White paper on overfat and athletic endeavors.

WHITE PAPER ON ATHLETIC ENDEAVORS
May – 2006

CHALLENGES

The last few months have been particularly challenging.

I took THE licensing exam.

I discovered my debt was larger than I imagined and a cash crisis ensued.

I reorganized much (though not all) of the debt. And, essentially, I traded large blocks of time in an effort to save $$$. I could have only held onto the time, if I had had a spent money – but spending the money would have made the problem worse.

Indeed, I moved about a mile from work in a downtown loft. I get my results in two weeks from the licensing exam. That controls my future. If I’ve passed, I’ll go into the professional ranks; otherwise, I’ll need to study again (the exam is only given twice per year – and the next one is July). I would probably work through the second exam. . . I just can’t afford to take another two months off from work. (Although, I’d be tempted to take the last month off. . . ).

WEIGHT GAIN

In the meanwhile, my weight has steadily increased, from a low of ~220 (maybe even 215) to about 250. I’ll need to start tracking it again. However, my deadline is looming large. It seems I’m unable to realistically control my weight, and I may need to look long and hard at surgical interventions. The whole idea was to give myself large blocks of time and see how I did with it. . . I’ve not fared so well.

THE PLAN

It’s so difficult to plan right now. There are two tracks: The “I-passed-the-exam” plan; and the “I-didn’t-pass-the-exam” plan.

I Passed the Exam Plan

Diet – Nutrition – Exercise – Weight Loss

I think more than anything I desperately need to control the number of calories I consume per day. It’s tough given my job environment, girlfriend’s penchant for eating out and my own devious ways. But it all realistically starts there, and ripples from there out.

If I’ve passed the exam, then I think I’d like to do three triathlons this summer – all within driving distance – and likely international distances. I would do more, but I simply can’t afford to do it. Unless, I could magically reconfigure all of my debts down to more reasonable interest rates. Then, perhaps, I would consider 5 or so triathlons.

The cost of a triathlon is typically ~$75 for the event; and $25 for gas/incidentals. But I really love doing them. Thus, it would add about $300 to my costs over the summer.

I think I would try to do one in June, July and August (and, indeed, maybe I would try to sneak one in during September, if I were to get my dreamed of job down in San Diego).

In particular I envision a weekly schedule of something like this for the coming weeks:

Mon: AM: Run 3-5; PM: 15 mile bike
Tue: AM: Row 10-15k; PM: swim 2500 yards
Wed: AM: Run 3-5; PM: 15 mile bike
Thu: AM: Row 10-15k; PM: swim 2500 yards
Fri: AM: Bike 15 miles;
Sat: AM: Bike 25 miles; Run 4-6 miles
Sun: AM: Row 15k PM: swim 2500 yards (50 meter pool night swim).

Swim: 7500 yards
Bike: ~55 miles
Run – 10-16 miles;
Row: 35-45k


GIRLFRIEND

The management issue for time with the GF continues to be an extra-hard challenge. I love spending time with her, but it’s very clear that we have very different priorities. And, when you have someone that considers it a great week when they make it to the gym three times, the disparity is palpable. It frustrates her because she views it, to some degree – as me choosing the gym over her. . . I just want to get the workouts in. It makes me feel better. I live my life wishing God would just give me an extra 6 hours a day so I could just get everything done.

She has lots of spare time – and wants (demands?) to spend it with me. We’re different in that way.

RAMPING UP

I would like to ramp up the season and just get the exercise thing going. Not sure exactly how to accomplish all of it. . . but I’d like to get started.

To some degree I suppose I’ll need to put my foot down and express it in terms of my own needs. I need to be able to workout without a guilty conscious.

DATA:

So, I ran the data tonight.

Body fat: 24.501% (via body fat calipers).

Tanita says:
253.0 pounds
43.5% body fat.

So, I weigh more and produced the highest body fat percentage I’ve ever seen on my scale. I’m not sure what to do about it, other than what I’ve always done about it. Which is to eat better and exercise more. And, to be sure about it: Eat Better, means more of me controlling my diet with lots of veggies and whole food products and many fewer restaurants. That sort of lifestyle is a killer for me. It’s clear: I’ve GOT to talk to the girlfriend and get her on board.

Not sure how well this is going to go over.

k.

Body Fat - Calipers

Long lost measurements.

Today I measured. I hadn't measured in a few months. It's up. A ways I suspect.

measurements:

P: 14, 21, 19, 12, 17 (which becomes: 14, 19, 17).
S: 48, 47, 52, 53, 48 (which becomes: 48, 52, 48).
T: 17, 16, 16, 14, 14 (which becomes: 16, 16, 14).

These numbers come out to: 24.501% body fat.

Not sure what it was before. . . but I do believe it used to be lower :-).

ki.

GainingBack Losses

still gaining back. Trying to stem the tide.

Gaining back the losses

Gaining back the loss

In some ways it feels like the tide. You can only swim against it so long before it drags you back into shore.

I weigh 245 pounds. About what I weighed in January 05. . . about 20 pounds heavier than my moving average in August-05.

Moreover, one of my original posts set a deadline for becoming a “healthy” weight by 2-2.5 years from May-04. Thus, the “dropping 100 pounds” deadline appears to be between May-06 and 11-06. It seems unattainable at this point. I’d need to lose 70-80 pounds in barely 2 to 8 months (8 to 32 weeks) – at 32 weeks, that would be about 2.7 pounds per week.

I did read my old notes. At failure, so goes the idea, then it is time to consider bariatric bypass surgery (stomach stapling).

I pulled the old data and measured new circumferences

New:

N: 17
B: 14
C: 45.5;
UW: 44.5;
LW: 41.0;
T: 23.5

Old:

N: 18.0
B: 17.0
C: 53.0
UPW: 48.0
LW: 43.0
T: 27.5

From ~09-2006

N: 15.8
B: 13.3
C: 43.3
UPW: 41.0
LW: 38.0
T: 22.3

More bad news: I weight 247 tonight. I had a body fat last night of 25.60% (measured with calipers). 33% via the tanita scale. In June of 05 I was ~25%; 07-05: 24%; 08-05: 22-23%; 08 (late) -05: 21.57%.

So I’ve increased about 4 caliper percentage points in body fat. This is a significant increase.

SOLUTIONS

There seem to be two straightforward solutions:
Increase caloric burn (exercise) and decrease calories (caloric control). The result should be weight loss and reduced body fat percentages.

I also need to formulate a plan for this. Unfortunately I just spent several hours in the most ridiculous surfing on the net: Looking for long lost friends from 3rd grade through high school. . .

my weight chart for period 12-05 to 03-2005 -- roughly :-).  

CALIPER BODY FAT: 25.61%

Caliper body fat -- the day after my 36th birthday: 25.61%. I still hope to get it below 10%. But right now I think I'm on the losing side of the battle.

It's pretty consistent: I get a girlfriend and the weight and body fat percentage rise. Although with finals and a licensing exam inbetween. . . the newfound gain sort of makes sense. I suppose by "making sense" I suspect it means I acknowledge that I have some issues with food -- I eat to make myself feel better, rather than pure sustenance. . .

anyhow. . . more to come I hope. . .

kc.

caliper body fat: 24.21%

My licensing exam is kicking my ass. Due to the stress I'm eating too much.
I weigh about 236-238 these days -- 24.21% body fat too. I think I was in the 21% range before. . .

oh well.

Ocean Rowing

Interesting ocean rowing site here. It seems there's a race from Europe to NOrth America via rowboat. Antigua and some other place.

It's interesting. Lots of satellite/tech communication while people are in the middle of the ocean.

k

Marathon Row on Concept 2

I completed my first marathon row on Christmas. It was pretty long. Pretty tiring. Probably too much for this particular phase of my life as it left me completely worn out yesterday.

oh well. I have some photos I'll post later. . .

k

Holiday Challenge

I successfully (mindlessly?) completed the Holiday Challenge this AM. I rowed a 10k in the AM, which brought me just over 200,000 meters since TGiving. I'll probably add some cycling, swimming and running to the mix again.

Pretty stressed out with finals done and my licensing exam fast approaching. I'm just betting everything, that's all :-).

Caliper body fat: 23.169%

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/rss.php?r=f27c09c5d3c7eb32035c8bd316b1d936

Ironic - I'm a health nut.

Health is most important in your life. Having a high focus on health indicates that you are very health-conscious and you realize that if you don't have your health, you have nothing. You are devoted to living healthy. Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

rowing totals

I'm now at about 145,000 meters for the holiday challenge. I figure 15k x 4 days will put me over the top. I'm contemplating rowing a marathon on christmas though. . .

k

Visitors

I notice via a blogcounter that my visitors now average about 17 per day -- so I've roughly doubled my daily visitors over probably the past 6 months or so. That's interesting. What's interesting is how few of you actually comment (or even leave anything on the tagboard I have up).

I suppose, in the end, this blog is much more of a way for me to keep track of things. To the extent it offers something to someone in the outside world great. It's a complete secret to everyone -- in fact, I've told my closest friend that I have a blog but I've completely refused to identify what particular blog. Indeed, that's why some of my details are rather sketchy -- because I would (for whatever reason) like to avoid detection.

So, hey, drop a comment or two!

kc

Holiday Challenge - C2

I now have 129,000 meters in the Holiday Challenge for Concept2, so it looks like I'll make the 200,000 meters as listed in their challenge. I am going to spend the $20 bucks on the sweatshirt, even though it's a bit dorky :-).

Basically, I have 8 workout days that remain to get the additional 70,000 meters in. Realistically, that is about 5 days of 15,000 meters. Perhaps even the next 5 days. Nonetheless, I think I may try my first rowing marathon next weekend. Indeed, I may try it on Christmas Day.

The studying of my life begins on Monday.

k

President Taft

It turns out President Taft, in his twilight years, lost about 70 pounds. . . interesting historical reading.

Weight loss from Diabetes site here

Diabetes article here. Interesting quote within it:

In the future, Pugh would like to see a more hands on approach between health care professionals and patients when it comes to weight loss.

One way of doing this, Pugh suggests, is having diabetes educators or dietitians accompany their patients to the grocery store. There they can illustrate the proper healthy and low calorie food items for their patient's diet plan. "More than just telling a patient they need to lose weight - we need to make sure that they understand how to do this," says Pugh.

Pugh also points out that many health care professionals are not immune from society's prejudices when it comes to the obese. "Many are judgmental and they view obese patients as being weak willed," says Pugh. This can erode the patient/doctor relationship even further and increase a patient's frustration over losing weight.

The article then says what I've known for a long time:

Kris Berg, EdD, professor of physical education at the University of Nebraska, goes as far as to advise his patients to stay in the outside aisles of the grocery store where the fresh foods are kept, so that they will avoid the temptation of fattening snacks. This is sound advice considering that ten peanuts can be a hefty 200 calories and a regular potato chip might have as much as 25 calories in it. After a few high-calorie snacks a day, a person may find that they are gaining pounds instead of shedding them.

Holiday Challenge

Concept2 is running a holiday challenge. Basically, you commit to row 100,000 or 200,000 meters between Thanksgiving and New Years. Turns out, I've already rowed about 80,000 meters. I think I could pretty easily make the 200,000 meter number (you get a t-shirt and can buy a sweatshirt for $20 bucks). I think I'd buy the sweatshirt.

So I have 12 days to row 120,000 meters. In fact, this may spur on my first marathon row.

I figure, 4x15,000 = 60,000 meters (running total = 140,000 meters).

42,000 meters for marathon = 182,000 meters.

And then an additional half marathon. . . 21,000 meters would put me over the 200,000 meters number. . .

Well, I think that will be the goal. . .

k

Nice Post on Notorious B.L.O.G.

Hi,

Here's a great post on his battle of the bulge -- he ultimately lost 105 pounds by changing diet and running. His epiphany has an eerie reminiscence to my own epiphany here. [scroll down to HISTORY].

CDC Obesity page

the CDC has a nice obesity page. . . you can find it here.