Flabby Forty-something Fronts Up!

Discussion in 'Training Logs' started by Grizwald, Dec 19, 2011.

  1. Grizwald

    Grizwald Valued Member

    Ok, so I'm not opposed to a little alliteration! Have been reading this forum for a little while, but as both a fitness and MA newcomer, haven't really had much to add yet.

    A bit of background, about 16 months ago I took up Taekwondo for the first time, first martial art ever. It turns out that I really love it and the physical and mental benefits have been impressive.

    Since starting TKD I have passed 5 grading sessions, the last one only a few days ago. :cool: I have also dropped about 12 kgs on the scales since starting TKD. I had plenty of body fat to start with though :p

    I have decided that it is time to step up my fitness efforts. Firstly I need to significantly improve my fitness levels for general health and well being, and secondly I can see that the farther I go into TKD the more difficult it becomes.

    I've decided to start this log, first as goal setting exercise, a plan of attack for getting there, and a general journal of my progress.

    Goals:

    Weight - Hopefully I will get to the point where the scales are not what I use to measure fitness, but my short term goal for the end of 2012 will be to get my weight down to 99 kgs. This means about another 15 kgs to lose though.

    TKD- I would like to advance another 3 levels during 2012, not sure if this is possible as it seems to get harder and harder. This would put me on track to earn my first dan in 3 years from starting, which seems about right from what I have read.

    Diet - This is my current weakness, my diet sucks. Too much alcohol and fast food. Luckily I don't smoke! Apart from dramatically cutting alcohol intake, I'm not sure what measureable goals to put in place here, but this area needs serious effort. A lot of the weight I lost already was due to TKD training twice a week and a high protein / low carbohydrate diet that I stuck to for a few months.

    Exercise - I have access to a free gym through work, which I never use, so I really need to get off my blubbery butt and spend some time improving my cardio and building muscle. Due to the holidays, I have almost a month off from TKD training (class is shut) so I need to make sure I don't go backwards during the holiday. In fact I will go to the gym tomorrow! I think there is a program card there for me still, covered in dust from the last time I tried to get fit.

    DOMS has been a problem for me every time I have tried to start going to the gym, I really need to take it slow and steady and build up to it. Perhaps with the muscle I've built through TKD lately this won't be such an issue.

    The Plan:

    - Normally I do TKD training twice a week, on week days. I still find this to be a good workout for me. Add in 1 gym session a week to focus on building muscle. If this routine doesn't leave me sore and tired, add another gym session. Am going to have to go to the gym 3 times a week for the next month though while there are no TKD classes, however I know this is going to be tough to force myself to do.

    - Diet: Cut out most of the booze. I know these are useless calories, but I quite enjoy my red wine! On Monday's go to the shops and buy healthy food for week day lunches rather than getting take away. I think fast food lunches are really hurting me. Breakfast is ok, as long as I actually eat it. Usually have some kind of low GI, muesli type cereal, or eggs. If I slash the alcohol and junk food, I'm pretty sure I will see good results. It might plateau at some point, can re-evaluate then.

    - Martial Arts: Continue TKD classes twice a week, I don't see any problems achieving this. I have been considering adding a Hapkido class as well, need to evaluate it to see what kind of workout it offers vs. a gym session.

    It all seems so simple when I see it laid out here in a post! :D
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 25, 2011
  2. Simon

    Simon Administrator Admin Supporter MAP 2017 Koyo Award

    Nice introduction . Welcome to MAP.
     
  3. Sketco

    Sketco Banned Banned

    Good job bud! When I was starting TKD at age 7 my father was starting and he was 45! He was fat to begin with too. He took gold in his first competition and he had the wrong proportions for TKD! Short little legs he had and he could still do it!

    Work hard!

    also... I'll swallow your soul!
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2011
  4. BrettOnTheNet

    BrettOnTheNet New Member

    Hi Grizwald.

    Wow what a plan you have laid out for yourself. It is great to see that you have really thought about everything that you need to change.

    And the fact that you've also identified what you need to do over the next month as well is awesome. Most people will just cruise and then find it hard to get back into it in January.

    Diet is super important. I started out at the beginning of this year at 111kgs, I am down to 93 so far and still have a way to go. (I'm short!). The major change I made, apart from increasing my exercise, is that I drastically changed the food I ate.

    And one of the things I started doing was to eat more food! You gotta fuel that body - with the right food - if you are going to keep that exercise level up. I now eat a huge breakfast (oatmeal), lunch and dinner (usually meat, potato and 2 veg) and snack inbetween (on bananas, not chocolate).

    The biggest shift for me was eating what I considered to be dinner food at lunchtime. No sandwiches any more. No bread at all actually.

    One thing to watch out for is to make sure you don't try to do too much. You need to allow your body time to adapt to the rigors of training. If you overdo it you can easily injure yourself and then all the plans go out the window. I had an email from someone just the other day where he'd done just that. Great plans gone out the window because he got too keen! And I've definitely been there too.

    Best of luck. I look forward to seeing your progress!

    Cheers
    Brett
     
  5. Grizwald

    Grizwald Valued Member

    Cool, one of my longer term goals that I have been toying with is getting into competition shape. If I can get myself into fighting form and get my butt whipped I still win. Haven't decided if I want to go down the competition path yet, or add another MA into the mix.

    Huh? :p :running:
     
  6. Obewan

    Obewan "Hillbilly Jedi"

    This^ I'm a prime example of too much too soon, I'm nursing a back injury right now! I'll be OK in a couple of day's but take it slow and listen to your body. Check out my log perhaps it will give you some ideas on what to do and more importantly what not to do! Good Luck!
     
  7. Sketco

    Sketco Banned Banned

    Oh man me too. Luckily it's upper and not lower. I can still practice forms but nothing involving two people for a week or so. Hope yours heals up pretty quickly.
     
  8. Obewan

    Obewan "Hillbilly Jedi"

    Yea it's my lower. :( Light stretching and Ibuprofen, alternating cold and heat, and rest. I'm ****ed I can't train!
     
  9. Grizwald

    Grizwald Valued Member

    Thanks, I'm going to need some luck, if I had a dollar for every time I tried to get fit.... but something feels different this time, and I put it down to the TKD.

    Well I said yesterday that I would go to the gym today and I did!

    I really feel like a fish out of water in a gym. I did a 1 km fast walk on the treadmill to warm up, did some lunges, crunches, lat pull downs, leg presses, and didn't really know what else to do so I left since the place was closing in 5 minutes.

    I did get the card of the guy running the place and I will ring him back to make an appointment to do an assessment and setup a program for me.

    Diet has been good today, big bowl of muesli and bran for breakfast, delicious laksa soup for lunch (hope it was ok calorie wise) and grilled chicken for dinner. No booze last night or tonight!

    Thus ends day 1. :)
     
  10. BrettOnTheNet

    BrettOnTheNet New Member

    I managed to do both! One is a long-term problem (my shoulder), but I keep aggravating it. The other is my calf. Silly me thought it might be a good idea to try running again. Did I start with a casual walk/run or a slow buildup. No way - straight into a 2.4km (1.5mi) run as fast as I could. Followed by 4 months of a calf muscle that breaks down again every time I think it's coming right.

    So I'm good at dishing out the advice... but maybe not so good at following it myself!
     
  11. BrettOnTheNet

    BrettOnTheNet New Member

    Oh - and it's not just my calf... knee too. Horizontal cleavage tear of the meniscus and a visit to the specialist coming up!
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2011
  12. BrettOnTheNet

    BrettOnTheNet New Member

    Well done Griz. As far as diet is concerned one thing I really had to get my head around was eating more food. That seems counter-intuitive, but boy does it work. You start to get all this energy and you just have to exercise.

    Today for example I was planning on going to the gym because for various reasons I've not been since last Thursday. I ate heaps for breakfast and lunch, and just I was about to go to the gym something came up and I missed my planned session.

    I found myself a couple of hours later sitting at my desk getting all jiggly and actually quite irritable. Changed some evening plans and went to the gym instead. Now I feel normal again.

    It's an awesome feeling knowing that your body wants to exercise!
     
  13. BrettOnTheNet

    BrettOnTheNet New Member

    Well done Griz. As far as diet is concerned one thing I really had to get my head around was eating more food. That seems counter-intuitive, but boy does it work. You start to get all this energy and you just have to exercise.

    Today for example I was planning on going to the gym because for various reasons I've not been since last Thursday. I ate heaps for breakfast and lunch, and just I was about to go to the gym something came up and I missed my planned session.

    I found myself a couple of hours later sitting at my desk getting all jiggly and actually quite irritable. Changed some evening plans and went to the gym instead. Now I feel normal again.

    It's an awesome feeling knowing that your body wants to exercise!
     
  14. Grizwald

    Grizwald Valued Member

    Hmm, I wonder if I am at an intensity where I need to increase my food consumption?

    I assume not, I took it pretty easy at the gym yesterday, but still have a mild case of DOMS in my quads from the lunges.

    Might try to get my gym assessment done tomorrow if they can fit me in.

    I'm going to weigh in on Friday and if I'm down around a kilo I'll be happy with that.
     
  15. BrettOnTheNet

    BrettOnTheNet New Member

    Well for me it was actually the other way around. I changed my diet, and then all of a sudden I found myself really itching to get to the gym!

    It was amazing. Maybe 4 days after I totally revamped my diet, my energy levels shot through the roof.
     
  16. Grizwald

    Grizwald Valued Member

    I'm still thinking about this from a calorie in vs. calorie out perspective, and trying to create a calorie deficit. Doesn't have to be a huge deficit, I'm not trying to crash my weight down, just keep the trend heading down.

    At the moment, if I eat a huge meal I just want to lie on the couch and sleep!

    Today is day 2 of DOMS in my quads, I really don't like day 2 of DOMS. Have done some reading about how to minimise it, and spoke to some people who say the best thing to do is just power through it.

    I did 3 x 10 lunges with 5 kg in each hand, thinking that was nothing, but apparently I was mistaken. :bang:
     
  17. Obewan

    Obewan "Hillbilly Jedi"

    That's right Brett what happened was your metabolism spiked. That's exactly what happened to me as well. Here's a bit of info for you, as you know my back injury has kept me from training, but I've maintained my zig-zag diet, so I've been eating as if I'm still training. The kicker is that I've gained 2 lbs...but I've lost another inch off my waist! I'm still burning fat and gaining muscle and that's totally due to the higher metabolism. Now that won't work for a long period of time, but for a week or so it still seems to be effective. I hope I can get back to training after the holiday.
     
  18. BrettOnTheNet

    BrettOnTheNet New Member

    @Grizwald.... What Obewan said is exactly what I am talking about. Increase your intake of the right food. Forget about calories in/calories out.

    Good calories in (lots of vegetables) = more calories out.

    That was the biggest change in my mindset. Forget about calories. Think only about whether the food was natural.

    My trainer put it to me like this. "How many ingredients are there in a muesli bar? If you read the packet - what actually goes into that thing. OK... now how many ingredients are there in an apple?"

    Natural food - not processed. Meat, potato/rice, lots of vegetables. No bread, no pasta. Brown rice or Basmati rice.

    5 meals a day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, plus two snacks in between (and by snack I mean fruit, not chocolate!)

    Try it and see. If I'm wrong, the worst that can happen is that you put on a tiny bit of weight, but you will still be getting great nutrients!

    But I'm guessing what will happen is your energy levels will go up, and you will be able to do more exercise. If you are worried that you will hurt or injure yourself... do a lot of smaller activities - rather than increasing the weights, do less weight more often. Spread the exercise through the day. Use the stairs, that sort of thing.

    Then you really win the calories in vs calories out game. Without even thinking about it.

    I'll stop banging on about it now :)
     
  19. Grizwald

    Grizwald Valued Member

    Ahh ok, gotcha.

    I'm curious as to why you include potato and rice, but exclude bread and pasta? I did a low carb diet a few months ago, slashed all carbs and saw good results, just wasn't sure about the sustainability.

    In order to actually do 5 meals a day, I'm going to have to get super organised and create a meal plan and shopping list in advance. Given the time in the holidays now, I'm not going to be able to do any training until next Wednesday. Well gym training that is, I can do body resistance stuff at home until then.

    Since I started typing this post I realised I hadn't done any exercises today, so I just hit the lounge room floor and did push ups, crunches, lunges and chair dips. Couldn't really think of anything else to do, but it got the blood pumping.

    Today is Friday here in Oz, and that is weigh in day for me, I weigh myself every Friday. I weighed in at 113.5 kgs, which is down 1.4 kgs from last Friday. :banana:
     
  20. BrettOnTheNet

    BrettOnTheNet New Member

    It's late here so I'll be quick...

    Bread and pasta: processed. The flour has been broken down into tiny pieces and is super easily digested. Turns into sugar quickly and messes with your blood sugar levels.

    Potato and rice: unprocessed. Low GI so the sugar is released slowly.

    I was grumpy about my weigh-in today. Near perfect eating, and much excercise, but no shift on the scales. Oh well... at least they didn't go up.

    Nice workout. Actually I've just posted about working out at home on my virtual dojang blog 2 minutes ago! (see link in sig)
     

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