Weigh-in wonders (and a new plan)

Today’s weigh in shocked me loads, and for those of you who have already seen the weight tracker page you will know why.  I got down to 114kg (or around there) with todays weigh in.  That means I have somehow managed to burn through 2.5Kg in a week.  I am not sure how I have managed it as I haven’t done anything out of the ordinary, other than clean my car.

Instead of going to the gym on Saturday, I decided to clean and polish my car because it needed doing badly, and the weather was good for it.  Other than that, I had badminton on Monday, but I had a second lunch yesterday as the boss bought us all fish and chips.

My weight is down to 114Kg like I said, which means I have lost 8.5% of my body weight.  This weight loss is the equivalent of a 15 month old child.  My body fat percentage is down to 27.5%, which I am really pleased about seeing as I only lost 1% between the first plan and the second plan so I am doing something right in that respect.  My blood pressure is still a little on the high side, but it is coming down as the weight comes down too.  I hope that next time I can have it under 140/90 and get it heading towards the all important 120/80.

Today was also new training plan day.  I didn’t think it would be particularly useful as I am suffering from groin strain from badminton on Monday and can’t do much when it comes to using my legs.  I can walk, but that’s sometimes painful.  There is no way I will be able to run, and cycling is out of the question at the moment too.

I went in today looking to remove the lat-pull down from my work out as I am not feeling any benefit from it, and am not improving any either.  I also wanted to add in some more lower back strengthening exercises and more work for my core muscles.  Adam, my trainer, was really helpful with this and showed me a few things I can do to help all of those things doing things I like, and some that make me look a little silly, but really work well.  I am looking forward to noticing an improvement in my back, and also in my overall fitness as my core gets stronger and stronger.

I’ll have a look around to see if I can find some images of the things I will be doing as part of my work out to illustrate for your benefit.  Besides, a picture is worth a thousand words, and I really don’t think anyone wants to read a somewhat verbose description of what I am doing in my quest for better health, except for knowing I enjoy the occasional donut.

A new plan

Today at the gym wasn’t really a work out, it was a consultation to put together a new plan for me to help meet my new long term goal – get fit to join the RAF.  As such, I have updated my weight tracker with my weight a day early, and also my body fat percentage a week and a day early.  I’m doing well in both respects, and even my blood pressure has come down, though it is still a little high.

My new plan isn’t that much different from my old one really.  I am increasing the resistance on my interval training on the bike to be 8 minimum and 11 maximum, up 1 notch each.  On the day I was doing the harder cycle training – upper body workout days – I have changed the cardio on that from being on the bike to using a rowing machine.  It does seem like a bit of a cheat getting rid of the harder cycling part, but there is method to my madness.

The reason I am changing this cycling session to be rowing instead of sticking with it is because my legs seem to get very tired very quickly through it.  Whilst you may think that I would see that as a good thing, psychologically it is affecting me.  It’s showing that I am not improving in that area, despite doing it twice a week for 5 weeks.  I should be able to get further through it without my legs aching and me really struggling.  It is somewhat demotivating.  Besides, shaking things up a little will keep my body guessing.

The chest press I was doing was on a resistance machine, hence the high weight load early on.  I am swapping this out for a free-weight based chest press where I will be down to 10Kg in each hand.  I’ll look to rise through the weights with that at a decent pace and build my strength.

I have another review in 4 weeks time for a new program to help shake things up then.  I hope to add running as a permanent fixture to my training then instead of every so often.  I also have a target for then to be able to do 10 press-ups.  It’s a big ask, an increase of 2 press-ups a week, but I am confident I can do that.

As such, I won’t be checking my body fat percentage in 3 weeks, but will get it done at my next assessment again.

Flying in a new direction

So after a weekend of research in to the type of career which will not involve me working all day every day in the same room and with no exercise, I narrowed my choices down to the police, or one of the armed forces.  Upon further research of that, I narrowed it down to the police or the RAF.  Both require a basic level of fitness to be accepted, though one is much higher than the other.

After much though, consideration, reading and quizzes available online I decided that I will work towards a career in the RAF.  Not a fighting front line one, but a more sensible one where I will be managing people and resources.  I’ll still have desk work, and I will still get out and about.

What does this mean for my fitness and weight loss plan?  Quite simply that it needs a radical overhaul to meet the needs of the assessment.  The basic requirements for what I want to be doing are:

• As many 20m shuttle runs as possible, in time with an increasing timed beep
• As many press-ups as possible in 60 seconds
• As many sit-ups as possible in 60 seconds

Having spoken to someone today about a career in the RAF, they told me that the press-up minimum standard is around 15, and the sit-up minimum is around 20.  Whilst this may not seem like much, I can’t do more than 2 press-ups at the moment, let alone go for a minute.  As for the sit ups, they aren’t much better, though I am half way there with 10.  I can, however do 23 half press-ups in a minute, so I am going to work on those and build up from there.

The shuttle run beep test they said is around about the same level of fitness required to run a mile and a half in about 12 minutes.  That seems fine as I can do a 5 minute 30 second mile.  This means I should be able to get through a mile and a half in around 10 minutes.  That is something I will test at the gym this week.

I’ll be at the gym tomorrow night after work, as usual, so I will see if I can get in for a program re-assessment to help me build my fitness quicker, build my muscle a little to do the weight bearing exercises, and also strengthen my core muscles to help support my growth and prevent injury.  I’ll post my new plan on here when I get it.

I know these are some big changes for me, but there is no specific time frame for me to do these.  I won’t formally start my application process until I can meet the minimum requirements, or get very close to them.  That way I won’t have to be rejected and wait 3-6 months before I can try again.  I’m hoping I can submit an application form in late May or early June, and take everything from there.

It isn’t going to be a quick transition.

Weigh-in woes

Well the results are in for this week and I have loads of excuses in my head for not hitting my target.  As I mentioned earlier in the week, I was aiming to be under 120Kg today but I didn’t manage it.  I weighed in at 120.1Kg.  Not far off, so it is still a good achievement in 3 weeks, but still a little disappointing.  On the plus side, it does put me under 19 stone for the first time in a long time which I am happy about.

In other good news, I have got under the 31% fat barrier.  I am now 30.4% fat.  I still need to lose at least 10.5% to get me between the ideal 10 and 20% range.  I now aim to be under 30% fat in 3 weeks time.  And I also tried out some running in the gym today after my 30 minute walk on the treadmill (it increases and decreases the incline so it isn’t too easy) to see if I could manage to do 1.5 kilometers.  I managed it in what I think is a pretty good time of 4 minutes 55 seconds and though I was tired when I finished it, I had recovered by the time I wiped down the machine and walked to the weights section of the gym.  Not bad for someone who couldn’t run half a mile without getting a bad back and out of breath as little as 3 weeks ago.

So in light of my almost, but not quite, hitting my target my excuses are as follows: last week was somewhat of a break from the norm at the back-end of the week (I posted about that earlier in the week), I did extra weights yesterday so it is muscle growth from all that, my food is getting put out on the normal plates again, not the small ones (and that is going to change, I shall be having words), and I had my lunch 2 hours late today so it was still weighing me down.

There we have it, those are my rubbish excuses.  Time to move on…

…So after talking through my weight loss and body fat loss with a PT at the gym who took my readings, he said that what I had achieved in 3 weeks (see my weight tracker page) was something to be proud of, that I shouldn’t worry about missing out on my goal by such a narrow margin and that I am obviously doing something right.

Which leads nicely on to what I am doing to get these results:

• Cutting my sugar intake – I drink Pepsi Max instead of Coca-Cola, eat less chocolate, less sugary cereal, less cakes etc.
• Eating more fruit and veg – I used to take an apple and a banana to work, I now add an orange to that.  I have fruit juice in the morning with my breakfast, veg with evening meals every night and I will have grapes or raisins about an hour before bed.
• Drinking more water – I have about 2 liters when I am at the gym anyway, but on top of that I have 2 or 3 tall glasses a day with some Robinsons no added sugar cordial
• Instead of having butter on my toast on a morning, I use Philadelphia light spreadable cheese.  This is only 3% fat compared to around 80% for butter, and also provides me with some protein at the start of the day.
• switched from regular mayonnaise to the extra light variety, totally skipping the light one.  Same great taste.
• Go to the gym and work out for at least an hour Monday to Thursday – I’ll post my gym routine in a later post
• Play two hours of badminton on a Friday

Not only those above, but I also allow myself a treat every week so I am less tempted by things at other points in the week.

If I can make these changes, anyone can.

Tiredness is your enemy

Well my workout today was pretty rubbish.  I managed through my high intensity cycling and all the way through the weights session, but I only got halfway through my treadmill session before my legs were aching beyond what I would expect and rapidly heading towards the point which brings on injury.  Not a good sign at all.

It made me think back to what I have done differently in the lead up to today.  All of my gym sessions are done after work, same as the previous two weeks, so that wasn’t different.  Having though of everything that I might have done differently, it dawned on me that I have been tired all day because I went to bed an hour later than normal.  Whilst I still got around 7 hours sleep, I am used to getting 8 every night and always feel reasonably refreshed after that much.  What a difference an hour made.

Therefore I can only assume and conclude that the change in sleep pattern left my body sufficiently fatigued that the gym pushed me too close to breaking point with regards to fatigue.  Early night tonight and see how the rest I get tonight lets me perform in the gym tomorrow.

Remember folks, your body does need rest and it will make you regret it if it doesn’t get the rest it needs and you try to push it.

The Gym

So a lot of people will join the gym this month with good intentions of going regularly and helping to lose the pounds they require.  The trouble is that a lot of people will be losing the wrong kind of pounds; sterling not weight.  According to moneysavingexpert.com 20% of us who join the gym will have stopped going by June, and a further 20% by December.  If you are tied in to a 12 month membership contract, then that can add up to a lot of money.  With varying prices throughout the UK, someone who is tied into a 12 month contract and gives up in June can be needlessly wasting between £125 and £546.  So ask your self, do you really want to join a gym, and will you really go?  Be honest now or lose your money.

I managed to find a gym where I can pay on a month by month basis and only have to give 28 days notice of cancellation.  Okay, so the membership is a little higher than I would have liked, but for that I get access to the gym 7 days a week between 7am and 10pm.  It also gives me access to the swimming pool during those times (except Fridays between 10 and 11 because the pool is hired out), free access to the sauna and steam room, and also free access to their exercise classes.

I do, however, wonder if I could have managed to get a discount if I didn’t want to use the pool, or wasn’t interested in the exercise classes.  I would like to do both of those though.

So when you go to choose your gym, firstly set yourself a gym budget.  Once you have that, go and have a look at some.  Ask for a look around to get a feel of the place, see the equipment and have a chat to the staff.  Why would you part with your hard earned cash for a gym with old, run down equipment, somewhere with a dull atmosphere and unhelpful and unfriendly staff?  I wouldn’t.

Other costs to consider when looking round are the cost of lockers (free at my gym), the cost of the gym induction which you will have to go on (free at my gym), the cost of getting a plan drawn up by the trainers there to help you reach your goals (again, free at the gym I use) and any joining (free) or admin (£15) fees you might have to pay for.

Once you have decided on a gym and go join, book your induction.  I would advise to get it as soon as possible so you aren’t putting off doing it all.  I joined the gym yesterday, I have my induction tonight.  This means I can make use of all the facilities straight away and get started on getting fit and losing weight.

If you have friends who already go to the gym, or are looking at joining, take them along with you so you can share views on the place.  Maybe even see if you can get a free day there so you can have a go on the machines and try different things before you decide if you want to join.

As I have mentioned, I have my gym induction tonight, and I therefore plan on starting going tomorrow for a work out.  Something simple like 30 minutes on a bike and some resistance weights for strengthening my core.  I put my gym kit together last night and realised that my trainers are in a bit of a bad way.  Looks like I am off to get some new trainers at the weekend.