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Still here, still losing weight
I know I haven’t written an update in a little while, but I’m still making progress and even managed to limit the damage reasonably well over Christmas and New Years (I increased about 0.5kg but have since taken that back off).
I think I’d have to describe my weight loss as ’slow and steady’ at the moment, not really making my aim of 1kg per week (which at my weight shouldn’t be that hard), but it’s not something that I’m worried about, achieving a more sustainable pace that I know I can maintain is a great feeling to have - it took me lots of years to get this out of shape, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s going to take me a while to reverse all that damage.
So what am I up to now? I’m still trying to get a game or two of squash in where I can, although I’m fast running out of partners and my knees have been starting to feel it more and more over the past couple of months, so it’s not something I plan to do as much of this year. My latest ‘discovery’ is the C2 Rowing machine, I’ve had a play around on one over the last week or so and have been reading up heaps on proper technique etc. and I’ve got to say that I’m very nearly hooked! This is an amazing piece of equipment - sure, I’ve used them before, but never really gotten into it, it’s not until you read up all the great rowing advice and technique articles available on the Concept2 website and start to realise how much attention to detail C2 have put into their machines essentially being able to standardise times/distances across homes and gyms right around the world and really get you focused on where you stand and what’s needed to improve with massive amounts of community resources… I’m really impressed, and providing I can keep this going for a couple of months, I can see myself wanting a C2 machine once they move me onto another project and I lose my free gym access 
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January 11, 2010 | Filed Under Blog, Updates
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Keeping focused…
I haven’t posted for a couple of weeks, but all is well, I’m still losing weight - maybe not as quickly as I would have liked, but can’t complain while the scales are still trending downwards!
Still playing squash two times a week (really enjoying that) and getting an extra workout in on the weekend (need to do more), but I find it really encouraging that just exercising a few times a week helps me keep pretty focused on eating a nice healthy balanced diet. I’ve probably only got another couple of weeks working on my current project (where I get free squash) and will have about a month gap (working on other projects) before I get back here, so finding something to replace those two days of running around like an idiot inside a wood/glass box is going to need some planning, but I’m sure I’ll make a change - gotta maintain that focus.
November 17, 2009 | Filed Under Updates Leave a Comment
Update November 2nd
So far I’m still reasonably happy with my progress although there is certainly plenty of tightening up left to do. I actually put on 100g last week, which wasn’t exactly ideal, but not too much of a blowout considering it was my wife’s birthday and there were a couple of other ‘dietary challenging’ days. I kept up my two days of squash, but was a bit slack on additional workouts…
The good news is that my recovery from my squash sessions have been improving greatly, we’re slogging it out for a good 45 mins now and I’ve been recovering enough by the next day to start throwing other workouts in there and that’s the big goal for this week. Still focusing on the CrossFit theme, I’ve found some good resources on the CrossFit Seattle website, in particular their four levels of fitness benchmarks… over the next few months I’m going to work towards those levels. For a few of the exercises I can already reach the benchmark (e.g. 10 pushups), but there are several there that will definitely need some work.
My general approach over the next few months will be to test myself against a few of the benchmarks each week and work a few of the other skills into my warmup at lower intensities to focus on developing the skill. It’ll probably take several months before I can tick off all the level 1 goals, but it’s a great guide to work towards.
Working into a CrossFit Lifestyle
Ok - I’ve got free access to top class gym and sporting facilities at the moment, so there’s no excuse not to use it, the question is what’s the best way for me to start getting fit and losing weight?
I’m keen to start transitioning to a CrossFit lifestyle, if you haven’t heard of it before CrossFit it’s a universal, scalable fitness program that focuses on a balanced approach to strength, fitness and conditioning. It’s used all over the world, by all kinds of people, has a great online community, massive amounts of free information and programming and doesn’t rely on lots of expensive gym equipment.
With the poor shape that I’m in, its going to take me awhile before I can get into it properly and regulary do a CrossFit WOD (Workout Of the Day), but scaling them back and working out a consistent program that works for me is an essential start.
My current plan of attack is to play squash on Tueday and Thursday each week and gradually add CrossFit type workouts to other days as my recovery rate starts to improve - my first CrossFit style workout was yesterday (Sunday) and if anything just goes to prove how far I really have to go.
Most CrossFit workouts revolve around doing a series of exercises and measuring either the max reps, max strength or overall time to complete. High Intensity is a key concept of CrossFit, so recording results, pushing yourself harder and monitoring progress is something that ties it all together and really takes you further.
I’ve still got plenty to learn obviously and the more weight I lose before I start doing ridiculous things like pull-ups the better
Anyway, the workout I did yesterday (at home) was (don’t laugh):
5 rounds for time of…
Run 500m on elliptical machine (probably equivilent to about 150m normal run)
8 Push-ups
8 Sit-ups
I won’t post my time or analysis here (I know they suck, lol), but it’ll give me a benchmark to test against when I do it again in a few weeks time to see how things are improving.
It’s a start, I still need to add some additional elements to a workout like this (I did a warm up, but should look at doing some lower intensity skill work on various exercises after the WOD). While I have access to a gym it’ll be a good idea to start working some of the weight based exercises into my schedule too.
October 19, 2009 | Filed Under CrossFit, WOD 3 Comments
Take 3… This time, I know I’m going to crack it!
Yep that’s right it’s been just under two years since I first started this blog and I’ve continued to find every excuse possible not to lose weight - in fact, I’m currently 9kg heavier than I was in January 2008… to say I am disapointed is an understatement, but sugar coating it isn’t going to make things better - I need action, and that’s why I’m here (again!).
I’m actually really excited about this right now - all those little ducks are starting to line up in a row as most of the excuses and negative thoughts that have scuttled my efforts in the past have more or less gone away. I know that dedication and perserverence are critically important, but it can’t hurt when your environment is working with you instead of making things harder (not that I ever want to use that as an excuse if things start going back the other way, but I’ll take what I can get while it’s there!).
What’s so good at the moment then? For starters, the weather is starting to warm up down under - it’s a lot easier to exercise before work when it’s already daylight and not freezing… I reckon I’ve got about 5-6 months of gloriously warm and excuse-less mornings to start seeing positive results and get myself hooked into a great routine.
I’ve also got a nice break with work. I’m an IT consultant, so get moved around to different sites a lot, but the current project I’m on (and likely to remain at for most of the time over the next 6 months), has brought with it some great benefits. I have to drive an hour each way every day to get there (which is a pain), but I’m onsite at a small university and counted as ’staff’ on my university ID card (the last campus I worked at classified me as ‘visitor’, not that it mattered). What does this mean? Well, as it turns out, a nice little perk is that staff here get free access to the gym, pool, sport facilities etc. everything you could possibly want or need to help you get fit.
I’ve (just this week) started playing squash two days a week during my lunch hour with one of the other guys I work with. Not only are the squash courts free, but all the equipment is provided for us and it doesn’t look like we’ll have much trouble booking for the times we want to play. I don’t think you can do much better than a game of squash for a nice cardio workout - we’ve done 30 mins on both Tue/Thu this week and I was seriously spent after each session, my recovery time after the second session was already an improvement though, I’m not nearly as sore today as I was on Wednesday.
My current plan is to keep playing squash two days a week and once my recovery picks up a little start adding other workouts to the mix as I feel confident (already I’m planning to add something to the mix over the weekend). Having such a high quality gym and sporting facilities available to me free of charge is just too good a thing to pass up and with the days getting warmer it makes it even easier to build a good exercise program around it.
Diet is obviously still the key element with weight loss and all this exercise is perfect motivation to start getting that into shape again too - I’ve started using a few really good online resources that I’ll share with you over the next couple of weeks some that are great sources of information and others that are great tools for managing and visualising everything that is going on.
This time it’s for real, nothing is going to stop me - don’t take my word for it, you’ll see all the action on this blog as it unfolds.
October 16, 2009 | Filed Under Updates, Weight Loss Strategy Leave a Comment