Little John's Penultimate Goal

You guys are funny. Yes, I can do pushups at my size, 3 sets of 14 right now. I started, I think, at 2 sets of 8 huffy, sloppy, ugly pushups, and it really didn't take long to get to where I am (I imagine losing a little along the way was a key contributor). If you can't do them, I recommend holding yourself in the "up" position of a pushup for 25 seconds, then let yourself down slowly (5 seconds down). Do this 5 times in a workout. You'll feel it the next morning - the challenge isn't just upper body strength, it's core strength, too.


Rowing's all about pulling, so I have some good back strength from that (and some nasty knots in my shoulder-blade area, too). Pushups are just working on it.


Wouldn't worry about meeting me in an alley, I'd probably just buy you a drink.
 
If you want to build up to push ups, it's good to start standing and doing them off a low-ish bench/ step/ desk, and working your way down. Or doing them off your knees. Took me 6 months to work up to 3x 20 off my toes, I started off struggling with 3x12 off my knees, then worked up to sets of 15, then I could do a couple off my toes at the beginning of each set, then one day I just got there.
 
Yeah my personal trainer started me on wall pushups, and I can do knee pushups pretty easily. But apparently there's a big gap between those and the real deal when you weigh as much as I do. It usually ends with me laughing, face on the carpet.


To be fair, I wasn't exactly a pushup machine when I was 25 and 180 pounds either. One day, as I lose more and more weight, I'll have to start focusing more on gaining strength rather than losing weight. It would be nice to be in the best shape of my life at 42 years old.
 
Well this week's weigh-in was not nearly as dazzling as last week's, I'm down 0.8 lbs, but I'm not really surprised given the plummet of last week.


But a nice thing was that my body fat went from 29.3 to 28.7, so it's like my fat is playing catch-up.


I was quite happy to have a rest day yesterday, given the impact of the weekend. This coming weekend includes a date night out, a bachelor night, and a day of helping my parents move. I also have some final yard work to deal with before I can say "see ya" to fall's chores.


Not much else to report...!
 
You are so tantalizingly close to 299. Because I'm an emotional sort, when I get there (looks like January at this point) I'm going to probably go running through the neighborhood screaming "YES!"
 
Congrats on the BF% drop, that's awesome! I get as excited about that as I do a loss on the scales lol. Have an awesome weekend, sounds like you'll be busy!
 
Yeah my body fat percentage has been stuck at 100% for the last 10 years or so. Hopefully that will start to drop soon.
 
Thanks Rainy! I usually have to say that one a lot between 2 and 5 pm.


This weekend, I didn't say it enough. I thought I was good on Friday, but I got too snack-happy and ended up running over. Apparently deciding on a salad for lunch and a veggie burger for dinner should include only one serving of ice cream, even if it's low-fat. Oy.


Saturday, waffles for breakfast, went out for dinner and I had a couple beers and some chowder. Yesterday also included chowder, as well as pizza and wings. Ugh.


At least I got all my exercise in, and I think I can recover by Thursday AM for the Mo'Slimmer November. I'm taking the day off on Weds, it's usually a rest day, but I'm going to row two 12K sessions that day in preparation for Thanksgiving day, and I'll be busy around the house otherwise, so snacking should be minimized.


299, here I come!
 
Got the results from my bloodwork - cholesterol is 171, HDL is 40, LDL is 107. Liver is normal. All good stuff!


I've started doing an actual regime for my lifting - not just making it up as I go along. I added some new tricks to the show, including leg extensions, so I expect some levels of pain in the following day or two.


That's about all I have today!
 
Originally Posted by Little John


Got the results from my bloodwork - cholesterol is 171, HDL is 40, LDL is 107.
Click to expand...

Which one of those is the one that allows you to drive a truck?


Still waiting on my bloodwork. Expecting to hear that my blood is composed mostly of caramel and nougat.


UPDATE: Bloodwork came back today coincidentally. On those three I'm cholesterol = 169, HDL = 39, LDL = 96, and my Triglycerides = 172. My Triglycerides are a little high and my HDL is just right on the cusp between okay and a little low (low being bad). My doctor's office called and said, "everything's fine, keep losing weight." So either that's the case or my next of kin have a great lawsuit on their hands: win, win!


The tests also said that my liver has now completely transformed into a keg of Miller High Life. I'm hoping I won't see too many bad effects from that.
 
Good job! We're almost, like, tied. A Seedy El lets me drive a tractor trailer.



So, in anticipation of tomorrow's gluttony, I'm going to row a 25K this morning. A light breakfast already has been consumed, so now I'll get ready and go downstairs for two hours. I rented a (hopefully) good action movie to keep the pace moving. Terminator Salvation wasn't my first choice, but it's what the library had.


Wish me luck!


Added bonus - I took an early peak at my weight this AM: 300.6 lbs. I should be hitting the 2s soon enough!
 
So, the weekend is over, I survived. My 25K was brutal, especially the last 5K, when the "projected finish" was 10 minutes away, for a good 15-20 minutes (or so it seemed). Also, my borrowed copy of Terminator was scratched, so instead of just auto-piloting and watching the movie, I had to keep screwing around with the remote to get past hangups. Sigh... can't win. Anyway, it was a 1450 calorie row, so I felt no guilt the next day. I felt bloated, but not guilty!


Another bit of suck: I munged up my rotator cuff rowing on Saturday. That makes me unhappy, to say the least. It's happened before, and I often get twinges, but this feels a little worse than the usual.


Anyway, seem to be holding steady on the weight front, I have a good feeling about my November goal.
 
Good work on the marathon row though I hope your shoulder isn't too badly hurt. Which terminator was the one chasing you? Arnie or one of the more recent models?
 
Vee - It was Terminator Salvation, didn't seem to get as much buzz as the others, but I thought it was pretty good. Then again, I seem to be the only guy on earth who hated Terminator 2.


MR - Thanks! I'll be trying another one over the Xmas break with some lessons learned: 1) don't borrow a movie from the library, it will be scratched. 2) have a banana at the midway point.


Shoulder seems OK now, that's good. Tennis elbow's getting a little more nasty now, though (common pain in the rowing world), but I'll just make sure to ice it and pop lots of Advil.


Exciting news, I knocked out a new 2K record of 7m 22s - that would have had me in 51st place in last year's race, out of 61. That's like, way better than penultimate! The remaining 2K rows were much less stellar, but I planned on going all-out for the first one (of four) last night.


Somewhat skeptical of the weigh-in results tomorrow morning. I seem to be hovering around 301-302... 299.9 is there, and it's taunting me. Today's a rest day, so I'll have to be really smart about food intake. Maybe take a post-lunch walk to get a little bit of buffer. And since it's my turn to cook tonight, I've decided we're going to have a big ol' salad with chicken.
 
Great job and fingers crossed for tomorrow's weigh in. Rower's have any traditions of making weight by dropping pounds before a big event?


In other news, Movember has been getting itchy these past few days...
 
There's two classes for rowing - at least the CRASH-B - Lightweight (under 150) and Heavyweight (over 150). Otherwise, they separate by age groups. If I ever become a Lightweight, I need an intervention of some kind!


Only cheat I'm thinking of (and I apologize for being a little gross) is to have me some coffee really early - you know, about an hour before weigh-in. Not sure if I want to do that, though, it could mess up my day to have it 3 hours before I usually do.
 
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