Waldo Prepares for Pool Season

[Waldo]

Its been quite some time since I participated in a challenge. Its time to jump back in.

If there is one thing this summer promises to bring, spending way more time at the pool is a definite. At my old house we had to use public pools and kiddo was pretty young, going to the pool was a fairly big ordeal. At my new house, we are joining the private neighborhood pool, which means we can wander over there whenever. And of course it also means that everyone there is a neighbor.

So that means I want to get a little leaner. There isn't much point in being uber lean during the winter, so my BF% had ticked upward since last summer. I've already started cutting and am down about 3 lbs, 3/4" in the waist. I want to drop another 3/4"-1" in the waist before the opening day at the pool, which will put me in the 9% BF area.

The pool opens May 21 (May 23 is the first weekend day), so the timing tracks well with this challenge.

Goals:

1) Reach 31.0" in the waist. This is 1/4" leaner than I've ever been (post college at least) and should be without a doubt into the single digits of BF%. Right now I'm in the 31.75" area. For me 1" = 4 lbs body fat, so I need to lose about 3 more lbs. Right now I weight about 203 lb, so I should be dipping under 200 lb when I reach my goal. I am an IIFYM dieter which means that I need to stick to my daily goals to get there.

2) I've been slacking on the exercise a bit since I moved, I need to tighten things up. I let my long runs lapse and have only been doing short runs. I want to get back to a 3 mi on Wed, 5 mi on Sat schedule, from my current 3 mi both days schedule. The plan of attack will be to increase my mileage each Saturday until I hit 5 mi.

3) Something is messed up in my right shoulder, tendonitis of some sort, which is affecting my ability to do push exercises. Either way I need to not skip workouts or sets when doing strength exercises. The goal will be no skipped workouts (some circumstances, such as health reasons or work travel, are allowable), and at least 3 peak effort sets per muscle group per workout (I do an upper/lower split)

L) I've got a bunch of projects going at the moment. I want to complete 3 of them during the challenge, and start a 4th.

- Interior door replacement: I'm replacing all of our interior doors, which are all dinged and painted a million times, with new stained doors. I've got 3 of them finished already, and have 3 more to go. First things first I need to go buy the rest of the doors I need.

- Finish shoe bench: I've been working on a bench with cubbies under it for shoe storage for our back door for most of this year. I'm done with the main bench, aside for one more coat of lacquer, now I need to finish the cubbies. I've sort of stalled out on this project, so I need to get back at it.

- Make Han's picture frame: I found some awesome Han Solo art that the wife is down with hanging in the living room. The problem is that to look right it will require a less common frame and mat size, most frames available suck. So I'm going to make my own frame out of solid Walnut. I've got the wood and the glass, so its just a matter of putting in the shop time. I'll also have to get a mat custom cut (or do it myself).

- I also want to get going on the next project I have the que, making a large floor lamp out of some pallets I have. I've got some nice oak pallets; I'm going to laminate the slats and carve the lamp base from that. The base will look somewhat like a ponytail palm trunk. I'll also need to get a huge lamp shade and all the lamp parts.

[Sea Level]

Sweet. Glad you're back with us. I'll be following along for some awesomeness.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TeaKwonDo]

/highfive.

 

Your workouts keep me straight on mine. Have you ever tried HIIT-style statics? 10+ sets 1-10s frog stands, no rest.

[Tixnleeches]

Hey Waldo!

 

That goal should definitely be achieveable! I wish I was near 9% BF, I love swimming but hate not being in shape. I got about 7% BF to lose to be there so maybe with a bit of luck we can both hit that goal! (Or you hit it and I'll get close lol!)

 

What does your workout routine look like? And what is your caloric breakdown for the day?

 

Following for inspiration!

[tinkerer]

Those projects sound really cool, Waldo. Hope you'll share pics of the finished work.

 

Good to see you back; you're challenges and overall success are always inspiring!

[KB Girl]

Welcome back

[Waldo]

So we're underway.

Saturday night I extended my long run out to about 3.5 miles. And it was quite easy. It was my first time running shirtless this year; there's just something about running shirtless that makes running seem so much easier.

Sunday I did a few sets of tuck planche pushups and a few sets of one leg front lever reps. Also did a ton of yardwork, including mowing.

Tonight I'm either doing hill sprints or weighted pistols. It depends on the weather.

Diet-wise this was not a good weekend. I'm sort of in a place where I do real good most weekdays, then come the weekend I eat near maintenence (or even over). The practical consequence though is that I'm not having to deal with hormonal issues despite cutting now for 3 weeks. My goal though is relatively speaking ridiculously easy to achieve, which sort of plays into the less good weekends as there is no urgency.

Project-wise I made some good headway. I got the rest of the doors I need to finish that project. I made a little progress on the shoe bench, prepping a maple face frame for the ends of the cubbies (it'll take a while to finish that though). I have another project going as well, we're working on an old family photo wall, which means hunting down pictures, processing, printing and framing them. I've got about 10 pictures done and ready to hang, I probably want about 10 more, but its getting tough to match pictures to frames and keep a good balance between our families and portrait/landscape orientation.

The other big topic of discussion in my battle log is that there is another little Waldo(s) on the way. The wife and I have been trying for years to have another, this last month we did an IVF and it worked! Friday we went in for the first ultrasound; there are definitely 2 sacks(?) but we could only see one developing baby and heartbeat (wife and I both thought we saw something in #2, but tech didn't); but its real early so if #2 is still growing its behind. We go in again for an ultrasound on Friday, by then we'll know for sure what is going on with #2. Either way #1 looks like its doing great. In my head right now there's about a 50-50 chance we're going to have twins, up from about 20% going into last Friday and our first ultrasound.

[RisenPhoenix]

Nice.  Looking forward to your updates!

[Hermione Gainser]

I love a good Waldo challenge! 

[Waldo]

For a diet update.

I'm moving this from my battle long and updating my goals for this challenge. My original goal was to cut 1.0" off the waist, 4 lbs of body fat, or 14,000 calories.

Overall diet progress, as of 4/7/15 (diet day 16): 8996 cals deficit total, 8996/14000 = 64.3% of the way to my goal.

Adding 0.5" on the waist, 2 lbs of body fat, or 7,000 calories, means my new goal is 21,000 calories of deficit.

Some updates:

Diet day 17: 1824 net cals, daily deficit: 876 cals

Diet day 18: 1753 net cals, daily deficit: 947 cals

Diet day 19: 3988 net cals, daily deficit: (1288) cals

Diet day 20: 2343 net cals, daily deficit: 357 cals

Diet day 21: 2739 net cals, daily deficit: (39) cals

Overall progress: 9849 cals deficit total, 9849/21000 = 46.9% of the way to my goal.

My tape measure broke last week; I have another on the way, but at the moment I don't know where my waist is. It should be at 31 3/4", +/- 1/8".

Scale has been a bit high, but that is expected after the weekend.

[PaulG]

Following, totally following. Though I may bug you with the occasional training question.

[Sea Level]

Congrats on the new Waldo!

[Tixnleeches]

Putting in some great work Waldo!

 

I love hill sprints even though they really suck. Congrats on the little Waldo (or 2) on the way! Glad to hear IVF worked for you, I know some friends have tried every possible way to get pregnant, some even spent 20k on treatments/hormone shots and everything else. The friend that spent 20k gave up 2 years ago due to running out of money, but another friend recommended her husband take zinc supplements, and boom! Pregnant. Can't wait to see if you are having twins!

 

Keep up the great work, maybe you could post some pictures of the projects?

 

-Tixnleeches

[Waldo]

Keep up the great work, maybe you could post some pictures of the projects?

Sure.

Here's the shoe bench I'm working on:

I've got the top part almost finished; one more scuff sanding and another coat of lacquer and its done.

The main part is made from laminated strips of Baltic birch plywood that is reclaimed from some shipping crates. Its basically a big cutting board. On the ends is a strip of walnut, gives it some pop.

The cabinet underneath is basic plywood (not reclaimed, I didn't have enough). I'm working on a maple frame for the face to hide the ends and give good durability. The maple will be finished naturally, the cubbies are going to be painted. The maple comes from some boards that I got that used to be a school gym floor.

I was going to attach the cubbies to the bench, but I changed my mind and am going to have them be two separate pieces so that the bench can be used separately in the future; I'm going to attach little 1" legs to the cubbies instead. I made it so that there is a 1" gap all around the cubbies, they sort of float there.

[goodbye_farewell]

Sub'd, but will have to catch up later. Glad to see you joining us the go around.

[Tixnleeches]

Man, those are looking good! All my things fall apart quicker then ikea...

 

 

<--- jealous

[Waldo]

Man, those are looking good! All my things fall apart quicker then ikea...

 

 

<--- jealous

Thanks.

The trick is to really put in the time to do a good job. I've got at least 50 hours of work in on the bench thus far. Real good quality joinery makes all the difference in the world, but it also takes a long time to do right.

The bench project is 100% glued, no fasteners of any sort were/will be used.

[Waldo]

Diet update:

Diet day 22: 1812 net cals, daily deficit: 888 cals

Overall progress: 10737 cals deficit total, 10737/21000 = 51.1% of the way to my goal.

Theoretically I've lost 3.07 lbs of fat and 3/4" in the waist (actually about 1/32" more than 3/4"). My starting point was 206.8 lb and 32.5" in the waist on 3/23. I should be right on track in the waist (last measurement was 31 7/8" over a week ago). I've been weighing in the 203's as of late, so the scale is right where I expect it to be.

[CourtnieMarie]

congrats on the good baby news! and that is an awesome looking bench. you can definitely tell you spent a lot of hard work on it.

 

i like the way you track your deficit calories. do you have a set time frame for the 21,000 calorie deficit goal? or just by May 23? i assume 2700 is what you've found your maintenance # to be?

 

i had a million other Qs but decided it was prudent to just go check out your battle log and mfp and tada! i found the answers

[Waldo]

No time frame, just by May 23. Like I said, this goal will be ridiculously easy to achieve, but the lack of urgency is not particularly helpful.

Yes my maintenance is somewhere around 2700 net cals.

In the end I'll probably end up exceeding my goal, no matter how lean you get, there is always some annoying fat remaining it seems.

[Waldo]

- I also want to get going on the next project I have the que, making a large floor lamp out of some pallets I have. I've got some nice oak pallets; I'm going to laminate the slats and carve the lamp base from that. The base will look somewhat like a ponytail palm trunk. I'll also need to get a huge lamp shade and all the lamp parts.

Here's an example of the lamp I want to make next:

(the wooden floor lamp)

I'm thinking a little taller with a larger/longer shade, but that is the general idea. Instead of starting with a solid block of wood, I'm going to make a solid block of wood by laminating pallet slats together, tehn carve from there.

I like to do the reclaimed thing, but unlike most doing the reclaimed thing, I don't like to show off the reclaimed nature by leaving it in a rough state, I prefer a degree of refinement typically lacking in reclaimed pieces.

I think that the wood being a series of small strips will be more interesting than all but the finest ($$$$) woods. I've got some solid oak pallets, which should work great. Instead of natural though I'm going to use a medium walnut dye and use a black pore filler to really give it a high end look.

Our living room is absolutely massive (something like 20x30), to look right a light has to be enormous. The torchiere in there now looks pitifully small and out of place (the room is stylistically similar to the one in the pic, including the furniture, cathedral ceiling, and glass wall). An oversized version of the light in the pic would be perfect.

[TeaKwonDo]

In the end I'll probably end up exceeding my goal, no matter how lean you get, there is always some annoying fat remaining it seems.

 

This.

 

Though I'm in the opposite boat right now, accidentally started bulking and can't find a good reason to stop beyond, "I miss having abs." It's that performance vs. aesthetics thing. On the one hand, massive bulking gains, and all my previous woes about not having enough energy for evening taekwondo have gone straight out the window. On the other, feeling like if I've got all that super-caloried energy, I should be putting it to use by training like Bruce Lee 'round the clock, otherwise I'm just being lazy and eating too much. Ever ran into that conundrum while on a bulk/diet break?

[Tixnleeches]

I like how you have getting lean down to a science man, it's truly impressive!

 

You will have absolutely no problem getting there by May 23rd!

[Waldo]

I like how you have getting lean down to a science man, it's truly impressive!

 

You will have absolutely no problem getting there by May 23rd!

Well it is a science, despite what the clean eating "I don't believe in calorie math" types would have you believe. When you minimize or eliminate the potential sources of error, the stoichiometry works perfect and precision is possible.

[Waldo]

Diet update time

Diet day 23: 1983 net cals, daily deficit: 717 cals

Overall progress: 11454 cals deficit total, 11454/21000 = 54.5% of the way to my goal.

New tape arrived yesterday, waist measured in at 31 5/8" this am, right where I expect it to be given the calorie math. Scale has been nice, clocking in in the 202's last night and this AM.