Tag: Fitness

October Fitness & Health Thoughts

Carl Setzer

Last night I spent about an hour in the gym, mostly focused on cardio. It’s been a bit since I focused like that. Miss it. Yet I was pleased at my performance. My intermittent workouts haven’t been too detrimental.

I noticed my weight creeping back up, though. Probably a function of a dreadful diet. So I restarted using my food tracker. That works nicely, nuisance that it is. 

This time of year challenges me, fitness-wise. Dark, wet and cold: getting outside becomes uncomfortable at best, painful at the worst. The darkness adds a bit of danger, since cars have a hard time seeing me. I manage that well, I think. But it’s still unpleasant. And fatty, yummy foods start manifesting more. Double negatives. 

My health concerns don’t wane, though. Things like diabetes lurk, and I want nothing to do with that disease. Must. Keep. Focused. The value of gym memberships, and bit being to off-put by them  

Another area of active balancing. 

“An evening walk in Edmonds, WA”

Carl Setzer

I’ve been focusing on getting more exercise lately. Once my focused attracting beautiful women. Now, as I’m in my 50s, I’m more focused on preventing diabetes, and other ailments. Diabetes, in particular, scares me. I’ve seen enough people, though, who have balance issues, strength, and all that. Thus I know there are far more benefits than alleviating my fears. 

So, I try to get out more. So many benefits. I need to embrace that.

Oh, the rollercoaster of weight

Carl Setzer

Though I’ve been working the past few years on getting my weight down, and been rather successful at it, I’ve been fluctuating between 190 and 200. I hit 190 and, boing, bounce up to 199.

I know it’s diet. And getting back on food tracking via the Fitbit app always helps.

I find the psychology of it all puzzling. This weird up and down thing, where at 190, my attention to details completely fails, and I just eat without thought or care.

And now I’m back on the rollercoaster.

Feels like Sisyphus. And then this ended up in my inbox.

Unrelated, perhaps, but appropriate in a way.

What about you? Any challenges with weight (whether losing or gaining)? Or are you a fitness god?

Leave a comment and let me know!

Resisting Infirmity

Carl Setzer

Yesterday, while out on a walk, I saw an older man struggling with a walker. A young woman (my assumption; his daughter) worked hard to help him into her car. Seeing such drives me; resist infirmity with vigor!

Currently, my fitness regimen is a blend of taekwondo, walking, cycling and weights. I want to add kayaking and cross-country skiing. Oh, and hiking, which can tie to walking. This region has such lovely places to do all these, it would be sad not to.

I’m seeking to combine strength, flexibility and balance. These are the critical elements to prevent infirmity. I envision myself as an old man, robust and healthy, surrounded by friends and family. A worthy goal, methinks.

Thinking fitness

Carl Setzer

Fitness is a key part of my life. Now, I’m as vain as anyone, but that didn’t push me enough. About a year ago the long term issues of being chronically overweight became very clear. Getting winded by a single flight of stairs, seeing friends deal with the painful effects of diabetes, and the continued tightening of my clothes; all this frightened me. And the motivation birthed.

I’ve focused mostly on fitness apps and food trackers. Between eating less and significantly upping my exercise, I’ve been able to shave off nearly 30 pounds from my heaviest, and 20 in the few months since I became serious. This makes me proud, though I realize I’m only just getting started.

I have another 10-15 pounds more to lose to reach a healthy weight. Yet I’ve been stuck at my current weight for a few weeks. My workouts haven’t been as rigorous, but not a huge drop. The great weakness, though, is diet. I’ve lowered the quantities of food, but not changed the quality. Tracking my food shows a diet high in fats, salts and sugars, and low on nutrients. So, quality:  my next major focus. Time to be more thoughtful with my eating. Balancing out my diet should push me to the next stage.

A Good Weekend, Fitness-Wise

Carl Setzer

A pretty good week, fitness-wise. The end of week and weekend provided me with the chance to cycle. Friday I simply rode to taekwondo, Saturday morning I got a bit over 12 miles in, and Sunday I got a solid 22 miler in. Sunday’s ride was both hard and eye opening. Part of me wants to reclaim the form I has in my youth. This ride was the longest I’ve had in years; over a decade. I covered a small part of one of my favorite rides. One that is built for climbing. One that showed, glaringly so, how much work I have in front of me.

My feelings weren’t negative, though; not at all. Tranquility really defines my attitude afterwards. I pushed hard, but was mostly able to meet it. I know I can reclaim something.

Oddly, I’m really not trying to “reclaim”. I’m looking for a whole different way. My youthful eating was horrible. The habits I formed dreadful for my long-term health. So, the only piece of reclamation is the time I spent on fitness. Above that, I seek to add a better diet, with deeper insights into health.

I am trying to build a truly healthy, fitness focused lifestyle. And I can see the transformation. It feels great.

The tyranny of the scale

Carl Setzer

Just weighed myself. To my horror, I’ve gained 6 pounds! Huh? I’ve been diligent about taking my calories, having solid confidence in my data. My pants are another belt notch tighter. I can see better definition in my upper body. “How could I have slipped”, you might ask. My answer: it’s more complex.

Besides running and cycling, I’m into taekwondo. Actually, martial arts is my primary fitness activity. And that’s the main complicating factor. Recently, I’ve focused heavily on core training. My abs, arms and back have been worked hard. I was frustrated by failing to get past ten pushups. And I’m getting results. I can do more, way more pushups and crunches. But muscle weighs more (pet unit volume) than fat. Thus, significant muscle growth often gains weight faster than fat loss will lose it.

So many folks’ single health metric is weight. Really, we should add other pieces: arm, leg, chest size, distance, time, weight lifted, etc… All of these are more important measures of fitness. And, if fat loss is the goal, then BMI.

My goal is better health, to grow fitter. More pushup capacity, to be able to run with joy, and greater endurance with my running and cycling. Over the next year or so, I want to ride the Seattle to Portland, run a 5k, increase my flexibility and crank out more pushups than the twenty-year-olds in my taekwondo studio.

That will serve me better than simply focusing on weight. And my vision is long-term.

More Running Thoughts

Carl Setzer

Yesterday I had a brief post about a new online community for runners. A side note was about my attempts to recapture my love of running. Running, now, is a significant amount of work. 20 years ago, it was fun; meditation in motion. I thought about it and hit one key thought: weight.

I weighed about 175 in my running/cycling heyday. When I started reclaiming this lifestyle, I hit 208. Now at 194, things are more pleasant. But those 20 pounds will still affect my feelings. I’m sure that getting my weight closer to an ideal will really help. And getting my fitness level up will, too.

The other thing I noted: a lifetime of terrible eating habits. Since I lived physical activity and would run/bike for hours, I never paid attention to what I are. At the point in life, eating a good diet is crucial to accomplishing my goals. Actually, I think I need to focus in a great diet.

My fitness tracking tools show a nutrient breakdown of my diet. Truly, it’s sad how pathetically few nutrients I get from food. I need to take a multivitamin to get crucial elements. I want to develop a diet that gets me my fully nutrient load, while also not jamming me full of sugar.

Clearly I have work to do.

New Running Online Community

Carl Setzer1 Comment

Over the past few months, I’ve been working hard to get my fitness level back up. Years ago, I was a hard-core runner and cyclist, with many hours/miles logged. Though I’ve slipped on cycling, it’s still a regular part of my life. However, running has not.

Back then, there was a zen quality to running and cycling. Now, cycling still has that quality. Running, however, is simply work. There are moments, when I run, that I feel my mind slip away into the rhythm of my cadence. Moments, fading into work.

Having accountability, connection, makes the return to this level of fitness much more fun. So, seeing on GeekWire that Brooks and MapMyFitness have started a new community makes me feel good. Run Happy looks like it might really add something to the fitness community. I look forward to seeing how this evolves.