Day 20 / Week 3 - Dealing with my Sleep Issue

Happy Independence Day to all my American Friends!



For the life of me, there is not enough hours in a day for me to get enough sleep. I'm starting to think that it's totally futile for me to even try to get enough sleep - but I must try. By the time I am prepared for the next day - it's already 11:00pm. Then I have to wake up for 5:30am for work. Bottom line is, I should be getting 7 to 8 hours sleep and in an effort to correct this, I have the following options :

• (A) Tell my boss that I am coming in an hour late each day
• (B) Sleep on the job
• (C) Take a "siesta break" in the afternoon like the Europeans/Latin Americans
• (D) Go to bed earlier by at least 45 min earlier and pressure wifey to go to bed at the same time.
  

Knowing that my job is helping pay the mortgage and cannot take a "siesta"(since Canada doesn't have the luxury of 'shutting down' so people can sleep), I'll have to resort with "D" : Go to bed earlier by at least 45 min earlier and pressure wifey to go to bed at the same time. Ya see if I do this, I'll discipline myself to drop everything that I am doing and at the same time by getting wifey into the same groove/timeline, she is likely to motivate me to go to bed at the same time. I believe this plan is reasonable and "change that I can believe in".

Since today is Saturday and I get Monday's off, I will try this on Tuesday.

RTP Challenge Status for the Day



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Day 19/ Week 3 - Beware of falling pants.

This morning, I had an issue....My pants are falling off me and my belt is passed the last hole and sagging....Good news is, I need new pants and a new belt...The bad news, is that I need new pants and a new belt - and I am broke! ;-) I don't think it makes any sense getting new pants as of yet, because the rate that I am going - I'll need new clothes every 2 weeks or so. So, I'll wait... Today's workout was good. I have increased my lifting weight by 10% and definitely feel stronger. I thought I'd never say this but, I can't wait for the weigh in and measurements this week. I also for the 1st time in my life, "look forward" to going to the gym. All my years before, I dreaded going and perceived the task as a chore. And I think it's because, I never had a plan, a goal nor how to do these exercises effectively. With only 2.5 weeks in with the RTP program, I think I'm on the right track. :-)

RTP Challenge Status for the Day


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Day 18/ Week 3 - Revisiting my Nutritional Daily Intake

So looking back from last week, I have improved on my eating and caloric intake. Since I tried to cram all the modules before leaving to Vegas, I may have overlooked a few things and glad that I read it over again. I find that my biggest challenge thus far is eating enough times per day. With the feature on my Blackberry to tell me when to eat has helped me since I implemented this last week and has kept me on track(well kind of, as I am still sometimes missing a meal). I don't think it's too big of a deal, but still need to keep within the guidelines. Going forward, I'll continue to make a best effort and keep "healthy" food on me at all times.

RTP Challenge Status for the Day



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Day 17 / Week 3 - Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day!!! Today, instead of going on the dreadful treadmill or elliptical, I took a 1.5 hour walk on the Lakeshore with the wifey. Weather was great, but unfortunately had to cut it short and go to work. No fireworks for me tonight. :-(

RTP Challenge Status for the Day



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Day 16/Week 3 - New Energy Protein Drink (PVL Whey Maxx)

Today I threw out my old chalky protein drink and purchased a 10lb bag of PVL Whey Maxx Protein - Vanilla Ice Cream Flavor. Just add water, stir with a spoon for 30 seconds and then 'down the hatch'. It tastes pretty good, not chalky like the garbage I had before and it has 24g of protein per scoop. See below for a pic. Well recommended. I had 2 of these today, 1 after my strenuous morning workout(which by the way - my legs are still a little sore from the leg presses) and one after 2pm. It's good stuff - IMO it tastes pretty good.

PVL Whey Protein



RTP Challenge Status for the Day



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Day 15/ Week 2 in Review

So it's been 2 weeks that I have started this challenge and so far I'm quite impressed. I have "safely" lost a total of 7 lbs in 2 weeks without the need of going on a strict diet(where I failed in my previous years). Believe it or not, my pants feel a little looser and have moved up one notch on the belt. My food consumption lacked this week as I should have been eating more. The truth is, I'm just not hungry. With all the water that I'm consuming, my stomach is constantly feeling full. But as I have read through the RTP guide (module 5 - nutrition), more healthy meals the better. As it explains, the body needs constant food to increase it's metabolism. To overcome this problem, in the last couple of days I have planned my meals ahead of time and set reminders on my Blackberry to ensure I eat enough for the day. See below for my results of the week. You'll see that my muscle measurements have gained a bit and hoping it will continue to increase going into the next week.

Weekly results - Week 2




Week 2 Pic


RTP Challenge Status for the Day


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Day 14/ Week 2 - HIIT Training

So today was HIIT training day. I completed it on the elliptical and was dead tired after I was done. I couldn't wait till it was over. Good thing it was only 15 min - any more time and I would have collapsed! :-)

RTP Challenge Status for the Day



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