A new leaf.

One of the first things, aside from a food diary, that one needs to do when embarking on a trek to change their body, is to record how they look before they really get going. So with that in mind, I had Michelle take a couple pictures of me.

They are not pretty.



This is me. Taken tonight. At 247 pounds. For those that remember me from high school, that means that yes, I have put on 100 pounds since we graduated. By the time our next reunion comes by, I plan on losing at least some of it (assuming the 15 year happens next year AND it's during the summer...) Regardless. I've put on the poundage, and I really, truly need to do something about it.

Where to start? Well, last night I decided to go ahead and introduce myself to the complex's 'gym'. It's not a bad little room - not much by way of free weights aside from dumbbells, but that's okay - I prefer machines anyway. As a 'start', I decided to do a legs and arms/shoulders workout, just to see where I stood. My legs surprised the hell out of me - quad lifts, 2 sets of 10 @120lb, followed by 2 sets of 10 @90lb for the hamstrings. Keep in mind, about a year after my accident I tried to do less weight, with the same exercises, and was completely unable to do it due to the excruciating pain that came from my left leg. That was the last time I entered a gym for anything other than cardio (and it was pretty much the next to last time, at that). I followed up the leg workout by doing 2 sets of 10 @140lb on the press machine, followed by a single rep @200lb. The last one was just to see if I could

After turning my legs to Jello, I went after my arms. Preacher curls, lat pulls, etc using the machines (I'll have to go back in and actually record what I do next time). The end result is that today, my arms (and more specifically my triceps) were, and continue to be, soooooore. Did I overdo the arm work? Probably. I think the current pain has almost as much to do with last night's workout as tonights 5.2mi bike ride I've actually managed to exercise 2 days consecutively for the first time since college. So I'm pretty proud of myself. Tomorrow will be a lighter upper body workout than last night, for sure. I'll probably go with 1set per exercise, rather than two, and I'll be doing sit-ups, as well. The leg workout will almost definitely be identical, except I'll probably skip the 200lb lift at the end. I'm planning the following schedule, at least for the next couple weeks:
Sun/Tues/Thurs - weights
Mon/Wed/Fri - cardio/bike.
Sat - Off.

Ideally, the cardio workout is going to be on a stationary bike in the gym, or possibly using the elliptical machine in there. Tuesdays for a 'weight' day are going to be rough due to the obligation I have to raid in WoW, but I need to do it, and I'll probably fit it in before raid time (ie. I'll head over to do my workout at 730 so I can be back and cleaned up by 830).

So there we go. This is probably the first 'real' week that I'm actively trying to get this workout thing going, and if it actually ends up working... well... we'll see in the weekly photograph updates I'll be posting every Monday. Hopefully I can actually manage to keep to this schedule, and continue to work on getting the diet changed - something I also started making some strides with this weekend, and that I'm hoping to more fully take control of this week and next.

Cheers!