Boringly Satisfying Maintenance Report

I observed to a friend in Facebook recently that there’s really no drama here on the fitness front (thank goodness).

This is, of course, as it should be. I’m maintaining weight and muscle mass by working out each major muscle group just once a week at 75% intensity. No additional lean mass development (enough is enough), but not losing it either (a good thing!)… this takes very little time out of our busy retirement schedule (retirement is definitely not for wimps).

For example, this last week was fairly typical.

The “dashboard” (my Body Bugg armband) says I burned an average of 3030 calories from 02/17 till 02/24 (I  burn 3,500 to over 4,000 calories daily during my intense workout phases), and I’ve consumed an average of 2971 daily calories to retain a balance between burned and consumed.

A little lower than target, but what the heck… pretty much the same for several months now, so it’s working. And still dry after eight months! Lifestyle change? Yup, you bet. Doin’ it. Easy? Hell, no. Up to it? So far!

The old protein/carb/fat ratio is a bit low on protein and a bit high… on fat – nailed the complex carbs target though (33/40/27), but not too bad!

By maintaining lean body mass and total weight (187.6) means I’m keepin’ off the forty-plus pounds I lost last year.

This sixty year old codger can still rip off 120 pushups at will (two sets of sixty about every other morning). My heroes? The two Jacks, of course… Jack Palance and Jack LaLane. Two seniors who could kick anyone’s ass well into their eighties!

And I’m to the point where I can pretty much adjust my calorie intake based on daily activity (or lack thereof).

For example, no workout yesterday. Instead, I spent a total of over two hours in a car traveling to an attorney’s office to participate in an all day mediation session on behalf of our homeowner’s association (I’m on the board), then spent the better part of twelve hours, sitting on my ass, drinking coffee and eating catered food.

And before you ask, yes, I exercised incredible restraint, except for one small brownie and one small cookie, and a small sandwich for each of the two meals served to us like fatted calves.

So while I only burned 2,316 calories, as my Body Bugg informed me at day’s end,  I only consumed 2,343 calories (when I added my meals up in my daily journal) for a very small surplus of just 27 calories, knowing that with no workout and very little activity, my almost zen-like restraint would be key. That’s called a tactical success, folks! Day by day…

Feelin’ cocky about this, kids. I thought I’d share…