Follow my Transformation Journey (Part 4)

See previous articles in this series:  Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

5 Minute Workouts!

Set timer to 5 minutes and start

Do 20 pushups

Do 10 body weight squats

Do 10 chin-ups

Do 10 calf raises

Take no more than about 5 seconds rest

The 5 minute workout is what I have been using on my strength training days (Tues-Thurs-Sat) under the following circumstances:

• If I don’t have time to do a focused 1 hour workout session
• If I want to get some additional training in on strength training day

In either case, I will get several of these sessions in on a strength training day.  And don’t let the simplicity fool you…this workout will have your muscles pumped and your lungs looking for more oxygen.  More importantly, if you don’t have the time to do an extended workout, who can’t set aside 5 minutes 1-3 times a day to get something in?

On the other days (Mon-Wed-Fri), I either run, jump rope, or play basketball.  Lately, it has been running, and as I have not put in a lot of miles lately, I started running 10 minutes, and will tack on a minute for each running session until I get back up to a half hour.  I do recommend it as a good way to build your stamina up in a gradual manner, but only if you already have a good fitness base (and are cleared with a physician, of course).  If not, after checking with your physician, I would recommend the Couch to 5k program.

As far as diet, I am keeping it simple by doing a few pieces of fruit in the morning (apples, bananas), a meat (or bowl of beans) and a green vegetable for lunch, and a full meal with protein (meat or beans), grain or starch and plenty of vegetables for dinner.  Snacks are usually either fruit or nuts.  As you see, my daily meal plan is relatively low in carbohydrate-heavy foods, because of my goal to get the fat down.  It works; I’ve done it before so I say this from experience.  However, I am NOT starving myself.  I eat plenty.  Also, I personally don’t think you need to cut all of your carbs out.  Many of the carb-heavy foods have good nutrient profiles (and your body needs nutrients), so I believe it is best to just lower them a bit.   So if you are out there and you want to lose extra weight, I recommend lowering your carbs, and filling yourself with vegetables so you aren’t starving yourself.

I hope this helps someone.  4 more weeks left in the Bodybuilding.com challenge!

Repeat over and over until the timer goes off

Follow my Transformation Journey (Part 3)

Been a while since I reported where I was with this bodybuilding.com challenge.  But better late than never.

For the past while, I have been focusing on calisthenics, with little cardio.  Also, my diet has improved, but I am still not reducing the amount of carbohydrate-heavy foods like bread yet.  From my own past experience, greatly reducing (but not eliminating) those foods will definitely cause your fat levels to drop.  With my current focus, I believe that I have added muscle over the month of February, based on how things look.  I don’t have my stats right now; I will post those later.

The month of March is when I plan on doing the following to go ahead and start cutting my fat levels down:

• Monday, Wednesday and Friday will be my main cardio days.  Cardio will consist of running, jump rope, and/or basketball.  My desire is to get a 30 minute run in, or a 30 min-1 hr session of basketball.  If not, however, the plan is to get in as many 5 minute sessions of jump rope throughout those days.
• Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday will continue to mainly consist of a calisthenics session or 2, totaling at least an hour of work.  Some brief cardio like jump rope will be added.
• Diet-wise, the plan is to reduce carb-heavy foods like whole grain bread, brown rice, oats and potatoes to once per day, replacing them with plenty of fruits and vegetables.

Again, based on my past experience, this really works to get your fat levels down.  When I tried it, I was pretty surprised myself to be honest.

What do you think?  Are you doing your own transformation for the year?  Comment below!

Follow my Transformation Journey (Part 2)

I’m back.  Still going pretty hard into this Transformation Challenge (see Part 1 of this post series here).

Honestly, my diet over the past two weeks has been better, but very much in need of improvement!  I realize that I developed a stronger sweet tooth over the holidays, and that I’ve kinda allowed food to have a stronger grasp on me.  I probably need to fast.

As a brief aside on fasting, I don’t necessarily recommend fasting to lose weight per se; rather, I recommend fasting every now and then 1) if you feel led to do so by God (of course) for some purpose, and 2) to show your body who is really in charge.  So often, we eat everything we want, good or bad, and we end up in a place where we have to have what we want.  We become slaves to food.  That’s no way to live!  We shouldn’t be slaves to anything.

Anyway though, on the exercise side, I’ve been relatively diligent with that as well.  Calisthenics really do provide a great workout.  My workout hasn’t really changed since the first post, but I’ve been challenged timewise.  I get something in everyday, though.  My biggest shortcoming has been in the cardio area.  I was supposed to get in at least 10 minutes of rope jumping every day, but I’ve only done about 5-10 minutes of rope jumping about 3 days this week.  I’ll do better.

My stats are as follows:

Weight – down 2 lbs

BF% – down 4.4 (it didn’t really drop this much; my first estimate was 15%, and my latest measurement, 10.6%, was done with calipers)

Check out my Bodyspace blog for more details.

What do you think?  Are you doing your own transformation for the year?  Comment below!