Day 15 - Not My Best Day

Woke up this morning not feeling well.  Consequently, I did not have breakfast or my snack.  Feeling better by mid-day I ate a good lunch using my new diet for week 3.  I then had my snack and a very good dinner following the diet to a T. 

Later on while doing my jumps I got a calf cramp in my left leg in my soleus muscle and it is pretty painful. I had only finished about 250 jumps at that point so I decided to do the rest of my jumps using just my right leg while I held my left in the air. 

The cramp remained pretty painful so I did not do the rest of my exercises.  This will be the only time that I do not finish my exercises.  I just need to get this cramp worked out so that I can get back to it tomorrow.  I am convinced that a lack of stretching is causing this and I need to put more focus on this.

Back at it tomorrow!

 

Day 14 - I'm Home!!

It's just about 10pm and I just completed my 800 jumps.  I normally do my exercises in the morning but I was up at 5am pacific time this morning to catch a 7am flight back to Connecticut after a business trip to Seattle.

I am psyched about the exercises as they are going very well and my body looks forward to them every day.  This week I transitioned from the basic jump technique to alternate foot jumping (speed jumping).  As my technique is getting better I am starting to jump faster and my bead rope is too heavy.  I am planning on picking up a new jump rope that has a counter and is more for speed jumping. 

I am not doing as well as I need to with the diet only because I have not taken a scale with me nor have I committed the time to eyeballing my quantities.  I am doing very good at eating the right foods, but I need to commit to figuring out the right quantities to eat.  I have already picked out a portable digital scale the I can take with me on business trips.  I am picking it up tomorrow.  I can also spend a lot of time on figuring out other strategies like eyeballing as I am not traveling anywhere next week.  Per a recommendation from Patrick, I will be cutting up various gram amount of the nutrients and eyeballing them to get used to the amounts.  Having the portable scale will also help.

I feel better than I have in a long time.  I am getting to bed at a decent hour and sleeping pretty well.  Since I am not eating any of the junk I used to eat my body has more energy  I also hope to have new pictures up by this weekend.  

   

Day 10

Since my last post, I started the diet portion of the program and the second week of exercises.  Physically, I feel really good.  I am enjoying the exercises and my wife--she is a PT--is making sure that I am doing them using the correct form so that I do not hurt myself.  The one thing I made a mistake on is the resistance band.  The one I originally purchased as the highest resistance level and some of the exercises are almost impossible to do.  I plan to go out this week an buy another resistance band that has a bit less resistance unless Patrick tells me not to.

The diet portion is going well although I need a bit more time to adjust to the portion sizes.  Not because I do not think they are large enough.  Rather, I am struggling with making sure that I am eating the right amounts when I am not at home.  This past weekend was Easter weekend and we ate away from the house a lot.  Making sure that I am close to the required portions for carbs, veggies, fruit, and protein will take time to master.  I cannot carry a scale with me everywhere.  The good news is that I feel I am doing a good job eating the right foods.  I am working on educating myself to use visual knowledge to make sure that I am easy as much as I should, but no more.  This will be important given that I also travel a lot for business and I am getting ready to leave for Seattle tomorrow and I do not get back until Thursday.

I am going to try and get my weekly picture up on Flicr before I leave although I need my wife's help on this and I am leaving around mid-day.  If I cannot get this done, It will have to wait until Thursday.

Day 7 - Cont'd

The last supper...

Chicken, peppers, lettuce tomatoes and honey wheat bread.  I ate half of this in the Philly train station and the other half on the train back to CT.

Day 7

On the train right now headed for Philadelphia.  I woke up at 5:30am to do my 500 jumps.  The air was cool and crisp outside and the temperature was about 41 which was very refreshing.  I am appreciating being outside in a whole new way.  I live in the country and I appreciate the opportunity to experience the morning sounds while doing my jumps.

For breakfast this morning I had another egg sandwich with bread, mustard, spinach tomatoes and fresh cracked black.  This time I added avocado and it was even better than the one I made yesterday! 

I will not get home until late tonight so I will have to stop on my way to pickup the food I am going to need for the new diet. 

Here we go!

Day 6

Exercises - Jumping rope is getting easier and I really enjoy it.  I did some research last night to make sure that my rope length was correct and as it turns out it was a bit long.  Using the new length, my jumps were easier this morning and I had fewer incidents where the rope was caught in my feet.

My wife has given me a alternative to the sit-ups.  I feel that the sit-ups put too much strain on my neck which concerns me given that I had fusion surgery 6 years ago.  My wife is a PT and she suggested that I do the sit-ups on a exercise ball.  It should get the same results and I feel like it puts less strain on my neck.

Breakfast - Today I did something different.  Using a tip from a friend of mine who just finished the project, I made a egg sandwich with spinach, tomatoes and a bit of mustard on the bread.  I fried the egg in a bit of olive oil and I topped it off with a bit of fresh ground black pepper.  It was really tasty!  Tomorrow, I am going to make the same thing but I am going to put avocado's on it.

Not sure what's for lunch and dinner today...

Day 5

When I have the time, I like to whip up a veggie omlette with eggs, peppers, green onions, tomatoes and spinach.  I use butter in the skillet but I think olive oil would be better.

Day 5

About a week before the project began, I started to lay-off the daily latte's and nightly deserts.  This combined with the attempt to reduce how much I eat since the project began has made me 3 lbs lighter.  Again, weight loss is not my primary objective with this program but benefits of weight loss will help me to fit into a few pairs of pants that I have been unable to wear for the past few years. 

The exercises are going great.  I love doing the push-ups.  I am not as crazy about the sit-ups as they put some strain on my neck.  My wife is a PT and she says I am doing them correctly but I still do not like them.  I had fusion surgery in my neck (C5-C6) back in 2005 so anything that involves me neck is sensitive.  My preference would be to do more of the leg-ups or some other stomach work as a substitute if that is possible.

Day 2

About a week before we started the project, I started to reduce my intake of sweets. In the past I would eat some type of desert every night before bed. Over the past week I have not eaten a single desert and I am finding it easier to avoid the cravings. I alsonfeel better when I wake in the morning. It has only been a week so time will tell if cravings continue to diminish.

I am anxious to see what the diet will be as we get into week 2. My wife is also a bit concerned about having to prepare separate meals for me and the kids. She is pretty busy with the kids and I do not want her to feel like I am creating more work for her. I personally believe that the diet will have concepts that we all benefit from. Tme will tell how this plays out.

I am sore from the exercises but I find that I am waking up in the morning with my body telling me it wants to do them. In plan on going out tomorrow to get the additional supplies I need.

Day 1

I never knew how much of a cardio workout jumping rope is. Good stuff. Also, I learned this morning that I cannot do my exercises when the kids and the dog are around. Anyway, day 1 exercises are complete. I now need to go eat half of what I normally do.

Here is a Day 1 picture:

My first PCP blog!

I am eating sushi while writing my first blog. Very excited to start the project!