As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the whole point of this is to lose about 20lbs of weight while increasing my general fitness so that when I do come to race again I can get a little enjoyment out of it and not suffer exclusively as I might otherwise if I sat around doing nothing.
That first week I was in the gym five times and was on a roll, but last week thanks to a dental appointment, a meeting with a life insurance broker, and a trip out of town for the weekend I got to the gym but once. Granted while out of town I had a full day worth of pond hockey, but I also broke several of my rules about no refined sugars and better sleeping hours. As a result I put on a a couple of pounds rather than shedding a few more and while I knew I'd still have some of the fitness I gained in the week before, I knew I'd be better off starting from scratch.
Of course, the biggest issues is that there will be other weeks over the next ten in which I have appointments, weekends away or other such commitments, but I'd be kidding myself if I tried to claim on the days in which I had an appointment I couldn't have still found time to go work out. If I wasn't doing it right after work, I simply got lazy and didn't go.
So here we go again ... the same rules apply and I'll be back in the gym tonight for what I'll call day one. Here is a look at those rules once again:
-- No beer. Or at least limiting myself to five days of drinking for the twelve weeks.
-- No refined sugars. That means chocolate bars etc. and anyone who knows me knows this might be the hardest task of all. I know I'll slip up occasionally but so long as I limit myself, I'll be happy. Last year I successfully gave these up for the forty days of lend and I'll be doing that one again at the very least.
-- A limit of 1,600 calories intake per day. Aside from the sugars and beer, I don't care so much what I eat, so long as it isn't going beyond this mark.
-- Six days of exercise per week. Rest days are penciled in for Friday though if and when something comes up that means I can't go to the gym, I'll switch that days activity to what would have been the rest day. I'm aware though that there will be times I can't go to the gym several days per week due to more commitments from the real world , and I'll just have to live with that.
-- Seven pints of water per day. An easy task but an important one. They say plenty of water intake not only helps hydrate for exercise but aids in weight loss.
-- Minimum of seven hours sleep per night. Harder than you'd think. I'm up most mornings at 5.30am and the TV at night is always good. Getting to sleep for 10.30am won't always be easy, but I'll try!
I weighed in this morning at 203.4lbs -- 1.6lbs lighter than two weeks ago which is something -- and have the end goal of getting below 185lbs. Is that weight doable? We'll see, but there shouldn't be any excuses for doing the exercise.
You can follow my winter training diary here
