Archive for December, 2008

If you’re reading this, you hopefully completed the entire first week of the program! If you have, I’d love your feedback in the comments!

Before we get into Week 2′s goals, thoughts, tips, etc, I wanted to share some thoughts and tips from readers :)

Linda wrote a handful of great tips to help you along your way:

I once read a comment by Joan Collins. Her diet tip was always leave the table feeling that you could eat more. Apparently that’s what the Victorians used to do.

I recommend you always take a packed lunch to work. It only takes a couple of minutes the night before. It saves money and stops you grabbing calorie laden sandwhiches from shops.

I’m a great soup maker and in the winter I make big batches of soup which I use over a few days for lunch times. It’s easy to take some with your in a thermos. Coupled with a wholemeal roll a nice healthy alternative

Colin Smillie wrote some tips on tracking (personally I use FitDay, but tracking by any means is the key!):

I’ve been using MyFoodDiary.com to track my food & exercise. I find its a great tool for understanding the impact of different foods on your goals. There a few of these types of sites but I found the food database to be the best and its dead easy to use. The only down side is the $10/month fee but I think its worth it compared with all the search I’d need to find equivalent information. There is also a good goal tracking component.

Jim reminded us that you should rest for 2 minutes between each of your sets of crunches for maximum effect :)

Stephanie added to my tips on breakfasts by suggesting pre-packaged egg whites (a huge tip if you can stomach it!):

I am all about the egg whites for bfast. I mostly use the ones that come in the container – like egg beaters. It’s great if you can mix in a few veggies or low fat turkey and swiss for a very special egg white omelette.

If you have any of your own tips, leave a comment so everyone can benefit from what you’ve learned works for you. This program is really my tips that worked for me. They may not work for you, and in the same way by sharing what works for you, you could easily help someone else lose weight and get healthier!

How Was Week 1?

Now that you’re preparing for Week 2, ask yourself how Week 1 was. Did you get closer to a healthier lifestyle? Did you lose weight? Did you accomplish something you didn’t feel you’d be able to accomplish? Did you want more things you could do?

Week 1 was admittedly fairly light in terms of working out or food changes, but that’s because doing a crash course where you change your life isn’t our goal. Because those types of diets and exercise programs, for most people, are incredibly hard to implement. That’s why we’re focusing on 1 core new goal for each day. Last week was more water, better sleep and better breakfasts.

This week we’re going to focus on starting to build a workout regime (more on that later), better lunches and how to eat out in a slightly healthier manner.

My Secret for Success

But before we get into specifics, I want to talk about the core thing I believe is helping me succeed. As I said at the start, I’m still not “there” yet, but in the last month I’ve often hit the point where I would have given up. And I personally believe that’s because I adopted the philosophy I’m about to talk about – and the philosophy I want you to focus on for Week 2.

Week 1′s philosophy was to build great habits.

Week 2′s philosophy is, simply put, to diversify.

In the past when I tried to lose weight I looked at it as a 2-part system: good food and more exercise. “Eat right, exercise properly!” is what we hear over and over again. The problem is that these are binary solutions. You either eat right or you don’t and you either exercise properly or you don’t. And if you have a bad day you feel like a failure. Have a bad weekend and you want to give up. Have a bad week and you’re done for.

This is why for me, “eating” isn’t one goal. It’s 5 (we’ve covered 2 of those already: drink more water and eat better breakfasts). And working out is actually 5 as well. But the core is the same: diversify.

I am not an advocate of something like “go to the gym 3-4 times per week” as your only solution. Because it’s a huge, huge barrier if you don’t go regularly.

I’m a huge fan of building severall smaller exercise plans you can follow, and building more into your lifestyle as time goes on.

As an example, here are the exercise programs I currently try and follow. As you’ll see, if I don’t hit all of them, it’s okay because I’m working at so many:

• 2-3 cardio workouts in the gym per week (I didn’t start with this, my original goal was to get to the gym 10 times in a month)
• Joining the Hundred Pushup Challenge (3 times per week)
• Doing 2-3 ab workouts per week
• Doing 1-2 outdoor jogging workouts per week
• Doing 1-2 full weight workouts per week  (I do intervals of 2 mins on the bike followed by 3 groups of weights and back again)

For example this week I went to the gym twice, did my hundred pushup challenge all 3 times, did 2 ab workouts and did 1 full weight workout. So basically 8 workouts (some short, some long). Now obviously I didn’t start with that. What I started with is what you started with last week: regular walks, regular crunches.

This week we’re going to add a new part to that component: The Hundred Pushup Challenge.

The Hundred Pushup Challenge is notable for 3 key reasons: it’s easy to start, it’s easy for even the most unfit person to follow and it’s hard. In fact if you look at Week 3 at the start of the program, even the lowest level will probably seem close to impossible. But take it from someone who’s just finished Week 3 (only the highest tier), even if you can only 5-10 pushups consecutively, you can do this.

So let’s get to the specific goals for this week:

Eating & Diet

Last week you hopefully nailed down a handful of good habits, specifically drinking more, eating a better breakfast, eating less junk food and drinking less non-diet pop. This week we’re going to focus on 3 key areas:

• Eating less junk food
• Eating better lunches
• Drinking more water

Noticing a pattern here? Yeah, that’s right, we’re keeping it simple. The pushup challenge is going to be a significant milestone for you, so the core of what we’re trying to do is to build one more good habit, ie: better lunches. Because if you’re eating better breakfasts and eating better lunches, by definition you’ll be eating less junk food! Adding in your existing water habit and you’re well on your way to a solid diet (and next week we’ll take this to the next level!).

In addition this week you should start thinking about healthy snacks. Snacks in an unhealthy person’s life are evil. Snacks when you’re trying to lose weight are a tool to stop you from binging. But they must be used properly. We’ll cover this in Day 3.

Exercise

The entire focus for this week really is the hundred pushup challenge, but we also want to continue building on what we did last week, so here’s our full set of exercise goals:

• If you didn’t do 3 sets of good form half-crunches last week, that’s your goal for this week. The easiest way to think of this is that you should do the crunches on the day following when you read this post. So if you read the post on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, do the crunches on Tuesday, Thursday and sometime during the weekend.
• Your walks. Walking is key if for no other reason than it gets you outside or on the treadmill or to the gym. You’ll only be burning 5-7 calories per minute, but the point isn’t the calorie burn. It’s building the habit and getting your heart pumping. If you’re anything like me you had medium to high blood pressure, caused by (among other things) an unfit heart with fat around it. By getting your heart rate up (ie: working til you sweat) 1-2 times per week, you are starting to get your heart healthier!
• Your Hundred Pushup Challenge. Do this the same day you read these posts, so probably Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Now this might seem like a lot, which is why it’s okay if you don’t do everything. As I said above, the purpose of all  of this is to start building habits and to diversify so that if you don’t accomplish everything you are still getting healthier. So if you’re like me you might only do your hundred pushup challenge, 2 crunches and 1 walk. But that’s fantastic because 2 weeks ago you weren’t doing any of that!

Plus, if you count up the time you’re spending, even if you only accomplished half of the above, you still got in 2-3 solid workouts for where you’re at and probably worked out for more than  an hour!

Metrics and Milestones

As with last week, keep taking your measurements, but now you should start to set goals for your walks and crunches. My recommendation is to set 3 goals for each of the areas you’re trying to improve on. Try something like this:

1. Get to the point where you do all 3 groups of crunches each week / complete all 3 sets of 10 crunches for your workouts / get to 15 crunches per set
2. Eat breakfast every day / eat a healthy breakfast every day / add fruit to your breakfasts
3. Cut your fast food intake to once per week for lunch / when you do eat out, choose a healthier option / pack your lunch and bring it to work

These are examples of 3 goals for 3 different areas. The last one is a significant improvement over where you are now, where the first 2 build to the point where the last one is achievable. By having lists like this for each area you’re trying to improve on, you are able to start checking off a lot of milestones this week!

Conclusion

Week 2 and Week 3 are always the hardest in any workout or exercise routing. Mostly because anytime you make the decision to live healthier you generally have 1-2 weeks of energy and enthusiasm. After that it’s all discipline and persistence.

This week is significantly harder than last week in some ways (the hundred pushup challenge specifically) but significantly easier in others (less things to focus on).

Anytime you feel down or depressed or unmotivated, talk to someone. Feel free to email/comment/twitter me and I’ll do my best to help. But talk to someone.

And my biggest tip of all for this week: if you feel like you didn’t get everything out of this week that you could have, start the week again. There is absolutely no shame in redoing a week to nail a bunch of the goals, feel better, improve your quality of life, etc.

As an example, next week I’m going to start Week 4 of the Hundred Pushup Challenge. A lot of my friends have said this is the hardest week and they barely get through it. As a result they repeat it, so that Week 5 and 6 are more doable. I’m expecting to do the same thing, but I view that as continuing on my path to success vs failing.

So do what you need to to succeed. You only fail if you give up, give in or stop trying. Even if you stop all the habits and start again, you still didn’t fail. You started again. So keep it up!

Over the first part of this week you should have begun developing core habits for living a healthier life. You might have experienced some weight loss, but more realistically you’ve simply experienced a bit more energy, a bit better sleep and a bit less depression about your weight.

This first week really was about setting yourself up for success, instead of most diet and exercise programs which are designed to set you up for failure by requiring too much of you at the start (which is why most folk only last about 2 weeks).

During the first couple of days we focused on drinking more water. During the next couple we focused on eating better breakfasts. Over the next couple we’re going to focus on something that’s just as core but just as simple: getting a better sleep.

There’s a very simple truth to weightloss: if you aren’t sleeping properly you aren’t setting your day up for success. Read through this article on weightloss and sleep. While sleeping won’t cause you to burn a tonne of calories (400-800 depending on your weight and sleep habits), a solid 7-8 hours will setup your metabolism, keep your hormones in balance and ultimately keep you happier (which will result in less binging, more balance and more weightloss overall).

So your goal for the next 2 days is very simple: make sleep a priority. Given that this should be your Friday, basically try and catchup on lost sleep this weekend. If you haven’t been sleeping 7-8 hours, you may need a couple of 10 hour days to reset your system. Don’t be afraid of that, or of any lost work time, because in a couple of weeks your body will be rocking and you’ll be quite happy at 6-7 hours once you’re working out more, eating better, etc.

In addition, if you haven’t already done 2-3 sets of crunches (here’s a video on how) and haven’t yet taken 1-2 light walks (break a sweat but don’t come home panting), you’ll want to try and catchup on those things this weekend.

And if you haven’t yet taken your measurements, suck it up and get them done now. The biggest reason for doing this is so that you know exactly how well you’re doing. The longer you wait, the less dramatic your results will be, so get it done ;-)

If you have taken your measurements, feel free to update them this weekend. You probably won’t notice a significant difference, but as with everything in this program: building the habit is key!

So have a great weekend, don’t eat junk food at the theatre, stay away from fast food altogether, try and eat soup instead of steak (you’ll be surprised how filling it can be), sleep well, drink lots of water, eat your breakfasts and have fun. The weekend is the time to recharge. If you’re going to eat poorly, keep it to one “free day” (I use Sundays). Don’t spread it over the weekend.

And if you’ve completed your first week, celebrate! It wasn’t the hardest, but this is the first step in a very successful journey to weight loss, a healthier life and better eating!