a quarter each of mustard & vinegar. Whatever you like, it's your chicken... I remember a cook that was just doing things without recipes, or measuring cups, or any menus... she was just putting things that were on hand together and it always came out delicious, being very naive at the time, I asked her how she knew what to use and how much of any one thing to put in, she said in her accent, "What you put in, is what you get out." can't get any simpler than that.

Swai? I Don't Know Swai.

Today's lunch was Swai Fillet, if you don't know what Swai is, you're not alone. I had to look it up myself... it's an Asian Striped Catfish. It was pretty tasty... just a little sea salt & pepper throw it in the oven at 400°F for 20 - 25 minutes and go make your large salad and steamed vegetables.

I'm on a push-up kick again, whenever I get a chance at work, I find a quit corner and drop and do push-ups. I did 200 a few days ago and 300 today, mostly 25 at a time. Of course if anybody asks, it was all on my breaks and lunch hour.  :-)

Then when I get home I do Pull-Ups, Chin-Ups and whatever else strikes my fancy that day... and of course when the weather gets nicer, I'll be riding my bike also... any week now.

Chicken Breasts & Sweet Potatoes

Lunch today consisted of baked Chicken Breasts that I coated with a Yogurt-Honey mixture before I put it into a 375°F oven for 50 minutes... then I cut Sweet Potatoes into 1 inch cubes, tossed them in a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil (just enough to coat them) with a pinch of salt, a healthy amount of freshly ground pepper along with some minced onion & garlic and put those in the oven at 375°F for 50 minutes also, I added some steamed vegetables to my plate and I was set. Great lunch.

Today is Sunday, so relax and watch a game or better yet, go outside and participate in a sport or activity of your choice.

News Items

A couple of things I found interesting in the news...

From the Department of the Obvious a study done at the Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found that Fat Loss is better accomplished with Diet and Exercise together as opposed to doing either one by itself. They put over 400 people into 3 groups and found that...
The group that only did the exercises averaged a 2.4% loss off of their original weight... the average weight loss for that group was 4.4lbs.
The group that did the diet part only lost an average of 8.5% of their original body weight, or an average weight loss of 15.8 pounds for the group.
The Group that did both Diet & Exercise lost on average 10.8% off of their original body weight... and an average of 19.8lbs for that group.
You can see what a big part diet plays in weight loss, there was a big difference between the group that just exercised and the group that just dieted. But both together is definitely the best option.

The other item that I found interesting... they found a link between weight loss and improved cognitive skills and memory... I forgot where I read this so I can't provide a link... I better lose a few more pounds so I can remember... now where did I put that Snickers bar?

What Cycling Teaches about Life

The Buddhists say Life is Suffering, just as Cyclists say Cycling is Suffering... I can attest to the latter... for some reason cyclists love to suffer, they must love it, why else would we go out again and again. Another bike saying goes, "Cycling doesn't get any easier, you just get faster."  A lot of what cycling teaches us can be applied to life.

-You have to do a lot of hard work to climb to the summit of a big hill... and the easy, enjoyable ride back down doesn't last a quarter of the time... but take time to enjoy the view from the top first.
-No matter how tired and exhausted you are, you can always go a little further, and a little further.
-Your mind and spirit will try to shorten a ride before your body does, control your mind and you will control your life.
-If you start your ride with the wind at your back, you're gonna struggle home into the wind. Same goes for hills, if you ride downhill first, you'll have to struggle back uphill to go home. Of course if you live on a hill, as I do, you have no choice.
-Riding the same route gets boring, you have to have new adventures, explore new roads and every once in awhile get lost on purpose... or at least tell people you meant to do that.

There are more lessons that I only remember while I'm riding, but I haven't learned the multi-tasking art of riding and writing yet. So I'll just leave you with a quote from a pretty smart fellow.


Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.  ~Albert Einstein

Why Don't You Change? What Prevents You?

Why don't you change? What prevents you?
These 2 questions have been haunting me lately... they come from a talk from the great Indian Philosopher J. Krishnamurti... and the same 2 answers come to me every time... First, I don't know exactly what I want and secondly I am too comfortable where I'm at.

Of course I change little things like my weight and body composition... I make changes to my diet... I make changes to my work-out routines... these are little things, so I get little results... I think I need some bigger goals, some major changes. First I really need to think about what I really want out of the rest of my life, because right now I haven't got a clue.

Remember, when it comes to getting what you want... the only real obstacle is you.

Weather wasn't too bad today, so I got to go out for a ride... my longest and fastest ride so far this year. I stayed out for over an hour and rode 15.5 miles. The wind was a slight factor coming North, but I guess it didn't slow me down too much... also had my highest average heart rate at 144 bpm and a max HR of 175 bpm, that must of been when I was racing uphill trying to make it before the light turned red at the intersection.

Stand Up!!

Sitting can kill you... I'm serious... a study that analyzed the lifestyles of 17,000 men & women over a period of 13 years found that people who sit for most of the day are 54% more likely to die of heart attacks. That's a pretty startling finding, if you ask me. But even more surprising was the fact that it didn't matter if the person smoked or not... or if a person exercised or not... it is an independent risk factor... if you sit a major part of your day, you have more than a 50% chance of dieing of a heart attack. I'm writing the rest of this blog standing up... well I would if I had longer arms to reach the keyboard.

I think this goes hand in hand with my theory of labor saving devices and why they actually hurt you more than save you. We got machines at work that push things, pull things, pick things up, move things a few feet and if you don't use them, you'll get a lecture on safety and not hurting yourself. But in the long run you are hurting yourself, by not lifting, pulling, pushing, etc... One of the phrases I hear too often at work is, "I'm not killing myself!" and I always want to retort, "But you are."

You have to use your body, you gotta move, you gotta lift, you gotta bend, you gotta push and pull... Don't always look for the easy way... "Save your back" is another one I always hear. I saved my back for such a long period of time a few years ago, that when I needed it, it said, "I don't think so!!"...I felt something and I was out for 4 days with lower back pain... If you don't use it, you'll lose it.

Writer's Block

I've posted a blog every day without fail since the end of November, I've always found something to post about... either Health and fitness tips, or things that I was doing to achieve and keep my health & wellness... sometimes I tried to motivate others or answer the questions they asked, but after 137 daily posts, I found myself with writers block, I've been sitting here for 45 minutes looking for something to blog about.

And then I remembered what I read somewhere about writers block... it said to just start typing, not to worry about what comes through your fingers, just type and before you know it you'll have something written... and you know  what? here it is... Daily Blog Post #138... but somehow it feels like the Seinfeld show... this is a blog about nothing.

It's a good life lesson also... if you're going for a walk or a bike ride, but can't decide where to go... just get out the door and start walking or pedaling, you'll get somewhere. But don't forget to come back.

Macros on Target

I was looking over my nutritional stats and they are pretty much on target. My carbs are usually between 40% to 50% of my diet. Mostly fruits and vegetables, with some whole grain bread and occassionally whole grain pasta.

My Proteins are usually between 30% - 40% of my diet and of course these are lean meats and fish, Whey protein powder after my workouts and some yogurt and cottage cheese.

My fat intake is usually between 20% & 30% of my diet... all good fats like Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Nuts & Seeds, All-Natural Peanut Butter and whatever fats are left in the lean cuts of meats I eat.

So I'm pretty pleased with the Macro-nutrient breakdown of my diet... now I just have to cut the total calories again... 2 reasons for that... I let myself gain 10 pounds since I hit my low weight of 180lbs in December... and I wouldn't mind if it was muscle, but looking in the mirror tells me otherwise... I'm sure, no in fact I'm positive I gained some muscle, but I definitely know it wasn't 10 pounds worth... and the second reason is I want to be around 180lbs. during the height of the cycling season or summer as we call it.

Lunch Licks

I didn't go riding today, the weather looked a little untrustworthy, cloudy and it felt damp.... oh where are my nice warm sunny days?

I just finished a great lunch... A big plate of Turkey chili with beans, and a large mixed green salad... Here's a trick I learned for a great dressed salad... most people pour their dressing over their salad, no, no, no.... make your own dressing in the bottom of the salad bowl... the rule of thumb is 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar or lemon juice... you can measure this out before hand or just go by sight, feel and taste... just remember 1 tablespoon of oil is 120 calories all fat... so use a healthy fat like Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
First put in the acidic part, either vinegar or lemon juice, add your spices and whatever other ingredients you want to put in there, like minced garlic or sliced green onions or whatever you like...  and then while whisking, add the oil slowly a little bit at a time, you're making a temporary emulsion... temporary because oil & vinegar doesn't stay mixed too long... whisk it real good... give it a taste by dipping a piece of lettuce in there and shaking off the excess... if it's too acidic, add some oil, or if it's too oily add some vinegar... when you are pleased with the taste, toss your salad in the bowl... all the salad ingredients will be nicely coated with the dressing and if you got the amounts right, you will barely have any dressing on the bottom of the bowl when you're finished eating.

Foggy Morning

Well I thought I was going for a ride today, but I didn't. When I was coming home from work it was real foggy out, not sunny like the forecast had said. I even came upon a cyclist on the road that I didn't see until I was almost right up on him... he was far enough to the right that I wasn't even close to him, but it still seemed kind of dangerous to be out there.

Strange thing... when I was leaving my job, there was frost on my car windows that I had to scrape off... and I look around and out of the dozens of cars around me, mine was the only one with frost on it, hmmmmm. Somebody's trying to tell me something. I don't think my seals around the windows are airtight anymore... I should check the sunroof, maybe that's it.

Oh well, instead of riding I did my Card Deck work-out... that's where I assign an exercise to each suit, today I did Push-Ups (Hearts), Chin-Ups (Clubs), Bicycle Crunches (Diamonds) & Burpees (Spades) and I also added extra values to the face cards... Jacks were 11 reps, Queens were 12 reps, Kings were 13 reps and Aces were 15 reps, just to make it a little tougher. So you turn the cards over one at a time and do the exercise and number of reps that that card represents. So a Queen of Hearts would be 12 Push-Ups, a 5 of Clubs would be 5 Chin-Ups, and so on... Try it, it'll wear you out, especially if you get 2 or 3 high cards for the same exercise in a row.

Ride Time

Surprise!! I did a ride today... a short one, a little over 9.5 miles. Almost a carbon copy of my last ride, the stats are almost identical. Average Speed, Average Heart Rate, Mileage and Time all about the same. The only difference was, according to my GPS, I climbed about 125 feet more this time.

It was cold, I thought it would feel a little bit warmer. It was about 45 degrees with very little wind, but all my exposed skin was beet red. Today it was Cloudy, tomorrow it's supposed to be about the same conditions, but Sunny, so it should feel a little bit better.

Back to work tonight, so I gotta wrap this up and go eat something. later.

Trivial Wind

I feel vindicated about not riding on windy days, this was Lance Armstrong's Tweet from a few minutes ago:

 "Just finished riding w/ some of the fellas outta @mellowjohnnys. Too windy for me!"

I checked the weather in Austin, Tx. and it's in the 70's with an 8mph wind but it's gusting to 17mph. But he did ride, LOL.

Today I have some food trivia for you,

Our bodies convert Beta-Carotene into Vitamin A which is
important for good eyesight, helps your body fight
infection, and keeps your skin and hair healthy.

                            ***

The darker green varieties of lettuce are more nutritional
than the light green varieties.

                             ***

In the U.S., lettuce is the second most popular fresh
vegetable and Americans eat about 30 pounds of lettuce
every year.

                             ***

Fresh apples float because 25% of their volume is air.

                             ***

In 1970, consumption of broccoli was only a half a pound
per person. Today, the average person eats 4.5 pounds a
year.

Ok that's it for today... see you all tomorrow.

Nothing Doing

Hey everybody... I don't have much to report or write about today... it's the end of the week for me, so I'm just gonna sit back and relax... I've had my dinner... Easy Baked Salmon w/ a huge helping of steamed vegetables.... so I'm just chillin' now.

I have no plans for my days off, so I might just relax and catch up on some movies & TV shows and watch a few ball games... sometimes you just gotta do nothing and veg out... I said sometimes, not all the time... because doing nothing is one of the easiest habits to get into and the hardest to break. So do nothing sparingly.

Food Addiction

A Yale study has found that some people have a food addiction. Is this really news? I guess they studied brain waves and all that kinda stuff to reinforce what most people already knew... sometimes I think these studies come from the University of the Blatantly Obvious. Because the same study found that people with a food addiction also tend to gain weight... They should do a study on how many of these studies are funded with our taxes.

Don't mind me I'm just getting grumpy with all this rain the last few days and in the next 10 days... I know, "April Showers... " Anyway, I'm going to go feed my addiction now... have a great day all.

Rain & Pain

For those of you with knee pain, and I have a few friends that suffer from this, for every pound that you lose, you alleviate pressure on your knees by 4 pounds. So if you lose just 5 lbs., that's 20 less pounds of pressure on your knees.
Over the years I've learned that my body starts hurting when I approach 200 lbs. and for me it's my knees and my lower back. As soon as I get closer to 190lbs. the pain is just a memory. That's enough motivation for me to stay on the leaner side.

This weeks weather is going to suck. Showers every day until next Monday, except for Thursday...
Today              
Apr 4

Few Showers

65°

Tue
Apr 5

T-Showers / Wind

57°

Wed
Apr 6

Few Showers

54°

Thu
Apr 7

Partly Cloudy

54°

Fri
Apr 8

Showers

50°

Sat
Apr 9

Showers

52°

Sun
Apr 10

Few Showers

58°

Mon
Apr 11

Showers
 Rainy days & Mondays always bring me down.

It Wasn't In The Cards

Change of plans today... I didn't get to ride... the temps were ok, but the winds were whipping up 20mph gusts. I'll get to ride sooner or later, maybe July, LOL. The longer I wait, the more daily miles I'll have to put in to reach my goal of 2,011 total miles this year. 135 days of 15 mile rides would take care of it. There's about 30 weeks left until November, the unofficial end of the riding season. So to break it down even further, I'd need to aim for about 70 miles a week, very doable.

I did do the "Deck of Cards" workout today, not as easy as you might think. You take a deck of cards and assign an exercise to each suit, for example: Diamonds = Push-ups, Clubs = Chin-Ups, Hearts = Bicycle Crunches and Spades = Lunges.  Shuffle the deck up real good and then turn over 1 card at a time and do the number of reps that is displayed on the card for the corresponding exercise. So if the first card you turn over is a 9 of Clubs, you'll do 9 Chin-ups, then you turn over the next card and do that exercise for the number of reps indicated. You keep that up without stopping until all the cards are turned over. Picture cards and Aces are all 10 Reps, or if this work-out is too easy for you, give the picture cards a value of 15 reps and the Aces 25 reps. Adjust it to your own needs and abilities. Use different exercises, it's your routine, do whatever works best for you.

New Routine

I started my new routine this morning... all body weight exercises. I picked 5 exercises to do one after another, my first circuit I did 10 reps of each exercise, my 2nd set I did 9 reps, 3rd set 8 reps and so forth until I got down to 1 rep of each.

The workout finished faster than I expected so I think I have to add some more exercises to the circuit. I also have to replace 2 of the exercises because I felt I wasn't getting anything out of them... or I could just do more reps for those.

But at the end, in order to do a full work-out I added some sets of Chin-ups. This routine needs a lot of tweaking, which I'll do as I go along, until I'm happy with it and satisfied that I'm getting a full work-out.

Heavy Facts

A new Gallup Poll shows that West Virginia has knocked Mississippi out of the top spot for Obesity. According to this years poll 1 out of every 3 people in West Virginia  is obese.

I find a few things troubling with these figures. First, it was based on telephone interviews of over 350,000 random people all over the USA. They took people on their word about how much they weigh, which brings me to a study I read a few weeks ago that stated people always underestimate their own weight. I'm not saying these people lie to the interviewer, it's just that a lot of people don't know how much they really weigh, they guesstimate. Or they use the weight they got from the doctor a few years ago.

Anyway, overall in America, 26.6% of people are considered obese, more than 1 in 4. You're considered obese if you have a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 30 or above... and they figure that out by measuring your weight and your height. A BMI of 25 - 29.9 is considered overweight... you can Google BMI and figure out where you fit in on the chart.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHNES) which actually physically weighs and measures people says the actual obesity rate in America is 33.8%

And not surprisngly, the states with the highest rates of obesity also has the highest rates of Diabetes, well a big DUH!!

We've got to get people moving, especially the kids, who weigh on average 6 pounds more than 15 years ago... pretty scary. You got to move it. Just Do It!! There's nothing on TV, no video game and no internet more important than your own or your kids health.