My cold has gotten worse. But not enough to justify the day off work. :( No gym for me tonight.
Yesterday was a recovery day so no gym anyway.
Diet as follows:
Fruit (see other days this week)
1 tuna sandwich
2 pieces of chocolate (85%)
*mumble mumble mumble*1 sausage roll, 1 mince pie, 1 slice of Christmas cake *mumble mumble mumble*
Chicken and chickpea Jalfrezi.
Okay so I broke. I had to walk into town to pick something up from the estate agents which meant I was surrounded by Christmassy stuff which put me in the mood for some baked goods. No damage done, this morning's scales showing 13"10' still (or 192lbs to the Imperials and 87.1kg's for the metrics).
As an aside, Tesco Finest Jalfrezi sauce is pathetic. I've never had a jalfrezi in my life that had no heat to it whatsoever before but now I have.
Just need to get well now as the rest of this week's gym is likely off. Have to balance it out by controlling the junk food.
Thursday 25 November 2010
Wednesday 24 November 2010
I'm a sick man....
No not a perve, I'm actually sick. Now I'm usually suffering either allergies or some kind of sinus infection (not sure which, but four months of a runny nose isn't a headache) but now I have a cold. It's not too bad yet but it'll go down hill if I don't get some rest. Mercifully tonight is a recovery day so let's see how it goes. As a silver lining, if I'm sick tomorrow I can take a day off in bed. Lovely, lovely bed.
Okay, so yesterdays eating:
2 apples
1 orange
1banana
1 tuna sandwhich
A few pickled onions
2 Carrs small water biscuits with v small bit of jarlsberg
1/2 pitta bread with 3 chicken dippers, HP
chicken pesto pasta
3 boiled sweets
1 Penguin Orgasm (like a Tim Tam Explosion, just more English and with coffee)
Although it could be better, the I kept the worse bits small.
Exericse
2k row, 8:23 mins
50 minutes endurance spinning
stretching
Took it easier as I could feel this cold coming on, and my leg is feeling funnier by the day. Might swap a spin sessions later this weekfor the running, see if that helps.
That's it. Onwards and upwards.
Okay, so yesterdays eating:
2 apples
1 orange
1banana
1 tuna sandwhich
A few pickled onions
2 Carrs small water biscuits with v small bit of jarlsberg
1/2 pitta bread with 3 chicken dippers, HP
chicken pesto pasta
3 boiled sweets
1 Penguin Orgasm (like a Tim Tam Explosion, just more English and with coffee)
Although it could be better, the I kept the worse bits small.
Exericse
2k row, 8:23 mins
50 minutes endurance spinning
stretching
Took it easier as I could feel this cold coming on, and my leg is feeling funnier by the day. Might swap a spin sessions later this weekfor the running, see if that helps.
That's it. Onwards and upwards.
Tuesday 23 November 2010
2 Week Health Kick
Okay, so I know my posting has been sloppy, my apologies. This should pick up for a little while at least, as I'm going to do a 2 week health kick.
Myself and my darling dearest have decided to do a couple of weeks of heavy gym going (for us), good diet, low booze (boooo!). Our attendance has slipped markedly compared to the previous two months (I told you it'd happen) so we need a boost to get us back in the game. I'm aiming for five sessions a week; four mid week standard sessions, 1 long session at the weekend. This is also about getting us to a point where have a little leeway over Christmas. So this is my benchmark, where I am right now (192lbs). I don't want to go back over it during the festive period. If I lose about 3-4lbs before 23rd December (when work ends and the fun begins) that should be enough breathing space. I'm hoping to be able to hit the gym at least once and do some walking (trudging*) through the snow so stabilise the damage.
As such, I shall be going back to basics and jotting down my consumption and exercise again. A tad boring I know but it's helpful to keep me focused.
So yesterday I ate:
2 apples
1 orange
1 tuna sandwich (two slices of seeded batch bread, butter, 1 tin of drained tuna)
2 slices of toast, butter, marmite
1 Penguin (it's a biscuit, not a bird...)
Couple of small pieces of tikka chicken
1 pitta bread, toasted, a little houmous, a little tzatziki
1 Battered Haddock, Mash, Mushy peas, ketchup, can of Bass Shandy.
Okay, so not perfect but okay. We're trying to clear out our freezer a little which is why the haddock is there. The biscuit wasn't needed but I'm not gonna bitch at myself for it, it's not a regular thing. Same goes for the shandy - I only ever drink it if I'm having some variant of battered or breaded fish (something about it just goes right).
Exercise? 45 mins running, usual cycle. Was planning on an hour but my hip and leg were hurting so cut it short. I think it might be just tension in the leg so I stretched it out after the run. Followed with some crunches and reverse planks.
Easy, feels good.
Just gotta keep at it.
* Trudging - To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing - yet determined - walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on.
Myself and my darling dearest have decided to do a couple of weeks of heavy gym going (for us), good diet, low booze (boooo!). Our attendance has slipped markedly compared to the previous two months (I told you it'd happen) so we need a boost to get us back in the game. I'm aiming for five sessions a week; four mid week standard sessions, 1 long session at the weekend. This is also about getting us to a point where have a little leeway over Christmas. So this is my benchmark, where I am right now (192lbs). I don't want to go back over it during the festive period. If I lose about 3-4lbs before 23rd December (when work ends and the fun begins) that should be enough breathing space. I'm hoping to be able to hit the gym at least once and do some walking (trudging*) through the snow so stabilise the damage.
As such, I shall be going back to basics and jotting down my consumption and exercise again. A tad boring I know but it's helpful to keep me focused.
So yesterday I ate:
2 apples
1 orange
1 tuna sandwich (two slices of seeded batch bread, butter, 1 tin of drained tuna)
2 slices of toast, butter, marmite
1 Penguin (it's a biscuit, not a bird...)
Couple of small pieces of tikka chicken
1 pitta bread, toasted, a little houmous, a little tzatziki
1 Battered Haddock, Mash, Mushy peas, ketchup, can of Bass Shandy.
Okay, so not perfect but okay. We're trying to clear out our freezer a little which is why the haddock is there. The biscuit wasn't needed but I'm not gonna bitch at myself for it, it's not a regular thing. Same goes for the shandy - I only ever drink it if I'm having some variant of battered or breaded fish (something about it just goes right).
Exercise? 45 mins running, usual cycle. Was planning on an hour but my hip and leg were hurting so cut it short. I think it might be just tension in the leg so I stretched it out after the run. Followed with some crunches and reverse planks.
Easy, feels good.
Just gotta keep at it.
* Trudging - To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing - yet determined - walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on.
Thursday 18 November 2010
Slow Posting, slow going
After my good news last week and my intention to update here more....it all came to nothing. A weekend in London (people who walk slower than me really should either stay in days, walk in the gutter or be prepared to be punched in the back of the head. I hate tourists) which included far less drink and far more cupcakes than it should have scuppered me for a few days. But just look at them....
I was shattered from the weekend. A 3 hour train ride home turned into 5 because our shoddy nationalised Railtrack can't stop people stealing copper wire from the signals. Which meant dinner was from the Chinese, yum yum!
Okay, so I'll stop with the excuses and get to the facts. No workouts on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Absolutely shocking performance. Poor form dude, poor form.
Back in the gym last night. Hit the rower, didn't go nuts, kept my time under 9 mins for 2k. 120kcals. Then on the spin bike. Felt great for first 40 minutes but then energy sapped from me and slacked. Not ideal but I think I might well be developing a cold. Temp who sit's next to me refuses to stay at home with her cold is spreading it round. Bloody carriers.
Anyway, I checked the scales this morning to assess the damage. Huh, whaddya know, 13 stone 10lbs (192lbs, 87.1kg). Maybe I have cracked some new fangled diet, cupcakes and stress!
I was shattered from the weekend. A 3 hour train ride home turned into 5 because our shoddy nationalised Railtrack can't stop people stealing copper wire from the signals. Which meant dinner was from the Chinese, yum yum!
Okay, so I'll stop with the excuses and get to the facts. No workouts on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Absolutely shocking performance. Poor form dude, poor form.
Back in the gym last night. Hit the rower, didn't go nuts, kept my time under 9 mins for 2k. 120kcals. Then on the spin bike. Felt great for first 40 minutes but then energy sapped from me and slacked. Not ideal but I think I might well be developing a cold. Temp who sit's next to me refuses to stay at home with her cold is spreading it round. Bloody carriers.
Anyway, I checked the scales this morning to assess the damage. Huh, whaddya know, 13 stone 10lbs (192lbs, 87.1kg). Maybe I have cracked some new fangled diet, cupcakes and stress!
Thursday 11 November 2010
Current Stats - Redux
Been a bit lax in my updating lately, need to pick up the slack. It's coincided with a drop off in my gym going too - only been twice this week (good sessions though at least, one bike session, one treadmill session) - and too much drinking at the weekend
To kickstart my re-use of this blog I'm going to update you on my stats. I'm not using the gym's monitor any more (or often anyway). If it can't calculate my height or body fat correctly, it's just telling me my weight. Which my bathroom scales can do. So I'm using those guys and leaving the body fat check till I can afford some decent calipers (any recommendations would be appreciated). It also means I can do it at home at the same time each week, which will be Thursday mornings (should be longest time since I've had something to drink).
So weight this morning:
Weight: 194lbs/88kg
Woop! I am under the 14 stone barrier finally. Yeah it's in the morning before I've even had a glass of water but still, I'm not gonna bitch. Between my original weigh in back on the 1st October, I've lost 8lbs. More like 14lbs since I actually started taking my training seriously again which was a week or so before that.
I think the key to this has been my weekday breakfast of fruit without increasing my cals later in the day. This has been an easy change to make, I love fruit anyway, and seems to be melting the fat off me despite my brief relapses into laziness.
Speaking of stripping out calories, I've often been having tuna sandwiches for lunch, but because one tin of tuna is too much for a single sandwich, it ends up two. Frankly, I don't think I need the extra bread, even if it is wholemeal. I often come away from lunch feeling a bit stuffed, which I don't want. I think I'll just try stuff the sarnie for now and just munch at the counter whatever won't fit.
In regards to training, the running seems to be really good in terms of both calorie burn and CV fitness, but it seems to have brought on a pain in my right hip. I might alternate my sessions between the bike and the treadmill to help reduce this, at least till it stops. I'm wondering if it's my stride doing the damage as I have long legs and the treadmill doesn't give me much room to stretch unless I'm going hard. Let me know your thoughts if your reading this.
Okay, so with that good news I am going to re-motivate myself. There's a chance I'll be in Oz next year so I want to be in good condition by the time I'm there. A barman extraordinaire like myself (well I was before I wound up in a bank) needs to look their best if they want to maximise their tips.
To kickstart my re-use of this blog I'm going to update you on my stats. I'm not using the gym's monitor any more (or often anyway). If it can't calculate my height or body fat correctly, it's just telling me my weight. Which my bathroom scales can do. So I'm using those guys and leaving the body fat check till I can afford some decent calipers (any recommendations would be appreciated). It also means I can do it at home at the same time each week, which will be Thursday mornings (should be longest time since I've had something to drink).
So weight this morning:
Weight: 194lbs/88kg
Woop! I am under the 14 stone barrier finally. Yeah it's in the morning before I've even had a glass of water but still, I'm not gonna bitch. Between my original weigh in back on the 1st October, I've lost 8lbs. More like 14lbs since I actually started taking my training seriously again which was a week or so before that.
I think the key to this has been my weekday breakfast of fruit without increasing my cals later in the day. This has been an easy change to make, I love fruit anyway, and seems to be melting the fat off me despite my brief relapses into laziness.
Speaking of stripping out calories, I've often been having tuna sandwiches for lunch, but because one tin of tuna is too much for a single sandwich, it ends up two. Frankly, I don't think I need the extra bread, even if it is wholemeal. I often come away from lunch feeling a bit stuffed, which I don't want. I think I'll just try stuff the sarnie for now and just munch at the counter whatever won't fit.
In regards to training, the running seems to be really good in terms of both calorie burn and CV fitness, but it seems to have brought on a pain in my right hip. I might alternate my sessions between the bike and the treadmill to help reduce this, at least till it stops. I'm wondering if it's my stride doing the damage as I have long legs and the treadmill doesn't give me much room to stretch unless I'm going hard. Let me know your thoughts if your reading this.
Okay, so with that good news I am going to re-motivate myself. There's a chance I'll be in Oz next year so I want to be in good condition by the time I'm there. A barman extraordinaire like myself (well I was before I wound up in a bank) needs to look their best if they want to maximise their tips.
Thursday 4 November 2010
The running bug
Okay, Tuesday fell flat. No booze, not much crap (couple of small choc's left from halloween) but no exercise. Thumbs down.
Yesterday though was good. Straight onto the tread mill. Ten minutes warm up with increasing intensity, start the cycles (2 min 7.0, 1.5 min 9.0, 1.5 min 12.0) for 45 mins (final cycle was 2 mins 7.0, 1 min 9.0, 2 mins 12.5, all on higher incline). 5 mins cool down. I don't think I've been so sweaty outside of the sauna. It was brilliant.
I always found running on the treadmill deathly dull and if my music wasn't keeping me going it was just a royal pain in the ass. Doing these cycles is different. I am only looking at the next shift in pace rather than to next 50 minutes of plodding on. During the 2 min walks I'm focusing on dropping my heart rate ready for the next. I am fully engaged in my training. Also, it's challenging my heart to stretch itself at a higher level than it's used to, then get back as close to resting as possible. The higher end bits take me out of my cardio zone and into glycogen burning, which is good for calorie burn once I stop running. This is definitely not boring anymore.
I'm looking forward to tonight's session. I might hit the spin bike to give my feet a rest min, or split my time between both. See how it goes.
Yesterday though was good. Straight onto the tread mill. Ten minutes warm up with increasing intensity, start the cycles (2 min 7.0, 1.5 min 9.0, 1.5 min 12.0) for 45 mins (final cycle was 2 mins 7.0, 1 min 9.0, 2 mins 12.5, all on higher incline). 5 mins cool down. I don't think I've been so sweaty outside of the sauna. It was brilliant.
I always found running on the treadmill deathly dull and if my music wasn't keeping me going it was just a royal pain in the ass. Doing these cycles is different. I am only looking at the next shift in pace rather than to next 50 minutes of plodding on. During the 2 min walks I'm focusing on dropping my heart rate ready for the next. I am fully engaged in my training. Also, it's challenging my heart to stretch itself at a higher level than it's used to, then get back as close to resting as possible. The higher end bits take me out of my cardio zone and into glycogen burning, which is good for calorie burn once I stop running. This is definitely not boring anymore.
I'm looking forward to tonight's session. I might hit the spin bike to give my feet a rest min, or split my time between both. See how it goes.
Tuesday 2 November 2010
End of an era
No not me training, I haven't given up yet even if I am almost at the month mark. I mean the the demise of Mr. Eugenides blog (hopefully temporary). I've been reading him for years and he never fails to make me laugh (or furious by highlighting yet more grotesqueness from our overbaring state). Hopefully it'll be temporary when he realises that the current bunch of assholes are only slightly less malicious than the last lot. But for now I'll remember this fine blogger by my favourite words of his about my beloved aqua vitae.
Drinking with friends is one of life’s small pleasures. No, let’s change it up; it’s one of life’s biggest pleasures. How many memories are burned on the brain – albeit fuzzily – from boozy student nights out, when tomorrow morning’s lectures could be skipped with impunity and the whole world was there for the taking? How many lifelong friendships forged over pints on lazy summer evenings? How many of your friends have met, taken a fancy to and fallen in love with life partners with the aid of a shot of Dutch courage to loosen the inhibitions or a glass of wine to lubricate the tongue? How many of us and our children, to say nothing of geniuses yet to be born, owe our very places on this earth, and some of the fondest times of our lives, to the joyous, self-actualising, life-affirming, complex, subtle, almost magical force that is alcohol?Too true.
Good day bad day
I didn't post how my Sunday went so I'll roll it into my notes on yesterday.
Food - Bacon sandwich (1 rasher, slice of tiger bread, butter, dash of HP), too much extra bread (but I'll be damned if I let tiger bread go to waste) with peanut butter (organic unsugared stuff) and jam. Rhubarb yoghurt. Dinner of corned beef pie (1 slice of, little HP). Went a bit nuts on the bread but it was the weekend so no big worry. I did have a couple of diet cokes while at the pub watching the Newcastle-Sunderland match (haha, 5-1. The thing we Smoggies and the Geordies can agree on is how much we hate Sunderland FC). I don't want to drink too much of the stuff but it's that, water or beer so I thought I'd take the middle ground. Anyway, it's the weekend. Oh yeah, and it was Halloween and we had some stuff in, so I had a cupcake.
Training - Well, all that carb loading was good for something. Good session running. Opened with my 2k row, did under 8:30. Onto the tread mill, 6k 5 min warm up. Improved my cycle - 2 mins quick walk (7.0), 1.5 mins medium pace (9.0) followed by 1.5 mins good pace (12.0). When I felt stronger in the run, I shortened the medium pace and did 2 mins on 12.0. Did 45 mins total on treadmill. This may not be hugely impressive to some but I'm happy to see myself slowly getting better. Followed the CV by dips, chins, planks, reverse planks and frog crunches. After that quick dip in the pool and a 5 min steam. Fun day at the gym.
So not a bad day all in all, especially for a Sunday where the main temptation is to stay in bed as long as possible before rolling out of bed for the match and a beer. Followed up by junk food, bottle of wine and other assorted booze. Well that's my kind of Sunday anyway.
The title of this post was good day bad day, so you can probably guess what happened. I wasn't feeling great (understatement) so I came home after a couple of hours work. I'd had some fruit at work (banana, pear), but got home and had slice of corned beef pie. Then later I had the nub end of the tiger bread with some spicey chicken strips. Later, we had our pasta pesto and a whole bunch of cakes. And two bottles of Pinot Grigio between us. And no gym (although I had got up early to continue my pursuit of 100 press ups).
Seriously, this is why I find it hard to lose weight. When I break, I break. I'm not worried overly by the food in there - it's rare we'll have cakes in the house and they would have been eaten across the week anyway, at least they weren't stale last night. But did we really need both bottles of wine? We're supposed to be not drinking during the week. Well, no more booze till Friday. I need to show some will power and work out at least three times midweek. And with the little lady at tennis tonight, that leaves me with the options of running outside or getting on the rower at home. Or sitting on my ass playing Medieval 2. I know what I'd prefer....
Food - Bacon sandwich (1 rasher, slice of tiger bread, butter, dash of HP), too much extra bread (but I'll be damned if I let tiger bread go to waste) with peanut butter (organic unsugared stuff) and jam. Rhubarb yoghurt. Dinner of corned beef pie (1 slice of, little HP). Went a bit nuts on the bread but it was the weekend so no big worry. I did have a couple of diet cokes while at the pub watching the Newcastle-Sunderland match (haha, 5-1. The thing we Smoggies and the Geordies can agree on is how much we hate Sunderland FC). I don't want to drink too much of the stuff but it's that, water or beer so I thought I'd take the middle ground. Anyway, it's the weekend. Oh yeah, and it was Halloween and we had some stuff in, so I had a cupcake.
Training - Well, all that carb loading was good for something. Good session running. Opened with my 2k row, did under 8:30. Onto the tread mill, 6k 5 min warm up. Improved my cycle - 2 mins quick walk (7.0), 1.5 mins medium pace (9.0) followed by 1.5 mins good pace (12.0). When I felt stronger in the run, I shortened the medium pace and did 2 mins on 12.0. Did 45 mins total on treadmill. This may not be hugely impressive to some but I'm happy to see myself slowly getting better. Followed the CV by dips, chins, planks, reverse planks and frog crunches. After that quick dip in the pool and a 5 min steam. Fun day at the gym.
So not a bad day all in all, especially for a Sunday where the main temptation is to stay in bed as long as possible before rolling out of bed for the match and a beer. Followed up by junk food, bottle of wine and other assorted booze. Well that's my kind of Sunday anyway.
The title of this post was good day bad day, so you can probably guess what happened. I wasn't feeling great (understatement) so I came home after a couple of hours work. I'd had some fruit at work (banana, pear), but got home and had slice of corned beef pie. Then later I had the nub end of the tiger bread with some spicey chicken strips. Later, we had our pasta pesto and a whole bunch of cakes. And two bottles of Pinot Grigio between us. And no gym (although I had got up early to continue my pursuit of 100 press ups).
Seriously, this is why I find it hard to lose weight. When I break, I break. I'm not worried overly by the food in there - it's rare we'll have cakes in the house and they would have been eaten across the week anyway, at least they weren't stale last night. But did we really need both bottles of wine? We're supposed to be not drinking during the week. Well, no more booze till Friday. I need to show some will power and work out at least three times midweek. And with the little lady at tennis tonight, that leaves me with the options of running outside or getting on the rower at home. Or sitting on my ass playing Medieval 2. I know what I'd prefer....
Monday 1 November 2010
Stats Update: 28/10/2010 (with pics!)
Okay so this is very delayed. I apologise. Busy busy weekend. But I finally have my new stats and yes even those pics I promised. I'll try re-edit them later so the one's I've added to aren't so tiny. I'm not chuffed that the least flattering ones are the ones that kept their original size. Anyway, stats up first, including height this time...
Height: 6"3.1
Weight: 200lbs - 90.9kg
BMI: 24.9
Body Fat: 24.1% - 21.9kg
Lean Weight: 69kg
Analysis? Well I'm 2 inches taller! This really nails it for me how useless this machine is. I'm not sure if my hair was spikier than usual at the start of the session but that's just crap. It also derails the BMI numbers, not that I care too much for them.
Better news is that the weight is coming down still. I flubbed on the Wednesday (and the Monday) having drinks and crap to eat, but the numbers are still showing a drop. I know from doing a weigh in at home the following day that some of this was water bloating.
Again good news is the body fat is dropping and lean weight increasing. As we found out last week the BF testing (by electrical resistance testing) is inaccurate, but hopefully by testing in similar conditions (pre-gym) it's a bit better. Surprised to see a .6kg jump in the lean weight though, my strength training has been minimal. I suppose it could be legs...
All in all not too shabby. Not hitting my target though yet but I keep mucking up before weigh ins. Later week testing shows my weight lower. I need to cut back on my drinking properly. This weekend was better though, half a bottle of wine and a few beers across the weekend. I actually stuck to the soft stuff through a footie match too.
Anyway, what we've all been waiting for (or dreading) are the pics. I'm not going to over-analyse these. They are just going to stand as a testamount to the time I let myself go too far. Also, I've never really seen my back, and I'm not particularly pleased with it. But just gotta keep plodding on with my training, things will improve.
Friday 29 October 2010
Burnout
Not of training totally, though. Just the spin bike. As good as Josh Taylor is, I miss listening to my music. Personally I find I only get the best out of my music when it's me on my own with the headphones. Having it blasting out of the speakers is great in a way but unless I'm literally doing nothing but listening I rarely get into it in the same way. Live too is brilliant when you know the songs, but new stuff needs some dedicated listening to. Be it the gym, the bus or best of all a beach baking in the sun but for me it has to be fed directly to my brain via my Sennheisers.*
Anyway, so my want to listen to some music has driven me off the bike in search of new exercise. I can row but that was out last night as my back is still recovering from pull ups on Wednesday (I have some serious bodywork to do when this CV blast is over). The exercise bike is just too dull and frankly those sofa seats they have on them make it difficult to sit on longer than 30 mins. The stairmaster is the devils work. The cross trainer and eliptical feel funny on my knees, besides being the least masculine bit of equipment invented. So what do I have left? Ah, the humble treadmill. Okay, so it's back on the treadmill.
I'm not a huge fan of treadmills to be honest. If I'm running at a comfortable pace my legs barely get a stretch so it feels weird. If I run at a pace to stretch my legs I can't keep it up for long. Solution? Stop bitching for a start. Then get on and do intervals, slowly increasing the heavier time until it my CV system catches up.
So last night, after ten minutes of warm up on the exercise bike, I took to the treadmill. 5 mins quick walking to get me into the movement, ten minutes of steady medium/low running (8kph). After that, going 4 mins medium (9kph), followed by 1 minute proper run (12k). I'm then dropping to five mins of quick walking again. That's one cycle. Repeat at least twice more. Cool down by steep incline walking, slowly dropping off the incline. Done.
So the stage I'm at is a bit rubbish. 10 years ago I ran 2 miles in ten minutes. In combat boots and fatigues. ( I did then spend another ten minutes lying on my front lawn in a puddle of my own sweat gasping for air). Now....well it's there above to be seen. However, for the next couple of weeks at least I'm going to be doing some running. I'm going to try and improve bit by bit on the treadmill. As a student I came back home for the summer, equally pathetic at running. After two months of being at the gym, mostly focusing on bodybuilding, I was running strong for 40 minutes. Hoping for a similar improvement this time.
Now if anyone can tell me how to stop my feet from getting too worn and blistering during these long runs I'd be much obliged.
Oh, and I did my weigh in last night (pre-gym). I'll post the stats up here in a few hours, can't do it from here because I need to put the pictures up too....
Anyway, so my want to listen to some music has driven me off the bike in search of new exercise. I can row but that was out last night as my back is still recovering from pull ups on Wednesday (I have some serious bodywork to do when this CV blast is over). The exercise bike is just too dull and frankly those sofa seats they have on them make it difficult to sit on longer than 30 mins. The stairmaster is the devils work. The cross trainer and eliptical feel funny on my knees, besides being the least masculine bit of equipment invented. So what do I have left? Ah, the humble treadmill. Okay, so it's back on the treadmill.
I'm not a huge fan of treadmills to be honest. If I'm running at a comfortable pace my legs barely get a stretch so it feels weird. If I run at a pace to stretch my legs I can't keep it up for long. Solution? Stop bitching for a start. Then get on and do intervals, slowly increasing the heavier time until it my CV system catches up.
So last night, after ten minutes of warm up on the exercise bike, I took to the treadmill. 5 mins quick walking to get me into the movement, ten minutes of steady medium/low running (8kph). After that, going 4 mins medium (9kph), followed by 1 minute proper run (12k). I'm then dropping to five mins of quick walking again. That's one cycle. Repeat at least twice more. Cool down by steep incline walking, slowly dropping off the incline. Done.
So the stage I'm at is a bit rubbish. 10 years ago I ran 2 miles in ten minutes. In combat boots and fatigues. ( I did then spend another ten minutes lying on my front lawn in a puddle of my own sweat gasping for air). Now....well it's there above to be seen. However, for the next couple of weeks at least I'm going to be doing some running. I'm going to try and improve bit by bit on the treadmill. As a student I came back home for the summer, equally pathetic at running. After two months of being at the gym, mostly focusing on bodybuilding, I was running strong for 40 minutes. Hoping for a similar improvement this time.
Now if anyone can tell me how to stop my feet from getting too worn and blistering during these long runs I'd be much obliged.
Oh, and I did my weigh in last night (pre-gym). I'll post the stats up here in a few hours, can't do it from here because I need to put the pictures up too....
Thursday 28 October 2010
I don't like Wednesdays either
Lazy fucker, you must stop doing this. There was no need to take a night off. There was no need to get a pizza. There was no need to drink or that much.
Surprise surprise, there was no weigh in yesterday.
I'm not gonna make any more of this. I shouldn't have broke, it wasn't worth it. I will never reach my goals unless I stop taking the easy road of skipping sessions and eating badly.
Surprise surprise, there was no weigh in yesterday.
I'm not gonna make any more of this. I shouldn't have broke, it wasn't worth it. I will never reach my goals unless I stop taking the easy road of skipping sessions and eating badly.
Wednesday 27 October 2010
Take 2
So Monday was a write-off, Tuesday was better. Fruit for breakfast, tuna sandwiches for lunch, some chicken dippers for pre-gym food (yeah yeah I know) plus one of my favourite meals the Noahs Ark (after the local pub we stole the idea from, not the fabled boat) which is meatballs, chorizo, tomatoes, mixed veg, spices and pasta. Gym was kind of rubbish in one way. Only 40 mins on the bike, and it wasn't particularly hard going. Followed that by dips & chins. So it felt like a bit of a cack session. However, I reckon if I hadn't gone yesterday it would have meant a downhill trend for the week, so it at least saved me from myself.
Just this quick one for now. I'm deciding whether or not to do my weigh in tonight or tomorrow so there might be more from me later. Also, whenever the weigh in is also going to be photo day. Gulp.
Just this quick one for now. I'm deciding whether or not to do my weigh in tonight or tomorrow so there might be more from me later. Also, whenever the weigh in is also going to be photo day. Gulp.
Tuesday 26 October 2010
I don't like Mondays
Well that day was a bust. Miserable weather and the slightest nudge from Mrs. Fyrdman and I crumbled. Instead of a sweaty grind on the bike I had some leisurely drinks at a couple of bars followed by Winter Fajitas (C) and half a bottle of yet more Cote du Rhone.
I'd like to excuse myself on the grounds that I did two workouts over the weekend. But that's bollocks. I could have had water or juices while I was out. The wine was unneeded. Recovery days (recover from what?) are not slob out days. Really quite angry with myself.
In other news, lurkers. What the hell, someone other than my wife seems to be reading this blog? That's quite cool really. It adds pressure on me. Can't have people from around the world thinking I can't temper my appetites.
Feel free to leave any comments you want, I'll get back to you on any questions or the like.
Finally, I'm considering putting up some pictures of myself. If this all goes to plan they will provide me with a good signpost of where I don't want to end up again. It'll allow me to chronicle progress in picture format to along with the all important but boring as hell figures. And it might get me some cheap views from ladies who like their men pale as milk bottles.
I'd like to excuse myself on the grounds that I did two workouts over the weekend. But that's bollocks. I could have had water or juices while I was out. The wine was unneeded. Recovery days (recover from what?) are not slob out days. Really quite angry with myself.
In other news, lurkers. What the hell, someone other than my wife seems to be reading this blog? That's quite cool really. It adds pressure on me. Can't have people from around the world thinking I can't temper my appetites.
Feel free to leave any comments you want, I'll get back to you on any questions or the like.
Finally, I'm considering putting up some pictures of myself. If this all goes to plan they will provide me with a good signpost of where I don't want to end up again. It'll allow me to chronicle progress in picture format to along with the all important but boring as hell figures. And it might get me some cheap views from ladies who like their men pale as milk bottles.
Monday 25 October 2010
HEEEAAAAAAAVE!
(Picture stolen from the Warriors Website. If this pic is yours and you object to it being here, I'll drop it)
First story of the day, Worcester Warriors lost to Cornish Pirates 21-23. Completely deserved in terms of quality; we left ourselves open and got a two try kick in the nuts in the first half. We came back to lead but a penalty in the last few minutes gave it to Pirates. More dubiously however was the time the game stopped. The board the entire stadium was watching showed 77 minutes when the Pirates kick went over for the end of the game (and though I wasn't paying attention, I heard someone say 4 minutes had been added for all the rolling around on the floor the Pirates were doing). Atrocious. Still, we're still leading the Championship by a few points. This loss might sharpen us up after our winning streak. Should never get complacent.
Speaking of complacent, this weekend was not the washout fitness wise I expected. Nothing on Friday as that was the match, bit I did 40 mins on an exercise doing steady state work (actually able to do it without falling asleep as it was at home so focused on some English Civil War documentary). According to the bikes figures I'd burned near 700 calories, and the sheen of sweat everywhere makes me think it's probably close. On Sunday, a trip to David Lloyd Bromsgrove involved a medium pace 2k row (8:44, 120kcals dead on) followed by 60 mins on an exercise bike. Bike was set to heart rate intervals. Good slog, 740kcals. You could wring my t-shirt out by the end, like you always should by the end of your (CV) workout.
Food was pretty controlled too. Beef sandwiches and soup on Friday before match, good on Saturday though we did go out for an Indian (definitely worth it) and Sunday with was peppered steak and ratatouille bake. Drunk a few glasses of wine (Cote du Rhone and Fleurie, delicious) on Friday, more than I intended, Saturday only had a couple of glasses of wine and a couple of half lagers (halves!!!! diet is turning me into a Southern Fairy. It'll be shandies next) despite curry. On Sunday it was a couple of glasses of Prosecco (yum) and a couple more Cote du Rhones. So sure I drunk but nowhere near what I expected. Hell I didn't even have a beer at the rugby which borders on sacriledge. I'm surprised at my willpower in the face of regular offers of drink which all things accounted for stood up well.
Oh yeah, I also ate mine and my dearest's Angel Slice. You may think it cheating but she's also trying to cut back on the junk so I took the hit on her behalf. I'm a gentleman like that.
Haven't weighed in, will do so on the Thursday session this week I think. I'm expecting better news this time than last, though this will be a shorted period before weigh in than last time.
Fingers crossed.
Thursday 21 October 2010
Fatigue
Four days continual training, combined no doubt with a lack of sleep, has led to some fatigue issues. Last night I couldn't crank out more than 30 mins on the bike before I could feel myself slumping. Finished off with 30 mins steep incline fast walking. Overall calorie burn near 600 calories. Not too bad all things considered.
Although I know I should really just take a break (Tuesday would have been apt really) I'm wondering if my energy drop is mostly due to my balance between training style and calorie intake. My training is honestly geared more towards CV strength and endurance rather than fat loss. I work my hardest when I'm training. I don't pay attention to going out of my ideal fat burning heart rate zone. I don't believe in not working hard so I just can't stand the long sessions of steady state, barely warmed up training that is recommended for fat loss. But doing this kind of work without feeding my body all the fuel it needs is taking a toll. With this work level I should be upping my calorie intake, pre-loading carbs before sessions, having a sports drink during etc
Now, no doubt by next week, having had three days off, I'll forget what I'm about to say here and go back to working my balls off until I next hit this kind of low point. But perhaps if I'm going to be at the gym daily without recovery days between I should be cutting my hard training down from an hour to 30 minutes anyway. I could go harder during that time, put the bike on it's race settings rather than interval. But cut down on the time. Follow that up with something lighter like the steep walking, or even some boring ass normal exercise bike work.
The other option for the future is to try keep to a pattern of a day off for every two days on. Or at least, get off the spinner every third day at the very least. This way I can still do long interval sessions regularly but still get the break I need to recover.
Finally, I have to stop being an idiot and make sure I get a good nights sleep. I can feel the fatigue right now throughout my legs, back, abs and shoulders and I've only been awake 3 hours. I must start guarding my sleep.
Ahh bollocks, let's just grind it out tonight till I'm sick. I have three days off after tonight, stop being a pussy.
Although I know I should really just take a break (Tuesday would have been apt really) I'm wondering if my energy drop is mostly due to my balance between training style and calorie intake. My training is honestly geared more towards CV strength and endurance rather than fat loss. I work my hardest when I'm training. I don't pay attention to going out of my ideal fat burning heart rate zone. I don't believe in not working hard so I just can't stand the long sessions of steady state, barely warmed up training that is recommended for fat loss. But doing this kind of work without feeding my body all the fuel it needs is taking a toll. With this work level I should be upping my calorie intake, pre-loading carbs before sessions, having a sports drink during etc
Now, no doubt by next week, having had three days off, I'll forget what I'm about to say here and go back to working my balls off until I next hit this kind of low point. But perhaps if I'm going to be at the gym daily without recovery days between I should be cutting my hard training down from an hour to 30 minutes anyway. I could go harder during that time, put the bike on it's race settings rather than interval. But cut down on the time. Follow that up with something lighter like the steep walking, or even some boring ass normal exercise bike work.
The other option for the future is to try keep to a pattern of a day off for every two days on. Or at least, get off the spinner every third day at the very least. This way I can still do long interval sessions regularly but still get the break I need to recover.
Finally, I have to stop being an idiot and make sure I get a good nights sleep. I can feel the fatigue right now throughout my legs, back, abs and shoulders and I've only been awake 3 hours. I must start guarding my sleep.
Ahh bollocks, let's just grind it out tonight till I'm sick. I have three days off after tonight, stop being a pussy.
Wednesday 20 October 2010
Not so Spartan Recovery
Oh yeah, forgot to add that I also had two crumpets dripping with Lurpak butter (in addition to my yoghurt) before heading to the gym. Delicious. Crap pre-gym snack no doubt but absolutely delicious. It's making me hungry. Thank god it's lunch time.
Spartan Recovery
So yesterday I recovered at the gym. I dropped the rowing warm up and just leapt into the saddle instead. The e-spinner has a warm up on it anyway so it's not poor form of me. It did mean a strong session on the bike, 680kcals in 57mins. I'm thinking of it as a recovery because I did two days of hard sessions prior so I needed something a little lighter so as to not exhaust myself. Same time, I'm not comfortable with missing a session this week with the weekend coming up.
I think I should try to keep that kind of mindset. Just because it's a recovery day doesn't mean I should give up for 24 hours. It doesn't always have to be the gym. Tennis, bike ride, a brisk walk even. Hell 4 hours of shopping with the wife is decent exercise. But the important thing is to do something.
On a positive note to myself, I may not be losing weight quickly but you could break iron bars over my thighs they're so hard these days. Now if only the same could be said for my belly....
I think I should try to keep that kind of mindset. Just because it's a recovery day doesn't mean I should give up for 24 hours. It doesn't always have to be the gym. Tennis, bike ride, a brisk walk even. Hell 4 hours of shopping with the wife is decent exercise. But the important thing is to do something.
On a positive note to myself, I may not be losing weight quickly but you could break iron bars over my thighs they're so hard these days. Now if only the same could be said for my belly....
Tuesday 19 October 2010
Back in the swing
This week has gotten off to a good start. I had a strong session on Sunday, got my 2k rowing warm up down to 8.30, followed by by a sweaty session on the e-spinner. 800kcals> burned. Last night, warm up was done in 8.13. Damned hard work, felt like I was gonna burst at one point. Brilliant. Then another load of hard work on the bike. 830kcals> burned. What's more, I still felt pretty good at the end. I could have hopped on the tread mill for half an hour. I didn't of course, I'm not some kind of mental person.
Food has been alright too. Okay on Sunday I did have half a bottle of Malbec and an Angel Slice after dinner, but it was the weekend. Yesterday I started with the fruit. Couple of apples, banana, orange. Spread out between 8:00-12:00. Didn't feel hungry at all. As I'm typing this on Tuesday though, I'll note I do feel a bit hungry now. Scrambled egg on toast for lunch, small yoghurt pre-gym, steak (150g roughly) with jacket potato, mangetout and grean beans for dinner. I did make a garlic sauce for the steak which was just butter and garlic. Lots of both. However I restrained myself and didn't use much. Fattening, but good for the fat soluble vitamins. Had maybe 2-3 dates across the day too. All my usual supplements. I've also started taking Psyllium Husk capsules during the week. I don't think I'm getting enough fibre atm. I'll just use them for a couple of weeks continuously then cut back to maybe a couple of days a week.
Providing no illness, injury or other mishap gets in the way, I'll be at the gym another three times this week. The weekend is gonna be too busy (WAAAAAAARRRRRRIIIIIIOOOORRSSSS) for the gym so I'll need to make this proceeding week count.
Food has been alright too. Okay on Sunday I did have half a bottle of Malbec and an Angel Slice after dinner, but it was the weekend. Yesterday I started with the fruit. Couple of apples, banana, orange. Spread out between 8:00-12:00. Didn't feel hungry at all. As I'm typing this on Tuesday though, I'll note I do feel a bit hungry now. Scrambled egg on toast for lunch, small yoghurt pre-gym, steak (150g roughly) with jacket potato, mangetout and grean beans for dinner. I did make a garlic sauce for the steak which was just butter and garlic. Lots of both. However I restrained myself and didn't use much. Fattening, but good for the fat soluble vitamins. Had maybe 2-3 dates across the day too. All my usual supplements. I've also started taking Psyllium Husk capsules during the week. I don't think I'm getting enough fibre atm. I'll just use them for a couple of weeks continuously then cut back to maybe a couple of days a week.
Providing no illness, injury or other mishap gets in the way, I'll be at the gym another three times this week. The weekend is gonna be too busy (WAAAAAAARRRRRRIIIIIIOOOORRSSSS) for the gym so I'll need to make this proceeding week count.
Sunday 17 October 2010
Stats Update: 17/10/10
Right, how did I do?
Weight: 201lbs - 91.3kg
BMI: 26.4
Body Fat: 25.1%, 22.9kg
Lean weight: 68.4kg
Analysis: Body fat check on the machine is damned inaccurate. I've lost circa 5kg of muscle in two weeks? Hell, I haven't been laid up in bed.
Reason of course for the swing is last time I checked my stats was post exercise. This time, pre-exercise. This is pain in the ass but the start of projects are all about learning. I'm learning not to trust the body fat calculator and am considering buying some calipers.
On a more positive note, I dropped a pound. It's in the right direction, but not by enough.
Conclusions: I slacked off last week. 1 session? Lazy bugger. I made excuses for myself and skipped way too much. Thursday was a decent workout but 1 in a week is nowhere near enough. Additionally, I've been indulging in food and drink. Bakewell tarts, more drink than I planned. This weekends idea of just a glass of wine are shot.
This week, I'm going to be swapping the porridge for fruit, lunches are omelette's or scrambled egg on toast. Gym at least 3 times during the week, hopefully four because next weekend I'll be away from home to watch the mighty Worcester Warriors beat Cornish Pirates.
Other changes will be to take my weigh ins on Thursdays rather than Sundays. Drinking bloats me and screws the numbers up, and as my weekend drinking fluctuates it I can't get the best reading. Gonna take a look at amazon's calipers.
So, missed my goal. This just means I'll have to work harder. Slap down on the weekday snacking and keep up the training.
Weight: 201lbs - 91.3kg
BMI: 26.4
Body Fat: 25.1%, 22.9kg
Lean weight: 68.4kg
Analysis: Body fat check on the machine is damned inaccurate. I've lost circa 5kg of muscle in two weeks? Hell, I haven't been laid up in bed.
Reason of course for the swing is last time I checked my stats was post exercise. This time, pre-exercise. This is pain in the ass but the start of projects are all about learning. I'm learning not to trust the body fat calculator and am considering buying some calipers.
On a more positive note, I dropped a pound. It's in the right direction, but not by enough.
Conclusions: I slacked off last week. 1 session? Lazy bugger. I made excuses for myself and skipped way too much. Thursday was a decent workout but 1 in a week is nowhere near enough. Additionally, I've been indulging in food and drink. Bakewell tarts, more drink than I planned. This weekends idea of just a glass of wine are shot.
This week, I'm going to be swapping the porridge for fruit, lunches are omelette's or scrambled egg on toast. Gym at least 3 times during the week, hopefully four because next weekend I'll be away from home to watch the mighty Worcester Warriors beat Cornish Pirates.
Other changes will be to take my weigh ins on Thursdays rather than Sundays. Drinking bloats me and screws the numbers up, and as my weekend drinking fluctuates it I can't get the best reading. Gonna take a look at amazon's calipers.
So, missed my goal. This just means I'll have to work harder. Slap down on the weekday snacking and keep up the training.
Friday 15 October 2010
Reboot
Finally shifted myself away from the sofa and went back to the gym. Good session, 750> kcals burned between rower and e-spinner. Felt a little sluggish at times on the bike. Followed it up with some more sissy weight squats, skipped the pull ups because it was getting late. No bother, not my priority. They'll get hit some other time.
Diet back up to standard. Porridge, tuna, a little leftover chilli beef soup for pre-gym, date, chicken pesto pasta main meal. Supplemented with good multivitamen, high strength cod liver oil, spoon of bs molasses, 30mls of amino acids during training, scoop of whey protein in milk after session.
My legs feel pretty good this morning, no soreness whatsoever. I think the amino acid/protein combo is getting them fixed quick.
At least another session before my weigh in (which will be followed by a session in itself). I'm not expecting a vast leap because of the anniversary weekend by if I stay on track I'll be happy. Which means 2.34lbs fat lost, or a little over a kilo. A kilo of fat sounds an awful lot in my head...
Diet back up to standard. Porridge, tuna, a little leftover chilli beef soup for pre-gym, date, chicken pesto pasta main meal. Supplemented with good multivitamen, high strength cod liver oil, spoon of bs molasses, 30mls of amino acids during training, scoop of whey protein in milk after session.
My legs feel pretty good this morning, no soreness whatsoever. I think the amino acid/protein combo is getting them fixed quick.
At least another session before my weigh in (which will be followed by a session in itself). I'm not expecting a vast leap because of the anniversary weekend by if I stay on track I'll be happy. Which means 2.34lbs fat lost, or a little over a kilo. A kilo of fat sounds an awful lot in my head...
Thursday 14 October 2010
Fail part deux
Wednesday no show. No more bullshit. I'm going tonight. I am well rested, I am injury free, I am excuse free.
Diet yesterday was crap too. Piece of gingerbread here, 2 bakewell tarts there, half a Cadbury's bliss on top. Today is gonna be clean.
Watched a film last night called The Back Up Plan. Not my exactly a good film but seeing as I saw Cop Out on Monday night it could have been like watching Alien for the first time. Anyway, though it may not have been brilliant it did provide at least some kind of exercise inspiration. Alex O'Laughlin may be trying to ruin the man-cred he built up by being in The Shield but he has got something I want. A good body on an average Joe frame.
I don't have a massive pair of shoulders or a barrel chest. I will never be the size of Aleksandr Karelin. But here is a body I can achieve. And from there I can build on top of it.
If I stop skipping the gym and eating bakewell tarts.
Diet yesterday was crap too. Piece of gingerbread here, 2 bakewell tarts there, half a Cadbury's bliss on top. Today is gonna be clean.
Watched a film last night called The Back Up Plan. Not my exactly a good film but seeing as I saw Cop Out on Monday night it could have been like watching Alien for the first time. Anyway, though it may not have been brilliant it did provide at least some kind of exercise inspiration. Alex O'Laughlin may be trying to ruin the man-cred he built up by being in The Shield but he has got something I want. A good body on an average Joe frame.
I don't have a massive pair of shoulders or a barrel chest. I will never be the size of Aleksandr Karelin. But here is a body I can achieve. And from there I can build on top of it.
If I stop skipping the gym and eating bakewell tarts.
Wednesday 13 October 2010
Fail
Well it doesn't take much for me to miss an evening at the gym. My wife wasn't feeling brilliant so couldn't make it last night so I, being the devoted husband that I am, decided to stay home.
Then, we passed on the Chicken Pesto dinner we had planned, for fish finger sandwiches, mash and beans. Mmmm, comfort food.
Then I went that one step further. I had bag of Candy King sweets. All fizzy stuff, of course.
So Tuesday was a blow out. No booze though, at least.
On the brighter side, I checked the scales and the majority of the re-gained weight has gone, so it must have been alcohol bloating. Small mercies.
I will go to the gym tonight.
Then, we passed on the Chicken Pesto dinner we had planned, for fish finger sandwiches, mash and beans. Mmmm, comfort food.
Then I went that one step further. I had bag of Candy King sweets. All fizzy stuff, of course.
So Tuesday was a blow out. No booze though, at least.
On the brighter side, I checked the scales and the majority of the re-gained weight has gone, so it must have been alcohol bloating. Small mercies.
I will go to the gym tonight.
Tuesday 12 October 2010
Chasing the wagon
My anniversary was great. The Swan Hotel was brilliant as usual, especially considering they were hit by severe floods not after we were married there. The staff are outstanding, the food (and drink) is amazing and the prices are bowel looseningly expensive. But worth it. Also if your in the area this is well worth a look in. The lake by Grasmere is somehow even more beautiful than Windermere itself too.
Right now, that's all the plus side. The damage? Well, a cursory check on the scales show's I'm back where I started. Bollocks. However, as I didn't actually overeat I'm going to presume it was the booze what did it. Fair bit of beer, lots of wine, some spirits, cocktail etc all add up. With a bit of luck, the extra weight will be water weight bloating me, so I can sweat it out in the gym and this will come off with some speed. If it's not looking great by Friday morning I'll either go t-total for the weekend or close enough (1 glass of wine in the evening with my meal). That should put me back on track for my weigh in on Sunday/Monday.
Back to the gym first time since Saturday morning tonight. The two day break should have left me well rested so I can go for a good session tonight.
Right now, that's all the plus side. The damage? Well, a cursory check on the scales show's I'm back where I started. Bollocks. However, as I didn't actually overeat I'm going to presume it was the booze what did it. Fair bit of beer, lots of wine, some spirits, cocktail etc all add up. With a bit of luck, the extra weight will be water weight bloating me, so I can sweat it out in the gym and this will come off with some speed. If it's not looking great by Friday morning I'll either go t-total for the weekend or close enough (1 glass of wine in the evening with my meal). That should put me back on track for my weigh in on Sunday/Monday.
Back to the gym first time since Saturday morning tonight. The two day break should have left me well rested so I can go for a good session tonight.
Saturday 9 October 2010
Lovely lovely drink
Well as soon work was up my weekend started, and this weekend I'm not gonna worry too much about diet and training. Thus, I had my first drink since last Sunday. To be accurate, half of a large bottle of Becks, 1 Desperado, 1 Godfather (JD, Amaretto and Coke over ice), 1 pint of Franziskaner (sp?) , 1 large bottle of Leffe Blonde (750ml) and a third of a bottle of Lindemanns Bin 50 Shiraz. Restrained I think. No headache or dehydration next morning, but then I did sleep till 11.30...
Diet not amazing but then the food was good. Porridge, honey and raisin start as usual. 6" Spicey Italian sub with lettuce,onion & jalapenos for lunch. Vit C added water (stupid me didn't check the ingrediant till nearly finished and the stuff has sugar in. Why do they stick this crap in products advertised as healthy??). 4 mini duck spring rolls, about 4 dates. Dinner was a home-made pizza to myself, so calorie intake will be high but at least I know there's no shit in it.
No training yesterday but Saturday is going better. Healthy (lol, yeah right) bacon sandwich with obligatory HP, OJ and coffee. Raisin and nut breakfast bar. 1 portion whey protein with 125mls milk. 2 mini duck spring rolls. Plus, I did go to the gym. 2000m rowing warm up (110kcals), 32min race day training on e-spinner (450kcals), dips (3x8 bodyweight) and bicep curls (1x8 10kg, 2x8 12.5kg). Planks, ab curls, lower ab vertical kicks, stretches. Training was okay, didn't feel brilliant because last nights drinking has dicked around with my sinuses as usual. But still, training is training.
I've started added 30ml liquid aminos to my water during training following my reading of the linked article. I'm hoping that my recovery will be quicker using this. We'll see.
Not planning to drink much tonight and hopefully won't go nuts tomorrow (probably can't afford it, the hotel isn't exactly cheap). I'll report back on Monday or Tuesday on what's happened. Hopefully not too bad....
Diet not amazing but then the food was good. Porridge, honey and raisin start as usual. 6" Spicey Italian sub with lettuce,onion & jalapenos for lunch. Vit C added water (stupid me didn't check the ingrediant till nearly finished and the stuff has sugar in. Why do they stick this crap in products advertised as healthy??). 4 mini duck spring rolls, about 4 dates. Dinner was a home-made pizza to myself, so calorie intake will be high but at least I know there's no shit in it.
No training yesterday but Saturday is going better. Healthy (lol, yeah right) bacon sandwich with obligatory HP, OJ and coffee. Raisin and nut breakfast bar. 1 portion whey protein with 125mls milk. 2 mini duck spring rolls. Plus, I did go to the gym. 2000m rowing warm up (110kcals), 32min race day training on e-spinner (450kcals), dips (3x8 bodyweight) and bicep curls (1x8 10kg, 2x8 12.5kg). Planks, ab curls, lower ab vertical kicks, stretches. Training was okay, didn't feel brilliant because last nights drinking has dicked around with my sinuses as usual. But still, training is training.
I've started added 30ml liquid aminos to my water during training following my reading of the linked article. I'm hoping that my recovery will be quicker using this. We'll see.
Not planning to drink much tonight and hopefully won't go nuts tomorrow (probably can't afford it, the hotel isn't exactly cheap). I'll report back on Monday or Tuesday on what's happened. Hopefully not too bad....
Friday 8 October 2010
Push
Well I'm enjoying my training so far. I've had no trouble with the controlled eating. In fact, my appetite seems to know whose boss now and has stopped grumbling for a mid-morning bacon sandwich. The training is going well, in addition to losing fat my skill on the spinning bike is getting better and I feel stronger every session. I also think this blog was a good idea. It keeps me focused on this project. It makes me want to go to the gym when I get back after work because I don't want to report here that I've slacked off for days. Also, I check my weight this morning and the drop was significant. However, I don't want to post it up yet because a) it's not hugely accurate to measure over short periods due to additional factors and b) my anniversary weekend is coming up and I think the gains risk stalling a little due to booze. But things are looking good. I'll report my changes every fortnight, or at least monthly, as I planned originally.
As good as it is going, I can see flaws. I think with the spinning taking up the bulk of my time, with the little extra I have going to strength/muscle maintenance, my core and stretching work is suffering. So time to up my game a little. This morning I got up early and did good old press ups.
Not aimlessly. I have a seperate goal here. One hundred press ups. I'm not gonna do detailed reporting of my progress here but I'll periodically let you know what's happening. Anyway, having started it this morning it's quite shocking to see how my performance has dropped. I started the 100 push up plan about ten months ago before going back to kung fu briefly and I was doing really well with it, so I was surprised how much has changed since. However, if it's like last time it'll change pretty quickly as my body get's used to it. I love press ups and they're such a good exercise for your core. Most of all, it's cool to be able to show off and be able to crank out a 100 of em. Also, I get to put a little badge on my website once I've done them. Which, because I'm sad, I think is cool.
As good as it is going, I can see flaws. I think with the spinning taking up the bulk of my time, with the little extra I have going to strength/muscle maintenance, my core and stretching work is suffering. So time to up my game a little. This morning I got up early and did good old press ups.
Not aimlessly. I have a seperate goal here. One hundred press ups. I'm not gonna do detailed reporting of my progress here but I'll periodically let you know what's happening. Anyway, having started it this morning it's quite shocking to see how my performance has dropped. I started the 100 push up plan about ten months ago before going back to kung fu briefly and I was doing really well with it, so I was surprised how much has changed since. However, if it's like last time it'll change pretty quickly as my body get's used to it. I love press ups and they're such a good exercise for your core. Most of all, it's cool to be able to show off and be able to crank out a 100 of em. Also, I get to put a little badge on my website once I've done them. Which, because I'm sad, I think is cool.
Spartan Health Regime
Right, I didn't go to the gym yesterday. Boo hoo. No big deal though. Did some exercise but not much, just enough to get the heart going. Eating was good; no crap, same breakfast and lunch as usual, half a corn on the cob as my wishful pre-gym snack, dinner was spag arrabiata with prawns, had a couple of dates, my molasses and cod liver oil. Plenty of water to drink, no lemonade but will have that tonight. Good sleep.
As I've got little to report on, I thought I'd give a review of a diet plan I've done in the past (more than once). Well, I say diet plan, but that really doesn't cover it. I really mean lifestyle choice.
Spartan Health Regime
I'm going to have a bit of difficulty reviewing this because I don't want to reveal too much of what goes on in the book. Antony Bova, the author, put a lot of time and effort into putting this together and I wouldn't want to take anything away from him. I've also gained a lot from it, and I believe such a good service would be poorly rewarded by me revealing the "secrets". However, I'll do my best and try to cover the regime without revealing anything that isn't already freely available.
Now, let's get the key (potential) downside out of the way. The cost. I bought this program (3rd edition I believe, we are onto the 4th now) in 2004/5 when I was a student. I got the Gold Edition at about AU$300, which due to a mercifully fortunate exchange rate I got for a bit less than GB£150. That's a lot of money, even with a good exchange rate. It came with the actual Spartan Health Regime itself, a hefty collection of Spartan newsletters plus seven short guides guides covering training plans to recipes to lessons from history. That last might sound a bit silly to some people but the stories are genuinely inspiring and one in particular has stuck with me through all of my training since (and when I've retold the stories to other fitness people they've gotten interested in it to). Today, the Gold is unavailable sadly. But the regime itself, with the 7 extra booklets, are available at a special price of $157.95, down from $199. That's still expensive, but given the inflation over the years since I bought it I reckon that's a come down from what I paid. Still, it is expensive.
Is it worth it? For me, yes. Undoubtedly yes. If I had money to burn I would buy the $500 dollar recorded edition. I consider myself pretty well educated when it comes to diet and training. But what I learned from the diet section was new to me, and pretty revolutionary. If you knew this stuff, would it still be worth it? Possibly, because Bova writes in such a way that it pushed pushes you (well it did for me) to work for your results. His no bullshit attitude, down to earth style combined with tying in Spartan imagery, as well as other cultures, captures my imagination no end. But then if you knew all this info and are already applying it, I'd guess you'd be pretty disappointed to have dropped so much money. As I'm not going to give you many details about the diet if you were thinking about purchasing but don't want to pay for knowledge you already, just give Bova an email. The guy got back to me on my questions pretty rapidly, and that is definitely a service you don't get from many other authors. Also, go to his site and download the free first chapter, see if you like his style.
Okay, onto the program itself. The book is split into diet, physical training and mental training. I'd say it's 50% diet or thereabouts. Which is fine, because you don't need endless pictures and descriptions of exercises (go to the Bodybuilding Supersite in my links bar if you want tons of exercise options for all your muscles) but there is plenty most of us could learn about our diets.
The diet, without getting specific, is focused on cleaning up your diet and increasing the nutrient density of your food significantly. So far, so simple right? However I promise you if your like 95% of people, including most educated gym goers, you won't know about what is written inside. I went on this diet when I first got the program. I lost fat. My endless colds went. My sleep was better. Hell, sorry to disgust the more sensitive among you but my bowel movements even improved. The reason this all happened it because the aim is, at it's core, to improve your health. It can be played around to suit your training goals, be they fat loss, strength gains or size gains, but ultimately it's about having a healthier, more efficient body. Brilliant! Downside? Well, it depends. If you don't like your fruit and veg your not going to be pleased. I love the stuff though, so I didn't find it hard. The other issue is, again, cost. Your going to have to improve the quality of your eating which, at least for me, involves spending a chunk more on my weekly shop. Remember though, this is your health your talking about. The increased cost buys you a higher quality of living.
The training section. This is focused upon improving your strength and CV endurance through hard work. Solid base of regular CV work and intense sessions of compound exercises with progressive resistance. There are a number of supplementary exercises to round off your training and improve a couple of areas that are often forgotten in most other training regimes. The goal of all this is real-world, functional strength and endurance that will not only look good but serve you well throughout your life. All the info here is good, however, it's not exceptionally different to what you'll read in other publications whose goal is functional strength. Like the rest of the book however Bova's enthusiasm crosses over so, at the very least, you do find yourself motivated and ready to push yourself. I have, since reading this years ago, intergrated Bova's core strength workout into my training and found it to be very worthwhile. Just a shame my own motivation doesn't match Bova's, I have no doubt I would be seriously stronger and fitter if I had committed to his approach over the years, rather than dipping in and out of training. Any downsides? Well Bova's training is primarily for the hardcore fitness lover, so if you wanted to become a 'Spartan', you will be putting a lot of your life into it. If your that kind of person anyway, you'll take to it like a duck to water. My brother in law would do this with all of his current rugby training without even noticing the extra effort. Me though, I'm not like that. I like my bed and I like good DVD boxsets. Personally, this kind of training is not for me for life, but I can certainly do it for periods. If I get back into kung-fu/kickboxing I could see me doing this in run ups to tournaments, or just if I want to look my best for summer. But over a lifetime? I'll moderate myself a little bit more.
Now the last section is about mental training. This feels kind of fluffy, yet is genuinely useful. There's bit's here on self-hypnosis for goal setting, little tests of your determination and a range of inspirational topics to keep you focused. It rounds off the package that you get in the first two sections and helps guide you into the lifestyle.
Overall, I love the SHR. It has influenced all of my training ever since, it has improved my health when I've applied it, continues to impact my diet choices and perhaps most importantly put up a great bullshit barrier up between me and whatever "health" articles or books I read. I would gladly buy it again.
As I've got little to report on, I thought I'd give a review of a diet plan I've done in the past (more than once). Well, I say diet plan, but that really doesn't cover it. I really mean lifestyle choice.
Spartan Health Regime
I'm going to have a bit of difficulty reviewing this because I don't want to reveal too much of what goes on in the book. Antony Bova, the author, put a lot of time and effort into putting this together and I wouldn't want to take anything away from him. I've also gained a lot from it, and I believe such a good service would be poorly rewarded by me revealing the "secrets". However, I'll do my best and try to cover the regime without revealing anything that isn't already freely available.
Now, let's get the key (potential) downside out of the way. The cost. I bought this program (3rd edition I believe, we are onto the 4th now) in 2004/5 when I was a student. I got the Gold Edition at about AU$300, which due to a mercifully fortunate exchange rate I got for a bit less than GB£150. That's a lot of money, even with a good exchange rate. It came with the actual Spartan Health Regime itself, a hefty collection of Spartan newsletters plus seven short guides guides covering training plans to recipes to lessons from history. That last might sound a bit silly to some people but the stories are genuinely inspiring and one in particular has stuck with me through all of my training since (and when I've retold the stories to other fitness people they've gotten interested in it to). Today, the Gold is unavailable sadly. But the regime itself, with the 7 extra booklets, are available at a special price of $157.95, down from $199. That's still expensive, but given the inflation over the years since I bought it I reckon that's a come down from what I paid. Still, it is expensive.
Is it worth it? For me, yes. Undoubtedly yes. If I had money to burn I would buy the $500 dollar recorded edition. I consider myself pretty well educated when it comes to diet and training. But what I learned from the diet section was new to me, and pretty revolutionary. If you knew this stuff, would it still be worth it? Possibly, because Bova writes in such a way that it pushed pushes you (well it did for me) to work for your results. His no bullshit attitude, down to earth style combined with tying in Spartan imagery, as well as other cultures, captures my imagination no end. But then if you knew all this info and are already applying it, I'd guess you'd be pretty disappointed to have dropped so much money. As I'm not going to give you many details about the diet if you were thinking about purchasing but don't want to pay for knowledge you already, just give Bova an email. The guy got back to me on my questions pretty rapidly, and that is definitely a service you don't get from many other authors. Also, go to his site and download the free first chapter, see if you like his style.
Okay, onto the program itself. The book is split into diet, physical training and mental training. I'd say it's 50% diet or thereabouts. Which is fine, because you don't need endless pictures and descriptions of exercises (go to the Bodybuilding Supersite in my links bar if you want tons of exercise options for all your muscles) but there is plenty most of us could learn about our diets.
The diet, without getting specific, is focused on cleaning up your diet and increasing the nutrient density of your food significantly. So far, so simple right? However I promise you if your like 95% of people, including most educated gym goers, you won't know about what is written inside. I went on this diet when I first got the program. I lost fat. My endless colds went. My sleep was better. Hell, sorry to disgust the more sensitive among you but my bowel movements even improved. The reason this all happened it because the aim is, at it's core, to improve your health. It can be played around to suit your training goals, be they fat loss, strength gains or size gains, but ultimately it's about having a healthier, more efficient body. Brilliant! Downside? Well, it depends. If you don't like your fruit and veg your not going to be pleased. I love the stuff though, so I didn't find it hard. The other issue is, again, cost. Your going to have to improve the quality of your eating which, at least for me, involves spending a chunk more on my weekly shop. Remember though, this is your health your talking about. The increased cost buys you a higher quality of living.
The training section. This is focused upon improving your strength and CV endurance through hard work. Solid base of regular CV work and intense sessions of compound exercises with progressive resistance. There are a number of supplementary exercises to round off your training and improve a couple of areas that are often forgotten in most other training regimes. The goal of all this is real-world, functional strength and endurance that will not only look good but serve you well throughout your life. All the info here is good, however, it's not exceptionally different to what you'll read in other publications whose goal is functional strength. Like the rest of the book however Bova's enthusiasm crosses over so, at the very least, you do find yourself motivated and ready to push yourself. I have, since reading this years ago, intergrated Bova's core strength workout into my training and found it to be very worthwhile. Just a shame my own motivation doesn't match Bova's, I have no doubt I would be seriously stronger and fitter if I had committed to his approach over the years, rather than dipping in and out of training. Any downsides? Well Bova's training is primarily for the hardcore fitness lover, so if you wanted to become a 'Spartan', you will be putting a lot of your life into it. If your that kind of person anyway, you'll take to it like a duck to water. My brother in law would do this with all of his current rugby training without even noticing the extra effort. Me though, I'm not like that. I like my bed and I like good DVD boxsets. Personally, this kind of training is not for me for life, but I can certainly do it for periods. If I get back into kung-fu/kickboxing I could see me doing this in run ups to tournaments, or just if I want to look my best for summer. But over a lifetime? I'll moderate myself a little bit more.
Now the last section is about mental training. This feels kind of fluffy, yet is genuinely useful. There's bit's here on self-hypnosis for goal setting, little tests of your determination and a range of inspirational topics to keep you focused. It rounds off the package that you get in the first two sections and helps guide you into the lifestyle.
Overall, I love the SHR. It has influenced all of my training ever since, it has improved my health when I've applied it, continues to impact my diet choices and perhaps most importantly put up a great bullshit barrier up between me and whatever "health" articles or books I read. I would gladly buy it again.
Thursday 7 October 2010
Quote of the Day
I like quotes to keep me motivated, so I thought I'd start posting occaisional ones here that relate to training, or life in general.
"You cannot plough a field by
turning it over in your mind."
Author Unknown
I like that. That encapsulates for me so much of why I haven't reached physical aspirations I've held for so long. I will find myself worked up and ready to make a change. I read vast quantities of material surrounding my goals so I know how to get there. I plan how I will do it. And then....I don't follow through. I give up, or lose interest at least, and never apply what I have learned (for very long anyway). But training the body is not a short term thing. It takes a great deal of hard work to reach your goals, and then the same again to keep the results. You will never get where you want to be by merely dreaming about it.
Which leads to a now kind of cheesey but very apt quote: Just do it.
Day 2
Did much better yesterday diet wise. No cake for a start.
Diet
Training
The actual spinning went pretty well. The calorie burn could have been higher but I was out of energy by the last segment so wimped out and sat down through it rather than standing on the peddles. The lack of energy I think was mostly because of an issue I'm starting to address that I'll get onto below. The spinning felt less heavy than usual because it was shorter, and with no seperate warm up as well I kind of feel cheated out of the best workout I could, but if I'm to keep my muscle and can't spend a little longer in the gym, the time on the bike's obviously gonna slip.
My key energy issue: recovery. Most specifically, sleep. I reckon I had about 5-6 hours sleep on Tuesday night. 6-7 is usual. This just isn't enough. Even if I wasn't training it's not good. I have a permanent runny nose (attractive) which only seems to disappear when I'm on holiday, when I'm rested, which makes me think it's from exhaustion (or allergies, but let's emliminate the former). So last night I made an effort to not read until the small hours and tried to get to sleep before 23.30. And you know what? I'm not sneezing as much today, my nose isn't nearly as bad and I just generally feel better. It'll be interesting to see the effects of getting a good night's sleep for a week, see if it can properky clear my sinuses.
In conclusion, a good day really. Workout might not have been as strong as possible, but then the diet was improved. And with this better sleep I feel good today, my legs feel good today (protein helping I think) and the aches in my back muscles have gone. Looking forward to a good workout this evening.
Diet
- Porridge (50g), raw honey and raisins. 1 glass of orange juice
- 1 Banana
- 2 tuna sandwiches (4 slices of bread, 1 tin of drained s/f oil based tuna)
- 3 dates
- 1 Raisin and nut bar
- Small portion of home-made chilli
- Roast chicken breast, on a bed of lentil, pepperoni and tomato sauce (kind of sauce anyway) with a few roast potato slices and green beans
- Home-made lemonade, 1 lemon, juiced, and 2 pints of water
- 1tsp unsulphered black-strap molasses
- 1 high strength cod liver oil capsule (1000mg I think)
- 2 litres of water during the day, 1 litre during training
- 125mls semi-skimmed milk, 1 scoop of whey protein (post-workout)
Training
- 47 minutes spinning, including warm up and cooldown (550kcals)
- Military press, 4x8 reps, 20kg
- Straight legged deadlifts, 4x8, 30kg
- Assortment of crunches, planks and reverse planks
The actual spinning went pretty well. The calorie burn could have been higher but I was out of energy by the last segment so wimped out and sat down through it rather than standing on the peddles. The lack of energy I think was mostly because of an issue I'm starting to address that I'll get onto below. The spinning felt less heavy than usual because it was shorter, and with no seperate warm up as well I kind of feel cheated out of the best workout I could, but if I'm to keep my muscle and can't spend a little longer in the gym, the time on the bike's obviously gonna slip.
My key energy issue: recovery. Most specifically, sleep. I reckon I had about 5-6 hours sleep on Tuesday night. 6-7 is usual. This just isn't enough. Even if I wasn't training it's not good. I have a permanent runny nose (attractive) which only seems to disappear when I'm on holiday, when I'm rested, which makes me think it's from exhaustion (or allergies, but let's emliminate the former). So last night I made an effort to not read until the small hours and tried to get to sleep before 23.30. And you know what? I'm not sneezing as much today, my nose isn't nearly as bad and I just generally feel better. It'll be interesting to see the effects of getting a good night's sleep for a week, see if it can properky clear my sinuses.
In conclusion, a good day really. Workout might not have been as strong as possible, but then the diet was improved. And with this better sleep I feel good today, my legs feel good today (protein helping I think) and the aches in my back muscles have gone. Looking forward to a good workout this evening.
Wednesday 6 October 2010
Day 1...
With yesterday being the start of my big push towards being a lean, mean fighting machine I thought I'd layout my eating, training and just general thoughts so far. I won't do this for every day as no one wants to read a list of what I eat every day right? But on occasion I'll go through it so I can see where I'm unnecessarily slacking off.
Diet
So in rough order of eating:
Otherwise, all fine as far as I'm concerned.
Training:
That's it for the day. Over 800 calories burned, more than enough to account for the sins of cake and waffle. Although I didn't take the eating too seriously, I'm happy for it. Little breaks like that every now and then are good for the soul if not for the body. Onwards and upwards.
Diet
So in rough order of eating:
- Porridge (50g), handful of raisins and a teaspoon of raw honey (good stuff if you can get it)
- 1 Banana
- 1 slice of homemade apple cake
- Tuna sandwiches (1 tin of tuna in sunflower oil, drained, 4 slice of bread, butter)
- 3 Dates
- 1/2 slice more apple cake...
- 2 potato waffles, a little Nandos ketchup
- 1 teaspoon of high quality, sugar free peanut butter (post gym)
- Home-made chilli with 2 tacos
- 3 litres of water through the day, 1.5 litres during and immediately following training
- Home-made lemonade, just 1 squeezed lemon and 2 pints of water
- 1 teaspoon unsulphered, black strap molasses (thank you Bova)
- 1 small capsule cod liver oil
Otherwise, all fine as far as I'm concerned.
Training:
- 2000m Rowing warm up (9m 34 seconds, approx 110kcals)
- Spinning, interval setting (57 minutes including cooldown, little over 690kcals)
That's it for the day. Over 800 calories burned, more than enough to account for the sins of cake and waffle. Although I didn't take the eating too seriously, I'm happy for it. Little breaks like that every now and then are good for the soul if not for the body. Onwards and upwards.
Tuesday 5 October 2010
Goals
Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.
Seneca
Now as anyone whose spent the slightest bit of time looking into improving their health and fitness will have read, setting goals is important. Actually, that's true of pretty much anything you need to work at the achieve. Setting goals gives you something specific to aim for, which allows you to decide on your method and allows you measure progress. So, as I've already established in my previous post where I'm coming from, I now need to define where I'm going.
Right now, I have two core aims. Reduce body fat and maintain lean mass. Losing weight is such a bullshit term and so are many of the diets that promote losing weight. They often cause muscle loss, which is always a bad thing, m'kay. Put simply, muscles burn calories, more muscles burn more calories. The greater amount of muscle you carry, the greater amount of general calorie burn without doing additional exercise (your rested metabolism). So, while dropping my body fat I do not want to lose much, if any, muscle.
General aims established, it's time to get specific. Short term I want to:
- Lose 14lbs of fat within 4 months
- An average of 0.82 lbs of fat a week, though with the Christmas gain a better goal would be...
- 1.17 lbs per week, with all December classed as a bust. If I still work my ass off as much as I can, probably only losing a week of workouts due to travelling and family commitments, I should be able to maintain. If not, it's overtime.
I won't go into mid/long-term goals in detail, but as a guide I'm thinking another 6 lbs over the following three months, then longer term another 6 lbs over the next 3 months. That's all subject to change, inasmuch as my focus may shift to gaining size or strength. Time will tell.
That's it for this entry. Just have to check at my next stat check how I'm doing.
Current Stats
You can't know where your going 'till you know where you are. So without much more ado, here is my current stats (according to the machine at the gym, so take the body fat measurement with a pinch of salt).
Date: 01/10/2010
Height: 6' 1.2"/1.86m
Weight: 202lbs/91.8kg
BMI: 26.5
Body Fat: 19.9%/18.2kg
Lean: 161.9lbs/73.6kg
Now the BMI puts me at over weight, but the body fat puts me in the good category. Apparently. Two things to note from this, a) BMI is bullshit that doesn't reflect muscle mass or bone density deviations from average, and b) after a little working out in my head it means that since the last time I had a body fat measurement, six years ago, I've put on 6lbs of lean mass. I know that's not a lot, but considering how lazy I've been since that last test (when I was 10% body fat) I'm just happy I haven't atrophied.
Now that was on Saturday so it's been a few days now, with a gym session and big bloody walk between, so the numbers might be a shade better. I'm planning to put these numbers up every two/four weeks, not sure yet.
This is the baseline. This where I can't get worse than from now on. If I slip under these numbers again, it's t-total time, and no one wants to see that happen. Not me, not my friends, not a brewery, vinyard or distillary. So it's not just about me. Just mostly.
Date: 01/10/2010
Height: 6' 1.2"/1.86m
Weight: 202lbs/91.8kg
BMI: 26.5
Body Fat: 19.9%/18.2kg
Lean: 161.9lbs/73.6kg
Now the BMI puts me at over weight, but the body fat puts me in the good category. Apparently. Two things to note from this, a) BMI is bullshit that doesn't reflect muscle mass or bone density deviations from average, and b) after a little working out in my head it means that since the last time I had a body fat measurement, six years ago, I've put on 6lbs of lean mass. I know that's not a lot, but considering how lazy I've been since that last test (when I was 10% body fat) I'm just happy I haven't atrophied.
Now that was on Saturday so it's been a few days now, with a gym session and big bloody walk between, so the numbers might be a shade better. I'm planning to put these numbers up every two/four weeks, not sure yet.
This is the baseline. This where I can't get worse than from now on. If I slip under these numbers again, it's t-total time, and no one wants to see that happen. Not me, not my friends, not a brewery, vinyard or distillary. So it's not just about me. Just mostly.
Introductions
I'm tired of starting a healthier lifestyle, complete with extensive gym routine, restricted diet, guilt that I never drink as little as I should etc only to have it all collapse a whopping four weeks later. If that.
So this time, I'm going to put some pressure on. I am going to make my efforts public. I will be honest here in ways I'm just not with my friends and family when it comes to changing myself. Most importantly, I will be honest with myself. I will not pretend to myself that I am working hard when really, I know I could give more.
So starting with the whole honesty thing, I finished a slice of home-made apple cake like twenty minutes ago. It was lovely.
I'm not going to follow any particular diet or anything like that (yet). I will just clean up my eating, cut out the crap (cake above excepted, there was a good reason I swear), control the drinking and keep an eye on portion size. I'm not going to worry about having a bag of crisps at the weekend or some heaven sent goodness at the cinema but on a day to day basis all that junk is gone. If I do all that while still making my main meal of the day as tasty as I can, the diet part should theoretically be easy.
Except for the controlled drinking bit. I love alcohol. What can I say, I'm English. My favourite memories all involve drinking. At university (all 5 years of it :D ) doing ten rounds of Stella before going back to our flat, "borrowing" that half bottle of Taboo (dirty stuff) and listening to my mate attempt to peform The Man with the Golden Gun. Meeting my wife over Sting and Magners. Rugby 7's at Twickenham (in fact all rugby I've ever been to) involving copious amounts of Guinness. OMG, Guinness on St. Paddies (as well as Baileys and Jamesons). My stag do, my wedding, my honeymoon. The simple pleasure of sitting in a pub garden in the sun with a cold Becks, eating Merguez in Argeles with Pelforth Blonde, a bottle of Malbec with fajitas in front of the TV watching some cheesey chick flick with my wife for the 10th time. Yeah, I love my booze. So this will be my sticking point. Keeping my drinking down low enough to actually make gains in my fitness and drops in body fat, while still enjoying one of the finest pleasures in life.
Where I will make my real gains will be at the gym. Over the last week I went to the gym 5 out of 7 days, burning an average of 720 calories per hour session (took it easy on the last session). I'm currently loving the spinning bike and intend to use it as my main weapon. I'll combine it with warm ups on the rower or treadmill, and through the week I'll finish off sessions with a couple of middling compound weights exercises so that my muscles don't dwindle to nothing in this fat burning stage.
If this blog turns out to be useful to me, I'll keep it when I change up my routine and go for size/strength/conditioning gains, whatever interests me in the future. But for now, it's all about melting off the fat while staying sane.
Wish me luck.
So this time, I'm going to put some pressure on. I am going to make my efforts public. I will be honest here in ways I'm just not with my friends and family when it comes to changing myself. Most importantly, I will be honest with myself. I will not pretend to myself that I am working hard when really, I know I could give more.
So starting with the whole honesty thing, I finished a slice of home-made apple cake like twenty minutes ago. It was lovely.
I'm not going to follow any particular diet or anything like that (yet). I will just clean up my eating, cut out the crap (cake above excepted, there was a good reason I swear), control the drinking and keep an eye on portion size. I'm not going to worry about having a bag of crisps at the weekend or some heaven sent goodness at the cinema but on a day to day basis all that junk is gone. If I do all that while still making my main meal of the day as tasty as I can, the diet part should theoretically be easy.
Except for the controlled drinking bit. I love alcohol. What can I say, I'm English. My favourite memories all involve drinking. At university (all 5 years of it :D ) doing ten rounds of Stella before going back to our flat, "borrowing" that half bottle of Taboo (dirty stuff) and listening to my mate attempt to peform The Man with the Golden Gun. Meeting my wife over Sting and Magners. Rugby 7's at Twickenham (in fact all rugby I've ever been to) involving copious amounts of Guinness. OMG, Guinness on St. Paddies (as well as Baileys and Jamesons). My stag do, my wedding, my honeymoon. The simple pleasure of sitting in a pub garden in the sun with a cold Becks, eating Merguez in Argeles with Pelforth Blonde, a bottle of Malbec with fajitas in front of the TV watching some cheesey chick flick with my wife for the 10th time. Yeah, I love my booze. So this will be my sticking point. Keeping my drinking down low enough to actually make gains in my fitness and drops in body fat, while still enjoying one of the finest pleasures in life.
Where I will make my real gains will be at the gym. Over the last week I went to the gym 5 out of 7 days, burning an average of 720 calories per hour session (took it easy on the last session). I'm currently loving the spinning bike and intend to use it as my main weapon. I'll combine it with warm ups on the rower or treadmill, and through the week I'll finish off sessions with a couple of middling compound weights exercises so that my muscles don't dwindle to nothing in this fat burning stage.
If this blog turns out to be useful to me, I'll keep it when I change up my routine and go for size/strength/conditioning gains, whatever interests me in the future. But for now, it's all about melting off the fat while staying sane.
Wish me luck.
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