This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
It occurred to me last year (while I was till blogging here and before I started here) that I write a lot about diseases but I’m on the verge of being hypocritical. Prompted by this seriesofpostsaboutvaccination I went to the doctor and found out that I could probably do with a couple of boosters. I got them and felt much better about myself. Now for round two.
Looking through diseases like I do I have found two recurring themes. Everything has flu-like symptoms and the most effective preventative/therapeutic options are healthy diet and exercise. I can’t do much about flu-like symptoms but I can live better.
This is not to say that I live like a slob or anything, I mean I’m a vegetarian (although I eat nearly zero fruit, figure that out) that walks as much as possible and while I do enjoy beer and chocolate I never enjoy both at the same time and try to not overdo either.
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I’m really only doing this for me.
I know that I used to be fitter than I am now and I think I want to get back in shape a bit. I have represented my state twice playing baseball (an Australian Redsox fan also by the way, so feel free to hate in the comments if you see fit) so I know what it means to be very fit and I don’t need to be there again, I just need to improve on what I got.
The impetus for this came from two separate incidences. The first being that one of my dogs out ran me. Sounds stupid I know but I could always run far and hard enough to tire him out and just recently I have found I can no longer do that. The second being that I’ve found that my clothes are starting to change shape on me and it’s not their fault, its definitely mine.
This guy who can't even sleep correctly can out run me easily. I will not stand for this.
But a goal is not enough; I need to be held accountable. That’s why I plan on blogging my exercise. I will update monthly and have been collecting data since last December because, well, I’m a scientist and without data my life is meaningless.
From back in December here’s my first set of stats.
December 2010
Weight: No idea as I don’t own scales, about 105 kg. I think and at 6 ft 3 in that gives me a BMI of approximately 28.5 classing me in the overweight to nearly obese range. Shit that surprised me. Before you get on my case I know BMI is flawed but if you can think of something better please let me know in the comments.
Resting heart rate: 115 bpm (I think? Units not shown on treadmill)
Exercise
December total: 19.47 km, all of it walking my dogs
Last run on 2nd Jan:
4.36 km covered in 30 min running at approximately 6:53 min/km although these stats are a little out as I had to pause for breath at the 20 min mark for 2 min and the stats came off the tready.
Treadmill’s predicted calorie loss: 349
Peak Heat Rate after exercise: 146 bpm
Physical state after exercise: What’s worse than shagged? Super shagged? I was hurting anyway.
And the latest set of stats are from last month.
July 2011
Exercise
July total: 53.9 km. 31.8 km of it running, 22.1 km of it walking my dogs
Last run on 27th July:
5.56 km covered in 35 min running at approximately 6.21 min/km
Predicted calorie loss: 622
Physical state after exercise: Felt pretty good but I could feel my Achilles tightening the entire time. Now it feels like a brick. Good times.
Weight: 96 kg which equates to a BMI of approximately 26 which puts me in the overweight category.
Over the last few months my progress has looked like this.
Well that’s my first post on this, please feel free to comment with hints and tips to staying motivated and words of encouragement, I will definitely need them. Also, let me know if I there are better indicators of physical health than what I am collecting. I’d be flattered if anyone else wanted to try this journey with me and if you do want to then Runkeeper has a street-team function, just look me up. I'll update every now and then to stay accountable too.
This little experiment of sorts has been really motivating so far, I’m keen to see how far I can take it.