Getting Fit for the Trip (Update #2)

Well, if you've been watching my count-down clock (courtesy of ExploreTheMagic.com's Trip & Budget Planner), you'll be able to figure out that the wife and I will be heading to Disney a week from this Sunday.

The last I left you on my saga of getting fit, I had passed out in the gym after a grueling upper-body workout that I didn't complete.

After that, I starting sticking very close to the diet I mentioned in my second update.  It was amazing how quickly it made a difference.  When a week had gone by and I was having to do the same workout again that I was laid out from before, I not only completed the workout, but managed to significantly increase the weight I was moving.

From the cardiovascular front.  I have found that I can keep the ole feet moving longer if I am on the elliptical trainer, but that isn't always an available option.

But, needless to say, I have been able to get my endurance up to 50 minutes on the elliptical or 3 miles in 42 minutes on the treadmill (at 4.5 mph).

I have started to notice that I was getting the same pain in my feet after doing intense calf workouts just like I get after 2 or 3 days in the parks.  After some thinking, I have come to the conclusion that it must be due to having tight arches in my feet and now that I'm doing all these calf raises that are stretching the heck out of my feet and my calves, I'm hoping that will be one thing that goes away on this trip (the painful feet).

From the body frame standpoint.  My 30" waist pants which fit quite well when I began this journey are now barely able to stay on my body if I didn't have a belt.  Unfortunately, I'm not going to have much luck finding shorts at this point and time since the stores are rolling out their Fall Lines.  That means pants.

Here is what I've learned in the past month:

• Getting fit is hard to do solo.  The more people who are focused on the same goal, the easier to leverage off each other's energy.
• Having a goal or purpose is key.  I admire people like Lou Mongello, The Phat Disney Geek, and Jonathan Dichter who are using their training and eventual competition in the Walt Disney World Half Marathon as a way to raise money for charity.  This is a very good motivator.  You cannot be a very successful fundraiser if you are in no position to compete in the Half Marathon.  My motivation is a bodybuilding competition next October.  Unfortunately, there isn't a Disney sponsored event to strive for.  Maybe one day, I'll be in a position to train for one of the shorter races.
• Diet is key.  By diet, I'm not meaning a new-age bizarre next-to-impossible meal plan, but just what it's supposed to mean....what you put in your stomach.  The body is a machine and it needs fuel.  It's up to you to decide whether or not you want to run on fumes, cheap gas from the no-name station, or high-octane gas that fills race cars
• If you quit once, you'll quit again.  You can do it.  Just keep telling yourself that.  If you cannot keep running, then start walking.  If you cannot walk anymore, then shuffle, but keep moving.  If you can't move the weight in the full range of motion, then move it whatever amount you can.  This is another place where it's hard to do it alone.  Your workout buddies will motivate you to power through your own self doubts.  There is some credence to the motto, "No Pain, No Gain" you just need to know the difference between good pain and an injury.
• You have to want to improve.  If you are doing this for any reason other than for yourself, you will not succeed or if you make any success it will be hard to maintain

I like using Disney as intermediate goals to strive for.  Since my wife and I aren't into taking pictures of ourselves to see how we've improved, we use the pictures taken of us at the parks.  We can then compare them from the last trip and compare how our faces look and how our clothes fit us. 

I'm excited about my trip in two weeks.  I have a feeling that all this work that I'm doing so that I can make myself look better will have a great side effect of making it easier to enjoy my trip.  The true test will be EPCOT and see if this is one person who doesn't come out tired.

Technorati Tags: Disney Fitness

Getting Fit for the Trip (Update #1)

Well, after sticking with the workout that I described in my last post on this subject, I finally got to the point where I was just sitting on a plateau because I couldn't keep pushing my body over the line due to concerns of crushing myself under falling weights (no spotter).

I finally broke down and signed up again with a Personal Trainer.  My wife has been using one since January and has made remarkable improvements.

Well, now I have a new dietary menu that I'm being asked to try and stick to

Meal #1

• 1.5 cups of high fibre cereal
• 2 cups of skim/1% milk
• 1 protein shake
• 1 serving of fruit or glass of fruit juice
• 1 serving of flax seed oil
• 2 amino acid tablets

Meal #2

• Meal Replacement Shake

Meal #3

• 1.5 cubs of whole wheat pasta (pre-cooked weight)
• 6 oz of lean meat (post cooked weight)
• 1 cup of green vegetables
• Low fat cheese (optional)
• 1 serving of flax seed oil
• 2 amino acid tablets

Meal #4

• Meal Replacement Shake

Meal #5

• Same as Meal #3

Meal #6 (if hungry)

• Protein Shake (optional)

This is a very doable diet, but it's hard for me to stick to because I'm lazy and it involves my cooking the meat.  If I can get my butt into gear, I'll precook a weeks worth of meat.

On top of the diet, I'm being asked to do 20 minutes of jogging 3 times a week.  I know realize how much I'm out of shape.  I have a hard time keeping myself moving for 20 minutes.

The embarrassing part was my first workout with the trainer.  I have a hard time pacing myself and go all out.  Well 30 minutes into the workout the room started to get a bit foggy and I couldn't catch my breathe.  I went to stand up and.....

Lights out!

I felt as guilty as I was embarrassed so about an hour later, I was on my treadmill doing cardio to make up for not doing my full hour of weight training.

Well it's been a few days now and I can say that I AM HUNGRY all the time.  I was never much for eating because it got in the way of things like work.  So I typically ate only dinner.  Now that I'm eating 3 times a day, I feel like my body is just craving food.

To me, fitness is important but hard to maintain.  But when it comes to Disney, I find that I enjoy the parks so much better when I'm not bent over with my hands on my knees sucking wind just to breathe

Technorati Tags: Disney Fitness

Getting Fit for the Trip

Before taking our trip to Disneyland, I was able to drop from a size 32 pant to a size 30. I did this by going to the gym at least 3-4 times a week and doing heavy lifting.

My formula was to do what is called a step-up pyramid. This involved doing 5 sets for each exercise. The weight must be such that it is challenging enough to get just the number of reps you were shooting for:

1. 10 reps
2. 8 reps
3. 6 reps
4. 4 reps
5. 2 reps

I would do 3 exercises per muscle group. This had remarkable improvements to my physique. I haven't been happy with how "soft" I had started to get and that was due to my intense work schedule and lack of motivation to do anything but sit on the couch when I wasn't working.

On top of the weight training, I was spending the other nights of the week doing time on our treadmill.

I did:

• 5 minutes @ 3.6 MPH
• 5 minutes @ 3.7 MPH
• 5 minutes @ 3.8 MPH
• 15 minutes @ 3.9 MPH
• 15 minutes @ 4.0 MPH

As it got closer to the time to go, I was able to spend that last 15 minutes stepping up the speed to the point where I was jogging at 5.0 MPH.

Now that I'm back. I have a new goal for the trip to Walt Disney World in September.

That new goal is to drop to a 28" waist. This would put me back to where I was all throughout the 1990's.

To do this, I will be picking up the cardio routine my wife's personal trainer has handed down to her.

My wife had been subjected to 6 months of Prednisone (a steroid) to help her with inflammation due to her Crohn's Disease.  This caused her to put on at least 50 lbs.

This was 2-3 years ago. Since Prednisone messes with one's body chemistry, this weight gain isn't just due to over eating.  Therefore, it's hard to get off.  She has stripped most of the weight herself and the personal trainer is the final butt kicking to get her where she needs to be.  So far, as of Disneyland, she's gone from a size 14-16 dress size to a size 12 (and that was a tad too large). He goal is a size 8/10.

Well, her personal trainer has us doing interval cardio training now.

If you have access to a track, you'll want to swiftly walk the corners and sprint the straightaways for 30 minutes.

If you don't have a track at your disposal (like we don't), you will need to use an elliptical trainer or a treadmill (we have a treadmill).

So, I have started the new cardio training as of tonight.

This is what I did:

• 1.5 minutes walking at 4.0 MPH
• 30 seconds at 10 MPH
• Repeat

When I hit the 27 minute mark, I just set the speed to 6MPH and jogged until the 30 minute mark was surpassed. Then I walked for 5 minutes at 3 MPH.

Ultimately the treadmill said I traveled 2.8 miles and burned 418 calories. This is much farther and more calories than the previous routine.

This is supposed to cause my body to crank up the metabolism.

On top of that, I'm to increase my protein. I'll be doing that with Protein Shakes that taste nasty.

Technorati Tags: Disney, Fitness