Sprint for Health Millstone
Eighty-six days from my goal, avoiding sweets and grains has been easy because I vividly imagined two futures, one strong at 55 and one in a hospital bed.
All posts tagged: health-and-fitness
Sometimes I tag very loosely or obscurely so the link might not be obvious.
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Tomatoes for strength
Three weeks of the Pomodoro Technique have structured my days and improved my productivity, and the push-ups I do during the five-minute breaks are making me stronger.
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I’ll sleep when I’m dead
Sleeping little to get work done only brings that day closer; after studying Paleo sources, I found that a full night’s sleep gives nearly super-human clarity and energy.
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The game of life
I’m committing to get under 200 pounds, starting with 210 by vacation from 238 today, by eating no sugar or grains, playing hard, weighing in daily and writing about it.
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AC Sludge
A puddle by the basement air conditioner cost me an evening of repairs and exposed how overcommitted I’d become, resentful of emergencies that were my own duty.
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the incredible shrinking me
I’m drawing a line in the sand: drop from about 230 to 185 pounds by February 1, 2006, with a deadline to keep me focused and lower my life insurance rates.
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Eye Relief
Here are my five habits for easing screen-staring eyes: use an LCD, turn down brightness and contrast, look at faraway things outdoors, and remember to blink.
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Parenthood, Health and Time Management
Fast food saves time today but borrows against healthy years, the graduations, weddings and grandchildren I’d rather be around for as a parent.
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pre solstice concerns
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Mind Games
Getting to the gym at dawn is mostly beating the rationalization reflex, and standing up and putting on gym clothes builds the momentum that has taken off about 85 pounds since November 2001.
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Friday Afternoon
Got in to work around 6, haven’t eaten lunch. That means it’s been 9 straight hours of work, and it’s nice out. That also means it’s time for a break and to collect on that 800 - 1000 calories I am owed today*. So I am walking to get a sandwich. I’ll also probably pay the idiot tax while I’m out. *: I had a small banana and 6 bread & butter pickle chips. I estimate that to be around 100 calories.
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Pushing the outer limits
I walk! And it is good for listening, relaxing and exercising. But I find I always have to push the limit on my range. Today I am going to walk to the Barnes & Noble in Willow Grove, which looks to be just over 2 miles one way. I’ll try and find a book for around $16 (this will make it virtually free, with coupons, discounts and store credit). I’ll get some food somewhere along the way, and walk back. Earlier this week it took me 22 minutes to walk to the mall, So I expect about 1 hour 15 minutes walking time.
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it’s gotta be the shoes?
I have been on a real walking kick since I have been working from home. In the past 10 days or so I have walked at least 2 to 3 miles daily and some days I have walked over 5 to 6 miles. And over the past 2 months there haven’t been more than maybe 7 total days that I didn’t walk at all. The last 7 days have been particularly intense with longer trips and more hills. I have noticed some muscle soreness, which is good and is something I am used to, however I have also noticed some pain that I don’t think should be there. My right foot hurts around the arch, and yesterday I noticed another pain in my right calf that was unusual, my initial thought was I must be compensating from the pain in my foot and altering my gait, therefore causing a different pain to happen.
Anyway what it comes down to is I think my shoes may have had it, (New Balance 475) that I got for Christmas last year. But they aren’t terribly worn so I hate to throw them away and get new ones. So here are my questions:
1. anyone have experience, recomendations of the various sole inserts, particularly for walking quite a bit? 2. anyone have a favorite brand of comfortable shoes that stand up to quite a bit of walking? 3. Any other suggestions for foot/shoe care?
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New Gym
LA Fitness opened a new club in Fort Washington which turns out to be 1.7 mi. from my house. Which seems to take about 3 minutes to travel to and from at 5 AM and 6:15 AM respectively. This makes me happy.
I believe it opened yesterday, it is nice, it’s one that has the upper level for the aerobic stuff, which is cool to be able to look out over the club while you are running, however it is a bad design because of the fact that hot air ends up where the people are in the most need of cool air. Plus now-a-days the heater tends to be on, and that is where the ducts are blowing on you. But it’s only a mild discomfort, much better than running in the torrential rain that was going on this morning.
Anyway I was the only one working out there from about 5:01 AM - until about 5:25 when another guy showed up. That was great. I left about 6:15 and am now quite excited to be able to get back into my old 5AM routine.
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Weight, the Continuing Saga ..
227.0 lbs. Hit the gym again, just ran again was running late. 20+5 minutes 2.65 mi. somehow I injured my right rib in the past 3 days. I don’t remember getting hit at all at karate, maybe I strained a muscle somehow? But it is quite sensitive to touch.
… back to work.
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Day 3 = Day off??
this morning 227.5, woohoo! Time to celebrate with a half-gallon of ice cream and a day off from the gym. Alright well I won’t eat the ice-cream but I have skipped the gym. Mostly because karate ran late, then I couldn’t get to sleep until around 11:45, (mainly because I was researching how to pre-compile JSP files for my work.) And I learned in the past that going to the gym really tired too often impacts my general ability to function. So I slept in, until 6 AM. But the day is not a total loss, I have karate again tonight. I just have to try really hard to get to sleep as soon as possible after class so I can make the gym tomorrow.
So far so good, but I am currently pretty hungry.
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Day two
Already feeling the effects. 5 AM comes really early. There just needs to be something inside that makes you want to get up when it is pitch dark and cold. But I got up. Still weiging in at 228.5, so illogically that is discouraging, especially because I feel 2 pounds hungrier. But it is the knowledge that there are many factors that can attribute to your instantaneous weight and that it has only really been one day that makes you continue. It would truly be discouraging if it were still the same number on December 1. Anyway here is the breakdown: Alarm goes of at 5 AM (my clock is about 18 minutes fast purposely, I don’t like to see the clock saying 4 something when it is dark and cold). I start my car (remote starter is on point), and weigh in. Dispense with a large glass of water and head for the gym. Unfortunately I forgot my towel but I decided since I have karate and probably ATP tonight I will only run and stretch, so the towel is not entirely necessary.
5:08 AM: arrive at LA Fitness. Run for 20 minutes at 7.1 MPH go through automated cooldown for 5 minutes. The automated cooldown drops to 4.5 MPH and then drops .5 MPH every minute. In the first 20 minutes I went 2.37 miles. And this treadmill tracks the distance for the cooldown as well, so overall I went 2.65 miles. Then a little stretching and back home to eat, make lunch and shower. In work by 7:12 AM.
Anyway, I am hungry, and my left foot hurts a little from the running two days in a row. But I am also full of energy, and accomplishment, and luckily it is just about lunch time.
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Fat Anniversary
About 2 years ago on this date I started doing something about being fat. I had realized a few months earlier that I was way overweight, approximately 300 lbs, and I signed up for LA Fitness, but didn’t go very frequently and didn’t alter my caloric intake at all. Then I happened across The Hacker’s Diet and everything that John Walker had written in there made a whole lot of sense to me, I read the entire thing in a few hours, printed it out and stuck it in a binder in case the web version ever went away. I started on the 18th, going to the gym, weighing myself daily and eating only 1200 - 1500 calories a day. By May I was down to 218 lbs. I have done generally well since then, primarily because I hit the gym frequently and I am very comitted to my karate study. (I just got Green with a Brown Stripe.) I realized recently that I had let my eating habits deteriorate again. And I find myself at 228.5 lbs. Which is not too bad, however given the significance of this date, I have decided to give it another go of low intake and very consistent gym appearances. So starting today, I am focusing on 1500 - 1800 calories a day of intake. My goal is 198.5, which will be the first time I have been under 200 since I was a Junior in High School when I had done all that Bally’s work over the summer for Football, with my friends Frank and Joe.
I am going to try and keep my progress documented on here. Just in case anyone wants to follow along at home. But I hit the gym this morning. And have stuck to my planned calorie intake so far. Had about 300 for breakfast and 500 for lunch leaving plenty of room for a snack and some dinner. Luckily my illness last week caused me not too each much so I think the worst of the initial hunger headaches are already past me, just have to use my brain every time I think I want to eat something.
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Toof Extwacted
Well I just got my upper right wisdom tooth extracted. It wasn’t bad at all, aparently novocaine is a fairly good thing for body part removal. Anyway, I guess I should make sure my remaining teeth don’t get to such a level of decay as to warrant removal.
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Tooth issues
I went to the Dentist for the first time in about 4 or 5 years the other day. I was prompted to go because my upper right wisdom tooth sort of crumbled when I threw a quarters worth of chicle tabs in my mouth after lunch. I had been planning a trip to the dentist for a year or so, and just never got around to it. This event helped me re-arranged my priorities. The first trip I went to my regular dentist from when I was a child. He looked at it took and X-ray and suggested it be extracted. Said it was fairly well decayed. So today I will have #1 extracted, hopefully that isn’t too bad. But I decided in the mean time I should have a checkup and a cleaning. Mike had previously told me about Doctor Mel Burchman, and his hi-tech dentistry, no drills, etc… So I decided to check it out. Well all I can say about my experience with Dr. Burchman is that it was phenomenal. I am used to the 1 - 2 hour appointment for x-ray, cleaning, poking and scaling of the teeth. Where you spend 95% of the time with a dental technician and the dentist pokes his head in to sign off on their work. Well the trip to see Dr. High Tech was quite different. I was there for no longer than 40 minutes. The X-ray was done at a single shot, rather than sticking a bunch of film in your mouth and then pointing that X-Ray gun at your head. They had this device that just spun around your head, and put your full mouth X-Ray on a single piece of film, and it was placed where you could see it. Then about 30 minutes were spent with the Doctor examining the X-Ray, finding all the cavities, I have 10 :-( And showing you pictures of the decaying teeth up on the rooms TV. Then there was the best part, the cleaning. He used this high powered sandblaster, basically just a strong water pick, and cleaned all my teeth in about 3 minutes, with no scraping and minimal gum poking, then I was finished.
I went back yesterday to have some of the cavities filled, again it was about 30 minutes with the Doctor, where he used an even stronger sandblaster to removed the decayed material from my teeth, and then patched up the three newly formed holes with some type of natural colored filling and a laser. No novicaine, and only a couple short periods of slight discomfort. When he was sandblasting the tooth, I felt a hot sensation when he was lasering the tooth, and finally the buffer/polisher he used to clean up the patch jobs a little was slightly uncomfortable. But the entire visit took exactly 35 minutes. I need to go back twice more to finish the job, but I can see myself going to this dentist twice a year for my cleanings, because it is so quick and hassle-free. That should prevent these marathons of cavity filling.
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More Weight Loss
Well it begins again. I decided to allocate April, May and possibly June to achieving my second round of weight loss goals. So I need to string together a bunch of days at the gym and be really particular about the food I eat.
Starting November 17, 2001 I decided to lose weight, I was about 300 lbs on that day. Sometime in mid-May 2002 I got down to 218.5. I have been between 215.0 and 225.0 since then. With my wedding coming up (July 12), I decided to peel the rest of my now not so massive gut off, so my goal is 195.0 - 199.0. Today I am 220.5, and headed to the gym.
To see a comparison of pictures go to weight-loss. I have a bunch more pictures that may show it more clearly, and I will eventually get around to putting them up there, but you can definitely see it in my face there. And if you want to loose weight, try The Hacker’s Diet, following the ideas discussed in there worked for me. Although my exercise routine was a bit of a departure from his, but it was still the same general idea.
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bright and early or murky and late
Some days it is really hard to get up at 4:40 AM to go to the gym … But, here I go anyway.
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Seeing spots
I lost my last pair of glasses on Thursday last week, so that meant it was time to visit the eye doctor. Turns out I hadn’t been there in about 4 years. Anyway, I took the opportunity to ask him about a phenomena I had been noticing since sometime in college. I had noticed what are commonly called floaters, or little spots floating in my field of vision.
My doctor explained that these are clumps of the vitreous fluid which is one of the outer layers of the eye. Apparently this fluid changes in consistency over your lifetime. And these symptoms could sometimes could be associated with tears or detatchment of the retina, but that is usually accompanied by flashes of light, which I thankfully am not experiencing.
However, there is not much to be done about it so you mostly learn how to deal with it, but this was something that has bothered me for a while and here is one informative site: Spots Before Your Eyes, you can find more Googling for vitreous humor.