Body

How fit can I get in a month? (Part 1)

chanman · Oct 3, 2020 ·

It’s time for another challenge and life experiment. They always seem to come back to fitness.

I’ve been running about 15 miles a week for a few months now but not really seeing a difference to the belly, so I started to think about trying a different approach. I was thinking about how fit is it possible to get in one month?

What do we mean by ‘fit’? A Google search led me to a few interesting articles. This post will feature three of these articles and pick out the tests and metrics I’ll focus on:

How fit are you? See how you measure up (Mayo Clinic)
10 Standards to Assess Your Fitness Level: Before you stamp yourself “in shape,” make sure you can pass these fitness tests (Men’s Health)
Six Ways To Test Your Overall Fitness (Coach Mag)

Mayo Clinic

Here’s the one from the Mayo Clinic: How fit are you? See how you measure up

This article talks about measuring yourself against these standards:

(BTW I’ve written “Do this” next to the measures I’m going to use in the experiment):

Resting heart rate (Do this)
Fastest time to run 1.5 miles (Do this)
Number of press-ups to fatigue (Do this)
Sit up test – max number in a minute (Do this)
Flexibility – sit and reach test (Do this)
Waist circumference (Do this)
BMI (Do this)

Men’s Health

Here’s the article from Men’s Health: 10 Standards to Assess Your Fitness Level: Before you stamp yourself “in shape,” make sure you can pass these fitness tests

The 10 standards of fitness MH lists are:

Bench pressing 1.5x your body weight. For me that’s 120kg which is tough. My PB is around 85kg, which the article says is ‘Ordinary’. I don’t have access to gym at the moment, so I will leave this test for now and focus on the similar test of maximum pushups.
Run 1.5 Miles in 10 Minutes. The article says 12mins and above is ‘Slow’, which is 8min/miles. I run around 9.30min/miles for a 4 mile run, so according to this metric and MH’s standard, I’m definietly slow! (Do this)
Touch the Rim. I’ll have to find a high thing to jump and touch. (Do this)
Leg-Press 2.25 Times Your Weight. My PB is 130kg so well short of this currently. Like with the bench press test above, I don’t have access to a gym at the moment, so I’ll focus on the similar bodyweight squat test below.
Swim 700 Yards in 12 Minutes. Unfortunately, the pools are closed around here because of COVID restrictions.
Do 40 Pushups. I think the maximum press-ups to fatigue in the Mayo article above is more interesting.
Measure Up. This is your waist circumference divided by your hip/butt measurement. (Do this)
Run 300 Yards Sub 1 Minute. Not sure where I’d find a flat 300 yard bit of track. That’s 275m. I’ll think about this one a bit more.
Touch Your Toes. Similar to the Sit and Reach in the Mayo Clinic article above. (Do this)
Toss a Basketball 75 Feet Kneeling. Not sure how to replicate this.

Coach Mag

And finally, here’s an article from Coach Mag: Six Ways To Test Your Overall Fitness

The 6 standards of fitness they recommend as a measure are:

Plank. More than 2min is Excellent (Do this)
Bodyweight Squat. 50 or more is Excellent (Do this)
Press-ups. 50 or more is Excellent (Do this)
1km run. 3min or less is Excellent (Do this)
500m row. 1min 30 sec or less is Excellent (Do this)
Pull-ups. 12 or more is Excellent (Do this)

So the tests I’m going to do and try to improve on are:

Resting heart rate (Do this)
Fastest time to run 1.5 miles (Do this)
Number of press-ups to fatigue (Do this)
Sit up test – max number in a minute (Do this)
Flexibility – sit and reach test (Do this)
Waist circumference (Do this)
BMI (Do this)
Run 1.5 Miles in 10 Minutes. The article says 12mins and above is ‘Slow’, which is 8min/miles. I run around 9.30min/miles for a 4 mile run, so according to this metric and MH’s standard, I’m definitely slow! (Do this)
Measure Up. This is your waist circumference divided by your hip/butt measurement. (Do this)
Touch the Rim. I’ll have to find a high thing to jump and touch. (Do this)
Touch Your Toes. Similar to the Sit and Reach in the Mayo Clinic article above. (Do this)
Plank. More than 2min is Excellent (Do this)
Bodyweight Squat. 50 or more is Excellent (Do this)
1km run. 3min or less is Excellent (Do this)
500m row. 1min 30 sec or less is Excellent (Do this)
Pull-ups. 12 or more is Excellent (Do this)

In the next post in this series, I’m going to measure where I am for each of the tests in the previous section above.

What tests would you do for yourself? How fit do you think you are right? Let me know in the comments below!

21 days of veganism – am I iron and B12 deficient?

chanman · Jul 9, 2020 ·

I woke up the other morning and I felt knackered. I just wanted to stay in bed. I didn’t know why I felt like this as in the previous few weeks, I’d had quite a lot of energy. Enough to do a half-marathon.

Was it something to do with veganism. I checked Rich Roll’s book and yes he does mention that vegans can be iron deficient and vitamin B12 deficient if not monitored. Doh! I quickly did some more research:

Iron deficiency

From this article by the Mayo Clinic:

Initially, iron deficiency anemia can be so mild that it goes unnoticed. But as the body becomes more deficient in iron and anemia worsens, the signs and symptoms intensify. Iron deficiency anemia signs and symptoms may include: Extreme fatigue Weakness Pale skin Chest pain, fast heartbeat or shortness of breath Headache, dizziness or lightheadedness Cold hands and feet Inflammation or soreness of your tongue Brittle nails Unusual cravings for non-nutritive substances, such as ice, dirt or starch Poor appetite, especially in infants and children with iron deficiency anemia

I didn’t know that iron comes in two forms: heme and non-heme. Heme is from animal products and is easily absorbed by the body. Non-heme is from plant-based products and isn’t easily absorbed by the body. You need to 18mg of iron a day and getting that from plants alone isn’t straightforward and it’s another thing too to get that iron absorbed. Certain foodstuffs such as tea and coffee actually inhibit the absorption of iron. Other foods such as those rich in vitamin C actually help iron absorption.

B12 deficiency

Apparently a key vitamin doesn’t appear in the plant kingdom. B12 only appears in the animal foods such as meats, fish, poultry and eggs. From this Healthline article:

It plays an essential role in the production of your red blood cells and DNA, as well as the proper functioning of your nervous system.

From this WebMD article:

If you have vitamin B12 deficiency, you could become anemic. A mild deficiency may cause no symptoms. But if untreated, it may lead to symptoms such as:

Weakness, tiredness, or lightheadedness
Heart palpitations and shortness of breath
Pale skin
A smooth tongue
Constipation, diarrhea, loss of appetite, or gas
Nerve problems like numbness or tingling, muscle weakness, and problems walking
Vision loss
Mental problems like depression, memory loss, or behavioural changes

The same article also had this to say about mothers who are breastfeeding whilst on a vegan diet:

Are you a pregnant woman on a vegan or vegetarian diet, and plan to only breastfeed your baby? You should talk to your doctor before you have your baby, so that you have a plan in place for how you’ll get enough vitamin B12 to keep your baby healthy. Without enough vitamin B12, your baby could have developmental delays and not thrive and grow like he should.

Vegans and vegetarians can get their B12 through a supplement tablet or through food such as nutritional yeast (I bought some and it’s very much like fish food flakes!)

From this article from WebMD:

To increase the amount of vitamin B12 in your diet, eat more of foods that contain it, such as: Beef, liver, and chicken. Fish and shellfish such as trout, salmon, tuna fish, and clams. Fortified breakfast cereal. Low-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese. Eggs.

So I’m going pause the vegan experiment and modify it

It takes a while for your iron stores to become depleted and it takes time to build it up again. So for my own health and Angelique’s health, we’re going to load up on meat and eggs for the next couple of weeks to get our iron and B12 levels back to normal. I’m going to eat much the same meals as on the vegan diet (lots of veg, lentils, rice, fruit, mung beans, tempeh etc) but also add in regular lean red meat like liver and steak, as well as eggs and increase my vitamin C intake. I’m also going to start drinking cow’s milk again so that I don’t get a calcium deficiency. I realise that means that I’m no longer vegan but it’s helped me be more intentiaonl about the meats and foodstuffs that I eat. I’m still leaning to a ‘5 days vegan/2 days not’ balance.

Update

In the 10 days since pausing the vegan diet, I’ve been loading up on liver (high in iron and B12). I’ve had this three times. Plus a couple of steaks, some eggs, some oily and non-oily fish, plus some B12 tablets with 25 micrograms of B12 (not even close to the highest strength ones you can get on Amazon). I feel a lot better, with a lot more pep and energy.

It made me think that lots of people could be wandering around with a mild (or serious) mineral deficiency and that this could impact their daily energy levels, their moods, their ability to concentrate etc. How much could change with a nutrient-rich diet as well as the right supplements to complement that?

Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional and I have self-diagnosed myself using the internet. Please seek medical advice from a qualified professional before starting any major dietary changes. Thanks!

How to go from couch potato to half-marathon in 52 days

chanman · Jun 25, 2020 ·

Between Zach being born at the end of December 2019 and the end of April 2020, I did zero cardio. I went to the gym once or twice before lockdown but that was just to do some weights. I caught Covid in March, and, throughout April, I did zero exercise.

Come the 1st of May, I decided to get running again. Little runs, regularly, with a few longer runs rolled in.

52 days later, I did a half-marathon (13.1 miles), admittedly not very quickly at all (2hrs 26min) but still a half-mara.

*Running east past Mortlake, South-West London*

If you haven’t run in ages, here’s how you can do the same. You can do it!

Get the Strava app

Strava is free with a paid-for premium option. The free option is good enough for most people and you simply use it to track your runs. Lace up, hit record on the app, and get moving. Don’t forget to turn stop recording at the end of your run (annoying if you don’t as it messes up your data) and watch as the miles add up.

You can get the Premium tier for around £40/year and this allows you to set weekly running mileage goals. I set mine to 16 miles a week. The app tells you how many miles you’ve got left to hit your goal that week and it’s surprisingly motivating. It’ll get to Sunday and I know I’ve still got 3.5 miles to do and I’ll lace up and do it.

There’s also a great social aspect to Strava. You can follow your friends on it and they can follow you. You can see their runs and they can see yours. It’s motivating to see your friends have been on a good run and you can give each other encouragement.

Start off little and often

Don’t worry about stopping and walking during your runs. I did it all the time and I still do it during a run. Over time, the stopping becomes shorter and less frequent. If you can’t run at all, just aim for a 2 miles, or even 1 mile. But do this 5 times a week.

Find a good 3 mile route and stick to it

You might think that 3 miles isn’t long enough but it’s long enough to feel like a proper run and it’s short enough that you won’t be too put off going for a run when you don’t feel like it. It should only take between 28 and 35 mins.

The beauty of doing the same route as your bread and butter is that you don’t even have to think about it or spend time finding a new route. That would sap mental energy and might give you the excuse to not go for a run that day.

Add a longer run each week

See if you can do a 5 miler, then a 10k (6.2 miles). Then do an 8 miler, then a 9 miler. 9 miles was the longest that I did before doing the half-marathon. Don’t worry if you need to stop and walk; you’re just looking to build up the mileage in your legs. It also builds the confidence in your mind – you know that you can do longer runs. We’re looking to get to 9 or 10 miles as the longest preparation run for tackling the 13.1 run goal.

Find a good route for the half-marathon

You don’t want to be running along lots of busy roads, having to wait at traffic lights, dodging cars, breathing in exhaust fumes. I found a river route that reached Chiswick Bridge as the halfway point. I recommend quiet routes with not that many people around so that you can just run.

On the half-marathon itself

Eat a good meal beforehand. Don’t set off at too quick a pace. Try to run the first few miles slightly slower than your normal pace. You’ve got to leave something in the tank for the final few miles. If you need to stop and walk, just stop and walk for a bit. Don’t beat yourself up for this! The goal is just to finish the overall run.

Hopefully, this shows what’s possible even from a standing start. I’m not in the best shape. Far from it. I’m probably 2 stones overweight, but if I can do a half-marathon in 52 days following a period of time where I did no cardio at all, then you can certainly do it!

Rich Roll’s book Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World’s Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself

chanman · Jun 17, 2020 ·

Rich Roll is an ultra endurance athlete who also has a very popular podcast. He’s an advocate of a vegan, plant-based diet and healthy living and known as one of the fittest men on the planet, with a host of endurance accomplishments.

It wasn’t always this way. In Finding Ultra, Roll is searingly honest and tells us his life story from shy high school swim star to being a swim star at Stanford. At Stanford, he discovered alcohol and how it could help him with his shyness, and from there it was a steady decline into addiction. He tells of one of his lowest points, where he was drunk during his graduation from law school and in his drunken haze, he decided to collect his degree on stage in bare feet, much to his parents’ horror.

With the help of AA and rehab, Roll gets sober but is eating horrendous amounts of junk food. He has an epiphany moment when, just shy of his fortieth birthday, he wheezes out of breath climbing his stairs. He knew then that he needed to drastically change his life.

The next day, he asks his wife (who is a healthy living devotee) if he can do one of her week-long juice detox cleanses. (He details this process in the appendices at the back of the updated edition). From here, he becomes a vegetarian but is dismayed when even after a few months, he hasn’t lost any weight. He realises that he’s still eating a lot of processed foods, which may qualify as vegetarian, but are still pretty unhealthy. (Think about if you ate loads of meat-less pizza – you’d still be eating an unhealthy diet.) It’s at this point that he switches to a completely vegan diet and takes aim at getting seriously fit. He sets his sights at undertaking an Ultraman event (a three-day challenge in Hawaii totalling 320 miles of swimming, cycling and running). The rest of the book details his Ultraman events, the EPIC5 challenge with his friend Jason, and in the updated edition and new last chapter, the Ötillö Swimrun World Championship (a swimming and running challenge across 26 islands in Sweden).

This last chapter (titled There Are No Finishing Lines) is pure gold. It’s full of exercises that readers can do to improve their lives. One particlar exercise that resonated with me is called The Stories We Tell Ourselves About Ourselves. In a nutshell, we tell ourselves stories or formative experiences about ourselves, that are often negative. These can be likened to a knot in a tree. Each knot leads to another knot and so begins a branch; a branch of knots. This branch becomes your identity. Think of knots occurring when you tell yourself that ‘You’re not a leader because you failed to get into the Army’ or ‘You’re not very good at mental arithmetic because you can’t do quick calculations in your head’ or ‘You’re not a good swimmer because you can’t swim 50m without getting tired’. Over time, we build up myriad knots, and these negative stories become a prism through which we approach our lives. Roll encourages us to take each negative knot and find other experiences in our lives that rebut these. Eg. find times where you did show good leadership, or you were good with mental arithmetic under pressure. Afterwards, we can start to build more positive ‘knots’ and rebuild our identities into more objectively true realities.

Finding Ultra is an incredibly inspiring book. If you’re looking for inspiration to turn your life around and in a healthy direction, get this book. It’s mainly because of this book and what I know of Rich Roll that I’ve tried veganism (read more about this experiment here) and running more than 60 miles a month at the moment. It’s why I believe now that 40 doesn’t have to mean an inevitable physical and athletic decline; because Rich Roll is living proof of this journey.

I went vegan for a week. Here’s what happened

chanman · Jun 15, 2020 ·

I’ve been looking for lifestyle experiments that last a week. Ideas so far are daily meditation, daily ice-cold showers. And I’ve recently had this nagging feeling that I should try veganism. I couldn’t imagine doing it for a month (as I did when I stopped drinking alcohol for a month), so I decided to become vegan for a week.

Now I LOVE meat (ribeye steaks, all forms of pork, fish, shellfish etc) and I love dairy products (all forms of cheese, eggs, milk, butter, mayonnaise etc), but Angelique is always trying to get me to cut down on my red meat and animal fats. She says it’s bad for my cholesterol.

I’ve always resisted trying veganism because I love the food groups that it cuts out. However, it’s well documented that there are health benefits to eating a more plant-based diet and cutting back on animal fats. Devotees of veganism swear by it.

I read Rich Roll’s book Finding Ultra, where he documents how eating a nutrition-rich plant-based diet and becoming an endurance athlete changed his life for the better, turning his life around from someone who couldn’t get up the stairs without wheezing at 40 years to becoming one of the fittest men on the planet. He is an evangelist for a vegan diet and if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for me to give it a go!

What I’m hoping to get from the experiment

A bit more mindfulness about what I’m eating
Exposure to new foods I’ve never eaten eg mung bean sprouts and tahini
Feeling like I have more energy
A better functioning digestive system – basically even better poos
Clearer skin
Bit of weight loss – maybe a kilogram over the week

Rules

No meat, fish or any animal at all
No dairy – so no eggs, milk, butter, cheese
(not really a rule about veganism but I don’t want to be eating just processed food that happens to be animal-product-free like crisps and chips)

Concerns

Where was my protein going to come from? This is stuff that I worry about. I don’t want to lose muscle mass.
Would I see a drop in testosterone? I’ve always believed that testorone is produced at night using fats, and where better to get those fats than from a juicy steak.

Preparing to go vegan for a week

Get rid of all the milk in my fridge
Ditto cheese
Finish or freeze all the meat products
Buy veg for the week:

Day 1

Breakfast – Frozen berry, banana and oat smoothie

Lunch – Puy lentils, tomotoes and olive oil, with some southern fried nuggets (which left me feeling a bit gross)

Dinner – salad (lettuce, carrot, courgette with hummus dressing), roasted sweet potatoes with tahini dressing

My energy levels were pretty good throughout the day (except for that period after eating those nuggets). I didn’t run today as I planned a big run for tomorrow.

Day 2

Breakfast – Kale, banana, pear and oats smoothie

Lunch – Puy lentils stewed with kale, roasted sweet potatoes and carrots.

Dinner – Leftovers from lunch, some hummus (“me too” brand), some sauerkraut, some Afghan naan bread with olive oil, salt and balsamic vinegar, some tofu with soy sauce, tahini and finely chopped spring onions.. (Angelique said “gone are the days of having a meal based on a single cuisine!”)

I did an 8 mile run in the morning which felt fine re energy levels and strength. Some Plant Power (according to Rich Roll)!

Day 3

Possible TMI alert: I had a pretty watery poo this morning. I didn’t expect to have this whilst eating vegan as I thought the extra veg and plant-based foods would increase my fibre intake. Will monitor this.

Breakfast – some muesli with some pea protein milk (I didn’t like this at all. It looked almost grey. Looking at the ingredients, it’s mostly water. Pea protein is the second biggest ingredient at just 4% and there’s some sunflower oil, strangely, in long list of other ingredients. It looks like all these non-dairy milks have weird ingredients like gums, thickeners and oils in them. It just doesn’t sound that appetising really and I might leave out any kind of milk substitute for the rest of this experiment. This got me thinking about what other foods I eat that have lots of additives and unnatural things in them.)

Lunch – quinoa, with chopped tomato and cucumber through it with some olive oil. Fried tempeh slices.

Snacks – a pot of mung bean sprouts (surprisingly delicious! Fresh, crunchy, and felt like each mouthful was doing me good!

Dinner – Stir fried broccoli, tempeh, noodles

Day 4

Breakfast – avocado and hummus sandwich (hummus replacing the butter!)

Lunch – spaghetti with tomato and garlic sauce

Dinner – Stir fried broccoli, tempeh, noodles

Day 5

Breakfast – Smoothie of kale, oats, beetroot and spirulina (I got this recipe inspiration from Rich Roll). The spirulina makes it almost black.

Lunch – sandwiches with lettuce, mushroom-based sausages (actually delicious!) and vegan mayonnaise (not too bad).

Dinner – couscous salad with capers, cucumber, onion, black eyed beans

Day 6

Breakfast – banana, kale, beetroot, oats, spirulina smoothie

Lunch – mushroom-based sausages, pan-fried cavolo nero, puy lentils

Dinner – leftover quinoa, roasted sweet potatoes and carrots

Day 7

Breakfast – leftover quinoa and last night’s roasted sweet potatoes

Lunch – Jackfruit burrito with vegan toppings from Tortilla (I felt so full after eating this. Fuller than after a medium burrito normally.)

Dinner – chorizo-flavoured mushroom sausages from Sainsbury’s, some runner beans pan-fried with olive oil, sea salt and garlic, some boiled potatoes.

Effects or benefits on becoming vegan for a week

I actually really enjoyed this experiment. I liked trying new foods that I’d never normally eat like tempeh and mung bean sprouts. It’s been to good to know that I’m not ‘dependent’ on a meat diet. (It sounds crazy to think back to those times where I’ve considered trying a vegan diet and I’ve said “I can’t give up cheese” or “I can’t give up pork”!

I’ve definitely become more aware of what I’m putting into my body. That came from looking at what ingredients are in alternative milks. We bought some pea protein milk that had some unnatural-looking ingredients in it, whereas cow milk seems to be made up of, well, cow milk!

It made me think about what else I mindlessly put into my body. Like store-bought pizza or even pizza from Pizza Hut, what’s in the dough or in the cheese? Or what’s in the ice cream or in the bread?

Were there any health benefits? Nothing that’s stark and that stands out. It was only a week, but I didn’t lose any weight. It didn’t impact my running (I still cracked out my target of 16 miles in a week and this included an 8-mile run). My energy levels were pretty consistent and I didn’t get any energy slumps that tend to happen when I eat a lot of stodge like a giant burrito or some KFC. I did get one energy slump after eating those Southern-fried tofu bites that just tasted so processed. I did feel ‘clean’ and kinda ‘virtuous’ when munching on salads and sprouted mung beans (which are delicious!).

Was it easy or hard? It was pretty easy actually, particularly when you’re eating at home a lot.) I can imagine that if you’re out and about, it would be tricky to find vegan food. There would be some vegetarian options but few vegan options.

You need a carb source which happens to be mostly vegan anyway (pasta, noodles, lentils, bread), a protein source (tofu, tempah, quinoa, beans), fats (olive oil mostly), and things to make nice dressings out of (tahini-based mostly, or mustard-based).

Is it expensive eating vegan? I’d say it’s comparable to a meat-eating diet and maybe even cheaper. A 285g steak at Sainsbury’s is around £5 – £6. A 200g block of tofu or tempeh to replace that meat component is around £2.50. Lentils, quinoa, beans, pasta and rice are all cheap. Mung bean sprouts are around £2 for 225g, which isn’t too bad. Tahini is around £7 for a jar.

What did I miss? I was surprised to find that I didn’t actually crave any meats, fish, cheese, milk. I did have a hankering for my favourite mayonnaise, Kewpie, but I could live without it for a while. It’s odd not putting things into food such as parmesan or fish sauce. I missed my eggs in the morning, scrambled in butter, but the pang wasn’t that great.

Will I continue with the vegan diet? I’ve actually enjoyed the new foods I’ve discovered such as quinoa, tempeh, tofu, sprouted mung beans. I’ll definitely keep eating these and have a vegan-based diet but with some selected non-vegan foods added back in. (That just sounds like a normal omnivorous diet doesn’t it?!) I can go days and maybe even weeks without eating meat and dairy now, something that I wouldn’t have even countenanced before this experiment. It’s amazing that going vegan for just one week can have this effect.

I’ll have a vegan-based diet that includes plenty of veg, quinoa and lentils. I’ll add back in some quality meat like decent steak, well-made sausages, some quality salmon and definitely some full fat cow’s milk. Oh and kewpie mayonnaise and parmesan for sure.

Final thoughts on going vegan for a week

It’s possible to be vegan and eat really badly. If you’re just trying to cut out meat and dairy, you could do so by eating loads of heavily processed food that’s designed to be a meat or dairy substitute eg the deep-fried tofu nuggets.

It’s also possible though to eat nutrient-dense vegan foods like veg-filled smoothies, buddha bowls of roasted sweet potatoes and beets, sauerkraut and kimchi. If you’re looking to refresh or reset your relationship with food, then give this experiment a try. Try going vegan for week!

I’ll write an update below when I have my first meat and dairy and report if I feel a boost or a negative effect. My gut feeling is that it will taste great but that it might feel heavy in my stomach and that I might have an energy slump, but I’ll report back here.