Starting in the morning

Well, I was going to take the easy way out and just disappear into a cyberspace black hole. I have been fighting the same goals, the same poundages, the same excuses for years now. I have been starting and
failing, starting and failing and making elaborate plans only to blow them off when the going got tough or the honeymoon phase of starting a new program wore off. But running away and hiding is not going to get me where I want to be and where I need to be.

Normally I start a new challenge at the beginning of a week, or the beginning of a month. Instead I start my next 12 week challenge tomorrow on Thursday. Normally I would say I will start Sunday, and I would use that as an excuse to eat garbage the next 4 days and to ignore exercise and “start fresh” Sunday. Doing what I have always done hasn’t been working, and if I continue to do so, I will get more of the same. So in order to get some results I am going to have to move away from my comfort zone, and take some new measures to break thru the excuses that have been stopping me dead in my tracks.

For ages I have been looking at my writing in my blogs/posts at my own site as well as others and trying to figure out what exactly it was that has been holding me back. More than any injuries or aches and pains it has been my discipline that has held me back. Cutting corners, and the odd slip here or there. Worrying about what the scale said and then when it didn’t read what I wanted it to, bitch and complain about it. This is why for the first time in 4 years I am starting a challenge and not setting a goal to weigh this or that, or to lose this much scale weight. I am focusing instead on losing bodyfat, inches off my waist, and performing 4 weight sessions a week, as well as 3 timed or measured cardio. I also want to get stronger. I will not focus on weighing this or that, but will simply use the scale as another measure rather than the whole focus.

I have really been working hard on long term goals, that I won’t go into at this time, but I have been working with the end in mind first. Once I established my long term goal, which I have, I started to break it down into smaller chunks, stuff that I could accomplish in the next few months, out to a year. Once I got those goals in mind, I broke it down further into what I can do on a day to day basis, and a week to week basis in order to reach the shorter term goals. I have a loose outline of what I what to accomplish ultimately, over the next two years, all the way down to this next 12 weeks. I have been working on this outline for 6 weeks, but quite intensly over the past 2 weeks. I am motivated, and ready to make progress.

I know I have said all of this stuff before. Anyone who has read anything I have said over the last couple years has heard this stuff before. This is why, like I mentioned in the first paragraph I considered just disapearing from my regular online haunts and fading away. But that would be the easy way out. I told Tom Walsh once, that I have made goals and not reached them so many times that if it were not myself writing the goals, and anyone else reading them, hell I wouldn’t believe this time would be any different either. Jeremy Likeness asked me one time point blank after reading a post similar to this, “You know Shane, this is all well and good, and I have read posts like this before from you. What makes this time any different?” A great question asked by a good friend. Instead of giving you the answer right here why this time is different, I will show everyone, and most importantly myself over the next 12 weeks with my actions, and my accomplishments how this time is different. I will walk the walk instead of talk the talk. Instead of yapping, I will prove it with my actions. I have let myself down many times over the past 4 years in regards to fitness goals, I am ready to stop making excuses and start making progress.

I will be back in the morning, with Before pics, measurements, and goals taken before, but posted after I get back from the gym.

Back to the gym

Lifted tonight for the first time in 5 weeks. Went well. 26 minutes with the weights and 25 min cardio. Trained shoulders by themselves tonight, as it was my first day at my new (old, been there before ) gym. I just bought a years membership, and its available 24 hours so I am going to be getting my money’s worth!

Shoulders
Seated tuff stuff press (like hammer strength) sets of 12/12/10/10
side lats sets of 15/15/15
rear lats on pec dec 12/10/10
side lat/front lat combo 10/10
d shrug 10/10

treadmill 10 min
recum 10 min
stepmill 4 min

BFL it is

Ok, I have been reviewing plans, eating and training for two weeks, and been really really checking out plans the last 5 days. I looked at Max ot, Leanness Lifestyle, Tom Venuto’s BTF, South Beach, etc etc. I have been going back to BFL and checking out the different BFL sites etc. It’s funny but the past couple years I have thought I was “above BFL” but then lets take a cold hard look at that before up there? Does that look like someone that is above anything fitness related? Didn’t think so. So BFL it is. I will eat by the book and weight train by the book. The only change I will make if any at all is extra cardio.

Like the rest, I can’t wait to see who my partner is. Whoever it is, I will promise you this, no matter what I will complete this challenge and give my absolute best effort. I will finish this 12 weeks, having given my all and having held nothing back. You have my word.

Where I am, where I’ve been, and where I am Going…

Where I am: 3 days from my 33rd birthday in horrendous shape as seen above in a pic taken yesterday.

Where I have been: Here is a pic at my leanest as an adult taken in 1998 55 lbs lighter than today.

Where am I going: Circa Summer 2006 the best shape of my life!

I have been claiming for nearly 20 years that I would walk the beach with abs etc. Something always comes up legit or otherwise, well starting right now I do the work, what ever it takes, to get there. No more BS, no more excuses. It’s going to take a couple challenges to get there, 3 consecutive problably, but this is my year.

2006 is almost here

So looking forward to this challenge. My wife got me a gift certificate to go back to the gym, and I am ready to roll. The past couple days I have taken the time to look at a couple different diets, including Eating for Life, The Abs Diet, South Beach and a couple others. I have not made a decision but by the first I will have. I am looking for something I can do jointly with the wife, as she wants to do it with me, and it will just make it easier anyway. At this time I am likely going to do Eating for life but its not set in stone.

I posted my before taken yesterday to my challenge blog that I will start posting to as soon as my goals are posted etc. I wish I could say I was making the picture look as bad as I could but lets be honest, nearly a year of slothfulness (is that a word) and even 2 years of infrequent training due to good “reasons/excuses” or not has led me to my current condition. I haven’t lifted a weight in 3 months and outside of hockey and walking not much cardio either.

My birthday is on Saturday and yep I am going to have a few drinks and eat and be merry. But don’t let my last couple years fool you, I am ready to make the best changes I have made in years over the next few months. I have made wagers with people who will never let me here the end of it, and I mean NEVER, if I do not succeed. I have made myself accountable to the blog, my own site, and most importantly myself. I will not spend another year weighing 210 and up. I can talk trash with the best of them, but I have done nothing to back it up the past couple years, for anyone to take anything I say seriously in that regard so I won’t bother. I will simply say this, this next 12 weeks I will put forth the effort to make this my best 12 week challenge to date, and this 12 weeks will simply be setting the stage for me reaching my lifetime best condition in 2006.

Can I play too ?

Hey guys. I have been MIA for a few months. I lost internet access at home for a while there in Aug and then I just kind of drifted away. No excuses. I am in awful shape, and I am the one that got me there. But just as it was me that got me into this shape, it will be me that gets me out. I am sitting right now only 3 pounds away from my heaviest ever. 228 pounds. I am disgusted. However it has been indifference to my increasingly bad shape, and frustration with my wonky back that got me here. Used my back as an excuse to eat like hell.

I have decided I will enter this new challenge and my entry fee will be in the mail in the next day or two. I need to email Marie for her address for where to send it. I am hoping the challenge gets changed to 12 weeks from 8 just so that we have a little more time to make greater progress, but 8 or 12 I am in. I am currently not a member of a gym, but we are going to be finishing the basement in the spring so I am now in the process of getting rid of my weights and exercise equipment because I simply do not have the room. So as such I will be joining a gym shortly.

2006 will be about movement and activity. A greater emphasis will be placed on cardio activities, as my back won’t take the heavy basic lifting that I love anymore. I will push myself as much as I can with weights while steering well clear of the problem exercises, but for the most part I will be focusing a good portion of my exercise on stuff like, biking, hiking, walking, and if I can running. I worked nearly 600 hours of overtime in 2005, all of which was sitting in front of a computer. Add in time on the computer at home and that makes for one lazy and inactive Mr Leighton. 2006 will be about less computer time and more activity. There will be no long and complicated workout schedules that will be too involved for me to follow thru with after the initial honey moon phase is over. I am going to keep things simple. My goals and pictures will be ready on the first, and as I said, I will be mailing Marie the entry fee this week.

I have only spent about 30 min total on the blog since I left in Aug, so I am not sure what is going on, and I didn’t even know about the challenge until Steve emailed me. I will take the next couple weeks to get caught up on my reading. I will use the next couple weeks to start exercising again because quite honestly I have not touched a weight in 10 weeks and I have not been getting any exercise besides lots of walking and one night a week of hockey. I always do best when I hold myself accountable. I have organized a weightloss contest amongst my group of friends I have grown up with that will run concurrently with the challenge at the blog and I will use these two challenges to regain control.

It’s good to be back.

Day 3 in the books

Well Day 3 went off pretty well under the circumstances. It’s pouring rain and cold all day and I was not dressed for it so I couldn’ t really get all the walking in I normally do but I still got in 6000 steps as of writing this. I got my cardio in this am on my stationary bike. I am a little sore from lastnights upper body workout. Got Legs on tap for tommorrow.

Got a filling today at the dentist so that kind of threw my eating off. But I substituted a couple meals for protein drinks and stayed clean.

Meal 1 apple, protein bar
Meal 2 roast beef in ww pita
Meal 3 roast beef in ww pita
Meal 4 yogurt protein drink
Meal 5 protein drink
Meal 6 will be scrambled eggs and cream of wheat.

Going to spend some time with the wife, will check in tommorrow. Feels good to be back.

BFL Day 2 in Review

Well day 2 has been a bonifide success. I have eaten well with no cheats. Meals went as follows:

Meal 1 dry toast, prot drink
Meal 2 rice/chicken
Meal 3 rice/chicken
Meal 4 apple/12 can tuna
Meal 5 2 rice cakes 1/2 can tuna
meal 6 eggs, cream of wheat

Today’s workout was Upper body workout. I did the following exercises in the normal bfl amount of reps and sets

Bench 12/10/8/6/12-12 with flyes
Pulldowns 12/10/8/6/12-12 with bent row
Standing Military press 12/10/8/6/12-12 with side laterals
French Press 12/10/8/6/12-12 with pushdowns
Ez Curl 12/10/8/6/12-12 with d curls

I drank 3.5 litres of water today and I also purchased a pedometer to count my steps. My goal is to hit 10000 steps each day as part of my getting moving and being active. I just got it at supper time today and thus far today I have 4254steps.

Happy with how today went, I need 82 more days just like this one!

Back to BFL

Hey guys sorry for my absence again. I have no excuses. I continue to work long hours and I took a few weeks off from the computer (well cut it way way way back which in my case is taking time off, haha). I have been thinking about what to do. I am very frustrated with where I am physically. That hasn’t changed. I have been wondering what to do, and I have settled on slightly modified BFL. I will complete 12 weeks of eating and training BFL style, with slightly modified cardio. I will perform three cardio sessions a week that are structured, sometimes the 20 min solution sometimes longer sessions with less intensity. Besides the three structured sessions of cardio I will continue to walk or bike to work (50 min/25 min respectively) and walk on my breaks (2 15′s and 1 30 min) at work. Also I have not golfed yet this summer, or gone for a hike, or played tennis or anything. I am looking to increase those activities. I have been a slug this past month and I have reached bottom as far as how I feel about the shape I am in.

I had considered quietly disappearing from the internet communities I am apart of the blog, Lean and Strong, even my own site, and just quietly walking away with no explanation. I guess I was tired of setting goals and not following through. I felt like I didn’t belong anymore as I just wouldn’t stick to a program. But, that would be the easy way out. I need to gain control of this once and for all and just do it. Leave the excuses behind, and just get it done. To do that, and how I have succeeded in the past is to document my progress. So that’s what I will do.

I know I have said all this stuff before. I know a lot of you reading this have heard me say these things before and I am giving anyone reading this post carte blanche to call me on it. If I disappear for days at a time over the next 12 weeks email me and give me hell! Shane.leighton at rogers.com is my email.

I am not looking past these next 12 weeks. I am going to focus al my energy on working my butt off (literally). I have no other goals other than get my weight down to 180 ish and my waist down to 33 or so inches. That is a few 12 week challenges away. My health is my primary concern. No thoughts of anything bigger than that at this time. Once I reach those goals, I will re evaluate.

So for the next 12 weeks here are my goals.

Physical
1. 12 weeks from yesterday I will weigh 195 pounds (225 today) 2. 12 weeks from yesterday my waist will be no more than 39 inches (45
today) .
3. I will be able to do 5 full range pull ups at the end of this 12 weeks, (currently 0) 4. I will be able to jog non stop for 25 min (currently 5 or so before back gives out) 5.

Non physical-Accountability goals
1. I will journal minimally 5 days a week, covering all 7 days of the week. 2, I will take measurements and pictures on day one , week 4, 8, 12 3. I will keep a training and nutrition journal and write down every set, and every morcel of food that I eat six days a week (free day) for the full 12 weeks. 4. I will limit my computer time outside of work to no more than 1 to 2 hours a day. (i do not watch a whole lot of tv so that isn’t really an
issue)
5.

Now with camping and a 7 day trip the end of July there will be obstacles. But as Tom and many others have said many times before there are no perfect challenges. I will simply improvise and stay on plan.

A buddy of mine has lost 26 pounds in 10 weeks merely eating BFL and getting little exercise. He worked out a couple times a week at most and basically just ate very clean with only 3 cheats over that period. This was part of the reason I have decided to go back to basics and start fresh. Forget everything I think I know and start completely from scratch.

Snow, Johnny Carson, The Patriots..and a long week of work

The Patriots are my most hated teams in sports. Can’t stand em. But that being said, Billicheck is an amazing coach. And Brady is nothing special individually, but the man wins. Got to respect that. Bah….Go Eagles.

SInce the game was out of hand I was watching CNN and the tributes to Johnny Carson who passed away this am. I am 32 years old, so I only watched his last 5 or 6 years on the air, a few nights a week in highschool and university. I always thought he was the best there was at what he did, and even though I did not see as much of his 5000 plus shows as alot of you reading this may have, I really feel comedy/hollywood lost one of its kings today.

We are in the middle of a third blizzard since last Monday. Just crazy weather. Lots of wind lots of snow. But I find it so funny how much people seem to be surprised when we get a storm. HELLO!!! How long have you lived in Eastern Canada? Three days before the first storm it was plus 14 celcius which got rid of all the snow. If it hadn’t of been for that we would have been in a real mess with all this snow.

I have worked 74 hours in the last 7 days, with 5 12 hour days to come this week. I decided to join the gym in my building as for the next few months I forsee a lot more overtime as the last few months have been. I am not going to let work be an excuse not to train, and since I am spending so much time at work, I will join the gym so at the very least I can do cardio before work. I get a discount to join the gym, and then at the end of the year I get 275 dollars back so a year membership there is only going to end up costing be about 40 dollars total.

Ed spoke about in his post (by the way welcome back ED!!!) about the fitness journey being mental. I find working the long hours I tend to start thinking “I am going to go get a “Insert junk food here” I deserve it I am working my third 10-12-14 hour day in a row. I have kept it green but this past week was harder than the first 2 weeks. Joining the gym at work gives me another option. Get a little workout in while I am there.

I saw a group of Running Room runners run by looking out the window while I was at work this am just as the snow was starting. With the wind it was 34 below and here was 43 people running. Snowstorm, minus 34 and they were out there. NO excuses. That is my motto for this year. NO EXCUSE.

Got to get up to shovel in 5 hours. Going to bed, lets make this a great week guys!!!