23 Jan

Just a tweak or two,…

Posted by Captdhd in 52 DC Challenge, Mostly Exercise.

What I do in the gym is never going to be misconstrued as overly difficult.

There are guys (and gals for that matter) at my gym doing some pretty impressive things.  That’s not me however. I’m the low and slow guy on the corner matt doing alternating sets of sit-ups and core stabilizers with a 25 pound plate.

Today I added a twist to a couple of my regulars.

During my 3rd set of 20 weighted sit-ups (I hold a 25lb plate about an inch off my forehead) I drop back to about the 70 degree position or so, hold for a second then do an overhead (or more so) a chest press with the plate, then back to the top and with no hesitation go into the next rep. It just adds that one more degree of stress I do like.

Today I did the last set of 20 this way then added an additional 12 for a total of 72, 32 with the press. I may need to stick to sets of 12 or 15 instead of 20 because the heart rate runs into the mid 140’s. I need to stay under 140.

I like BOSU push-ups, I like decline push-ups, so today I combined them.

3 sets of 20 alternated with wide stance prisoner squats.

Again, I’ll have to watch the heart rate until I get more use to them. One more time, it adds that extra little stress to the move. I feel in my shoulders tonight.

The routines and the perimeters I’m working inside seem to be doing the job.  I do like to mix em up.

15 Jan

The smaller plate & K.I.S.S.,…..

Posted by Captdhd in 52 DC Challenge.

So far so good, it seems like almost too simple eh? It never is though!

Two things I have been working on during this 52 DC, eating less, (though eating more often) and keeping the exercise routine to 5 days out of seven. Again I say “So far so good”, it’s taken a few weeks for it to become more like habit.

Here are my results 11 days in;

Clean Eats:  19 of a possible 22

Resistance training; 4 of a goal of 15

Cardio training; 4 of a goal of 15

Days at the gym; 7 of a goal of 26.

The smaller plate is as psychological as its reduced physical girth aids. I tend to load the 9 ¼ “ just like I do proportionately to the 10 ½ inch, ¼ protein, ¼ starch, ½ vegetable, visually you feel like you have a full plate. I’m careful about what I choose for starches, not much of anything white. I would do the same with the 10 ½.

I’m not sure what the calorie count difference is because I’m not tracking calories though I have to think it’s proportionately smaller. The scale has never much been my friend though it’s ever so slowly edging in the right direction.

Simple is how I have been trying to keep this 52 Day Challenge. You can make yourself absolutely crazy by making too many radical changes all at one time only in the end to fail at all.

K.I.S.S.

10 Jan

Almost about nothing,….

Posted by Captdhd in Idle Chatter.

Hey Wake Up!

I’m feeling good! The picture has nothing to do with my post tonight, I just like the picture.

I’m sitting here in the living room kicked back, watching the Biggest Loser, has nothing to do with my exercise or diet, just like the show.  It’s right at three years that mother and I became hooked on the presentations, just about the same stretch that I’ve taken my exercise seriously, go figure.

Not sure if you watch the show but the Red team just bet that they could lose 94 pounds combined between the 9 of them, for the regular watchers, that’s just plain crazy for week 2! Average 10 pounds or so a piece! Man! Now talk about a challenge! I wish em luck.

I could use to drop 20 pounds, something tells me, even as disciplined as I can be, I’d need more of a motivator than a couple penguins spanking cymbals over my head to get it done!

I wish they would bring back Jillian, I have no doubt that she could whip me in a fair fight!

“I lift Things Up and Put them Dowwwwwnnnn,…!” The commercial is a riot!

8 Jan

Pickin up a few old moves,…

Posted by Captdhd in 52 DC Challenge, Mostly Exercise. Tagged: .

It's Not Me!

It’s a perfect form BOSU plank. It’s the only picture on Google that I could find that showed someone doing one.

I Like Em! Do enough reps and hold them for a long enough time and they work to beat the fat out of your midsection. I’m a believer.

 

 

Again, Not Me!

 

This 52DC has had me looking back to a few of my older routines and I’ve been pulling a handful of exercises that I use to perform though for some reason or another left out of newer circuits. Tomorrow’s resistance circuit includes Weighted Bulgarian Split Squats, I’ll be a little gimpy for a day or so but they will end up doing me good

3 Jan

Eating plan and the plate,….

Posted by Captdhd in 52 DC Challenge, Food.

I have restructured my exercise for the winter 52 DC to a level I can live with, literally. Now it’s time to stick the diet. Nothing like waiting until the last moment eh!

My cardiologist and I have had a bit of a disagreement in how I should eat. I know that eating a rigid low carb higher fat diet like the TNT Plan A, similar to an Atkins Plan works in helping me to hit my BP and glucose targets. I know it, I know it, I just have a wicked hard time following it to the letter.

The diet that my cardiologist most recommends, The DASH Diet, reads like this for my situation.

Folks with Type 2 Diabetes should avoid high carb, low-fat diets. Instead choose low carb, moderate protein, and moderate fats. We are getting closer in theory.

I know TNT A works though it excludes a few foods that I just enjoy too much to give up near completely. Hense my ability to be successful. As far as I see it, The DASH diet is the next best choice.  It’s a plan that appeases my Doc as well as allowing for a few foods I really enjoy.

I’ll continue to eat very low carb, It’s what I do and it’s the best thing I can do to help keep my glucose numbers in check.  What carbs I do consume will be of the complex variety and come from vegetables, fruit, strongly suggested oatmeal, and a limited amount of whole wheat breads.

I have been following the plan for a few weeks now and my glucose and BP numbers are responding accordingly.

As a kicker, to help with the amount I eat, especially at night, yesterday I bought a set of 9 1/4″ plates to replace our standard 10 ½’s we have used forever and fill almost every night. Even if I fill the smaller plate my portions should be proportionately smaller.

The smaller plate won’t do any good if I fill it more than once.

Let the Winter 52DC Begin! I’m in a good position to actually succeed this time around.

1 Jan

2011 in review

Posted by Captdhd in Idle Chatter.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,300 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 22 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

1 Jan

Tackling the diet,…

Posted by Captdhd in 52 DC Challenge, Food. Tagged: , .

Like trying to tackle a wild cat to me and then to hold it down!

As for the 52DC’s and real life here is where I kick my own arse time and time again. I know what I need to do though doing it consistently is a constant on the mind task. Seems also that the more I focus on rounding out a diet to maintain my weight inevitably I gain, frustrating as hell!

This break from work has given me a chance to read up on a couple of concept diets and evaluate not just their abilities to have me meet my targets but at the same time be a method that I can actually stick to so that it does work.

You hear so many times where someone will say, “hey, this diet or that diet does not work,…blaa, blaa, blaa,… what I hear is that “I didn’t dedicate 100% to it therefore I failed at it”.

I wish I could somehow mix the two concepts I am evaluating though I suspect that if I were to I will continue to post weight and personal vital numbers that are out of range further than they should be.

I will dial something in by Wednesday and go with it for the 52 days.

A wise friend of mine posts; ”The best diet is one you can stick to”. …….

30 Dec

Dialing in my 52DC workouts,…

Posted by Captdhd in 52 DC Challenge, Mostly Exercise. Tagged: , .

January 3rd, it’s back to work.

January 4th, it’s Men’s Health 52 Day Challenge Time (52DC). I’m near dialed in and ready.

(Check this link for what the Men’s health 52 DC is; http://forums.menshealth.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4551080985/m/9551009947  You might just choose to join, you are very welcome to. )

 

I really like these exercise and diet based challenges. They are personal in nature though there is a great camaraderie that develops on the forum as the challenge progresses. The Folks are super supportive. Take a look, the challenges are a lot of fun and the added bit of accountability is a great motivator.

 

Lately I have been working to dial my exercise circuits in for this challenge.

I have been experimenting with my cardio and with three different resistance routines. When leaving the gym I feel like I’ve been challenged by each. I recover well and by allowing a day between lifting I feel as though I can sustain what I am doing now for the duration.

First things first, I need to limit my workouts to 1 hour or less. No more 90-120 minutes. My body will talk to me in the case an hour is too much on days. Even if I’m feeling real good, an hour’s an hour. I have pushed too hard in a couple challenges and it didn’t work out well.  

When performing Cardio I will walk, jog, workout on an elliptical, treadmill, what have you, so long as I keep my heart rate around 115 while performing steady rate cardio or range between 100 to 130bpm while doing interval.

For resistance training I will be respecting my doctor’s order to limit myself to 50 pounds. 50 pounds might not seem like a lot of weight and it’s not by most regard though I invite you to workout with me some day, any day, I will show you how you can make 50 pounds hurt.

An Ideal workout will be 400 – 500 weighted reps, peak per set of 140bpm heart rate, rest to 100bpm before starting the next set. Each of the three circuits I have written up consume about an hour.  

I have three total body circuits written out that I will be rotating. My plan is to lift on Monday-Wednesday-Friday, Cardio on Tuesday & Thursday. I’m going to leave the weekends open initially. 

I’ll post the circuits in future blogs with the spec’s.

Now, I have to go to work dialing in a diet that I can actually stick to!

28 Dec

A fresh new year ahead,….

Posted by Captdhd in Health, Mostly Exercise.

I should be the last old fat guy in the world to be doling out exercise advice but I’m going too anyway!

This tends to be that time of year where the gyms get overrun with new memberships though by the first of February the enthusiasm seems to have eked out of the air and things get back to the dull roar of normal. That is just too bad!

For you, if you are inclined to make exercising a resolution this year I hope you make it over the start up chasm and make it a regular practice in your schedule. Your entire life will certainly benefit from it in so many ways.

Three years ago I was a virtual new-bee wandering into the gym for the first time in near 30 years. At the time 6 months post-surgery it was easy for me to start out slow and by doing so it made the lifestyle change to a reasonably regular exercise schedule adaptable.

If there is any one piece of advice I could offer it would be that you do just that. Start out slow, work up to a level that challenges you and allows you to meet your goals. You should be a bit sore but you shouldn’t be laboring to walk 2 days later. If you go in the gym and come away hurting yourself you are near 100% likely to fail. Your health is too important to not be doing something.

I have journaled my exercise and its effect on my general health, blood pressure, glucose numbers, weight, etc. since the start.  (maybe a second piece of advice there)  For the past couple of months I have added an extra observation to my workout notes. I have been adding a caption on how my previous routine has affected me physically, how do I feel right after, and also a day after. I’ve really been in search of my boundaries.  If I had any real brains I would have documented this aspect from the start as well.

Knowing what you can do is good, knowing what not to do is equally important.  More is not always better,  in fact sometimes “too much” especially “too quick”, can produce some pretty unhealthy results and breed some serious failure.

It’s a fresh new year with a new outlook, elect to do the gym, low and slow for starters, you will set yourself up for success. Your blood pressure and waistline will love you for it too!

25 Dec

Time for a little goal sett’n,…..

Posted by Captdhd in 52 DC Challenge, Health. Tagged: .

One of the things the 52DC’s have engrained in to my daily life is to set goals, put a plan together to be successful and with true effort make it happen. Prior to I had always been completion driven though not to the calculating degree I am today.

Last year was so much easier in this department. By early November I had a concrete list of Items I wanted to accomplish by this time. Most of my goals were business related and for the most part, we not only accomplished each one, we slam dunked a couple. I have an exceptional staff.  

Career wise, 2011, I/we have had a monster year. It’s going to be tough to follow.  2012 will be better, I have a plan. In the next week or so I’ll touch on a couple very specific points just so they are on written record here though my business plans are not what this blog is about.  

On the flip side 2011 was the worst in the last three anyway health and exercise wise. I let down on all of the 52 day challenges. My diet was not as good as it should be. My sleep habits are not where they need to be. For me to have a truly successful 2012 I need to get each of these areas in line.   

This next week I have the store closed and along with a bit of business planning I will need to put a serious plan in place to address my health and exercise shortcomings. If I don’t, I’m going to die much sooner than I should. I know this.

The next challenge starts on the 4th. Biggest loser starts on the 3rd, (I always draw positive stuff from that show) These are two very big positives though “the best plan in the world isn’t worth the paper it’s written on if you don’t carry it out Capt’n”,……. Just say’n  

First things first, I need to reestablish that balance between family, business and  health.

Go!

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