Brain Dump

I started writing this post a few days ago.  I figure I’ll just go ahead and append on the end of it with the understanding that, perhaps, my head space is a bit different than it was when I first began this ramble.

Not only do I feel the need to break up the utter and complete monotony of posting nothing but my workouts here, I also have a compulsion to simply talk about a few things.  Get some stuff out of my head and out there in the ether as it were.  As a result this may end up being an incoherent post at times, so I apologize in advance.

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More workout updates

Thursday, July 16th

5×5 Vertical Chest Press – 160 pounds (up 10 pounds)

5×5 Pectoral Fly – 180 pounds (up 20 pounds)

5×5 Rear Deltoid Fly – 100 pounds

5×5 Shoulder Press – 120 pounds

20 Minutes Treadmill

50 Minutes Walking

Friday, July 17th

2×5 Assisted Pull-Up – 160 pound counterweight (down 10 pounds)

3×5 Assisted Pull-Up – 170 pound counterweight

5×5 Pull Down – 110 pounds (up 10 pounds)

5×5 Complex Dumbell Workout (Curls, Rows, Kickbacks) – 2o pounds

20 Minutes Elliptical

50 Minutes Treadmill

60 Minutes Walking

Saturday, July 18th

20 Minutes Walking

Sunday, July 19th

Housework!

New obesity drug nears approval

Red Pill/Blue PillOrexigen, a San Diego based pharmaceutical company, announced on Monday that a new drug designed to help patients overcome obesity had passed three clinical trials and was now one step closer to FDA approval.

Contrave combines buproprion and naltrexone, two drugs used to combat a variety of mental afflictions such as depression and addiction, to reduce food cravings in obese patients.  Instead of attempting to create feelings of fullness the drug works to curve the desire to eat simply as a reward or to feel better.

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Long Workout Post Is Long

Saturday, July 11th

51 Minutes Walking

Sunday, July 12th

45 Minutes Walking

35 Minutes EA SPORTS Active (Heavy)

80 Minutes Walking

Monday, July 13th

20 Minutes Stationary Bike

5×5 Assisted Pull Up – 170 pound counterweight

5×5 Pull Down – 100 pounds

5×5 Dumbbell Row – 50 pounds

5×5 Bicep Curls – 30 pounds

100 Pushup Challenge – Exhaustion Text (11)

200 Situp Challenge – Week 3, Column 2, Set 2 (21-28-21-21-28)

85 Minutes Walking

Tuesday, July 14th

5×5 Vertical Chest Press – 150 pounds (up 10 pounds)

5×5 Pectoral Fly – 160 pounds

5×5 Rear Deltiod Fly – 100 pounds

5×5 Shoulder Press – 120 pounds

20 Minutes Elliptical Trainer

35 Minutes Treadmill

77 Minutes Walking

Wednesday, July 15th

5×5 Assisted Pull Up – 170 pound counterweight

5×5 Pull Down – 100 pounds

5×5 Dumbell Row – 50 pounds

5×5 Bicep Curl – 30 pounds

20 Minues Recumbent Bike

50 Minutes Treadmill

100 Pushup Challenge – Week 2, Column 2, Set 1 (9-11-8-8-11)

200 Situp Challge – Week 3, Column 2, Set 3 (24-32-23-23-32)

60 Minutes Walking

Five breakfast options for 100 calories or less

Powdered Toast Man!Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

When it comes to healthy eating battle cries this has to be one of the most common ones. However, despite the scientific evidence proving the statement above to be true quite there are a great deal of people who choose to skip off on breakfast before starting their day. For some folks it is simply because the allure of sleeping an extra 30 minutes is too great to pass up. If you’re trying to lose weight you may skip off on breakfast because you’re not sure of the healthy, low-calorie options that are out there. Many of the popular breakfast options that we’re familiar with such as pancakes, doughnuts, fried eggs, and biscuits with sausage gravy really don’t fall into the “light” category.

Not every breakfast has to be a big bowl of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs. If you’re looking for a healthier way to start your day I have five options that may just tickle your fancy.

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Washington Doctor writes a prescription for American obesity

I'm Just A Bill - Schoolhouse RockWith all the talk coming out of Washington these days about health care, and specifically the impact that obesity has an our rising health care costs as a nation, it is not difficult to imagine a time when our elected officials may see fit to try and regulate our waist lines.  We’ve written here about several incidents where the government has seemed to do just that.  From taxing sugary soft drinks to removing a morbidly obese child from his Mothers care, several states have taken a very hands-on approach to dealing with obesity.  With those kind of precedents being set it is only a matter of time before slippery slope logic dictates we will have some kind of federal intervention into our daily caloric intake.

Contrary to popular belief, though, not everything that comes out of Washington, D.C. is going to be the equivalent of the next $400 hammer.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing that the federal government is taking a closer look at what can be done about the obesity epidemic in America, and one doctor has outlined a plan that could really make a significant difference without infringing on our personal freedoms.

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Socially acceptable starvation diets

Image courtesy of Ethan Hein

Image courtesy of Ethan Hein

One of the things that I hear often at my WeightWatchers.com® meetings is that those of us on program are not “dieting” but attempting to change our lifestyle.  There’s a very valid reason they try to make that distinction.  For most of us diet is a four letter word, albeit one you’re allowed to say on television (Link contains profanity and is NSFW).   If you tell the world you are on a diet not only are you letting everyone around you know that you are not comfortable with your current weight (and thus do not “love yourself for who you are”), you also open yourself up to an uncomfortable level of scrutiny in social situations (“Are you sure you should be eating THAT?”).   So instead of packaging their program as “diet” (and all the negative baggage that goes along with it) the folks at Weight Watchers instead choose to say they are promoting a healthy lifestyle change.

The positive labeling trend seems to be catching on, but some of these new “healthy lifestyle changes” are nothing more than good old fashioned starvation diets wrapped up in a pretty name.

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Walking to Seattle

Image by Ken Lund

Image by Ken Lund

Over the last few months I’ve been taking part in the Weight Watchers® Walk-!t Challenge.  The program is a partnership between Weight Watchers and Active.com that encouraged Weight Watchers members to sign up for and complete a 5K walk for charity.  As part of the program Weight Watchers provided trainers to those who signed up for the challenge to help prepare them for the 5k.  I’ve never taken part in any kind of event like this before, so while I already walk considerably more than 5k on a daily basis I thought it was a great opportunity to get some more exercise in to my routine and I signed up.

I got an email this morning from my trainer that got me thinking.  Amusingly enough it wasn’t part of the email itself but her signature that sent the wheels in my head spinning.

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Encouraging bad behavior

Rush LimbaughAs much as we’d like to avoid it, the fact of the matter is that there are occasions when covering the health and fitness end of the news spectrum is going to lead us here at ShrinkGeek into the murky waters of personal politics.  On the whole we strive to be as politically neutral as we can simply due to the fact that we do not wish to alienate readers who may not agree with our views.  We want everyone to be healthy, regardless of where they fall in the political spectrum.

There are occasions, however, when something comes out of that ugly world that is so incredibly wrong it simply must be called out.  We must recognize those moments when Val Kilmer would have deemed a response as being a “moral imperative” and act accordingly.

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Workout of the Day – June 29th

35 Minutes Elliptical Machine

4×5 Assisted Pull Ups – 180 pounds (down 10 pounds)

1×3 Assisted Pull Ups – 180 pounds (down 10 pounds)

1×2 Assisted Pull Ups – 190 pounds

4×5 Pulldown – 100 pounds (up 10 pounds)

1×5 Pulldown – 90 pounds

5×5 Dumbbell Row – 40 pounds (up 5 pounds)

3×5 Bicep Curls – 25 pounds

2×4 Bicep Curls – 25 pounds

35 Minutes Treadmill

No freakin’ idea what’s going on with the bicep curls in those last two sets but not only was I not able to go up at all I couldn’t complete a set I’ve done several times already.  Maybe I stressed my muscles out too much increasing on the other machines.  I think I’m finding the weights I need to work with for a few constant workouts.  Overall, though, I’m kinda dissappointed with this one.