Last night I was hanging out with TheGirl and had a pretty good time. I’m feeling kind of depressed now because no matter how good of a time we have, at the end of the day I know she still like her boyfriend better than me. That sucks.I missed my morning workout too. I’m going to try to make up for it on my lunch break. It’s starting out as a rough day today. I need to blast some power workout songs in the car on my way to work. I need to get motivated here!
This morning I signed up for a 90 day weight loss challenge. My gym, LifeTime Fitness, is sponsoring it. I weighed in this morning at the gym and took some starting pictures. All I can say is, I’m pretty fat. Really fat. This weight loss can’t come soon enough. I’m hoping that this picture is a “before” picture and that eventually I will have an impressive “after” picture to go along with it.
This is my "before" picture.
So, since I’ve had a bunch of testing done, I know how many calories to eat and how much I need to work out. I think the real struggle will be sticking to a good diet. I tend to either eat fast food or at the company cafeteria every day. I tend to eat lunch at my desk and catch up on news on the internet. My plan is to brown bag it using high protein foods and lots of veggies. I’ve found another branch of my gym very close to where I work. I plan to head there for lunch every day and do some intense interval training for 45 minutes or so. I think I’ve also worked out a way to workout on some mornings at that location as well.
I’m going to try to get TheGirl to workout with me in the evening. We used to work out all the time together but her work schedule changed and we’ve sort of fallen off the wagon. Plus, she’s hot when she’s working out. Tight clothes, sweat, taut muscles. Ok, ok, I should stop!
Anyway, here is the material I got from LifeTime. There’s a weigh in on every Tuesday, plus free classes and discounts. There’s an on-line food log with tips, an online scoreboard to see where I stack against other people at the gym, and some more general health and nutrition info.
90 Day Challenge Folder and Materials
Wish me luck!
Ok, so some studies have shown that having a good-looking face count a long way towards how people perceive you. It’s interesting to read about. You success and confidence depend a lot on your physical appearance. As wrong as that may seem, that’s life. That’s part of the reason I need to get fit. Besides, TheGirl has amazing teeth. Everyone thinks she has paid a lot for veneers but really she just has natural perfect white teeth. Mine need to look good too!
I have a problem with my smile. The front two are very, very yellow. Let me explain. I was playing hockey way back in middle school and took a puck to the face which stunned me and dropped me to the ground. No, I wasn’t wearing a helmet or mouth guard. Lesson learned! This was just a friendly pickup game among friends. Now I’m not sure if it was the puck or the ground that chipped my two front teeth, but either way they were chipped pretty good. One of them was missing a triangle-shaped piece that was about 1/2 the tooth. The other was just the small part of the corner where the teeth met in the middle.
So with the available technology of the ’80s, the dentist had two options. Silver front teeth, or bonding. The bonding would be white and look natural so that’s the option my parents chose. Basically, the dentist “painted” on a layer of bondo with a brush, let it harden up a bit so he could shape it, and then zapped it with either a laser or ultraviolet light to permanently set that layer. This went on for hours. In the end though, it looked very natural and the color was nice and white. My teeth were also very straight from some new braces around the same time.
Fast forward 20 years and now the bonding in both teeth is very stained. It’s a terrible rotten-butter yellow color. White strips or bleaching have no effect on the stains since the bleaching chemical is formulated for teeth and not bonding. Additionally, the teeth never had root canals but apparently were dead. The dentist explained that this caused the inside of the teeth to build up calcium which contributed to the general yellowness of these two teeth. They have gotten pretty bad so something has to be done!
My teeth before whitening and dental work.
I went first to my regular dentist. He’s a pricey dentist with lots of high-tech gear. I had a feeling it would be expensive going in, since internet research was quoting a grand per tooth. He said he recommended a full set of veneers and quoted me between $11,000 to $13,000. All up front, and all out-of-pocket since its cosmetic work! Ouch! Fixing my smile seemed out of reach and I was pretty bummed. He offered that he could do root canals on them so at least they wouldn’t get any worse. I went ahead and did that. I’d never had a root canal before and that hurt! So a few weeks ago I was working out at LifeTime and in the locker room was an advertisement for NorthWoods Dental. It had amazing before and after pictures. I checked them out on Angie’s List and they had rave reviews.
I thought, wow, if they can help those people out surely they can help me. I called them up and they said they offered free consultations. I figured a second opinion couldn’t hurt so I went ahead and made an appointment. I met with the owner of the practice and he took a look. He was sure that all I needed was a crown on the really chipped tooth, and a veneer on the other front tooth. He also recommended bleaching trays just to perk them up a bit in color before I committed to the dental work (since once it was installed I’d never be able to change the color). Total cost: $3,700. WOW! I can swing that!
So here’s the plan:
1) Regular Dental Checkup/Cleaning (since I was due anyway)
2) In-Home Bleaching with custom trays and DayWhite bleaching solution.
3) In-Office Zoom Whitening procedure
4) Crown and Veneer
I’m currently in the bleaching stage. and I just picked it up today. I’ve got some custom-made trays for my teeth. It’s going pretty well and I’ll be sure to update the post with before and after results!
DayWhite Home Bleaching Kit
The Background
So I’m kind of a “numbers guy”. I wanted to know what my heart rate zones are and what my personal calorie intake should be. LifeTime was having a special on their LifeLab testing so I signed up for both the CardioPoint and CaloriePoint tests. These are New Leaf Fitness tests To determine resting metabolic rate, needed daily calorie intake, anabolic threshold, and cardio training zones.
Before signing up, I checked it out. Turns out the test is pretty accurate when compared to an actual medical device meant for this sort of thing. Based on a study it looks like the margin or error is around 7%. That’s good enough for me for just a consumer test and to satisfy my curiosity!
The Test
So both the tests required a neoprene mask with a special mouth piece to make sure any oxygen going in and out could be measured. I had to buy one, but I get to keep it to use for future testing. Came to around $30. Fits pretty tightly so I’m sure everything in and out is going though the mouthpiece. The test also required a heart rate strap that speaks ANT+. Luckily, the strap from my Garmin FR60
For the CaloriePoint test, it was really easy. The technician brought me into one of the massage rooms for a calm and distraction free environment. He hooked my mask up to a device and a laptop on a portable cart. All I had to do was lie down on the table in the dark (but not fall asleep!) and breath normally. About 20 minutes went by and he came back and had me take off the mask. It was quick and easy.
The other test, the CardioPoint, actually involved doing some work. The technician offered two different versions, I could run or walk. Being that I’m pretty fat, I went for the walking version. I again strapped on the mask and hopped on a treadmill. The test involved walking at around 3.6 mph at successively higher rates of incline for around 8 minutes. I was reaching my anaerobic threshold so at this point I had to begin jogging. The treadmill was maxed out at the highest incline and I jogged for 4 more minutes. The technician asked me to run flat out as hard as I could and hop off when I couldn’t take anymore. It was really hard to breathe. It felt like I was breathing through a tiny straw while working really hard. I finally had to hop off after a couple more minutes. It was just too strenuous to continue.
The Results
I found out some really interesting information…
CardioPoint:
- My anaerobic threshold is 184 bpm.
- My Peak VO2 is 35.7 ml/kg/min (Which is only in the 20th percentile! Ouch!).
- At my resting heart rate I’m burning 5.4 calories per minute.
CaloriePoint:
My resting metabolic rate is 1,616 calories. When my lifestyle is taken into account the total estimate is 2,101 calories. My recommended caloric intake for weight loss is 1,501 calories.
This helps out a lot for planning my diet and calorie needs. It’s also good information for accurately setting the zones on my heart rate monitor. While I know this is only a consumer level test, it’s still a lot better than estimating off charts found on the internet. I’m excited to have this new information and to start putting it to good use!