Lose That Sixth Grader

Wow! I’m at my heaviest weight ever. If the scale I bought at WalMart is to be believed I weigh 262 pounds. I’m only 5 feet 9 inches tall. According to this chart I should be no heavier than 176 pounds. I lifted weights, heavy weights from elementary school up until about 10 years ago so I do have more muscle mass than the average person, but since I didn’t change my eating habits after I quit lifting due to an injury and a bad attitude, I’ve gained 40 pounds.

I’m nearly 100 pounds over the “ideal” weight for a person my height. That’s almost like I’m carrying around another person. I remember in sixth grade I was 5′ or 5′1″ and about 100 pounds. So, I’m carrying a sixth grader around with me all day every day! I remember this clearly because I was then the same size as my diminutive yet forceful mother.

And from that is derived the title of this blog. I’ll post here the steps I take on my journey to a weight of two hundred pounds with 10% or less body fat. Join me. What follows is some of the story of how I got to this weight and what I’ve lately begun doing to reach my goal weight.

At the beginning of the summer I started having knee problems. For the months before that I had been walking 5 to 7 days a week and doing some bodyweight exercises, mainly Combat Conditioning, and tai-chi. I was getting in shape. The knee pain severely curtailed my activity which led to more weight gain. Then near the end of the summer as the pain was subsiding, I really injured my knee. That resulted in surgery and more inactivity until I started physical therapy. Did that for about two months, but it mainly focused on my knee and lower body.

I started to do the 100 Pushups training program, but decided I need to do more of an all around workout. I had been toying with the idea of following Turbulence Training for many months. The inventor of TT, Craig Ballantyne, published the book Just Say No to Cardio which I bought. This also gave me access to his membership site and many of the workouts he has devised. I downloaded several. So, on Saturday 20081206, I started my Turbulence Training Odyssey to a slimmer me. Yesterday I read Eat Stop Eat and will follow that plan, too.

Here are all the workouts I’ve done so far. I’m starting from ground zero as if I was a totally sedentary person, which I nearly am seeing as how I work in front of a computer all day every day.

20081206

Intro Level Workout Week 1 Day 1 Workout A
All of the exercises are done in superset or circuit fashion.
Warmup A) Lying Hip Extension 2×5
Warmup B) Kneeling Pushup 2×5
Warmup C) Stability Ball Leg Curl 2×5

1A) Lying Hip Extension 2×5
1B) Plank 2X15 secs

2A) Bodyweight Squat 2×10
2B) Bird Dog 2×5/side

3A) Kneeling Pushups 2×8
3B) Side Plank 2×5 secs / side

4A) Stick-ups 2×10
4B) Ab Curl-up 2×6

Beginner Interval Workout A, full 20 minutes on stationary bike with arm pump handles.

20081207

I took my Black German Shepherd/Chow mutt, Shadow for a 30 minute walk. He is 1 yr. old and full of energy and not really used to the leash. He gave me a workout!

20081208

While at work I took two 15 minute breaks and walked 6 blocks during each of those breaks.

20081209

Warmup A) Lying Hip Extension 2×5
Warmup B) Kneeling Pushup 2×5
Warmup C) Stability Ball Leg Curl 2×5

1A) Step-ups 2×8 / side
1B) Stick-ups 2X12

2A) Stability Ball Leg Curl 2×8
2B) Kneeling Pushups 2×8/side

3A) Prisoner Squats 2×10
3B) Side Plank 2×10 secs / side

Beginner Interval Workout A, full 20 minutes on stationary bike with arm pump handles.

That’s it so far. I’ll continue with light activity of walking Thursday and Friday before routine A on Saturday. I won’t eat from 6PM today until 6PM tomorrow. I’ll fast again Friday 6PM to Saturday 6PM. The pounds will melt away. I won’t post the workouts in such detail again. Just wanted to give you all an idea of what I’m doing.

I originally posted this over on my main blog. I’ve made a few modifications here.