Stay Motivated

3 lbs down in 9 days.. Not shabby if I do say so myself.  You have to celebrate the little things when dieting otherwise at some point you'll hit a breaking point.  When serious about losing weight its important to realize that weight loss is a long term process.  A realistic goal of weight loss per week is about 1 lb.  A 2 lbs weight loss in a week is not an unreasonable amount either.  Shows like Biggest Loser have given an unrealistic view of how weight loss happens.  People forget that the contestants on that show live and breathe workouts when they live on the Biggest Loser ranch.  If they don't lose enough weight while living on the ranch, its all comes down to how much food their eating.  They don't have to worry about working or going to school or taking care of their families.  They just workout 7 days a week for the most part.  I'll include my food stats right now so we get that out of the way.

TIP OF THE DAY:  Today we're going to go over how to determine how many calories should be your target for your diet.  First thing everyone must realize is that there is no magic diet that will work for everyone.  You can follow diets that other people have created or do.  But the diet still must be tailored to you specifically.  If the diet contains foods that you won't eat, how will you ever be able to stick to it over the long haul and make it to the finish line?  Fad diets can work up to a point but at some point the diet stops being affective for the person and they go back to their old ways.

So the million dollar question, what's the magic number?  The truth is there is no magic number.  But I can help you find a number that works for you. With all the resources on the internet, there are plenty of tools that can help you calculate the proper calorie number.  A good place to start I would recommend visiting a site that i regularly use which is www.fitday.com.  This site has a tool that helps you calculate approximately how many calories your body burns on a daily basis.  If you have a gym membership to a gym, they usually will help you out if you ask to get your body fat percentage measured.  By putting in your weight, body fat percentage, height, age, and activity level it will calculate how many calories you burn on an average day.  I recommend estimating your activity one level lower than what you actually think you are.  By using a more conservative number, it makes it easier to lose weight assuming that you hit your caloric daily allotment on a regular basis.  I would recommend a caloric allotment that is 500-750 calories less than what the caloric daily burn estimates. If you are very consistent on hitting your caloric goal, you shouldn't have a problem losing at least 1 lb per week.  I'll go over nutritional specifics later on but this is a good place to start.  Changing body fat percentage and the way your body looks has other major details that I will go into further in later posts.  I'll also go over more tips for counting calories later as well.  Hopefully this helps those who are sitting on the fence and wanting to start out on their own weight loss journeys. Until next time, get your sweat on and happy dieting.

Damage Control ==> Success

Guess where we went today? Maybe the picture can help..

This is Harry the elephant, just one of the elephants at the elephant odyssey exhibit at the San Diego Zoo. (His name isn't really Harry. We're not sure what his name was but the girlfriend decided to name him Harry.) For of those you that haven't been, its a pretty nice zoo. It does make a difference in what time of day you go though as if its too hot or too cold the animals will be much harder to see.

Going to the zoo is a great activity to help burn calories as long as one doesn't get carried away with all the zoo food as the food is very high in calories and isn't even that delicious. With all the hills and trails through out the zoo, one can burn a lot of calories just walking. It doesn't even feel like working out because you get to see all the great animals.

With that being said, damage control day was a success. Calorie intake was back to normal and under control. I was able to swim for about an hour and forty minutes. The nice walk around the zoo provided a much needed extra calorie burn on top of the extra long swim. This leads well into today's tip of the day.

TIP OF THE DAY:
Finding active activities to incorporate into your daily routine, is a good way to add an increased calorie burn to your day. A few examples would include washing your car, mowing your lawn, cleaning your house are very common activities to name a few. Many times we find ourselves paying others to do these activities to save time and the hassle of doing it. However, if we include some of these activities into our daily routines, not only will we be saving money but we will also be burning more calories through out the day.


Having a more active lifestyle is very critical to getting to any goal when it comes to health and fitness. Whether your goal is weight loss or running a marathon, by changing your daily routine to a more active lifestyle will ultimately bring you one step closer to your fitness goal.

I forgot to mention, after my first week of workouts I have lost a nice 2.6 lbs in one week. I am pleased with this amount of weight loss for one week. From 211.8 to 209.2 is a perfectly acceptable start for me.

Its getting late, time to sign off. Everyone get your sweat on and happy dieting.

Nutrition Stats:

Cheat Day

Hello everyone, how's everybody doing? Well we're just about one week into the new year and things are going along according to schedule.  Its looking like a 2 lbs loss for the stat sheet this week.  Will record official weight loss number for first week tomorrow morning.  If I can maintain an average of 2 lb loss per week I'll have lost my target number of lbs in approximately 6 months.  Can't wait to see how far I can push my limits this year.

Workout was good as usual.  Not much to update with the workout routine since its going to be the same for the next few days since it is working well right now.  60 minutes worth of laps and calisthenics.  Was able to increase the number of reps per set.  It was a good day in the pool.

TIP OF THE DAY:
Today I want to talk about a very important concept when it comes to dieting.  Depending on how strict of a diet goal a person is trying to achieve, there needs to be an allowed cheat meal.  If the cheat meal is used, damage control mode must also be executed.  

To maintain your sanity when dieting, if you do choose to use a day for a cheat meal it is always important to add a little extra calorie burn for the next workout session.  Due to the higher intake of calories, extra effort must be put forth so the calories can be burned off and they won't affect the weight loss as much.  From my personal experiences, it is best to allow yourself one cheat meal.  A cheat meal allows for cravings to be met so the main diet can be maintained over the long haul.  It wasn't my intention to use my cheat meal today, but the evening was somewhat a spur of the moment type of night with the girlfriend and friends.  We decided to go to one of the better BBQ places in San Diego, Phil's BBQ.  Portion sizes are huge and it has pretty tasty sauce.  I got the baby back ribs and the girlfriend got beef ribs.

Both were quite delicious.  Granted this plate was quite a bit larger than what I would recommend others to do for their own cheat meals.  This will set me back slightly but I know it can be overcome.  I probably could have done without the french fries but unfortunately they are one of my achilles heel.  I did opt for the half rack rather than the full rack which I would normally order but that still is no excuse for the excess caloric intake.  I very much enjoyed myself with the girlfriend though however. Thanks for the good eats babe.  Don't think I can calculate the calories but I'll be making sure to burn them off tomorrow morning.  Damage control in full effect. :-)

I think were most people get into trouble on their cheat days is they tend to go over board and not realize just how much they are actually eating.  If I were to guess, the meal that I for dinner tonight was probably over 1700-2000.  I ate according to my lower calorie regime until dinner.  Tomorrow, I will also have to adjust my diet and lower the caloric intake to help counteract the splurge.

The way I see it, even while dieting you should still enjoy life.  We only get one life to live so we might as well make the most of it.  This doesn't mean that we can have these large feasts on a regular basis but as long as one is taking the necessary steps and making sure to take care of business afterwards the occasional splurge can be allowed.  Will be putting in work tomorrow and the next few days.

That's all for now, get your sweat on and happy dieting.

Starting "Tip of the Day"

Yesterday was a good day off that allowed my body to recover.  So I decided to wake up extra early this morning to do my morning swim.  After only a few hours of sleep, I woke up and got ready to head down to the pool.  When I got there, the pool didn't seem like it was very cold but the wind chill factor upped the cold factor.  The sun was just starting to creep over the apartment complex.  I could see the oranges and pinks in the sky from the morning sun.  It was very relaxing.  I find that now that I'm getting used to getting up early, if I don't go for a swim my day just seems a little off.  I also learned a new thing about the pool, the heating jets don't turn on until the grounds keeping staff gets to work at a little after 7:15.  So if I don't want to freeze to death, there's no point in getting into the pool any earlier than 7:30 in the morning.  Today I was also able to add two more sets to the push ups and crunches in-between laps.

Today's nutrition wasn't the best but it fell under my calorie target goal.  I have found that my go to snack to hold me over between meals are two hard-boiled eggs and a slice of bread.  Very clean protein and simple carbs to feed the brain.  Rubio's isn't the best healthy choice to eat for lunch but at least by eating during the day I have time to burn the calories through out the day rather than letting it sit at night after dinner.  Here are the nutrition stats for the day.

So I wanted to try something new.  I'm going to be starting a tip of the day.  Today's tip has to do with workouts.

TIP OF THE DAY:
When working out your abs, don't just focus on one area.  The abdominal muscles actually are composed of 6 different muscles.  So when doing your crunches during your working, try focusing on the obliques and the lower abdominal muscles as well.  What I find that works well is breaking your abdominal workout into three sections.  Try working out upper, oblique and lower abs separately.

Well that's all for now, get your sweat on and happy dieting.

First day off

Hello everyone, today was my first day off from the pool. Was starting to get a little sore and slightly sleep deprived. Today was a good recovery day and I'm not sore anymore. Tomorrow will be back in the pool first thing in the morning.

Nutrition was under control today. Panda Express can be calorically manageable when some of the plate is infused with vegetables. The calorie reduction was at least a third of the normal caloric value. I think I wasn't sure what to eat for dinner but we finally decided on Japanese. I did my best to estimate the caloric value of my dinner. Here's a few pictures of what i had for dinner.


Nutritional final stats for the day.

Well that's all for tonight. Sorry for the short post. But everyone get your sweat on and happy dieting.
- Joel via iPhone