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How do you know if you are fat?

How do you know if you are fat? This seems like a silly question, right? Look at the scale. Look in a mirror. Pretty simple.

You might think so, but so many of us are blind to our own shortcomings. You’ve surely observed the people in your life who rail about the actions of others, when you know damn well that the one doing the railing does the exact thing they are railing about!

I’m sure there is a psychological term for this, but I’m not a psychologist, so I dunno what it is. I only know this phenomenon exists and that it quite likely exists in all of us.

Even in ourselves. Yes, we are not immune.

When I was fat, I only had an inkling that I was fat. I was buying XXL t-shirts, and I wondered why the manufacturers were making shirts smaller these days. I bought increasingly larger waist sized pants. I looked at my friends and wondered how they could let themselves go like that.

You might think that larger sized clothing is a key clue to weight gain. Well, sure it is. I knew I was gaining weight. But was I fat? After all, I had always worn size XL shirts. XXL is only one size larger. As for the pants, I can’t tell you what I was thinking. When I realized that size 42 was now getting tight, I started to wonder.

All that evidence, but still no action on my part.

What finally got me to thinking about my weight was my blood pressure. My doctor had put me on one medication, then he added another. This made me really nervous, because I do not like taking medication. I believe that drug companies are only trying to make you dependent on them — not cure you — so I was not really willing to be a participant in their profit motives. And that’s not to even mention any side effects, documented or not, those drugs may have.

So I was finally thinking about losing weight, but still not taking action. I had looked around. Everyone my age was fat. I supposed, perhaps, that was just the way life goes.

Then my wife and I went on a cruise. I am notoriously shy in front of a camera, preferring to shoot rather than be shot, but, of course, on vacation, photos happen. Wow. I saw the photos and immediately ordered Nutrisystem.

That started me on a path to fitness that I doubt I’ll ever veer from.

So, to answer the question, “How do you know if you are fat?” It’s rather easy. Face reality. If you are facing reality, you will be able to see if you are fat.

My friend Ken told me something once that has always stuck with me: “If your gut sticks out farther than your chest, you’re too fat.”

Put on a t-shirt and stand straight up. Is your gut sticking out farther than your chest?

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Insanity fit test – results after two weeks

I’ve been doing Insanity for two weeks now. Just did the second fit test yesterday and here are the results.

Switch Kicks5565+18.18%
Power Jacks3056+86.67%
Power Knees78109+39.74%
Power Jumps2351+121.74%
Globe Jumps710+42.86%
Suicide Jumps1418+28.57%
Pushup Jacks2830+7.14%
Low Plank Obliques3657+58.33%

Not too shabby. But….

I had already voiced my concern to my brother about needing to add upper body to the workouts. There is no part of the Insanity fit test that measures upper back strength, and that’s because there is no part of Insanity that targets the upper back. Gotta add it.

As for chest, note the number on the Pushup Jacks. Only 7% improvement. I have read from other people who write about Insanity that they achieved great gains in pushups because of all the pushups we do during the program. I find, though, that by the time we get to pushups, I am wiped out, so my effort is not maximal.

I am also accustomed to using my Tony Horton pushup stands and I have not been doing that with Insanity. This puts my wrists in a different position, and that could be affecting my results as well.

The pushups may get better as things go on, but if I don’t see more improvement by next fit test, I’ll be adding more pushups to the workouts. I need my chest, because I can’t seem to shake all this gut fat, and a larger chest and back help mask that.

Speaking of my back, my brother mentioned that the Russians developed a system back in the day where they leave a pullup bar up and  do 200 pullups during the day, just grabbing some reps whenever the chance arises. This sounds like a great idea. Will probably give that a try once a week.

Have you tried Insanity yet? How are your results?

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Just about two weeks into Insanity! Let’s work through this injury….

Wow. Two weeks into Insanity and, yeah, it’s still challenging.

You know what else? You can pull stuff doing this!

Well, strain, anyway. I strained my lower back last week. Worked through it, it’s fine.

Today I strained my right oblique. How? I dunno. Trying to push too hard, I suppose, probably on those moving pushups. I’ll work through this, too.

Working through injuries. Is that the way to go? I’ve sort of addressed that subject before when I gave you some P90X tips, and I stand by the idea that a minor injury should not — cannot — stop you from working out. If it does, you are just looking for an excuse.

Does that mean you don’t work around the injury? Nope. You do need to work around it.

Does that mean you sacrifice form to work around the injury? Nope. You should not sacrifice good form to accommodate an injury.

So, then, with a strained oblique, how can I continue training with Shaun T’s Insanity program?

Well, fortunately, it is a strain, and not a pull or tear (I think!), so I will just do the logical thing and take it easy! If I need to do a move, and I feel pain in the injured area, I will modify the move if the pain is too intense. I will still keep good form, but modify it, such as by doing pushups from the knees.

This is all part of knowing your body. Pain is not bad. It’s a reminder to you that something is wrong. However, you can feel pain and not give in to it. Could this lead to further injury? Sure, if I overpush it. Again, it’s part of knowing your body.

I know mine. I know how far I can push it!

(Okay, you got me, if I knew exactly how far I could push it, I’d never get injured, right? It’s not an exact science. But you get the idea.)

The point is simply this: Don’t let a minor injury cause you to seat your ass. You have made a commitment to work your body, don’t use a simple muscle strain as an excuse to keep you from your commitment.

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Yoga in the morning

I really like yoga a lot. Makes me feel good. Increases my strength, flexibility, and balance. What’s not to like?

So far, though, my only real exposure to yoga has been with Tony Horton’s P90X and One-On-One. That’s all good, but Tony is a bodybuilder and fitness expert, not a yoga guru. So I thought I’d branch out.

I’m still doing Insanity, but the workouts are shorter than what I’m used to, so I thought I’d add in some yoga from … someone else.

Hmmmmm…. Whose workout should I choose?

After scouring my favorite online retailer, I finally settled on Ultimate Power Yoga from Rodney Yee. It looked like a decent set of routines and was well-reviewed at Amazon. Plus, it seemed like a great value for the money.

This morning I woke up early, so that gave me a chance to do some yoga first thing. I did the Power Foundation routine, which was a series of moves focusing on legs and core. Wow, very nice!

It was cool to wake up and go into a short yoga workout to start the day. The routine was not too strenuous, but definitely got the blood flowing and I know I worked those abs over a bit.

I hope to do yoga like this — first thing in the morning — more often, maybe two or three days a week. There are five routines on the DVD, none is longer than 20 minutes, so there’s really no valid reason why I can’t make that happen. Plenty of invalid reasons, though, so we’ll see what happens.

Meanwhile, Insanity looms large for later today!

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So, I started Insanity the other day

I started Insanity on Sunday, so Day Four was today.

Wow.

If you’ve been following my posts, you may remember that I had planned to start the program earlier this year, but I was concerned about my arthritic left knee. Well, I finally got to the point where my knee was feeling pretty good, and I figured that if it got feeling good once, it can get feeling good again, if Insanity messes it up.

So, onward I pressed into Insanity.

The first day was the Fit Test. The program is set up so that the Fit Test is incorporated into it every two weeks. That is, instead of a workout, you do the Fit Test. This is so you can track improvement.

Don’t think that just because you are doing the Fit Test you are not getting a workout. You are. It’s tough. I have to admit, I did better than I thought I would on some, worse than I thought on others.

Switch Kicks : 55 (2 kicks = 1 rep)
Power Jacks : 38
Power Knees : 78
Power Jumps : 23
Globe Jumps : 7 (4 jumps = 1 rep)
Suicide Jumps : 14
Pushup Jacks: 28
Low Plank Obliques: 36

These numbers don’t mean much outside the context of Insanity but feel free to compare mine with yours if/when you start the program.

Days 2 and 3 are pretty heavy cardio days, and day 4 — today — was a cardio rest day, so we focused on strengthening and stretching. And, yes, it was still challenging.

So far, so good, with my knee. It feels great, actually.

The workouts to this point are no longer than 45 minutes, which is nice for people with little time. The program lasts only 60 days (as opposed to 90 days for Tony Horton’s P90X, so that’s cool, too.

Having done three of the workouts plus the Fit Test, I have to say that I really like the format. We go through a series of moves, slower, then faster, then faster, so we get a chance to learn the moves and to improve with each set. There are several cycles of moves for each workout. There’s also a good long warmup — which is challenging in itself — then a nice stretch for the cool down.

As I said, so far, so good. I’ll reassess after a couple weeks.