Getting Started

Hopefully, this is my only post about "getting started," but somehow, I doubt that it will be. After all, I've fallen off my various wagons - diet, exercise, spiritual - many times in the past. One of the things that I need to make a guiding principle here is that every time I fall off, I need to get right back on. So, forgive me if this is not my last "getting started" post. Don't forgive me if I fall off, yet fail to make a new "getting started" post.

This seems a particularly good time to start over.

First, I was in a trial until late March. During that time, I had no time to work out, and my diet was terrible. If there was a good thing about it, I felt like my diet was terrible. I could feel it throughout my body. I felt sluggish, loose, weak. My brain and my digestive track weren't functioning correctly, or at least not optimally. I was taking poor care of my body, and for once, I heard my body telling me that.

Since then, I went back to lifting pretty consistently, although the other work like HIIT was fairly inconsistent. Still, I made great strength gains, particularly on the bench press (my last work sets were 230 lbs. at 3 sets of 5 reps). Still, my diet was good but not great. I had a lot of great days, would fall of the wagon for one meal, and then write off the rest of the day. It was not good.

Then, I hurt my shoulder. Thankfully, it isn't the joint. In fact, I am pretty certain that it is an inflamed tendon of the pectoralis major. This is good because rest, heat, and ice have, I think, healed it. I'll know a bit on Monday.

So, here's the plan. Sunday, I'm back to eating good. Good means lots of protein, lots of fruit, lots of veggies, and as much as possible "clean." I won't be perfect, and I can accept that, but that standard I will hold myself to is this: "When a good, clean choice is available, I will make it over a worse, less-clean alternative." That should be a good start.

I'll also be back to lifting. I'll be doing bare-bones Starting Strength, meaning no accessories (chins or dips) this week, just to give the pec a little more rest. Instead of bench press, I'll do lighter dumbbell presses to add some stabilization work. My squats, press, cleans, and deads will be the same. Hopefully, my pec will feel good enough after two sessions with the dumbbells to do a real bench session the next week, and keep going from there. If so, I'll be adding accessories.

I'm also going to renew my focus on interval work, either on the elliptical or maybe on a track. We'll see, but I need to get that sort of work in.

I'll be trying to post here more often, more of a journal than a workout log (although I'll post status reports, too.)

For now, I have four goals for the end of the 2009. They are:

1. body fat at 15% or below, per my Tanita scale;
2. bench press my body weight;
3. squat 1.5 x my body weight; and
   
4. deadlift 2 x my body weight.

I'll need to explore how realistic they are, but I think the answer is, fairly. Number 1 needs to happen. I've already met number 2. Number 3 is a ways off, but can get there if I work pretty hard at it. Number 4 is also a ways off, but doable.