In college, my diet consisted of a lot of junky and greasy food - you know, the classic college male diet. If I wasn’t hitting the gym on a regular basis I most certainly would have continued to gain weight. Well since leaving Cornell, my diet is much healthier and overall I’m eating less so I’ve mainly been shedding body fat despite not really working out that much. I know I’ve been shedding fat because overall I look leaner and I have more definition in various areas despite not lifting all that much. When I say I eat less, it doesn’t mean I’m actively dieting, it just means I’m not eating gigantic meals all the time or snacking all through the day.

Well that gain of 5 lbs from 150 to 155 indicates to me that I’ve gotten past the slim down and my metabolism has adjusted to a point that I’m slowly starting to gain weight. As the cold weather set in this past winter, I kind of became more sedentary and lax on my exercise routine. Well I’ve started lifting again and now that the weather’s getting better, I’ve started running again. I actually want to bulk up a bit more and get more definition in the abs by summer. I’m almost there with the abs.

Seriously, 6 packs are insanely hard to acquire. You need to not only work your mid-section to build up those abdominal muscles, but you have to shed the layer of fat on your stomach to get the definition. Much easier said than done!

Anyway, enjoy your weekend.

Obviously, the next logical step would be to join a gym. I considered that but then I started looking into home workouts because I wanted to start slowly before jumping back into lifting. Now I’m actually going to buy a weight bench and adjustable dumbbells. With this setup I can pretty much do any exercise I’d like and work any muscle group.

I decided against getting a gym membership for the following reasons:

1. For cardio, I’m going to run outside at a local park (Alley Pond Park) so I don’t need the treadmills. I may get monthly gym membership during the winter.
2. There are 2 gyms close by. One is Bally’s which gets crowded and has a restrictive 3-year contract. Lower tier memberships do not give unlimited access (only every other day). I need to be able to go whenever I want and not have the gym dictate my schedule. I’ve also read this local Bally’s is mediocre in service and facilities. The other gym is too pricey, especially when there’s no guarantee I’ll get to the gym regularly, which brings me to my next points.
3. Having my own home workout setup means I can work out at any time in accordance with my schedule and do not have to waste time for gym commute or preparation. I don’t need to bring any towels (or use the public ones, bleh), water/drinks, or wait to use equipment.
4. By far my biggest issue is getting motivated enough to head out to the gym. My mind will make up every reason not to go. Having the home workout setup means I can start working out any time. It definitely helps to have a gym buddy - in school I had a workout buddy I went to the gym with (thanks Tom).

So I’m purchasing these items for my home workout:

Bowflex SelectTech 5.1 Series Bench

110lb Weight Set

I’m in bad shape and it’s time I do something about it!

I think this might have been what I was thinking about - the bad USA olympic basketball team. They suffered a pathetic loss to Italy in an exhibition game yesterday. Just look at the team roster. There’s a bunch of rookies and young players. VERY few superstars. Half the players on the team have never even won a playoff series. This is what we’re sending to the Olympics against the world’s best? There should be some clause in NBA contracts requiring good players to go to the Olympics and World Basketball Championship if called up. Stupid players these days are all about money. They just don’t want to get injured in Olympic competition. What happened to being the best basketball country in the world? The days of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkely, etc. were truely the days of the Dream Team.

I’ve been so busy these days. After work I just want to relax. Then I have to run all these errands on weekends. And oh yea, I’m overweight. My weight to height ratio is a little too high. I went for a checkup last week and I weighed 186 lbs. That’s the heaviest I’ve ever been! But I expected it though. STUPID ARM INJURY! I couldn’t exercise at all. With summer classes, working on my projects in my room, coming back to NYC and working, all I’ve been doing is SITTING AROUND all day. I have got to develop a serious workout regimen when I get back to school. I gained 16 pounds this summer! Sigh.. 186..

I had my lunch break and I ate at Subway. I got this bag of Doritos Edge chips. I didn’t even know it was a new low carb variation. The chips tasted like cardboard! This whole low carb craze has got to stop. It’s so annoying, I hate seeing products with a little “Atkins-approved” logo.

I think the best way to lose weight is just to simply eat in moderation and exercise everyday. All these complicated diets are useless. The fact is if you gain more calories than you lose in a given day, it’ll eventually turn into fat. So the key is to exercise daily, enough so that you’re burning more calories than you’re taking in.

And don’t pig out every meal. Eat until you’re moderately full or satisfied, not until you’re completely full and bloated. These stupid diets push your body out of equilibrium and after you end the diet, you’re going to gain the weight back. Regular exercise will also increase your overall metabolism, which is probably one of the best tools against weight gain. The more food your body processes into energy, the less fat deposits you’ll have.

On Friday I’m going home for the rest of the summer. I’ll be working for a month doing marketing research for my cousin and his business. People are always saying you have to network and get stuff on your resume. They’re probably right but I haven’t been doing that much networking. Maybe I’m being a little short-sighted but I prefer to just take things as they come. You know, play by ear. That actually sums up my style, my approach to life — play it by ear. Instead of worrying so much and planning for everything, I just like things kind of loose.

This is because I play basketball often. And if I could just jump higher for shots and rebounds, that would be awesome. I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging or conceited but I’m one of the better basketball players among the people I usually play with. Specifically, I contribute a decent portion of points in games. Keep in mind, I said the people I usually play with.

Overall, I’m really not that good - I’m weak with ball handling (dribbling) and my shot is inconsistent (form isn’t quite right). But with the guys I play with, I’m usually if not the tallest, then one of the taller people so that helps. I usually play the inside game, occasionally taking some outside shots if I get good looks. So if I could jump higher to grab those rebounds, gain more airtime on layups, or jump higher for those jump shots and blocking, I could improve my game tremendously.

In terms of my game right now, I really need to practice my jump shot to keep my form more consistent. Other than that, my weakness is ball handling. I don’t really have any “moves” to speak of. But since I’m usually in the paint, not that much dribbling is required before I make a shot attempt.

I know it’s a ambitious goal, and I might not accomplish it this semester but I want to be able to dunk. I’m 5′11″ and there were/are NBA players shorter than me who could dunk. So that means I can too, if I work hard enough. Right now, I come within millimeters of touching regulation-height rims. So I figure another foot added to my vertical jump could conceivably allow me to dunk.

But in college, it definitely cooled off. During 2002, I gained 25 pounds, 15 of those in Taiwan during the summer. I was very out of shape. I quickly shed the extra weight and got down to 170. Right now I weigh 175 but that’s because I’ve been lifting and gaining muscle mass. I’m hitting the gym a lot more now. I’m aiming for at least 3 times a week. I’ve already been to the gym for the past 3 days straight.

And it’s not just about upper body anymore. I do all of my upper body, to strengthen everything like arms, chest, shoulders, back. I’m doing ab workouts to carve that 6-pack. I’m doing all kinds of lower body work outs so I can run faster and increase my vertical jump so I can be more effective when playing basketball. And last but not least, I’ve finally embraced cardio. I may be stronger but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m not fit. Right now I’m starting slow and running 2 miles everyday on the treadmill.

My specific goals are to get a little bigger than I am now, get a lot more definition, have a visible 6 pack, get rid of my love handles, hopefully shrink my waistline a little, increase my vertical jump by 1 foot or more, and be able to run 5 miles in 30 minutes.