Crawling Back on the Horse

Now that Easter has gone (along with most of the candy..Finally) it’s time to get rid of this carb-induced puffines.  I am at a stage where I am not embarassed for people to see me without a shirt anymore.  I used to not even go shirtless in my own house!  I am at the point where I have to get really serious to lose those small “trouble spots” on the lower back,  just below the armpit, and abs.  When I’m in a glycogen depleted state I look pretty lean (not Leonidas yet, lol) but when I’m carbed up I feel like I still weigh around 210 lbs.  All those trouble spots seem to swell ala the Nutty Professor (at least they look that way to me, the wife heartily disagrees bless her heart).  That of course can set off the whole “what am I bothering for, I blew my whole diet” B.S. that strikes us all from time to time.

So I’m crawling back on that horse. Monday started it off with an unintentional fast.  I had stayed home to help my sickly wife tend to our baby, but instead ended up continuing the war I had waged all weekend against a sudden infestation of ticks in our yard.  Before I knew it,  4 p.m. rolled around and I had to make a run to the store for soup for the sickly wife.  I asked if there was anything else, hoping that she might want ice cream (I wanted ice cream) but she is serious about getting her baby weight off, so no dice.

So I went to the store in the worst possible state – hungry.  I got her soup, and behind me was all the really good ramen noodles (the kind with all the words in Korean or Japanese) that I used to love.  I almost bought one, but  fought off the voices.  Then I passed the ice cream case, and wouldn’t you know, the Butterfinger ice cream was on special.  I stood at that case for a looong time before deciding it would be unfair to my wife for me to eat ice cream in front of her.

Now I was really hungry, and as I turned a corner the devil poked me again – 2 for 1 bags of Doritos.  There was no way I was walking out of the store without something to snack on!  I searched frantically for something, anything that I wouldn’t feel guilty for eating.  A light shone down from above onto the cold meat case and there they were, 5 oz. Portuguese sausages for a buck a piece!  Hallelujah! It’s amazing that just picking them up made my food cravings subside.  I had about 2 oz. for my snack that evening, cut up with some chedder cheese and Spanish olives.  Delicious!

Yesterday was leftover taco meat for lunch and my wife’s awesome mexican shredded chicken (really! She got the recipe from her friend who’s from Mexico).  It’s just chicken, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and cerrano chiles.  We ate them in a bowl with some shredded cheese.   Later was more sausage and cheese.   Today it’s a fast until dinner.  Until next time!

 

1/4 Inch

That’s how much I lost off of my waist and my neck during Lent.  But my bicep remained the same and I lost 4 pounds, so that’s not too bad –  especially since the only resolution I managed to stick to was the fasting and exercise!  Diet was pretty sporadic, I admit.  I was rock solid out at sea, then spent the next two weeks eating ice cream, cake, chips, and drinking a good bit of red wine.  Still, I am down to 189 from 193 despite the fact that I’m still carbed up from nibbling on the remnants of the Easter candy.  I wish I had the dedication of a SoG, but as long as I continue to trend downward, I’m not concerned.

My wife is gearing up to start really shedding her baby weight, so there should be a lot less of the tempting items around the house in the near future.  The last time we got serious together we both lost a ton of weight (and she got a baby, lol).

 

Little Piggies

I read an AP story today about how 1 in 5 preschoolers are obese.  Of course, the study only looked at reported data on 8,500 kids and relied solely on BMI, but it’s just another example of the “healthy” legacy of the lipophobes.  It seems that each generation is more and more susceptible to the hazards of the highly refined and processed foods on the market.  I was born in the mid-70’s and grew up eating sugary cereals, drinking sodas, eating bag after bag of chips and crackers, all of it low-fat!  This legacy has been passed to our children, and they are paying a heavy price.  At least we had morning, noon, and afternoon recess!  Outdoor play for kids now consists of a group of tots sitting on the sidewalk playing Wi-Fi connected Nintendo DS games.

Yup, kids are fat.  And they’ve gotten this way by following the healthy path that begins with rice cereal as their first food, followed by Gerber doggy-biscuits to cut the teeth they will use to squish the sugary mush they spoon from their milk before heading off to school with a Lunchable and a might-as-well-be-a-soda juice box.  But hey, at least they’re not eating that dreaded saturated fat!

 

“Too Sweet!”

The always interesting Son of Grok posted a bit on reprogramming your “food recognition software” and it reminded me of something that happened just the other day.

We were out celebrating my son’s first place finish in his Cub Scout pack’s Pinewood Derby races, and decided to get some Ben & Jerry’s pints.  My son picked out “Cinnamon Buns” because he thought it sounded good.  We got home and he dug into his pint.  After about 6 spoonfuls he put it back in the fridge.  We asked how it was, and he replied “It’s too sweet!”.  Really? Too sweet?  I didn’t think such a thing was possible for a kid!  Then my wife told me that while I was gone she had made pancakes for my son, but had run out of maple syrup.  We had a little bit of the HFCS Log cabin stuff hanging out in the fridge so she gave him that.  Apparently he could barely stomach it!  Just over a year ago he expressed dissapointment at the real maple syrup we were now buying because it wasn’t sweet enough.  Reprogramming the software, indeed!

 

Misinformation in the Information Age

I just watched a little video Dr. Dan put up on At Darwin’s Table about digestion. It’s funny because I just did a little research on digestion recently. A co-worker looked at my big bowl of salmon and sardines, which had about 55 g of protein, and said

“You know, your body can only absorb 15 g of protein in a sitting”,

to which I quickly replied “B.S!” I felt compelled to show him proof anyway, just for his own benefit (and mine).  A little digging found that animal protein (meat) is absorbed at a rate of 10-15 grams per hour. Since it takes around 4 hours or so for food to pass through the small intestine, my meal was broken down just fine! It is amazing how much misinformation gets passed by word of mouth, and how much gets blindly accepted in an age where accurate information is only a click away.

Note: I’m still feeling under the weather.  I haven’t eaten anything but a small bowl of chicken broth and green tea in the past 37 hours.  I was hoping a fast would knock this sucker out before it gained momentum, but while I don’t really feel worse, I don’t feel much better either.  I’m going to skip the weights today and eat some light meals.  Tomorrow I should be sleeping in my own bed, so that should help.  Until next time!

 

Hitting the Wall, Hard…

Sorry it’s been awhile since my last post. I should be a bit more regular once I hit dry land again!  I’ve been tracking my food, so I should have some caloric and macro-nutrient breakdowns when my web access isn’t so restricted.

Just wanted to relate my experience yesterday during my workout.  I have modified the workout from Gym Junkies a little, turning the whole thing into a superset.  Yesterday’s workout for example was Dumbbell squats (30# ea x 8 reps) straight to bench press (#13 on the weight stack, don’t know how much weight, but it’s challenging without blowing any blood vessels) x 8, then lat pulldowns (same weight) x 8 reps.  Rest 1 min in between rounds.  I usually knock out five rounds in just under 15 minutes, which leaves me out of breath and fatigued in a good way.  Yesterday I was hurting on the third round, and on the fourth I could barely hold the dumbbells at my shoulders for the squats.  I struggled through (even had to reduce the weight for bench and lat pulls), and called it quits after that round.

Now there are other factors here, namely the ships rocking makes every movement harder.  Sometimes the weight gets real heavy on the left, sometimes the right… It’s a constant, fatiguing balancing act.  I’ve also been working out every other day, a total of five workouts in nine days.  Despite this I am sure the biggest reason is that I have followed a very strict ketogenic diet out here.  I have only eaten fish, meat, dairy, olives, olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Throw in the fasts I did as well and it’s easy to see that I am finally depleted of glycogen.  My muscles don’t feel sore as if I’ve been overtraining, and they shouldn’t since I’ve actually only done a total of an hour and 15 minutes worth of actual weight training!  Now begins the real business of fat burning.  I was tempted to eat a few more carbs after yesterday to support the training, but then I reminded myself that the weight training was the tool, not the goal.  The weights are there to remind my body to hold on to my lean mass as I shift deeper into fat-burning mode.  It is really hard to shake the “get bigger muscles” mentality that had a hold of me for so long.

So I will rest tonight and hit the weights again tomorrow.  I think the combination of cold dry recycled air, a woeful lack of sunlight, and several sick crewmembers, have conspired to give me a sore throat and mild (so far) sinus infection.  So I’m not real hungry and may just stick to green tea with lemon for the night.  Go immune system!

 

24-hour Core Workout

No kiddies, it’s not the latest fitness craze – it’s what happens when you are on a boat that is constantly rocking back and forth.  Just a rock of a few degrees side to side can produce some profound soreness in the stabilizer muscles.  You really notice it in your ankles, calves, knees, sides, and lower back.  Every motion of the boat forces your muscles to contract to keep you in your customary upright position, and all those little contractions really add up after a few days.  Even while you sleep, your body is fighting to keep you from rolling out of bed!  Not a bad way to burn a few extra calories.

So that said, my back was very stiff this evening when I got up.  I remedied it with a quick set of 20 Hindu push-ups and some very short planks.  The added motion of the boat made a 30 second front plank feel like absolute torture, and I limited the sides to only 15 seconds for fear of injuring myself!  As far as food, I am fasting today, drinking only green tea and water.  I set myself up nicely, though, having gorged myself on fat and protein last night.

Here’s the continuation of my foods eaten and activity:

3/10

11:00 pm – 1 can of Beach Cliff Sardines, drained

3/11

1:00 am – 6 oz. canned salmon, spanish olives, 1/3 cup guacamole

5:00 am – 1.5 cups ground beef w/ taco seasoning, 1 oz. shredded cheddar

10:30 pm – Workout A from Gym Junkies.com (I did workout B the other day, but mislabeled it as A)

11:00 pm – 2 cups shredded roasted chicken, drippings poured over it

3/12

2:00 am – 6 oz. canned salmon, 2 cans sardines, about 5 tbsp olive oil, all mashed up ( I wasn’t really hungry, but I wanted to get plenty of protein and fat in me)

7:00 am- 2 boiled eggs, 6 pork sausages (good ones with a skin casing), 4 strips of bacon

As you can see, yesterday was a heavy eating day!  I’m not even remotely hungry this evening.  I plan to go at least until 7 am, but if I’m not starving I may just go to bed.  We’ll see!

 

Lo-Carb on the High Seas

Being on this ship is all about avoiding temptation.  There are candy, cakes, cream puffs, ice cream, chips, delicious little bowls of ramen noodles (the good kind most folks will only find at an Asian market)…. you name it, we got it.  Yet amazingly I have so much more willpower than if, say, I was home and my wife had bought me a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.  I think it’s because we only see each other  on this ship every few months, so changes in peoples appearance are very noticeable.  A lot of these guys knew me when I was at 260 pounds (118 kilos) and they always comment on how amazed they are that I not only lost 70 lbs, but have kept it off for so long.  Others I know have lost, but promptly gained it back and more.  That is the magic of a paleo lifestyle.  It is a long term, livable solution to weight troubles.  I don’t ever preach to anyone here, but some have tried to kick the carbs after seeing my results.  And maybe it’s the fact that I’ve always kind of been on the fringes that gives me just a little pleasure in being an individual – the one guy quietly snacking on some olives with balsamic vinegar while everyone else dives into the pastries.  Brushing my teeth next to a guy who looks like I did a couple years back is a powerful reminder of how far I’ve come, and how important it is to stay the course.

I’m working nights, so my meals are kind or reversed – leftover dinner for breakfast, breakfast before bed. Yesterday went like this:

• Black coffee – 3 cups (at least)
• 10:30 pm – Workout A from the Gym Junkies blog
• 11:30 pm – 12 meatballs (no pasta) with 2 slices of provolone melted on top
• 2:00 am – 6 oz. wild salmon, 6 Spanish olives, 2-3 tbsp olive oil (didn’t measure, just poured)
• 5:30 am – 1/2 cup scrambled eggs, 3 oz. spiral cut ham, 2 slices bacon with about 2 tbsp ketchup

I only ended up sleeping about seven hours, but I was very rested.  I got up and went to the outside deck to catch a couple hours of sunlight (yay vitamin D!).  After the sun set I headed inside for a quick circuit of 30 pushups, 20 bodyweight squats, 20 pushups, 15 squats, 1 minute front plank, and side planks of 30 seconds each.  Breakfast was a big bowl of fajita chicken with bell peppers smothered in about 1/3 cup of Wholly Guacamole (the only kind I will eat if my wife doesn’t make it fresh) and 2 tbsp salsa.  No coffee this morning, only green tea.

Until next time!

 

5 days of Fasting

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, things have been busy!

Last week I ended up fasting for 5 straight days!  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I could barely eat as it was – only had a small bowl of chicken soup in the evening.  Thursday I felt a lot better, so it was ribeye steak with cauliflower and carrots for dinner.  Friday was another all-day fast with a nice piece of salmon.  Saturday I spent the afternoon snacking on whatever I could get my hands on, then Outback for an Ahi tuna steak with a baked potato (I know..).  Sunday was eggs for breakfast and tri-tip roast and pork chops for dinner.  I must admit that giving up dairy just isn’t happening.  I can live without the other stuff, but nothing beats a hunk of cheese when I’m hungry.  One day I may be able to purge it from my diet, but today is not that day.

I am currently out at sea for my job.  Given the nature of the comms out here I may be lucky to post once a week.  If I can do more I will.  I’m looking forward to doing some long fasts while I’m out here.  I’ll be lifting weights every other day, eating clean, and (here’s the best part) getting a lot more sleep.  This should give me some good results by the time I get home!

 

1 Week Down

It’s now been a week since i started the Lent Challenge. I must admit that the week did NOT go all that well. I started strong, ate crap on Sunday, and spent Monday and Tuesday in bed sick (coincidence?). I did lose a pound, though. I’m fasting today and will hit the weights as well. This week will be better, dang it!