Diet, Exercise, Lose Weight, and Get Fit With Run FatAss Run

Exercise with Poodles for A New Look!

2008-03-21T15:07:00.002-04:00

I thought this was quite hilarious and quite weird. Check out this really weird poodle exercise video for humans. This is a mesmerizing and frightening video. It's a word-for-word parody of Susan Powter's first workout video, featuring poodles and a crazy poodle-woman. Absolutely surreal. It was made by Nagi Noda for Panasonic. It was part of 10 films they made for the 2004 Athens Olympics

I knew I should have trademarked the name

2008-03-14T06:44:00.002-04:00

The title of this movie is awfully familiar: Run Fatboy Run

I'm just saying...

School lunches and my kid

2008-01-15T21:45:00.000-05:00

Well, we've taken another step to getting one of our kids' diet under control.

The little one started kindergarten this year and has been packing the weight on around the middle despite an active sports schedule. She would also pick at dinner, rarely eating much of a meal.

We suspected that school lunches were a factor, and our district allows us to view statements of our children's purchases (we "bank" money with the school, and the cafeteria deducts from the bank as the children buy), so my wife checked what she'd purchased.

You already know the answer - cookies, juice, etc.

We've now blocked her from purchasing anything beyond the standard meal, with one treat permitted on Friday.

And I continue to hammer it home that she ought to be bringing her lunch every day, but that is being resisted by the person that would have to make the lunch. ;-)

Open post to all opponents of Kimkins

2008-01-09T09:12:00.000-05:00

Please...

I support your cause. Kimkins is bad, and I've written several posts about it here. I've also written posts about Kimkins on another blog I run.

But, PLEASE, quit spamming my comments with links to what has now grown to several hundred websites dedicated to this issue. There is a RIGHT WAY and a WRONG WAY to get a link below each post:

RIGHT WAY

Link to one of my posts. I have trackback/linkbacks turned on.

WRONG WAY

Leave links in comments. They are all "nofollow" by default anyway.

I'm sorry, but it makes my blog look like crap and encourage other, worse spammers to do the same.

Thanks!

Where I am with it all

2007-12-10T11:49:00.000-05:00

I have my doctor's appointment scheduled for this week, finally. Had the blood test over the weekend. I don't know how all of this will go, but I have to do something to get the food under control.

I'm feeling pretty powerless, to be honest. This sucks.

Kimkins Follow-up

2007-11-28T15:17:00.000-05:00

For all the folks that are dropping by for my Kimkins posts, 2Big4MySize has an update about her assets being frozen.

If you have some time to kill and want a read an saga and an investigation worthy of a Dateline episode, head over to Slamboard's Kimkins page.

Let's all work to keep this stuff in the public consciousness to protect unsuspecting dieters.

One step forward, two steps back

2007-11-28T08:55:00.000-05:00

Good lord, I can't stay on a diet these days to save my life (literally, when you think about it).

One day on, two days off, then back on. I have a million reasons why and no excuses.

And now, I'm getting sick. The voice is gone, the throat hurts, and I feel like crap.

Ugh.

Thanksgiving Feast, sort of

2007-11-23T08:35:00.000-05:00

Well, this was a new kind of Thanksgiving for me - eating at a restaurant.

Bah.

Also, eating at 1 p.m.

Bah. Bah.

Thanksgiving dinner in my HOUSE was always at DINNER-TIME! So, I went along with something new, and didn't like it. I can go out any time. When I agreed to go I was told someone else was paying for it. But when the waitress asked who was getting the check, it was split amongst the families. No idea where that $65 is going to come from now.

The only good thing is that I didn't go to bed on a full stomach. But, that was the ONLY good thing.

5 Core Strengthening Exercises I Do

2007-11-22T07:41:00.000-05:00

I have some issues with pain when I start walking after a layoff. My back hurts badly from weak core muscles. Here are 5 exercises I do to strengthen my core muscles prior to starting an exercise program:

Air Squats - Back in "the day", we called them deep-knee bends. But, I can change with the times and keep up with the lingo.
Walking Lunges - 20 steps, 10 for each leg, overstepping forward and bringing the back leg's knee to within an inch from the ground so the forward leg's quadricep is parallel to the ground.
Side Bends - Holding a dumbbell or weight in one hand, allow the weight to pull the upper torso to the side, then using the muscles in the torso to pull the body back to vertical.
Crunches - There's no substitute for good old ab crunches.
One-Leg Balance Reach - Place an object about knee height (use a chair, low table, traffic cone, etc) about 3 feet in front of you. Stand on one foot and reach down to pick up the object. Return to vertical, then reach down and replace the object. Repeat 5x for each leg.

Nothing here is particularly difficult, but they are all good for snapping those under-used core muscles back into shape so they can support your torse while you walk and alleviate the pressure on those lower back muscles.

Finding time or making time for exercise

2007-11-14T10:09:00.000-05:00

Of all of the nights of the week that we're crushed for time, Wednesday is my favorite. My daughter goes to CCD from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m., and this is my favorite time for doing my walks. A few weeks ago, I found a wonderful path through the woods on the church property, but now that it is dark earlier I have to go to a nearby neighborhood where there are streetlights. I drop her off, zip over and lock the car, get in 30 minutes or so, then change into a fresh shirt and drive back to pick her up.

I love it whenever I get to kill 2 birds with one stone like this.

Just a moment for ME, please!

2007-11-12T08:40:00.000-05:00

As I said in the previous post, inconsistency is the hobgoblin of a FatAss. I can't seem to get my life to come to me in a scheduled pattern. Between the kids activities, illnesses, work, interviewing, getting pissed off at unresponsive customer service people, and on and on, I can't carve out the one dedicated hour for ME. I need the same hour every day, it's something psychological I suppose, to do my workouts.

On the positive side, I'm eating ok. I bring my lunches every day, usually a lean cuisine supplemented with a salad that I make myself. It helps, and it's better than a burger, right?

I'm going to try to get back on the horse tonight. The kids' activities are canceled for the holiday, so I can get started and see where this week brings me.

Inconsistency is the hobgoblin of a FatAss

2007-10-29T08:41:00.000-04:00

I'm being a bit inconsistent with the diet and exercise right now. I'm not doing the planning and journaling I used to do when I lost 60 lbs. I posted over at HDHS that I'm going to resurrect my "tools", and I'll probably make them available for download. Nothing fancy, just some spreadsheets with some formulas, much of which is available for free on websites all over the place. I just like my tools because it's easier to customize, make adjustments for "real life", and make pretty graphs. I'm a sucker for pretty graphs.

Bent knee push-ups

2007-10-19T21:31:00.000-04:00

I just bought some new push-up bars a few days ago. The set I was using has a narrow base and I would roll them over and twist my wrist - very dangerous, could easily sprain or worse. Let that be a tip for you if you buy push-up bars - go for a wide base.

My kids spotted them and immediately started trying to use them. Being 5 and 8 year old girls, they had a little trouble. I found a video over at eDiets showing how to do bent-knee pushups, which is a great way for beginners to start out.

Check it out.

School cafeteria food getting healthier? Really?

2007-10-19T20:37:00.000-04:00

Hey, don't look at me, that's what WebMD is saying. They cite a CDC study saying that schools are serving less junk food and healthier lunches, and say 25,000 schools have stopped serving fries.

Not at my kids' school, unfortunately. Fries, pizza, and cookies are staples.

Despite the encouraging study results, we still have an epidemic of childhood obesity. Honestly, I think this article sucks, because it focuses on what schools are offering to kids, rather than what the results were - are kids in schools with healthy foods demonstrably healthier? It seems to me this is the measuring stick that ought to be used, not which schools stopped serving fries.

Accountability

2007-10-18T14:04:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm back to losing weight, down another 2 last week and trying to keep things going over at Hundred Day Head Start. I'm finding it very motivating because we have a good core group checking in each week, letting me know how they're doing. If I don't keep up, it could be very embarassing!

Please pop over and check it out, I'd love to have a much larger group to be accountable to for my weight!

Oh, how aggravating...

2007-10-17T10:11:00.000-04:00

The designer of this template used images he has hosted on google someplace, and has exceeded his bandwidth as of the time I'm writing this post. As soon as bandwidth comes available, I'll be downloading the images and moving them to my own server, where I have 300GB of monthly bandwidth goodness.

THEN, we'll be in business!

New Theme for Run FatAss Run!

2007-10-16T15:58:00.000-04:00

So, what do you think?

I got tired of that bland old gray and white template and wanted to spice things up by updating this puppy to a nifty Web 2.0 look. Can you believe this is a blogspot template?

Too cool. Very Worpress-like.

The theme can be downloaded through the credit link in the footer. The designer has several other Wordpress-like themes for Blogger, so go check it out.

Finding my good place

2007-10-10T04:45:00.000-04:00

I'm beginning to exercise more as part of my hundred day head start push. It was difficult getting started due to incredibly poor weather here - we just experienced a so-called "100-year rain". Much of my exercise has been indoors, walking up and down stairs and doing calisthenics. Not exactly the greatest aerobic exercise, but I did get my core muscles strengthened, which is helping.
Now that I'm back outdoors, the exercise itself is motivating. Once I get started, I don't want to stop. So, I'm getting back to my good place. How do I know my good place?

After my daughter's soccer game last night, my wife wanted to go out to eat. I went for a walk instead.

How I'm doing

2007-10-06T07:25:00.000-04:00

I'm doing pretty well. I lost 5 lbs last week, not so sure about this week yet. It's been tough getting in the exercise with all the rain here, but I've gotten out enough that it should make a difference. The diet is going well, I've successfully eliminated sugary snacks and fast foods, so it's a good start. Just focusing on continuous improvement, cutting the big items in chunks, one at a time, and the little stuff as I come across it.

Are you living a healthy lifestyle?

2007-10-04T22:21:00.000-04:00

eDiets has an article posted titled 10 Habits of Fit People. Here's how I rate myself against the habits promoted in the article:

1. Sleep well and wake up naturally. I don't do this well at all. I typically get to bed after 1 a.m. because of the incredible workload I've put on myself, and I wake up to the alarm function of my cell phone at 5:30. The time spent sleeping is extremely high-quality sleep., I get very deep and wake feeling rested. I can go 5 to 6 nights like this before I crash and sleep 10-12 hrs. Not healthy. (BTW, I am currently on night 6)

2. Get prepared. Right now, I am not doing this very well at all. Last year, when I was walking 117 consecutive days, my entire day revolved around my evening walk.

3. Exercise in the morning. See above. I'm not a morning person. Frankly, it isn't safe to walk on my pot-holed dirt road in the dark. But, I should probably do some light calisthenics and stretching, rather than check email every morning.

4. Plan meals. I do a reasonably good job with this. I shop on Sunday for my breakfast and lunches for the week.

5. Rebound from setbacks. I'm not very good at this. If I screw up in the morning, i just keep eating for the rest of the day.

6. Make lasting lifestyle and behavioral changes. Not yet, but I know I need to and I'm working to incorporate more healthy habits (although that 'sleep' one may remain a challenge for some time)

7. Separate the psychology of success from self-help snake oil. I don't fall for the fad diets or quick-loss schemes. In fact, I started Hundred Day Head Start and built it around the concept of support and accountability, rather than tying it to a "program".

8. Lose weight and keep it off. I wouldn't have this blog if I could do this.

9. Use positive self talk. Not in the normal course of my life, but when I have been successful with diet and exercise over a decent length of time, I begin doing this naturally - which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

10. Set and accomplish goals. I've always done this in the past, but have not done so with this diet. I am trying to slowly build new behaviors, and expect weight loss to occur as a result rather than "lose 30 lbs and maintain".

So, I don't measure up very well against this list, but that's hardly a surprise given where I am in my life, with my health. I do need to move my lifestyle and behaviors closer to this 'model' if I'm going to live a healthier life.

Kid eating habits

2007-10-03T20:13:00.000-04:00

We've been having a real battle the past few months. Our kids eating habits have gone downt he sewer. In the past, they were always served vegetables and always ate them willing; now, no matter how we prepare them, they're fighting back. We're lucky to get them to eat one mouthful of vegetables a night.

Any suggestions? My wife has started going to school and volunteering in the lunchroom once or twice a week, to make sure they eat some veggies at lunch.

Some people suggest letting kids help with preparing meals. We try, but they get distracted quickly and never "take ownership" of the meal.

What else can we try?

Dealing With Low Back Pain

2007-10-02T14:08:00.000-04:00

For the last week, I've been dealing with low back associated with exercise. When I go for my walk, the back tightens up to the point that my stride is cut in half, and the pain is excruciating. Rather than pop pills and go see more docs, I adjusted my exercises to be almost exclusively core-strengthening. I've made a ton of progress as a result.

While I was recovering from my ankle injury, I got really lazy and did nothing. No exercise at all. The core muscles - abs, back, hips, and thighs lost strength, and I put on weight. When I restarted my workouts, my body was not ready for the stress.

Consistently working to shore up my weakness, namely those ab muscles, has given me one of the quickest recoveries ever from my back pain.

We're working hard over here

2007-10-01T22:32:00.001-04:00

I am having a blast over at Hundred Day Head Start. It's turning into a neat little support and accountability community of folks interested in diets and exercise. I'm excited every time I see someone link or comment and say something like "Hey, that's a good idea, I want to be a part of that!"

Please come on over. Just because we're 9 (maybe 10 by the time you read this) days into this, doesn't mean you're too late. Start now and get some of the weight off before New Years, don't wait until January 1 to make that same old resolution to lose 30 lbs. I'm down 5 lbs in the first week - that's 5 lbs I don't have to lose in January!

Hoff's PSA

2007-09-27T10:41:00.000-04:00

Wow! Hoff has a helluva story to tell! He saw a guy floating in the condo pool and had to pull him out. 911 put him on hold during the ordeal, too.

Man, my brother went through this a couple times working as a lifeguard, successfully and unsuccessfully. It was always tough when it didn't end well, but Hoff gave a great effort trying to save this guy's life.

Please, someone show this to my wife

2007-09-26T07:02:00.000-04:00

From WebMD: Fruits, Veggies, Don't Cut Colon Cancer

Eating a diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables doesn't appear to strongly reduce colon cancer risk, but it may help protect slightly against getting one type of colon cancer, according to a new analysis.

Take that! ;-)

--------------------

We're off to a great start at Hundred Day Head Start. We've already got a dozen members on our forum after 3 days. I'd like to see more participation, and have forums set up for a wide variety of diet and exercise philosophies. Please come over and check out the site and the forum!