1st down! (or, week 5, new goals)

As mentioned in a previous post, weight loss can be very easily related to American football.

For those unfamiliar with American football- there is a clock, like in soccer (football everywhere else!) In soccer (if I understand the game correctly, there are two 45-minute halves, with no real time outs, and time can be added by the officials at the end of the half (or maybe just the final half). American football is also divided into halves, but each half is 30 minutes long, and further divided into quarters of 15 minutes each. It is fairly unusual for much time, if any, to be added back on to the clock.

After my first successful round of weight loss, I've decided that this is a pretty manageable way of doing things, and have set a goal for the next four weeks. The weight loss goal of the first four weeks was a total of ten pounds; through diet, exercise, a pedometer and an Excel spreadsheet I managed to drop seventeen pounds.

I need to explain "downs" to those unacquainted with American football. In stark contrast to soccer, which is similar to ballet in that there is near constant motion, American football is more like a chess match, with one huge difference. In chess, opponents take turns attempting to place their opponent into check and ultimately mate. In football, a team has four opportunities to run plays and attempt to score- or, at least get another set of downs. An American football field is 100 yards long (meters/metres and yards are fairly close in length; one inch== 2.54cm, a yard ==36 inches, and a meter==39.36 inches [yes, I know these things by heart]). To get a "first down", a team needs to move the ball 10 yards from where they originally possessed it. When they move the ball 10 yards or more, they get a new set of downs.

So, I successfully completed my first four week challenge- I lost 17 pounds. In football parlance, I gained 17 yards, maybe. I now have a new set of downs.

I truly, truly hope all of the soccer fans out there are able to follow this analogy, because I think it works pretty well. Pressing on...

I've moved up the field, farther than I'd expected when I first started. I have a new set of four weeks to work with. Initially, I thought about increasing my goal just a bit, say to 12 pounds for the period. However, I added some simple analytics to my spreadsheet, and decided that instead of shooting for a weight goal for the next four weeks, I'd shoot for something a bit more significant in terms of health. 12 pounds is good, but 14 pounds will drop my BMI into a lower category, so it's a goal worth shooting for.

I've said this before on twitter: I'm not a data scientist nor do I pretend to be one. However, most of us can do some common sense analytics and improve or fine tune our goals. The answers (or very clear directions to the answers) are often right in front of us. We just need to know how to ask the right questions (or to be brave or honest enough to ask them).

My wake up call started with a reflection in a mirror. What's yours?

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

Four weeks

Someone on a forum recently asked me what I've been up to since last posting there. I thought what I wrote was useful, so I'm republishing it here.

"Looking at my fat abs, and deciding to attack with knowledge and experience. I'll make an Excel spreadsheet for the lamest of reasons- I'm putting this to good use and am tracking diet, macros, vitals and training in it.

My weight has been pretty stable over the past 12-24 mos, but stable == 39.68 BMI! When I finally ran those numbers a little over a month ago, I just said , "ENOUGH."

I did some research on keto, and decided that I didn't really want to go full-bore keto, so I came up with a reasonable compromise: a carb-restricted diet. The premise is simple: follow the spirit of keto, but rather than keeping carbs in the bargain basement of my macros, eliminate the bad carbs, pump up the fats and protein, and get more active.

I've been using a pedometer forever, and I recently got the Runkeeper app for my phone. I don't run, btw- I actually hate running, but Runkeeper tracks all sorts of stuff. I've found that if I can get three walks in per week (ONLY 3!), I can get some decent weight loss. My very worse weight loss week was last week-  only 2 pounds. Only one walk. My second week, though, was insane- 8.6lbs dropped.

The dietary component is simple: no pasta, ramen, potatoes, bread or boxed dinner mixes ("Hamburger Helper"). I love this stuff... I really do. It's been over a month since I've had any of it. My wife has insisted that I keep up on fiber intake, so I do consume carbs- but mostly from fresh (or baked) veggies. Butternut squash, tomatoes and cucumber are my current primary carb sources. And... here's the disclaimer: this WILL NOT work for everyone. I eat slowly. Very slowly. Monday night, I consumed a grand total of two cups of tea, a Monster (Ultra- nearly no carbs), and 10oz of ground pork and ground beef patties. My maintenance kcals are currently just shy of 2500/day. My intake was 836... that's a bit unusual, even for me: I'm usually closer to 1400-1500.

Resistance training: not a lot going on for several reasons.

The primary reason is the "lose weight vs build muscle" argument. The last time I tried to lose weight I lifted fairly heavy (for me). I got stronger and looked better, but was still fat. My primary training right now is walking, I'm not certain that a casual observer would notice much difference in me, but my belly has definitely shrunk, and my favorite belt needs a new hole for my smaller diameter. I have two resistance tools which I use at work (there are times where I have to wait for processes to finish, so I can do these). The first resource is a Wham-O "Super-Duper ball". Orange and about 4" across, it's great for squeezing- good forearm and shoulder work. The other resource is about the same size, except it's a 2lb medicine ball. I like to throw this up towards the ceiling in sets of 10 reps. Neither of these will give me huge guns, but they burn calories and keep the muscles primed!"

... and that's me talking some trash with one of the mods at iron-sanctuary.com. If you're into body building, I highly recommend this site.

As always, I am hochspeyer, bloggging data analysis and management so you don't have to. 

8.3.15

This post's title says it all about my present state of mind. Frequent readers are probably aware of my theory that a blog title should be something of a hook. As of right now, I have nothing. Friday and Saturday, I had high hopes for the weekend, expecting to accomplish several things. As I sit here composing this on early Monday morning, the stone cold sober reality of the past weekend is illuminated by a circular fluorescent bulb: next to nothing is my total so far.

In terms of the absolute number of tasks I had intended to get done, the weekend was pretty much a wash. I didn't get the grass in front of the house cut. Although I did cull a few books out of the SUL, there was no major progress in the reorganization. I also got nothing else done in the basement at large.

On the plus side, I got in an excellent walk on Saturday morning walk. And, I got the spreadsheet started- more on that in a bit....

If you've read my previous post, you know I'm off on a fitness quest. If you haven't read the post, do it now and then come back here!

I had actually started the spreadsheet on July 27th, the official start date of my fitness adventure. As is the case of spreadsheets for projects such as this, I started out simple, with not a formula in sight. However, I did my weigh-in a day early this week (Sunday rather than Monday), and decided to update the spreadsheet immediately afterwards. The workbook currently only has one worksheet where data is actively being entered. This is the "VITALS" and currently lists weight, BMR (basal metabolic rate) and BMI (body mass index); with Jennifer's assistance LBM (lean body mass) will be added as soon as I can get back into the weight training groove.

Here was where I ran into my first technical (software/data) obstacle. When I made my first entry, I simply copied the results from one of the myriad of online calculators. However, on Sunday I could not find the one that I had originally used, so I decided to plug a formula in, as it would have been a necessity at some point anyway. The most accurate and popular method of calculating BMR is attributed to a formula developed by Mifflin - St. Jeor et al, so I decided to incorporate this into my spreadsheet. The problem is this: while I have absolutely no problem with the metric system, and am pretty comfortable with doing conversions, in MY world, weights are still measured in pounds. So, I spent about fifteen minutes in a futile search for an English equivalent to the Mifflin - St. Jeor formula. Frustrated, I did the only logical thing that I could think of: I converted. Now, the nice thing about the formula is that there are only three variables- height, weight and age. Age ony gets changed once a year, so that's no big deal. Height, although a universal variable, is nearly a constant on the personal level, so I calculated that and plugged it in. Weight, though, is the "magic number" for my project. Truth be told, my scale will display weight in either English or metric, but since this is one area where all of my IRL friends and acquaintances (even those in Canada) are more comfortable or familiar with English weights, I decided to stay with pounds. So, the only thing that was dynamically recalculated is weight, and that is handled in a separate cell. The end result is I have accurate BMR and BMI calculations.

I mentioned a few privacy issues in the last blog. PII is a huge topic, and when it comes to MY PII, I try to be careful. I can say this, though, about my first week: even though it was not strictly keto, I managed to drop three pounds (~1.3kg). Whether that was newb losses or hard work, I'll take it, as it's a solid start!

*A side note on the American diet: I started this journey because I knew I  was out of shape by any standard. The only real changes to my lifestyle were: becoming more intentional about my lifestyle, and making better nutrition choices. I walked three times this week, which is good but not great. The really big change was cutting out all processed foods (stuff in a box)- primarily noodles and ramen, as well as some homemade gravy dishes.

The second week is about calories and macros- I also hope to get back to weight training- I expect my first LBM measurement to be ugly!

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.