Property Investments, Landlording, CrossFit, Nutrition & Safety

7 lbs lost this month!

Last months Zone Diet weightloss update I was at 13 st 8 (190 lbs / 86kg). This month I’m down to 13 st 1 (183 lbs / 83kg). Whereas in October I lost 2 pounds only, this month it’s 7 lbs (3kg). Interestingly though, my body fat percentage is still 18% according to the Zone Diet book charts.

The reason is that I’ve lost another half inch off my waist, now down to 36.5 inches, and whilst this pushes me left another column on the chart, I also move up a row due to the extra weightloss, and this maintains the 18% body fat percentage. The upside is the next 1/2 inch lost should drop me 2% points.

So why did I lose 2 lbs in October and 7 lbs in November? What changed? What did I do different? How did I more than triple my previous months weightloss?

The answer is I did exactly what I said I’d do: cut back on the wine. Ok, it’s not quite been the tea total affair that I’d planned, but certainly not drinking (mostly) during the week has made a big difference.

The second change was I went back to weighing and measuring. It seems that over time, portion sizes miraculously change in your head. For stuff you like, the sizes slowly creep up, an ounce of cheese becomes an ounce and a quarter, then an ounce and a half. So every few months, it’s a good idea to recalibrate yourself by checking the things you’ve become accustomed to measuring by eye.

Clearly December is going to be a challenge what with Christmas coming, but I aim to get a head start by doing the best I can for the next 3 weeks before Christmas. If I lose another 2 lbs and drop into the 12 stone range, I’ll weigh less than I have for about 10 years!

Friday Fun post, a couple of great videos for you:

1) Hitler discovers that Microsoft has suspended his XBox console Live account. Starts slow, but you have to see his explosion at 1:11.

2) Part 2 – Hitler tries out the Wii and PS3:

3) Cleaning Dads Car after you’ve taken it without permission – Funny Fiat Advert

Crossfit Snatches continue to be a problem for me. Ever since I dropped a 67.5 kg Snatch on my head some 4 months back now, once I get to 60kg it gets scary and my head vetos my bodies attempt to throw 60kg in the air and jump underneath it before gravity brings it crashing down!

Working up to a max 1 rep Snatch on Tuesday down the Crossfit gym, after warm up I started at 50kg (110lb) and got 3 in quick succession no problem. Upping to 55kg (121 lb) I did another 2 easily and was feeling confident for a possible Personal Best. However at 60kg it started to go wrong. I failed twice and that was that, I couldn’t even get myself under the bar anymore… Once I fail a lift, it seems I go to pot and can’t go higher. My PB snatch remains 65kg.

So my new plan is this, I’m going to use the same approach to snatches as back squats – do lots of them at the same weight and build up my confidence again. This time I did 10 single lifts at 50kg, next time I’ll increment the weight and do the same, though I haven’t decided on 52.5 or 55kg for the next set. Will see how it goes.

We also did a quick blast workout on Tuesday:

3 rounds of: 15 Over Head Squats + 430m run (so 3 runs in total).  This is actually the same Crossfit Snatch based workout we did 4 months ago back in July.  Then I used a 34kg (75lb) bar for the Over Head Squats and I did the workout in 15:42.  Running was my nemesis then and I had to work some of the runs.

This time round I used a 40kg (88lb) bar and managed all 3 runs unbroken.  In fact I did all 3 sets of 15 OHS unbroken too.  So not surprisingly, depsite the extra weight, I smashed my previous time by 3 minutes 43 seconds, doing it in 11:59.  Very pleased with that, a 25% improvement in 4 months!

EDIT: I’ve now added an new post dedicated to the CrossFit Hero Workouts

This is a list of many of the Named CrossFit Workouts. Made up of the usual mix of CrossFit Exercises, these are the Benchmark CrossFit Workouts which are used to monitor your CrossFit progress as you get Stronger, Fitter, Faster. I’d like to make it an exhaustive list, so if I’ve missed one, please let me know. I believe it’s true to say that there are 2 groups of named workouts:

The first, sometimes referred to as “The Nasty Girls” of CrossFit, are all given girls names. Why, I have no idea, I’m sure someone can comment and tell me? It is however made slightly more complicated as there is a CrossFit Workout that is also called Nasty Girls. But as I’m sure you know, CrossFit girls are anything but nasty!

I should say I’m making this list as a useful tool for myself mostly, as I can never remember what exercises go with what workouts and it annoys me to have to go to several places to find what the workouts are and to see demo videos of them. So it’s nice to have all the CrossFit workouts clearly in one place with links to the demo’s of their names and links to the individual exercises too. Obviously all this info is on the main Crossfit site, I’ve just assembled it differently here. I’ve also hunted down demo videos that they don’t seem to have in their workout section.

The CrossFit Nasty Girls – Click the names to see workouts of them, or the individual exercises to see their specific videos:

Annie
50 – 40 – 30 – 20 – 10 For Time
Double Unders
Sit Ups

Angie
100 Pull Ups
100 Push Ups
100 Sit Ups
100 Squats

Barbara
20 Pull Ups
30 Push Ups
40 Sit Ups
50 Squats
Rest 3 Mins
Repeat All For 5 Rounds

Chelsea
5 Pull Ups
10 Push Ups
15 Squats
On The Minute Every Minute For 30 Minutes.

Cindy
5 Pull Ups
10 Push Ups
15 Squats
As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) in 20 Minutes

Diane
21 – 15 – 9 Reps
225lb Deadlift
Handstand Push Ups

Elizabeth
21 – 15 – 9 Reps
135lb Clean
Ring Dips

Fran
21 – 15 – 9 Reps
Thruster 95lbs
Pull Ups

Frelen
5 Rounds For Time
Run 800m
15 Dumbbell Thruster
15 Pull Ups

Grace
135lb Clean & Jerk
30 Reps

Helen
3 Rounds For Time
Run 400m
21 Kettle Bell Swings 55lb
12 Pull Ups

Isabel
135lb Snatch
30 Reps

Jackie
1000m Row
50 Thruster 45lbs
30 Pull Ups

Karen
For Time
150 Wall Balls 20lbs

Kelly
5 Rounds For Time
Run 400m
30 Box Jumps
30 Wall Balls 20lbs

Linda
10 – 9 – 8 – 7 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 of
1.5x Body Weight Deadlift
Body Weight Bench Press
3/4x Body Weight Cleans

Lynne
Bodyweight Bench Press Max Reps
Pull Ups Max Reps
5 Rounds For Max Reps

Mary
5 Handstand Push Ups
10 One Legged Squats (Pistols)
15 Pull Ups
As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) in 20 Minutes

Nancy
5 Rounds For Time
400m Run
15 Overhead Squat 95lbs

Nasty Girls
3 rounds for time of:
50 Squats
7 Muscle-ups
135 lb Hang power cleans, 10 reps

Nicole
400m Run
Max Rep Pull Ups
As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) in 20 Minutes – Note the pull ups completed in each round.

These are some of my favourite CrossFit inspired designs for t-shirts and mugs and the like. I love these phrases, but it’s trying to explain them to non CrossFitters that makes me laugh the most! Just click on the image you like to see it in more detail. They make great gifts.

This is one of the funniest Red Dwarf starting scripts ever, where Rimmer regales the others with detailed accounts of his Risk Games. The reference to his Risk Campaign Book, is genius:

RED DWARF Series IV episode 6, “Meltdown”

1 Int. Sleeping Quarters.

CAT, LISTER and RIMMER are sitting round a table in the sleeping
quarters. CAT and LISTER are playing a card game and RIMMER is regaling
them with tales of his youth. As the scene opens we see that CAT and
LISTER seem to be in some kind of pain.

RIMMER: So there we were at 2:30 in the morning; I was beginning to wish
I had never come to cadet training school. To the south lay water —
there was no way we could cross that. To the east and west two armies
squeezed us in a pincer. The only way was north; I had to go for it
and pray the Gods were smiling on me. I picked up the dice and threw
two sixes. Caldecott couldn’t believe it. My go again; another two
sixes!
LISTER: Rimmer, what’s wrong with you? Don’t you realize that no one is
even slightly interested in anything you’re saying? You’ve got this
major psychological defect which blinds you to the fact that you’re
boring people to death! How come you can’t sense that?
RIMMER: Anyway I picked up the dice again… Unbelievable! Another two
sixes!
LISTER: Rimmer!
RIMMER: What?
LISTER: No one wants to know some stupid story about how you beat your
Cadet School Training Officer at Risk.
RIMMER: Then — disaster! I threw a two and a three; Caldecott picked up
the dice and threw snake eyes — I was still in it.
LISTER: Cat, can you talk to him?.

CAT is sitting with big pieces of cotton wool plugged in to his ears. As
LISTER talks to him he takes one of the pieces.

CAT: What?
RIMMER: Anyway, to cut a long story short I threw a five and a four which
beat his three and a two, another double six followed by a double four
and a double five. After he’d thrown a three and a two I threw a six
and a three.
CAT: Man, this guy could bore for his country!
LISTER: What I want to know, is how the smeg can you remember what dice
you threw at a game you played when you were seventeen?
RIMMER: I jotted it down in my Risk campaign book. I always used to do
that so I could replay my moments of glory over a glass of brandy in
the sleeping quarters. I ask you, what better way is there to spend a
Saturday night?
CAT: Ya got me.
RIMMER: So a six and a three and he came back with a three and a two.
LISTER: Rimmer, can’t you tell the story is not gripping me? I’m in a
state of non-grippedness, I am completely smegging ungripped. Shut the
smeg up.
RIMMER: Don’t you want to hear the Risk story?
LISTER: That’s what I’ve been saying for the last fifteen minutes.
RIMMER: But I thought that was because I hadn’t got to the really
interesting bit…
LISTER: What really interesting bit?
RIMMER: Ah well, that was about two hours later, after he’d thrown a
three and a two and I’d thrown a four and a one. I picked up the
dice…
LISTER: Hang on Rimmer, hang on… the really interesting bit is exactly
the same as the dull bit.
RIMMER: You don’t know what I did with the dice though, do you? For all
you know, I could have jammed them up his nostrils, head butted him on
the nose and they could have blasted out of his ears. That would’ve
been quite interesting.
LISTER: OK, Rimmer. What did you do with the dice?.
RIMMER: I threw a five and a two.
LISTER: And that’s the really interesting bit?
RIMMER: Well it was interesting to me, it got me into Irkutsk.

I believe that it is in the human nature to be Obsessive Compulsive. In fact, I’d go a far to say that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is simply an extension of natural human nature, that is only a “disorder” because it’s starting to become a problem for people and they’ve noticed. But we are all OCD, just to a greater or lesser extent.

Don’t believe me? There is a 5 part radio series running this week on peoples daily rituals, called National Obsession that exposes classic symptoms of OCD. I would say that all the ordinary, everyday people on this program have mild doses of OCD. Understanding OCD is hard, but if you think you have it yourself or are interested in the Causes of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, listening to this program will be a real eye opener.

National Obsession on BBC Radio 4

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday

The best quote from these programs is actually a quote by A. A. Milne who is the creator of Winnie the Pooh, which seems to nicely sum up most of the issues the participants have:

“When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.”

It’s Friday and fun post day. I have another couple of videos for you.

The first is the Innocent Smoothies Big Knitt – The Movie.

The second is a trailer for Creature Discomforts from Aardman Animations, the makers of Wallace and Gromit:

England’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown has officially lost the plot. He wants a 5 word British motto that reflects what’s great about the United Kingdom, in a similar ilk to Frances Motto: “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.”

Anybody that thinks there is the vaguest chance that Britain will be able to agree something that applies to all, clearly has no understand of the diversity of our cultural society now. Allegedly the winning motto is to be chosen by a citizens summit of a thousand representative people, it’s going to be chaos. And just to prove my point, here are some hilarious suggestions as submitted to The Times newspaper (though some contributors clearly can’t count to 5!):

• Dipso, Fatso, Bingo, Asbo, Tesco.
• Britain, a terribly nice place
• Less stuffy than we sound
• Stubborn to the point of greatness
• Turned out nice again
• Britain will always be England
• Once mighty empire, slightly used
• Americans who missed the boat
• At least we’re not France
• My other car’s a Porsche
• Yeah, but no, but yeah
• Let’s discuss it down the pub
• Britain; Live wrong and prosper!
• Sorry, is this the queue?

It’s hard to pick my favourite, but the last one definitely touches on being quintessentially English!

Thank Crunchie it’s Friday!

In this excellent video, Marcus Brigstocke does one of the most hilarious assassinations on religion I’ve ever seen. It’s a highly satirical look at all the main religions of the world and their impact on you and me. Very funny, I was laughing out loud in the first minute:

This video is just disturbing. New Wheels on the Block appear to be a pop band made up of wheel chair bound cripples! The great thing about it is they obviously realise the unique comedic value they have to offer, and do a fine job of exploiting it to their advantage fully.

It’s sounds terrible but as I watched this, apart from the humour of their lyrics and videos, I couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of respect. It’s one thing to have a disability and wallow in your own pit of self pity, but it takes courage to stand up in front of the camera and poke fun at yourself in front of the world. Hat’s off to New Wheels on the Block!

Ignore the first song, the English ones start at 0:55 and are hilarious.