Progress Log ?

Holding steady on weight. Including on maintaining within the UK
guidelines. Mostly because I haven't been logging calories over the
blizzard break.

Over the last few weeks, I have come up with a few new workouts. The
first, which I tried out last week, was mile trials. That is, running
on a treadmill at a start speed and then upping the speed 0.5 mph
every quarter mile. Starting at 6.0 mph this results in a 8:57 pace.
Starting at 6.5 mph this results in a 8:20 pace. 7.0 mph start gives
you a 7:47 pace. A good, total annihilation workout.

Earlier this week tried a combo workout, which was a 2.0 mile slow
warmup, then 800m sawtooth workouts (adding 0.5 mph from start speed)
for 2.5 miles, then 400m pyramid for 2.5 miles. 7 miles total, and
all told they end up well under 10 minute miles. That kicked my ass.
I was dumping sweat early in the 800m sprints, but kept going. And
kept speeding up. Love it.

Was recently reunited with an old pile of CDs and have begun importing
them all onto my computer. Scatterd amongst them was the Million
Dollar Hotel soundtrack. A little-known movie produced and
soundtracked by U2. The final track is "Anarchy in the USA," a track
in Spanish that begins:

"Yo soy un Antichristo, yo soy anarchista....."

Which makes me reflect on the fact that I am, at heart, an anarchist.
And as luck would have it, I am currently assigned as a rulemaking
project manager. An anarchist writing rules. You can't make this
stuff up.

Fighting for song of the day is "Circus" by Carbon Leaf:

"I'm so done with this circus, yet I love this escape.... How do you
free yourself and leave the rest of the beasts in their gilded
cage......Is this where, where I belong?!? Is this where I belong?!?"

As if to confirm my mood of late, "Corduroy" by Pearl Jam comes up on random:

"I don't wanna take what you can give, I would rather starve than eat
your bread, I would rather run but I can't walk, guess I'll lie alone
just like before....."

Thanks to the rise of Trump, no doubt left that the American system of
boundless capitalism has failed. Laughably. The death throes of a
bygone era. Like all systems based on faulty assumptions, it will
collapse. They're so desperate to convince us that America is a
democracy that they have put an actual reality TV icon in the race.
How pathetic. Not sure they realized how far he would go, but
whatever. That's infotainment!

And still you will cast your vote on a machine not connected to
anything. Best of luck with that.

Me? I'm heading to the gym. It's likely to be more productive than
anything anyone else accomplishes today.

Better start paying us like doctors....

If you want us to save you.

-------------------------

Prince Philip says engineers are key to global population solutions - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35211130

Into the wild.....

Started out a normal run up the hill on Beaumont to Randolph, then Zooropa comes on random on the way down Randolph:

"And I have no compass, and I have no map, and I have no reason, no reason to get back..."

Kept on past Hawkesbury and down to the creek, and found a slightly beaten path off the road into NW branch park.  About 100 meters into the woods, spooked 7 deer, who were using the same footpath I was.  Chased them for a while, then went off the path down to the creek (pictured).  Meandered along the creek for a while, stumbling over fallen limbs and rocks, dipping into the low creek at some points, and crashing through reeds until I hit another slightly trodden path, one of those that looks like a bike has been ridden through a couple times.

This led back to a road that I would have hit anyway on my original route, just a half mile from the house.  Next time I will go the whole way to the house in the woods.  Just have to cross one creek leader.

There's something elemental about running off the path.  The best part of the run was when I struck out running through light woods without a path set out for me.

When the ground is dryer I plan to meander all the way home.....

Week 1 report

Weighed in this morning down another 0.2 lbs, making the week total down 4 lbs from last week's local maximum.  

Before today, a total of 699 calories below my allowable per day 1296 daily average, even though I splurged yesterday and ended up well over the calorie limit.

On the drinking front, have had 3 pints of beer at 7%, which equates to about 4 on the British scale, 1 pint below the new health guidelines. 

18 more lbs to go.  Same plan next week until I hit a plateau.  If I do, more drastic measures may be necessary......

Song of the day

Ode to the Snow by Carbon Leaf:

•  
• Snowfall requires listening
  And the silence it brings is deafening
  As it whispers it echoes
  Echoes through my bones
  Bury me like silent peace
  These gifts they fall like ancient memories
  Like voices from the past
  Cascading down
  
  And the stillness drifts back in like possibility
  And in the silence is where you find the song
  And I'm blinded by the ease of letting go
  World's shutting down, just an ode to the snow
  
  Tree limbs bend and spring up again
  The snowfall fumbling down through the pines
  To baptize, to confirm
  The frozen hallowed ground
  Exhume my youth, everlasting change
  Blankets entomb, the dreary colors fade
  And I'm reminded to the time
  When I did everything
  
  When the stillness drifts back in like possibility
  And in the silence is where you find the song
  And I'm blinded by the ease of letting go
  World's shutting down, just an ode to the snow
  
  When the stillness drifts back in like possibility
  And in the silence is where you find the song
  When I'm blinded by the ease of letting go
  World's shutting down, just an ode to the snow
  World's shutting down, just an ode to the snow
  World's shutting down, just an ode to the snow

Progress Log 3

On the scale today, down another 0.4 lbs. Hoping the trend will keep
up, but will probably plateau at some point.

Had Moby's veggie platter at the House of Kabob to keep the lunch
calories down. Was pretty tasty, though I had to skip breakfast.

Just back from some quarters and weightlifting. Energy levels good.
Think the body is acknowledging the fact that I'm not in a mood to
stop anytime soon.

So far, one beer this week, which I am counting as 16 oz because it
was 7%. May have another tonight, but would need to adjust dinner
intake down, and ultimately keep the weekly total under 5 pints.

Going to try a long run tomorrow to get that back into the rotation.
Also need to meander over to the pool and pay my dues for the year so
I can start that up again.

Progress Log 2

Weighed in today another 0.5 lbs down, thanks to the double run
yesterday and continued portion control. Even was able to sneak in a
Sierra Nevada Torpedo last night and still come in well under the
limit. It occurred to me that you enjoy each one much more when you
only have one to have, sipping it slowly. It was a tasty beverage.

The measuring cups and kitchen scale are coming in handy to figure out
how much I can have and still come in under the limit.

Need to get back over to the pool and do some swimming sprints to mix
things up a bit. A bit hard to get motivated to do that when it is 21
degrees outside.

So, for today not much on the exercise front. Will probably hit the
weights just before heading home, but haven't been able to bring
myself to do spin yet this year. The class is at a particularly bad
time on Wednesday, since the only time you can get people in the room
to meet here is Wednesday at 1pm, and that overlaps with the class.

Forgot my badge today, so had to trek Ryan in 19 degree weather from
Metro to NRC. Sucked. Poor little guy was cold with the wind
whipping past the buildings.

Need to find a technical job here at NRC. This PM stuff drives me
nuts. Too introverted to survive long in this role, anyway.
Interacting with people just wears me down. Probably be healthier and
less stress if I can just find an engineering position and lock myself
away in a cubicle, crunching numbers, programming, or looking at
issues with pumps and valves in my old group here.

Maybe I'll wander into one of the technical BC's offices today. To be
honest, I'd take a demotion now that I have over a year at my current
level, which provides the check box for higher positions (not that I'm
particularly interested in any of those).

At least wandering around will get my step count up.

Bis spater - J

Progress Log 1

Started the new program yesterday. Installed an 85cm stability ball in
my office in place of my chair.

Last night, I was pretty hungry before bed. Got up this morning down
about a lb. Measured out 2/3 cup of cereal and 2/3 cup whole milk for
breakfast, 1/4 cup almonds for lunch, packed up computer, workout
supplies, and the boy and headed to work.

Oh, and no coffee. Switching to caffeine free herbal teas for this
little trek to 215 (and beyond?).

Had some Kashi bars stashed at work to complement the almonds. Headed
to the gym at lunch and did 800m warmup, then 400m speed pyramids on
the treadmill at 7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 8.5, 9.0, 8.5, 8.0, 7.5, 7.0, 6.5.
Notable songs were "Even if She Falls" by Blink 182 (repeated for the
8.5, 9.0, 8.5 sets), then "The Boys are Back" by Dropkick Murphys
coming back down.

After the quarters, finished up the run with a varying pace 800m to
the song "Zooropa" by U2 when it came on random.

Feeling good so far. Heading back to the gym for weights before
picking up Ryan.

Have the meal plan for tonight. 2 cups of the vegetarian white chili
Katy made yesterday and 1 cup of rice. No additives (sour cream,
cheese, etc.). And a multivitamin chased by several glasses of water.

We'll see what the scale holds for tomorrow.

Race to goal weight

Oddly enough, I met a LoseIt challenge of dropping 25 lbs in 2015, after starting way late but with a kick start thanks to a couple bouts of Noravirus (I had it 3 times in 2015, what a record to set!

This year, guess the goal will be to get back to my grad school weight, which means dropping another 20 lbs to 215, while maintaining strength (using bench as a measure - at 265 lbs).  This is going to be tough since I am already within 5 lbs of my minimum since I began tracking, and the last time I was under 230 lbs was at Carderock, Round 2, after almost 200 days of sobriety and running like a madman with Dave Grant. 

There is some hope in my recent acceptance that running is not the answer.  You either make up the calories or your body adapts to the motion and efficiency starts working against you.  Short, high intensity bursts of exercise go a lot further to burn fat than the slow, steady churn and burn of long distance running.  Most of my progress this year has been thanks to that change.  I lost the most weight when I changed out distance runs for sets of 400m / 800m sprints and adding lifting back into my routine twice a week.

Guess I'll keep that routine up, and keep one long run a week on Fridays as the going in plan.  Also need to add in some random workouts to keep my body guessing.

Will also keep up the switch to vegetarian.  Overall, I feel a lot better after the switch.  Meat free since May, except for two times when I have been unable to avoid it in order not to offend.  Truth be told, no cravings except for the occasional severe episode for fried chicken, oddly enough.

And the calorie counting.  Oh, the calorie counting.  Started up counting on LoseIt again with my normal, massive deductions to compensate for thyroid issues today.  Katy was dismayed to learn that I hit my calorie limit at lunch, so no dinner for me (she had just started cooking dinner when I told her this).  But hey, it's the only thing that works consistently.

And to the final change, which is probably the hardest.  In fact, I think it's even harder than going totally sober.  Sobriety isn't that bad after the 14th day, except when you have those days of piercing clarity.  I'm planning to switching drinking habits to less than or equal to the new UK guidelines for health, which are 14 British units per week regardless of whether you are a man or a woman.  And don't get all hopeful yet - there are 3 British units in one pint of 5% lager.  So less than 5 pints of 5% lager per week.  Much less than 5 pints for me, since my typical tastes are for beer that is upwards of 7%.  They also recommend "several" dry days per week.  Not too hard if you are following the limit.

Perhaps an additional modifier, should the above not result in progress, will be a workout per unit earned (which, in LoseIt lingo, a workout is 30 minutes of any exercise)?  Dunno about that one, will try a baseline deduction to 14 units per week first and see where it goes from there.

Of course Katy eats a meatball sub in my face today.  We stopped at a sandwich place while Ryan was sleeping in the car.  The only vegetarian option they had (besides salad) was a black bean burger.  And I hate black bean burgers, so I snacked on the dried peas we bought this morning instead.  Decent test of my willpower.  Dammit. 

20 lbs to go.  Burn it down!

Just arrived.....

New bike plate

Just desserts..........

If any states deserve a big piece of the global warming pie, it's certainly the red ones.......

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From Reuters News: Missouri assesses flood damage, U.S. South still imperiled http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0UG0N720160103 Missouri Governor Jay Nixon on Saturday toured communities ravaged by flooding that killed at least 31 people in several states and forced large-scale evacuations, as the danger of rising waters shifted to Arkansas and beyond.