Health on A Geek's Life

The 90 Day Weight Loss Challenge

Fri, 31 Oct 2014 17:55:36 +0000

Baselines

Weight - 87kg, 26.1% body fat (Tanita Body Composition Monitor)
Waist - 88cm,
Hips - 108cm,

The Plan

Exercise every day - Run (Gym or outdoors) on alternate days, body strength straining at home on other days; utilise the fitnut plan from work.
Eat well - Resetting the diet to same time last year - no grains, rice or gluten containing food; meat, nuts and vegetables primarily

Baselines...

Mon, 01 Sep 2014 22:37:14 +0000

Rude awakening from my GP visit a few days ago with my weight in the region of 90kg from the 82 I weighed at the start of the year - this represents a very comprehensive regression. The target is to return to 80kg by YE. The Plan?

Whole30, starting on 2nd September.
Drink 2 litres of water daily; start the day off with a litre of ice cold water and drink green tea exclusively during the day.
Exercise thrice a week - 30 mins each time

In tandem with the above, the plan is to wake up my various attempts at self tracking -very much against the Whole30 ethos I might add.

Day 26 - Take The Marine Corp Fitness Test

Fri, 27 Jun 2014 09:19:03 +0000

Day 26 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge - Take the Marine Corp Fitness Test

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Managed the 3 mile in 29.5 minutes (includes the very leisurely 3 minute warm up), 46 crunches in 2 minutes and a barely there 4 pull ups for a total of 95 from a maximum 300 points possible. Not great but better than I thought given how a certain HIIT youtube video kicked my ass on Day 24.

Days 22, 23

Mon, 23 Jun 2014 22:41:12 +0000

Day 22 - Improve your posture and Day 23 - Learn a manual skill

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I didn’t need the prompt to tell me I had terrible posture. Managed to set up my chair at work as intended - to provide better support to my lower back and at the right height. Hopefully I begin to reap the dividends of improved posture, not least a less prominent keg.

On manual skills; I installed ceiling fans for fun in my undergraduate days and still know my way with a soldering iron, a legacy of my previous pastime - tinkering with the innards of dead radios. I happen to also be the go to guy when my buddy O needs to set up a new bed or move stuff around in his house… Could use a few more automobile related skills as I haven’t changed a flat tire in nearly six years. Have to but that Z4 roadster first (and win the lottery before that or something).

Day 19 - Schedule a Physical Exam

Thu, 19 Jun 2014 16:27:28 +0000

Day 19 of the Better Man in 30 Days Challenge - Schedule a Physical Exam

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I am required to get an offshore medical every two years which covers quite a few of the items specifically referenced on the challenge viz blood pressure, weight/BMI, vision, lung function and audiometry. ECGs, bloods and urinalysis get taken six monthly for other reasons hence I consider the challenge covered between both. The main exclusion is the probing and probing of the man parts for potential prostrate problems.

30 Day Challenge #2: Use the Paleo Diet

Sat, 01 Mar 2014 09:19:44 +0000

Getting fit and lean is one of my key deliverables for 2014. The health effects being obvious, given my borderline LVH diagnosis from 2013, and an increasing desire to ditch my keg for a veritable six pack (hello ladies :). The general consensus seemed to be that the Paleo diet was a great way to achieve the calorie restrictions required to achieve that, whilst I work on defining the exercise component to that. Over the course of the 28 days of February, I managed 20 completions, slightly improved over the January numbers for challenge #1, but still far short of the full complement.

Small Change #3 - Get off your couch

Sun, 08 Sep 2013 20:28:38 +0000

From the 52 Small Changes book:

An active mind cannot exist in an inactive body

- General George S. Patton

Last week’s change didn’t exactly go down very well - my fitbit sleep data suggests I didn’t do as well as I thought I would (averaged 6 hours 7 minutes of sleep as against 5 hours 52 minutes the week before); still shy of the 7 hour target. On a slightly more positive note, my water drinking challenge continues apace, thanks to my 600ml mug perched right next to my bed it seems.

All clear... Almost...

Thu, 05 Sep 2013 20:00:34 +0000

Battery of tests done and dusted - ECGs, Ultrasound, a plethora of bloods, and numerous appointments with my GP and one up at ARI with the consultant Cardiologist.

The news is there’s nothing majorly wrong with yours truly’s heart - bar some borderline LVH, attributable to the elevated blood pressures I have been carrying for a while.

From now on it will be a steady daily diet of blood pressure meds - calcium channel blockers in the first place and then an ACE inhibitor to try to reverse the LVH…

Small Change #2 - Get Your ZZZs

Sun, 01 Sep 2013 20:49:46 +0000

From the 52 Small Changes book:

Sleep is the best meditation

- Dalai Lama

Last week’s small change went fairly well - bar the odd day on which one coffee just didn’t sort me out. By the end of the week, I was reaching instinctively for my 600ml bottle of water to kick start my day, before anything else. The slightly harder challenge was staying off the cokes, which I did for the most part except for two days - along with a green leaf salad for Wednesday for lunch and on Friday afternoon during my monthly catch up with O. at Nandos. All told there has been noticeable improvement in the quantity of water (and green tea) I drink, which can’t be such a bad thing.

The Upside to being Ill

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 22:01:53 +0000

.. is a lot of time to spend in introspection, curled up tight into a ball (or sprawled out like an amorphous mass in my case), unable to lift my head and throat as they were being bombarded by the triune forces of a sore, swollen throat, a fever and a banging headache to boot. And think did I – when I was not obsessively googling home remedies for what turned out to be some flu strain sent from hell.

Bug Fest..

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 09:16:28 +0000

My head hurts… The unwanted gift of a hammering headache, a running nose, a sore throat and a rasping cough have laid into me - unintended consequences of open plan offices, shared spaces and recycled air laden with seasonal bugs. We have been pressed into the service of our very own macabre orchestra - our wheezing, sneezing and coughing all coming together in a bug fest.. I really wish I could call in sick tomorrow.. Sigh..

Simple Things...

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 03:20:00 +0000

Sometimes simple things can break you. Benign things repeated time and time again can finally reach a threshold that leaves a scar - scratch marks burned on the wall of ones consciousness like ravines gouged out of hard rock by the persistence of a swollen river. It is not an inherent danger of the act, but its repetition that finally wears one out.

I have been carrying a beeping device around. Every thirty minutes a faint beep sounds - a precursor to the inflation of a cuff around my arm - and then I must stretch my hand out for one more data point to be acquired. At first it was novelty and I tried to anticipate when the next beep might sound. But with each beep and straightening of the arm,a certain weariness descends. I want out of the control the little device has over me. Sadly, the only choice I had was in accepting..The consequence was chosen for me at the same time.

Coffee might be great after all....

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:27:00 +0000

Strong coffee might be great for your mental health after all; if this research proves to be applicable to humans that is.

Via BBC News