And we're off!

I've been fascinated lately with the idea that a) diet is far more important than exercise when trying to lose weight, and b) working out for a shorter amount of time at a high intensity does much more for your body than so-called "chronic cardio" (e.g. running for an hour on a treadmill every day...we've all seen those guys/gals at the gym running faithfully every day, yet still have a tire hanging around their middles).

I am currently in Stockholm, Sweden, doing academic research until August 1st, so that has made working towards my fitness goals more challenging. (I'm currently an MS candidate in Epidemiology at OSU.)  I was doing high intensity, bodyweight exercises for the last week or so; however, my friend and I just joined a gym last Monday, so I can start adding on weight!

Before I joined the gym, I probably did the following 5 times in about 10 days:   a circuit of 10 bodyweight squats, 5 push-ups (modified by doing them off of a park bench-seat), and 20 jumping jacks.  Repeat as many times as you can for 15 minutes.  I got through 11 circuits.

Now that I have a gym, my new workout template is here at Gym Junkies (more or less).

The basic idea is to use high-intensity, compound exercises (i.e. exercises that use several muscle groups at once, such as squats and deadlifts) to build muscle mass, which will in turn burn fat.

So here is my (admittedly imperfect) Workout Journal for Monday:

• 5 minute warm-up on recumbent bike
•  12 bodyweight squats, followed by 3 sets of 12 squats with a weighted bar (since it was in kilograms, I'm not quite sure how heavy it was...I'm guessing 20 lbs)
• 3 sets of 12 shoulder presses with the same weighted bar
• I only rested 60 seconds between each set for the whole workout, keeping my heart rate up
• Then I had time to kill waiting for my friend, so I did some plank poses

I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but supposedly it's enough.  Plus, I don't really want to be completely out of commission because I overdid it.  Instead, I was slightly sore the next day.  Now it's Wednesday, and I have another workout tonight.  I'll report back on that, as well as my Food Journal for the day.