Workout Update

Week 4, weight-training and freezing in Florida

by Mike Vifquain on January 5, 2010

I bit the bullet.

Yesterday I started my weight training program with an all out blitz on my chest.  After another morning with 60 minutes on the elliptical, I planned my afternoon workout with a trainer friend of mine.

I am weak!  Very weak!

We started warming up the chest and shoulders with light dumbbell presses.

4 x Bench press (135lb x 12, 145 x 10, 145 x 6, 115 x 12)
4 x dumbbell incline press (35′s x 10, 30 x 10, 25 x 12, 25 x 8 )
3 x standing free-cable flies. (30′s x 10, 25 x 12, 25 x 10, 25 x 6)
3 x dumbbell bench press ( 25 x 10, 25 x 6, 25 x 8 negatives, 20 x 8 negatives)
3 x decline bench machine ( 50 x 12, 50 x 8, 50 x 8 negative, 50 x 5 negative)

I was pretty ashamed of how weak I was.  It felt good to lift, but my head was down from embarrassment.  I’m a little sore today, but I can still lift my arms.  I guess the cardio I have been doing has helped a little.

I will be lifting 3 days a week (Mon, wed, Fri)now that I have a workout partner.  Best part is he is a very experienced trainer too, so I know he’s not going to lead me down the wrong path.

Now, what the hell is wrong with the weather in this country?  It was 28 in Tampa when I woke up yesterday! It’s damn cold this morning as well.  It is really hard to stay motivated when all I want to do is crawl under a big blanket and sleep.  I am facing it head on, waking up early so I have a chance to wake up and warm-up before working out.

Tomorrow is my official weigh-in day, I think I will be around 290 or so.  That will leave me only a few days to drop the additional weight to meet my first goal.  I can do it though!

How is your year starting off?  Are you sticking to your resolutions this early, or are you brushing them off?

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Truth or Dare?

by Mike Vifquain on January 2, 2010

Would you strip down to your undies in front of strangers?

After my workout today I was getting ready to shower at the gym and noticed I’m one of the few “Big Guys” who uses the shower at the gym.  I’m wondering if it’s because others are ashamed of their size?  I don’t get bothered in that situation, but do wear a shirt at the beach.  Pretty odd, right?

So I’m setting myself a new goal.  Truth or dare.  I choose dare.  I dare myself to go shirtless in front of my peers for a convention I have to attend in Las Vegas, in June.  I have 5 months to build my confidence up enough to do this.  June also happens to be my goal month to lose 100lbs.  What a way to show the “new me” eh?  I will be in plenty of industry photos.  Only this time I won’t be the “Bellyflop champion” I have been in the past (see photo below), I will be a 200lb stud!

Sharky01

Todays workout was great! 60 minutes on the elliptical for a total of 992 calories burned! In addition I did another 30 minutes on the treadmill of a 3.5mph walk. I set it to Random and it adjusted the incline quite frequently.

My shins were killing me!  I imagine this is because of the incline, but shows I still have a very long way to go.

While there, a friend of mine mentioned she was going to be running a 15k at the end of February.  I need to check my travel schedule, but I’m thinking about giving it a shot.  15k is 9 or so miles.  I imagine this is a 2-2.5 hour race for me at this point.  I wonder if I could complete it?  I absolutely hate running, but setting a lofty goal like this would be good for me.

What are your thoughts?  Have any of you tried a run like this after a period of little activity?  I know some of you guys are a little further in your journey than I, what do you suggest?

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Workout Update #16 | Weigh-in

by Mike Vifquain on December 31, 2009

294lbs – I’ve lost 12 lbs

Not bad for 3 weeks.  4lbs a week is nothing to be ashamed of, especially over the Holidays.  I think I’ve done pretty well, though I know I can do better.  If I don’t pick up the pace, I might not reach my goal.  Wait, did I just say something negative?  The first week I did really well, but since then have deviated from my hardcore loss attitude because of “The Holidays.”  It’s a great excuse.

I can’t help but think how well I would be doing had I not used that excuse.  I’m a pretty positive person, as you can tell.  I don’t get down very often and always find the positive of any situation.  That won’t help my journey though, and it won’t help you – my readers.  I’m going to switch this blog up a bit from now on and focus on the real situation, and how I push forward.  After all, I’m not a motivational speaker.

Wednesdays workout was good.  I woke up at 5:00am and was in the gym by 5:30am.  WOW! I don’t wake up early on a regular basis, so this was different.  It was dark outside, and cold.  Very cold, for Florida.

After weighing myself and seeing a mild loss, I polished off 60 minutes on the elliptical.

978 calories burned

Not as great as the day before, but it could be the 2lb difference in the settings.  Either way, a solid session.  Waking up that early actually gave me more energy for the day.  I felt pretty good.

Now, the struggles.  I’ve noticed after Christmas that I have been sneaking a few extra carbs and not feeling guilty about it.  Whether it be a roll with dinner or white rice instead of  brown rice.  I know better.  But again, one cheat meal leads to more cheat meals.

How do I overcome this?

I’ll be following up with a post a little later after todays workout.  I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

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Workout Update #15 | Pic update!

by Mike Vifquain on December 29, 2009

1000 Calories burned

That’s right, 60 minutes and exactly 1000 calories on the elliptical.  I couldn’t ask for a better cardio session.  I kind of like this middle of the day workout.  I had a lot of energy and even thought about pushing it longer.  I didn’t go to weights, I’m not sure why.  I need to get on a structured lifting schedule as well.  Anyone have suggestions on setting and sticking to a weight-training program?

Now onto the photo update I have been promising.

December 29, 2009

December 29, 2009

As you can tell, there isn’t much change at this point.  I’ve tried nit-picking and comparing, but there really isn’t a change after only 11lbs.  I hope to see more noticeable change in January once I reach my first goal of 20lbs lost.

On a side note:  I did the initial testing on the “LifeCenter” system that my gym is offering.  Everything was good, except for the weight.  It had me at 299lbs on it’s built in scale, but the scale I have used at the gym since the beginning still had me pegged right under 295 (after eating 2 meals;-) ).

Body Fat %: 30.8%

It’s a start.  lol.  I will test again tomorrow morning when I head in on an empty stomach to see how it reads.

Oh, I have noticed I’m getting a good amount of referrals from other weight-loss blogs.  If you run a blog and want to trade links, please let me know.  My goal is to share my story with as many people as possible!

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Workout Update #14 | Case of the Mondays?

by Mike Vifquain on December 29, 2009

Cold weather sucks!

After taking Sunday off, and the cold front hitting Tampa, I wasn’t very motivated to get out of bed Monday morning.  The kids didn’t have school or a specific time to be at daycare, so I dragged-ass.  We finally got up around 9am and off to daycare an hour or so later.  I usually hit the gym after dropping them off, but again it was cold and I wasn’t motivated.  I set off for my favorite breakfast joint and a jolt of coffee, egg-white omelet plus whole wheat toast.   After breakfast, I was finally awake and had a pretty good workout!

756 Calories burned in 45 minutes.

After the workout I spoke with one of the trainers to get setup on a “Lifefitness” system that tracks my progress.  Basically I walk into the gym, get my blood pressure and bodyfat % taken electronically as well as weight.  I enter what I’ve eaten and it tracks progress that I can view online.  I’ll try to figure out how to port it over to this blog and show you guys the updates;-)

Which leads me to today…  Again, it is very cold!  I didn’t hit the gym at my usual 8am, but am planning a lunchtime workout.  I will post those updates later for you.  The Holiday schedule has my blog updates pretty sporadic!  Don’t take that as me losing motivation – I am still as determined as ever to lose this weight.  I am staying on track, eating fairly well and losing weight!

Soon, my son will be asking me to slow down and give him a rest while we play football.  My daughter will be my “wrestling buddy” again and playtime in the park will not involve me sitting on the bench out of breath!

Until later, my friends!  Thanks for the posts and comments of support.  I have a surprise for you all later this week!

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Workout Update #13 | Weight Loss over the Holidays!

by Mike Vifquain on December 26, 2009

295!  I can’t believe it!

I stepped on the scale at the gym and was blown away by the results.  295.2lbs.  That is almost a 5lb loss since my last weigh-in on December 19th and coming after the huge amounts of food I ate at Grandma’s house.  I couldn’t be happier!

On the 16th day, I have lost a solid 11lbs.  Not bad, and it puts me right on target for my goal of 20lbs lost by January 10th.  I know I could probably push it and lose 1lb a day, I did before.  I think that’s a little unhealthy and am very happy with 5lbs a week loss.

There is 28 weeks from December  10 to my daughters birthday on June 10.  I would like to reach my goal of 100lbs lost by that time.  That’s only 3.5lbs a week average.  I think I can do that.  A gift to myself, and my daughter.

So back to today’s workout.  The gym was rather empty.  I think everyone is enjoying their last few days of freedom before the impending New Years resolutions kick in.  There were plenty of salesmen ready to earn commission on the new gym memberships, but they looked pretty bored at their desks browsing Facebook.

After my weigh-in this morning, I was pumped.  I decided to hit cardio for a full hour today, and bump up the resistance level a little more.  60 minutes, resistance level 7, random program.  I did very well.  I stayed around 58-63 RPM and my heart rate was pretty consistent between 140-145.

992 Calories burned.

Success!  Which leads me to another thought I had.  While watching the Biggest Loser “where are they now” show I saw one of the former winners, Erik Chopin, has gained back almost all of the weight he lost.  A friend asked me, how can someone lose so much, win $250,000, get plenty of national publicity and still gain the weight back.  How could he fail?  Well, much like I did.

Life Happens.

The key is to recognize it and not allow failure.  One man’s failure is another man’s pre-game for success!

At this point I know how to lose the weight and I know how to gain it.  I also know what I need to do to prevent it from happening again.  Here I am, at the beginning of another journey, already showing signs of success.  This time, I am doing it on my own.  For myself.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures.  I have received messages asking for my updated pics.  I will get them up tomorrow after I have cleaned the house from all the Christmas mess.

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