FOR THE INNOVATIVE MAN |
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I need to start some healthy living habits once again! I just spent the last few months finishing up school and now hopefully the stress eating that went with it. Actually, I just had too busy of a schedule and everything took a back seat it seems. So to start, I am going to set my goals for this month and lay the ground work for the upcoming summer.
First, I need to get back into shape and drop some pounds, but I need to first focus on my body and building up its tolerance to activity once again. My goal to start in this is to begin with at least 30 minutes of working out a minimum of 3 days a week and no more than 6. I would prefer to see 6 days or so of light to moderate activity each day. I do want to start building up my muscle endurance as well, and work on toning. My end result is geared towards being in shape for my beach wedding this coming December. That gives me 6 months to drop at least 20 pounds or so while building some good, lean muscle.
Second, I want to utilize a combination of cardio and strength training to ensure I get a well-rounded plan in place so I don’t gain cardio endurance, but have no muscle endurance, or vice-versa. What I mean by this is focusing on too much cardio and neglecting muscle endurance has left me out of shape in the past without knowing it. I have been able to run a half marathon, getting my time down to 1:45, which is slow, but a personal best for me, but not being able to do 3 sets of six pushups followed by squats, than by lunges, and some other muscle training without setting my blood sugar plummeting and feeling like I am about to pass out.
Third, I want to consistently track my workouts, track my food intake, and my progress. I feel that doing this will allow me to see where I am at physically, so I can monitor my results and make changes to the routine quicker when needed. Tracking food is a very good way to ensure that I am getting the needs of my body met, without delving too much into workout entitlement feeding frenzies which kill the benefits of the workout.
Now for the workout regimen. I want to increase both my cardio and muscle endurance and drop weight while doing so. This means it is important to utilize running and cardio along with weight training. I want to walk for a min of 1 hour daily, or run approximately 30 minutes or roughly 3 miles. I am going to take the weight training, by weight training I simply mean strength training because I mostly use body weight or gravity when possible, I am going to focus on a whole body routine. I want to start with 3 sets of 10 of pushups, sit-ups, mountain climbers, burpees, an d leg raises. I alternate days where I focus on resistance bands for bi-ceps and presses, tri-ceps, and fly’s to do upper body, and lower body with squats and lunges.
Overall, this will be a bit more than the minimum which I stated in my goals, but I want to make sure that I challenge myself. Since I am finished with school and work is a little slow, now is the perfect time to focus my energy on my fitness goals! I will make sure to keep posting updates, maybe even journaling it throughout.
