Recently while on-call in my day job (requires I be near my computer), I tried to think of a new (for me) aerobic workout I could do in my garage. What I came up with is the ladder climb with the 7′ Husky ladder. What no stair climber machine for $2000? No I am cheap [...]]]>  

Recently while on-call in my day job (requires I be near my computer), I tried to think of a new (for me) aerobic workout I could do in my garage. What I came up with is the ladder climb with the 7′ Husky ladder. What no stair climber machine for $2000? No I am cheap I guess and whenever I’ve bought exercise equipment it usually gathers dust after the first few months.

I think a more effective strategy is to uses common items you have already to get a good indoor workout when you need to stay home. I also walk, hike mountains, ride my bike and kick-box the bag but my free weights do mostly gather dust.

Take a look at this video and we can evaluate it.

This video gives me lots of ideas. I like the dragging stuff, ball throw, sandbag lift and sledgehammer hits. And it looks like the workout would not be boring. I would guess that firemen are truly strong given the clothes they have to wear while fighting fires.

As you all know figuring out what exercise to do with in climate weather sometimes is half of the battle. Even here in paradise (San Diego) we get the odd rain shower.

This was just a quick post to share my “new” exercise I discovered. Hang in there and remember the most important thing is to move some everyday!

I remember back to the fifth grade when my mom enrolled me in dance classes at a local studio. At first I did not want to go because as you all know at 11 years old – Girls Have Cudies!!!

Well let me just say after the first couple of lessons my mom did not have to [...]]]>  

I remember back to the fifth grade when my mom enrolled me in dance classes at a local studio. At first I did not want to go because as you all know at 11 years old – Girls Have Cudies!!!

Well let me just say after the first couple of lessons my mom did not have to drag me down to the school anymore and I really liked dancing with girls (they turned out to be ok).

Later in the sixth grade I found even though it was kind of corny – square dancing in PE was ok too… Unfortunately or fortunately by the time I got to high school – all you had to do to dance was to let it all hang out. Needless to say any dance moves I was taught were soon forgotten.

In this post I am going to talk about a fitness goal and reward the wife and I are talking about doing when we are close to being in good shape – Salsa Dancing! Here is one example I found on youtube.

Isn’t that cool? Did you notice that letting it all hang out would not work? Yes there is a nice Latin beat but one has to have a certain continuity with your partner to make everything happen.

Our goals as we we lose weight are to find activities that we can do to have fun and keep in shape. My two left feet and losing a bunch of weight are the initial hurdles. Once we are near our goals we will look for a dance school that fits into our schedule (and budget).

We expect that learning how to dance will be fun but a lot of work. It should not be too bad in a dance school with at least some other beginning students.

After we are semi-proficient, our plan is to take monthly outings at some classy night clubs! While I have always envisioned having my own karate dojo in my back yard along with a koi pond in the Japanese garden – I guess I’ll have to make it double as a dance/fitness/gym space too.

Hold on a minute – can one really have fun and get into shape? Can you find something both you and your partner can enjoy?

Well in life people do best if they help each other out I’ve noticed. My sweetheart and I have cooperated with our diets and exercise idea so far.

She likes the new weight watchers plus points because she can eat all of the fruit and veggies she wants without it costing her. My honey still makes the turkey, boca, black bean or veggie burgers as well as the occasional chicken breast sandwich for dinners so I am still able to count calories easily.

You see I have noticed that when my sweetie pie is happy – I am happy so it is good to stay on similar pages. We are helping each other with exercise along with the pooches occasionally by walking around Santee Lakes (it is next to our house).

Today we decided that sometimes we are going to rent a paddle wheel boat and do that instead of walking.

Now the wife and I still do plenty separate of the exercises we like individually – for instance I did an hour of bag work today and my son and I did 3 1/2 hour mountain hike the last two Sunday’s but we plan activities together too!

I don’t know if my baby and I will ever get this good but as Nissan so aptly says, “Enjoy the Ride!”

I hope you have enjoyed this look at just one of our ideas of how to make exercise fun and exciting!

Disfrutar de la danza!

The acre back yard in the last house was my exercise track. Three to four days each week [...]]]> I started out in 2008 blogging in part about my progress getting into acceptable shape! I figured this would take about a year to re-teach my body how to accept exercise and get used to eating less food.

The acre back yard in the last house was my exercise track. Three to four days each week I would run the newly worn path for an hour or so. The wife and I started buying leaner meats and substitutes and I started counting calories and fat (so I could keep my diet 20% calories or so).

I used to think I had strong will power because in the 1990′s I was able to lose all of my weight and keep it off for several years by doing a low-fat and walking program. I lost that “will power” after starting up college (while working full time and throwing two adult paper-routes).

Will power? Is that something needed to successfully lose fat and increase endurance? I used to think so and I would continually create short-term plans based on my will power.

I was successful each year through each Spring. I went from 260 to 224 the first year but by January I had gained almost all of it back and weighed 255 pounds!

The next year (2009) I went from 255 down to 229 pounds and thought everything was wonderful!!! I was working out from 14 t0 20 hours a week to keep the pounds in check during the holidays. I ate all of the cookies and pies and still managed to only have a slight gain starting 2010!

The starting weight in 2010 was 233 and I got down to 219 pounds by May! I thought this year was going to be the one that I finally transitioned to a healthy fitness level. But alas – stress and health concerns started rearing its ugly head.

We were trying to buy a house and not agreeing on much so the stress level was high and towards Summer I got real sick. I did not get better until the Fall.

During the sick period I stopped exercising and while I tried to not overeat – I still ate too damn much!

Fast forward to the end of 2010 and I weighed in this morning at 236 pounds – that means I’ve gone nowhere this year – a wash!

The cool thing about being human is we can learn from our mistakes and adjust our approach. In this post I will go over the winners and losers in fat loss ideas (for me) and post my new EASY diet and exercise plan for 2011. Please read on if this interests you.

Lets face it. Most guys and gals unless they have exercised regularly through out their lives – don’t get back into the exercise habit easily. One hears about aerobic exercise as the only exercise worth anything from all of the fitness “experts” but the truth is for most people – they will end up quitting in a month or two. Why? Aerobic exercise is hard and not only can make one sore but mentally it is even harder to make yourself do something that you know is going to be hard. Rationalization is something most people are good at. It is easy to talk yourself out of doing today what you can put off to tomorrow.

Weight lifting is another one of those lofty goals that fitness “experts” say you should do but most people join the gym, many hire the trainer and then they stop going by spring or summer. What was the point? I mean yes you have improved the bottom line for the shareholders of the gym but unless one has mentally prepared for the commitment – why set yourself up for failure?

I almost don’t want to mention the word diet because it has so many negative associations. Anyone embarking on a diet either trusts a friend or advertisement and just tries diets without too much forethought. I mean testimonials and hard-bodies are king! Yes I believe because the model tells me he/she did it on this plan and he/she looks sooooo goooood… I can do it too!

Diets don’t work! At least the way most people interpret them. If you view a diet as eating a new way that you are not prepared to eat for life then the “whatever” diet will fail for you. A better way of looking at a diet/life style change/new menu is to eat how you already eat but make some substitutions you can live with to lessen the calorie count. Thats it – not brain surgery or rocket science.

So to list the losers (at least at first while starting to get into shape):

• Aerobic exercise
• Weight lifting
• Diet

Here are the  winners:

• non-aerobic exercise (like walking at a comfortable pace – not too fast)
• house and yard work (cleaning and mowing)
• eat tasty foods you already like (not everything you eat is over the top)
• substitute ingredients for some foods you like to make them less calories
• figure out you failings (emotional/stress eater, will power, proximity of food, able to portion or not)

Ok – Now that I have got this out – I don’t think most will agree with me about aerobics/weight lifting and diets as being losers! Well let me say that I set myself up for disappointment by having unrealistic expectations. One example is bag work. I love the aerobic workout I get from kick-boxing the bag for 1/2 hour. I’ve tried to talk myself into doing bag work for five days a week but by the time I get to the third day – my middle aged body does not want to respond. I mean I cannot talk myself into doing it. I also usually end up breaking a knuckle or wrist because I like hitting so much (I forget to lessen the power of the punches).

Here is what I’ve evaluated that has worked for me over the past three years and what I am mostly going to do this year (2011):

• Eat 1500 calories on most days
  • my BMR (resting calorie usage) is 2100 calories
  • I eat three meals a day and I am not too hungry so long as I don’t drink caloric beverages too much
• Walk or bike at a comfortable pace for two hours a day
  • I will still do the occasional aerobic workouts – I like them and they help my blood pressure
  • I figure walking I burn 300 calories an hour – thats 600 extra a day
• Get plenty of sleep – try and reduce stress

You can see this does not seem hard. It is easy for me to talk myself into doing my exercise for the day and if I end up mowing the yard – it counts towards my total. I don’t ever clean the house but if you do  - that counts too.

The goal for me is to lose a pound every three days or so with my 1200 calorie deficit (600 diet and 600 exercise) or 3600 calories over three days. 3500 calories burned/dieted equals one pound lost!

So if you like what I’ve said or think I’m nuts – I’d like to point out my karate instructor’s words of wisdom he used to tell me – the proof is in the pudding! Come back on occasion and check the progress link at the top of this blog and see if my “Easy” diet and exercise ideas are working for me.

I wish you and yours a happy and prosperous New Year 2011!