Alex Shalman.comPractical Personal Development

I started out on October 1st weighing in at a whopping 195lbs. For 5′8″ that’s a bit overweight. The truth is anyone I asked thought I looked about 170 lbs and I was surprised to find out I weighed that much myself. The excuse of why I let myself get to this weight in the first place is because I wasn’t home all summer, and thrown off any decent schedule of eating.

Seeing that weight on the scale made me realize that it’s time to take action into my own hands. I’ve been reading about health for years, I know how to get fit, so all that’s left is to put my money where my mouth is. No problem.

The total weight loss from October 1st is 13lbs. That’s 11.5lbs during the first week, and 1.5 during the second. Naturally one would expect to have a huge loss in the beginning because it’s all water weight and toxic that gets cleared out of your system when you start exercising and drinking a lot of water. The healthy amount of weight to lose is just 2lbs per week. If you’re very overweight 2lbs a week is a nice 108 for the year.

The premise behind my weight loss routine is that setting up the proper habits will absolve me from having to make decisions about food. I know now when I can and cannot eat, what I can and cannot eat, how long I should chew my food, and how much exercise I need to do per day.

Hardships

I’m not having any trouble resisting sweets. My one cheat meal for the week was a burger with fries, and everything else was on point. I still can’t quite finish a full gallon of water, especially when I’m working or at my internship. Fasting is not easy, but I’ve done it both weeks, and feel great after wards.

It’s also a bit discouraging to go from such a whopping weight loss to only a 1.5lb loss during the second week. Realistically it makes a lot of sense, but on the emotional level it feels like not fast enough. So just as a small observation I did feel a bit disappointed during this weigh in because I won’t reach my goal of 175lbs by the end of this month if I proceed at this point.

Exercise

All the exercise I’ve been doing must be speeding up my metabolism. I’m much hungrier and eat an extra small meal of healthy food (salad or chicken) during the day. I think I can afford the calories considering how much I expend everyday.

I really enjoy going to spin class at least 3 times per week. Spin class is a group of people on stationary bikes, in a private room lit up by black lights, which pumps fast paced techno and rock music while an instructor motivates you and tells you how fast or how much resistance you should be at. For the first time I asked Nora, the spin instructor I have most of the time, how much we bike during a session and she said it’s around 13 miles. No wonder my endurance has been raising tremendously.

I’ve also started doing a bit of running. Sometimes I do spin class in the morning, and then I run in the evening. Some days, like today, all I did was run. I jogged 3.17 miles, a pinch over 5 kilometers, and it took me nearly 40 minutes. The distance is respectable considering I just started running recently, but I think it’s a bit too slow. Nora got me to enter a race with her and her running group this coming Sunday for 5 kilometers. At least I know I can finish, so I’ll have a base from which I can improve.

Injury

I hurt my back at work. I was assisting an oral surgeon, and we did an extraction of four wisdom teeth, and we ran into a complication. Since the doctor and the other assistant were both shorter than me, I was forced to stand in an excruciating position for my back for over an hour. From my professional opinion the surgeon did an awesome job, despite the circumstances, and the patient came out in perfect condition. I wish I could say the same for my back.

My chiropractor says my rhomboid muscles are in spasm which is causing the t7 vertebrae to get rotated off to the side. He cracked it back into place and did some therapy on the muscles. Combined with a 25 minute back massage Friday I’m still only at 50-75%. Doctors orders are that running and spin class are okay, but no lifting, not even so much as push-ups. This sucks, but I don’t want to further provoke the injury. If you know of any cool stretches/exercises for Rhomboids feel free to throw down a link or put the advice in the comments below.

Meals

• Breakfast. For the first meal I usually have Post Selects, Great Grains cereal. It tastes really good and seems nutritious enough. Alternatively, I have a bowl of oatmeal (with cut up banana on top), or make myself a vegetable omelet. Another thing I’ve had for breakfast, especially after fasting, is Kefir with fresh berries such as blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries.
• Lunch. This meal is a huge salad, whenever time allows, with some grilled chicken on top. I use the following salad recipe, and it’s healthy and so delicious. I mix it up a tad here and there, depending on the ingredients I have, and I never get bored of it.
• Dinner. Dinner is a smaller meal. I either fill up on small portion of protein, or more fruits and vegetables, depending on how I’m feeling or what’s available. Usually if I skip a meal it ends up being dinner. Then I wake up at 4-4:30 am to have breakfast before my 6 am spin class so that I have some energy.
• Snacks. Almonds, blueberries, stawberries, raspberries, bananas, apples, Kefir, chocolate cake (definitely not, just kidding!). Btw, my friend Artem tells me he has a secret recipe for a super healthy snack. You put a purple grape in the freezer and you get a natural candy. I’ll give this a try when food shopping today.

Overall

I feel more confident, not really because I look thinner, it’s only a small difference, but mostly because I’m proactively making a difference in my own life, eating energizing food, and exercising. It feels nice to be able to fast as well. I guess the confidence really comes from the fact that I’m exercising self-discipline, and that’s an amazing feeling to have.

Let’s take a quick Poll. How much do you think I’ll weigh 1 week from now. I’m currently at 182.

Tweet This Post