Property Investments, Landlording, CrossFit, Nutrition & Safety

Last month, I decided to do monthly zone diet plan updates. Mainly this was for my own sanity so I wasn’t always on the scales and measuring my waist every day. Not that I have an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder type personality, oh no! 😉

However I’ve been looking forward to today, as this month has been pretty exciting on the weight loss front, I’ll explain why in a bit. Here are last month’s stats for reference:

– Weight = 14 stone 4 = 200 lbs = 91kg.
– Waist = 40.0 inches / 102cm.
– Body Fat Calculation = 25%

Here are my new stats for 1st June:

– Weight = 14 stone 0 = 196 lbs = 89kg.
– Waist = 38.5 inches / 98cm.
– Body Fat Calculation = 21% !!!

As I’m sure you can imagine, I’m pretty pleased with this result, especially as I’m now over half way to my target of 15% body fat. However that’s not the best of it: This week, I started wearing 34 inch waisted jeans that I consigned to the “too small pile” 7 years ago! Yes, I really have carted a pile of too small jeans around for over 7 years, in the hope that one day I would be able to wear them again. I thought it was becoming a vain hope, but with the Zone Diet, and the exercise from Crossfit, I’m really pleased to be in them again. Now the big question is: should I throw my 38″ and 36″ jeans away?!?

As last month, if you do the comparison between body fat loss and actual weight loss, it shows that I lost 8 lbs of fat (4% of 200 lbs), but only 4 lbs of weight, when means that I’ve gained 1lb of muscle each week of May. That’s thanks to CrossFit.

I did it, finally, I ran a mile today in 8:35, well within my 9 minute target!!! 😀 That was the last exercise I had to do to attain Level 1 on the Crossfit Athletic Skills Levels.

When I started Crossfit on 1st Feb 2007, I gave myself 4 months to get Level 1, and an ambitious 8 further months to attain level 2. 4 months is up in 2 days time: 1st June, so I just made it! Actually, I got every exercise except the mile 2 months ago. But that’s the point behind the skill levels, they are generalist in nature so expose your weaknesses, and it sure exposed mine!

I’m totally chuffed at getting this 9 minute mile, as I’ve been working on it for a month now. Our normal Crossfit workout starts with a 400m run round the building, but for the last month I’ve been doing a double lap, just to get some extra running practice in and get used to the pain in my calves. Bare in mind that 3 months ago I couldn’t even do that double lap without stopping to catch my breath!

Now I have Crossfit Athletic Skill Level 2 to look forward to, when I can call myself an “Intermediate Athlete” and just 8 months to do it. Remember to come back on the 1st Feb 2008 and see if I’ve done it. 😉 My job for the next few weeks now is going to be to go down the list to see what I can do already. I’ll have to check my Crossfit stats, but I know I can already do these:

– 1 x bodyweight squat
– 1 1/2 x bodyweight deadlift
– 1/2 x bodyweight military press
– 1 minute handstand hold

I reckon I’m close to getting these, but haven’t tried:

– 100 free squats
– 30 press ups
– 400m run in 1:34 mins
– 3/4 x bodyweight power clean (Have squat cleaned more than this)
– 15 hanging knees to elbows
– 500m row in 1:45 (Personal best is 1:46)
– 18 inch vertical jump
– 20 pull ups (I did 15 yesterday)
– 30 second L-Sit (my record is 27 seconds)
– 2000m row in 7:30 (I’ve got to take 30secs of my previous best of 2 months ago, that might be harder than it sounds)

I have no idea about these:

– 1 x bodyweight bench press
– 20 foot climb, 1 trip
– 30 v-ups
– Kettle Bell Snatch @ 30 each arm men 24kg women 16kg
– 1 pull up with 1/3 x bodyweight
– 1/2 x bodyweight power snatch

But these are going to be very hard to do in 8 months!

– 45 of 1/2 x bodyweight thrusters – This is shockingly hard!
– 800m run in 3:20
– 20 dips
– 1 dip with 1/3 x bodyweight
– 1 Muscle up, hahahah!
– “Helen”: 3 rounds for time – 400m run, 21 kb swings, 12 pullups, in 11:30 (I did a personal best of 13:28 just last week).
– 1 Mile run in 7 minutes!!! Oh sweet mercy!

Either way, it’s going to be fun. 😉

It’s bank holiday weekend and the mother in law and sister in law are staying for the week. Typically when people are round and everyone is taking it in turns to cook, it can be hard to stay in the Zone, however I thought I’d write about today especially.

For the first time in many years, I decided to watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix today. I stopped watching it years ago when all the over taking stopped, bring back the Turbo that’s what I say! Anyway, I digress. Basically I’ve been doing a good job of staying in the Zone for most of the day, and typically for an “off day”, having too much wine in the evening. Today I had eaten well in the Zone, having had a good Zone Diet breakfast (cold roast turkey, cottage cheese, nuts and fruit) and a good Zone lunch (Prawn stir fry), but for reasons that can only be down to temporary insanity, I decided to treat myself whilst watching the Grand Prix.

I started with a slice each of two odd cakes “the Mothership” had brought with her, one was banana cake, and I can’t even pronounce the other “Prabitsly Cake” or something?? Anyway, that didn’t seem like enough so I had some home made raspberry jelly and some home made raspberry sorbet, both courtesy of the Mothership and my daughters cooked exploits yesterday. It was yummy I have to say, but somehow the eating experience wasn’t quite as satisfying as I’d hoped, something seemed missing somehow…. Anyway, I settled in to an afternoon of watching the Grand Prix.

Somewhere about an hour and a half in, I fell asleep on the settee! It’s odd, cos I don’t nap during the day, ever, and I had a good 7 hours sleep last night, and didn’t feel tired at all when the race started. I woke up when the family came back from the garden centre and I have to say, I felt bad: lethargic, tired, no energy for anything and totally groggy. Even half an hour after waking up I felt the same. Years ago, I would have just put this down to old age, now however I know better: excess insulin induced blood sugar low!

Thinking back, it’s amazing to me how foods’ control of hormones can have such an impact on your well being, and how it has to me over the years and I never understood the effects. I’m please now that I’m better informed. It’s ok to cheat, it’s ok to treat yourself, just so long as you understand the hormonal consequences. Life is full of decisions and their consequences, and food is no different. You want that Double Chocolate Gateaux? Help yourself, just don’t do it very often, and fully accept that you’ll feel like a sack of potatoes 2 hours later.

I can’t tell you that this is typical of all Crossfit Gyms, I’ve only been to one. But this (slightly tongue in cheek) account might give you an idea. For reference, Crossfit is all about short guided exercise routines that are high in intensity, but scaled to your capabilities. It’s not a free for all, each person is assessed by a trained coach, and they determine what exercise is right for you in that 1 hour session:

– Mill around for a bit whilst others turn up.
– Generally abuse the coaches and moan about today’s workout (it’s posted up on the white board)
– Negotiation can happen here as to what exercises will actually be done if personal circumstances dictate.
– Negotiation usually fails at this point, and various accusations of “shady quaff”, and “I *know* it’s heavy!” and other aspersions are cast.
– Warm up starts with a jog round the block, and usually 2 rounds of 10 each of press ups, sit-ups, squats and pull ups.
– More negotiation can happen during the warm up, if the first round has proved to yield unsatisfactory results.
– The days workout is introduced, and where necessary demonstrated by the coaches.
– Last round of negotiation occurs now, whilst equipment is collected, usually this is about weight allocation.
– Group workout starts (most workouts are timed) and the following 10-30 mins disappear in a cloud of pain and occassional profanities.
– 5-10 minutes of post workout exhaustion result in the gym being littered with groaning, sweaty, near corpses (well that’s me anyway).
– Slowly conversation creeps in as people recover enough to talk about how they did.
– 5-10 mins of recovery is allowed, then there’s focus work, usually learning something new, practising some exercise or doing a mini 4 min workout.
– Examples have been “Get upside down for 1 minute, don’t care how you do it: hand stand, hang from gym rings etc”
– Or “How many pull-ups can you do in one set?”
– Or Tabata Squats (which seems to be a painful favourite of the evil master mind coaches).
– The whole thing lasts usually just less than an hour, unless it’s a heavy day, for some reason fewer reps take longer!

However I’ve missed out the most important bits that you may not realise about (at least my) Crossfit gym: There are no posers! There are no mirrors. And everyone checks their egos at the door. You’ll never find a bunch of warmer, more friendly people, willing to do anything to see you succeed, congratulate you on your successes, and on occasion, commiserate with your (infrequent) failures.

Anyway, it’s getting to that time, I’m off to the gym!

For the first time in my life, ever, I managed to run continuously for a mile today! Even as an athletic teenager, I could never run a mile without walking.  Actually, it was a little over a mile, 4 times round the block (which is 430m) makes 1,720m.  I did this in 10 minutes 10 seconds.  Hardly a fast time, and gives me a time for the mile (1,609m) of 9 minutes 32 seconds.

If you recall, my target for the last Athletic Skill Level 1 exercise, was run 1 mile in 9 minutes.  I’m 5% too slow!  But that’s ok, I’ve got past that psychological barrier and I now know I can do it.  Oddly, it was the 3rd lap that was the hardest to keep going, I soooo wanted just to walk, the last lap was easier as I know that I only had that next little bit to go.

However, now is the big count down.  I started Crossfit on the 1st Feb 2007, and gave myself a 4 month target to get to Level 1 standard.  Now I have to shave 32 seconds off my time by a week on Friday to meet the deadling of 4 months exactly!  The plan is to have another crack at it on Wednesday 30th May, leaving a days rest till the 1st June if I don’t make it.

One of the Crossfit slogans is: “Stronger, Fitter, Faster.”  I know I’m stronger, and today has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’m the fitest I’ve ever been in my life, now I just need to work on the Faster.  😉

Been too busy to post much this week. Started work at 8am yesterday, and didn’t finish till 10pm! Though I did have a 2 hour lunch break to go to Crossfit of course! 😉

So, my Crossfit total: a new Personal Best of 330kg (726 lbs)

Back Squat – 135 PB by 5kg
Shoulder Press – 45 (PB is 47.5kg)
Dead Lift – 150 (PB is 157.5kg)
TOTAL = 330PB up from 265 three months ago.

I was very happy with the total, but not so with the individual numbers. I was disappointed not to equal my PB on the shoulder press, and though I can’t explain why, my form on the back squats was terrible (kept rounding my back) and the coaches Karl were not happy.

This could be again my legs writing cheques my back can’t cash. I can lift 150kg with my legs, but the back it appears, isn’t equally strong enough to cope and keep straight while I do it. Still, it’s a good result, and surprisingly, on the day, the highest total in the gym! 🙂

I haven’t mentioned the athletic skills levels for a while, but I’ve been using the Athletics Skill Levels as a benchmark to aim for. My target was Level 1 in 4 months, from a standing start. And Level 2 in a further 8 months, so 12 months in total. Since I started exercising properly on 1st Feb, these targets then were 1st June, and 1st Feb 2008 respectively.

6 weeks ago, I’ve achieved everything on Level except the 1 mile run in 9 minutes. NEVER in my life have I been able to run a mile continuously, not even as an athletic teenager. I don’t know why, but my calves just hurt soooo much, I have to stop. Anyway, the 1st June is fast approaching, and I’m still a long way off doing it. I can run 1/2 mile at the correct pace, but end up stopping. This is my major target for the next 2 weeks. Each day I go to the gym now, I do a 1/2 mile jog to start the warm up, which is an achievement in itself, cos I couldn’t even do that 2 months ago! Hopefully it will start to come good before the 1st June.

I took most of last week off CrossFit as I’d hurt my back doing too many deadlifts on Monday. Nothing serious it turned out, just extremely sore for several days. Anyway, I’d figured that a week off exercise, but being on the Zone Diet, should set me up good and proper to come back nice and rested and firing on all cyclindars.

Bah, nothing could have been further from the truth. This morning I woke up full of aches and pains: wrists, elbow, shoulders and knees, all ached for no reason I could fathom. However I decided to go to CrossFit anyway. The good news is that my aches and pains didn’t bother me at all, as odd as it sounds, exercising seem to loosen things up nicely. Todays routine (order might not be quite right):

• 430m Run
• 25 Press ups
• 25 Ball Slams
• 25 Kettle bell Swings (20kg)
• 25 Pull ups
• 25 Medicine Ball Clean with Wall Ball. (Hard to explain really, involves a double squat and throwing a medicine ball at a wall)
• 25 step Lunge walk
• 25 Box Jumps (on a large 24 inch box)
• Tabbata Row for 25 Calories (Tabbata is 20 secs on, 10 secs rest)

200 reps in total, plus the run. I managed a relatively slow 22 minutes something, and by the time I got half way through, the yoghurt and coffee I had the hour previously was threatening to come back for a second sitting! Knackering.

However tomorrow is something I’m looking forward to: Crossfit Total, which is three single reps each of Deadlift, Shoulder Press, and Backsquat, for mx weight. You add up your best lift in each of the 3 exercises to give a CrossFit Total, which is a good measure of strength. We do this every 6 weeks ish to see how we’re progressing strength wise, only I missed it last time. 🙁 My CrossFit Total 3 months ago on the 6th March was:

Back Squat – 110kg (Personal Best)
Shoulder Press – 45kg (PB)
Deadlift – 110kg (PB)
CROSSFIT TOTAL = 265kg

However with my current individual Personal Bests they give me a theoretical CrossFit total of:

Back Squat – 130kg = 286lbs
Shoulder Press – 47.5kg = 104.5lbs
Deadlift – 157.5kg = 346.5lbs
Theoretical Crossfit Total = 335kg = 737lbs

The question is, will I perform to my best in each of the 3 exercises to achieve that Total. For reference, I know I will beat at least one of the instructors’ Crossfit Total with that score, if I achieve it. That would be sweet! 😉 We’ll see tomorrow if I manage it.

I’m still getting to grips with embedding video, will see if I can get this QuickTime movie of a Crossfit Total session to show up here:

EDIT: Hmmm it’s a bit big, and that was a fiddle pile of nonsense! There’s got to be a plugin that makes that job a whole lot easier. :S

It just goes to show, seeing is NOT believing. This astonishing video is completely captivating.

I wonder how many diet “Before and After” shots have had the Photoshop treatment?

It’s been a hectic few days. I went down to London for a grand get together with my old Uni mates. One of them flew in from Oz, he emigrated 5 years ago and hasn’t been back since, so was good to meet up.

I can tell you this, getting old university friends back together is a bad bad idea. First night: Friday, we didn’t get home till 5am Saturday morning! Being the early riser I am, I still woke up at 9am, unfortunately I was still drunk and the hangover hadn’t even begun to start. It didn’t help that the flat I was in (a £1/2M pad in Islington, a salubrious area of North London) is owned by a mate who’s the ultimate bachelor: I was sleeping on the couch, in the living room, with a towel for one curtain, and a table cloth for the other!

Saturday afternoon was spent playing poker with the lads: Texas hold em is the game of choice. I lost, after betting high on a Full House, the first of the day. Only to be beat by a BETTER Full House! 2 at once, now that’s unlucky. I never really recovered. Saturday night was a repeat of Friday, and for the 2nd time in a week, my mate found himself locked out of his flat. The first time, the pub cloak room had given his back (with house keys in!) to the wrong patron; this time, he simply picked up the wrong keys when he walked out of the flat. Muppet! Fortunately we were rescued by my Oz mates wife, who was coming back late from a Wedding, and she had a set of keys (they were staying there too).

Sunday was back to Manchester, only explain this to me: Friday Train from Manchester to London takes 2 hours 10 minutes. Sunday train from London to Manchester, takes 4 hours! I’ve heard of Sunday drivers, but on the rail?!? Needless to say, I was bored, even after stocking up on reading material.

Monday Crossfit beat me up again. Doing seven 1 rep deadlifts for max weight, I got a Personal Best deadlift of 157.5kg (up from 150kg) which was great, but the following exercise has crucified my back:

21 deadlifts, 60 situps, 15 deadlifts, 40 situps, 9 deadlifts, 20 situps.

It doesn’t sound like much, but I was doing 100kg deadlifts, and that sucks a fat mans 4rse, as Coach Karl would say. I managed a time over 15 minutes, the next slowest was 11 minutes, most less than 10. 🙁 Not pleased with that, although to be fair, the next highest weight was 80kg, and that was only 1 person, most were on or less than 70kg. Either way, I’m now laid up for the week I think. I can barely pick something up off the floor, let alone exercise. Have had a long chat with Coach Mark today, hopefully this won’t happen again.

I enjoy Crossfit, more I believe in it. I believe in the Crossfit methodology and it’s functional holistic approach to exercise and fitness. I need to find my way, and my weights, so that I can continue to train, hard and to a high intensity, without hurting myself in the process.