Andrew is getting fit

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It’s funny but over the last few weeks I’ve noticed a few annoying things about losing a lot of weight.

• The first and foremost of these is that I’m so cold! I used to sleep with a window open in the middle of winter as I was always feeling hot. Now, I’m wearing vests under my shirts during the day because I’m cooooold.  And it’s not even winter yet.
• My wedding ring is loose and falling off my finger. It is in desperate need of a resize.
• My clothes don’t fit! This is a real problem for me. Pretty much 95% of my clothes are too big now. I don’t really want to spend more money on clothing as I’m still losing so I’m a bit of a baggy mess. Thankfully I have some jeans that fit (bought the wrong size by mistake years ago and much to my joy I’m finally wearing them!) and of course my running gear fits.
• People telling me I’ve lost enough weight. This is very annoying as well. Fair enough I’ve lost a lot but I’m still quite overweight by any objective measure.  I’m on a roll folks, stop telling me to stop!
• Let’s not talk about the floppy belly skin.
• People not recognising me.  I was at an alumni reunion on Tuesday and it was a really good night.  The only problem was so many of my former students didn’t recognise me.  Come on folks I’ve only lost 90 odd pounds and grown a beard since you last saw me!

Then again, why am I whinging complaining? All these things are aboslutely brilliant! Visible signs of success. They’re still annoying thought. How about you guys? Anything that particularly bugs you?

In other news, I’ve got a busy day ahead of me so I thought I would get a morning run in.  I got up at 5:00 AM got dressed and had a smoothie then headed out the door.  I did the same loop that I did in my night run the other day and I’ve reached the conclusion that I need to find another loop, especially while I’ve still got this annoying cold.  The first mile of the loop is uphill and it gets me really tired before I’ve even started to really run.  I think it was exacerbated today by my cold and lack of fuel.  I don’t think the smoothie was enough.

And did I mention that it was pouring down with rain?  One of my worries has been running in the rain but it’s no problem at all.  With my cap on I can run just fine.  The glasses haven’t been fogging up yet so it’s all good.

Two more days till my next 5K race!

Tags: Life, running by AndrewE
53 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.

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 »

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 »

I had to work from home today as we had two sets of tradesmen popping around to fix a) our ventilation system and b) our security system. I don’t think either set managed to fix what they came to fix which is a bit annoying but such is life.

I decided that I would go for a run in Cornwall Park during my ‘lunch break’ as it would be a run in a place that I haven’t run before.

Cornwall Park is a big park in the middle of Auckland. It’s actually a working farm and my run today incorporated the aromas of fresh cow dung when the wind was blowing the wrong way. It’s actually quite nice being in the middle of the city and seeing sheep and cows.

The park also has One Tree Hill (of the U2 song fame) inside it. One Tree Hill is a volcano cone that used to have just one tree on it. Some idiot chopped the tree down as a form of political process and so it is now known colloquially as No Tree Hill.

I ran right around the hill and it was a good run. I had REM’s new album Accelerate blaring away on my ipod and that, combined with the fact that the weather was just perfect, meant that I didn’t even notice how long I was running. I was supposed to run for 29 minutes today but went closer to 31 before I realised that I had shuffled a bit too far.

You can see the volcano and park on this route map:

I love getting maps of my run from my Garmin.  It’s great!

The run today was quite a bit hillier than normal. Nothing too steep but just a steady climb and then a sharpish descent on the other side of the volcano. I really enjoyed the run. It was slower pace wise than I normally do (6:11 per km - I like to aim for at least 6:00 per km) but I think that may be a good thing. There is something almost spiritual about getting out and running in the middle of nature. It was great.

That was run 02 of week 04 of the One Hour Runner program.

Tags: OHR by AndrewE
17 Comments »

I was uploading my photos to flickr when I remembered that I had been to a wedding about this time last year as well.

Same glasses, same beard. Different everything else I think. Just in case you are wondering, the one on the left is the one from a year ago.

When I get braver I’ll release some more before shots.

Tags: Interesting, Life by AndrewE
24 Comments »

It is a gorgeous day here in sunny Auckland. Last night my baby daughter slept through the night. The first we heard of her was at 6:20am. This is unheard of and glorious.

This morning, my wife, daughter and I went off to the local farmers market and had a potter about. I bought a mini vegetarian pizza and a nutella crepe for breakfast and washed them down with a moccacino. And it was gooood.

Since then I’ve been out in the garden doing my lawns, watering my trees, weeding and general yard work while listening to an audio book on my ipod. It’s been very relaxing and peaceful even though I’ve been quite busy.

I’m about to head out to the library with the family as we are running low on books to read to the baby.

What does any of this have to do with getting fit? Nothing. It’s just a wonderful day and I thought I would share.

Tags: Life by AndrewE
9 Comments »

Eight months ago when I decided I was going to try and get fit, I bought a nice shiny new bike. I got a Giant Sedona LX. When I was young I used to cycle everywhere so I knew I liked cycling. I also used to cycle to University back when I was a student (until some sod stole my bike).

I did quite a bit of research online and decided that this bike met my needs. It had all the fancy bits that I wanted but didn’t really need like disk brakes, shock absorbers etc. It could go both on road and off road. In short it is a brilliant bike.

I bought it on a Sunday but unfortunately it was pouring down with rain and I did not want to take it for it’s inaugral ride in the wet for a number of reasons:

1. It was still shiny and new. Mud spatters on my new bike! No way!
2. I wear glasses and they fog up terribly when I exercise in the wet. I once tried to put on anti fog liquid but almost passed out from the fumes (apparently you are only supposed to put a tiny bit on - who reads instructions eh?).
3. As previously established, I’m soft.

Anyways, back to my story. I had bought the bike and was planning on going for a cycle the next day (weather permitting).

However, at about 4am my wife woke me up and said her waters had broken about 4 hours earlier. Oh, didn’t I mention that my wife was pregnant at the time? Anyways, 3 days later my daughter finally made it into the world. Here’s a photo of me looking happy but tired on her second evening in the world. Needless to say the bike, shiny and new though it was, got neglected for a while.

I don’t think I actually took it for a ride until about two months later. But when I did, it was good. It had everything that you would want in a bike, except an engine. Boy, it needs an engine.

So I have ridden my poor bike about four times in the last eight months. This is its current status. It is hanging from the roof in my garage.

I think I need to go for a ride on it. Maybe this weekend.

Weather permitting.

Tags: Life, Toys, fitness by AndrewE
10 Comments »