Starting a program

[devonin]

Been a while since I posted an update. I'm not into week 8, and I have I think all but 1 element of the exercise program set up now. He just wants to add one more aerobic/cardio exercise and I'll be set up with the ongoing plan. From there it just becomes slowly increasing size of reps and numbers of reps as I go.

Now that the weather's getting nicer, I'll also be getting a bike, and hopefully looking for some kind of semi-regular sport-type thing (probably badminton) to do at least once a week.

Diet-wise it's really just "keep trying not to backslide into stupid shit"

I've mostly stopped ordering so much pizza, and I've started eating wraps instead of subs, which are both smaller and less bread.

I'm also starting to try cooking more meals for myself, which is a serious problem for me motivation and time wise, so the plan we're going on right now involves a nice list of recipes of slow cooker meals that I can prep in advance, freeze for weeks, and literally just defrost night before, dump in slow cooker, and have food. So ideally I can start running that overnight and have proper meal food for lunch and dinner the next work day.

Slow progress, but steady progress.

I'm down a belt loop, and that's pretty awesome.

[Travis_Flesher]

Make sure to eat plenty of locally sourced food when you do cardio and lift.
I gained lots of strength that way. Don't try to lose all your weight!
They make those elliptigos now too, looks awesome.

[devonin]

I think you are misunderstanding what I'm doing and why.

[Mahou]

It looks like you're making some real good progress - the hard work is really paying off. As for the program, that's the best approach. Adding more volume and sets to your workout is the best way to gauge if you're improving.

[devonin]

Yeah going from 10/8 pushups being as many as I could do in a row to 27/23 definitely shows some progress.

[devonin]

So I'm at 3 months, and my first round of properly checking in and testing progress.

I've got bloodwork in and see my doctor next week to look at it, but I had my week 12 checkins with the dietician and physio. Basically positive progress on every axis.

Diet wise: There's a scoring system for basically how optimally I'm adhering to the diet considered to be the overall best one, which as near as I can tell is out of 14.

When I started I was at a 4. Twelve weeks in I'm at an 8. Plenty of room for improvement (I still eat way too much bread and snacks and oil-based things) but I basically doubled my adherence to the program which is pretty solid.

Fitness wise, I've lost two inches from the measurement of my torso at my Iliac Crest, I've lost 10 pounds.

When I started, I was at 8 pushups, which was in the "needs improvement" range for my age. In 3 months I've pushed through 'Needs improvement' and 'fair' and 'good' into 'very good, at 22 pushups. To get into 'excellent' I need to hit 30.

Aerobically, I have literally no clue how my 'aerobic score' is actually derived, but has to do with my stable heart rate at various levels of exertion. I started off with an aerobic score of 409. This was in the 'Good' range. I'm now still in 'Good' but moving up with an aerobic score of 434. 'Very Good' starts at 454, so if my improvement continues at the same rate, I'll be there by 6 months for sure.

Basically, pending the bloodwork information from the doctor next week, I'm just flat out better off now than when I started, which is awesome.