Baby steps

First and foremost, I’d like to thank everyone who left a comment, emailed or called with their support for my decision to enter the 20/20 Lifestyles Program. I received far more comments than I expected to, and I have greatly appreciated your thoughts and encouragement. It’s been great to hear from everyone — thank you for the motivation and support.

Before starting the program this week, I had a great “Last Supper” kind of day last Saturday with some friends who joined me for brunch at Salty’s on Alki Beach, an afternoon at the Woodland Park Zoo, dinner at P.F. Chang’s in Bellevue, and watching Mission: Impossible 3.

I didn’t fall asleep that night until nearly 5am, and as I tossed and turned, I was convinced the 1/2 cup of coffee I had at brunch was the cause. Since giving up Diet Coke, I’ve become pretty sensitive to caffeine. What I didn’t realize then was that Iced Tea also has caffeine, and with the waiter coming back with refills throughout dinner, it’s no surprise. Lesson learned: stick to water.

Exercise

I started the exercise portion of the program on Monday, May 8th, and completed my 5th day of workouts for the week last night. I work out with my personal trainer on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights, where we focus on cardiovascular exercise and strength building. Additionally, I work out on my own on Tuesday and Thursday nights, where I focus solely on cardiovascular exercise. The nights on my own seem to go quicker, thanks to my iPod. The sessions are typically 60 to 90 minutes long, and pretty intense — I don’t get much of a chance to stop between routines. For cardio, my typical routine is 10-15 minutes on the StairMaster, 20-30 minutes on the Elyptical machine, and 10-15 minutes on the treadmill. The strength building I’m doing at this point involves 12 rep(etition)s on about 8 different Nautilus-type machines (no free weights yet) focused primarily on my legs and arms.

The stairs are really hard, though I’m pushing myself to add another minute on them each time I work out. It’s the first thing I do, and definitely the hardest. In addition to duration, we’ve also been slowly increasing the resistance (faster stairs, harder resistance on the Elyptical, and increasing the angle and speed of the treadmill). I’m at a fast walk pace on the treadmill, and I think I’ll begin jogging on it next week, as I’m quickly getting to the point where the speed of the track moving under me will be faster than I can walk.

The strength building routines are fun, but hard. 12 reps go by pretty quickly, and I’m finding that I really have to push myself to get the last few reps in. I’ve been able to do everything asked of me so far, so that’s motivating on its own.

After cardio and strength routines, I do some stretching exercises with a big rubber ball and on my own, then climb upstairs to get on a bike for 10-20 minutes where I watch an educational video about the topic of the day. Topics this week covered getting started with the program (how to prepare, what to expect), an introduction to the partial meal replacement, and an explanation of a low glycemic diet.

I had to purchase a heart monitor to wear across my chest during the workouts, which works with a watch to show details in terms of calories and heart rate during the workout. In general, I’m burning about 800 calories from the cardio workouts, and my record for this week came on Wednesday, where I burned a total of 984 calories in that workout alone!

Diet

I met with my dietitian for the first time on Wednesday, and started the diet Wednesday night. For the next week, here’s what my diet looks like:

Breakfast

A protein shake made from powder, 1 cup water, 1 cup ice and 1/2 cup of berries. I’ve got raspberries, strawberries and blackberries at this point, and am using chocolate shake powder. For breakfast only, I get to add 1 Tbsp of all-natural peanut butter to the shake, and have to include 1 tsp of fiber supplement. In addition to the food, I have to take two vitamins, a calcium tablet and two Omega 3 (fish oil) tablets with every breakfast. 290 calories, 9 grams of fat.

Morning snack

Another shake with berries. 190 calories, 1 gram of fat.

Lunch

Another shake with berries, and 6oz of lean protein with nothing else, or 6oz of very lean protein with 1 fat serving. I’ve gone with the second option, and typically have a 6oz can of tuna in water and 1 Tbsp of Miracle Whip Light. 355 calories, 16 grams of fat.

Afternoon snack

Another shake with berries, 190 calories, 1 gram of fat.

Dinner

Same as lunch, plus another two Omega 3 tablets. 355 calories, 16 grams of fat.

All told, I am supposed to aim for 1500-1700 calories and 35-49 grams of fat per day. My initial diet is 1395 calories and 33 grams of fat, so I need to figure out how to bump it up a little bit. I also have to write down everything I eat in a meal tracker, including the calories, fat, etc. which has been surprisingly easy so far. Lida, my dietitian, also gave me a pocket book version of the Calorie King web site web site so no matter what I eat, I can find the appropriate values. Sticking to a routine diet like I have so far makes this easy — once meals vary more, I’m sure this will take more time.

When I learned what my diet was going to be for the first week, I was afraid that I was going to be very hungry. After all, my new daily calorie and fat goals are close, I’m sure, to what I was eating in a single meal, though I typically only ate lunch and dinner. Surprisingly, I haven’t been too hungry. The trick I think is really how frequently I’m eating (and drinking water).

It’s also important not to go more than 3-4 hours without eating. For example, I had dinner last night at about 7:15 and went to go see a 10:00 showing of The Sentinal, and towards the end, I was pretty hungry. Luckily, the workout also made me pretty sore and tired, so once I got home, there was nothing to tempt me, and going to bed was easy. Completely cleaning out the kitchen before starting the program was a really good idea.

Results so far

I’m feeling a bit sore this morning, but pretty good overall. I’m going to wait until after meeting with my dietitian (every Wednesday night) to report on weight loss progress, so that each week I’m comparing the same amount of time. Suffice it to say that I have already lost some weight, and am very happy with the results so far.

With Laura Baldwin and Randy Kern’s wedding reception tonight, I’m taking the day off from exercise, though I’m thinking I’ll do cardio tomorrow to get a jump start on the week. I’m surprising myself a bit saying this, as I thought I’d be dead to the world today after 5 days of working out. I’m looking forward to the reception tonight, especially since Randy is also in the 20/20 Lifestyles Program and has said we’ll toast with chocolate shakes with fresh mint as a treat.

Alcohol is strictly prohibited while on the program, since it contains lots of sugar and inhibits fat burning. Apparently, even drinking one glass of wine will cause you not to lose weight for 1-1/2 to 2 days. For a guy from Milwaukee with a lot of uncles with a career at Pabst Brewery, this is going to be a big change. Amusingly, the background music and design on the Pabst site reminds me of the hotel from The Shining.

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