Saturday 3/31

was at the gym today by 8:30 am.  Met with the nutritionist Jennifer.  She is great and I think I would be stupid to try to wage this war with out her.  I think she may be more valuable to me then a personal trainer right now.  She has my diet composing of a large amount of protein, with a lot of veggies and of course some carbs.  She said that the focus for my diet right now is weight loss and later on it will switch to an endurance athlete's diet as the entire focus of my training will have to be triathlon training.  So I am going to use this time to get my core stronger, build a few more muscles and harden up others, and getting the basic foundation in each of the three events of the triathlon down.  The goal is to lose about 4 to 4.5 pounds a week, that would put me ready to commit to a March race in Sept or Oct.  6 to 7 months out.  Plenty of time to get ready if I have done my job and developed a good foundation.
     Today's workout was a total body weight workout.  it felt good, My son was with me today, it was fun working out with him.  I have lost another Two pounds. Tomorrow's workout is going to be mainly a cardio workout. Here we Go !!!

On my way

Tuesday was a great hour of cardio, it was great to be freed from the TV. and enjoy a completely tiring workout.    
I have not yet figured out my exact schedule but that will be done by Sunday.  Saturday I meet with the nutritionist at lifetime. I am excited to get some straight answers to all the stuff that I have been reading in reguards to nutrition.  Some of the questions are; do I start eating the nutritional make up for an endurance athlete right now or do I focus primarily on weight loss or is there a real difference?  How many calories a day am I really supposed to be consuming to reach my weight loss goals in the time I want them.  Pretty much I want her to tell me exactly what to do and give examples not just a bunch of fitness speak.  I have enough work out background to be able to muddle through the work outs and chose the right ones and be relatively successful, but when it comes to nutrition I have no clue what is fact and what is just something that worked well for one person and what is utter rubbish.
     This weekend the refrigerator contents get overhauled and Sunday is a cooking day.  This week I ate pretty good, one egg, bacon, cheese, potato taco for breakfast, a side salad and soup, maybe some oatmeal raisin cookies and tea or water for lunch,  and then a salad and roast beef sandwich for supper.  I have felt, well, great.  interesting thing though, I broke down and had Mexican food for supper tonight and it felt heavy.  There is a first time for everything.
    My muscles in my chest and arms have pretty much stopped hurting so it must mean that it's time for another round of weights.  I really enjoyed the pain to an extent, mainly because I knew the old muscles were firing up again and it did feel great.  About the only muscles that I really want to get bigger are my biceps and my delts . the tri's need defining not growth.  I don't want to get Arnold big, just big enough to be slightly on the muscular side and still be fit enough for endurance races.
    I am fed up with this plantars faciitis.  I can not wait for it to be healed up so I can get back to running.  I never knew that I liked running as much until this happened, or , is it that it is one of the key parts to my triathlon goals and I need to get that heading in the right direction.  I am not sure, just frustrated with the whole thing.
    Monday A.M. I weigh and then I will be weighing in every Monday.  those weights will be posted here as well as the official weight from my meeting with the trainer once a month starting in May.  I am starting to picture myself and what I will look like when I am physically fit and sometimes I have to shake my head at my imagination.  sometimes it has me looking better than sly Stallone in Rocky 4, not realistic but fun at the same time.
C.

gym change

it is official, I have switched from LA Fitness to Lifetime Fitness for about the same amount that I was paying.  lifetime is a much bigger gym but they just have more for what I am after.  They have a triathlon coordinator, a nutritionist on staff, cycling club, running club, masters swim with a coach. Everything is there to help me be successful in my venture to being a triathlete.  If you have a lifetime fitness in your area I suggest you check them out.  The physical trainer who worked me out today used to be big so he understands where I am at and what is going through my mind some times.  starting in May he will be my "fitness coach"  I am stoked at this development.  Interesting that the scale there is 6 pounds heavier than at LA Fitness.  so my starting weight there is at 342 which means that according to their scale I was 356 when I started.  omg.  it is depressing that I allowed myself to get that far out of control. NEVER AGAIN!!!!!! That is more than I was humping around in the woods in the army !!!!  Time to stop losing and start winning.  I have got to stay focused, which is sometimes hard for someone with ADD.  Bit it WILL be done and I WILL be competing in triathlons in 1 year.
He put me through a good quick work out.  I enjoyed it along with the pain..
c

set back

    Well, it has been a while since I logged in; I have been sick and am just now starting to feel close to 100%.  I will resume training Friday or Saturday. in the mean time I have been watching my diet and feel good about where it is at.  It is interesting where the support for this endeavor comes from but most of them I think , think it is just a fat man talking big and they don't really think that I will enter a race.  Good !!! I look forward to the expression on their faces when I tell them how long it took me to complete that first triathlon.  I do feel how ever that as long as my plantar faciitis is active that I am not training like I should but that is me putting the cart before the horse so to speak.  I know I need to get a good foundation in swimming and cycling and this does give me that opportunity to do so with out worrying about running as well.  When I break the 300s I will know for sure that I am on my way. but that is about 36 pounds away.  I wont enter a race until I am down to 240 or less. so there is work to do.
     I have come to the conclusion that I am addicted to the television.  I realized that I plan things around certain TV shows.  I am determined to break that addiction and turn TV into an entertainment to fill  in when I am not busy doing other things.  besides, on demand is a wonderful tool, one which I will use more often.
     Please feel free to leave messages in response to any postings that you desire. All constructive ones will be appreciated .
C.

march 14

lost another 2 lbs.  brings my total to 14 since starting last month.  On the way !!!!  had a killer work out today, swam for 30 minutes this morning and then tonight I rowed 4 miles and then biked for 6. my new schedule looks like this for now; Mondays and Wednesdays : swim mornings and then after work cycle, Friday mornings is swim and off in the afternoon and then Saturday morning cycle .  I will try to keep it like this for at least  another month. then we will re-assess .   I came across a form of triathlons that intrigues me. It is called xterra and is an off road triathlon.  will tell more later. for now it is off to bed to get some needed sack time.
this weekend I get taped for the first time, just another way to assess progress besides just the scale.
c.

start # 2

Well last week was a bust as far as work outs went, from work to the gym changing locker security, I just let it all get in the way.  Diet was pretty good and stayed at goal or little below for almost the whole week.  This week will be better, the locker security thing is fixed and handled, work , well it is work so we will see, if anything it will interfere with the evening workouts which is only on Mondays and Wednesdays  right now.
 There is no progress with my plantar faciitis except on Thursday it was worse.  It is frustrating that it is not healed up yet but then again it has only been about 6 wks since it was diagnosed.  I am getting impatient with it but that is life.  Saw a video on you tube about a guy who weighed 430 and started training for triathlons and at the time the video was put together he weighed 240. wow!!!! way to go dude.  Whether or not I ever complete an Iron man race (it is in the back of my mind and quite honestly may stay there!) I want the fitness level that being able to do three different types of sports in one race will give me.  I will be 50 in about 2 1/2 years and want to be one of the fittest 50 year olds around.  Both of my parents died in their 60's, my dad at 64 and my mom at 69, my dad had a bad heart and my mom had Alzheimer's. I would be lying if I said that it did not concern me that I could continue this trend but I try not to think to much about it except for motivational purposes.
    I was looking online yesterday at bicycles and have almost picked out what my first bike will be, but, just for giggles I looked at triathlon specific bikes and was blown away at the cost. 2 to 15 grand.  YIKES!!!!.  that is crazy but I guess if you are a dedicated triathlete and wanting to really get competitive then they are worth the investment as long as you use them.  I'll wait until I am in the position to decide on whether or not to go for Iron man status (completing an Iron man race) or not.  If I do then it might be worth while because then I know that I like triathlons and plan to do them as long as I can.   Well that is all for today. will check in tomorrow with update on current weight and such.