I put off this podcast for several reasons.  First, it’s been a different type of week since my schedule has been disrupted by training.  I’ve been in training all week which disrupted my usual recording time on Tuesday when I’m telecommuting. Secondly, I was dead sure that I was going to be gaining this week.  For some reason my whole mentality went out the window when it came to eating.  I started binging in the middle of the night again.  I stopped recording my food as much, and I just flip flopped between either not caring about what I ate and being whiny when I had the option of eating pizza.

Since it’s Thursday right now, which is my weight-in day, I’m going to go ahead and give a progress update for this week’s and last week’s weigh-in.  Last week I gained .8 lbs or .36 kg, but I went down .1% body fat.  I’ll count that as a non-scale victory as it seems to me that while I still went up in weight at least a portion of that was muscle; which I’m OK with for the most part.  I will admit that I’m still a bit of a slave to the number on the scale, which I’m sure most of you understand.  However, we need to concentrate on the facts and remember that gaining weight isn’t always the same as gaining fat especially when we’re exercising and there’s the distinct possibility that we built up muscle.

This week I lost 1.6 lbs or . 7 kg and .4% body fat, which is a good rate for me.  I’m pretty happy with that change considering I gained the week before.  I was pretty sure with the binging that I’d actually gain.  However, it just goes to show that sometimes we are pleasantly surprised.  Oh, I also want to give a shout out to my wife who lost 4 pounds this week.  I have to say she’s been doing awesome lately and I’m really pround of her.  She’s awesome.

I’ve been asked when I’m going to level off and I think that I’m going to start leveling off around 18-15% body fat, so I’m not really sure what that weight will be.  I’ll also need to consult my doctor to see if extra skin affects that number.  For now though I still plan on continuing with my weight lifting program and cardio as-is.  I think I’ve got a good system going for now.  I’m pretty happy with the length of the workout and the difficulty.

I want to take a brief moment and mention my thoughts so far on the Runtastic apps I’ve been using for squats and push-ups.  I think that they do help.  I’ve been doing them on the same day as my weight training and I feel like they have helped make me a bit stronger and helped my form; in my experience the squats more than the push-ups.  That could be because I have weak shoulders, though.  My only contention is that as the programs are progressing I feel like they’re starting to be borderline excessive rather than a compliment to my workouts.

My main concern this week has been the binging.  If I had to guess as to the reason as to why I’m binging again, I would say that it might be that I’m in a bit of conflict internally about being the guy who is trying to lose weight (who I’ve been) and the person who doesn’t (who I’m becoming).  To be frank it feels like a bit of an identity crisis and from what I’ve heard it’s fairly common.  However, after working out this morning I feel more grounded.  I realized that I need to listen to my own advice a bit more and that I shouldn’t base my stability on a number on a scale, but rather on how I feel and the effort that I put forth.  And I knew that I had put forth a lot of good effort the last several days (minus the fit I had about pizza), so if I lost weight that would just be a bonus.

Katherine M asked me about exercising with her daughter.  I wish I could find the specific message, but I can’t seem to locate it.  However, she wanted to know about what thoughts I had on exercising when you have a young child.  She specifically mentioned that she was using a stationary bike to exercise and after a while her daughter wanted to sit on her lap.  She wondered if I had these same issues and if so how I dealt with them.

My first comment was that I have an outstanding wife who does run a lot of interference for me.  She also allows me to get up early in the morning to go work out which also grants me a lot of freedom.  So while I do avoid the situation most of the time by taking advantage of my child being asleep and my wife being there should there be an emergency.  But sometimes I don’t have the time to do things in the morning or there are times on the weekends where we as a family get bored, we want to go do something outside, or I want to repay my wife back for taking care of things in the morning.  So what do I do?

First off, in my opinion the best thing to do is to find something that includes her such as:

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• Going for a walk
  
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  • Push her in a stroller or carry them on a back carrier
    
  • Pull her in a wagon
    
  
  
  
• Walking to a destination
  
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  • The park
    
  • Movie theater
    
  • Ice cream shop
    
  • Go swimming
    
  • See if there are any water features or pools
    
  
  
  
• Sports
  
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  • Tag
    
  • Tennis
    
  • Baseball
    
  • Go bicycling
    
  
  
  
• Community events F
  
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  • Festivals
    
  • Bike and car shows
    
  
  
  
• Go to state or national parks
  
• The zoo
  
• Geocaching
  

Admittedly if it’s the winter I’m in trouble here in Michigan.  Frankly, there’s not much that we can do outside because it’s cold and she is still only 4.  However, as she gets older there may be things that we can do together such as going to the gym, going sledding, winter sports, or finding other indoor activities such as rock climbing, gymnastics, or roller skating (although we took her last winter and she hated it). But there are things that you can do indoors that include her such as:

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• Dancing in place
  
• Trying an exercise routine or app
  
• Getting in a fast exercise while they are playing, taking a bath, or otherwise amused.
  
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  • Kettlebells
    
  • Body weight exercises
    
  • Yoga
    
  
  
  
• Try engaging them in an exercise video or app
  
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  • Try using the Wii, X-Box, or PS3 to play a game
    
  • Dancing game
    
  • Rock band
    
  • Sports/exercise game
    
  
  
  

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Please note that all content here is strictly for informational purposes only. This content isn’t a substitute for any medical advice and does not replace any medical judgment or reasoning by your own personal health provider. Please always seek a licensed physician in your area regarding all related health care questions and issues.

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