Fitness Shift!

I will be adding the measurements to this post going forward, rather than creating new posts every other week. I really don't like the blog being so much about thiss personal issue. So if anyone cares - there will be an edit every two weeks...

(sorry to be a day late on this update...I still cannot get onto the 'fat ratio' site - it keeps freezing...so instead of waiting, I'll at least give you the improved numbers.)

3/1/09
Weight: 241
(lost 4 pounds)
Waist: 43 inches
(lost 1 inch)
Hips: 45 inches
(same)
Forearm: 12 inches
(same)
Wrist: 7 inches
(same)


2/15/09
Weight: 245
(lost 2 pounds)
Waist: 44 inches
(lost 1 inches)
Hips: 45 inches
(lost 1 inch)
Forearm: 12 inches
(same)
Wrist: 7 inches
(same)
Body Fat: 27.1%
(lost 1.5%)
Amount of Fat: 66.4lb
(lost 4.2 pounds of fat)
Amount of Lean Mass: 178.6lb
(gained 2.2 pounds of muscle)

2/1/09
Weight: 247
(gained 3 pounds)
Waist: 45 inches
(lost 2 inches)
Hips: 46 inches
(lost 1 inch)
Forearm: 12 inches
(same)
Wrist: 7 inches
(same)
Body Fat: 28.6%
(lost 2%)
Amount of Fat: 70.6lb
(lost 4.1 pounds of fat)
Amount of Lean Mass: 176.4lb
(gained 7.1 pounds of muscle)

1/18/09
Weight: 244
Waist: 47 inches
Hips: 46 inches
Forearm: 12 inches
Wrist: 7 inches
Body Fat: 30.6%
Amount of Fat: 74.7lb
Amount of Lean Mass: 169.3lb

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So I'm going to launch a shift in how I handle my fitness goals. Merely weighing in is proving to be maddening. This week I gained a pound and am at 244. Overall weight loss over 11 weeks is only 8 pounds - and I'm spending nearly 8 hours a week at the gym and eating a fairly "normal" diet.

Inspired by what I already knew and by the reminders of friends and other bloggers like Mr. Mead - I needed to deal with reality a bit more...

Today, I found a very good home calculator for body fat ratio. It is accurate within about 3% and is very easy to do. And I think this will become the best method for assessing where I'm going. It is based on age, gender, and weight along with the waist, hips, forearm, and wrist measurements.

Going forward, I will list all of this every two weeks. There can be enough change in two weeks to actually measure - but once a week is a bit excessive for this type of calculation. I will still weigh myself periodically - but for the blog, this will be my new method.

One thing that was very interesting about this is how we are becoming quite fooled by the clothing industry. In the past a "32" meant the waist of the pant measured 32 inches. Not anymore. For fun, I measured various jeans at Fred Meyer and found that most pants added anywhere from 4 to 10 inches. In other words - waist size and "off the rack" size are not at all the same anymore. This explains why in May of 1992, I was wearing "36" jeans and weighed 190 pounds. Today I wear between a "36" and "38" and weigh 244 pounds. But the real numbers are quite revealing. And I need to deal in real numbers. Painful as they may be!

1/18/09
Weight: 244
Waist: 47 inches
Hips: 46 inches
Forearm: 12 inches
Wrist: 7 inches
Body Fat: 30.6%
Amount of Fat: 74.7lb
Amount of Lean Mass: 169.3lb

This is extremely helpful in calculating my ideal weight. To become very healthy, but not "athletic", I need to get this body fat percentage down to 12%. If I were to maintain my Lean Mass at about 170lb, then to have 12% body fat, I'd need to weigh 195lb. Given I am going to continue weight lifting, my Lean Mass will likely go up a bit, so I think to be reasonable, I need to shoot for about 200lb.

I have 41 weeks until I hit the year mark of my fitness launch. So basically, I'd like to lose a pound a week.

We'll see what happens!

Angell of Truth

"...conflicts of interest and biases exist in virtually every field of medicine, particularly those that rely heavily on drugs or devices. It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine."

--Marcia Angell

This quote comes from Angell's January 15th article in the New York Review of Books called "Drug Companies and Doctors: A Story of Corruption." It is significant that she speaks out so blatantly about what has become one of the biggest threats to our country - because she was in fact an editor for a most prestigious medical journal. Her credentials are sound and her scathing assessment of our health industry should be noted.

Read!

In a time when we are perhaps about to move toward a nationalized healthcare system, we must address the collapse of scientific study - particularly with regard to medicine. Because what is very possible, is that the government will have even more to say in how we treat our ailments, and also continue to pad the FDA with members of the pharmaceutical industry. As a country, we are blissfully ignorant of how this system operates, how doctors practice, and how much research studies have become pseudoscience. Bluntly, much of it is a scam, and a lot of doctors are assaulting patients with dangerous snake oil.

I hope people take the time to educate themselves. Doctors have become the new priests in America, and it's time to remove the cloak and demand that the patient and not the wallet is the only thing that matters.

Weigh In #11

1/11/09

Weight:
243lb

Weight Gain in Past Week:
.5lb

Total Weight Loss:
9lb

Exercise Last Week:
5 gym visits
cardio and weight lifting
60 to 90 min per visit
1 long walk

Goal for next week:
242lb

Oscar Whore

One of my trashy habits is to follow the movie awards season. And let me tell you, the world of Oscar Bloggers is a frightening place to observe. These people live and breathe this stuff year round. But I admit, I kind of love it. It's like gambling for movie geeks. There are sites that compile critics awards, reviews, money spent on Oscar campaigns - and there is much discussion about past trends. What movie falls into the "epic" slot? What about the "period" slot? What about the "quirky independent" slot? What about...? It's lunacy, but I'm a bit of an addict.

Right now, the Best Picture Race looks like it will come down to this group.

Slumdog Millionaire
Milk
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Doubt
Wall-E
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Reader
The Wrestler
Revolutionary Road

Of course - only five will emerge when nominations get announced later this month.

I have been catching up on the movies on this list. I have seen five of the ten - and will keep catching up as movies get released nationally and money/time allows. So here are my mini-reviews thus far.

Wall-E
Breathtaking computer animation blended with action-based storytelling plucks the heartstrings to great effect. Gender role reversal is interesting. As a satire of America's future, it almost works, but the ending is very "Disney" and for me, nearly wrecked the whole experience. Of the Pixar films, this holds its own, but I think Finding Nemo and A Bug's Life are better.
GRADE: B

Milk
Gus Van Sant completely transports the audience to another time and uses a bold, yet subtle visual style to grip the viewer. Very few political films have moved me in this way, but does it work for a non-queer audience? I think it does. Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, James Franco and Josh Brolin (along with everyone else) are so good, you simply do not recognize them as anyone but the characters they portray. This film does not apologize for anything - which seems appropriate given its subject matter.
GRADE: A+

The Dark Knight
Menacing and powerful, this movie is the best comic book film ever made. It takes the material and plays it without a single wink to the genre. It is a crime film - not unlike Mann's Heat or Scorsese's The Departed. It is hyper-masculine and adrenaline filled from start to finish with a performance by Heath Ledger that is terrifying - and heartbreaking, for this actor was one of our finest. If there is a mark against the film, it is that director Christopher Nolan loses some focus in both his screenplay and direction in the third act, but that's a small complaint for such a cinematic achievement.
GRADE: A

Doubt
Shanley executes a competent screen adaptation of his hugely successful stage play. By the end, the overt manipulation of the audience - to not tell, to not be clear, to not find out what happened - is so obvious it loses all meaning. And though overt metaphor is not offensive as I do love my operatic theatricality, if the wind blew again (to show the wind at the back of one's life as preached by Flynn), or another light bulb blew (to show the self applied veil of Sister Aloysius), or the camera tilted again (to show how off-balance everyone is) or the camera shot from above (God's judging hand - of course) - I was going to fall out of my chair. But the actors are to die for. Streep, Hoffman, Davis, and Adams are on their game. Streep, particularly, gives one of her finest career performances. For acting, this is one of the best films of the year. For content...yawn.
GRADE: B-

Slumdog Millionaire
This is filmmaking at its very best. And for once, Danny Boyle does not mess up the final act of his movie. He seems to have reached a new level in his talent - and this time, has the story to match. Rarely does a film have me glued to each frame. The style, the music, the cinematography, the acting - it all comes together to create a stunning adult fairy tale about class warfare and love - and all with the framing device of India's version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Some criticize this film for its lack of plot credibility. To those, I say they have missed the point. Sometimes simplicity works. And where the story may lack complexity, its execution has layers upon layers to contemplate long after the credits have rolled.
GRADE: A+

So...if I had to choose between Slumdog and Milk? I must contemplate further! And I have others to see!

Weigh In #10

1/4/09

Weight:
242.5lb

Weight Loss in Past Week:
1.5 lb

Total Weight Loss:
9.5lb

Exercise Last Week:
4 gym visits
weight lifting and cardio
60 - 90 min. visits

Goal for Next Week:
241lb