Saturday update and bacon

I forgot to post on Saturday mostly because I was to busy stuffing my face.

I had one of those inspirational cooking mornings where I knew exactly what I wanted.

But first, on Saturday morning I was 27.6 lbs lost, average of .37 lbs a day something like 9% of my body weight removed in the last 2.5 months.

Then...

The biscuits.

So I was thinking about biscuits and gravy, but lacking a stove I wasn't going to be able to make biscuits, so I went next best thing and bought some English muffins, toasted them and placed some shredded cheese on top.

Next.. bacon.  1/2 pound of it, was fried and mounded atop.

I then poached a couple of eggs (not perfectly but adequately) and those were placed atop a two of the muffin halves.

I then made a white bacon gravy (as opposed to a sausage gravy.) though I added bit of butter at the end and broke the emulsion...

While this was all cooking, I prepped a fresh bought pineapple and some prosciutto they had on sale.  I relly don't care for for prosciutto wrapped melon... but adore ham + pineapple.  And since the normally $8 meat wast $1...  well I did it for science.  (I ate the rest of the pineapple throughout the day)
It was much better then the melon, but still not something I'd call great.

The end result was not pretty but it was incredibly tasty, glorious even  Between this and the entire pineapple I ate... I gained 2 lbs.

Worth it.

Whistles, HIIT, and leg sweeps.

In preparation for the next phase of the body-rebuilding/whatever the hell I am doing I have been exploring the lovely Bodyrock website and it's High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) videos.  I did a couple of their beginning videos and they kicked my ass. That's a good sign that by doing them I will make great progress.

These videos feature a sweatproof body timer thing.   It looks lovely, appears to function well and is actually quite inexpensive... but a free app that replicates it's function is even less expensive. Naturally it was downloaded to my phone upon discovery.

During testing I discovered that the Interval alarm was a coach's whistle.  The first time it went off Cin poked me in the ribs with her cold nose while whining in concern.

The second time she bit me and ran into the other room in fear.

I think I'm going to change the alarm to something that doesn't leave me mauled by a malamute.

Further, working out with/around her is... umm... a treat.  But only if you appreciate the absurd.

 Firstly, whenever I work on the heavy bags, BOB, or the speed bag Cin glues herself to my side and makes a sorta... half-chuffing whining noise.  I don't actually know if she is complaining... or just excited...

Cin also did it when my former room-mate came over and gave the heavy bag a few test smacks.  Just not as loudly.

Secondly, practicing the various katas are also problematic.  When I am on the mat she wants to be on the mat with me.  Not on her dog bed, not on the wood near the mats... she wants to be ON the mat.  Shoo her away and it lasts until your back is turned and she's back on the mat.

Lastly, she loves my Gi pants, not only because they pick up her shed hair so effectively but she appears to love the *snap* they make when I am doing kicks or moving quickly in a technique or kata.  Last week she actually grabbed the hem of my pants as I was leaping backwards (don't ask... it's part of the kata) and yanked me sideways resulting in me crashing to the ground instead of landing gracefully.

If I can figure out how, I'm going to teach her to do that on command.

Commenting on the internet (Don't do it!)

I don't normally touch on politics but had an experience this weekend, where upon I inadvertently identified myself as differing myself as not in perfect lockstep with the groupthink of the collective on a left-leaning blog.

Even though I expressed agreement with the statements they had made, I was instantly branded as sub-human and what followed was a completely unexpected screed of vitriol and hatred that I was unprepared for.

They would take a simple statement of "Person X said something BAD, and I do not agree with it."  as somehow support of  Person X and use that position to rationalize stream of ad hominem attacks in attempt to discredit me as insultingly as possible... in spite of the fact that I was *agreeing* with them.

The event literally left me stressed and nauseated.

It reminded me of why I stopped commenting on public forums years ago.  I won't be making that mistake again soon.

Quick Saturday update.

No concussions or other serious injuries to report, though I did strain a rib by sneezing of all things.  It is rather hard to spin that one in a macho fashion.  Imagine this conversation:

Me:  "Man, I'm so tough that even my sneezes injure people/"
Them: "Really, who'd you injure?"
ME: "Ermmmm...."

So moving onto to Saturday progress report.  I have lost 24.6 lbs in the last 67 days continuing the average of .37 lbs a day.  I have also lost a total of 10 inches across my hips, chest and waist in this time period.  At this rate I should meet my 90 day goal of 30 lbs in 14 days, giving you guys 9 days of buffer of avoiding scary pictures of me in case I have another pasta day (which isn't going to happen.)

In any case, 24.6 is close enough that when people ask I'm just going to round it up to 25.

The next 90 day cycle I intend to add daily kettlebell swings, speed bag drills and other muscle building exercises.  It should be interesting to see what that does to the number since muscle is denser then fat... but more muscle also means more fat burned.

Heavy Bag blues and body progress

I got the heavy bag hung, though not entirely without damage.

But first, the steps. I built a  framework to support the main crossbar out of 2" x 6" mounted with 3.5" screws.

Because I am paranoid, I calculated the shear/load of the screws I used to mount the frame work.  I used the more conservative rating (shear vs load) even though I actually anticipate the diagonal forces will be a combination of the two.

In any case it should resist a load of 16,900 lbs of force.

That means I would have to run at almost exactly 39 miles and hour do a flying side kick and transfer *all* of my energy to it.  (Or more likely leap in the air and grab the bag transferring all my energy at once)

Considering that is almost 4 times faster then the average human can run... It is probably safe.

The crossbar itself is 4" x 4" angle cut to sit flush with the wall and held in place with some hefty rafter braces.

However, after I had put the first brace on, and started securing the crossbar I managed to knock said crossbar off the frame.  One side semi-secured it swung like a divine angry hammer of god and struck me in the side of the head and knocking off the 4' ladder onto the (thankfully) mat covered floor.

Whereupon I spent about twenty minutes curled up in a little ball whimpering in a manly fashion.

Needless to say there was concussion, and the next couple of days are sorta blurry.

But the end result is quite functional.

~~~~

In 4HB news, it is another cheat day and another weekly update.  I forgot to take my morning measurements before I made Paleo Compatible Coconut pankes (tasty... but odd texture) so using yesterdays measurements I am sitting at 22.6 lbs lost in 60 days.

That is a daily average loss of .37 lbs a week... and given what last week's midweek pasta binge did to my numbers I'm not surprised the overall average is down.

But all progress is good progress.  And I have no doubt I will meet my 90 day goal.

Crawlspace of DOOOOOOOM!

Here's a sample of what lurks under my kitchen.  I should have gotten a picture of the pit.  

Damn.

Dojo, dog hair, and cheat days.

I soft launched the Dojo on Friday, delivering flyers to friends and neighbors.  Response has been positive, but as of yet, no one is breaking down the door for lessons.

I am building a framework to hang the heavy bag.  I went shopping for one and the only ones I could find were really rather expensive.  So I am using some 2x6 I bought for other projects and bought a $15 rafter adapter designed to hang bags from pipes, beams etc.

The fun part will be getting the 100 lb bag hoisted in the air and then attached all by my lonesome.

Not quite sure how I'm going to accomplish that step yet.

Speaking of the Dojo, dog hair is going to be a constant problem.  Even though the winter has finally started to get a little chilly Cinnamon appears to have decided to drop her winter coat.  Frequent sweeping of the dojo (and the rest of the house) are a guaranteed necessity.

Bonus, she has decided that the bath mat outside the shower is her new bed instead of the nice comfy dog bed I'd tried to get her to use.  It was  chocolate brown...



So some quick measurements for you... for the good news part of this weeks 4HB update.

Since beginning 4HB I have lost a total of 9 inches from hips, waist, and chest (mostly from the first two locations.)

Weight loss this week has been an underwhelming 1.5 lbs, but there is an interesting little datum blip right in the middle.  In a recent post's comments I addressed what an impact cheat days can have and how clearly they effect the overall picture.

Now, I think cheat days are import both psychologically and clearly physically, they allow you body and soul to enjoy what you were craving.

But, this week there was an unexpected cheat day on Tuesday, which just dinner and dessert varying from the typical weekly meal.  It resulted in a 1.2 gain over the next two days (I forgot to measure Wednesday morning.)  Couple that with what would have been an expected loss of .8 lbs over that time span... and basically a single of cycle cheat day resulted in wasting 2.0 of progress... something that would take at least 3-4 days to recover from.

So instead of a daily average of .44 lbs... for the week the average was .02.

Is an extra cheat day worth halving your progress?

Why induction BF measurement scales are useless

Or at least are profoundly misleading.

Nope I'm going to go with useless.  You remember me mentioning I could get the percentage to jump by as much as 7% by flexing certain muscles?  Or perhaps 5% by drinking 16 oz of water and then waiting 15 minutes?

Anyway here is my Weight loss chart:

Note the steady (cheat days excepted) downward progression?

Here is my fat loss chart, as measured by my scale:

So... I have lost 20 lbs, increased my muscle mass through exercise and you are saying my BF% has gone up?

I don't think so.

Eagle eyed readers may note that my current weight and BF% are shown here, something I have avoided mentioning,  You may feel free to ignore it.  I didn't initially mention my starting weight, because frankly it's embarrassing.  People never believe me when I told them how much I weigh(ed) and apparently I carried it well.

However, as the weight comes off I feel more self confident, and less sensitive to the subject.  I still don't intend to trumpet my weight until I meet my three month goal.  Then I might post before and after pictures.

Or your reward for for me reaching it is not to do so.  :P

Moving, Cheat Day and Milestones

I am officially moved in with all of my sundry crap transferred.  Unpacking has commenced and I am making good progress.  Bedroom, Kitchen and Bathroom are all unpacked.  The dojo is 90% done with just the need to hang a kick bag and get mirrors (funds permitting.).  However, there still is a mound of boxes in the living room.  Most of it is metalsmithing, architecture or other art supplies  Ideally I will condense it to as few boxes as possible and put in the scary crawlspace of doom.

Crawlspace is a bit of a misnomer actually, the damn thing is 8' deep.  I guess it is a basement, just one that you access through a rickety ladder and descend into a collection of massive beam-works, rusting hardware and artifacts from the past.  My kitchen is the bottom of what used to be the elevator shaft for the mill.  When they tore down the shaft they just dumped all the rubble in the bottom and called it good.    I will try and remember to take pictures next time I go down... which I don't do alone.  A rickety ladder + 8' drop onto rubble sounds like and pretty gruesome way to get trapped with a broken leg/back and die of dehydration.

Anywho... onto more lively topics.

Today is um.. my 7th cheat day?  I think?  I said that on my 30 day was my third cheat day but that seems wrong.  In any case I have no special plans on my cheat day.  There was a cinnamon roll for breakfast and there might be pizza later.

Cheat day aside I realized yesterday I officially hit a milestone that I hadn't been consciously aware was coming up.  I have officially resumed a weight I was at nearly 10 years ago.  When I first was brought face to face with the fact I had gained a lot of weight.  It had sorta crept up on me and it hadn't weighed myself because I felt fine... and I never looked in mirror (I mean really looked.)

When I did I was shocked at what my weight had become.  I tried a few easy methods to deal with it, but frankly sought solace in food.  Consequently, over the last 10 years my weight crept up another 20 lbs.   At that rate it's hard to notice, I mean who notices  .5 pounds a year?

But now it's gone.

In 46 days I have lost 20.6 pounds, a loss of 7.6% of my body weight.  At .44 lbs a day average it means my daily loss average is slowing*, but I haven't been as vigilant as I could be.  Some of it may also be attributable to muscle gain from the daily walks, but I also have been not staying as hydrated as I need to be, taken an extra cheat day when going out with friends, etc.

But that's a good motivation to return to the straight and narrow, if I can undo 10 years of damage in less then 2 months... well the rest will be easy.


*One other thought that occurred to me is that shortly after my supplementation post, once I realized I was going to have  move and decided to launch the Kenpo studio, it was obvious I was going to have to cut all expenses to the bone.  No eating out, no lattes, and no $100 a month supplements.  I was also tired of the 21 pills a day regimen and and really didn't have money to spare to get the one that allowed 4 pills a day.  So I stopped taking them.

Right now there are to many variables to determine whether the supplements were the reason I was seeing .7-.6 pounds a day in the beginning, or if it was because I was starting and my body was reacting quickly, or if it was because I had just started I was really strict with my self.  But I can't discount the possibility that the damn hings work.

Dear Coworkers...

If you would like to stand in the hall outside my office and discuss bowel movements...

I will start playing Scottish Bagpipes and I will turn it up.

And no, I am not turning it back down.