Renewed passion

Okay... maybe not a passion. But it's 10-2010 and it's about time I make some of my goals.

New goal is to improve my running game. Today was the 5th time in the last 2 weeks. Last week, I started going once every three days, and after consulting with my hall government President (who runs cross country on scholarship), I decided to start going every other day.

I have already seen a great improvement. First day, I did 2 miles consecutively and took a break before finishing the route. Did 3 miles total running-ish. Then next time I did 3.4 miles consecutively in 42 minutes.

Now I did it in 37 minutes and 6 seconds. That's quite an improvement.

Also, today has been 31 days Taco Bell free and 21 days soda free!!!! That doesn't include beer or alcohol or fizzy waters :) At first I was overcompensating with soy lattes-- iced or hot--but I've cut back... probably only because I am running out of meal points... tis sad.

I haven't actually lifted or worked out other than jogging for a long time. I pay for a gym membership, so you think I should use it.

But I have been sleeping too much. But I guess once I get into a good routine, I can add it into the mix.



On another note, I am beginning to figure out what my next step is. I want to get my PhD in Psychology but my undergraduate studies were in pre-medicine, biochemistry, Spanish, and political science. My first Master's was in College Student Personnel Administration.

Got to start taking classes to get prepped for Psych PhD. But Where should I go?

I've been trying to figure out how to decide. My interest is in men's identity development. So is that social psych or developmental? I have yet to find a research lab that specifically looks at men's identity development.

Who knows... the search is fun. I need to take the GRE sometime within the calendar year. So we'll see how that goes.

Oh gosh

Sunday I pushed myself to jog 4 miles in 40 minutes. This is the furthest I have ever jogged in a row.

Today... I jogged 3 miles... now I'm very sore. I definitely needed a rest day. But it's recoverable. I'll be good after resting.

Hello

So this was the first week of my new routine... it's a little different than what I had posted before. Instead of working out in the mornings on Mondays and Fridays, I'm still working out in the afternoons.

Today, I achieved a personal goal of running/jogging 4 miles in 40 minutes.

I weighed in a few days ago at 166. I haven't had that weigh in since... so we'll see if I have some consistency in my weigh in.

Post 2 of a new century

So I have been doing well, I believe, over the past few weeks in terms of being fit. I mean, granted, there are moments where I choose to eat something that isn't necessarily good for me. But I am at a point in my life where I am not governed by those foods and am able to work through a decision-making process as to whether I can afford to eat the food.

The last two days I weighed in at 168 which is a good consistent weight. I hope to be starting another downward trend. Again, the goal is 145 and being stronger too.

It's hard to gauge at this point how my workout should be balanced--strength training or cardiovascular.

I think I have my Spring 2010 workout routine down:

Monday - Workout in the morning (5:30am) - Do some lifting, minor cardio, and abs
Tuesday - Workout in the afternoon (around 3 to 5 pm) - Lots of cardio, maybe abs
Wednesday - Intentional Day Off
Thursday - Workout in the afternoon (around 3 to 5 pm) - Lots of cardio, maybe abs
Friday - Workout in the morning (5:30am) - Do some lifting, minor cardio, and abs
Weekends - if I am in town and able, I try to workout at least once on the weekend

This is a good workout. My goal is to increase heartrate, increase duration of cardio, and increase calorie burn. I want to continue cutting the fat while maintaining the healthy constitution of my body.

My other goal is to build strength slowly and steadily. I have definitely shown great improvement in this area.

This past weekend I went to Chicago with a friend. It was a lot of fun. Though I got strangely sick on Saturday. I'm not sure what happened; hopefully it is not a recurrence of a chronic childhood illness. We ate at a great vegetarian restaurant. Amazing. It was a great time to get away from town. I have had a lot on my mind in terms of my future and what I should do.

Hopefully my weigh ins will continue to be stable this week and next.

Update!

It's a new year with some more good goals for the Great Fat Off.

I've been working diligently to lose weight and be healthy. I am 170.6 pounds right now which means I have lost 38 pounds since I've started this challenge.

The one thing I realized over break is that I am very weak in terms of upper body strength. So I have been working on improving in that area.

Also, I finally found my body fat percentage -- 25.9%.

My BMI is 29.6

Goals -- Get to 145 pounds and decrease body fat percentage to less than 15%. We'll see how this goes.