So I jumped off the wagon for the summer and into early autumn. Softball season for me is a time of gluttony – a 75-minute game (moderate exercise) followed by beer, junk food and friends. That season is winding down, and I’m rededicating lots of time and energy to dropping some weight.

I’ve maintained within a few pounds all season (I was 149 at the start of the summer, and I weighed in at 151 this morning), but I got smacked with a 10-day cold (ouch), and I’m not used to feeling under it for so long.

Here’s my plan for the coming months.

Fitness

We launched a cross training program at the gym. This is essentially CrossFit, but since we haven’t really discussed affiliation with the organization, we can’t call it that (the trainer is CrossFit certified, so that’s really what it is).

I’ve started slowly with it because of the cold. My first workout was done on pseudo-ephedrine, and that made 24-inch box jumps a lot of fun (especially since we did 50). My second one was done with the cold sitting in my chest, and it wound up including half-mile running intervals, which put me out of commission for a couple of hours.

I’m at about 90% right now, and I expect that come Wednesday, I’ll get back to twice a week (Wednesday and Friday). I’ll be blogging my training with that over here.

Diet

I’ve been reading about diets for just about a year now. When I lost a bunch of weight earlier in the year, I was on about an 80% “paleo” diet, which means I was eating meats, veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds (no grains, no starches). The only alcohol I was drinking was dry red wine (no or very little residual sugar) and my primary dessert was dark chocolate. I was also drinking coffee, and using some artificial sweeteners, which are not allowed on a strict paleo diet.

I’ve been eating primarily good breakfasts, snacks and lunches, with good dinners 3-4 days a week most of the summer, and I’ve continued to do a lot of reading.

I just finished Experiments with Intermittent Fasting; it’s a diet plan that makes a lot of sense to me, and starting Monday, the 17th, I’ll be giving it a shot for myself (I expect to be a little cranky for a week or two, but maybe not).

My initial plan, which I’ll alter if it’s not working for me, will look like this:

Monday-Friday: Fasted workout, breakfast, dinner, activity.
Satuday-Sunday: 16-hour fasts, with activity, both fasted and non-fasted.

That probably doesn’t mean anything to you, so let’s look at a typical day (the times will probably vary, but not by much more than an hour). I’ll drink tea and water throughout the day, and try to limit my coffee to mornings.

Weekdays
5am: Wake up; coffee, water
6am: Workout
7am: Breakfast
Noon: Water with greens powder
7pm: Dinner, followed by activity (softball, walking, housework, whatever, as long as I’m moving a little bit)

Weekends
Wake up without an alarm (usually 5-7am); coffee, water, water with greens powder
Noon-8pm: Food and activity – eat primarily cleanly, but whatever I want in whatever quantities I want, so long as I’m moving some (i.e., no sitting on the couch and munching for 8 hours)

I’ll supplement with BCAAs, as outlined in John Berardi’s ebook (though in smaller doses until I figure out how they affect me), multivitamins (regular old Centrum), and, as I mentioned, greens powder (it’s essentially all the good stuff in spinach, broccoli and other veggies ground up into a powder that smells like grass).

I may also include some whey protein as part of breakfast some days.

I’ll record intake, workouts and stats in this journal, and I’ll use FitDay (plus product labels) to chart my macros. I’ll also post here as I go.

Onward!

I plopped Modulations in my DVD player and got to work. Here we go:

• Warmup: 100 jumping jacks
• 9 burpees
• Front plank x 90 seconds
• 9 burpees
• Right side plank x 60 seconds
• 9 burpees
• Left side plank x 60 seconds
• 9 burpees
• Squat-to-chest press at 20 pounds x 15
• 9 burpees
• One-legged biceps curl at 30 pounds x 15 each leg
• 9 burpees
• Rope-climber crunches x 30
• 9 burpees
• Mini-crunches x 30
• 9 burpees
• Sit-ups x 20
• 9 burpees

I’ve been doing a lot of burpees to get ahead and accelerate my 100 burpee challenge end date. Today I did 81, for days 26, 27 and 28.

Total workout time: about 35 minutes.

Some workout motivation from Zach Even-Esh.

I’ve been thinking on and off about the household weight loss challenge we’ve been doing. It’s not really actually a thing, because we’re both rather motivated to come home, chill with a beer and go get some ice cream, rather than get a workout in and eat well. Check out that weight chart over there – between us, we’ve actually gained nearly a half pound over six weeks.

Some posts around the intertubez got me thinking last week, and now I have some time to sit down and write.

This starts, for me, with Julien Smith, who reminds us that we are the only ones who give a shit if we succeed. You remember how I said one of the reasons I write this blog is for accountability? Horseshit. It’s true – while people are certainly willing to help me celebrate my victories and wallow in my defeats, nobody is ringing me on a regular basis saying, “Hey, Josh, you’re working out today, right?” or, “Chicken and broccoli for dinner tonight instead of a cheeseburger and fries, right?”

» Raj Ganpath on being awesome
» Julien Smith: The complete guide to not giving a fuck

So I’ve identified a goal: Get to 135 pounds. I think that weight is going to prove to be a little low for my body type (though the government seems to think I need to be at 140 pounds or under to be in the “normal” weight range), but we’ll find out. Maybe it’s only going to prove to be a little low for my lifestyle type; who knows?

I’ve already identified my obstacles, even way back in the beginning.

I know what to do. I just have to do it. And doing burpees every day is a good starting point, but it’s not a complete workout (well, maybe it is when I get near 100). So, onward. Today I’ll be doing some Tabata, I think.

» Alwyn Cosgrove on reaching your goals

Obviously this stuff holds true in other parts of your life, not just in your workouts. Here’s some outside-the-workout motivation from Richard Nikoley at Free The Animal.

I got a Facebook invitation for a ridiculous program that made me say, “why the heck not?”

The 100 Burpee Challenge works like this. Start on Day 1, and do 1 burpee. Day 2, do 2. And so on, up to 100. Burpees need not be successive (that is, on Day 20, you’re welcome to do four sets of five throughout the day, or however you’d like to break them up).

If you miss a day, the next day you make up the missed day’s burpees. So, if you start, and you miss Day 4, on Day 5, you do 9 (the four you missed on Day 4, plus Day 5′s burpees).

You can also do what I did, and start late. I started yesterday on Day 8 by doing 36 burpees (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8). I’m actually regretting that now, because I just rattled off 9 after breakfast and I really want to cheat and do tomorrow’s burpees before I head off to work.

No worries, though, I’m sure I’ll have the opportunity to have a couple of more 30-burpee days early on, since I’ll probably conveniently forget them while I’m off camping next weekend. At a wine festival (don’t worry, bringing lots of good food).

Here’s Mike demonstrating burpees (caveat: no knees allowed in the challenge; you gradually move up from 1 to 100 so that you can develop some strength).

By the way, if my math is solid, you’ll do over 5,000 burpees in 3 months on this program (1 + 100 = 101, so does 2 + 99, so it’s 101 x 50 = 5050 – awesome!).

I weighed in up a pound this week. Part of it was that I spent the weekend sick, and so gave my body whatever it wanted (including a giant croissant with a quarter-cup of A’s homemade strawberry jam, 5 ounces of chocolate and 6 ounces of cheese – as part of my nibbling yesterday, the day before weighing in). And while I started out the week with a good circuit workout, Tuesday’s post-double-header meal was a little beer-and-wing-heavy, and Wednesday’s game was rained out, so I used it as an excuse not to work out.

On tap for this week, in addition to better eating decisions:

• Monday: Yard work
• Tuesday: Softball
• Wednesday: Workout plus softball
• Thursday: A workout of some sort
• Friday: A run and probably some yard work
• Saturday: Yard work/rest day
• Sunday: Light movement, maybe some yard work

What does your workout week look like?

Why do this? Why not only do this household challenge thing, but why blog about it? It might come down to a little bit of motivation.

It also comes down to accountability. “Why, Josh, why did you gain weight this week?” That’s a question I don’t want to have to answer. That’s one reason.

Another reason is that as I figure out things that work for me and things that work against me, I ask why, and I try to find out the answer. I’m learning my way, and I hope to pass along some of that knowledge.

So I guess that’s why I created this blog:

1. To stay accountable to someone, even if that someone is some anonymous reader (since I’m not tracing IP addresses)
2. To learn more about the human body, and about my body in particular: What makes it tick, what makes it stop, and all that good stuff
3. To share my learning with others (umm, you)

In the spirit of accountability, I just ate breakfast: leftover shrimp, green beans, spinach, onions and mushrooms in an omelet, together with some pepper jack cheese. I’m packing pistachios, cheese, plums and apricots for my day’s food, playing two softball games, and then doing something bar-food like (though probably with high protein and fat content and no starches).

It’s your turn. Get off your couch, slide on your Vibrams, and get moving. If you need the accountability, get in touch and write some guest posts in this space.

It’s been a few days since I’ve posted. I’d like to say a few words on sacrifice, motivation, and acceptance.

Acceptance. Know that there are good days to weight loss and there are tough, yucky, want-to-beat-yourself-up for things you’ve eaten and for runs and exercise you have not accomplished. Accept these times and continue on the challenge. This past weekend (as Josh mentioned) we went to visit his parents. His dad made a great meal of pasta, homemade spaghetti sauce, and bread bread bread with garlic pesto and tomatoes on top. My stomach killed me – carb shock after at least two weeks of not eating bread or starch. I loved the cookies his mom brought out on Saturday. But the good news is on Saturday evening we ate clean and healthful food without any breads and on Sunday we did the same. Accept your flaws and push on harder for the next round.

I weighed in this morning at 122.8 as mentioned above, I know why.

Sacrifice. If you aren’t losing at the rate you want to, examine your schedule, stay conscious of what you’re eating and are you going to sporting events or social occasions, or are you putting in the time to exercise and skipping social gatherings in order to work your muscles and burn some fat?  I’m not trying to say you have to be on house arrest, but put exercise near the top priority wise. If it’s important to you, make it happen!

What Motivates YOU? Maybe it’s the really skinny girl on the magazine cover. Yes, she’s probably air brushed, but she probably also takes care of herself and has a personal trainer kicking her butt in the morning. What motivates me? I’d say the two pairs of capri pants in my closet that are a size 4 that I would like to fit into. I’m a size 6 right now I think. What I think motivates me even more is when I see someone who is proud to say  they are 50 or 60 and they look 10+ years younger. People have all kinds of reasons to avoid the bulge. Diabetes, heard disease, cancer, they’re proud of being the thinnest person in their family, they’ve been really heavy before and they’ve worked too damn hard to lose it.

I want to be healthy and happy and I want to be true to myself.

I jogged today for half an hour and I did my best to walk as little as I could. I’m doing run/walk challenge tomorrow evening. If I have  to walk some, that’s okay with me; just as long as I break a sweat and push myself to exercise so I can see results.

This will be the final weekly Music Monday; we’re going to move this to monthly, before I start flooding the blog with nothing but music

1. Warren Zevon – Raspberry Beret

2. Run DMC + Aerosmith – Walk This Way

3. Loud Family – Don’t Respond, She Can Tell

4. Prodigy – Firestarter

5. The Black Crowes – Rainy Day Women #12 and #35

Well, I lost another pound this week. Again, sustainable weight loss, but I have to be honest, this was not a good week for me. My metabolism benefited greatly from my short workouts, which, combined with my softball games gave my body the boost to push out some calories, but my food choices were awful.

I said at the beginning that one of my weaknesses is portion control. We visited my parents for Fathers Day weekend and were greeted Friday night with a pot of my dad’s delicious homemade spaghetti sauce. Which I proceeded to consume over the top of about 12 ounces of pasta, and then sop up with 8 ounces of bread, alongside a semi-dry red.

FitDay tells me that’s about 215g of carbohydrates, which is something on the order of three times my normal amount of carb intake – at one meal, after sitting in a car for four hours.

I crashed pretty hard Friday night after that meal, and it took me a few hours to get going Saturday morning (I’m usually up and at ‘em early most days).

And then Saturday afternoon, the chocolate and vanilla wafer cookies came out. I had already done a 20-minute workout that included some medium-high intensity cardio, push-up variations, planks, crunches, and something that beat up on my triceps (basically, I lifted an office chair at an upward angle and held it up for a minute – it’s tougher than it sounds), and then helped with some tornado cleanup.

But the carb addiction kicked in, and I crashed again. I insisted on a trip to the grocery store, where JB, my sister and her fiancee picked up some real food: salmon for the grill; red onions, zucchini, yellow squash, and red, green and orange bell pepper to be marinated in vinaigrette; and tomato, basil and mozzarella for a caprese salad.

It felt really good going down.

And upon returning, JB and I lit the grill, had some burgers and sausage (no buns, of course), along with grilled onions, broccoli and bell peppers, followed by grilled peaches + plums + apricots + coconut + cinnamon.

Here’s to a better week on the food side.

Don’t have a lot of time to work out? No problem. You can get your heart rate up, get a good burn, and even build some muscles in 15-minute workouts. And you can do it with little or no equipment.

Back in March, I did a 15-minute workout with a stability ball and a couple of dumbbells. Raj recently posted both a quick dumbbell workout and a body weight workout.

Other stuff you might want to include in a short workout:

• Jumping jacks (great cardio)
• Squat jumps
• Push-up variations (regular push-ups, arms wide, arms in tight, maybe elevate your feet so there’s more weight – you get the idea)
• And here’s Mike showing you how to do burpees: