Tag Archives: Health

Fitness update: back on track

March 24, 2008 – 10:04 pm

Just a short note to restart the posting habit on this: I put five pounds back on during the time I was gone and the week before it, but since I’ve been back I’ve managed to get back to where I started. So, as of today I’m officially back on track and 22 pounds lighter than when I started. Still got a ways to go, but I’m looking forward to getting back into “serious” mode for another round.

By JB | Posted in Blog Posts | Comments (0)

Fitness Update - Hiatus

March 6, 2008 – 7:49 pm

Well, my regular routine has been a bit disrupted lately, starting last week with Martha being gone and continuing into this week with me being out of town.

I did try to get back on track a bit while I’m up here by tracking down a small local gym that gave me a deal for a 7 day pass for $20. This was substantially better than the “big” fitness chains that have locations around here were offering (basically either ~$70 for a whole month or $10 per day). So, if you’re ever in the Silicon Valley area for more than a few days, I recommend “Fitness 19″.

One good thing is that I’ve been going twice a day (morning and afternoon). I’m hoping that will offset the restaurant eating to some degree, but I’m looking forward to getting back home soon.

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Hacking the Treadmill

February 25, 2008 – 11:14 pm

I’ve been wanting to get back to posting more tech stuff on here, despite most of my time and energy seeming to get consumed with the fitness stuff, so the other night at the gym the thought struck me that the opportunity was right there in front of me the whole time.

The gym has some pretty nice treadmills, and you can either go free-form and adjust all the settings as you go, or choose from a variety of predefined programs to run through. You can also program out your own workout routine (once you figure it out), but the drawback is that it takes a while to punch in everything, and you can’t save it, so going through all that trouble to do a custom one usually isn’t worth it.

As I was experiementing with this feature the other night, I noticed that there was a part of the interface that does actually let you save custom programs: the personal trainer menus. The only drawback to that is that you need a personal trainer PIN code to access them. While I suppose I could have asked someone who worked there about it, and either been told that I would have to pay for a trainer (not interested) or that they had no idea how to do it themselves anyway (much more likely), I figured that the most probable situation was that they never use this functionality, so they would probably never mind or even know if I decided to.

If you’ve ever played with things like this before, one of the first things you learn is that devices requiring short numeric codes like this often have some sort of factory default “master code” that will unlock everything and get you started. Since most people probably never use the programming features, I suspected that they would not have bothered to ever even type this in, much less change it to something else. With some quick internet research via my phone, I was shortly in possesion of the master PIN code, which of course worked.

From that main menu, I was then able to create myself a “personal trainer” PIN (no need to use the master one all the time), which would then allow me to log in any time in the future to enter and later recall my own programs. The only downside is that the machines are not networked in any way, so I’d have to repeat this procedure once for each one that I want to use this way. Usually getting a particular treadmill is no problem though, except on the weekend days when all ~20 are full.

So, whenever you’re faced with a consumer electronic device that isn’t quite behaving the way you’d like it to, just remember that everything is always on default.

By JB | Posted in Blog Posts | Also tagged , | Comments (1)

Fitness update: week 5

February 25, 2008 – 10:53 pm

Not so great this week - only one pound lost. The average is still OK though; 18 pounds over 5 weeks.

I think it’s mostly due to a general slacking of the schedule in combination with the meal cheating at Emma’s various birthday celebrations throughout the week.

Anyway, I plan to kick it into high gear this week and gain some significant ground before next week, which will be a bit tougher since I’ll be out of town. For that week, I’m expecting to just break even at best, but we’ll see.

By JB | Posted in Blog Posts | Also tagged | Comments (0)

Fitness update: week 4

February 18, 2008 – 9:50 am

Monday is the weigh-in day, and today I’m not slacking on posting this update since it was a great week.

I lost 7 more pounds this week, for a total of 17 over the 4 weeks since I started, and the largest single week so far.

I had noticed the downward trend over the last 3 weeks (5,3,2), so I decided to take some steps to correct that course a little bit. I got pretty strict on the diet (only chicken, egg whites, vegetables, and lots of water of course), and I also stepped up the running from at least 20 minutes a day to at least 30 minutes.

Last week I had said I was going to try to run twice a day, but then I realized that on a lot of days that just won’t work, so I decided just to at least increase the time every day, which seemed to work out OK.

By JB | Posted in Blog Posts | Also tagged | Comments (3)

Treadmill: Take 2

February 17, 2008 – 5:58 pm

OK, I obviously didn’t do very well getting my point accross in a simple manner in my previous treadmill post, so I’m going to try again here. I’m not sure why I veered off into too much technical detail (regarding accuracy of measurement, etc.); probably just a symptom of the fact that I used to post tech stuff on here all the time and it’s been a while. :)

So (fresh off a round on the treadmill just now), my basic, ultra-simplified reason for valuing a treadmill when running is that I don’t have to put as much thought into the workout as I would without it.

Sure, you can (with the aid of other devices and more attention paid) do a reasonable job on your own of keeping a desired pace during a run, depending on what level of detail you’re looking for (and most people don’t care too much about the level of detail I was talking about). BUT, the point of the treadmill is that I don’t have to regulate the pace myself, I punch a few buttons and the computer controls the pace, I just have to keep up. That’s the beauty of technology working for you.

The reason this is important for me is mostly that I don’t really enjoy running. It isn’t something I do because I like it; I do it because I need to. Therefore, I usually spend my workout time listening to podcasts (which I do enjoy). Most of them are technical podcasts, which require some degree of concentration to follow. I’d just rather devote my concentration to that instead of things like keeping my pace, etc.

By JB | Posted in Blog Posts | Also tagged | Comments (1)

Benefits of the Treadmill

February 16, 2008 – 7:44 pm

Stemming from the discussion on Martha’s blog about getting a new mattress vs. a new treadmill, I thought I might explain why (for me at least) having a treadmill to do your running on is significantly better than not having one (or having one that’s about to break).

Basically, it all boils down to a scientific approach to your fitness plan. If you go out running on the street, your speed will vary (consciously or subconsciously) based on all kinds of factors on any given day. You may be more tired one day than another, etc., so it would be hard to consistently (over a week / month, whatever) define what you did when you worked out, because it would be variable and difficult to measure.

On the treadmill, on the other hand, if you set it to X MPH and go for 30 minutes, you know that you were going that speed the whole time, by virtue of the fact that you remained on the treadmill.

That’s actually one of the problems with the one we have now, I think the motor is dying down, so it feels like sometimes when you step down it slows it up for a moment, and then when you step up it feels like it speeds back up to try and catch up. I haven’t really looked at it too closely, but after having used the ones at the gym pretty much every day for the last few weeks, it’s much easier to see the faults in the one in our garage.

By JB | Posted in Blog Posts | Comments (7)

Fitness update: week 3

February 11, 2008 – 8:35 pm

Two more pounds this week, for a total of ten over three weeks.  Not too bad; I’m about a third of the way towards my first goal.

We (Martha and I) both took a “free” meal and had Corrales on Saturday night, which was awesome. Any diet plan that does not allow the occasional Corrales meal is not a plan that would work for me.

By JB | Posted in Blog Posts | Comments (0)

Fitness update: week 2

February 6, 2008 – 10:57 pm

Well, it’s been a little longer than a week since my last posting on this, but it’s not because I’ve fallen off the wagon - just haven’t had a lot of time.

As of Monday’s weigh-in, I lost another 3 pounds, which makes a total of 8 for the first 2 weeks. I was hoping to match the first week, but that may have been overly optimistic. At first I was a bit disappointed, but I realize now that it’s still pretty good progress, and I just need to keep moving forward.

I didn’t quite follow through on my other goal of doing cardio twice a day either; I think there was only 3 days of the week that I did it more than once, and one was on Saturday when I tried to make up for it by doing morning treadmill (at home) then riding my bike to the gym and doing weights and treadmill there. So far, this week is looking the same, but I’d still like to find a way to get into the twice a day groove.

Anyway, I still have a very positive outlook on how it’s going so far and what I imagine the results will eventually be in the future. The one hiccup in that is an upcoming trip where I’ll have to be away from home with the temptation of free restaurant food for every meal without many other easy alternatives; still have to figure out a plan for that one. I’m definitely going to address it somehow, but I’m thinking I might just make it a goal to hold my ground on that week rather than losing anything.

By JB | Posted in Blog Posts | Also tagged | Comments (11)

Gym oddities

February 2, 2008 – 11:41 pm

Going to the gym more often has the side effect of letting you notice certain trends. One I noticed today that I thought I’d comment on is what I call the “gym posers”.

At our gym, the treadmills are up on the top floor, and they face an edge that looks down on the weight lifting areas below. Today I observed a classic example of this particular type of character that I’ve noticed (to some degree or another) at every gym I’ve ever been to.

During my 20 minutes on the treadmill, this guy down in the weight area literally only did a few shorts sets (1-3 reps each) on a particular machine for the entire time I was up there. He spent the rest of his time pacing around in a circle, alternating between looking at himself in the mirror and looking around to see if any of the women in the gym were looking at him (they weren’t).

The funny thing is, he was somewhat buff, so I can only assume that he eventually does get around to doing a full workout regularly, but at that pace he must be there all day. Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t see myself looking forward to spending extended periods of time at the gym just hanging out.

This is also why I don’t want to get together with other people to work out, even though I realize that they’re only being nice and supportive with their offers in that regard. I have no interest in taking turns watching other people work out, thereby extending the length of time I’m there.

By JB | Posted in Blog Posts | Also tagged | Comments (6)