Been a while

It's been a LONG time since I opened this blog. Finally got back to it. My current fitness goal is to get lean. Now, right up front, I am no doctor, not a trainer, not certified. I am writing about what is working for me. Before you try ANYTHIG I do talk to your doctor! You do NOT want to do harm to yourself doing something your physician would smack you for.

I have been working at this for two weeks with solid regularity. That is to say, that I have been following my routine very closely. My body fat percentage started out at about 25%. Two weeks in my body fat has dropped to 19%. My weight has gone from 218 pounds to 209 pounds.

I am staying with a calorie defector diet that is focused on quality foods. Plenty of water, protein, and carbohydrates are how I eat. That looks like regular food, not protein shakes, loopy diet plans, and so forth. Fresh eggs, milk, bread, meats. I practice portion control.

The workout I do is simple. No gym membership or specialized equipment at all. A monkey bar set, good sneakers, and a place to run is all this routine requires.

*Pyramid Push Ups 5-10-15-10-5
*Pyramid Pull Ups    1-2-3-2-1
Jumping Jacks 300 (no, you don't have to start there, but do warm up and start sweating before you run/jog/walk fast)
Crunches 2 minutes
Windmills 2 minutes
Walk Fast/Jog/Run for 30 minutes

Explanation time! Pyramiding is simple and deceptive. In my list above I do 1 pull up with strict form for the first set. I do 5 push ups with strict form and exploding out of the bottom. Next us 2 pull ups and 10 push ups. Simple enough?

For windmills stand straight up with your feet at shoulders width and your arms straight out on each side. If you think about it you will look sort of like Da Vinci's Man. In one movement with your arms straight out bend over and reach for your left toes with your right hand. Stand back up and reach for your right toe with your left hand. For both the windmills and crunches I don't generally cout repetitions, I just focus on keeping moving for the entire two minutes.

What this routine does is hit your fat stores from two directions. First, by building stronger lean body mass (stronger muscles) you increase the rate your body burns calories while you are resting. The cardio aspect burns calories while you are performing the exercises.

Start at the top and work your way down the list and challenge yourself. Have fun doing it!

Rainy or Wintery Days

Some days one just has a hard enough time getting outside, much less trying to get our kids outside, too. Something that I have been wanting to do is, when the kiddles want to watch TV, charge them for it. For each child that is going to watch TV for an hour each child has to perform some jumping jacks, push ups, and situps. This is a growing thoguht, but I am going to try it.

I also am going to try a game when a character on the show uses a catch phrase, everyone has to do an exercise of some sort or stretch.

Find a Way or Make a Way

I will find a way, or I will make a way -- Hannibal

Good afternoon! I wanted to start this blog as I am very into my Family (married now almost 20 years, thank you!), staying fit, and having fun. I hope that plenty of people can find something useful and/or motivating here ... or get a chuckle out of the sometimes-far-too-frequent outbursts of oddity, inanity, and/or plain silliness.

Family - Married to my wife now for almost 20 years, we have 4 kids, 2 cats, 2 dogs, a gecko, 2 guinea pigs, and a rabbit ... lots of critteers, I know ... oh, well ... gotta keep things interesting, right?

Fun - I enjoy swimming, some jogging, bicycling, motorcycles, and the unique and varied group of people my wife an I have found are our real friends.

Fitness - Staying healthy is very important to me. I have smoked far too much in the past, but I enjoy smoking. Still, without tobacco for two years, as of this posting ... What I do to stay fit, aside from chasing the kids, cats, and critters is training for MMA, mixed martial arts if you are not familiar with it. I currently train with The Dragons in PArkville, MD and am getting ready for an amateur fight in July 2012.

This fight brings me to the purpose of this blog. I want to brag about my family. I want to also brag (alot!) about my over 40 and being in near-fighting-shape. I workout three days a week in the gym for conditioning and go to grapping & kickboxing with The Dragons as often as I can. I am in a conditioning phase now which looks like

5 minutes jumping rope
1 minute rest
5 minutes of body builders (squat thrust, pushup, jump, pull up)
1 minute rest
4 minutes body plank
1 minute rest
5 minutes jumping jacks

I will be doing this for the next two weeks, to round off three weeks of conditioning. Then, I will be spending three weeks working on only technique. So, for the next 8 months I will be cycling conditioning and technique phases at three week intervals. Three weeks seems to be the best fit for my semi short attention span.