Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Tag: fitness Page 5 of 7

The Lenten Experiment

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On February 8, 2016

In Fitness

The Lenten ExperimentThis Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and that means Lent is here (already!). The past two years I have been a little lenient on my Lenten sacrifice but I’m going back to giving up soda as part of my Lenten experiment. It’s been a while since I have gone 40 days without a pop so I’m expecting this Lent to be a little more challenging. I know of several people who have given up pop, for various reasons, and it has been a significant contribution to their weight loss. I think my weight loss has plateaued recently so I am going to take the opportunity this Lent to push myself a little harder. Perhaps the combination of the extra effort and no pop will help push me over that plateau.

I’m sure I’m going to have many moments where I will slip; in fact I am going to allow it. One of the most important things to remember when working out is to listen to your body. If it hurts enough that you have to take pain medication, then you are a) doing something wrong or b) you need to take a break and let your body repair. The point of the experiment isn’t to see how close I can get to incapacitating myself but to observe the effects of a more intense workout coupled with the reduced consumption of soda. I think what intimidates me the most is that I may try to start getting up early on the weekends to use the treadmill for a half hour. I may also try to increase my daily step average which means I will have to find a way to get additional steps each day as most days I am barely hitting my 11k.

Wish me luck because this will be a difficult challenge but I can’t think of a better time for self-improvement, self-reflection and renewal than Lent.

minion_keboard_smI could get so much more accomplished if I only had minions!

I Have Saved Middle Earth!

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On December 2, 2015

In General Cogitation

Destroyed the ring and saved Middle EarthWhat began in January of this year, has finally come to an end. It took me 11 months and 2 days to finally walk the distance Frodo walked from Bag End to destroy “The One Ring” in Mordor. 1,779 miles, which is approximately 3,543,997 steps! My Walk to Mordor challenge is finally over (and I did it better than Frodo because I still have all ten of my fingers)! I think next year I will try for the extra 1,625 miles, which is essentially from Minas Tirith back to Bag End, so I guess I will have to update my little calculator on my website to include those milestones. Since I got a bit of a late start this year and I didn’t start exercising consistently in the mornings until July, I think I have a pretty good shot at completing the extra distance.

So 1,779 miles is the hypothetical distance between Bag End and the point inside Mount Doom when Frodo destroyed the ring. I’m sure most of you, like me, probably can’t fully appreciate that distance in terms of two fictional locations, so I did some research to find some actual locations. I used the map coordinates of Cincinnati as my starting point and I picked the more interesting locations and points of interest that would be within that distance. So, after having walked 1,779 miles, I could have essentially walked from Cincinnati to …

[table]
Location,Distance,Direction
El Salvador – San Salvador,1772 miles,South
Canada – Nunavut – Coral Harbour,1731 miles,North
Canada – Alberta,1689 miles,Northwest
Dominican Republic – Santo Domingo,1669 miles,Southeast
Phoenix – Arizona,1581 miles,West
[/table]

There are several more locations that are within that distance, but I just picked a few to give the distance some perspective. I found the following website to find these distances. http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/distances.html?n=414. I don’t have any reason to question if the calculations on this site are legitimate so I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Anyway, since I am going to do this again next year, who will be brave enough to do it with me?? I can add you to my calculator to help you keep track of your progress if you like. Frodo didn’t do it alone, so why should I!

/cheers

Meeting Your Fitness Goals

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On November 17, 2015

In General Cogitation

Meet Your Fitness Goals (or you're a girlie man)Rarely have I ever set a fitness goal at the beginning of the year and actually met that goal, but it looks like that is about to change. I’ve talked a lot over the past 10 months about the Walk to Mordor fitness challenge and, as of the writing of this post, I am less than 100 miles away from completing it (currently at 1,696 miles); 1,779 miles walked within a calendar year and I have until December 31st to get there. I am going to do the challenge again next year and hopefully improve how far I go to eventually attempt the other half of the challenge (… And Back Again, which adds another 1,625 miles which is the approximate distance from Minas Tirith to Bag End). I think next year someone should join me! Frodo didn’t do it alone!!!

I also set another goal late this past summer. I started at a client in mid-to-late July, and I had just started a morning exercise routine. I decided that I was going to work out every week day morning (starting around 5am) until I take vacation the week of Thanksgiving. I am 3 days away from achieving that goal. Granted I may have missed one or two days since July because of illness or complete and utter exhaustion, but I’m proud to say that I did it! During the week of Thanksgiving I am going to take some much-needed time to rest and tell myself that I have earned a week of sleeping in the mornings instead of getting up to work out. Of course my body is trained to do that so unlearning it for only a week will be the biggest challenge (especially come Monday the 30th).

I still have quite a bit of work in front of me to slim down, perhaps that will be a goal for next year (beyond going “back to Mordor”).

/cheers

minion_keboard_smI could get so much more accomplished if I only had minions!

Walk to Mordor: Arrived at Rauros

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On September 10, 2015

In General Cogitation

falls_of_rauros_ii_by_reneaignerI have officially reached Rauros in my Walk to Mordor Nerd Fitness challenge. That means I have walked over 1300 miles so far this year.

Many folks don’t really know what, in Middle Earth, Rauros is. If you do a Google search you will immediately recognize the location, or you can look at the image at the top, which is the Falls of Rauros.

Argonath

The Pillars of Kings

If that still doesn’t ring a bell from the movies, perhaps this image will help. Just prior to the falls, one would pass through the Gates of Argonath (aka The Pillars of Kings). The Falls of Rauros are also the falls that served as Boromir’s burial site.

Rauros is the final milestone in the Walk to Mordor before Mount Doom. I reached that milestone yesterday, which means I have a little over 400 miles left to complete the challenge. As long as I keep my current pace, statistically, I should have no problem completing the challenge by the end of the year.

I have been tracking my progress using my own tool and my Fitbit dashboard.

/cheers

minion_keboard_smI could get so much more accomplished if I only had minions!

Let’s Light the Night!

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On August 27, 2015

In General Cogitation

PrintGreetings friends, family and site patrons.

As some of you know, every year I participate in the Light the Night walk for a cure. It’s a charity event orchestrated by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Participants raise money from donations by folks, like you, to sponsor those of us walking for the ones that survived, are currently battling or in memory of the ones we have lost. This walk means a great deal to me as I walk in memory of my brother-in-laws wife who lost her battle to Sub-cutaneous T-cell lymphoma back in 2013. She left behind a loving husband and two girls, the eldest of which is my goddaughter.

This is Natalie with her girls, a year before she lost her battle with lymphoma

This is Natalie with her girls, a year before she lost her battle with lymphoma

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society funds research that will one day put an end to blood diseases and cancers. Your donations, which sponsor me in the 2 mile walk on October 15th, will go toward the funding for that research. This is an event I have been participating in for a couple of years, even prior to Natalie’s passing. I would have walked a marathon if it would have made the difference in her prognosis.

Over the next several weeks you will probably see me posting about donations quote often. I will try not to be too obnoxious about it, but I am setting a lofty goal of raising $1,500 this year. I hope that you will be able to help me out this year. You can make a donation on the following web page: http://pages.lightthenight.org/soh/Cinci15/MVleaminck or by clicking on the widget in the top right corner.

Your donation and support means a lot to me!

Thank you.

Using Your FitBit to Get Fit

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On August 24, 2015

In General Cogitation

my-fitbitOne of the most common things I hear from people who are trying to exercise more by using a fitness device, such as a FitBit, is that they always forget to wear it, charge it, etc. Granted some of the reasons I’ve heard are legitimate (i.e. battery life is terrible – most common reason with FitBit Zip), but forgetting to wear it is something that can be fixed. My secret was forcing myself to be OCD about checking for it in my pocket.

I don’t mean a casual pick-it-up-with-my-wallet-and-watch kind of OCD. I’m talking Melvin Udall (As Good As It Gets) tap-my-pockets-every-hour kind of OCD. I will seriously check for my FitBit more often then I will check for my wallet. I’m telling you, it sounds crazy, but it works. I have had the same FitBit since January 2013 and it’s on my person 98% of the time. If I’m not wearing it, then I’m not moving!

Once I have successfully developed an OCD for carrying it, then I develop and OCD for reaching that daily goal. I think the trick to setting that goal is don’t make it an easy goal. The average person walks about 5,000 steps a day. Challenge yourself by trying to double that (which is why I think 10,000 is the default step goal with new FitBits). If you are easily within 90% of your step goal on a regular basis, then add another 1,000 steps. When you see that you need more steps, then you start inventing ways to get additional steps. It might mean parking farther away or taking the stairs everyday (if its feasible) or using that treadmill or stationary bike more often.

Two final (and fairly obvious) things to note:

  1. Wearing a fitness device probably won’t be the only thing that you have to do to get into better shape. It’s just one tool in an arsenal (i.e. diet, regular exercise, etc).
  2. FitBit isn’t the only fitness device you can choose from, it’s just the one I prefer and recommend.

So there you have it. If you are the kind of person that has an addictive personality, embrace that attribute and use it to your advantage, that’s essentially what I did. I’ve been down 55 pounds for going on two years now.

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