A long time ago...
In fat farm gym far, far away,
Ok not so far away and conveniently located near work,
I used to work out.
Then back towards the middle of August I reached one of my major strength goals and was supposed to start focusing on cardio to prep for hunting season. Thank goodness that I didn't draw a sheep tag this year, as I'm sure the prepping would have killed me before the hunt.
I really hate cardio. All kinds. Casual walking, HIT, machines at the gym, you name it, I'd rather not do it. Because doing an activity with no purpose beyond burning off fat that I worked hard shoveling unnecessary and unhealthy calories into my pie hole, just isn't fun. It's needed. It just isn't fun, or a priority.
So I let a couple of short term excuses break my gym habit for most of August. On Sept 27 I made it back to the gym and had only gained a couple of pounds back. Good for me. Then it was hunting season. Then I was so out of the habit of going I didn't manage to make it back into the gym until tonight.
While I'm talking about hunting season; I walked my tail off. That should have helped drop some pounds. At very least I should have lost the 2 lbs I gained over September, but Noooooo. I gained back 12 lbs and lost tons of strength and endurance.
The new goal is to lose that 12 lbs by the first of the year and then drop another 25 lbs by mid March. That works out to 37 lbs in 21 weeks or just under 2 lbs per week. I really love the eating holidays and I hate cardio. Did I mention how much I hate cardio?
For the record I still technically have a 405 lb squat, but it was only 1 set of 5 reps and it was hard even with a good ladder warm up. There is no way I could have gotten 25 reps in sets of 5 tonight, even if my life depended on it.
I have used a calorie counting app. I lost ten pounds with it and then I went back to Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew couldn't live without me I guess. I figure I need to lose about the same amount of weight as you do. 2 lbs per week is very aggressive. The holidays are coming, man. For me, just cutting the pop and candy bars made most of the difference. I also went to the grocery store and bought stuff to make sandwiches instead of eating fast food. I think I'll climb back on the wagon too.
ReplyDeleteDiet Coke was my drug of choice. I got off that but sometimes I fall off the wagon for a bottle or two. I've been drinking unsweet tea and that helps.
ReplyDeleteFor me exercise and sort of watching the diet was losing me about a pound a week. To make two pounds a week I'm going to have to really focus on the diet and stick with a 6 day a week workout, including cardio.
You must eat like a pig. I can't figure out how you can build the muscle required to do a 405 lb squat and still be fat. I can't remember what my max squat was in college, but I'm sure 405 would be towards the top of my range if I ever got there. I weight less then than my goal weight now and I couldn't put on weight back then to save may butt. You're not doing too bad for an old man at 405.
ReplyDeleteAnd in theory, Diet Coke shouldn't hurt you. They say it makes you crave sweets, so it could hurt you indirectly? I definitely have strong sugar cravings. I'm glad I never smoked, because I can't kick a simple sugar craving.
Best of luck. I'll post my results and maybe we can motivate each other.
What seems to happen for me is that junk food and diet soda increases hunger which tends to lead me to eating more junk food. The sugar/carb craving is probably what's doing me in more than anything else.
ReplyDeleteI have always had strong legs. At 17 I was able to leg press the entire stack on the leg machine, I think that was around 940 lbs. I weighed around 165 at the time. I've never had that kind of upper body strength.
That 405 sounds decent for a guy in his mid 40's but my deadlifts are only 315. That's about 25% less than the squats and the two should be closer together, I don't have the upper body/grip and back strength to go beyond that.
I don't track calories, which I probably should, but I guesstimate that I averaged around 2,700 per day this last month. If the calculation programs I've used are correct the weight lifting alone burns over 700 calories per day and I didn't do any for over 2 months. So 700 x 60 /4500 comes out to about 9.3 lbs in expected weight gain. It's nobodies fault but mine.
On the flip side there are 137 days on my time line to re lose what I gained and get back on track. Originally I was working with a 2 year time frame to get my weight and health back where I wanted it. So 700 * 137 = 21 lbs from exercise which means I need to cut about 400 additional calories per day form my diet. Theoretically its possible without too much difficulty, but I still need to keep the energy up to exercise.
Res,
ReplyDeleteHave you done any CrossFit? Wondering what you thought of the program.
(Just watched an impressive documentary on Rich Froning. The guy's an animal. Impressive, to say the least.)
No, I've heard about it but I've never done it. My work/family/gym schedule is screwy. I work nights 6 days a week. My best time to get to the gym is after midnight. Normally I have the place to my self. The gym has several great fitness programs but I'm never able to make to any of them. They will even throw in some personal trainer time if you want it but those guys are gone before I get there most of the time.
ReplyDelete"No, I've heard about it but I've never done it."
ReplyDeleteYou might check into it. I liked it when I was doing it. I think they post the workout of the day online every day. Hearing you describe your strengths, likes and dislikes etc., made me think it might be something that is right up your alley.
The documentary motivated and inspired me to get back into it. We have a local gym here open 24 hours, so I could make it work. I just have to make it work. :)
I hear Krav Maga works good and it counts towards Torah study.
ReplyDelete