Personal confession time, I’m a bit obsessive compulsive when it comes to keeping records and sorting things. I like it when everything neatly lines up or divides into well planned categories. I’m also a bit obsessive when it comes to tracking things. For the most part, this isn’t too bad. At least, my wife hasn’t complained too much yet :)

However, in some ways, this has proved to be very useful. I’ve already talked about FitDay and the benefits I’m seeing from keeping track of things. I’m probably going to do a follow up to that shortly since I’m finding FitDay to be more and more useful as time goes by. However, for today I wanted to talk about the benefits of keeping track of your workout.

Why keep track?

A few months ago , a coworker saw me updating my workout spreadsheet and asked me “why do you keep track of all these things? Seems like of time to spend on something so simple.” I didn’t provide much of an answer right then because I don’t really think he was looking for an answer, but I would like to provide a few right now. Why keep track of a workout?

First, because there’s a lot of information to remember. I do 24 different exercises in a workout these days. That’s 24 exercises to remember plus 24 weights or numbers of reps associated with them. 48 things to memorize in total, which I really don’t feel like doing. I don’t want to remember if I’m supposed to be doing 90lb deadlifts or 80lbs. I want to just look at a piece of paper and see what it says. I have better things to memorize and think about while I work out.

Second, because it helps show progress. When I first started working out, I would record each week separately. I would then graph the number of reps and the weight I used for each exercise. Sounds a bit tiresome, but it’s amazingly useful. Doing something like that can really help you see where you’re progressing and where you’re not. I could look at an exercise and see right away if I was improving or not.

Finally, because I actually found that it helped me focus. Having my workout written down on paper told me exactly what I needed to do that day. There was never a need to stop and think “well, what exercise should I do next?” I never had to try and remember if I had already done something or not, because I simply followed the order in which they were written down.

So What Do You Need?

I’ve tried a number of online sites and I’ve found them all lacking. There was too much data entry required for set up and not enough pay back in terms of useful reports. I’ve also tried a number of software packages, but again, I didn’t find the work involved to be worth the effort. So what I ended up with was a simple spreadsheet. I originally used Excel, but recently switched to Google Docs because I wanted my spreadsheet to be online and available from any location. I’m posted up a sample of what my workout spreadsheet looks like here, but you might need a Google account to view it. I’m also going to try and post a version of it in Excel, but that might take a bit longer. Feel free to copy this spreadsheet and make your own version. Also, you should make whatever modifications to it you think are appropriate. There’s really no right way to track your workout, it’s all about what works for you.
The Spreadsheet

As you can see, the first page is just my workout. It’s nothing fancy, it’s just a simple spreadsheet with all my exercises and associated reps/weights. The second page is where it gets interesting. This is just a sample of what you can do with a good spreadsheet, but it’s essentially a progress tracker for my legs workout. There’s even a handy little graph that shows how well I’ve been doing on leg lifts. You could easily create something like this for any workout and modify to your heart’s content. Then, just add in your numbers once a week and you have a great tool to measure progress with.

Personally, I don’t use the progress tracker aspect of this spreadsheet, but I do recommend that every beginner build something like this to their own liking. It’s very important in the beginning to keep track of what you’re doing and how well you’re doing it.

Print It Out

I’m a big fan of conserving paper, so I don’t print out too many versions of my spreadsheet. What I usually do is print out a version on the first week of the month and then use that sheet for the whole month. Just write on it if you need to note anything down like increased weights or reps. Then copy that information to your spreadsheet next time you’re near a computer, assuming you’re tracking progress. By the end of the month, your print out is likely to be some messy, sweaty and dirty that it’s probably not usable. Recycle it and make another.

Summary

There’s no need to spend a lot of time or money on tracking your workout, but you should put in a bit of effort to make sure you’re noting down the important numbers. That will keep you on track to a more efficient every time.

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A few weeks ago I reviewed a book by the name of Bottom Lines Secret Food Cures and Doctor-approved Folk Remedies. My review wasn’t very complimentary and some people seemed to take that personally. So I wanted to revisit the subject and discuss it in a bit more detail.

Is Modern Medicine Perfect?

First, many readers seemed to think I was setting up modern medicine as the only source of healthy living. That is, if you want to get healthy, you should see a doctor and start taking some pills. That’s is almost but not quite the complete opposite of what I believe. For the most part, I try to stay away from the doctor’s office. I don’t believe in taking pills for every symptom and I don’t believe medical treatment or surgery is the answer to all my problems. My whole philosophy is based on living a healthy lifestyle so that I DON’T need to go to the doctor’s office.

I would rather eat healthy than take medicine that would lower my cholesterol. I would rather exercise than be treated for high blood pressure. I would rather work out with weights than take some pills that would increase the strength of my bones. I eat fruit and vegetables because I want to lower my risk of death to cancer through healthy living rather than chemo or surgery. So yes, I am a great believer in good ole’ fashioned healthy living as a great alternative to the doctor’s office.

But…

You knew there was a “but…” coming up somewhere. Well, as much as I don’t believe in a life based on medicine only, I also don’t believe in completely unproven and unscientific folk cures. I am 100% sure that some herbs and minerals do have positive medical properties. For example, we now know a lot about the cancer fighting chemical in some vegetables. I also believe that some plants have restorative properties. However, I am not going to go out there and start taking lemon rind soup for my migraines without a bit more information just because my ancestors believed in it. My ancestors also believed that life came from mud, storks brought babies and that the earth was flat.

Reading a book like this and then rushing out to try out all the cures seems foolish to me.  I would much rather take a more careful approach.  Read the proposed cure and then do some research about it.  Are there some chemicals in lemon rinds that might lessen pain or inflammation?  If so, what are they and what are their side effects?  Are there any articles out there about the long term impact of ingesting these chemicals?  Were the articles written by the lemon industry or by some reputable institute?

We have a wealth of information at our fingertips these days so why not use it?  I don’t mind reading about old folks cures but I sure as hell am not going to rush out and try them just because a book tells me some people in Eastern Europe in the 1800’s believed this remedy helped cure chicken pox.

The Combined Approach

I believe the right way of doing things is the combined approach.  Learn what it takes to live a healthy life.  That means eating healthy, being more active and adopting some healthy habits.  Some of those healthy habits could involve a few things your old grandmother would heartily agree with.  “An apple a day will keep the doctor away.”  Yep, eating fruit is healthy.  “Chicken soup will cure a cold”.  Yep, a nutrient rich broth is easy for a sick body to digest and includes a lot of energy your body needs to fight off some ailments.  Aloe for sunburns?  Yep, there have been numerous studies on the anti inflammatory properties of the aloe plant.  So by all means, adopt these healthy habits that have been used by human beings for centuries.  Just make sure there’s some substance behind these claims.  Don’t just rush out and try everything you read about in books like these.

However, don’t adopt them blindly and don’t ignore doctors.  Have a yearly physical.  Talk to your doctor if you’re going to make some changes to your life.  Ask their advice before trying some radical change to your eating habits.  You’d be surprised how useful doctors can be.  Sometimes they’ll tell you “yes, lemon rinds have so and so chemicals in them and can be used in moderation to treat the following things” and sometimes they’ll say “no, lemon rind soup is completely garbage.”  Either way, you’ll learn something.

Summary

So no, I am not opposed to folk cures.  I am however opposed to blindly trusting my health to some book I bought on Amazon without doing any kind of research or checking with my doctor.  Hope that clears things up and gets me a few less angry emails :)

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A few weeks ago, I moved from the second floor of my office to the first. It was part of a bigger move by my whole department and it let me make a change to my workspace that I’ve been hoping to do for a while now.

I’ve always had minor issues with my lower back and sitting on an office chair all day working on a computer didn’t help. If you look at most people as they sit at their desk, their posture is horrible. They either slouch in their chairs or they bend over their desks. Either way, there’s a lot of unnecessary pressure on your lower back. Unfortunately, I was no exception. I tried several little tricks like sitting up straight or sitting on an exercise ball but I kept finding myself slouching back. So when the opportunity to reorganize my cubicle presented itself, I decided to make a major change.

Here’s the new workplace:

raised cube

The Changes

As you can see, the desk itself is raised to be about 4 feet. This is more than a foot taller than a normal desk level. The point to all this is to allow me to stand while I work rather than sit down. I usually stand firmly on both feet not favoring either leg. My feet are spread about 18 inches from one another. This keeps me stable and prevents my legs from getting tired.

Standing this way forces me to stay in a posture that’s much better than sitting. There’s a slight benefit in terms of using the leg muscles as I work, but the real benefit is in my lower back. The improved posture is really helping me out and I’m feeling a lot better when I do exercises like deadlifts.

In case you’re curious, my legs do get tired after a while and I do take breaks sitting in a chair high enough to fit this desk. I’m guessing I spend about 75% of my time standing and the other 25% sitting in the chair.

Work Place Ergonomics

For many of us, the desk is where we spend a good portion of our day. So it makes sense to keep this area as healthy as possible. If your workplace is making you unhealthy, you are less likely to exercise, more likely to suffer injuries and more likely to be stressed out. You’re also less likely to be productive, so your employer has a vested interest in providing you with a healthy and safe workplace. As long as you don’t go overboard and ask for a personal masseuse in your cube, most companies will be happy to help you with basic changes to improve your cube or desk.

Some Things To Watch For

  • Forearms - Try to position your desk and chair heights so your forearms are parallel to the desk as you work.
  • Wrist Rest - Your wrists should be resting on something as you type. Otherwise, you’re exposing yourself to repetitive stress injuries.
  • Posture - You don’t have to stand in order to have good posture. You just need to keep your back straight. Don’t hunch forward over your desk and don’t slouch back in your chair. Either one of these positions is bad. Ideally, your back should be flat against the back rest of the chair and straight.
  • Stretch - Just like on long plane flights, you really shouldn’t spend too much time sitting down. Make sure to get up and stretch at least once per hour. Focus on your back and legs. A few slow lunges, squats and toe touches will do the trick.
  • Shoes - If your job involves a lot of walking, make sure you’re wearing padded shoes. Feet are vulnerable to stress fractures and other ailments that are caused by too much walking.
  • Water - Another thing people tend to forget while at work is water. Keep a water bottle by you and take a quick drink every 30 minutes or so. It will keep you hydrated and prevent you from snacking.
  • Monitors - Bad monitors or bad settings on good monitors can cause eye aches and head aches. Make sure your monitor is set correctly and talk to your IT or computer support department if you’re unsure how to do it.
  • Phone Handsets - If you’re on the phone a lot, make sure you pick up a hands free headset. Holding a handset up to your head either by hand or by pressing it up against your shoulders can cause strain.

Summary

Remember, both you and your employer have a vested interest in keeping you healthy and productive. So talk to your employer about some little things you both can do to make sure your workplace isn’t harming your health.

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It’s Sunday, November 25th, the end of Thanksgiving weekend here in the US. I’ve spent the last few days with family. We went to my in-laws for Thanksgiving and my father arrived from Israel on Friday. It’s amazing how much food figures into family time. We want to spend time with the parents, so we go out to eat. We want to host someone, so we invite them to dinner. It seems like all our activities are centered around food. In fact, now that I think about it, it seems like the same is true about my interactions with my friends. I wonder if this is something I can change.

And on that thought, let’s take a look at some articles from this week:

From the News Tribune we have an article about fitness and health programs for the entire family. I’d urge anyone with children to get involved with organizations and programs like these. It’s not just about your kids’ health, it’s also about their well being. There have been many studies that shows kids who participate in activities like these do better in school and have less behavioral issues.
@The News Tribune

Staying on the topic of family and kids, here’s an older article from Reuter’s on why are kids obese. It makes some very good points about the environment your kids live in. They are bombarded day and night by advertisements for crappy food and crappier snacks. If you want them to grow up healthy, you need to do more than just tell them to eat their veggies.
@Reuters

And if you thought your could feed your kids something good from your local sandwich store, think again. Here’s an article from the Diet Blog about the real calorie counts in Quiznos Subs. Even the vegetarian sandwiches are full of calories and fat you don’t need. Bottom line, sandwiches are not health food. Sticking stuff between two pieces of bread makes it less healthy. That’s pretty much a rule.
@The Diet Blog

And a bit of good news. Here’s an interesting article from STLToday about a man who’s turned his life around. Take a look at what he does and note how involved the rest of his family is in this. It’s an eye opening article.
@STLToday

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For the past two years, I’ve been doing a workout schedule that’s been relatively similar to the 4 day workout I talked about here on 60 in 3.  There were some minor variations in the specific exercises I used, but overall, my workout routine was almost identical to what you see in that series.  I worked on back and abs one day, legs the next, biceps and triceps the third day and chest and shoulders the fourth day.  It worked relatively well for me but I’ve had a few issues:

Hard To Progress

I’ve had a hard time increasing the weights or number of exercises I do.  With four sets of each exercise, it was difficult for me to improve performance and get better at something.  With a heavier weight, it was impossible for me to do my fourth set, even after a few weeks with this new weight.

Difficult Schedule

My schedule over the past few months has gotten a bit more hectic due to work.  Some weeks I was only able to work out three times while other weeks I had all five days available.  I tried to keep track of which days I missed out on in a specific week and then try to make up those days the next week, but that never worked very well.  I would forget which days I missed or I would have a bad workout because I was trying to do two chest days in the same week.

Variable Difficulty Days

Some days of my workout seemed easy and some seemed like a killer.  Biceps and Triceps day was relatively easy, especially compared to legs day after which I felt like I was dying.  I was making the same amount of effort each day but there just a lot more weight involved with legs day.

Hard To Combine Cardio and Weights

Partly due to the last two reasons, I was having difficulty doing cardio after some workouts.  Legs days was especially rough and there was just no way I was getting on a treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike after that day.  Normally this was ok since I would do cardio the other three days, but with my schedule being all messed up, my cardio routine was getting out of control as well.

Solution

What I’ve been trying to do instead is the entire four day workout in one day.  Sounds a bit crazy, but stay with me a second.  The four day workout was four days with 6 exercises on each.  Each exercises had 4 sets.  That’s 24 sets total each day.  So instead of doing 4 sets each of 6 exercises on a day, I am now doing 1 set each of 24 exercises.  Essentially, I’m running through the entire 4 day workout in a single day but only doing 1 set of each exercise.  I’m still doing 24 sets in a day, but each one is different.  I’m still working out 3 to 5 times a week, so on average, I still get the same amount of exercise in per week.  However, I’m seeing a number of benefits.

Progress

First of all, my performance is improving.  Part of that is due to only doing 1 set a day.  However, even with that taken into account, I’m still seeing much more progress.

Faster Workout

I don’t need to rest as much between each set because I’m workout out different muscles and never repeating the same set more than once in a day.  That lets me finish 24 sets in about 25 to 30 minutes, which is important with my current job.

Less Pain

A lot of the pain I used to associate with post workout recovery is gone.  My muscles don’t feel as sore as they used to.

More Even Workouts

Each of my workouts is now the same.  I never have days on which I feel completely wiped out or days on which I feel as though I didn’t work out enough.  Which leads me to my next point.

Easier Cardio 

My cardio workouts are easier and less uneven.  I’m not out of breath and sore when I start some runs.  This means my cardio performance has seen some improvement too, something I did not anticipate.

More Motivated

I used to dread certain workout days, especially legs.  This new workout routine eliminated that.  It also made workouts more interesting somehow.  Instead of working through multiple sets of the same exercise, which would get boring after a while, I am doing something different on each set.  That keeps me focused and interested in what I’m doing.  I noticed that I’m using my iPod a lot less and the workouts seem to fly by quicker.

Time to Experiment

If I workout more than 3 times in a specific week, I use the fourth day and fifth days as experiments.  I’ve already worked out my entire body so there’s nothing I feel obliged to do.  Instead, I can focus on trying out new exercises or completely new routines.

Summary

Overall, I’m really liking this new routine, which is why I wanted to share it with all of you.  It’s faster, more efficient and seems to be a lot more fun.  It seems to be just as effective, but that will take a bit more time to determine.

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I’ve been using a site called FitDay for a bit over a week now and I wanted to give you folks a review since I’m finding the site to be very useful.

FitDay is a general fitness and health site that helps you track your day to day activities, foods eaten and trends. It’s essentially an online food and activity journal with some fancy reporting. I actually tried out FitDay two years ago I believe and didn’t like it much. I guess my needs have changed since the site has remained the same and yet, I’m really liking it these days.

Home Screen

FitDay Home Screen

The first thing you do with FitDay is enter in some information about yourself. It’s pretty basic stuff such as gender, height and age. You also enter in a bit of information about your lifestyle. One thing to note is that you shouldn’t factor exercise into this lifestyle entry. That’s going to come later when you enter in activities. There’s also the option of making your FitDay journal public, which I’ve gone ahead and done. You can see my own FitDay journal here.

Foods Screen

FitDay Foods Screen

Here’s where FitDay starts getting useful. The foods page is a very nice online food journal that will help you track what you eat and when you ate it. It includes a quick breakdown of where you’re getting your calories and how balanced your diet is along with all the things you ate that day. As with any food journal, there is manual work that you have to do, but FitDay makes that relatively easy.

For example, as you can see in the screenshot, I ate pumpkin pie at breakfast today. So when I try to enter that into FitDay I have a few options:

  • I can search FitDay for all foods matching pumpkin pie, select the appropriate portion size and go with it. That’s the choice I usually use since FitDay has a good database of foods already entered in.
  • I can browse foods until I find one I want to enter in. This isn’t as useful for meal entry but I’ve found it interesting reading.
  • I can choose from foods I entered in recently. This is actually the choice I used for the pumpkin pie since I ate some of it on Tuesday too. This is just a short cut to foods you’ve searched for in the recent past, but I find it useful.
  • You can enter in your own custom food. This is another great option and it works great for things like packaged food or things you buy at restaurants with posted nutritional information. Just get the information from the package or the restaurant and enter it here.

For the most part, I’ve found every food I’ve eaten in the past week relatively fast. I had to search through some options on occasion but it’s never taken more than a minute to find a food that’s relatively close to what I ate with a serving size that matches. That right there makes this a worthwhile tool since, in the past, I’ve stopped using food journals when they became too much work to maintain.

Activity Screen

FitDay Activity Screen

Like the food screen, the activity screen is basically a fancy journal. It has the same options for searching through FitDay’s activity database, browsing activities or using activities you recently entered. It does not have the ability to enter in custom activities but I’m not sure this is a serious flaw since their activity database seems rather complete. The page also has a neat little chart that shows you where your calorie expenditure is going.

Reports Screen

FitDay Reports Screen

If the last two screens were useful on a day to day level, then the report screen becomes more and more useful over time. All the data you collect through your journals is available here for reporting purposes. You can see where you usually spend your calories over the past month. You can see a break down of calories consumed vs. spent over the past week. You can even see a chart that shows you if you’re meeting your nutritional requirements over a certain period of time. After just a week of using this site, I’m already finding useful information in these reports. I can see how my protein consumption is going, something I’ve worried about since becoming vegetarian. I can also see how well I’m doing in my goal of going to 200lbs. So I can see these reports becoming even more useful as time goes by.

FitDay Specific Report

Other Screens

There are a few other screens where you can enter in goals, enter your weight and add comments in a journal format. I haven’t used them too much yet so I’m not going to go into much detail. They look neat but not as useful as the food and activity tracking and reporting.

What I like about FitDay

Easy and Quick - I’ve found FitDay to be very easy to use and very fast. I’ve always had issues with other online sites that were either too complex or too slow. FitDay seems to have the barebones I need, in a format that’s friendly and with great performance. I’ve never needed to wait for site refreshes and I’ve never sat there at a complete loss as to how to do something.

Journals - FitDay is a great journal for both food and activities. Up until now, I’ve found that tracking my food and activities over time was a hassle. There was too much work to do and I never had the right program to do it with. Because FitDay is online, I can do it anywhere and anytime. So it’s convenient. FitDay also does the tracking and analysis for me, all I need to do is enter in stuff.

Quick Nutrient Breakdown - I love the quick breakdowns in the food section. Last night I came home and felt a bit hungry. I looked at FitDay and noticed that my total calories for the day were a bit low and my total protein was also low. A quick smoothie and protein supplement later, and I was feeling full and satisfied. I don’t check FitDay before every meal, but it’s nice to know the information is available for situations like this.

Reports - If there’s one area FitDay really shines, it’s the reports. Food and activity journals are great, but the ones I did myself rarely had any sort of analysis built in. I couldn’t see any trends and this made it difficult for me to spot issues. With FitDay, I have access to reports that I’m finding very useful. Even something simple like seeing how my weight is changing over time is easy. I don’t have to graph or chart anything myself, just enter in the information whenever I get it and let FitDay do the rest.

What I Don’t Like About FitDay

BMI - First of all, FitDay insists on telling me I’m obese whenever I enter in my weight. I’m assuming this is based on a BMI calculations. Guess what, it’s completely inaccurate according to my last physical, which included a body fat analysis. That’s a minor quibble though since BMI itself is the issue, being very inaccurate for people with a low or high amount of muscle mass.

Daily Calorie Expenditure - FitDay seems to have calculated a relatively high daily calorie burn rate for me. Without taking into account my workouts, FitDay believes I am spending about 3100 calories a day. I’m still trying to verify this number but this could just be my own poor math skills and not FitDay’s issue.

Reports - As much as I like them, I want more! Give me more details, more breakdowns and more ways to slice and dice the data.

Workout Tracker - Would be nice to be able to track a workout on FitDay, down to what exercises I did and with what weights. There’s other sites that do this but I hate using multiple sites for related things. I want everything in one place where it’s easy to see and compare.

So Is FitDay Worth Using?

Yes, I think so. I’m not spending much time maintaining my information (maybe 10 minutes total each day) and for that time investment, I’m getting back a lot of useful data. So I think I’ll keep going with this service and see how much I like it a month or two from now.

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I started 60 in 3 a few months ago as a way to share what I had learned about fitness and eating healthy.  I wanted it to be a place where I provided useful information to people struggling with the same problems I had a few years ago.  60 in 3 was never supposed to be a business or a place for me to make money.  It was supposed to be fun, not a job.

Unfortunately, I think I’ve succumbed to the temptation of having a large profitable blog at the expense of time and quality.  I spend quite a bit of time marketing the site, working with search engine optimization and coming up with content that will appeal to search queries.  This is something I never had in mind when I started this side and it’s a direction I’ve decided I don’t really want to go down.

So I’m going to be moving 60 in 3 back to a personal blog about fitness rather than a commercial one.  That means a few things will change:

  • Posting schedule will move from every weekday to every Monday, Wednesday and Friday plus a weekend post.  I feel like I was trying too hard to come up with content at the expense of quality.  I think this will let me focus on good helpful information again.
  • Some ads will disappear.  Not all of them unfortunately since the site still costs a bit of money to maintain, but a few will.
  • I’ll be marketing the site a lot less.  If people find it and like it, that’s great and I hope they become regular readers.

I hope you all will bear with me through these changes and continue to find 60 in 3 a useful site for your fitness and health needs.

Regards,

Gal

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