Call it cheating, but I’ve been blessed with a great frame – especially chest & shoulders.

So when the 1 hr long program started, I was a bit wary of the torture coming my way – I knew that a truck full of pain was headed straight at me.

But 60 mins later, I was beaming from ear to ear when I saw that gorgeous bulge around my shoulders and the nice full feel around my arms. Its something guys spend years to get. I simply got it in the lottery. Now I just gotta work at sculpting it.

Yeah baby !!! I’m beginning to like this stuff.

As usual, the “marination” in ointment will take place tonight – on the shoulders and arms, but who cares?

Ro

For the first time in years, I was sweating… a lot. My 10 year old joined me and we had a blast.

The 1 hr workout took me 90 mins to complete as I was pausing to catch my breath so often. And towards the end, the clown finished with some ab work – Something I was hoping he wouldn’t touch after the hammering the day before.

Anjali was kind enough to “Marinate” me with topical ointment before I went to bed. And yes, the muscle relaxant tablets helped as well.

Tomorrow is Arms and Shoulders – God Bless Me!

Ro

So this morning, I started Day 1. In short, I got f**ked! This thingy is bloody intense. I lasted 30 minutes of the 60 before I was gasping for breath and decided to stop for the day.

As of this evening, my back is hurting big time, by abs are paining and my legs are still jelly.

Yeah, yeah – Its day one – what do I expect? But I’m sticking to it and hoping tomorrow is better (I know it wont). It’ll be at least 2 weeks before the soreness goes away.

You’ll hear how tomorrow goes

Ro

It was pitch dark outside as I grudgingly pulled off the warm, soft duvet. I turned to give it one last longing look before heading towards the bathroom to check my weight. 10 seconds later, I was fully awake!

184 lbs still.  Sigh!

I had hoped that my austerity measures may have yielded  some results, but evidently my body is more of a pack rat than I thought when it comes to holding on to it’s fat.

I looked at myself in the mirror, ran my hands against the stubble (we men have no idea why we do that… we just do it instinctively), and said to myself – “You’re tougher than your fat”. My eyes were determined and my jaw was clenched; although I can swear I heard laughing at the back of my head somewhere.

As I laced up for a run on the treadmill, I thought I should probably stretch gently before I do any running. Don’t want to surprise the heck out of the ol’ sack of bones.

I gingerly lowered my knees into a lunge position and heard a multitude of groans, creaks and cracks. I stopped immediately and stood up. The last time I was working out, it was one of the three at any given time. But ALL three together?

By the way, no one likes hearing even a single one of those while you’re in your 30s, but you kinda get used to it as you hit the big 4-oh’.  Its like plucking your solitary gray hair one day and finding 200 of the bastards the next month. At some point, you say “Screw it”.

But I digress. Coming back to my knees… This was serious business. Groan, creak and crack had ganged up on me! The only guy missing from the party was “snap” and I wasn’t looking forward to seeing him till I was around 70.

“I’m gonna have to take it real easy” I promised myself. So after a few more stretches with my new pals, I headed downstairs towards the treadmill in the basement. En-route, I took our 5 month old Lab pup, Guru, out of the crate and he happily began jumping all over me. Normally I would welcome such affection, but the only thing I could think at that moment was “Goddammit… I remember the time I could leap effortlessly too. Have fun buddy – And hope my 3 new friends never find your address.”

Once on the treadmill, things weren’t so bad. I hammered in the 2nd workout of the Couch to 5K Routine on my iPhone. I also have a Nano which has the Nike+ thingy. The iPhone powers the app and the music while the Nano tabulates my run data. By the time I’m all set, I have enough gadgetry and wires around me to launch a space shuttle.

I did 2.1 miles in 31 minutes. But ended the workout feeling superb !  A bit of more stretching (and no surround sounds this time) and I was done for the morning.

Mid-morning, I did the 100 pushups program and the 200 Situps program.

As Kanye West would have said “I-ma gonna let you finish, but YOU are Da man today”

More tomorrow…

Ro

And its now time to revive this blog.

More tomorrow.

Ro

But I’m not feeling too bad about it. I’ve been eating well, the exercise has taken a bit of a hit as we went camping last weekend and somehow I never really got into the workout routine this past week. Today is Monday and I’m starting again.

And folks, here’s what I’m really looking forward too…. My 13year old son, (who is a bit on the chubby side), has agreed to join me for my runs. Now this is a huge departure from his video game playing routine and I’m thrilled that we’ll get to spend some time together.

This evening, we have a 2.5 km walk/run planned.

I’ll be posting my workout routine for the next 45 days on this blog very soon.

Take care

Ro

Over the past 4 months, I happily went back to my old habits of leading a terrible, sedentary life with no control, over what I eat or how I treat my body. The only saving grace was that I quit smoking and I’m still a non-smoker.

But there’s always a price to be paid for everything, isn’t it?

So while I’m religiously following a strict regimen of exercise and diet, I can’t take the credit for having taken the decision to do it. It was forced on me.  My body forced action by giving me pain that I can no longer tolerate. The “Piriformis Syndrome” in my leg has become painful beyond belief. And the lower back pain hasn’t helped things as well.

So here I am… doing everything to reduce the pain I’m in. The stretching is the worst as the pain is really bad. But the rest of the exercise routine feels great.  I’ll be in touch as I go along. I was 190 lbs 2 weeks back. I want to lose 2lbs each week till I hit 170lbs at the end of July. So the target for June-end is 178lbs.

Its gonna happen !

Ro

But I knew that a big part of losing this weight would mean running… and lots of it. So I kinda sucked it up and went on the Couch to 5K plan.

I finished Week 1 today morning – 3 running sessions this week. And here’s the kicker – I actually enjoyed my run today. I couldn’t wait for the 90 second walk to be over so I could start running. It was effortless, smooth and felt good. I finished the workout and I wasn’t half as tired as I normally am.

There’s something called the “Runner’s High”. Its supposed to be a great feeling that kicks in after a few weeks of running – runners compare it to a drug… its that good. I got a glimpse of it today and I can;t wait for the real thing to hit me.

Later in the bathroom, I looked closer at my body. I’ve lost 5 lbs and it clearly hasn’t gone off from my belly. Nope, that body-part hasn’t lost any of its splendour.

And then I saw it… how could I have missed it these past few days – My love handles around the back are gone!

I was ecstatic !  I always thought that those would be the last to go. Folks, I have done enough research to know that you can’t make the body lose fat selectively from a particular area. The body just decides on its own. And boy, did my body make the right call on this one !

I’ve also noticed that the wrinkles below by eyes have dissapeared as well. Seriously !

I’m also kicked about yesterday – I was at a networking event and instead of the regular Glenlivet that I normally nurse, I had water with lots of ice… All evening. I did get a few odd looks from my friends, but most assumed I was having a Bacardi or something. Yeah baby… the ol’ willpower is kicking in.

I’ll say this – This “taking care of yourself” stuff works. I’m seeing results and I like what I see.

Ro

My target for September was to hit 180 and I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to do that. So now that I’m so close to 180, I’m starting work on my next month’s target of reaching 175 by Oct end.

Whatta head start !

What worked? I think it was that elusive little thing called “consistency“. I made sure I work out every day, eat right and be good to myself. A lot of people will say “That’s probably water” and they may be right, but I choose to disagree. I believe it was all fat. So sue me ! 

Now lets see how I do for the next 5 lbs.

Ro

First impressions:

1. I need a new pair of lungs
2. 60 seconds is a LONG time to run!
3. 90 seconds walk after the above is not enough time to rest
4. My tits hurt… Yeah, those tiny man-boobs that I’ve acquired jiggle way too much and were actually hurting towards the end of the workout.

That said, if I want to reach my goal of doing a 5K towards the end of the year, I’m going to have to slog through all this.

On the positive side, I was able to eat REALLY healthy over the weekend, despite being at a rather extravagant party where just looking at the food made you gain 2 lbs. I was on a chick-pea salad diet all evening with ice-water to drink instead of the regular gallon of scotch.

Interestingly, towards the end of the evening, I noticed that not having alcohol limits your conversation a lot because you’re just not at the same “wavelength” as the others

I have also finalized my training schedule. I don’t have the time to post it right now, but I’ll do it tomorrow.

If possible, I’ll try and get in an hour of simple walking in the evening on the treadmill.

And yes… I’m still smoke free !

Ro