Plugging along

Hello followers,

Candace and I are moving with our exercise program. We are spending around 75 minutes at the gym 4 days a week now as Candace mentioned in her last post. On Wednesday night, we went to the library to check out a few new books to supplement our activities. We also did some research on ideal heart rate while working out.

Candace has been concerned about keeping her heart rate at what the aerobics machine said was ideal for her. I also wondered if my heart rate was high enough to be doing me any real good or was I just going the motions. So Candace went the Mayo Clinic website and they have a tool called the target heart rate calculator which helped us determine what our ideal heart rate should be. Candace found out that her ideal heart rate is between 134-163 and I am between 130-152. This gave Candace some piece of mind in her exercise regime. At first she was trying to keep her heart rate at lower level and she felt like she was moving in slow motion on the elliptical machine, instead she can work out at faster speed. It helped me realize that I was actually being too easy on myself so now I work out a little harder.

We got quite a few books on healthy eating and living, we got the Volumetrics books that Amy recommended and so far we like what we are hearing from it. I can't say that I agree with everything that is being said, but then again we only got 25 pages into it. We will write a review on it once we finish it. We also got a diet book from Dr. Nancy Schnedierman (yes the same person from t.v.) and we really like what she has to saying about dieting and eating better. Again we will write a review on it once we finish it.

As many of you know, Candace got a job working as a real estate photographer assistant. This will could add an interesting challenge for us, going to the gym while at least one of us has a real job. It should be interesting for me since historically I gain weight when I have to work. I know, I know I am a part-time student getting money from unemployment, but I will be living Candace's schedule, so I am working vicariously.

Anyways, its late and I am sleepy, so until next time....

Change is Good

We've decided to change some things up a bit, starting this week, which led to changing things up a bit more...starting from now until we change things up again.

We were going to do a workout schedule of every other day (eg. M W F Su Tu Th Sa...) but the funny thing is...we kinda like the gym (how sad that I've become one of those people.)  So gym schedule has changed to Su, Tu, Th, Sa - which will be great this week, but will be a bit hard next week while we are in Pacific Grove and Santa Cruz ... and also the week of the Family Reunion.  We figured that next week, though, we would make a HUGE effort to get to the Monterey Sports Center twice next week (as well as drag my mom with us) and we are looking for walking buddies while in Oregon...bring your walking shoes.

Yesterday was the same ol'...we did 40 min on the treadmill and 35 on the elliptical trainer...I am SO enjoying ditching the bike.  75 minutes never went so fast.  We've decided that we are going to start adding the weights portion of the workout when we return from Oregon...as vacation week with be our two month marker.

Not much going on...going to head out to the library to pick up the books on volumetrics to read more about what my aunt Amy was talking about...I also need to review this other book that I...well...I'll talk more about it later.

We had an artichoke for lunch today...mmmm....forgot how much I LOVE artichokes.  If anyone wants us to bring some back from Castroville, let us know.  Good in fiber, calories, not a lot of sodium (and I do love them with mayo, but I gave myself 2 servings of mayo and only used 1...so, that's good).

We've learned a couple of things so far this week.

1. We intake entirely too much sodium, but it is not completely our fault.  I have never realized how much sodium is in most processed things.  We made pasta for lunch yesterday and the S&W organic tomato sauce has 340 mg of sodium per 1/4 cup.  So, I need to go through my big Martha Stewart book and learn how to make some of this stuff myself to hopefully cut back on sodium.

2. We took this personal diet evaluator on WebMD and given my age, weight, height, what I'm looking for, etc., I can eat 3065 calories a day to maintain my weight, reduce it by 777 calories per day through diet and/or exercise (which is what they calculated as my deficit if I want to lose 20 lbs in the next 90 days) to lose a pound a week.  That is insane!!  Yesterday I burnt off almost 700 calories at the gym and still barely ate 2200 calories, which is my on-day goal.  Its not like I was hungry, I just chose better.  So, I don't know what to think of this evaluator...but it has said similar things to other sites I've calculated from, which leads me to find some truth in it.

Anyway, we are off.  Hopefully the day stays relatively rain free so we can walk the dogs soon.

28 days

We made it at least this far...whats another rest of our lives. So, you've seen what we've done for the last 28 days...and there have been many good days and some not good days (more than I'd like to admit), but the whole process has been positive.

Let's start with comparisons  (before - left; today - right and please note that I changed my clothing from the previous picture because I put on the original outfit and it hid my changes...so this will be the new outfit until it no longer fits):

So some minor changes...but we weren't expecting the world...ok...I wished for it to be greater, but I know it takes time.

And now the numbers (bleh).  I started out at 275 and 28 days later I am 266.... 9 lbs lighter (2.25 lbs per week).  Kurt started out at 258 and 28 days later is 249...9 lbs lighter (2.25 lbs per week). Also, Oreo's lost 3.4 lbs since we've started...which is by far the biggest weight loss of the three of us.  Schroeder has remained the same, but he was only 11.5 lbs to begin. YEA!!!

We decided to do something a little different today too...we decided to do our measurements and track those as well (many of you could probably fit two of you in me...but you already knew that anyway.)

Me: 50" chest, 16" bicep, 47.5" waist, 51" hips and 28" thigh (the left one)

Kurt: 48.5" chest, 15.5" bicep, 17.5" neck, 44" waist, 43.75" hips and 24.75" thigh (also the left one - I say that because I noticed his calves becoming more defined, and noticed that one was slightly larger than the other, so I like to note which one now)

And that is that...its been hard, but it's all been worth it.  Kurt says I snore a lot less, which I guess is good...doesn't bother me (hahaha).  We both sleep better and earlier since we are so tired at the end of the day.  Kurt is defining much faster than I am (stupid boys) but hopefully I'm not too far behind.  

Other than all of that...today was an off day - we are doing the gym 4 days this week...but we took the dogs for a ±1.6 mile walk today after some Wii Fit aerobics, strength training and such.  Yesterday, I did just treadmill and elliptical trainer...which was a bit more difficult, because usually I get off my feet for 20 minutes on the bike and Kurt did the stair climber instead of bike...and he has decided he won't be doing that for a couple of months.  Because of the change in routine, we only did 70 minutes yesterday...and I hope we can push it the missing 5 minutes tomorrow.

Okay...you can stop reading now :P