Injury
It’s been a rough week. After my hike last Monday, I stressed myself so much I could not work out on Tuesday. I seems I still have a problem, and might have overworked my semi-permanent problem with my left Achilles tendon.
I got on the treadmill and after a few minutes could not continue. That’s the first time this has happened. So I took a break for a while, did some leg stretches and then it was ok. I kept it down to twenty minutes at a medium pace, rather than a full half hour where I would increase to a high intensity.
Talked to my trainer, who said not to worry. He’s surprised that with carrying so much weight I haven’t had more problems.
Diet
I’m really getting frustrated with the lack of weight loss. After all this time, even allowing for weight gain from conversion from fat to muscle, I should be at least ten pounds lighter.
This week, I’m considering dropping the five meal a day whether I’m hungry or not, and switching to only eating when I’m hungry. The danger of course is that when I do get hungry, I might just grab the first thing in sight.
Posted by Administrator as Setbacks, Eating at 3:28 PM CDT
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As expected I’m in bad shape, I can hardly walk up and down stairs and don’t know whether I can do any workout today. I’ve I had had my trainer with me yesterday, then I would have got a better walm down stretch out and mini-massage, which probably would have helped.
OK, at least I lost two pounds.
I keep wondering why i’m not losing weight at anywhere near what I should be. But when I look at my kids and how they bounce around from one place to another, and keep slim despite the fact they live on sugar and junk it gives a clue. Conservation of energy. I sit at a computer most of the day. Other than my one hour work out, and making dinner and coffee, I’m sitting. Here is an article from the NY times on the subject [the link probably expires in a week]
New Weight-Loss Focus: The Lean and the Restless
By using special underwear to measure movement, they find that thin people move and fidget and walk around and fat people avoid any movement.
The heavier ones tended to sit, while the lean ones were more restless and spent two more hours a day on their feet - standing, pacing around and fidgeting. The difference translated into 350 calories a day, enough for the heavy people to take off 30 to 40 pounds a year, if they would get moving.
Here is another article on NEAT, for nonexercise activity thermogenesis
NONEXERCISE ACTIVITY THERMOGENESIS
Posted by Administrator as Setbacks at 10:39 AM CDT
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I woke up without too much pain from yesterday, so while I was on a roll, I went on a hike. One of my goals for this summer, is a fairly hard hike to a place with a good view for photos. I’ve done parts of it before, but never got to the end. My guess is that it’s a four to six hour round trip and I need to build up some stamina. Today I decided to hit a part of it that has a hard up and down hill section that’s full of rocks. So it’s not just hard to do, but requires a lot of balancing and jumping around rocks. When I’ve done this sort of trek before I always had a walking stick, but forgot to take it. The nice thing was that my trainer has build up my ability, and I didn’t need the stick, my balance and uphill capability is vastly improved.
But I think I overdid it - around two hours total including up and down the hill with the rocks, and up and down another one. Six hours later, I’m beginning to feel the pain.
Bottom of the first hill about to cross the swamp and up the second hill
In the middle of the swamp
No good pictures of the second hill. This is coming back up to the top of the first rocky hill.
Looking back down
Posted by Administrator as Training, Hiking at 10:24 PM CDT
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Despite my ambitions of fixing the bike a month ago. I never made it out of the driveway till now. So my first ride, in I think, three years. Today I got free access to a gym.
Half an hour ride to the gym, so much for thinking I’m in condition, six months of treadmill does not get the legs ready for pumping the pedals. I made it, but my legs were wiped. My trainer counted that as a warmup, very kind of him.
Over an hour doing strength workups, on very strange looking devices. The last time I was in a gym was about 25 years ago, and I don’t recognize most of what was there. One thing I see, is that despite all the clever things that can be done at home with no equipment, some muscles are hard to work out that way. Those muscles, I think, will be in great pain tomorrow morning. I got a nice mini-massage and stretch at the end, he said I might need it to get home.
Made it home in 25 minutes - barely. After putting the bike away, I started walking down some steps and almost fell over, one of my legs was totally gellified, guess it burnt up all the fuel.
Tomorrow I was planning on going hiking…. we’ll see what happens.
Posted by Administrator as Training at 4:06 PM CDT
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This is very surprising. I’ve never been to any of these programs, but had thought several of them were supposed to be fairly effective. Just having the group support is supposed to work well for people. I had also been told the the winning system Weight Watchers was supposed to have an unbalanced diet that was too simplistic. Anyway, doesn’t make any difference to me, the idea of a group has never been appealing.
The research article: Systematic Review: An Evaluation of Major Commercial Weight Loss Programs in the United States
Fox News article: Top Weight Loss Programs Offer No Proof They Work
Posted by Administrator as Eating at 12:29 AM CDT
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Tried something new today suggested by my trainer.
- Warm up for 10 minutes at a medium fast walk
- Run for a minute - medium fast
- Slow to down to a fast walk for 30 seconds
- Repeat the walk/run alternation for 20 minutes
- Taper off for 5 minutes
Earlier this week I’d been playing with one minute walk - one minute runs and could do that ok, so this seemed simple, but it was very hard. Really pushed me to my limit, and was soaked by the time I finished. He claimed this will help push the weight down, since I seem to be stuck again.
Posted by Administrator as Training at 3:25 PM CDT
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Runners, hikers, bikers, even soldiers on long maneuvers should think twice before reaching for that water bottle: A study confirms that drinking too much can be dangerous, even deadly, for endurance athletes.
Click here for full story
So much for consistent advice - I struggle every day to dump gallons of water down my throat - and now this !
Posted by Administrator as Eating at 11:43 AM CDT
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And for today an experiment with food and presentation. See the previous post from a few days ago Yummy Food
Rice with Yves Vege Patties, Cremini mushroom, bean sprouts, snow peas, red onion, lemon grass, garlic, toasted sesame oil. Topped with asparagus fried with chopped ginger.
Posted by Administrator as Eating at 6:44 PM CDT
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I’ve had minor problems with my left foot over the last few weeks, and it seems to be getting worse not better. I’m pretty sure it’s the Achilles tendon.
When I do anything there’s no real pain or inablity or limping, just minor discomfort. But if I do an ankle stretch it can be agonziing if I come out of it too fast. There’s a pronounced bump where the tendon meets the bone area.
See Achilles Tendon Injuries for diagrams and a couple of really good animations.
I have a really good massage guy, but he figures it’s not worth seeing him; although it doesn’t hurt a lot, direct pressure on the swelling is very painfull, and he couldn’t work on it for more than a minute or so. So the suggestion is to take heavy doses of ibuprofen (400mg) for a week and see if the swelling goes down.
Posted by Administrator as Setbacks at 2:22 PM CDT
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Well, I avoided the scales for a couple of days, but now I face the truth of what I little splurging can do.
I’ve put on another three pounds - that’s six pounds in a week.
Not only do I feel fatter, but my stomach feels like it’s full of acid. But I figure if I get back on track fast, I can recover faster.
Today: 301
Posted by Administrator as Setbacks at 9:11 AM CDT
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