Cheat Week!

Hi all,
This week was definitely a cheat week! It was my sisters birthday on Monday so over celebrated a tiny bit. Then had a night out on the beer with my uncle and a couple of friends on Saturday!

Night Out
This is my diary for Dinner and "Snacks" from Saturday lol!! I went for the healthy option small donner, chicken, no sauce and lots of salad ;) The near 2litres of Guiness and sundries didn't help me stay on target much though!

Dinner
Generic - Doner Kebab - Chicken, 1 Kebab	420	30	20	30	300	10
Add Food  Quick Tools	420	30	20	30	300	10
Snacks
John Smiths Extra Smooth - Bitter, 1 Pint	147	7	0	0	0	0
Beer - Guiness Draft, 1750 ml	875	69	0	2	343	0
Jack Daniel's - 35ml Serving , 70 ml	156	0	0	0	0	0
Jaeger Bomb - 1 Ounce Jaegermeister / 3 Ounce Monster Energy, 4 oz	140	0	0	0	0	0
Add Food  Quick Tools	1,318	76	0	2	343	0
Totals	2,666	173	45	139	2,118	64
Your Daily Goal	2,296	315	76	86	2,500	45
Remaining	-370	142	31	-53	382	-19
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar

It wasn't terrible though as you can see just 370 calories over my goal for the day and I usually come in lower all the rest of the week. I'm looking like another 2000+ calorie deficit by the end of today (Sunday)

Weight
I hit a milestone of sorts yesterday when I weighed myself. I have now hit 22stone 7lbs which is the 1.5 stone goal line. I thought I was starting to slow down mid week as my sneaky unlogged check ins were showing I'd fluctuated each day! So it's always nice to get to the weekend and find that it's all been worth it again!

Exercise
It's been a steady week for me training wise. I only did 4 sessions this week, I think I was getting a little burnt out from 5 a week and just simply needed a rest. I'll continue 4 sessions a week scheduled and see how I get on. I definitely felt a lot stronger and that could well be attributed to the extra rest.

On Tuesday I did a 25 minute HIIT session in the kitchen. Nights are drawing in fast here in the UK and by the time I am ready to exercise in the evening it's pitch black. So back to the exercise mat with kettlebells, medicine balls and body weight moves. My range of movement is so much better than even a month ago and I found I could get to the ground and up again much easier than before.

On Wednesday I popped round my friends place after work and we had a Thai pad session for about an hour and a half! Man that burns some calories and releases the pressure valve! We were both hitting much harder than before and seemed to have more energy for it. We also did some sprint and jog intervals and some shadow boxing drills with the Gym Boss set to 30 seconds, that thing still takes no prisoners!

Saturday and Sunday were running around the field in the mornings, I'm still following my Polar training programme but have spread the training out a lot further now due to the awkwardness of getting a run in after work. As I mentioned before I felt much stronger on these runs, even today's one after the heavy beer session last night!

Here is the Polar summary for the week. That's about an average day's calories burnt off over the 4 sessions :) It appears I am working mainly in the fat burning zone and that's fine 50% of calories burned should be sourced from fat storage in this range. I am programming my body to use fat for energy on purpose by cutting carbs down (about 30-35% of total diet) and working out in this zone a lot more. Walking, weights, etc are slow exercises and so will stay in this lower heart rate zone. I almost want to run my HRM for a day just to see what my body gets up to on a normal load.

Week Summary

	Result	Target
Training Sessions	4 2		#
Duration	02:57 00:44		hh:mm
Calories	1510 0		kcal
Distance	4.6 0.0		km

Weekly Fit/Fat Zones Summary

2

29%

1

71%

00:53:01

02:12:44

OK that's about it from me for this week. I've not had a lot of time for much else what with work at the moment I'm shattered when I get in! I picked up Space Hulk and Borderlands 2 on the PC through Steam though. Both are very fun and I recommend them! Borderlands 2 seems to be so much better than the first game which got very samey very quickly. I really want to play some of the DLC for BL2 also.

Have fun people!

Tone

Less than 100lbs to go!

I broke the 100lb barrier this morning, I currently have 99lbs to reach my goal. Still months to go but this is roughly the 1/8th mark of my weight loss aim. I'm surprised because we had Chinese takeaway last night for my sisters birthday. I had pretty sensible one though, shredded chilli beef and special rice. The place where we got it from seems to steam their rice rather than fry it so even better. It tasted soooooo goooood! My first proper cheat meal in about 2 months!

I also ran my longest consecutive time of 15 minutes today. I have an even longer one in store next weekend! I'm planning to coincide that with a night out and aim to do a shorter one the following day. We'll see but that's the plan right now. Following the Chinese takeaway this will be two dodgy weekends on the trot but I will try to behave myself again and my calorie deficits over the last couple of months should be able to handle it :)

So things are still going in the correct direction, fitness up, weight down. I am working bloody hard for it though.

Went for a nice long bike ride on Wednesday around central Beds again and ended up doing about 13miles (20km) in the end. I remembered to wear tracksuit bottoms this time!

http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/234092004/11453239

This weeks sessions according to PolarPersonalTrainer.com:

Week Summary

	Result	Target
Training Sessions	5 4		#
Duration	03:47 01:32		hh:mm
Calories	2086 0		kcal
Distance	29.6 0.0		km

Weekly Fit/Fat Zones Summary

2

49%

1

51%

01:48:23

01:54:31

It's bank holiday Monday tomorrow and I have another run planned although I'm feeling pretty whacked out now. Hopefully I will sleep ok tonight again, I was out like a light by 9.30pm yesterday! I've been reading a lot more in the evenings and even during the day. I'm currently reading The Hit by David Baldacci. I finished NYPD Red by James Patterson last week, both are highly recommended although I'm only about 50% through The Hit right now.

Right, best of luck to all that are doing some this week, have a great bank holiday if you are in the UK!

Tone

Running

Hey!
So I just logged in and found this draft. Upon opening it I discovered that I'd just written a title and nothing else!

OK so I've been running. A fair bit actually. Some might call it shuffling but I'm apparently allowed to call myself a runner as I'm actively going for a run, so I will. So I'm a runner, or more accurately a trail runner. I love it. Changing from tarmac to grass/woodland has been a step in the right direction for me. So what have I been up to? Read on...

I have a pair of ageing Pegasus 26 running shoes. These are full drop, tarmac shoes. They are pretty light though and are really nice and airy. While the sun shone down on us in England they were great, not too slippy on either woodland or grass. However since the dew has started to settle on the grass I'm getting wet feet and although the coolness is welcome, the wetness isn't.

I've just ordered a pair of Trail Running's Best In Test Asics Gel-Fuji Elite trainers. They are well loud! They are proper trail running shoes and according to the test and a couple of other reviews they will be pretty happy getting to the trail on tarmac without shredding themselves to pieces. Ideal! I should have them in a few days so hopefully I will get away with only one or two more dewy runs around the local field!

I also ordered a pair of proper trail running socks, also by Asics and featured in a trail running magbook I have. At £10 a pair they better be up to scratch! They sound the dogs danglies though, with moisture wicking, cooling and lots of support built into the different materials used. If they are any good I'll get a couple more pairs as my trainer socks (2.99 for 3 pairs) offer none of the above.

I'm using the Nike Running application on my Android phone. I've used the old Nike+ system with my ipod Nano (2nd gen) and also with my iphones (3g and 4s) before so it made sense to start again with this application. I kinda like the non competitive nature of the application, you are more in contest with yourself and set goals to run more often, or further, or longer, etc... It uses gps to generate your route and times your run including splits for fastest times, etc... There is a social aspect to it but I mainly ignore it. It's not perfect but touch wood I've not had it fail to record a run yet.

I am also using my Polar FT7 HRM on my runs and this proves itself invaluable for assessment once again. I can now upload the results data to Polar and analyse it. I am getting fitter each time and it shows in the numbers and the graphs generated. I have also setup a training plan to do 5k by October and it works out a schedule for me. If I had a fancy watch like the Polar RC3 it would download the training to the watch and tick them off for me but I've found a way around this which involves a little manual effort at the PC.

So what's the progress? I started on the 8th August by walking for 5 mins and running for 10, then walking for 5 again. Looking back on my records I managed 1.72km in 28minutes with an effort rating of 51. By the 13th August doing the same training I managed 2.04km in 21:06 with effort rating of 23!
I'm now doing 5min, 14min, 5min and this will be stepping up again at the end of the week. My last recorded run was: 2.5km in 26:00 with effort of 48. So I am now doing more running with the same effort as my earlier paltry (in comparrisson) 1.72km on the 8th August. I have yesterday evening's run to upload and I suspect that I may have gone further and with less effort than Sunday, but I won't find out till at least tonight when I get a chance to upload the results.

I'm so far injury free and actually some problems I had with my right knee and ankle are getting better if anything! I attribute this all the changing from the tarmac to the trail. So if you are a big lad and want to try running to clear your head, challenge yourself, get fitter or just earn some cash for a charity give it a try! Once I am happy my knee and ankle problems are gone and I've shifted a bit more weight I may give the tarmac another chance but it's a lot more fun off road!

Good luck with whatever you decide to do to change your life!
Tone

10lbs and Counting!

Hi all,
Sorry for the lack of posts but I'm back at work having used up all my annual leave. Things are bloody hectic there at the moment as I'm covering 3 other peoples jobs as well as my own while they all go sun themselves.

So I weighed myself earlier in the week and discovered that I can now weigh myself on the home scales! I'd lost 7lbs then and was well chuffed. I had a crap and decided to weigh myself again this morning to find that I'd lost another 3lbs bringing the total to 10lbs! Of course I didn't weigh myself at the start of my training so I have no clue what I started at but 3 weeks ago I was 24 stone and counting! so 10lbs in 3 weeks, maybe a bit excessive as 2lbs is the recommended maximum and I'm more like 3 currently.

So let's talk about that for a minute. I have had some highs and lows and I realise I've a long way to go. I've read a lot about this now and am applying anything that I agree with or at least trying it out. I'm definitely under eating but am not feeling weak or tired, just the opposite in fact. I am however making sure to get nutrients and the correct type of food each day and this is probably the reason why I am losing weight more rapidly and not feeling the ill effects. Here is what I generally have per day:

Breakfast
I take a multivitamin ABC, Holland & Barret.
An Omega 3 softgel from H&B.
CLA softgel.
I have a Diet Whey protein shake from PHD or TheProteinWorks (2 scoops + 350ml skimmed milk)
250ml water bottle of Super Greens (3 scoops) from TheProteinWorks (Pommegranite & Cranberry) for breakfast.

Lunch
Chicken, tuna or Goats Cheese with a chilli salad
CLA softgel
Diet Whey Protein bar / oat&whey crisp, currently looking into the cookies and flapjacks :)

Dinner
Whatever is cooked that evening :) but am learning to portion myself better.

So, you could say I'm on a protein rich diet and that is by design. I've found my body doesn't respond too well to lots of carbs. I get stuffed up, feel uneasy and to be honest I just plain prefer non carb foods!

I always make sure to drink water throughout the day usually going through three or four 750ml bottles.

So what has really stepped up the fitness?

Heart Rate Monitor
My Polar FT7 is one of the better things I've bought since starting this fitness/improved diet regime. I would go as far to say that a heart rate monitor (HRM) is the first thing someone should buy. Cheaper models won't let you upload the data to Polarpersonaltrainer.com and more expensive models will do a lot more than the FT7 does. So for about £100 (with the flowlink interface) the FT7 is a good purchase. I'll probably get a more advanced one later in my training once I care about distance and speed more, for now the smartphone applications and a little manual input is fine.

Running
I tried running a few times in the past, I have a pair of Nike+ Pegasus 26 Bowerman trainers that were new so that shows their age (I think Pegasus 30 is the current model!) However It's always taken it's toll on me and I seemed to get injured or just plain sick or infected when running! yes infection! Not absolutely sure why but abscesses or boils formed (I have some history with these nasty things!) and were a nightmare as you can imagine. It was probably due to being literally "run down" and my immune system wasn't cranked up. That and a pussy right knee and ankle held me back and put me off.

So what's changed? Trail running! This is the way forward for me I feel. I've been doing it all week and actually feel a lot healthier for it for a change. All it means really is running off road, find some grass, a bit of woodland, hills and dales if you've got 'em! I have a nearby field that I do laps of and also a little wood area that I do laps of right near my house. I also have a larger wood called Scratchwoods very close by and have run around that once so far. For the larger person it's much friendlier on the knees but also makes you work harder so good for your fitness. You will definitely feel knackered more quickly but just remember to go at a slow pace and for as long as you can manage. With a HRM you know when you should be easing off or keep going (mines currently when I go over 165bpm) After that I am probably doing myself more harm than good!

I still have a little problem with my right knee but it's usually ok after a bit of mobility work and rest. The ankle is still giving me gyp each run towards the end but I think this has a lot to do with technique and I can run through it once I correct my foot placement. It's a learning curve and not the hindrance that it was.

I'm keeping track of my progress with the Nike+ application for Android and Polarpersonaltrainer.com. I have to input the pace and distance info manually into the Polar site but once that's done I can see my progress. I'm already seeing an improvement in effort over just this week. I started at 200 calories burned per session and am down to 190 calories per session. Meaning I'm not using less effort to do the same work so I'm getting fitter :)

Diet
I talked about this earlier but it's worth mentioning that I use MyFitnessPal to track my calories and now I can use it for exercise and I use my HRM data for that. I am always under my goal calories of about 2300 and usually a fair bit, say between 500-800 under which is why I've been shifting about 3lbs a week.

I eat a lot healthier than I used to. Plus I try to include metabolism boosters. These include caffeine, fresh coffee every now and then I'm more addicted to water these days! Chilli, the capsicum in it literally fires up your engine. Green tea and extracts, these are in my diet protein products and I also have a CLA tablet with the extract, and of course the odd cup of green tea! Super Greens, one of these is a concentrated hit of green veg (5 a day in one hit) so that builds up the immune system and assists digestion, etc... all round good stuff. There are probably other things too but the multivitamin takes care of other essentials.

Judging by MyFitnessPal I generally have twice as much protein as recommended, always over on vitamins, low on carbohydrate intake and recommended fat intake, sometimes over but I always try to have good fats which the body needs.

So I think that's enough from my for today, I'm well chuffed with myself and having a well deserved rest for a couple of days then back to it! Good luck to anyone reading this in a similar situation, please leave a comment if you want to get in touch.

Running

Hi all

I just completed my first proper running session. It didn't go without mishap but thankfully they were all technology related!

Let talk about them first.

I tried out my HRM today thinking I knew it all :) I didn't at least I think I now know why to do next time. You see on the FT7 you can lock in the watch to a zone you want to stay in. I want to sty in the fat burning zone so when the watch told me I was in it (about 125bpm) I locked it in. However it seems that when you lock the zone it takes the current heart rate as a sort of max for the zone (I think) therefore when I next looked my heart rate I was in the fitness zone as my heart rate was around 145bpm. I just left it and carried on but it did interrupt my run a little. Also I restarted the timer at the start of my run after the warmup. I now realise I should have just left the timer going.

Ok the other thing I tried out was Endmondo. This is an app for tracking exercise. I have used Strava and Mapmyride in the past so wanted to give this a go. Strava is, in my opinion for those that can already run and want to challenge others or test themselves. It's like a virtual race if you like with no set start time or route. Endmondo seems to do a lot but I will definitely be having a closer inspection later. There wasn't really an issue with Endmondo, just that maybe I need to start it at the beginning of my run rather than include the warmup/down too.

Ok now the good part!

So I woke up incredibly at 7am. I had a crap time getting off to sleep last night having dozed off for an hour during the day. It was well past 2am anyway. So blurry eyed I decided to just go out! I donned my short and shirt from yesterday and then remembered the HRM! Shoes on, fresh bottle of water, keys, phone, out the door!

I made sure I got myself warmed up properly and walked to the field and around it for 10 mins I was already in the fat burning zone so that was good. I then did things wrong with technology as described above, basically getting things around the wrong way.

Ok so I just kept going! Like the frickin' Energiser Bunny! Well for me anyway at my geriatric pace, which funnily enough is about the pace of said bunny. However before I knew it I had done 10 minutes (my secret target for the future) already! Endmondo announced to I'd just done a mile in 19 minutes which would have included the warmup walk of 10 mins. Now you can see why I should do the technology in a different order. I carried on for a walk to war down again and it's nice to see the old ticker (heart) slow down. I walked around the field for a bit and then home bringing me to a nice odd 30 minutes exercise for the day. The HRM told me I'd reached 150bpm max and burnt 230 calories, well 229 but I ain't going split hairs!

So in conclusion I'm feeling pretty bloody happy with myself! Next time I will be more organised with the technology and give science another thumbs up!

Melt Fat With Science!

Hi all

Today I started applying more science to my workouts. I received my Polar FT7 heart rate monitor! This is a nice bit of kit and I got a good deal off eBay. It gives a few read outs to choose from with a clever one that tells me if I am in the fat burning or fitness zone. You can even lock this zone in and the watch will beep if you go out of it. The watch is available in a few different colours. This is the one I went for, looks pretty cool all black with the red racing stripe :) there is also an all red version but I thought that was a little too flash!

So with this I can now apply science and customise my workouts to either burn fat or improves my fitness. I'm currently thinking of ways to change my workouts to enter these zones. Looking back on this mornings numbers I find that FT4 is approx 1/3 fat burn and 2/3 fitness. So I think the thing to do is try my other workouts and see what the ratios are for them. I just tried running n the spot for a bit and that definitely kept me in the fat burning zone. I plan on having another little run around the field tomorrow so will see if actual running is in the same zone. This will be interesting to me as I definitely feel more worn out when proper running!

Oh yeah the watch keeps some workout data in its memory (99 files max) neat eh? If required you can buy a USB device called Flowlink that will enable you to transfer the data up to Polars website for prosperity. I think I'll give it a good go this month and come next pay day ill pick one up and upload all my data.

The screen is pretty dark, there is a light on it but it goes off quickly and still isn't bright. I think this is because of batter life. I hear these things burn batteries so I'd better stock up on a few. This is a big reason for me going straight for the more expensive FT7. I read that the cheaper models have sealed batteries or cannot be changed by the user easily. The FT7 is the start of models that he batteries can easily be changed in both the watch and the strap transmitter.

Another point there, it should be obvious but these heart rate monitors do require you to wear a strap tight around your chest. I had some problems that were frustrating with mine at first but basically tightening the strap is the cure! If you think it's tight but you are not getting a heart rate reading then tighten up a bit until you do. Also it's worth noting that it takes a few seconds to get the signal synced up with the watch.  I just tried it again and it picked up straight away so for now I guess the strap is set correctly.

Anyway, I'm pretty excited to include this into my weight loss plan. I. Think it will benefit me no end once I get into different activities. I can ten find out what to do more/less of to cater for what I want out of the workout.

Any comments or concerns let me know in the comments...

Back in the Saddle

Hi all,

I went up to Stondon for a bike ride with a couple of mates yesterday. It was pretty cool, fairly flat and the guys didn't leave me for dust or try to at least!

We popped over to an area called Baulk Hill I think on the other side of Henlow. Then back the way we came and up a decent hill to the old water tower that can be seen on the landscape of this town.

My bike held up with me on it for 10 miles and some change so I am happy that this bike was a brilliant investment all those years ago :) My friends were on Carbon up to date mountain bikes with disc brakes and long travel suspension. My little Claud Butler with it's aluminium frame and V-Brakes does the job for me, for now.

Baulk Hill is an open area with a little wooded nature trail and a larger open grass lane where the wild flowers have been cut away. Typically it was some sort of families day over there yesterday but the rain had possibly kept lots away as there were only a few pockets of tiny humans to contend with!

The journey from Lower Stondon to Henlow is very flat but also quite busy. The rain didn't help either making the roads, paths and trails pretty slippery. Otherwise, it is a nice relaxed 3 or so miles from town to town.

On the return loop we went past our starting point and continued past a fancy golf club and then did a right turn which took us past a nursery (plants) where we saw an Eagle Owl and had a breather. Continuing up the hill brought us to the old water tower that is now pretty much just used as a place to bolt mobile phone antennas to. The scenery up there is amazing though, it reminded me a lot of Somerset.

I recorded the whole trip using Strava on my mobile phone so hopefully it will show up on my activity feed. I say hopefully as there seemed to be an issue with the upload servers but it seems to have taken it in the end. This is the link anyway if you are interested

http://app.strava.com/activities/71157540?ref=1MT1yaWRlX3NoYXJlOzI9dHdpdHRlcjs0PTkyNzY1Mw%253D%253D

I've still got the bike in the car as if I put it back in the garage I know I won't get it out again in a hurry. Hopefully I'll take the opportunity to get back out on it before I go back to work.