Here’s the favorite. It’s shaped like a dog. Burns 250 cals in 40 mins. Not enough.

Here’s a new route I took today. Shaped like uh.. 300 cals in 1 hour. Hmm. Well. I need to double this. Maybe tomorrow.

First: no guilt. Sleeping in made me feel guilty. The whole world was up and cranking except for me. Sure I had sufficient sleep and they didn’t, and I was really productive in the evenings, but it just didn’t ever sit totally well with me. Especially at the start of the day. I was in this pattern for years. Waking early completely eliminates this guilt.

Second: I am more active, thus more healthy. The hard part is physically getting out of bed. It helps to remind myself that my health isn’t free. I have to work at it. It also helps that I look forward to feeling pumped up and happy with my appearance. Waking early affords me a daily workout before work.

The bad news is that my favorite bike route, which takes 40 minutes, only burns 250 calories. That makes the stationary bike more efficient, burning around 450 cals in 45 minutes. Plus it’s fat zone burning.

Real biking has a more random heart rate, going up and down hills. As such, the burn keeps going even after the workout and might actually get to 350 calories total.

It’s a hit worth taking in my opinion. The air and scenery is quite refreshing. Maybe I’ll find a longer route. No way I’m stationary biking instead of real biking. Fresh air or stanky old gym? Hmm. Yeah, no contest.

Somebody knows me.

Had a morning of productivity. It was overcast but not too cold. Brought a good camera to kill some time with.

Pedal, pedal, pedal.

Watch the people lift. Watch lips move on TVs.

Pedal, pedal.

Listen to that Lady Gaga song again. Wipe away some sweat.

Pedal, pedal, pedal.

It’s okay. Only 45 minutes.

Certainly beats burning no calories playing Halo or over stressing at work. And I am ripe with endorphins when it’s over.

But there’s another option. We could be shooting for the “my top performance” ideal.

More difficult. Perhaps preferable.

Mary retweeted a good article from the New York Times, “Slimmer Doesn’t Always Mean Fitter”, that speaks to this. I think the title misleads it as an “overweight is okay” message, but it isn’t.

If I am the best performing me I can possibly be, I think I’d be okay with, or maybe too focussed on performance to worry about, love handles.

However, some are trying. And still failing. Frustrating. Not fair? Maybe.

I biked every day for months with no weight loss. However, my calorie intake wasn’t controlled. As soon as it was, I was losing 10 pounds per month.

Find what works and keep doing it. Even though…

“I wish I could get sweet abs in one workout.” I am impatient. Progress takes weeks and months, not days.

“Once sweet abs are in place, I wish they’d stay that way even though I skip workouts and eat unhealthfully.” This isn’t a diet, it’s the new lifestyle. I need to stop thinking in terms of an “end date”.

“I wish I could keep losing weight even though the only change I make is cutting out soda and sometimes going hungry.” Go hard or go home.

“I am trying but there is no progress.” Try something else for a couple weeks. Never give up, as they say.

I think the addition of my night workouts over the past 2 weeks has been an excellent switch up. It freaked out my body into progressing again, it seems.

I believe that sweet abs are the product of ongoing and intentional behavior over time. Not by occasional behavior. Not by starving.

What we do is our lifestyle. Healthy lifestyle, healthy body. That is not a goal, it’s a way of being.

Try not, Dave. Do.

Here’s a recent report after I entered in a day’s food. This represents a repeating daily intake.

Protein / Carb / Fat chart

I think the “normal” split is like 60-30-10 (carb-protein-fat). The high protein is from my 6 protein shakes, since I am trying to build muscle. It is probably working; I need to start measuring my arms and whatnot. I have 2 workouts a day (morning weights, cardio nights), so there is protein before and after each of those, then 2 in the middle of the day. I could probably safely cut a protein shake and add a carb to balance a little better, but still fighting fat in my mid section. And when I say fighting… I mean it. My abs are getting hard from 100 crunches/day, it’s just that darn 3/8″ layer of fat still hiding them.

Daily recommendation comparison

First line is actual quantity, second line is recommended quantity (for my adjusted needs, not everyone is 2000/cals day of course), third line is actual percentage based on the top 2 lines.

I am really happy with my “sugars” number – that is super easy to get into the 400% range. That’s why I cut out fruit, mostly, in favor of occasional berries.

I cranked up my fiber to clean up the result of what I am blaming on dietary imbalance.

My muscle build v. fat burn conundrum

I burn 800 cals/day with the workouts. That still puts me in diet mode, 600 cals below maintenance. As far as gaining muscle weight, I realize I need to get my calories closer to 3000/day, but have trouble doing that because the remaining fat still bothers me so much. The muscle gains are currently more about “definition” than “size” being that my calories are thus limited.

Are you tracking yours?

If you don’t already have a way to track your numbers, I heartily recommend Livestrong’s.

How do you track your meals? Put it in the comments!

That followed 20 minutes on an elliptical to make up my 45 min self
imposed night requirement.

It produced a solid sweat. Wasn’t bad. I kept the speed pretty steady the whole time.

I was sleep deprived today, so at points I closed my eyes while peddling. Not many exercises you can pull that off with.

My night gym is different than my morning gym. The night one has two levels. The top level is cardio equipment, which is what I use there. I get to look down on the weight lifters and trainers and weight machines for 45 minutes a night. I love people watching, and doing it in the gym is especially entertaining.

There are a few sculpted dudes, but it’s mostly chubby older people. The babes are all next door doing yoga. Their yoga room has glass walls so one might watch them as well, doing their laying around and stretching “exercises”. Is that burning many calories?! Lori likes it so I can’t be too harsh. Ha. Ha-assanna.

It is in an older neighborhood, a little run down and stinky, actually.

Also the lockers are too small.

The downsides are acceptable because it’s the only gym around with available cardio machines at 6pm.

When the time changes in a couple weeks, I shall be happily ditching the night gym for real bike riding. That exercise being my lifelong favorite. I am known for taking lots of pics on these rides. Lovely scenery, even for this over developed area.

Some, like Lori, are nappers. Me not. When I wake up, I feel like I need a shower. I feel greasy. And I can’t live or work greasy the rest of the day.

But then again I’ve been doing a bunch of new things lately, maybe I should give it a shot. And, wait a second, my first gym visit of the day is without a shower.

Maybe I am capable of it now. One way to find out. Just need a clear opportunity to do it. That could be a challenge.

Do you nap?

How did biking stick when no other exercise would? It was fun. Loved it as a kid, love it now. I was so excited on the first day biking that I went 20 miles round trip! Paid for it of course, but I knew I would love it and I did. After a week or so, my butt healed, I got a more padded seat and I went back for more and more.

I biked in the evenings, since my days started late and it got dark late, and I love evenings. However when the time changed and it got dark at 5pm, it wasn’t the same. I adapted to biking in the dark, but I was tending to want to explore other exercises. Jump rope, turns out. But that’s another story.

Anyhow, the time will change again on March 14th, and the sunset will be around 6:30pm. If I can get home from work around 5:30pm, that will be enough time to start the biking again.

So, now that I think about it, I’ll stay on my night gym routine until the time change. Then, on March 15th, I’ll restart my nightly biking. I am so excited!

My ride tonight was awesome! I took my old favorite route up to The Tree. This has a view of the ocean and beautiful, rolling, undeveloped hills, some with orange groves. I’ve taken many a picture up there, and here I go again, as you can see below.

It was around 60 degrees tonight at 5:30pm. I wore a sweatshirt, which is unusual for me. I didn’t sweat like I used to back then. Good sign. Still a nice long challenge. Got my heart rate up decently. Certainly comparable to hanging out on an elliptical for 45 minutes. I’ll wear my GoWearFit and measure the calories next time. I am curious to figure the calories on my favorite ride, now that I think about it.

The Tree – the place where I celebrate being an animal… Nothing kinky, just a lot of endorphins, by this point.