Sunday, September 25, 2011

Weekly Weigh-in (Week 88)

Sunday once again and time for an update.

Big changes in my fitness plans this week that I'm really liking already.

Firstly, this weekend Lara needed some new jeans so like a good bored husband I went along to help. While out I realized I have only one pair of jeans so I might as well try some on. Turns out, I now wear a size 34. I cannot actually remember when I last wore a 34, the other pair I have is old, from a couple pants buying generations ago, and was a 38. I've dropped 8-10 inches from my waist size in these past 88 weeks, and I feel pretty good about that.

So what else have I been changing this week? Well, last week I mentioned that I'd probably be picking up a pull-up bar, and Sunday afternoon I did. So this week I actually worked out every evening after work with some squats, pushups and pullups. My arms are not liking the pullups, probably because I tried to go straight into full pullups without much lead-in, so I'm going to be pulling back from that and working on progressing toward pullups a little more gradually. I've also been working on increasing the range of motion on my squats and improving my technique on my pushups. I'll likely be adding a couple more exercises into my newly rekindled bodyweight workout fixation in the coming weeks. Handstands and eventually handstand pushups come to mind, leg raises as well (enabled at some stage by the pullup bar). I've found some interesting reading material on progressive bodyweight training recently that I've been going through and hopefully I can start putting it in practice in my workouts and see what kind of results it will get me. I will say that my upper body seems to have gotten a lot of increased definition for a weeks worth of time, so I'm hopeful.

The other big change in my workouts this week was that I started getting up early pretty much every day and going for a run. Some of them had to be adjusted from my plans going into the week, and due to issues with my work-sleep interaction and the water at our apartment I had to skip two of my planned runs, but 5 of the last 7 days have seen me out for a run and that's an improvement I'm proud of. Hopefully I can improve on that in the coming weeks.

So what does the scale have to say this week? 208, down a pound from last week. It seems to be nearly equal measure fat and lean if my bodyfat readings are correct, which I'm never really all that sure of. One of these days I'm going to upgrade to the Withings scale and then I'll have a little more confidence in them. Anyway, until next week, be the you you want to be. No matter what you have you can make it happen.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Weekly Weigh-In (Week 87)

Sunday once again and time for my weekly update post.

Tough week this week. On my hill workout Tuesday I did something to my knee, and as a result when I tried to go out Wednesday for my next run I had to bail on it pretty quickly due to some pain. Been taking it easy on the running this week as a result, gonna get back into it starting tomorrow and work my way back up to a higher volume than I was at before to help accelerate my progress toward my half-marathon. Related to this I'm planning on trying to push myself toward more strength work to help prevent injuries like this in the future.

After having gotten a bit stir crazy Friday because I had to skip my run I decided I needed to do something active and so I hopped up off the couch and did some sets to failure of squats, pushups, and situps. Planning on turning that into a regular occurrence on my days off from work, though probably replacing the situps with pullups because I hate situps and want to get better at pullups. So good odds I may be picking up a pullup bar in the near future to add to our apartment.

Been experimenting with my new dehydrator, currently sitting on some apples I dehydrated and then pasteurized, some I didn't, and some I dipped in ascorbic acid, will have to see soon how the various treatments have impacted the apple rings.

That's about it for now, will report back soon with progress on how my changes are going. For now though, what's the scale have to say today? 209, down a pound from last week. Staying right around where I want to be for now. So until next week, keep being the you you want to be.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Weekly Weigh-in (Week 86)

It's that time again, time for another update.

Short one this week, not much going on. Got a dehydrator and put it to some apples so now I have delicious homemade apple rings. Have to see if they go bad or get eaten first, I'm betting on get eaten. Probably try and get up a post this week with pictures of the dehydrator and the process of making the rings, and possibly fruit leather if I end up making any of that this week as well.

Well, that's about all I've got for this week, so what about the numbers? 210, up a pound from last week. Body fat is down, and I'm feeling good. Need to get back on the wagon with my workouts though, both the runs and the weights. Until next week, keep being the you you want to be.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Weekly Weigh-In (Week 85)

Sunday once again and time for the weekly update.

Not much to tell this week. Kept eating about as normal, the benefits I've attributed to the flaxseed oil have kept up, as has my supplementation with it.

My weight has been trending slightly higher this week, but my body fat has been trending lower so I'm not concerned. Haven't done quite at much running as could be hoped, but what I did was good quality runs. Picked up a dehydrator online that should show up later this week which will help with the 50+ pounds of apples I got yesterday. Dried apple rings and apple leather are in my future, and plenty of other wonderful dried fruit options as well. Not to mention the jerky related potential.

Well, that's honestly most of the update I have this week, I won't bore you by rambling further. So what does the scale tell me this week? 209, which is where I've been shooting for the past month or so. Body fat down as well, meaning most of that weight I gained was muscle just as I've been shooting for. Until next week, be the you you want to be.