2012 Year-End Progress Report

We’re already halfway through January? 2013 is just flying by! At the moment, I feel like I’m finally free and clear of the cold that I’ve been fighting for about 2 weeks now, but I won’t feel that way in the morning. Every morning I wake up stuffed up and snotty, and by the end of the day, I feel much better. Then, I wake up the next day feeling stuffed up and snotty again, and the cycle resumes. I’m tired of it.

I haven’t been letting my cold affect my routine too much. I’ve still been working out 3-4 times a week, which has become my norm, including a workout today, and another one yesterday, too. And I’m still logging all my workouts in my calendar (8 so far in January), and brings me to the focus of today’s post:

My 2012 Year-End Progress Report! Even though I haven’t posted a monthly report since July, I’ve still been tracking everything, and it’s time to summarize my year in exercise.

July 2012 Progress Report

Let’s start this post off with a photograph:

A photo of a calendar can only mean one thing: time for a MONTHLY PROGRESS REPORT!

June 2012 Progress Report

Yesterday, I updated my weight loss chart.

Now it’s time to my monthly exercise progress report!

Let’s take a look-see at the ol’ calendar, shall we?

May 2012 Progress Report

It’s already the sixth month of the year? Are you kidding me? This year is flying by.

At Keep It Up, David, the start of a new month means one thing: time for my monthly exercise progress report! I put these together at the beginning of every month (check out April, March, and February). Every workout I complete gets noted in my calendar, and once a month I use magic to transform those notes into facts and figures. I dig facts and figures. They motivate me.

Here’s my May calendar:

April 2012 Progress Report

I’m injured. Again. My foot is completely better, but I’m pretty sure I bruised a rib towards the end of last week. And unlike my foot injury, which was a complete surprise and mystery, I know exactly when and where I bruised my rib: while using a row machine I wasn’t very familiar with at the gym. I’m not using that row machine anymore. Like my foot, there are no external signs that anything’s wrong: no swelling, bruising or redness. But it hurts, and I’m staying off upper body weights this week. I’m still fine to do cardio – and I’m most certainly NOT postponing the big stair climb this weekend (by the way, I reached my fundraising goal this morning – WOOHOO, and thanks Heidi and Tom!) – but this is my third week in a row of nursing an injury and I’m tired of it.

But there’s good news, too. Since May has begun, it’s time for my monthly exercise progress report! I do these at the beginning of each month (check out March, February, and January). Every workout gets noted in my calendar, and once a month, those notes get turned into facts and figures. I nerd out on facts and figures!

Here’s my April calendar:

• A dot = a workout (with notes that remind me of what the workout was).
• A circle around the dot = a class at Slimmons. I only took 2 classes there this month, because they’re very high-impact, and after my foot injury I didn’t want to risk aggravating it with all the jumping around.
• A triangle around a dot = a different type of class (this month, I took a Zumba class and a TRX class, both pre-foot injury).
• Since I use this calendar for everything, I blurred out information that doesn’t pertain to exercise.

April was a busy month! My new gym opened, Richard Simmons introduced me to a couple ’90s sitcom stars, and my foot injury forced me to postpone my stair climb by two weeks (it’s this Saturday). Last week, I swam laps for the first time in months, and because I liked it so much, I went back a few days later.

In total, I worked out on 26 of the 30 days in April – a 86% success rate! I’m especially proud because I could’ve used my foot injury as a reason to stay home for a week or so, but I got creative and stayed active (lots of seated upper body weights that put no pressure or weight on my foot). In total, 17 of those 26 workouts had an emphasis on weightlifting, which is my second-highest number ever (behind July of last year, when I had 20 weightlifting-focused workouts).

Here’s April compared with the 5 prior months:

• November 2011: Worked out 23 out of 30 days (76%), including 6 classes at Slimmons. 9 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• December 2011: Worked out 23 out of 31 days (74%), including 5 classes at Slimmons. 15 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• January 2012: Worked out 26 out of 31 days (83%), including 7 classes at Slimmons, and 1 class at Crunch. 12 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• February 2012: Worked out 23 out of 29 days (79%), including 4 classes at Slimmons, and 1 yoga class. 13 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• March 2012: Worked out 27 out of 31 days (87%), including 5 classes at Slimmons and 1 spin class. 14 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• April 2012: Worked out 26 out of 30 days (86%), including 2 classes at Slimmons, and 2 other classes. 17 workouts had a weightlifting focus.

So far in 2012, I’ve exercised 102 out of 121 days (84%), including 18 classes at Slimmons.

Keep it up, David!

March 2012 Progress Report

I’d like to start with a big thank you to everyone that reached out regarding yesterday’s post. Based on my through-the-roof blog hits, I’ve learned that people are quite interested in reading about plastic surgery, and I appreciate all the comments here, and through Facebook, Twitter, and email. If you missed the post, click here – it’s about the consultation I had with a plastic surgeon, and whether or not I’m ready (physically, mentally, and emotionally) for a tummy tuck.

Since it’s a new month, it’s time for my monthly exercise progress report! I do these at the beginning of each month (check out February, January and my ginormous 2011 Year-End Report). Every workout I complete gets noted in my calendar, and once a month, those notes get turned into facts and figures, because I just love facts and figures!

Here’s my March calendar:

• A dot = a workout (with notes that remind me of what the workout was).
• A circle around the dot = a class at Slimmons.
• A triangle around a dot = a different type of class (this month, it was a spin class).
• Since I use this calendar for everything, I blurred out other information that doesn’t pertain to my exercise.

March was an excellent month for me, exercise-wise, and I have my own birthday to thank. It was on my birthday that I decided to challenge myself with two big stair climbs, and training for those stair climbs fueled me all month long. I set personal StairMaster records twice (climbing the equivalent of the Willis Tower, and then, two weeks later, climbing the equivalent of the Abraj Al Bait in Saudi Arabia). March ended with the first of those two stair climbs – I ascended the 63-story Aon Center in just over 15 minutes! – but I won’t take a rest from the StairMaster until I complete my second challenge in a few weeks (it’s a fundraiser – click here to learn all about it!)

In total, I worked out on 27 of the 31 days in March – a 87% success rate! I’ve only reached a percentage that high once before, in January 2011 (the first month I started tracking my workouts), so I’m thrilled to have tied my record! Some additional figures: Five of those 27 workouts were Richard Simmons’ classes at Slimmons. I also took a spin class during my whirlwind trip to Illinois. Lastly, 14 of those workouts had an emphasis on weightlifting (I wish that number was a bit higher, but I’m nitpicking).

Here’s March compared with the 5 prior months:

• October 2011:  Worked out 23 out of 31 days (74%), including 3 classes at Slimmons. 11 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• November 2011: Worked out 23 out of 30 days (76%), including 6 classes at Slimmons. 9 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• December 2011: Worked out 23 out of 31 days (74%), including 5 classes at Slimmons. 15 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• January 2012: Worked out 26 out of 31 days (83%), including 7 classes at Slimmons, and 1 class at Crunch. 12 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• February 2012: Worked out 23 out of 29 days (79%), including 4 classes at Slimmons, and 1 yoga class. 13 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• March 2012: Worked out 27 out of 31 days (87%), including 5 classes at Slimmons and 1 spin class. 14 workouts had a weightlifting focus.

So far in 2012, I’ve exercised 76 out of 91 days (83.5%), including 16 classes at Slimmons.
My ultimate goal for 2012 is to work out more times than I did in 2011, and now that the year is one-quarter gone (shocking, huh?), I went back and calculated that in the first quarter of 2011, I worked out 75 out of 90 days (83.3%) – so I’m reaching my goal (by two-tenths of a percentage point)! Woo-hoo!

Keep it up, David!

February 2012 Progress Report

Happy March, everyone! I get excited when I get to turn the page in my calendar, because that means it’s time for one of my favorite recurring posts… it’s Progress Report Time!

You’ve seen these before, right? I do one every month (check out January and November, and for December, I did a monster 2011 Year-End Report). Basically, I track all my exercise in my calendar, and then, once a month, I process the cold hard data into interesting (to me) facts and statistics, because I’m a nerd like that.

Here’s my February calendar:

Each dot represents a workout, and the scribbles next to the dots describe, briefly, what I did. Some dots have other shapes around them: a circle around the dot represents a class at Slimmons, a triangle around a dot represents a different type of class (in this case, my first ever yoga class), and I started marking workouts at my new gym with a square around the dot. I did this because my gym memberships overlapped for a little while, and I was going to both, and I wanted to demarcate which workouts were done at which gym. My membership at my old gym is now expired, so for March (and beyond), no demarcation is needed.

February got off to a rocky start. I let some depression get the best of me, and during the first five days of the month, I only worked out twice. I rebounded nicely, and during each of the remaining weeks, I met my weekly workout goals. During the last 12 days of the month, I worked out 11 times.

Another noteworthy accomplishment is that I did three workouts on the StairMaster, which might be a monthly record, as I don’t love the StairMaster. In fact, I beat my own StairMaster record on the first two of those workouts (I conquered the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago and the Empire State Building). As for the third, well, it just happened the other day, and I haven’t blogged about it yet, but that’s coming (along with an exciting announcement) in a few days.

Let’s crunch some numbers, huh? In February, I worked out 23 out of 29 days, which is a 79% success rate. That’s slightly below last February’s percentage, which was 82%, but I worked out 23 days during both Februaries, so my lower percentage this year can squarely be blamed on leap year. Curses, leap year!  I also took 4 classes at Slimmons, the aforementioned yoga class, and 13 of my workouts had an emphasis on weight training, which is pretty damn good!

Here’s February compared with the 5 prior months:

• September 2011:  Worked out 24 out of 30 days (80%), including 4 classes at Slimmons.  11 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• October 2011:  Worked out 23 out of 31 days (74%), including 3 classes at Slimmons. 11 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• November 2011: Worked out 23 out of 30 days (76%), including 6 classes at Slimmons. 9 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• December 2011: Worked out 23 out of 31 days (74%), including 5 classes at Slimmons. 15 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• January 2012: Worked out 26 out of 31 days (83%), including 7 classes at Slimmons, and 1 class at Crunch. 12 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• February 2012: Worked out 23 out of 29 days (79%), including 4 classes at Slimmons, and 1 yoga class. 13 workouts had a weightlifting focus.

So far in 2012, I’ve exercised 49 out of 60 days (81%), including 11 classes at Slimmons.

Keep it up, David!

January 2012 Progress Report

Shall we start with a little update? Yes, let’s do that! I felt much better on Monday than I did over the weekend. I ate much better, and had a good workout. I actually had a great workout. One of the things that I didn’t mention in my last post was that, in addition to taking to my bed and not exercising, I also didn’t bother showering. At all. Yep, I’ll admit it. So when it came time to get my Monday workout rolling, I opted not to go to the gym. I felt a little too disgusting to be seen in public, and I didn’t feel like taking a shower just to go work out and shower again immediately after.

It’s days like this that I’m thankful for the little tiny gym in my building. It’s not very impressive… there’s an elliptical, a treadmill, a recumbent bike, some free weights, and a bowflex-type dealie, all in a room that can barely contain it all. I only use the gym occasionally, but a vast majority of the time I’m the only one in there. The ceiling is low, so when I’m on the treadmill and especially the elliptical, I feel like I’m inches away from a major traumatic head injury. The bike, though, is perfect – and it’s my favorite bike, because it has games that you power by pedaling! There’s a game called Fat Blocker, which is basically a rip-off of Tetris with enough small changes to avoid copyright infringement. I played Fat Blocker during my entire workout – 66 minutes on that bike – and, in the process, set a new high score! I beat my own record – in fact, I’m the only one on the leaderboard, so I beat all my previous records. I burned more than 450 calories and became a puzzle game champion – that’s a productive 66 minutes!

It’s now February 7th, and I realize that I completely forgot about one of my favorite posts: my Monthly Progress Report! This marks Year 2 of these reports (see my 2011 Year-End Progress Report here). Here’s my month of January:

January was a long month! When it began, I was still in the Caribbean, working out every day on a cruise ship. January also marked my first trip to Disneyland, my first trip in a decade to a nightclub, and the biggest addition ever to my Skyscraper Collection. That last link is also where you can read about the big gym decision that I made, although that story isn’t quite over yet – more news on that in an upcoming post!

Each dot marks a workout. January has 31 days. Count up those dots, and I worked out 26 of the 31 days – an 83% success rate. That’s down slightly from my January 2011 total (27/31 days = 87%), but this year, I took 7 of Richard’s classes at Slimmons, and that’s more in one month than during any month in 2011. I also took a class at my new gym, and completed 12 workouts with an emphasis on weightlifting. A very successful month! Let’s compare it with the past few months:

• August 2011:  Worked out 25 out of 31 days (80%), including 5 classes at Slimmons, 3 Boot Camp Classes and 4 training sessions. 15 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• September 2011:  Worked out 24 out of 30 days (80%), including 4 classes at Slimmons.  11 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• October 2011:  Worked out 23 out of 31 days (74%), including 3 classes at Slimmons. 11 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• November 2011: Worked out 23 out of 30 days (76%), including 6 classes at Slimmons. 9 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• December 2011: Worked out 23 out of 31 days (74%), including 5 classes at Slimmons. 15 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• January 2012: Worked out 26 out of 31 days (83%), including 7 classes at Slimmons, and 1 class at Crunch. 12 workouts had a weightlifting focus.

January 2012 had my highest percentage in 6 months!

Keep it up, David!

2011 Year-End Progress Report!

We’re already ten days into 2012, and I’m the idiot that’s still wishing people Happy New Year (I’ll probably give it a rest right around Easter). Because it’s a new month, I get to share my December Progress Report. And because it’s a brand-new year, I get to share my first-ever Year-End Progress Report!

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, the December report. This may be repetitive for some of you, but in case you’ve never seen one of my Progress Report posts before, I’ll fill you in: I have a calendar in which I mark every one of my workouts, and write in a quick description of what I did. Each workout gets a dot, and each class I take with Richard Simmons at Slimmons gets a dot with a circle around it. Here’s what my calendar looks like for December:

December was a pretty good month. I was sick with a flu for a few days right smack in the middle of the month, but every other full week was spot-on, with me reaching my goal of 6 workouts in 7 days. That included workouts at the gym near my parents’ house in Michigan during the week leading up to Christmas, and a whole slew of workouts in the Caribbean when I was on the cruise. In total, I worked out 23 out of 31 days, a 74% success rate. Fifteen of those workouts had a heavy emphasis on weights – the highest number since August! – and I also took 5 classes at Slimmons. A pretty good month indeed!

OK, on to the main event…

The 2011 Year-End Progress Report!

Here are all twelve months of dotted calendar pages:

You may not be able to see all the dots in all those small pictures, but they all add up to a grand total of 284 workouts in the 365 days of 2011! Holy Crap! Wheeeeee!

Some additional facts and figures (because I love me some facts and figures!):

• 284 workouts in 365 days equals a 78% success rate.
• I took 52 classes with Richard Simmons at Slimmons (that averages nicely to once a week).
• I took 17 boot camp classes with Craig Ramsay from February to August.
• 108 of those workouts had a weightlifting focus (Its actually higher than this, but I only started noting weightlifting workouts in April).
• My workouts average an hour or so, which means that I spent the equivalent of nearly 12 entire days straight working out in 2011. (!)

My goal for 2012? It’s simple: work out more than 284 times!

Here’s the 2011 month-by-month breakdown:

• January 2011:  Worked out 27 out 0f 31 days (87%), including 6 classes at Slimmons.
• February 2011:  Worked out 23 out of 28 days (82%), including 5 classes at Slimmons and 3 Boot Camp Classes.
• March 2011:  Worked out 25 out of 31 days (81%), including 5 classes at Slimmons and 4 Boot Camp Classes.
• April 2011:  Worked out 20 out of 30 days (66%), including 5 classes at Slimmons and 3 Boot Camp Classes. 4 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• May 2011:  Worked out 24 out of 31 days (77%), including 3 classes at Slimmons and 0 Boot Camp Classes. 13 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• June 2011:  Worked out 22 out of 30 days (73%), including 4 classes at Slimmons and 2 Boot Camp Classes. 10 workouts had a weightlighting focus.
• July 2011:  Worked out 25 out of 31 days (80%), including 4 classes at Slimmons, 2 Boot Camp Classes and 5 training sessions. 20 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• August 2011:  Worked out 25 out of 31 days (80%), including 5 classes at Slimmons, 3 Boot Camp Classes and 4 training sessions. 15 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• September 2011:  Worked out 24 out of 30 days (80%), including 4 classes at Slimmons.  11 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• October 2011:  Worked out 23 out of 31 days (74%), including 3 classes at Slimmons. 11 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• November 2011: Worked out 23 out of 30 days (76%), including 6 classes at Slimmons. 9 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• December 2011: Worked out 23 out of 31 days (74%), including 5 classes at Slimmons. 15 workouts had a weightlifting focus.

Whew – It’s tiring just looking at all those numbers! I can’t describe how incredibly proud I am of this post, and the work that it represents. Only one thing left to say…

…KEEP IT UP, DAVID!

November Progress Report

It is now the 12th and final month of the year. Can you believe it? Time to partake in my beginning-of-the-month ritual: tallying my exercise from the prior month! Gathering statistics and sliding beads on my abacus always makes me happy, and I make it easy on myself by tracking my exercise on a daily basis on my calendar. I’m old school – I use an actual calendar printed on real-life paper: no fancy-pants websites, gizmos, or apps for me! Here’s my November calendar:

It was a notable month, workout-wise. I ran in my first two races EVER – a 10K and a 5K (on Thanksgiving morning). I got back in the pool for my first swim in a few months. And I was also sick for a while, which resulted in a few more rest days than normal.

Each workout gets a dot on my calendar. Each class I take with Richard Simmons at Slimmons get a dot with a circle around it. If you break out all your fingers and all your toes and starting counting the November dots on them, you’ll end up with 23 (and if you have 23 fingers and toes, could you please send me a picture?). Twenty-three workouts during the month of November! Since November has 30 days, that’s a workout-success rate of 76%. Six of those workouts were at Slimmons, and nine of those workouts had a heavy emphasis on weights!

Let’s add it to my 2011 Progress Report Chart!

• January 2011:  Worked out 27 out 0f 31 days (87%), including 6 classes at Slimmons.
• February 2011:  Worked out 23 out of 28 days (82%), including 5 classes at Slimmons and 3 Boot Camp Classes.
• March 2011:  Worked out 25 out of 31 days (81%), including 5 classes at Slimmons and 4 Boot Camp Classes.
• April 2011:  Worked out 20 out of 30 days (66%), including 5 classes at Slimmons and 3 Boot Camp Classes. 4 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• May 2011:  Worked out 24 out of 31 days (77%), including 3 classes at Slimmons and 0 Boot Camp Classes. 13 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• June 2011:  Worked out 22 out of 30 days (73%), including 4 classes at Slimmons and 2 Boot Camp Classes. 10 workouts had a weightlighting focus.
• July 2011:  Worked out 25 out of 31 days (80%), including 4 classes at Slimmons, 2 Boot Camp Classes and 5 training sessions. 20 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• August 2011:  Worked out 25 out of 31 days (80%), including 5 classes at Slimmons, 3 Boot Camp Classes and 4 training sessions. 15 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• September 2011:  Worked out 24 out of 30 days (80%), including 4 classes at Slimmons.  11 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• October 2011:  Worked out 23 out of 31 days (74%), including 3 classes at Slimmons. 11 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• November 2011: Worked out 23 out of 30 days (76%), including 6 classes at Slimmons. 9 workouts had a weightlifting focus.
• TOTALS:  So far in 2011, I’ve worked out 261 out of 334 days (78.1%), including 47 classes at Slimmons and 17 Boot Camp Classes.

I’m excited because the next time I update this chart, it won’t be a monthly update – it will be a year-end update!

Keep it up, David!