My monthly fatloss progress report....

Monday, 10-20-2014

This month’s report is a mixed review with some positive and some negative.

I both gained some leverage and lost some. 

That status seems like where I’ve been stuck for some time!

My hope of course, is that I’ll gradually make progress by relentlessly continuing the things that have lost and kept off the fat I no longer have;

having the things I’ve added get traction and gradually help lose some more fat;

-- AND find things with more leverage that work well when I try them -- and then keep doing them!

1.  Here’s my immediate progress section first:

I gained a pound on the scale.  Not too bad and close to the same and close to the lower end of the range I’ve been in over the last year --- about 5 pounds over my goal weight.

BUT my waist measured a half inch LESS! 

Apparently, the progress in my new PACE or high intensity cardio session of 5 sets I added of abdominal exercises -- both toned my muscles and tightened them up or maybe added some of that pound as muscle.

I’m about half way done getting to the number of reps I plan for each of the 5 sets.  If doing it gradually burns more calories and removes more belly fat too when I get to that level, I could lose at least another inch on my waist. 

2.  I did manage to bring my weekly drink total to a reasonable level the last week.

But this is the area I’ve tabbed for a big upgrade.  I’ve been averaging about 9 and a half drinks a week.  I’ve looked at each day of the week and found a way I am already trying, to cut from a half glass to a whole glass of wine from each day.

This will cut at least 3 and a half drinks a week from what I’ve been drinking.  If I can maintain that minimum or even 3 drinks a week, that will cut about 4 or 5 pounds of fat from what I have now.

That would get me back to my goal weight or close to it!

To lose the other 3 or 4 inches I’d like from my waist at that point;

stop looking fat because of my big belly;

and drop to the % fat level I’d like -- closer to 10% than the about 20% I am now,

I’ll clearly need to add several pounds of muscle – more than currently looks likely – OR lose another 15 or 20 pounds of fat and actually weigh LESS than I’d prefer.

3. I have kept up the added vegetables.  I’m actually doing well with maintaining it each week!

Losing that much more fat will mean adding even more vegetables than I eat now as Vitamix drinks.

I do plan to get there; but it’s not looking good for that being any time soon right now.

4.  The continuing good news is on strength training.  The progress is still VERY slow but if I continue getting stronger every week or two AS I HAVE BEEN for the past several months and continue for another few years and am able to add back more safe to do leg exercises and make that progress with them, I will keep adding muscle when most people 15 years younger than I lose that much muscle or even more in the same time period!

I now do two sessions a week for upper body strength training.  At one, I am doing more reps at the slightly faster slow speed and fewer reps with a heavier weight than I was using. The progress is a bit slow; but it IS happening.  At the second session two days later, I use a couple of notches less weight BUT I do more reps and at the slower slow speed.  In that session, I just did 20 reps with each hand in an exercise that was MUCH harder for just 9 reps not long ago.  I’m at the point I can jump the weight for those sets!

At my last session, I made progress on two exercises.

THAT is encouraging!

My leg strength training is mostly better.  My ONE substitute for the leg press on the machine is gradually doing better. 

I dropped the one that was both too hard and tweaking my knee tendons.  The other is one at a time lunges several times with each leg while holding dumbbells to add to the effort.  I was adding five pounds twice a week.  Now I’m at 70 pounds, the equivalent of adding 140 pounds or more with two legs, I’ll have to add the weight more slowly. 

(I was at 50 pounds last month.)

But it IS working.  I believe I’ve added some muscle in my thighs and butt and definitely feel the pumped and exercised effect the next day.

I’m now at the point I can add weights to my hands while I do the lunge style one legged squats.  If increasing the weight is as easy as I expect it to be and I get no recurrence of my left leg injury limitation, that will be great! That’s because I’ll be working my legs harder with a heavier weight one leg a time than when I was doing both sides at once.

Once I can do 7 complete reps at a superslow speed all the way down and up with each leg while holding 89 pounds – like over 178 pounds with two legs., I think I’ll add enough muscle in my legs, lower back, and butt to cut my belly fat a bit.

My one leg at a time calf exercises are still making excellent progress on my right leg. 

I had to scale all the way back to zero and more on my injured left Achilles tendon.

I had to drop from holding a 35 or 37 pound dumbbell for 12 superslow reps to doing ONE with no dumbbell at all for my left leg.  BUT now that I do that and do 12 where I use both legs to go up and go down slow with just my left leg after reading that was a successful treatment, I can now exercise it without it hurting right then OR after the workout!

I’m still at square one in terms of adding weight back on my left calf since the Achilles seems to get some set back each week.  But it looked like I was over that twice during last month.  So I’m still hopeful.

I DID discontinue one way that may have been re-injuring it just a week ago. So let’s hope that addition will get me over the hump and back to healing and improving it;

So, I just keep my right leg exercises the same until I can gradually build back my left leg to do that weight again -- 35 to 37 pounds plus all my bodyweight for 12 superslow reps.

By doing the similar style with the lighter weight with my injured leg and doing the same weight with my right leg, the studies show that by doing those two things,  once the injury heals, the strength will build back just fine relatively quickly.  So even though it’s irritating to have to wait a few weeks for that to happen, my confidence in the method is as good as it was before.

And, now I’ve reached a point where the injury to my left Achilles is healing, I believe I’ll be able to do that in about another 3 or 4 months. 

I also added a supplement that tested to help for 30 days and am half done and another that will also speed healing and then help prevent re-injury, glucosamine.

Then if all keeps going well, I’ll need to buy a new 40 pound dumbbell as the 35 pound with the 2 pound wrist weight will not be enough to be challenging if this keeps up.

(I also have made enough gains in my arm exercises to go to the 40 pound dumbbell for one exercise!)

Overall, my muscles LOOK a bit bigger, particularly my arms and shoulders; and though my middle is still fat, my thighs have definition and are clearly hard and toned.

So even though I’ve not gained enough muscles in size or weight to increase how much they weigh and the calories they burn as I’d like to do ---  After another year or so, I may gain a pound or two of muscle at an age when most people lose 5 pounds of muscle instead!

4.  My progressive short sets of high intensity, interval cardio have been a mixed review. 

But the overall news is much better since last month!

(I kept my two weekly sessions of 4 sets of back to back abdominal exercises and my weekly 10 minute session of intense variable cardio on my Nordic track where I was already at a high level I’d worked up to gradually.)

BUT, instead of waiting to add back jump rope sessions, last month I made TWO upgrades NOW.  I added five new cardio exercises AND I went from two such sessions a week to three by removing my “easy” leg exercise session.

Before I did 4 sets of 98 of four different abdominal exercises back to back and then a rest break and shoulder looseners at the end.  Now I do 4 sets of 98 and the rest break AND FIVE sets of new abdominal exercises.  To make it progressive, I started at 14 and will be up to 50 this coming Wednesday for each of the five sets.  When I can really do 98 of each of the new five sets as proficiently as the first 4 now, the people who use such plans show fat loss in inches and pounds of fat lost on the scale.

I’m doing 27 sets a week and have been for a month instead of the 8 sets a week I was doing before that!

5.  It’s just a matter of time too to the day I can get and use the Vitamix to boost my vegetable intake enough to lose some fat that way.   

So the conclusion is that despite being hammered more than usual by outside negative influences, I’m still maintaining most of my efforts that lost fat for me to begin with.  AND, I’m still adding promising new things that are working already or might work.

AND, I plan to both continue doing that and have even more in the pipeline for as soon as I can manage to add them.