The body bugg, moving forward...

Firstly, I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. I was able to catch up on some reading and house projects.

Now, to more pressing news. Since I have began wearing the bodybugg, I have become much more aware of keeping active and how many calories I burn during activities.

1. Just got back from my 60 minute walk and I burned 420 calories
2. Washed my truck and my wifes car yesterday, burned 500 calories
3. mowed my yard and weeded my rose garden (yes I have one and no I didnt start it) 375 calories.

Also keep in mind I work at a blistering pace when I do things, my goal is to do a task faster than I did before which is why I look like a humming bird on crack when I am working, which is also why my caloric expenditure is so high during these simple activities.

The scarey part is I watch my diet, know exactly what I am taking in and still do not always meet my calorie goal for the day (the amount I need to burn to continue to lose weight). There have been a couple of days that I have been 500 to 600 calories short. If I did that each day by the end of the week I would of gained 1 pound (3500 calories = 1 pound of fat) So imagine your average joe who eats whatever he wants, never exercises and is predominately sedentary (like 75% of adults and children in America) this poor guy will fall into the same trap that your average American lands in each year. That being gaining 10 pounds a year. Yes your average U.S. citizen gains 10 to 12 pounds a year. You think that is impossible, look what happened to me. Since my personal challenge has started I lost 3 pounds my first week, that was too fast so I slowed it down. The holiday weekend happened, things have been busy at work AND I have still been watching my diet better than anyone you will ever meet and exercising 4 to 5 times a week, guess what? You got it, I have put those 3 pounds back on!!! I had been that active and that strict about my diet but 2 or 3 days I feel behind.

So my plan of action to help this is add 40 minutes of walking 7 days a week outside of my regular workouts to help keep my calorie burning up to speed. So to give you a sneak peak at my schedule:

I strength train 4 sometimes 5, but on average 4 times weekly
journal what I eat everyday
have begun to try and walk 40 minues each day, so far 4 for 4
Do not eat sweets, fast food, drink soda, eat anything with sugar basically, and rarely maybe 5 times a year dink alcohol.

And after all that, I have put my 3 pounds back on. So I tell you all of that to remind you of this, imagine if you arent had disciplined as me! And you simply go in and workout on your own 2 times a week for an hour or so, or maybe spin 3 times a week and moderatly watch your diet (if at all) You would be extremely lucky to maintain your weight but more than likely you will slightly gain weight, no see results, and give up.

The morale of this incredibly long story is we:
a) eat way too much
b) do not exercise even remotely enough
c) are too busy and plain lazy

To fix this:
a) journal what you eat to see how many calories you are taking in
b) track your exercise to see how many calories you are burning
c) exercise 5 to 6 hours a week


I really want this to sink in as I see people come in and out of my facility for as long as I have been there. And in the 4 years I have been a trainer at Prairie Life, the only people I have seen make any kind of body transformation are the people who use trainers. And I am certainly not saying EVERY client because that is a flat lie. There are people who use a trainer and still do not lose weight or reach their goals and it is usually because they are not watching their diet. Food for thought