Today (Aug 18 2019) marks one year as a non-smoker. That's one thing I don't miss. I quit smoking with the help of Chantix. I don't normally like a prescription solution to my problems, but that's one that I knew would work. I quit smoking in 2008 by using Chantix. It is a goofy drug that has weird side-effects, but I can attest that it works for quitting.
I took Chantix for two weeks. I quit smoking at the beginning of the second week. I've been quit for a whole year. To celebrate, I have caught some sort of chest cold which is making it difficult to breath. I'm doing an extended fast to see if that will help me get rid of the cold. This is just an experiment for my own knowledge. It's definitely not scientific, but it'll be interesting at least. I will report back about that in a few days.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Saturday, August 17, 2019
Extended Fasts
For me, intermittent fasting works pretty well, and this isn't an anti-IF post. For most days IF or OMAD is what I do. Some days I feel like I have to go longer though. When that happens I do my normal 20 hour fast and then keep going until I can't go any more. Admittedly the longest I've went doing this was 42 hours. I typically set my goals much higher and then fall short. Today for example, I've set my goal for 110 hours. It's currently Sunday morning, and my fasting goal ends on Wednesday.
Going for more than two days without eating just seems ridiculous to me. On a 36 hour fast, you literally just skip one full day of eating and wait a bit on the third day before you eat. For instance, if you start your fast on Friday evening at 8pm. You don't eat Saturday. You can eat next at 8am on Sunday. This is the exact scenario for my 42 hour fast. I had started my fast on Friday evening and didn't eat until Sunday afternoon.
I feel like doing a longer fast once a week is good for escalating my fat loss and dealing with slow metabolism. I have locked myself into a routine where I don't fast a couple days per week, do one extended fast, and the rest of the time I'm doing 20/4. Perhaps I would have better results with 20/4 all the time, but it seems like my metabolism grinds to a halt when I'm doing that.
The takeaway from all of this is that I have reduced my calorie intake on a weekly basis and though I see an uptick in weight regularly, I'm still on a steady decrease of fat and I'm keeping my lean mass level.
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Things I've Learned over the Last Three Months About Fat/Weight Loss, Eating, and Exercise
Two days ago, I reached a small milestone in my trek to change my body and health. I've officially been on this journey for 3 months or 1/4th of a year. I've lost 30 pounds, 25 pounds of fat and 5 pounds of lean. I'm not happy about the 5 pounds of lean, but I'm chalking it up as collateral damage. The first three weeks were spent doing 0-carbs. The rest of the time, I've been intermittent fasting and watching my carb intake. I also increased my exercise and activity level quite a bit, and I've been gradually increasing the intensity of my exercise along the way.
I started out just walking. Now I do interval training on my treadmill which kicks my ass quite a bit, but really gets the heart going. My current workout would have killed me 3 months ago, so I feel very positive about that. I wish my weight loss was moving along a little faster, mainly because I want to increase my exercise faster than my body can accept it. For instance, I do a 36 minute treadmill workout where I run for 30 seconds, then walk for 30 seconds, back and forth the entire time. So I get 18 minutes of running and 18 minutes of walking. It kills my shins, but my ankles and knees are handling it okay at least. If I were 20 pounds lighter, I could do more and it wouldn't hurt my legs so much.
So what have I learned in the last three months? The answer is "quite a bit about my body". I'm getting older (42 in October) and I wish I had been doing this 10 years ago. I would have been so much better off right now, if I had. Alas, I waited till mid-life before I decided to do something about my terrible body. So the first thing I've learned is that being healthy a year from now is a problem I have to deal with today. This is actually important to think about. People say things like this all the time, but seldom do others listen. You have to think, "what do I want my body to look like in two years?" and then work toward that. You have to create a mental image of what you want your body to look like, and then focus on that as you work toward it.
Now, your looks may not be your primary goal. Maybe it's more about health. "I want to run 5 miles without stopping." or "I want to be able to do a triathlon." You have to set your goal in the future. I wish I had thought about this more when I was 32. I wish 32 year old would have envisioned what he wanted to look like by the time he was 42. Oh well.
The second thing I've learned in the last three months is that there's a ton of experts that aren't really experts. There seems to be a huge amount of people specializing in nutrition and health that can't agree with each other on what is correct. I think this mainly has to do with anecdotal scenarios where everyone's body is different and we teach based on our own experience. Some people have huge success being vegetarian. Others have huge success doing keto. Some have success with paleo. Some exercise a lot, others don't. Some say exercising breaks a fast because it turns off ketosis. Others say exercise is effective during fasting. No one really seems to have 100% of it correct. It's like we all have to just stab at it with a knife and see what draws the most blood. I've literally spend the last 3 months experimenting with a lot of different things and haven't touched the surface of all the different things out there on the world wide web of information.
The third thing I've learned is that even when you think you have it figured out, you may have to change/adapt to accommodate a change in your own body. What worked for you at the beginning may not work for you a month later. I lost around 15 pounds in three weeks of no carbs, but most of that was the first two weeks and I plateaued for a week. I've been fasting for the rest of the time while my friend has been doing keto, we've lost the same amount of weight.
The fourth thing I've learned and I'll make this my final thing for this post... it's truly 80/20. It's 80% diet and 20% exercise. However, at the beginning, it should probably be more like 95% diet and 5% exercise. You have to concentrate on your diet way more than your exercise. I can go outside and burn 1000 calories running for an hour, but then I'm starving and have a hard time not raiding the fridge and eating 1200 calories to make up for it. You have to curve/change your eating habits tremendously before you can lose fat. The more fat you lose, the easier and more effective your exercising will be. The more you exercise, the more muscle you have, the more your body will burn calories. It's a cycle. It's the same cycle that got me fat, but in reverse. I got a sit-down job, I exercised less, I lost some lean muscle, my body stopped burning calories as efficiently, I ate things that gave me instant energy but made me crash (sugar), which also made me hungry more often, which made me eat more, which made me gain more weight, which made it harder to exercise, so on and so forth. I have to reverse this cycle. It's all about this cycle. It has two different directions. I have to make sure that I'm always pointed in the correct direction. The rest will fall into place.
I started out just walking. Now I do interval training on my treadmill which kicks my ass quite a bit, but really gets the heart going. My current workout would have killed me 3 months ago, so I feel very positive about that. I wish my weight loss was moving along a little faster, mainly because I want to increase my exercise faster than my body can accept it. For instance, I do a 36 minute treadmill workout where I run for 30 seconds, then walk for 30 seconds, back and forth the entire time. So I get 18 minutes of running and 18 minutes of walking. It kills my shins, but my ankles and knees are handling it okay at least. If I were 20 pounds lighter, I could do more and it wouldn't hurt my legs so much.
So what have I learned in the last three months? The answer is "quite a bit about my body". I'm getting older (42 in October) and I wish I had been doing this 10 years ago. I would have been so much better off right now, if I had. Alas, I waited till mid-life before I decided to do something about my terrible body. So the first thing I've learned is that being healthy a year from now is a problem I have to deal with today. This is actually important to think about. People say things like this all the time, but seldom do others listen. You have to think, "what do I want my body to look like in two years?" and then work toward that. You have to create a mental image of what you want your body to look like, and then focus on that as you work toward it.
Now, your looks may not be your primary goal. Maybe it's more about health. "I want to run 5 miles without stopping." or "I want to be able to do a triathlon." You have to set your goal in the future. I wish I had thought about this more when I was 32. I wish 32 year old would have envisioned what he wanted to look like by the time he was 42. Oh well.
The second thing I've learned in the last three months is that there's a ton of experts that aren't really experts. There seems to be a huge amount of people specializing in nutrition and health that can't agree with each other on what is correct. I think this mainly has to do with anecdotal scenarios where everyone's body is different and we teach based on our own experience. Some people have huge success being vegetarian. Others have huge success doing keto. Some have success with paleo. Some exercise a lot, others don't. Some say exercising breaks a fast because it turns off ketosis. Others say exercise is effective during fasting. No one really seems to have 100% of it correct. It's like we all have to just stab at it with a knife and see what draws the most blood. I've literally spend the last 3 months experimenting with a lot of different things and haven't touched the surface of all the different things out there on the world wide web of information.
The third thing I've learned is that even when you think you have it figured out, you may have to change/adapt to accommodate a change in your own body. What worked for you at the beginning may not work for you a month later. I lost around 15 pounds in three weeks of no carbs, but most of that was the first two weeks and I plateaued for a week. I've been fasting for the rest of the time while my friend has been doing keto, we've lost the same amount of weight.
The fourth thing I've learned and I'll make this my final thing for this post... it's truly 80/20. It's 80% diet and 20% exercise. However, at the beginning, it should probably be more like 95% diet and 5% exercise. You have to concentrate on your diet way more than your exercise. I can go outside and burn 1000 calories running for an hour, but then I'm starving and have a hard time not raiding the fridge and eating 1200 calories to make up for it. You have to curve/change your eating habits tremendously before you can lose fat. The more fat you lose, the easier and more effective your exercising will be. The more you exercise, the more muscle you have, the more your body will burn calories. It's a cycle. It's the same cycle that got me fat, but in reverse. I got a sit-down job, I exercised less, I lost some lean muscle, my body stopped burning calories as efficiently, I ate things that gave me instant energy but made me crash (sugar), which also made me hungry more often, which made me eat more, which made me gain more weight, which made it harder to exercise, so on and so forth. I have to reverse this cycle. It's all about this cycle. It has two different directions. I have to make sure that I'm always pointed in the correct direction. The rest will fall into place.
Weight Loss Plateaus
Plateaus are a very frustrating thing when losing weight. It's a struggle to get over those humps. I've hit a few along the way, but the current one seems to be the worse. I think it probably gets worse the further along you go. I've been paying close attention to my body and my eating routines trying to see how each affect my body anecdotally.
I've found that my metabolism slows down quite a bit from fasting. This doesn't mean that I'm going to stop fasting. I'm just thinking that I need to be aware of that and adjust my fasting routine to see if it can be improved. Earlier this week I did a 42 hour fast and my weight wasn't affected by it tremendously. I think over the next few days I'll see more results, but I'm trying to make a decision on how I approach the next few days in terms of fasts. Would it be more beneficial for me to eat and potentially increase my metabolism?
I'm not sure. I can say that I've noticed that some food increase my metabolism. Some of those foods were cut out of my diet due to high carb content. Perhaps carbs aren't terrible after all. Well, high fiber carbs aren't bad at least. I hate to use the term common sense but perhaps some of this "diet" stuff goes back to common sense. It doesn't make sense to eat nothing but sugar all the time. It doesn't make sense to eat nothing but meat all the time either. All of these fads seem to cut out something from your diet that you may need.
For instance, if I eat all veggies, I'm going to miss out on a ton of protein that I really need. So I'll keep eating meat. I've cut out all bread and rice because of their carb content, but there's plenty of asian cultures that live on rice as a primary source of nourishment and they don't suffer from near as much obesity. It all really goes back to the old idea of eating whatever you want, but not overdoing anything.
The plateaus may be good points to evaluate what we are doing and test new ideas. Plateaus also test our resolve. Losing weight/fat is already challenging enough. I check the scale every day and see that I'm up or down a pound or so. I chart it all and watch for trends. Plateaus make me want to try harder.
I've found that my metabolism slows down quite a bit from fasting. This doesn't mean that I'm going to stop fasting. I'm just thinking that I need to be aware of that and adjust my fasting routine to see if it can be improved. Earlier this week I did a 42 hour fast and my weight wasn't affected by it tremendously. I think over the next few days I'll see more results, but I'm trying to make a decision on how I approach the next few days in terms of fasts. Would it be more beneficial for me to eat and potentially increase my metabolism?
I'm not sure. I can say that I've noticed that some food increase my metabolism. Some of those foods were cut out of my diet due to high carb content. Perhaps carbs aren't terrible after all. Well, high fiber carbs aren't bad at least. I hate to use the term common sense but perhaps some of this "diet" stuff goes back to common sense. It doesn't make sense to eat nothing but sugar all the time. It doesn't make sense to eat nothing but meat all the time either. All of these fads seem to cut out something from your diet that you may need.
For instance, if I eat all veggies, I'm going to miss out on a ton of protein that I really need. So I'll keep eating meat. I've cut out all bread and rice because of their carb content, but there's plenty of asian cultures that live on rice as a primary source of nourishment and they don't suffer from near as much obesity. It all really goes back to the old idea of eating whatever you want, but not overdoing anything.
The plateaus may be good points to evaluate what we are doing and test new ideas. Plateaus also test our resolve. Losing weight/fat is already challenging enough. I check the scale every day and see that I'm up or down a pound or so. I chart it all and watch for trends. Plateaus make me want to try harder.
Monday, August 5, 2019
Diet vs Lifestyle Change
There is debate among many people on what to call their change in eating habits. Some people look down on the word "diet" because they want to make their new eating habits permanent, and so, they call it a "lifestyle" change. This is all well and good, but no matter what you call it, you have to be committed to it.
I was wondering today on whether I've changed my lifestyle or if I will fall back to eating the way I was eating before May 12, 2019. Last week I went to Myrtle Beach to help my girlfriends daughter move for school. During those two days of traveling, I pretty much ate as I pleased. I ate more than I normally do. I ate foods that I have been avoiding for nearly three months. I gained about four pounds in two days.
Four pounds isn't a big deal for me, because my weight fluctuates that much on a normal day of eating these days. It's mostly food and water that my body hasn't digested or is storing. I wasn't worried about the four pounds. I lost it all back again in two days of intermittent fasting.
So, I was able to eat as I pleased for two days and reversed the damage within two days of getting back home. I think mostly I didn't eat much while I was gone. I just felt like I was eating more because I'm hyper-aware of my eating now. I pay attention to what I eat. I notice that I need to stop eating. I have changed my lifestyle. That doesn't mean that I always eat a certain way or that I stick to a plan perfectly. More importantly, I'm more aware of what I'm doing to my body and I know how to curve it before it gets carried away. I ate as much as I wanted for those two days, but it really wasn't more than I usually eat. I was just aware that I needed to eat less if I wanted to lose more weight.
I also stopped exercising during those two days away. In fact, I didn't do cardio till today. Add all of that with the lax in my fasting, and I would have gained weight if I'd continued for more time. We shouldn't worry about a lapse in our exercise or eating habits as long as we notice that we are having a lapse and have a plan in place to get back into it.
I knew that I would be going on this trip, and I knew that I would have trouble fasting on the same schedule I had been on for the previous couple of months. So, I didn't worry about it. Since I've been back, I have fasted every day for at least sixteen hours. Most days I've fasted twenty or more hours. I try to do more than twenty hours every day with up to two days off every week, but I really don't like to take two days off.
I hope to cut my calorie intake during my feeding window more over the coming days. Today, for instance, I had around 1200 calories during my eating window. Technically this is OMAD or One Meal A Day, but I'm still referring to it as IF or intermittent fasting. Some days I do OMAD, other days I will eat twice during my four hour eating window. Either way, I'm more interested in the length of the fast. I want longer and longer fasts. I'd like to do forty-eight hours in the coming days. My longest fast so far has been thirty-six hours.
Some people follow a low calorie feeding window when they fast, which consists of restrictive meal planning. I know this would be more effective for me to lose weight faster, but I prefer to reward myself with a somewhat liberal meal during my eating window. Since I'm looking forward to my meals already, I like to eat something that I will enjoy. I try to limit sugars. I worry about carbs, but I allow myself to have carbs and focus more on the fasting length.
The major "lifestyle change" that I've made since starting all of this on May 12 is that I've cut all cola/sugared soda from my diet. I used to drink a lot of Coke. I mean a lot. I have eliminated all Coke and all similar soda from my diet. I drinking sparkling water, coffee, spring water, and unsweet tea. Sometimes, when I'm out at a restaurant for my OMAD, I'll allow myself to have half sweet, half unsweet tea, but I always tell the waiter/waitress to make it mostly unsweet tea with a splash of sweet. I hate taking in calories from a drink now, but I love slightly sweet tea. I can't stand normal sweet tea though. It's always way too sweet.
I'm also coming up on my one year anniversary of quitting smoking. When I quit smoking, I weighed about 220 pounds. I was as low as 213 last year after my divorce. When I quit smoking, I gained a lot of weight. I hope to be back down to where I was last year when I quit by the 18th. That's a good goal.
After that I'll be shooting for < 200 pounds before my birthday on October 25. Then I'll be shooting for 170 by the end of the year. On December 12, I'll have been on this lifestyle change for seven months. If I lose ten pounds per month, I will have lost 70 pounds. I started at 256.7 pounds. So, I project that I'll be closer to 186 pounds on December 12. Then by the end of the year I may be able to get another five pounds off. So, I'm projecting more like 181 by the end of the year. Now, at some point it's going to get more and more difficult to lose weight. It's also going to be harder and harder to get my heart rate up during cardio. I can tell a huge difference just in the last three months. It used to be easy to get my heart rate up to 140. Now it takes more work.
I was wondering today on whether I've changed my lifestyle or if I will fall back to eating the way I was eating before May 12, 2019. Last week I went to Myrtle Beach to help my girlfriends daughter move for school. During those two days of traveling, I pretty much ate as I pleased. I ate more than I normally do. I ate foods that I have been avoiding for nearly three months. I gained about four pounds in two days.
Four pounds isn't a big deal for me, because my weight fluctuates that much on a normal day of eating these days. It's mostly food and water that my body hasn't digested or is storing. I wasn't worried about the four pounds. I lost it all back again in two days of intermittent fasting.
So, I was able to eat as I pleased for two days and reversed the damage within two days of getting back home. I think mostly I didn't eat much while I was gone. I just felt like I was eating more because I'm hyper-aware of my eating now. I pay attention to what I eat. I notice that I need to stop eating. I have changed my lifestyle. That doesn't mean that I always eat a certain way or that I stick to a plan perfectly. More importantly, I'm more aware of what I'm doing to my body and I know how to curve it before it gets carried away. I ate as much as I wanted for those two days, but it really wasn't more than I usually eat. I was just aware that I needed to eat less if I wanted to lose more weight.
I also stopped exercising during those two days away. In fact, I didn't do cardio till today. Add all of that with the lax in my fasting, and I would have gained weight if I'd continued for more time. We shouldn't worry about a lapse in our exercise or eating habits as long as we notice that we are having a lapse and have a plan in place to get back into it.
I knew that I would be going on this trip, and I knew that I would have trouble fasting on the same schedule I had been on for the previous couple of months. So, I didn't worry about it. Since I've been back, I have fasted every day for at least sixteen hours. Most days I've fasted twenty or more hours. I try to do more than twenty hours every day with up to two days off every week, but I really don't like to take two days off.
I hope to cut my calorie intake during my feeding window more over the coming days. Today, for instance, I had around 1200 calories during my eating window. Technically this is OMAD or One Meal A Day, but I'm still referring to it as IF or intermittent fasting. Some days I do OMAD, other days I will eat twice during my four hour eating window. Either way, I'm more interested in the length of the fast. I want longer and longer fasts. I'd like to do forty-eight hours in the coming days. My longest fast so far has been thirty-six hours.
Some people follow a low calorie feeding window when they fast, which consists of restrictive meal planning. I know this would be more effective for me to lose weight faster, but I prefer to reward myself with a somewhat liberal meal during my eating window. Since I'm looking forward to my meals already, I like to eat something that I will enjoy. I try to limit sugars. I worry about carbs, but I allow myself to have carbs and focus more on the fasting length.
The major "lifestyle change" that I've made since starting all of this on May 12 is that I've cut all cola/sugared soda from my diet. I used to drink a lot of Coke. I mean a lot. I have eliminated all Coke and all similar soda from my diet. I drinking sparkling water, coffee, spring water, and unsweet tea. Sometimes, when I'm out at a restaurant for my OMAD, I'll allow myself to have half sweet, half unsweet tea, but I always tell the waiter/waitress to make it mostly unsweet tea with a splash of sweet. I hate taking in calories from a drink now, but I love slightly sweet tea. I can't stand normal sweet tea though. It's always way too sweet.
I'm also coming up on my one year anniversary of quitting smoking. When I quit smoking, I weighed about 220 pounds. I was as low as 213 last year after my divorce. When I quit smoking, I gained a lot of weight. I hope to be back down to where I was last year when I quit by the 18th. That's a good goal.
After that I'll be shooting for < 200 pounds before my birthday on October 25. Then I'll be shooting for 170 by the end of the year. On December 12, I'll have been on this lifestyle change for seven months. If I lose ten pounds per month, I will have lost 70 pounds. I started at 256.7 pounds. So, I project that I'll be closer to 186 pounds on December 12. Then by the end of the year I may be able to get another five pounds off. So, I'm projecting more like 181 by the end of the year. Now, at some point it's going to get more and more difficult to lose weight. It's also going to be harder and harder to get my heart rate up during cardio. I can tell a huge difference just in the last three months. It used to be easy to get my heart rate up to 140. Now it takes more work.
Close to Three Months
I changed my diet/eating lifestyle on May 12, 2019. Since then, I've lost twenty-eight pounds. I am going to push two more pounds within the next six days. I will probably be even further along than that. For the last few weeks I've only lost small amounts. As with everyone, my bodyweight fluctuates. I watch these fluctuations and record the lower side of them as they occur.
While this isn't the most honest reporting of my weight, it seems to keep me heading in the right direction. So right now I'm at 229.9 pounds, but two days ago I was at my upper side of the fluctuation which was 234.5 pounds. This is a pretty big variance, but it's normal. That is the highest my weight will be over the next week. After this week, my upper weight will probably be more like 232, with a low end of 225 or so.
This seems to make me push myself to move down. If I was watching the upper number, I wouldn't be able to set new goals for the coming days. I wouldn't see the improvements over time. I track my weight via my Fitbit app. I have a sharp descending graph for my weight. So within a few days, I'll be at thirty pounds since I started this three months ago. That means that I'm losing about ten pounds every month, which is a very healthy weight loss. Most of that weight has been fat. I've retained most of my lean muscle mass. I've tracked that with my scale and Fitbit app. I've lost around five pounds of muscle. All the rest of the weight was fat. I'm very proud of these numbers.
While this isn't the most honest reporting of my weight, it seems to keep me heading in the right direction. So right now I'm at 229.9 pounds, but two days ago I was at my upper side of the fluctuation which was 234.5 pounds. This is a pretty big variance, but it's normal. That is the highest my weight will be over the next week. After this week, my upper weight will probably be more like 232, with a low end of 225 or so.
This seems to make me push myself to move down. If I was watching the upper number, I wouldn't be able to set new goals for the coming days. I wouldn't see the improvements over time. I track my weight via my Fitbit app. I have a sharp descending graph for my weight. So within a few days, I'll be at thirty pounds since I started this three months ago. That means that I'm losing about ten pounds every month, which is a very healthy weight loss. Most of that weight has been fat. I've retained most of my lean muscle mass. I've tracked that with my scale and Fitbit app. I've lost around five pounds of muscle. All the rest of the weight was fat. I'm very proud of these numbers.
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