Walking...

I'm lucky to have lots of walking options without having to go anywhere in a car. The local rail trail is an excellent start but the nature of rail trails is that they don't have much of a challenge if you're just walking. The good thing about the area around the rail trail though is that there are numerous bush tracks that have some excellent hills in amongst them. So yesterday, after spending a bit of time procrastinating and planning my goals I took the dogs out and did a 6.85km circuit that included a couple of nice hills. The good thing about this circuit is that I can add a loop to it that uses the hills twice and adds another 2 and a bit kilometres. The 6.85km took me 1 hour and 7 minutes and burned 714 calories and I'll go out again today and do the full "figure 8" circuit for comparison.

I'll also start the other training and keep a log here for reference and reflection.

The future...

1.      This isn’t a short term thing.

a.      Goals need to be set for the long term first and then broken down into shorter segments. It’s amazing what can be achieved in three months with consistent effort. Choose a target and then break it down into three month training goals.

b.      This program is for life and therefore should be fun

2.      Make nutrition part of the plan

a.      Nutrition drives everything

b.      Weight loss is not a goal in itself

c.       BMI is a furphy but it’s a handy way to get started

3.      Monitor your vitals

a.      BP

b.      Cholesterol

c.       Resting heart rate

d.      Body fat

e.      Waist /hip ratio

4.      Be consistent

a.      High intensity daily exercise for at least 15 minutes

b.      Build exercise into your routine

c.       Build exercise into “normal” activities

d.      Use what you have, don’t rely on equipment

5.      Flexibility & Balance

a.      Warm up before every session

b.      Stretch after every session

c.       Focus on flexibility, core and balance for at least one training session per week

d.      Engage your core every time you lift anything

6.      Get out of the comfort zone

a.      Go beyond exercise in the rain

b.      Test your limits

c.       Push yourself

d.      Exercise where people can see you!

7.      Give it time

a.      Results take time

b.      Lots can be achieved but don’t be discouraged if you don’t reach a goal in the time you set – see point 10.

8.      Specific, measurable, attainable, time-tabled – (SMART)

a.      Goals should meet these requirements but where do you start? Start by doing 4 weeks of consistent daily exercise that tests you and then set some goals based on:

                                                              i.      What you think you can do.

                                                            ii.      What you think you might be able to do.

                                                          iii.      What you don’t think you could possibly do.

b.      If you achieve the results you were after before your timetable says you should see point 10.

9.      Focus on healthy habits rather than results

a.      A habit is something you do without thinking.

b.      Healthy means it’s good for you.

c.       Healthy habits are things that you do without thought that contribute to maintenance and improvement in your health and wellbeing.

10.  Don’t set the plan in stone… Revisit, re-evaluate, reset and re-invent yourself.

11.  Expect hurdles and barriers

a.      You will have days when you want to stay in bed.

b.      You will have days when you eat the wrong thing or eat too much or get drunk…

c.       You will injure yourself sometimes

12.  Don’t let ANYTHING or ANYBODY stop you…

Getting there...

I received my Sandbag Fitness book by Matthew Palfrey in the mail yesterday and had a read through it last night. The book is set out as a guide to individual exercises and variations to make each exercise harder or easier to suit. The second half of the book includes plans for beginner, intermediate and advanced 10 week programs. It all looks good and the exercises are not particularly complex, i.e. they don't require a high degree of fitness, athleticism, coordination to start with but I have no doubt they'll be challenging and the results will come.

Now I'm off to find some sand... And a bag... And a bar for chin ups... :D

Stitches in my hand will be taken out today and I'll be ready to start next week. Today I'm going to spend a bit of time planning the exercise program around my work commitments so that I'l know what I'm up to and what to do next.

New start... Lots of options...

I'm looking for a challenge which will get me to my 50's goal. 

I like the idea of body weight style training as it can be done anywhere and requires the barest minimum of equipment. I'm currently looking at "Convict Conditioning", sandbag training and some form of calisthenics.

I realise fully that I'm not producing lots and lots of testosterone (like I was at 20) so it's unlikely that I'll develop huge muscles but I still want to be fit, healthy, flexible, strong, slim and have a nice physique so, I reckon that these types of "systems" will give me good results.

Today I weighed in at 86.6kg (180 cm) and I think that my goal weight should be around 75.0kg. At that weight I should be at around 10% or less body fat and if I get all of this right I should look pretty ripped.

In the next few days I'm going to set myself a fitness test (I'll probably use the Michelle Bridges one) and post the results. 

This is a personal journey and the results will be my own responsibility, I'm not competing with anyone and if anyone ever reads my posts they shouldn't compare my results with theirs as we're all different.

FIFTY!

In November I'll be 50... Wow, 50!

During the last round of 12WBT I set a goal for my 50th that I still think will be hard to achieve. It'll certainly be impossible to achieve if I don't "extract my digit" and work towards it.

The goal: On my 50th I want to be able to do the following in 50 minutes...

• 50 sit-ups
• 50 push-ups
• 50 chin-ups
• 5 km run 

Now for all you fit gym bunnies out there this might not sound too difficult but there are a couple of parts that I don't know if I'll be able to do.

1. 50 chin ups - I'm too heavy and don't have the strength to do more than two or three chin-ups at present.
2. 5 km run - I hate running, I'm not good at it, I'm too heavy and my heart tries to leave my chest after about 1 minute... Running for 20-25 minutes (if I can get 5 km done in that time) just sounds like it won't happen.

And that's what this blog is about - getting fit, losing weight and documenting what I did to get to my goal.

I want to be fitter and at 50 than I was at 20. I want to be healthy, strong, flexible and feeling awesome.

How am I going to do this? Based on my previous experience I've realised that, while it requires consistency and a plan, it isn't that hard to lose weight. It amazed me how quickly my fitness improved but can I achieve these goals, especially with the hours I spend at work?

I will be posting my plan, my starting stats, progress photos and my thoughts about the things I find in my research on exercise, nutrition and health.

Where to begin?

I will be fifty later this year and, while my fitness and health have improved significantly over the last 18 months I've let things slip a little recently.

Early last year my wife showed me the Michelle Bridges 12WBT program and told me that a friend was doing it and had great results. To shorten a long story I signed up and began the program. This is a before photo taken on the 17th of January 2013...

At that time I weighed in at 104 kg which was my heaviest. I tried to work out what goals I should set and decided that, even though I have a problem with the concept of BMI I would aim for the "normal" range. Given my height I would need to get down to 82 kg (with the lowest weight in the normal range being 66 kg). The first few weeks were seriously challenging as I hadn't exercised consistently for many years and the diet had me feeling hungry. I persisted, started enjoying the exercise and began to lose weight. At the end of 12 weeks I had lost 20 kg and (almost) made it to my goal weight...

It felt great! What I found out fairly quickly was that my blood pressure was now a "normal" 120/80, my resting heart rate was down to the high sixties, my waist was down to less than 100 cm all of which reduced my risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke...

I immediately signed up again to a round of 12WBT Lean & Strong program which is a strength and toning program rather than weight loss and gained strength, lost another belt size or two and felt awesome. After another 5 weeks I took more photos...

So, at that time, I was feeling excellent, proud of my results and had a completely new wardrobe as none of my old clothes fit me at all.

Late last year I started a new career that requires 12 hour shifts. I live 90 km from work so a day at work costs me 14 hours plus preparation and "wind down" time. My fitness has declined, my strength has declined and my waistline has expanded. 

Time to rethink...