Counting through the morning

Cluster of Seven Lavender Blooms

This morning I counted my way through the morning and realized I do this quite often since I started my mindful exercise and health regimen. Some of the counting is simply watching the clock to make sure I get to work on time, but a lot of the counting is just that - counting, 1, 2, 3, etc.

For example I perform Kettlebell Thursday training by repeating some number of KB swings and some number of Turkish Get Ups. I decided for change of pace sake to mix it up today and thus I performed (counted) 100 KB swings (switching hands each swing) then I did 2 TGUs, then I counted 50 KB swings, 1 TGU, and finally 50 KB swings and the last TGU. Great workout that even now left my body in a glowing healthy state!

But the counting didn't stop there because after shaving and showering, I mindfully brushed my teeth 4 times around the inside and 4 times around the outside, and last, but not least swished mouthwash for a 30 count. I continued another minor count by preparing lunch of 1 tomato, 1 pickle, 2 apples, 2 teaspoons of salad dressing, and 1 package of tuna to make a tuna salad. Light calorie count lunch to go with the counting exercise regimen.

Even though I use a timer to manage my Mon-Wed-Fri Kettlebell strength sessions, I count how many reps I perform of each exercise during the 25 second workout (per session.) So it seems, with Kettlebell training I choose to track exercises by counting even when it's not necessary.

I Hate Squats - and other Kettlebell strength session observations

Shoveling Donkey Doo at dawn

I hate doing squats as much as I hate shoveling donkey doo. My thighs burn every time I perform squats and they seem such a primitive exercise. Yet, I know they're great thigh and calf builders so I knock them out with a sour face. Although performed on off-strength Tuesday-Thursday workouts, I find I dread Turkish Get Ups too. There's a lot of work needed to perform them and lifting the 20 lb barbell to do them is still tough. TGUs and windmills are the only two exercises I haven't performed with the 30 lb Kettlebell.

My favorite of the Kettlebell exercises is the halo. It's tough, but I can feel the muscles in the upper abs and lower chest getting a workout from this simple exercise. I remain puzzled over the around-the-world exercise because it's supposed to be an ab exercise, but I don't feel ab burn from it. I feel arms, shoulders and calves and ankles getting juiced though and it's a fun exercise so I keep doing it even if I don't feel any ab burn. Because I want to tighten and tone my abs, I swapped out bicep curls for crunches holding a 20 lb barbell on my chest. I'll give it a few more weeks to see if it helps my abs.

I bought the 30 lb Kettlebell three months ago and definitely feel stronger and can see more tone in areas like my chest and shoulders. However, I've noticed the last two weeks that my conditioning has reached a point where I'm not getting the same burn and sweat I got earlier. I'm beginning to believe I may need to upgrade to a heavier Kettlebell to up the intensity again because most of the exercises feel easy with the 30 lb KB. It will feel weird to see two Kettlebells in my exercise area. I won't get more though.

I will employ the heavier Kettlebell on KB swings, around-the-worlds, halos, and squats (yuck!) as they have all become easy with my current bell. I still use the 20 lb barbell on crunches, windmills, and Turkish Get Ups. And if I'm tired, I'll also use the barbell on shoulder presses, but of late I've performed shoulder presses with the 30 lb Kettlebell with grunts, groans, and much straining. 

Before and After Photos, Month 3 and Report

Before and After Photo May 2013

We've reached the beginning of May and thus, another exciting chapter of looking at pictures of a rapidly aging man. Nope, not the six-pack abs of youth here! What we have is a roly-poly jelly belly that shrinks much too slowly for the effort expended. And this month, looking at the difference, I'm just not overwhelmed with pride and joy at the accomplishments after three months of Kettlebell training and reduced calorie food consumption.

Before and After Photo April 2013

For comparison I re-posted last month's photo set too and recall that I did some minor gut sucking last month that improved the appearance of results. The angle at which I stood and the lighting differs as well with the result that, photographically, last month appears to present a better comparison than this month's comparison in the belly. Weight wise, I'm only a measly 3 lbs lighter, but I have been consistent in getting my exercise so I know underneath, the current muscle tone is better than shows in the photos. Therefore, I learn a lesson: photos don't show all.

I am currently up to 18 exercises on my Mon-Wed-Fri strength KB days. The list of exercises are:

• Two single-arm KB swings
• Two around the worlds
• Two KB rows
• Two KB Halos
• Two KB Squats
• Two shoulder presses (Depending on energy level, lifting either 30 lb KB or 20 lb barbell)
• Two sets of crunches holding 20 lb barbell
• Two BB windmills
• Two side lifts (need to find a better name)

I follow this up with 40 to 60 KB swings depending on available time and energy. I'll write more soon about observations of where I stand with this regimen physically.

Jiggly Stomach - aka Belly Quakes

Ladybug on Grass

Today's blog will be just a bit silly and perhaps a bit disturbing to envision. But before I go there a short report on successful breakthrough - my weight dropped below 180 lbs today (179.5 lbs) for the first time since I lost 40+ lbs in 2006. Oh happy days!

I performed a full week of Kettlebell training last week and this morning as well. I'm up to 18 exercises per session and later this week, when I present the three month side by side photo comparison I'll also list the exercises I've been executing.

On to the silliness. If you, like me, have been at one time or another, a bit overweight, you might have paid attention to the appearance and attributes of the extra weight you carry and where you carry it. My extra weight ends up in my belly as a spare tire and love handles. In my disgust with the size and shape of these fat rolls, I would sometimes pinch a roll with a sour face to see how big it was getting. Occasionally I'd give that pinch a shake and watch how my belly wiggled like a bowl of jello. "Eww-yuck," I'd think as I observed the waves roll around my waist in a mini-earthquake.

A couple of days ago, after nearly three months of working out with the Kettlebell, I admired in the mirror that my belly shrank considerably, and gave the shrunken, but still present roll a measuring pinch (yes! smaller!) and for fun, gave it a generous jiggle. I was stunned at the difference in the jiggle! Thinking in terms of earthquakes, instead of long waves that spread across the whole belly as before, the jiggle only wiggled a short distance from the pinch with short wave appearance. I took the change as confirmation that the crunches and other exercises have tightened the muscles under the shrinking fat rolls and thus the jiggle didn't wiggle as far.

Another similar observation occurs on my chest. When I poked my chest with my finger at the beginning of the year it reminded me of commercials of poking the Pillsbury Doughboy. Little to no resistance for quite a depth. Now, with the Kettlebell training, I encounter nearly immediate muscle resistance to the measuring poke and a pinch of skin results in pain and very little loose skin. In fact, the chest area shows the results of the training quite well in my eyes. The belly, though, needs more work to get to the appearance I envision.

Healthy eating or extreme diet?

(Wheatless) Jalapeno Poppers

I am reading a book on my kindle reader app that blames the entire obesity problem on wheat. Typical of books written by doctors, the title comes in two parts, of which, "Wheat Belly" by Doctor William Davis, is sufficient here. 




In "Wheat Belly", Dr. Davis presents what appears to be a logically sound case that wheat, especially the hybridized wheat developed since the 1950's, stands as a major culprit in our nation's (and increasingly, the world's) obesity epidemic. He cites numerous studies that support the case, yet, in most cases the target of the case was gluten induced problems, not wheat particularly. Dr. Davis goes on to point out studies that may connect wheat consumption to some mental issues like schizophrenia and that wheat may affect areas of the brain associated with addiction in the same manner as heroin.  In essence, the book's theme is based on his observation of the coincidence of wheat hybridization combined with the gluten and other studies and his observation that his own patients that followed his no wheat prescription obtained good results.

I am not done reading the book yet, but I find the cure hard to imagine, let alone follow. By Dr. Davis's recommendation a healthful thing to do is to not eat any wheat, or wheat products at all. At least that is what I gather having read half the book. However, that idea strikes me as rather radical and difficult to accomplish, simply because there are a lot of wheat products I would find difficult to give up. I enjoy "Mischbrot" a German mixed wheat-rye bread I bake. I enjoy Inge's German cakes, which are not cloyingly sweet like American cakes. I enjoy pasta occasionally. These three things I would have a hard time giving up. However, I would find it reasonably easy to surrender eating most of the rest of the wheat products available in the market place today.

For now I will leave this here and finish reading the book. I am interested to find out if Dr. Davis writes of the possibility of a vastly reduced wheat consumption prescription rather than a total elimination. I could live with vast reduction, but total elimination places the bar too high in my mind. I will, however, given the sound reasoning he presented, choose to eliminate what wheat I can for a couple months to see if there's any noticeable difference - especially with the belly fat.

Posting Hiatus Ends (for now)

Landscaping Weekend Workout, Part 2

The last few days I've been working on a new project at work that involved a lot of extra hours, the result of which I haven't posted to this blog for a few days. I don't intend to make it up, but I will provide a report on my progress on the exercise and weight front.

The photo above shows the Saturday workout, where I again moved about a ton of stone in order to choose the pieces that allowed me to complete the walkway. It's not a work of perfection, but it beats the packed dirt or mud that we walked on before. I have noticed that a big benefit of the Kettlebell strength workout is that a day of moving a ton of stone only results in soreness for that day. By Sunday I wasn't sore at all. Last year if I had done this amount of work I would have been sore for at least two, even up to four days after the activity.

Last week I only performed the Kettlebell strength session on Monday and Wednesday. Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday I skipped the workout due to varying excuses, some valid (like Friday going in to work at 06:30 to get a lipid screen at the health center) but most just convenient yielding to a lazy streak. Next week I vow to get back to the full five day Kettlebell regimen. (Three days strength, two days swings and Turkish Get Ups.)

On the weight front, I have reached 180 lbs three times last week and this week, but bounce back up during the week. I really wish to break the 180 lb barrier and start the descent to 175 that's my goal for July 4th. I haven't been counting calories specifically since Melissa's visit and I know, mentally, that I have been indulging in too many calories of late. It hasn't resulted in weight gain as yet, but I need to hunker down and get back on track to loosing the weight.

Sugar Craving or even Addiction?

Photo of Rose from our Garden

I couldn't find photo of a sweet treat in my library so I tossed in a rose photo from our garden to represent a sweet. Yesterday, on the way back from Die Gruene Weide, we stopped at Sonic and each got an ice cream treat. For some reason, I seriously craved something sweet all day long. I wonder if the craving was partially a result of the huge amount of calories burned with landscaping work. Or is there a more sinister reason to crave sweets?

During the past four months of calorie reduction, I managed to reduce my sweet intake to one to three items per week, such as a piece of dark chocolate, or a slice of Inge's German cakes. I also avoided eating ice cream - a particularly tempting treat. However, I got to eat a serious dose of sweets including ice cream while the family visited week before last and I wonder if my body now demands a return to heavy sweets - as in a sugar addiction calling for surrender. 

I find that during the week I manage to resist the calling most days, but during weekends, in both sweets and total calories consumed, I tend to weakness and frequent lapses in will. I mentally endure a fight over food every weekend, exacerbated by Inge's baking a delicious dessert almost every weekend. During the best of my weight loss I survived the fight, but of late, the lapses come fast and furious. To break through the plateau, I must once more resolve to limit calories and sweets on the weekend.

Even though I put in a multi-ton-moving workout this weekend, I found I wasn't too sore to prevent a nice long walk with Penny and perform the Monday 16 Session Kettlebell strength training. I am noticing a reduction in the workout stress and will need to make adjustments to the quantity or timing of the workout to keep the training to a high edge. It was nice to discover I wasn't massively sore today - a symptom of having achieved a better level of fitness than I possessed last year. 

Landscaping - Extreme Workout Weekend

Compacted Topsoil - Time to Landscape

The area in front of our house has never grown anything due to foot traffic and for years I have desired to replace the compacted topsoil with a paver path of some sort. My vision typically included paving the area with the light limestone common to this area. I had planned to drill more on the water well at Die Gruene Weide, but when my brother said he was unable to join me in water well drilling this weekend, I decided that now's the best time to finally tackle the landscaping chore of beautifying the front of our house.

First I chiseled an outline of the shape I wished to install, then started digging. Fortunately, it has rained enough lately that the soil wasn't too dry and tough to dig. It took about two hours of digging to excavate the area for the new flagstone walkaway. Up front I dug down to six inches deep. Along the side I dug between three and four inches deep because limestone boulders prevented digging deeper. Fortunately, the boulders were deep enough not to require removal. (From personal experience I know that breaking limestone boulders with a rock bar provides a significantly more intense workout than shoveling!)

Topsoil Shoveled Out. Two hours work. Crushed Granite added too.

 Although my primary vision consisted of light limestone, when Inge and I inspected our local stone and landscaping supplies company, we found a pallet of Oklahoma Fieldstone, most about one inch thick, that we thought would look great in front of the house. We bought our stone and crushed gravel from the folks at J & M Stone Supply on RR 620 in Austin just past the big HEB at Anderson Mill Rd. Their prices have always been reasonable, though the Oklahoma Fieldstone was the most expensive thing we've bought there. We bought 1.5 tons of stone, which may be a bit much, but we have lots of area around the house to apply the stone.

Oklahoma Flagstone initial placement.

 Notice the tarp covered pile to the right above. That's 1.5 tons of stone Inge and I moved from a pallet in my truck to a pallet on the ground yesterday afternoon. Then this morning I moved about a ton of the stone myself while searching for the pieces I wish to place in the new front path.

Oklahoma Flagstone from door looking out.

I underestimated how much crushed granite I needed to buy, with the result that we only finished this front segment today. I still need to tweak the height of the stones a bit and make sure they're level and sloped to allow rain to run off correctly. But after two days of hard work we're seeing the achievement of the vision of a prettier entryway to our house. Hopefully this pathway will reduce the amount of mud tracked in when it rains.

From an exercise standpoint, Saturday I shoveled 66 square feet between four and six inches deep which consumed two and a half hours.  Afterwards Inge and I bought and together we moved 1.5 tons of Oklahoma Fieldstone. Then we returned to the landscape supply to purchase one-third of a yard of crushed granite of which I shoveled a layer into the new pathway. Sunday I manually compressed the granite with a tampter, then shoveled and compressed several more layers of crushed granite to bring the level up to just under one inch depth below grade. I then moved about a ton of stone searching for pieces that fit the pathway jigsaw I built. So this weekend counts as an extreme workout. (And my sore, tired muscles concur!)

Driving Passion

Random Red BMW in Germany

As Inge and I were walking in Germany I spotted this red BMW and snapped an impulse shot because it's a beautiful car. I can see that it has a sun roof and it would be a massive insult to my sense of what's right with the world if this car possessed an automatic transmission. I didn't look, but in Germany, my experience is that this auto would have a manual transmission.

I write about this because I really love to drive and especially drive vehicles with manual transmissions. Unfortunately, most pickup trucks sold in America come with automatic transmissions and because I need a pickup for our ranch and my woodworking I own an automatic transmission truck. One huge reason I love to visit family and friends in Germany is because I get to rent cars with a manual transmissions and thus I get a touch of my gear jamming driving love every time I visit.

 

Honda Rebel I trained on after MSF course.

I took lessons with the Motorcycle Foundation Safety Course and I learned to ride a motorcycle because my heart told me that motorcycles provide a gut level experience of driving beyond anything you can get in a car. There's no "cage" around you - just the elements and the vehicles around you. They too impart motion with manual transmissions so I got to experience the joy of shifting up and down through the gears under various situations. Another unique motorcycle experience I enjoyed was the cornering lean. What a rush! However, Inge fears so much for me when I ride and she is so saddened by my riding that I gave my motorcycle up to make her happy. I sold my Honda Rebel (above) after a just a few months of riding.

The next best thing, in my mind, to a motorcycle for a way to enjoy the driving experience, would be a sporty convertible. There are a lot of them out there and if I had unlimited money I'd get a Porsche Boxter. But within my budget, the car I'd like to own would be a Mazda Miata. I'm not into massive horsepower roaring engine driving expereince - I'm into the top-down, wind in my hair, gear jamming, curvy country road experience of driving. From a purely cost effective standpoint, a miata fits the bill and I have test driven a couple to know I really want one.

But life is about making choices and I keep coming around to the thought that I have a hard time justifying owning both a truck and a car for myself. I need the truck for ranch and household chores and woodworking and I use it for commuting but at an average of 17.6 mpg, it remains a costly commuter vehicle. If I got a miata I would take advantage of the nearly 30 mpg for commuting to cut my fuel bill down and it would be a "fun drive" vehicle too. (aka toy). But to own both feels greedy in some way.

Possessed by Obsessed - Spousal Observation

Fence Rolling Fun!

Last night I finally got around to merging the before and after pictures to insert into the Two Month Before and After Blog so that the merged images appeared side-by-side and in similar size for better comparison. My computer sits on a table next to my recliner and Inge inspects whatever I'm working on. So there I am examining my PhotoShop Elements side-by-side images when she pipes up, "you're obsessed with yourself." (or similar).

Over the years, "you're obsessed with X," has been a common statement from her watching what I do on the computer. I google topics of interest to read and watch videos. So for a while I was "obsessed" with guitars, and I was "obsessed" with motorcycles, and I was "obsessed" with radio controlled gliders, and "obsessed" with owning a Mazda Miata and so on. In every case from her observation point of seeing what's on my monitor, I do go through spells of being obsessed with a topic or object or hobby.

The result of my obsessions, so far, has been that I learn and act on something I want to know about. I flew radio controlled gliders for several years, giving it up because I built large beautiful gliders to which I became emotionally connected to and the pain of crashing them with resulting splintered plane bits left me realizing the pain of plane loss was greater than the joy of flying them. (Occasionally I think of picking remote controlled glider flying up again because flying was great fun, especially when one catches an awesome thermal!)

I learned to ride a motorcycle and bought one and rode it for a few months before I sold it. I learned an important spousal communication lesson there - "Do what you need to do," does not mean "yes". I sold the bike because I value peace with Inge more than I valued riding a motorcycle.

I learned to play guitar and still play. I really want to get a lot better and that's an area where I need to mindfully work on improving my practice habits in order to play better. I don't see myself giving up guitar and music playing any time soon because there's no pain I can think of associated with playing that exceeds the joy I get at making music.

So far one unfulfilled obsession is owning and driving a Mazda Miata. It may happen in the future but I keep putting it off because the cost-benefit analysis of owning a second "toy" vehicle doesn't compute.

So back to my newest "obsession" - getting fit. Unless I injure myself there's nothing but positive outcomes from pursing fitness. My writing about the pursuit serves as a personal goad and journal of progress and allows me to ponder other observations of life. The writing may not be necessary, but I enjoy it and will keep writing until I run out of things to say. Frankly, I'm amazed at two things in this pursuit - 1) I've managed to keep the exercise program up so long, and 2) I haven't run out of things to say in more than two months of writing multiple times per week. I believe the exercise reinforces the writing which reinforces the exercise - so far it's a beneficial feedback loop.

Today - 280 KB Swings, 4 Turkish Get Ups each side and all of them "strong man" style. It won't be long before I graduate from 20 lb dumbbell to 30 lb Kettlebell for the TGUs.