Taking it up a notch Monday, March 22, 2010

Another week is over, and I'm continuing to make progress towards my goal. It occurred to me late last week that while I've been making sure to continue to increase the intensity of my weight-lifting routine, I haven't really been doing that that with my cardio. This could be bad, since cardio is the main part of my workout, and it's thing I do the most (up to 11 sessions in a given week).

Keeping this in mind, I made three changes to my routine this weekend. One change involved increasing the time of my biking sessions. On Sunday, I went for 50 minutes, and today I went for 40 minutes. I've also increased the resistance, starting at 6 and increasing by a level every five minutes. On the weight-lifting side, I've added an extra set of reps, but I may need to re-evaluate that (or at least the resistance).

As of today, I've already noticed a significant difference, as my weight is dropping at a faster-than-usual rate again. I think I will add an extra five minutes to my biking every week or two, and up the starting resistance by one on a regular basis. We'll see how it works.

Outside of that, today is my second day of no caffeine, and I feel pretty good. I don't have any headaches, and I have a good amount of energy. I also am starting to feel like I'm losing; my clothes are much looser, and I can even wear clothes that I previously could not. I'm about to go under 330 pounds for the first time since my freshman year of college. I'm almost at the point where I can drop a clothing size. Both are pretty awesome to me, even if I still have a long way to complete my goal.

Weight as of 3/22/10: 330.6 pounds
Weight lost since 1/1/10: 27.4 pounds

Staying motivated, keeping things interesting Monday, March 15, 2010

I can't say I did a whole lot this weekend. Then again, I never really do anything at this point. Clinton isn't exactly a place to go out and have an exciting time. The only real thing of note was re-arranging my bedroom a bit to hook my computer up to my TV. Past that, it was old South Park and 30 Rock episodes.

I took a day off from exercising Saturday, which put me back in the fitness center on Sunday afternoon. I decided I was going to try something different: increase the resistance on the bike. On a typical day, I bike on a level 5 resistance. Having done this for a while now, it really feels like nothing to me, and I can bike at a rate slightly faster than 20 mph.

One of the things I've gathered during my reading on exercise is that you have to change your routine on a regular basis. When you do the same thing for so long, your body becomes used to it, making it harder to lose weight. Keeping that in mind, I decided I was going to bike for 40 minutes instead of the typical 30-35. I started on level 5, as usual, but I went up to level 6 after 10 minutes. Not bad. After 20 minutes, I went up to level 7. Still not horrible. After 30 minutes, I bumped it up to level 10. Okay, now this is a workout. However, I did feel good enough to extend my time by another five minutes, putting me at 10 minutes at level 10. I sustained about 100 RPM at this rate, and I got my heart rate up to about 155 for that time.

While not as intense today, I did go back to level 10 for a bit, and I could feel the difference. I also increased my weights again. I can still do everything, but it's a challenge. I may stay there for a few weeks before trying to move up again.

All in all, I'm feeling pretty good. I lost another three pounds from last week, taking me down to 335. I'm about seven pounds away from my freshman year of college weight. If you think about it, that's not exactly great, but then again, having lost 43 pounds since last April is a good thing.

The other major challenge I find myself facing is getting up in the morning. Lunchtime and weekend workouts are easy for me, since I'm already up and moving and have been for several hours. However, I wake up during the week at a time specifically for this purpose. It can get old after a while, but I'm trying to stay motivated. I remember I got to a point when I did this several years ago where I had an amazing amount of energy. Waking up was no problem then. I hope I can get back to that.

Weight as of 3/15/10: 335 pounds
Weight lost since 1/1/10: 23 pounds

Progress and challenges Monday, March 8, 2010

Several weeks ago, I flew out to Washington to see Amanda. I made it a goal of mine to get down to 340 before I got out there. It just seemed like a good place to be, even if it required some extra work.

Good news: The day I flew out, I was down to 340.
Bad news: Contrary to my predetermined goal to continue working out while I was out there, I only worked out one day. I didn't find the fitness center at Amanda's apartment complex one that I could use very easily.
Bad news: I also ate a lot while I was out there, including a lot of sushi. It's soooo good and cheap.
Good news: Despite all of this, I put on around a pound while I was out there. I think I was about 341 when I got back. I expected it to be a lot more.
Bad news: It took me another week after getting back to get back into the routine.
Good news: I got back in the routine last week and continued to make progress.
Best news: I got under 340 as of this morning, as I'm sitting at 339. It's the first time I've been there in about two years.

As you can see, I still face a lot of challenges when I'm away from my comfort zone. Working out regularly is a big one. I need to find things I can do, even if I don't have the same equipment at my disposal that I do here. Even if walking doesn't get the same result as my normal routine, it's still better than nothing.

Eating well away from home is also a challenge, though I think it's one I'm getting better at in certain situations. I still need to get better. I'll also consider it a small victory that I was able to get back into a routine after stopping for a couple of weeks. It's usually that first time I stop that I find myself in trouble. I've luckily gotten over that hump.

I've also made changes to my routine to, hopefully, prevent from hitting that plateau when it comes to weight loss. The new routine consists of:

35-45 minutes of carido, typically consisting of biking about 10 miles at a level 5 resistance on the stationary bike.

20 minutes of weight exercises, alternating daily between upper body and lower body workouts. Upper body workouts consist of dumbbell rows, shoulder presses, tricep curls, bicep curls, pulldowns, and seated rows. Lower body workouts consist of dumbbell squats, lunges, leg curls, leg presses, leg extensions, and crunches. I'm also making sure to up the weight every week and switching up the order.

I'm hoping this helps. I like the results so far.

I've also taken another challenge during this whole thing: eliminating caffeine from my routine. My day typically consisted of diet soda...A LOT of diet soda. Technically, it's not bad in the sense that it's not a lot of calories. But diet soda isn't exactly good for you in mass quantities. Plus I don't want to have to depend on caffeine for energy.

I made the big mistake of trying to completely eliminate it at once. That didn't last very long. Caffeine withdrawal is a horrible feeling. The crash is not easy to handle, and the headaches are almost crippling. Now I'm in the process of tapering off, just the way I should have done it from the start. Each day last week, I had a 20 oz. soda that consisted of half caffeinated soda and half caffeine-free. Ten ounces of caffeine seemed to work just fine, with the exception of one day, so this week it's down to five ounces. If all goes well, I'll try to stop after the weekend, or taper down even more at the worst.

That's all for now!

Today's weight: 339.3 pounds.

Accountability Monday, February 8, 2010

My name is Mike Bowers, and I'm a product of change. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much good change.

Mainly, it's been my weight that changes. For years, my weight has gone up in an upward and unhealthy direction. For the first half of my life, I grew outward as quickly as I grew upward. It's easy to hide the fact you just put on 20 pounds when you got three inches taller at the same time. Unfortunately, my weight didn't stop increasing as the same time as my height.

I was 300 pounds by the time I was in the eighth grade. It seemed like a deathly-scary thing at the time, but after about four years at the same weight, it didn't seem so bad. My senior year of my high school, I went up a little more, then a little more in college. By my sophomore year, the doctor had to write "350+" on the chart. Even after that, I found myself starting to justify things: at least I'm not 400, I said. I'm still in relatively good health. Nevermind the fact that I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and, as a result, I have to sleep hooked to a machine to make sure I don't suffocate in my sleep.

2009 saw a lot of drastic changes for me: my entire office at work left for other things, leaving me the "senior" member of the office at 10 months. My girlfriend moved to take another job 3,000 miles across the country. Worst of all, I lost my mom unexpectedly on April 21. Getting in shape wasn't exactly a priority before, and it certainly didn't become more of one after that. Then I went to the doctor and stepped on the scale: 378 pounds. My heaviest ever. Only 22 pounds from the dreaded 400.

I spent the rest of 2009 going through similar spurts, but I eventually decided I didn't want to push back my "breaking point" anymore. Enough was enough.

I always figured if I got down to 250 pounds, I'd be in fairly decent shape. When I was weighed at the beginning of January, I checked in at 358. That's roughly 108 pounds to my goal weight. For the sake of a catchy blog name, let's just say I have 100 pounds to lose. This blog will be a chronicle of my progress towards that goal. I'm going to post whatever is on my mind at the time: excitement about a workout, confusion about figuring out new healthy eating options, frustration over hitting a plateau, or whatever else comes to mind.

More importantly, this blog will be an attempt at accountability. I'll post updates on my progress so I can point out when I'm doing especially well and talk about what I need to change when I hit a roadblock. Am I going to send this to everyone I know? Maybe. Or I may just leave this out in cyberspace and see what happens. If nothing else, I'm putting this out there to where even if no one sees it, everyone could see it. It's a start.

As of this morning, I clocked in at 345.4. (Super Bowl Sunday was a bit rough.) That's down about 34 pounds from April and 13 pounds from when I started. It's progress, but there's much more work to be done.

After all, I've been through plenty of change already. A little more wouldn't hurt me. Hopefully it will save me.