Developing My Initial Training Regimen

This is going to be a long post, so you might want to get comfortable before you begin.

As I alluded to in my last post, my lifestyle has not been overly concerned with my health for a while. I currently weigh around 285 pounds and I am 6' 3" tall. Losing weight will have to be a primary goal of my training. Since walking up three flights of stairs leaves me out of breath, I'll also need to dramatically improve my aerobic fitness level. I don't feel that I need to gain a lot of muscle mass, but mountaineering does involve considerable body strength so I'll need to focus on weight training exercises that increase my endurance.

So, first things first. I think the biggest obstacle I face is my weight. It seems impossible to increase my aerobic fitness and physical endurance without addressing it, although doing both of those things will contribute to my weight loss. The articles I've been reading online suggest that a healthy and sustainable weight loss rate is around one and a half to two pounds per week. Since my trip is in October of next year I have 52 weeks to achieve my weight loss goal. Theoretically, 52 weeks would let me lose 104 pounds. To feel good about my chances of succeeding in my summit attempt I think my body weight for the trip needs to be 225 pounds or less. That means I need to lose a minimum of 60 pounds in 52 weeks, or just over one pound per week.

However, right or wrong, I feel that I need to hit my target weight about two or three months before the trip. My reasoning is that I need time to adjust to weighing 20% less than I currently do. While losing weight I'll also be losing some muscle, no matter how carefully I diet. My body will be under a lot of stress while I'm going through the process of weight loss in combination with increasing my cardiovascular fitness level and physical endurance. I feel that I'll need to give my body time to "rest" and build up some inner reserves before the trek. I also think this process will be something akin to a reverse growth spurt and that I'll need some time to get through an awkward stage and to a point where my mental expectations match what my body is capable of doing.

Given the adjusted time frame, I need to average around 1.5 pounds of weight loss per week for the next 40 to 44 weeks. That falls squarely in the realistic range, so I think it's a reasonable goal. I'll admit to hoping that I can do better than this and so I'll set a supplemental goal of averaging an even 2.0 pounds of weight loss per week should I get to my first weight loss goal before the 40-44 weeks have passed. That's losing 80 pounds instead of 60 pounds and, yes, it seems very ambitious.

All of that thinking and reasoning is great, but how am I actually going to do all of that?

Diet - The Zone Diet
Over the last decade I've tried several diets: Atkins, Weight Watchers, and The Zone. Atkins wasn't for me. I never felt well on it and was irritable all the time, even after the initial two week phase. Weight Watchers worked. My only complaint about it is that I was always hungry and focusing on my next meal all the time. I lost 40 pounds on it, but wasn't able to keep with the program and ended up rebounding. The Zone seemed to work really well. I wasn't hungry and I felt good throughout the day. It also helped that the two planned snacks fall right at the times I'm always snacking on junk food during the day. I was only able to pursue the Zone diet for about five weeks before 12-16 hour per day work commitments took over my life for about eight months. However, during those five weeks I lost 12 pounds (without doing any exercise) and felt good so I'll be doing it again for at least three months to gauge how it works for a longer period and if I think it is sustainable for the full year (and hopefully beyond).

Aerobic Training - Varied.
My current plan is to do 30 minutes of aerobic exercise six days per week, Sunday being a rest day. I have a membership to the local YMCA so I have no excuses about equipment availability (year round swimming pool, rowing machine, treadmill, stationary bike).

Weight Training - Circuit Training
Asking around and doing some quick online Google searches brings up circuit training as a way to do weight lifting with a focus on endurance as opposed to building muscle mass. My current plan is to do 30 minutes of circuit training three days per week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).

While this isn't in the list of main training categories, a lot of literature online (as well as common sense) indicates that not sleeping well or for long enough can cause all kinds of problems. To cover all of my bases and give myself the best possible chance to succeed at all of my goals I'm going to focus on a good night's sleep as part of my core training regimen.

Sleep - At least 8 hours per night and a routine bed time
To a lot of people I'm sure this seems like a no-brainer. My sleep schedule was very erratic or non-existent for eight months and has remained erratic for the last several months. I need to get back on a schedule and get more sleep. Typical nights for me right now are going to bed at 1, 2, or 3 o'clock in the morning and waking up for work around 7:30 - 8 o'clock.

The Nitty Gritty Details
I need to come up with short, intermediate, and long term goals, but for now I will wrap up this post with my immediate goals:

1. Have a Zone breakfast tomorrow. Have a Zone breakfast, lunch, and snack on Friday, and begin adhering to the Zone diet for all three meals and two snacks every day starting on Saturday.
2. Go for a 30 minute morning walk tomorrow. On Friday and Saturday do run/walks.
3. On Friday do this circuit training workout.
4. Go to sleep at 10:30PM (or earlier) and wake up at 6:30AM for the remainder of this week.
   

I will try to post how successful I am at each of these goals each day and have a post ready on Monday detailing my short, intermediate, and long term goals.