For the average person, working out does many things. It relieves stress, keeps fat from building or if you’re like me, it’s a way to get fat off the body.

Now, if you’re the President of the United States? Staying in shape would be a pretty big priority these days, unlike like say, William Howard Taft.

But as Michelle Malkin points out, why does one President who works out consistantly gets treated with disdain, while one gets promoted as “cool” for showing off his metrosexual hairless chest on the beach?

Fit Republican president = Selfish, indulgent, creepy fascist.

Fit Democratic president = Disciplined, health-conscious Adonis role model.

I can see why Rodale loves Obama. He fits in well with their idealized vision of what a man “should” look like. Not to pile on Men’s Health too, much I’ve said it before, ever since they booted Greg Gutfeld and then let Ted Rall into their rag, it’s been nothing but a rocketsled to hell for that magazine.

See, their ideal man seems to want or need overpriced clothes or $1,000 watches, more products than your average woman uses and of course hairless chests for their covermodels.

Working out is still a good thing, I just wish the media would be consistent on whether or not a President who remains fit should be a good as well.

Way back when, I used to be a subscriber of Men’s Health back when Greg Gutfeld ran the magazine. After he left, there was a change in tone of the magazine, one that was obvious. And I’m not talking about them bringing in Ted Rall (Ted Rall?!) as a cartoonist. It was more along the line of Men’s Health becoming an advocate more than just looking out for male health.

The other annoying thing with Men’s Health is their publisher, Rodale. They have this peculiar habit of shipping books to you, expect you to pay $30-$40 for said book and of course (if not entirely satisfied), ship it back before the time expires. Well to me, that’s a pain in arse I don’t need to deal with. And it also gets me to one thing with their fitness books, which I do have a couple of just to clear that up.

They have so many to try to comprehend, it boggles the mind. Now depending on what you want, that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Good in that you’ll have lots of options…bad if you’re just trying to wrap your head around basic workouts.

Then there’s the idea, if you’re beyond the basics, of the whole isolation and functional workouts. Isolation exercises seem to be thought of as the land of body-builders. Functional exercises are for athletes.

So what’s a regular non-athlete/non-body-builder supposed to do? Read the rest of this entry »

Hey look! A weight loss post…been hyped up over something “else” lately that I completely ignored my new aversion. No, it’s not about skipping working out or turning to Atkins. Speaking of Atkins…fruit flies? Really, fruit flies? Makes me think of the cancer studies when they force feed a mouse gallons of something they wish to demonize. Sorry, not a mouse and certainly not a fruit fly loose-skinners.

Anyway, one thing I’m really changing in my workouts is going back to something that worked for me in high school: hoisting iron.

I’ve come to the realization (I know I sound shocked here) that using resistance bands aren’t going to help me in the fat-burning process. I know I know, people swear by them, but in order to speed up the fat-burning metabolism process I need muscle on my body and rubber bands with handles aren’t cutting it at the moment. I need IRON. I need a bench. I need a rack. Squat rack that is.

And that’s all I’ll need. That and a simple gym of course. Nothing too fancy. Don’t need a trainer either. I’ve remembered enough about weight-lifting to not need someone regurgitating the stuff they get with their certification. Or here. Or there….how many damned ones are there anyway? Sorry if any trainers or trainer-defenders who may stumble upon this, but for the amount of money some wish to charge to be nothing more than spotters, no thanks.

Now I realize hoisting iron in a gym may sound like I AM going down the path of the trainers, since it’s presumably their turf. But also realize I’m here to lose weight by not super-restricting myself or dieting or doing things I don’t wish to do. I’ve seen the future and it involves dumb bells, benches, squats and pull-up bars. Well, not futuristic like a Bow-Flex, but it’ll do.

As I rapidly approach the end of the first week, I am resigned to one simple fact about the whole idea of the weight loss challenge concept and that is it can be very boring for someone to read. Even worse, it’s just as boring to write about what I ate the other day. Bo-ring.

With that in mind, I’m going to continue with my own weight-loss challenge. I’m going to continue to workout without a gym. I’m going to continue to eat things that I like and not apologize for it. I’m going to continue to push back against the hordes of food Nazis and the no-fun brigades out there.

Look at things this way: Push-ups over bench press. Squats over leg press. Using the body as the mechanism for weigh loss is kinda sorta old-school. Think Rocky IV where Rocky trained by running in the snow with a log on his back and the vile Soviet used machines and had crap pumped into him. Well, maybe a goofy analogy, but it holds. A lot of people these days equate weight loss with going to a gym or finding the newest piece of equipment that makes things easier for them. But losing weight isn’t easy and it certainly isn’t comfortable.

So from here on out, when I talk about losing weight/working out in the future, I’ll throw in some ideas of what I’m doing and what I’ve found other people are doing as well. I’m just not going to turn this into a “Hey, I ate 1400 calories the other day!” journal. If anything, it’ll be “Hey, I worked out this morning and I just had a butter burger and fries for lunch and I feel great!”

Beginning this new course in my life has already taken strange twists and turns. And it’s only been a week! I’ve been editing out some things from my earlier posts and creating some new ones. An upcoming post will probably spell out where I’m truly going with this weight loss challenge I have for myself. That being said, I know it’s bad etiquette to heavily tinker with a published post (or is it?), but events the very week I started this have motivated me and is taking me in a different direction than what I first laid out.

Funny how that works out…plan for A and get run right smack into C.

Just like with my initial diet/exercise post where you gotta want to do it, same thing goes when you actually start what is you’re going to do. You’ve got to at least like it. That’s what personal trainers and others sometimes don’t take into account it seems. They put together a “phe..nomenal” routine for you which busts your ass, but at the same time you dread it. How often does that happen?

Now I’m not saying I know more than a personal trainer, but quite a few of them are more worried about selling you stuff or throwing out the standard fluff to keep you at their club.

August 19th, I went to McDonalds and had a southwest salad with grilled chicken. And then for dinner, I met up with a good friend for some chinese. Now, sounds like I over did it, but really, I had smaller portions and didn’t eat a lot during the day. It’s just little things like that which can make all the difference.

Well, nearing the end of the Day One.

Officially, I ate over 1800 calories, but I exercised early this morning. Not making excuses, it’s the nature of me. See, not only am I large, I’m tall. 6′5″ to be exact. I would be remiss if I didn’t say a standard “diet” would make me feel jittery since I’d have no energy. But as first days go, I feel great already.

Pretty soon, I’m going to start new program for myself. But I haven’t weighed myself today. I do know I’m around 315 pounds…approximately. Now, I’m not going to define success for me by what I weigh. It’s how things feel on me.

I used to wear 4XL t-shirts…talk about tarps. I’m now down to 2XL t-shirts and they’re beginning to feel bigger on me. I went from a size 52 inch waist on my pants down to a snug 42.

Now if I start to put muscle on, that will show up on any scale. Imagine that though…being so heavy as I was, with conceivably more fat than muscle years ago. This is why, though, I chose to measure my success by how my clothes fit. For everyone else, it’s obviously different.

So when I officially being tomorrow morning, bright and early at 5am, my desire is start something good for myself and we’ll see if things will go as planned after the six weeks and beyond.

I know who I’d vote for.

Though many of us can’t keep up with Phelps’ exercise regimen, there’s plenty of opportunity for activity hidden in our day-to-day life.

At 12,000 calories and a POUND of pasta, I don’t really need to emulate that diet, but goes to show what you can do.

And this is the part of what I’m after. Being able to eat good food, enjoy it, exercise and just use common sense.

Saw it at Instapundit, but Gully also mentioned the Phelps mega calories intake too.

What’s the worst thing people think of when they want to lose weight? I’m pretty sure the top two are changing their eating habits and exercising.

Being a proponent of exercising as a means of warding off corpulence, it’s hard to put into a thought the idea of getting back into a regular workout routine because invariably, two things happen:

• You start off gung-ho and your muscles respond by being ultra sore. Depending on whom you believe, that’s a good thing since they’re supposedly repairing themselves and getting bigger.
• You start off way too gung-ho and your muscles are so sore, you put off working out again for a little while and pretty soon, it’s a month after the fact

The adage goes, doing something is better than nothing. I agree with that, only to the extent it’s useful to that person. A lot people it seems hate exercising for the usual reasons; not convenient, can’t get to a health club, hate using weights, hate using machines…the list goes on and on.

For those who do wish to exercise and do understand that raising your metabolism through resistance exercise is a good thing, welcome. For those who think eating certain foods in a magical way will lead to their ideal body weight, we’ll see about that. For those who think taking a pill will shed those pounds, sorry, not buying it anymore.

That being said, I’ve decided to go the non-gym/health-club route for the time being. Simply put, it’s about economics. I’d rather that money on food, rather than a dinky little health club or large gym membership that isn’t used enough because I get tired of waiting around for space to become free. So, I’m going the old school route. More to come on that as this challenge unfolds.