Personal Progress Update: October 2012

With October 2012 in the history books now, I figured it was as good a time as any to get the birds eye view of how my progress went during October.  And I must say that I am rather happy with the success that I was able to achieve. Rewind back to late March of this year, I weighed in at 246 pounds.  This was probably not my all time highest weight.  As I had just recovered from the flu and had lost quite a bit of weight while I was sick.  But packed it back on as soon as I was better.  This left me around the 246 pound mark on the scale.

Also, I was very sedentary; meaning very inactive.  After work, I would essentially plant myself on the couch or in front of my computer and stay there.  My diet was pretty much crap.  Eating fast food pretty much all the time due to convenience while being on the road for work a lot.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, my fitness goals got somewhat side tracked during the summer months.  During which I gained a few pounds back, but nothing major.  I started being more conscious about my health again at the very end of September.  And I used the start of October as a mark of change once again.

On my first weigh in for October (start of the month); I found myself sitting right at 239 pounds.  I started walking a few times a week again.  Just a couple miles at a time, which I didn't really keep track off.  As for the first time, I found myself somewhat lost with which direction I should go concerning my workouts.  Knowing what I have done in the past that didn't work.  I decided to try something different.  I started Active.com's Couch to 5K program (using the Android App).  Which started me on a journey that includes 3 workout sessions a week, that start off fairly easy and build upon intensity over the course of 9 weeks.  And at the end of it, the idea is that you'll be able to participate in a 5K run.

This became my gateway, as I found myself doing the following workout at home using a small dumb bell set we have here at the house:
-Crunches (varied reps/sets depending on day)
-Standing Dumb Bell Shoulder Press (started light and worked heavier, usually 4 sets of 8 to 10 reps).
-Concentration Curls (W1 I used 15 pounds, by end of the month lifting 30 per arm, 4 sets of 8 reps).
-Dumb Bell Floor Press (4 sets of 10 to 12 reps)
-Push Ups (as many as I could knocked out)

I replaced my junk food snacks with things like low fat yogurt, granola, and a protein shake/smoothie each day.  All the time counting my calories using the aforementioned MyFitnessPal.  Counting my calories at first didn't end so well each night.  Then after a few days of adjusting what I ate.  I became able to adjust the bad food out of my diet and gradually work good stuff in, that would help keep me within my calorie plan.

And I'm proud to report that last week, my wife and I joined a great gym local to us.  It is literally a 5 minute drive from our house to our gym now.  Leaving no excuse to not exercise given rain or shine.  For us, that is a big step.  We are using our membership as a motivation to each other to help push each other a little further each day toward our goals.

So, enough chatter.  Let's see how I faired at the end of December!
October 1st Weight: 239 pounds
November 3rd Weight: 231 pounds
Pounds Lost: 8 pounds

Difference in Measurements:
Neck: Lost 0.50 inches lost
Left Bicep: 0.75 inches gained
Right Bicep: 0.25 inches gained
Waist: 1 inch lost
Chest: 0.50 inches lost

My biceps gained size due to the dumb bell work that I have been staying on top of.  For the first 30 days of my journey, I feel like I am off to a great start!

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Highlighted Service/App: MyFitnessPal

Are you looking for a way to keep track of things like:
-What you eat?
-The nutritional information for what you eat?
-Log your exercise sessions.
-Track your caloric intake for the day.
-And so much more?

If so, then there are a several of these apps/services available.  If you have read my review on LoseIt by Fitnow than you'll know that I like to use these apps as well.  The one that I will be covering today is: MyFitnessPal. The point of MyFitnessPal is to act as a calorie counter.  MyFitnessPal has an app available for both Android and iPhone.  The app is identical on both platforms, you can setup an account right on your mobile device.  Then as you go through the day, you simply log what you have eaten into the calorie counter.  The app has a pretty good database that includes most foods and chain-restaurant foods.  If you like, you can also use the barcode scanner built into the app to capture a shot of a particular food item's barcode and it will find that food's nutritional information and import it into your diary for that particular meal.  The app will generate a daily calorie allotment that is will count towards as you log consumed food during the day, obviously to loose weight the thought is you want to stay under that calorie allotment each day.  This allotment is based off of several criteria that you entered when setting up your account, like:
-Age
-Height
-Current Weight
-Weight Goal
-How many pounds you'd like to loose per week.
-What is your estimated activity level during the day (work)?

But it doesn't stop with just food, you also track your physical exercise as well.  After all, exercising helps you burn calories, and since the app is counting calories for you, it needs to know what is being burnt off during workouts.  As you weigh in, you also need to update your weight in the app or on their website.  This will also affect your daily calorie allotments that the app helps you meet or stay underneath that limit.

One thing I really like about MyFitnessPal, is once you closeout a day's "diary" or log of food & exercise, the app will pop up a screen that says "If everyday were like today, it would take you X weeks to be at XX goal."  That helps me keep things in perspective.  I mean after all, for most of us, being healthy isn't a whole lot of "fun".  So some of us need a little further inspiration to get things going.

You can also visit their website at: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/
Their website has even more features available too.  You can follow their forums, track the same info you track using the mobile app, you also get a little widget that you can post on your website or social network that display's your current weightloss.

The service and app are free of charge.  So what do you have to loose?  Swing by their website for more information on both the website service and their mobile app: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

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