Stick is on the road and I am up to my ears in work, so I'm knocking this out over lunch. On the menu today is leftovers from last night's dinner. Mrs. Twayn continues to scour the series of tubes to come up with low-sodium and low-fat recipes that appeal to the tastebuds as much as they do to the waistline and coronary arteries. Last night that meant a pretty tasty rolled meatloaf made with ground turkey, spinach, and gorgonzola cheese, topped with a light glaze that had some brown sugar and chopped tomato in it. If anyone wants the recipe I can get it from the wife and post it for you. The meal also included a romaine salad with a fresh vinaigrette dressing, a baked Yukon gold potato served with a drizzle of olive oil and fresh cracked pepper, fresh garden tomato wedges, and an orange for desert. A year ago I would have turned up my nose at an offering like this and headed for the nearest Wendy's drive-through lane. But I've become a lot more open to trying healthier dishes that I was before that thing that happened a while back that I vaguely remember that could have killed me or something.
Exercise has been a different story lately. As I mentioned yesterday, my workload is crazy right now and with fall settling in there is literally not enough daylight for me to get home and get in a bike ride before it gets dark. But after a week of no at-home workouts, I'm determined to get in at least 30-40 minutes on the bike (if I get home early enough) or on the upright rower this evening. I have to remember that this is a marathon, not a sprint, and if I fall off the horse for a few days I have to dust myself off and get back in the saddle as soon as possible. Maintaining a fitness routine is largely about inertia -- bodies in motion and bodies at rest and their propensity to continue moving or not. And maintenance is a good way of looking at it, really. Doctors are great mechanics, they can replace valves and open up plugged fuel lines and such, but I'm the guy who has to keep the air intakes clean and use good oils and put the right kind of gas in the tank. Because let's face it, going to the mechanic for repairs really kind of sucks, and it is anything but cheap.
I've started looking for a good used treadmill and maybe a stationary bike and some light weights to get me through the winter. A health club membership for Mrs. Twayn and I would be great, but that's just not in the budget for the foreseeable future. So we're going to make do with what we have, the aforementioned upright rower and a Nordic Trak that I'm too uncoordinated to use, and augment it with some used equipment off of craigslist. Before my cardiac rehab sessions run out at the end of November, we plan to have our basement set up as a mini-fitness center of our own. My weight has settled in at a fairly steady 192-195 lbs (based on measurements from the past three weeks), and at six feet tall I'm comfortable with that for now. But I do want to add more muscle, continue to ramp up the endurance, and basically get back into decent shape for the long haul. It's really pretty awesome to be able to push myself physically without feeling any pain or pressure in my chest.
If you watch for rummage sales, go to second-hand stores, and let your friends know you're interested in used exercise equipment, you can usually get some pretty good stuff for next to nothing. We have five different fitness machines that I think we paid a grand total of fifty bucks for.
Just this spring, we finally got rid of the treadmill that had been a bit of a burden for my wife and I to schlep around since she had stopped using it. It was a hand-me-down of sorts from family and the commercial market was not possible. Once we had waited years for all offered family to not say that they wanted it, we then had to find some non-family to take it. Which took more years.
Twayn, if only you'd had your heart attack a few months earlier...
Wait! Wait! That came out all wrong!
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I'm a food-lover, but I love fresh and cooked vegetables just as much as everything else. Seems that at my office, I had a bit of a reputation as a raider of candy-jars &c. I explained to a bunch "Well if someone had a carrot-jar I'd hit that more!" Sadly, no one has yet started a carrot-jar.
Rowing is pretty great. My gym has some Concept2 rowers, which are the only ones I've used, but I like it because it forces me to keep my abs engaged moreso than, say, running. I also like your doctor/mechanic analogy. As much as I appreciate modern medicine, I'd rather not be forced to go see them a bunch.
I made it to the gym yesterday. Overhead press: 5x20(kg), 3x25, 3x29, 3x33, 7x37. The last set felt better than expected, though the last couple of reps were a grind. I'm getting pretty close to pressing half my body weight for reps, which will be a nice milestone. For conditioning, I did push-ups and band-assisted pull-ups. The first round was 1 push-up, 1 pull-up. Second round 2 push-ups, 2 pull-ups, etc. Each round started at the beginning of the next minute. If the minute was up and I didn't complete the round, I rested for the next minute and halved the reps. Over 20 minutes, I wound up doing: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, failed 10, 0, 5, 6, 7, failed 8, 0, 4, 5, 6, 7. It's really easy to cheat on push-ups when you're fatigued, but I think I mostly hung in there. I finished with 5 sets of 40 on the jump rope.
They started me doing some light weights at cardiac rehab a couple of weeks ago, and I'm really liking it. I haven't lifted since high school, but it feels good. I'm just getting started with free hand weights, ten and fifteen pounders, curls, tris, presses and lat pulls and such, but I want to get more serious with it and that means I'll have to do it at home (or get my little brother they phy ed teacher to let me into the high school weight room).
I never lifted weights until about a year ago, but it turns out that I really like it.
I am a big fan of circuit training (even though injuries have prevented me from doing any for several months). Resistance training is really important for us older farts, to help us maintain our ability to pull a hammy or blow out a knee trying to keep up with the youngsters.
I like circuit training a lot, too, as long as quality isn't comprimised too much for the sake of speed.
sure.
for me, the goal is no longer building muscle mass, as it was back in the day when I engaged in marathon, heavy workouts (divided into upper-body days focused on bench press, and lower-body days focused on squats). I want to preserve general fitness and range of motion, and not take too long. I don't do multiple sets of anything, really. I move quickly from machine/exercise to machine/exercise, so the workout is pretty intense (for an old guy).
One thing I have learned over the years is that my old routine was pretty inefficient. Too much resting between sets. But I don't care about lifting heavy anymore, so I have little need to rest between sets. I just vary muscle groups (a pulling exercise followed by a pushing one, or an upper-body exercise followed by a lower-body one) so that specific muscles get worked, then rested.
Sounds right to me. I have just seen some people (obviously not you, since I've never seen you work out) doing circuit workouts and only getting partial range of motion on a lot of exercises because they are rushing through it, which I don't think is a particularly effective way to work out.
to be sure, proper technique is too often ignored, regardless of apparatus. I see people using horrible technique with free weights all the time at my gym. It's all I can do to keep my mouth shut, as I am a meddler by nature.
Today is the first day that someone who didn't know that I was on a diet said something to me recognizing my weight loss. 🙂
That's cool.
I dropped around 10 pounds a few years back. I remember someone making a big deal out of it. My face really shows it when I gain/lose weight. That is a good thing on the losing side but bad on the gaining side.
TruckTune-up Time with Twayn!Twayn, do you have any stairs in your house? or a back stoop? You could get a step workout in at home.
low-sodium and low-fat recipes pretty much means cooking fresh vegetables. When I bake potatoes, I rub the skins with a wee bit of olive oil, then sprinkle with salt. Enough of the salt sticks.... My favorite baked potato meal is just a plain, baked potato served with a little pat of butter, a healthy shake of granulated garlic and a few grinds of pepper, then topped with sauteed or steamed broccoli and a dollop of plain yogurt. If I'm feeling frisky, I'll add some blue cheese and chopped ham or crumbled bacon.
In fact, that's what I'm planning for dinner tonight!
I think we actually have a step (and step tape) that my wife bought after one of the girls was born, I'll have to look for that. We also still have a mini-tramp down in the basement storage room that she bought years ago. And last weekend I dug up a good leather jumprope with ball bearing handles that my brother gave me years and years ago. So slowly but surely we're figuring out some low-cost exercise alternatives to get us through the winter. I know you've mentioned that you do some bag work and I think I could get into that. I did taekwondo for two years in college and wouldn't mind working on some basic punches and kicks again.
since the Boy graduated (and his sensei lost her studio space when her landlord decided to convert it to storage space), I've not done any bag work. My kickboxing routine is all air-kicking. More dance than kickboxing, I suppose. Mostly aerobic work and range-of-motion work for me, since there is no resistance involved.
In Scandia, I have a big bag and fast bag. Very refreshing workout, that. Usually I crank up the reggaeton and let 'er fly.
bS - Are LTEs considered work?
I'm salaried, so I work 24-7.
I'm salaried, so I "work" 24-7.
FTFY
"on call".
Sorry, twas a Y-Kippur question.
When I was a youth, my parents had a Nordic-Track. That was actually kindof fun to be on. More fun than actual cross-country skiing for sure. So maybe don't give up on it?
4M today - lite run - did w/ water to get used to it. Tomorrow track tempo at St. Joseph's.