Andrew is getting fit

Well this week has ended up alright but over the weekend it was a bit touch and go.  I’ve been sick (still not 100%) and I indulged slightly in some comfort food.  I also had a large family celebration for Chinese New Year where eating till you are stuffed is sort of required.  Having said that I indulged exclusively in healthy food I think.

But overall the week still goes down as a success.  Another pure green week on Physics Diet I’m pleased to report:

My PD weight is now 89.79 kg (first time under 90kg!) and actual scale weight this morning is 88.1 kg (194ish pounds).  That’s a PD loss of .82 kg (2 pounds) and a scale loss of 1.2 kgs (2.5 pounds).  I’ll happily take that.

I’m very pleased that I’ve managed to lose so much even though the running has taken a bit of a blow this last week.  I’ve been running but I’ve only been doing 5K at a time rather than 10K.  My lungs are just about cleared now so I’m hoping to be able to resume my normal distances soon.

This is the lowest weight I’ve ever been except for when I was packing it on in the first place.  I’m trying to focus on one week at a time – heck even one day at a time – but that pounds to go counter keeps catching my eye.  Single digits folks!

Tags: Weigh in by Andrew
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Dietgirl (who likes to get hammered and build furniture!) was recently interviewed on The Early Show on CBS TV:

All very nice you might say but why am I mentioning this? Well look who got mentioned at the bottom of the article under Favourite Diet Blogs!

I’m rather flattered. It’s always nice to be mentioned by someone famous.  It’s even nicer that it’s Dietgirl.  She comments every once in a while and I must admit that every time I see her comment I am amazed.  She has 500 000 + readers and still posts encouraging remarks here.  She was one of the first bloggers that I started to follow and I’d encourage you all to visit her site.

BTW her book is fantastic!  If you are feeling discouraged read this book as it is incredibly inspiring.  It chronicles her journey and the ups and downs.  I think we all experience the ups and downs and it’s really great to see that you can have success if you just stick with it.

Tags: Interesting by Andrew
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I still haven’t quite managed to shake this cold which is a bit annoying. Having said that, I still managed to get to the gym and do an easy 5K in 30 minutes this morning before work.

Not much else to report so I’ll leave it there!

Tags: fitness by Andrew
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I can see most of you scratching your heads but today is Chinese New Year. My wife is formerly from Taiwan so we celebrate this holiday in our household.

Needless to say (as with most Chinese traditional holidays) this involves stuffing yourself with food! At least it was healthy food is all I’m going to say about that.

I haven’t been for a run since Thursday and I’m twitching to get out on the road. I’m just about recovered from my illness and could probably go today but I think one more day of rest isn’t going to kill me and it will make sure I don’t do too much too soon.

Normal service will resume soon!

Tags: Life by Andrew
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Well, I’ve still got a rather nasty cold and unfortunately it means I haven’t got much exercise in the last day or two.  I’ve also found that my desire to eat crap food has increased rather dramatically although I’ve managed to restrict it to the odd cup of Milo and a few mini chocolate bars.  Not enough to do any damage fortunately.

The Physics Diet Chart is looking good again.  For the first time ever I’m under 200 pounds on my Physics Diet rolling average.  199.96 pounds to be precise but I’ll take it!

Actual scale weight dropped from 89.8 kgs last week to 89.3 kgs this week which I’ll take as well.  I think it’s official.  I’m in onederland as my American readers say.

9 pounds or so till a normal BMI.  I never thought I’d get this close.  It’s rather exciting actually.

In other news I switched my feedburner subscription over to Google and since then I’ve seen some wild swings in the numbers of readers subscribed.   It normally varies between 170-250 so that is a bit odd.  Hopefully it will settle down somewhat.

Tags: Milestones, Weigh in by Andrew
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I realised earlier this week that I started running just about one year ago.

My post on completing week 01 of Couch to 5K ends as follows:

I’m hoping to stick with it for the whole nine weeks and actually manage to do the 5km. Actually, I’m not hoping. I WILL stick with it.

Boy did I stick with it or what!  I must admit that I had my doubts at the time.  I’m so glad I did stick with it too.

In other news I’ve got a nasty cold and sore throat.  Not a happy camper.  But having said that I still got my run in this morning so it’s not that bad!

Tags: Life, Milestones by Andrew
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I had a great long run today. It was long and slow and gave me plenty of time to think about a question Andrew asked me:

“Do you ever forget what the old you was like?”

Truth be told I sometimes do. I went looking through my old photos the other day and this one was taken just two years ago.  It always takes me by surprise when I see a photo of how I used to be.  I don’t have that many as I used to avoid having my photo taken for some reason.

This version of me couldn’t run more than a minute and avoided cardio workouts like the plague.  I was 80 odd pounds heavier than I am now at the time and looking back now it’s hard to remember being that heavy and unfit.

My wife took this photo about a week ago and I am literally a changed man. I love exercise now and I’m just happier in all aspects of my life. It’s really amazing to me how quickly I’ve managed to transform myself.

Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t happen overnight and it wasn’t/isn’t always easy. I still struggle everyday with eating right. Although I have found that the exercise is addictive. I’m running more and more and loving it more and more.

My run today was an absolute joy.  I left the house about 6am-ish and conditions were perfect. Overcast with a gentle breeze blowing. About 3km later a gentle drizzle started to fall and after a while I was absolutely drenched. Yet I found myself incredibly happy.

I’m still doing the low heart rate training (resting heart rate was 42 the last 2 mornings!) so my pace was relatively slow at about 6:30 min per km for most of the run. However, I felt like I could run forever at that pace.

It was just a sublime feeling especially when I was recalling the days that I didn’t even like to walk 100m nevermind run! I incorporated a few long hills in my run and had to slow down to almost walking pace to keep my heart rate down at times but it didn’t matter. I was out there running and it was great.

Jason wrote this in a comment:

And I have to give an answer to AJH’s quesiton about forgetting. I do sometimes. Especially when I am in a long run or marathon and I think it is hard, then bam. I realize I am 130 lbs lighter and laugh because riding a bike for 15 minutes felt harder than running a marathon.

It made me laugh to remember how hard running 90 seconds used to be as well, especially as I did my longest run ever at 25.59 km (about 16 miles) today.  Life is good indeed.

I also did my highest ever milage week at 73.6 km (about 45 miles).

A few people have asked how I get the satellite maps. I use a Garmin 305 to track my runs and I then download the GPS data to a program called Sporttracks.

One thing I would like to say is that if you are thinking about getting fit then stop thinking about it and get out there and do it.  I started running about a year ago now with Couch to 5K and I’ve never looked back.  I honestly believe that if this former couch potato can do it then anyone can.

Tags: Interesting, Life, running by Andrew
28 Comments »

It’s been another good Physics Diet week.  Lots of green on my chart.  My moving average weight has dropped from 93.36 last week to 91.9 which is rather gratifying to say the least.  Of course the moving average is still catching up because of the holiday gain whereas I’ve already moved on from there.

My actual scale weight hasn’t moved quite as much.  It’s moved from 90.8kg to 89.8kg which I’ll quite happily take.

I still find that I struggle to eat clean on weekends but I’ll get there. Anyway, time to head off for a run with my wife.

Tags: Weigh in by Andrew
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My wife and I normally head into work at about 7ish but there was a scheduled power outage in her building today so she couldn’t start until 9.  As such, we decided it would be nice to get a morning run in.

We headed off to the Auckland Domain and did 3 and a bit laps of the mile circuit there to do a 5K run in 32:32.

It was a really nice way to start the day.  I even have some pictures:

I think I need some black shoes to match my black clothes.

It was such a nice day that I decided to run home as well.  Of course it was stinking hot and I overdid it.  The first 5K were great so I decided to take the longer loop home.  The next 3K were fine.  The next 1.5K were up steepish hills in the heat with no water and my pace slowed to a walk.  The last 2K were fine again as they were downhillish.  An extra 11.5km to bring my total for the day up to 16.5K.

I really love being physically able to run on a whim.  It’s not really something I ever thought I’d be able to do and now I can.  It’s brillo!

Tags: fitness by Andrew
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I ran home today.  It was a pretty uneventful run really.  It was enjoyable.  Conditions were perfect and I felt great.  Enough said really.

I’ve restarted the 100 pushups challenge and did my end of week 02 exhaustion test today.  I got to 42 pushups before my arms died on me.  I was hoping to make 50 but I’m fairly sure I’ll crack that mark at the end of week 04 exhaustion test.

My wife and I have also started the 200 situps challenge.  In the initial exhaustion test for that my wife easily knocked out 60 situps and all I could manage was a measly 30.  I guess I really need to do more situps!

Tags: fitness, running by Andrew
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