Hmpf. Somewhere along the line I must have messed up my count. I went back to the calendar and counted, and this is actually Week 51 of My Fat Struggle. I'm not energetic enough to go back and find the error, but I am interested enough to re-cast the final week of this year-long thang, so here comes Week 51: Approaching The Year Without Fat.
Week 51: Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Walking: 7 mile Mall Walk.
Exercise: 62 Schwinn minutes (31:04 / 668 / 64 and 31:04 / 667 / 64, so not the fastest pace, but a respectable 1335 "calories burned"--and I had to do it shortly after the Mall Walk, as I knew I wouldn't have time later on.
And LWs. I have increased several things in the warm-up phase, though, so it now looks like this:
Push-Ups Planks Ab Stretches
Wing Stretches 20 Four Count 25 1:15 22
Standing Hamstring Stretch 3X2/30" 20 1:02 22
Standing Quad Stretch 3/30" 20 1:02 22
Toe Touches 20 Four Count 20 1:02 25
Total: 85 4:21 91
My pedometer says that I've burned 1,315 calories today. That's a spicy meatball.
Oh . . . I ate pretty decently today, but I didn't keep track. Still not up for that, sorry to say.
Week 51: Wednesday, February 7, 2018
My heel has been bothering me a little bit lately. Not a big deal, but I thought that giving it a rest from Mall Walking for a day or two might be a good idea. So I did.
Exercise: Schwinn 62 (328/65, 334/65, 336/65, 382/66 = 1380, which I think is pretty good) and HWs. Pushed on the Ab Stretches a little bit (to 23/23/23/26) and got them up to 95. Of course I'm now thinking, "I could probably put that up to an even 100." The push-ups at 85 seems pretty close to the limit for the nonce, though. It's a lot harder than the previous 25/18/18/19=80 . . . oh, wait a minute. Of course it's a lot harder, that's 15 more push-ups. I'm going to try to keep it up there, though.
I was really disappointed when I stepped on the scales after exercising, though, as it was showing 189.2 lbs. That's not good. Further evidence of the efficacy of exercise when you're not being careful about what you eat.
That said . . . I'm still not ready to start counting. But I am going to try to start weighing.
Week 51: Thursday, February 8, 2018
Week 51: Wednesday, February 7, 2018
My heel has been bothering me a little bit lately. Not a big deal, but I thought that giving it a rest from Mall Walking for a day or two might be a good idea. So I did.
Exercise: Schwinn 62 (328/65, 334/65, 336/65, 382/66 = 1380, which I think is pretty good) and HWs. Pushed on the Ab Stretches a little bit (to 23/23/23/26) and got them up to 95. Of course I'm now thinking, "I could probably put that up to an even 100." The push-ups at 85 seems pretty close to the limit for the nonce, though. It's a lot harder than the previous 25/18/18/19=80 . . . oh, wait a minute. Of course it's a lot harder, that's 15 more push-ups. I'm going to try to keep it up there, though.
I was really disappointed when I stepped on the scales after exercising, though, as it was showing 189.2 lbs. That's not good. Further evidence of the efficacy of exercise when you're not being careful about what you eat.
That said . . . I'm still not ready to start counting. But I am going to try to start weighing.
Week 51: Thursday, February 8, 2018
Pat was ready for some Mall Walking action, so we did that this morning. Just a 4 mile stint. Got home and realized that it would be best if I just went ahead and did my Schwinning pretty much right away, so I did. It was hard, but I made it through all the warm-ups and 62 straight biking minutes (at a somewhat modest 1287 / 63, but still, not too bad considering it was early and I'd just finished walking four miles less than an hour earlier). Didn't have time to do the LWs . . . and kind of thinking I might need to have a rest from that, as my arm muscles were feeling pretty tight when I did my push-ups and planks this morning. Always a hard call, though. Sometimes a day off really helps, sometimes it just seems to put me behind. We'll see how it goes.
Thought about tracking my calories today, but lost interest shortly after breakfast. I did weight myself after exercising. Can't remember what it was, but I know that it was less than yesterday but not where I wanted to be . . . something like 188 or so, I think.
Week 51: Friday, February 9, 2018
Week 51: Friday, February 9, 2018
Exercise: Today was another of those Testament to Determination Days. I as feeling physically shitty . . . possibly as a result of drinking six shots of whiskey Thursday night . . . and I hadn't slept well, and (big surprise) was feeling kind of depressed and wondering why at the age of 60 I was working so hard to keep my body in shape when it obviously didn't matter even a little tiny bit, and telling myself that I should probably just go back to eating whatever the hell I wanted to eat and hey, going back to smoking might not be such a bad idea, either. And at the very least I was planning on not doing any exercise at all . . . beyond the mile I walked with Jacqueline in the morning . . . . Then I started thinking about driving to Elizabethtown Saturday morning and that reminded me of the time that Clare and I were driving back from Quincy, Illinois (after visiting her father and step-mother), and I hadn't been able to get in a good bike ride in several days, and my legs began to cramp up so badly that I had to pull off the road, lie down in the back seat, and suffer pretty serious pain (and I am a man who has had over a dozen kidney stones, so I do know some pain and how to take it) while Clare drove us back to Louisville. So I decided I'd just do the Schwinn. But I knew I had to do some stretching first, so I started on that. And decided what the heck, I'll just do one set of push-ups. And just one set of ab stretchers. But the first set of push-ups is the hardest (and the mostest--25), so when I came back around I thought, I'll just go ahead and do the second set (of a mere 20). And that felt okay, so I thought, I'm almost halfway through the warm-up cycle, so I might as well just go ahead and do the whole thing. So I did. Then I got on the bike and thought I'd do a 15 minute set and see how that felt, see if I wanted to go ahead and do a full 62 straight minutes or not. And the 15 minutes felt pretty good, but I stopped and did the first part of the LWs, just to stretch out the muscles. And that went okay, so I got back on the Schwinn and did another 15 minutes, then stopped and did the other three sets of the LWs. Back to Schwinn, 15 minutes. 50 sit-ups. 17 minutes to finish the Schwinn routine. Came out to 328 / 65, 331 / 65, 336 / 65, and 398 / 67, for a total of 1393 "calories burned." Which is not bad at all. I was also heartened to see that I had actually picked up a little speed on each set. Especially the fourth set, which usually is not quite up there. So there it is: on a shitty day with close to zero motivation, I ended up doing a whole routine. Albeit the Light Weight Day set, but still, I'm not all that sure that that's really an easier time of it than the Heavy Weight Day. Neither one is a piece of cake, at least.
And I felt a little better about myself and everything.
And tomorrow is another day.
Week 51: Saturday, February 10, 2018
Pride cometh before a fall, indeed. After all of that chortling yesterday, I didn't do much of anything today. Joe had a basketball tournament in Elizabethtown so I left home around 9:30 a.m. And his team won the first game, so then there was another. Didn't get back home until about 4 p.m., and hadn't had a thing to eat, so I did that. And then . . . the kids came back, and I just didn't have it in me. Jacqueline and I did walk a couple of miles at the Middle School where the tournament was held, though, so at least that's a little something something.
Week 51: Sunday, February 11, 2018
Exercise: 62 Schwinn (327 / 65, 326 / 65, 329 / 65, 388 / 66) and the full-on HWs. No chortling.
Week 51: Monday, February 12, 2018
Exercise:
Warm-Up:
20 wing stretches / 25 push-ups / 23 ab stretches
20 leg stretches / 20 push-ups / 23 ab stretches
20 calf stretches / 20 push-ups / 23 ab stretches
20 toe touches / 20 push-ups / 26 ab stretches
85 push-ups / 95 ab stretches
Schwinn and LWs: 15:04 / 314 / 64; 20 curls, press, toe raises, rowing, twists with 15 pound dumbbells; 15:04 / 324 / 64; 15 / 10 / 5 curls, press, toe raises, rowing, twists with 15 pound dumbbells; 15:04 / 298 / 61--had a phone call . . . makes a bit of a difference, doesn't it?--; 50 sit-ups; 17:05 / 386 / 66.
So that was a nice little canter.
Week 52: Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Wasn't really in the mood for early exercising today, but wanted to clear space in case I felt like doing something tonight, so I girded up my loins and got down to it. The lack of 24 hour recovery time was most definitely felt, but I still managed to do the full program for HW day and 62 Schwinn minutes . . . and a pretty decent clip as well: 15:04 / 347 / 66; 15:07 / 345 / 66; 15:04 / 341 / 66; 17:04 / 399 / 67. . . which makes a grand total of 1,432 "calories burned," which is actually quite good. So there you have it. Evening's free.
Week 52: Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Week 52: Thursday, February 15, 2018
62 Schwinn and HWs. Not just some of it, all of it.
Week 52: Friday, February 16, 2018
5 mile Mall Walk. 62 Schwinn minutes and LWs. Skipped the push-ups and ab stretches, though.
Week 52: Saturday, February 17, 2018
Might have been last night's interrupted sleep. Might have been the Focalin I took this morning. Might have been Black Panther hangover. Might have been one too many cups of coffee. But I surely did not feel like exercising when I got home from everything (around 4:30 p.m.). So I ate dinner. Waited until 6:30. Felt even less like exercising, but thought I would see if I could do anything at all. So one step at a time. 20 wing stretches. √ 25 push-ups. √ 1:12 plank time. √ 23 ab stretches. √ 3X30" leg stretches. √ 20 push-ups. √ 1:02 plank time. √ 23 ab stretches. 3X30" calf stretches. √ 20 push-ups. √ 1:02 plank time. 23 ab stretches. √ 20 toe touches. √ And it was right there that it hit me: not enough water. Between rushing out to see the movie before lunch, going from there to drop the kids off to Jo Ann, then over to Heine Brothers to meet Jim, I'd only had about 2 glasses of water all day. And I always pay for it when I don't drink enough water. So I paused for a little liquid before proceeding. Then: 20 push-ups. √ 1:02 plank time. √ 26 ab stretches. √ 30 twists with 15 lb dumbbell. 15:04 minutes of Schwinning (340 / 66) . . . about halfway through I really wanted to quit, but I told myself that if I just hung in there that the second set would probably feel really good to me--the leg muscles have been feeling a little twitchy today, probably because I did a kind of light set yesterday, and the second set of 15 minutes always feels better than the first . . . so I got through that. √ And then 20 lateral raises and 20 supine French curls with the 15 lb dumbbells, followed by 30 bench presses with the 20 lbs dumbbells. √ Then back to Schwinn. And this one did feel better--and I was able to push it a bit more, too: same 15:04, but 362 / 68 this time around. Which made me break a really big sweat. √ 30 more bench presses with the 20 lb dumbbells, which felt good. The second and third set of bench presses always go MUCH better than the first set, which tends to be a bit of a strain. I guess the muscles warm up . . . plus there's a bit more distance between the push-ups and planks, which do put quite a strain on the shoulder muscles, after all. So √ there as well. Then a pause for a phone chat with Joe, which helped me to catch my breath and get a few more gulps of water in me. Thought pretty hard about quitting at that point, but decided to push for a little bit more. Joe is quite a talking bunny, though, and I knew I wouldn't be able to hear him if I got onto the Schwinn, so I did my third set of 30 bench presses with the 20 lb dumbbells, then a set of 20 leg raises. √ Joe was still going, so I went ahead and did my 20 lb dumbbell round of 20 curls, 20 rowing, 20 shoulder rolls, 20 presses, and 20 toe raises. √ Then Joe had better things to do, so I went back to see if I had another Schwinn session in me. I did: though at the slightly reduced rate of 332 / 65 (same 15:04 again). Still not so bad, though. √ Concentration curls with 15 lb dumbbells, 3 sets. √ So only one more set of Schwinning to make it a complete set. REALLY didn't feel like doing it . . . but thought I'd just give it a light hit. And? Our survey says . . . 17:06 / 384 / 66 . . . which is especially noteworthy in that the last set tends to be the slowest set, for one thing because it's the last set, for another because the last two minutes are at least nominally my "cool down" time, so it tends to lower the average rpms on that set. So √, √, and √ man. I did it! Huzzah.
Week 52: Sunday, February 18, 2018
Well . . . not so much today. Church, then Opera, and by the time I got home and fixed dinner, it was all over.
Week 52: Monday, February 19, 2018
So even though I felt pretty shitty today and didn't have a lot of time, I managed to do a full 62 Schwinn minutes and all of the LWs. Only did half of the push-up / plank / ab stretches, though, but that was more a lack of time. Okay, that's not true. I just didn't want to face it plus didn't have time. And I have time NOW, but I don't have it in me at all. So there's that.
And Week 52 ends, then, not with a bang, but a whimper. Sometimes it just bes like that.
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