2020 Health & Fitness Thread

Accumulator said:
John U- Yikes! Hope that`s the end of that for this lifetime. Between the long time off and that I bet your first workout was kinda different from the norm.

jrock645- I guess I was referring to "bulking"/"cutting"/"lean bulk"/etc. more than the big changes like to/from Keto. That`s probably just me since I basically eat the same stuff day in day out for years and years with no real changes.

It`s also probably just me since I don`t really value variety and only eat stuff that I like..but I don`t get the "adherence" thing. Why not just eat (healthy) stuff you like, in the right quantities, all the time (other than the occasional cheat-day)? It seems to me that trying to stick to a diet that doesn`t completely satisfy you in all respects would be a losing battle long-term.

Again, all this "what`s up with.." stuff about diets is probably just my weirdness where food/drink is concerned and I don`t mean to sound critical. It`s been years since I`ve eaten the way I used to (i.e., "normally" with lots of beef/starchy carbs/etc.) and now I find it hard to believe I could ever eat like that..didn`t realize how much better I`d feel without such stuff.
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Well, i do eat healthy stuff i like. But eventually i break mentally from being 100% clean for so long and i give in to cravings for a cookie. Or a hamburger. Or, i get busy for a few days and i just get off routine with eating on schedule and skip meals and such and it just gets a tad sloppy. It never turns into an outright fall off the wagon for two weeks type of deal, but theres a definite difference in the mirror, on the scale and in measurements when im being 100% consistent vs only 75%.
 
jrock645- OK, you know yourself all right and we`re gonna do what we`re gonna do :D

I guess te cravings thing just doesn`t occur to me, even though my wife apparently experiences them too.

I`m a *little* surprised that a burger constitutes not eating clean (I still have two or more every Sat.) but if you can see diffs in the mirror then that`s that.

The last time I ate a cookie (well, it was more than one ;) but I sure didn`t pig out) I felt simply *awful* later, like a food-induced hangover. I`m just no longer used to eating such stuff, and that probably makes it easy for me to avoid it.

I sure understand the bit about scheduling meals and missing them when you`re busy with..life.

I guess I`m just surprised that those things actually do make a diff you can see, since I have to eat [the wrong stuff] in huge quantities for days for it to show, and even then nobody else ever notices it even when I`m trying to show `em. Heh heh, it`s like trying to show an non-Autopian swirls on a white car :D
 
Well, if im using 93% ground beef i actually use those in my meal planning to include hamburgers sometimes. But, if ive missed a meal and didnt prep or have my meal set aside for the day at work, its really easy to crack and make a burger using what we have- with 80/20 beef. That wrecks my daily deficit right there.

And thats the biggest thing in all this... running a deficit for so long, eventually the hunger just messes with your head and breaks you. The meal timing and eating low fat, voluminous meals with lots of veggies and fiber to make it filling requires a lot of forethought. Im at 2450 cals per day currently, with maintenance assumed to be around 3k based on the calculators. As cals go up, theres flexibility for some of this other stuff. But maintaining a daily deficit consistently, theres really not much room. I can occasionally squeeze in a package of reese cups to satisfy a sweet craving. Even at only 210 calories, i have to skip or modify something else. Thats the biggest part that wears on you. I cant stress enough that i like everything i eat, but sometimes i want pizza or tacos and i eventually cave.

And when that happens, the difference in the mirror is the least of it. Sometimes it just makes my chest appear thicker. But the scale and tape measure tell a different story. So to that end, going by the mirror is pointless and absolutely not reliable. Biggest thing ive learned with Menno, and even moreso now that Im doing his PT course, is doing this by the numbers- collecting and tracking relevant data and making decisions based off of that. Daily weigh ins and a spreadsheet that calculates a weekly average, and a % change from week to week, plus weekly waist and skinfold caliper measurements give the info needed to adjust accurately. Otherwise youre just guessing.
 
jrock645- Gotta admit that I`m glad I can get by with, well...guessing. Also that my big Cheats of the year (bday, Easter, winter Holidays) never amount to anything after a few months of back-to-normal. This is educational for me as I didn`t realize how carefully others must have to track such stuff.

Interesting that you watch the fat content of your burgers; we used to always go for the 93/7, but now just buy what`s on sale and even 70/30 works OK for me (but hey, I`m only eating ~1lb/week of it). Most of the extra fat seems to end up running off into the drip-pan, it appears really obvious that`s where it`s going since I can see the diff compared to something leaner (we cook `em in a Geo. Foreman).

I *AM* really glad to hear that you like everything you`re eating, that`s very important IMO. What about just keeping some MetRx bars/etc. around to subsitute for the Reeses (which I eat a scad of every Easter :D ). If I`m gonna be out/about for hours, I take one of those bars with me in case I get really hungry, but retirement does make the whole thing really easy for me.

Here`re a few, uhm...provocative-sounding?...Qs, which I sure don`t want coming across badly (I seem to worry about that a lot on this thread and that`s probably a clue that I`m being more of a [jerk] than I intend :o ).

What`s *wrong* with just going by the mirror and how you feel? Like, if you looked uhm...magazine-ready...would you care what the objective measurements said? After tracking my bf weekly for *years* I now look back and wonder why I bothered.

Do you plan to keep watching the calories/etc. that closely forever? It sounds like a lot of work, or at least like having it on you mind a lot.

Eh, a huge part of why I`m wondering is that I think I`d go nuts if I had to really *think* about this stuff all the time.
 
Well the point here is tracking progress so i know where to put my calories. Dont wanna gain or lose too quickly or youre gaining or losing the wrong stuff.

As far as tracking bf%... i dont. My waist measurements and skinfold caliper measures are for tracking progress and to tell me if im moving in the right direction. I have a bf scale but pay no attention to that rrading because theyre not accurate. And im not gonna pay for a dexa more than once in a blue moon, like i just did.

Will i track all this forever? Probably not. And as far as the #’s go, in terms of if i actually looked magazine ready, no i woulsnt care- but theyre relevant information used in the process to get there.

The going by the mirror and how you feel thing is just bogus to me. Feelings usually cant be trusted, unless theres actual data to support it.
 
Since Covid started and we quit eating out with car & bicycling clubs, I’ve lost 25 lbs. My wife has made oatmeal for breakfast for years. We now have the main meal for lunch. For dinner, yogurt with fruit and granola.
When we do dine out the meal is always split.
The less I eat, the less I garbage = less weight.
 
jrock645- I`m probably in that "magazine ready" condition for my age...or at least I look a lot better than Dolph Lundgren did in the last M&F feature on "how he`s staying so in-shape" (I`m now 60, he was 57 IIRC...He`s a great bogey for me given our similar ages and how impressive I found him back in the `80s.) At 60 I`m not as good as Clarence Bass was at that age, but overall I`m comparable enough that a side-by-side wouldn`t embarrass me, and he treated his 60th as a real contest prep whereas I just quit eating Denny`s.

I agree about going by "feelings" and IMO most people think they`re a lot leaner than they are. And yeah, my wife`s Tanita scale has zero correlation with real bf test results.

But with the "how I look in the mirror" I`m confident it`s close enough to be reasonably objective; I *never* saw striations/vascularity on my abs unless my bf was under 10% and I`m OK with just staying in the single-digits. Actually, the definition in my lowermost abs (the "8-10 pack vs. 6 pack" difference) and Inner Obliques is better now than it ever was before, even when I was too lean for Real Life (under 5% = not good for me). Sure not as lean as I`ve been, but the improved definition gives (what I consider) the illusion of it.

If I can just stay the way I am now, I`ll be perfectly satisfied...though I`m sure trying to keep improving!
 
John U- Eating the bigger meal earlier works well for a lot of people, sounds like it`s working well for you too. That`s an impressive diff, 25lbs!

Yeah, just eating at home can make a big diff all right. If you never eat [crap] you`re a lot less likely to gain bodyfat.
 
Accumulator said:
jrock645-I agree about going by "feelings" and IMO most people think they`re a lot leaner than they are...
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That`s been bugging me ever since I posted it...want to add that OTOH, I absolutely do believe that people oughta feel good, healthy, and *happy* pretty much all the time. If I don`t feel like I can walk through walls, if I don`t basically feel like Life is simply a wonderful, then that`s a clue that something is seriously wrong.
 
jrock645- I *still* haven`t put Planks into the rotation :o

Now that you`re doing the Menno routines, I gather you`re not doing any ab/core work. Notice any downsides to no longer doing the Planks?

As I`ve posted before, even one week without my usual core work has downsides for me. That`s already plenty of work for that, but I still think about the Planks...maybe I`m looking for an excuse to not add them and hoping you`ll say it doesn`t matter that you quit `em.
 
Accumulator said:
If I don`t feel like I can walk through walls, if I don`t basically feel like Life is simply a wonderful, then that`s a clue that something is seriously wrong.
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That where optimum mental health comes in and like the body, the mind and emotions also need exercising.
 
Accumulator said:
jrock645- I *still* haven`t put Planks into the rotation :o

Now that you`re doing the Menno routines, I gather you`re not doing any ab/core work. Notice any downsides to no longer doing the Planks?

As I`ve posted before, even one week without my usual core work has downsides for me. That`s already plenty of work for that, but I still think about the Planks...maybe I`m looking for an excuse to not add them and hoping you`ll say it doesn`t matter that you quit `em.
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If you don`t feel like you`re missing out, I wouldn`t worry about them. Menno had no core work whatsoever in my program. I add a set or two of something after some of my workouts now but that`s just because I feel like it. Truth it, direct core work doesn`t do that much. You get so much more from the heavy compound movements and making your core do what it`s actually intended to do- stabilize your body under load. He certainly had me doing planks during at home workouts, though, since a lot of the usual stuff was off the table. having me me my arms/elbows further and further away really made them challenging
 
jrock645 said:
If you don`t feel like you`re missing out, I wouldn`t worry about them...
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Well, heh heh..I do`t always *know* that I`m missing out, can`t really know for sure until I try something for months, just don`t want to waste my time/energy.

E.g., I didn`t think I was missing out by *not* doing a whole lot of frequent, high-rep Core work, and I was sure wrong about that.

.. Truth it, direct core work doesn`t do that much. You get so much more from the heavy compound movements and making your core do what it`s actually intended to do- stabilize your body under load.
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But that`s the thing, my first-hand experience has been completely different. It`s been utterly transformative for me even though I was good before. Yeah, it took 6-8 months, but *wow* how I`ve improved what was already really good. I was stuck at "just a good 6-pack" for decades!

Eh, *so much* of what works great for me flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but there`s no arguing with results that`re obvious.

I guess I`m just surprised that not doing that Core work hasn`t cost you definition/etc. I start visibly degrading in that sense *fast* if I skip a single one of my Core movements (tried it, figuring any improvement was just from not eating at Denny`s, which was *wrong*)...wondered if adding the Planks might make things even better.
 
Heh heh, this thread is dying of neglect.

I had a couple-week setback over a tick bite, but I saw it as a (force :o ) lay-off, and of course it didn`t really matter.

Also, I haven`t had the time to do as much (treadmill) hiking as I`d like...just can`t spend an hour or so walking to nowhere very often. I do miss that, almost as much as I miss the dog-outings (which is still probably less then *they* miss them).

I`ve decided that I`m *now* (finally) at the point I wanted to be about 17 months ago: dialed-in well enough that OK I can just keep doing this. Hard for me to believe how significant it is to *not* eat those Denny`s bfasts, but then they were one of only 3 less-than-optimal meals/week and that`s a big %.

The daily (yes, *daily) Roman Chair Let Raises are working *great* for the lowermost portion of my abs. Pavel`s "grease the groove" approach...glad I started doing those, wish I`d stared earlier.

I`m setting the next goalpost at age 65; over the next ~40 months I`ll fine-tune things and hit 65 just the way I want to. (Says the guy who`d planned to do that for 60 :o )
 
So...

Bill D- Are you still walking regularly? Have I convinced you to start with the Resistance Training yet?

jrock645- How are YOU doing these days? Whose training regimen are you following...Menno`s? Are you still *not* working your core? How`s the HRT working out, is it affecting your BF% yet?

I sure find it interesting how you and I are always on pretty much *completely* different diet/training regimens! Just hope you`re as satisfied with your results as I am with mine.

John U- Are you still riding your bikes even without the Biking Club?
 
I still walk for four miles every day. Tomorrow I’ll be at it again. I have weights that I can use to do a little bit of training but haven’t started yet.
 
Accumulator said:
Heh heh, this thread is dying of neglect.

I had a couple-week setback over a tick bite, but I saw it as a (force :o ) lay-off, and of course it didn`t really matter.

Also, I haven`t had the time to do as much (treadmill) hiking as I`d like...just can`t spend an hour or so walking to nowhere very often. I do miss that, almost as much as I miss the dog-outings (which is still probably less then *they* miss them).

I`ve decided that I`m *now* (finally) at the point I wanted to be about 17 months ago: dialed-in well enough that OK I can just keep doing this. Hard for me to believe how significant it is to *not* eat those Denny`s bfasts, but then they were one of only 3 less-than-optimal meals/week and that`s a big %.

The daily (yes, *daily) Roman Chair Let Raises are working *great* for the lowermost portion of my abs. Pavel`s "grease the groove" approach...glad I started doing those, wish I`d stared earlier.

I`m setting the next goalpost at age 65; over the next ~40 months I`ll fine-tune things and hit 65 just the way I want to. (Says the guy who`d planned to do that for 60 :o )
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Glad to hear you have are continuing with your workouts. I have not returned to the gym yet, and am only doing some `brisk` walking a few days a week.

I turn 59 in a few weeks, and I have been telling myself that I will be in better shape for my speed-limit B-Day next year! I really need to start lifting some weights - planning to start with Plate workouts, then move on to real stuff. And back to the stair machines too - I can`t believe how out of breath I am after going up a few floors at work.

I did not get the full Covid 19 (pounds), but did put back on the weight I had lost from the end of last year.
 
Bill D- Man I *so* envy you the time for that! Four miles would take me well over an hour that I just can`t spare. Guess that`ll be easier (somehow) when our dog situation gets closer to normal...at least I`ll be walking a lot more if not doing it as vigorously as on the treadmill.

mc2hill- Hey, you`re taking the crucial steps of recognizing that you need to do something and formulating a plan! As you probably noted, I just turned 60 this spring so I`m right there on the same page as you age-wise :D

Yeah, if climbing stairs IRL gets ya winded, getting back to some kind of stair machine oughta be the ticket. Easy for me to say with the Stairmaster in the basement...the pandemic`s gotta be *murder* on everybody who goes to a gym and I sure sympathize with that.

Heh heh, with one year until your 60th, you`ve really put yourself under the gun! I spent ~3 years droping ~3lbs of bodyfat, and here I am whining about how I hit my goal all those months late :o I always find that lasting change takes me forever, but maybe you can do better :D
 
Gee, where`s jrock645? I want to know whether the HRT made a big diff....and to hear about whatever training program he`s on now.
 
My walk consistently takes me an hour and five minutes. Wish I could shave more time off that but I’m not going to begin mixing jogging with my walking
 
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