From 217 pounds to 187.5 in a year. I know it’s not the two weeks everyone hopes for, but I’ve managed to change my life-style to help ensure that the pounds will stay off.

How did I do this? Small steps. I started, first, by changing my eating habits. Instead of three meals a day, I literally eat every hour or so. Not junk either, healthy foods. Once that became a habit, I added running to the equation. I started off running (mostly walking), two days a week for two miles. Fast forward to today and I’m running four to five days a week, anywhere from two to four miles day. And I actually love it! Weird.

I also add little things here and there, like drinking two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar everyday, or drinking more water and green tea, or adding cayenne pepper to my lunches and dinners, or adding vitamins and Omega 3 fish oil to my diet, or not parking in the closest parking spot all the time, etc… A lot of a little is a lot. It all adds up.

I think it’s time to add some weight lifting into the mix. I loathe weight lifting though, so this is going to be a tough one. I’m going to stick to the “start small and add as I go” plan that seems to be working so well. My idea is three days a week, one hour a day. That’s probably not that much in the realm of weight lifting, but then again, running two days a week for two miles wasn’t the most glamorous running schedule in the world either.

The equipment? A set of dumbbells from 10 to 35 pounds and a dumbbell bench. Again, not much, but I’ll add as I go. I also have a heavy bag which I plan on using before each workout to help me warm up. So here is what I’m thinking.

Day 1 - Chest and Triceps

Heavy bag for ten minutes. 3 x 3 minute rounds with 1 minute break in between each.

Chest

• Flat bench
• Incline bench
• Flies

Triceps

• Single arm dumbbell extensions
• Dumbbell skull crushers
• Tricep kickbacks

Day 2 - Biceps and Back

Heavy bag for ten minutes. 3 x 3 minute rounds with 1 minute break in between each.

Biceps

• Preacher curls
• Reverse curls
• Concentration curls

Back

• Single Arm Row
• Closed grip chin-up
• Double arm bent over rows

Day 3 - Shoulders and (Misc)

Heavy bag for ten minutes. 3 x 3 minute rounds with 1 minute break in between each.

• Front lateral raises
• Side lateral raises
• Shoulder press
• Bent Lateral Raises

Misc

• I’m leaving this space for muscle groups that I want to go back and revisit, i.e., chest, triceps, biceps, back.

For each exercise I will start off doing 3 sets of 10 reps each. I think that’s pretty standard and sounds like a good place to start.

So that’s the plan for now. With out actually having tried this yet, I can’t say that this regiment will fill up or stay under the alloted hour I’ve set aside, but it’s a starting place. I can add too or trim back the routine from here. And believe me, this routine will change, that’s a fact. My number one goal right now is to just do it and not worry so much about how, when, or why I do it. Make a habit out of it. Start small and add, and most importantly, don’t burn myself out. I know from personal experience that the number one reason I give things up is because It’s to hard. Sad, I know, but true. So with that said, incremental advancement is the key for me.

You may have noticed I didn’t add any leg exercises to this work out. The reason for this is because of the amount of running I do. In fact, I’m quite happy with my legs at this juncture in my life. We’ll see, I may end up adding legs to my routine eventually.

One last thing, in my travels around the Net looking for advice and techniques, I stumbled across this site –> http://www.exrx.net It seems to have a lot of helpful tips and information regarding all facets for health, nutrition, and exercise.

So far so good. I’ve been steadily working my way through the Pimsleur Russian courses. I’m happy to say that I have a vocabulary of well over 100 Russian words and phrases. The people over on the Master Russian forums have been a great help too. They are very beginner friendly.

I’ve been trying to determine how best to use this blog to help me with my day to day Russian lessons. I’ve considered uploading recordings of myself speaking Russian, but I’m kind of bashful. I haven’t ruled it out yet though. I’d have to look into the most effective way of doing it first.

The next and most obvious way for me to use this blog is to actually write in Russian. This is easier said then done. The Russian keyboard layout doesn’t even come close to resembling the QWERTY style keyboard. Fortunately, there is a practical solution. I just ordered a set of Cyrillic keyboard stickers that can be put on any standard keyboard for the whopping price of $1.99. They should be here within 10 to 20 business days. Once I get them, I’ll slap them on one of my keyboards and start typing away. Until then, good old fashioned pen and paper will have to do.