Little John's Penultimate Goal

Couple milestones this week:

1) I fit into my riding pants. Still sort of snug to walk around, but they're designed for the sitting position (i.e. riding position).

2) My fat percentage dropped below 30%. Don't know where I started since I only recently started measuring it, but it's a nice on-the-fly milestone, I'll take it!


This coming week is our vacation - renting a place on a lake in New Hampshire. The bad: I'm on vacation, so my dietary choices will probably be less-than-impressive. The good: I'm on a lake so I can kayak, canoe and swim. Also, there's a rails-to-trails nearby, so I can get in some riding (I think the roads will be empty enough that I can go for morning solo rides, too).


Rest night tonight - gonna gut the garage and make it usable for the next 10-15 minutes until something else takes it over. The joys of a small house!


Good luck everyone!
 
New pics for today:


LL
LL
 
Well... that's vacation for you. I started out with good intent - I went for a 12-mile bike ride, did some lifting. But then each morning was "eh, I'll ride tomorrow." I did get some kayaking in, so that was good. In the end, I was up 2 lbs, which isn't bad. I'm going back to counting my food on LoseIt, though, I need to be more honest with myself, and it helps me if I'm tracking what I'm doing.


Back in the groove this week.
 
So here's a question for everyone: how early are you successful weight losers having breakfast? I have breakfast every morning, but it's usually 2-3 hours after I wake up, and I'm wondering if I ought to start my day with some oatmeal or something, and my later breakfast can be reduced to just toast.


All thoughts are welcome.
 
I rowed my first timed 2K this morning and compared it against 2011's CRASH-B results for my group - penultimance achieved! I came in at 7:53.4. That would have put me in 4th to last place (out of 53).


I feel I'll do better next time.
 
Thanks! I still plan on doing the race in Feb. Not sure on a short-term goal. I'm staring down the barrel of another vacation from Aug 1-6, and the diet will be sub-par. To offset that, I plan on walking around the local lake every morning, which is a 4-4.5 mile round trip.


I want to shoot for under 300 lbs on Sept 7th, one month after my return. I've been hovering too much, and I know why, and I need to get back in gear. I know the reason, and I knew in advance that summer's not my friend. I'll be manually splitting ~3 cords of wood throughout August, so that's going to be a good workout.


Maybe I can look into what a reasonable reduction in my 2K time is. My father and I will start racing each other soon using an online app, and that might be the way to start looking at my data more seriously.


In other news, I've started adding pushups to my lifting routine. As a fat kid, I've always feared and loathed pushups, but I'm up to 3x10 with decent form. I'm starting to put in situps, too, with less impressive results for now, but they'll happen. Just don't ask me to do chinups!
 
OK, summer's over, time to kick it back into gear. I've been faithfully rowing most of the summer (except vacations), and have been slooooooowly losing weight (which is better than gaining it, I keep telling myself).


I acquired a BodyMedia armband to measure what kind of calories I'm really burning, since I haven't had a lot of faith in the calculations. I'm data-driven, and I like to see the results of calories in vs. calories out, which means I'll be calorie-counting again.


Split some wood yesterday, mowed my back yard, and rowed. I was pretty beat by the end of the day, and I'm still feeling it now. Especially my lower back... ow.....


Anyway, I'll be back more often - talking to myself, but at least writing it down. Hope everyone's well!
 
Sometimes all I need is a new gadget. It's pretty cool, seriously, I can look at the activity graph and recognize when I stopped to drink some water or talk to my wife.


Also, I can see just how inactive I am at my desk job. Depressing, really....
 
I hear ya, I sit in front of a computer all day so finding ways to squeeze in exercise can be a challenge. Have taken to lunchtime strolls to go buy a coffee lately
 
Ugh, getting sick of being stuck in the 3-teens. I can't get below that level. My body fat percentage is continuing to drop, and that's a good thing, but I'm not lifting THAT much to be building that much muscle, am I? I do it twice a week, plus whatever I get from yard work (splitting/stacking wood the last couple weeks).


Anyway, weighed in at 312 this morning, didn't have any toilet action, though.


Also, I'm getting stuck at a certain level when I row - I can't really sustain a 150 heartrate because I don't have the strength/energy/endurance to maintain what's needed. Any thoughts?


My lifting is getting better, though, I'm definitely building strength, so I'll keep it up with that effort.
 
Hey John,


Nice work on the dropping body fat percentage and I wouldn't worry about the scale as it has no choice but to catch up to the body fat percentage drop as long as you keep the feeding in check. Looks like you have a great workout schedule from your other post.


Only other thing I can think of for the heartrate is that you may want to set the target rate a little lower maybe 140 or 145 and see how it goes. I read somewhere that calculating max HR based off formulas is good to give you a rough idea but isn't always accurate.


Keep up the great work and the three's will soon be in the rearview mirror
 
I got some advice from the Rowing forum that I'm going to try - 3 minutes at AT, 1 minute of medium-pace. Repeat X times. If I can do that for awhile, I can start looking at some HIIT, which will get me the calorie burn I'm looking, and not take up nearly as much time.


For now, I'm not quite up to HIIT, though.


I can definitely feel the difference between 140 and 150 - 150 is where I want to be. I even hit 173 once.... I didn't care for that one. I know formulas are for reference, but sustaining 150 really shouldn't be this difficult. Obviously it is, and I want to see what the new regime does for me...
 
The 3 and 1 sounds like a great idea. The minute of recovery should help. In the running world a large number of folks train and race with walk breaks built in and overall they seem to see their performance increase since they don't tend to slow down towards the end of the event.


Over time the heart rate will come down as the weight drops and the conditioning improves. Not sure how rowing training goes but with running/cycling endurance the general advice is to make sure you do a large portion of the training at low HR zones (a zone where you can continue to carry on a conversation comfortably)


All this said, I suck at sticking to HR zones and have a huge tendency to treat every training run/bike ride as the same effort level I'd expect to put in during a race which has been very unproductive.
 
I think HR-zone training is the same, regardless of exercise. I did 5 minutes of warm-up, then about 40-48 minutes of the 3:1 stuff, followed by a couple minutes of slow-mo-row. Some of the rests were more than a minute since the stopwatch stops when you pause rowing, and I needed to slug down some water.


Anyway, the 3:1 AT:Rest training was great - I was able to get quickly into the AT heartrate, and it was easy to get through (almost) an hour. Cuz at the beginning of each rest, I'd say "eh, I can do four more minutes!" Plus the change-ups were enough to keep me from getting bored. I didn't get that wobbly feeling the recommender described, but I walked away from the rower with a good glazing of sweat and a great feeling of satisfaction.


I'm still kind of fascinated with the idea of HIIT, I might give it a shot next weekend - preferably not on a day I'm splitting wood.


Weight - really not changing, but the BFP is still going down. I'm definitely growing some muscle mass, that's gotta be a key ingredient.


I'm also going to see if a protein shake when I get home will kill my compulsion to snack when I get home. This is no normal snacking, this is a one-man locust swarm. I'm hoping a daily shake and maybe some celery will tie me over until dinner. Reading good stuff on Syntha-6, a little pricey, but tastes good.
 
I guess I can attribute it to inaccuracy of the gadget? I'm down 0.5 lb this week, but body fat is up 0.3? I'm upping my routine to work harder, and diet-wise, the only thing changing is I'm replacing my 2 2oz cups of cream cheese spread with a couple eggs over-medium. More cholesterol, yes, and a few more calories, but at the end of the day I'm still meeting my caloric goals, both in and out.


I'm not going to beat myself up too much, and I know where I need to improve: afternoon snacks and dinner. Both are too much, and I need to figure out a way to cut them down. Hoping the protein shake and vegetables (perhaps a salad?) after work do the trick, especially if I have them "sit down" style.


I also just read one of Lyle McDonald's articles about ways to deal with hunger. I think #9 is the hardest one to deal with: "Suck It Up or Stay Fat", so I'll do what I can with the other 8, I'm missing the boat on a few of them, otherwise I would be losing more quickly.


On the up side, I experimented little with HIIT on the rower. Wow, I like it, and recommend it to anyone who's been doing cardio for awhile (and, like me, is bored of doing the autopilot stuff). I did a hybrid version of it 2.5 : .5 : 1 (AT : HI : Rest) for about 40 minutes, then three rounds at .5 : 1.5 (HI : Moderate). I was sweating like a pig at the end, and felt great. I plan on making two of my weekly rows HIIT sessions, which will be good due to time savings (especially on a week night, when my wife doesn't want to wait until 8:30 for dinner!).


Keep up the hard work, everyone!
 
I wouldn't worry about the body fat reading. It is possible to lose weight but gain body fat percentage (if you lose muscle mass your body fat percentage would go up) but it's equally likely that the reading is within the margin of error of the device. Not sure what you're using for the readings but I know my scale can go up or down by over a full percentage point based off anything as small as my feet being cold when I step on the scale.


Sounds like HIIT is a hit with your training. Have tried it out a few times as well and it does seem to really speed things up (like your heart rate and sweat rate)
 
Hey John, where have you been for the past few weeks? Time to start posting again. We all have times we drift off the forum, bad weeks, injuries etc.


Hope all is well
 
Thanks FG, didn't realize it had been that long. I've been on travel the first couple weeks of September (business, then a small vacation in Tahoe), which makes it hard to behave. I managed to squeeze in some exercise in those two weeks (weight room, swimming, renting a bike), but diet was less good. The following two weeks were "today I really will eat better". So I continue my plateau. I'm at 309 right now, just like the rest of September. Sigh....


I have changed my rowing routine a little bit, based on some of the programs outlined on a rowing forum:


Mon - Lift Chest
Tue - Endurance Row (i.e. 5x1500m w/ 4 min rest btwn)
Wed - Rest
Thur - Lift Back
Fri - Distance Row (10K)
Sat - Intensity Row (i.e. 8x500m w/ 3 min rest btwn)
Sun - Distance Row (10K)


I'm only on week 2 of that one, and as a result, I'm hitting those higher heartrates - an maintaining them - which is good. Plus I feel a lot more satisfied when I'm done with Tuesday and Saturday rows.


Taking next week off to get stuff done around the house, the challenge will be to try and avoid too much junk food. Hoping weather is good so I can get outside and keep myself busy - forecast is iffy. If I could control my afternoon appetite, things would be so much easier. Maybe time to chat with the wife about the idea of an earlier dinner (except Tuesdays, when I row). Having the little one around really does add so much complexity to things, it's amazing... Anyway, thinking out loud.


Summer's done, though, so it should be a little easier for me to focus on staying fit, what with the drop off in cookouts and impromptu runs to the local DQ.


I'll try to stay on here, too, if only to be honest to myself!
 
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