Mountainbiking

Sadly I have to report that, while I am making progress on my own burped challenge, the weight curve is going the wrong direction. I had to note down an all time high of 107.6 kg the other day!

Since I am convinced that "running" (more like elephant jogging) anything over 3 km would ruin my knees at this weight, I did some mountainbiking this weekend, burning almost 2000 kcal over two sessions. The key to weight reduction is not exercise, but rather changing the food intake and there I still have plenty of room for improvement. I just like to eat. A lot.

The exercise does however reduce work related stress levels and also makes me feel more fit than I otherwise would, so I will not be giving up on this. I should get back on the rowing machine, as this is also suitable when overweight and provides both aerobic and muscular training for the whole body. For some reason I am hesitating to get back on the machine, as I know it will be painful to realize how unfit I am when comparing to my previous times, but one has to (re)start from somewhere.

This week I will therefore commit to doing at least two 30 minute sessions on the rowing machine.

Index investing should be the basis of your equity investment

Via an article in The Economist (link) we are once again reminded of some old truths when it comes to investing and funds. That the mutual fund industry continues to provide funds with relatively high expense ratios (in my anything over 1% is excessively high) means that there is a demand for them.

Of course I am not suggesting we should forbid them, but for the average rookie investor (like myself) it can be valuable to be reminded of a few "truths":

- then bank is seldom your advisor and more often interested in selling something to you

- running a fund handling 10 million or 1000 million does not generate a lot of additional cost for the bank, so the more people they can convince to invest in their "unique" (read high cost) funds, the more profit they will make at a diminishing cost-effort

- the basis of all investment portfolios (at least if you have decided to go into equities) should be low cost (less than 0.2% annual fee) index funds

- it is impossible to determine which funds will over time outperform index - even for those who have done so in the past

- time in the market is more important than exactly which funds you choose

- what seems like a small difference in fees, will over time make a large difference in what you end up with

So, if you are into investing, think for yourself, take advice from people who do not have a vested interest. There are plenty of bloggers out there and also many good forums, e.g. the Bogleheads forum.

While I do own some stocks and mutual funds, I generally avoid high cost funds and instead opt for the cheaper index like ones as basis of my investments.

How do you invest?

Burpee challenge

In my attempt to get fitter I have set myself a new target: Be able to do 50 6-stroke burps by Christmas (yes, 2016, of course).

As of today I managed to do 14 in one setting. This is not very impressive in my own opinion and I have let myself sink into too bad shape.

I believe this is a great exercise and done right has very low potential for injury. Please see video below for how to do this exercise correctly. Please note the low impact in all the movements and that the hands actually come down on the ground quite close to each other to avoid shock to shoulders etc.




I am for now skipping the jump (as I am too heavy), but hope to add that in the future.

The plan until Christmas is to do burpees in one or more sessions for three days, allow one day of rest  (from burpees) and gradually increase the amount I can do.

Time to shape up!

I got a wake up call when I stepped on the scale this morning: 106.3 kg!

I have many things to blame for this, not least bad discipline when it comes to eating properly and exercising regularly. It is time for this to change and it starts today with at least some moderate physical activity in form of an hour or two of gardening, a 3 km walk with the dog and a few kilometers on the rowing machine planned.

I am quite large by nature (and lot of proper training in my youth), but should not be this heavy, since I do not aim to build a lot of muscle. First target is to get out of the deciton club (i.e. the the club for those who weigh more than 100 kg). If I could get down to 96 kg I would be very happy, so that would be my stretch (or rather "lean") target.

As I have a sporting background with a lot of training, I do see the risk of the strong will taking over and getting me into a tough training regime immediately, resulting in injuries. For example: If I would today go for 10 km run (in reality it would be a jog), I am sure I could do it, but my knees would pay a heavy price over the next few days, resulting in less training over time.

I will keep you posted on what will hopefully be a successful journey to lower weight levels.

Fitness challenge while travelling and running performance level

I have recently been on an overseas business trip, including a rather long flight and time zone change. I was away long enough to just adjust to the destination timezone at which point I returned home.

This time I actually managed to squeeze in a few training sessions (20 minutes running on treadmill plus a "Seven" session), but despite this, the long hours in the office combined with not so healthy eating added onto my weight.

Luckily for me, I do not have any similar travels planned for the next few months and as soon as I have adjusted back into my normal timezone, I hope the weightcurve will change for the better again.

Despite being relatively tired, I did manage to do a 6 km run yesterday, which was heavy, but felt good.

By accident I noticed that my running performance level changed to 45. Apparently this is a combined metric of my physical fitness and my running efficiency, so to see this going up is good. (See more detailed explanation here.)

I am happy (and surprised) to see that my performance level qualifies as "Good" according to below table:

Now the challenge is to get this to "Very good", which I think will also help with my rowing in which I have felt that I am by far not up to my old standards.

Weight tracking

For me it is very easy to gain weight. In very young years I was not the fittest, but in my mid/late teens I started exercising a lot, got fit and also enjoyed eating a lot - which I needed due to all the training. We are talking about 6-10 sessions of at least one hour each every week, so it was intense. During that time I weighed about 85 kg.

During my years at university I gained weight, but the last year was very intense in school, I lived quite an ascetic life and ensured I went to the gym a few times plus did some running. I started working being the fittest I have ever been and weighed in on 88 lean kilos.

Working meant a lot of sitting still on the butt as well as starting eating lunches at restaurants, both of which I was not used to. I relatively quickly gained 20 kilos! I felt heavy. When bending down to tie my shoe lasers I got out of breath. I quickly realized something had to be done and by changing some eating habits relatively quickly lost a few kilos and felt a bit better.

Since then I have been around 100 kg, but a few years back I carved out most carbohydrates from my diet and went down to 96 kg, felt - and looked - much better!

This was unfortunately not sustainable and I slowly gained weight again.

Lately I broke my all time high and weighed in on 107.8 kg!!

I believe the gain had been more gradual this time, so did not feel as heavy or tired compared to last time. I still feel that I could row decently on the rowing machine, but of course not as well as back in the days. In any case, the surprising breaking of my all time high has now made me determined to loose weight again and I am on my way, with some setbacks last two weeks, as can be seen in the graph below.

I strongly believe for this to work in a more sustainable matter this time around I need to change some habits, but also keep some in order to not make the change too drastic and thus not sustainable. So, in short:

- no sweets during the work week
- no more french fries during 2016
- weigh myself and keep track of that at least once per week
- exercise more

Regarding the exercise I will only do limited running until under 100 kg again in order not to ruin my knees, but biking, rowing, walking and the odd tennis game is on the agenda. I will keep track of calories burnt via exercise via the Suunto watch described in earlier post (I am not sponsored by Suunto, I just happen to like their product; you might have your own similar device).

I will also make my fight against being unfit semi-public by making posts here on the blog.

Get fit in seven minutes a day, every day

In case you have not tried it I can recommend the app Seven. The app basically takes you through a seven minute high intensity routine that you are supposed to do every day. Science shows this to be very effective.

You use your own body weight and only need a floor, wall and step(s) to execute, it can in other words be done anywhere.

I was using it for a while and it was motivational to get rewards for being able to perform the exercises x days in a row etc. When I was previously using it, I could really feel a difference in my strength which was very nice. The reason for stop using it I cannot really remember, but I am sure it was something stupid and then laziness affected myself.

You can choose the voice of different instructors and personally I enjoyed the one from the drill sergeant!

I will restart using this again any day now and will do the exercises every day there is not other exercise performed (you are "allowed" to skip days when you do other exercise without breaking the "suite").

6 km run

Despite not being light enough for running without risking my knees, I today went for a social run with a friend. 6 kilometres in a modest 6 min/km pace, which I have to say made me tired, but is nowhere near the speed I used to have in earlier part of my life. I simply need to loose weight to dare to run more in order to become faster.

Nevertheless, running is a very time efficient way of training and I burnt over 700 kilocalories in the 36-37 minutes the run took. The Sunnto watch described in earlier post kept track of distance, calories burnt as well as heart rate.

All in all a good feeling afterwards, but some small pain in the knees later in the day, which confirms I need to be careful when running when as heavy as I am currently (103 kg).

The ultimate training equipment part II - the Suunto Gambit3 Peak HR

I own a fantastic device to keep track of my personal training - the Suunto Ambit3 Peak HR.

With this device I am able to keep very good track of calories consumed, intensity of training, recovery time, heart rate, how far I moved during the exercise etc. Via a connected app on my mobile phone, I can setup which training types should be available for me to select from the watch (e.g. indoor rowing, running, trecking, mountainbiking etc.). I can also setup which metrics should show when I am doing a particular sport, e.g. distance, heart rate, duration etc.

On the Suunto movescount.com page I am able to keep track of my trainings over time and the Movescount app gives me an overview over amount of training over last 30 days. Here I try to keep the calories consumed over 10'000 during the last 30 days.

I can highly recommend purchasing this device as a motivational tool for the typical middle aged office worker who needs a "kick in the butt" in order to get moving.

For myself I have done a few training sessions just because I am able to track them properly using this watch. Any investment within reasonable economical limits which makes me move more is worth it, so I am very happy with this watch.

That it is made in exotic country called Finland is not necessarily negative.

Suunto belongs to Amer Sports, which also happens to know a few other famous brands, e.g. Wilson! As an investment, Amer Sports trades at a P/E ratio of 24.5 and with a divident of under 3%. So, while I love their products, I am not going to invest in this company.

The ultimate training equipment - the rowing machine

As with many things in life, it helps to understand what your targets and motivation are. When it comes to exercise, I would like to stay in reasonable shape and good health.

While diet alone can determine these factors to a large extent, our body is built for exercise and quickly affects the brain, mood etc. in case it does not get enough movement.

There are of course multiple ways of achieveing this and before I get into what I believe to be that ultimate solution, I would like to point out that the best form of exercise is the one you actually do! We can foce ourselves only for so long, but if you do not really like jogging/running, you will sooner or later find an excuse to abstain.

So, with that said, please allow me to get to the point and present to you what I believe to be the ultimate piece of training equipment:

The Concept 2 model D rowing machine.

Why rowing? Done in the right way, this will give you both a strength, endurance and aerobic exercise. It enables all muscles in your body, focusing on the larger ones (legs, back, arms), meaning the energy burn is very efficient. While some strain will be put on the knees, it is not at all the same kind of impact as from running.

Combined with a few push-ups, the rowing machine can provide you with all the training you need. While not extremely social, you can do this from the comfort (well, it can and should actually be a bit painful) of your own home. (I will in later posts describe how you can row against others using the machine, some software and the magic of Internet).

Why the Concept 2 rowing machine? Well, there are of course alternatives, many of them cheaper. However, this is the rowing machine used in all good rowing clubs around the world, so thay must be doing something right. I am very happy with my machine, even though I have honestly never owned a different one. I have tested other ones at gyms etc, but always been left disappointed.

If you row 20 km per week (split on 2-5 sessions) in good pace (i.e. above 65% of your max heart rate on average), you will do wonders to your health and well being.

For me a very tough, rewarding and time efficient exercise session looks like below:

5 km rowing (around of below) 20 minutes
1 min plank
100 pushups in total (split into sets of xx depending on your fitness level)
1 min plank
Stretching (in particular legs and back)

For me the above takes 40-45 minutes and burns just over 700 kcal.

This blog - health & wealth

This blog will be a series of posts on the topics of health (being fit, avoiding health related problems) and wealth (how to save, how to invest, what not to do etc.).

I will describe what works for me and what I have learn during the 40+ years of my existence.

A random picture I took the other day.

As the blog name implies I have a past as a rower, but do not actively row anymore today. One of the things I will describe however, is the proper usage of a rowing machine and the benefits of using that on a semi-regular basis (I truly believe this to be one of the bext forms of exercise out there).

I do not expect an extended audience, so if anything I write about is even remotely of interest to you, please feel free to leave a comment, which would make me happy (depending on what you actually write of course).

Starting the blog

Ok, ok, so yet another blog. Let's see if there will be any interest in the physical exercise, investing etc.

First step is to learn about how to change the layout of the blog, so that it looks decent (even including some of the ads I plan to include).