NET GAIN OF ZERO

SATURDAY SWITCH

I noticed that I lost then gained a follower on this blog. It has been neglected for far too long. Since someone has decided to add this to their list, I need to oblige them. Fitness and working out has been a big part of my life and I guess I should share my opinion on becoming fit and losing weight. Currently I have been on a every other day routine, 4 days of weight training with 3 days of roadwork. I am going to switch routines at the gym and adjust my roadwork to 3 days of weights and 4 to 5 days of roadwork.

Because I would like to improve my aerobic capacity and shape my body, with the added benefit of weight loss, I will have to run on one of the days I do weights. One those 'double-up' days, I will run/walk from the fitness center to the mall and take the bus home from there. Today I went for a run.

My 'foot speed' has begun to pick but I am still around the average of ten minutes per mile mark. I would like to get it down between eight - eight and-a-half minute per mile before I leave for Nebraska. I hope to be ready to run the half-marathon when I get in town.

As I 'left foot, right footed' this morning, I went out at what was for me, late. That was a conscious decision to go after eight this morning, so I could run without a shirt. Being that it was the weekend I figured to get morning sun and not be seen by a lot of people, in hopes I could even out my 'farmer's tan'. It bothers me to have my arms so much darker than my torso, and since I didn't want to attract attention, waiting until the weekend when there is less traffic fit the bill.

Once I found my rythm, I started thinking about 'The Biggest Loser' and the person who seems to be not only mine but America's favorite personal trainer, Jillian Michaels. She knows her stuff and get results, but for me she is becoming like a long tenured football or basketball coach. Her methods are starting to get worn and since they have started to bring in bigger and bigger people (one cat last season started out @ 530 pounds!!), and that has kind of made me lose interest. I don't think that the weight loss that is being done on the show is sustainable or healthy for the contestants, especially without a lot of follow up support. One season's winner, Erik Chopin eventually gained 120 lbs. back that he lost on the show.

I'd like to think that the show's producers have a better understanding of the kind of committment they need to have for the contestants. Besides getting them fit for the show, they need to stand by them afterwards as well. Taking someone from never making fitness a part of their life then to overload them with all that knowledge doesn't seem like the program is designed to do more than serve as a infomercial for the sponsors of the show.

Along with larger and more obese contestants, are plot devices that all reality shows have. For instance, there is always going to be some angry, frustrated person, usually a minority, who doesn't get along or seem to fit into the fabric of the show. They lack social graces and a understanding of 'what the show is about' (which, btw, is a weak arguement that gets used when someone 'plays the game'). Oh, and they tend to fit the uncouth urban stereotype. The last season that role fell to the mother-daughter hispanc team of Miggy and Migdalia. From the very beginning they had a chip on their shoulder and felt as if 'the system' was working against them.

Then in another device that I think is misleading and overdone, the big emotional release, was used on the angrier Migdalia. She was the one who stormed out of the gym and refused to unravel the layers of psychological issues that led to her becoming so heavy. I find those scenes unnecessary for the most part. Sure, as your fitness trainer I would expect that training would become a makeshift form of therapy. But it forced and when it is forced it becomes formulaic.

Urban minority women who feel like outcasts and have a dysfunctional relationship between them or a major chip on their shoulders... makes me think that they were cast because of how some cat in a suit thinks that 'girls from the 'hood' should be like.

I was thinking what kind of trainer I would be like and how would I motivate people to get fit. Here I am still with my own goals that are attainable but just out of my grasp. For instance, I'd like to do a half marathon in 105 minutes and I want to get my bench and squat numbers to a one rep max of 275 lbs. and 640 lbs, respectively.

Since I am going to have to work and struggle to reach my own goals I would be more sensitive to the trials of any perspective client. You don't have to be either a disciplinarian or acquiesce to someone if you are trying to someone into better shape. One of my goals would be to make myself obsolete and give someone the tools to manage and make the choice for themselves at how much they want to make their personal fitness a part of their quality of life.

Anywho, I will share more tips here as I 'run' across them as well as routines with the goals for them.