seanwillson.com

day 5 … another day another great workout. i didn’t get out of bed this morning, enjoying the sleep to much. i slept from 9:15 pm till 6:45 am. ya think my body was telling me something? hehehhe … i ended up doing my upper body work out this evening after letting my stomach empty by not eating for 4 hours. i can honestly say it has been a long time since i did upper body and was sore immediatly afterward. usually i have the 24 hours soreness syndrome .. but today was different. i could barely make dinner. speaking of which here were my meals:

1. cottage cheese and 3 carob chip oatmeal cookies
2. coffee
3. 1/2 turkey sandwich, lettuce, tomato, onion and tomato soup
4. 1/2 turkey sandwich, lettuce, tomato, onion and a coffee
5. 4 eggs (2 whites, 2 whole) scrambled and 2 wheat tortillas

looks like a repeat of yesterday ahe … i know. i’m going to work on the variety thing. but i am extremely happy that this week is going well. anyhow … going get to sleep.

day 4 was another great day. up in the morning at the crack of dawn to do my 20 minutes of HIIT and 7 minute cool down period. meals went ok to:

1. dab o cottage cheese, yogurt, and 2 carob chip oatmeal cookies
2. coffee and an oatmeal raisin muffin
3. 1/2 turkey sandwich and a few chips
4. 1/2 turkey sandwich and a coffee
5. 3 carob chip oatmeal cookies (explain later)
6. 4 eggs (2 whites, 2 whole) scrambled, 2 slices whole wheat bread, dab o butter)

so i’m on the 5:40 train heading home … getting pretty hungry and the announcer comes on saying that a chemical spill occurred ahead of us. we can now either get off the train or not get off and sit there waiting. bob and i decided to get off. my stomach is spinning with hunger. so after walking about 3 miles to get to a major road to be picked up i am starving. when i got back to my car the first thing i saw was those carob chip oatmeal cookies. so while they weren’t a meal i was extremely hungry. damn that was a long story to explain a meal. while they are healthy cookies, seriously check out the site, i still feel bad for eating them again.


i am accomplishing my first goal for today, i am off to bed after i post this message. the second one i missed though … that second meal still wasn’t as healthy as it should have been. tomorrow i am going to do a myoplex shake, that’s one goal. the other major goal for the day is to get up in the morning and do my upper body workout.


anyhow off to bed … see ya tomorrow.

day 3 on body for life went great. i got up this morning and did my lower body workout. i am going to adjust the weight some as i wasn’t quite reaching a level 10 let alone a 9 in my workouts. i also need to find some other abdominal workouts because crunches and oblique crunches are just not doing it for me. all in all it was a good workout though. my meals went good today as well:

1. cottage cheese and yogurt
2. coffee and oatmeal muffin (not perfect i know)
3. 1/2 turkey sandwich with veggies on wheat bread with a cup of chicken noodle soup
4. 1/2 turkey sandwich with veggies on wheat bread and a coffee
5. turkey sandwich on sour dough with sprouts, lettuce, and mustard
6. myoplex hp bar

i am making every attempt to get six healthy meals in and most of the time i am. i know coffee isn’t exactly on the program, and i am quite aware of that. but setting myself up for failure by trying to kick all my vices at once would be plain stupid. once i am steadily and consistently following the program, and i am past this huge release at work, i am going to attempt to ween myself off coffee. no it’s not making excuses, it’s being realistic.


i almost didn’t make it up this morning. one thing i am definitely going to try and do is get at least 8 hours of sleep at night. last night i only slept for about 6.5 hours and i had a trouble getting up this morning. since i am going to be doing morning workouts, and i have to make a 7:43 am train, that means i need to be up by 5:00 am to get a good workout in with time to shower. in order for me to get 8 hours of sleep i would have to be in bed by 9 pm. impossible on tuesdays due to class but entirely attainable the rest of the week. so starting tomorrow i am going to attempt to be in bed by 9 pm, that’s my major goal for tomorrow. my other major goal is to increase the quality of my second meal.


for you fitness enthusiasts out there i recommend you subscribe to the email list over at hussman.org. there is also an archive available. he sends out a weekly mailing that is a great read. it has fitness advice, ideas, thought provoking articles, and tons of great information. he is really good at motivating and presenting information in thought provoking ways that make you really dig down and answer serious question about you health and fitness. did i mention that he is a proponent of body for life? here’s a great quote from one of his more recent posts:


“It is a major mistake to let the scale, the mirror, or the calipers tell you whether you have had a good day. As soon as you do that, you surrender control to things outside of yourself.”


after reading that quote i thought back to what made me stop my program. after much thought i realized that i had artificially let the numbers dictate my success. in my mind i knew what my goals were for my body yet i let the readings from a scale tell me that i was succeeding. i took success to far and starting thinking things like - “hey i lost 100 pounds and it wasn’t that hard so lets just relax a bit, i don’t have to kill myself being so rigorous ” … well i was wrong. it’s about consistency and dedication. your body needs to consistently be in caloric deficit to lose weight. what is a caloric deficit? it’s the difference between the amount of energy you consume and the amount of energy you burn. the human body is incapable of a sudden bursts of fat loss, it will adapt and respond by conserving energy and storing that energy as fat. if you don’t believe me, ask the expert.


so what can you do? consistency consistency consistency … it’s simple and it’s proven. you can also educate yourself by reading books and articles to keep abreast of health issues and advancements. finally you can experiment with your exercise program to find what really works and what doesn’t work for your body.


that’s about it for today … stay strong everyone. see you tomorrow …

day 2 on body for life. kicked ass and took names today. here’s my meals for the day for those that are interested:

1. cottage cheese and yogurt
2. coffee, 3 carob chip oatmeal cookies
3. 6" subway turkey sub on wheat with lots of veggies
4. 6" subway turkey sub on wheat with lots of veggies
5. coffee, myoplex hp bar
6. 4 eggs (2 whites, 2 whole) scrambled, 2 slices whole wheat bread, dab o butter)

i worked late as usual but when i got home i got my workout in. i ended up doing a 20 minute session of hiit on my recumbent bike. tomorrow i have to do my workout in the morning as i have class in the evening … so i’ll head to my gym and do lower body weights.


i hope to get some time to update leanfitness.com tomorrow so look for changes there as well.

the first day back on the program went well. here were the meals i ate today:

1. 3 eggs (1.5 whole, 1.5 whites), 2 wheat tortillas, peach salsa
2. 2 whole wheat pieces toast, 1 chicken breast, peach salsa
3. coffee, yogurt, 1 slice wheat breast with peanut butter
4. 2 chicken breast, pasta, marinara sauce, parmesan cheese
5. 4 tootsie rolls, bowl of popcorn, and ice tea

the last meal was more a set of snacks later in the evening then a meal, but i put them there anyhow. i had a larger meal for the fourth meal because we had just gotten back from biking for an hour and i was starved. we ended up biking about 9.6 miles today. not to shabby for february. it was unseasonably warm today, which was nice. getting out and breathing fresh air can do the mind wonders.


tomorrow i plan on eating at least one meal replacement shake and i will likely do subway for lunch and another meal. it’s very convienant to get a 12" sub and split it into 2 meals. since we were playing uno really late tonight i am going to work out after work tomorrow, weight lifting, likely lower body. will try and keep everyone updated as to my progress.


i measured myself today, i was less then impressed and actually downright angry. i am angry at me for failing in my self promises and i am angry at myself for not following through with the promises i made to amy and an online friend named tim. the numbers were very motivating and i figured i would share with everyone since that helps me. motivation by embarrassment as i like to call it. here they are:

if you read my old time line you can see that i have degraded back to about april 5th of 2000. not pretty, i know. but like all bad things this one is going to come to an end starting today. i am one day closer to finishing this 12 week program. i will post more on my goals and some other insights in the coming days. i plan on updating the site with my progress weekly. check back often …

on to a lighter note, i wanted to drop a line about what’s up here. been working a ton lately, about 12 - 16 hour days depending on the day. we are getting really close to releasing the next version of our product. it’s pretty damn nice … bit rough around the edges right now, but we should have it cleaned up by the time we release.


due to the above i haven’t exactly had a ton of time to work out. but given how i feel drained and out of it lately i have to get back on the path. i’m going to start by trying to kick the habits and getting into the morning workout groove. i think once i do that things should fall in line. i listened to the body for life cd again. it really inspires me to get back on track and stop making excuses for this crap. so, back on i go. it is going to be rough at first since i am working a ton, but i can do it.


i received a few email’s from some body for life folks. i think the yahoo clubs are still alive and well with bfl clubs to join if your looking for a support community. as far as live chats go, i know they post dates and times on a lot of those clubs or on the body for life site, so you should check there. hope that helps some … anyhow, see ya in the clubs.

amy and i went to michigan this weekend. we both took friday off and drove in that morning instead of late at night. we hate getting there and only being there for a few hours (it seems) and then getting right back on the road to go home. anyhow, we arrived friday afternoon and then spend the afternoon and evening with ellis and christina. the next day we spent with my mother. since we were unable to see her and mike during christmas we thought it was a good idea to spend the day with them. it was fun … that evening we spent at ellis and christina’s house. the next morning we got up and helped christina’s father move and then did breakfast. afterwards we drove home.