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Weight Loss Exercise

30 Day Fitness Challenge



Today I am starting a 30 day fitness challenge. I know that it may seem strange that the owner of a blog dedicated to fitness is starting a fitness challenge with himself but it is high time.

We all move forward in lurches, making changes small and large and then coasting a bit until the next go round and I am the same as anyone. This Summer I have been doing a lot of coasting, exercising randomly, eating only so so and just letting myself enjoy Summer in a somewhat lazy way.

Not Anymore

We got back from camping a few days ago and now I have decided that it is time to do a 30 day fitness challenge to get myself back in tip top shape. I weighed myself last night and I am sitting at 203.4 pounds and my daughter took before pics of me (not sharing those till later) and so today I am getting everything cleaned up as far as diet and exercise are concerned.

30 Day Fitness Challenge Starters

Preplanning meals – I will be preplanning the weeks meals so we don’t eat take out as much

Portion control – This is a big one for me. My wife cooks very healthy stuff but I don’t always say no when I should

Junk Food – I am not very good lately. I have more than my one allotted treat per day but at least I have given up the coke and coffee that were such a problem over the years

Everyday Exercise – I am not exercising daily and I can feel it in my strength, agility, energy, and concentration on tasks. Also I get tired easily (sleepy tired I mean)

Prioritize Rest and Fun – I have not been prioritizing much lately and it is starting to show. I need the “To do” and “Not to do” lists to come back into my life

Keep my mind sharp – I have to start trying new things and getting my mind sharp by doing the things that I am not familiar with, maybe a new sport but at least changing a few things up in my regular daily routine.

So that’s me. how about you? Are you interested in following along or taking part? I will be posting lots of my findings, feelings, and frustrations, so we can all go through this together.

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Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

Meal Sizes and Frequency


Meal sizes and frequency are very important. Over the years people are amazed by how much food I eat at work in a day and part of this can probably be explained by decent genetics but more importantly I make sure that I have a higher metabolism by eating more smaller meals.

Most people will eat Breakfast lunch and dinner or even less often as in the case of my parents where the only real meals are breakfast and dinner. I on the other hand eat at 7:30, 10:00 12:00 3:00 5:30 and 8:00. I have been eating six times a day for years. My only large meal is dinner the other feedings are smaller snacks even lunch and breakfast.

There are a few reasons to eat small meals often:

  • One reason to eat a smaller meal is that your body can not metabolize as much food as the average North American eats so some is wasted and some is stored as fat.
  • Secondly, if you go a long time between meals your body stores food as fat to get you between meals when your blood sugar drops.
  • Thirdly, you blood sugar will fluctuate a lot during the day if you have a big meal then a long break and then another meal and you will feel your energy constantly going up and down.
  • Fourthly, you can really vary what you eat and enjoy food more when you do not have four or five things to eat at a time.

Here is a sample of what my day will have for food:

7:30 Bagel and Natural Peanut Butter
10:00 Apple, protein bar, coke
12:00 Frozen lunch entrée or leftovers from last nights dinner
3:00 banana, chocolate bar and a granola bar
5:30 a regular dinner, Meat, vegetables and maybe desert
8:00 popcorn or fruit

You will notice that this is not the best diet, I really have some work to do still but the meals are spaced and the sizes are smaller.

One of the most important ways to look at food and meals is that you should eat six meals a day and each of these meals should have about 30 grams of protein and 50 grams of carbohydrates. This kind of meal is important as it will give you the energy you need to get through a great day including a hard workout. With a meal this size as well you should not gain weight and you should not waste any protein, your body can assimilate this much protein every three hours or so.

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