Little John's Penultimate Goal

Awww 3 nights in Puerto Rico, poor you ;)

Haha who can explain the science of that? But you're right, just take it and run with it! I agree, you can see a big difference in your new pictures, awesome job!
 
Hi BlueJae, thanks for checking in - I know it sounds sweet that my goal is V's Day, but that's about the time the 2013 CRASH-B is. The way the indoor racing works is that all the rowers are hooked to a computer which tracks your position and shows it to the (surprisingly large) crowd. Here's footage from the first time I went (to cheer on my father). The racer broke his machine during his heat so they let him re-row against the young teenage girls. He was twice as fast as they were, and ended up breaking the world record. More exciting than you'd think!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QygNkyToQE


And yes, Sparked, cry for me, for I was in Puerto Rico - two nights in Ponce, one night in San Juan. It was work-related, but it was really fun and productive. Getting back on the rower yesterday was tough, though. By the end, I was fine, but the first 15-20 minutes were tough!
 
Oy, the laziness beast is trying to pull me down. Added bonus, I didn't warm up sufficiently on Wed's row, and now I have a munged up Achilles' tendon and a strained lower back. The tendon I can live with but the back is... not fun. I didn't row last night - it was a lifting night - I'm hoping that my warmup tonight will limber up the back some. Right now I'm working from home as my little one runs around asking for blueberries.


Challenges for the weekend: Going out to dinner tonight - not sure where (wife's setting up the date tonight), so hopefully I can be good. Going for a m'cycle ride tomorrow, which has a pattern of waiting too long to have lunch and then making a terrible choice. On the plus side, I can burn some calories mowing the lawn this weekend, and I'll have plenty of time to row.


Good luck everyone!
 
Friday night's dinner? Fish! Crusted with macadamia nuts. Served on a bed of black sticky rice and coconut milk. And a couple drinks, some bread and cheese beforehand, and a brownie sundae after the show. Sigh...


I did pretty good the rest of the weekend, though, rowed a total of 1825 calories off, and the rest of my meals weren't quite as bad (except the pizza last night).


Hoping this week will go OK, I feel like I'm hitting a wall in terms of motivation (though I'm still losing the weight). I feel a lot better, but I just sigh of boredom before I row. Maybe I need some new TV shows besides Law & Order?


Anyway, good luck everyone!
 
I need to watch stuff, unfortunately. Couldn't tell you why, but there it is. I watched the entirety of Battlestar Galactica a couple years ago with my bike on a trainer, and that definitely kept me moving. I've never seen a single episode of Sopranos, maybe it's worth finding the season on eBay or something.


Don't worry, I'm not quitting! I still like Law & Order, it can just be a little predictable.
 
Sopranos was a good series. Took me years to get around watching the last few seasons after rushing through the first 4. Also watched marathon sessions of 24 at various times which was good until the cookie cutter repetition got a little too much in later seasons.
 
Disappointing weigh-in this morning, only down .8#. I understand the week-to-week variance, but it's still a pisser to see that number. Oh well, week-by-week, I'm getting there, and at least it's in the right direction. Got a 1h15m row tonight, though.


On another note, any pointers on alleviating late-afternoon cravings? I get home and I'm like a bear the way I'm digging through cabinets. I try to have a piece of fruit or some crackers on the drive home, but it's just not cutting it - it's a binge-worthy hunger when I get home, and if I give into it, I feel like crap. If I don't (which is most of the time), I'm OK after a half hour or so.


In terms of entertainment, I may just buy the 6-season set. Can always sell it later.
 
AA loss is a loss. Good job!!

As far the cravings go.... I would like to know that too. I'm pretty sure around 3 or 4 o'clock everyday, judging by the sounds it makes, my stomach is trying to eat itself...lol!
 
Two things I've found helpful for cravings: spread the day's food out into smaller but more numerous meals. My meal times ended up being 7am, 10:30, 12:30, 3:30 and 7:00.


In terms of those wicked cravings that couldn't be shook, I found a single slice of peanut or almond butter toast was good. Might have something to do with the fat/protein/carb combo instead of sending in a piece of fruit which I found didn't curb hunger.
 
As for the first part - yep, I tend to have lighter meals (350-400cal) and decent snacks (200cal). The second part - good idea, maybe I can keep some celery available at home and put some PB or cream cheese on it.



Unrelated - found a good article here: http://concept2.co.uk/weightloss/chewing_the_fat It's aimed at rowing, but it's pretty good from a general fitness perspective. I'll have to read it a few times to absorb the goodness. And apparently I'll have to lower the percentage of calories from fat. Yee haw.
 
Posted this on the rowing forum, seems more applicable here:


My doc and I had a conversation - no diabetes threat, but the high cholesterol and high BP made up for that. I've been (mostly) effective in reducing my caloric intake, and I generated a workout plan (http://concept2.co.uk/weightloss/interactive) that I only skipped for a business trip (and lost 2+ pounds while away). I'm down 25 lbs from mid-Feb, making that 100# goal seem a little more attainable. Summer will be tricky, with vacations, cookouts, etc., but not impossible - early August is a motorcycle rally, with alcohol and bbq a'plenty, I figure if I can get in a 1-hr walk each day (doable), I'll be alright.
The next dietary phase is to reduce my fat intake to get a stronger carb ratio. I've been tracking all that using LoseIt, so I just need to figure out where the fat is coming from (there's plenty of low-hanging fruit to choose from, I doubt it will be too challenging).
 
Looking at the next phase of the diet is a good idea but apart from looking out for the really bad trans fats, I wouldn't worry too too much about where the calories are coming from.


For every person out there worrying the "Fat makes you fat" or training in optimal "Fat burning zones" there's another one/three/eighty-seven out there warning about the evils of meat, dairy, carbs, high fructose corn syrup, wheat, processed food, boiled down leather shoes, you name it.
 
I've been pretty consistently getting 35-40% of my calories from fat, so I really do need to bring that down. One easy target is my routine breakfast of 2 sausage links, 2 slices of rye, and some chive cream cheese. If I drop the sausage in favor of a little more cream cheese, that's about 120 calories net loss.


I know about the conflicting warnings, even though the boiled shoes is a great source of protein. I pick and choose from what makes sense and I go from there. My SIL is a registered dietitian (who always brings us candy - evil), and if I'm unsure I just ping it off of her.


In the last two days, I've rowed away about 1900 calories. Intensity's going up, I'm regaining interest, and I'm starting to feel the workouts in my muscles. And I still like Law & Order! Especially when Elizabeth Rohm is one of the DAs.
 
The good news is that I was good for almost the entire week, including a better choice from our local Chinese place. The bad news is yesterday - mother's day brunch (quiche, lemon-poppyseed bread, bloody marys, and so on) AND pizza night last night AND I made a last minute decision to make yesterday my rest day and row tonight instead. I'm not going to dwell on it, I usually don't, since today's a new day, and I'll be rowing tonight before having salad (and leftover pizza), and I'll be just under my caloric goal for the day.
 
Not happy. I had a bad day Sunday, but the rest of my week was pretty damn good, I rowed away almost 4500 calories, ate mostly pretty well, but I didn't move down one damn bit. I didn't have a very satisfying visit to the toilet this morning, so that's probably part of it, but still, I was at 319.X on Saturday morning!


Grumble grumble grumble.


Maybe I see how I'm looking tomorrow morning, perhaps I just need to get rid of Sunday's sins? Could be that I'm hitting my first plateau, too.


On the plus side I went to the doctor, and I have a blood pressure of 122/70, and my heart rate went from 80-something to 67.


Just gotta keep fighting the good fight. Won't be long before I'll have to chase my daughter around the back yard at a reasonable pace.
 
Wouldn't dwell on the scale numbers as there's plenty of things out of your control that can impact what number the scale decides to throw at you on any given day. Meals with high sodium content, a rest day, one fewer trips to the toilet etc etc.


Worry about stuff you have control over and keep making those right decisions and the scale will take care of itself.


I like to track body measurements in inches, body fat percentage, how I feel after a workout/run, bike ride and how my clothes are fitting, how quickly I can catch my three year old daughter when she scampers off. If one of the items I track decides not to move but the others are all moving in the right direction it's nothing to worry about. When a couple of these items don't move in a week or two I know I'm starting to get a little too sloppy with some aspect of the lifestyle.
 
Yeah, I should start tracking other measurements, too. Various circumferences, for starters. What are you using to measure BMI? How accurate is it?
 
I track body fat percentage with a cheap bathroom scale. A lot of things can throw off the readings but as long as the percentage is generally heading down it's all good. I try to weigh myself first thing in the morning so and it seems to be reasonably consistent from day to day although it can jump around quite a bit. Probably not the most accurate way of getting an estimate but it has let me calculate my lean body mass as I've gone along to make sure I'm not losing muscle mass as I go.


My Wii fit tracks my BMI reading but I don't pay as much attention to that number as it doesn't take into account frame size and how much muscle mass you have. According to BMI, I'd have to get down to about negative 2% body fat before I could hit my "ideal" weight in the middle of the BMI.
 
Are you calculating BMI from your weight? Isn't that the same as tracking your weight? I've seen some scales that measure it through some pads (presumably some sort of resistance or impedance through your body), I wonder how accurate those are compared to a body scan.


$30 seems like a good price if you want to keep a closer track:

http://www.amazon.com/Omron-HBF-306C-Loss-Monitor-Black/dp/B000FYZMYK/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1337181863&sr=1-1
 
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