Fit by 60! - TomO's Pledge

My scale talks to me in a charming female voice. My first scale weighed me once and then left me. :::Sigh::: we never forget the ones that got away.
 
LOL, good one Cannon.

I don't know what's worse - turning your scale into a god, or an old girl friend.

Anyway, here's today's exercise log:

Heavy Interval Cardio on the elliptical, 60 min., 940 calories, max 165 bpm (98%), avg. 137 bpm (82%), 14.5 min. at 85% or above.

Cardio Coach Vol 6 (Candace)

Challenge 1, 5 level 3 sprints of 1 min., w. 1 min rest
Sprint 1 reached 148 bpm, sprint 5 reached 155 bpm
Level 12 @ 200 rpm

Challenge 2 - 5 level 4 sprints of 30 sec., w. 40 sec. rest
Sprint 1 reached 148 bpm; sprint 5 reached 157 bpm
Level 12 @ 230 rpm

Challenge 3 - 1 level 3 hill for 2 min., followed by 1 level 4 hill for 1 min.

1st hill - level 14 @ 130 rmp, 148 bpm
2nd hill - level 16 @ 130 rpm, 159 bpm

Challenge 4 - 3 level 3 hills for 2 min, followed by 1 level 4 sprint for 1 min, repeated 3 times with 2 min. rests
1st hill/sprint - 148 bpm + 154 bpm
last hill/sprint - 152 bpm + 165 bpm
all hills at level 14, 130 bpm
all sprint at level 12, 200 bpm

Notes: I was back to my old form today. The cold has been conquered; in fact in never got a foothold in my body. The last sprint just about killed me. The girl next to me was about to call 911 on her cell. :)

I'm beginning to think that I've actually increased my max HR, if that's possible. After all, how else would I be able to do a sprint at 165 bpm, which is 98% of my theoretical max of 168 bpm?
 
Saturday, April 21, 2007

Weight 235.8. BP was 113/68 - wow! Like a teenager! And body fat percentage dropped below 26% for the first time.

Since I had such a heavy workout, I didn't feel bad eating at our favorite local Vietnamiese restaurant, and pigging out just a bit. I had a plate of lemon grass beef, bean sprouts, and big leaves of lettuce, which I used to wrap all the ingredients in. It's a bit messy, but incredibly delicious. We've been going to this place for 10 years, and it's one of our favorites - the perfect place on a Friday night, where you can always count on excellent food in a soothing atmosphere. At the end, the owner brought us a big piece of cheese cake, which we really couldn't refuse. I ate about 1/3 of the piece, and let Marlene eat the rest. Usually, I'd be fighting over my half, but. . .

Anyway, that meal was 1,426 calories by itself. All together, I had 2,796 calories for the day, which is quite a bit higher than I usuall go:
Fat: 130 gm, 42%; 49 gm saturated, 16%
Carbs: 212 gm, 29%; 17 gm fiber
Protein: 185 gm, 27%
no alcohol

With my NARM of 2,285 calories, + 950 calories from exercise, I still ended the day with a deficit of 439 calories, and an accumulated deficit of 3,994 calories for the month. I'm already well past my weight goal for the month, so I'm not worried about staying where I'm at for a couple of weeks.

The only bad thing about my interval training is that I get some whopper leg crams the night after. I woke up 3 times last night with cramps in my ankles, my shins, and my feet. A drag, but not a huge price to pay for the benefits.
 
Good Morning Tom,

It looks like a great workout :) Sorry to hear about the leg cramping though - can you increase your potassium on IT days?
 
Hi, Deb. I asked my doc about it, and he thinks it is electrolyte related. So I'm taking "Centrum Silver", plus on interval days, I typically eat a couple of bananas to get extra postassium. On top of that, I had 3 glasses of water just for dinner last night. In other words, I'm not sure about how to solve this, if there is a solution.
 
Well, if there is a solution, it sounds like you're doing all the right things to achieve it.

I hope all of that will ultimately work!
 
More great figures! That BP must be keeping you very happy all by itself! Let alone a nice night out at a Vietnamese restaurant!

I hope you have a great weekend. :)
 
geat job Tom. you got a link for that cardio coach? I think i want to look into it more.

RJ, here it is: . They have about 8 soundtracks. If you haven't done intervals like this before, you can start with the earlier volumes, which are 30 to 40 minutes. The later ones build up to 45 minutes, an hour, and Press Play, the hardest of them all, is about an hour and 5 minutes. I really like these workouts. They get you in great shape, and the session is over before you know it.

More great figures! That BP must be keeping you very happy all by itself! Let alone a nice night out at a Vietnamese restaurant!

I hope you have a great weekend. :)

Thanks, Felici. Yes, that does make me happy, particularly since I was headed toward hypertension just six months ago. Hope you have a great weekend, too!
 
Sunday, April 22, 2007

Weight: 236.6 No change in any of the other measurement, which I take once a week, except for my calves. They've gone down a quarter inch, to 16.25". Marlene said to me last night, "It looks like your legs are getting skinnier." Welll, that's not good for me, because my legs are just fine, thank you. I'm wondering if it's because I don't really work my calves, except in cardio.

Yesterday was my off day, so I did 4 or 5 hours of moderate gardening - planting flowers, a bit of digging, laying some rock down, etc. I gave myself 900 calories for that. I went to a party, where it was pure grazing for a few hours. I did eat some sweets - one cookie, a very small piece of cake, and some sorbet, but the rest of what I ate was OK. I estimate that all the calories for the day came to 2,700. For these occasions, I've set up in FitDay what I call a "meal proxy", which comes in 100 calorie increments, and has my average amount of fats, carbs, protein, and alcohol. So I just put in 27 "meal proxies" and don't screw up my overall measurements in FitDay. When I do estimate, I'm very conservative, i.e. on the high side, so that I don't fool myself.

I can't call this a plateau, because I've lost 3 pounds since the beginning of the month, and I only have an accumulated deficit of around 4,500 calories. I'm ahead of the game, if anything.

Today I plan to reorganize my closed. There's a bunch of very large clothes I'm going to dump.
 
No plateau? Those scales really, really, like to mess with your mind don't they? :D

Gardening including planting... and a closet cleanout!! It sounds like this weekend is on track! :)
 
Exercise Log - Sunday, April 22: In the Groove

Hey, Felici, thanks for dropping by. I haven't really started on my closet yet, but the gardening has made the place look much nicer.

Before I got to the gym today, I felt like it would not be that good a session. I was a bit tired and sluggish. On my first warmup squat (bar only), I practically fell over, I was so stiff. I couldn't even get to parallel, much less ATG. But then by the 4th one, the old hip flexors loosened up, and I felt OK.

As I built up the weight, things kept getting better and better. I didn't exceed any of my goal weights (lest Coach Steve make me run laps or something for ignoring his advice :) ), but all of them were at a difficulty level of 2, which meant I was stronger than last time in every exercise. More than that, my form felt like it was in the groove. It's kind of like the weight training equivalent of a "runner's high" -- your form feels perfect, all your muscles are working together, you feel like you're really making progress.

Even though I'm getting stronger, I can testify to the fact that you don't add muscle mass while you're in a deficit. I measure myself every Sunday, and there's no muscle growth. The strength gains come primarily because your muscles work better together, and they respond to stress more efficiently.


Weights "A" - 42 minutes, 385 calories

BB Squat
1 x 5 - bar
1 x 4 - 95 lbs.
1 x 3 - 135 lbs.
5 x 5 - 175 lbs. - up 5 lbs. from last time.
Difficulty = 2

BB Bench Press
5 x 5 - 145 lbs.
Diff = 2 - ready to increase by 5 lbs. next time

Pullups
5 x 5, level 16
Diff = 2 - ready to decrease to level 15 next time

Standing Military Press
3 x 5 - 95 lbs.
Diff = 2 - ready to go to 100 lbs. next time

DB 1 Arm Row
3 x 5 - 65 lbs.
Diff = 2 - ready to go to 70 lbs. next time

Swiss Ball Crunch
3 x 10
Diff = 2
 
Monday, April 23, 2007

Weight: 235.6, a new low!

Ate very healthy yesterday (except for 1 chocolate chip cookie). Took in 2,100 calories:
Fat: 69 gm, 29%; 16 gm saturated, 7%
Carbs: 175 gm, 31%; 45 gm fiber
Protein: 192 gm, 37%
Alcohol: 10 gm, 3%

Even though my weight lifting session didn't expend that many calories (385), with my NARM of 2,293 calories, I ended the day with a deficit of 579 calories, and an accumulated deficit of over 5,000 calories for the month.

Yesterday, I cleaned out my whole closet, and got rid of two garbage bags full of clothes. I plan to donate them to charity, in honor of the scale gods and the god of metabolism, who have been treating me so well this month.

One of the pairs of pants I got rid of was so big it looked like one of those ads you see on TV. I put them on and pulled on the front, and you could have dropped a football, with room to spare, down the front. Amazing that I let myself get that big. No, not amazing, just sad.

When I lose 2 more pounds, and drop below 234, I'll be at the lowest weight I've been at in 17 years.
 
1. You are doing great Tom. I love reading about your successes! Weight is dropping, vitals are looking great, bodyfat is heading in the right direction. People can really look at you and learn something!

2. Are you keeping up with stretching?

3. If you want to throw in some direct calf work at the end your sessions, you can. Nothing major, maybe 3 sets of calf raises using a weight that dictates 10-15 reps. Also, you want to slow down the eccentric portion of your calf exercises, and when stretched completely (bottom of the exercise), wait a second or two before the concentric portion of the exercise. Follow me?
 
1. You are doing great Tom. I love reading about your successes! Weight is dropping, vitals are looking great, bodyfat is heading in the right direction. People can really look at you and learn something!

2. Are you keeping up with stretching?

Thanks, Steve. Yes, I do stretching about 3 times a week. I left a note on your journal about my calf measurements. No big deal though; I'm a very happy camper.
 
Thanks, Steve. Yes, I do stretching about 3 times a week. I left a note on your journal about my calf measurements. No big deal though; I'm a very happy camper.

haha, you quoted me before I remembered what else I wanted to mention!

see the above edit
 
"No, not amazing, just sad."
I'm pretty sure I have had that same feeling.

Only 2 more pounds to your 17 year low - that's amazing! It's about the same length of time I have to go back to get to my last substantial low too. I have a bunch more to go than 2 more pounds though! Anyway, that's really great news.
 
3. If you want to throw in some direct calf work at the end your sessions, you can. Nothing major, maybe 3 sets of calf raises using a weight that dictates 10-15 reps. Also, you want to slow down the eccentric portion of your calf exercises, and when stretched completely (bottom of the exercise), wait a second or two before the concentric portion of the exercise. Follow me?

OK, thanks a lot Steve. I'll add that to my routine starting this week.

Don't want to have my wife calling me "Chicken Legs" !
 
The direct calf work may or may not work. Even when I cut down weight, I sometimes lose inches where I don't want. Nature of the beast and sometimes have to take the good with the bad. If they continue to reduce, don't sweat it.

Eventually you will reach your goal weight and you can build them back up. ;)
 
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