Can I jump in on this? I guess I need to know the premise...but 17 pages is a lot to read through.
I guess to start, I was at 257 lbs on July 12 2008. My heaviest ever. That was even after running 5 km a night for over 2 years.
So, I joined a gym that was more expensive that I wanted to afford. It helped me stay motivated (nothing like motivating a cheap bastage by making him pay first and create his own results second).
At this morning, I was down to 219.8 lbs. I was at this weight also just before Christmas, but then bobbed up to 225 during/after the holidays especially with lots of military out-of-town taskings and moonlighting work keeping me from the gym. But I am back this morning to the lowest I have weighed in close to 8-9 years.
My goal is 208. That is the lowest weight I have been in my adult life. Should have me pretty ripped.
I guess my successes have come from a change of focus away from weight and towards "performance". Instead of weighing myself frequently (maybe once a week), I focus on various other numbers. For instance, my fastest mile-and-a-half run (on treadmill) has been 8 min 52 seconds. It took months of slowly squeeking down the number on a daily basis. Each workout at 05:30 would have various time trials (on treadmill), weight machines and core exercise, working up to a peak at about 06
0 and then cooling down. At the peak, is a 1.5 mile sprint starting at some speed above 8.5 mph and working up to 10 to 11 mph for a various time. That top day I went straight to 10, and climbed from there. I deemed that was the fastest I would ever get, so I had to change my goal or face injury. So, now I aim at duration of run at 10 mph. So far, this morning I bested myself at 13 minutes 16 seconds at 10 mph before I felt I had to stop or immediately injure myself.
Beyond that, I have slowly climbed up on benchpress and lats pulldown until I can stack the machines. Now I am slowly climbing on the number of reps I can do at top weight. A balance this with similar strategies vs the delts, biceps, triceps, traps, rhomboids...thats the majority of the big musles in the upper limbs. I generally have poor enough form that the other secondary muscles get a good work out too
.
This all has down great for me.
My resting heart rate is in the low 50's, my BP is 110/60 (any lower is probably not any better, even now I get dizzy if I jump up too fast without an adrenaline rush to help pump the pressure up).
But, I guess that is my intro into this club. Thanks for having me. I am guessing it will take me about 6 months to drop these last 12 lbs. Afterall, it was my son's birthday today so I have had 2 big macs, a piece of chocolate cake, a rum and coke, ice cream and that doesn't include the dinner party I am about to go to. Good thing I only weigh myself once a week and that it won't happen again until next weekend.
Cheers to you all, motivational thoughts for you all and lets banter it up.
Cyanide