I started a new workout routine this week and today was by far the hardest.

On one side, that’s kind of exciting. I absolutely LOVE brutal workouts. There’s such a feeling of satisfaction when I finish a workout that I KNOW kicked my butt.

On the other side though, I’ve realized that I have to be mentally prepared because there are times that I just don’t flat out want to finish.

The last month has been kind of crazy for me. Emotionally, physically… Everything.

So when I looked to see what my workout was today, as excited as I was to do something awesome, I dreaded the final part of my workout (you know, the part where you feel like you just want to be done).

And once I got to that point, that’s exactly how I felt. I just wanted to be done.

There were so many excuses going through my head… I’ve already got a good workout in, I can do it next time, I can finish later today…

Hogwash.

Once I noticed the trend I thought to myself “I can quit and not get what I want out of this workout or I can push trough it and feel that much better throughout the day and when I get compliments from other people”.

So I said screw it and I just pushed through.

Was it hard? Absolutely.

But it was worth it.

When you get those thoughts just focus on your goals, on what you want out of your workout and…

Just keep pushing!

- Curt

P.s. I wrote this entire post on my iPhone! How cool is that?!

The past few weeks have been kind of rough for me.

3 weeks ago I had a small surgery on my shoulder (no worries, I’m OK ) that kept me out of the gym for a couple of weeks.  And then… right when I was cleared to get back to my normal workout routine, I had an awful shock and had a very good friend pass away.

For me, not being able to workout is stressful enough but adding my friend’s passing made the last few weeks insanely painful and emotional to deal with.

Anyway, enough of the sob story.

The purpose of this post isn’t to get all sad anyway…

What I wanted to talk about was dealing with trying to be healthy when I couldn’t work out (and yes, I said trying on purpose).

I don’t know about you but if I’m not working out, my motivation to be healthy goes down quite a bit.  I’m not sure what the scientific rationale for that is but I know that’s just how I am.

And, admittedly, I faltered a bit during the time I couldn’t work out.

I started eating stuff that I shouldn’t be eating like, oh, let’s see… pizza, burgers, donuts, ice cream, pancakes… I’m exaggerating, just a bit.

While I didn’t eat ALL of that stuff, I certainly did eat some of it as well as some other not so healthy things.  And I wanted to figure out why?

One thing I came up with was that I was a bit depressed.  And when I think more about what I did during that time, it kind of makes sense… I ate stuff that I shouldn’t have and I found myself drinking more than normal.

If you ask me, that’s a pretty clear sign of depression.

Luckily though, I was able to figure this out after my first week of this cycle.

While I was no angel by any stretch of the imagination, I still was able to correct some of the problems that I was encountering and see some progress.

If I were to say that there was one thing that helped me the most in getting over the hump to make the change was simply getting up and walking around.

When I sit on the couch all day, I feel like a fatty and all my energy is drained.  I feel like a blob and that I’m not doing anything productive.

When I get up and walk around, even if it’s only 10 minutes, I flat out feel better and more productive.  I get more energy and I feel encouraged to make better choices.

The other thing that I did was make sure that I still recorded my progress.  I’m a huge advocate of recording your progress regardless of your current state.

Did I still end up slipping?  Absolutely…  I wish I made some more intelligent choices but I could have spiralled a lot worse.

For me, it just makes everything real.  And I can see on a weekly basis if I’m on still on track or if I’m off track.  If I start seeing myself falling out, I know it’s time to make a change.

I feel like I’ve said this a bunch but every time I do, I realize how important it really is.  Keeping clear data has been one of the biggest motivators for me to make change.  When I see numbers and progress going in either direction, I know whether or not I need to make a change or whether I’m on the right track.

The last few days I’ve really felt like I’ve fallen off a bit.  Not because I haven’t been working out, not because I don’t think I’m eating healthy… but because I just haven’t felt it as much in the last few days.

In my last post I talked about how I feel like even the best of us need some motivation every now and then.  Whether that comes in the form of seeing images of others or something else.

For me what really opened up my eyes and made me decide that I need to take some time and refocus was to look at and analyze my diet and all the pictures that I’ve taken.

Although it may look like there’s some gaps in my diet on here, I DO take pictures of everything that I eat, I just don’t always post the pictures.

For a couple of reasons actually…

1. I’ve noticed that sometimes when I just take a picture and go straight to eating, I end up forgetting to upload them here so I just don’t post them.
2. The other reason…sometimes I just eat stuff that I’m just not proud of and am embarrassed to share (although that’s the whole point of this!)

And after taking a look at all of my diet choices over the past couple weeks, I realized that I haven’t made all the best decisions.

My strict diet regimen seems like it’s becoming not so strict recently.  When I look at some of the stuff I’ve eaten, I think to myself “really”?

The foods that I reserve for my binge days have started being eaten on my regular days which is simply not acceptable.

Bottom line, I’ve let some foods sneak in that have no business being in my diet… I haven’t been sticking to my goals!

And that got me thinking…

…what’s different?

Well, I’ve come to a conclusion that I really think is my dilema.

I’ve found that I have the most success achieving my goals when my goals are CRYSTAL CLEAR.

I’m not talking about just saying “I want to get skinny” (What does that mean anyway?).

I’m talking real specific.

If I want to get skinny, what does that really mean?  How much weight do I want to lose?  How much body fat do I want to lose and most importantly, by WHEN?

For me, crystal clear deadlines are absolutely imperative.  Otherwise I just kind of drift off my path and think that I’ll get to something later.

And the other thing that’s crucial for me… cold, hard, data.

My wakeup call came when I was looking at the pictures and seeing where I REALLY was with my progress.  As they say, a picture’s worth a thousand words and without having them, I feel lost.

Even though I didn’t have every one of my progress pictures, in this case the LACK of real data served as a big motivator.  I need something to go off of so that I can make informed decisions about myself, not just some random decisions based off nothing more than my gut.

So with that being the case, my current stats are as follows:

Weight: 195

Body Fat: 11.5%

My goal is:

Weight: 185

Body Fat: 8%

All by the first of August.

Let’s see how I do

Cheers!

Curt

Ever heard the term “FitSpo” before?

I hadn’t until just recently…

As I was digging through my tumblr account (cough, www.curtsfitnessjourney.tumblr.com, cough), I came across quite a few posts that were tagged as “fitspo”.

Being a curious guy that’s passionate about fitness, I decided to dig a little deeper and see what I could find…

Well, after a few minutes it became crystal clear to me what was going on. “FitSpo” seems to be a whole new type of community aimed directly at the fitness crowd to help stay motivated and motivate others.

It’s pretty cool actually.

As I was browsing through my Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram searching the “FitSpo” tag, I came across images and posts like these:

Pretty powerful if you ask me.

As someone that’s really visual and loves to get inspired by people that are out there doing, and creating the life that they want, I absolutely love the concept.

I’m going to be adding FitSpo to my blog here but if you’d like to see some of my other FitSpo posts, you can follow my tumblr blog at www.curtsfitnessjourney.tumblr.com and my Pinterest account at http://pinterest.com/curtsfitness/

Now get out there and work it!

Cheers!

–Curt

You wake up early to get that workout in.

You’re tired, don’t want to get out of bed but you know that you should.  You know that you’ll look and feel better after your workout.

We’ve all been there…

Just Do It.

There are so many times that you simply don’t feel like doing what you know you should do.  It’s nothing new, but you know that you’ll grow and become better if you just do it.

Don’t let your brain talk you out of what you know you should do.

This is your life.  This is for you.

Just Do It!

Have you Tabata’d?

It’s honestly become one of my favorite types of workouts…

If you haven’t heard of Tabata yet, here’s a quick little rundown.

Basically,  it’s a super aerobic cardio workout that just destroys me.

Instead of doing the treadmill for 30 minutes at say, 60-70% of your max, you break the exercise down into 4, excruciating minutes of extreme intensity.

It’s a 4 minutes workout broken down into 8 smaller segments.  Each segment consists of a 20 second, all out push, followed by a 10 second rest.  Then you repeat.

Somewhere out there there are studies that talk about the benefits of high intensity training (I’m really too lazy to go and find the studies, if you don’t believe me, Google it ).  High Intensity training gets your heart rate up, burns more calories and helps you burn fat quicker than if you just slowly but surely go through your workout.

Since I tend to get bored really quickly and easily with my workouts, this has been a nice little addition.  Not only do I get my workouts done quicker than I ever did before, but I’m starting to see results quicker (and isn’t that we all want anyway?).

I got introduced to Tabata’s in my spin class but now I’m trying to incorporate it into more and more of my workouts.

I figure if it works for spin, It’ll probably work for other stuff too right?

We shall see!

Cheers!

Curt

Ever heard that the best time to get your workout in is early in the morning?  My gut is you have…

But have you ever wondered why that is?

Well, there’s a ton of reasons that different folks will give you as to why it makes sense to workout early.  Some will tell you that working out early kick starts your metabolism and you will see the best results if you get your workout done as soon as you wake up.

Personally, I don’t really care about the science behind it.

The reason why I like to get my workout in early before work (at like 6am!) is because it’s been the absolute best way for me to get into a routine and make sure I actually get that workout done!

Think about it…

If you’re anything like me you’ve got a busy life.  A life that more likely than not that tires you out throughout the day.

Well, odds are you’ve probably encountered a few days that have just been overwhelming.  Days that you just wanted everything to be over.  Days where you wanted to get the heck out of the office (or whatever else you do on a daily basis), get home, get yourself a drink and veg on the couch.

Hey, we’ve all been there.

But the problem is…

…when days like that happen, your odds of getting to the gym and getting your workout in are slim to none.

Let’s face it, on days like those, the last thing you want to do is get yourself to the gym.  You’re exhausted and just want to relax right?

And then, if you’re like me, you may just get into this cycle of being overwhelmed with what’s going on in your life that now you can’t seem to find the time to get your workout in.

Sound familiar?

It happens.

I’ve been there numerous times and that’s why I decided to make the change and make sure I get my butt into the gym early.  Before work, before any of the craziness of my life can even start!

That way, I don’t have an excuse NOT to go to the gym.  The only real excuse I could come up with is that I was too tired but that really wasn’t a good excuse.

After about a week or so, my body adjusted, and I made some other minor adjustments (which I’ll talk about later) and now I truly can’t imagine not working out before I get to work.

It’s become a ritual for me.

Something that helps me focus on me and gets me ready to take on the day.

When I don’t go to the gym before work, I feel all out of whack and feel like I don’t have the same productivity.

And… if you’re really into the whole science thing, studies have shown that people that workout early are more likely to do it regularly than people that don’t.

Therefore, people that workout early kick ass and are in better shape .

But in all seriousness, I truly do believe that people become more regular when it’s the first thing they do in the morning.  It keeps you in the flow of things and as a result, you’ll be more likely to get those workouts done and achieve those results that you’re looking for.

And that’s all you really care about anyway isn’t it?

Till next time…

Cheers!

-Curt

I got this idea from Scott over at YourInnerSkinney and I figured I might as well propose the challenge to everyone that follows this blog as well (and at the very least, document my progress since I’m a data geek).

Anyway, the challenge is very simple.  You’re going to start doing burpees every single day for the next 30 days and each day you’re going to add an additional burpee.

What that means is, if you start with 5 burpees today, you add 1 tomorrow doing 6 total burpees.  And the process just repeats for 30 days until eventually you do 35 burpees on your last day!

Now, if you don’t know what a burpee is, here’s how you do it:

1. Begin in a standing position.
2. Drop into a squat position with your hands on the ground.
3. Kick your feet back to put yourself in a pushup plank position
4. Now reverse the movement by returning your feet back towards your hands to the squat position
5. Stand back up. That’s 1 burpee.

Here’s a video that Scott made showing you how to do it:

You can make this as difficult or as easy as you’d like (I’m not really sure how you could make it easy but whatever).

As for me, I feel like I’m a pretty fit guy so I’m going to go ahead and start with 5 burpees and do the intermediate challenge (I’m also going to do them at the end of my workouts so I’ll probably be more fatigued by then).

I’ll be curious to see how this goes…

Cheers!

-Curt

Cardio is an essential piece of the whole body fat losing equation but have you ever thought to yourself that you’re constantly doing cardio and just don’t seem to get the results that you’re looking (and hoping) for?

Well, I’ve been in that same boat for quite a while.

…Spending hours upon hours of elliptical and treadmill training and just feeling like I’m not getting the results that I should be getting.

Actually, that’s a complete lie.  Cardio is boring as hell for me so I generally can only stomach 30 minutes at a time, max.

But that’s not the point.

After doing some digging on the good ole’ interwebs, I came across quite a few different resources saying that the whole “fat burning” zone that you see on the treadmills and exercise bikes at the gym are just a bunch of hogwash.

Based on how I understand it, you may burn more fat calories in that zone but if you do quicker, shorter bursts at maximum exertion, you’ll burn more calories as a whole and as a result, start seeing that fat melt away.

And that’s the exact experience that I started seeing for myself.

Once I started incorporating more of what’s called interval training (short bursts at maximum exertion followed by a rest only to repeat it all over again), I started to see the results a lot quicker.  Not to mention, this was way more fun since I wasn’t just sitting on a machine for 30 minutes+ doing the same ole’ same ole’.

Now that makes sense doesn’t it?

Think about the people in our society that are generally the most fit.  I think we can all agree that athletes tend to be in the best shape and have killer bodies right?

Do you think athletes get that way by sitting on an exercise bike for 30 minutes a day?

Hell no!

They work their ass off doing constant movement and bursts of maximum exertion.  This burns more calories and the fat just starts to melt away.

It’s really that simple.

So, since I’m not an athlete anymore in the traditional sense, I found a couple of ways that I’ve been using that has put me on the path to getting those same types of results.

The first thing I did, as I mentioned above, was to start to incorporate interval training on those days that I would be doing cardio training on my own.  I would pick a cardio machine, set it to different resistances throughout my workout and rotate between going on an absolute sprint for anywhere from 30-60 seconds and then taking a rest for anywhere between 1-2 minutes.

Just repeating the process over again for about 30 minutes…

This was a way for me to start having some more fun during my cardio workouts since it wasn’t just the same ole’ same ole’ throughout the whole workout.  I had to constantly be engaged, looking at the timer and adjusting myself accordingly.

The second thing that I did was find a class that promotes this same type of training.  I’m a super high energy person and classes are just an awesome way for me to use my energy and feed off of other people’s.

For me, Indoor Cycling has become a very regular part of my life and I absolutely love it.  It gives me an ass kicking workout, ensures that I’m absolutely drenched at the end and makes me feel energized and empowered to take on the day when I’m done.

For the best results, I’ve found that mixing up my routine and not doing the same thing every time has made a massive difference.  Indoor cycling is fun and all but if your body gets used to it, your S.O.L. and won’t get the same results.

By changing things up I’ve found that my body doesn’t plateau and get used to any particular routine and as a result, my results have come way quicker that they ever have before.

As I spend more and more time in the office, I find myself looking for ways to keep myself semi active throughout the work day.  I can’t stand just sitting in a chair all day.  Not to mention, I read an article recently (don’t know where) that said something along the lines of the more sit, the quicker you die.

Not exactly what I wanted to read.

Anyway, one of the things that I’ve recently incorporated into my daily routine is a quick, 10 push up routine at every hour.

Push ups are insanely good for your whole body.  You not only work your chest but it serves as a great core workout when you do it right (hint: make sure you keep your core engaged when you do them, or in more simple terms, suck your belly in). I’m sure it works some other stuff too but those are the things that I notice when I do them.

The only note that I would add is to try and keep each rep in a slow and controlled manner.  I generally do a 2 count on the way down and then on the way up to keep my body more in control.  I notice I feel it a lot more when I do it that way as opposed to just busting them out quickly.

This quick and simple addition to my day has been a nice little break from my daily work routine and I can honestly say that after doing it for about a month or 2, I can see a difference in the way my chest has developed.

Give it a shot and if you feel so inclined, let me know how you feel after doing them!

Happy working out (and working)!

-Curt