The official first day of this personal challenge begins today. The challenge lasts until 01-01-10. Thats 153 days from today. My goal is to be in the 170 range on my weight. My specific goal is 173 lbs. I also want to be able to do 10 pull ups by then. The personal challenge will continue through to late May or sometime in June when Katie and Joel are married. I'll define those goals a little better, but generally speaking, buffist fiftyish dad at the wedding.
I'm setting some priorities in my life for this challenge. They are non-negotiable. Negotiating, rationalizing some of these is exactly what has led to my need to get radical about my current health. I must exercise. I must eat clean. I must plan my days. In addition to these health related priorities, I'm adding writing and ramped up Bible study. And these are my new year resolutions. I resolve NOW to reach these goals by 01-01-10.
Yesterday I ran at the gym doing wind sprints on the treadmill. I enjoy doing that because it is easy to set goals. I can set a calories goal (I know that's not very accurate and should not be counted on, but it does give me a target) a speed goal and the ability to time my workout. What I do is spend five minutes warming up (learned the hard way last year when I started running and pulled a muscle; it took weeks to move past that injury); I start out at 2.5 and increase my speed by increments of 3 until I get up to 4.3. That usually leaves me with about a minute to a minute and a half to go before I start running. At the end of the five minutes warm up I increase th speed to 5.2. Every thirty seconds I increase the speed by .2. I continue to increase that speed until I reach 7.0 and run at that speed for 30 seconds. Then I reduce the speed to 4.0 - a fast walk. I watch my heart rate until it is in the 120 range, at which point I increase the speed again, but this time to 153. With each 30 second increment of time I increase the speed by .3. When I finish at 171, I drop again to the fast walk, 4.0. When my heart rate is in the 120 range, I increase the speed to 154 this time. And with each 30 minute increment I increase speed by .4 until I complete 30 seconds at the 170 level. Reduce to walk, let heart slow down and then increase speed to 15.0. Each 30 seconds I pick up the pace by .5 until I complete 30 seconds at 170 or 175. Then I begin the 5 minute cool down. When I check my heart rate at the beginning of each of the other cool downs I'm usually in the 160 range of BPM. I can burn (according the treadmill, which, admittedly, is not accurate at all, probably not even close) 300 or more calories in less than 30 minutes. I do this particular plan as a version of HIT training. I'm avoiding steady state cardio. I'm training my muscles to do more. And as time progresses I make the session harder. I go at higher speeds (I want to end each level in the 10.0 range). So that gets me around the problem of the body adjusting to what is being done in cardio and burning next to no calories at all. That's what happened to me last summer. I ran miles and miles and got almost nothing for it. My nutrition was bad and I wasn't burning nearly the calories I thought I was.
I'm also walking here in the apartment community. I have a mile course set around the place and walk it three to four times. I'm pushing to getting up to five laps soon. What I'm finding is that my running is doing better than usual. I think the walking is exercising and building some muscles that I was compensating for in the running. There is more air time (pushed up from the ground with my feet) than I had before. So yesterday I walked 4 miles.
Then later I went to the pool and swam. I'm swimming underwater so I can listen to my shoulders. I'm hearing a lot of crackling sounds and I know from previous experience doing squats in Power 90 that that is the sound of tendons moving that haven't been stretched very much. I heard it in my knees before, but now its gone. So I want to work my shoulders until its gone from there as well.
What I'm learning: My appetite can be voracious, but I also know that exercise can help me control my appetite by putting a damper on it. This is one of those great serendipitous truths about health. The more you exercise, the less you may want food. My understanding that always been that just exercising cuts back on appetite. I thought that although I had plenty of evidence that that was not the whole truth. I would exercise, then crave and crave and crave. What I think I'm learning now is that there must be a certain level of exercise before appetite is affected. I did not eat a lot yesterday, but I exercised a whole lot. This morning I had a practically empty if not totally empty stomach, but I went to the gym first. I ate afterwards because I could tell I need food, not because I craved food. After I finished my 8 oz. whey protein drink and my 4 whole egg omelet, I was stuffed.
It seems that the level of my exercise finally affected my appetite. So, to hold down appetite, I need to elevate the amount of exercise I do until it takes affect. I need to exercise not just to control weight, but I need to exercise enough to control my appetite. Exercise too little and appetite can still be out of control.
I'm using whey protein drinks (EAS chocolate powder) after intense workouts. My soreness has been almost non existent. It seems that possibly taking the protein drink helps to keep me from being sore. That's stuff I'm glad I learn as I continue on this challenge.
Well, that's a bit much for today. I've gone way past the amount of time I had intended to spend on this. So until tomorrow.
