Seltzer's Pilgrimage

[Naturegirl]

You can get out there on a consistent basis and endure some measure of discomfort getting your exercise in, but a couple nights out in the cold weather on the hard ground makes you slightly apprehensive.

While I on the other hand am just about the complete opposite.

This amuses me for some reason

edit: Oh but you did say you like camping if it's warm. That makes sense. I think rain is probably the thing that can ruin any camping trip. Cold I dont mind too much, as long as you got decent gear.

[Happy Monster]

Seltzer.. in a tent.. in the night.. with an owl..

[Big_D]

I love camping. Especially at high altitudes in the rockies. The dew in the morning is bad, though, and if it starts raining the morale takes a hit big time. Good luck .

[Happy Monster]

Thinking of ya'.. Hope everything is going ok.

[TheRyanator]

Evening Paul, Hope you trip was a great adventure! I spent a fair amount of time in the cold this weekend, but had the respite of a warm home about a 200 yards away to get back to for warmth and good meals every couple hours.

Looking forward to your recap!

[Seltzer]

Originally Posted by Naturegirl

You can get out there on a consistent basis and endure some measure of discomfort getting your exercise in, but a couple nights out in the cold weather on the hard ground makes you slightly apprehensive.

While I on the other hand am just about the complete opposite.

This amuses me for some reason

edit: Oh but you did say you like camping if it's warm. That makes sense. I think rain is probably the thing that can ruin any camping trip. Cold I dont mind too much, as long as you got decent gear.

Originally Posted by Happy Monster

Seltzer.. in a tent.. in the night.. with an owl..

Originally Posted by Big_D

I love camping. Especially at high altitudes in the rockies. The dew in the morning is bad, though, and if it starts raining the morale takes a hit big time. Good luck .

Originally Posted by Happy Monster

Thinking of ya'.. Hope everything is going ok.

Originally Posted by TheRyanator

Evening Paul, Hope you trip was a great adventure! I spent a fair amount of time in the cold this weekend, but had the respite of a warm home about a 200 yards away to get back to for warmth and good meals every couple hours.

Looking forward to your recap!

Thanks guys for rescuing me from what certainly would have been the depths of page 3. This is going to be somewhat disjointed. What immediately follows was written today and the latter portion of this entry was written last night, but never posted.


The scale read 179.7 this morning, so my saga of mediocrity continues. My macros haven't been bad and my choices have been decent, there's just been too much being consumed. Depending upon the hour I'm either fine or annoyed with the situation and at the moment it's the latter. The results I want are not congruent with the effort I've been putting in on a consistent basis so something has to change, either my vision or my effort. I'm in the middle of a personal tug of war between the opposing camps and neither one has the clear upper hand.


Today's a cardio day and I'm going to get out for a run around mid day. In a short while I'll be planning the balance of today's meals so I'm anticipating that it's going to be a healthy day that will start nudging the scale to lower readings. I'm pressed for time, but not as badly as yesterday so I should be able to play some catch up.


Have a great day!




The following was written last night.


I survived the weekend and a good time was had by all. Lot's of hiking, a surprisingly large amount of eating, and we also achieved our educational objective of either introducing the kids to orienteering or improving the skills of those who already knew how to use a compass and topographical map. Nobody got lost and nobody got hurt although one kid fell into a stream Saturday morning which caused some short term unpleasantness, but after his clothes were changed he was fine save for a very slight ankle sprain that had no lingering impact by today. As expected it was cold Saturday night and the temperature at the camp site was on the wrong side of 20F when we awoke on Sunday to moderate snow and a couple of inches already on the ground. Brrrrrrrrrr. It makes one really appreciate the modern conveniences of a heated home. My son had a really good time and definitely learned some new skills. He also gutted through some things that were difficult for him and gained a real sense of accomplishment upon completion.


Today was supposed to be the start of my five rep max workouts, but I never put the time in to devise my progression so I just added weight to each of the exercises and did a ten rep max protocol. Sometime either today or tomorrow I'm going to have to sit down and hammer out the new plan. Despite all the activity over the weekend I'm holding steady weight wise, which is a bit annoying, but not surprising considering some of the choices I've made as of late.


I'm outta here. Have a great evening!

[TheRyanator]

Sounds like a worthwhile time out camping!

As far as overeating the last couple days I can relate. I was amazed at how hungry I was all day Saturday from just sitting out in the cold. I think it really takes more fuel than I thought to maintain in that environment. For you it sounds like you spent a lot of time not only in the cold, but also on the move so I am not surprised that you felt inclined to perhaps over-indulge and at that point I am sure the choices were not spectacular. I have spent the last two days ravenous as I feel like I am re-couping from the effort of Saturday. I am sure it was a bit the same for you and things will be back to normal in no time.

You are getting pretty close to a trip to warm weather are you not?

[Seltzer]

Originally Posted by TheRyanator

Sounds like a worthwhile time out camping!

As far as overeating the last couple days I can relate. I was amazed at how hungry I was all day Saturday from just sitting out in the cold. I think it really takes more fuel than I thought to maintain in that environment. For you it sounds like you spent a lot of time not only in the cold, but also on the move so I am not surprised that you felt inclined to perhaps over-indulge and at that point I am sure the choices were not spectacular. I have spent the last two days ravenous as I feel like I am re-couping from the effort of Saturday. I am sure it was a bit the same for you and things will be back to normal in no time.

You are getting pretty close to a trip to warm weather are you not?

You're right Ryan, between the energy expended just to keep warm, the hiking, cutting wood, etc. a lot of fuel was burned and my body was aching to replenish it. As I knew, and you mentioned, the choices while in the woods weren't great, but I managed to avoid the worst and stick with the best. Not great by ordinary standards, but as good as could be under the circumstances. Of course that does nothing to explain my choices upon returning home where, on a relative basis, I made poorer decisions.

We leave for Florida on the 14th!

[specialk]

Originally Posted by Seltzer

We leave for Florida on the 14th!

Boy time does go by quickly!

Because we live in the cool north and are wearing multiple layers just to stay warm, the extra eating is almost by design. I know I've added a little winter insulation lately.

[Seltzer]

Originally Posted by specialk

Boy time does go by quickly!

Because we live in the cool north and are wearing multiple layers just to stay warm, the extra eating is almost by design. I know I've added a little winter insulation lately.

I like your rationale!

It's windy and 33 with an occasional snow flurry and intermittent sun, but none of that stopped me from getting out for my jog around lunch time. I'm still keeping the outtings short, 2.8 miles this time, but it felt good to be out there once I worked the kinks out and was loose.

[Happy Monster]

Welcome back. Glad it was enjoyable and productive.

[Seltzer]

Thanks Happy.


178.2 this morning so there's hope that I can make some progress with the scale as the holiday season kicks into high gear. Last night was the first night of Chanukah and all the gifts were big hits. I cooked up some traditional holiday fare for dinner and although I modified the recipes to minimize some of the less healthy aspects it still wasn't up to the clean standards that I usually strive for. That means that I'm going to be extra clean today and also stay away from the leftovers. To increase my chances for success I've planned out my meals for the day, well five of them to be accurate. I still have to figure out a sixth one as well as when to have it.


Today's a lifting day and I'll be leaving in about thirty minutes to start the five rep max sessions. I'll be back later to recap and catch up.


Have a great day!

[TheRyanator]

Happy Chanukah!!

[Seltzer]

Originally Posted by TheRyanator

Happy Chanukah!!

Thanks.

I breezed through today's workout which is not entirely a good thing because I didn't have to push myself and I don't feel as if I really worked out. There are two culprits, the first one being that I purposely give my legs a day of rest of Wednesdays and the second being that this was the first day of five rep max sets so the weights were the lowest they're going to be for each exercise and at levels that I could easily handle. Still, I'm better off going than not and I know that with each trip to the gym I'll be working harder than the previous one.

Time to get back to work.

[Happy Monster]

Sounds like you are getting back into the swing of things..

Funnily enough, my legs were a bit weak today from some Yoga poses last night. All good though!

[Seltzer]

Originally Posted by Happy Monster

Sounds like you are getting back into the swing of things..

Funnily enough, my legs were a bit weak today from some Yoga poses last night. All good though!

Happy, with regard to exercise, there's never a “getting back” for me because other than being sidelined by injuries it's been a constant and part of my life. The form of exercising periodically changes as my interests change and have included running, lifting, martial arts, bicycling, various team sports, and hiking. Work, grad school, work and grad school, marriage, children, even going to see my father everyday when he was in Sloan Kettering, no matter what's going on I've always managed to make the time to exercise.


While we're on the topic, last night for Chanukah I gave my wife an introductory package to one of our local yoga schools. Is school the right term? She doesn't embrace the whole exercise thing like I do and one of the few things that she really liked and consistently followed was when she was studying yoga. Unfortunately that ended over fifteen years ago and I got the idea for the gift because a couple of months ago she mentioned that she was thinking about starting again. Needless to say the present was a huge success and I hope that it initiates her reintroduction to the discipline.

Nothing of interest to report on the health front other than so far so good.

[Naturegirl]

What a fantastic gift for your wife! No wonder she liked it
I wouldnt mind getting a gift like that, maybe I should put it on my list now that I think about it.

I can't remember, do you take walks together or anything? Even though she's not big on exercise?

[Happy Monster]

Needless to say the present was a huge success and I hope that it initiates her reintroduction to the discipline.

Hurrah!! Yoga is great..

Naturegirl: The classes here range in price, but some are pretty cheap. Go for it!

[Seltzer]

Originally Posted by Naturegirl

What a fantastic gift for your wife! No wonder she liked it
I wouldnt mind getting a gift like that, maybe I should put it on my list now that I think about it.

I can't remember, do you take walks together or anything? Even though she's not big on exercise?

Photo editing software, yoga classes, NG your list is growing.

My wife does like to walk and we'll sometimes do that together, but she doesn't do it on a consistent enough basis to get any real benefit from it.

Originally Posted by Happy Monster

Hurrah!! Yoga is great..

Naturegirl: The classes here range in price, but some are pretty cheap. Go for it!

HM, I figured you would approve of the gift.


178.5 this morning, not the direction I had hoped for, but upon looking upon what I ate yesterday an understandable conclusion. My macros were fine, but my portion control wasn't, especially later in the day. And to compound the situation I had a couple of cocktails last night that added empty and needless calories. What's particularly vexing is that this came after a brief discussion in Specialk's journal about having a Sober January Challenge, which I'm all for. For perspective about last night, I'm not talking about getting drinking enough to be drunk and feeling like crap the next day; in fact I worked until past midnight last night so I needed a lot of mental clarity, but I am bemoaning the decision because of what it represents with respect to my resolve and reaching my goals.


Today starts with a clean slate and although I'm tired from working so late last night I'll endeavor to make today a healthy one that's filled with good choices. I've planned most of my meals for the day and will shortly decide upon the rest so the only health related question that needs to be addressed is what form of cardio I'm going to do. The high temperature today is only going to be about 36F and there is snow on the ground so cycling outdoors is not an option. That leaves me with either jogging or indoor cycling. As of now I'm leaning towards jogging; the longer I can put off the indoor cardio the better.


One thing I forgot to mention yesterday is that I made some minor modifications to my exercises while on my five rep max phase. I switched the DB bench press to a barbell and switched DB shrugs to shrugs using a machine. The reason for both changes is that last time around as I got closer to my max lifts I had trouble negotiating the DB's and I felt that I was putting myself in a position where the odds of getting injured were too high.


Have a great day!

[cnjlakes]

Originally Posted by Seltzer

...And to compound the situation I had a couple of cocktails last night that added empty and needless calories. What's particularly vexing is that this came after a brief discussion in Specialk's journal about having a Sober January Challenge, which I'm all for. For perspective about last night, I'm not talking about getting drinking enough to be drunk and feeling like crap the next day; in fact I worked until past midnight last night so I needed a lot of mental clarity, but I am bemoaning the decision because of what it represents with respect to my resolve and reaching my goals.

Happy made a comment several days ago that I have been thinking about and relates to what you just said.... That by thinking about not drinking, you are actually thinking about drinking and then having to counter yourself by saying no. Unfortunately, it's making sense to me! Unfortunate in the fact that it's a necessary evil until you get to the point where you just no longer think about it.

I used my experience quitting smoking as an example when I was thinking about the subconcious rationale and it all kind of fell into place. When I first quit, I thought that I was constantly thinking about not having one, but in retrospect I believe I was thinking about having one and then countering that by denouncing the thought.

ugh. what a complex thing, the mind....