And so it begins... again Week 1, Day 1

I was struggling with how to layout my workouts since I finished the TRX Force workout.  I wanted to go gung-ho again and do a hour of cardio in the morning and at night and TRX at noon.  I was already tired from putting that plan together.  I seem to push things as though I won't have time to do them later so I should pack everything into a fast plan.  What ends up happening is that I start dropping elements as I go and I never actually complete the massive sets of goals I had planned.

Since my main goal is to do a single pull up, I decided to look for a program to do a single pull up.  As it turns out, there is one out there:  http://www.uscg.mil/worklife/cgap/pro_video/References/TRX-FORCE_pullupprep_final-1.pdf

This is a 5 day a week workout, but I cannot do a single pull up so days 2 and 4 are basically worthless to me (I'll still attempt them though).  So I wanted something for days 2, 4, and 6 that would give me some cardio.
I came across this:  http://smartfoodandfit.com/feel-good-total-body-workout-trx-circuit-workout/
With this downloadable PDF: http://smartfoodandfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Trx-workout.pdf

I've decided to do the Lower Body Circuit 1 on Day 2, the Upper Body Circuit on Day 4, and the Core and More Circuit on Day 6.  This way there are cardio days on 2 and 4; where day 6 is kind of a day off from cardio.

I've already not eaten enough today.  I didn't have time at lunch so I ran up and grabbed a lot of baby carrots.  That's it!  Tonight, I need to plan out what I'm going to eat over the next few days and when.

Workout Summary:

This workout I figured I wouldn't have a lot of energy going in since I didn't have much in the way of food.

I completed a massive 1 circuit before wanting to lay down and sleep.

Forward Lunge with Hip Flexor Stretch	35s
Squat Row	15
Pull Up (Level 1)	6
Body Saw (Level 1)	6
Low Row to Biceps Curl to Y Fly	8

I'll go eat a little bit and get some more glasses of water.  I may come back and at least do another circuit before I go to bed.

How Do I Feel:
Tired.  Great as far as muscles go.  I probably could've increased the difficulty on the Squat Rows a bit, but I'm sure my body will let me know about those later.

12 weeks and continuing where I left off

It's time.  I fixed my stationary bike so the seat doesn't hurt when I ride for an hour.  I replenished the vitamins I just ran out of.  Finally, I adjusted my workout space so I have mats for the floor.

I've noticed in 12 weeks that I've gone from feeling great to feeling bloated, crappy, and out of energy.

I haven't fully figured out what I'm going to do for eating, but I'm leaning towards:

1. drink three glasses of water (24oz total) 
2. one hour later taking vitamins and eating breakfast
3. eat lunch and dinner within 8 hours of breakfast
4. not eat any more until the next breakfast
5. drinking approx a gallon of water in a day
6. < 2 cans of Coke to start, work down to none once omega3s and fish oil kick the brain back in to focus
7. parallette work for about 5 mins every hour for a break - to be able to hold myself up
8. 1 hour cardio in the morning - walking, biking, elliptical, jumprope, insanity, etc
9. TRX at lunch

I still have the same goals as before:

• Do a single pull-up
• Lose weight and size - but secondary to the workouts and not the primary focus
• Get to 260 pounds (from there I'll adjust down)
• NOT develop chicken legs.  I have watched a lot of videos about upper body competitions (Battle of the Bars, etc) and I see fully developed upper bodies, but really thin legs.

I have not met my original goals, yet:

• My overall goal is to lose 80 to 100 pounds by October.  Technically, it is possible to lose the weight.  Ideally, I would like to be 160-180 by the end of the year and only doing maintenance workouts 3ish times a week. -- http://elvisapocalypse.blogspot.com/2013/01/day-1-14jan13.html

• Do one pull-up

I've been evaluating what I didn't do to get to the weight loss goal I had set. 

• I didn't cut out as much Coke as I thought I could.  Now that I have the brain focus from the Omega-3 and Fish Oil I can wean off Coke again.
• I adjusted my eating while working out and ran out of energy during workouts which made them painful (figuratively) to perform.  At one point I was eating less than 800 calories a day... not good for the energy, but I wasn't hungry at all.

In order to drop the weight I want and increase my performance I need to:

• Find my balance of food that keeps my energy up, and helps my focus (to replace caffeine and HFCS)
• Get in full workouts (not stopping because I ran out of energy)

I know from analyzing my last 10 months of workouts, and blog entries that I have several factors I allow to stop my working out:

• Losing brain focus and reverting back to Coke
• Losing energy
• Not seeing gains

I also know that if I can fix the first two those are the biggest part of my problem.  The third is fixed by doing cardio for about an 45min-hour (or 3 1/2 miles walking or more) and then TRX.  If I get in 2 hours of workout a day then in a couple of days I'm hungry all of the time.  At that point it's a matter of keeping the food, I should eat, in stock.

In addition, if I stop working out my weight and size fluctuates up and down for about 10 weeks, but will essentially stay the same.  I weighed myself over the 12 weeks that I stopped working out and noticed that I stayed between 276 and 282 until about the last 2 weeks.  At that point, my body got bigger and my weight went up to 287... right back where I was 24 weeks ago... 24 weeks (almost a half year, wow).

My rest between "seasons" is over.  It's time to kick it in again.  My kids want to build a Ninja Warrior gym in the backyard and I've always wanted to build a half pipe to blade on.  I'm leaning towards building the Ninja Warrior gym, you know for the kids.  I can't do any of the exercises that require me to pick up my body with my arms so I'll stick with the TRX for now.

11 weeks

Eleven weeks is how long I've not worked out.  For 10 weeks I didn't gain or lose any weight nor did I gain size.  this last week I gained 7 pounds, I could barely buckle my belt, and my jacket was a little tight when I was zipping it up yesterday.

It's time to get back into working out.  I am not excited about it, but I'm not hating it either.  My problem isn't the workout, but deciding what to do, then not getting bored doing it.

I hate running.  I am ok with riding a bike, walking, etc.  I just don't feel like I have time to do other stuff.  If I'm walking, riding a bike, trxing then I'm not able to do all of the stuff I want to get done.  Then with BMX on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 - 8:30 my nights are virtually unproductive in terms of other things I'd like to do (and I do like watching Lucas race, he's really, really good).  Then there's the problem that I feel like losing size is a lot of work.  I've written about how difficult it gets mentally not to give up.

I have to do this.  I want to get to a maintenance phase.  I need to get a strong start and get into a good place with my cardio and strength.  I also need to eat.  I don't eat until dinner.  I've slid out of what I need to do and back into a lot of years of work (not workout) routines.

I think now my next step is to plan what I'm going to eat and when and what and how I'm going to workout.