Marc’s Musings Reality from Marc’s point of view!

Back in January of 2007 I posted about a healthier lifestyle that I’d adopted.

In my visit up to Toronto this past July I found I was becoming pretty overwhelmed with being so full all the time. A part of many visits with friends naturally ends up enjoying a meal together. Light foods or not, I was finding myself perpetually and uncomfortably “topped up”.

So when I came back I determined that I would make some additional changes. To that end I stopped eating all sugary snacks, all chocolate and sodas. Otherwise it was business as usual. The same meals, the same restaurant visits with friends but just having water with lemon instead of a coke. Also, when I feel even vaguely full or approaching full, I just stop eating my meal. 

The difference has been dramatic. After the first few days I had lost that constant “full” feeling. Then it migrated to that wonderful “ready to go” feeling when I’d wake up. It’s hard to describe but it’s that satisfying feeling you get when you’ve spent your day doing productive work and taken care of yourself on top of that. Like I said, it’s hard to describe.

Anyway after several days I began to lose weight. I like to weigh myself at the same time each day so that circumstances are as similar as possible, so I do so right before getting dressed in the morning.

The weight loss has been fairly consistent about 1 1/2 pounds a week. When I saw that I was starting to lose weight faster than that, I adjusted my diet and just ate a little more.

I do not and I have not had cravings for the sweets although I will admit to craving salt more than usual. And those of you who know me know that *that’s* something…

Here I am 3 months later. When I began losing weight too fast and modified my eating to compensate it resulted in my plateauing a couple of weeks ago but I have since started losing weight again. As of today I’m about 15 pounds down from where I began. I’m anticipating another 9 pounds will put me where I think I should be. So in another 6 or so weeks I’ll be reevaluating whether to move into maintenance mode yet.

My ideal “weight” isn’t predicated so much on the weight but on how I feel overall. Weight vs height can be pretty misleading as it doesn’t take into account your muscle mass if you’re anything but a pasty corporate drone who doesn’t exercise at all. So I take the “ideal weights” with a huge grain of salt (mmm… salt…). But it is the most convenient objective size measure available to me so I have chosen this as my indicator.

Of interest was the fact that, as I lost weight, I noticed changes in my gait both when when walking and running. Even more unexpected was that the amount of “material” on the base of my feet decreased leading to greater impact when running and necessitating a change in my technique to smooth things out.
At first I had thought that my sneakers had suddenly worn out, but I noticed a similar change with all my shoes. It was simply more pronounced when I ran.

Maintenance mode will require some thinking. I really *love* coca cola. I’m thinking of how to relegate it to where it belongs in a meal, as a dessert, and how to do this conveniently when eating out. The quantities provided are so huge that I’ll be forced to leave so much behind it will be galling.
Also, I *really* love my chocolate and chocolate chip cookies. How to reintroduce them so I can enjoy them as a treat without falling back into old patterns? In the past, I could *easily* sit down and eat a couple of rows of my favorite chocolate chip cookies and not blink an eye. Is it possible to enjoy one or two and be satisfied? Or am I like an alcoholic in that I’d be incapable of stopping at a reasonable amount?

Suggestions? Comments? Oh, don’t suggest diet foods. I’m not interested in sorry-ass substitutes. If I’m going to indulge in something enjoyable I’m not interested in a poor cousin and trying to “trick” myself into enjoying it. I’ve sampled the diet offerings out there and, if I never taste one of those again, it’ll be too soon!

Posted under Fitness, General

I recently saw an episode of “Bullshit!” where they addressed the issue of bottled water. I have no real issues with tap water except that it occasionally picks up an odd taste the day after a rainstorm. And my refrigerator water filter eliminates that quite handily. I see no value and a rather an incredible expense in purchasing bottled water.

I am not a conspiracy theorist and can not bring myself to believe that all of the municipalities throughout North America are quietly colluding to poison or otherwise harm us through suppression of testing results on our drinking water.

That said, I do buy bottled water now and then. I find it really handy to have a disposable container that I can use for exercise or at work until I feel that it’s probably no longer really sanitary and then I can chuck it and start using a new one.

I think folks’ perception of what is sanitary vary widely and many would disagree with my take on it. But for me, I typically reuse such bottles for about 1-3 months before I feel the need to swap them out.

On my desk at work they are much better than open containers for keeping dust out of my water as it can sit there for days between sips. When I exercise the handy nozzle keeps it from sloshing water all over as I’m trying to take a swig while running or cycling (or even staggering around after X reps of free weights).

In the past I used sports bottles and those would get REALLY grimy before I’d do anything about them - but they are a nuisance to wash and I’m pretty sure that they are largely impossible to sterilize without either melting them or imparting the sterilizing agent’s taste to them. The bottled water is actually MUCH cheaper than buying new sports bottles, much more flexible so they’re easier to squeeze water into your mouth with, and you don’t feel bad discarding them after you’ve reused them 30, 60 or 100 times over.

My current exercise water bottle I started using when we had relatives over here in the middle of April. I exercise 3 out of 4 days and use that bottle every time. Maybe in another month I’ll feel the need to replace it.

Posted under Fitness, Opinions

In the wake of the demise of my Tunturi J770 I went and picked up a new Vision Fitness T92000.

I primarily used “Consumer’s Reports” in making this decision. I wanted a simple, solid treadmill. The Vision Fitness units are novel in that they have several bases (3 non-folding that I looked at) and 3 consoles available that can be used with any of the bases.

I went and “test ran” the different base choices at lunch hour one day a couple of weeks ago and I elected to stay simple and picked up the T9200 base and the simple console. I was tempted by the deluxe console as I’m a sucker for the 5K program, but I’m so used to manually controlling my workout when I run indoors that it wasn’t enough of a feature to justify the extra cost.

The unit weighs in at a hefty 105 Kgs with the box included. I can tell you, *that* took a while to get out of my van and into the gym. My trusty little handcart was not going to be up to the job so I just had to muscle it over.

A couple of hours and a bit of sweat later I had the unit fully assembled and calibrated. For some reason (it was now after midnight) I didn’t feel much like doing my inaugural run at that point.

I now have a couple of runs under my belt and find I really like the unit. The old one had gotten progressively more noisy as the motor began to wear out and I was just used to it being that loud. This one hums along quietly and smoothly.

It has some nice “quick” features, such as “quick speed” and “quick elevation” that mean you don’t need to awkwardly hold onto an up or down button while trying to make major adjustments and run at the same time, such as when you break into a run after a couple of minutes of warm-up walking.

The only ‘nits I have about the machine - and these are really minor - are a) I’d kind of like to be able to see distance and time simultaneously on the display. I think I could have had this feature with the deluxe console so I don’t think I can really complain here. b) the heart rate display takes a LONG time to ramp up. Gripping the sensors after a hard run (not really feasible *while* running) has the display start at about 72 bpm - even though I *know* I’ll be up in the 130 -140 bpm range. It takes a good minute or so for the readout to climb to my actual rate. I presume this is so that the readings reflect a large sample so they can’t be skewed by, say, taking your hand off the sensor to wipe your forehead. I think it would be ideal for workouts where you can keep in contact with the sensor for the duration. The models in the store were like this as well so I’m confident it’s not merely an issue with my unit, this is by design.
As I said, minor little ‘nits. I regard viewing my heart rate as a novelty in any case. It really isn’t so hard to just take your pulse if you really want to know.

Posted under Fitness

I picked up this Tunturi J770 treadmill about 9 1/2 years ago and it’s seen light duty throughout those years.

These pictures show the unit without all the nice plastic end caps on it but I have those in my storage room.

This is a high quality treadmill that cost a little over $2,000 those many years ago. It’s solid for running on and I’ve enjoyed it greatly.
The motor on it is spent, but the rest of the unit is in perfect working order. I was having trouble tracking down a new motor for it so I decided to splurge and get myself a new treadmill. If you have the resources to dig up a replacement motor this is an excellent unit. The running belt still has plenty of wear left in it.

You can have this unit for $200 if you come and pick it up. Leave me a comment if you’re interested.

Posted under Fitness, For Sale

I would so love to do something like this. This guy is so good at these that he almost looks bored as he goes through some of them. Ah, brings back memories of sandboxes and jungle gyms. Do kids even get to play in those anymore?

Posted under Fitness, General

Continuing with my “Healthier Lifestyle” posting, today I weighed in at 169 lbs. As it happened, today is also a running day so I upped my distance from 2.5 to 3 miles and ran at a faster average pace.

I want to build up my speed so that I average 7.5 mph at that distance and then I’ll kick in the hill profile. As it is I’m currently running with a consistent grade of 3%. I’ve found about 2.5% on a treadmill to most closely approximate running on level ground so 3%, to me, is the equivalent of doing my entire run on a mild upward slope.

I don’t see myself doing much beyond 3.1 miles consistently. This approximates 5 kilometers and is ample for my goals. If I start feeling the need for a harder workout, I can always start running faster or augmenting the workout with another activity, perhaps a short cycle so that I can transition from the run to cycling. Maybe someday I’ll even consider doing triathlons again. Believe it or not, the main reason I lost interest in them was that I really don’t like waking up so early in the morning on weekends. It sounds trite, but as a night person, mornings have never really been my forte.

For a little stroll down memory lane, here are some pictures from a couple of triathlons that I did a long time ago…

Posted under Fitness, Sports