Day 5

Although I didn't immerse myself completely into this nutritional adjustment on Saturday, I still consider it the beginning. Baby steps had been taken in the week prior by removing calorie-laden beverages from the menu and replacing them with water and green tea (sometimes flavored with Splenda, which has its own issues...Interestingly, it was discovered by scientists developing pesticides), and now I have completely given myself to this new way of eating.

Probably one of the greatest tips I've received in the first 5 days is the art of "sneaking" calories in and out of your diet. Although many people are in the diet game to lose weight, there are still plenty looking to put on muscle. Sneaking is effective at both. The basis behind it is that you are not technically going to be consuming less food, but you will be consuming fewer calories.

For example, you can take replace the sugar in your coffee for a no-calorie sweetener like Splenda or stevia, switch up your yogurt for low-fat yogurt (or vice versa if you're looking to put weight on), or you could just switch from high fat ground beef to a lean grass-fed variety. All of these are great ways of tricking your body, and will be put to good use in my current set up.

Cooking and Preparation

Even though there really isn't any format to this particular post, I really thought these pieces of the nutritional puzzle needed to be emphasized. Cooking and preparation are really the most important part to being successful. I'm realizing this more and more as we move forward. I mean, we've heard it hundreds of times... "
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." I've been lucky enough to have spent some time in the kitchen already, so chopping veggies, pre-cooking meats for the week, and putting together a meal on the fly hasn't been quite the struggle I've seen in others. The idea is that you need to set aside some time each week or even day to preparing for the next few meals. This is easily done!

Cooking more versatile foods during this time can help keep anyone from dietary boredom. My favorite choice is a package of chicken thighs (although now I've completed the "sneak" and I've moved to breasts). 8 chicen thighs are easily roasted in the oven in about 25-30 minutes. That's 8 meals I can use. Chicken can be chopped up for salads, eaten plain, mixed with curry sauce, added to soups, or really anything you can think of. So, as I look forward to the rest of the week, I know I've got a load of pre-cooked breasts just sitting in the fridge waiting to be consumed. All I have to do now is decide the arrangement....

So that's just a little insight as to what I'm going to be doing/changing over the next few months. Keep in mind that this includes 4 days a week of resistance training and another couple days of cardio work.

Certified.

So, I finally got my results after a long weekend of skiing and checking my email for news from the certifying agency. I am now a NSCA Certified Personal Trainer, so that's pretty fun news! Those questions about what to do now are still out there, but at least I have the credential to back up any job search I may do. I'll most likely look into some part time work on the weekends and evenings with a potential foray into the realm of pre-breakfast training... We'll see what happens, but that's pretty exciting for now.

In other news Dave and I will be starting a bit of a diet soon, so we'll take some pictures and get back with more of that accountability stuff that I mentioned earlier. I may wait 8 weeks to show you before and afters... We'll see what happens, but hopefully I'll have some fun results for you. Biggest change for today is moving to nothing but calorie free beverages... I love milk (2% is the best!) and I usually enjoy a bit of coffee with my cream and sugar in the mornings. It'll be tougher once we start taking away more, but at first glance it doesn't look too severe. Like I said, I'll keep you updated.

A Good Day for Blogging?

I've always thought that boring days at work were good days to blog, but I'm finding out otherwise today. Not only does a lack of work feel unproductive, it's spreading to my mind.... I'm even having issues reading through articles this morning. It must be a combination of boredom and just being anxious to get to Vermont this weekend. I haven't seen Megan in over a week, and we're doing a long weekend ski trip with some friends if we can ever get out of work and get to it!

I do have a bit of a story from this week though. It involves heavy weights and having them delivered to work... I bought a weighted vest online a few weeks ago and have been waiting for it to arrive. As I waited, two other items were shipped and dropped off in an office on the first floor of my building. I made mention of a third package that would be "fairly heavy," and that they should have the delivery man bring the package to my office on the third floor. I probably don't need to say that they didn't really heed my advice.

My 84lbs. weighted vest came wrapped up nicely in a box on Monday... I happened to be out at lunch, and the office downstairs wanted to unload the box into our office. Of course, they didn't ask the delivery guys to do it, so they pushed it into the elevator down the hall and pressed the 3rd floor button. My poor coworker had to walk out in the hall to greet the elevator with my vest, and now, to her surprise, she finds this ridiculously heavy box in the middle of the floor. She made it clear that it was a struggle to get it down the hall and into our office (I guess I owe her?).

Now the issue of getting this thing to my car... I park about a quarter mile away from work, so that's not really a bad walk, but I couldn't exactly carry 84lbs. to my car - esp. down 3-4 flights of stairs and back up another. I decided the best way would be to load up the vest (turns out that 84 lbs. comes in 1 pound increments! Awesome.), and just throw it on underneath my jacket. I've got a heavy, loose pea coat that I figured would cover it up pretty well.... I should've taken a picture of it, but without a picture let's just say that I could barely get my buttons together once I had the vest on. It's a little skinnier without being fully loaded, but it adds a good 6-8 inches to your waistline when fully stocked up. I felt like one of those barrel-chested strongmen. Maybe like I belonged in the circus a little bit...

We don't work in the best of neighborhoods over here, so I fit in great. Like some red-faced, slow-walking, scared dude with a bullet-proof vest conspicuously filling out my jacket. The walk wasn't horrible though, but it's hard to imagine having to get around as a 295 pound man all the time...

Accountability

I'm taking the Certified Personal Trainer exam tomorrow afternoon. I guess I'm writing this so I make sure I study tonight... If everyone knows I'm taking the exam then you (all 2-3 of you who read this) can call me out if I don't manage to pass the thing. I'm pretty confident though, and as long as I show up for the test on time I should manage just fine.

Once I complete the test it raises other questions... Should I start working at a gym? Will I pick up some clients for the home gym? What's the next bit of education for me?

So there you have it, now I'm accountable to you for whatever happens tomorrow at exam time. Who knows, maybe I'll go beyond the lifting and exam taking and branch out into my diet! Ha, that would most likely be a fail of epic proportions...

I'll try to answer those other questions in the next few weeks...