Well I just got some news that shot a hole in my new goals. I had the personal trainer test my body fat using calipers which are more accurate than my scale and she said that I'm at 10%.
I guess that means that I either just have genes that won't allow my abs to show up no matter what or that they are just still so underdeveloped that they can't be seen. The trainer also suggested that since I had lost so much weight so fast that maybe I had a lot of loose skin around my stomach that hasn't had time to tighten up yet. Hopefully that is the case.
I guess one thing is for sure though, I don't really have that much fat to lost to be at 8%, and at that point I guess I just have to work hard to build more muscle. Based on this new information, I only need to get down to 180 or 181 to be at 8%. 172 did seem pretty low, but hey I'm a numbers guy so I believed it.
Back to the drawing board. I keep learning more and more about this stuff as time goes on.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Merrappy Hanuquansmus!!
I'm getting a little annoyed with all the people who are trying to make Christmas politically correct. "Happy Holidays" doesn't really bother me all that much, but just the idea of trying to trivialize Christmas. I guess ultimately I'm just afraid that at some point they will decide that Thanksgiving and Christmas somehow violate the arbitrary "seperation of church and state" rule and they will be done away with. I don't see that happening even in the next ten years but I do see it as a possibility and that worries me.
As a Christian, I'm not going to punch someone in the face if they accidentally wish me a Happy Hannukah, so why should I have to worry about offending someone by saying Merry Christmas to them? I like the idea of not oppressing people, but we are going about it the wrong way. Instead of attacking the thing that is most prevelant (ie Christmas) and making it taboo, we should all just realize that we are different and be ok with it. (Can't we all just get along?)
I'm sure you laughed out loud at that last observation. Obviously it's easier said than done, but I don't understand the current line of thinking. We can either tick off some people a little, by maybe saying the wrong thing to the wrong person from time to time, or we can totally tick off the largest segment of the population by making it taboo to say Merry Christmas. Doesn't make a lot of logical sense to me.
It's the same thing with the race issue. No one thinks twice about making a racial slur about white males on tv or anywhere else, for the same reasons. Society seems to think that the best way to make everyone equal is to oppress the largest group of people and try to bring them back down to earth, so to speak. Once again, they are ticking off the largest segment which seems nuts to me.
I don't plan to stop saying "Merry Christmas" this year, but at the same time, I'm not going to launch a crusade against the "Happy Holidays" folks either. They may not be the largest group right now, but ticking them off still seems wrong.
As a Christian, I'm not going to punch someone in the face if they accidentally wish me a Happy Hannukah, so why should I have to worry about offending someone by saying Merry Christmas to them? I like the idea of not oppressing people, but we are going about it the wrong way. Instead of attacking the thing that is most prevelant (ie Christmas) and making it taboo, we should all just realize that we are different and be ok with it. (Can't we all just get along?)
I'm sure you laughed out loud at that last observation. Obviously it's easier said than done, but I don't understand the current line of thinking. We can either tick off some people a little, by maybe saying the wrong thing to the wrong person from time to time, or we can totally tick off the largest segment of the population by making it taboo to say Merry Christmas. Doesn't make a lot of logical sense to me.
It's the same thing with the race issue. No one thinks twice about making a racial slur about white males on tv or anywhere else, for the same reasons. Society seems to think that the best way to make everyone equal is to oppress the largest group of people and try to bring them back down to earth, so to speak. Once again, they are ticking off the largest segment which seems nuts to me.
I don't plan to stop saying "Merry Christmas" this year, but at the same time, I'm not going to launch a crusade against the "Happy Holidays" folks either. They may not be the largest group right now, but ticking them off still seems wrong.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
6 Pack Quest
Sorry for the double dose of fitness info this week but I found something interesting today (to me at least). I read somewhere that even if you have great ab muscles, they aren't going to show up if you have too much fat over them. I knew that part already but I figured that at this point, surely I had lost enough weight that I should be getting close to seeing them.
According to what I read, for a male to be able to see his ab muscles, he has to have a body fat percentage under 8%. I have no idea how accurate that number is or how credible the article was but based on that number I did some calculations.
Currently, my new scale says that I have a body fat percentage of 14.5%. Obviously that is not totally accurate either but for the purposes of this excercise I will pretend that it is because I have no other data to go on. Based on that number, right now my body is 117 pounds of water, 27 pounds of fat, and 42 pounds of muscle/bone/skin etc.
27 pounds of fat!!!!! How could I possibly still have that much fat in my body after having lost 17 pounds and not being all that overweight when I started? Even if you give or take 5 pounds for my number fudging, it's a lot more than I would have expected.
Now for the fun part. I figured based on my current breakdown, what amount of fat I could have in my body and be under 8% body fat. This assumes (wrongly, I know) that my water, and other weights will stay the same. Based on that I would need to lose 14 more pounds of strictly fat to be under 8% body fat. That would mean that I would be 117 pounds of water, 13 pounds of fat, and 42 other. Supposedly at that point I would be able to see my ab muscles through my skin.
So in light of that, and that I was nearly to my original goal anyway, I'm setting a new goal for myself. 172 pounds or under 8%, whichever comes first. I will continue to base my body fat percentage on what my scale tells me knowing that it isn't perfect but it's the best I can do.
Actually I think that this is a good thing because I was getting to the point where I needed some new motivation anyway. Plus it's nice to break it up like this. If you had told me when I was 203 pounds 7 weeks ago that I needed to lose over 30 pounds, I probably would have just given up. As it is, I have already lost 17 so I am more than half way there already, and I know I can do it, because my plan has been working very successfully so far.
So in future diet updates, you can expect to hear my body fat percentage as well as my weight, and hopefully before too long I will reach that elusive goal of six pack abs.
According to what I read, for a male to be able to see his ab muscles, he has to have a body fat percentage under 8%. I have no idea how accurate that number is or how credible the article was but based on that number I did some calculations.
Currently, my new scale says that I have a body fat percentage of 14.5%. Obviously that is not totally accurate either but for the purposes of this excercise I will pretend that it is because I have no other data to go on. Based on that number, right now my body is 117 pounds of water, 27 pounds of fat, and 42 pounds of muscle/bone/skin etc.
27 pounds of fat!!!!! How could I possibly still have that much fat in my body after having lost 17 pounds and not being all that overweight when I started? Even if you give or take 5 pounds for my number fudging, it's a lot more than I would have expected.
Now for the fun part. I figured based on my current breakdown, what amount of fat I could have in my body and be under 8% body fat. This assumes (wrongly, I know) that my water, and other weights will stay the same. Based on that I would need to lose 14 more pounds of strictly fat to be under 8% body fat. That would mean that I would be 117 pounds of water, 13 pounds of fat, and 42 other. Supposedly at that point I would be able to see my ab muscles through my skin.
So in light of that, and that I was nearly to my original goal anyway, I'm setting a new goal for myself. 172 pounds or under 8%, whichever comes first. I will continue to base my body fat percentage on what my scale tells me knowing that it isn't perfect but it's the best I can do.
Actually I think that this is a good thing because I was getting to the point where I needed some new motivation anyway. Plus it's nice to break it up like this. If you had told me when I was 203 pounds 7 weeks ago that I needed to lose over 30 pounds, I probably would have just given up. As it is, I have already lost 17 so I am more than half way there already, and I know I can do it, because my plan has been working very successfully so far.
So in future diet updates, you can expect to hear my body fat percentage as well as my weight, and hopefully before too long I will reach that elusive goal of six pack abs.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Diet Update
Another week another weigh in. This time I weighed in at 186.5 which puts me very close to my original goal of 185, although as I stated last week, I will probably need to shoot for 180 to be completely fat free.
I'm starting to get excited and frustrated at the same time. I really enjoy the calistenics class that I am in that has helped me get into so much better shape, but it really isn't doing all that much to build muscle. I have more endurance and overall strength than I have had in a long time but my goals are a little more vain than that.
I really want to get that chiseled look that a lot of guys have and I feel like I can only get that in the weight room. Now that I have a lot less fat I figure that any muscle I build would actually show up. The problem is that now with two kids I can barely make time for my current class let alone something else, so the lifting may have to wait, which is the frustrating part.
Hopefully I can work from home in the evenings to make some extra time for lifting but if not I will have to wait until this summer when things will be a lot less hectic. I really hope that I can eventually get to the look that I have pictured in my head. Half the work is almost done at this point, and most people would say that losing the fat is probably the harder part of the two tasks.
I'm starting to get excited and frustrated at the same time. I really enjoy the calistenics class that I am in that has helped me get into so much better shape, but it really isn't doing all that much to build muscle. I have more endurance and overall strength than I have had in a long time but my goals are a little more vain than that.
I really want to get that chiseled look that a lot of guys have and I feel like I can only get that in the weight room. Now that I have a lot less fat I figure that any muscle I build would actually show up. The problem is that now with two kids I can barely make time for my current class let alone something else, so the lifting may have to wait, which is the frustrating part.
Hopefully I can work from home in the evenings to make some extra time for lifting but if not I will have to wait until this summer when things will be a lot less hectic. I really hope that I can eventually get to the look that I have pictured in my head. Half the work is almost done at this point, and most people would say that losing the fat is probably the harder part of the two tasks.
Monday, December 19, 2005
Enlightened Animals
We took Kylie to the zoo on saturday again. They have Christmas lights up all over the place so it was really cool to walk around and look at them all. My mom and Dad went with us and everyone seemed to have a great time.
It was really cold so we spent a lot of time at the indoor exhibits trying to stay warm. Kylie took turns riding on mine and my Dad's shoulders and yanking on our ears. I'm so glad that God thought to put those handles there for her to hold on to.
Kids are so funny. We took her on a carousel which was great. I was so glad that we got to do that for her because she loved it, but she really didn't understand the concept of standing in line. She wanted on right away, and it was all I could do to keep her from trying to jump over the railing.
It also cracks me up at how as she is learning to talk, some letters don't come out the way they are supposed to. She still thinks that her name is pronounced "Tywie". The other day, I asked her if she was the best Bug ever (Bug is her nickname), and she told me:
That she was "the best butt ever"...
It was really cold so we spent a lot of time at the indoor exhibits trying to stay warm. Kylie took turns riding on mine and my Dad's shoulders and yanking on our ears. I'm so glad that God thought to put those handles there for her to hold on to.
Kids are so funny. We took her on a carousel which was great. I was so glad that we got to do that for her because she loved it, but she really didn't understand the concept of standing in line. She wanted on right away, and it was all I could do to keep her from trying to jump over the railing.
It also cracks me up at how as she is learning to talk, some letters don't come out the way they are supposed to. She still thinks that her name is pronounced "Tywie". The other day, I asked her if she was the best Bug ever (Bug is her nickname), and she told me:
That she was "the best butt ever"...
Friday, December 16, 2005
3 for 3
Last night was a lot of fun. Some friends of ours that have a lot of land invited us over to do some snowmobiling. I was really excited to go, because it was the last of the ATV type vehicles that I had never ridden. I have managed in the last few years to ride a four-wheeler and a jet-ski but never a snowmobile.
It was extremely fun but very different from anything else I have ever done before. We had 80 acres on which to run around and we saw most of it. I was pretty proud of my wife, because I was able to talk her into driving one and she did really well.
Just for the record, I know I haven't tried all that hard in the last week to look for funny stories to tell, but I promise I will get back to that soon.
It was extremely fun but very different from anything else I have ever done before. We had 80 acres on which to run around and we saw most of it. I was pretty proud of my wife, because I was able to talk her into driving one and she did really well.
Just for the record, I know I haven't tried all that hard in the last week to look for funny stories to tell, but I promise I will get back to that soon.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Weather or not
Whether it's global warming or not, you have to admit that this has been a strange year for weather. We were still having 80 degree days in October and now we are having our second major snowstorm of the year and it is only December 15th.
It really makes me wonder about down the road. Are we going to be telling our grandchildren about how when we were little, the temperature used to be under 100 almost every day in the summer? Or that we used to measure snow in inches instead of feet?
Personally, it's hard for me to believe that mankind can continue to grow and to destroy at the careless rate that it does without there being some sort of major breakdown of nature at some point. Whether we mess things up so bad that most of the earth is uninhabitable due to the climate or we cause some disease to be mutated in such a way that it can't be stopped, I think that at some point mankind will have to pay the piper for the way we have treated our home.
The way I see it, it's a race between technology and fate. Can we figure out a way to leave this planet and start over on a fresh one before our mistakes catch up with us? At this point it's not looking good for the technology side of things. We are still a long way off from visiting some of the closest planets to us in our own solar system let alone other star systems.
Sorry be all doom and gloom today, but I just don't see how we can continue to treat our planet the way we do and not expect it to bite us back someday. It frustrates me a lot, so I normally just try not to think about it, but if something isn't done soon, it will eventually be pretty bad around here.
It really makes me wonder about down the road. Are we going to be telling our grandchildren about how when we were little, the temperature used to be under 100 almost every day in the summer? Or that we used to measure snow in inches instead of feet?
Personally, it's hard for me to believe that mankind can continue to grow and to destroy at the careless rate that it does without there being some sort of major breakdown of nature at some point. Whether we mess things up so bad that most of the earth is uninhabitable due to the climate or we cause some disease to be mutated in such a way that it can't be stopped, I think that at some point mankind will have to pay the piper for the way we have treated our home.
The way I see it, it's a race between technology and fate. Can we figure out a way to leave this planet and start over on a fresh one before our mistakes catch up with us? At this point it's not looking good for the technology side of things. We are still a long way off from visiting some of the closest planets to us in our own solar system let alone other star systems.
Sorry be all doom and gloom today, but I just don't see how we can continue to treat our planet the way we do and not expect it to bite us back someday. It frustrates me a lot, so I normally just try not to think about it, but if something isn't done soon, it will eventually be pretty bad around here.
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