Good morning.
I weigh myself every morning to get a consistent reading. Some people are against daily weighing, saying that focusing on your weight in any one day is counterproductive. I don't agree. You might be saying SBG, you've been dieting for only a month. Well, this isn't my first rodeo.
When things are going well, I see pretty much continual progress, which is quite motivating and that's why I have a strict weighing plan. At my current pace, I will weigh 200 pounds by December 29th. My pace will probably slow, but my goal is to be at or near 200 pounds by Christmas.
Yesterday I mowed the lawn and went to the gym. I rode the stationary bike for 50 minutes. The bike I ride there has a program where you set your heart rate and the bike adjusts tension to keep you on that rate. I set it at 65% of maximum, which is the recommended level for fat burn. That is a pretty easy pace and something that even the most out of shape types (me!) can handle.
Day 33
Weight: 267.3
Total Lost: 17.2
Drew Magary does a thing he calls "Tweet Your Weight" where he, as the name implies, tweets his weight every morning. He says his followers keep him to account and the idea of telling everyone that he put on 2 pounds is motivation to do well.
I agree with this. I'm no expert, but I lost 25 pounds a few years ago by eating much better, exercising a bit more, and weighing myself every day. Some days are annoying (like when the salad you had apparently weighed 3 pounds), but by and large I find it motivating.
I did the gym thing yesterday. Walked a mile on the treadmill (4 MPH pace), then did 10 minutes of intervals on the bike (pedal as fast as I can for 30 seconds, pedal slow for 30 seconds, rinse and repeat; at some point I shifted to 1 minute rest periods because I was gassed). Then I did a few machines, and went upstairs to do my "kick-boxing" routine (uh, an out-of-shape, novice man's version of what I had been doing every sunday with the Boy's karate sensei in our weekly "fun" class; it's mostly core stuff and a bunch of movements to loosen up my hips and hammies before I stretch).
Long rides are good, but short, intensive work can get you the same or better results in a hurry. I'm trying to work the intervals back in to my routine.
During the winter months I put my bike on a trainer, stick DVDs in the machine and ride for 45-60 minutes. The doc told me when doing this go about 5 minutes at a good pace but then for 1 minute pedal as hard you can. For some reason this moderate/hard pace is great for fat burning.
Today rode bike to farmers market, cut the grass and now I think I'm going to go on a hike at Afton. For some reason I want to take a break from my weekly long bike ride.
Focused mostly on mobility at the gym yesterday. Did some light stiff-legged deadlifts and bent-over row, 3 sets of 8x25kg. My hamstrings are super tight, even though I've made some progress on that over the last year. Did some pull-ups before I went home.
Later in the day, did a little hiking around Mount Rainier, about 1.5 hours, nothing strenuous. It was a gorgeous day in a gorgeous place.
I should also add that hiking is a big fitness motivation for me. Having improved my strength over the last 8-9 months, hiking is a lot easier, and I'm a lot less sore the day after a hike. At some point--sooner rather than later--I'd like to do the Wonderland Trail, and I'll need to be in pretty good shape to really enjoy that. Cross-country skiing will be upon us soon, too, and my wife is always going to have a huge edge on me in technique, so I need to be that much better conditioned than her to keep from having her wipe the floor with me. 🙂
I know they look dorky but I would strongly suggest using trekking poles when hiking, if you don't already. Poles take a lot of weight of your knees while hiking. They should be used regardless of age or condition of joints.
I keep trying to convince my wife that trekking poles are a good idea, but she resists for superficial/looking-like-a-dork reasons. I will win the argument when we are using trekking poles and she thinks that she won the argument, which I think will be soon. 🙂 Strengthening my posterior chain should help with knee pain prevention in the meantime.
they also give you a bit of an upper-body workout on the hike. So they got that going for 'em.
ubes, for what it is worth, I have a strap (one of a pair of superstrong, non-stretchy belt-width fakey-fabric straps I got in an automotive section at Walmart or Target once upon a time) that I use for hammie stretches.
Like so, but I do it for about one minute per leg, using several different grips, plus some additional time with my leg angled to the side or all the way over.
great for the hammies and hips, and low stress on my fragile-like-glass lower back.
image is from here, which has more on hammie stretching.
Cool. I've done that in the past with a stretchy band, but I've never been very regular about it. I should probably just do it more to make better progress.
my strap is non-stretchy, so I can really crank on the stretch. Also works with a towel.
For my workout, tonight I'm going to work. I got a part-time gig unloading the trucks at the grocery store from 9PM - 6AM.
I managed to get in a 40 minute bike ride, but my real workout was 2 hours in the yard, mowing and raking up a whole garbage can full of sticks and twigs. I'm feeling bit sore since I was using muscles in the upper body I haven't used in awhile. Another couple of weeks and I get to add some strength training to my cardiac rehab workouts. Looking forward to that.