Dumping The Fat

When I saw my chiropractor a couple weeks ago, we talked about the weight training/sick issue and here is what he suggested:

• Build up my cardio first
• Take at least 1 Echinacea per week to keep it in my system
• Be sure to take my Omega-3s
• Ease into weight training instead of jumping in full throttle

While I wasn’t happy that I had to “ease” into it, I have followed his advice and so far so good!  I’m thrilled!

For the first week, I walked on the treadmill 1 mile per day at a minimum for 6 days.  Most days, I threw some intervals in there by walking at a brisk pace for 5 minutes, jog for 1 minute, walk 5, jog 1, etc.

Week 2 - walked on the treadmill 4 days and weight trained 2 days.  I only did 1 set of 15 reps for each exercise I performed.

Week 3 - this week.  I did a 30 minute cardio session and 15 minute stretch session yesterday.  Monday I weight trained for 30 minutes by picking a few exercises and did 2 sets of 15 reps.  I think I did a total of 6 different exercises and worked my abs.  Today is weight training day and so I’ll probably do the same thing - 2 sets of 15 reps.

I have taken my Echinacea every week so far, and have been *trying* to remember my Omega-3s.  They’re in the freezer (to prevent fish burps) and so it’s easy for me to forget them.  I am getting in flax seed every other day, though, so that helps.

I’m getting stronger, I can feel that, and that makes me happy.  I haven’t checked my body fat percentage lately.  I thought I would hold off for another week or two.  I haven’t been sick the past 3 weeks as far as colds/flu/sinus/ears (knock on wood), so I’m hopeful my chiro’s advice is working.

I finally got my new training routine created and just finished up my first day a while ago.  I am training full body (maybe) Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with cardio on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  Sunday is rest and/or stretch/yoga day.

I wanted to finish up my workout in an hour, so I am circuit training, but still ran over the “allotted” time I gave myself, so I may have to do split workouts and work my upper body one day and my lower the next day.  I will see how things go and adjust from there. I am using no machines right now, just a bench and free weights. I like free weights better, but at some point, I know I will have to start using the machine.

Here is what I am doing for weeks 1 and 2:

2 sets of 15 reps for each
Chest press
Pec Fly
One arm dumbbell row
Dumbbell pullover
Dumbbell front raise
Lateral raise
Chair dip
Tricep kickback
Stationary lunge
Single leg bench squat
Reverse lunge
Ball crunch
Cross body crunch

Now, I have way more written down to do, but I ran out of time. This is definitely a good start, though.

My stats are pretty much the same as they were here; however, my weight is up 2 lbs., my BF% is down by 0.5%, and my hips are actually down by 0.25 inches. Don’t ask me how that happened because I haven’t a clue. So here they are again:

Day #1 stats:
Left arm: 11.5″
Right arm: 11.5″
Chest: 38″
Waist: 29.75″
Hips: 40″ (OUCH!!!)
Left thigh: 24.75″
Right thigh: 24.5″
Left calf: 14.25″
Right calf: 14″
Body Fat %: 30.4% (Yikes!)
Height (in case it matters): 5′8″
Weight: 165 lbs.
Lean Body Mass: 114.87 lbs.
Fat: 50.16 lbs.

So in the past three weeks, I have increased my lean body mass by 2.24 lbs. and decreased my body fat by 0.21 lbs. My body is so weird!