<p>Did my 5K walk/jog intervals yesterday on a spectacularly cool crisp summer day. The intervals are getting just a little easier and, at times, it even feels like I’m driving into the strides with my glutes.</p>
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<p>Third shot at my workout of the week today. I kept a pretty consistent pace and finished in 48 minutes, when it’s been taking close to an hour. That’s a very solid workout for me. Every exercise is a challenge, but the only one that is still kicking my ass is the rear foot elevated split squat. I’m OK for the six reps on the first leg, but the six reps on the second leg are brutal… and that’s saving my “strong” leg for last.</p>
<p>Big strides on the TRX pushups. I’ve finally getting the hang of it. It’s one of those exercises where you really have own it and be aggressive, otherwise the instability of the whole thing gets the better of you.</p>
<p>After being outside in the heat for almost 7 hours this afternoon, I’m worn out! But I’m thinking about heading out to the gym for a workout in an hour or so… Definitely not doing a workout outside today–98 degrees this afternoon!</p>
<p>You know, I don’t think I’ve ever even thought about the position of the handles on the Airdyne. If I sit fully upright, I can’t reach the full extension of the handles, but the only time I’m fully upright is when I’m gasping for air after an interval. When I’m riding for real, I’m leaning forward and putting my weight into it.</p>
<p>I set the seat height when I first got it and haven’t adjusted anything since. I was thinking the other day that I might want to tryup one notch on seat height. Having removed several inches of padding from the seat (my seat, not the bike’s!), it feels like I might be a bit close to the pedals.</p>
<p>The normal position on a racer is bent over on the handlebars with the seat height set so that the foot is pointed at the bottom of the pedal/crank.</p>
<p>When I first tried out the AirDyne, I could generate a lot of work on the device, even though it wasn’t configured for bioefficiency. I could use the handles too fairly well. I knew that the seat position was an issue but I was interested in seeing the rest of the YMCA at the time. Obviously people use it that are a lot taller than I am so it’s useful but I’ve found that the more modern exercise bicycles are more comfortable and adjustable.</p>
<p>When pedaling on a cycle or cycle machine where the seat is low, it’s hard to get the foot extension part on the downstroke which is a useful part of the exercise.</p>
<p>Yeah. I set up the seat so my leg was almost, but not quite, fully extended at the bottom of the rotation.</p>
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<p>I had a carb-fest after dinner. My wife brought a little mini chocolate eclair left over from some function. So, I dutifully entered it in LiveStrong and had my first dessert since Christmas week.</p>
<p>Went grocery shopping early this morning and am trying a few new things. Wheat Germ (with greek yogurt), and all kinds of beans: navy beans, black-eyed beans, black beans, and three or four others.</p>
<p>Watching Federer and Nadal this morning. Both of them look thinner than before - it appears that they have both thinned down, a bit less of the muscled look for Nadal and Federer looking like a stick (especially his arms). I’m skipping my usual Sunday morning doubles to watch the French Open and will just do weights while watching the match.</p>
<p>The beans contain a surprising amount of protein and fiber - the negative on beans as that they take a long time to cook so my wife will cook them in the crock pot. We’ll find out what kind of beans I like and then she will buy them in bulk from the small Chinese grocery store in the Boston area.</p>
<p>What was disappointing is that it’s very hard to find cooked beans that don’t have a lot of sugar or other stuff added to them. Goya has black beans in water and salt which isn’t bad but anything else you buy (almost) has sugar and sometimes a lot of sugar. Especially baked beans - I guess that you have to load up an otherwise good food with sugar to appeal to Americans. Sure sounds good: low fat, high fiber and a sweet taste. No wonder our country is so fat.</p>
<p>Yes. Obviously we can’t tell just from height and weight charts, but just statistically, you probably should go on a diet and attempt to gain some weight</p>
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<p>Obese? No way. You are actually in the underweight category on the charts, which tend to suggest people should weigh too little to begin with.</p>
wait what? diets are when ppl LOSE weight right? I’ve been trying to lose but to no avail. for instancse i only eat fish, edamame, green beans, carrots, eggs, and veggie patties with lettuce and zero-cal drinks but im still not losing wait! I need help, any ideas???
<p>Diet = what you eat. Many people associated it with losing weight but it can also refer to gaining weight. If you read through recent posts, you’ll see one person trying to put on 7 or 8 pounds this summer.</p>
<p>Some of us here actually eat meat, bacon, fats, etc. to lose weight. In your case, you might want to eat more carbs to gain weight. I think that too little body fat can be a problem along with too much body fat.</p>
<p>Your BMI is 17 which puts you in the underweight category.</p>
<p>I’d suggest looking at research on longevity for various BMI levels so that you can make your own determination as to what to shoot for.</p>
<p>You might also consider using more objective measures of body fat such as calipers or hydrostatic testing. You could then talk to a counselor about weight, bodyfat and muscle goals.</p>
<p>Baked beans have massive amounts of sugar. That’s why they are so good!</p>
<p>I’ve become a big fan of frozen baby lima beans. High carb, but tons of fiber and they are really good with some cajun seasoning and a dab of butter! Hmmmm. I just use the Goya canned kidney beans in my chili.</p>
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<p>Yeah. I’m not too worried that the mini-eclair will do me in. It’s actually kind of amazing to me that I’ve been able to consistently take dessert type stuff out of my diet.</p>
<p>My snack of choice here lately has been dry roasted peanuts and pistachios. Thankfully, I can now go to the kitchen, grab a snack-size portion, and walk away. I have to credit tracking calories at Livestrong for training me to do that. It’s learning to not eat 500 calories of peanuts that makes it OK to eat 100 calories of peanuts a couple times a day. Or, to not have the eclair AND graze on the jar of peanuts after dinner.</p>
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<p>Some of that may be initial water weight. Low carb is typically associated with dropping some retained water. Nevertheless, I’m convinced that many of us, especially those of us who have a tendency to store fat, can benefit from limiting carb intake. It seems that the genetically skinny folk are the people who do well on high carb diets. I think there is something to the whole notion of hormonal signaling that makes us prefer to store fat or burn fat and that carb consumption is probably a part of that mechanism.</p>
<p>The fat consumption is just along for the ride. That’s what makes it possible to reduce carbs and increase protein.</p>
<p>Goya is the only brand of dried beans that I could find in the supermarket. They also have beans in water. It’s pretty clear, by the fairly limited amount of offerings in these products without sugar, that Americans don’t particularly care for this type of food.</p>
<p>Pastene offers soups that have a very nice blend of fat, carbs and proteins and they accomplish this with beans and some other stuff and olive oil added to the soup. They sell these soups in jars and they are pricey. Of course I could just make this myself (well, actually my wife would cook the beans and I could make the soup with the cooked beans).</p>
<p>I eat a lot of Progresso soup, doctored up with some fresh veggies from my never ending bag of “salad fixin’s” – bell peppers, onions, carrots, and celery. Most of their soups have a little pasta or beans or rice for the carb content. The only real downside is that the salt content in canned soup is off the charts. Still, soup is s great way to enjoy a large portion, get very full, and not go crazy on calories.</p>