Keeping Active

Summer is finally in full swing.  We started getting some consistently hot days in July and it's carried over into August.  It's been about a month since my last post.  In that time I've managed to stay motivated and lose over five pounds.  I credit the loss to a couple of factors.

First, my activity levels have been way up.  This tends to happen in the summer months usually, but I've kicked it up a notch, this year.  I mentioned in my last post that I was planning to take up my tennis game again.  Well, I've been playing weekly since then.  As I suspected, there was rust aplenty to be shaken off.  I'd also forgotten about the sudden stops and cuts and the lateral movement.  Sore knees and ankles quickly reminded me!  I'd expected soreness in my waist from swinging the racket, but that never happened.  I'm assuming that all of the abdominal work that I do in my regular exercises had me ready for the required movements.

My game has improved over the weeks.  My forehand stroke came back first.  My backhand returns are becoming more consistent.  I'm still putting too many first serves into the net.  Overall, returning to the game has been a lot of fun.  I plan on continuing to play until the weather stops me.

I've also been doing quite a bit of walking, with a little running / jogging thrown in.  I've been taking my grandson to his football practice.  While he's practicing, I walk / run the track that circles the football field.  I try to walk for as long as they practice.  I've also been going on one to two mile walks, with my wife, after I get home from my usual workouts.  We've also spent time walking through some of the metro parks and taking road trips that included architectural walking tours.

Summer brings lots of outdoor festivals and concerts.  We attend as many as we can.  These give us more opportunities for walking, and even better, chances to dance.

I continue to hit the gym and get my strength workouts in, as well as the fitness classes.  I just keep the schedule fluid.  I'm not in the gym as much as I am in the colder months, as I want to take advantage of the outdoor activities, whenever possible.

Next, I'm doing a better job with my eating.  My meals and snacks have been healthier and I'm doing better with portion control.  I've been planning more meals and splurging less.  I even picked a couple of tools to help.  First, I bought a set of food containers.  These help me when I pack my lunch.  I find these work better for me that using sandwich bags to pack my items.  The amount of  food that fits in the containers is less than I'd usually stuff into the sandwich bags.

Second, I bought a portion control divider.  You place it on your plate and fill the spaces with various food group items.  You remove the divider and dig into your well balanced plate.  Over time, I imagine, visualizing portion sizes will become easier.  This will be especially helpful when eating out, as restaurant portions tend to be on the large side.  I've also upped the amount of water that I'm drinking.  Adding a lemon slice to each glass makes it easier for me to drink more frequently.

Of course, encouragement is a great motivator.  I've received a lot of positive feedback recently.  I was even encouraged to become a Zumba instructor.  I don't have any plans on becoming one, but it was nice to be asked.   I've also continued to draw motivation from the perceived negative comment that I mentioned in my July post.

Well, that's about it for now.  My plan for August is to continue to plug away with more of the same.

In case you're curious, the statistical summaries that I posted come from the Endomondo fitness app.

Reps and steps!

Using Positives and Negatives as Motivation

It's been a couple of months since my last post.  I've still been sticking with my fitness plans and have managed to at least maintain status quo.  There has just been a lot going on.  We've been going through some major changes at work, most of which were finally resolved last month.  I've been doing some traveling and my social commitments have picked up as the weather has gotten better.

Recently, at the gym, I thought that I heard someone make a negative remark about my physique.  Considering the noise level at the gym, I may have misheard the comment, but it fed into some of my own doubts.  I took the comment as a challenge and have been more focused after hearing it.

Since then, I've received several positive comments from others, which I truly appreciate.  The odd thing is that the single perceived negative comment did more to motivate me than all of the positives.

It looks like I'll be spending some time on the tennis courts, for the first time in years (more like decades!).  A friend challenged me to a weekly game, which I accepted.  I bought a new racquet, as my old one was in pretty bad shape.  I'm brushing up on the rules and hope to get a little practice in before our first match.

The process continues.  Reps and steps.

Embracing the Process

I'm finding that I really enjoy swimming (or at least, learning to swim.).  I seem to have a knack for it.  Makes me wish that I'd started sooner.  My shoulder, upper back, chest and leg muscles ache afterwards in a different way from working out with weights.  I know a lot of the strain comes from incorrect technique, which results in unnecessary exertion.  I'm also surprised at the amount of energy that I use.  But, it's all good.  Just part of the learning process.

Shortly after my last post, I got back onto the scale.  I found that I'd picked up eight pounds.  It's amazing how quickly the weight can creep back up.  I refocused on my eating and lost three of those pounds by the next weigh in.

It's funny listening to people "weigh-in" on my plate.  I get all kinds of comments, like:

"Are sure that's enough?"
"That's a lot of carbs."
"I could never get full just eating that."
"Do you really like that?"

I'd drive myself nuts if I tried to follow all of the advice that I'm given.  The one common thread is that most folks seem to be impressed with my level of physical activity.  Sometimes, I even surprise myself.  Take last week, for example.  It consisted of two Kickboxing Cardio classes, three Zumba classes, three sessions of resistance training, swim class, a night of Latin dancing, a fashion show (and reception) and dinner and a movie with friends.  Now that the weather is finally breaking, yard work, home maintenance  and metropark activities will start getting added into the mix.  Also, the free concerts will be starting up soon, giving us more opportunities to dance.

The biggest kick that I've had with the warm weather, so far, has been pulling the shorts out of storage.  I work legs equally as I work upper body.  The result, this season I can see the muscularity in them.  It's a good feeling.

Additional motivating factors included speaking with a colleague who had dropped over fifty pounds.  It was great hearing his story and seeing how proud he was of his success.

Well, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing, making adjustments here and there.  Summer is almost officially here and I'm looking forward to all of the activities that it brings, like grilling.  I'll leave you with a picture of my first grilled dinner of the season.

Reps and steps!

Glimpsing My Journey Through Another's Eyes

Recently, I was talking with a friend and the conversation turned to exercising.  My friend asked if I used headphones when I worked out.  Lately, I've been wearing them less, mostly because they're just one more thing to keep track of when I pack my gym bag.  I mentioned that the downside to not wearing headphones was that people were more apt to start a conversation during my workout, interrupting the rhythm.

I usually keep working as we're talking, but I told my friend that I'd be thinking, "We need to wrap this up.  Can't you see that I'm still fat!?!" My friend was surprised at that statement.  She told me that not only wasn't I fat, but I'd kept the off the weight that I'd initially lost, which she felt was the hardest part of the process.

Her comments got me to thinking later.  I'd been down on myself because this stubborn belly fat is still an issue for me.  I sometimes focus on the problem areas, rather than looking at the whole picture.  So, I mentally listed all of the positives that I could think of.  It was a pretty long list.  Here are few of them:

My friend was right, I've kept the weight off for nearly two years.

I'm stronger than I've been in years.

Ditto for stamina and endurance.

Every week brings more muscle tone.

While I'll never be confused with a "clean" eater, I plan my meals much better than I have before.

I exercise at least three days per week.

Just this weekend, my grandsons and I were running around the yard and playing in the trees!

My swimming instructor has decided that I'm part fish (lol).

So, the current "pity party" is over and I have enough ammunition to keep the next one at bay for a long time!

Reps and steps

It Was A Pretty Good Week

The gym is replacing the floor in the exercise room, so the various classes have been cancelled for about ten days.  I've been walking the track as a substitute cardio session.  I may also put in some time on the elliptical machines for the duration.

I'm still using the fitness trackers.  I'm finding that they do provide motivation to be more active and to get more sleep.  The syncing between the Pebble and the Up app has still been missing steps, but not as many since tried a suggestion that I found in the Pebble forums.  There was another suggestion on how to force a manual sync that I plan on trying.

If the soreness in my upper back, shoulder and chest muscles are any indication, then the swimming classes are going well.  I plan on adding time in the gym's pool to my regular workout schedule.

Speaking of which, the workouts continue to improve.  I think that I've settled into a pretty good groove lately.  The decrease in my caloric intake hasn't seemed to affect my energy levels, like it has in the past.  In fact, I was able to hit some new maxes on a number of exercises.  My current favorite is preacher curls.  I added fifteen additional pounds to that exercise.

I updated my fitness goals in the MyFitnessPal app.  The new calculations reduced my caloric goals by sixty calories per day.

All in all, I'm feeling pretty good with my progress.  I may even hop on the dreaded scale after this morning's workout!

Reps and steps!

Adding Swimming to the Exercise Mix

I've been using the Pebble Jawbone Up app for a few weeks now and I've discovered some inaccuracies in the data transfer process between the watch and the companion phone app.  The watch seems to count my steps pretty accurately, but some of the step data is not being recognized by the phone app.  There has usually been a discrepancy of about 400 steps between the two apps, with the phone app showing fewer steps than the watch app.  The worst case was when the phone app missed 7,000 steps!

I've done some research online and found several references to the issue, but no real fix.  The best suggestion was to use the watch app's primary watch face, as to the two secondary ones seemed to produce the largest errors.  It happened that I was using a secondary watch face when the 7,000 steps were missed.

Even with the errors, I think that using the app has been beneficial.  Reviewing my sleep tracking data has encouraged me to get into bed earlier and get more sleep.  I've improved my sleep time from an average of five hours per night to seven.  I hit or surpassed my 10,000 steps per day goal an average of five out of seven days.

I was reading an article recently on creating successful morning routines, when one particular section caught my attention.  It talked about starting the morning with a quick workout.  The author suggested using an app called The 7 Minute Workout as a guide.  I downloaded the app and gave it a try, at the beginner level.  The app guided me through a series of exercises, with video instruction.  It was more difficult than I anticipated, but not hard to do.  It definitely provides a morning boost!

This week, I took my first swim class since high school.  Back then, my swimming teacher was pregnant and couldn't do much in the pool.  The substitute was not very effective, so I never learned to swim properly.  My wife and I are considering taking a Caribbean cruise in the next year or so and would like to feel comfortable in the water, so we're taking the class together.

The class was pretty small, three adults and two teens.  It was held at the local high school.  We started out with the basics, holding on to the side of the pool, learning kicks.  It was after the instructor corrected my kicking technique that my muscle memory kicked in.  While I felt that my initial instruction had been incomplete, apparently I had learned some things.  I found that I was able to swim half the length of the pool.  Of course, my technique was pretty bad, with plenty of wasted motion, but I felt that I did pretty well.  The instructor called me her "over-achiever." LOL!

My gym has a pool that is used mostly for water aerobics, but there are times when its available for open swimming.  Since water aerobics participants need to be able to stand while exercising, the pool is pretty shallow, only 4 - 4 1/2 feet deep, making it  a perfect place for me to practice.

I've been focusing more closely on my caloric intake.  I've been mostly staying under my calorie goal and not touching my exercise calories.  My challenge goal is to do this consistently for 45 days, ending on April 30th, when I'll do a weigh in.

My regular workouts continue at a good pace.  I'm looking forward to the weather warming up so that I can add outdoor walks back into my routine.

That's it for now.

Reps and steps!

My First Week with Pebble's Fitness Trackers

Well, I'm still chugging along.  We've had some above freezing days, which helps with the motivation factor.  The week was pretty routine.  No major cheats on meals and I got most of my workouts in.

I'm enjoying using the Jawbone Up fitness tracker on my new Pebble smartphone.  It's always on, tracking my steps, so I don't have to think about it.  The Pebble doesn't have heart rate sensors built in, unlike many other smart watches, but I've read that there are plans to support third party sensors that would be built into interchangeable watch straps.

I've only been using the Pebble for about a week, but I like the experience.  The watch appears to be pretty durable.  I've been wearing it while I'm working out with the weights and machines and while in the Zumba and kickboxing classes.  It's pretty light, so I usually forget that I have it on (until I get a notification.).

I've connected the Pebble Jawbone Up app to the Up app on my Samsung Note 4.  This gives me more options and trend displays.  It also gives me the option of linking my Up data to the MyFitnessPal site, which I use daily.  I'll have to investigate this further before I take advantage of this feature.  I have other fitness information going to MyFitnessPal already and I don't want the data totals to double.

I've also downloaded the Endomondo app for Pebble.  I'd been using Endomondo on my phone for when I went walking outdoors (not an option in this weather.) and for tracking my workouts on the elliptical machine.  The  Pebble app will allow me to monitor my progress from the watch face, instead holding or picking up my phone.

Pebble's library of apps also include Misfit, Runtastic and Runkeeper.  I don't use any of these apps myself, but I've seen them linked to several accounts on the MyFitnessPal website.

I've seen some sleep monitoring apps in Pebble's library, but I haven't tried any of them.  The Up app will also track my sleep patterns.  I'm just not sure that I want to sleep with a device on my arm, but I may give it a shot sometime in the future.

Now that I have several fitness trackers in place, I think my next job will be to evaluate them and then start paring them down.  Here's hoping that they actually help me to reach my fitness goals.

Reps and steps!