Second Week Update

Workouts currently consist of forty five minutes (up from forty) of cardio (read elliptical) one day and twenty minutes of cardio followed by an upper body workout; then a day with forty five minutes of cardio followed by a day with twenty minutes of cardio followed by a mid-section workout; then a day with forty five minutes of cardio followed by a day with twenty minutes of cardio followed by a lower body workout; and repeat. That is not to say that I go to the gym every day – on any given day it’s alright to skip a day, as long as there aren’t two skipped days in a row. And a skipped day means that you just delay the next workout in order by a day, so you’re not actually skipping a workout.
An upper body workout consists of three or four sets of eight to twelve reps on a pull-down machine; the same (three or four sets of eight to twelve reps) on a shoulder press, the chest press, the triceps press, the curling machine, and the butterfly machine.
A mid-section workout consists of three or four sets of eight to twelve reps from the left side (and then the right side) on a torso twist machine; the same on the abdominal press and back press.
A lower body workout consists of three or four sets of eight to twelve reps on hip adduction and abduction machines; the same on the leg extension and leg press machines and the thrust machine.
I plan on increasing the time from forty-five to fifty minutes; and then fifty five, until every other workout is an hour of cardio. Along with this, I’ll increase the shorter days incrementally to thirty minutes and increase the weight for strength training.
My target weight is 190 lbs. along with low enough blood pressure and cholesterol to at least cut back on the dosage of (if not forgo) the blood pressure and cholesterol medicines. Then I’ll work on the maintenance plan to keep from getting this bad again.
As the weather warms up, the cardio may be switched from elliptical to cycling outdoors or swimming – just to change it up. I better watch out for the seagulls!

Weigh in today was 223 lbs. More like what I expected when it is put in perspective - six pounds on two weeks.