Looking out for the change

February has come to an end, the weather is slowly getting better. This month it was a cold period and it gave us the opportunity to be outside with blue skies and freezing temperatures, one of our favorite sports was possible again on the frozen waters.

We had a great period in the Netherlands with ice on the lakes and rivers, skating was our favorite sports for a week. It also meant over 13,000 people suffered of an injury due to skating. Most of the time because they were on crowded places, not paying any attention (using facebook, linkedin and Hyves) and bad ice due to the big number of people skating. So there was a small period of time of joy with a long lasting consequence of pain or immobility for a lot of people.

I have been skating with my family at Ankeveen and made a trip of 25 km (the organisation said), it ended up with almost 24 km. My wife and my son did the trip of 10 km, due to skating on regular skates. They finished a little time ahead of me and we all finished our day drinking hot chocolate milk and eating a piece of apple pie with whipped cream.

Last year I started my training in June, this year I have already started in January, so I hope this will get my body in shape. So far the shape of my body is way behind the improvement of my physical condition. I find myself on the track skating longer and faster every time, I even could keep up with the better skaters in our group for the last few weeks. My second skeeler trip made my avg HR go up to 145 while my max was 154, I really think this will work out fine in September.

But weight loss, one of my goals for this year, is one of my biggest problems. I once have tried to lose weight with a diet, that worked out well for a short period but did not bring me a big change. My second stage last year made me change my Kcal intake. From a daily 2,600 back to a daily 1,800.

Combined with my training it helped me to lose the first 5 kg. Now I want to take it to a new level while my goal for this year is a challenging one.

I had a conversation with my trainer at the gym about my weight. I told him that despite of my efforts, I did not lose any weight this year. So he asked for my diet habits and he came up with a new schedule….

Time	New	Old
07:00	Fatfree yogurt and muesli	Low fat yogurt with corn flakes
09:00	One apple
11:00	Two crackers with turkey or chicken	Two slices of gingerbread
13:00	One slice dark brown bread	Three slices of bread with cheese
14:00	One slice dark brown bread
16:00	Fatfree yogurt and pineapple	Thea and biscuit
18:00	Vegetables and meat, no potatoes or pasta	Vegetables, meat and potatoes or pasta (regular Dutch evening meal), low fat yogurt and fruit
20:00	Fatfree yogurt and pineapple	Coffee and biscuit
	2 to 3 litres of water/thea	1.5 to 2.0 litres of water/tea
		Other snacks like candy and biscuits
	1,200 Kcal est.	1,900 / 2,100 Kcal est.

No more coffee???? I think my mind setting will need some time to fix in this new position. In the morning I always drink two cups and in the evening also… I have already diminished my caffeine consumption from 10 cups (cappuccino most of the times) back to 4! I drink more tea and water during office hours.

Change is one of the more difficult things to make happen, you have to get into the right flow to really achieve it. First of all you must have the urge to make it happen, I think this year will be the right time for it. Second you must think positive! If you don’t believe you can achieve it you have to fight also against yourself and that is a battle you will never win.

I have been there before when I quit smoking. Smoking was a bad habit of me from the early seventies until I stopped late in the eighties. Working in an office without an elevator on the 2^nd floor I walked up the stairs and found out my tobacco ran out. While grasping for a breath I decided to quit. Otherwise I would have to go back again and mount the stairs all the way again, was my motivation a positive one (quit smoking) or a negative one (too lazy to climb the stairs again)?

I did not tell anyone that I did so and before the first annoying question “Did you stop smoking?” (annoying for remembering the struggle of not buying new tobacco) was almost two weeks later. After six weeks I found myself in a better mind setting and ignoring the tobacco shops. The flow started and I succeeded to quit cold turkey.

I was lucky to stop in time, otherwise my health would have been destroyed many years later.

My change for March will be the diet, so far my change of training schedule worked out well. By the end of March there will be a change in the time schedule in Europe and we will have more time to ride more miles outside on the skeelers again. That change will give us more energy, hopefully the weather will also help us to do so.

Go for the flow of change (and may the force be with you ;-)),

Ed van Harmelen

February 2012

Achievements	Goals 2012	Sofar	2011
Weight goal	92.0 kg	105.8 kg	107.0 kg
Weight loss	15.0 kg	1.2 kg	5.0 kg
Kcal burned	150,000 Kcal	36,037 Kcal	48,500 Kcal
Distance exercises	3,000 km.	671 km.	1,600 km.
Best time half marathon (skeelers)	1:00:00	1:18:14	1:04:04
Best time marathon (skeelers)	2:00:00	No workout	2:37:36

A New Year with new goals

So here I stand in the gym, fighting away the pounds i have gained in the past twenty three years of taking good care of me by my wife.

She always said she couldn’t cook at the time we were wed, but I have never noticed anything that was proof of it. And of course I have to give myself the credit in eating anything that was left over or was at the shelfs. I had no problem eating it, because I would not gain any weight..but that was only in the beginning.

I weighed 70 kg. until my 30^th (1988), I have to admit I was smoking at that time and sports has always been a way of live for me.

I have been playing handball at a high level and enjoyed running during my time I was a soldier in the Dutch army.  The lieutenant came along one time to tell my sergeant major that I had to go for exercise at the field, but he wouldn’t allow me to go as work had to be done in time. Some weeks later I met him at a running event and finished way ahead of him, he never asked again to exercise. 

After eight years of marriage it was like I was gaining one or two kg every year, ending up at almost 112 kilogram in 2010. I know a human body is changing while you are getting older. But why is that something I cannot get rid of in a simple way. I have gained it automatically in thirty years, if I wait another thirty years will it be gone automatically? Somehow I know that will never happen.

When recovering from an operation on my knee the doctor gave me an advice to go skating again. It has a very smooth movement because it has not the negative aspects of running on your limbs. I always have enjoyed skating, but never used it to lose weight, always for fun skating.

I started again in the beginning of June 2011, by skating with my son in the surroundings of our house. My efforts paid out, not as much as I thought it would do, but by the end of 2011 I weighed under 105 kg.

Dropping back in my hours of sports I gained another 2 kg in December and now I am at a weight of 107 kg. The month of February has started over a week ago and I find myself keeping up in the new routine of exercises I have dedicated myself to. On Monday evening and Wednesday evening spinning for one hour, Wednesday morning in the Winter season one hour skating lessons on the ice and on Thursday and Saturday training to get a better condition.

Last week Saturday fell off the schedule due to the ice, instead of training I have been skating Saturday and Sunday for about three hours each day. Not that fast, but it was fun and I was outside in the cold.

This week is the last possibility to skate on nature ice, so today I was skating almost 23 km in nature. Saturday will be used to recover at the gym and play some ice hockey in our back yard.

At Sunday I will probably skate another tour in nature, depending on weather and how my muscles will feel.

My personal goals for 2012 (2011 results) registered on Endomondo are set on:

Weight loss: more than 15 kg (5 kg),

Kcal burned with exercises:  150.000 Kcal (48.500 Kcal) and
Distance travelled with exercises 3.000 km (1.600 km)
Best time Marathon: 2:00:00 (2:37:36)

There is a lot of work to do, sofar in January i have achieved the following:
Weight loss: - kg (15 kg to go)
Kcal Burned:  15.055 (134.945 to go)
Distance travelled: 224 km (2.776 to go)
Best time marathon: (no work outs with marathon distance)

My first time

Well, finally I made my move to make sure I will get in shape for my first marathon abroad.

The Northshore inline marathon, Duluth (USA).

Since last year June i have been skating all the summer long, i noticed my body was protesting after almost two years of being injured at several causes.

In 2009 my hockey career in the veteran competition had to stop, due to injuries by moving a little to fast and just not having enough muscle power to keep up with my mind. So after running myself into another period of recovering (trying to beat an eighteen year younger apponent), i decided to step back an go play with "The old men" of our club.

The team of player at the age of 50+ (average at that time was 72), knew me already because I played with them several times, because as they said it "Your body and hair make you look like us, so nobody will ask for your age when playing with us."

That should have warned me, but i thought it would give me a chance to finally play in the offence instead of in defence. Now i would be the younger player instead of the older one! Well, that was indeed what happened and I felt happy with the move I made. But somehow the devil was playing with me on the field and in a match at Hilversum on a sunny day I stepped on the ball with my heel.

I have been injured before, buth this time it felt as if knives were driven into my ankle from several points and I fell to the ground. As a man you cannot show your fellow players that you're in pain. So i grinned like it was nothing and humped off te pit, fighting the pain. Later on in the hospital and after some research the next months the diagnose was three torn ankle ligaments and a bone that was brused.

That was the beginning of a long period of no sport, and due to not changing my pattern in eating I gained too much weight. At one point in December 2010 I was just under 112 Kg and decided to change that.

I also made an appointment at the gym to get in shape again. Still there was pain in my ankle due to the injury, but there were enough ways to excersise without pain.

That was the start in my struggle to lose weight and get in shape again, this blog is a new stage in my mindsetting. By sharing my thoughts, doubts and efforts I hope to find even more motivation to make it happen.

I hope you also find it a story worth to follow and help me to make this work.