VeganDamo

Thanks. It has been harder while traveling. Just little bits of exercise here & there. Haven't weighed or measured myself recently. I have a Ferlinghetti I've put on some traveling food weight. Love my take out burritos. Don't have them in Australia.

Yep. Been & gone. Went up to Seattle after Portland then travelled back to Southern California. Ended up eating at the Loving Hut one night on W Jefferson (I think that's the street). That place was great & I highly recommend it.

Hi everyone

On holidays in the USA from Australia & will be in Portland, OR early next week.

I understand that the vegan "scene" is fairly big there, so I wondered if anyone could suggest a good place to go eat etc.

Looking forward to getting up there. Currently south of San Francisco.

thanks in advance

Damo

Been a while since I've posted, but I haven't fallen off the wagon...kind-of.

At the moment I'm on holidays in the USA & it's been hard to maintain any kind of routine. I have been doing random, short workouts, just to keep my body in tune, but nothing like what it was like back home. Even bought a 15lb dumbbell at walmart just to have something to lift & curl etc.

Anyway, enjoying my holiday, just south of San Francisco atm. Heading to Portland this weekend. Can anyone suggest some good vegan restaurants/takeouts/cafes. I understand that there's loads of them.

D

Wife said it was time to do an update as it's been 2 months. Definitely feeling fitter, despite having a lull in activity when I got sick. I've kept to a daily exercise schedule, even if it's only a single 7 minute circuit of 12 exercises. I've begun doing 3 circuits of high intensity exercises with "7" which rounds out to around 24 mins of flat out exercise. I've also begun using my total gym again as it's easier to get onto as I can quickly set it up in the lounge room. The weight bench doesn't get visited in the evenings as it's outside.

Anyway, while I haven't had big gains yet, I have noticed some improvement in muscle definition, particularly my thighs & calves which I could never seem to build in the past. The belly is being stubborn at going away. My arms, shoulders & chest are firming up, they just need to bulk up. I've actually lost a bit of weight though, & I want to gain it. Down to 132.2lbs. 59.9kgs. With my target being 70-75kgs, that's not cool.

I was just looking back through my journal & noticed a little under a year ago I mentioned a climbing video, but never posted it. So I'm going to try posting it now.

This was the first time I had ever tried this climb & my first overhang in years. I didn't quite make it to the end though.

I've also got a video my wife took of me bouldering at Palm Beach on the Northern Beaches of Sydney.

One question though. I've seen some posts with YouTube videos embedded in them. How do you do that?

Images of my workout records from jan24 & 26

I've been slack again, but only at getting back on here regularly.

Proud to say that I have stuck at my whole body "7" workout everyday. I got to a point of doing 2 circuits in a row, which felt great. Got sick last week though, so I've cut back to a single circuit again till I feel better.

I've done a few workouts with my weight bench, but not regularly enough. Still have to set up the TotalGym.

I mentioned in my re-introduction post that i seem pretty good with leg exercises but never seem to see results. Well, I've started to see a little bit of definition starting in my thighs from my daily "7" workout, so pretty happy with that.

I'm trying to develop some more 'bodyweight' reliant exercises so that I can easily do a routine indoors in the evening after work.

I did an upper body bodyweight workout on Jan 24, then a lower body bodyweight workout on Jan 26. I'll post some pics from my phone where I have those workouts stored.

Anyway, I've made it through a little over a month and have worked out everyday, so I'm feeling good about sticking at it this time. My wife even commented that she was impressed as I usually give up on things like this after about 2 weeks, & she didn't think I would still be going.

VeganBadass_CO

Thanks for your reply.

I've always had trouble building up my legs, but have always been pretty good at squats, lunges, leg press etc. This time around I'm actually starting to see slight definition starting in my thighs, which I'm liking.

My "7" minute workout has been good. Some days I've done a double circuit. Then I got sick, (still am) but I'm happy to say that I've stuck with my "7" daily, just one circuit though.

welcome back!

Thankyou C.O.

Good to be back, even if not daily

I got my wife to take some pics of me last night as a starting point. I'm not a big bloke but yep, the padding in the mid-section has to go.

Another workout with the bench & free weights. Need to build up my chin-up numbers.

Some extra or different exercises would be cool. I'm now a bit over 2 weeks back into exercising. It's interesting & slightly depressing to see how much strength I've lost. Can just manage 4 chin-ups when I'm fresh. Used to easily knock out 10. Gonna drag my TotalGym out & have somewhere where I can set it up quickly. In the past that's been my biggest obstacle. If I can't start my training quick then I'll lose interest.

I've been doing whole body workouts but I think I'll go back to target areas each day or every 2nd day. Sometimes I feel like the whole body still focuses on one area a bit more than others.

Hi everyone

Wanted to reintroduce myself. I've been on here on & off for the last couple of years, & if you've seen my posts in my journal, have fallen off the training wagon a few times.

2014 is my year to get serious. I've been really disheartened with my lack of perseverance in the past, but both my wife & I have made a pact that we will get back in shape this year. We're making a trip to the USA this year to see family which is a bit of a motivator too.

Anyway, I've begun exercising regularly and want to get into a routine before I head back to work so that I can maintain it. At 134lbs, I'm not big & definitely not overweight, so my training is about losing the comfort fat around my middle that I've acquired and bulking up with more muscle.

Damo

Been off for almost a week. Still training though. Been doing full body workouts every 2nd day in addition to my "7" workout each day. Yesterday though, I forgot my "7", so

I did that this morning.

Been getting lots of "everyday" workouts with lots of yardwork & renovation projects.

Attached is last nights workout.

Adding the 4th of 4 images from my arm workout

Final bit of my arms workout

Feeling proud of myself today. I had to go out yesterday afternoon, did grocery shopping afterwards. I've set up my workouts for 7pm each evening so that I can continue them when I go back to work. When I got home yesterday it was after 9 pm & I could have easily said "too late now" but instead I still did my "7" workout and an arm workout from "FitnessBuddy"

Took measurements last night. Yep, need to lose the belly.

All measurements in cm.

Feeling yesterday's chest workout today, so push-ups were fun!

"7" workout went well but began to feel stuffed by exercise 9 of 12.

Body focus today was Shoulders. "Fitness Buddy" had no bodyweight exercises for the shoulders so everything was with dumbbells, mostly with 2 x 22lbs dumbbells. I ended up digging out some of the other weight plates so that I could vary the weight & do the exercises better. I've taken screen shots of the workout on the app as I've noticed my previous workouts haven't come out well formatting-wise n

Completed my Day4 "7" burst workout. Upped my tempo a bit which surprised me.

Did a chest workout from exercises in my Fitness Buddy app.

Chest workout Jan 07, 2014

Bodyweight Pushup (Floor_Regular Grip)

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 134.4 7

2 134.4 15

Bodyweight Pushup (Decline_Narrow Grip)

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 134.4 10

Bodyweight Pushup (Decline_Regular Grip)

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 134.4 15

Bodyweight Pushup (Decline_Wide Grip)

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 134.4 15

Bodyweight Pushup (Floor_Dive Bomber)

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 134.4 4

Bodyweight Pushup (Floor_Narrow Grip)

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 134.4 3

Bodyweight Pushup (Floor_Wide Grip)

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 134.4 12

Bodyweight Pushup (Incline_Narrow Grip)

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 134.4 10

Bodyweight Pushup (Incline_Regular Grip)

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 134.4 20

Dumbbell Floor Press

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 44.0 12 22lbs each hand

2 44.0 16 22lbs each hand

3 44.0 17 22lbs each hand

I know I should be doing more sets of each exercise, but I figured since this is the first week back into training I would do one body area a day to work through my week with the app and I would try as many of the exercises that I can to ascertain which ones I can work with well now to get me right into training mode & which ones I may have to work up to (eg. narrow grip push-ups; forget diamonds at this stage )

You'll note too that so far all my exercises (bar the dumbbell press) have been body weight only. Last thing I want to do is push myself too soon and cause another injury.

Back tomorrow.

After my Day3 "7" workout, I did a lower body workout using 'Fitness Budy'

Lower body Jan 06, 2014

Bodyweight Deadlift (Single Leg)

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 10 Left leg

2 133.4 10 Right leg

Bodyweight Lunge

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 20 Each side

Bodyweight Calf Raise

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 30

Bodyweight Glute Kickback

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 20 Left leg

2 133.4 20 Right leg

Bodyweight Iron Chair

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 1 30 sec

Bodyweight Mountain Climbers

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 10

Bodyweight Squat

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 15

One of the features I like of 'Fitness Buddy' is that as you look through the exercises, if you like one you just add it & carry out the exercises then 'log' your workout. I looked to see if I could find that log and turns out I can see the whole workout for a day & email a csv or txt file to myself.

Here's the core workout I did after day 2 of my "7" challenge.

Core workout Jan 05, 2014

Bodyweight Twist (Russian)

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 15

Bodyweight Bridge

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 30

Bodyweight Butt Ups

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 15

Bodyweight Crunch

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 30

Bodyweight Heel Touch

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 10

Bodyweight Hip Extension

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 12 Right leg up

2 133.4 12 Left leg up

Bodyweight Plank

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 1 1min 6sec

Bodyweight Pull In (Lying)

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 30

Bodyweight Toe Touch

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 10

Bodyweight Leg Raise (Lying_Straight Legs_Alternating)

Set Count weight(lbs) reps Notes

1 133.4 8 8 each leg

I've attached images of the "7" workout routine so that you can see what I'm doing as my 'basic' workout each day. My wife says I don't need to lose weight, I need to gain it, in muscle. However, I think doing this quick workout everyday will help to get me going & hopefully lead to me working off the belly fat I've collected.

I do need to gain weight though as I'm only 133.4 pounds. (60.5kg)

Okay. I need to be slapped! VERY bad at keeping this journal going.

2013 did see me return to climbing as mentioned, and the class grew steadily over the year. 12-13 students at its peak. However, as the class grew, I climbed less, which became annoying and a let down to myself. I tried to get a bit in at the end of each class, but after a full day at work, an Exec meeting then teaching climbing, I really couldn't put much into it. I'm glad I saw the year through and the class has some pretty impressive young climbers which I have enjoyed watching improve. But for me, I need to focus more on my health & exercise. So that's my plan (again!) for 2014. Have already made a start, downloading an app called "Seven" which runs me through a quick burst exercise routine which takes about 7 minutes. I've even set an alarm in it so it reminds me to exercise. I've also found another app (iPhone addict I've been told by my wife) called "Fitness Buddy". Much better than "easy gym log". It shows me a larger variety of exercises so I won't get stuck with my small repertoire of exercises. I'm only on day 3 of my "7" workouts, and I'm using the other to focus on a body area each day to get myself used to the exercises. I've done two days with this, straight after my "7". Core on day 1 and lower body day 2.

Anyway, maybe I can make 2014 my get fitter year, & get on here more often.

Thanks for the follow up. My email on my phone alerted me to this.

I have and haven't fallen of the fitness wagon. Exercise at home is a bit hit and miss with a busy work schedule. I know, probably a commonly heard excuse.

I have, however, hit one of my goals for this year.... To get back into climbing, and I've done it in a really satisfying way. A perfect opportunity came up and I now teach a junior climbing club for kids 6-13. This has let me get back into climbing and combine my love of teaching with it. Been going for about 7 weeks now, taking a break over Easter.

I might take some measurements this weekend. It's been a good time since the last so I may see some improvements, and I just had a video taken of me climbing last week, so I'll upload somewhere and provide a link.