A Body For Life Blog

Back in 1999, I read Bill Phillips' Book -- Body For Life.  Soon thereafter, I participated in the challenge and dropped my weight from 195 pounds to 172 pounds.  That is the picture that you see that I have posted.  After the challenge, I went back to some old eating habits and modified my workout routine, still keeping to some of the principles in the book.  I added a good deal of muscle mass along with the fat.  Vertigo hit me on 9/11/07 on and so did another 15 pounds.  My weight was 212 pounds!  

So recently I decided I can't look like I do and weigh what I weigh so I started my typical workouts again. One hour in the gym and every other day doing cardio for one hour.  In this 6 week period, I lost 12 pounds, which is pretty good.  Then I saw Bill Phillips' new book and decided I had to read it. I did and that's when I said I am entering the challenge again.

Last Thursday, 11 days ago, I took my photo and I weighed myself.  200 pounds!!! I started working out with more dedication. Within a day, I had this site made, by my son (the website genius) to show everyone how I will progress from day 1 to day 84, 12 weeks.  I knew that if enough people saw it, it would give me added motivation to succeed. It does! I also joined Bill Phillips' website -- www.transformation.com and have gotten fantastic information from it, as well as made some good friends who are offering great tips.

The next thing I did was reread Bill's book that I have dating back to 1999, the first printed edition, and found out that I really need to follow to a "T" his principles.

This morning I have cut back my cardio from 1 hour to 20 minutes as per his plan and I do it first thing in the morning.  My mindset was twofold. (1) If 20 minutes is good 1 hour is better -- WRONG; and (2) I have a much better cardio workout right before lunch -- WRONG.

If you follow my logic that if 20 minutes is good 1 hour is better, maybe then 2 hours would even be better and 3 hours might be better than that, how about 4 hours a day?  It also states in his book, page 65, "Scientific studies indicate that fat is burned much faster -- up to 300% faster -- when you exercise in the morning as opposed to doing the same exercise in the afternoon.

I will finish Bill's first book tonight and fully implement his plan to a "T".  Because my plan isn't working as it should and his plan works. My upper body workouts won't be split into one day PULLS and the other day PUSH.  The upper body will be worked out as described in his book and with using his DAILY PROGRESS CHART.  I will do an upper body workout  all at once and within 50 minutes, you can count on that. I will do only 20 minutes of Cardio every other day first thing in the morning, you can count on that.

The good part about all of this is what am I going to do with my extra time?

Today was day 9 and I did and early morning bike ride.  I hurt my feet from running the other day, the weirdest thing you could imagine, and running would only aggravate the issue.  But I can't stop, so I went for a bike ride knowing that, and with 4 short climbs I would have that day, I would pump those legs as hard as I can to max out my body.  I have a bike path (rails to trails) a minute away from my home so it is really convenient.

What I would focus on was first just keeping a slow pace for a couple minutes and then build up intensity as I knew the hills were coming.  I would pick it up and gain momentum before the hill to get my heartbeat up and then I would try to blast through the hill.  Would you believe I has to crawl up the hill (the 2 steep ones) going side to side, so it was less of an incline?  Whatever, it doesn't matter because my heart rate was at the max for my age, so at that point I achieved my goal. Maybe at the 12th week when I weigh a lot less I will be able to take on that hill without going sideways.  NEW GOAL!!!  

Anyway, I did the 4 hills to peak out on and then I would slow down and get my heart to a normal pace, and the total ride lasted about 45 minutes.  Biking is a bit different then doing the 20 minute treadmill routine.  I have bike shoes so the soles are very stiff and no pressure is exerted on the foot arch so I could work through the injury.

Please give me some feedback about this routine or other things I could do for my cardio days.  I really appreciate the notes and feedback.  Have a great workout and a great day and a super weekend.

Friday night my wife made some high-protein, low-fat content  BROWNIES.  I'll post that later today.