Health and Fitness Track, 2012

[beyelzu]

The year in review. In 2011, I quite smoking, started working out and running. I lost over 40 pounds and added over a hundred and thirty to my max deadlift.


Today, I was all hungover and feeling like crap, we ran a 5k and I felt like shit, but I still ran it 5 or 6 minutes faster than I ran when I started.

I feel great all the time.

Goals for the year:

Deadlift 500lbs
Backsquat 400lbs

Run warrior dash in a faster time than I did last year.
Run zombie run.

Run at least 5 miles every week.

Lose 40 more pounds.

Crossfit 3 times a week.

[Ensign Steve]

By amazing coincidence, I also started the year with a hangover and a 5K run.

I made my goal weight in spring 2011, and I've just been trying to figure out maintenance ever since. Goal for the year: keep doing that.

Here's my two-year vanity shot, if you can stand it:

show spoiler

I'm extremely impressed with the level of commitment and dedication bey showed when he threw himself into this. I can't overstate the effort he has put forth and the pain he has endured. Today I am enjoying the insane level of mobility our fitness affords us. We can do anything with anyone and not worry about being able to keep up. Fun fun fun stuff.

I'm proud of you, kiddo.

[Dingfod]

I started my new way of life in earnest on Xmas Eve. I've lost about 8 pounds since then. I actually started after seeing the doctor December 5. I've lost a total of about 17 pounds since then. After I get 28 more pounds off, losing it mainly to prevent injury, I'm going to look into Crossfit as a way to build my strength back up. I actually have no idea what I can deadlift; right now I'm having trouble lifting my own dead self up. I figure getting 40+ pounds off will help a lot in that department. My goal for the year, which I hope to achieve before my family reunion in late October is to lose about 80 pounds. I can be very determined when I set my mind to something, and I hope this is it. The extra weight and the waning strength are taking their toll.

[vremya]

My goals so far for the year are to lose another 60 pounds (I've lost almost 20 so far) and ride the MN Ironman Century in May. I want to make bicycling an important part of my life again too.

I gained a bunch of weight during law school and it's finally coming off - I have piles of clothes that I want to be able to wear again, and I'm finally feeling like I'll actually be able to.

[thedoc]

Any of you guys need someone to hate as an incentive, here I am. I'm the kind of person people with a weight problem love to hate. However I can sympathize with your problem, my wife went from 200 lb. to just over 150 in the last year, she's looking to loose a little more but she's going to need to step up the physical activity. I, on the other hand, would have to force feed myself to gain weight, graduated HS at 135 and the only time I was much over 150 was with my heart condition when I retained a lot of water, up to 170 but a Lasic IV took care of that. So put up my avatar and throw darts at it and get fired up to keep with the program, honestly if your goal is to get healthy I'm on your side.

BTW, my goals have nothing to do with weight training or running, the arthritis has limited any of that, I can still do push-ups but pull-ups are just too painful. So I'm working on re-learning some Katas that I used to know. Just a little less stressful on the joints. I still cut and split firewood, and the summer before last I built a stone retaining wall about 10' by 30', some of the stones were so big I used my truck to move them and then shifted them into the wall by hand.

[Dingfod]

No darts, no hate, just envy.

[beyelzu]

Originally Posted by Dingfod

I started my new way of life in earnest on Xmas Eve. I've lost about 8 pounds since then. I actually started after seeing the doctor December 5. I've lost a total of about 17 pounds since then. After I get 28 more pounds off, losing it mainly to prevent injury, I'm going to look into Crossfit as a way to build my strength back up. I actually have no idea what I can deadlift; right now I'm having trouble lifting my own dead self up. I figure getting 40+ pounds off will help a lot in that department. My goal for the year, which I hope to achieve before my family reunion in late October is to lose about 80 pounds. I can be very determined when I set my mind to something, and I hope this is it. The extra weight and the waning strength are taking their toll.

It is definitely possible to lose that much weight by october.

Everything scales at crossfit. The sooner you start the sooner you will start realizing gains. I am a huge fan of crossfit, it just works.

There is no point in waiting. I was afraid before I first went that I wouldn't be able to do all the exercises, that I should lose weight before I started working out. I went the first time and the trainer was clear that he had worked with people my size before and that everything scales.

[Dingfod]

Did you use bands or were you able to do pull-ups from the start? I kind of doubt I could do one pull-up right now.

[Ensign Steve]

I started on the big band and I'm down to the second-smallest after a year. Some things gain slower than others and pull-ups are the bane of my existence. After a year, bey still does ring rows (inclined pull-ups with feet on the floor). He doesn't mind my saying, because you develop this weird level of pride and humility to where you know what you're capable of and what your personal gains are. The atmosphere is really conducive to that, too. Everybody (well, most everybody) is there to work, not to look around or show off. Everybody has their personal limits and works to push through them, and it's what we have in common, regardless of our relative skill levels.

[Qingdai]

I would like to lose 10 to 20 pounds in the next year also pick up regular exercise again. My son switched schools this fall, so I no longer get the one to two mile walk 5 days a week and it's showing.
I did Zumba a couple of times last week and am going to look for a class I can regularly attend.
I also resolve to eat less starches and sugars, now that the holidays are over.

[beyelzu]

Even ring rows are scalable, as I have gotten stronger I do the ring rows deeper.

When I started I couldn't do anything not scaled, not situps or pushups or burpees or jump rope or box jump etc.....

I could do air squats but I don't think I was going down all the way

[Dingfod]

You're bolstering my courage, guys.

[thedoc]

Just tried pull-ups in a door frame, one each way, I'm going to work on that. The last time I tried my sholders ground and poped and made all kind of noise, and they hurt so much I couldn't get up. I've been taking Glucosamine - Chondroltin for joints and it seems to be helping, almost no pain and no noise, so I just need to build up the strength again. Push-ups have never been a problem but I do them on my knuckles at about my chest, just a little harder than std. I hate leg lifts but I'll do them anyway. I think I've been inspired, Thanks.

[beyelzu]

3rd day back at crossfit and first day of the new semester.

10 rounds for time

10 deadlift 135#/95#
10 pushups



I almost died

ES crushed it.

Its good to be back

[vremya]

Well, I ponied up the registration fee for the MN Ironman, 100 miles on Sunday, May 5. 100 miles, come rain, snow or shine. (I did the 62 mile ride years ago and it was way cold but no snow.)

I've been spending some time at the Y on their exercise bikes and other than getting really bored after about 5 minutes, it's going okay.

[Ensign Steve]

We ran our first 5K of the year this morning. It was on muddy trails with steep hills, which was not advertised, but that happens often enough around here that it wasn't a huge shock. I finished in 26:39, which is not my best time ever but still damn respectable so I'll take it.

[Clutch Munny]

Originally Posted by Dingfod

I started my new way of life in earnest on Xmas Eve. I've lost about 8 pounds since then. I actually started after seeing the doctor December 5. I've lost a total of about 17 pounds since then. After I get 28 more pounds off, losing it mainly to prevent injury, I'm going to look into Crossfit as a way to build my strength back up. I actually have no idea what I can deadlift; right now I'm having trouble lifting my own dead self up. I figure getting 40+ pounds off will help a lot in that department. My goal for the year, which I hope to achieve before my family reunion in late October is to lose about 80 pounds. I can be very determined when I set my mind to something, and I hope this is it. The extra weight and the waning strength are taking their toll.

I hope you find something useful in my report from 2007:

Originally Posted by Clutch Munny

I'm not part of the thread "project," but I've lost nearly 30 pounds in the past 10 weeks.

The key factors:

1) The Magic Bullet. A piece of crap as a generic blender; a brilliant (though poorly constructed) invention as a dedicated smoothy-maker and light grinder. My standard weekday breakfast is a tablespoon of flaxseed, ground up on its own first, mixed in with a banana, a couple dollops of plain 0% m.f. yogurt, and some frozen blueberries or strawberries. Filling, nutritious, low calorie, and very tasty besides.

2) Paying attention to calories. I'm not making concrete plans as to what I definitely will or won't eat -- just taking the time to read the label and think about what it translates into, w.r.t. other possible food items, has made subtle but collectively important differences to my intake.

3) Slightly enhanced and differently conceived exercise. I've always been very active, biking to work every day and playing hockey 2-4 times each week. But now there are two differences. First, I'm doing a bit more exercise by waking my (historically, physically unconfident) eldest kid up earlier in the morning and going through some stretches and exercises with her. (We do 20 situps, followed by leg and back stretches, 12 "real" pushups (25 for me), then another 20 situps.) Doing this before breakfast is not just an increase in exercise -- it's an extremely pleasant way to spend some quiet time with my older daughter, and it gets me thinking about food v. health right off the bat each day. The second thing is attitudinal: thinking about the exercise I've been doing all along as a way of offsetting my caloric intake, rather than justifying it.

Anyhow, that's what's been working for me. My Magic Bullet is already starting to fall apart a bit (after only 3 months) but if it does I'll probably just get another -- to my knowledge, no other manufacturer makes a blender with such a tiny countertop footprint, nor with a blending container that doubles as the drink container by locating the blades at the (inverted) top of the cup. (Any info to the contrary gratefully appreciated, though.)

What's changed since then? Well, some minor weight fluctuations in the interim, but nothing serious. I no longer do the morning routine with my daughter, since she went on to become totally badass, joined cardio kickboxing, started running some local road races, got competitive in her fencing club, and now is doing too much other workout stuff to feel like a daily morning workout too. The price of success!

I'm on my third Magic Bullet, though I only bought two (the store threw in a new power base when the second one packed it in too soon). Partly because I grind my coffee with it, that thing gets used every day. The flaxseed/banana/yogurt smoothie is still a big part of my morning diet, though it's no longer exclusive.

With several years' perspective, and having helped several friends and acquaintances achieve a healthier lifestyle, I would add the following partly evidenced, partly conjectural, and partly evangelical remarks -- none of which, I imagine, are particularly original to me:

1. Healthy eating is a household decision, not a personal decision. All the food buyers and food preparers in the house have to be committed to it -- and 100% committed, and not grudgingly. (This is largely because of (2) and (3) below.) As long as crap is coming into the house, you are likelier to eat crap. But if you are made to feel like a tool for imposing an unwanted household diet on others, however subtly or unintentionally, that can put a lot of pressure on you to slip back into eating habits that were bad for you -- probably bad for everyone, but disproportionately so for you -- yet comfortable for others.
2. Good nutritional choices should be exercised at the store, not at the cupboard.
3. Good portioning choices should be exercised at the stove and during prep, not at the table.
4. Especially, good lunch choices at work should be exercised at home before you leave. Bring the food you will eat, and only bring good stuff.
5. You don't need to eat like a rabbit. For lunch, for example, try turkey pepperoni sticks. They're meaty and tasty, and they're 50 calories each. Two of them are pretty filling. But suppose you pig out and eat four -- that's 200 calories. That's about a third of a Big Mac! Looking around the store for other good stuff like this really puts you in a position to eat enjoyably while knocking a large percentage of calories off the typical uncareful North American diet.
6. Emphasis of a point made in my earlier post: daily exercise at a sufficient level of difficulty to feel hard, to really get you huffing and puffing and sweating, is important not just because it burns calories and improves your conditioning, but because it changes your attitudes towards food.
7. You have to understand that your higher-order desires and life plans are at war against some cravings that have really become ingrained in you. All those starches and carbs and crap that's been placed in oil -- your body will tell you it needs them. You have to learn to take pride in your ability to be stronger than momentary cravings for larger portions or for crappy foods. Walking away, saying no -- these are big victories that put you in control of yourself. Many, many people find it virtually impossible to do this. So alllow yourself the luxury of feeling good about it every time you do it!
8. It's a life, not a diet. These changes have to be permanent to work. Period.

I dunno, I hope that helps rather than just sounding bossy. Of course it's meant to be a little bossy; but it's also meant to help.

[Ensign Steve]

I concur with everything in that post.

[Dingfod]

Thanks for the advice. We got a Ninja blender, but I haven't used it yet.

[Chatter]

I got addicted to the classic Prince of Persia game from the 90s last April (I can complete the entire game in 29 minutes). After I broke my previous record, I was overcome with some sort of bizarre pixel jealously, and since then have committed myself to the goal of being able to pull myself up over walls using pure arm strength.

I've definitely made substantial gains just practising on the bannister. But I've now decided to start making use of the gym and trying all the exercise machines which build the required muscle group. Hopefully, that will speed things up.

My weight flunctuates within a 12 pound range (one time, it did this in the space of 5 hours). Does anyone else have this? I'm a long-distance runner, so I expect my glycogen levels are constantly up-and-down, but even so. It makes monitoring my weight extremely difficult.

[Clutch Munny]

It's hard to do better than weighing yourself first thing in the morning after you take your morning leak.

There can still be fluctuations owing to variations in what you did or ate the night before, but it comes after the longest period of standard behaviour (sleep) your schedule is apt to contain, day after day.

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by Chatter

I ... have committed myself to the goal of being able to pull myself up over walls using pure arm strength.

That's a big-un. A lot of ladies can't do even one pull-up, so much so that we're really never expected to do it, not even in military training. I did my first unassisted pull-up at some point last year and I was exceedingly thrilled. Then in December I was out bouldering and there was more than one point where I would have been unable to continue on without the ability to pull my full body weight up by my hands (see pic). The extreme grip strength I have developed lifting weights was also invaluable. I'm looking forward to crushing the obstacles at Warrior Dash this year.

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by Chatter

My weight flunctuates within a 12 pound range (one time, it did this in the space of 5 hours). Does anyone else have this? I'm a long-distance runner, so I expect my glycogen levels are constantly up-and-down, but even so. It makes monitoring my weight extremely difficult.

I fluctuate over a range of about six pounds, and I figure if it's consistently within that six-pound range than I am successfully doing maintenance. It's about 4% of my body weight, for whatever that's worth.

[Chatter]

Originally Posted by Clutch Munny

It's hard to do better than weighing yourself first thing in the morning after you take your morning leak.

There can still be fluctuations owing to variations in what you did or ate the night before, but it comes after the longest period of standard behaviour (sleep) your schedule is apt to contain, day after day.

Okay, that makes sense. I binged yesterday, and didn't run, and my weight (after a leak) was seven pounds heavier than the morning before (after a leak). That was unusual though.

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

I fluctuate over a range of about six pounds, and I figure if it's consistently within that six-pound range than I am successfully doing maintenance. It's about 4% of my body weight, for whatever that's worth.

That's worth a lot, actually. I hadn't thought of measuring it like that. I weigh around 182, so that'd be equivalent to a 7 pound range.

[Chatter]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

That's a big-un.

I'm yet to be convinced that it's physically possible for any human. The parkour guys make heavy use of their legs to get the necessary momentum. I want to know if it can be done entirely with the arms.

I saw a lad the other day, much lighter (I carry far too much mass in my legs to make this easy) and much bulkier upper body than me, doing full pull-ups with ease at the gym. He seemed to have the same idea as me, and decided to have a go lifting himself from arms dangling to having his entire torso above the bar. He couldn't do it, which was depressing.