Fitness Weekly Discussion

I was able to reach a new PR on my 5K this past week at 26:24. It's a far cry from my youth but I'm also 40 pounds heavier than I was in high school so I will let it slide and just celebrate the progress I am making. I can only assume that my time would be faster if I could run on a track somewhere instead of running in sidewalks and waiting for crosswalks. *Mini* rant but I really wish people on bicycles would stay off sidewalks. I had an infuriating run last week where I kept being forced off the sidewalk from cycling families and nearly twisted my ankle a couple of times.

My goals for June are still the same as in May: two days at the gym, two days of long-distance running, and two days of yoga. Every day I need to be getting at least 10k steps. Last month I got 365,000 so I want to try to break that in June.

I was hovering at ~170 for the greater part of May before my weight finally cracked down to 165 suddenly. At some point though, I'm going to need to transition from a calorie deficit to a neutral calorie intake if I want to really start building up the muscle mass that my current protein intake (~170 grams a day) could achieve. I haven't made great strides at the gym with increasing the weight on my reps but that's okay since I'm focused on toning and fat burn right now.

Hopefully, the mask mandate in the gym will end because I sweat like a mofo and the moisture builds up in my mask, making it incredibly hard to catch my breath. I want to incorporate the stair climber into my workouts more to build my V02 Max but I end up feeling suffocated within 10 minutes.

On another positive note, my sugar intake went from a daily average of 71 grams in April to 35 grams in May. Most of the foods I am eating these days have zero added sugar so I can only imagine that is doing good things for my body.

Mentioned in my last post that I have started logging my food. Not doing super great at that, but I was thinking I'd like to use the weekly thread to check-in with how the actual weight loss as going as a way to keep myself accountable. I've liked sharing my exercise stuff here, and outside accountability has been really important for me in terms of being consistent with working out, so maybe it'll help?

Though I haven't really bit super fit since high school, the majority of my weight gain can still be attributed to last nightmare year-and-a-half. I work in video conferencing, for one, which has been kind of crazy. Add to that the fact that many of my hobbies became impossible and I was left with very little to do besides stress eat. My partner has referred to me as a New Fat in the sense that I've gained weight so fast that I really feel it, there was no time to acclimate (whereas her experience is one of basically always having been overweight - we're both doing this together, FWIW).

I have a lot of shame associated with my appearance in general, so sharing exact numbers still makes me antsy. Maybe I'll get there, haha. But I am willing to say I'm 5% of the way there. Heck, I'll do up a cute bar.

█░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 5%

Meanwhile in exercise-land, I'm struggling with the knee again and find myself unable to do reverse lunges basically at all... started at 20lbs, moved to body weight, and nope, just not happening. I've substituted Romanian deadlifts for now, but my program involves so many deadlifts already (pls help) that I want to find something else that'll work similar to lunges without as much knee strain.

This isn't about fitness per se, but I recently started a somewhat odd, fitness-related DIY project.

The thing I miss most about going to the gym isn't having access to their workout equipment, since I thankfully have a great home gym already with a multi-station/universal weight machine, elliptical, and even a new spin bike now too... it's actually the gym's sauna that I miss most. I sometimes used to go there just for a sauna session and then leave without even working out. ;)

Unfortunately, I can't justify spending $3k+ right now to buy one of those prefab wooden home saunas for myself, and I also don't have the necessary carpentry skills or tools to make a DIY one for cheaper either. However, I recently stumbled upon an old YouTube video which introduced me to an interesting alternative: Portable saunas.

That video sent me down a rabbit hole, since most of the ones I found are from sketchy no-name brands that look pretty flimsy and uncomfortable, and all the infrared ones (which is what I am most interested in) also look pretty unreliable and weak. And even the more expensive infrared ones (e.g.) honestly don't look that much better, so I was pretty wary about actually getting one. However in the process of trying to find solid reviews for one to buy, I found an alternative even to those:

Using a grow tent and heat lamps to make a DIY infrared sauna, that is actually much more spacious and powerful than any of the prebuilt portable ones, but for around the same cost. So that is what I decided to do.

I then found a comprehensive DIY video guide for $15 made by a guy named Matt Justice, who buys and reviews a ridiculous amount of home saunas of all sizes/prices, and has a pretty decent YouTube channel dedicated to that. I had to shop around a bit for some of the recommended parts on his list, since Amazon.ca didn't have everything I needed, and some of the stuff they did have was way overpriced. I wound up buying NOMA heat bulbs from Canadian Tire, and the Fluker's clamp lamps from a local Aquarium supply store, etc. But after spending a few hours hunting around, I managed to find everything and have it delivered for around $500 CAD total (which is actually $100 less than the prebuilt e.g. I linked to from Amazon). The only thing I am still waiting to arrive is the grow tent itself, which should show up Monday, and then I can start assembling it all.

I will report back here when I am done building it, and have given the sauna a try. Wish me luck, and here's hoping it's as good an experience as I hope it will be. :)

p.s. I don't buy into the whole "detox", "heat shock proteins" or "EMF = bad" bullshit associated with saunas... I just really enjoy the heat, especially in the cold Canadian climate. ;)