Brandon's Health Kwest: Pushing Onward!

When I started this Health Kwest, I was determined to win. I knew I would have to eat healthier and be more active. At the time, more active seemed like 30 minutes in the gym every day. That worked for a while, but I realized it wasn't nearly enough to attain my goals and see the changes I was expecting. I bumped it up to 30 minutes twice a day, adding some cardio before work, then I finally built up my endurance to an hour long workout. That hour can be pretty draining, especially when your schedule is already full.

When I hit 60 minutes of continuous cardio on the elliptical, I was proud of myself, but my 30 minute workouts seemed to be more efficient (~450 burned in 30min. vs. 700 burned in 60min.), burning 15 calories/minute versus only 10-11 calories/min. This meant I had to increase my endurance so I could power through an hour and not fatigue the last 30 minutes.

Today, I broke a milestone, a goal I had set for myself just a week ago: 1,000 calories burned in an hour! That's an average of 17 calories burned per minute, sustained for a full 60 minutes. That's big for me. Especially since it was my morning workout from 5:30-6:30! It's usually impossible to get my muscles to wake up and cooperate that early in the morning, but they're learning.

Now, I realize the "calorie burn" varies from one machine to the next (and it obviously isn't exact science), but I've been using the same machine over the course of time to track my progress so I do have consistent benchmarks by which to measure my success. I'm excited, and my new goal is to match my 1,000 calorie burn in my nightly workout as well, giving me over 2,000 calories burned in 2 hours of cardio every day.

To expect great results, you have to put forth great effort. Here are some of the pictures I was going through today when looking at my progression: