Andrew is getting fit

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Jeff asked me if had looked at using the Google 15 to track my weight.

The Google 15 encourages you to get on the scale every day by calculating a moving average from your daily weight. We then plot this average alongside your daily scale weight and a goal weight that you set–this gives you a better idea of your weight trend by masking most of the day to day noise that variances in water weight introduce.

I have had a look at it, but don’t actually use it as I use some other tools that do a similar job instead:

The first of these is Physics Diet.

With the physics diet you weigh yourself everyday and it works out a moving average similar to Google 15. To be more precise it uses an exponentially smoothed weighted average with a smoothing constant of .9. If you are more interested in the mathematics behind it you can look here.

One of the nice features is a fancy graph:

The Weight Chart lets you track your weight loss or gain. It shows you how many pounds you are losing or gaining per week, and it shows you what your calorie deficit or excess is.

The beauty of the Weight Chart is that it lets you focus on your overall progress rather than the individual readings on the scale. You will learn to watch, and appreciate the blue trend line that shows the moving average of your individual weight entries.

Daily Weight Entries

The points on the tips of the green and red shaded areas are your daily weight entries. The red area means that for that day, or period of days, your daily weight entries were above the blue trend line. The green area means that for that day, or period of days, your daily weight entries were below the blue trend line.

If you are trying to lose weight then you will want to keep most of your daily weight entries in the green shaded area. As long as your daily weight entries are green, the blue trend line will continue going down. Even when you hit a plateau, and your daily weights remain the same for several days or even a week or more, as long as those weights below the trend line they will continue to pull the trend line down.

The Trend Line

The blue trend line shows the moving average of all your weight entries. Because of the way the moving average is calculated, it emphasizes the weights in the recent past over those in the distant past. This makes the trend line the most valuable part of the Weight Chart.

If your weight changes and goes above the blue trend line you will see the trend line change immediately. If your weight stays above the trend line for very long, the trend line will change directions and show you that your weight is increasing. On the other hand, if you start losing weight at a faster rate the trend line will also show that change almost immediately.

The trend line is especially valuable when you hit a plateau.

The Black Best Fit Line

The black line is the best fit line. It shows you the straightest line that can be drawn through all of the points on the blue trend line. It is useful because it can show you the overall progress of your diet. But it can also be misleading. If your trend line is not moving in the same direction over time as your best fit line, then the best fit line should be ignored.

Another one that I use is Skinnyr:

Skinnyr is rather simple in that all it does is plot your last ten days weight on a graph. It’s a bit simplistic but it’s pretty and gives you a quick snapshot of how you are going. It doesn’t have any other advanced features. My graph for the last ten weigh-ins looks like this:

It’s a bit misleading as it doesn’t take time into account. You may notice that there is a spike between 4/24 and 4/27 but the time gap is the same as all the others which are single days. Having said that, it is pretty and easy to use.

The last tool that I use is Traineo:

I record my weight on Traineo only so that I can get the fancy buttons on the right. T could write a little plugin that would do it for me but I’m too lazy. I only use Traineo for that really but in reality Traineo is more than just a weight tracking tool, it is a weight loss and fitness community.

Traineo’s idea is simple: join traineo for free and pick up to 4 friends or members of your family (who will become your ‘traineo motivators’) to receive weekly email updates on your progress towards your weight loss and fitness goals. Our easy-to-use software allows you to choose what you’d like traineo to report to your motivators so they can give you the motivation, support and accountability you need to achieve your goals.

Overall, none of them is perfect but they all help me track my weight and keep accountable so they are all worth using to me. Has anyone else found something that they could recommend?

Tags: Tools by AndrewE
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As mentioned previously, I had a weekend away in Napier. While there I managed to get in two runs.

The first of these was my long run for the week. I wanted to get in at least 10 km as that is what I did last week.

I had gotten up at 5am and then driven from 6:05 till about 11ish as I had driven from Auckland to Napier. The drive itself was fine. However, about 3 hours in my baby daughter woke up and then verbally expressed her displeasure with being strapped in for the next 2 or so hours. So needless to say it was a bit tough.

We met up with our friends in Napier and then had an enjoyable afternoon visiting wineries and having lunch etc. We had hired a house for the weekend and we got there about 3:30ish. I started off for my run at about 4 after unpacking and seeing that my wife and daughter were settled in.

Truth be told my physical condition was not conducive to a great run. I was tired and sore from sitting down for most of the day. Having said that it felt really good to be outside by the beach and running. For the first twenty five minutes or so. Then it became a bit harder. Then a lot harder. Not so much physically, but much more mentally. I started playing little games with myself. I’d tell myself I’ll run for the next 500 meters then have a rest. Then when I got there I’d say 500 more! and so on.

About 6km in I made a big mistake by heading down and running on the beach for a bit. As you can see from the picture on the right, it looks really great but it’s actually a gravelly rock beach so it’s actually really hard to run on. I stuck with it for about 100 meters but it was just too hard so I headed back to the grassy verge next to the road.

I was really feeling it then and had to resort to more mind games in order to continue running.

About 7 kms in I hit Meeanee Quay. How appropriate I thought. My body reckons I’m being a meanie by making it run today. I turned around at this point and started heading back to our holiday house. For some reason the running is always easier when you know you are heading home.

I got back and boy I felt great. The runners high kicked in when I knew I didn’t have to run anymore!

I managed to do 10.2 km which I was really pleased with. It took me 1:02:42.

My second run was a bit more normal. I woke up at 5am to give my daughter her morning bottle and decided that it would be nice to be out and running when the sun came up. So I had my breakfast and then headed out at about 6ish. It was a beautiful morning and I really enjoyed the run.

I took it easy and did a nice 5.1 km in about 30 minutes.

I know I can go faster now so I’m looking forward to my next race. Two weeks away on a nice flat course.

I was particularly pleased that I ran while I was on holiday as well.  As a matter of fact I really, really wanted to run and for me that is something special.  I have turned running into an addiction habit and that can only be a good thing.

Tags: OHR, running by AndrewE
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Whoo…today I weighed in at 99.7 kgs which is 2kgs heavier than I was on Friday morning.  Damn these weekends away where I indulge in snacks that cause my glycogen and water reserves to dramatically increase!  I’m not too worried as I was pretty good overall and I know there is no way I can gain 4.4 pounds of fat in two days.

I had a very good weekend away.  It was good to catch up with some old friends and great to see my daughter and their kids having a ball.

I also kept up with my running.  I did two runs (on Friday and Sunday) which I’ll post about once I find my camera.

I also picked up a nasty head cold.  I think it was due to being confined in the car with my daughter who has a cold (picked up from daycare) for quite a long time.  Oh well, such is life.  It means I’m at home in bed today.

Tags: Weigh in by AndrewE
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I’m off to sunny Napier to spend the long weekend (it’s ANZAC weekend here in New Zealand) with some friends. I’ve packed my running shoes and my camera so look forward to full report next week.

Tags: Life by AndrewE
7 Comments »

About a year ago I had a conversation with my doctor that most people would dread.  He wanted me to think about taking drugs to reduce my cholesterol levels.  I refused as I thought I would try to decrease my cholesterol through modifying my lifestyle first. 

Last week I went for my cholesterol test and I got my results back today.  In my humble opinion they are fantastic!  I’m within the normal range on every count.

	Recommended Range:	2007	2008
Total Cholesterol:	Less than 200	343	152
HDL Cholesterol:	Between 35-60	58	36
LDL Cholesterol:	Less than 130	266	101
Triglycerides:	Less than 151	118	62
Total/HDL Ratio:	Less than 4.5	5.9	4.3

So how did I do it? I’m afraid that those of you looking for an easy solution are out of luck. I did it the hard way, by changing my lifestyle. I think I have 3 main tips that I will share:

1. Cut out processed foods.

I’ve learnt the hard way that processed foods are not good for me. Nowadays I focus on eating mainly natural foods, predominantly fruits and vegetables.  I’ve been a vegetarian for the last two years (just about) and this may have helped as well.

2. Exercise

I know this is a dirty word to many people but exercise has literally changed my life. I used to be a massive couch potato and now I’m running in races and getting the jitters when I can’t get my exercise in.  The funny thing about exercise is that the more you do the more you want to do.  It’s hard at first but once you get in the habit it’s annoyingly addictive.

3. Enjoy my treats in moderation

Life without treats is not worth living in my opinion. I still enjoy curly fries, chocolate cake and so forth. The key is that I enjoy them occasionally and in moderation. Before I started my healthy lifestyle I wanted quantity over quality.  I’d eat snacks and junk food every day.  Two litre bottles of Coke were part of my everyday diet.  Now I don’t drink fizzy drinks at all (water is so much better) and I have junk food rarely.

I think that if I can do it then anyone can.  It’s not easy and at times I have fallen off the wagon as it were but it is definitely worth it.  Today my cholesterol is normal and I feel very happy about that.

Tags: Life, Milestones by AndrewE
46 Comments »

When I got up today it was raining so I didn’t think I’d be running outside. However, about a half hour later it wasn’t looking too bad so I thought I might as well give it a go. I was supposed to meet up with my colleague who I ran with before but he was a no show today so I went by myself.

I didn’t really have a fixed route in mind today but then as I got going I decided I would head off into an area I had never been before even though it is very close.

I started off in the Domain which is where most of my weekday runs start as it is very close to where I work (red dot on the map). I headed into Parnell and then ran down St Stephens road (past many million dollar homes) until I arrived at Pt Resolution.

Pt Resolution is a tiny park on top of a cliff looking down over the harbour. The views are absolutely stunning from up there and I was just sorry I didn’t have my camera with me. Next time I’ll bring along a small camera as the views are tremendous.

There were quite a few stairs going down the cliff which I negotiated rather gingerly as they were very wet. I’ve marked that point with a yellow dot on the map.

I then ran around the waterfront (into a very strong headwind!) and headed back up to work as the rain started to fall again.

I did 6.13 km in 37:24 so it was a nice gentle run.

Work is offering free flu jabs today so I’m off to get one. I did a cholesterol test last week and I’m hoping my results arrive today. I’ll let you know how I did once I know.

Tags: OHR, running by AndrewE
14 Comments »

Today I weighed in at 98 kgs (216) flat. That’s 1.7 kgs (3.75 pounds) down from last week. You may recall that last week I was a bit peeved that I lost only .1 kgs but I guess I was just experiencing a fluctuation on the day. That is one of the perils of weighing in daily.

I checked the official results of my race yesterday and laughed once I saw them. I finished 5th in my age group and 20th overall. Not bad for my second race! If only the leading pack could go the wrong way more often. In the future I will know not to follow them!

Tags: Toys, fitness by AndrewE
23 Comments »

I had my second 5K race today. It has been raining all week in Auckland so I was a little concerned that it would be a wet race but the day dawned crisp and clear and frigging freezing! 8 degrees this morning apparently.

The race was Race 2 of the Run Auckland series as was held at Harbourview Peoples Park (there’s a communist sounding name if ever I’ve heard one) in Te Atatu. There was a great view of the Auckland skyline from the course.

There were over a thousand entrants but, like last time, most of the entrants were in the 10K race. We had about 300 or so in the 5K event. I got a good spot near the front this time as I was held up a lot by walkers last time as I had started near the back thinking that I didn’t want to get in the way of the faster people. This time I was determined to set a personal record. I was aiming for about the 30 minute mark but was hoping to go slightly faster. My official time from the first race was 31:01 and I’m definitely fitter than I was then.

The gun went and we were off. I started off way too fast (again!) as I did the first kilometre in 5:18 which is faster than I have ever gone before. The ironic thing about this is that I spent a good deal of the drive to the event telling my mate that I planned to do the first kilometre slowly as last time I had gone out too fast. Damn the adrenalin!

The second kilometre is where everything went horribly wrong. We arrived at a fork in the road and the marshall was missing. So the leaders took the wrong fork as they could see the 10K folk in the distance up that fork. About 500 metres in I decided that we had gone the wrong way and turned back. I kept telling everyone around me and most of us turned around. I never did find out what happened to the leaders of the pack. I guess they eventually realised and turned around. The official results will make some interesting reading as I’m fairly sure all the faster folks went the wrong way.

The rest of the race was good. I did great times at every split and hit the 5K mark at 27:45 on my Garmin which is a new personal best.   Every single kilometre split was under 6:00 min/km which means I would have made my goal of beating 30 minutes quite handily.

Unfortunately I still had about a kilometre to go and as I knew my chance of a official PR was gone I just took the last bit real easy and jogged back slowly. My overall time was 33:48 for 5.95 km which I feel is still a great time overall.

Once I was done I went back looking for my mate and found him about 12 mins behind me. I jogged the last 500 metres of the course with him to cheer him on and then we celebrated a great event. We’d both finished and we’d both had a great time.

Here’s a photo of me afterwards looking mightily pleased with myself:

I figured there was no point getting annoyed by the poor marshalling of the event as I still had a great time and still felt that I had run better than ever before. My next race is in 3 weeks and is supposedly a flat and straight track that is designed for setting personal records! I’m looking forward to that one!

As an aside, it is my blogging buddy Marshmallow’s birthday today. Happy birthday Marshie!

Tags: running by AndrewE
22 Comments »

Today’s scheduled run (OHR program) called for a run of 38 minutes. I decided that I would be a bit ambitious and try to run up one of the volcanic cones that is quite close to my workplace - not the same one that I ran around last week.

Auckland is built on top of a volcanic field so we have a lot of volcanoes (all extinct I think) around the place.

I started off in the Auckland Domain and headed up Mountain Rd towards Mt Eden. Mt Eden is the volcanic cone I wanted to run up. I should have realised that a road called Mountain Rd would be all uphill but it wasn’t too bad.

I arrived at the bottom of the volcano and that’s when I realised how steep the climb was. I ran most of the way up it but the last 200 metres or so were too damn tough were stairs and it was slippery so I walked them (that’s my story and I’m sticking with it). The view from the top was great and I felt rather virtuous having made it up. Running down it wasn’t bad at all as it was all downhill.

I then headed in towards the city and decided I would run a different route back to my starting point. Unfortunately the run took me past a lot of little cafes and bakeries and the smells were making me really hungry. I was thinking some fond thoughts of a custard pie. Fortunately I left my wallet back in my car so I wasn’t overly tempted.

I ran over the motorway and saw hundreds of people sitting in their cars not really moving much and it felt so great to be outdoors and running.

I arrived back in the domain and was supposed to end my run but I was really enjoying it so I decided I would run a little longer and added an extra loop through Parnell which headed me back towards work.

If you click through to the actual map you will notice that I ran over 10 km today! That’s a personal best and a major milestone for me. It took me 1:09:11 which includes a short walk up the stairs as mentioned earlier.

I probably shouldn’t have run that far but it just felt good today so I did.

Some of you may have noticed that my traineo counters on the right have also hit another mini milestone. This morning I hit over 90 pounds lost. That means I am now just over 75% of the way towards my goal.

Since I started running this year I’ve lost 30 pounds and done 132.5 km worth of running. Not bad if I say so myself.

That is week 05 of the One Hour Runner program completed. Hmm - I ran for over an hour today but I still have 5 weeks to finish the program!

Tags: Milestones, OHR, running by AndrewE
24 Comments »

In my previous post I posted some pictures that showed how I’ve changed physically. I also put another “before” picture in my About Andrew page.

I think that greater changes have happened mentally and emotionally.

When I was a bit younger and a lot larger I was famous for always smiling.  One of my friends went so far as to call me the Cheshire Cat as I always had a silly grin on my face.

However, I don’t think I was particularly happy.  Like the Cheshire Cat, sometimes all that was there was the smile with nobody behind it.  I think my smile hid a deep seated insecurity and I was probably rather depressed a lot of the time.

My life has changed quite dramatically since those days.  The most important change has been that I met a wonderful woman who became my wife.  Through her quiet example she taught me to be a better person.  Some of my friends think that she is the one who has ‘forced’ me to make all these changes in my life but that is not the case.  She just set the example and I decided it was a good one to follow.

Since I’ve become healthier through eating right and doing more exercise I’ve felt so much better about myself.  I know I’m not skinny or anything yet but like my fellow blogger Justtoofat, I find myself feeling skinny and you know what, it feels good.

She wrote on her blog:

Lately, I’ve been feeling so good about myself. I’ve been counting up the calories, eating (mostly) right, posting my food intake each day and exercising like a mad woman. I’ve even been taking expeditions to the far reaches of my closet, and returning with outfits that haven’t seen the light of day for years, only to find that many, many of my “skinny” clothes (if one can ever be forgiven for calling a size 22 skinny) are starting to fit again. And even though the scale hasn’t moved much in the last couple of weeks (I’m down a pound and a half from last week), when I’ve looked in the mirror recently, I haven’t seen a fat girl at all… rather, I’ve seen the new, healthier me.

And it’s funny, because I know that this change in attitude has translated to other aspects of my life as well. For example, I know that my walk has changed. The way I carry myself is completely different now. Whether it’s walking down the hall at work or passing another walker along the “loop” near my house, lately, I’ve been a little surprised myself by how easy it seems to make eye contact with other people, to smile and look them in the eye as I go by. The old me would have never had the courage to face other people in that way. Instead, I’d have searched the floor, or followed my feet to my next destination. I’ll tell you, it’s hard to carry around that kind of shame.

I can really identify with this (except I’m a guy not a girl. And I don’t wear dresses.)  I think how we feel about ourselves impacts tremendously on our happiness levels.  I feel a lot better about myself not just because I’ve lost weight but also because I’ve achieved (and am still achieving) lifestyle changes that I never believed would be possible for me.  I’m getting fitter than I have EVER been and I’m still improving.

I’ve proven to myself that I can do what I thought was the impossible and so I feel less need to have to prove myself to the world (if that makes sense).  I think I’ve made peace with who I am as a person.  Of course I still have off days and suchlike (boy there are a lot of things that annoy me!) but overall life is good.  Maybe this happens to everyone as a function of getting older and wiser and I hope it does.  Having said that I’ve been accused many a time of being hopelessly naive.

I will always I still have a cheesy grin but now I’m really happy.

Tags: Life by AndrewE
19 Comments »