Body Fat Analyser March 10, 2006
I just bought myself a cheapo body fat analyser on eBay. It cost a whopping AUD$10 - it’s probably not terribly accurate, but I was curious to see how they work and whether the information they give has practical use for weight loss.
All you do is set up the device with your age, sex, height and weight, then press your thumbs on the two sensor pads while it does some funky electrical signal analysis. In about 5 seconds, it tells you your body fat percentage.
Just now, it told me I’m at 34.5%. That’s a lot of fat - ugh!
According to the instruction booklet that came with it, normal body fat for a male is about 21-26%.
I’ll start entering my body fat percentage into my PhysicsDiet.com account, and we’ll see what comes out.
iPod Warning February 16, 2006
It’s official - the iPod is a killer device.
An Australian woman living in London was knocked from her bike and killed in a traffic accident, possibly because she was listening to her iPod and couldn’t hear the traffic noises around her.
Reports from Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers contain warnings from police about the use of ‘distracting devices’ in potentially dangerous situations that require your full attention.
I highly recommend the use of iPods while exercising as a source of entertainment and/or motivation, to make the activity less boring and to help you keep going. I stress, though, that you need to make sure their use is not distracting your attention and putting you in danger. It’s one thing to wear your iPod while walking in a park or riding an exercise bike at the gym, but it’s another thing entirely to be taking on city traffic while loud music drowns out what’s going on around you. So many of the safety cues we receive in those situations are auditory in nature, and you are literally risking your life if you choose to block them.
Most of what I listen to while walking or jogging is spoken word - podcasts, interviews and audio books. While music tends to completely drown out background noise, I find that spoken word audio allows much of the background noise to come through in the natural pauses between words and phrases. It just doesn’t ‘fill up your ears’ like most music does. Even so, I only listen to it when I’m exercising in a low-risk environment.
The bottom line is: Use your common sense, and be safe out there.
iPods Just Got Cheaper And Better! February 9, 2006
For anyone wanting an iPod to use while exercising, the models I recommend just got cheaper!
The iPod Shuffle prices have been reduced to USD$69 for the 512MB and USD$99 for the 1GB version. For daily exercise, the 512MB one is fine and holds plenty of audio (8 hours or more, depending upon recording quality). As long as you sync once a week or so, you’ll have plenty of fresh stuff to listen to.
There’s a new, lower-capacity iPod Nano out. It has a capacity of 1GB and costs USD$149. This is plenty of storage for exercise audio - you should be able to fit around 240 songs or 16 hours of audio on it. That means you could set up different playlists for different types of exercise or different days, or you can queue up a bucket-load of podcasts and audio books so you only need to sync once every few weeks.
The Shuffle and Nano are both solid-state iPods, meaning there are no moving parts or delicate hard disks that could be damaged if you knock them around a bit during exercise. They’re also much lighter and cheaper than the bigger iPods, making them more convenient to carry with you and less of a financial risk to leave in your gym bag.
I dread the prospect of having a $400 iPod lost/stolen/broken, but losing a $69 iPod Shuffle wouldn’t bother me anywhere near as much. That means I’m more likely to take it places with me and actually use it, rather than leave it at home in a safe place.
At these prices, everyone in the family should own one!
Lawn Mowing For Weight Loss January 20, 2006
Just for kicks, I thought I’d wear my heart rate monitor today while I mowed the lawn. I was a little surprised to find out what good exercise it was!
According to the monitor, it took me 30 minutes to mow the lawn (including sweeping up the driveway afterwards), and 26:18 of that was within my target heart rate zone. My average heart rate was 137 (it’s usually around 120-125 when walking), and I burned 462 calories. Pushing and pulling the mower and sweeping use a lot of upper-body muscles, so I’m getting a bit of variety in the workout. With benefits like these, it looks like I won’t be procrastinating on mowing the lawn anymore!
No wonder I’ve never seen a fat lawn mowing contractor.
It now seems strange that so many people pay others to mow their lawn, and then pay to visit the gym for a workout!
Using A Heart Rate Monitor January 9, 2006
Another good walk this morning with G.
According to the heart rate monitor, I burned 441 calories this time. The monitor is really good for letting you know when you need to put in a bit more effort to keep your heart rate up, rather than just strolling along and taking it easy. I can feel it in my muscles afterwards - I’m definitely walking harder and making better use of my exercise time. I figure, if you’re putting in the time anyway, you may as well get the most out of it you can!
Never Trust 4-Year-Olds January 8, 2006
I finally got back into the morning walking routine. I took G with me this morning, and decided to walk a little further than usual (about 45 minutes instead of 30). Partly it was because I had just gotten a new heart rate monitor and wanted to see how it worked, and partly it was to make up for all the missed exercise sessions this week.
About 3/4 of the way around my chosen walking route, I noticed that G was missing a shoe. Damn, she must have kicked it off somewhere along the walk! Nothing for it but to back-track (my route is a loop, so I was coming home via different streets to where the shoe was dropped).
So, I backtracked. I walked and walked, and there was no sign of the shoe. I was beginning to think it must have been picked up by someone, or that maybe I’d missed it again. I got all the way back home and found it in front of my neighbour’s house! Oh well, at least I had a good long walk!
According to the heart monitor, I burned 562 calories with 55% of that being classified as fat-burning. That means I burned around 309 calories of fat. Not bad!
Sweat It December 24, 2005
In order to get benefit from exercise, you really need to get your heart rate up and sweat. You’re not out for a stroll to the shops, you’re burning calories!
So I’ve started jogging a bit during my walks. I find if I walk for a few minutes to warm up, and then jog for a minute or two, it really gets my heart rate up. Then I walk for a bit to get my breath back, then jog for a bit, then walk again, and so on.
The only problem I’ve had with jogging is that my iPod is one of the big ones, and it’s a bit heavy and bounces around in my pocket. I’m worried I’m going to drop it. So I’ve made a deal with myself that I’ll buy one of the tiny iPod Shuffles once I get my weight under 100 kg. They’re not very expensive, and I think that’s a milestone worth celebrating, don’t you?
iPod - My Smallest Piece of Exercise Equipment December 13, 2005
I walked again this morning, and actually enjoyed it.
Finding Time
Getting up at 5:30am seems to solve my Time- and Guilt-based aversions to exercise. I’ve found the extra half-hour in my day by simply getting up earlier, and so far it doesn’t seem to require me going to bed earlier at night. And I don’t feel guilty about leaving my wife at home to get the kids ready without help, since they’re all still in bed at that time (including her!).
Dealing With Boredom
But the big killer for me in the past has been Boredom. There just isn’t enough interest in plain old walking to keep me motivated day after day, week after week. Sure, you can vary your route on different days, but it’s still pretty uninteresting.
I’ve found a solution that’s working for me, though, and it might also work for you.
Audio Books
I have a half-hour drive to work every day, which is normally pretty much dead time. There’s not a lot you can do in a car to use that time productively, so you end up just listening to mindless radio. Then a couple of years ago I discovered the audio book section in my local library, and tried listening to books on the way to work. It turns out to be a great use of that time! I was getting through a full book every week or two.
Podcasts
About a year ago I started downloading and listening to podcasts, which were even better as they were directly related to my own interests - most of the books on tape were targeted to the older residents of our town, and I’d already been through most of the ones that really interested me.
So, I’m taking my iPod out with me in the mornings and listening to podcasts that I’m really interested in. Walking is no longer boring - it’s like I’m getting up half an hour early to listen to podcasts while my body goes for a walk.
Banish Laziness Too!
As an unexpected side effect, listening to podcasts also helps me with my Laziness problem. Each episode of a podcast is usually 10 minutes to an hour long, so it’s pretty rare that I finish an episode just as I get home (whether driving or walking). Each morning, I’m keen to get up and get out walking because I’m interested to hear the rest of the episode. Today I even kept walking for about 10 minutes longer because I wanted to keep listening.
Finding Podcasts
To find podcasts, just install Apple’s iTunes (available for Windows or Mac) and click on the Podcasts tab. You can learn more about using iTunes for listening to podcasts at the Apple web site. Or if you don’t want to use iTunes, read about podcasting at Wikipedia, download an alternative podcatching client, and search for podcasts at Podcast Alley.
Other Sources of Audio
If you can’t find any podcasts you’re interested in, or you don’t have broadband and so can’t download them, try audio books. Most libraries have them tucked away somewhere, and it really isn’t hard to rip the CDs into your iPod so you can listen to them more easily. You can purchase audio books online via the iTunes Music Store or somewhere like Audible.com. You could also purchase used audio books on CD from eBay, and then sell them again after you’ve listened to them.