Today at noon is the fall signups for the Y. They have lots of different programs that we can sign up for and commit to for the next couple months. Jowl and I still haven’t made a habit out of our workout schedule yet.

Week #1 we worked five days with a couple of the days two workouts, week #2 we were down to five days with no extra workouts and week three we have worked three of the five days this week — yes, we worked out this morning. A couple days Jowl hasn’t woken up and a couple days I haven’t woken up. We started doing resistance training this week with weights and cardio.

Jowl had lost 11 pounds after week 2 and I had lost eight pounds. He put back on seven pounds and I put back on five pounds according to the scales today.

It looks like we’re going to settle into a routine (hopefully) of 3-5 days per week with both cardio and resistance training. As far as how we feel, I know I sure feel a lot better than I did three weeks ago. I asked Jowl how he felt and he said he feels good and “more awake.”

The first two weeks we were strictly in cardio mode and working 5-15 minutes on the bike, then 20-30 minutes on the treamill, then 1/2 mile to mile around the track and then riding the bike for another 5-20 minutes. We used various resistance levels on the machines.

This week we started doing upper body and arm strengthening for 15-30 minutes to go along with 15 minutes on the bike and 20 minutes on the treadmill. On the treadmill we are walking briskly for 4 minutes (at an increasing incline) and then running for a minute, then walk for 4 minutes and run for 1 minute, repeat until 20 minutes. That gives a good cardio workout — or so I’ve read anyway — in a shorter amount of time. Our goal is get the total workout down to an hour, as we both need to do this before going to school.

We haven’t consulted with professional fitness trainers or anything yet. Our workout so far seems to have done very little in the weight loss department, although we both have lost a little weight. Our nutrition and dietary habits are a big part of this, I’m sure, because we have only mildly changed what we’re eating, when and how much, so that will become something for us to focus on more in the coming weeks.

There are programs that can help us track and improve this.

When I asked about fitness programs that were Tablet PC friendly fyiguy (thank you!) pointed me to Bodytrans (14 day free trial, $24.99 USD). This program is very detailed and covers Training, Nutrition, and Mindset allowing users to setup multiple user accounts (so Jowl and I can both track our progress separately) and make notes or enter data using ink. We started entering in data on Friday August 19, 2005.

The BodyTrans home menu is pictured at the top of this thread. You can make diary notes in ink and text (shown below):

Too bad you can’t optionally upload them to your (private or public) blog! (hint, hint for future version). You can also make notes in a daily sleep log so you can make sure you’re getting enough rest. The “pictures” section allows for before and after photos to visually review what improvements have been made in your body.

I really like the detail and effort put into this program. It’s a good companion for taking to the gym on the Tablet PC and keeping track of what’s going on. I was lamenting the other day how the gyms aren’t really caught up with technology. For the $100/month they are charging they should be providing members with tracking software like this but they are still in the dark ages of paper and pencil. Maybe the author should contact the Y, Ballys, etc as this could be a good avenue for distribution … ?

For webmasters: BodyTrans has an affiliate program (via RegNow). You could get yourself in shape (most of us webmasters are out of shape) and maybe make a few bones promoting a good program! We signed up and are awaiting approval approved! I’ll be writing more about BodyTrans as we continue through our usage of the software.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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