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Log off and PT

Started by Stonewall, February 02, 2013, 06:45:29 PM

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TCMajor

As an over the hill washed up old Army Major, I absolutely hate what I have become.  I hit the elliptical machine for 45 minutes 3 times a week and treadmill for 30 minutes on the other days.   I still am at least 60 pounds too heavy.  Anger does not even begin to express how I feel about myself or my appearance in uniform. ( I do not wear the AF uniform, and have decided not to even wear the CAP uniform).  My appearance in these uniforms discredits the organization.  I will continue to push myself. While I am over 50, I believe it is no excuse for how I have let myself get.  So...stonewall, I am with you.  I will fix this thing I have become, or die in the process.   As a soldier, there is no other acceptable outcome.  Thanks for the inspiration.   
Major Kevin N. Harbison, CAP
Major, USA (RET)
Commander
Greater Nashua Composite Squadron

Stonewall

Sir,

I have been there and done that.  I've felt the anger and disappointment in myself and that helped fuel the fire that has put me where I am today.  Sometimes it takes someone to call you out, light a fire, or have that heart to heart with you. And sometimes you need to just look in the mirror and call yourself out.

All too often people respond to my "in your face" or otherwise aggressive approach to the issue of fitness and health.  I'm not backing down.  Take offense or take action, it's everyone's personal choice. But you never know how good it feels until you make the decision to change your lifestyle.
Serving since 1987.

Walkman

Yesterday (Saturday 2, Feb) my wife and I took two of our sons and did the "Tutu Run" (2.2 miles on 2/2 starting at 2pm). My wife and new cadet Spencer ran the course (beautiful winter scenery) and I walked with my 8-year old. It was a blast! Among those that raced with us were: Big Bird, a gorilla, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, a viking, a shark, 4 snowmen, 3 fairies, 2 Ninja Turtles, Darth Vader & Princess Leia and a clown. All wearing tutus!

My wife has been my inspiration for getting active again. She's lost over 80 pounds and has starting running 5Ks and is training for a triathalon this summer. Not bad for a 41 year old mother of 5!

I started going to these run events to support her, and now I'm hooked. So far every race/fun run we've been to is full of excited people smiling and having fun. And the cool part is that while you've got your standard super-athletic runners there that smoke the course, there are a ton of people covering the whole spectrum of body sizes and ages. Everyone is welcome and even if you're one of the last to finish, there are tons of cheers for you as you cross the line.

I've been eating healthy and working out every work day during lunch since 2 January and I've lost about 10 pounds (Monday is weigh-in). I feel great! I've got a long way to go, but I'm determined to keep it up.

Most of my workouts are simple. I started doing about 20 minutes on the treadmill and then did about 20 minutes of weightlifting. I was having trouble with shin pain, so I switched to the elliptical. Now I do about 45-50 minutes on that machine and I'm dripping with sweat. To pass the time I pop up a TV show on Netflix and watch on my iPhone.

Stonewall, you've also played a part in inspiring me to get healthy. Thanks for all your efforts.

Stonewall

8 Ball - Never Quit!

This IS important. For you, for your family, for those who know you.  You will inspire others to do the same, just as I have.  We do Wreaths Across America, lets start Fitness Across America.
Serving since 1987.

a2capt


johnnyb47

After reading your last threads about fitness and thinking about my own comments as to my uniform options I got myself back to the gym and eating right.
1000 calorie daily deficit.
1+ hour per day in the gym, 5 days per week. Elliptical and treadmill mostly. I spend 15 minutes lifting each trip.
I bought a fitbit and track my steps throughout the day and realized I've been WAY to sedentary.
I get up 3-4 times per day and take a walk around the outside of the building now. My goal is 10k steps per day.

All since the first of the year and I've already lost 15 lbs.

Cutting out all soda and severly limiting my adult beverage intake (3 since the beginning of January) has been a huge help.

Thanks for the inspiration!
Capt
Information Technology Officer
Communications Officer


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Devil Doc

I dieted about 2 months ago when Stonewall wrote his Original Thread, I dieted for a whole month, exercised, ate right, used my fitness pal. I got down to 236 pounds and stopped. I wasnt losing weight no matter what i did. I was also in pain everyday for running on the treadmill and extremely exhausted. I am still at 136, and fluctuate to 134 sometimes. I just cut out all the sweets, drink nothing but diet soda, gatorade, or Water. Which I found out a Good Ol' cup of Ice Water Taste Goode!!  I do However, go on every SAREX and Mission i can get my hands on to start losing this weight. If i tell you how much i weighed when i went into Boot Camp, you would be shocked   :o
Captain Brandon P. Smith CAP
Former HM3, U.S NAVY
Too many Awards, Achievments and Qualifications to list.


Stonewall

#27
Quote from: johnnyb47 on February 04, 2013, 03:37:29 PM
After reading your last threads about fitness and thinking about my own comments as to my uniform options I got myself back to the gym and eating right.
1000 calorie daily deficit.
1+ hour per day in the gym, 5 days per week. Elliptical and treadmill mostly. I spend 15 minutes lifting each trip.
I bought a fitbit and track my steps throughout the day and realized I've been WAY to sedentary.
I get up 3-4 times per day and take a walk around the outside of the building now. My goal is 10k steps per day.

All since the first of the year and I've already lost 15 lbs.

Cutting out all soda and severly limiting my adult beverage intake (3 since the beginning of January) has been a huge help.

Thanks for the inspiration!

Thank you, Johnny!

It's been a month for you, but I can tell you from experience that if your heart is in it, it actually becomes easier, especially when you start seeing results.  Junk food (all the bad stuff like fast food, sweets, nachos, etc.) is like crack cocaine, once you taste it, you always want it.  Fortunately, unlike crack, you can get the desires out of your system for all that junk.  My biggest challenge was learning the difference between what I thought was good (nutritionally) and what was actually good.  Take Gatorade for instance.  It "sounds" like it should be good for you, and in a way it is because it hydrates you, but only if you're working your butt off outside, sweating, and burning calories and depleting yourself of electrolytes.  But sitting at a desk (sedentary) and drinking Gatorade in lieu of Coke, is just as bad.  Sweet tea is not Coke, but it's sweet tea, i.e. a ton of SUGAR/CARBS, and that is what makes you fat.

Good on you, Johnny, for taking action.  Never Quit!

Quote from: Devil Doc on February 04, 2013, 05:38:07 PM
I dieted about 2 months ago when Stonewall wrote his Original Thread, I dieted for a whole month, exercised, ate right, used my fitness pal. I got down to 236 pounds and stopped. I wasnt losing weight no matter what i did. I was also in pain everyday for running on the treadmill and extremely exhausted. I am still at 236, and fluctuate to 234 sometimes. I just cut out all the sweets, drink nothing but diet soda, gatorade, or Water. Which I found out a Good Ol' cup of Ice Water Taste Goode!!  I do However, go on every SAREX and Mission i can get my hands on to start losing this weight. If i tell you how much i weighed when i went into Boot Camp, you would be shocked   :o

Read my post to Johnny reference Gatorade.  Also, fluctuating 2 to 5 pounds is just normal.  I vary  between 194 & 199 almost daily.  It's just natural. 

Going on SAREX's are great, but once or twice a month (that's still a lot) is not consistent exercise.  That's like saying PT at CAP meetings is helpful.  And finally, you can't just cut out everything, overnight, or forever.  That's just setting yourself up for failure. 

Everyone I talk to about this (in person) tells me a lot of the same stuff (I didn't lose weight after X, Y, and Z), but after careful observation over a period of time, I learn that they mostly just don't have a good understanding of nutrition; quantity, quality, calories, carbs, etc.  "But I brought my lunch which is much better than eating out."  Well, it depends.  Two PB&J sandwiches on white bread (bleached and refined) is just as bad as most fast food sandwiches with 4 slices of white bread and all the sugar in the jelly (340 calories and 45g of carbs per sandwich), and no, I can't eat just one!  Then you've got a small bag of Doritos, and some cheese & crackers.  By the time you're finished eating your "healthier homemade lunch", you're sitting at 1,000+ calories.  Trust me, I KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE.  I did the same thing.

Gatorade Coparison
20 oz Gatorade:  130 calories and 34g of Carbs
20 oz G2 (low cal Gatorade): 45 calories and 12g of Carbs

These things make a big difference at the end of the day.

While I drink Gatorade G2, I usually go for Powerade Zero (zero calories/carbs)

Choice is yours.  If you get an order of french fries (especially medium, large, or super size) with your meal more than once a week, you're probably making other poor food choices.
Serving since 1987.

isuhawkeye

I carried to torch a little further.  Today I did 1 hour of kettle bell  training burning 730 calories, then i ate ground turkey taco salads with flour tortilla lots of lettuce and tomato.  Followed that up with lots of water.  Good day so far. 

Ned

We all need to be fit, of course.  And frequent exercise is critical.

But exercise is not all that helpful if one's goal is to lose weight.  Losing weight is really about nutrition.

I am a bit of a runner, perhaps slightly more than some seniors.  My usual run is 11 miles or so in a little over 90 minutes.  According to my magic running computer, I burn about 1250 calories doing that.

By an amazing coincidence a Big Mac, medium fries, & medium Coke is almost exactly 1200 calories.

It takes me about two hours to run, cool down, shower, etc.  It takes me exactly 0.00 minutes to not eat a Big Mac and fries.

Clearly, it is much more efficient to not eat the junk in the first place rather than it is to try and "run it off" on the trail or treadmill.

(And a Big Mac is nowhere near the worst offender on the Mickey Dee's menu. )



(Today's lunch was salmon shioyaki, rice, a salad, and green tea.  Mmmm.)


johnnyb47

Quote from: Ned on February 04, 2013, 09:16:32 PM
We all need to be fit, of course.  And frequent exercise is critical.

But exercise is not all that helpful if one's goal is to lose weight.  Losing weight is really about nutrition.

I am a bit of a runner, perhaps slightly more than some seniors.  My usual run is 11 miles or so in a little over 90 minutes.  According to my magic running computer, I burn about 1250 calories doing that.

By an amazing coincidence a Big Mac, medium fries, & medium Coke is almost exactly 1200 calories.

It takes me about two hours to run, cool down, shower, etc.  It takes me exactly 0.00 minutes to not eat a Big Mac and fries.

Clearly, it is much more efficient to not eat the junk in the first place rather than it is to try and "run it off" on the trail or treadmill.

(And a Big Mac is nowhere near the worst offender on the Mickey Dee's menu. )



(Today's lunch was salmon shioyaki, rice, a salad, and green tea.  Mmmm.)
so... if I run 3 hours per day I can eat 2 big mac meals at dinner?  ;D
Diet coke, of course!

My problem isn't so much WHAT I eat as it is how MUCH I eat.
I freely admit that if not kept in check I would consume a perfectly balanced diet of meat, grains, fruits, vegetables and dairy....  for 3 people... daily.
I have an ailment to blame it on though. It's called, "Can'tDropTheForkIdis".
It's pretty common these days.

I'm changing that now though. Thankfully it hasn't been an entire life of woefully inadequate eating habits that got me here.
I did the bulk of this to myslef in the last few years.

I'm not making fun of anyone either. I'm just owning MY food issue for what it is.
MY food issue.
(Just wanted to be clear about that when other people read this mess of thoughts I let spill onto the internet)

EDIT: And I did the math in December and was SHOCKED at how much soda I drank. That helped kick the soda habit.
Capt
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Stonewall

Quote from: Ned on February 04, 2013, 09:16:32 PM
We all need to be fit, of course.  And frequent exercise is critical.

But exercise is not all that helpful if one's goal is to lose weight.  Losing weight is really about nutrition.

TRUTH!

After years of going to the gym regularly, I reached a point that it didn't matter what I did, I started packing on the pounds.  Call it a change in my metabolism or just plain getting old(er), whatever, I reached that point where I had to make a serious change.  That's when I figured out it's 80% diet/nutrition and at best, 20% exercise. Once I changed that part of my life, the weight fell off, especially with my active lifestyle and regular visits to the gym.

I think we, as a nation, have just become morbidly sedentary, so where we used to get enough exercise just by walking the dog, mowing the grass, or moving around at work, we no longer have that built in luxury.

I read recently that the average working American walks no more than 300 yards (3 football fields) a day.  This was outside of any planned/scheduled exercise.  I thought about it and for me, it could be true. 

If didn't make an effort, I would be way under 300 yards a day:

Morning: 15 feet to my car from the inside of my house, then about 25 feet from my car to my office.
Evening:  25 feet from my office to my car, then 15 feet from my car to inside my house.

Seriously, other than the walking I do inside my house, I could actually get away with walking 80 feet per day.  Fortunately, I make moving and walking a part of my daily routine at work.  But I could get away with A LOT less movement than I do on a regular basis.  I also, as I've made it abundantly clear, spend an hour a day working out, with a good 2/3 of that time doing cardio exercises.

300 yards a day, ladies and gentlemen...that's just bad.
Serving since 1987.

Devil Doc

What is wierd, i was 160 Pounds entering boot camp, 185 before i trained an went to Iraq? How? Cant tell ya, my base was in the desert so trust me we sweat, couldnt drink nothing but water, and did force marches. Quess my weight when i came home from Iraq? 190!! Ya, so that means i am 40-45 pounds heavier than my Active Duty Weight!!! Oh no!! BTW my fitness pal is great, but i would notice towards the end, i had a 1850 calorie intake. I would always be hungry and could not eat anymore because i was over calroies. OH NO!!
Captain Brandon P. Smith CAP
Former HM3, U.S NAVY
Too many Awards, Achievments and Qualifications to list.


ProdigalJim

My problem isn't, and has never been, weight. (In fact, 29 years ago when I was considered highly academically qualified for USMC PLC Air, I flunked the physical because I was too skinny.)

My cholesterol, on the other hand, was dangerously high until very recently, and I can slip above those levels in a heartbeat if I'm not careful.

Today I exercise 4, 5 or 6 days a week, hard. depending on my work and travel schedule. My biggest worry is those dietary "cheat days," which happen more often than I'd like. I'm not talking lack of willpower, instead I'm talking lack of options. Example: an evening work function in which the group is holding a working dinner at a steak and seafood place. I wind up eating three or four protein bars and picking at a very unsatisfying salad.

My biggest challenge is coming in May, when one of my sons is getting married. He's a professional gourmet chef. His fiancée is a pastry and desserts chef.

I'm doomed.
Jim Mathews, Lt. Col., CAP
VAWG/XP
My Mitchell Has Four Digits...

johnnyb47

Quote from: johnnyb47 on February 04, 2013, 03:37:29 PM
After reading your last threads about fitness and thinking about my own comments as to my uniform options I got myself back to the gym and eating right.
1000 calorie daily deficit.
1+ hour per day in the gym, 5 days per week. Elliptical and treadmill mostly. I spend 15 minutes lifting each trip.
I bought a fitbit and track my steps throughout the day and realized I've been WAY to sedentary.
I get up 3-4 times per day and take a walk around the outside of the building now. My goal is 10k steps per day.

All since the first of the year and I've already lost 15 lbs.

Cutting out all soda and severly limiting my adult beverage intake (3 since the beginning of January) has been a huge help.

Thanks for the inspiration!
*update for you, Stonewall*
I'm now down 20 lbs and my wife can wrap her arms all the way around me when we hug. :)
I'm half way to my goal weight already.
I expect the weight loss to become slower now that im getting used to the higher levels of activity and lower/better calorie intake but I'm ok with that.
As long as I see 2 lbs or more per moth I will reach my overall goal by Christmas!
5 more lbs and I will be able to start wearing my blues uniform again.

Thanks again for the push!
Capt
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Майор Хаткевич

I strarted lifting weights again about a week ago. Down 5 lbs already and I have a lot more energy.

Stonewall

Quote from: johnnyb47 on February 15, 2013, 04:16:25 PM
*update for you, Stonewall*
I'm now down 20 lbs and my wife can wrap her arms all the way around me when we hug. :)
I'm half way to my goal weight already.
I expect the weight loss to become slower now that im getting used to the higher levels of activity and lower/better calorie intake but I'm ok with that.
As long as I see 2 lbs or more per moth I will reach my overall goal by Christmas!
5 more lbs and I will be able to start wearing my blues uniform again.

Thanks again for the push!

You are welcome!  I am very proud of you!  Don't quit, ever!  This is the best gift you can ever give yourself AND your wife.

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of when I started keeping my workout log on facebook.  Before that, I kept a handwritten journal.  For me, it's not me showing off, it's me keeping myself honest.  Knowing that others can see (which I'm sure they ignore), I feel like it gives me that mental push to keep it up.

In 365 days I've worked out 251 times (4.8 times per week).

Today's anniversary workout included...

Quote from: Stonewall's workout log
5 mile run for 700 calories followed by...

4 sets:
4 dead hang pull-ups (working on these again)
15 suspended leg lifts
15 wide arm push-ups
24  cable swings @ 32 lbs (12 left side, 12 right)

BTW - this is how my facebook journal (my notes section) looks.
Serving since 1987.

johnnyb47

Impressive!
I only get 2 miles in on the elliptical and another mile or two on the treadmill each night (depending on if I'm running or not) and I'm sure it takes me a lot longer to do it.
Not really comparing though. Well, I'm comparing me NOW to me just a few months ago and I like that I can run a mile withough throwing up or passing out. :)
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Stonewall

Yesterday was the 300th workout I've logged since I started keeping track on Facebook in my Notes folder.  I often hide them from my timelime because they truly are for me, but I'm okay with sharing them.  Posting them is not an attempt at bragging; it's an attempt to keep me honest with myself.  While most people don't notice/care about my workouts, I'm confident I'd get a rash of poop from my friends if I stopped posting them.  <--this encourages me!

Some stats:
- I average 4.7 workouts a week
- Average workout is 46 minutes
- Average calories burned are 620 per workout (I mostly do cardio)
- I started logging workouts on February 13, 2012
- I've weighed <200 lbs for 3+ years - before that I was 235 lbs
- I have been actively going to a gym since November 1999
- My running shoes generally last 4 months
- I estimate my water intake at about 80 to 100 oz each day
- After recently tracking, I think my daily caloric intake is about 2,500
- I take a multi-vitamin, fish oil, glucosamine and chondroitin daily
- I scored 95, 96, 99, and 100 on my last 4 Air Force PT tests
- My average 1.5 mile run time has been 9:10 on my last 4 PT test runs
- My blood pressure was taken Saturday by a medic:  117/74

I'm 40 and hope I can keep it up for another 20+ years.
Serving since 1987.

SarDragon

Dave Bowles
Maj, CAP
AT1, USN Retired
50 Year Member
Mitchell Award (unnumbered)
C/WO, CAP, Ret