Ten days to go. Okay, it’s more like eleven, but who’s counting? I am that’s who.

To go to what?

My second Chicago Olympic distance triathlon, that’s what.

So, where am I?

I realized that blogging right now is a hobby. I like to do it. I think I am good at it, but there are currently more important objectives in my life. That is why I have not been on a regular posting schedule.

What have I been up to?

I have been on a regular exercise schedule! For the past ten and half weeks, I have run twice a week, biked twice a week, and swam twice a week. I have made exercise a priority! It’s on my google calendar. I do it. When I miss a day, I move that workout to another day and brick it. Or, when I was away without my bicycle to ride, I did more running workouts. Its been awesome. I feel great. I have much more confidence in my triathlon time this year.

One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.
Arthur Ashe

Granted, some of my self-confidence comes from not being a complete rookie triathlete. Now, I am just your average age-grouper, but I am still raring to go. This training season: I ran farther, swim faster, and biked faster than last year. I know I am better prepared, and that makes confidence easy.

Consequently, as I know you have noticed, the time that I use to blog about fitness activities has been replaced by actually doing fitness related activities. In fact, the time I would use for many of my technology consulting and technical training activities has been replaced by my fitness activities. Of course, I still make time for my family. It also seems that twitter and facebook have given me a micro outlet to express myself.

Waxing Philosophically Now:

Still I miss writing and blogging. I miss commenting on other blogs.

I am still voraciously reading the entire interent.  I try my best to keep up with fitness blogs using Reeder on my iPad.  I follow too many people on twitter.

The one thing I don’t miss is the lack of energy I used to feel.  My energy is now exercise powered, and its great.

So for now, bear with my inconsistent posts. I have stories to tell, and I think I can help you meet your goals.

In the meantime, I suggest you stop reading/writing about fitness and you actually starting doing fitness!

It has been a while since I posted.  I am searching. Searching for something that I am not sure what it is.  I’m looking.  Part of me thinks, a metamorphosis must take place.  Another part of me thinks, the something I am searching may already be found, it just needs to be awaken.  I’m still driven.

I am deep in the throws of Triathlon training.  Its been more difficult this year.  The weather, work, and responsibilities have been throwing wrenches in my training plans.  Yet, I train.  I admit that without my already committing to a triathlon this year, I’m sure I would not be training this hard.  I’ve tried my best to workout six days a week.  My goal has been Run on Mondays, Swim on Tuesdays, Bike on Wednesdays, Swim on Thursdays, Run on Fridays, and Bike on Saturdays.  Rest on Sunday.  Since, I’ve ramped up my training plan over the past month or so, I’ve had to change training days all over the place.  I still have been able to get two Runs, two Swims, and two Bikes in each week, but just not on the planned days.

I’m still debating some intermediary races.  Possibly the local triathlon in early July or maybe the sprint triathlon in late july as a warm-up for the Chicago Triathlon at the end of August.  I’m not sure yet if I am up to the standard distance yet for the early race.

I have to say as I’ve increased my training I feel much better.  I love it!  Although, I’ve been watching calories in, and I’m a little sleepy at times. I’ve lost some of the winter weight gain, but I still have a little bit more to go.

So, back to dreams and looking… I’m still searching… when I find it, I’ll let you know.

Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd…

A short post for tonight.  Tomorrow is opening day of baseball.  If you read this early enough, you can catch the WFMT 98.7 in Chicago (or steaming live over the internet).  WFMT is a classical music station in Chicago.  I never much was a classical music listener.  I do have eclectic listening tastes.  I’m an avid Jazz listener, Flamenco, all sorts of Pop, Rock, even Hip-Hop, Country, Blues, and R & B.  I’ve played a bunch of classical music in symphonic and concert bands, but I never was much a listener.  That changed when I moved to Chicago.  I stumbled across 98.7 WFMT while commuting, and it offered a reprieve from the traffic.

Now, every year I make sure to listen to WFMT on Baseball’s opening day.  They play all sorts of baseball themed classical music and stories.  Its so fun.  I know this is not fitness related, but listening to WFMT makes me smile.  I love when they play James Earl Jones narration of Casey’s at the Bat.  Smile.

Smiling is important!

It is late, and I have some early work to do tomorrow.  So,  I’ll save the rest of the post for later this week.

In the meantime, tune in Monday 6:00 AM – 9:00 AM CST, listen in to WFMT to hear some baseball classical music.  I sure hope they do not change the schedule on me, and don’t play it.

In my last post, I talked about Building the Habit of Exercise, It’s such an important matter, that I want to revisit that today.

In my day job, besides being a father, husband, fitness entrepreneur, I’m a technology trainer and consultant.

As a consultant, it is often my responsibility to make recommendations and tell people what to do. (As a side note, I’m working a technology post that describes some of my recent consultations. I’ll link to it when its done.) Talking and telling people what to do is much easier than actually doing it.  For example, Do you want to cross the Grand Canyon, jump.  See, that wasn’t so difficult to tell you, but boy, you better be able to fly more than Michael Jordan ever did in order to leap the Canyon.  Actions are not so easy.

If you’ve been reading my January 2010 posts, you know that 2010 is my year of Action!  I want you to take action to meet your goals be it fitness, be it financial, be it personal, be it business, etc…  In order to do that, you must do something.

Now, Today, is Groundhog’s Day, and as such, Right now, I feel like Bill Murray’s character in the movie. I’ve been here done this before.  (Insert wooshing sound to take us back in the way back machine)

If we want to create good exercise and food habits, we have to be boring at first. We have to create rituals. We have to be consistent everyday.
–Scott circa Simpleweight 2009.

If you have not read it, I encourage you to take a moment and read  Pick and Commit Time to Exercise, 10 minutes a day. Ground Hog Day 2009 Fitness Resolutions.

Now, let’s flashback to 2010. As I look back I seem to see some similarities.  In fact, I’m in the same boat as I was last year. I want to get more lean.  I want to exercise more, and I want to lose some excess weight. I also have some other goals which we’ll talk about in the future.

So, What derailed me in the past and how can I overcome that in 2010?

For starters, in 2010, I had an accident where I hurt my left index finger pretty bad near Valentine’s day 2009 that really threw off my plans. All is okay now for the most part now, although, I still have some weird feelings every now and then when I try to open a bottle left-handed. That’s really just an excuse albeit, I’d contend a pretty good one.

The main reason for lack of 2009 Action, is I did not make exercise a priority.  It just wasn’t for me.  The consultant in me is great at giving valuable advice just as a shoe cobbler is great at fixing shoes. Yet, in the classic parable,  the shoe cobbler’s children go barefoot. The consultant sometimes has difficulty taking his own advice much less anybody else’s advice. Since 2010 is my year of action, I’ve begun to re-read my own blog posts, and I’ve begun to focus on the minutiae of habit forming fitness activities. Eat less and Exercise more.

If you look at my January 2010 calendar below, I’ve exercised.  Why?  Now, My day gets planned around exercise even if it means I’m exercising at 11:00 PM on the treadmill in the house.  At the very least, I’m doing something.  I have decided I have to, and I have decided I want to.  It’s time I’ve acted and created this big positive habit.

The thing is, exercise is not a habit yet. Even though, I’ve gone about 4 weeks of consistent exercise.

My actions have shown that I’ve done a very focused 10 minute weight workout in the morning Monday – Saturday.  Then, three to four days a week, I have done a 40 minute to 60 minute cardio workout.  I usually set the treadmill to keep my heart rate in my target fat burning zone.  The treadmill then adjusts the incline and speed to maintain that heart rate. I know that this habit is not engrained.  Its going to take me time to build the stamina and the endurance for this to become a natural daily aspect of my life.  Yet, I also know, I must schedule my day around my exercise rather than schedule my exercise around my day.

As I was talking with my wife last night, (the run 5-6 days a week type of person), she told me that in order to make exercise a strong habit, I really need to maintain a consistent exercise plan for 12 weeks or longer. I’m almost four weeks down, and I have some work to do. I believe forming the habit of exercise is fundamental in building the strength needed to improve my eating habits.

It all takes consistent, ritual, habitual action.

What actions are you taking to make healthy fitness as ritualistic as Ground Hog Day?

Eating, Food In. Why is it so difficult for anyone to lose weight?

Let’s look at my past eating habits as an example. I have kept a food journal on and off for the past 10 years. I’m not as fanatic about tracking my food as I am about weighing myself everyday. It shows in my waistline. I’m not what you would call obese person at all. I don’t even think I’m fat which just may be my positive thinking kicking in. At the same time, I’m not lean or ripped at all either. Why is that? Why has it been that I have tracked my weight for 10 years, and I am not lean or ripped.

Two reasons: Exercise and Eating.

1) In the past, I have not made exercise a priority. I did it when I had time. Now, if you are like me, who has time for exercise? Exercise has not really been fun for me. In the past, I have rationalized my exercise as something I have to do rather than something I want to do. I am working on changing that rational right now. So, my Food Out has not been steady. Even when I do add 30 minutes to 60 minutes of exercise a day. I’m really only adding 300 to 500 calories to my normal expenditure.

2) Eating. I love food. Seriously, I love to eat out. I love to taste food. I love the sensation, the feeling of being full is not a bad thing for me. The excitement and the social aspect of eating is super fun. When you are going to meet a friend you haven’t seen in a while, what do you do? do you go hiking? Do you say, let’s go for a bike ride? Or, maybe we should go build snowmen outside? No, you usually say lets meet for lunch or for drinks. Then you have a wonderful leisurely lunch full of fantastic conversation which makes the meal even more enjoyable. Mmm… food. Now, while tracking my food, I have realized that I can eat roughly 2200 to 2600 calories and pretty much maintain my weight. However, I often eat more like 3000 to 3600 calories. So. Obviously, I’m going to gain weight.

So, Why is it difficult for you or me to lose weight?

If you are like the typical person who eats more than they should, then not only do you have to cut your eating habits to get down to your maintaining metabolism burn. You have to cut your eating habits below it. So, for me. If I eat 3600 calories on norm (I don’t anymore, but still happens every now and again), I have to stop eating 1000 calories just to get to 2600 calories I mentioned that I would not gain weight. Now, I want to lose weight, I have to cut that even further. So, I basically have to go from 3600 calories to 1800 calories. Wow, I’m cutting my typical diet in half. That’s a thought process that I’m just not mentally prepared for. I often thought I could do some other way. I could overcome it by exercising, or I just didn’t really think about it at all.

This wouldn’t be a problem if I didn’t enjoy food so much, but as I said I love food. Its not like I eat terrible. I generally eat whole grains. I eat mostly poultry. I do love my fast-food mexican, and I will eat unhealthy at regional fast food joints. Yet, I don’t know when the last time I went to McDonalod’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, or Wendy’s. I do know the last time I had a Coca Cola was in 1999. I drink maybe two cans of pop (sprite, 7up, or Root Beer) a year. I have cut most frutcose corn syrup from my diet. I eat whole grains, brown rice, mufa, and all the other super foods you can find. I could use more vegetables and fish in my diet, but I do make sure I eat a vegetable at every dinner and almost every lunch. So, how can I eat 3600 calories? My empty calories come from too many servings and not managing my cravings.

So, for me to lose weight, I have to cut my Eating Habits. I’ve been regretting that a ton. I know it has to happen, and I’ve tried to do it with some success. In fact, knowing that cutting my food intake will have a big impact in my waistline, I have tried many times to only cut down my quantity of eating. I do lose weight that way. However, I begin to notice that I also start to feel sluggish. I start to crave more sugar to jump start my brain. I start to want more, and when I do get a special dinner, I just gorge myself (I love thanksgiving dinners). I don’t last that long, and I eventually gain most of the weight back.

So, I have also tried just exercising to lose weight. That did work as long as I was conscious enough not to increase my eating habits. It was slow going. Yet, I found that as I increased my exercising, I became hungrier. We all will. We are burning more calories, so your body says to itself that its time to get more calories. Its easy to give into.

As you can see, my tracking my eating and exercise patterns helps me to identify my trends, to learn from my own habits, and allows me to experiment to find the best possible way to maintain my own healthy body.

What do we do? If we exercise, we eat more, if we cut our calories, we crave sugar. We have to do both of them together. However, changing long ingrained habits at the same time is a sure fire way to not change any habits at all.

Knowing that changing your food consumption would have the greatest impact on your weight loss, I used to always recommend to myself and to others to start with the changing your eating habits first. After much self-experimentation combined with researching the subject, I have decided that changing my eating habits first is not the best way to go. Building the exercise habit must come first. You must build the necessary pscychological muscles to generate the increase in energy you’ll need to overcome the sluggishness that will inevitably set in when you cut your eating. Now, I know some dieticians and fitness gurus will preach if you eat the right and correct food, you shouldn’t feel sluggishness, and I agree with them to a point. But, now you are talking about changing your daily life to include exercise, changing your daily life by eating less food, and changing your daily life by eating the right kind of food. Now, we need to make three habits happen all at the same time.

You are just setting yourself up for failure. In addition, that tumbling in the tummy is still there. The psychological cues you have built up to eat are still there. The temptations will still be there to eat. So, we’ll have to build some fortitude to overcome these challenges by demonstrating and committing to ourselves the building of the exercise habit. Exercise must be something you schedule your day around.

So, here’s what I recommend you do.

1. Print a two week or monthly calendar from calendar.google.com
2. Put Circles around the days you plan to exercise right now. I suggest you circle every day. A habit is much easier to build if it is consistent and if it is every day.
3. Now, you don’t want to overdue it. So, if you have not exercised in a while just commit to walking 5 minutes the first week everyday. then walk 10 minutes every day for the second week, then walk 20 minutes every day for the third week, then walk 30 minutes every day for the fourth week.
4. When you exercise, put an X through the circled day.
5. Build momentum!  Soon, you will not want to break the chain of days that you’ve built up.  It’s a snowball.  As you continue going, you’ll want to keep doing it.

Now, if you are like me, and walking or running is not that difficult to do. Don’t overdue it. Mix it up. Do Weight Training 4 of the days, and Walk/Run 3 of the days. or some mixture. Just be ACTIVE everyday. ACTION!

As I said before, I don’t want you to over do it. So, If that’s too much for you, then add in some rest days. Yet, I still want you to pretend like you are exercising. So, let’s say you are planning on weight training Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. You also plan on cardio training on Tuesday and Thursday. You want to rest on Saturday and Sunday. I have no problem with that plan. Here’s what you do on Saturday and Sunday. You set aside the time as if you were going to exercise. Then, I want you to do mental exercises, stretching, yoga, or meditation exercise. You just need to do something to keep that exercise habit from weakening. They don’t call the weekend for nothing.

We’ll talk about building the endurance for changing your eating habits in a future post.

So, Take note. February is almost here.  If your New Year’s Resolution was to stay fit. There is no time to stop and no time to rest. We must continue the year with ACTION.

What can we do to help you ACT on your weight loss goals?

Use a Metronome for Interval Strength Training

I recently began interval strength training as a form of exercise.

For those new to different types of workouts, interval strength training is a form of circuit training. Basically, I perform a group of weight training exercises in sequence with little rest in between. I target different muscle groups, and I perform the circuit of exercises twice with little to no rest between exercises.

At first, Interval Strength Training was really difficult for me to do. Why?

I had to think:

• What exercise I was doing?
• How do I do that exercise?
• What exercise is next?
• How many repetitions was I on?
• Where am I in the 4 second cadence?
• Am I using the correct form?
• Did I just hear my 2 year old daughter dive into the toilet?
• Who is going to sign up for Simpleweight.com next?
• Will the Cubs win the World Series?
• Man this exercise is burning pretty good now.
• Will the …. as you can see too much to think about, my mind starts to wander, and I just get lost.

With interval strength training, you use a cadence to lift weights in a rhythm. While contracting the muscle, I count 2 seconds and then hold 2 seconds, then while releasing the muscle, I count 4 seconds, repeat for 10 repetitions with no rest.

For example, for a bicep curl, I count 2 seconds up, hold 2 seconds, then count 4 seconds slowly releasing the bicep curl back down to the resting position. I immediately lift again using the same cadence until I reach 10 in the set and move on to the next exercise in the circuit with little or no rest (30 seconds or less) in between sets.

As I mentioned before, the problem I had was I got lost in all the counting and thinking.

UP, Two, Three. Four
DOWN, Two, Three, Four
UP, Two, Three, Four
DOWN, Two, Three, Four
What Repetition am I on?

How do I stop all this counting?

I use a metronome to maintain the cadence. A metronome ticks at whatever rate you want. I set my metronome to 60 beats per minute and let it tick off my cadence. Google Metronome, and you’ll find all sorts of web-based metronomes to use.  Of course you could use an iphone app as your metronome of choice. Of course you can use a loud clock or watch, but I find a metronome better especially a digital metronome that allows you to set the beats per measure.

See, you can set a digital metronome to 4 beats per measure. which means:

Tack, Tick, Tick, Tick.
Tack, Tick, Tick, Tick.
2, Tick, Tick, Tick.
Down, Tick, Tick, Tick.
3, Tick, Tick, Tick.
Down, Tick, Tick, Tick.
4, Tick, Tick, Tick.
etc…

If you are using the Colorado Experiment workout, described by Tim Ferris, which uses a 5 second cadence, just set the metronome for 5 beats per measure.

Whatever cadence you use, your mind is free to count the number of repetitions while the metronome does the work of keeping your cadence straight.