Living the MND way - 42 yrs old Today!

Hey!!  It’s my birthday! I’m 42 years old today!

As from today, I am ‘officially’ living by my 12 Core Principles completely now. I have pretty much been living this way for a the last 6 to 9 months anyway, but now I am being more strict.

What you can measure, you can manage

That old business saying is true, you can only manage what you measure, so I think the best way to start is with a full set of my stats, as follows:

• Age: 42
• Height: 6 ft 1 in (186 cm)
• Weight: 12 stone 3 pounds (171 pounds, 77.6 kg)
• BMI - 22.4 (slap in the middle of the healthy range)
• Cholesterol (total) 3.70 mmol/L (below 5.0 is supposed to be desirable)
• HDL cholesterol: 1.30 TC/HDL ratio: 2.70 (4.5 or less is desirable)
• Base Metabolic Rate: 1894 calories per day
• Glucose: 3.50 mmol/L (fasted. Below 7.7 is desirable)
• Metabolic age: 26
• Body fat: 12% (calliper tested)
• Visceral fat: 5 (on a scale 1-59, below 13 is desirable)
• Lung age: 41
• Degree of obesity: 2.70%
• pH: 7.25 (tested saliva and urine)
• Waist: 31″ (79 cm)
• Hips: 38″
• Waist to Hip Ratio: 0.81 (a heart disease risk indicator, below 0.85 is in the ‘excellent’ range)
• Chest: 43″
• Each thigh: 22″
• Right bicep: 13″
• Left bicep: 12.5″
• Neck: 14″
• Right calf: 15.5″
• Left calf: 15″
• Forearms: approx 10.5″
• I don’t have my blood pressure and resting heart rate recorded…but they checked all that when I recently had knee surgery and it was all “great” at the time, so I have no reason to be too concerned about it.

I will track some of these data points often, and others I’ll check again only occasionally. Obviously, I am already pretty healthy, my lungs are good, cholesterol good, BMI good, etc, so I don’t need to be too anal about checking these things every month.

Half way

I am posting the attached picture not as a true ‘before and after’ shot, but more as a ‘before and half way’ shot. I hope that a couple of years from now, I look lean and healthy and fit and athletic, and then I will get another picture taken, and I’ll have a complete ‘before-half way-after’ image. I am very pleased with the progress I have made so far, from the wasted fat unhealthy 18-yr old on the left of this picture, to the healthy strong fit energetic 41-yr old on the right of this picture, but I still have a way to go to achieve the health and look I desire.

In that light, I should state my goals for the second half 2012 and for 2013: (this latter part of post updated in early 2013, as moving MND to new site)

1. As you know from reading the other pages on this site, supreme good health is my #1 goal.
2. I have taken a full year off running (from Oct 2011 to Oct 2012), after trashing my right knee running too many marathons on hard road surfaces and not using a barefoot running style, but as my knee recovers from surgery, I have now (in 2013) started running again, with a view to returning to marathon running next year (2014).
3. I gained 12 pounds of muscle in 2012. I would like to gain another 10 pounds of muscle over 2013.
4. I would like to reduce my body fat by about 3%…whatever it takes to get a visible 6 pack!
5. I want the loose skin on my abdomen to tighten up…it’s left over from my fat years, and it is slowly shrinking, but I hate it!

In terms of abilities, I want to be ultra-marathon fit again by the end of 2013, and I want to improve my abilities as a rock climber.

Wish me luck! 🙂