Pre-season Challenge

[WombleRef]

Everyone,

I did my normal mistake of eating crap and not doing anything during the exam period again. Tried to get back into the scheme of things pre my holiday but I haven't - struggled for motivation because quite frankly I've been burnt out after studying from about 9am in the morning to 8pm at night for about 6 weeks with no real break.

I appreciate there isn't any excuse - but I feel like I should post my pre-season challenge here to help with motivation and to keep myself in check.

As of yesterday:

Doing a 15 meter bleep test - I got to 5.3
Weight - 131.1kg

My target will be by the end of September (before I move to Uni and Hopefully MADREFS society) - to be at around 10 on the bleep test and be approaching or past the 120kg marker.

Training programme will be as follows:

Sunday - Bleep Test & Weigh in
Monday - Run
Tuesday - Club Training
Wednesday - Run then Weigh in
Thursday - Club Training
Friday - Run
Saturday - Day off/Match


These runs will be from my house through 2 local villages and then back again - about 7 or 8 km.

I will be increasing the length of each run per week as follows:

Week 1 - 3 minutes of running 2 minutes break

Week 2 - 3 minutes and 2

Week 3 - 4 and 1

Week 4 - 5 and 2

Week 5 - 6 and 4

Week 7 - 7 and 3

Week 8 - 8 and 2

Week 9 - 9 and 1

Week 10 - 10 and 5

Week 11 - 11 and 4

Week 12 - 12 and 3

Week 13 - 13 and 2

Week 14 - 14 and 1

Week 15 - 15 and 5

I will be making near daily posts of my progress - and you can also view my progress here

 

[WombleRef]

Day 1:

Training - Went on a nice jog with 3 minutes of jogging and 2 minutes of recovery - did 3.9 miles in 49 minutes
Was originally planning to do 2 minutes of exercise with 3 minutes of rest but it felt too easy so I upped it straight away. Skipping a week suits me fine!

Couldn't do the full route due to time constraints so instead did the winter training route I used to do when the River was impassable - running up towards the Shell Garage on Norwich Road, before cutting through Whitehouse estate to my old Secondary School then down Bramford Lane towards home.

Feel pretty good about it now, and it was nice to be able to stretch my legs. Tommorow I will be training with the Colts at my Rugby Club - this could be an issue. They are starting to train with the first team and have apparently got a personal trainer in. I may die to be honest....

 

[WombleRef]

Day 2:
Training with the Colts at Stowmarket RFC...
oh dear... that was hard work. The club has got a fitness instructor in who happened to simply be in one of the younger senior players. He beasted us. Started off with a game of touch, followed by these weird shuttle runs where at the start you had to do five reps of different things, then a press up at the end of each shuttle then return to the start to do five more reps. We did 5 of these, and while I was comfortably the slowest and person who found it the hardest, I didn't give up unlike two of the U18 props who couldn't finish it. Then we did some strength work involving carrying and flipping tackle bags. Which suited me fine and I could do this easily!

Then the Colts coaches took over and made us do numerous handling drills which meant I had to work on my explosive pace and remember how to pass and catch a ball. It went alright, but my legs were giving up with me towards the end.

This then finished with a game of touch in which I thought I did alright.

The session wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Although I struggled, the key thing is I didn't give up and that is always good. I clearly have some core conditioning from somewhere as I was the fastest person with the lifting of the tackle bags and flipping them.

But I'm feeling it now, and will certainly feel it tommorow morning.

NB - I have had to change the plan again as they've decided not to do 2 sessions a week for the time being. Instead on Wednesdays I will repeat the shorter run I did on Monday, and on Thursday and Friday do the longer run through Sproughton etc, which will hopefully give me a little bit more recovery time and help heal my very achey legs.

Weigh in tommorow - this could be fun!

 

[chbg]

You provide no evidence that you are cutting back on your energy intake - food! You will only control your weight if your energy expenditure exceeds your energy intake. Your current daily energy requirement is probably 4500 kcals to keep your body functioning normally (Basal Metabolic Rate according to Schofield Equation x Physical Activity Level). It will drop as you lose weight, but increase as you exercise more. The ideal calorific deficit should be no more than 20% in order limit weight loss to fat. How much are you consuming? It should be about 3600 kcals - check food labels.

Also don't weigh yourself daily - "a watched kettle never boils"! You will only lose about 1kg of fat per week. 11kg in 8-9 weeks is a bit of an ask and you don't want to lose muscle mass or just dehydrate for long term success.

Moderate effort CV training at 55-70% of your max heart rate (I'm guessing 110 - 140 bpm) will be most effective for weight control at this stage. At a level of 5-6 on a 1-10 scale, where 1 = very, very easy and 10 = maximum chest-bursting effort.

 

[WombleRef]

You provide no evidence that you are cutting back on your energy intake - food! You will only control your weight if your energy expenditure exceeds your energy intake. Your current daily energy requirement is probably 4500 kcals to keep your body functioning normally (Basal Metabolic Rate according to Schofield Equation x Physical Activity Level). It will drop as you lose weight, but increase as you exercise more. The ideal calorific deficit should be no more than 20% in order limit weight loss to fat. How much are you consuming? It should be about 3600 kcals - check food labels.

Also don't weigh yourself daily - "a watched kettle never boils"! You will only lose about 1kg of fat per week. 11kg in 8-9 weeks is a bit of an ask and you don't want to lose muscle mass or just dehydrate for long term success.

Moderate effort CV training at 55-70% of your max heart rate (I'm guessing 110 - 140 bpm) will be most effective for weight control at this stage. At a level of 5-6 on a 1-10 scale, where 1 = very, very easy and 10 = maximum chest-bursting effort.

I haven't been weighing myself daily - it's just for formating the excel spreadsheet in a way that doesn't look completely blank.

I understand the food thing and I have been cutting it down - but it is perhaps the hardest part because I simply don't control it. I have light breakfast's and lunches e.g. for the last few days - either cereal or a slice of toast for breakfast, and then some form of wrap with various salady things included (lettuce, red pepper and cucumber for example) with some chicken or salami - but the evening meal is in general prepared by my parents.

I have a food app which I use every know and then - I will start to use that again and include that in the data set from tommorow onwards

 

[andyscott]

I haven't been weighing myself daily - it's just for formating the excel spreadsheet in a way that doesn't look completely blank.

I understand the food thing and I have been cutting it down - but it is perhaps the hardest part because I simply don't control it. I have light breakfast's and lunches e.g. for the last few days - either cereal or a slice of toast for breakfast, and then some form of wrap with various salady things included (lettuce, red pepper and cucumber for example) with some chicken or salami - but the evening meal is in general prepared by my parents.

I have a food app which I use every know and then - I will start to use that again and include that in the data set from tommorow onwards

Send me your email address and I will email you a diet and a training plan for some body weight circuits. Starts with 2 weeks hard clean food, but then eases off.
Eat clean, put some lean muscle on, burn calories.

 

[Jacko]

I understand the food thing and I have been cutting it down - but it is perhaps the hardest part because I simply don't control it....the evening meal is in general prepared by my parents.


Mum - I'm trying to lose a bit of weight ready for the rugby season. Any chance you can cut my portion size back a bit / not cook me any potatoes with this meal / let me do the cooking today - no one minds a salad do they??

 

[Toby Warren]

Wombleref well done for taking control - I'm not an expert other than move more eat less seems to work!

I wish will you well

 

[Dixie]

I understand the food thing and I have been cutting it down - but it is perhaps the hardest part because I simply don't control it. ... the evening meal is in general prepared by my parents.

Celebrity hypnotherapist Paul McKenna markets a book entitled I Can make You Thin. He takes as his central premise the point that normal diets are as much the problem as overweightedness itself. The only way to manage your food intake is to take in less - the question of what you take in is really secondary to the amount you take in, and the frequency you do it, so under his system you can eat what you like - just less often and in smaller sizes. Those primary elements tend to be governed by psychological triggers that can be managed. Just as a smoker will crave a cigarette with a coffee or an alcoholic beverage, so an over-eater can learn to recognise the prompts that make him/her put food in their mouth when not really hungry.

Tell your Mum that while you love her food, the amount she puts on your plate is 30% more than you need so you'll be leaving a third of it on your plate every meal - and you still love her. Get into that habit, and as long as you don't scoff it as a midnight feast you'll achieve your goal.

 

[Phil E]

Tell your Mum that while you love her food, the amount she puts on your plate is 30% more than you need so you'll be leaving a third of it on your plate every meal - and you still love her. Get into that habit, and as long as you don't scoff it as a midnight feast you'll achieve your goal.

Or just use a smaller plate?

 

[Dixie]

Or just use a smaller plate?

That is a possibility - but I've been in "All You Can Eat" places, and you'd be amazed how much food can be piled onto a plate of any size

- - - Updated - - -

Or just use a smaller plate?

That is a possibility - but I've been in "All You Can Eat" places, and you'd be amazed how much food can be piled onto a plate of any size

 

[WombleRef]

Days 3 and 4...

Day 3 weigh in - 129.1kg

Exercise - uh sort of...

These two days have been absolutely mad - I literally haven't stopped whether trying to put the finishing touches to my bedroom which has finally been redecorated after living there for two days or as of today - I was working at my job's family fun day for 10 hours or so, which culminated in a football match for 30 minutes against some very good players - and I'm still knackered http://www.itfc.co.uk/news/article/open-day-success-2014-1796436.aspx
The day started at 8am by getting supporters in to take part in the 'biggest ever team photo', before I ended up manning various bouncy castles, then retreating to my normal work in the retail shop until 3pm. I had a burger and a diet coke at the bbq that the workers had afterwards and didn't just eat loads

I have done exercise, I haven't been sedantry and I'm pleased with that - but I need to get into the habit of running... this is an issue which I have had before.

But even without running, I feel like I'm eating better before and eating less at meal time (I left a third of my chilli today) and I'm even able to restrict myself from having all of the alcohol!

Now regarding the weigh in - while I reckon I've lost some weight - I've been struggling to keep hydrated at times - today in particular despite drinking at least 4 or 5 bottles of water - my pee was still a darker colour than it should be - so don't trust the figures that much.

Calorie intakes - 1761 on Wednesday and 2036 on Thursday - BUT... this is probably a little on the Conservative side - I would add about 500 to that figure as the app I use is seemingly conservative in the amount of calories it assigns foods.

 

[DrSTU]

Slow and steady dude, you didn't get fat overnight, you're not going to get fit or thin(ner) overnight.

What's your body fat levels?

 

[Adam]

You need a structure for the status foods you can snack on without feeling at all guilty. I lost my 33kg through Slimming World as I never went hungry and didn't feel guilty about pigging out.

In total I spent £100 on my weight loss. I'm sure if you told your mum she'd even pay for it.

As a tip, don't eat wraps. Bread is a lot worse than pasta, rice, potato etc for weight loss and maintenance as it fills you up less and is more calorie dense, and if you imagine a wrap as squashed bread then that is even worse.

For breakfast have some fruit with a Mullerlight, or eggs beans and mushrooms, or a wholegrain cereal like Weetabix.

If you do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten.

 

[winchesterref]

To be honest, I would suggest very different to Adam and steer clear of pasta, Weetabix, Mullerlight, fruit for breakfast,, as well as wraps and bread.

Meat and veg are your friends, eggs, nuts, fish, potatoes/sweet potatoes/rice (I go for basmati or wild) are fine, but not in excess.

Being overweight your hormones and body's response to carbohydrates is most likely dysfunctional, and you probably don't utilise them properly. To start with, you don't really need them much, you'll just crave them. Fix your hormonal response over time by changing your diet to exclude inflammatory food, sugar filled stuff and stick to mostly eating what grows, runs or walks. If you want to add flavour and tolerate dairy, high quality butter or cook in other fats and sauce with as few ingredients as possible.

Parents may enjoy eating food laden with fat, worth suggesting!!

 

[WombleRef]

Day 5:
Calorie intake - 2463 (this is more accurate than the last two days - checked calorie totals compared to packets and it was spot on)
Exercise: Yes
8 mile bike ride
Table Tennis

Today was fun - I went for a Bike Ride around the Sproughton and Bramford areas but went from my girlfriend which features alot more ******* hills. I felt I did alright - doing the 7.85 miles in about an hour and 5 minutes. Had a total elevation gain of about 300ft and an elevation loss of about the same. My maximum speed was 24 mph while my average was 7.5 mph. Pretty happy with it! But absolutely knackered now - I did better on some of the horrible hills near Flowton and Bramford Tye which suits me!

Table Tennis - wow I'm inconsistent. I seemingly can do amazing shots then forget how to hit the ball. Was great fun, and got the pulse going for a good 30 minutes!

Tommorow is meant to be a day off but I've decided to actually go on a run instead of doing various other activities!

 

[chbg]

Well done. Keep the exercise interesting.

 

[WombleRef]

Day 6:
Calorie Intake 2495
Exercise - Yes
4 mile run- did it in 44 minutes - average speed of 5.1 mph, maximum speed of 9.2mph. Would link the route but the app's just been silly. This is an improvement of about 5 minutes on the previous time I did that run.

Well that was the good news. Now the bad - I think I have some kind of ear infection. My right ear is playing up really badly - isn't able to equalise under pressure and any loud sound just rings in my ear. Listening to my ear phones on my run showed that my right ear couldn't hear the music as loudly as the left ear so something is definitely wrong - will go and see a GP when I can get an appointment.

Either way the run was good - the first half - the uphill section was a little easier and quicker than the first time I did it - and I feel I could have done it even faster if I did not need to stop for a toilet break half way through the run.
My knees however didn't like it, and have always tended to struggle on tarmac runs.

I've started using the Runtastic app for Windows Phone to measure my runs - does anyone know of a cheap bluetooth heart rate monitor that is compatible and also an arm holder for my Nokia Lumia 520 that I can use to get data while training? Cost is an issue as right now I'm saving up for a decent tablet that will last during lectures while I make notes etc, and I don't really have much income as it is.

Finally, from Monday I will be adding a weights section to this using a pair of dumbells my neighbour is loaning me - does anyone have any advice for what training I can do with them. This is primarily so I can increase muscle mass while losing fat which will be better for me in the long run. In particular any exercises to work on my not very good hamstrings would be good - they have never been right since I tore them in my first season of Colts Rugby then decided to play on with it.. then the week after thought they were recovered and played again. Clever me!

 

[Drift]

It's difficult to do things with dumbbells to hit the legs and back, however look up goblet squats and do some of those. You could in theory use them as a KB if you wanted. Incorporate some swings, Turkish get ups and some loaded carries.

If you have access to the gym look at a program called 'starting strength', it's great for the beginner lifter.

 

[DrSTU]

Have a look at gsp rushfit DVDs. Highly recommend them for training with dumbells and getting weight off you.