Oh bother...

Sparks

Three months, not four. Over four, 20lb.
And yes, I could. And did before. Lost nearly 30lb in less than six weeks, doing the Atkins diet. And then rebounded way past my previously stable weight, gaining as much over that as I had lost and getting me to where I started from for this attempt. So, no thanks, don't feel like crash-dieting again given that lesson.

And you're ignoring the improvements in cardiovascular fitness as well, btw. Four months ago, I couldn't manage ten minutes on the elliptical trainer before my heartrate hit the 170-180 range and I was spiking into the 180s for several weeks. Today, it takes 35 minutes to get up to the 160s and I'll be trundling along in the 140-150 range for most of that time. That's not much compared to a marathon runner, but it's still a marked improvement.

grimloch

Sparks wrote: »

Fair enough, maybe I'm looking at the wrong graph because that looks like 10lbs in 4 months to me.

Anyway seems like you're pretty pleased with your progress. Keep it up.:)

Sparks

No, that's Jan (less 12 days), Feb and March (plus 7 days), so just the three (it's UK date format, not US, that's probably the source of the confusion)

I'm not fainting with pleasure at the progress, but I'm not worried about it either, it seems reasonably consistent and sustainable to me - I remember the atkins diet and not being able to walk to the back of tesco while shopping because of the smell of the fresh baked bread; this is nowhere near as difficult to maintain; I'm also monitoring my blood sugar levels, blood pressure, and resting heartrate as well as the weight, just to be sure that this isn't doing anything weird and everything is just consistently improving from where I was, which was borderline diabetic (and a family history of diabetes), elevated blood pressure levels (and a family history of that too) and definitely obese (and, you guessed it, a family history of that as well). That's all gotten better - normal blood sugar, lower than normal blood pressure, and okay still obese, but getting better.
Not to mention that the shooting has markedly improved at the fundamental level (the last match was a disaster but that was mental, not physical).

And I don't mind honest criticism either btw, I prefer honest evaluations to pep talks

Sparks

2011-04-14 263
2011-04-13 263
2011-04-12 263.2
2011-04-11 262.8
2011-04-10 262.8
2011-04-09 261

263.0lb and back the the gym for the first time in two weeks. Learnt that I’m not as weak as I think, the machine actually was broken

Didn't figure this out though until at six minutes in at what was meant to be my usual routine, my heartrate was gone past 180 and I had to stop. Took a few seconds, thought about giving up and heading off to work early and then thought "might as well try the other machine, I can't have degraded that much in two weeks". And of course that one's set at the normal resistance level. Seems the first one said level 8 but was actually set to about level 20. The bastard. Finished out the 35 minutes, heartrate was all over the shop but was about 175ish at the end, which isn't horrible for me, and a good sweat worked up.

Sparks

264lb. An odd uptick, but probably just noise in the signal. Gym again today, this time with a working machine. Excellent. Further and higher than ever before too

The flexibility, on the other hand has taken a blow – I’ve managed to tweak a hamstring at some point, probably during the Nationals on the weekend when I tweaked my back. So stretching the right leg is grand, but the left leg is just ever so precious about extensions.

Oh, and top tip – if you’re going to put deep heat on a sore hamstring, wear briefs, not boxers. Don’t ask for details, just trust me on this one.

Sparks

2011-04-16 263.8
2011-04-17 263.2
2011-04-18 263.8
2011-04-19 264.2

262lb and back to the gym and while the time's the same, upped the resistance for the last five minutes.

Still went further than ever before. Tomorrow, the resistance goes up a notch for the whole 35 minutes to see if I can take it - if I can, it gets moved up a notch permanently.

Left hamstring is still giving me grief though. Right leg is fine, can easily hold my foot in a basic leg stretch, but I can barely tip my toes on the left hand side:



And that's after resting the hamstring for a few days over the weekend and Monday and Tuesday. It's really starting to bug me now.

Sparks

261.8lb Cranked up the resistance a notch on the elliptical this morning, then another notch for the last seven or eight minutes. Further and faster than before again.

It's not a bad feeling this, I have to admit - about five minutes in, bodyrockers playing away in the headphones, heartrate not yet up to the 160s (155-170 seems to be where my heartrate goes when doing aerobic exercise for some reason), I was feeling pretty good actually.

In fact, between progress in the gym and progress on the range, it's starting to feel a bit like the first time I did a high ukemi from kotegaeshi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78hpnlI3fA4

The first time you do that you're thinking "Can'tDoThisCan'tDoThisOhCrapGonnaGetHurt---hooooooollllllyyyyyycrrraaaaappppp--THUD--HeyI'mStillAliveAndThatWasFunCanIDoItAgain?"

Same story with the gymwork and the training - lots of ICantDoThis leading up to discovering that you actually can and it doesn't feel horrible, and then actually enjoying it.

Plus, the graphs look nice

Heartrate report, this week


Heartrate report, this quarter


So obviously next week I have to hike the resistance on the elliptical up another notch and then go through the "Next Morning" phase of all that, which goes something along the lines of "OwowowowowowowwhatthehellwasIthinkingowowowowow..."

Sparks

260.0lb Back to the gym for the first time in 3 weeks (hamstring is finally happy again). Not as far as the last time, but burnt more calories. Haven’t started on the weight training yet though – today’s average heartrate was 172 and it ran up to 184 at the end. Weights on tuesday I think (monday’s an early start at work – ah, the glorious life of the sysadmin…).

Sparks

Back at the gym again. No, the hamstring was not happy the last day - it was fine for two days in the gym and then declared that it had had enough of that nonsense and I wasn't to do it again. A few days rest and it seems ready to try again. It's seriously annoying, this, I dislike looking like a whiny sod who won't train, but if you can't even pick stuff up off the floor without feeling like someone stabbed you in the groin with an icepick, I figure you have to back off a little.

Today at least some of the stretches were doable. The elliptical was a mental test though – not going in regularly is letting my cardio fall off again, and getting past the little voice saying that 30 minutes is just as good as 35 is getting hard. Just have to start going back more regularly, that’s all. Still managed the 35min at level 10 on the machine (even if the heartrate hit 184 in the last few minutes). And started on the swiss ball back exercises again. Have to start working those back into the gym routine, and I’m told by literally everyone that I need to add weights as well, though how I’m to find the time is usually not mentioned (seriously folks, I think IBM will notice if I never get into work before 1300h…).

Weight's at 258.6. Been bouncing up and down a bit, the last few days. Still, overall trend is downwards.

Thing is, there’s a plan here. The new shooting jacket has to be broken in before late November, which means latest delivery is the end of October. I had thought that the time from measurement and ordering to delivery would be like Kurt Thune’s three months, but I’m told that three to four weeks is possible, so if I leave six to seven weeks, that means that measurement and ordering has to happen in late August/early September (don't forget, these things are made to measure and are not very adustable after the fact, and cost too much to buy more than one a year). The original goal was 220lb. I don’t think I’ll make it there in that timeframe at this current rate of weight loss, and past experience has said that something crazy like Atkins would get me there easily,but the rebound weight gain would take me right past where I started.

So basicly, it’s keep going until the start of August (with more gym time than I've had since the hamstring fun) and reevaluate then.

Sparks

260.2lb WTF? Down, darn it, downwards! Gym again this morning. Easier than before. And more back exercises added to teh routine. On we go…



So a ways to go to get back to reasonable cardio health again. Still, keeping it at 35min on level 10, so that’s good. The back exercises though… I mean, I know that the swiss ball is the most effective way to do them, but…



…does it really have to be so dodgy-looking?