Journalism

I’ve been obviously struggling the past few months and not achieving any goals. I’ve been eating the right foods (mostly), lifting weights religiously, cardio a couple of times a week and curbing calories (I thought), yet nothing is changing…until-

I started keeping a good old-fashioned fitness journal on Monday. I’ve been tracking my weight lifting so that I know when to move up in weight or which weight to start with, but this journal is plain paper in a three ring binder. At the top I put the date. Below that my cardio activity and my weight training further down the page. Along the left side I write my food intake and keep a running tally of calories. I found that I was over estimating my food activity and underestimating my cardio activity. Since then, I can see that I am making progress. I’ve lost my 2 pounds this week and I believe my journal will keep me in check this weekend.

I tried to keep a tally of my calories at Fitday.com which is a wonderful site with a large food database. However, I may not be able to access the internet for any number of reasons and some of the information wasn’t being recorded. Using a pencil and paper, I always can write down what I ate and how many calories I’ve consumed.

What I Really Want is One of Those New Skip Ropes...

I woke up late this morning and decided instead of doing nothing, I would jump rope for 20 minutes. Understand that I am not coordinated enough to jump rope so the fight itself would get my heart rate racing (and elevate my blood pressure). I warmed up with 5 minutes of light skipping followed by alternating 1 minute of fast skipping and 1 minute of slow skipping (intervals) for an additional 15 minutes.

The result was a 20 minute workout that beat not doing anything by 200 calories plus the boost in my metabolism. It wasn't pretty to watch, but at least I didn't strangle myself with the rope.

I'm really hoping to pick up the pace of this blog. I have rediscovered a few tips and techniques that are working better for me than anything I've done in the past 4 months. Stay tuned.