Tabula rasa
I started Body for Life last week and I’m happy to report that I hit all of my workouts and did a pretty good job of eating well, which is a good first step. I’ve done a lot of reading, and I know that the Body for Life workouts, especially the strength training portions of the workout, aren’t really held in that high of regard by much of the fitness community, but I figure at this point it’s better that I get out there and do something than sit here and talk about what I’m planning on doing without ever executing on it. I see it as a well packaged, easy to follow jump start. Ultimately, my goal is to become a runner again, but I need some level of fitness under my belt before I can begin to run again with any hopes of enjoying it. I’d love to go back to being the guy that shrugs and says running a half-marathon in 1:20 is no big deal.
That’s a pretty vague goal, so here are some more measurable goals:
- Be back below the deuce (200lbs) by August 15
- Complete a 5K by the end of October (I won’t be doing any running other than 20 minutes of HITT until the end of August)
- Consume, on average, fewer than 2 diet soda’s per day by August 15
Keys to accomplishing those goals:
- No french fries
- No beer
- More water
- Commitment to not miss workouts
I weighed in at a whopping 215lbs on the Monday morning before I started, so I’m going to use that as my baseline, though I do tend to fluctuate quite a bit throughout the week, depending on when I weigh myself. I guess for purposes of tracking progress, I’ll be weighing in on Monday mornings before work and will endeavor to update here at least once a week, mostly just so I have something to look back on if when this all works out. I don’t forsee myself delving too deeply into the boring details of my workouts, though I may track the mileage, average/high HR for the running portions of the workout, since ultimately this is to be a blog about running. In all honesty though, given the nature of HITT and the fixed duration of the workout, I don’t see there being too much fluctuation in vitals, though I suppose I could surprise myself.