Personal Note: Weight Loss Journey (Part 3)

(This is the second in a three part series entitled Nine Fat Loss Tips I have learned over the years and am employing in my Weight Loss Journey to reach my ultimate goal by the end of 2010.  Hope you find them helpful as you make your own Journey.)

4.  Read about nutrition and fitness everyday to stay motivated: I don’t know about you but I can easily become discouraged, especially when after strictly adhering to my diet and exercise program, I check the scale only to discover I’m down a measly 1 pound for the week.  Man that’s discouraging. And although I appreciate her encouragement, it really doesn’t help when Barb says, “But you look great, honey.  I can tell you’ve lost a lot of weight,” because we all know being the Pollyanna that she is Barb sees the world through rose colored glasses; and a big butt no matter what color is still a big butt.

So, I’ve taken to reading a little every day about nutrition and fitness.  I find the more I know about the subject of weight loss and physical fitness, the more I know what to expect and what to do when I reach certain sticking points in my program.  I also read the stories of other people’s remarkable transformations and even watch videos on U-Tube showing these transformations.  They inspire me and remind me that many of these people were bigger and in worse health than I was and like me experienced long plateaus and huge setbacks.  Still, they persevered and were successful.  Man!  That’s encouraging.

If  you’re interested in finding the places I visit for daily encouragement, see my blogroll  to the right of this post.  And check out YouTube and this link for some great transformation stories with photos.  You can’t help but be inspired.

5. Kedge quarterly if not monthly: You’ve probably never heard of kedging but it’s a technique used for centuries by navies around the world to move stranded ships (especially those with sails) off sandbars.   The ship would send out a few sailors in a row boat carrying a small anchor with a long rope attached to the marooned ship and the men would set the anchor fifty to a hundred yards beyond the ship.  Once the anchor was set, the remaining sailors aboard the stranded vessel would pull the ship to the anchor thus freeing it from the sandbar.  This process would be repeated again and again until the ship reached open waters.

I’ve learned that if I’m to be successful, especially in my weight loss, I need to Kedge on a regular basis.  I need to set an “anchor” at some distance from my present location and use it to pull me in the direction of my ultimate goal.  This is especially true if I’ve hit a snag or the doldrums in my progress.

An “anchor” might be a challenge or test that causes you to work toward a short-term goal and gives your daily diet/fitness routine a sense of urgency and importance that it might not otherwise have.  You might, for example, commit to run a 5K or 10K or even a marathon in a month or two and by sending in the registration fee, you’ve set an anchor that will pull you toward your goal of health and fitness.

Kedging is more than just goal setting, it’s locking yourself into some future commitment such that if you fail to do the necessary diet/fitness work it will cost you something – money, added pain, embarrassment.

I’ve read of lots of people who in undertaking a new weight loss and fitness regime enter bodybuilding contests.  The constant thought of appearing half naked on stage before hundred of people is a perfect motivation for them to work hard at their diet and exercise.

I’ve not committed to appear on stage in a shiny new speedo, but I have set out some anchors that motivate me to keep going.  I’m not quite prepared to tell you what they are but maybe in subsequent posts I’ll let you know.  In the meantime, why not kedge your way to success and set out a few anchors for yourself.

6.  Feeling good is more important than losing weight: I don’t know about you but when I’m dieting and I weigh myself in the morning, the number on the scale staring back at me can either make or break my day.  I’m either charged and motivated or I’m discouraged and depressed, if only for a moment.  That number controls my life, at least to some degree, and to be honest, I don’t like it one bit.

That’s why I’ve resorted to using other, more subjective, measures to track my “fat” loss success.  And for me, the number one daily measure is, “How do I feel today?”  Do I feel lighter? – not bloated and stuffed.  Do I feel strong and full of energy? – not weak from diet and exercise.  Do I feel a slight post-workout soreness? – a good sign that I am strengthening and building muscles.  Do I feel like I stayed true to my diet and exercise yesterday? – if so, positive results are just around the corner.

How I feel has become far more important to me than what I weigh.  Don’t get me wrong, I want to get down to that magic number (200 lbs for me), but I’m more concerned I feel good getting there.  The journey is more important than the destination.

In the past, I’ve felt my age (I’m pushing 60) in my legs.  It was a major effort to get on and off the floor – something every good grandparent needs to do when he/she has little ones wanting to “rassle” or build Lego.  I often found myself using my hands to push myself out of my easy chair or hobbling around like an “old man” – stiff and sore – after riding in the car for more than an hour.  I dreaded climbing stairs, or taking long hikes, or playing tag, or getting up to get a soda (thank goodness for Barb – thus the phrase was born – “Hey, while you’re up and not doing nothing (sic)…how ’bout getting me something to drink?”)

So, these days, whenever I ask myself, “How do I feel today?” it’s generally regarding “How do my legs feel?”   On previous weight loss journeys, before I knew better and did copious amounts of cardio – treadmill, jogging, walking – I hated the way my legs (and feet) felt.  If it wasn’t an injury (torn Achilles tendon, plantar fasciitis, IT band syndrome, shin splints, strains, sprains and blisters – I’ve had them all), it was a general weariness or fatigue from a reduction in calories and an increase in cardio resulting in over training.  I quickly discovered this was no way to live.  I was seeing great weight loss results, and the falling number on my scales kept me motivated, but I felt like crap.  Even when I hit my ultimate weight loss goal, there was little celebrating.  I liked the slimmer me, but I was in constant pain from my many injuries and always tired.  I am convinced that the combination of pain and exhaustion, led in great part, to the regaining of my lost weight – because I finally concluded this is no way to live and gradually abandoned both my diet and exercise.

Not this time.  I’m not going to let the number on my scales dictate what I do and how my day goes.  This time, I’m looking within and asking how my diet and exercise make me feel – physically.  “Do I feel good today?”  And if the answer is, “Yes!” then I’m going to celebrate no matter what the scales say.

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Personal Note: Weight Loss Journey (Part 2)

I’m down 15 lbs since January 1, 2010.  WooHoo!  That means I only have 35 lbs to go to reach my first goal of 225 by my birthday, June 4th, and 60 lbs to reach my ultimate goal of 200 by the end of the year.  It has been relatively easy thus far but I know from personal experience that the weight loss will slow and it will get harder as I go along.

Nevertheless, I am encouraged.  Very encouraged.  This weight loss journey has been much easier and more enjoyable (if dieting can be called enjoyable) than any previous time before.  In the intervening years between my two great efforts to lose a lot of weight, I’ve learned a great deal and have attempted to use this knowledge to make my weight loss easier. So far, so good.

That being said, I thought I would share with you some of the things I’ve learned and am using to make this journey easier.  You might find some of this information counter intuitive, but that’s just the point.  Much of what we’ve been taught about weight loss and which passes for conventional wisdom is just plain wrong.  I’m hoping you’ll find at least some of these suggestions helpful.

Nine Fat Loss Tips (This is the first of three posts)

1.  Eat only when hungry: Most diet books recommend you eat 5 to 6 meals/snacks a day, (300 calories per meal) – “grazing” they call it.  They reason that anything less than this will slow down your metabolism and cause you to stop burning fat.  This has been proven not to be true.  (See my post on Intermittent Fasting)  Missing a meal or two is not the train wreck it’s been made out to be.  In fact, missing a few meals a couple times a week has been proven to have healthful benefits including an increase: (a)  in the production of  human growth hormones, (b) insulin sensitivity, and (c) fat loss.  Most of us can live on far less food than we think.

Most of the time, we eat out of habit and often (especially if you are eating a lot of carbs), the more you eat the more hungry you get.  I’ve found that when I get hungry, if I eat just a small amount to satisfy my hunger and then quit, I can go much longer and feel less hungry than the “eat every three hours crowd” would have you believe.  I do have certain times I like to eat, 6 PM supper when I’m watching the news and 9 PM protein shake, but the rest of the day I only eat when I feel “true” hunger.

2.  Carbs make you hungry: Everyone knows that there are three macronutriets (Carbohydrates, Protein, Fat).  Our diet consists of some combination of these three.  Some diets suggest we eat lots of carbs and very little fat (think Dean Ornish – Low Fat Diet).  They labor under the mistaken belief that “dietary fat” – the fat we eat – turns into body fat.  This long held belief has been thoroughly debunked over the past several years but it is so entrenched in the modern American psychic that many of us, including myself, feel guilty if we overindulge in fats.

The truth is “dietary fat” is not only good for you it reduces your hunger significantly.  Did you hear that?  Dietary fat – things like nuts, avocados, coconut, eggs, butter, olive oil, animal fats, milk, cheese, cream, the list is a long one – is healthy and it makes you less hungry.

I don’t have the time or space to recount the entire story (you can read about it here), but two definitive studies were done to better understand the effects of starvation where the participants were fed a diet of approximately 1560 calories a day for up to six months.  The only difference was that one group was fed a HIGH CARB – LOW FAT DIET (225 grams of carbs and 30 grams of fat) each day while the other group was fed a LOW CARB – HIGH FAT DIET (67 grams of carbs and 105 grams of fat – almost the reverse).

The results were stunning.  Those participants on the HIGH CARB DIET starved, were lethargic, depressed and obsessed over food continually, while those on the LOW CARB DIET thrived and felt an increased sense of well-being.  Both consumed roughly the same number of calories.  The difference was in the amount of carb vs fat they ate.

Think about it for just a minute:  when you eat lots of carbs, doesn’t it just make you hungrier?  Sometimes when I go on a carb binge, I just can’t stop myself.  I’ll start out eating a single cookie, or one piece of pie, or just a slice of pizza, or a handful of M&Ms and before I know it, I can’t stop. I pig out on carbs.  The more I eat the hungrier (for carbs) I get until finally stuffed and guilt ridden I stop my binge.  It’s a vicious cycle that is unhealthy.

Even those people who don’t binge on carbs, find living on a diet high in carbs and low in fat leaves them hungry all the time – think Chinese food, you’re hungry 30 minutes after you’ve eaten.  So, do yourself a favor and cut the carbs.  Eat more dietary fat and protein and you will find yourself more satisfied, less hungry, and will lose weight (fat) to boot.  Sounds like a Win-Win to me.

3.  Rest more, Exercise less: This is probably one of the most counter intuitive statements you will ever read on dieting.   It has been proven repeatedly that the more you exercise, the hungrier you get and thus (despite your best intentions) the more you eat.  TOO MUCH EXERCISE CAN SABOTAGE YOUR WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM!

I know, I know, it sounds crazy but it’s true.  Notice, I said “too much exercise.”  Don’t get me wrong, you need to exercise.  You must exercise to be fit.  But too much exercise breaks down the body and eventually causes you to give up dieting and exercise altogether.  Too much exercise makes you feel crappy –  sore and tired and hungry all the time.

You need to go to the gym (or the park or the beach or whatever you do for exercise), and you need to do resistance training (machines, free weights, or bodyweight exercises) but you don’t need to do it every day for hours on end.  Three to four days a week, 60 minutes a day.  Add a brisk (3.5-4.0 mph) walk every day, maybe 10 minutes of interval training (wind sprints, spinning, elliptical) twice a week for your cardio and you are done.

Hitting the gym everyday for 60-90 minute cardio sessions is crazy and counter productive.  In fact, it’s destructive.  You’re body can’t handle it and it will rebel leading to injury or exhaustion.  More importantly, you don’t need to do it to lose weight.  Remember:  80% of weight loss has to do with what you eat.  Think about that for a moment.  Your diet is far more important to your weight loss than exercise.  You exercise to retain/build muscle.  You diet to lose fat.

And when you’re not exercising, you rest.  Quality rest – like 7-8 hours of sleep at night, cat naps throughout the day, taking it easy – is one of the little secrets most diet/fitness gurus don’t emphasize enough.  It is vital to your success.

Just by way of personal experience:  when I take a day off from the gym, I always have more energy for my exercises, lift more weight, and have a better workout than if I train everyday.  This translates into more muscle growth and less fatigue over the long haul.  So eat right, exercise hard, and spend more time in that easy chair.  You won’t regret it.

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