Jeff's Fitness Blog

100 Pushups - Day 4 (beginning of week two)

Jeff — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:07:53 +0000

I just completed the first day of week two. I was surprised by how much easier this first day was than the last day of the first week. And I really shocked myself when I did 18 pushups for my maximum set.

Here are the sets that I did:

9 Pushups
8 Pushups
6 Pushups
4 Pushups
18 Pushups (Maximum Set)

This is more than double the amount of pushups I could do just one week ago. So, I am glad to see progress!

100 Pushups - Day 3 (end of week 1)

Jeff — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 03:59:33 +0000

I just completed day 3 of the hundredpushups.com program. I am drained but I accomplished making it through week one.

I performed the following sets today:

10 Pushups
8 Pushups
8 Pushups
5 Pushups
Then my Max, which today was 10 Pushups.

I was shooting for a higher max than this, but my arms were shaking so bad to just get number 10 up that I knew I would have to end there.

I am taking this weekend off for a couple days of rest and will begin week two on Monday.

100 Pushups - Day 2

Jeff — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:49:19 +0000

Last Night I did day 2 of the 100 pushup program. I found that these sets were more challnenging than the first day, but I was able to complete them.

Here are the sets (with 60 second breaks between them):
9 pushups, 8 pushups, 6 pushups, 5 pushups, and then Max (as many pushups as you can do)

For my maximum I was only able to do seven pushups after the previous sets. I can also feel my chest and abdominal muscles are burning really good this morning.

100 Pushups - Day 1

Jeff — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 01:20:46 +0000

Today I began the first day of the 100 pushups program. My initial test had me at a maximum of 7 pushups. This places me in the level 2 category of the program.

Today I did the following sets: 7,7,5,4, and then I was to do as many as I could for my final set. I expected to be worn out and need to stop at 5 or 6 but I was able to go to 11 pushups. I exceeded my previous maximum after doing all of these other sets. I was very surprised by this.

This has me at 34 pushups in less than a 10 minute period of time. Not all too impressive but it is the beginning and I already feel like progress is being made.

One Hundred Pushup Challenge

Jeff — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:35:54 +0000

I found a program that is designed to take someone who can do very few push ups (someone like me) and take them to doing 100 push-ups in six weeks. (that seems rather impressive, if you ask me) This concept is similar to the Couch to 5K plan for running.

I am going to begin this program this evening along with returning to the Couch to 5K Program. This will give me a good balance of upper body and cardio, which is really all I am looking for in a workout routine.

I will keep everyone posted on my progress and hope to be able to show off a completion badge on the site in just six weeks!

http://hundredpushups.com/
Week 1

Couch to 5K

Jeff — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:19:47 +0000

I have been a slacker for the good part of the past 4 months. I ran a few times, but not nearly enough to be on track for the half marathon. I have a wide range of excuses, all involving a lot of stress happening in my life right now. But, I am seeing that not being active is likely adding to how the stress affects me. I seem to become lazy, withdrawn, and extra hungry when life becomes stressful. So, the past few months have been bad on the diet front as well as the exercise front. I have gained back 8lbs in the past 4 months. I am certainly moving in the wrong direction.

So, this evening I am going to begin the Couch to 5K plan again and begin logging every crumb that I eat on Gyminee.com, just like I used to do. I need to learn to control my life rather than letting life control me (in regards to diet and exercise).

I also dropped off of the traineo.com discussion forums as well a few months ago. I need to go back there and take part in the discussions to help keep me motivated. I have made poor choices that have helped me fall away from achieving my goal of losing weight and being healthy. I have a baby on the way and need to take care of myself now so I can be with him later. I can’t let stress control how I live.

Belly Pictures

Jeff — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:36:17 +0000

I know people have been wanting to see some belly pictures. Well, today is your lucky day. Here is Jaime at 22 weeks!

Stuck Under A Train

Jeff — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:25:56 +0000

When I was a much younger child I had a semi regular nightmare. I was standing on railroad tracks looking into a tunnel and then all of a sudden a train would appear. I would begin to run but the train would hit me and I would be stuck under the train as it continued on its way. I would wake up screaming with the sensation of being tumbled around underneath the train. I have probably had this dream a dozen or more times in my life. The good news is that I haven’t had this dream since I was 6 or 7 years old. That is until this past weekend.

I woke up late Friday night and Sunday night as I was being dragged underneath a train. It seemed very real. I didn’t wake up screaming this time, but I did wake up in a pool of sweat and completely freaked out as I came to the conclusion that I was at home and in my bed.

I don’t normally have dreams that I remember, and I am not prone to having nightmares either, so it makes me wonder if there is some purpose to these dreams. Maybe I should avoid railroad tracks that lead into tunnels? Maybe I just feel I have no control over a bad situation that is happening in my life? I am not 100% certain, but if this dream is supposed to mean something then I am leaning towards the theory that I currently feel like I am being run over by something that I have no control over, and can’t get out of the way of.

The Adoption process right now is not going as planned and in many ways I feel like ‘the system’ is the train and it is simply going to keep moving forward and will run over anyone that happens to be on the tracks. Now I know that this isn’t really how things are working, I do understand all of the reasons for the complications involved with our Adoption case. Yet, I can’t help but feel this way at times. Soon, I plan to write a much more thorough updated about how things are going with the adoption. I may place it simply as a Facebook note so that only friends and family can see it. That way I can spill out more details than I would be comfortable sharing on this blog.

Well, for tonight I look forward to hopefully having a trainless night this evening.

Its a BOY!

Jeff — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:21:24 +0000

We learned that the baby is a BOY! I knew it all along.

Hopefully we will have some pictures up on the site soon, I need to get a chance to scan them in. They gave us a ton of good pictures at the last sonogram.

So, the next question everyone asks is, have you thought of any names?

And the answer is YES! We have.

Here are three of the names we currently like.

Jack Bauer Bristow
Jack Lincoln Bristow
Jack Harrison Bristow

And if you want to give us some feedback you can vote on the name you like best at:
http://www.babynamegenie.com/polls/56963

Enjoy!

Life Update

Jeff — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:12:10 +0000

It has been a while since I have provided a life update, so I thought I would take a moment and share some of the happenings in my life.

Baby Update
The baby is doing well and in two weeks we should be able to learn if the baby is a boy or a girl. I am really excited about this, and Jaime’s belly is beginning to get a bit bigger and we can occasionally feel the baby moving around. Jaime is also feeling better, has more energy and isn’t sick anymore. Yay!

Adoption Update
The process has become complicated, and I don’t really want to share all of the intricacies of how this is going on the blog, so give me a call if you are interested in hearing the ever exciting status of our future 11 year old and 13 year old (just had a birthday two days ago!) You can also follow me on http://twitter.com/jeffbristow and get frequent (literally almost daily) small updates about what is going on in my life. [with Twitter you can get the updates on your mobile phone as a text message if you want, or you can get them through a IM client, or at the Twitter website. It is a really sweet service.]

Exercise
My son and I are going to begin running this evening. I am starting the Couch-to-5k plan over again, and now I have an exercise partner, so the plan to actually lose weight and run a half marathon may still come to fruition.

Eating
I have been making poor eating choices and need to get back to watching my health. I eat when I am stressed, and life has certainly been very stressful lately, so that is my excuse of the moment for falling back into my bad eating habits.

Turning 30
Monday June 30th I turn 30 years old and have organized my own pre-birthday gathering on June 28th. To get more information about this check me out on Facebook, where this event has been organized.