Why am I the only one in the weight room with an iPad?

If you are a veteran lifter or are familiar with the Body-for-life program, you know that keeping track of what you are lifting each day is essential.  For one, it helps you not just wander around the gym trying to figure out what to do next.  But in Body-for-life, you have a strict schedule and cadence to meet, and you lift to set intensity levels.  As you get stronger, you need to up the amount of weight you are lifting, but you might not remember what you did last week, and messing with various amounts of weights will throw off your schedule.  So it's pretty much a requirement to record your workouts - at least the weight lifting.

The body-for-life website provides handy excel spreadsheets for tracking your workouts and your eating each day, as well as PDFs of your overall schedule.  Back in 2001 when I first did the program, I would print the sheet and bring a clipboard, then when I was done, transfer it back to the computer.  Other people would keep all of the sheets on the clipboard, or at least the last couple weeks so they could refer to old workouts. 

Training-for-life spreadsheet is HERE
Eating-for-life spreadsheet is HERE
Master schedule HERE

I could have kept with the same methods this time around, but it's 2012 and I am a computer nerd for fun and profit.  So I figured why not use my iPad?

After doing some research, the options for editing excel files on the iPad are Apple's "Numbers" program  (apple store link here) and another program called "QuickOffice Pro HD".  While "Numbers" is a nice program, I ended up choosing QuickOffice because it can open files from dropbox!  For $20, it can and edit Excel, Word, and Powerpoint spreadsheets, and via dropbox.  In case you don't know what dropbox is - it is a free service that, once installed on your computer, appears to be a normal folder on your hard drive that you can save files in.  But if you install it on other computers or even your phone or tablet, any changes you make are synced to all of your devices.

If you want to check out dropbox, as me for a referral!  If you sign up from my referral, we both get more space for free.

www.dropbox.com

To track my workouts, I have the training and eating spreadsheets saved in a dropbox folder on my computer.  So I can edit and update them from my Mac at home, my Windows PC at work, or even on my iPad using quickoffice.

My workflow is pretty much as follows (using upper body day as example)
1)  Say the last upper body day was the "day 9" tab on the spreadsheet.  I copy that tab to day 15, then move my actual column to the planned column and then make the adjustments that I need to based on the notes I left myself during the last workout.  I do all of this on the PC
2)  Just before I leave to the gym, I open the workout spreadsheet in my ipad (so I dont have to use cellular or wifi)
3)  As I work out, all I need to type in is the weight I did, reps, and the intensity.  If the intensity ended up being too low or to high for that set, up or down the weight and leave a note for myself.
4)  Once I get home, I do the final save and it uploads it back to dropbox so all of my computers can see it.

Here's a screenshot of how it looks on the ipad.  Of course you can pinch to zoom and such.  I have received a lot of compliments and questions from guys in much better shape than me because they are getting tired of using notebooks!  Once I am done with this challenge, I plan on continuing to use my own custom spreadsheets

25% Complete!

Well, this Sunday evening ends the 21st day of the challenge, marking me at 25% complete.  I feel great!  I must have been depressed before I started, because now I have a totally different outlook on things that aren't even related to my workouts.  I have more energy all day, I sleep better, and honestly, I find the diet to not be bad at all. 

Here's the highlights:

• Down 7.5 lbs
• Down 5% body fat (according to my inaccurate body fat measuring scale)
• I'm probably around 90% compliant with the diet.  I haven't snacked at all except on free day
• I've been keeping up with diet and workout logs so I can track and measure progress
• Haven't had any diet soda for nearly a month

The diet is not super difficult to stick to.  I tend to have 3 protein shakes a day.  The chocolate is so good that I haven't been tired of it yet.  The vanilla I have isn't as good; it doesn't seem to thicken like the chocolate does, so I have been adding a banana to help.  My brother recommended adding a couple ounces of naked juice to flavor it and add healthy carbs, and that's been helping.

For other meals, I try to get fist-sized portions of protein and carbs as the program suggests (allowable foods listed here).  I like to grill a lean hamburger patty and have on a peace of whole wheat bread for example.  Since I eat every 3 hours, I never feel hungry.

At work, I bought a cheap blender for the break room; it's pretty easy to pop in there and make a quick shake.  I leave a gallon of skim milk in the fridge.

I have been intentionally checking in on facebook when I go to the gym or workout, that way when I miss a day (or check into a bar and get crap for it!) my friends can nudge me along.  I really appreciate everyone's support!  Especially Clayton, my brother, Pat Duffy and Brian Norton.  I love all of the tips and inspiration!   Anyways, I am off (well, going to write a couple other posts about technology and stuff).  Tomorrow is lower body :)

228 lbs.  What. The. $%^.  I stepped on my body fat analyzing scale for the first time in months this morning and it said 228 damn lbs, 37% body fat.  I know I was getting out of shape but I did not realize that it had gotten this bad.

What happened?  I know I have been gradually getting further and further out of shape, but I had not realized that I had let it go this far.  Not cool at all.  I used to be in pretty damn good shape, but in 2008 I started to let go.  I didn't care about working out or trying to be healthy or how I look, I just wanted to go to work and then come home and watch TV and crash.  But seriously, 228?  I need to do something, now.

This had happened to me before.  It was 1998/1999 and I was in a mostly healthy relationship (engaged in-fact) and put on quite a bit of weight - I think I got to 215 back then.  But then we broke up and I was heartbroken and lost.  Part of me wanted to get back in shape to spite her, but also I was single again.  I decided back then to do the EAS/Bill Phillips Body-for-life challenge www.bodyforlife.com and had amazing results.  I literally transformed myself, getting down to 167 lbs 3 months. I looked very lean - 32" jeans were slightly loose on me and medium tshirts looked great.  Right now, some XLs are tight.

So what should I do?  Many of my friends work out but they don't seem to diet much and they hang out at the gym and socialize.  I don't have time for that.  I need to get back into a routine and get results fast.  I need to make good habits and get rid of bad ones.  My friends Pat Duffy and Guy Marquardt inspire me with their pictures and Facebook posts, and I have other friends that have made great transformations as well, I think it's time I get on board and get this going.

So, I have decided to start body-for-life again, this time officially entering the challenge.  I start the trimester on Monday, 3/26 and end in late June.

I have decided to blog about it so I can keep my friends in the know and they can give me shit if I don't stick to the plan.  In case you aren't familiar with the program, here's how it goes:

Diet:

• for 6 days:
• 6 small meals a day, each with a fist-sized portion of protein and a portion of good carbs
• add 2 portions of vegetables each day
• Can substitute protein shake or bar for a meal
• On 7th day (Sunday for me) eat anything you want
• Diet is planned and recorded

Workouts:

• Weight lifting, 3 days a week
• Weight train intensely, three times per week on alternating days with aerobic exercise three times per week. Make sure to hit your "high points" during your workout.
• Alternate training the major muscles of the upper and lower body.
• Perform two exercises for each major muscle group of the upper body.
• Select one exercise and conduct five sets with it, starting with a set of 12 reps, then increasing the weight and doing 10 reps, adding more weight and doing 8 reps, adding more weight for 6 reps. Then reduce the weight and do 12 reps. Immediately perform another set of 12 reps for that muscle group using the second selected exercise.
• For each muscle group, rest for one minute between the first four sets. Then complete the final two sets with no rest in between, wait two minutes before moving on to your next muscle group, complete this pattern five times for the upper body training experience and four times for the lower body training experience.
• Always plan your training before hand.
• Record all your weightlifting exercised in a journal indicating the exercise selected and weight lifted.
• Cardio 3 days   a week
• Warm up the first 2 minutes at Intensity Level 5
• Minutes 2-3 move from Intensity Level 5 to 6
• Minutes 4-5, 6-10 and 11-14 work your way from Intensity Level 6 to Level 9, maintain for one minute.
• Minutes 15-19 work your way from Intensity Level 6 to Level 10 (High Point at Level 10), maintain for one minute.
• Minute 20 cool down to Intensity Level 5 for one minute.

Entries are judged on an essay and before/after pictures.  Even if I don't win the challenge, as long as I finish, I can win the war.  

The success stories from this program are nuts!  Have a look: Success

So, wish me luck, all.