The 2017 Exercise Motivation Thread

[Norachan]

Snow!? Urgh. I'm trying to pretend winter was just a bad dream. It's still cold enough to need the stoves on at night here, but much warmer during the day.

I like your idea of putting the wood in an old tire while you chop it.

90 minutes yoga and a 90 minute walk today.

 

[foxxycat]

Love the tire holding the wood!! What a great idea! Your legs are sore because believe it or not-when you swing the ax-the legs stabilize the body-so yes you use arms/shoulders/back but your legs hold you steady. Plus if you are low on potassium/sodium that will give you muscle cramps. I recently started eating a ton of bananas for this reason. Sweet potatoes too.

Yesterday at lunch took a walk-found out the path I take is 1.8 miles in 30 min.
Hit the gym after work
35 min on bike 5 miles
then weights-mostly arms-spent 45 minutes doing that.

Kind of sore today but not bad.

 

[arouetta]

I'm not working this week so I decided to hit the fitness center to keep the weight loss going. I am such a wimp, lol. Sunday I wore the wrong shoes and could only walk on the treadmill for an hour (3 mph) before my feet were dying. Yesterday I wore the right shoes but my feet still hurt some from the day before and frankly I got bored so I could only manage an hour and a half. I want to walk on the treadmill for 2 hours a day but it's just not happening.

Yesterday I also had a leg cramp prior to starting the machine and I figured it would work itself out while I walked. The pain stayed consistent the whole time I was walking, it didn't go away but it didn't get worse. I got home, sat down for a couple of hours and when I stood up my leg hurt really, really bad. I guess ibuprofen today before walking as that cramp is still there.

 

[Norachan]

2 hours on a treadmill does sound quite boring arouetta Isn't there anywhere nice outdoors you could walk?

I did 2 hours of yoga this morning, lots of twists and balances and backbends.

Half an hour on my bike as well.

Keep going everyone.

 

[Winchester]

arouetta do you have an iPod to listen to music? Or can you watch tv while on your treadmill? I can do the time on my treadmill, if I have something to keep my mind occupied....I usually listen and sing along to music through my iPod. Also, to help with that cramp, try doing some stretching exercises before you start to walk.

Fitbit just sent me my Great Wall of China badge. This signifies that I have walked 5,500 lifetime miles since I got my Fitbit.

 

[arouetta]

I was watching Investigation Discovery on my phone, watched two entire episodes of Fear Thy Neighbor. I don't normally watch TV that long either without getting bored.

Outside - not a chance! Either too hot or too cold, bugs, cars, uneven footing, rocks, dogs, dogs merit a second mentioning, I'm not a scenery watcher.....nope, not my cup of tea.

 

[jtbo]

This one is my diary, counting calories and recently I added macro nutrients too, it shows to me how much I can eat or how much I need to burn, my eating is not so good at the moment and from that big over 6000kcal day I forgot I had one sheet of chocolate even earlier, so ended up way too high in protein and fat, without adding up what I eat right away I'm completely lost.

This graph from Polar flow service shows how strained I am and I use this in attempt to avoid overdoing it, with sometimes poor success, so I try to keep rest days based on this graph so that I would mostly be on green and yellow, but there are things to do and it is not always easy to stay within limits:


So I need to get more carbs, without getting more energy and according to calculations I should aim for 130g protein a day, however getting less fats than those lower fat days is not good idea either, so I might need to burn more energy to have more room for calories but would need to avoid straining too much, attempting to balance everything is not always easy, especially if trying to avoid sugar.

Finding out best thing to eat to get correct amount of everything while having it easy and fast to make without costing too much is another challenge.

So exercising, diet, weight loss, it all has to be tied together to make best results, diet has to support exercising so that one has energy to exercise, weight loss needs deficit and to keep everything balanced allows keeping it up easier.

I try to fit in some high calorie intake days without deficit to keep body burning fat storage, I think that I should time those before heavier exercising days to make best out of it, that is a plan, not sure how well it will happen.

I try to see all this fat as an opportunity to have more fitness build possibilities, not sure if I can deceive my brain to believe that though

 

[foxxycat]

walked at lunch yesterday 1.8miles round trip.

walking today too. 1.8 miles.

 

[jtbo]

Really painful walk, felt like to collapse down and sleep on dirt road, zero energy today and even standing took lot of effort.


Pushed trough granite and got bit over hour of walking that is almost 3.5 miles, so it was terribly slow and really painful, feet were burning and Achilles stung each step, but burned few calories, 766 to be exact.

At least heart rate was bit slower at beginning than earlier walk, but not very good.

Stormlord and Arkuda bands keep legs moving

 

[Norachan]

That sounds rough jtbo Strange how you have such a big difference in pain and energy levels from day to day.


I did 2 hours of yoga on Thursday, spent most of Friday gardening but managed an hour of yoga in the evening.

Had to work Saturday and Sunday, which meant spending the whole day sitting at the computer. I did an hour of Vinyassa flow and then a 30 minute yin yoga practice to get the knots out of my neck both evenings.

 

[jtbo]

That sounds rough jtbo Strange how you have such a big difference in pain and energy levels from day to day.


I did 2 hours of yoga on Thursday, spent most of Friday gardening but managed an hour of yoga in the evening.

Had to work Saturday and Sunday, which meant spending the whole day sitting at the computer. I did an hour of Vinyassa flow and then a 30 minute yin yoga practice to get the knots out of my neck both evenings.

Well, at the morning I felt great, I eat and get bike ready for a ride, as I push bike out from the gate I hear this pssihhhhh sound, got a flat tire without even riding, washing bike can cause flats too? It was weird flat, again tube had hole on center of rim area, might be that my tires are too wide for these tubes.

Anyway after fixing everything I was already exhausted and bike ride did not go well at all, even smallest hills felt like mountains. Look how slow I climb and how high heart rate I had, but then again even I pushed flat out I did not get higher heart rate than 145bpm, should easily go to 160bpm.

So after that I did carry 14 pallets for 50 meters and felt like done for the day, made two small pizzas, ate those and felt fine again.

Because I felt ok again, I decided to make some firewood with axe, after 35mins or so started feeling really tired all of sudden and ended up being quite exhausted.

Over 16 000 steps, 1 hour and 54 minutes total sweating, almost 7 hours active time and around 4000 calories used during the day, I felt I did just a little today, but I guess it was not quite so little.

Around 900 calorie deficit which is just slightly more than 50% of maximum possible deficit.

This month so far has almost 165 000 steps and bit over 50 000 calories with almost 81 hours of active time, 110km walked and almost 22 hours of exercise.

Exercising time is around half of what I had year ago, but calories burned is not very far off, only few hundred per day difference. Maybe it is just this horrible amount of fat that takes huge amount of effort to move.

I might cut 2nd rest day from next week if pizza diet works well, 4000 wasted calories each day is not that far and cutting out one rest day should do it.

 

[foxxycat]

I forgot I went to gym Fri night I think-or did I? oh no I can't remember! I think I did=just the bike and elliptical.

Yesterday at lunch walked 1.5 in 25 minutes=stayed on the flat road due to ankle acting up. Didn't try to run..will try today.

Gym last night- 30 min on stairmaster elliptical machine =only got .65 mile but I had it set semi hard and high so took my time.
bike after 30 minutes 5 miles.
stretched. was 5:45pm then and wanted to get home in time to watch news-had to stop at store.

glad to see you on here Jtbo!

Winchester check your IMs,

 

[jtbo]

I guess I can rest tomorrow. Monday 8th day was 6200 calorie day, look how small bar it is compared to Tuesday 16th.

I was very tired today, felt like going to sleep, somehow ended up eating 400 grams of chocolate and got energized, chocolate had 2200 calories, ended up burning way more than that. I have blisters in feet and hands, tomorrow I will be in pains, I'm allowed to exercise next Monday, but not before that. Would like to have this energy without chocolate, more investigation is needed to figure out why and how.

So what I did, I did split one large full grown pine with an 5kg/11lb axe and after 3 hours of swinging the axe I was still going strong, felt like invincible superhuman with absolutely no limits at all.

For the first 55 minutes, average heart rate was 139bpm and maximum I could reach today was 163bpm and it did not feel even hard.

I'll see if any video came out ok tomorrow, took some clips to compare for earlier clips where I did not have such crazy energy flow, I figured those should help to see if I'm just imagining or if there really is difference.

I think that at yesterday I slept most of the day, I slept so much that my head hurt today, I was up only few hours I think.

 

[Norachan]

I'm kind of jealous of your pizza and chocolate diet jtbo I live on fruit and brown bread, a homemade pizza would be so good.

90 minutes of yoga on Monday.
90 minutes walk on Tuesday.

An hour of yoga this morning, then a 20 minute run, then another hour of yoga after that.

 

[jtbo]

I'm kind of jealous of your pizza and chocolate diet jtbo I live on fruit and brown bread, a homemade pizza would be so good.

90 minutes of yoga on Monday.
90 minutes walk on Tuesday.

An hour of yoga this morning, then a 20 minute run, then another hour of yoga after that.

Problem is saturated fats, those will probably kill me, I would like very much of not eating chocolate ever again, as it makes vein in neck hurt as well as small itchy bumps appear to skin, so I guess I have developed an allergy?

However without chocolate I would need to find something else that boosts me.

My Pizzas are really different from most, pizza base is a Tortilla (61g full grain wheat), there is 100g meat and 40g of cheese, taste is great, but there is only around 700-800 calories in one pizza, there could be over 100 calories less with lean meat and lot less saturated fats, so that might be my next attempt.

I guess I made some promises about video, so here it is my fattyness with 5kg axe splitting pine, I had split around 2 hours already before I took this clip:

Comparable exercise would be swinging 5kg/11lb dumb bell for 1-2 minutes, then walking around 60-80 meters downhill, picking up 5-10kg (11-22lb) weight, carrying that again uphill (4% incline) for 60-80 meters (197- 262 feet) swinging again that 5kg/11lb dumb bell for 1-2 minutes and keep repeating that non stop for over 3 hours.

It is really great whole body workout, core, arms, legs, also when carrying it starts this burning sensation in muscles so I guess it works on some mental stamina as well as you have to force yourself little bit more.
Especially great for improving back muscles and helps to keep back pain away.

I really recommend testing that for anyone, maybe start with 30 minutes or so though, despite weights are not that much, it gets heavy after few rounds.

Feels actually great today, not as sore as I thought, also not very tired, kinda happy that managed to do all that yesterday.

 

[foxxycat]

Jtbo you don't look fat!! you look just RIGHT!

I am amazed that you don't wear gloves at least one on your right hand-I always get blisters if I don't wear gloves and splinters from wood-here we have some very thin palmed rubbery palm gloves that flex with movement. I love them-I wear them 90% of the time. Ansell lite.

HyFlex® Lite Gloves, Ansell 11-600, Black Foamed PU Palm Coat, Size 10, 1 Pair - Pkg Qty 12

I wear these at the gym when doing the weights-I hate the hatchmarked sections of weights-hate the imprint it leaves on my hands.

I worked on my yard last night for 2 hours. didn't move around as much-had too many tiny weeds to pull-but sweat like a pig and took a shower before bed. another hot day today forecast. They can keep this hot air.

 

[jtbo]

Jtbo you don't look fat!! you look just RIGHT!

I am amazed that you don't wear gloves at least one on your right hand-I always get blisters if I don't wear gloves and splinters from wood-here we have some very thin palmed rubbery palm gloves that flex with movement. I love them-I wear them 90% of the time. Ansell lite.

HyFlex® Lite Gloves, Ansell 11-600, Black Foamed PU Palm Coat, Size 10, 1 Pair - Pkg Qty 12

I wear these at the gym when doing the weights-I hate the hatchmarked sections of weights-hate the imprint it leaves on my hands.

I worked on my yard last night for 2 hours. didn't move around as much-had too many tiny weeds to pull-but sweat like a pig and took a shower before bed. another hot day today forecast. They can keep this hot air.

I got few blisters, but hands do harden up with time so it is not that bad.

They should make size 13 gloves, but highest I have seen is 12 and usually 11 is biggest which just rips apart as it is way too tight for my palm.

Even more of issue seems to be with grip of glove, amount of sweating they create, how long they last etc. Usually pair is wasted before it actually starts feeling nice.

So I left gloves out this time, when grabbing and throwing pieces of wood gloves could be nice, it is bit slower to throw cactus without a gloves, but still possible to do it


I don't like recovery days, I can eat so little I hardly can get a taste

Oh and I'm fat, there is no denying it, 108.5kg / 239 pounds, that is about 21kg / 46 pounds too much, also roughly same amount up from 7 months ago.

 

[Norachan]

jtbo I guess you must be pretty tall? You don't look as if you are carrying any extra weight. I'm around 56 kilos, but I'm only 160 cm, so it's about right for my height.

Keep forgetting to post what I did here.

Wednesday, 1 hour of yoga, 20 minute run then another hour of yoga.
Thursday, 2 hours of yoga.
Friday, Climbed a mountain which took about 2 hours, then an hour of yoga.
Saturday and Sunday worked all day both days.
Monday 90 minutes yoga.
Today. 90 minutes of yoga and a 20 minute run.

How's everyone else doing?

 

[jtbo]

jtbo I guess you must be pretty tall? You don't look as if you are carrying any extra weight. I'm around 56 kilos, but I'm only 160 cm, so it's about right for my height.

Keep forgetting to post what I did here.

Wednesday, 1 hour of yoga, 20 minute run then another hour of yoga.
Thursday, 2 hours of yoga.
Friday, Climbed a mountain which took about 2 hours, then an hour of yoga.
Saturday and Sunday worked all day both days.
Monday 90 minutes yoga.
Today. 90 minutes of yoga and a 20 minute run.

How's everyone else doing?

I'm bit over 6ft tall not a giant, but bit taller than most I guess. People in Japan are bit shorter than people in Europe, so it might be that I would stand out there bit too much for comfort.


It goes probably without a saying that I'm not mountain climbing type, almost twice the weight, than what you have, amount of energy to get me upwards would be more than I can sweat

For me it has been rest week, no exercising allowed, but I did do over 2 hours of wood chopping at Saturday. Today I'm finally allowed to do a full workout, I try to keep it light, so I don't need so many recovery days, it is really a torture to not being able to eat much and hurts weight loss a lot.

 

[Winchester]

Hi kids! I'm here, but I don't know for how long.
JTbo, my son is 6' 4 inches and he weighs about what you do. Honestly? I wouldn't consider my son fat. Admittedly, he is a big man, but he works out several times a week and he is muscular (he's the one getting on me about making sure I eat enough protein). I know you work out and you do cardio, so, to me, 239 pounds doesn't seem to be fat material. That's just my opinion, though, and I do understand about opinions. I'll shut up now.

Monday -
1 mile on the treadmill
11 of 11 hours with 300+ steps
8605 steps (Not doing very well and my knee is still bothersome)