Fear of Fish
Don't be afraid, I work at Engine Yard, not a sushi bar.
Hi, My name's Jamie van Dyke...
May 20th, 2007
...and I'm a fat bastard.
In my teenage years I was able to do 100 press ups, 45 sit ups a minute, 40 pull ups in a minute etc. I was fit. What the hell happened...I became a lazy shit bag! What's worse, is being a smoker as well has taken a serious hit on my ability to breathe, and that means that even running up stairs puts me a little out of breath. Let's look at what some machine in Tesco said about me:
Age and Gender: 29, Male My Weight: 15st0.5lb / 95.5kg My Height: 5ft10.9in/180cm Body Fat Estimation: A Normal Fat Index: 14-20% My Fat Index: 25.2% My Fat Mass: 3st10.19lb / 24.0kg A Normal Fat Mass: 11.6-17.9kg/m squared or 1st11.5lb-2st11.41lb My Free F Mass: 11st3.6lb / 71.5kg
The normal Body Mass Index for my age and height is between 20 and 24.9 My Current Body Mass Index is 29.5kg/m2.
Seriously, I know how bad this is...I feel ashamed. Time to change!.
- Step 1 - Give up smoking - Done
- Step 2 - Buy a pair of Nike + iPod running shows with the iPod contraption - Done
- Step 3 - Eat healthier - Done
- Step 4 - Run + Exercise - Done
- Step 5 - Rinse and repeat from step 3
So, the ball's rolling. How did the run go, I hear you ask? Well, I was a steaming pile of horse dung, as expected. Not only did I do terribly in the run, but it took me 45 minutes (I kid you not) for my lungs to breath normally again afterwards, and they still hurt as if they're bleeding heavily. However, I'm not done. I feel like I could die the next time I try, but I'm going to change the plan...tone it down, quick walking to start until my lungs are able to cope better, then I'll up it to a jog, then a run.
Anyone else in my boat? or maybe you just don't care and think that fat is phat?
10 Responses to “Hi, My name's Jamie van Dyke...”
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Jamie van Dyke
Jamie van Dyke has been a Rails developer since the beginning of 2005, working with some of the major players in the web market. He also played a large part in the documenting of Rails for the Caboose Documentation Project and teaches others on his blog and in training sessions around the world. Jamie is a core Rails contributor, and the publisher of multiple gems and plugins.
I'm a father of 2, living in a little village called Skipton which is in North Yorkshire, England. Anything else you'd like to know you can ask. Check out my photo and info at the caboose facebook or my flickr page.
Jamie is also unsure why he must write a Bio in third person, and doesn't really have a fear of fish, he just dislikes the taste and smell of them.
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Congratulations Sir! It's surprising actually, but we almost have exactly the same stats (my weight's a smidgen lower, my height's also a smidgen lower.. so it all cancels out).
I did the gym thing for a while but didn't find much gains from going three times a week so knocked it on the head. Good luck to you if you can keep the activity up. I kinda came to the conclusion there's those that keep fit and those that don't.. perhaps once I don't have to work for a living I'll sort something out ;-)
Hey! Nice to hear you're over the denial thing. :)
I'm 1.80m, 69kg, but I used to be 63-64kg(!) for a long time. Being that thin was a problem too but, unfortunately, in the recent years I only gained fat so I only got a belly and a puffier face.
I might not be in the same league as you but, I've been doing the running thing for about 1m and it's great. Today, I woke up at 5:30 am to run. :)
One thing you should definitely do is warmup and cooldown stretching and walking. I usually just do stretches for the calves, hamstrings and quadriceps then walk 5 minutes before and after. I do the stretches 1, 3, and 4 from here: http://www.halhigdon.com/15Ktraining/Stretch.htm
A nice running program I used last year was one I found via rubyquiz. Works as advertised for the first 3-4 weeks, even tho' it's a bitch to remember all the running and walking parts. Dunno about the rest as some personal problems made me gave it up after that. http://www.rubyquiz.com/quiz82.html http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml
Now, I'm just targeting 15' minutes of just running but actually have that down to 11'15" at 4'30" medium pace. Yay me!
I'll be checking on you. :D
Oh, those are 4'30"/km, not mile!
Exactly! What a terrible state of affairs my fitness is in. However, I completed run number 2 this morning (I woke up eager to get started which was strange after the near-death experience yesterday) and I feel a little muscle fatigue but nothing intense.
I'm getting into this running this nicely. :D Once this is a regular occurrence, then I'll start with other bits and pieces...like getting back that 6 pack I had waaaay back when!
Careful with the running, do start slow.
That rubyquiz is an interesting bit... but if you have a watch with a timer, I'd suggest to simplify everything--I'd say leave the geekfest out of this! Especially at first, it's about just getting in condition and not a finely tuned scientific process... If you don't know your condition or how you'll progress it's impossible to set up an "optimum" plan for starting out. Find your own pace first and tweak later.
Set your watch timer to 2'00 and go out for a 30 minute run. Briskly walk the first minute then run for a minute. When your timer beeps, walk for a minute. Basically the idea is to get 1:1 minutes of running with walking in between. The following week you might set your timer to 3'00 on one of your 3 run days and thus increase progressively, but always keep the walk breaks to 1 minute (allows enough rest, but not a full recovery).
Also, weight training or at least calisthenics (push-/pull-/sit-ups) on your in-between run days would be a great addition. A muscular body needs more energy to maintain, so if you're looking to drop fat, then building muscle will help your body to consume it, even while you sleep. Too many people try to go full-on "cardio" and ignore this fact.
If you want a program that will really whip you, look for a book called Body for Life. It's a bit corny, but the 12 week program seems well founded and works well (it had better work--it's rather intense!). Even if you don't follow this program to the letter, it's a good template to follow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BodyforLife (Don't worry, it won't make you a muscle-bound freak unless that's really what you're after!)
Stretch my god why do I never stretch! Used to be a time I could do the splits and I mean get my legs more than 180ยบ round, then puberty set in... I have pulled my groin three times this month whilst trying to get back into running. The thing I want to know is has purchasing the Nike+/iPod combo really helped because I must admit I am sorely (no pun intended) tempted?
Andrew - Good advice thanks, I'll maybe put that into practise, for now I'm sticking to a mile a day at whatever pace I can manage. Once my lungs recover and my legs are a little less like twigs, I'll start the real work.
Mr Peter Peter - I have to say, the Nike+/iPod combo is really doing it's job, it's not a professional runners piece of kit, it doesn't measure the heart rate or map you geographically, however, it gives you a daily run down of your overall progress and has goals you can set yourself that it tracks, as well as challenges you can set that you can invite other runners to. Also, don't forget the feedback you get during the run ('you're halfway', 'you have 500 metres to go' etc.) and the powersong that gives you that last push.
Oh, and Paula Radcliffe congratulated me yesterday for getting a personal record, yay! Thanks Paula! (part of the Nike+/iPod thing)
Hehehe, Yes I know what you're talking about. I'm 29 as well, gaining weight fast ... Since I quit my Muay Thai traingin due to lack of time it's been really alarming. I've stalled it by biking with my non-biking friendly bike 2 hours a day! The most important thing for staying non-fat is to eat healthy. Over here in Sweden they run a TV-show with title (translated from Swedish, I don't remember the original title) "You are what you eat". You should check it out, it has some really good advice. (The Swedish version of it is far better thou.) If you going to loose weight as well, then you have to work hard and do psyical exercise... Exercise is good for the health as well. We're now so old that we can't skip exercising any more. If you wanna exchange quality food recipes, give me a mail. And good luck!
fat ass
hey my name is jamie i'm really fat and i have a jelly bean penis and my dad beats me and my korean brother