The Chairman's Fitness Challenge Blog

I've been missing form the 52DC community for a while but I haven't given up the fitness routine.  I have been hitting the gym fairly regularly 3-4 times a week, sometimes more, with my usual mix of spin classes and weight training.  As part of this challenge, I'm focusing on heavier free weights rather than some of the lower-weight, higher-rep stuff I was doing as part of a circuit training routine.

The three keys to succeeding in this challenge, for me, will be:

1)  hitting the weights.  As mentioned above, strength training is a priority - I want to get back to 3-4 times a week, split upper/lower body, and a focus on the "big" exercises like squats and bench press.

2)  higher protein, lower carbs.  No white bread, limited beer (1-2/week), and raw veggies instead of simple sugars/starches will all be part of my clean eating agenda.  I've found a local source for small all-natural corn tortillas, only 55 calories each along with protein and fibre - they have replaced bread in a lot of my meals already.

3)  high-intensity cardio, primarily on the bike, though I might start hitting the dreadmill and local outdoor running paths again.  My new running shoes have been festering in my trunk all winter, and it's time to break them out.

The prize at the end of this will be finally throwing out the ten-year-old Nikes I've been wearing for cycling and weight training, replaced with a good pair of lifting shoes and a pair of cycling shoes.  My hatred for those old shoes has become quite personal, they symbolize a whole lot of sloth that will finally be vanquished when I finally reach my 52DC weight goal of 199 lbs.