Falling Into A Rut But Coming Out Strong

by Brad Shaffer on February 4, 2009

I sucked at working out the past two weeks.  No, really.  I also sucked at eating a healthy array of food items.  I said ‘food items,’ how corny was that?

I’ve even been off work this week so there are few excuses to pick from.  Before this week I was working every day from 7 AM – 6:30 PM so that was a semi-valid excuse.  The fact of the matter is that I simply did not want to work out and the Super Bowl left things like Ruffles Potato Chips (with French Onion Sour Cream Dip), baked beans and Mexi-bean and cheese dip with Jalapeño Tortilla Chips laying around our house.  The Super Bowl was also augmented with many Miller’s Delights (Miller Light – my light beer of choice and should be your’s too).

I’ve decided that drinking on the heavy side leads to a total breakdown in continuing to eat well and work out.  Here’s how the past couple of days went:

  • Sunday :: Super Bowl.  Miller Light was consumed in high quantity.  Tortilla chips and bean dip too as well as Ruffles and French Onion Sour Cream Dip.  Baked beans (I love, love, love baked beans).  Bratwurst.  Oh, and Miller Light.
  • Monday :: Slight hangover led to an extra large Coke and Double-Double Cheeseburger from In-And-Out Burger with a side of macaroni and cheese from KFC.  Perfect hangover food but not so healthy.  Seriously, the cheese in the macaroni and cheese looked disgusting but I was scraping it up with a spoon.  The extra large Coke was probably over 40 ounces of empty calories.
  • Tuesday :: I ate okay but just didn’t feel like working out.  I did walk the dog and child quite a bit but no strenuous activity was to be had.

My conclusion is probably not ground-breaking – that drinking heavily totally f’s up a healthy streak of working out and eating well.  But, the Super Bowl really reinforced why I don’t drink like I did in college (or even a year ago).  Ever since my wife and I found out she was preggers our alcohol consumption dropped fairly dramatically (well, her’s stopped for almost a year while mine slowed down).  When you try to go back for a day and get shit-faced it just doesn’t work out like it used to.

I came out of this small rut finally today.  I worked out at the gym.  I use a fantastic iPhone application called “iDumbells” which I think I may have mentioned before.  It really keeps me motivated while I’m in the gym because it shows me exactly what to do and I can keep track.  But, I plan on reviewing that on a later post.

Even though I’ve been lax on the workouts the past two weeks I ate healthy (except for Sunday and Monday of this week).  When I got back into the gym I still felt strong.  It’s been about two months since I started lifting weights fairly regularly and my advances in strength have been somewhat amazing to me – not to mention the vanishing belly fat.

What do you do to stay out of the rut?  I’m not willing to give up drinking all together but I am ready to call it quits once I’ve had a couple of glasses of wine or beer.  What keeps you motivated to stay healthy?

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Passion for Pilates?

by Jessi on January 26, 2009

I love the pilates reformer. One of the main reasons I picked my current gym was because they have a room that has 5 reformer machines. It costs an extra $15 per class, but it is worth it. That workout makes me feel amazing. When the instructor introduces the exercise, half the time I look at her like she is crazy because I don’t think I can do it, but then I do and I’m so proud of myself. My pilates instructor told me I had strong arms! She put me on a harder setting than the other women in the class. What a boost, because several weeks ago I was complaining to Sonny that I was the fattest person in the class (and I am not THAT fat). I look at the women in the class who have much more pilates experience than I do and think, “Wow, I would love to be able to do that”.

 And you know what?

I will.

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Attempting To Be Healthy While Travelong And Halfway Succeeding

January 17, 2009

I had to work in Orlando this past week. I am a trainer for a major telecommunicatioms company and for the most part work alone in Phoenix (of course I train employees and see 24 new people each day but don’t have peers that I see daily). When we all get together to learn new [...]

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Jessi’s health philosophy in 300 words or less

January 17, 2009

I am 31 and much healthier than I was at age 24. I used to weigh 35 lbs more, smoke cigarettes, and drink 5 diet cokes a day. Then one day at age 25, I changed my ways. I broke up with the total loser I was dating, I quit smoking, and joined a gym. I cut [...]

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Meet Brad

January 12, 2009

So before E! picks up the story or TMZ is all over our butts, I thought it might be best to share some of the basics about myself. I’m sure Jessi will do the same.
Name: Bradley Thomas Shaffer
Born: December 13, 1978 in Fort Wayne, IN (that makes me 30)
I’m married to Stacey who happens [...]

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Resisting Cinnabon and Eating Trail Mix Instead

January 12, 2009

So here I am in Phoenix Sky Harbor on my way to Orlando. It was a slightly hectic morning and I only had time to eat a small bowl of cereal (CostCo Shredded Honey Wheat). I was still pretty hungry because my body has been on overdrive lately because I’ve been doing full-body weight training [...]

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Coming Soon – Witty and Funny Health Blog

January 11, 2009

We’re excited to bring the world a blog full of straight-forward and fun accounts of our journey to a healthy lifestyle.  We don’t doubt we’ll jump off the health bus quite a bit (we both enjoy a glass bottle of wine from time-to-time) but both of our goals are to reach a fairly healthy lifestyle [...]

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