Monday, March 01, 2010

March 1st: This Black Belt is now 52!

Lets do the numbers. I'm 52 years of age and I'd like to be in shape to be very active in all my sparing matches, pump out pushups with confidence, and be 5 pounds lighter by the end of the month.  (The end-of-the-month weight goal coincides with a dojo start-of-the-year 90 day fitness challenge.)  I've been doing a lot of what I should do to lose weight but it's not quite enough. On the good side, I've been  running regularly and doing some longer (45 minutes) cardio sessions on the eliptical.  Saturday, 2 miles. Sunday, 45 minutes on the eliptical. Monday morning, 2.5 miles. 

But I continue to lack discipline and commitment when faced with goodies. Today for instance, there was a birthday cake in the office in my honor. I indulged.  And another cake at home after dinner. Again, I ate. Yum. In fact, I might grab a piece before bed. 
About a month ago, I was on track for doing the 100 pushups in four sets of twenty five. But, having hurt my shoulder, I've now been off pushups for a month with more time-off seeming likely. Prognosis unlikely that I'll pound through the pushup part of the test the way I'd like.

There's a good liklihood that I'll make my 14 minute two miles. But less of a chance that I'll improve my cardio in the ring. That problem has much to do with my style and staying relaxed.  Progress in that area is steady but very slow.  But I'll work at it. 

Will I get back down under 190 this month? Will I break that silly 14:00 two-mile barrier?   Stay tuned. My new Ipod should make working out a little more fun and perhaps, that's all I needed.

4 comments:

Sue C said...

Happy Birthday. Stay young!

Rich Holmes said...

Happpy (belated) birthday from this 54 year old brown belt!

Like you, I decided in January to lose some weight -- I decided I'd like to be 15 pounds lighter. After 2 years in the dojo I knew exercise alone wasn't doing enough for my weight. I needed to change my diet.

I believe success in weight management, like success in martial arts, requires discipline and commitment. For 6 weeks now I've been recording calories, carbs, protein, and fat for everything I eat in a pocket notebook, transcribing them to a spreadsheet, adding them up, and aiming for particular goals each day. I'm down 12 pounds now. Just a few pounds left to go, and then it's on to the next phase: keeping those pounds off, by continuing to track my diet and meet my goals.

A book I strongly recommend is "The Diet Docs'® Guide to Permanent Weight Loss: Secrets to Metabolic Transformation" (http://www.amazon.com/Diet-Docs%C2%AE-Guide-Permanent-Weight/dp/0736924655/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264102808&sr=8-1). I'm pretty much following their advice, though I've reduced the protein goal a little. Really their program amounts to "eat x, y, and z amounts of carbs, protein, and fat each day" but the book gives a lot of insight into what goes on in metabolism and why certain diet strategies succeed or fail. Understanding is, I think, a great motivator.

Good luck with all your goals!

Steve said...

Happy birthday.

Science of Fights said...

I admire your accomplishments.

Belated happy birthday to you!