Workout and Diet
My weight lifting routine is kinda like this, I go to the gym on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays (Tues and Thurs because I have college classes next door on those days, so they can't be altered, since I can't work out durring the week when I have to go to work, but Saturday can be swapped for Sunday).
When I lift, I do one set of 8-12 reps, if by chance I can go over 12 reps at the current weight level, I do a second set, and increase the weight the next time so that I can't do a full 12 reps. I only do one set because from most fitness sites I've seen, they all say that you get basically the same benefit from doing one set as you get from three (except you burn more calories doing three, but less than I burn doing cardio, so it's a wash). I made a routine that works all of my major muscle groups... some of the lifting excercises I do every time, and others I vary if there is more than one that targets the specific muscle group. So for example I alternate between weighted squats and the leg press each time I go. I then get on an eliptical machine for well, when I was still a smoker, only about 10-15 mins... now about 30-45 mins. Then I swim for another 1/2 hour, spend about 5 mins each in the whirlpool, steam room, and sauna (this is my "reward" to myself for working out... I love this part and if I were to cut this out of my routine, my motivation would definately suffer).
As for diet, that is going to change later this week. I had been eating my regular diet, which certainly wasn't doing me any favors, but I had been of the mindset that I would start building first, then cutting latter. But my diet later this week will consist of 3 meals and 3 snacks approx 2 hours after each meal. The snacks will have the first two being either zero or negative calorie foods such as apples or oranges, and the last being a low calorie, but high value food such as bananas or kiwi. For the meals I'll be adding a lot of other low, zero or negative calorie foods... such as cantalope, grapefruit, etc for breakfast, and cutting down to just 1 cup of either cereal or oatmeal or one piece of whole wheat toast for a grain, or 1 egg and one piece of bacon instead if I feel like changing it up a bit. For lunch and dinner I'll be adding some more low, zero, or negative calorie foods by adding a big salad, and cutting out a lot of the high-fat meats and substituting salmon, tilapia, skinless chicken, or other lean meat in it's place.
The biggest reason I was wondering about the pain killers was because I just feel like I'm getting anywhere, even when I really wore myself out the tuesday before Thanksgiving (because I knew I wouldn't be able to go that Thursday). That day I did three sets of 8-12 reps, and twice the normal cardio, but the next day, I still wasn't in the least bit sore... nor had I lost an ounce of weight. In fact, since I started working out, I have gained about 6 lbs (I'm hoping that's all muscle and that I have actually lost a bit of fat, but my belt doesn't think so).
