GeekFit PodcastPodcast hosts: Jason Tucker and Steven Klassen discuss healthy weight loss for geeks.
30 Day Challenge
Nov 29th
@pseymour is hosting a 30 Day Challenge and I’ve been participating. Everyone’s been very supportive and I’ve gotten a few solid fitness-minded folks on twitter which I always dig.
Here’s my latest post to their forum:
I’d been hitting the cardio pretty hard and I decided to get some weight lifting in.
Now, I used to lift weights all through that run from 420 to 300. I did squats, and bench pressed, and did all those macho things the big tough guys did. So when I return to the weight room it only makes sense for me to jump right back in. Eh, not so much.
My legs are pretty strong, but I forget that not all muscles are created equal. Just because a few muscles that are employed to get me from A to B are strong doesn’t mean they’re the same muscles used in, let’s say, a squat in a smith with 20 lbs thrown on for good measure. All day yesterday everything from my hips to my toes were screaming. Today it’s worse. Tomorrow – well let’s just not think about tomorrow.
Oh, on top of that I did a shoulder workout. Dumbbell shoulder presses, lateral raises, front raises, and shrugs. They’re sore too and I’m still getting a little leftover DOMS from the chest/back workout a couple days ago.
On the upside, my feet feel better. The balls of my feet were pretty ouchy all day yesterday, hence the push to do resistance instead of getting back on the treadmill. All in all, I’ve been going at this every day and hereby declare today my day of rest. Tomorrow morning I’m back at it, DOMS or not – even if I have to “ouch” *step* “ouch” *step* “ouch” to get there.
GeekFit IO
Nov 26th
I spent a month on the road working in Dallas, TX. Before I left I made sure to weigh in and post the results (384 lbs) to Daily Burn so I could check my progress throughout the trip. I had forgotten that unfortunately most scales don’t weigh anyone over 350 lbs (the big weight to 300 and the smaller weight to 50). So blindly I pressed on, enjoying progress checks via other methods: my belt loosening and having to drop down twice to another hole, being able to double-time it up 7 flights of stairs before I got winded, my clothes generally feeling looser, and the seat on Southwest not squishing me quite so much on each round-trip to Austin on the weekends.
Last Saturday I flew home, 6 hours in total, and was eager to weigh myself Sunday morning. I came in at 366 lbs, netting me a loss of 18 lbs. On a hunch I weighed in again this morning and was at 362 lbs for a total loss of 22 lbs. That’s some Biggest Loser weigh-in progress, y’all.
So, what changed? I had been working out half-heartedly, eating “alright” and avoiding the major pitfalls, but not really pressing in any particular direction. I had maintained the 370-375 range until late August when, unchecked for a bit, jumped up to 384. That set off all the bells & alarms. I wasn’t quite back where I had started, but my “eh, it’s maintaining” attitude went out the window. Something had to change, and like now.
Around the same time I had been reading up on carbohydrates, protein, and procrastination in general. That gave me some interesting insights to what starches and carbs would do to my overall intake for the day. I started preferring protein over carbs, veg over starch, and worked out every day. The stairs were the other big thing. I was on the 6th floor of the hotel for a while and then the last couple weeks they had me up on the 7th floor. I took the stairs every time I had to go to/from my room. The only exception being heading down for breakfast in the morning. I was already plenty worked up from the rush of getting out of the shower, getting ready, getting dressed, and then packing out the door with my backpack on.
All in all it was a good trip. I got a lot of work done and kicked my fitness into high-gear. I think I made the most progress on the cardio and now I’ve got to bring the resistance training up a few notches.
GeekFit Links of the week November 13, 2009
Nov 13th
- [from Jason Tucker] Eat Breakfast Like an Olympian with “Super” Oatmeal [Diet]
- [from Jason Tucker] Klean Kanteen
- [from Jason Tucker] ‘Food’ Causes Obesity, Warn Scientists [Juicing]
- [from Jason Tucker] One morning in a fitness boot camp
- [from Jason Tucker] Withings WiFi body Scale Gets Social Aspect
- [from Jason Tucker] Train Your Mind to Keep Exercising in Winter [Winter]
- [from Jason Tucker] Fitbit Fitness and Sleep Tracker
- [from Jason Tucker] Japan Outlaws Fatties
- [from Jason Tucker] Researchers Conclude Wii Fit Produces ‘Underwhelming Results’ [Science Vs. Marketing]
The Seat Buddy
Nov 12th
This ingenious little device may look like it’s merely holding your iPhone/iTouch, but oh no kiddies, it does so much more. I had an opportunity to review this over the last few weeks. Here are my notes:
Southwest Flight to Austin
Tried seat buddy on the southwest flight. The straps let you roll the display into whatever angle you want. The clown in front of me decided to lean back and that didn’t work so well, so I tried it on the adjoining seat. Having the independent lengths helped – I was able to use the tray on the seat back next to me, kind of at an angle so that the strap closest to me was tucked all the way in while the furthest was pulled out a bit.
Halloween DJing
We headed into Austin to check out the crazy costumes. Of course I fancy myself an iPod DJ so I had my iPhone mounted using the seat buddy in the glove box in front of me while I found music on my friend’s iPhone. I’d swap the audio cable back and forth between the two phones – only having to hold on to the one seat buddy-less.
Teenager-Proof Anchoring
More iPhone DJ’ing at a Halloween party. It made me nervous to put my iPhone next to the stereo where some hapless kid could knock it down. Again, the seat buddy came in useful. Two heavy books atop the straps held it in place while I plugged into the sound system providing the music for the festivities.
Check it out at TheSeatBuddy.com.
