Setting goals

Hmm, almost at the end of the experiment and I am about to set my goals. This is the way I function, I guess. I need a bit of experimentation to learn what I want.

Mission statement: to feel good, have a healthy, balanced and well functioning body and mind, have a nice dose of self-esteem while not becoming an arrogant asshole. That about sums it up. Damned, I am becoming a Dilbert organization, I have a mission statement now.

Background: last time I was in this kind of shape was back in 1994 when I worked for NREL and visited a 'Total body conditioning' workout 3 times a week. At the time my smoking, my 'I don't really care' attitude combined with a horrible diet worked against me, while my youth (relative) and my coworker in the next cubicle (who happened to be the aerobics instructor and pushed me to go the workouts) worked for me.

A typical breakfast would consist of the following variations:

1. a cup of 7-Eleven coffee with a doughnut (the bigger the better)
   
2. McDonald's coffee with Egg McMuffin and sausage
3. 2 eggs, sausage, toast, cup of coffee (at home)
4. my favorite, Taco Bell breakfast burritos (they don't make them anymore - eternal shame). I'd have about 3 of them for breakfast.

And of course, I would top the above variations with at least one smoke on the way to work, sometimes 2 or 3 (Marlboro reds, non of the light or nicotine free crap).

A typical lunch would consist of:

1. Arby's, Burger King, McD, ...., you name it. The bigger the better, don't forget the greasy fries. I was never too much into the giant soft drinks, so at least the damage was limited to the food (well, lets call it a 'food product', I dare not to call it 'food' anymore) source.
2. Chinese and other all you can eat buffets. Yup, make sure you clean up at least 3 plates.
3. Leftover pizza, or some of my own creations - normally pretty fatty and fried stuff.

A typical dinner would be:

1. Some form of home made fried food. Be it pasta, potatoes, rice, or even bread, I would fry it in bacon grease. Top it with some form of sausage food (ham on a good day), be careful not to add too many vegetables, they spoil the taste.
2. Once in a while pizza or takeout.
3. Add beer (2 - 3) or wine.
   
4. I didn't dine out much.
   

Add a generous portion of some kind of potato chips, Little Debbie apple pies, icecream, chocolate, toast with a load of butter, a half a pack of Marlboro reds and you have a pretty good picture of my normal day. There were times in my life when I drank beer for breakfast.

The above makes me realize how hard did I have to work out to get to the shape I was in. At that time I dropped from about 208 to 193, about the same drop as I did during past month, but in 1994 it took me 3 months of 3 times per week of about an hour workout. And I hated the workouts, so it was pretty easy to stop when I changed jobs and I was (very quickly) back to the vicinity of 210 and above. I think my worst ever was somewhere around 218.

Things have changed, I am a bit wiser (yeah, right) and I am motivated now. I don't know why, it seems like something is instructing me to get in shape and I seem to be pretty eager doing it. Which is likely a Good Thing (TM).

Body fat:
Last time I had my body fat checked about 2 years ago, it was somewhere around 23 - 25 % if I remember well. I know it changed quite a bit in past month, but I think I still sport a good 20+% body fat. Considering I weigh around 195 now, that's almost 30 lbs of energy reserves. I think I could do with a bit less.

Heart and body condition:
I have no indications that there are any problems with my heart. I have an ECG graph on my desk from last week's surgery - the nurses and doctors all tell me it looks really good, I had something similar done last October at my regular doctor - came out with clean bill of health as far as heart and lungs are concerned.
I did have a problem with high cholesterol. Well, the bad guy was a bit higher and the good guy was a bit lower. So the ratio kind of sucked. I don't remember the numbers and even if I did, I would not post them here for my insurance may read this blog (yeah, right).

Heartbeat:
There are 2 simple formulas for calculating your maximum heart rate. '220 - age = max' is the basic one, normally used for non-trained people, '205 - age/2 = max' is used for physically active people. I use the latter since I think I am pretty active. That puts me at 183 max. This number is not set in stone, of course, there are a lot of other factors involved. I know from experience that when my ticker hits close to 200, I can still function relatively well. Considering I live in Colorado where the air is thin, I think I can safely push myself to about 190 on semi-regular basis. However, this is kind of open to experimentation and I don't want to push it too far. So, I consider my max to be 185 now for all practical purposes. My resting heart rate is about 63. Therefore, these are my calculated target zones, which I can conveniently program into my heart rate monitor gizmo :)

1. 50-60%, light activity: 92 - 111
2. 60-70%, fat burn: 112 - 129
3. 70-80%, aerobic rate: 130 - 148
4. 80-90%, optimal conditioning: 149 - 167
5. 90-100%, peak performance: 168 - 185

Short term goals (by mid to the end of summer):

1. 185 lbs live weight on an accurate scale. Considering the added weight of muscle tissue growth, that should put me somewhere around 13-15% body fat. Maybe?
2. the target weight needs to be sustainable
   
3. resting heart rate below 60 bpm. As the heart condition improves, it can 'pump more for less'. However, there are just too many other variables to make this a too aggressive of a goal. My gut feeling is that I would probably clock at around 55 - 58 at sea level. I may be horribly wrong.
4. straight posture (rolfing)
5. better harmony between my body, soul and mind
   
6. I will reevaluate these goals when I reach them or sometime by mid to the end of summer
   

Long term (wishful thinking), I am due for physical exam mid October:

1. I think 175 is attainable, however, that may be pushing it too hard AND it may not be easily maintainable. I am not Lance Armstrong.
   
2. Reasonable cholesterol levels (I wish I could measure it myself within a reasonable margin of error, and inexpensively)
   
3. Resting heart rate of 55 - that may be way too much to ask. We'll see.