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Jeff's training blog: 3 months, 30 pounds lost!


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Thursday: played 2 games of racquetball. Wait times were too long on the challenge court, so I left in frustration after an hour.

 

Friday: Ran 6 miles and played about an hour of basketball with my son. Good workout!

 

Saturday: Another hour of basketball with my son.

 

Sunday: Ran about 4 1/2 miles. It was about 15 degrees; yuck, I hate winter!

 

Weight seems to be hovering around 170 this morning. Oh well, that's better than 183 where I started in July, or 190+ a few months before that!

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Haven't had time to make a journal entry during the week, so I'm doing the best I can from memory here.

 

Monday: played three or four pretty intense games of racquetball.

Tuesday: shoveled a lot of snow!

Thursday: played about an hour of basketball

Friday: shot some hoops, couldn't play a game because the gym was packed. Lifted for about 20 minutes, shoulders, chest & arms. Not much of a workout as far as cardio is concerned, which is what I need right now to get rid of 15-20 pounds of holiday weight gain!

Saturday: After shooting around for a while, played two long full-court games of basketball. About an hour and a half workout.

Sunday: Ran for a little over 2 hours, average HR a little over 135 with max of 165. I'm not sure of the mileage, but I think it was about 10 miles.

 

Weight is pretty much holding steady at around 170. I guess I need to get strict about the diet again, because it's going to be a few months before I have time to exercise more than I did this week!

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Seriously, all busy people have to schedule in exercise and eating clean as a project, a job that needs doing every day. One hour less of TV or some other thing. No matter how lethargic you feel, do it anyway. I psyche myself up on some days when the effing deadlines are there. Our lives depend on it! And nothing is crappier for our movement than a dead vegan! We must represent, right?

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Dude, that's some serious progress which was obviously perpetuated by intense weeks like this past one alongside with proper eating habits. Nice work man!

 

the 10 miles; was that outdoors or on a treadmill? Either way it's impressive as well as the rest of the week. Keep it up brotha

 

I think I'd shoot myself before I got to 10 miles on a treadmill. The weather got really warm (for early February), so the 10 miles or whatever it was was outdoors. Listening to Slayer on my iPod got me pumped to keep going and going.

 

Yesterday I played 4 games of racquetball, three of them very intense.

 

Today I played an hour and a half of basketball with my son.

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Seriously, all busy people have to schedule in exercise and eating clean as a project, a job that needs doing every day. One hour less of TV or some other thing. No matter how lethargic you feel, do it anyway. I psyche myself up on some days when the effing deadlines are there. Our lives depend on it! And nothing is crappier for our movement than a dead vegan! We must represent, right?

 

For me it's a lot easier when it isn't fricking 15 degrees outside. I'm jealous of your location!

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For me it's a lot easier when it isn't fricking 15 degrees outside. I'm jealous of your location!

 

Yeah! But I don't exercise outside. You'll get a kick ass work out on a bike, treadmill, or a cardio dvd.

 

I put on loud heavy metal, put my socks on, and slide around the house like a skater. Yeah! If you have carpet, paper bags on the feet work. Wild and working!

 

It's too cold here and then it's too hot. So far, only a few good days lately and then my daughter and I go biking (she bikes I race after her!).

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I put on loud heavy metal, put my socks on, and slide around the house like a skater. Yeah! If you have carpet, paper bags on the feet work. Wild and working!

 

That must be quite a sight! What do you listen to for workouts? I have pretty eclectic tastes in music, but when it's workout time, I like my music loud and fast as well. Nothing gets me pumped like a little thrash metal!

 

Unless it's running or biking outside, straight-out cardio (e.g., riding my seldom-used exercise bike) kind of bores me, even with music or the TV on. When its cold I like to go to the gym and play racqueball or basketball.

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Wednesday is my involuntary rest day, since I spend 6 hours teaching and most of the rest of the day grading or preparing for class on Wednesdays this semester. I spent probably a total of an hour or so pacing around while I was looking at my lecture notes before class.

 

Yesterday I played 5 pretty intense games of racquetball, for a total of maybe an hour and a quarter of cardio. I'd love to start lifting weights frequently again, but right now my priority with my limited workout time is losing that holiday weight.

 

Today I ran/walked for about an hour and a half, covering perhaps seven miles, with an average HR of 130 and max. of 155. I played basketball for half an hour with my son. Unfortunately, I had to quit because a place I bruised on my chest when I slipped and fell on the ice (landing chest-first on a recycling bin) a few nights ago started absolutely killing me. At least I hope I just bruised it!

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It's not heavy metal all the way, well some is. But this is what I listen to:

 

I listen to:

 

Queen (FAVORITE)

Who (second fav)

Nirvana - grunge?

Black Sabbath - the only heavy metal really come to think about it, Heaven and Hell album

Supertramp

Heart

Hannah Montana (got a kid and this girl has really good songs)

Natsha Bedingfield (sp)

Beatles

Stevie Wonder

George Harrison

 

Me old.

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Saturday: no workout--resting my sore rib

Sunday: ran roughly 7 miles

Monday: biked to and from the gym (around 5 miles round trip), did 27 minutes on the elliptical machine with an average HR of 147, max of 165, and played about 3 games of racquetball.

Today: ran 2 1/2 miles

 

So far, my body is holding on tenaciously to those 20 pounds of flab I've added during the winter. I'm not sure why, but it seems like my appetite is much more difficult to keep in check than it was when I lost 30+ pounds last summer. One possibility: Exercise that doesn't raise the body temperature very much (e.g., running outdoors on a day that isn't warm) doesn't suppress the appetite as much as exercise that does. Other than that, I don't know. It's not like I'm eating unhealthy or anything. I'm exercising a little less than during my intense period last July and August, but not so much less that I wouldn't expect results! I'm also not weight-lifting at the moment & I won't be for a few more weeks since I've got a busted rib, so that's something else that might be making a difference.

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Wednesday: no workout

Thursday: no workout

Friday: ran around 8-9 miles, average HR a shade under 130

Saturday: ran around 7-8 miles, average HR 135

 

Running in the park was starting to get boring, so I've been running across town and back for a change of scenery lately. The disadvantage is that even with looking up my approximate route on Google Maps, it's hard to get a precise estimate of how far I'm running.

 

Weight? I'm not even checking my weight at the moment. I don't think I'm going to start losing much until it gets warmer and I start getting a strong appetite suppression effect from my workouts. I've been pretty good about eating healthy--low fat and pretty low sugar--but I've been eating a ton.

 

Sore rib is feeling better; I may be up to starting the weights again by the end of the month.

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You'll get there. It takes patience and time, ahh.

 

And now for the yummy Sun Warrior protein shake. When I started adding protein shakes and eating less food (simply because I felt fine), then things started kicking again. Almonds rock, eating more of those and more green food. No white food, low sugar, low fat, then the melting happens. I actually don't crave any crap, knock on wood.

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Monday I played about half a dozen games of racquetball and also practiced for another half an hour. I wore my heart rate monitor while I was playing, and found that it was routinely in the 140s and once hit 160 during a particularly challenging game, so it was definitely an intense workout!

 

I sort of found my groove toward the end and shut out a couple of people 15-0 who were not too bad, so if I keep playing that way I should be able to beat some of the best players there (though the very best one is significantly better than me and everyone else). It's pretty cool when you're so focused that the ball looks like it's about the size of a basketball. I don't get that feeling very often--maybe because I don't play enough!

 

Tuesday I played soccer with my son (mostly just practicing shooting but also some one-on-one dribbling) for about 45 minutes. He's a heck of a lot better than me now, but it's still fun to get out there and kick the ball around with him.

 

No workout yesterday; I'm looking forward to some intense racquetball action tonight.

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Thursday: warmed up with a brisk 10 minutes on the elliptical machine (which I needed, since I'd ridden my bike 15 minutes in 20 degree weather to get there!), then played half a dozen mostly pretty intense games of racquetball.

 

Friday and Saturday: no workout

 

Sunday: ran about 5 miles, including finishing by running up the big hill near my house. Got my HR up to 174 by the time I reached the top. Average HR was 138.

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Wow, four days with no exercise whatsoever. Bleh! This has been my busiest week of the semester. I really shouldn't have taken the time to exercise this weekend, either, but I was about to go stir crazy by Saturday morning, so:

 

Saturday: about a 5-mile run, just over 10 minutes per mile, with an average heart rate of about 138 if I'm remembering correctly. I finished with a crazy sprint up a big hill (motivated by a Testament album pounding in my ears), getting my heart rate up to 179. I think that's the highest I've ever gotten my HR in the year and a half I've had my monitor that wasn't an obviously false reading.

 

Sunday: Did about 10 miles in 1:45, with an average HR of 139.

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Tuesday: played basketball for an hour with my son.

Wednesday: I work about 12 hours on Wednesdays this semester, so exercise is not on the agenda on Wednesdays for a while.

Thursday: did a 26-mile bike ride, then played four games of racquetball. Today was the longest workout of the winter, about 3 hours' worth total. Alas, I still haven't gotten my weight under 170 yet.

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this number went up three pounds didn't it!!!! congrats brother. You are continuing to make an even more major transformation.

 

I wish I could play racquetball with you. I'm good at it and like to play like 8 singles games back to back. It is so much fun. Too bad we don't live near each other.

 

 

Keep up the good work brother. You'll be under 170 in no time!

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this number went up three pounds didn't it!!!! congrats brother. You are continuing to make an even more major transformation.

 

I wish I could play racquetball with you. I'm good at it and like to play like 8 singles games back to back. It is so much fun. Too bad we don't live near each other.

 

 

Keep up the good work brother. You'll be under 170 in no time!

 

Well, although I lost the 30 pounds in 3 months (and about 40 pounds in 6 months), I also put back on more than 15 pounds in about 2 months this winter (153 or so to 170).

 

Yeah, definitely if you're ever near Bloomington or I'm ever in Portland we'll have to get up a game (or eight!).

 

I can't think of another activity that's both so much fun and, if it's a competitive game between good players, as much of a workout. Sometimes I wear my heart rate monitor when I play, and find that I average about 140 and sometimes top 160. Not as intense as running a 5k race, but right up there with a long, brisk jog.

 

I think my body is weird about holding onto fat during the winter more so than most people's. Since I started exercising regularly again in mid-January, I haven't been exercising that much less than I did last summer, am eating a very low-fat diet (and not too bad on the sugar), and here I am stuck at 15 pounds more than I weighed in November. Frustrating! Oh well, now that my ribs are healed up I can start lifting again and hopefully add some muscle to go along with the fat. And spring is on the way!

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