Archive for Nutrition

Goals

So, I’ve obviously not kept up the food and exercise log.  Tracking everything you eat is much harder than it seems.

Okay, so what’s been going on?  Food wise I think it’s been much the same as before.  I have lowered the amount of dairy I’ve been consuming however it’s still there.  Scale weight hasn’t changed actually.  Measured in at 93.1kg today which is exactly the same as a month ago.  It’s fluctuated a kilo or so in the last month but it pretty much looks the same.  I’ve been going to Crossfit apart from this last week, which I’ve had off, for two reasons :- We had quests stay with us and I was up late entertaining, had a bit to drink a couple of night too.  The second is that the wife and I had our first child four weeks ago and I’m just not getting enough sleep.  Crossfit five days a week is tough without enough sleep.  I really needed a break and I’m glad I took the week off.  Enough of the excuses, here’s the plan:

I’ve been thinking a lot about what my goals are.  I think some clear goals as to what I’m working towards might be beneficial.

Long term.

Do the Crossfit WODs as rx’d.

Advanced level on the Athletic Skills Levels.

Competence at the basic gymnastic skills.  Stuff like planche, walking handstand, basic rings.

Medium term.

Hmm, not sure what to put in here.  I’m thinking that once I reach my short term goals I will start mostly strength gymnastics training.  I think that gymnastics strength training will be the core of my training once I reach my short term goals.

Short term.

First thing I think I need to do is lose my excess body fat.  Most of the athletic stuff that I suck at is body weight stuff – pull ups being a prime example.  It’s hard to know what my ideal weight would be but I think that 85kg should be a starting point for me.  I think at this weight I will be able to asses what my body fat percentage is.  At 85kg I will be reasonably lean.  That’s 8kg I need to lose.

Basic strength exercises such as – pull ups, dips, handstand push ups.

So, how will I go about this?

In regards to the weight loss I will do the following:  Remove dairy from my diet.  Add in a few more vegetables, that I’ve been omitting lately and think about keeping a slight calorie deficit.  My weight has been stable and I have been eating a lot of fat!  I think a slight calorie deficit is required to lean out.  I’m also going to start doing a lot more NEPA.  I’ve really been neglecting that the last few months.  I will stand at work and take walks at lunch time and in the evening with my family.

With the exercise I will keep going to Crossfit 5 days a week.  I think this will help me work up to my short term goal of being proficient at the basic body weight exercises.  What does that mean?  Not 100% sure about that… lets put down: 10 strict pull ups, 20 kipping.  20 dips, 10 handstand push ups.  I’m also going to put up the chin up bar at home and practice pull ups at home.  I’ve ordered some rings too!

I’m going to set myself four months to complete my short term goals.  That’s 2kg a month and 2.5 pull ups a month too!  Let’s do it!

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First Post

I’m a 34 year old male.  I’ve been trying to get fit for a while and was settled into, what I thought was a good, routine of running about 3 times a week and 4-5 sessions of lifting weights in the gym.  My routine was very similar to ‘Body for Life‘.  I’d been doing this for about 4 months with rather ordinary results.  I had put on some muscle but was still carrying too much body fat.  I’m 185cm tall and was stuck at ~100kg.  I’ll admit that my diet was only about 75% of what Body for Life recommend.  I was probably having close to two cheat days a week but was pretty good the rest of the week.

I started thinking, that usual ignorant stuff, such as – Oh, I’m getting old.  It’s just harder now.

In early November 2009 I started to Google running technique, as I’ve always been slow (I run 5km in about 30min) and thought I could improve my times through better technique.   Well, that was a bit like taking the ‘Red Pill’!  I came across Pose Running.  Pose looked really interesting so I started to do more searches on Pose and came across this. Which led me to this video and then this!  Well those last two videos blew my mind.  I just had a voice go off in my head that said “I wanna be able to do that!”.  I realised that I was never going to be able to do that with my current regime and hence those two videos took me down the ‘Red Pill’ path of Crossfit.

I was really impressed with what I saw on the Crossfit site and spent several evenings just reading all the really good information they and their affiliates have on their websites.  Through one of the affiliate’s sites I came across a video called ‘Sugar the bitter truth’.   Now this goes for 1.5hrs and gets rather technical in places however I think it’s an absolute must watch for everyone.  I can not recommend this video enough.  It explains how the body processes sugar and the effect it has on the body.  This lead me to the Paleo diet.  I’d never heard of this before and stayed up really late reading about it.  I’m not sure what it was but I was convinced that this was the right way to eat.  The next morning I started Paleo!

As I’d not had much sleep, staying up reading about the paleo diet, and not having paleo foods ready, I skipped my normal breakfast of porridge grabbed an apple and went to work.

I didn’t’ really feel good that day.  However I got organised that night and started eating proper paleo that night.  After two or three days I felt like I had just been reborn.  The amount of energy I had was amazing.  The physical effects of eating paleo were awesome however what really got me hooked were the mental changes.  Much improved mood and my often depressive state of mind was all but gone.  I felt clear and keen to take on life.

This blog is to track my progress and post stuff about food, exercise and lifestyle.  I’ve been doing paleo for about 4 months now.  I’ve been going to Crossfit since February 2010.

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