Month: January 2019

I’m a little older than your average health blogger: I’m 51. I didn’t start on my healthy lifestyle journey until I was 48, and at the outset, I knew I couldn’t play by the younger people rules when it came to exercise. I have done a pretty good job of minimizing injuries by taking a day of rest between my run days, and it’s worked pretty well. The only time I have run afoul of this plan has been any time the National Guard has required me to run day after day. That’s when my body quickly starts to show its age, and I sustain injuries. Unfortunately for me, I was reminded of this yesterday when I decided to run the day after a good run day.

Now, before I go much further, I want to state that my goal is to run 5 days a week. For the past three years, I’ve run a day and then took a rest day, but I want to take my running and health to a better level, so I’ve begun daily, or almost daily runs. My running yesterday was possibly a bit premature, as I was off from running all last week, and I should have taken a day off and then done a two-day cycle followed by another day off followed by a three-day cycle. But no, I went right into it and now my right knee is sore.

I knew yesterday that I wouldn’t be able to run tonight. I’m going to the shooting range with my friend Steve, and there won’t be an opportunity for me to run, so I figured I’d put in an easy-ish 2 mile run. That two mile run turned out to be a much more difficult and painful experience than I had anticipated, but to be fair, once I got past the first half mile, the pain subsided and didn’t return until I was sitting at a table after dinner and tweaked my right knee. Now, it’s tender and I’m being very careful, but it is definitely sore.

Am I injured or just hurt? Well, I think I’m hurt. I think my knee is not used to the amount of running I’ve done in the past two days, and I think it’s just some minor pain from exerting more than usual. It doesn’t feel like I’ve injured anything which would make the knee hurt regardless of what I’m doing. Right now, as I am sitting here writing this article, there is no pain at all. If my knee were injured, I’d feel it.

Rest is a very important component of exercise. Most people tend to overlook it much as they overlook sleep’s importance in weight loss. Perhaps my goal of running 5 times a week is aggressive or not possible, but I’m going to keep trying for a while. I am taking off today and tomorrow from running, and I’ll likely put in a slow-ish three mile run on Saturday, take Sunday off again, and then hit the treadmill on Monday. I’ll report back then on how my knee is doing.

I didn’t take any photos of me running indoors yesterday, but I kind of wish I had. It’s the first time I’ve run on a treadmill within the past 25 years or so, and it went a lot better than the last time.

Sherry recently bought us a treadmill to use when the weather outside isn’t conducive to comfortable or safe running. I have a rule that I don’t run when the temperature is lower than my age, and this winter has definitely thrown a lot of cold days at us. Then, there are rainy days, and in the summertime, oppressively hot days. It was common or me to use the weather as a cop-out to keep from running. Now, that’s gone. I can get my three runs in a week as long as much schedule permits.

I did a three mile run in Tustin, CA last night. I say I did it in Tustin because with the new treadmill we have, it’s possible to pick a route on a map, and then it displays your route through Google Maps Street View. It’s very cool, and I got to see some scenery in a place I lived for a long time but that I haven’t seen in a long time. It made the run memorable and entertaining, keeping my mind off the running.

I also really liked the fact that the treadmill has shock absorbers, so my knees didn’t ache quite as much as they do when I run outside. I may start running more and more on the treadmill, if only to save my knees. It’s also nice that it forces me to keep a pace, although I was able to raise and lower the pace a bit here and there to help me get through the run at in a time I was happy with.

I actually look forward to running on it. I may even run again tonight for a few miles.

It is SO important, it deserves it’s own blog post. It’s the secret ingredient I rarely see discussed when people are talking about losing weight and getting healthy, but in my experience, it tends to be the most overlooked aspect of success in my own weight loss. Case in point: the past few weeks.

This weekend, as I wrote about yesterday, I drank quite a bit on Saturday night and I didn’t get any sleep. The result was an increase of 3 lbs on the scale. Did I actually drink 3 lbs of liquid? Of course not, but the body reacts to alcohol by retaining water as the liver works to rid the body of the toxins. That means a gain in water weight, and typically it comes off with good adherence to a low-carb/no-sugar diet and getting a lot of sleep. I have gone days with little sleep after drinking, and I always found that it took up to 5 days for the extra water weight to go away.

Well, this week, I got 10 hours of sleep on Sunday night and a solid 7.5 hours last night, and this morning, I’m back down to not only my pre-weekend weight, but actually even lower. I hit 182.0 lbs today. That makes getting back into the 170’s a real possibility.

So many people who are trying to lose weight do so through overloading on exercise. At the most basic level, weight loss happens when you expend more calories than you take in, so I guess if you can exercise enough, you should be able to lose weight. The problems arise when you consider the quality of the calories and their effects on the body as well as the number of calories physical activities actually burn as compared to the calories you eat. That’s why I say all the time that it’s very difficult to out exercise a bad diet. Another little ditty I preach quite often is “You lose weight in the kitchen; you get fit in the gym.” I need to come up with something that talks about how necessary sleep is to weight loss.

My quick ingredient list for successful weight loss

• Paleo Diet (or Whole30, Keto, Atkins, low-carb, etc)
• Portion control: eat a sensible amount
• No snacking
• Intermittent Fasting (IF) if possible
• Exercise: 30 minutes every other day (or every day if you can handle it)
• A minimum of 7 hours of sleep a night (this varies person to person: I need 7 while someone younger may need more and someone older may need less)
• NO SABOTAGE: that means no cheat days, cheat meals, cheat snacks, etc. If you are serious about losing the weight, this is a small price to pay. You need to change your relationship with food. Going back to a bad boyfriend or girlfriend from time to time is not healthy. Neither is going back to bad foods.

So, to sum up, do the things in the above list, but importantly, GET ENOUGH SLEEP!!!

I had drill this weekend in the National Guard, and it went pretty well in terms of eating. Saturday, I had some BBQ chicken that was actually quite tasty for lunch, and then for dinner I had some more BBQ, but this time it was a little bit of brisket and some turkey breast. What wasn’t so good was the alcohol I consumed Saturday night. It’s just something that happens, and I don’t regret it. What I regret most is that I only got 3.5 hours of sleep that night.

Sunday, I ate carnitas with grilled vegetables for lunch, and for dinner, Sherry made me a plate of the smoked turkey with some mashed sweet potatoes for dinner. I then went to sleep early, and woke up 11 hours later for work this morning. I feel well rested, and the scale wasn’t too nasty: up 3 lbs (which I know will go away by tomorrow or Wednesday just by eating right).

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, or if you’ve taken the time to read old posts, you’ll know that I advocate not missing out on social events, holidays, and special occasions because life is short and it’s worth living. One meal, or one evening of drinking isn’t going to derail you if you’re committed to the long game: being healthy for the rest of your life. Sure, it will set you back temporarily from seeing results on the scale, and in most cases of drinking, it will even make your weight go up. But this is artificial, as most of this is water weight from your body retaining fluids while it continues to process alcohol from your body. I find my body bloats for three days after drinking. Your experience may differ from this.

From my perspective, as someone who is very near my personal goal weight and who is in more maintenance mode than anything else, it’s okay to imbibe from time to time. What I did over the holidays was dumb (cookies, sweets, and hot drinks), but one night a month or so? That’s acceptable.

So, it’s back to the strict diet for me starting yesterday. I’m looking forward to seeing the numbers on the scale shrink again, and I’m looking forward to hopefully getting back into the 170’s later this week or early next week.

Another morning, another good reading on the scale. I even had wings and sweet potato fries last night with Sherry after I picked her up from the airport after a business trip, and I was sure that I was going to weigh more today than yesterday. However, I made sure to eat perfectly all day and I got 8 solid hours of sleep. I’m telling you; getting the right amount of sleep seems to be the secret weapon to losing weight consistently.

I can trace my weight loss spurts to times I’m getting enough sleep, and plateaus seem to happen when I’m not getting enough sleep. I need to keep that in mind this weekend during drill, as I’m pretty sure I won’t get enough sleep tonight or tomorrow night. Sunday, however, I’ll be all about getting into bed early and getting as much sleep as I can before waking up for work Monday morning.

People think that regular exercise is the most important ingredient for weight loss. It’s not. First, it’s the diet. If you eat crappy food, you will get crappy results. If you eat good food, you will see good results. Second, you need to get enough sleep. Period. Third, stick to the plan. That means resisting temptation, keeping your portion sizes normal, and persevering when you feel like a cheat. Remember: there is no cheating on a diet. It’s sabotage.

This week has been good to me. I know that the trend will end soon, and that I’ll hit another plateau for 2-5 days. But knowing it’s coming helps to soften the blow. Once you get to know how your body responds to diet and inputs, it’s easy to track where you are in your progress and to anticipate what’s coming next. It also helps a lot when diagnosing a stall and to help get you back on track.

I really shouldn’t be surprised anymore when I make steady progress with my weight loss and size loss, yet I still find myself giggling. Not always internal giggling, either. My wife hears me in the bathroom in the mornings; when the scale reads a heavier weight than the morning before, I groan. When I lose weight, I say something like, “Nice.” But when it happens three days in a row? I giggle.

It feels good to see the results of sticking with the plan. Sometimes, we have to rely on trust and faith to get us through when, regardless of the effort, the results just aren’t there. I had that happen for weeks at a time, and I had to push through the doubt and temptations and just do what needed to be done: eat right, get sleep, avoid foods with added sugar, and avoid alcohol. Of course, I voluntarily sabotaged myself a few times along the way, and I have nobody to blame for that but myself. But instead of wallowing in that blame game, I brushed myself off, got right back up, and kept at it. The reward: 5 solid lbs gone.

I have more to go, but I know I’m on a roll, and the motivation level keeps getting higher and higher. It gets easier to deal with the plateaus when you’re just coming off a good loss trend. I know it’s coming within 5 lbs or so, and I’m ready for it. I won’t be surprised about that, either. But I won’t be sad, either. It’s all a part of how our bodies work, and how we lose weight/size.

It’s the middle of the week, and I have drill in the National Guard coming up this weekend. That means a lot of work, long hours and honestly, a good time. I get to see a bunch of men and women I enjoy working with, and respect. They also motivate me to continue working hard to maintain my weight within regulations for my height.

This morning, I weighed myself (as is my daily practice) and I found that I had lost 3 lbs since Monday. This is a good thing, since Monday morning’s weigh-in was frightening. I’m at least headed back in the right direction, and sticking to the plan is giving me results. The bad news for me is that I will be unable to run tonight, tomorrow night, or Friday (and likely not at all this weekend, either) due to a very tight schedule. I might try to get to bed early tonight to wake up and run in the morning, but with the weather as it’s forecast to be, it’s unlikely.

However, there is good news in the consistency department: Sherry ordered a treadmill that arrives Saturday. That will take away my excuse of inclement weather. If it’s too hot, too cold, or raining outside, I’ll still be able to get a run in. I’m actually pretty happy about that; I want to get more consistent with my running.

I’ve been gone for a week due to a death in the family. While it was not unexpected due to a terminal illness, it occurred sooner than we expected. What ended up happening was for a week, I didn’t get any exercise and I ate foods I never eat. At one meal, for instance, we had bread pudding. Not as the dessert, mind you. It was the meal. And you know what? I was 100% okay with that. It felt right. It was delicious.

This morning, I once again stepped on the scale and to my horror, the scale read a number I haven’t seen in a while. Well, since returning from Ireland and Scotland, to be precise. The good news for me, once again, is that all I really need to do is stick to my good eating and the weight will come off. So, that’s what I’m doing.

You can’t always dictate what happens in life. There will be times when life has bigger plans for you, and it’ll throw your own plans out the window in a flaming ball of best intentions. There’s nothing you can do but roll with it, keep your chin up, and wait for life to give you a chance to take a breath and to regain control. That’s what I’ve done.

So, I ran last night, and while it wasn’t my best run, it was pretty darned good. I did push myself a bit, and while my legs are a little sore for it, my mind feels wonderful. There’s nothing like a good run to clear the mind. I also ate one of the prepped meals Sherry made for us for both lunch and dinner yesterday which, I’m certain, helped. I wasn’t able to fall asleep quickly last night, so I didn’t get as much sleep as I’d have liked, but I hope to rectify that tonight.

Rules. Stick to them. They work. Trust the process. Be strong in body and in mind. Resist the temptation to eat large portions. These are all things I’m telling myself as I get back to weight-loss mode.

I was lamenting the lack of progress on the scale to Sherry when she reminded me that losing weight and losing size is like a pendulum; it’s one or the other. When you lose weight on the scale, you rarely lose it at the waist at the same time. Then, when you’re losing size, you’re often stalled on the scale. She then asked me if I felt my clothing getting looser. Sure enough, my pants have been fitting better this week.

It’s easy to forget all the things involved with eating right and how to lose weight/get smaller. I’m a guy who lives health and fitness, yet from time to time, even I forget some of the basics. I’m glad to have Sherry to remind me of the things I sometimes have to remind her about. It’s a team effort, getting healthy and eating right, and I’m proud to have Sherry as my teammate.

As luck would have it, I didn’t run Friday night due to social things getting in the way, and Saturday morning, I hurt my back pretty badly. It’s sore enough today that I took some muscle relaxers and I’m sitting on the couch today, but I hope to be back to running as soon as tomorrow or Tuesday and resuming my push ups soon thereafter.

So, the takeaway from today’s post is that sometimes, your weight loss will stall. That’s okay. It’s a natural process. Pay attention to the other non-scale victories. Are you feeling better? Are you sleeping well? Do you feel more focused? Is your stomach less troubled? Do you have fewer cravings? Are temptations getting easier to get past? Then who cares about the number. It’ll eventually come down. Just keep doing the right thing and celebrate the little victories and keep doing what you do.

Pardon the kind of insane look on my face. I know, it’s kind of creepy, and me not having a shirt on only makes it creepier, but I had a good excuse: I had just gotten done with a run that turned out to be far faster than I thought I was capable of this soon after getting back into running, and I was also in a hurry to get showered and changed to go out to dinner with my wife, Sherry.

I had taken nearly a month off from running in December. I hadn’t realized that the break was that long until I wanted to look at my run times and to see how far back I’d slipped during the holidays and I found my last run was December 8th. Wow. That’s crazy stupid of me to have taken a break that long, but there were reasons (that, in retrospect, sounded good at the time, and while they may have been valid, sound like excuses to me now). I was sick for a few of those days, I had injuries for a few of those days, a good number of those days were very cold and raining, and then there was the trip to Toronto. Of course, normally, these sorts of things aren’t all back-to-back, but they were in December. The cumulative effect was that I didn’t run for four straight weeks.

When I ran for the first time after that four-week hiatus, I did okay. My mile times were acceptable, though admittedly, slow. I was over a minute slower per mile than my previous runs, and I felt it. My legs ached, and I felt like I was running through wet sand. The following two days, my legs burned. I ran again on Monday, and my legs were sore, but I pushed through and completed three miles. By the end of the run, my legs were still sore, but oddly, not nearly as much. My times were horrible; a 10:36/mile average over the three miles which is a solid two minutes slower per mile than my average. I figured that it would take me some time to get back down into the low 9’s, let alone the 8’s again.

I had two friends from the National Guard over to my house on Tuesday night, and while we were talking, I told them that I was going to be running again on Wednesday after work. They both asked if they could join me, and I figured, “Sure; why not!” I know that exercise with other people is better than doing it alone because of the motivation most people get from being in a group environment. I’m not immune to it, either.

When I got home on Wednesday, I changed out of my work clothes and with both of the guys there, I hit my push-ups and got 60 done. We then had a quick talk about our track: laps around the lake in front of my house. Each lap is just under a quarter of a mile, so my plan was to do 13 laps for 3 miles. I told them my pace would be under 10 minutes/mile, but I wouldn’t be going fast. They all said that sounded good, and we took off.

Boy did we take off.

The first quarter mile pace was something around 6:40/mile (WHAT?!?). We settled down into an 7:40/mile pace for the second quarter of a mile, and I stuck at an 8:15/mile pace for the rest of the first mile. I slowed a bit to an 8:36/mile pace for the second mile, and then pulled it back in for an 8:18/mile average pace for the third and final mile.

WHAT THE HELL.

I am certain I would have sandbagged it if I had ran alone. I thought I was still too far out of shape to be able to run that fast, let alone to do it comfortably. I wasn’t racing the guys, and I wasn’t trying to prove anything. What’s more interesting to me is that I wasn’t struggling. Sure, I was working, and it was a conscious effort to keep the pace going, but my breathing was steady and full, and I felt really good through the run. My lungs were giving me the air I needed, and my legs actually felt good.

I learned that I need to run with others more often, and that I need to push myself a little harder on my runs. There are some days when I’ve got longer runs planned, and those runs are supposed to be run at 80% effort, which for me will be in the 9’s. But when I’m doing my shorter runs, I need to put more effort into it. When I do my sprints, I should be in the 6’s for those quarter miles.

Why did I go into so much detail about running on a healthy lifestyle/diet blog? Because there are a lot of parallels to eating right. When I started my healthy lifestyle, I did so with the help and support of my wife. When I say I couldn’t have done it without her, it’s not a cliche, and I’m not saying it to be nice. It’s a fact. She was the rock I needed at times to get past some emotional hurdles (and admittedly, I provided the same service for her at key moments throughout our journey). As recently as two days ago, Sherry was the one motivating me when I was feeling like I wasn’t making progress fast enough.

Sherry also took on the lion’s share of food prep. I try to help her as much as I can, but the fact remains that she is the one who comes up with the recipes, makes the shopping lists, and does most of the prep. I go to the grocery with her as often as I can (way more often than not), and I try to do food prep with her as her sous chef. I leave the finesse with the recipes to her (thankfully; she’s an amazing cook!).

Even with our own exercise, although we run separately, we try to do as much as we can together: hiking, bike riding, and other physical activities. We are competitive, and when we do workouts together, we end up really pushing ourselves to the limit. I’ve come back from all of our bike rides worn out!

Teamwork will get you through. Whether it’s a run, a bike ride, or a diet; working together will make you more successful.