Sketch of a Future Protocol

Watched an interesting interview that got me thinking . . . 

I am still committed to following a CRON (Calorie-Restriction Optimal Nutrition) diet until I hit 170 pounds.  But after that I am going to try to pursue the following diet/workout protocol:

Saturday -- skip lunch and stretch fast into the evening.  Resistance train in the evening.  Eat a bunch of ice cream and protein.

Sunday -- Eat a bunch.  Party.  Enjoy all tasty-tasty junk our society has come up with.

Monday through Friday -- some kind of low cal regime.  Perhaps just continuing what I am currently doing, but I am open to experimentation (but not to unduly inconveniencing my wife).

My reasoning behind staying with CRON is that I am trying to achieve anti-cancer hormonal changes, which may very well be a product of lowering my metabolism. 

I also plan on going on a two-day water fast at some point, during a school break.  Again, for the anti-cancer properties.  I am working under the assumption that bigger moves have to be made to set up systems than to maintain them. 

And I openly admit that losing my grandfather and father within a year and a half has me spooked.  

Push-Up Goal Update

I am pulling up a little short on my overfeeding every weekend until the end of the school year -- I got sick of chocking back that much food -- especially protein powder.

So hopefully I built up enough infrastructure, because it is now on to grease the groove.  Just a week of practice has made me feel comfortable with what kind of motion I need -- in the elbows and forearm.  Also, much like when I did squats, figuring out how breathing works seems to be a big help in increasing reps.

I shoot for "perfect practice" of the technique and then I spend time after a set visualizing the technique -- because, after all, the theory here is that I am training the nervous system as much as building muscular endurance.

Push Up Strategy

I am going to make an earnest run at the push up goal.  I will do it in two steps.

Step One.  For the rest of the school year I am on the following protocol:

On Saturday, I work out with an Escalating Density routine.  The sets I am alternating are push-ups and kettle bell swings.  Starting right after the workout, I immediately start drastic overfeeding to get some hypertrophy.  A real winner is ice cream mixed with a scoop of whey protein.  For the entire day I go into a binge mode and eat something between 4,000 and 6,000 calories.

Sunday, I stack this up with seeing my grandmother for lunch and eating dinner at my mother's.  I eat more like 3,000 calories on Sunday.

Monday through Friday, I don't eat breakfast and for lunch I have two spoons of extra light tasting olive oil.  This being the Shangri-La Diet.  Around 3:30 I try to eat something very high in fiber and then I try to basically "be reasonable" with dinner -- leading to somewhere between 1,200 and 1,600 calories consumed on those days. 

The strategy here is build up some muscular infrastructure for more push ups.

Step Two: During the summer, I will be greasing the groove for push ups.  Most days, I'll stay in with the heat and organize my days into hours, doing some push ups each hour.  On the days that I need to rest from push ups, I could walk to the Bizzell library at OU in the morning and hang out there.

Also, I have a lot of weight to lose (*sigh, again*) and so I will be doing the Shangri-La lunch of two spoons of extra-light tasting olive oil every day and eat a nutrient-dense, yet restricted-calorie diet.  (I may take Sunday lightly "off" because I of the family visits, but I'm not looking to hit those really high calorie marks that I was looking for in step one.)

If I don't reach the goal of a set of 100 push ups by the end of summer, I will probably need to take a break from push ups, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.  But I think I have a good chance of getting to 100 push ups this summer.

Different Kinds of Push Ups

Push ups are one of my interests.

Improvised Workout . . . Again

Sometimes you just have to improvise.

My dad passed on Friday, so I have stayed the last two nights at my moms. 

I had planned on lifting on Friday, but it was certainly a case of life getting in the way.  Yesterday was a blur, with people coming to visit mom's house a time for depressed torpors.

Today, I decided to get some exercise.  First, I did some body weight stuff at my mom's -- push ups, glut raises, etc.  I find the hardest muscle to work this way to be my biceps.  Today I lifted first a basket with some potatoes, trying to use a slow cadence, but found that to not be quite enough, so I used my dad's air machine (sorry if that seems morbid).

Later in the day I went on to the Sutton Trails, planning on a lovely nature stroll.  Instead, when I followed a new side trail, I found a  new, lovely spot that opens up to the pond.  I also found a nearby tree branch that I know could work as a pull up bar.  I used it for hanging leg raises.  And I was just pleased to know that I never have to go to a gym, or even use my free weights, if I don't want to. 

The philosophy of this workout was based on a blog post on the site Critical MAS.  Like he reported, this workout kicked my butt, but I felt less guilty about all the over eating I continued to do today because, hey, you've got to feed the machine.

All of this really helped to clear my head.  Tomorrow is going to be a rough day since the body will be shown to family.  I needed today for sanity.

New Game: Yoga

When I combine my strength training to one day, I will need to put running more into the mix to have it so I workout every day.

I live in fear, therefore of injures and pain from over-training.  To correct this, I need to give myself an optional out.  On days that I feel like I can run, fine, do it -- it is great.  But on days that I my legs feel messed up, I will take up yoga.

I like, in fact love, the tai chi that I have done, but it doesn't really feel like a workout, so for now I am not going to count it as a workout.  I reserve the right to reverse this opinion, of course.  Most likely, I will combine moves from both and call it a flexibility-based-meditative workout day.  This might also be a good day to work in some more grip work

Here is  a vides of "full spectrum" yoga over at expert village:




Bonus: Since I look at Spanish content reasonably often, searches came up with this Spanish yoga channel.  I can look up a pose in English and see it reinforced, while practicing my Spanish.  Fantastic.



I appreciate how clear the diction is in this video.

How I Work Out Every Day

I am experimenting with working out every day.  This is probably a duh moment for most regular exercisers, but it is easier to form the exercise habit if it is every day.  I find myself also increasingly moving in the direction of running -- what seems to me, anecdotally, to be the exercise most able to get every day adherence.

For now here's what I currently do:

Strength A -- concentration curl, hanging leg raises, static holds to engage pecs

HIT training -- a Tabata set, mostly of jumping jacks, but some side jumps and grapevines

Strength B -- tricep kickback, one-hand planks, kettlebell swings. bridging

HIT training again, or a barefoot run in the greenbelt behind my house

And it goes in a cycle something like this.  I try to never repeat the same type of exercise two days in a row.  In two weeks, I will change the set of strength exercises I do, staying with them for 8 weeks, then changing again, all to prevent over training.

For strength training, I will go back to 15 minute blocks of Escalating Density Training, pairing antagonistic groups.

15 minute PR zone
hanging leg raises
bridges

rest 15

23 minute PR zone
push-ups
bench rows (with towel to make "fat bar")

The workout schedule, starting in two weeks:

M    run (or yoga, if fried or the outside sucks)
T     HIT
W    run (or yoga, if fried or the outside sucks)
Th   HIT
F       lift weights
Sat    run (or yoga, if fried or the outside sucks)
Sun   HIT

The running is for the joy of it.  I checked out the book ChiRunning from the library and am going to work on, noting similarities and differences between it and the Pose method.  It seems that the mechanics of running can work to lower injuries.  Also, since I have a bit of a diversified portfolio of exercises here, I think I minimize injury.

Get a Grip, I Say

In trying to work on strength first so I can a.) be better at building muscle and b.) more useful in real life situations I am taking to heart the advice to work on my core and my grip.  This started with me doing hanging leg raises.  I also read up on some other ideas.

The one I tried to add first was finger-tip push ups, but I discovered yet again that I am a weakling.  This doesn't really bother me, however, it just gives me more games to play during my breaks after I do any bit of intellectual work for 25 minutes.  

My new game is to do regular planks for a bit then take one hand and plant it by the finger tips and then the other and do the same and try to do a finger tip this finger-tip plank. 

Let's pretend I make no progress on this, it'd still be a wonderful way to prevent me moping around during the times it is just too dang hot to go out.  I will never get tired of writing about my revelation brought on by the pomodoro system -- 25 minutes of intellectual work/play and do something physical for 3-5 minutes.  Right now, when a timer goes off, I choose to do a grip and core training 5 days a week (one day doing the hanging leg raises, the next the plank protocol from this post) and then I clean or tidy something.

But in reality, there is progress.  It is measurable and thus it is a game.  It gives a lot of hits along the way and eventually I (probably) get to enjoy a great result.

Still a Weakling

The last two days I've been able to organize my time again with 25 minutes of some kind of intellectual play/work and then a few minutes of doing something physical that had to be done.  On the hour, I've been doing the hanging leg raises.

It's not really the leg raising that is killing me, but rather the hanging part.  Yup, I'm still pretty much a weakling . . .  but I have made progress and have faith that I will continue to.

Hanging Leg Raises (and Bridges)

I have been working on and off on the 1 set of 100 push ups since I began this my self-improvement journey in earnest.  But I'm still not close.  I think the biggest hang up is core strength, at least my abs are what hurts the first and the most when I am trying to get more push-ups in. I remember hearing Pavel Tsatsouline say that the best ways to be more functionally strong are grip strength and the core, so this prioritization makes sense on that level as well.

To work on both my pathetic grip strength and my core, I am going to the convict conditioning playbook and work hanging leg raises into my routine when I get back from Nationals (I leave tomorrow).  Also. I will start working on bridging.

Notes from a video:

• inhale on the negative
• exhale on the raise
• tightly pull in navel

Procrastination Chronicles #12 : Improvised Workout

On the path to greatness, there will be 100 overcomings.

I will chronicle my attempts to overcome procrastination.  My technique is to start small, really small.

My favorite post in the series is #3 Dealing with a Bunch of Crap.

==================

My diet and workouts have been stacked together thus:  5 days a week I do light exercise (walking or garden-work) and eat 1,200 calories (no breakfast, a very light lunch, and then a pretty substantial snack-and-dinner block), on the 6th day I do my weight training and then eat like crazy for two days.

Well, that's the plan, at least.  Yesterday I was eating a bunch before I worked out, which went against my protocol, then, when I thought was going to be able to work out stuff came up . . .  and kept coming up.

Then it became Sunday, which means it was time for family, starting with visiting my grandmother, and with that meant more offers of food.  What to do?

I am proud of my solution:  I improvised a workout.  I snuck away and did a set of push-ups.  Then I came and chatted a bit while watching tennis (the French Open final).  After a bit, I snuck away again and tried to work my arms by lifting the bed in the guest room, but noticed that in the stance I needed to be in my legs got the bulk of the workout, so I switched to a chair, but the necessary grip worked my abs.  Finally, I found a chair that I was able to lift using a row motion and thus got some decent reps for my biceps.  I wasn't able to figure anything (which after all wasn't mine to mess with) that I could use for a kettle bell swing motion, but other than that, it was a pretty good workout.  While grandma made lunch, I also did some air squats, bringing back memories of when I did them for an earlier fitness challenge.

The workout might not have been perfect, but at least it got done, which is one of the most powerful anti-procrastination tactics.  And maybe the workout helped work things in a new, helpful way.

I'm going to do some kettlebell swings now.

Walk to Work

It is well known that I love the site Early Retirement Extreme.

I wish I could do more of it.  For example, today I walked home from work.  It'd be nice to do that every day.  If it were feasible, I could get rid of a car (saving thousands of dollars in the process) and I'd be much more physically fit.  

Those thousands of dollars aren't exactly chicken feed.  Once my house is paid off, the biggest expense I will have will be transportation.  Or at least, this is true considering I do know how to cook and garden, and will continue to expand my skills over the summer.  In fact, I should get chickens and use those transportation costs as chicken feed.  

Anyway, I really could lower my yearly costs to something like $3,000-4,000.  Which I know sounds crazy, but I honestly believe holds up.  I'd be healthier, less cluttered, more spiritual, and possibly happier.  

And a cost basis like that makes it so much easier to find a way to achieve goals like active employment that pays my bills in 8 hours of work a week (because I am only half as smart as Tim Ferris, of course).  It also means I need a small fraction of the same reserves to have enough passive income to live off as well. 

That's enough talk about that.  For now, I'll just do what I can.

The Diet . . . Working

175.9

That was certainly pleasant to see.  I'm 25 pounds less than my cringe-inducing high.  

It's nice to see results with this diet of 5 days of calorie restriction, followed by lifting and 2 days of eating a bunch to fuel muscle growth (and the psychological benefit of getting to eat a bunch of good tasting stuff).

177

177.7, to be exact.

Well, for the first time since I was 201 pounds, I am now down to the weight where I used to start diets in my 20s.

This gives me some confidence on the "just eat less (6 days a week) plan."

But the goal on the bucket list isn't really weight.  It's body fat percentage.  So, theoretically, if I could gain 10 pounds of muscle that would still shift the body fat percentage more in my favor.  So while hitting that 177 mark is a milestone, I should keep my focus on the right things.

Furthermore, if I gained muscle, it should move up my resting metabolism, thus helping me to speed up fat loss.

The problem is that building muscle is a lot of work, and that takes a lot of calories.  So my solution is to go back to something I was doing during the summer, when I had more time to tinker with this stuff: lift on a day, eat huge that day and the next, and then do 5 days of some kind of restricted diet.  In this case the restricted diet will be 1,300 calories a day or less.  Add in plenty of light exercise like walking and gardening on those other five days, and we'll see what happens to my body fat percentage.

Slow Carb is Dead, Long Live the Diet

180.6

I'm off the slow carb diet.  At least the way I was doing it, it made me too spacey and cranky (bad combination).  I suppose I should have ate a lot more beans, and probably should have tried to re-experiment with fasting until 3:30.  Life and learn.

Two other factors: 1.) slow carb caused some friction with my wife about the places we could eat and what I could make for dinner and 2.) I have grown to hate most meats at most restaurants, so there was a gross out factor that kept plaguing me these last two weeks.  Trying to figure out what and where to eat with a brain not working right and getting increasingly frustrated with

I have in the past lost a lot of weight under the slow-carb rules, and so that was why I wanted to to do it again, but I have also lost weight simply going 6 days a week on 1,300 calories, and then a free day.  My numbers show the slow-carb diet was faster at getting weight loss, but quality of life has to play into this decision as well.

I really want to crack 177.  This is the weight at which I would usually start diets in college.  Several times that weight became my "wake up call."  When I weighed 200 pounds, I thought with sadness how long it would take to even get back to that number.  I think it would be great -- very motivating -- to be below that number again.   That's why I was willing to slow carb again, and even deal with a little pain.  But it was getting ridiculous, and I can't afford to be mean as a teacher or husband.

Slow Carb: After 1st Free Day

182

My new strategy is to go a little nuts . . .

Today I ate 4-5 almonds every hour, starting when I got to school.  This kept down hunger pretty well, something I noticed as a problem last week when I was trying to fast until 3:30.

I was also able to try to re-start greasing the groove for push-ups, something I had unfortunately let slide during the last part of the debate season.  By coupling the push-ups with the eating, I actually got it done.

Only 5 a set for, so I can get into the habit.

Slow Carb, Day 2

180.8

Wow.  It always amazes me when I get that initial burst of water-weight lost.  It also shows that I had been doing a better job treading-water on my weight than I had thought.  This gives me hope that after this month's slow carb push I might be able to keep my weight in a normal range simply "adjusting my relationship with food."

Todays' pre-dinner snack was chard from cooked in garlic and butter, followed by me using the same pan to fry two eggs with dandelions and onion greens . . . from the garden.

Slow Carb-ing Again. Day 1.

185.6 pounds

This time my slow carb experience is going to have several tweaks:

First, on my Sunday "free days" I will still not allow myself any simple sugars.  I have found that on weeks where my "free days" don't get to 4,000 calories, I lose weight quicker, which makes a lot of sense.  Without sugars my free days shouldn't spin out of control.

Secondly, my lunch is going to go back to "the set point" diet of two spoons of extra-light olive oil and then coffee.  (The coffee around the time of the oil might not be technically allowed, but I found that it was fine the last time I was doing the set-point diet).

Thirdly, I have a better at-home quantity of vegetables and foragable weeds than ever.  Today, I came home and made a huge salad of arugula leaves and flowers.  I made a delightful balsamic vinaigrette for it, with enough left over that I went casting about for more greens: making a second bowl-sized salad with clover and a bit more arugula.  Tomorrow, I can make a salad with lettuce and radish, or wilt chard greens, or soak enough mint to get enough leaves for a large salad.  This will be a lovely experiment in getting enough fiber.

A Slow-Carber Again

Now that the debate season is over, I am going to go back to the best method I have found for weight loss: the slow carb diet.

Starting Monday, I am going to go 6 days a week, basically with no carbs other than beans (this includes fruit. . . only vegetables).  Then one day I week, I am going to allow carbs into the diet.  However, since I am trying to have no refined sugar until next February, that will be out days.  So, just pasta and rice to fill the "free days."

I am going to try it for a month and see how it goes, with two months being my maximum until I switch into another procedure.

Next goal (probably) 100 push-ups in a set

These last 3 weeks all have had a tournament, so I haven't working out.  So now it's time to get back to that, with push ups.  Back to getting a lot of practice through greasing the groove.

I was able to get past the 200 squats goal by learning to control my breathing better. I can't do the same breathing with a push up.  It would seem I just need to actually get stronger.

It seems like this goal and paying off my house, and perhaps an coaching a state champion are in a race to be the next goal I can achieve.