Where did I go?
Friends,
Thank you for coming back despite my horid blogging habits. It turns out that I suck at blogging. It doesn’t matter why I’ve missed posting, what does matter is how I plan on approaching this blog for the time being.
I started this blog hoping to document my 12 week journey on the Body-For-Life fitness program. I am happy to report that, even though I am not blogging regularly about it, Body-For-Life is doing well for me. I’ve lost over 12 pounds at this point and I am getting stronger as well. I feel great. I still plan on blogging about my experience but I will no longer make empty promises about daily postings. This is my revised plan for this blog:
- Personal fitness updates will come when I have something to report
- I will post begin posting links to other blog articles that are important to me and, I feel, yo
- As blogging becomes more familiar to me you may see my blogging habits and style change
So that is the plan for now. This blogging thing is new to me and as much as I desire to be a good blogger, I also desire to stay focused on other things like my family, my day job and other revenue streams. Perhaps, someday, I’ll get good at this.
Day 7 Recap
Wheee! A week has gone by and it’s been great so far. Day 7 went well. I ate everything I was supposed to eat and nothing I wasn’t. We had salmon for dinnerand it was awesome! I get a larger portion of fish and so I felt satisfied but not gross when dinner was over.
I worked on upper body strength training today. I need to buy some more wight plates because I’m increasing my weight at extreme levels which is making it close to impossible to complete the exercises for each muscle group.
One difficulty I find myself running into when working out at home is time. I feel a little crunched for time and so I don’t rest as long as I am supposed to between sets. And today I had to skip triceps to get to work on time. I need to go to bed earlier and wake up in time to get it all done as well as prepare my meals for the day.
Day 3 – 6 Recap
Blogging every day is harder than I thought. Sorry for the inconsistency. Days three and four went well with no turning from my current goals. I stuck to my meal plan for both days with no trouble. I have, however, wanted to eat ridiculous amounts of popcorn and Rasinets while watching a movie or two.
My workouts went well. The upper body strength training I did on Day 4 challenged me and it felt great! On Day 3 I did cardio for the first time on this program and it rocked my face off. It was only 20 minutes long but I felt it for the rest of the day. It was a good feeling.
Day 5 was my free day. I remembered how miserable I made myself on the first few free days when I last did Eating For Life, so I toned it down slightly for this one. I made waffles with my daughter for breakfast, I don’t recall lunch, went to Oktoberfest for dinner where I had beer and sausage as well as a pretzel with cheese. Later that night I had a chicken wrap from Sonic and some ice cream. It was all very gross. I didn’t exercise either and my body missed it. I think next time I will exercise and lay off the nasty.
Harder Than I Thought
No, Body For Life is not harder than I thought. It’s plenty hard, but I expected that. Blogging on a daily basis is hard as you can see from my sporadic Daily Recap postings. Day three through six are missing posts, I know. But I am keeping track and will post soon. Right now I must watch 300.
Geek Brain: Lumosity
Brain health has become increasingly important to me in recent months. I’ve come to realize that I don’t use mine nearly as much as I could. Several months ago I received an invitation to join the beta testing program for a website called Lumosity.
Lumosity provides brain exercising games via Flash and tracks your progress over a 30 day/30 session period. Each session can be completed in about 10 minutes or less. Lumosity clains that “Lumosity is a scientifically designed brain fitness program” and they have an impressive list of advisers from the scientific community.
During beta testing I was able to participate in 28 of the 30 sessions before testing ended. In a short amount of time I improved my scores for each game and moved on to more advanced levels. In addition to improving my scores I also noticed:
- Increased focus after my session finished and throughout the day
- Better processing of my peripheral vision
- Faster reaction times
- Improved memory (a previously weak area for me)
Overall, I felt like Lumosity contributed positively to my mental health and I looked forward to each daily session. Lumosity is not free, however, and that’s okay. It’s a good product. Improving your brain health will set you back $9.95 a month or &6.95 a month if you buy a year at a time. Of course you can try before you buy, Lumosity offers a 14 day free trial with no credit card necessary.
If you use Lumosity I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.
Day 2 Recap
Day two went much better. It started with an intense cardio workout on the stationary bike. I think my legs are still burning. I definitely reached level 10 today and my energy levels were up all day and they carried me nicely to my sleep at around 11:30 p.m.
I did not stray from today’s meal plan, although I craved honey roasted peanuts. I drank over 72 ounces of water today which is ratcheting my bladder up to level 10. That will take some getting used to.
One final note…Tonight I took my before (as in before and after) photo. I had every intention of posting that photo on this blog as some moto for myself. After looking at the photo I decided not to. I had no idea and if you’ve seen me sans shirt…I’m sorry. If I am happy with myself after the 12 weeks are over I’ll post it with the after.
Day 1 Recap
Day one is behind me. 83 days to go until I have completed Body For Life’s 12 week challenge. This will be the first of many recaps. The point of these recaps is to help me keep track of how I exercised and what I ate.
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My Body For Life
The main reason that I started this blog is to journal my experience with the Body For Life training and eating program. My wife and I read and implemented Eating For Life a few years ago and had great success. This time around, however, we are including the exercise program as well as making the change in our diet.
There are so many options for eating and exercise programs out there. Body For Life is my pick for three reasons:
- Results of a friend – I have a friend who has made a lifestyle out of the Body For Life principles and it has worked
- It’s a lifestyle – Body For Life is not a solution to a problem, it’s more like the lifestyle I should have had to begin with. Therefore, I am looking at this as a lifestyle change.
- The challenge – I can’t lie, I like a challenge every once and a while and the Body For Life cahllenge pays off to the tune of $50,000. I know that the life change will be far more rewarding but…fifty grand is something to think about.
So that’s why Body For Life is the program I am following on this quest for physical health. I’d love to hear about the experience of others.
Confessions of a Fat Kid (Adult)
I was a skinny kid up until nine years old when something, I’m not sure what, happened. I started getting air tanks (love handles didn’t seem appropriate at the time) and a gut. Man boobs came shortly thereafter.
Over the years I found myself more and more immersed in the life of a fat kid. This post is not a sob story about how I was teased at school or even about how I ate because I was unhappy and I was unhappy because I ate. No, this post takes an honest look at the mistakes that I made with my health when I was younger and now as an adult. Over the years I formed many bad habits and lifestyle patterns. Here they are.
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Alow me to introduce…myself.
My name is Eric Granata and this is my first real attempt at a blog. This blog will not focus on my family, funny videos I saw or photos from the zoo. For that you can visit ericgranata.com. This purpose of this blog is to document my quest for a body that is strong, fit and in shape and a mind that is sharp, quick and just…on.
In the following posts you will learn more about who I am , my present state, what I want to obtain and how I plan on getting there. Stay tuned.
