My Journey Thus Far.......

"Making the Impossible, POSSIBLE!"

My Daily Routine in Detail!

Everyone has been asking me for a detailed daily routine of mine.  Here it goes!


I wake up at 6 in the morning to get ready for work.

I'm not a huge breakfast person so I try to make breakfast fast and quick since I am also making my lunch during this time.

Breakfast
Oatmeal with fresh blueberries, strawberries and bananas
Sweetened with natural honey.
Water to Drink

Lunch

Half Grilled Chicken sandwich on Whole Wheat Fiber Bread with lettuce only

Fresh fruit salad

Kellog's Cracker Crisp

Stila Bites (Dessert)

Water

I get off of work at 4:30 and I head straight to the Gym

I start my workout with cardio

I run 3 miles a day. I prefer to run outside but running on a treadmill is also a great source of Cardio.

After cardio I go straight in my core circuit

Start off with 30 crunches on exercise ball

Then 15x3 leg lifts (15 middle, 15 to left oblique and 15 to right obliques)

Then 15 oblique twist with medicine ball

I rotate through the Circuit 4 Times

My workout routine takes about and hour and a half

Time for Dinner!

Dinner

Grilled Salmon

Grilled Shrimp

Steamed Brocoli

Water

A little stretching before bed to help with soreness!

That Completes My Day!

Intimidation At Its Highest!

For some, the hardest part of working out is not the cardio, the leg presses or even the stationary-bike classes -- it's walking into the gym.

This I would say had to be my biggest struggle. Every time I walked into the gym, the first thing I thought was that everyone who saw me walking in would be like, “yup, he definitely needs to be here!”

For this reason, I took it upon my self to start on my own without the gym. The local Recreation Center has a track open to the public at no costs. I did my cardio everyday there. I went to the local Wal-Mart and bought a fitness ball to do Abdominal workouts. 

For the first 2 months, I did all my working-out at the track and at home, All because the gym was way too intimidating to me. After some weight came off, I signed up at the gym, but made a conscience effort to get there “when there seemed to be the least amount of people!”

People may think health clubs are filled with incredible hulks and smiling supermodels, surrounded by mysterious, sinister-looking weights and machines. In other words, the gym can be intimidating.

The truth is, no one's perfect. And everyone is at the gym for the same reason -- to improve.

Gyms have every kind of person -- young, old, skinny, heavy, male and female.

"Everyone at the gym is in the same situation, and not everyone is a 20-year-old bodybuilder." "Going to the gym for the first time is like the first day of school. You may not like it, it may seem strange and lots of people hate it. But you get through it and you do fine."

With that in mind, you can start to move past your intimidation. And one day soon, you just might find yourself completely at home in the gym, wondering what all that anxiety was about.

More Examples of My Meals

Tilapia with Broccoli and Fresh Strawberries and Blueberries

Oatmeal with Fresh Strawberries and Blueberries and Sweetened with a hint of Natural Honey

Grilles Chicken, Sliced Tomatoes and Steamed Broccoli 

Grilled Chicken and Brocoli

Half Tuna Sandwich on Fiber Bread with NO Mayo, just straight Tuna. Fresh Strawberries and Grapes with a serving size of Kellog's Cracker Crisp

Shrimp Wrap. Fresh Fruit Salad makes a great side!

Shrimp and Brocoli!

My 8 Month Progress!

I have now lost a total of 125 pounds since November 18, 2011.

My core has been my main focus lately. 

After I complete my daily cardio, I do 30 minutes of Abs.

Exercising and Music

My sister asked me the other day, "Who did you go running with?"

I simply replied, "with Rihanna, Usher, Beyonce, Fun., LMFAO, Pit Bull"

If it wasn't for music and artist like these, I honestly think I wouldn't be where I am now with my accomplished weight loss.

Fitness music will enhance your workout in many ways. Music helps to relax you, energize you, motivate you and regulate the pace of your movement. 

Here are five exercise benefits of fitness music:

1. Mental Stimulation

One of the challenges of exercise for some people is that it can get boring. If exercise has become a chore for you, consider listening to music while you work out. It will keep your mind busy. Listening to music may seem like it demands nothing from your mind but, in reality, it does.

When you listen to music, your brain is sorting through rhythms, timing, tones and the sequence of pitches and sounds in order to understand and appreciate the music. Listening to music actually stimulates the frontal lobe of your brain, which is generally involved in advanced thought processes. When you listen to music while exercising, you are giving your brain something to do.

2. Increases Enjoyment

When you’re lost in the enjoyment of your favorite music while exercising, time goes by faster. If you’re just starting your day, the combination of music and exercise can energize you and lift your mood for the rest of the day. If you tend to exercise at the end of the day, listening to music while working out can help you to relax and unwind from a stressful or tiring day.

3. Increases Exercise Intensity

If your goal is to get a really good workout, choose faster tempo music. The body has a tendency to move in time with the rhythm of the music. You have probably noticed other people naturally tapping their feet to music without even realizing it themselves. When your goal is to push yourself to the next level, whether you are lifting weights, doing aerobics or running up a hill, listening to high energy, fast-paced music will increase your energy and help your muscles to move faster and to demonstrate more strength.

4. Increases Motivation

One of the benefits of music is that it can be rejuvenating and energizing. If you don’t feel like exercising on some days, just turn on some music first. You may find yourself feeling more excited about moving around. Music is a great motivator. It creates excitement and may push you to get going with your workout.

5. Assists with Warm Up and Cool Down

Every workout should start with a proper warm up. This is essential to get the blood flowing, to stretch your muscles and to prevent injury. For warm up music you may want choose pieces that start off with a slower tempo and build slowly.

For your cool down, select fitness music that is slower paced and with less complicated rhythms. You want to give your body the signal that the workout is coming to an end. Your heart rate needs to decrease gradually. You can follow your cool down with classical music or an instrumental piece of music that you find exhilarating and relaxing.

Importance of a Cheat Meal

When reading this, take into consideration that I allowed myself only 1 cheat meal a week
 and stuck to water as beverage.

Motivation

Cheat meals may help you stay focused and maintain your diet plan by allowing you to occasionally enjoy otherwise "forbidden" foods. These occasional indulgences help break the monotony of low-fat and low-calorie dieting, and may help you resist the temptation to give up on your weight loss goals. Cheat meals may give you the psychological break you need to avoid dieting burnout.

Convenience

Planning cheat meals is an essential part of participating in social activities. Many dieters find it difficult to eat at restaurants and social gatherings where counting calories and identifying fattening ingredients can be challenging. A cheat meal can also help you deal with busy days when preparing meals from scratch is not possible. Cheat meals are also useful for traveling, when diet-friendly options may not be available.

Metabolism Management

Some diet plan advocates believe that, over time, consistent dieting may result in slowed weight loss. Dieters commonly believe that taking one or two planned cheat meals per week may "confuse" your metabolism, which may allow your body to continue burning stored fats as fuel. However, there is no scientific evidence linking cheat meals to weight loss.

Considerations

Although an occasional cheat meal can help keep you from becoming bored with your diet, and may facilitate continued weight loss, allowing yourself more than one or two cheat meals per week may be counterproductive. Cheat meals typically pack in hundreds of extra calories, which can cause you to regain weight that you have worked to lose. Although cheat meals allow you to enjoy the occasional indulgence, you should exercise common sense and portion control to prevent weight gain.

Limit it to 1 Cheat Meal per Week!