Taking steps and working out

I found that whenever I weigh myself too often, the weight goes up and down so much it will depress the shit out of you. So I decided to only weigh myself once and never look at a scale again until a specific time later. Whenever I get my infusion at the IV Clinic, they always take my weight so I decided to only use the scale at the clinic and no other time. Which means I’m only going to weigh myself once every 8 weeks when I get my infusions.

When I got my IV treatment last week, I was down another 5 lbs. So not only did I not gain any of the 20 lbs I lost since January, I shed off a few more at my last weigh in. So over the next 8 weeks, I plan to lose even more and I intend to do this with the help of two apps.

The first app is called Fit by Google, which uses GPS to track how many steps I take per day. My goal is to walk at least 5000 steps a day, and I’ve done that a lot the first two months I’ve used this. There’s even been days when I’ve done 10,000 steps, and when Ethan and I were walking all over Toronto to see the Art Gallery, the Eaton Centre, and attend the Journey/Def Leppard concert, we walked just a hair over 19,000 steps that day! I’m pretty confident all these steps helped me lose that 5 lbs, and I plan to take a lot more steps with help from this app.

But I wanted to do more than just walk, but with my AS… hitting the gym just wasn’t an option. I liked hitting a gym when I was working at the call center back on the Rock, but today any kind of weights and cardio will just be too painful. I wanted to find a way to exercise without pain, and I think I found the answer with the next app.

When I first heard about Diamond Dallas Page’s yoga thing, I was hesitant at first. The whole idea of buying DVDs and working out in front of the TV seemed so cliche and a waste of money. But when he launched the online app, that made the program a lot more enticing as I could use my computers or even my phone to do workouts and not worry about DVD’s and televisions.

I started doing a trail membership to the app, doing small workouts and using the features. Not only is the workouts not as painful as I thought they’d be, but I’m feeling a burn and knowing that I’m burning off calories. I showed the app to my Dad over the weekend, and he was thoroughly impressed with it. So much that the old man took advantage of the current 4th of July sale, and purchased a full year subscription to the app for me. He said if I do all the workouts and make progress, he’ll renew it again next summer. He wants me to slim down, especially after the stoke, and he could tell I was into it. I was actually going to purchase the subscription with my next comic book pay, but I’m thankful to my Dad for his backing and support.

So with full access to the app, I immediately went to work. I started with the schedule:

This is the custom schedule I made myself. I am going to do one tiny and one decent sized workout per day to start. I’m also planning on only taking two days off per week… those being Mondays and Fridays. The idea is to work out three days (Tues, Wed, Thurs,) than take one day off, then do two days in a row (Sat, Sun,) and then take a day of and just repeat, repeat, repeat. The orange highlight is today’s schedule, and the fist beside the item means the workout has been completed. So I only did a Chair Force workout last night, just to ease into things. I did a bed stretch workout this morning, and will do a light energy workout this afternoon. Toss in my usual 5000 steps and I think that’s pretty decent for the first full day. I’m not pushing myself too hard at first, which is why I’m doing the bed stretches in the mornings, rather than full workouts. Ease myself in so I don’t pull anything and provoke an unnecessary injury.

Tomorrow I’ll try a 20 min workout without a chair, and that should be fun. I’ll take Friday off and then do two decent days for Sat and Sun. I promised Dad I’d make a serious effort and as you can see here, I am putting my best foot forward with a very decent workout schedule.

What I also like is there’s a part of the apps that stores and records all measurements as well. It will track your weight, your blood pressure and even your blood sugar. I’ve been keeping a journal of my blood sugar but I’ll do both since this app turns my results into pretty charts that I can show my Dad later if he wants to see a progress report.0

So instead of telling him how I’m doing, I can literally give him a power point presentation on my computer or even on my phone. As you can see here, my current weight is 275, and that’s after the initial 20 lbs. drop. So I’m heading in the right direction and these apps will help keep that trend going.

That’s the one thing I really like most about this app, that it’s on my phone. I like doing the main workouts on my main computer in the living room, but it was cool to do this mornings bed stretch with the phone, so no need to drag your TV or computer into the bedroom, which is very convenient. I can use the wi-fi anywhere to access workouts at any time.

This means as long as I take a yoga mat with me I can workout at the library, at my brother’s place, or even a train station or airport terminal if I wanted to. This leaves you with no excuses, you just have to get down and do the work. That makes the world your yoga studio. Do a stretch at the park on a sunny day, or in the living room in winter when its too cold outside. The power is literally in my hands, and that’s pretty cool.

I made a promise to Ethan I’d do more to get in shape and lose some weight after the stroke in March. This is me taking action to keep that promise. I’ve lost over 20 lbs since I left the hospital, and plan to keep losing using these fit and yoga apps. I will not hesitate to also use OD as a workout journal/diary, to post updates on how I’m doing. Especially after I get my weigh ins at the IV clinic. My next weigh in is in 43 days, so I’m going stick to my schedule and keep walking and working out until then. Toss in a little diet and portion control and I will be down again when I hit that scale at the clinic, hopefully. The best part about having the boys over is there are no leftovers to tempt me into late night snacking. Ethan eats his fair share, which is great and helps with my diet. I’ve very excited about the direction I’m going and will not hesitate to update you at least once a month.

So until then, take care everyone.

Peter