Weightloss on Marmanold.com

Strength Training Snack Routine

Michael W. Arnold — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 13:30:50 -0600

Since August of 2024 I’ve been on quite the health journey. I started walking on my desk treadmill that month and, starting January 2025, committed to hitting 50,000 steps per week.

Since January, I’ve consistently exceeded my 50k steps and have had quite the physical transformation. I’ve lost at least 15 pounds and have seen my waist go down by a few inches. I have more energy, my joints hurt less, and — even with an incredibly difficult work situation — my depression and mood are under control. I’m still amazed that something as simple as slowly walking while I’m in meetings has had such a positive effect.

Back in July, I was approaching a year of fitness. I was down several sizes in jeans, shirts were fitting better, and I’d just come back from a wonderful trip to Europe. My good friend Claude was predicting that I’d be at a healthy, stabilized, weight in another twelve months. The habit was established, I knew I’d keep at it, and I was truly excited about the progress I’d start seeing over the next year. Without dieting, without stress, without a gym, without the guilt of being away from family, and without exhaustion, I’d found a way to get to and maintain a healthly weight. Finally.

But, I started looking back at old pictures of myself when I was 29 and 130 pounds. I was skinny, but I wasn’t happy with how I looked. I still had a flabby chest and a small belly. I looked skinny, but not healthy. Years of reading about health let me know that what was missing then — and still missing now — was strength training. But, I thought, I don’t have the time or equipment to strength train. Skinny-fat is simply the best I can do.

Thankfully, I happened to have Claude open and decided to do a little research. With only the dumbbell in the closet, without encroaching on my morning routine, without keeping me in my office after work, and without a huge time commitment, what was possible?

After a good bit of back and forth, some additional research on my own, and a lot of tweaking, I ended up with a simple strength training plan. According to Claude and the Internet, it turned out I didn’t need a huge or complex fitness routine. If I could commit to doing three little five-minute sessions between meetings twice a week, I was promised I’d achieve results.

I’ll admit it, I didn’t believe it one bit. It seemed too easy. There’s no way people were getting strong doing this. But, as it was so easy and I already had the dumbbell, I decided to give it a try. I had nothing to lose.

Well, let me tell you, it turns out, it really was that simple! Today I finished my tenth week following this plan. The first few weeks I was really sore, but I was surprised to find how energized strength training made me. (Even though I was only starting with a five pound weight!) I dropped the snack concept and starting doing all of my sets together during lunch or when I finished for the day. Within a few weeks, I could feel tightness in my arms. I was actually getting strong! By week six, I was feeling so good I started training three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). By week eight, I was ready to move up in weight (10 pounds!).

Now finishing up week ten, I feel great. I’m getting stronger and you can start to see some definition in my arms. My posture has totally changed. I feel planted, strong, and confident. My walking has somehow gotten even easier. Best of all, I’m exicted about the summer. Instead of skinny-fat, I’m on track to be a fit dad.

Throughout this journey, the thing that keeps coming back to me is how easy all of this is. I’m frustrated at how difficult fitness has been marketed to be. No apps, no gyms, no fancy equipment, no diets, no stress. I dropped the chemicals, eat real food, walk slowly for 2-hours a day, and do a little 15-minute dumbbell circuit in my office every so often. That’s it.

So, my friends, that’s how I’ve gotten healthy. That’s how I’m going to be fit and healthy for the first time in my life this summer.

Drop the ultra-processed foods, get a treadmill, and lift some dumbbells. It’ll change your life.

My Strength Training Routine

🌅 Morning Snack (5 minutes)

Bicep Curls

3 sets of 10-12 reps
Lift toward shoulders, elbows at sides

Dumbbell Rows

3 sets of 12-15 reps (each arm)
Pull to ribs like starting lawnmower

☀️ Midday Snack (5 minutes)

Chest Press

3 sets of 10-12 reps
Lying down, push weights to ceiling

Reverse Flies

3 sets of 12-15 reps
Bird wings - squeeze shoulder blades

🌆 Afternoon Snack (5 minutes)

Hammer Curls

3 sets of 10-12 reps
Palms face each other

External Rotations

2 sets of 15-20 reps (each arm)
Elbow glued to side, rotate hand out

Bonus Exercises

Add when you have extra time

Overhead Press

2 sets of 8-10 reps

Russian Twists

2 sets of 20 total

Health Plan Success

Michael W. Arnold — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 15:00:44 -0500

The last fifteen years have been a wild health ride for me.

I entered my mid-20s at nearly 200lbs. Which, when you’re only 5'5" is a rather unhealthy place to be.

Thankfuly, my early 20s found me fully immersed in anarcho-capitalism, LewRockwell.com, and — of course — Ron Paul. Radical libertarianism aside, LewRockwell.com in the late aughts was rife with posts and essays on the benefits of the various paleo diets. As one does in their 20s, I went all in.

By 27 or 28 I was 130lbs, could wear a boys XL¹, and was cycling miles each week on my bike. I’d never been so healthly in my life and I felt great.

The first half of my 30s, I was able to keep things mostly in control. Paleo fell a little to the wayside, but I never went back to eating SAD². I mostly kept on track by restrictive dieting, calorie counting, Weight Watchers, and various apps. I had nearly zero time for exerise and basically did none. Still, with calorie restriction and a fairly young metabolism I kept my weight under 150lbs.

But then, my mid-30s hit. My metabolism tanked, stress increased, and everything was out of wack. It was incredibly hard to lose weight. Even to maintain a weight required some pretty extreme calorie reduction. I discovered a border-line eating disorder. At some point I gave up and stopped trying. I determined that constantly stressing and thinking about food was less healthy than the weight.

By July 2024, my “fat pants” were getting tight and I realized that instead of being the 160lbs I thought I was, I was a tad over 180lbs. I’d promised myself I’d never let myself get here again, so I took immediate action.

Michael’s Magical Health Plan for Lazy People

I knew myself well enough to know that I couldn’t do a diet, wouldn’t go to the gym, and wouldn’t give up my morning routine.

What I had at my disposal was 8a to 5p while I was at work, a standing desk, and a treadmill I’d bought as part of a previous (failed) effort to lose weight.

My wife and I were already really far down the path of healthy eating. We’d already gotten chickens, a CSA, made our own bread, and stayed away from ultra-processed foods. With our diet, we were feeling better and I was maintaining my weight. I really only needed a way to lose the fat and increase my strength.

Working with my wife, I devised the following two-prong approach:

Walk 50k Steps/Week on the Desk Treadmill³

a. Barefoot if possible⁴

b. Strive for bonus steps/exercise on bike & weekends
Maintain a Whole Food Diet⁵

a. No Ultra-Processed Foods

b. Home-made Yoghurt ⁶

That’s really and truly it.

We maintained the diet we had started a year or more prior after watching Food, Inc. and several other related documentaries. And, I started walking on the desk treadmill for at least 50k steps during meetings. I walk at various speeds (sometimes fast, sometimes incredibly slow). My goal isn’t calories, time, or anything else. Just the steps my treadmill records. Steps off the treadmill don’t count. (Unless it’s a big hike, bike ride, or exercise-focused activity.)

I started this back in July and hit my target for July & August. I fell off consistency (and slowed progress) until I recommited in January. Since January, I’ve consistently hit or exceeded my 50k target.

In that time I’ve:

dropped down to 169lbs
gone down four belt holes
can stand up from kneeling with no support⁷
dropped my Diet Coke habit
have noticable core strength
was able to unload 45 bags of mulch with no problem

In all this time, I haven’t tracked a single calorie, stopped drinking, or changed anything about my diet (other than the artificial sweeteners).

Per my good friend Claude, if I continue my 50k steps each week, I’ll achieve and maintain a health body weight by Christmas.

This is by far the easiest and most sustainable fitness and health plan I’ve ever followed. Generally I only need an hour and fourty-five minutes of meetings each work day to achieve my target. Even on days where I can’t get my steps in during the day, a round of Age of Empires IV while walking gets me there or pretty close. (I might need to do a few extra thousand steps the next day, but that’s twenty to thirty additional minutes, so no big deal.)

Because I’m targeting only 50K steps per week, I’ve got built-in space for sick days and travel. It’s really not a big deal to miss some days and catch up doing a 20k session or a few 15k sessions.

Conclusion & TLDR

In conclusion:

Watch Food, Inc.
Buy an underdesk treadmill
Walk 50k steps per week (10k per work day)

That’s it. That’s the health plan. Do it and you’ll see results. Do it and you’ll establish a habit that’s easy to maintain and requires little thought.

Got questions? Need more details? Hit me up on Micro.blog!

#hobbitsrules #shortkings #kidssizesarecheaper ↩︎
the Standard American Diet ↩︎
I purchased a Walking Pad S1 back in March 2022 and it’s still going strong. ↩︎
Do your own research, but I’m pretty convinced on the benefits of barefoot walking. I’ve seen noticable core strength, better balance, and greater flexability all from my 50k barefoot steps on the desk treadmill. ↩︎
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” - Michael Pollan ↩︎
I recently read Super Gut by Willian Davis. I’ve not gone fully down the path of making his specific yoghurt recipes, but he did inspire me to make yoghurt at home. For the last several months I’ve been making my own yoghurt from a French culture I got at the grocery store. I’ve been eating at least 1/4 cup day each day and I notice I just feel “better.” It’s hard to define, but good. ↩︎
An odd, but important, metric for a priest. ↩︎