Abnormal Yak

Using tech, apps and gamification for fitness and weight loss

[abnormalyak]

I haven't posted for a while. My kitchen has been remodelled and it's been crazy! All my food, my cooking equipment and my scales have been packed away for 2 weeks. In that time I have mostly eaten takeaway food. But I have tried to make sensible choices, and exercise portion control, and I have continued to lose weight, which I'm very pleased with.

Last Sunday my partner and I did the Color Run, a 5K race where people throw powder paint at you every kilometre. It was SO MUCH fun, and I shaved several minutes off my training pace. I'm especially pleased that my partner did it too, as I wouldn't have thought it would be his cup of tea at all. And two of our children came to support us, and now both of them have started doing the Zombies, Run! Couch to 5K training app, because they want to run fun 5k races, too.

I started using an exercise website called BodBot.com. It's really good. You tell it your gender, age, current level of fitness, training goals (such as strength, weight loss) and what equipment you have available (if any) and it creates a personalised exercise routine for you. It's a bit like your own personal trainer, but much cheaper. The exercises are all clearly explained and every single one has a short YouTube video showing you how to do it. It's really good, I highly recommend it, but I am not going to continue doing it. The reason is that that I found it almost impossible to log the exercises it showed me on Fitocracy. Most of them were quite unusual - it's not all pushups and squats and lunges and bicep curls - which is good because it is varied and won't get boring. But the names BodBot gives these exercises don't match up with any exercises on Fitocracy. I like Fitocracy a lot more than I like BodBot, and one of them had to go.

I have now lost a little over 2 stone (28lbs) in total, and I have made lots of strength and fitness gains. The journey continues.

[abnormalyak]

I've now lost 10% of my starting weight, so I'm going to book a lovely massage as a reward. Still got a long way further to go, but it's nice to pass this milestone.

[abnormalyak]

Unstoppable! abnormalyak just hit Level 10!

(via Fitocracy)

Fitocracy has helped hundreds of thousands of people reach the next level of fitness. Sign Up free.

[abnormalyak]

This 10 minute long video by Dr Mike Evans of The University of Toronto argues that a 30 minute walk each day could be the single best thing we could do to improve our health, lengthen our lives and increase our quality of life.

[abnormalyak]

My Workout For Friday July 05

I earned 285 points for my workout on Fitocracy!

Trail Running +285 pts

0:49:00 || 3.1 mi || flat (+285 pts)

Think you can beat me, or want to comment?

Fitocracy is the social fitness community that has helped hundreds of thousands level up their fitness. Start your fitness transformation today!

Now available for free on both iPhone and Android!

[abnormalyak]

My partner (I hope he won't mind me saying this) is a weedy nerd. He was a weedy nerd when I fell in love with him, and 28 years later he's still a weedy nerd with a degree of middle-aged spread. He neither watches nor participates in any kind of sports or physical activity if he can help it.

When I got the treadmill, nearly three months ago, he was interested and had a go. I helped him get some appropriate shoes and left him to it. He isn't following a training programme as such, but he runs on the treadmill a few times a week and tries to go a bit further or faster every time.

A few weeks ago he started going to a fencing club (is there any nerdier sport than fencing?). He used to fence competitively when he was a teenager but he hasn't done any in over 20 years. Our daughter is going to the club with him.

Then today a parcel arrived addressed to him. A bloody heavy parcel, containing a set of dumbells and weights. Knowing him, there is no training programme. I bet he is just going to pick them up and put them down again until he can't do any more, then the next time try to lift them a few more times than the last time. Will he do curls? Kickbacks? Lateral raises? Who knows. He'll probably do something he once saw Buffy do on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but he won't know what it's called or what it's for.

I'm really amazed and thrilled that he is doing this. I haven't tried to get him to share my new interest in fitness. I haven't talked to him about it. He sees me running on the treadmill and running outside. Occasionally he'll find me doing crunches or pushups or squats in the bedroom. But I don't try to get him to join in any more than I tried to get him to join me when I was interested in quilting or beekeeping (we don't do normal hobbies in our family).

My weedy nerd is running and fencing and lifting weights. I'm so happy!

[abnormalyak]

I asked the Weight Loss group on Fitocracy "What can I spread peanut butter on that isn't a carbocalypse?"

They suggested-

a spoon (ho ho)

celery

celery, and sprinkle with raisins aka ants on a log

slices of apple

sun-dried figs

mix it up with cream cheese, form into balls and freeze it

carb-free cloud bread

banana

brown rice cakes

mix it into a protein shake, maybe with strawberries and a banana

almond flour buns

Mix it with soy sauce, ginger, rice vinegar, fish sauce and use as a sauce over stir fried fish and veggies

[abnormalyak]

This video from ASAP Science is full of scientifically proven suggestions that don't require crazy diets or special meals: just common sense and moderation.

[beingfitandfab]

Week 4 is… Weird.

It’s weird to change from the one minute running drills from Week 3 to walking in different speeds and then back to the 30 second runs I had in Week 2. Still challenging, without a doubt, but weird.

And then, well then there is the fifteen minute free form run. But guess...

[abnormalyak]

I definitely agree with you about the "blogging making you accountable" bit. That's a huge reason why I do it, too.

[abnormalyak]

How Much Does Stuff Weigh?

Via: DegreeSearch.org

I've lost a car tyre! Awesome! (via How Much Does Stuff Weigh? [infographic] | Education Insights)

[beingfitandfab]

Zombies, run! 5k - Week 3, Workout 3

Another one bites the dust! Week 3 is done! 

I’m currently on vacation and there are absolutely no parks around to run, so I had to man up (woman up?) and get on the road! It was quite a challenge, since the roads here are far from flat, there are cars and everything is unfamiliar. 

Result? A lovely run by the sea, bright and early so the cars weren’t that much of a deal and a very dedicated runner who run all of the free form runs. No stopping. 

And it feels fantastic. 

[abnormalyak]

Carol from Being Fit and Fabulous had a run by the sea, chased by zombies. Sounds bracing!

[abnormalyak]

Unstoppable! abnormalyak just hit Level 9!

(via Fitocracy)

Fitocracy has helped hundreds of thousands of people reach the next level of fitness. Sign Up free.

[abnormalyak]

I did it! I ran 5k at the end of the Zombies, Run! 5K training app. It was a lovely story, with lots of cameos from major and minor characters who I have "met" over the last 8 weeks of training in and around Abel Base. It wrapped up the story nicely with a happy ending. I must admit to a prickling feeling in my eyes when I handed over the package at Bert Airfield to be taken to the old Runner Five's sister in the Hebrides.

It was a beautiful evening and I ran a beautiful trail through fields of horses and cows, underneath shady trees alongside a river, and jumping across stepping stones. I took my dog, Gil, with me for company. I enjoyed every minute.

I'm running in a 5K race in 3 weeks, so I'll carry on running 3 times a week and make sure I'm fit and ready for that. I'm not aiming for any particular time, just to run the whole course and to finish and to have fun.

[happychomp]

5 Minute CRISPY Sweet Potato Chips

I was pretty shocked when I discovered this recipe. It’s UHMAZING.

Total Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

Sweet potato

Salt (or any other seasoning)

Olive oil spray can

Instructions:

Use a mandolin and slice up your sweet potato (try to find one that has an even girth throughout the entire length of the potato so you have evenly sized chips)

Cut parchment paper the size of your glass plate inside the microwave

Lay the chips in a single layer on the parchment paper

Lightly spray with non-stick spray and salt them

Microwave on 100% power for 2 minutes 30 seconds (Please note: This measurement was for MY microwave, so please be aware of your own) You will know they are done when they start to lightly brown, but do not wait till they entirely brown — that would mean it burnt)

Let the chips cool, and they will turn crispy :)

PROOF OF CRISPY-NESS (didn’t edit the video hehe)

[abnormalyak]

I tried this and it actually works. Took a lot longer than 2minutes 30seconds in my microwave, and some of the chips were soggy whilst others were crispy. I'll experiment with setting the mandoline to slice even finer. Really tasty chips, full of the goodness of sweet potatoes (useful amounts of vitamins A, C, Calcium, Iron) hardly any fat (and that is olive oil, full of healthy monounsaturated fatty acids and polyphenols) and no trans fats (a common ingredient in packaged potato chips, despite lots of evidence that they're really bad for you and the recommended daily consumption is "none").

[abnormalyak]

Juneathon Log

For Juneathon I was supposed to exercise every day and blog about it. So far I exercised almost every day (only skipped 2 I think), but recently I forgot to blog on Twitter about my #juneathon workouts. I'll try to do better for the rest of the month.

At the start of the month I was just doing treadmill running, and kneeling pushups. Now I'm running outside when the weather is fine, I'm doing full pushups and I've added squats and crunches to my strength training programme. I said I was going to do some Kinect workouts but I haven't done that yet, so I'll try to make sure I do that, too, before June is out.

[beingfitandfab]

After my epic failure yesterday, I just wanted to redeem myself.

I wasn’t feeling the best when it started, I felt like I wouldn’t even be able to run the first five minute free form run. I did. Then I felt like the one minute running were one minute too many. They weren’t. And then came the...

[abnormalyak]

You ARE a runner, Carol. You run. That's all it takes. You don't have to run a certain speed, a certain distance, a certain length of time to be a real runner. You just have to run. If Carol-from-a-month-ago could see the way you ran today, she'd be amazed and proud and filled with hope.

[beingfitandfab]

Note to self:

Charge your damn ipod before leaving at 6:30 in the morning for your zombies workout. Or be left in the cold, midway through it when the battery dies. 

[abnormalyak]

Carol from Being Fit and Fabulous learns the importance of maintaining your gear in a zombie apocalypse. Could have been very nasty.