Exercise!
Dan on December 17th, 2005
Goal #6: I’ve decided to roll all of my fitness goals into one large goal.
My body fat percentage is 10% or less on the first day of spring (March 20th). By the first day of summer (June 21st) my body fat percentage is less than 8%. My weight is at 140 lbs or higher due to muscle gain.
First I’d like to take a look into my past. I grew up with two wonderful parents. Both have been overweight nearly my entire life. My father is an excellent example of how being overweight can affect you physically.
As far back as I can remember my father had back problems. Various things would set off extreme lower back pain. He tried aspirin, he tried a chiropractor, and various other solutions. Most provided temporary relief but eventually the pain would return. I don’t remember exactly when, but sometime when I was in high school he decided to lose some weight by adding exercise and cutting out some unhealthy snacks. He bought a tredmill and started running almost daily. He started working out in the gym at work during his lunch break. If my memory serves me correctly he lost around 30lbs, bringing his weight down from ~180 lbs to ~150 lbs. Just like that the back pain disappeared. He got his motorcycle out of the shed that had been stored for over 20 years and started riding again. He could do more physical things without the worry of pain.
My point here is that your weight is more than just something that forces you to buy larger clothes or makes you short of breath. It brings your entire body down. By being overweight you say “I don’t care about myself.” What kind of image does this present to other people?
What about my body and weight? Well, I’ve always been a bit over ideal for body fat composition. My average weight for 7 or 8 years now has been 145 lbs (I’m 5′ 5″ tall). Up until 2 years ago the only noteworthy exercise I had done in 10 years was a year of track in high school, a quarter of Kung Fu in college (more on this later), and a few hiking trips or brief runs. My diet was never horrible but it wasn’t great. For example, freshman year at college (2000-2001) I ate my meals on campus. The main cafeteria is a buffet style all you can eat smorgishboard of fried foods, pizza, ice cream, and other unhealthy items. Many of my friends gained a few pounds that year. I have enough self control to not go overboard and managed to maintain my weight. However, I chugged Mountain Dew like it was being discontinued. My roommate and I went through 6 pack after 12 pack of the stuff.
Towards the end of that year I slowed my consumption of the sugar water down. It was getting expensive and I knew it wasn’t good for me. Over the summer and the following school year I changed to 100% fruit juice. I was still living on campus but started eating a bit better, with more subs and less fried food. When I finally moved off campus in 2002 I began cooking my own meals, which is a story unto itself 
George Forman and chicken became my new best friends. I was still eating quite a bit of pizza and unhealthy snacks but my regular meals were becoming quite healthy. Luckily I’ve never liked many beef products. That helped eliminate the majority of red meat from my diet, other than the occationial bowl of chili or taco.
In 2002, when I took Kung Fu, I decided that I needed to do something to improve my muscle mass. One of the things I never liked about my body was a severe lack of abs. During my high school years I would have trouble getting to 20 sit-ups. Our twice a week Kung Fu sessions consisted of a 30-45 min workout followed by a lesson and practice. The workout was excellent. It consisted of many core exercises and stretches. By the end of the quarter I had visible abs and my overall muscle mass had increased. I continued to do push-ups, sit-ups, and crunches daily. It seems that everytime I move I stop these basic exercises for a few months. Then I remember now easy they are, how little time they take, and the benefits and I start doing them again.
Since I moved in September I’ve lacking exercise. Prior to moving I weighed about 145 (I’m 5′ 5″) with a waistline of 30″. I had a bit of extra fat but nothing to really worry about. I did daily curls with dumbells, pushups, and crunches. In the hectic move I stopped everything. At the start of the dietary changes I weighed 133.8 with the same waistline and my pants were getting tighter. That means I lost almost 10 lbs of muscle! That’s obviously not good. I’m guessing that most of the lost muscle was in my legs since I hadn’t been moving around enough.
As I changed my diet I started some basic exercises. When I wake up in the morning I do push-ups, crunches, and chin-ups. I put the chin-up bar in a doorway that I walk through at least 20 times a day. I try to do 5 chin-ups whenever I walk through and am not carrying anything.
The way I do my morning exercises is to slowly increase the reps over time. Right now I do 40 push-ups (soon to increase again), 60 crunches, 12 normal chin-ups and 7 underhand chin-ups. I’ve visibly noticed a small increase in upper body mass since I started. These simple exercises are a great place to start, but they won’t help my reach my goal of 10% body fat. For that I need aerobic exercise.
Here in Rochester, NY the winters are long and cold. Running in snow isn’t my idea of fun so I decided I needed to join a fitness center. That will allow me to not only run indoors but will give me access to the strength building equipment I lack. Plus it will provide my favorite workout, the rowing machine. If you’ve never used a rowing machine you don’t know what you’re missing. Rowing provides a total body workout with very low joint impact.(1) Rowing is also recommended in Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle.
The problem is I haven’t joined a fitness center yet. Why? The New Year. Everyone has discounts and specials for people who choose to lose weight. I can go another month without extensive aerobic exercise to save a significant amount of money.
So why are you still reading this? Purchase your copy of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle or a similar lifelong fitness and nutrition plan and start today! How can you possibly regret a better body?
