A little while ago, Ryan posted about some positive lifestyle changes, including a lot in the realm of health and fitness. His post is part of the inspiration for this one. There’s even a bit of a tip of the hat in the title. He named his for a Michael Jackson song — I went a little further back to The Village People.
Well, Nicole and I have been working on our fitness. We joined the local YMCA in March and we go there several times a week to do cardio and weight training. We also walk around our neighborhood a lot and typically each weekend we do a 1 to 2 hour bike ride on the Coyote Creek Trail.
Also, we’ve been eating a lot healthier, mostly inspired by Dr. Mehmet Oz and the book he co-authored: YOU on a Diet.
Last week I reached a couple of milestones. First, I reached 15,000 “FitPoints” on the FitLinxx system that the gym uses. For reaching this milestone, I got a towel. A towel is not terribly exciting, but it’s a symbol of progress. And then there is this most surprising (in a good way) chart from the FitLinxx web site:
Also last week, I did a mile in 11:13. OK, this isn’t the most impressive time ever, but for somebody who struggled to eke out a 15 minute mile in high school, I was pretty happy. And if I’m happy with my progress, I’m more likely to continue, so it’s all good.
I’ve lost about 12 pounds — not bad. I lost a few percentage points of body fat as well, according to our Tanita TBF-622 scale.
Good luck Ryan! And to anyone who is considering getting themselves into better shape, go for it.
Nice! I’ve slipped a little in the past week. Stupid boot camp messed up my legs pretty bad, so I had to take some time off. While I was “recuperating”, a few bad habits snuck back in. So now I’m trying to get back on the wagon.
I’m right with you on the mile time thing. We did a timed mile during boot camp and I ended up somewhere north of 11 minutes.
Good luck!
Congratulations! I of course had to be a follower and blog about my own efforts. I haven’t thought about getting one of those fancier scales to track stuff like BMI, muscle mass, water, etc. more precisely. Do you find it helpful and how did you end up going with that specific model (I notice the company’s website lists a number of newer models)?
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Hey Chris,
Our scale is actually a much older model that only does body fat; no water analysis or anything.
You have to be a little careful about how you interpret the results I think (ping me on IM so I can explain), but in general, we’ve found it helpful.