[CQ-Contest] Physical conditioning and contesting

[Dick Green WC1M]

I can corroborate everything you said. I didn't consider myself obese
either, but the charts indicated I was borderline and I was certainly
overweight and soft. I lost 50 lbs between January and May (size 40 waist to
about size 33.) The first 35 lbs came off almost exclusively by counting
calories, eating a well-balanced diet, and cutting out saturated fats and
highly-processed foods. Substituted reasonable portions of whole grain carbs
for unreasonable portions of processed carbs. Ate tons of fruits and
vegetables. Didn't cut out major food groups or eat bags of fried pork
rinds. Basically, the only truths in dieting are: "calories in -- calories
out" and "don't eat junk." Once you accept those truths, the rest is
straightforward. The last 15 lbs was a combination of continuing the
sensible diet and exercising more  -- because after losing so much weight I
felt like it. I figured one major lifestyle change at a time was enough.

Results: I did the entire 48 hours of CQ WW CW this year with less than an
hour and a half of sleep. I felt relatively good throughout, much better
than last year. I wouldn't say it was a piece of cake -- there were times
when I felt awful and times when I fell asleep momentarily in the chair. But
it was a far more tolerable experience, especially the first day, which has
traditionally been the hardest time for me. The enjoyment level was much,
much higher, too. Better contest endurance has been one of the many pluses
from losing all that excess weight (down 50 points in cholesterol was
probably more important, though...)

Note: losing a lot of weight did not enable me to win the contest. It will
take a massive weight gain in steel, aluminum and gray matter to do that!

73, Dick WC1M

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave N2NL [mailto:daven2nl at gmail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 7:37 AM
> To: cq-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] Physical conditioning and contesting
> 
> 
>      Beginning this past July, I made lifestyle changes in
> the way I ate and exercized.  I never considered myself 
> obese, since I always made the Coast Guard's weight 
> requirements, but I was carrying quite a few extra pounds.  I 
> often had knee, ankle, and lower back problems, the latter causing 
> difficulties during contests after being seated for long stretches.
>      Since then, I've taken bicycling back up, and so far 
> have lost more than 
> 40 pounds.  When I'm not at sea, I've been averaging between 
> 130 and 150 
> miles a week on the bike.  I've noticed a massive improvement 
> in the way I 
> feel.  During this past weekend's CQWW CW contest, I felt 
> absolutely no 
> discomfort after relatively long operating stretches.  This 
> suprised me, 
> considering I was using a 5 gallon pail as a chair!  In 
> addition, I felt much 
> less fatigue at the end of the weekend, even though I'd slept 
> only 3 hours 
> since Friday AM.  
>      This was the first contest I've participated in since I 
> began exercising.  
> Some may say contesting is not a physically demanding sport, 
> but I beg to 
> differ.  I felt dramatically better this time around, and 
> it's great to see 
> yet another benefit of my increased activity level.  This is 
> certainly 
> another advantage I can utilize during competition.
>      While we're looking for any advantage to improve our 
> score - new antennas, 
> SO2R, ETC -  most people seem to ignore the most important thing, the 
> operator.  When you look around at the next club meeting, you 
> can tell 
> there's lots of impovement possible when it comes to physical 
> conditioning.
>      My decision to make these changes was inspired in part 
> by Bill, W4AN.  
> Bill was an avid cyclist and someone I looked up to as a 
> contester.  It 
> really sucks not being able to share my story with him, nor 
> ever have the 
> opportunity to ride with him.
> 
> 73, Dave N2NL/MM
> Main Propulsion Chief, USCGC Thetis
> Currently deployed at sea
> 
>