Category: Nutrition

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Lost another half-inch on the waist

If you’ve been following along, you know I’ve been stymied by this gut fat I just can’t seem to lose. It’s not that I look bad — I look so much better than I used to — but a fitness quest is a fitness quest, and having excess fat around the waist does not fit with my vision.

Well, after a month-long plateau, I’ve lost yet another half-inch from around my waist.

While I am not counting calories, I believe calorie-restriction (“eat less”) is the tactic I am taking. I am not eating as much. I usually have a bit of breakfast, take in protein shakes (almond milk, whey protein, frozen fruit) during the day, then having a nice large salad at suppertime. I always add some protein to the salad, like a piece of fish, some shrimp, or maybe some ham or turkey.

Sometimes I’ll have lunch, if I’m hungry or if I have a meeting.

On top of the waist reduction, I am also weighed in under 170 for the first time in — well, honestly, I don’t recall when.

I am not a huge proponent of the scale as a measure of fitness. After all, excess body fat is bad, muscle is good, and muscle weighs more than fat, so it stands to reason that if you are gaining weight, and that weight is muscle, not fat, that’s a good thing. So weight is not the be-all-end-all, but it is a pretty good indicator for most of us non-Schwarzenegger types.

I have some concern that I am losing muscle. Even though I’ve been working out as hard as usual, if not harder, with my resistance routines, I have not been doing the aerobics pieces. I’m skipping those, because I am trying to gauge their effect on my arthritic left knee. So far, so good — my knee feels much better these days without all the bouncing around — but I must be losing some leg muscle, right? I dunno.

Anyway, I’m not going hungry, and I feel great. I’ve been doing more yoga, my back is in good shape, I can wall squat for a good three minutes without problem, so my legs seem to be as strong as ever.

I hope to lose yet another inch or so around the waist. Let’s see if I hit another plateau.

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Eat less, move more

Eat less, move more. It’s a fitness mantra that’s been around for a long time. And it works. But people, like the lady in the MadTV skit, want an easy way out.

The madness of it is that eating less and moving more is an easy way out.

Eat less. Hmmmm…. How hard is that? Remove simple carbs from your diet. Do it incrementally. Get rid of those sugars little by little. First sodas. Then donuts. Then cupcakes. Then bagels. Or, bag it, keep the bagels, but get rid of the obvious sugars. Guaranteed you will be eating less.

People tell me, “I don’t see how you can just not eat sugars.” First of all, if you cannot control what you eat, you have addictions you should address. Second of all, those addictions can be beaten, just like any other addiction.

I used to sometimes bake a german chocolate cake, add the coconut-pecan frosting, and have that for dinner. Half the cake. The rest would be gone in a day.

I used to buy a six-pack of Cinnabons and eat three of them without blinking.

I had to stop doing that because it was killing me! Did I want to stop? No! I was addicted.

But now I can be in the same room with a German chocolate cake or a Cinnabon and not even feel tempted.

Maybe cake and cinnamon rolls are not your weakness, but what is? Coke? Cupcakes? At some point you need to make the decision to stop … and … then … just … stop. Add more fresh or frozen fruit into your diet — it’s sweet but healthy. Get the organic kind to keep the sugars down, and eat the berries and fruits as nature intended. Or don’t do that, but you gotta get off the sugar!

Eventually, even though you cannot imagine it now, your cravings for those sweet treats will diminish.

As for moving more, this is a simple thing, too. You don’t even need to work out. It’s a good idea to work out, to build muscle and keep your mind and body fit, but these simple tips will get you moving in the right direction.

  • Wear a pedometer. Shoot for 10,000 steps. Having a number goal will keep you moving. When I used to wear a pedometer, I started at 10k steps, then moved up to 15k as a minimum. The pedometer shown above is a good one. It’s silent, no annoying clicks. A number on a pedometer was a real motivator for me, when I was getting started. If I’d look down and see it was under 5000 at 2:00, that would get me moving.
  • Park far away. Don’t look for that parking spot up close. Park far away. This not only forces you to walk more, but also you avoid traffic, and you don’t need to search for a spot.
  • Get up every hour or two from your computer. You need to rest your eyes anyway, so get up and move around for a little bit. Walk around the house or office. Just walk. I walk in circles around my kitchen island, then up and down the stairs a few times.
  • Walk on the phone. If you are on the phone and use a cordless or cell, walk around while your talking. You can get in a good mile during a twenty-minute conversation that you normally would have wasted sitting and getting fatter.
  • Read while you walk. This is a new one for me, but now that I have a Kindle app on my phone, reading while walking — indoors, obviously, not out on the street — is much easier.

There’s no silver bullet to kill the fat that is killing us. Eat less, move more is the only way to go.

 

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So much health and fitness information. What should we believe?

Wow, there is so much health and fitness information out there. Can I really get fit and strong in only 30 minutes a week? Should I avoid carbs? Are fats bad for me? How about cholesterol? Aerobics — good or bad? And stretching?

The first thing you need to know about any information you receive is that the person presenting you with that information has an agenda separate from the obvious one. Usually that person is trying to make money.

Think about it.

Let’s say you have built a pretty good salary selling people on low-fat living. Then low-carb living comes into vogue, becomes the publicly acclaimed healthy way to go. Are you going to give up your salary, even in the face of scientific evidence that debunks the basis for it? (I am not saying this evidence exists for low-fat living — this just an example.) NO! You are going to continue to push the scientific evidence that shows low-fat is the way to go!

What if you are a pretty successful personal trainer, making $60 for a 45-minute session. You have a list of clients who keep a roof over your head, food on your table, and a 60-inch tv in your living room. Are you really going to tell them that they can get in shape in only 30 minutes a week?

How about if you are a government agency facing budget cuts if you don’t endorse the version of the food pyramid your primary supporters in Congress want pushed through for whatever political reasons they have?

I gave up on information I get from others long ago. This is not to say that I ignore it, but I filter it, picking and choosing what sounds right. Primarily what I do is try it out on my own body.

Exercise is supposed to make my arthritic knee feel better? Let’s try it out. Well, yoga definitely helps, but plyometrics does not.

Carbs are evil and making me fat? Let’s try it out. Maybe it looks like calories are more important than the actual types of nutrition that comprise them.

I know, I know. It takes a lot of energy to try  stuff out. It’s much easier to believe in the one thing, do it, then blame the thing when it doesn’t work, or praise it when it does. That situation — when the thing actually works — creates problems, too, because even if it works for you, it might not work for someone else.

I love Tony Horton’s P90X. LOVE IT! But it’s not for everyone. In fact, all the parts of it are not even for me. But I love the parts that do work, and I do them, and that’s my thing. I have to be careful, though, not to evangelize about it. I only really talk about Tony Horton’s P90X when asked.

So, back to the original point — how about this blog? Should you believe me?

You won’t see a lot of answers here. I raise questions, try things out, and let you know what works for me. My thought is that maybe some of the stuff that works for me will work for you. That’s all. This blog costs me nothing to keep. I do make a kickback on any links you click to buy stuff here, but that’s not how I make my living.

My goal is just to let you know — honestly — my experiences in my quest for fitness. My hope is that you’ll find it interesting enough to read from time to time.

My agenda? To help you get healthier and more fit.

Believe it.

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How is the diet going?

It’s been three weeks since I posted this update — and my waistline has not budged since.

To summarize, after many months of my waistline not shrinking beyond the fantastic losses I had experienced early on in my fitness quest, I had gone back to calorie-counting to try to lose some more inches of fat. I put myself back on a 2000-calorie (give or take) diet, shooting for 50% protein, 30% carbs, 20% fat. Within a couple weeks, I’d lost an inch off my waist.

Three weeks later, however, my waist size is still the same as it was after losing that first inch.

Hmmmm….

I am not sure what to make of this. Admittedly, I do not measure other parts of my body to see if there are changes there. Maybe the fat is coming off other places. But it doesn’t seem to be coming off my waist.

I’m going to give this another couple weeks, through the end of March, and then evaluate whether I need to go to more extreme measures. Yes, it’s getting to be a bit of an obsession.

I’m actually kinda glad about that. I don’t want to lose my drive for fitness, get discouraged, quit. At this point, quitting would not be an easy thing to do, though. I know too much. I have seen too many great changes in my body. I can’t go back to what I was.

So, the diet is going great. I am not seeing the changes I want to necessarily see in my body, but I am still eating food I love and not going hungry, so I hope the rest will take care of itself.

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“Just Do It” or Transition Dieting – Which is right for you?

I am a “just do it” kinda guy. I have a hard time doing anything in moderation, but I have trained myself to be moderate by completely eliminating the behavior I want to change for a period of time.

For example, I used to drink way too much. WAY too much. So I quit completely for 18 months. During that time, I did not even try a drink from a great bottle of wine my brother bought at a reunion we had (much to his dismay). I do drink again now, but I have control of it.

Same with grains. I used to be Mr. Grain. I had sandwiches, pasta, pizza, cereal, you name it, at every meal. So I quit eating grains completely for 6 months. I eat grains again now, but I have control of my consumption.

When I started Tony Horton’s P90X, I followed the diet plan supplied with the program. It was quite a bit different than what I had been eating, but I was easily able to change my mind about that and focus on my new style of eating. Just do it.

I know, though, that many people have a hard time, and I only recently read an article that might help those people. It’s about The Transition Diet.

The Transition Diet is a way to move yourself from one way of eating to another. It’s designed to get you to alter your diet in certain ways on a weekly basis over an 8-week period, so you can ease yourself into a healthier diet. There are cheat days involved, too, which, I think, all good diets have — you gotta be allowed to indulge yourself every so often.

You should read the whole article, but the essence of it is:

  • Week 1 – Eliminate junk food
  • Week 2 – Eat small and often
  • Week 3 – Eat some colorful, low-density food (like vegetables) at every meal
  • Week 4 – Cook at home
  • Week 5 – Reduce starchy carbohydrates (like rice, potatoes, bread)
  • Week 6 – If man makes it, don’t eat it – no processed foods!
  • Week 7 – Eat healthy, but without any rules — do it by feel, what you think is healthy
  • Week 8 – Eat a perfect diet — and it’s up to you to figure out what that is

Weeks 1 through 5 are cumulative, so you continue them all the way through. For example, week 1 you eliminate junk food and you continue to eliminate it through the rest of the transition.

Week 6 is more of a cleanse week, so really try not to eat any processed foods. Then add them back in, although hopefully in much lower quantities, after that week.

As I said before, all the weeks have cheat or reward days, so you have that outlet for your old habits.

I’m more of a “just do it” kinda guy, but you may not be like that, so if you really want to eat healthier, but have a hard time forcing yourself into a drastic diet change, you may want to try transitioning into it.