Changes

So it's been another rather long gap between posts, and this one is where I announce some changes going on over here.

As some of you who follow me on twitter may have seen/heard I'm currently working through a Whole30 challenge. This limits my food choices to things which are health promoting and eliminates things which are not health promoting. That's a pretty big simplification but it's all the detail I feel like getting into here, if you want more feel free to look into the information available at the website of the challenge authors, Whole30.

As part of it I'm abstaining from weighing myself for the duration of the challenge, in using it as an opportunity to stop tracking most of the other things I have been tracking for so long, body fat, mood, calories, water, sweat rate while running, body temperature, heart rate while running, all of these things are going out the window for at least 30 days, possibly longer. The only things I'm still tracking are my daily mileage for walking and running, my workouts, my sleep, and my resting heart rate (and that's not really being logged so much as measured to protect against the mild chance of overtraining as I ramp things up toward my half marathon on Labor Day Weekend).

At the start of the challenge I was sitting at around 205 pounds and a not terrible body fat percentage, and there is good chance the challenge will improve that, but that's not the point. The point is about becoming healthier in my life, my relationship with food, and with my body. So far I'm doing alright with it and hoping to continue to do so. While I'm still highly interested in improving myself and hopefully providing a useful template for others I'm not sure what avenue that will take going forward and what it will look like. I'm going to continue working to improve myself and offer advice and well researched opinions to anyone who seeks them.

In the meantime, take steps today to be the version of you you wish was staring back at your from the mirror. If you want to lose weight, do something to make it happen, if you wish you were stronger, go lift something heavy, if you want to be faster, go run faster. If what you've been doing isn't working try something else and see if maybe it does. Take matters into your own hands and make sure that you do something today, right now, to make yourself into what you wish to be.

Life after Work

Been quite a while since my last post, life has been busy.

Got a promotion at work to a very different position which has me working more hours and at somewhat odd times in some cases. As such it put a rather large cramp in my usual workouts. As a result I ended up taking nearly a month off from running with only minimal strength training either. I've since gotten back on the wagon and started running again and increased my resistance work.

I've learned a couple important lessons from this incident though. Firstly I've learned that I need to relax a bit and not stress about getting out for a run every day. Any running is better than no running, and missing a day because work is just not lining up right or my body is just not in condition for it that morning doesn't need to be a big deal. One day off can be just that and not snowball into a week or more without any running at all. Starting back in slow, 10 minutes or so a day, and as often as I can manage, with a day off when scheduling or recovery demands, and building up the time from there. Hoping to get to a point where 30 minutes a day can be reasonable with more on weekends (up to as long as 2-2.5 hours perhaps). The real trouble is soon going to be weather, as things start warming up either I'm going to need to be out earlier or move inside.

I've also learned that with frequent application of gravity the body can become surprisingly stronger in a short amount of time. While I did not reach my goal of unassisted pistol squats, I did manage to improve my ability, and move closer to that goal, using doorway assisted squats. I've also started playing with some inverted work, headstands for now but eventually handstands are a goal. Also made good progress on my pushups and bridges as well. Leg raises and pull-ups have sort of stalled but I'm sure they will progress again shortly, if after a bit of tweaking to bust the plateau.

In terms of my diet of late I've been having some interesting opportunity to experiment on that front. My food choices still leave some room for improvement, but my timing has been changed up a bit. I've been finding myself unable to get much chance for a decent breakfast, so I decided to use my new schedule as an excuse to finally try some intermittent fasting. Instead of the normal 8-12 hours of not eating that comes from sleeping after dinner and before breakfast I've been not eating lunch until 1:30-3 which, given my usual habit of ending my feeding window around 9-11 in the evenings an average of 16 hours of fasting and 8 hours of eating a day. So far I've not been having any issues with excess hunger or rapid weight loss so I'm not concerned with the ramifications at present. It'll be interesting to see how things progress over time as I refine my plan.

So there you have it, a summary of my last month or two. In the next interval I'm hoping to continue progressing with my cardio and my resistance. Here's hoping things keep going as well as they've been going the last week or so.

So what's the weight looking like. 203.6, up around 2 since last time. Overall, I'm not really bothered by that. A little weight fluctuation isn't abnormal for me, I'm still feeling and looking good. Anyway, until next time, keeping being the you you want to be.

How Waiting In Line Can Get You In Shape

So for a while now I've been tossing around this idea for a blog post, which you'll see today, and then I saw, through a link from Steve Kamb of Nerd Fitness I believe, to a post titled How Waiting In Line Can Get You In The Best Shape Of Your Life. It's not quite the post that I was intending to write but it's something useful all the same. While the linked post is about waiting in line as a metaphor for getting in shape, the various stages of being in line compared against the stages of fitness. What I have in mind is something a little more literal, getting in shape while waiting in line.

This post was originally going to be called The Disneyland Workout as that was the major inspiration for my writing it, but it applies not only to waiting in line at the parks, but also anywhere else you might find yourself waiting around wanting to fill some time. This post will be short, but hopefully at least a little inspirational and useful to at least some of you.

So you're stuck somewhere and you need something to do to feel better about yourself? You've come to a good place for advice my friends. Bodyweight exercises are a great way to work on your fitness no matter where you are, and even when I'm not stuck anywhere they are my go to resistance training exercises. So what makes them perfect for when you are stuck in line? There's no equipment, they usually don't take much space, and they are just easy to do. Heck, if you are at Disneyland or some other theme park you may have picked up your own added resistance for the exercises over the course of the day in the form of merchandise, or might be lucky enough to have a nearby child to use for even more resistance (I'd recommend restricting that to your own children or those of trusted friends as most strangers to not take well to their children being used for your workouts).

So now that we've covered the whys how about what, what should you be doing to fill all this time? Well, resist the urge to fill it with pulling out your phone and catching up on twitter or Facebook, though in some of these situations you can likely do that too, and do something active. Most of the suggestions here will be for lower body exercises as those involve the least deviation from the expectations of being in line, but if you have the room feel free to drop and do some pushups. So what shall we do then instead? Well Squats are a personal favorite, great for the legs and they involve multiple joints so they strengthen your entire lower body complex in some fashion or other. Lunges take up a bit more space but work the lower body in different ways and, as I've been finding out recently, involve a lot more work on balance than Squats. A personal favorite of mine is to take stairs nice and slow and let my ankles drop below the level of the stair to stretch out my lower leg. That particular move is one of my favorites because my running leaves my achilles tendons stiff many days, and this helps stretch them back out again.

So what about the upper body? Well your options there are more limited, unless you don't mind looking absurd to random strangers, but you're working out while waiting in line so clearly the opinions of strangers are not as important as your fitness (though shy should they be?). My go-to is dips on the turnstiles at rides like Big Thunder or Space Mountain. Simply place your hands upon turnstile and remove the legs from the ground, hold for a nice static workout, or lower and raise yourself for some more dynamic upper body work. If there's a nice bar or something overhead pull-ups are a good option as well. If you are really daring handstands and handstand presses are wonderful, but they are not so easy to do in a crowded line. There's presses involving small children or merchandise of course, though past that I'm about out of ideas. If you have more ideas put them in the comments.

So there you have it, the Disneyland Workout, or how to stay in shape absolutely anywhere.

So there's the post for you, let me know what you think of it. While I'm here though let's update my postings of my weight. This week it's at 203.3, down 2.1 from my last post. Until next time, be the you you want to be, even if it means doing something slightly embarrassing to get there.

Race Weekend Recap

Well it's been nearly a month since my last update and it's been a pretty busy month, so my apologies for the lack of updates. Today I am bringing you an update from my recent weekend trip to Disneyland for the inaugural Tinkerbell half marathon weekend. I've got some pictures, some fun commentary, and hopefully some stuff you'll find worth reading, and if not you won't know til you did anyway so I guess I still win. So without further delay, here we go.

Got up and loaded the car at around 4am on Friday and headed right on over to California. Stopped for breakfast in Quartzite, and did our best to pretend we didn't just get fruit when we hit the border, and then headed straight for the hotel. After checking in and dropping our stuff we went to the parks. Paid the race expo a visit to pick up my bib, shirt, and some inaugural race loot (toothpick holder anyone?) and then headed to the parks. We visited Bengal Barbecue for dinner,

Lara and I at Bengal Barbecue

and then popped over to DCA for a couple rides and some ElecTRONica fun. Finally turned in around closing time and went back to the hotel for the night. All told we did about 11 miles of walking over the course of the day.

The portal opening at ElecTRONica 

 Saturday we were at the parks from around 8 to 9, hit up all the best rides and stopped by ElecTRONica again before meeting up with Amanda to get some food and go back to the hotel and crash early in preparation for the race the next morning. Best advice for food that I came away with for that day is that both the Hungry Bear restaurant in Critter Country Disneyland and the Lucky Fortune Cookery on Pacific Wharf in DCA are quite excellent. The first provided sweet potato fries which were delicious, and the second had both edamame and stir fry with a choice of sauce, we tried the spicy korean this time out but I'm likely to go or the thai curry next time we visit. Did about 13 miles Saturday, though can't be perfectly sure as the data from my Fitbit never made it online, more on that later.

The next morning started early, about 4am to be exact. Got dressed and headed out to the starting corrals.

Me in the starting corral.

As I was placed into corral E due to my lack of a qualifying time and various other factors it was 24 minutes from the starting gun before I managed to get to the starting line.

Talking heads at the start line, with Minnie and Daisy

And then the race was begun, at first with the density of the starting area I was stuck in my starting position and not able to move at anything close to a pace I was happy with, a moderate jog more than anything, but as the roads opened up a bit and people spread out enough I was able to get a bit more clear and my pace improved to something a little more comfortable. After the first couple miles we entered the park and were made to feel like beloved guests.

See the pun up there? It's only the first Disney pun in this post.

The course went through the backlot before it got into the public areas of the park around where the above shot was taken, then went around the matterhorn and past pixie hollow and through Tomorrowland past the Innoventions carrousel back to the backlot. We emerged near the gates to Main Street USA and went up toward the partners statue and the castle.

Following the leaders through the castle

From there the route went up through Fantasyland, where the Lost Boys had taken over King Arthurs Carrousel supervised by Captain Hook of all people, and then around the back of Big Thunder Mountain, perhaps the wildest curve all race. From there it was around the Rivers of America and through New Orleans Square up toward the Haunted Mansion. The cadaverous pallor of some of the runners betrayed an aura of foreboding, almost as though they were apprehensive about the rest of the race.

Only ~900 male runners this year, but there's room for 1000.

A quick jaunt through Critter Country and we paid another visit to the backlot before leaving the park for Downtown Disney and one of the first sets of spectators that weren't the very friendly Disney Cast Members. Downtown was also were I ran past the cheering Lara and Amanda who snapped this picture.

Keeping upbeat and smooth.

After passing the Disneyland Hotel and assembled Red Hatted Ladies we left the Resort property behind for the greater Anaheim area. Up from the park a few blocks to a nice spot to cross the freeway puts us at mile 6, which was when I noticed that I no longer had my Fitbit. Sadly it disappeared between the start of the race and this point. Still holding out some small hope it will get turned in but whatever, if it's gone then it's gone.

Thinking of wonderful thoughts is cheaper than Red Bull

Lots of wonderful sites in Anaheim to see, and a number of school bands and cheer squads to help us keep our spirits up. Over down by the GardenWalk and that brings us to about my next photo at Mile 11:

Just keep running, just keep running...

Crossed back across the freeway to get to the side by the park again around here and headed back toward the parks for the run through DCA. We could see the Tower of Terror a while before we actually got to the park, but the suspense finally gave out and we dropped in for the final stretches of the race.

Haven't lost a guest since last time.

We entered the park around the Tower and then headed up the Hollywood Studios lot toward the construction of Buena Vista Street.

Electrify the boys and girls

After passing through Condor Flats and around Grizzly River we hit the boardwalk briefly on our way to a Bug's Land. After that it was back into the backlots of DCA and around behind Monument Valley and Cars Land as we made our way around to the Simba Parking Lot and the finish line.

You gotta turn with the curve

I finished the race having run the whole time, excepting water stations which slowed me down even if I wasn't drinking at that one, and my splits only improved over the course of the race. My final time was 2:10:17, a time I'm rather happy with for a debut half. Next time out I'm planning to break the 2 hour mark, perhaps a little better than that if I can manage it. After a short recovery at the finish area with some much needed stretching, we went back to the hotel and I took a sorely needed shower. Went to the parks for the day and had plenty of time to ride rides, enjoy some pizza and pasta at the DCA Boardwalk, and participate in a twitter fueled scavenger hunt in the parks that was a lot of fun, though I think perhaps the race medal had started a thirst for more glittering gold.

Don't look into the eyes though, for your safety

It was a bit of a long day, I seem to recall we turned in around 9 or 10 after probably putting in 12 miles at the parks after the race, but I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. I ran my first half in a time I'm not ashamed of, and I actually ran the whole thing. Taking a bit of rest to reset things and get myself back into the right place to start up my next training cycle and see what I can do with what I've learned. And for those of you interested, yes I did the whole race in my Vibrams and all 3 days at the park as well, though Sunday post-race was done in my Classics and not my Komodo Sports as those were in dire need of a wash.

The odor from the other shoes was quite a bother

Last but not least, my weight update. At the start of the race I was at 206.6, down 3 pounds from my last post and 76 from when I started tracking my weight a little over two years back. When I finished the race I was down to 205.4 after having taken in about 82oz of water between seeing the scale, and also that little matter of running 13 miles. So there you have it, a nice race update. Look for another blog update in the next couple weeks I'm tentatively calling the Disneyland Workout. Until then, be the you you want to be.

Words to live by for the new year

Well hello there anyone who's reading this and welcome to the new and, hopefully, improved format of my blog. I'm diverging from my previous mostly weekly updates further than ever before and decoupling these updates from my week count on my journey. The posts will still likely end with a week, a weight, and a change for the next little while but I'm going to see where things go.

So what will I be posting? Well hopefully it'll be training updates, life updates, and random inspirational things. I'm gonna try hard to get at least a post every two weeks but we'll have to see how things go as the new plan develops. So without further delay, here's the first post.


Citius, Altius, Fortius; it means Faster, Higher, Stronger. Not faster than anyone else, just faster. It's the Olympic motto, something strikingly similar to this introduction is what opens the film Without Limits (well worth watching for those that haven't), and it's a motto I hope to live by this year. It's about the constant quest to improve oneself. Faster than you were the last time, higher than you've managed go before, stronger than ever before. Applying this to my life is something I've been doing for a while, running faster, shooting higher in my goals, working to constantly be both physically and mentally stronger than I've ever been. It's a pattern I intend to continue through this year with gusto. I've got my first half marathon coming up at the end of this month and I'm confident that while I may not finish with an amazing time by objective standards but I'm determined to finish having run the whole way with head held high.

Two years ago when I started down this road I wouldn't have been able to finish a mile long run with anything close to a respectable time. Now, though I haven't done a full tilt mile for time, I'm confident I could finish it somewhere between 6-7 minute pace, possibly better. I can do 2 sets of 16 pushups with good form where I wouldn't have been able to complete even a single set of 5 before, a pull-up seems a reasonable activity instead of something laughable, the list really goes on and on.

This isn't something that just suddenly happened it is the evidence of a large body of research and experimentation to find what works for me. At first there was a lot of benefit to be had from simply restricting calories but eventually that won't really take you far due to hunger. You have to transition to not just eating a better amount but eating better. Quality food is not only better for you but I've found it fills you up better as well. I've also transitioned slowly away from processed foods as much as possible, another trend to continue in this new year, and am committing to cooking more at home. I'm down now to a weight around 210 from my peak at 283, and at a much more favorable body fat as well. I look better, I feel better, and I'm confident that there's room for even better results as time goes on.

Once I'm done with my race I'm gonna take a little time to recover from that and head right into the new training plan I've been working on. More emphasis on strength work than before, not only my convict conditioning program but adding in some gymnastics inspired work and some plyometric drills to help round out that portion of my training. My running may come with a slight decrease in mileage at first but an increase in my intensity. Sprints to help build cardio-pulmonary systems, strides to work on form, tempos for lactate threshold, and a long run to help keep up endurance capacity. Tying this all together should lead to a faster and stronger me with a higher amount of overall fitness than ever before (see what I did there?), and I look forward to seeing where that takes me. Until next time, be the you you want to be.


Week 102: 209.7, down .5 from my last post.

Weekly Weigh-in (Week 97)

Sunday once again and time for an update.

Back into the swing of things with the running this week. If I can put up with a sprint session this week then things will be nice and back to normal. Eating stayed pretty well in line with things I'd like despite Thanksgiving. Had some good time with family and friends this week.

So what about the future? Lara's going to be starting up on some more working out now than she had been doing previously, which is good for her and means I can start having a local workout buddy for some of my workouts now. Start her off easy and then see where life takes us. Also going to be trying to further clean up our diets from what they are now by doing the majority of our food production at home. We've been doing better with that recently but there's still plenty of room for improvement over the longer scale. Liking where the future is heading in so many areas of our lives these days.

So what about my numbers? 210 this week. Same as last week. Holding steady is good but I'd like to be down a bit from where I am right now. We'll just have to see what happens as the future unfolds. Until next week, keeping striving to be the you you want to be.

Weekly Weigh-in (Week 96)

Sunday once again and time for my weekly update.

Missed last weeks update, was busy with life and didn't get around to it. So this week here we are.

Finally back to running in my Vibrams after the toenail procedure. I'm definitely down a bit in terms of my overall fitness but I seem to be regaining it steadily. Hopefully within another week or two I should be back to full and working on increasing my fitness beyond it's recent peak. My sleep has been improving of late as well which is always a bonus. Hoping to increase the rate at which I'm complying with my planned resistance workouts by moving them from Monday and Friday to Sunday and Thursday, so that in coincides with as few other recurring events in my life as possible.

So what else have I been up to? Today it was cookery. Trying to find some replacement options for the smoothies we've been doing for breakfasts. Made up a batch of the Primal Energy Bars I've done a couple times before, playing around with things trying to find a good match. Also tried out two new recipes, some Primal sausage balls and some hash brown omelette "muffins". Both of them seem pretty decent so we'll have to see how things pan out. For the sweet tooth we whipped up something a bit odd, cookie stuffed brownies, chocolate chip cookies contained within fudge brownies. Those were indeed rather delicious.

So what does the scale have to say? 210, up a pound from last time. Gonna cut back a little and try to get that back down a bit. Bodyfat holding pretty steady. So until next time, keep being the you you want to be.

Weekly Weigh-In (Week 94)

Sunday once again and time for an update.

For some reason it seems my update from last week didn't post. Nothing of real value missing though, mostly just a plan for recovery from the toenail repair I had done last week. Didn't quite stick to that plan but it was good to have had one. Wasn't able to do any real running last week, though I did get in some cycling and a couple walks instead. Hoping that by the middle of this week I'll be able to do some running in addition to some walking I plan to add to my routine. At least in part due to wanting to get into better condition for walking around the parks at Disneyland before and after my race. That and the walking is beneficial to my mental state I've found, in ways that are similar to if not the same as my running but some experimenting will help hammer that out.

Anyway, what's the numbers this week? Weight at 209, same as last week and the week before, BF down from previous two weeks, RHR up a little (but still only at around 50). Everything's going pretty well with my fitness, and that's just the way I want it going into the Fall. Until next time readers, keep being the you you want to be.

Weekly Weigh-in (Week 92)

Still Sunday, if only barely, and time for another update.

Good week on my feet this week. Logged the most miles I've yet logged in a week, crossed the threshold for most runs in a week, and most runs in a month, had my best average pace for a week, and just generally kept in good shape with my runs all throughout the week.

This week though I'm gonna talk about what I've been doing for resistance training. It's much reduced from what I was doing a month or two ago with the weights, but it's meshing rather well with my running and it's progressive so I can keep working at it until I manage to see the results I'm looking for or nothing happens.

So what is it? It's a progressive bodyweight program derived from the book Convict Conditioning. A strange name sure but it makes a lot of sense, in prison you don't have a lot of gym equipment to work with, and in many cases you get your body and your cell. Now I have no intention of going to prison but the kinds of lessons from people who have can help me with my own strength work in terms of keeping things simple and natural, and in terms of making sure that my workouts are not tied to any specific equipment or location.

The program consists of 6 basic movement progressions, pushups, pull-ups, squats, leg raises, bridging, and handstand pushups. Each of the 6 movements has 10 steps that go from complete beginner to things like 1 arm pushups, pull-ups, or handstand pushups, 1 legged squats, and hanging straight leg raises and stand-to-stand bridging. Each of the 10 steps has goals for beginner, intermediate and advancement ratings so the goals are always very clearly laid out. Right now I'm working on the pushup, pull-up, squat, and leg raise progressions, the bridging and handstand progressions are recommended against until you reach set levels of some of the other exercises and I'm going to work within that restriction for now to see what kind of results I get following the program as directed.

I'm not sure how this program is gonna work in the long run but so far it seems to be going rather well for me.

The other thing I've been trying out recently is trigger point therapy on my legs using a lacrosse ball. Essentially you just push the ball into areas of tightness in the muscles, ligaments, and fascia and activate the muscles. Doing so is supposed to help relieve the tension in the muscles and help loosen your joints and prevent injury. It's another situation where I don't yet have any proof of whether or not it doesn't what it is supposed to, but as with the resistance training, the best way to find out is to try it.

So what does the scale tell me whit sweet? 209, up a pound from last week. Bodyfat staying about the same. Al this is about what I expected, and I look forward to seeing where things go from here. Until next time, keep being the you you want to be.

Weekly Weigh-in (Week 91)

Another late update this week, sorry about that.

Increased the bar on my running yet again this week with increased paces, mileages, and days. Days will probably peak next week at 7, if all goes as planned, but mileage and pace will hopefully keep increasing for a while. Need to map out a hilly route in this area so that I can reintroduce my hill training. I've recently decided to add some mobility work based on things I've been picking up over at MobilityWOD and Strength Running. Increasing my mobility and working my joints daily should hopefully help keep me injury free as I increase my running to prepare for my race and beyond. I'm also increasing my strength training overall, though not really my lower body disproportionately to my upper, more on that next week. Sadly my stats will take a bit of a dip after I get this ingrown toenail taken care of, but that should only hinder me a few days.

So how about my weight? 208, same as last week. Staying rather constant throughout is fine with me. Until next time, keep being the you you want to be.

Weekly Weigh-in (Week 90)

Monday and time for a delayed update.

Set a new record for most activities on Runkeeper in a week last week with 5, my steady increases in mileage are continuing rather well. Been setting some pretty blazing paces on some of the more recent runs and I'm hoping I'm not overdoing it with tacking on the speed. In addition I've been tweaking my strength routine to help increase my overall strength and will be throwing in more running specific strength work as time goes on.

I'm really liking where I'm at with my fitness of late, and we've been making an effort to both cook at home more and try out more recipes we've never done so all in all I'm pretty happy with where my diet has been heading too. Right now I just have to take precautions to make sure that getting my toenail fixed in a week or two doesn't set me back too far, but I'm not too worried about that as my cardiac system seems to be improving steadily (resting heart rate is down to the low 50s now, making steady progress in the direction of the 40s), and my respiratory system seems to keep up pretty well to longer runs. That combined with my strength training should allow me to keep up a sufficient pace over the distance to meet my goals.

So how's the scale treating me this week? 208, same as last week. Body fat is down slightly but pretty much just holding steady, and that's fine by me. Until next time, keep on being the you you want to be.

Weekly Weigh-in (Week 89)

Sunday once again and time for an update.

Been a really busy week this week. Due to careful planning we actually cooked most of our meals at home this week which is an improvement over recent weeks, and also a trend I hope to continue.

Didn't end up doing quite as much running this week as I'd planned, but I got a few good quality runs in. I also managed to get in a bodyweight routine every night for the last week, pushups, squats, vertical pulls (a precursor to pullups), and knee tucks (a precursor to hanging leg raises). Soon I'm hoping to add some bridging and handstand work to that routine as well. Making good progress so far on these workouts and hoping to continue doing so. Honestly not a lot of new developments this week otherwise.

So, what the scale got to say today? 208, same as last week. Even with that being the case I look better in a mirror now than I did two weeks ago, and that's worth more than any change on the scale right now as I'm fine with my weight, and to the stage of working on my Looking Good Naked factor. So far so good. Until next week, be the you you want to be.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Weekly Weigh-in (Week 84)

Sunday once again and time for an update.

Simple week this week, work continued along it's chosen path, my diet choices were slightly less good than they might have been but still good overall. So what are the lessons this week showed me?

Firstly, my flaxseed test has been going better than expected. By Wednesday my lower back pain, which has bothered me for large portions of the past year plus, has disappeared almost completely. Previously it had improved with changes in my work/non-work split, which is as much as I can tell related to how much time I spend in regular shoes vs barefoot/vibrams, and when I had switched mattresses to one both bigger and made of memory foam. This is the first time I can recall that my back pain cleared up so completely. I attribute it to the flaxseed oil, because the flaxseed is high in Omega-3s which help reduce systemic inflammation, which is likely one of the root causes of my backpain. Since the only major change I made to my diet in the past week was the introduction of the flaxseed I think it's safe to say that is highly likely to be a major contribution. In addition to that my gums have improved in color and tenderness, and my toe is both less swollen and in less pain. It's enough that I'm going to continue with the flaxseed for the foreseeable future.

The other thing that I've decided this week is that I need to focus more on my speedwork if I'm going to get to my goals for my race in January. As a result my training for my long runs is going to shift, instead of being strictly based on mileage I'm going to be working on increasing my speed and distance in tandem each week until I hit my target pace, and then focus on making sure I get where I need to be in terms of distance. Which is not to say that I am in doubt about my ability to complete the distance, the doubt is that I can finish it in a time that I'm not ashamed of. That and the continuation of my weight training are the goals for my fitness for the near term. Long term I'm hoping strongly to be able to get back to doing some martial arts in the future, we'll have to see what I can find for that though.

So, what does the scale have to say this week? 208, same as last week. Staying nice and steady, and I'm ok with that. I'm feeling better now than I have in a very long time, and that's the most important thing. Until next week, keep being the you you want to be.

Weekly Weigh-in (Week 83)

Sunday once again and time for an update.

This week has been a nice one for me diet wise. Did some shopping last weekend and as a result didn't eat out at all over the course of the week except for ordering pizza friday night. That was even mostly because it was getting late and I just didn't feel like going to the trouble of cooking at the time. So with all the homemade food I've been feeling better, cleaned up my diet of the processed sugars and carbs. With the exception of some slight hunger between meals, which I am confident I can clear up with some changes in meal volume and macronutrient ratio, I've been more energetic and satiated throughout the day.

Been sleeping pretty well, though a couple days this week I didn't get much sleep due to scheduling. My workouts are the thing that really slipped this week. I started off the week well with a couple runs, and some good resistance workouts. Thursday onward I basically fell off the wagon with my workouts due in part to said scheduling and a diminished recovery from my resistance workout on Wednesday as a result.

Today I decided to start using flaxseed oil to supplement my dietary Omega-3 intake, and to see which of the reported other benefits actually played out. The first tablespoon went down alright with a slight aftertaste, but the second didn't behave so nicely. I'm going to try mixing it into my morning smoothie this week and see how it works out that way.

So, what do the numbers have to say this week. 208, same as last week, but my body fat is down nearly a percent, so things are moving in the right direction. Until next week, keep being the you you want to be.

Weekly Weigh-in (Week 82)

Sunday once again, and time for an update.

Not all that much to update with this week, though a couple observations will of course be shared.

My Zeo sleep training program the past week or so has been working on relaxation to try and get to sleep faster, strangely enough it's made my time to sleep higher on every time I've tried using the audio tracks they suggest. This result seems a bit surprising on it's face, but really I don't have too much trouble getting to sleep generally.

Started supplementing Omega-3s again, and my overall health seems to be improving as a result. Once my chewables run out I'm probably going to switch to Flaxseed Oil, as it's a good source of Omega-3, and a reasonable amount of data from the self-experimenting community suggests that Flaxseed oil specifically improves balance, inflammation (which Omega-3 generally is great for), and possibly even reaction time. I'm not sure how much improvement I'm likely to see in most of those categories, but that's the point of testing theories on yourself right? Always testing new things means an ever expanding knowledge base on the way to the ultimate expression of myself.

In that vein I started tracking water consumption and mood this week using a couple of iPhone apps I found. The mood app is nice because it will randomly ping me for input 4 times a day, so that I don't only have readings from times when I feel extremely one thing or another. It's also nice because it will attach a location and tags to my updates so I can track surroundings influence on my mood. The fluid tracker is nice because not only can I track water consumed, but also soda, alcohol, and caffeine. The combination of those makes for a nice tracking app to make sure I'm not dehydrated, or drunk as the case may be. More data for a more complete picture of me.

So what about the weight? 208 this week, up a pound from last week. Bodyfat stayed the same, so that suggests things are moving in the right direction. Until next week, keep being the you you want to be.

Weekly Weigh-in (Week 81)

Sunday once again and time for an update.

Smooth week this week, nothing really to report overall.

There was one thing that struck me today while I was at work that I felt deserves mention here. I realized today that I've managed to succeed in retraining myself in terms of my food cravings. I can't recall the last time I had a craving for soda or chips or various other junk food, instead I have cravings for a steak, or fish, or last night when we went out to pick up food so I could get a salad. Sure Lara gave me some crap for going out on a lateish at night food run so I could get salad, but you know what? I'm happy with that choice, though I do wish we actually had what I needed at home to have made it and not gone out at all, but baby steps I suppose.

It's a big sign of progress to me that I have cravings for healthy, primal even, foods rather than junk food or processed stuff, similarly it's nice that when I think of things to do to fill time at work practicing pistol squats comes to mind. I've come a long way on my journey so far, and I've got plenty of places to go yet before I've uncovered the ultimate expression of myself, but I'm excited to see where my exploration takes me.

So what does the scale say this week? 207, same as last week, though my bodyfat is apparently down a half a percent. Progress is progress, no matter what form it takes. Until next time, keep being the you you want to be.