Starting Point: Fitness Levels for January 2013

The new year is a starting point of sorts. Whereas my weight loss journey is an ongoing trip, I know I spent most of the past year sitting on the side of the road watching others run past. Some of you were diligent and kept going all year. Some of you sat down with me on the side of the road where we decided to drink wine and eat too many tortilla chips.

For those of us ready to get back on our feet, it’s time to dust ourselves off a bit and remember how bad we feel from sitting too long. It’s time to take stock, make a plan, and start putting one foot in front of the other. We don’t need to sprint. We simply need to start walking forward and stop sitting down or even walking backwards.

As I mentioned before Christmas, Mr. Coffee and I committed to doing Chalean Extreme for 90 days. It’s a 5 day per week program of weight lifting. Heavy weights, low reps, lifting to failure….and apparently pushups and ab work will be involved as well. I’m both excited and terrified. Still, many fitness peeps say it is something I can do and that it is a good program. To that end, let me say that I’m not affiliated with BeachBody in any way so my reviews or mentioning of the product are in no way biased. If you are looking for an unbiased review of ChaLean Extreme, you’ve come to the right place.

We started preparing for this challenge on 12/30/12 when Mr. Coffee decided it was a good evening to take “before” pictures, measure ourselves, etc. We took note of body fat percentages, muscle mass percentages, and bone density via our EatSmart Precision GetFit Scale.

Let’s just say, that was a great big ball of @#$^@% @#$^@^ &#%$&^#! < ——–Insert profanity here. Ok, it was that for me. Mr. Coffee is “starting” at about 15% body fat so he wasn’t whining and moaning. His goal has more to do with six-pack abs. My goal is to fit my abs back in my pants. Bygones.

Onward and upward we went to our “fit test” on New Year’s Day.

We both had to do a sit and reach flexibility test. Then it was military pushups, crunches, squats, bicep curls, shoulder presses, and planks “to failure.” The term “to failure” is when you can’t do one more. I call it, “when your muscles curl up in a ball and die.”

The kids helped. Latte emceed via the karaoke machine while Half Caff did three wardrobe changes. They also helped us count. 1, 2, 5, 24, 86, 9. You get the picture. It was a laugh riot around here. It’s also why we’ll get up to do our workouts at 4:45 a.m. before our helpers wake for the day.

Military Pushups? – Mr. Coffee did a solid 40. I did a very odd looking 3.

Squats? Mr. Coffee did 150 and then got bored because he figured “to failure” wasn’t coming. I did 12 and fell over sideways.

Crunches? This is not Mr. Coffee’s area…he only did 51 and I did 62! I might have bragged that I could do more than him. Neener Neener. Hahahahaha

Planks? – He did a solid 90 seconds to my 48 seconds.

Bicep and Shoulder Presses? We were supposed to lift with weights that would put us to failure in 12 reps. That would be around a 35 lb. dumbbell for him and a 12 lb dumbbell for me. Remember these are very slllllooow reps which are much harder than lifting at a normal pace.

Then there was the sit and reach: I can reach a full 8″ further than Mr. Coffee. Basically, I can reach past my toes easily. I hope to maintain that flexibility throughout the program by adding in some yoga. Mr. Coffee could care less if he ever reaches his toes.

I JOKINGLY compare our levels of fitness. Our challenge is not a him vs. me thing. We are doing this as a team with very different goals. That’s the beauty of ChaLean Extreme because it’s a workout program we can do side by side working at our own level. I won’t be fighting him for the 40 lb dumbbells anytime soon.

All in all, I’m not surprised by our starting points. It’s good to have a baseline to compare to later. We’ll check our measurements and weigh-in every 30 days and I will report our progress here. We both expect to gain a couple of pounds in water retention before losing it. We know that’s part of the deal with weight training.

As far as posting all the lovely pictures and “data.” I haven’t decided if I’m going to do that. It’s not something I want to look at much less put out on the internet. I mean it’s one of those things you just can’t “un-see.” I may change my mind once I have some good “after” pictures to put alongside it. It’s in the “not now” category at present.

I’ll give you this for today….a picture in my new Under Armour “bright enough to wake the dead” shirt that Mr. Coffee and the girls bought me for Christmas.

Starting 2013 – Looking Um…..BRIGHT!

We’re starting Monday morning. In fact, by the time you read this, we’ll likely be done with workout number 1. Hopefully, I’m still alive.

Ok, this post is getting long-winded so I’ll stop here for now. Next time, I’ll post our goals for the 90 days and the year. I’ll also post a bit on our food plan too. None of it is super extreme. 2013 is about sustainable changes we can continue with as a lifestyle. No magic beans, quick fixes, etc.

Do you have a plan? Ready to get back off the side of the road? Let’s do it!