April 12th, 2012: Beat down another pound, so I’m 283, and the scale didn’t waffle back and forth on the tenths decimal place today. 67 lbs. lost in 102 days. The ratio sure did spread, but hey, all I care about is that total downward trend. Tallahassee says: Rule #1 Cardio. Not only for zombie protection, but for reliably backing up your diet.
I’ve started to get the comments about the weight loss. “How are you doing it?” is the most common. At first, I’d just reply with, “Just parking a little further out in the parking lot.” I have gradually let people in on the program as the success has become more evident. A little secret here and there…
What I find incredible is that people I work with, and other family members (not my immediate family) have started on their own programs, but not one other person would ever do what I’m doing, or even ask me! That is so weird how human nature is, isn’t it.
Like I’ve said, and I’ll say it again, I have a long ways to go – but how is it that the other people around me see that success and will not get on board with that. They’re still trying these other things. I know this isn’t the only way to lose weight. But hell, it’s seems like a no-brainer to at least give it a try.
If I had personally known anyone else who’d had a 67 lb. loss in this same time period and never had too many setbacks, I’d have tried that program. Is it a pride thing? I have no more pride here, so I never fear asking questions or appearing dumb. And I’ve reached an age where I gotta get over that with everything anyway. I don’t want to say that its a competition between people, because that’s not how I feel. I’m in competition with myself alone. But hey, since I’m here, I guess I can just let my weight graph speak for itself, and sit back to see who’ll make it in the long run.
April 12, 2020: Today is Easter Sunday. So many bad memories of holiday binges and falling off the wagon right around now. So much crap to eat sitting around, so few thoughts of the true meaning of the day. And what is the point of the hard-boiled eggs? Eat a few of those so you feel like you’re being a little healthy, and then sit around all afternoon and let silent egg farts? Blame the fuckin dog and then go scoop some jelly beans from the bowl. We’re socially isolated due to that goddamn virus, but we’ll have some fun for little Will anyway. Juliana makes him treasure hunt maps to find eggs. He loves it.
Alright then, so back to the task at hand – vaguely describing my answers to the fundamental exercise questions from April 8th. The last, and unofficial question I have to answer for myself is what exactly should I do when I do exercise?
I do consider the literature, and I would and have followed more specific plans when I was training for an endurance event or a fight. Now, however, my main purpose with exercise is to #1, stay in shape, and #2, feel good. I’m actually not sure which one is number 1, which is number 2. I don’t drink anymore or smoke pot or do any of those fun drugs, so I have to have something to alleviate stress, which is what exercise does. Ok, I’m starting to rabbit-trail, back to the point.
Zombieland Rule #1 – Cardio. I do cardio every single day. I start every workout with cardio so I don’t run out of time, energy, or ambition if I do some other type of exercise first. 45 minutes of cardio followed by 15 minutes of resistance training every day works just fine for me – at age 45. My cardio is usually the stairmaster, my resistance training machines, with some dumbbell work here and there.
Bench press and squats – I hope I can avoid them for the rest of my life. The joint issues they’ve given me have not been worth any benefits, the cost of them is too high, even though I used to love them. Low reps don’t do much for me either – I try for 4 sets of 15-25 reps, or 100 more or less continuous reps.
Fairly simple and general, but proven effective for me to address the two main purposes of exercise. I learned that the more basic I keep it, the better I do. However, I’m not gonna say that trying new exercises isn’t important. Keeping your muscles confused and brain adapting is essential, you’ve got to avoid boredom.
