Hot Bod Countdown #0

Blood pressure = 109/84 – good
Cholesterol – good
Weight = 199 pounds – creeping up again
Fasting Blood Sugar = 127 – still on the borderline and creeping up

My endocrinologist wanted to put me on Byetta, which involves a very non-complicated injection of the prescription. And my phobia freaked out. “I don’t want you to think I’m forcing this on you,” he said, “I can tell by your face, you don’t like this. But your weight is creeping up and October’s blood sugar was 135 so your body is maintaining it at that level.”

“I haven’t been watching what I eat or exercising. Give me three months to get strict on that and then we’ll see if I need the Byetta.” He agreed so here I am, plotting how I am going to make these changes. The problem isn’t knowing what to do, the problem is doing it consistently enough to make a difference.

Current schedule has me down for exercising three days a week. Current exercise routine I came up with consists of: ab crunches, leg raises, arm exercises to strengthen my left shoulder, push ups, and as many Sun Salutations as I can do. Which would be great if I actually did any of it. Established pattern, moving on.

Let’s change it up a bit. Make Saturday a day to work with weights. I love weight work and I love getting stronger.

Tuesday/Thursday

• ab crunches
• leg raises
• hanging arm circles
• extended arm circles
• dumbbell rows
• dumbbell press
• dumbbell flies
• push-ups
• Sun Salutations

Saturday

• ab crunches
• leg raises
• hanging arm circles
• extended arm circles
• dumbbell rows
• dumbbell press
• dumbbell flies
• bench press
• squats
• leg extensions

Eventually I want to add pull-ups, but I don’t have the equipment or the upper body strength to do them. The equipment issue I might be able to solve fairly quickly if Big Lots still has that bar that fits in a door frame in stock. I like the idea of putting weight work on Saturday, that way I don’t freak out with trying to squeeze correct form before work.

Part Two is diet. Watching carbs and sugar flew out the window months ago—I think about the same time I had a clean kitchen. So now’s probably the best time to take the plunge into Primal Living. I was being lazy and said I’d wait to start when Mark’s book came out, but now I don’t want to have to stick myself even every other day. It’s the perfect time for a clean start.

And I need to dig out the glucose monitor and use it daily. :p But if I’m tracking my weight daily, I need to track my fasting blood sugar too.

How I want to configure Joe’s Goals:

• +2 for all Tuesday/Thursday exercises
• +4 for all Saturday exercises
• -6 if carb intakes is over 20% daily
• +1 for weighing in daily
• -1 for missing daily weigh in
• +1 for measuring fasting glucose daily
• -1 for missing measuring daily fasting glucose

That is a potential 90 points a week.

Current statistics:

• Height = 62.25 in. / 158.1 cm
• Weight = 199 lbs.
• Neck = 38 cm
• Bust = 119.7 cm
• Waist = 104.8 cm
• Hips = 120.6 cm
• Right thigh = 65.2 cm
• Right calf = 40.0 cm
• Right upper arm = 30.9 cm
• Right lower arm = 26.6 cm

My ultimate goal weight is 120 lbs, so I’m 79 pounds above that and 61 pounds above 140 lbs. (a weight I’d be happy to see). Healthy weight loss is about a pound a week, so 80 weeks should see me at 120, 65 weeks should see me at 140. Three months equals 12 weeks equals 12 pounds of weight loss.

Calendar and goal weights:

• 12 weeks = June 21 = 187
• 24 weeks = Sept 13 = 175 lbs
• 36 weeks = Dec 6 = 163 lbs
• 48 weeks = Feb 28, 2010 = 151 lbs
• 60 weeks = May 23 = 139 lbs
• 72 weeks = Aug 15 = 127
• 80 weeks = Oct. 10 = 119 lbs
• 84 weeks = Nov 7 = 115 lbs (I doubt I see that amount of weight loss)

Rewards for meeting goals: My first idea was to pay myself a dollar for each positive goal point I made a week but I don’t think my budge could take a potential $90 a week hit. A better idea is to schedule out the fun stuff I want to do this summer and then assign the points I should have reached by doing everything in order to do it. I really like this idea.

• DragonBall Z = April 8 = 180 points
• Wolverine = May 1 = 450 points
• Star Trek = May 8 = 540 points
• Angels and Demons = May 15 = 630 points
• Terminator: Salvation = May 22 = 720 points
• Land of the Lost = June 5 = 900 points
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen = June 24 = 1170 points
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince = July 17 = 1440 points
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra = August 7 = 1710 points

That gets me through the summer at least. Treating myself to some new clothes and exercise equipment would be nice and I need the clothes, but might be best to tie those treats to pounds loss. I’d hate to buy something and then it not fit.

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The BookWorm