Let's get serious again

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@nomorecomeback - thanks. I am glad that I did! Good to hear that you quit ten years ago and that your life got better!

Well, you can be as active, if you just take it step by step. At least that's my approach. I gradually build my exercise routine, increasing activities when I feel ready for it, or starting new activities.

Update: I just did a crazy workout. 30 kilometers of cycling and 6 kilometers of running, and here comes the sick part: 10 kilometers of rowing. I fucking love rowing! Did not expect that. Feeling great! Tomorrow I will do a 12 kilometer run (moderate pace), 10 kilometers of slow cycling and 2.5 kilometers of slow rowing.
 
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That's just from reading your last entry! ... but you sound so charged up. You remind me of what I used to do and whilst that scares me, I am very pleased for you. I like rowing as well. I will miss that when my gym membership runs out. Thankfully I have bought a few things for home and have been learning many other activities to keep me fueled.

You sound like you're on fire! Sometimes I tend to get caught up in the moment and forget to save energy for later on. You sound pretty switched on with your training so guessing you have enough in reserve.

Here's to a good day. ;)
 
@nomorecomeback - haha well you got that right. I am completely charged up! thank you for your kind words.

do you want to stop at the gym, or do you have to?

anyways, training at home can be great as well. I am slowly building a home gym. Perhaps to the point of not needing a gym membership. I think, when I have a serious girlfriend (and a family some time after that), that I want to be at home more and then it can be nice to be able to do my training while being there with her.

Yeah, I am on fire. A controlled fire though. It may not seem like it, but I make sure that I do take enough rest, by adding 1-2 rest days per week, and by doing different activities. Today was a heavy rowing day, a moderate cycling day and a light running day, and tomorrow I will shift that around.

I do think that my body can take this, and much more. I believe that my body has a good, perhaps even great, athletic potential, based on past measurements and experiences. Of course I am 30 and I have no desire to become an athlete. But I am curious to find out what I can do. That's my secondary goal. My primary goal is just to become very healthy and live a happy, balanced life. So, while I am very serious about exploring my potential athletic abilities, if it comes down to it I make my choices based on my long term health and happiness.

Hope that makes sense.
 
I often do better within my own space is all. The gym has been a great primer (I still have several months left) but now that I have a well established exercise routine I am looking forward to working out on my own. (which is where I excel) I feel more independent not having to wait inline or pick a special time to access this or that. I bought a few books on body weight training, pilates, yoga, running, walking and all that kind of thing. I even bought myself some balance and medicine balls, a TRX Suspension kit (+ a cheap one) push up handles, assorted foam rollers, chest expander, bodylastics resistance kit as well as a balance board.

Despite having a lot of equipment for a home gym - it all packs up quite small and is very light. No barbells, dumbbells and or benches whatsoever. The heaviest piece of equipment is a 5kg medicine ball. With the bodyweight encyclopedia I have ... I have the potential to body build if that's what I want. Truth be told ... I'm now tending towards a sleeker looking chassis rather than trying to PUMP myself up. Strength training twice a week seems to suit my genes well. Nothing wrong with wanting to look good - I'd love to always be cut - however sustainability and happiness is more important.

Like you - life long ability is much more my aim. Thankful I have not done too much damage to my joints. (Keeping active has kept them in good nick!) I do have one soft spot though ... My Shoulder ... can at times can be problematic if I do not warm up. The issue stems from past labouring and weight training experiences. More so to imbalanced routines and lack of knowledge. Thankfully I now know a lot more about corrective techniques.

What you say makes perfect sense!
 
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@nomorecomebacks - interesting to hear about your home gym and your goals! good that you're also focussing on the long term. The nice thing is that strength training can keep you independent also when you grow older. You know, climb your own stairs, don't fall, be less frail, etc. While I love cardio (it makes me feel great!), I think strength exercises give the best return on investment. It's also useful now to be stronger, when you have to carry heavy things. Fortunately, I naturally have a lot of upper body strength. I think that's why people always seem to ask me for help if they are moving to another home! :p

For today:
I won't go to work today, but I will work at least half a day at a coffee bar with my laptop on my work projects, and I will do some non-work chores that I needed to do. I will be more productive this way.

At the beginning of the evening I will go do the planned exercising.
 
My cold is at least 10 times less than yesterday (measured in amount of tissues I need ;)). My lungs were already clearing themselves for about 6 weeks and I was already having a cold for at least a week, and I accepted that it would last for a while. It seems that yesterday was the peak. Glad that my body is still capable of healing itself quickly.
 
@Little John - Yeah, since about 2 weeks. I like it much more than I expected! Nice that you have your own home rower, that is a dream for me! 1000.000 meters, that's impressive!

Thanks LaMaria. It was the worst cold in many years! I didn't even understand why people complained about having colds... it seemed like such a minor thing... but now I get it.

Update: Today I did 11 kilometers of running, 3.5 kilometers of rowing and 10 kilometers of cycling.

My weekly totals:
Running: 17 out of 42 kilometers
Rowing: 13.5 out of 15 kilometers (probably going to exceed my goal here... by a lot)
Cycling: 40 out of 130 kilometers (not adding the kilometers I cycle to work/supermarket/etc... I do this at the end of the week. Probably will be around 20-30 kilometers)

I'd say that I am on schedule for this. My plan for tomorrow is to do 30 kilometers of cycling, 6 kilometers of running and 1500 meters of rowing.

I just realized that I am thinking less about calories than I did this week, and about my weight. I am trusting that this process will lead me to good results. Success is inevitable. I can not see how I can fail. Sure, I may have a few worse days, but I am determined to be succesful this time. And in addition (and I think this is my new secret) I am much more forgiving to myself to little slipups. They just happen, and that's ok.
 
I had started once again - junk food. But ever since I got sick and on medication, I never tried eating junk food again. It has been 2 months since I last had pizza. Now I rely more on green vegetables and fruits.
 
@mantishugo - sorry to hear that mate! but good that you stopped again. btw, junk food every once in a while is no problem (unless it aggravates your health problems), but it's a problem when it becomes a habit. I keep it down by having some pre-defined exceptions, for example I am allowed to get fast food when a friend is visiting me. However, in those situations, I would still try to cook. I also prefer my own home-cooked food now. Much more tasty!

Update: I just weighed myself... I am 91.9. A new record for 2017! I am sure that I am still retaining a significant amount of water in my muscles, expecting my weight to drop to around (or below) 91.0 kg in the coming days, which is my halfway point of this journey.

Losing at a rate of 1-1.5 kg per week, which is a little bit faster than I would want on the long term, but on the short term this is great. I am sure that it will slow down eventually.

Haha I just told you yesterday that I am not focussing on numbers so much, and see what I am talking about now! ;)
 
IAmGoingToTri said:
Nice that you have your own home rower, that is a dream for me!
Click to expand...
There's an indoor rowing competition in Boston called CRASH-B that's sponsored by Concept2. At the end of the day, they sell off the rowers that are used in the competition; so it's hundreds of almost-brand-new rowers at a significant discount, so I took advantage one year. The competition is quite a spectacle - Olympians (current and retired) from all over the world do this race. I did it one year and I get to brag that I (a) raced former Olympians and (b) didn't come in last place.
 
Important update: I want to clear some distractions from my work, and unfortunately this forum is among them. I have decided to stop checking this website this often. Not altogether though. At least for the coming time, I will check this website only during the weekend.

The way I will do this is by blocking this website on other days using the StayFocusd plugin (in Chrome), just to prevent going to this website without thinking.

So, the updates to my diaries will be less frequent, and my response time will be longer. I will try to respond to your posts and check your diaries when I login.

Let's save some time and focus! See you in a few days!
 
Hi everyone!

It's weekend, so it's time for another update! :)

Just weighed myself. I am 91.2 kg. Another new record low for this year. So, in a week I can be sub-90! Just need to keep going, which at this point is easy (and if it weren't I will just keep going anyways).

To finish this week, I will go to the gym. Planning to do another 10k of rowing and 20k of cycling, and I may do a run this evening. So, it's a heavy training day. Took a break day yesterday (my second this week).

Presuming that I will do what I planned today (of course I will ;)), I will not reach my targets for running and cycling this week (only 10-20% less, so it's close enough), but I did double the amount of rowing that I planned (30k instead of 15 k).

Tomorrow I will have a date. We will go ice skating. The thing is, I can't ice skate! So, I will have to either learn very quickly and impress her or fall a lot and make her laugh. Or somehow impress her ánd make her laugh. That would be the best outcome! I don't worry about it, it will be fun! Looking forward to meeting her. We met via a dating site, and this time we kept the chatting to a minimum. So, I don't know too much about her. I like that, it's more natural. Of course I know the things she put in her profile and that looks good, and I think we did chat for about an hour or so and she made a good impression there too.

At first, she did not understand why I would not want to chat more, but she agreed to go on a date anyways, because she talked about it with her brother who encouraged her to go anyways. She later agreed with me that it made sense... she even admitted that normally she chats a while with men but that they don't go on dates. So, that could mean many things; she may have high standards, she likes to keep her freedom and stay independent, she may be a bit shy, whatever (or, like me, everything of the above ;)).

I told her that it's fine if she goes early, if she doesn't like it... that I don't expect her to (because I am awesome and everything) but that I can take it. Anyways, even though it's an internet date, I don't want it to be forced. If she feels like she can leave at any time it's fine.

Ok.. I am now entering the overthinking zone, so I will stop. Shower -> Laundry -> Exercise at gym -> Visit brother -> Visit sister -> Run -> Study -> Relax. That's my trajectory. Now let's launch myself from my bed! :D
 
Had a nice day yesterday. However, I don't think that I created a deficit... nor a surplus. I think that's fine for one day per week, when there are social activities that make it harder. In the morning, I did 8.5 kilometers of cycling (and later in the day I did 3.5 more, outside) and 10 kilometers of rowing. I wanted to do more, but I had to leave.

My weight this morning was 91.2 kg, the same as yesterday, so that's great. It's nice knowing that if I just keep doing what I do, that I can keep losing 1 kg per week; 1 kg less makes a visible and noticable difference (at this weight; I remember that it was hardly or not noticeable when I was 100+ kgs). Also, I could be wrong, but I think I am also gaining some muscle. At the very least: I am becoming a lot stronger. Broke my rowing record yesterday: 7:40 for 2000 meters. I did this with somewhat tired muscles, so I am sure that can do a lot better. My goal for later this year is to get below 7:00. It's a challenge, but I am confident that I should be able to do it.

Will continue doing great in the coming week(s). I will make some small changes to my schedule. I will lower my cycling goal to 100 kilometers (instead of 130), while increasing my minimum rowing distance to 30 (instead of 15). My minimum running distance will stay 40.
So, the total volume of my exercise routine will stay the same, only the proportions of the different activities will slightly change. I do this, because I just enjoy rowing more at the moment and I already did this amount of rowing last week.

Otherwise I won't make any changes to my schedule. My body is still getting used to this volume of exercise, and I fear that if I increase it that I am going to get injured. Additionally, I don't have the time to exercise more than this. Right now, it takes me about 10 hours per week to do this (including traveling to gym/changing clothes/etc). I expect that when I get more routine and when I become faster at the different sports, that I am able to shave a few hours off.

Today I will have a date. We first planned to go ice skating, but because I have this huge blister on my foot I proposed we do something else. So, we will have a few drinks and then cycle and walk a bit. I look forward to it, I hope that we are on the same wavelength.

The date will be on 2 pm. This morning I have some time to go training again. Will do a bit of rowing and cycling. This evening I hope to have time for a short run.
 
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Sounds like you´re doing well :) Not having a crazy deficit all the time is bound to be beneficial for your body and muscles. And having an upper limit for your workout time helps to keep things realistic. You´re not a professional athlete, you just want to be healthy and have fun with sports. Which is awesome!
 
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