Friday, March 14, 2008
Friday, May 18, 2007
Week 3 - Days 15 through 21
This week was very surprising..... what was the surprise you ask?
The fact that I am still on this new workout program and have kept it up for 3 weeks straight! I can honestly say that I have never stayed on a workout plan for 3 weeks (3 days would probably be my average.. and heck I usually don't do things I like for 3 weeks straight).
I will admit that have been fairly athletic growing up.. love to play sports, but I have never enjoyed just working out. It is way too boring and my ADD kicks in and I am off to do something else (anything else really).
As I have said before, that is one of the major benefits to this program... it is easy to stay on it, and it makes you feel like a success. I also think that I am almost ready to begin increasing my workouts - adding in more cardio, heavier weights, etc.... which is not on the 8 Minutes plan.
I think the fact that I am doing the 8 Minutes is letting me slowly get "back in shape" and now I am ready to take on more. If I had started out with a more "traditional" workout plan, I am certain that it would have been too painful and I would have quit... I will end up increasing my workout to the more traditional route.. just more gradually.
You know, the whole object at rest, object in motion thing.
One more week left and I will be an "8 Minutes in the Morning" graduate.
The fact that I am still on this new workout program and have kept it up for 3 weeks straight! I can honestly say that I have never stayed on a workout plan for 3 weeks (3 days would probably be my average.. and heck I usually don't do things I like for 3 weeks straight).
I will admit that have been fairly athletic growing up.. love to play sports, but I have never enjoyed just working out. It is way too boring and my ADD kicks in and I am off to do something else (anything else really).
As I have said before, that is one of the major benefits to this program... it is easy to stay on it, and it makes you feel like a success. I also think that I am almost ready to begin increasing my workouts - adding in more cardio, heavier weights, etc.... which is not on the 8 Minutes plan.
I think the fact that I am doing the 8 Minutes is letting me slowly get "back in shape" and now I am ready to take on more. If I had started out with a more "traditional" workout plan, I am certain that it would have been too painful and I would have quit... I will end up increasing my workout to the more traditional route.. just more gradually.
You know, the whole object at rest, object in motion thing.
One more week left and I will be an "8 Minutes in the Morning" graduate.
Some Health Myths
I came across this very interesting article on MSN:
Healthy Habits That Aren't
It details 8 different health myths, ranging from drinking water to anti-bacterial soap. I must admit there were a few I did not know.
It just goes to show that you should not just blindly believe what the "general wisdom" is on anything. This goes back to my pet peeve about showing some research before making any claims, and I am happy to say that each of these busted "myths" mentions specific research studies.
Let me know how many of these are news to you!
Healthy Habits That Aren't
It details 8 different health myths, ranging from drinking water to anti-bacterial soap. I must admit there were a few I did not know.
It just goes to show that you should not just blindly believe what the "general wisdom" is on anything. This goes back to my pet peeve about showing some research before making any claims, and I am happy to say that each of these busted "myths" mentions specific research studies.
Let me know how many of these are news to you!
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Week 2 - Days 8 through 14
So here is the new format to get me caught up... week by week.
AS you may have noticed in the first 7 days of the program, the exercises rotate each day to a different part of the body. This allows for the muscles to rebuild, repair and recover from the workout. So the routine breaks out like this:
Monday- Chest / Back
Tuesday- Shoulder / Abs
Wednesday- Triceps / Biceps
Thursday- Hamstrings / Quads
Friday- Calves / Gluteus (fancy word for your butt)
Saturday- Inner and Outer Thighs
Sunday- Off day (yeah!)
What is really great about this is the book only gives you 4 weeks of exercises, but since you now know the "routine" or order you can always keep going by adding in your own exercises. You can of course just start the program over and increase the weights as you get stronger, but it might be fun to find some new exercises that work each muscle group.
So on to week 2....
I would have to say that week 2 went pretty darn well. The program became easier and easier as the days went on and I am really feeling like this is becoming a habit. Now this is coming from a lifelong "workout hater" so I don't say that lightly.
I know that many folks will attack the 8 minutes workout and say that you really can't get a good workout in 8 minutes.... However, the fact remains that I was NEVER able to stay on a traditional workout plan for more than a week and now I am through two weeks and excited about it! I would say that is better than a traditional workout.
I ended Week 2 feeling very good.... and oh yeah... by the way.. I have already lost 3 pounds. Results.... that's all I really care about.
AS you may have noticed in the first 7 days of the program, the exercises rotate each day to a different part of the body. This allows for the muscles to rebuild, repair and recover from the workout. So the routine breaks out like this:
Monday- Chest / Back
Tuesday- Shoulder / Abs
Wednesday- Triceps / Biceps
Thursday- Hamstrings / Quads
Friday- Calves / Gluteus (fancy word for your butt)
Saturday- Inner and Outer Thighs
Sunday- Off day (yeah!)
What is really great about this is the book only gives you 4 weeks of exercises, but since you now know the "routine" or order you can always keep going by adding in your own exercises. You can of course just start the program over and increase the weights as you get stronger, but it might be fun to find some new exercises that work each muscle group.
So on to week 2....
I would have to say that week 2 went pretty darn well. The program became easier and easier as the days went on and I am really feeling like this is becoming a habit. Now this is coming from a lifelong "workout hater" so I don't say that lightly.
I know that many folks will attack the 8 minutes workout and say that you really can't get a good workout in 8 minutes.... However, the fact remains that I was NEVER able to stay on a traditional workout plan for more than a week and now I am through two weeks and excited about it! I would say that is better than a traditional workout.
I ended Week 2 feeling very good.... and oh yeah... by the way.. I have already lost 3 pounds. Results.... that's all I really care about.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
I guess "8 Minutes" is easier than daily blogging
So if anyone has noticed (as if anyone is really reading this...) I am a little behind on the posts in this blog. I am on Day 8 in the blog, but am actually on Day 21 or something in the program itself.
So it appears that I have found a workout that is "easier" then sitting on your butt and typing! Now THERE is a great advertising slogan:
So it appears that I have found a workout that is "easier" then sitting on your butt and typing! Now THERE is a great advertising slogan:
"Our workout is easier than sitting on your butt and typing"
I will even let the author, Jorge, use this if he wants for the next edition of the book (small royalty fee of course).
I have also noticed that since the workouts are so simple and quick I really would not have much to write about every single day. Therefore, I am going to try and catch back up by lumping some of the days together in single posts. This should get me back on track with the writing and hopefully caught up this week.
I will even let the author, Jorge, use this if he wants for the next edition of the book (small royalty fee of course).
I have also noticed that since the workouts are so simple and quick I really would not have much to write about every single day. Therefore, I am going to try and catch back up by lumping some of the days together in single posts. This should get me back on track with the writing and hopefully caught up this week.
Day 6 and Day 7- Ooops...Missed a day
So this is where the rubber meets the road.... we ended up missing a day. I woke up late for work (I blame it on the alarm, but I am quite certain it was human error) and had to just rush out the door asap.
No work out... no 8 minutes. This is the spot that most workout plans end up going wrong and never recovering. You miss one day and it is SO much easier to skip the next day.. and the next. Then the next thing you know you are on the couch with that spoon and a tub of lard.
I mean if your workout consists of 30 min to 1 hour and driving to the gym, etc.... its damn hard to keep that up in the beginning. I am sure once you do this for months it becomes habit, but we all know that most folks never get to that point as they end up missing a day in the beginning and go downhill from there.
This is another way the 8 Minutes in the Morning is so great. We missed one day (8 minutes), so we just double up the next day (16 minutes in the morning).. and BAM we are back on track!
If you miss a 45 minuted workout and try to double up the next day you are talking an hour and a half.... who the heck has time for that?
We were even luckier this time as Day 7 is supposed to be an "off day", so we just did our workout on the off day and were all caught back up to start week 2. Very cool feeling to be back on track and not have to go through all the guilt and beating yourself up for days, etc. (there are plenty of other things I can beat myself up about).
By the way, the day 6 work out was inner and outer thighs (sounds a lot more fun than it really was..lol).
No work out... no 8 minutes. This is the spot that most workout plans end up going wrong and never recovering. You miss one day and it is SO much easier to skip the next day.. and the next. Then the next thing you know you are on the couch with that spoon and a tub of lard.
I mean if your workout consists of 30 min to 1 hour and driving to the gym, etc.... its damn hard to keep that up in the beginning. I am sure once you do this for months it becomes habit, but we all know that most folks never get to that point as they end up missing a day in the beginning and go downhill from there.
This is another way the 8 Minutes in the Morning is so great. We missed one day (8 minutes), so we just double up the next day (16 minutes in the morning).. and BAM we are back on track!
If you miss a 45 minuted workout and try to double up the next day you are talking an hour and a half.... who the heck has time for that?
We were even luckier this time as Day 7 is supposed to be an "off day", so we just did our workout on the off day and were all caught back up to start week 2. Very cool feeling to be back on track and not have to go through all the guilt and beating yourself up for days, etc. (there are plenty of other things I can beat myself up about).
By the way, the day 6 work out was inner and outer thighs (sounds a lot more fun than it really was..lol).
Friday, May 11, 2007
Eating better is easier than you think
As I mentioned earlier, I do read some of Dr. Weil's stuff now and find it to be rather helpful. Take this article for instance:
Stocking the Pantry
He has great suggestions for cooking ingredients that you should always have on hand.. and most are not that outlandish at all. He covers oils, pasta, herbs, etc. and makes recommendations of "more healthful" choices.
As I feel my family is eating very healthy right now, we have decided not to use the food recommendations in "8 minutes". We found them to be rather limiting and we feel that we are doing a good job on this front... using many of the ingredients that Dr. Weil suggests above.
My single biggest tip on eating healthy is to do it in small bite sized chunks (pun definitely intended). Pick an area of your diet or an ingredient you want to get rid of and just start with that.
My family first started with removing trans fats from our diet. We read a few years back on how bad they are for your health and decided to remove them completely from our diet (easier said than done as they are in everything!).
I am currently working on a more detailed post regarding trans fats (or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils as they are listed in the ingredients of foods), so I don't want to get too detailed here.
So, look at your pantry.. look at Dr. Weil's suggestions and pick just one thing to improve upon. Then later down the road pick a 2nd item to add/remove. Before you know it you will be much happier with your diet and I bet will start to feel better and lose weight as well.
Stocking the Pantry
He has great suggestions for cooking ingredients that you should always have on hand.. and most are not that outlandish at all. He covers oils, pasta, herbs, etc. and makes recommendations of "more healthful" choices.
As I feel my family is eating very healthy right now, we have decided not to use the food recommendations in "8 minutes". We found them to be rather limiting and we feel that we are doing a good job on this front... using many of the ingredients that Dr. Weil suggests above.
My single biggest tip on eating healthy is to do it in small bite sized chunks (pun definitely intended). Pick an area of your diet or an ingredient you want to get rid of and just start with that.
My family first started with removing trans fats from our diet. We read a few years back on how bad they are for your health and decided to remove them completely from our diet (easier said than done as they are in everything!).
I am currently working on a more detailed post regarding trans fats (or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils as they are listed in the ingredients of foods), so I don't want to get too detailed here.
So, look at your pantry.. look at Dr. Weil's suggestions and pick just one thing to improve upon. Then later down the road pick a 2nd item to add/remove. Before you know it you will be much happier with your diet and I bet will start to feel better and lose weight as well.
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