Saturday Workout & February Frustrations

Honestly, February has been a pretty good month overall considering the weather has been crappy and I have had some minor pains. Also, it has been kind of frustrating on the scales because despite all of my efforts this month, my weight has stayed almost exactly where it was at the beginning of the month. There are several factors that I am sure have contributed to this weight loss stagnation, such as my body changing from fat to muscle or my body has adjusted to my level of workouts. These are answers that I would like to be true, and I am sure that they are to some degree, but there is another factor that I am sure has a lot to do with this: Diet. Yes, the dreaded Diet!!!

My diet isn't horrible. I eat lots of fruits and veggies (apples, oranges, broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, celery, grapes, raisins, zucchini, ect.) and I have eliminated things like chips, French fries, soda, fast foods, and vending machine snack fare. But, I am still eating way too much bread and sweets. Also, on nights when my wife works late I find myself snacking hard around 5:30 because I know that we will not eat dinner until nearly 10pm, which is not good. Luckily, my wife will no longer be closing her store, so this should eliminate that problem. However, I know that I need to become much more disciplined about the way I eat or I will be wasting a lot of my effort. Personally, I do not put much stock in diets or "going on a diet." My feeling is that "going on a diet" implies that at some point the person will go off of the diet, which will lead them to return to their former ways. Instead, I prefer to make lifestyle changes, which are intended to be lasting changes. I see lifestyle changes as more of a process, something that allows for indiscretions, but overall takes a much larger commitment. I am trying to achieve a lifestyle change by eliminating soda from my diet. And, I know that I have to get better about how often I snack and eat sweets. Granted, I am doing better now than I have at any other time in my life, but there is still room for improvement if I want to move past the frustrations of February, changes in the way I eat are sure to help.

As for working out, I had a really good workout yesterday. I struggled a bit at first because I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but in the end I was able to sort myself out and put in a good overall effort.

First I did 20 exercises for 1 min. each with a 15 sec. rest. then moved on to the Jump ropee

Saturday's Workout:

1 min. each with a 15 sec. rest
1. Crossover Crunch Left
2. Crossover Crunch Right
3. Standard Crunch
4. Arm Extensions
5. Bird Dogs
6. Fire Hydrants w/ leg extension
7. Heel Raises
8. Squats with 10lbs weight.
9. Alternating Lunges with 10lbs weight.
10. Prisoner Squats with leg ups
11. Triceps Extensions with 10lbs. weights
12. Step ups right leg
13. Step ups left leg
14. Bicycles
15. Seated Crunch
16. Push ups
17. Plank
18. Roman Chair
19. Dips
20. Bicep curls with 10lbs weights

Afterward, I did Jump Rope intervals:
20 Intervals 90 seconds skips and 15 seconds rest.

The jump rope portion of this workout was a beast, and I was so sweaty that by the end I was having a hard time holding on to the rope.