fitfather

A peeve of mine

Do people at your gym do this?  Do they take free weights off of the racks, go to a bench some ways away, exercise and then just leave the weights sitting there while they go on somewhere else?  Gah, this kills me!  People, put your weights back after you finish using them.

The Bally's that I work out at is adequate for my needs.  It has a decent selection of weight machines, cardio machines and free weights (though they really could use more than just two sets of all the lower poundage dumbbells.  Seriously, how many people are going to use those 70 and 80 pound sets?  Hardly anyone.  Those 20 to 30 pound sets though get used all the time.  So word up Bally's, get more lower poundage dumbells) as well as childcare.  I wish it had a pool, a running track and raquet ball courts but I don't need those to have a good workout.  What I do need, is for the people who also exercise there to be courteous.  Put your dumbbells back!  Don't leave weight plates strewn across the floor!  And for God's sake, wipe your sweat off the machine when you are done.  I can live with loud pseudo-sexualized grunting.  I can live with the Bally's house special music (though really, would some classic rock or maybe XRT be so bad once in awhile?).  It kills me to spend minutes of my precious time, work out after workout, tracking down an errat 25 pound dumbbell so I can do my bicep curls that someone has left half way across the gym.

Measuring Up

Chest: 47"
Waist: 45"
Hips:   45"
Upper Arm: 15"
Thigh:   26"
Calf:  16"
Neck:  17"
Weight: 229

That waist size is bad bad bad.  I am one of those men that carries most of his excess weight in his belly.  If you don't know, that is a very dangerous, bad correlate to a host of health problems.  I don't have any idea if any of those other measurements are bad or good or nothing in particular.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that I need to do more than I am doing right now.  I must be subconciously sabatogueing my weight loss efforts by eating more food than I used to eat before I started weight lifting.  I do purposefully eat a snack after each workout that incorporates some simple carbohydrates (chocolate milk, for instance) as well as something a little more substantial (like almonds) to give my body some fuel to build more muscle - perhaps it is just these extra snacks that are offsetting whatever increase I might have made to my metabolism.  For whatever reason, I am not loosing any weight.  The weight lifting is starting to pay dividends - I can lift more weight than I could when I started, and those parts of my body that aren't covered by fat are showing tone and definition, but that weight number, it hasn't budged.  Oh, some days it's a couple pounds lower but other days it is higher.  I am about ready to start dieting seriously.

My plan all along has been to gradually incorporate the elements of fitness into my own life and by doing so, make them permanent healthy habits that I can follow.  Weight lifting as primary exercise was my first habit goal, and in that respect my plan has succeeded.  Still, I expected that I would have lost a little bit of weight by now, so the loss of no weight has been disappointing.  The other two main physical healthy habits that I want to achieve are fitting in regular cardio workouts (right now I rarely do cardio, which I know I need to do for optimal health and fitness) and to revamp my dietary habits.  Revamping the diet is going to be by far the most difficult thing to do.  I have years of sloppy eating habits to overcome, and I am dreading the process a little.

We (Jessie and I) might do the South Beach Diet.  Other than the initial two week period, the diet is pretty much an ideal all of the time sort of healthy diet, that would help me not only lose weight but develop the sort of healthy habits I can use for the rest of my life.  We might even do it with my mom.  I think we're starting on Monday - wish me luck!