^I used the Free Libre starting pack:
https://www.freestylelibre.co.uk/lib...rter-Pack.html

It's not particularly expensive. I don't know how accurate it is, though.

This has two sensors, and one reader. You plop a sensor into your arm, and it lasts two weeks. The sensor stores 8 hours worth of results. I found getting into the arm a bit fiddly, but I got it on the second go. There are apps to bluetooth the data onto a mobile device, but I didn't bother and just used the reader.

A single sensor lasts 14 days, so I could re-do the experiment for another fortnight again if I wanted.

It was James Hoffman, a coffee expert, who gave me the idea. I posted his video on this a bit above.

I personally found no difference in glucose based on if I had coffee pre or post breakfast. (I tried to cut down on coffee for a bit at the start of the year, but failed miserably. I seem to get through 100g of beans a day, as I get 700g delivered a week, which is about the right amount.)

I managed to get a 40 minute hangboarding session in over lunch. I was OK at half crimp, but my three finger fully open crimp was pretty weak. (I normally go for half crimp in real life climbs, but it's nice to have other options available).

In the evening, I squatted and deadlifted doing 3 sets of 5 (90 kgs) for the squat; and 3 sets of 7 (110 kgs) for the deadlift.

I got a short walk in as well, finishing on 17,000 steps for the day.

I did an hour's yoga at silly o'clock this morning, before breakfast.

Friday I managed an hour's climb over lunch, as amazingly there were no meetings.

Saturday I did an hour's climbing. This was a bit of a blunder, as I hadn't recovered from the previous day. The pump was real.

I then did a 12 mile walk. I am getting unfit - this left me feeling tired and hungry.

Sunday I was still broken! I had the day off exercise - it was the first day this year I got less than 10,000 steps. I did get an hour of yoga in, though.

Monday I got a 9 mile walk in.

Tuesday I did hangboarding and upper body lifts. My normal hangboarding routine went well, getting 20 seconds on the 15mm rung. I then tested my weighted half-crimp on the 21mm rung, getting +15 kgs easily for 10 seconds, but only getting 3 seconds or so with +20kgs.

I then elected to test my weighted dips (on rings). I've never tried this before. I got +10 kgs and failed +15kgs. I may practice this a bit more.

The upper body lifts were:
40 kgs, military press, 3 sets of 2. It's been a very long time since I pressed 40 kgs, and it turned out to be absolutely maximum effort.
55 kgs, bench press, 3 sets of 5. This was also the most I've benched for a while, and it was slightly lower effort than the OHP.

Body weight: 143 pounds, or 65 kgs.

Wednesday
I got an hour's climb in over lunch yesterday.

I made a slight blunder in the evening, and picked up a very hot saucepan with a metal handle. I now have blisters on my hand (and not just the expected climbing calluses). It's fine - it stopped hurting after about half an hour under the cold tap.

I decided the blisters were likely to heal more quickly if I could avoid heavy use of the hands. I blundered on this, and absent mindedly campused up my climbing wall as I wandered past it. A couple of blisters popped in the campus, so I reckon I can tape up then it's golden.

Thursday
I did an hour of yoga before breakfast, and got a decent walk in the evening.

I tend to do Zoom classes for yoga, with this teacher:
https://sunitadeviyoga.co.uk/

Friday
I did leg day yesterday:
Squat, 3 sets of5, 90 kgs. This was max effort.
Deadlift, 2 sets of 5, 110 kgs.

Saturday
Today there was bright sunshine and it was reasonably warm. I got a climb in, lasting about 80 minutes before the pump won. I just did standard taping on the blister, which has already popped It held up well, and I climbed pretty well.

I then did a 12 mile walk. I am now tired!

Sunday and Monday
All I managed was a few walks, none of which were particularly long. I ended up on fewer than 20,000 steps each day (but more than 15,000).

In other news, my company is being purchased, due to complete towards May. As a shareholder, this seems to be a good thing.

I want to say 18% but that's probably 20%, since you doing a weird tummy suck.

Whatever, but it's obviously the point where double chin, love handles, and man boobs start forming. So don't ever get fatter than that.

It looks more like 17%-18% to me. There's some muscle definition and not lot a lot of fat. But, as Loco noted, there is some in the locations he mentioned.

I agree that it would be easier to evaluate a semi-relaxed picture than a vacuum pose. But, as I can't see much of the ribs in the vacuum, I can't rule out Loco's estimate either. So, you're somewhere in there IMO.

Thanks both. I wasn't deliberately doing a vacuum pose - the circumference of my waist is 28 inches, which is way smaller than the chest circumference.

Thursday
I hangboarded and lifted weights. It was a mediocre session.

Friday
I climbed for an hour. I was out of form. I did a 9 mile walk in the evening.

Saturday
I climbed for an hour, and it felt like me my fingers were falling off. I was not in form at all.

Sunday.
A 19 mile walk. The lockdown rules in the UK allow you to leave the house once a day for exercise, so this is allowed, as the maximum distance/time is not regulated.

I went from my house to Bushy Park and back, mainly along the Hogsmill river, at least until Kingston and the Thames. I also slightly mis-timed things, and finished the walk way after sunset.

It was nice. I will put up some up some pictures at some point.

Monday
Recovery day, but I did manage 15,000 steps.

Tuesday
I hangboarded, which went well. I got 15 seconds half crimp on the 15 mm, which is good by my standards.

I then did leg day, squatting 80 kgs for 3 sets of 5; and deadlifting 100 kgs for 3 sets of 5.

I managed a lunchtime walk as well, ending the day on 18,000 steps.

Wednesday
I did an hour's yoga in the morning.

I had a doctor's appointment in Central London. I didn't wat to get the tube, so I did a spot of walking to get there and back, ending the day on 32,000 steps, which is probably around 16 miles.

The appointment was to check if the hole in my heart is fully fixed or not - I am waiting for flesh to grow over the device. I'll be allowed to dive if it has - I get the results next week.

Pics from the walk.

There were deer:



Sunset was as I crossed the Thames, with around 8 miles of walk left.



Bushy Park has a Diana fountain, built by Sir Christopher Wren.

Nice pics!

Sunday
I went for a walk, and ended up running for 10 minutes. I'm new to running, but it was quite fun. I don't know how far it was - my guess is that would have taken 20 minutes to walk that bit, so 1 mile. So I'm slow, which is expected.

I lifted in the evening, doing 3 sets of 70 kgs (bench) and 3 sets of 5, 30 kgs (overhead press).

Monday
I do seem to have taken up running. I'm doing a mild progressive overload - I'll add a couple of minutes each time until I reach 5k.

I did 2.2k yesterday, in 14 minutes, which is a pace of 6 minutes 28 second. (I find pace a bit of a strange unit for running - I prefer speed. But my Fitbit gives me pace. Mixing units, I think this was 6 miles an hour, so pretty slow.)

Tuesday

I got 20,000 steps in, and then did a bit of lifting.

I hangboarded, which went well. I then did finger curls (3 sets of 5, 60 kgs). I finished with benching (3 sets of 7, 50 kgs).

My Dad learned he is in remission, so it was a very good day. He only has two chemo sessions left.

I got the results of my bubble check: one small bubble may have made it through the hole. The surgeon was unconvinced it had, but wasn't willing to give me full sign off. I should be able to get sign off for 15m diving; I have another test in three months.

Glad to hear your dad is in remission.

Beautiful pics.

Thanks MLYT!

Wednesday
My running experiment continued, together with the mild progressive overload I'm doing. I did a walk (maybe 6 or 7 miles?), and then finished it off by running home.

My Fitbit reckons I did 3.09 km in 20 minutes 39 seconds, for a pace of 6 minutes 41 seconds.

I should get my first 5k in the next few days. I have no idea what sort of time is good for an old man who's never run before - I am thinking 30 minutes is a good guess, and in line with my current pace.

Thursday
I did 70 minute's yoga before lunch. Hopefully I can get a climb in later.

My colleagues seem to like setting up meetings over lunch, so the logistics are non-trivial.

Weight: 144 pounds

Thursday (continued)
It rained, so I didn't climb. I hangboarded instead, which was OK until I moved onto trying the weighted stuff.

I go 18 seconds unweighted on the 15mm rung. For weighted on the 21mm rung, I got 7 seconds easily with +15kgs, but only got about 5 seconds with +20 kgs.

Friday
I was sunny, so I climbed. It was my first climb for a while. It went pretty well - I got many of the routes I tried. The slopers are hard, but useable if one gets the right body position beneath them.

I get my first round Covid jab on Sunday - my area in the UK has moved onto under 50s.

Sunday
75 minutes' yoga.
I then walked to the vaccination centre, which is a around 7 miles round trip. I got my first round Astra Zeneca. Yay!
I seemed to have no side effects to speak of, so I then climbed for an hour. It was good - I was on form. I did:
Warm up
Dyno practice
Hard projects
Heel hook practice
Static, move like a robot practice
One leg off the wall practice
I finished with my least favourite, many small moves to try to improve endurance

It looks like I failed to log Saturday. I did squats and deadlifts.

Monday
Day off, although I did get more than 20,000 steps

Tuesday
I got an hour's climb in on my wall. It's not long until climbing gyms open here - it will be good to try some different routes again.

Greg Doucette offers phone consultations. I had one with him last week. Interestingly (to me if no-one else), he put my body fat % estimate at 15%, which is lower than the other estimates ITT.

Well, he has laser eyes. Good job getting to 15%.

Thanks Rich. To some extent, the answer doesn't matter. My aim in losing weight was to become metabolically healthy. I seem to have achieved that so far, therefore my current weight is a good one to maintain.

I may have posted if before, but here is a before and after, with my brother and mum:


I climbed today. It was very good fun. It was about an 80 minute session.

Friday
I had the day off work, so I decided to go for a walk.

My Fitbit reckons I did 24 miles, which makes sense, as it took me 8 hours (with no breaks).

Saturday
To my surprise, I felt fine. So I got an 85 minute climb in. I will do a 6 mile walk in the evening.

Sunday

I over- slept, causing me to miss yoga at 10 a.m.

I hangboarded. This went pretty well, although my hang off the 12mm ledge wasn't for very long - around 5 seconds average.

I then did some finger curls, working up to 60kgs. I followed this with upper body lifts, doing:
- 3 sets of 7, bodyweight dips on rings
- 3 10-second l-sits
- Military press, working up to 2 sets of 2, 40 kgs
- Bench, working up to 3 sets of 3, 60 kgs.

Tuesday
At work, I had 7 hours of back to back meetings, and felt discombobulated afterwards. I decided the best way of recovering was to climb. I got a 75 minute session in. It was really good fun - I was in form. I have definitely improved recently, albeit within the narrow constraints of routes I've made up on my garden wall. It will be interesting to see if it transfers to gym climbing.

Amazing before/after pictures. Ask loco to start including you in his rants as a good example of what to do.

Yeah. Hard to believe it is the same guy in those pics