Tag: Status Update (Page 1 of 2)

The Milford Track: The Aftermath

April 29, 2016 / Jordan Setters / 2 Comments

I was sore for days following the completion of the Milford Track. Immediately afterwards I had to wait around for a few hours until my shuttle van back to Te Anau Downs was ready to leave. I hung out in the terminal building in Milford Sound with a couple of the guys that were on the walk with me. I ended up spreading my wet clothes everywhere and changing in the toilets there, and being a generally messy backpacker in a public place.

That night I had a lovely dinner in Te Anau at the Redcliff Cafe which is a fantastic place, should you ever be there, and then that night crashed. I had some significant chaffing from the walk which was really painful. Seriously, don’t hike in wet cotton basketball shorts, ever! Thankfully the lovely people at Earth, Sea, Sky are going to make up some good hiking shorts for me. But the worst of the chaffing was over by the next morning.

It is funny how for the entire hike I had not got sore or stiff muscles, but withing minutes of finishing the walk my muscles had seized up something chronic, and stayed that way for about five days. It took nearly two weeks for my legs and knees to feel normal again. I still have numb toes from what I suspect is nerve damage from repeated bashing my toes into the end of my boots.

The support and accolades I have received since finishing the hike have been fantastic, and a little humbling. I had not realised how impressed people have been about my doing this. I also hadn’t realised how many people had not clicked on to me doing it alone, they mostly thought I was in a group or on a guided walk. But nope, I was out there by myself for the most part, with brief moments of people walking pass me.

Earth, Sea, Sky gave me me a nice hat from their stocks when I visited them two days after finishing. A good friend and supporter got me a gift of a very nice whiskey and a book on the great walks of NZ. It has been very pleasant, and it is starting to dawn on me what an amazing accomplishment this was.

I contacted the Department of Conservation to see what their thoughts on the “fattest” person to walk the Milford would be, and they said that they don’t keep that sort of data (no surprise) but at 168 kgs I can be quite confident in saying on am in fact one of the heaviest people to ever complete the Milford Track.

One Fat Hiker for the win

I have been a bit slack and resting on my laurels in the month since I finished the track. I have done a bit of walking, but nothing like I was in preparations. Which means that if I want to maintain the gains I have made, and reinforce the habits I have started I had better come up with a new challenge, and a new Plan™ or all will be lost. I will put on weight, become lazy(er) and no one will like me. So watch this space. I will start a new challenge on 1st May 2016.

One Fat Hiker will walk again!

One Year Gone; One Week to Go

March 24, 2016 / Jordan Setters / 2 Comments

It has now been just over one year since, while driving to work one morning, I decided that I needed a goal in life. And chose to walk the Milford Track in March 2016. I honestly didn’t think at the time that I would really do it, that I would be able to stick to a challenge like this for that long. This is obvious in how long it took for me to actually tell anyone close to me that this is what I am doing. My family didn’t know for at least 6 months.

But here I am now; 1515 km and 348 hours of walking behind me, I am a lot fitter than I was I am more confident than I was. But I am not confident I am yet fit enough to do this . . . But I am doing it anyone. I leave on the ferry to the South Island on Monday 28th March (Easter Monday, should you care), and spend a few days making my way down to Te Anau and the start of the walk on 31st March (just making my deadline).

I think I have all my equipment sorted. I’ve been carrying most of it around with me when I walk for the past three weeks. I guess there is not much more I can do but wait.

Oh, I also have an ear infection in my right ear since Sunday morning. I’m on antibiotics but not making much improvement. Hopefully I don’t have to contend with that on the walk too.

Mini-Hikes: Rimutaka Incline

January 18, 2016 / Jordan Setters / 3 Comments

Over the past few weeks I have walked the Rimutaka Incline not once, not twice, but thrice! (Cue the applause)

Start of Rimutaka Incline

The first expedition was on New Year’s Eve. A friend and I decided to do the full Rimutaka Incline, starting from the Kaitoke (Wellington) end and heading over to the Wairarapa side at Cross Creek. After an initial round of car juggling to ensure we had one car at the end of the track to bring us back, we set off at around 9:00 am.

The Rimutaka Incline (for those not familiar with it) is the path over the Rimutaka Ranges which separates The Wellington and Wairarapa regions. It was carved out as a railway and was used by fell engines as a link between Wellington and the rest of the country. Although it was a steep route for trains, it is quite a gentle grade to walk.

The walk was actually drama free.

View on way up

It’s a nice wide and smooth trail which has no major changes to the gradient. It follows a river along and has nice tunnels and bridges and overlooks some lovely landscape. We got to the summit in just over 2 hours and had a brief picnic before heading off again, through the longest of the tunnels at the summit then on to the steady descent.

A tunnel on Rimutaka Incline

The path on the Wairarapa side is a bit steeper I think and there is one bit where the old bridge is long since washed out and you have to actually walk down the shallow gorge and up out the other side, but besides that the only drama to be had was once we reached the end at Cross Creak.

Someone had vandalised the sign which pointed to the path out and we continued on straight until we came to a barrier fence and a sign saying “Private Property”.

Rimutaka Summit Tunnel

We weren’t the only one confused as a couple of cyclists were also scratching their heads as to the way to go. But thorough a process of elimination we realised we needed to follow the much more narrow path out for about 30 minutes.

So in total the crossing was about 20 km (according to my GPS, the signs said 17 km – but they were wrong) and took us 4 hours 4 minutes to walk it (not including rest stops). Actually we only stopped to rest once at the summit.

Rimutaka Rail Trail

Psychologically this was a major milestone for me. I had attempted to walk to the summit on a previous occasion years ago, but couldn’t make it and turned back (it turns out we were only about 1.5 km from the summit but didn’t know it). And ever since it has been a bit of a barrier to me, thinking that I couldn’t do this walk. So to knock the bastard off and in relative ease was very liberating.

Since New Year’s Eve I have done the Rimutaka Incline twice more. Once on 12 Jan ’16, where I went after work and walked almost to the summit and back, 16 km (12 Jan ’16 holds The Plan™ record

View of Wairarapa

for longest distance, clocking up 26.5 km of walking), and then again on 17 Jan ’16 where we walked to summit and back, which was 22 km.

Exit of Rimutaka Incline

That last walk as really given me some concerns. I have come out of that with some significant blisters, an occurrence which seems to be becoming more prevalent. I got blisters on the Waihohonu walk, and again on 12^th January effort. But nothing as bad as these babies, which are most painfully on the balls of my feet. I need to develop some anti-blister strategies or my Milford Crossing could become painfully undone. Also I have been suffering more foot pain over the past month. I saw my doctor about it, thinking it is probably my gout playing up, but he thought what I described was more like arthritis. So he sent me for blood tests and x-rays, then texted me this text when he got the results “xray normal, bloos so far all negative for arthritis. Dare I say it, just the weight when exercising” . . . charming.

Nasty Blister – poor me.

So quick progress update. So far I have walked 1301.4 km in 299 hours 50 minute. Weight is remaining constantly heavy.

I’m still alive!

January 6, 2016 / Jordan Setters / 2 Comments

Ok so it has been a wee while since my last posting. I am sure that both of my readers are worried sick about what is going on with me: “Has he quit!” they might decry, “Did he fall off a steep cliff and is rotting down a gully in some far flung remote part of New Zealand?” they might fret.

Well, fret not! I have not died yet. And I try and stay as far from remote New Zealand as I can (the whole reason for this blog aside . . . ), no, I have just been slack (another recurring theme in this blog).

The Plan™ has been interrupted somewhat in the past few months. Had a business / leisure trip to Europe, a birthday, and Christmas / New Years which have been in the way. I have determined that it is nearly impossible (for me) to maintain a healthy diet in the face of all that Christmas has on offer. And it is just ludicrous to even think about any sort of Plan™ when you are on holiday.

But not all was lost. I have maintained a modest activity schedule through it all. And I had a mini-hike while in Germany at the Black Forest.

That was a great little walk actually. I was visiting a funicular railway up a hill (they called it a mountain, I laugh!) at Baden Baden in Germany, but I arrived about an hour before the railway opened. There were a number of signs up for walks around the mountain, so thought I could pass the time by walking a little along some of them, so set off on a clear but brisk autumn morning. The further along I got the more I was enjoying it, so stopped and got into my serious walking shorts and shirt (which I conveniently had in my bag). And then proceeded to shanksnag it . I darted off down a side path which was sign-posted in German so I really had no idea where I was going. But the path looked neat, it was littered with fallen leaves and the trees were all dabbled yellows and golds, I half expected to walk around a corner to find a small cottage made of gingerbread. But what I did find was a bridge over the top of the railway, which is when I realised I had half climbed the mountain (actually only 1/4 climbed it I would find, but still good). So I determined to carry on.

Black Forest

The path rose steadily onwards and upwards, a bit steep in some places, but overall not too bad. The path left the deciduous trees behind and soon I was walking through a conifer forest, which was actually quite dark, so lived up to its name.

Blacker Forest

At the top the views were fantastic, looking out down a number of valleys which were filled with the quaint town of Baden Baden. On hills around I could see the ruins of old castles and watchtowers. The best part was that there was a cafe where I could congratulate myself on not being a completely lazy git.

One of the views from the top

Actually on the week or so that I was tourist-ing around Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands I was quite happy with my fitness which enabled me to get out and do a lot of walking around towns and tourist attractions. Another feat I was particularly happy with was climbing the belpre at the Brugge town hall. This was a significant and steep windy staircase, the going down much more nerve wracking and stressful than the going up. But it was well worth the effort.

Bruge Bell Tower

The only day that defeated me physically was when I was at the Van Gough museum, which involved a lot of standing around and tourist shuffling.

Looking at my log of walking though, I have now surpassed 1000 km, I actually achieved this back in November, but it is still an achievement. The tally to date stands at: 1216.2 km walked in 281 hours 58 minutes. Which adheres to The Plan™ at about 99%.

Weight loss is not so great, I have put on 7 kg in the past three months since I went to Rarotonga. I suppose it could have been worse.

There is now only 3 MONTHS until the Milford Track. I don’t feel prepared at all really. I have come along way, but now is the time to really knuckle down and get some decent preparation in. I still want to lose another 21 kg to reach the 50 kg lose target I set so long ago. And I will set myself increasingly difficult daily walking goals to increase my aerobic exercise.

I have no time to lose!

Belated Half-Way-There Celebrations

October 7, 2015 / Jordan Setters / 2 Comments

Ok, this is a couple of weeks overdue, as the half-way point in The Plan™ was reached while I was in Rarotonga, but I am halfway through! I’ve been doing this for just over six months now (29 ½ weeks actually, or 199 days . . . I should have waited to post this until tomorrow to make it a round 200, doh!), a lot has changed about me in these six months. When I look back at the effort that went into those early walks, and how that I found just walking 2 km a day not carrying anything a bit of a challenge, now I don’t even think about a 2 km walk. The improvement in my fitness has been profound. This was most evident while on holiday in Rarotonga. I was far more active and did things that I wouldn’t of at the beginning of the year; I think I enjoyed myself far more for it.

Now I am routinely walking more than 10 km per day, and am doing much longer distances at a time. And just little changes are the most noticeable. Not having any knee pain when going up and down stairs, being able to fit more comfortably into chairs, not having really sore feet at the end of each day (although I still get woken with gout pains around 2 am each day, but pills deal with that). But best of all is a change in attitude to life. I am far more optimistic about the future. I am making plans for travel and activities which I would never have bothered with before because I feel that I can actually accomplish them.

I am still far from the end of all this. And the challenges that I still face are as great, or greater, than when I first began. But I feel that I can do it. More than that, I am excited about how I will be feeling in another 6 months; how far will I be walking? what will my clothing size be? will I still be ugly? So many questions!

So an update on the progress of The Plan™, halfway through week 29 I have walked 885.1 km in 205 hours and 9 minutes and lost about 35 kg (but that is fluctuating a bit at the moment)

Very-Mini Hike: Riverstone Bush Walk

August 31, 2015 / Jordan Setters / 2 Comments

On my Saturday morning walk around the neighbourhood I decided to go a different route than normal (I was getting a bit tired of the same old route) and discovered a little sign pointing to “The Riverstone Bush Walk”. So I decided that would make a nice change. And what a wonderful little walk it was! It climbed up a gully along a stream, through native bush I didn’t even know was there. I had seen the sign for the top entrance to this walk before, but it looked like it just went off into gorse bushes so it didn’t really excite me too much. And the last bit was just through gorse, but the rest of it was quite pleasant, and nice to know that there is a little bit of nature so close to home.

The 12 km / day challenge has come to a mostly successful conclusion. Except a bit of a fail on Saturday I did in excess of 12 km a day, and didn’t eat much more than 1000 calories most days.

Monday – 13.6 km
Tuesday – 13.4 km
Wednesday – 14.3 km
Thursday – 14.3 km
Friday – 13.0 km
Saturday – 5.0 km (lol)

All up it was a good week, having walked a total of 73.68 km, which is a new Jordan Week Record. I lost about 4.1 kg in the week as well. I have to say, it was an effort. I feel pretty good for it, but it was difficult at times and I really had to make myself get out in the evenings to finish off the goal.

This week I am only going to try for 10 km a day. I also want to go out swimming each evening during the work week because my holiday in Rarotonga is coming up in just 3 weeks now, and I want to get a bit of swim conditioning in so that I can enjoy the snorkelling and stuff while I am there.

I have brought my main back-pack to work and will be wearing it on my botanical gardens walks from now on. I can carry more weight in it comfortably, and need to increase my conditioning in the load carrying area. I am starting with 12 kg in the pack, and will increase each week.

So an update on the progress of The Plan™ at the end of Week 23; I have walked a total of 636.1 km over 146 hrs and 48 mins. Which is 117% of what I have set myself to-date. I have also lost a total of 34 kg – 68% of my current weight loss goal.

Still so much to do!

Hitting the Weight Loss Wall

August 3, 2015 / Jordan Setters / 2 Comments

I think I have hit a weight loss wall. It might be a bit early to start complaining, but after such heady weight loss, I haven’t lost a gram in the past four days, despite essentially doing the same as I have been for the past 7 weeks.

The week started out so well. In the first 3 days I had lost 2.1 kg, and I was thinking that I was creaming it in the weight loss dairy. But then it just stopped. To the point that I thought my scale was busted. The today I have put ON 500 grams. Come-on!

I think I have hit the bottom range on my “set-point”.

I watched a very interesting, enlightening, and thoroughly depressing TED talk the other week on weight loss. And it revolved around how our brain has an idea of what weight range we should be, and when you move outside that range your brain employs an entire range of tools to make sure you get back to where it thinks you should be, even if that subconscious ideal is not a healthy weight.

What makes it worse is that although you can adjust the set-point UP, it is very unlikely you will ever set it DOWN. So my brain has decided I need to be this weight and now that I am daring to venture outside that range it is fighting tooth and nail to stop me. I now think that the drop in my resting heart rate (from 70+ to 56 bpm) has less to do with fitness and more to do with my metabolism tanking.

It’s also probably why I am thinking about pies all the time as well. I think I am even hallucinating the smell of pies. And nachos (go figure). Oh, and grilled cheese on toast. Man, this is making me hungry.

In non-weight loss news, I saw my doctor this past week as he wanted to check my blood-pressure again. And it was perfect. He was pretty thrilled with my weight loss and activity levels. So that is good to know. Besides being a fat bugger I am in perfect health.

My walking this week has been pretty good too. I got up to the gardens 4 times this week, and went for a 10 km walk around the bridge circuit on the Hutt River. So at the beginning of week 20 I have walked a total of 471.9 km in 110 hours 53 minutes.

1356% Better than Average

July 27, 2015 / Jordan Setters / 0 Comments

I’m loving (most of) the Fitbit reports that I get now I have wasted money on the premium service. My current favourite is this graph. Never thought I would see something that tells me I am 1356% better than average when it comes to activity. This is “very active minutes”, and I am not entirely sure what makes one minute “active” and another “very active”, I’m sure there is a FAQ about it on the Fitbit website. I should take a look . . . well, now I know. It is when you are exercising at 6+ MET . Active is only 3-5 MET. 1 MET is your body at rest.

Now you know. Comment if you feel your life was enriched by that knowledge.

This past week has actually been pretty good. I got up to the Botanical Gardens 4 times. I would have made 5 but had to take Friday off with “gastrointestinal issues” (the less you know the better for you). And I’ve started taking the steepest street to get to the gardens, which really gets my heart-rate going. It’s been really good. Even on Friday I still managed to get out and do a 6 km walk around the neighbourhood in the afternoon, so was very pleased with myself. All up last week was the most active week I have had since I have been on The Plan™, I managed to walk a total of 59.57 km which is nearly double what The Plan™ says I should have done. I’m a machine.

So at the end of the 18^th week on The Plan™ I have walked a total of 411.9 km in 97 hours and 43 minutes. That is clocking in at 113% of what I have planned to do. Not too shabby. Oh, and I’ve lost 23 kg in the past 6 weeks. So nearly 4 kg a week. At this rate I should reach my weight loss goal sometime in mid-September. Oooo, in time for my trip to Rarotonga!

At the Thorndon Lookout in Wellington Botanical Gardens

Here is a photo I took of myself last week up in the gardens.

I have been back in contact with the lovely people at Earth Sea and Sky around some of the details for my custom made shirts from them. So am looking forward to getting those. They have made me an official ambassador for them, so go buy their stuff. I suggested the best ambassadorial work I could do for them was to dress in their competitors clothing so that people are put off wearing them. They laughed.

On more clothing news I have had to retire my old suit because it is just too big and baggy for me now, I can barely wear the trousers they are so loose. I popped into Harford’s where I have my suites made up (because I needed updated chest measurement for Earth Sea Sky) and while there it was pointed out how bad my suit was fitting. So I am getting new trousers made up (I will hold off the jacket because if I continue to shrink at the current rate it won’t be cost effective). Luckily I tried on an ‘old’ suit I had in the closet, and it fits me again (it isn’t really old, it wasn’t worn much before I expanded beyond its confines). I can also wear my dinner suit again which was made for me in 2007, so I am going to wear that to a work function this week; because I can.

Upping the Ante

July 17, 2015 / Jordan Setters / 3 Comments

This week I have seriously started to up the ante on both diet and activity. In addition to the near on hourly walks around the block, I have also started to take lunch time walks (weather and schedule permitting) up around the Wellington Botanical Gardens. I managed to do two walks up there this week on Monday and Tuesday. Work and life interferred the rest of the week.

I used to walk around the Botanic Gardens a fair bit in past years, so it was really nice to get back up there. There are alot of meandering paths around the hills there to take and explore, and looking a map of the gardens I haven’t been to about two-thirds of places there. So I am looking forward to spending more time up there exploring. And on a nice day it is a really lovely place to be. Winter it isn’t so pretty, but it will be spring soon so there will be lots of nice pretty flowers. This week the weather has been (at times) beautiful, so had nice views of the harbour and up the Hutt Valley.

I’ve also subscribed to Fitbit premimum, because it has some cool reports, and I am a sucker for such things. Fitbit has actually been fantastic and motivating me to get up and about and active. Especially now I am logging my eating in it as well (Fitbit Inc. is getting all my health data now ). And my eating has been pretty good the past week. Although it started bad with me having some old friends around for dinner, so I cooked up and storm and over ate. I also experimented with McDonalds last Saturday to see the affect a Big Mac w/ Steak Mince n Cheese Combo. Not pretty. Won’t do that again for a while.

Didn’t even enjoy it that much.

What I did like was the Italian Meat Ball and Mozzerella Pie from Z Energy, pie of the week. I decided life isn’t worth living if I didn’t have that pie in my gob. That happened yesterday, so I skipped lunch and dinner and no damage done

I bought new replacement scales (although my brother insists that the other ones aren’t broken . . . whatever) So far, after 4.75 weeks of my “try not to eat” diet I have lost 18 kg. Have to say, it feels pretty good. Kate Moss was right. Still a long long long way to go, but I am actually optimistic that it might be achievable. A non-fat Jordan, can you even fathom such a thing? I am also not struggling with the hunger so much. I am kind of hungry all the time, but not flat out starving. I am actually starting to enjoy the hunger, it feels good.

So an update: at the (near) end of week 17 of The Plan™ I have walked a total of 334.4 km in 80 hrs 35 mins. That is an efficacy of 100%! Yea! I’m glad to be back in the black after the Mangatepopo Slump.

4 weeks until a go/no go decision on the Milford Track (i.e. I pay for the tickets). Gotta say it is looking positive.

It’s a Bittersweet Symphony this Life

June 27, 2015 / Jordan Setters / 2 Comments

I think I have myself back on The Plan™ It’s been a difficult couple of weeks to keep on The Plan™, last week was very wet and cold, and the beginning of this week was not much better. On the bright side I got to try out my waterproof hiking trousers, and even my thermals underneath. It wasn’t quite cold enough for the thermals I still ended up sweating by the end of each walk, but better that than be cold. Unfortunately walking in all that wet and cold gave me a cold. A proper cold, not man-flu (it’s a real thing!). So that stopped me on Thursday and Friday, I decided I needed to keep out of the cold and wind. On Thursday I managed to keep my activity levels high and get my 10000 steps in for the day by getting up from my desk every hour and walking twice around the block. I’m quite proud of that I will have to do that more often. It also made me go up and down the steps quite a bit too.

I’ve started taking my iPod with me (yes I still own an iPod classic) on my walks. I had been resisting doing that because, I don’t know, I thought listening to music took away from the gravitas of the activity. But actually it’s quite good, except I can’t not sing along as I walk, so the neighbourhood gets to hear my rendition of my “Top Rated” playlist. I also find that when Bittersweet Symphony is playing I get quite a belligerent purposeful stride. Go figure. It’s a good walking song.

The diet has been going well. I am getting used to the lack of food, and even enjoying the salads, which is pretty much all I am eating. I’m generally keeping myself to less than 2000 calories a day, which is well below my target. That leaves me with about a 3000 calories a day deficit, which is 3 times more than what I am trying for. This week I am about 16000 calories under budget, that’s the equivalent of not eating anything for four days. Oh yeah!

I had planned to not weigh myself until the end of July, to give myself time for there to be a noticeable change, and also because my scales at home can’t handle my weight as it was, so I didn’t want to stand on it and just get an “err” on the screen. That’s just demoralising. but I couldn’t resist this morning because I thought I was looking thinner, and lo and behold not only have I lost enough to actually be measured by the scale, but I have lost double digits – 11 kg in two weeks. If I keep this up I will lose that 50 kg in eight more weeks! Unlikely, the weight always comes off quick to start. But it did put me in good spirits.

So an update for the end of Week 14: I have walked a total of 247.8 km over 61 hours 48 minutes. That is pulling in at an efficacy of 94% to plan.

I haven’t done any mini-hikes or even longer walks since Mangatepopo, so I should probably do that.

I am also considering going for a few swims next week to up my activity level even more.