Getting Fit

Progress Report: week #4

This week was really disappointing. The cold I had last week is still haunting me, and it’s pretty clear I needed to rest instead of working out. You can see my previous posting about blood pressure monitoring to get the details of why I’ve been off the program for the last week. This week’s stats tell the tale:

weight: 129.4
belly: 132 cm

My only hope is that some of the weight I’m posting is excess water weight from all the fluids I’ve been consuming. As far as goals, it was a total wash out:

Try fasting 1 day (nope)
Eat breakfast 6 days (not even 4 days)
Cook dinner at home 4 evenings (only did 3)
Bike a total of 50 km (total 0 km)
Lose 1 kg (maybe 0.1 kg, but I’m skeptical)

There’s nothing to do about the past, and I can only look forward and try to get back on the horse. To that end, I’m going to set pretty modest goals for next week and hope that I can get back into the swing of things.

Eat breakfast every day
Cook dinner at home 4 evenings
Bike for at least 1.5 hours
At least 2 elliptical sessions
Lose 0.5 kg

Gadget of the Week: Blood Pressure Monitor

Ok, the choice this week probably isn’t a general recommendation, but a reflection of my own situation. I’ve had some kind of cold bug the last 10 days, and each day I wonder if I’m well enough to hop on the elliptical or bicycle trainer. Each day I’ve decided against it; originally just because I didn’t feel up to it. But these last few days I’ve had obvious, hard evidence I need to give my body a chance to rest.

A normal blood pressure should be about 120/80 (120 systolic over 80 diastolic), and with medication my blood pressure has been hovering around there, and even slightly lower since I started getting fit. But these last few days my blood pressure has been up significantly, as high as 158/102. That’s a pretty alarming change, and I can’t necessarily blame that all on the illness. But it’s a really good reason to hold off on working out until it resolves itself or I can get to my doctor’s office. Right now my blood pressure is down to about 130/80, which is marked improvement. If things keep improving, I’ll likely hold off going to the doctor until my scheduled appointment next week.

Would everyone have the same response to a cold/flu/whatever? I don’t know. I also don’t know if the two are even related, but it’s better to be safe and give my body a break than it is to push too hard and end up worse off. I don’t know if everyone should have a blood pressure monitor at home, but if you have: family history, high cholesterol, or are part of a high-risk population, you should probably get one. I belong to all three groups, and frankly I should probably make sure I check mine daily.

I have a simple automatic wrist model (amazon link), it’s actually more accurate than a cuff model I tried out as well. Truthfully, accuracy is probably less important than consistency here. You want to look for changes and if the device you have varies consistently with your doctor’s office it can still be a useful diagnostic tool. What you don’t want is a model that varies wildly for no apparent reason, since you’ll doubt the validity of all the readings.

Progress Report: week #3

I continue to battle a cold, which isn’t doing my fitness routine any favors. I’m itching to get back into the swing of things, and might try working out tonight. In the mean time, here’s the facts:

weight: 129.5 kg
belly: 136 cm

Good grief, I’m going backwards. This is pretty disheartening, but I suppose I’ll have to just stick with this and try to change my life and body bit by bit. As far as the week’s goals:

Eat breakfast 6 days
Cook dinner at home 4 evenings
Bike a total of 50 km (only 43 km)
Lose 1 kg (made it, barely).

I got really close to completing my goals this week. Really, if I had managed to get in 1 more workout I would have made it. Sad to say this week was pretty rough; I felt like I was slipping back into old habits pretty often; I’m not sure how to refocus, but I need to figure it out.

Looking forward I don’t see a lot of reason to change the goals, but I’d like to feel better about the process. I think I’ll add in the fasting again, to see if my weekend doesn’t feel quite as disheartening as last weekend.

Try fasting 1 day
Eat breakfast 6 days
Cook dinner at home 4 evenings
Bike a total of 50 km
Lose 1 kg

Under the Weather

I’ve been fighting off a cold for the last couple of days. I made the decision to take the time off from working out, hoping to speed up my recovery. I think it’s going to show on the weekly progress report in the morning. But that’s why those who have been watching closely have not seen any updates to the workout widgets.

Setback

Yesterday, I had a bad eating day. It was the combination of a delicious but probably awful sunday dinner and the ready availability of lots of leftover Easter sweets. Matters were probably compounded by the fact that it was my day off of exercise.

The results showed on the scale today, with my weight being above the trend line for the first time since I started this attempt. I could spend the day in recrimination and self-loathing, or I could try to put this behind me. Clearly the right thing to do is the latter, but the former seems to compelling. I could fast today, starve myself to make up for the weekend. I could workout like a fiend, attempt to sweat the numbers lower. But really the “trick” is to get back to making sustainable changes that will improve my health. I just need to remember that this isn’t about a single number or even a single aspect of my life, but about a better life overall.

Are You Overtraining?

Overtraining is a hazard of any workout program and could lead to: fatigue, soreness, pain, or even injury. Identifying and properly recovering from overtraining might prevent quitting otherwise fruitful exercise programs and save a New Year’s resolution or two. But, are you overtraining? A heart-rate monitor can be used to answer that question.

One of the signs of overtraining is that your body doesn’t recover from your workout as expected. To spot overtraining, you need to develop two different types of baseline information. First you need you need your average post-exercise recovery rate and your waking heart rate before you get out of bed in the morning.

Determining your heart rate recovery rate is fairly simple. At the end of your workout. note your heart rate; then note it again 2 minutes later. Your recovery rate is the difference between the two numbers. If I finish my workout at 120 BPM, and 2 minutes later my heart is 72 BPM, my recovery rate is:

120-72 = 48

After a few days of noting this number you should have a good idea what your recovery rate is; you could even take the mean of several days worth of data to get an average. That baseline number is an indication of how much you normally recover a fixed time after your workout. If that number is more than 5-6 BPM higher than your average, it’s a sign that you plan a bit more time before your next workout session.

The same basic principle applies to your heart rate immediately after waking up in the morning. Developing a baseline for your waking heart rate is kind of a hassle since you’ll either need to sleep with the heart rate monitor on, use a strapless monitor, or keep the strap handy and put it on without getting out of bed. But the same basic methodology applies as before. You take your waking heart rate several days in a row. Once you have a baseline HR established, any morning you wake with a resting heart rate > 5 BPM higher than your average is a day you should plan on at most light recovery workouts instead of going all-out.

Of course both of these methods use numbers that are subject to change over time. If your fitness improves you might find either or both numbers going down. This is a sign that you need to collect fresh data and develop a new baseline measurement. Similarly, if you get out of the habit of regular exercise for an extended period (more than 1-2 months), you might find your recovery time or waking heart rates have moved up somewhat and new baselines need to be established as well.

Gadget of the Week: MP3 Player

I debated this one quite a bit, but in the end I chose the mp3 player for a couple of reasons.

First, this is a pretty universal choice. Whether you workout indoor or out, whether you run, walk, bike or even swim, an mp3 player can increase your exercise enjoyment. I generally workout to a high energy music mix, but you can choose news podcasts (I like This American Life from NPR), pre-made music mixes, or even coach-designed personal workouts with audio cues for warmup, intervals, etc., and everything in between.

Second, a little extra can sometimes be the difference in a workout. Whether that extra is entertainment, motivation, rhythm, or distraction an MP3 player can enhance many workouts. For me the little bit extra I get is focus. The music helps me shut out distractions and focus on my body and how the workout feels. It helps not let external issues interrupt my time and frankly it sometimes helps me push through the discomfort.

Lastly, many people already have one or at least a portable radio which will serve the same purpose. If you do, but don’t use it to workout, I highly recommend you try it. If I’m exercising alone, you’ll find me with my earbuds in and the music going.

I happen to prefer Apple’s iPod Nano for workouts, there’s a good mix of features and durability for the size and price. But your mileage may vary.

One safety note: if you’re outdoors please do not use an mp3 player in any way that would limit your hearing. You need to be completely aware of your surroundings while on the roads and trails. Loud music or noise-isolating earpieces can prevent you from hearing traffic, approaching vehicles, or even pedestrians. Use common sense and if using an mp3 player outdoors use open-air earpieces and limit the volume of playback.

Finding motivation

Here’s a nice article on finding motivation for those “down” days when you’re not feeling like working out.

Fooling Ourselves into Running: Six Of One Mile, Half A Dozen Miles Of The Other

These tricks can definitely make a difference. Last night my stomach was rebelling and I wasn’t in any mood to get on the bike. I decided to work out later, but keep Kim company while she put in some time (actually her personal best so far) on the elliptical. I found myself putting on my workout clothes and cycling shoes since that’s just what I do when she changes to workout. I ended up putting in 40 minutes on the bike, “just to keep Kim company”. I managed to slide into my workout mode in spite of the protests of my tummy, and it turned out to be a pretty good ride overall.

I wish I could just run on willpower alone and keep my motivation without any sort of external effort or prodding. But it just doesn’t seem to work that way for me. I have to thank those of you who have reached out to encourage and engage me during the start of this process (you know who you are). Without your support and encouragement this wouldn’t be going nearly as well as it has.

Target heart rate: getting the most from a workout

Choosing a target heart rate (or range of heart rates) for your workout sessions will help you get the most from each moment spent exercising. By using a heart rate monitor and matching your target heart rate to your workout goals, you’ll achieve your goals faster, more efficiently, and (hopefully) more easily.

The first step in using this information is knowing your (estimated) maximum heart rate. If you haven’t already, check out my earlier post on the subject. I’ve labelled each range of heart rates with a general goal that’s associated with it and some of the characterizing features of working out in that range. You can use the following guidelines in picking a target heart rate that is in line with your personal goals for working out:

50%-60%: Wellness and Recovery. Extremely beneficial to your heart health and overall well-being. Most energy burned will come from fat burning. This is a good range for: warm-up, weight maintenance, and recovery days. Small if any performance improvements.
60%-70%: Weight-loss. Characterized by the most efficient use of fat, and increased aerobic fitness. Musculature changes will increase fitness and fat-burning potential. Most energy expenditure is from body fat stores.
70%-80%: Increased aerobic fitness. Large-scale improvement in oxygen handling and cardiovascular strength. This is also the range where mental and psychological benefits of exercise are experiences. Calorie consumption becomes primarily from carbohydrates, but for long-term commitment to exercise this zone is critical to developing the body’s ability to consistently and regular workout.
80%-90%: High-performance fitness. Crossing into the range of exertion that are generally not about improved fitness, but increased performance. Muscles can begin to burn as lactic acid builds up due to lack of sufficient oxygen delivery. The body burns calories from multiple sources, including lean-body muscle. This zone is crucial for training for performance based events, but is not necessary for overall fitness or well-being. Overtraining becomes a distinct possibility and reasonable recovery time must be allowed after even moderate amounts (60-90 minutes) of this effort.
90%-100%: Maximal exertion. At or near your max heart rate is generally limited to competitive athletics and even then only for peak performance moments. Muscle groups will generally signal this range with pain, and your heart might feel like it’s going to burst from your chest. This range is doing more damage than good to your health, and your body will generally require more recovery time after workouts that involve too much of this kind of effort.

The ranges of heart rates represent general guidelines for choosing a target for use during workouts, but don’t be afraid the modify or change your target ranges depending on your particular needs and circumstances. Also workouts can, and probably should, span multiple zones. I will commonly work at between 60-80% of my max heart rate, but on “bad” days I start and finish in the 50-60% range. Occasionally when I’m feeling particularly good, I’ll decide to spend a few minutes (in 1-2 minutes intervals) in the 80-90% range to add spice, variety, and a bit more “burn” to those workouts.

Finally, don’t forget to review how your training is going, re-evaluate, and reset your target heart rate as necessary. Part of this process if to get healthier and that means that your fitness goals and target heart rate (and possibly even max. heart rate) will change as time progresses. Take the opportunity to occasionally examine how you feel and the progress you’re making and then set your goals and target heart rate accordingly.

Weight: a moving average

As I mentioned previously, I actually use a program to compute the moving average of my weight, but today I took the time to produce a spreadsheet of the data. The result is that I have a graph to include here:

The key point I want to make about the graph is that on 4 occasions I weighed in higher than the previous day (today included). In each case I didn’t worry, confident in the fact that the trend line (shown in dark red) was moving in the correct direction. But there is another fact hiding in the data as well.

If we look at the last week or so, we see that (according to the trend line), I’ve lost about 2 kg. Since I know that: 1 lb of fat = 3500 kcal, we can do a little math:

2 kg = 4.4 lbs,

4.4 lbs x 3500 kcal = 15,400 kcal,

15,400 kcal / 7 days = 2200 kcal/day.

So we discover that each day, I’m running a deficit of about 2200 calories. That is to say, I’m burning 2200 more calories than I’m eating. That’s pretty outrageous, I should probably scale that back. Maybe have a Big Mac a day (just kidding). But it is good to know that I’m losing, and at what rate I’m losing. I’m not sure why I’m running as high a deficit as this indicates, but I’m guessing it has to do with the fact that it takes a lot of energy to even weigh as much as I do.

I’ll talk more about the changes in diet that are contributing to the losses, or maybe I’ll even convince Kim to write about some of them. Also I need to post a bit about how I’m exercising, but that will probably wait for the next gadget of the week article.