100 Pushup Challenge – Week 1: Day 1

Yesterday was Week 1: Day 1 of my pushup challenge. I looked at the numbers (10/10/8/6/>7) and thought the workout wouldn’t even be a challenge. It ended up being tougher than I thought. It wasn’t so tough that I feared not being able to finish it; but I was challenged towards the end.

Joining the 100 Pushup Challenge

I’ve jumped on the latest internet bandwagon and decided to do the 100 pushup challenge. The site has a graduated 3 times per week workout schedule which is set up to guide one in attaining the ability to perform 100 pushups in one set. It’s at least a six week program so a certain level of commitment is required.

For my initial test and I was able to perform 17 good-form pushups. Quite the downslide considering that I could do at least 50 during my Marine Corps days. I’m looking forward to adding 83 to my current total.

Partial Fast to Full Fast

Yesterday I made the switch from a partial fast during the day to a full fast – meaning no food products at all during the fast period just water, coffee, and tea. I wish I could go monk style and add beer to that list. J

Since it was my first day I decided to go with a 16/8 split: a sixteen hour fasting period with an eight hour eating window. I intend to move to an 18/6 split over time.

Things went quite well. I got up at 0615 as usual and had my customary 2 cups of coffee around 1000. I didn’t experience any hunger pangs until 1250 and they were slight. At about 1320 I decided to have a cup of tea and break my fast later than the 1330 time that I had originally planned.

I ended up breaking my fast at 1430 and everything went well. The only hiccup came later that night. I was done with supper by 2000 and I figured I was all set. At 2130 I was logging the day’s intake into The Daily Plate and I was stunned to discover that I had only consumed 1,031 calories. I simply wasn’t comfortable with a number that low so I added a large glass of milk

Quit Raining

Please quit raining so I can ride my bike!

I’ve wanted to do some trail riding for the past few days; but it’s been raining heavy every day. The problem with the rain is twofold:

· I don’t want my daughter to get drenched and freeze her butt off as a result.

· The trail I usually ride is likely flooded in multiple areas.

More thunderstorms are expected this afternoon, tonight, and during the day tomorrow so it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting a break anytime soon. Maybe the radar will show enough of a gap for me to go for a quick ride after work, there’s another trail that I’d like to try and it should be less flood prone.

First Real Fast Day

Yesterday went really well on the fasting front. My intake consisted of:

• Black coffee, 2 cups
• Strawberries,
• Water, lots
• Zone Bar

Hunger really wasn’t an issue. Sure the feeling popped up as the day went on; but I’ve had worse, it was more an annoyance than anything else.

Beginning today I’ll be replacing the Zone bar with two or three boiled eggs. Other than that and switching up the fruit, I think I’ll be keeping the above list as my limit during the fast period of my day.

Daughter Pushups

I got a small workout in last night and my main issue was knee pain during squats. At first I dismissed it as phantom pains due to my past MCL tear; but it continued so I stopped performing squats. I’m glad that I stopped because my knee has been achy this morning.

I can’t do pushups with my daughter around. Whenever I try, she gets on my back and I end up doing pushups with a 25 pound living weight on my back.

Back to The Daily Plate

Today I started using The Daily Plate again to track my food. I’ve used it in the past and it helps greatly when tracking calories and macronutrients. I prefer it over FitDay due to the layout and the number of foods that are already in their database.

I'm Fat

Ugh, I’m disgusted with myself. Through a period of laziness of managed to balloon myself back up to 180 pounds. I’ve been finding too many excuses not to exercise and I haven’t been watching what I eat. There have been far too many calorie heavy lunches during the workdays (which have the added side effect of making me feel tired for the rest of the day) and too much snacking before supper.

It’s time to buckle down get serious about dropping this flab around my middle. A large portion of my clothes don’t fit and the ones that do fit certainly don’t fit well. I’m down to three different pairs of dress pants for work and two pairs of jeans.

What am I going to do to get back in shape? The root of everything is diet and I’ll be returning to an eating style that’s worked for me in the past: an altered version of The Warrior Diet; which is a version of Intermittent Fasting (IF) where one fasts during the day each day (as opposed to every other day, 24 hour fasting). Even though it’s a fast, a small protein intake or two is acceptable.

On the exercise front I’m mainly suffering the loss of my BJJ classes due to having to be at home with our daughter while my wife goes to work. So I need to do more at home exercises as well as go out bike riding more. I have a seat for my two year old daughter on the front of my bike, so there’s no reason why I can’t go riding more often. Inside I’ll just have to concentrate on bodyweight exercises, especially pull-ups.

Fatty Pig Fatty

After an injury and having to pause BJJ training due to financial issues, I’ve gotten a bit too fatty-pig-fatty for my tastes. So I decided to drop back down to a bodyweight that I feel comfortable with as well as improve my overall fitness. I half-assed it through January and finally got serious partway through last week. I started things out a few pounds over 180 and as of Friday I was at 178.

Monday through Friday I weigh myself in the morning before I get ready for work. This way I weigh myself at the same time every day. Since daily weight can fluctuate I plug my weight into The Google 15 on my iGoogle page, which gives me a weighted average as well as a little graph.

For food tracking I’ve been using The Daily Plate. I’ve tried both TDP and FitDay and I prefer Daily Plate. It has a better selection of foods and I think their setup is a bit more pleasing to the eye as well as being easier to use.

On the exercise side I’ve been sticking to running outdoors and pull-ups. I’d like to get a gym membership and start lifting weights again; but I refuse to let myself do that until I’m already in a routine of exercising on a regular basis. I don’t want to spend the money until I’m sure that I’d use the membership, especially since most memberships come bundled with long-term contracts.