keith george cooke's Journal, 06 September 2018

I haven’t read any of your past entries. Is this at the gym? A contest? Looks like it gives points off of your heart rate. If it’s a gym contest that seems cool. I can get my heart rate up high but that because I’m still not in the best shape haha. 

Your spot on👌 points are awarded for how high and how long you can keep heart rate up. I have to work pretty hard to get it up now and it drops so quick. 

just had a look today highest heart rate got was 164 and the average for the 45 mins was 142. resting heart rate is about 52-53 now so they get me working at F45 hahahaha 

Hmmm when tested awhile back mine was around 80 resting, 98 after a bit of walking and 118 after about 3 minutes of testing (walking, squats, etc). The treadmill keeps my heart rate around 145-155 normally. It’s 165-180 when I bump it to 10-15% incline. I’d be good at that test until I got fit haha. Good job on your points :). Sounds fun!  

The fact that you know your heart rate whilst doing different exercise and whilst resting is awesome👍 A heart rate monitor is an invaluable tool for weight loss in my opinion. 

I joined the liveSTRONG group at our ymca. The first day they made us do things then count our heart beats. Now I do it just to see some days. The treadmill has a heart rate monitor and I love it. My next activity trackerbwill have a hr monitor built in :). It’s on my Christmas list lol.  

Peeps at my gym (not F45 in the mornings,zap fitness where I weight train after work)think I'm mad I swear. I don't work out for a certain time or to certain reps. I work out to I burn the amount of Cal's I need to burn that day, which is where the heart rate monitor comes in👍 

Our trainer has us do 30min cardio then 20-30 min weights then 20-30 min stretches and the support part of the group. The ladies look at me like I’m nuts too. I couldn’t run 30 seconds at first. Now I try to do a couple minutes on the treadmill off an on throughout the 30 minutes. This may be 3 one minute intervals or 12 15 second intervals or anything in between. I set it at 3.3-3.5 mph and 10-15% incline. That is as fast as I can go with short legs (63” tall). I can burn 150-210 depending on how much running, what incline etc. I target my hr for 150-170 mostly and when I need a break I keep it above 140. The two ladies don’t understand why I focus on calories rather than distance. But I get more distance than them. In their defense one is in active chemo and the other is 40+ years my senior.  

Today I surprised myself by running a full 2 minutes before the treadmill had an error. They have machine issues right now so I didn’t try another one like usual. Going from 29 seconds basically to 2 minutes in 8-10 weeks isn’t bad I think. The first half I was on restriction from surgery and couldn’t do more than a slow walk. Even now I’m not supposed to be running or even losing weight. I’m a rule follower but the rules drs place on me just don’t make sense. I can’t get healthy with just slow walking. I can’t build up endurance that way either! So I break their rules a lot and disregard restrictions as long as I can do it without pain or injury :).  

From 30 secs to 2 mins... Not bad??? That's bloody inspirational! I'm doing a 'playoff' on Saturday which is a 10 min fitness test/benchmark. It's 45 secs on 15 secs off and is everything from rowing machines to knee curling pushups to chin ups. I love it.... When it's over hahahaha, expect to burn 400+ Cal's in 10 mins😣 

Aww 😊. When I was a teen I could do more things. Having kids, then losing my parents within 4 years of each other (and my stepdad too) then cancer and chemo well, it all did a number on me lol. It’s nice to be able to give my 110# 12 yr old a piggy back ride. Even better to be able to run a bit while giving my 40# or 62# kiddos a piggy back ride. I dislike running u less I’m really in a hurry. Don’t ever plan to jog. BUT I want to be able to do so!  

I can’t imagine a test like that!! I imagine you’ll be worn out afterwards. Is there a particular reason you do it or is it just to see how far you’ve come in a certain amount of time? No way could I do something like that and I’m not sure I’d want to lol. My goal is to do a pull-up or chin-up just once. Just one lol. I’ve never been strong enough even when I was at my peak as a teen riding horses, hauling hay (us girls had to help lol) and halter breaking lambs and calves. I envy those of you who can do these fitness challenges and things!  

I do it for afew reasons, I started getting fit as a coping mechanism but now I genuinely love being out of breath. Sorry to hear about your parents, I went through chemo 3x as a kid so I know more then most how terrible it is. 

my best moment this year was my first ever muscle up... it's a chinup to your chest then extend arms straight down and push up above the bar👍 

my childhood doctor gave me a slap when she seen me, literally slapped me hahahaha. I was grossly over weight at 120+ kg, she kickstarted my gym membership. then I bust up with my ex of close to 16 years and I worked out if I'm out of breath I'm not thinking how s**t my life was at the time 

Great job on the muscle up!! Doubt I’ll ever get there and that’s okay for me lol. I use my depression to fuel my workouts sometimes. Anger too lol. Angry workouts leave me mentally and physically exhausted and depression can sneak back in if I’m not careful.  

Chemo... I must be insane because I liked chemo. Clear skin, seeing how strong I actually was, proving to myself that I could do it and learning to be more positive. The neulasta shot hurt and that is my main complaint. I can handle breaks and sharp pain. I don’t do well with a constant ache of varying degrees including back seizing up. Nausea wasn’t bad with the first chemos. Bone pain wasn’t that bad with the second chemo. Didn’t mind losing the hair. However I went 9 months with one implant and flat on the other side. It took all I had to keep from dispair while trying to find a plastic surgeon who would work with me. Having my mind on that helped me to handle chemo well I think.  

After chemo is worse for me than during. I finished 3/27/17 and already have osteopenia that’s barely away from osteoporosis. March 2018 I couldn’t walk to my car from the porch without being winded and aching. That made me angry with myself, chemo, the drs for not telling me about it and the world in general. Forced 2.5 mike walks 1-2 times a week helped tremendously! I’d lost almost all of my muscle and gained a lot of fat. Gained about 24# total, 28# from hysterectomy May 2016 to March 2018. That’s huge with the muscle loss! Now I’m pre chemo weight and close to hysterectomy weight. I’m wearing a pair of workout pants from my senior year in 1999! A little tight through the hips after kids but fit fine everywhere else. May I ask what cancer you had? Mine was TNBC at age 35. Highly aggressive which is why we did chemo even though we caught it early. Taking no chances!