Wow, big update...

So, long story short. I was doing pretty well; hitting the gym 8 out of 10 days. A couple of slips, but overall making progress. Well on the 10th day yours truly - Mr. Ambitious does a number on his lower back.
For some reason, after hitting the Eliptical machine for 45 minutes at a fairly aggressive pace, I decide that a quick set of squats with 135 pounds would be a good idea. I would be wrong. Not the first time...
So into the second rep, I wind up hitting the bar holders on the rack which causes me to hitch up before completeing the set. Did I realize that something must have gone wrong and I should stop immediately? Nooooooo...Mr. Sportiva here decides to finish all 10 reps in an inspired performance. As soon as I put the bar in the rest rack, I feel my lower back start to hurt. In fact, I can hardly bend over to pick up my towel and keys. So, what do I do?
I tell myself, "Eh, walk it off. Let's go do some sit ups." (My lower back is tightening as I write this.) I get through about 40 sit-ups before I realize it's going to take some doing just to get off the floor when I'm done.
Luckily, I'm able to drive myself home and make it into the front door before I reflect on the situation and realize I may have jacked my back royally.
I call out to my wonderful girlfriend who had been cleaning our place while I was working out and let her know that I was in serious trouble. Okay, so problem number 2 arrives: she had been cleaning and had generated a long list of "honey-do"s for me when I got back. When she saw that I was need of immediate ambulatory care, she realized that I was not going to be doing anything for a few days. Even better, we were scheduled to attend a dinner for her sister's birthday.
I am smooth. This I know.
So, I wind up laying down on our living room floor on my back and not getting up for the remainder of the night. We figure out that I sprained my lumbar spinal area, which is bad. Spraining this area is like spraining a hand or a foot, probably worse so. A little Internet work identifies that this area is a jumble of small muscles, ligaments, bones and nerves. Once it's thrown out of whack, it's a long road to recovery. Worse, I begin to worry if I have a herniated disc! As far as I can tell that falls under the category of Really Bad Things.
Luckily, some relatives have done similar things and start giving me a supply of pharmaceuticals guaranteed to ease the pain. Vicodine is an interesting drug. Once I took it, I actually slept like a baby even though I had pretty severe pain. Thank you, Vicodine. I only needed it for a day and a half, thankfully. I don't want to have to check into those halfway houses that the superstars seem so fond of. Although, I might meet some interesting people there...
Anyways, I find out that this part of the back is very critical. Try sitting on the pot with this injury...forgettaboutit. Try bending over to put your boxers on...again forgettaboutit. It was amazing how disabled I was. I joked to my girlfriend that she should buy me a wheelchair with one of those mouth joysticks given my declining capabilities -- she didn't laugh.
So, for the last few days, I've been spending my days on my back in the living room with large pillows stuffed under my legs to elevate them, switching out hot and cold compresses on my back, spilling cola on my laptop because I can't even operate out of the sofa and all sorts of other hijinks that come from being disabled and on various drugs and muscle relaxers.
A joy, no doubt.
Anyways, this story does have a happy ending. It is now approximately 5 days later and I am able to walk to the corner store and back.
If you're ever lucky enough to sprain the lowest part of your back, here's my perscription for a road to recovery:

• Put ice on it fast and take anti-inflammatories - FAST! The less swelling, the less damage.
• Keep icing it for 24-48 hours.
• Lay on the floor with something to elevate your legs as if you were sitting on a chair, but with your back on the floor.
  
• Vicodine works.
• Muscle relaxers work.
• After 24-48 hours, alternate hot pads and cold compresses to work the blood flow through the area. You're going to be doing this so much you'll probably want to go out and buy real cold compresses from the drug store ASAP...(uh, I guess that you'll actually have someone do it for you).
• Get flexible bendy straws so that you can drink out of cans or glasses, otherwise just use sport-tops.
• Don't use your laptop anywhere near the drinks. Trust me.

Thanks to my girlfriend, her parents and some great neighbors, I don't feel like I'm going to have issues with my back forever (knock on wood). As soon as I can, I'll be getting back on the program with walking and swimming until I feel I can return to a more aggressive exercise program.
How do I plan to continue to the rest of this program? By cutting down on calories. Now that my exercise is lower, I should accordingly lower my calorie intake. Which I'm doing.
Sorry for the delay, but I'd like to think I can get a hall pass for this one.
Cheers!

Today's Workout

Spent an hour at the gym during lunch.

• 35 min. treadmill (3.5mi @ ~10min/mi)
• Pull-ups, Curls, Cable Flys
• Leg-lifts (60)

Ugh, man do I feel crappy toward the end of a workout. I completely bonk. I'm going to try taking a sports drink with me and see if that improves my endurance at all.
Also, I think I scare people when I'm on the treadmill. I'm sweatin' and flush and breathin' hard and my feet are thumpin' along. The little chinese lady next to me looked at me like I was Godzilla. Regression: I never noticed that Godzilla has word "God" in it. I'm not sure why I find that interesting, but I do.
Man do I get bored when I'm on the treadmill. Especially passing the 11 minute mark. I run along thinking that 30-45 seconds have passed but when I look down, only 5-7 seconds have gone by. I need something to entertain me. The damn TV monitors they have at the place are almost directly overhead, so I can't see a thing. That and with all of the splitting they do to the channels, they're so fuzzy you can't see anything anyways.
But, I've figured out something I can do that doesn't involve running -- swimming. Luckily, my gym has a lap pool (albeit extremely short). Getting a good half-hour of swimming every few days should be a great way to cardio without pounding my feet into hamburger. Now I have to shorts and goggles.
Seafood salad! I'm comin' to getchya!

Day 3: Morning to Lunch

Day 3 is going well. Breakfast was a small bowl of cereal (frosted wheat thins with soy milk), a tangerine, a cup a joe (cream and sug), small cup of yogurt and Trader Joe's Celery with Peanut Butter snack pack (holy schmoly! 13g of fat, but only 2.5g of sat fat).
I'm off to get a mid-morning workout in. I'm trying to figure out something besides legs as most of the cardio exercises are leg intensive and I'd like to give them a break. Although, it's only been two straight days of exercise, so I guess more bike would be good for me.
For lunch, I'm going to be coming back to some pre-made Trader Joe's Seafood Salads. Did I mention how much I like Trader Joe's. If you do the majority of your shopping there, you're almost guaranteed to eat healthy. (As long as you moderate your intake of low-fat cheesy crunchies -- cheetos-like replacements.) (And the Scharfenberger chocolates.)
I did wake up today feeling like I have more energy. It just felt like my blood was flowing better and I feel more alert. It's a good feeling. I need to remember this feeling and realize that this is one of the benefits of eating less and exercising more.

Whew! Day 2 exercise is done.

As I told my girlfriend, "Well two days in a row -- it's 100% more than before."
Suffered a setback for lunch. Ate at the local Dim Sum take-out joint and managed to polish off the whole shebang. Considering I didn't snack at all today and it is now after 7pm, I'll mark it down as a wash as that lunch will have to carry my whole day.
Lunch: 1 BBQ pork bun, 1 stuffed crab claw, 1 shrimp dumpling, 1 egg roll and a side of chow mein and fried rice. Wow, typing it all out makes me realize just how much it was.
This evening's workout:

• 20 min. rowing machine (150 cals)
• 100 sit-ups on a big ball
• 20 assisted pull-ups (they're hard when you're a big boy)
• 25 min. eliptical (225 cals)

More Exercise, Fewer Calories

I'm starting this blog because I have realized that I am out of shape. My realization hit me after viewing some photos of myself and my girlfriend at a recent wedding. My. Stomach. Sticks. Out. It didn't help that I was wearing a white shirt either. I probably weigh around 195-200 pounds right now which is over my healthy weight, especially considering that I'm 5'10" (when not slouching). Seeing objective evidence like this really surprised me. I mean, I knew I had a few extra pounds here and there...but, The Big Gut? I didn't realize that my feet were no longer getting sun. Ouch.
Upon realizing this, I could've ran straight to the bookstore and picked up a copy of Your Latest Diet Fad (TM) or googled "How to Lose Weight" and found many pieces of valuable advice. The problem is that I'm not very good at following complex regimins. If I have to optimize, chart, track, cycle, understand, follow or anything else associated with today's diet programs, it's probably not going to work. I need simple rules.
Here is where my father's advice comes in handy. My dad is what you would call A Country Doctor. He dispenses medicines in a rural town in a rural state and deals with all sorts of maladies and cures. I remember one day that I asked him what he thought of some diet plan and his answer has stuck with me ever since.
What was his highly scientific and medically-grounded advice for getting into shape? What was this complex master plan that he guaranteed would work under any and all circumstances and generate weight loss? What would this regimin look like and how impossibly complicated could it be?
"Expend more calories than you take in."
I think my response was to blink twice because after a couple of seconds he followed it up with: "Eat less and exercise more."
He went on to explain how the body is a machine that adheres to well-known laws of chemistry and biology; one of which is that decreasing calorie intake and increasing calorie expenditure will result in weight loss. He didn't understand why we have all of these current diet fads and felt that as long a person applied the simple heuristics to all of their activities, then they would likely lose weight in the long run.
As a result, I've come up with several small rules that I'm going to follow for 30 days in an effort to lose weight:

1. I'm going to exercise for a half-hour or more everyday. Whether it's a full-blown treadmill/weight-lifting/kickboxing sweat extravaganza at the gym or it's a brisk walk right before dinner, I'm going to get at least that much. Some days I will try to do more than a half-hour.
2. I'm not going to eat after 7pm. Eating after 7pm is relatively useless considering I'm only going to sleep in a few hours anyways. If I miss the 7pm dinner cut-off, then too bad. I'll have to wait until morning. If I want something after 7 I'll have to make do with water or tea.
3. I'm going to halve my food portions. I eat big portions. I eat until my stomach is full. Unfortunately, I have a big stomach and it takes A LOT before my stomach tells me that enough is enough. So, during the day I will eat half of whatever is in front of me and save the rest until the next meal, or (gasp) toss it.

I think that these 3 rules and applying the Burn More Calories Than You Take In (TM) heuristic to my everyday life will help tremendously.
I started yesterday. I ran to the gym (approx. 1 mile), did a stationary bike for 20 minutes (150 cal.), lifted (chest and sit-ups) and ran for another 25 minutes (200 cal). I then came home and almost stuck to the 7pm rule but for the half a taquito that I stole off of my girlfriend's plate as she went back to the kitchen. Bad me.
But that brings up another heuristic that I stick to: Every day is a new day and just because I screw it up one day, doesn't mean that I'll give up the program. Oh man, I just called it a program -- darn it! That means that I've created something complicated and systematized and all of that. Well, maybe it's a lot like Web 2.0: very simple but very effective with only a few powerful features.
Wish me luck! I'll keep you posted on my progress.