Tag: Bowflex

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Body-for-LIFE Progress Report

So I finished my second (!) week of the 12-week Body-for-LIFE Challenge, and so far I’ve lost 9 pounds. Actually, that’s a little inaccurate: I’ve lost 9 pounds since I weighed myself on August 5. That’s when I started with the Bowflex and began paying attention to what I was eating.

I actually had lost a great deal right away in August, so by the time I actually started the Challenge, I had already lost 6 pounds. Which means I’ve lost 3 pounds since the start of September, but still, I’m on my way.

The singing season is now in full swing, starting with my performance at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival last Sunday and rehearsals for Madama Butterfly having started this week. This means odd hours, late nights, and not as much time at home to eat & prepare my food. I’m a little worried, to be honest. One of the things that’s kept me on track thus far is the fact that I’ve been working from home consistently; being able to just pop down to the kitchen and pull out some carrots or do a quick exercise on the Bowflex has kept me going.

My friend Amy has been blogging about her health goals as well. She is actually quite a regular exerciser (you can see in some of her comments on my previous posts that she’s been very supportive of my goals), but now she wants to eat better during the busy rehearsal season. Since the Body-for-LIFE Challenge is more about a lifestyle change than just losing weight, part of the challenge is eating better as well, so I’m following her progress just as she’s following mine!

Anyway, I have to be out of the house from 2pm to 10pm today, which means I will need to either pack a dinner (probably not going to happen) or eat while I’m out. Luckily, there are a few places near my rehearsals where I can get a healthy bite to eat, keeping in mind that I want to balance my meal with higher protein and lower carbs (more on that issue in a later post). Wish me luck!

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And the winner is…

…all of the above!

I decided that I can combine the 30-day Shred with the Bowflex 6-week challenge to help me with the 12-week Body-for-LIFE Challenge. Today* was SUPPOSED to be the first day of the challenge, but already I’m off to a rocky start. I had hoped to get some cardio done in the morning, but I didn’t plan ahead very well, and by the time I was ready to get started, it was time to leave the house.

Sigh.

It’s okay, though. I filled out all the paperwork for the Body-for-LIFE challenge, and then I made Ray take “before” pictures of me tonight (I promise, there is no way I’m posting those pictures until I have something to compare it to!), so tomorrow will be the official start of the challenge for me.

The packet for the challenge comes with some questions I have to answer about my inner transformation, too (yes, I have to write an essay at the end of all this, which is why chronicling my experience on the blog will help). Here’s question #1:

What was the turning point you experienced that made you decide to compete in the Body-for-LIFE Challenge?

It’s not like I had an epiphany or hit rock bottom; as I’ve mentioned before, my husband bought a Bowflex for us to get in shape, and knowing the way I work, I realized the way for me to really achieve my fitness goal is to have structure. Hence the challenge.

Here is my exercise plan for Week 1:

DAY 1 (Wed., Sep. 2)

Upper Body Weight Training

  • Warm Up – 10-min (Exercise TV On Demand)
  • Upper Body Weight Training
    • Chest Fly
    • Bench Press
    • Pulldown – seated
    • Row – seated
    • Front Deltoid Raise – seated
    • Rear Deltoid Row – seated
    • Biceps curl – standing
    • Biceps curl – lying
    • Triceps extension – seated
    • Triceps Kickback
  • Cool Down: stretches

DAY 2 (Thurs., Sep. 3)

  • Jillian Michael’s 30-day Shred (Exercise TV On Demand)

DAY 3 (Fri., Sep. 4)

  • Warm Up – 10-min (Exercise TV On Demand)
  • Lower Body Weight Training
    • Hip Abduction – seated
    • Hip Adduction – seated
    • Leg Extension – seated
    • Calf Raise – seated
    • Reverse Crunch
    • Crunch – resisted
  • Cool Down: stretches

DAY 4 (Sat., Sep. 5)

Isn’t it just like me to pick a holiday weekend when I’ll be out of town to try to get into the swing of things?

  • 30-Day Shred Day 2 (downloaded onto laptop)

DAY 5 (Sun., Sep. 6)

  • 30-Day Shred Day 3 (downloaded onto laptop)

DAY 6 (Mon., Sep. 7)

  • 30-Day Shred Day 4 (downloaded onto laptop)

DAY 7: Free Day

So that’s the plan. Let’s hope it works!

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*I meant for this post to go out earlier in the day on Sep. 1, but it looks like the time of posting will be almost midnight. So much for doing ANY of this today.

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The Contenders

As promised, I have narrowed my fitness regimen choices down from the thousands out in cyberspace to just a few. Let me know which one you think I should take!

#1: 30-day Shred

The Jillian Michaels 30-day Shred exercise regimen first got on my radar through one of my college roommates, Christine, who lives and blogs in Boston. Her “after” pictures in a bikini radiate so much confidence that I couldn’t help but check out the program she used. Turns out she followed along with the Shredheads as they worked out with Jillian for 30 days back in March.

Imagine my surprise when my friend Amy recommended the same program in her comments to my last post!

PRICE: free but limited (on Comcast On Demand) to about $8 for the DVD on Amazon.

PROS: recommended by friends

CONS: This DVD boasts that you can lose 20 pounds in 30 days. Is that healthy? Or is that just hyperbole?

#2: Bowflex 6-week Challenge

I’m kind of already doing this challenge, except for the cardio part. I mean, heck, we’ve got a Bowflex, so there’s no doubt I’ll be using it. The question is, will I be able to figure out how to do all these exercises correctly? As I mentioned in my last post, the pictures and explanations in the little booklet Bowflex provided has been little to no help, and I feel like I’m flying blind.

There are some solutions to my information problems, but those solutions cost money. FitnessBliss has a fitness software solution to track and suggest different routines specific to the Bowflex ($15). There is also a “must have” book about the Bowflex called The Bowflex Body Plan by Dr. Ellington Darden ($13 used on Amazon).

PROS: I don’t have to change much of what I’m already doing, except add cardio.

CONS: It’s still a pretty DIY solution, and I’m a busy person. I’d prefer to have someone tell me exactly what to do and when.

COST: $15 FitnessBliss software + $13 book = $28.

#3: 12-week Body-for-LIFE Challenge

The Body-for-LIFE Challenge runs on the principles of eating right & exercising properly, and if you join the challenge (which starts Sep. 1 — the same time I was thinking of starting!), they provide you with exercises to do and meal planning suggestions.

PROS: Cash prizes! $25,000 for Grand Master Champion & $10,000 for Category Champions.

CONS: Still a little DIY, but not as much as the Bowflex Plan. And, let’s face it, anything I do will have to be customized to my own personal workout style.

COST: Free (unless I want to purchase any of the numerous EAS products they have on their website — for which I would be reimbursed, naturally, if I win. Hey, they’ve gotta make money somehow).

I’ve got a pretty good idea what I’m going to do now, but I’d love to hear what you think, either in the poll below or in the comments section.

Let me know what you think!

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Getting Fit

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that Ray got us a Bowflex this summer, and ever since it arrived, I’ve been struggling with the idea that although I do want to get fit, I’m inherently lazy. So far, we’ve been good at keeping each other on track, but it’s only been a few weeks, and I’m worried about what might happen in another couple weeks when I start getting busy again.

I mean, it’s not that I don’t want to lose weight and tone up a little; it’s just that I really dislike exercise, and there’s honestly not a single sport (other than horseback riding, which is an expensive prospect, to say the least) that I enjoy enough to do every day or so. I’ve joined gyms before, but, like many people, have ended up canceling my membership because I simply didn’t go often enough and was wasting money.

Anyway, now we have this Bowflex, and I’ve been exercising on it every other day, but I feel like I might not be working out all the right muscles (the Bowflex Classic doesn’t have a whole lot of leg exercises) and the instruction manual that came with this contraption has pictures of some of the exercises, but not all of them. How am I supposed to do the right exercises if I don’t know how to set up the machine or how to do it “right?”

I figured there would be plenty of videos on YouTube about different Bowflex exercises — and there are some, just not a whole lot — but again, most of them are for the arms, and most of them are beefy guys trying to show off how much weight they can press.

I’m also concerned about the fact that I have no cardio training in my exercise regimen at the moment, and while strength training is good, I’m likely to burn calories more quickly through cardio. I don’t really walk anywhere (remember I live in NJ, where the car is king), and I’m not a very good biker (I get freaked out in traffic), so most likely what I would need is something I could do in the house in conjunction with the Bowflex training.

I think I need a plan for myself, and some sort of goal to motivate me. There are thousands of online fitness challenges out there, from the President’s Challenge (seems a little vague to me) to the Couch to 5K plan (I’m not really that interested in running unless chased, honestly), so I did some research and narrowed it down to several contenders. I’ll need your help to decide which one to try, though…more details to come in the next post.