courtesy of joeltelling

It’s not much, but it’s a push towards the right direction.  I started off the year with a blank calendar.  Every day I did some exercise and marked an X on that day.  Right now I’m 34 days into it and feel good about my small accomplishment.  I have a full calendar month of X’s

So far, my exercise has been minimal: pushups, situps, body weight squats, and the occasional walk.  The change has been minimal too.  I have lost zero weight, but that’s to be expected because I’ve been eating like a madman.  I can’t say that I notice any difference in my appearance.  What I do notice is that I feel a little stronger and have more energy.  My plan is to keep this up as long as I can and start cutting back on my food intake.  

For now though, I’ll just enjoy my small success and keep plugging forward.

courtesy of Christmas w/a K

I’m having moderate success with my daily exercise commitment.  I’ve managed to exercise a little bit every day since the beginning of the year.  I’m feeling more energized during the day and I feel a little stronger than when I started.  That’s the good from this.

Now for the bad.  It’s cold.  When it’s cold like this, I have zero desire to get out and do some appropriate cardio.  Also, when I’m stuck inside I tend to eat more.  I’m eating better than I used to, but my calorie intake isn’t low enough to yield weight loss.  My weight is basically just holding steady.

So, in summary:  I’m still exercising daily.  It’s not enough.  I’m eating too much.  My weight is holding steady.

Hello and welcome to your first Weekly Geek Workout; a weekly workout supplement that will take your love for tech, movies, and all things geeky, and use it to whip your ass into shape.  The goal is to provide a daily exercise or two to add to your normal workout regiment.  Which exercise and how much you do is all based on the weekly theme and your geek cred based on that theme.  This is a fun way to push your workout just a little harder, but remember, this is meant to be added onto your normal workout.  If you are too sore or tired to do everything, then don’t!

This week is for all of you Twitter junkies out there.  If your anything like me, Twitter is a source of infinite distraction and increased screen-time.  But not this week!  Oh, no.  This week, it’s time for your Tweet tooth to take a healthy turn. (Tweet tooth… Get it?  I just made that up.  I’m the funniest, most cleverest guy I know!)  ready?  Well then, here we go:

Monday – Upper Body

Take the square root of your total number of twitter updates (on the top right of your twitter profile).  Do that number of push-ups.  For example, I would need to do 15 push-ups.  I got off easy!  Poor Leo Laporte has to do 40… Sorry Leo.

Tuesday – Abs

Head over to TweetStats, enter your twitter name, and click ‘Graph My Tweets!’.  Take the number of tweets from your most active month and divide it by your tweets per day.  Do that number of crunches and hold a left and right side plank for that number of seconds.  For example, I would do 34 crunches (55 tweets during my most active month divided by 1.6 tweets per day), a side plank for 34 seconds, and then a second side plank on the other side for 34 seconds.  If your numbers come out to be unreasonable, just do what you can, but remember to push yourself.

Wednesday – Cardio

Today will be fun!  Today, I will assume you use a Twitter app like Thwirl or Twitterrific, an app that gives an audio notification upon receiving a new tweet.  Turn up the volume on the computer, and every time you hear a new tweet, stand up and do 30 jumping jacks.  Every time you get an @ reply (someone posts a message with @yourname in the message), run in place for one minute.  Do this all day.  You can even do this at work, unless you will get fired, of course.

Thursday – Lower Body

Click on the profile of the person that has the newest tweet.  Take the square root of their total updates, like you for yourself on Monday.  That will be the total number of leg exercises to do.  Start doing ten repetitions of each of the following exercises: squats, lunges (alternating legs), mountain climbers.  Keep rotating until you meet the total number of leg exercises.

Friday – Flexibility

Go to your Twitter home page.  Count the number of unique posting methods from each of your followers.  This is the section at the end of each message that says: “xx seconds ago from PLACE.”  Double the number of unique posting methods and do a variety of stretches for that many minutes.  For example, the people I follow have posted from the web, twitterrific, TweetDeck, and TwitterFon.  So I would need to do 8 minutes of stretches.  You can find plenty of stretching routines on the web, but you can start here, here, or here.

That’s It!

You’re done.  I hope you had fun with this.  Please let me know how you did, whether you enjoyed it or not, what you did different, etc.  I also want to remind you that I am not a professional, so anything I recommend or suggest has no medical basis.  Please consult your doctor to make sure you are capable of doing the exercises presented here.  Please keep checking back for updates to this series, such as the weekly geek workout for coders and the weekly geek workout for social networking nerds.  If you have any ideas, please email me or just leave a comment.  As always: Have fun and stay active!

George

I’m happy to report that I’m turning this fat ass ship around and heading back towards my goals.  I started off this year with a calendar to mark off every day that I exercise.  I just finished out Day #8, and I have to admit that the chain of “X”s are starting to motivate me.  Every day I’m trying to do something be it walking, pushups, sit ups, squats, lunges, whatever.  Anything that makes the heart pump a little faster and cause some sweat.  

Starting out like this is a slow process, but it keeps me from getting burnt out.  I haven’t lost any noticable weight, but I’m feeling better.  I never realize how crappy I feel when I’m not exercising and eating too much until I start back.  My energy level is up and I feel good.

Courtesy of ShutterMoth

Here we are.  Another year has gone by and I still have the same top priority resolution on my list, losing weight.  Last year I managed to end the year losing about 20 pounds, but I fell short of my goal to lose 45 pounds.  At one point I was only 15 pounds away from my goal, but I fell off the wagon and gained some back.

Failing is really rough on me.  With everything else in my life, I’ve been able to do what I’ve put my mind to.  Why is losing weight so different?  I wish I knew; I suppose I’d be a rich man if I did.  All I can do is keep trying.  Eventually something has to stick, right?

Last year wasn’t a total failure.  I did manage to lose some weight.  I was doing good for the first 3/4 of the year.  After that I stopped exercising and let my diet go a little bit.  I didn’t fall all the way into my old terrible eating habits, but I did slack a bit.  The lesson for me there is that I have to stay diligent.  I’ve come to accept that this is going to be a life long struggle for me.  My father was overweight and never got a hold of his problem.  He died at the age of 41.  I can’t let that become my fate.

Here’s to a new year and a new struggle.  I wish the best to you and yours.  Stay tuned, this just may be the year when I reach my goal.  You wouldn’t want to miss that, now would you?

This has been a spectacularly crappy month for me.  I ended th month at 267 lbs which puts me at a 1.2 pound gain!  The month started off with a week of vacationing and overindulgence.  After vacation I didn’t jump back on things like I should have; so I basically just maintained.  Just look at the graph.

October Weight Loss Update

Losing weight is going to be hard these last 2 months.  It’s getting colder, and I really won’t feel like running in the freezing temperatures.  I’m going to give it a go though because losing weight is all about momentum.  I’m sure the holidays won’t do much to help, but I can be good on the non holiday days.  I need to finish this year strong!