Pills

The three elements of physical fitness are exercise, diet, and supplementation. I have opted to focus on exercise and diet only. I'll leave the supplements to those who have a lot more disposable income. (Disclaimer: I do take glucosamine to support joint health, and vitamin C because I don't eat much fruit right now.) I believe 80% of my fitness results depend on what I eat.

But as far as bulking pills or fat burners, I steer clear and get my results the old-fashioned - albeit slower - way.  Besides, pills feel a little too much like 'cheating' to me. That's not to say that I am totally opposed to implementing that strategy at some point.

Four years ago if you would have told me the eating habits I'd have adopted at this point, I may not have believed you. I used to look at people that eat this way as a little fanatical.

Yet, here I find myself eating like a fanatic! It really does just get to be a way of life, and the old cravings subside. The upside is that I feel great and I am progressing toward my fitness goals (see earlier posts). Though, when I hear myself telling someone my eating routine it does sound a little far-out, or at least unconventional. I have been following the "Slow Carb Diet" (as described in the book: The 4-Hour Body - see link at right) which you can easily find by Googling "Slow Carb Diet".

Basically, it is a high protein, high fiber, and "only good carb" regimen. I would say I have had good results with it so far. In eight weeks I have gained four pounds of muscle (in combination with Occam's Protocol weight training routine), and had a small reduction in body fat. Slower results than I had hoped for, but I'm in this for the long-haul.

I don't anticipate making any changes to this eating routine anytime soon. It is a healthy diet, and I don't feel deprived (except, maybe wanting a bowl of my Honey Nut Cheerios, which I have to wait until 'free day' to eat), really getting to eat about as much as I want, as long as it is on my approved food list.

The changes I have been making are to the weight training and running routines. I have been putting off the urge to train more (the book describes why less is more), but I am really feeling like I need to ramp up a little at a time now. The fact that I have seen gains while backing off so much is interesting, and as I ratchet up, it will be deliberate and metered, constantly evaluating, and measuring as I go.

Park to Park 5k 9/11/10

The last week or two I've been stepping up running on the treadmill (yuck!), in hopes that I will have a head start on a good running season. It would be fun to enter my first 10k race, having completed two 5ks last year, and maybe shoot for a half marathon late in the season. Right now I'm running five to seven miles at a time.

I feel so blessed to have the good health to be able to run this way. Two years ago I was mostly just walking, and could barely run a mile without stopping. So, just considering doing a 13-mile run is still amazing to me.

The slow carb eating regimen (Tim Ferris book, The 4-Hour Body) is going well. In six weeks I have gained three to four pounds, while maintaining the same body fat percentage. I'm hoping the increased running will help me lower the fat, but not drop any lean mass.

I have also adjusted the weight training routine. As mentioned in a previous post, I have adopted the regimen known as "Occam's Protocol". It calls for one set of each lift performed. I have upped that to two sets each, but maintain the same number of rest days in between protocols.

As mentioned before, I am still trying to get up the guts to post monthly belly pics here, as an extra bit of motivation to reach 7%-8% body fat goal. Maybe I'll start by at least taking the pic. That way if a moment of weakness hits and I post, it will be done.

My Carly Talks About Swimming

Carly Stoakes

My daughter Carly has been a certified lifeguard for the last several years. Since 2009 she has been living in Nashville working as a lifeguard, and swimming instructor. Here she discusses the value of incorporating swimming into your workouts.


The YMCA is home to all sorts of individuals. We all know them. There are the members who are religious about their daily routines, and then there are a select few who are just trying to lose a few pounds for a special event, or upcoming beach season. The middle school crowd is also there trying to "impress the ladies". Plus, you have the senior citizens who are there under doctor's orders. Last, but not least, you have the steroid-infused gang who, well...let’s just say...like the mirror.

    

And then there are people like my Dad, who do it as a lifestyle, who see exercise as not only a way to look better for a few days, but as a spiritual, mental, and physical healing that goes beyond what any prescription can do for you.

A while back, I got invited to go to the Y with a group of my coworkers as kind of a day off to see each other out of the work place.  They wanted me to give them a few pointers on their swimming strokes, performance and form.

One of them, Rachel, had been a swimmer in high school and college, so she knew the ropes. But the other two guys, Robbie and Paul, had been into football and wrestling. And while both sports are incredibly demanding and respectable, they were not ready for what I had in store for them that day.

As Rachel and I did a few laps to warm up, Paul and Robbie hadn't even made it half way down the 25-meter pool.

Here is why: While having muscle may seem like the most important thing in wrestling, and ensures you will run hard over the other guy in football. In swimming, a more lean muscle is required.  Not only do you have to have speed, but endurance.  Endurance means drive to push yourself on for long periods of time. Meaning, the heavier you are, the harder it is to "move on;" especially in the water. So, because of our conditioning, Rachel and I were able to complete more laps in a shorter period of time.

Dara Torres

Some say swimming is a woman's sport and only good for cardio workout.  It is a cardio workout, but what most fail to realize is that it is muscle-training activity just as much as it is cardio.  So to all those men at the gym only hitting the free-weight corner, here is a little piece of information... while lifting weights will add on desired muscle, it will also keep your current fat percentage at more-or-less the same number. The resistance of swimming forces you to work not only large muscle groups, but also the smaller muscles we take for granted.

That is why Robbie and Paul had such a hard time.  Their football and wrestling training was concentrated more on working the larger muscles that were in high demand when the game started, like the quads and traps and triceps.  So when they got in the water their smaller muscle groups like their rhomboids, serratus and deltoids got a run for their money! Not to mention the lung workout they received.

So the next time you hit your local YMCA, or fitness center, and are heading in to get "jacked," remember to stop by the pool, because swimming IS NOT just for woman.

More Results, Less Effort

In January, I started a couple of new habits and routines. The cool thing is, now days starting and maintaining new habits is so much easier. Because I've had practice doing it the last four years, the discipline to stick to a new habit is a lot less difficult.

My New Source of Info.

My new routines come from the book by Tim Ferriss titled The 4-Hour Body. His philosophy of what he calls "Minimum Effective Dose" as it relates to training, eating, or supplementation regimens fits really well with my one-habit-at-a-time approach.

Minimum Effective Dose refers to the least amount of an exercise, diet, or supplement needed to get an acceptable result. For example, let's say you can get 100% results from doing 100 crunches, but it has been found that 80% results can be obtained by doing just 50 crunches. I am a lot less likely to abandon the routine with 50 crunches, and I still get 80% of the results. Besides, 100% of zero crunches is still zero results if I give up on the tougher routine. It makes planning, and sticking to any new protocol much easier.

Two of the regimens I have adopted from Ferriss' book are his "Slow Carb Diet" and "Occam's Protocol" resistance training method. The Slow Carb Diet helps lower body fat, while supporting lean muscle growth, and Occam's Protocol is a mass-building weight-resistance regimen in keeping with the "Minimum Effective Dose" philosophy.

I am weight training only twice per week for 45 minutes to one hour with this routine. So far (after six weeks), I have gained three pounds, and have seen a slight reduction in body fat percentage. I am currently working on some adjustments to Occam's Protocol to maximize results. So far I am pleased, especially considering I am weight training about half as much as I was.

Should I Do It?
I have been thinking about a couple of ideas that will help motivate and inspire me to reach the results I am after. I've been maintaining roughly 10% body fat for a year now. While lean muscle is slowly increasing, dropping that last two to three percent of fat is proving to be a little tougher challenge. One idea I had is to post monthly belly photos here.

While I know it would be very motivating, it could also be a little embarrassing. Then there are all of these other thoughts like: is this a silly goal (seeing my six pack) for a 45-year-old man to be reaching for; am I being too vain; or is posting belly pics going to be a little too shocking for those who might stumble across my blog? On the other hand, I will be motivated; reaching the abs goal brings all of the other benefits with it; and maybe I'm just being too afraid of what other people think.

We'll see. I'm still mulling it over. I just know I need something to help push my progress.

This Is Me.

Great ab plan

At least this is me in my visualized future! (Which means it already exists.)

One of the reasons I chose having ripped abs as a goal, is that to have a midsection like this, means that I will be in great shape and peak health all over, not just a pretty stomach. The thing is, when you get the abs, you get it all: Low cholesterol, functional strength, increased immunity, flexibility, and just feeling great! (The short list)

My goal is in sight now, and the closer I get, the more refining and adjusting I do to my routine to get the balance and rest-of-my-life results I want. One of the resources that has been very helpful to me is Mike Geary, author of  The Truth About Abs. His approach to diet and fitness helped me hit some new milestones.

Same Weight, But Looking Thinner
At one point, I had been weighing in the 170s for a while. Then after I began weight-resistance training, lots of friends started asking if I had lost weight. I knew my weight was the same because I was tracking it almost every day. What was happening, though, was my body fat percentage was beginning to drop, and I had gained some lean muscle. It was pretty noticeable in my face, as my jaw line was becoming more defined than it had been in a long, long time.

I get mine at Sam's Club

It was at roughly the same time I gave up my morning Honey Nut Cheerios (still a favorite snack on my 'free' day) substituting a 100% whey protein shake, instead. I was in the habit of eating a big bowl of cereal every morning with Hanson's skim milk. The reduction of these extra carbs, and sugar helped me trim a little more.

When I started this quest in 2006 I was at about 25% body fat. It had dropped to the 12%-15% range, and stayed there for a while. With the added weight-training routine, and walking, plus some running, 10%-12% had been achieved.

Adjusting
Since that time, I have been slowly gaining a little weight (on purpose), but my body fat percentage is remaining consistent. The lean muscle is welcomed, and I am currently tweaking my regimen to keep putting on the lean mass while reducing fat. Some recent changes seem to be working.

The Free Day Wonder
I learned the concept of the "free day" and why it works so well in material from Cheat Your Way Thin. Here author Joel Marion explains exactly how eating whatever I want (in the right way) actually helps me reduce body fat. I continue to use these methods and strategies.

 Recapping The (progressively added) Habits:
1) Reduce meal portion sizes
2) Use mind and spirit to visualize and focus
3) Weigh, measure and document progress often
4) Reduce "bad" snacking
5) Walking, core and weight training
6) More protein and fiber intake with lots of spinach, cabbage, and kale.
7) Eating six meals a day (with one "free day" per week)
8) Refining eating discipline
9) Working in a heavy weight routine (lower body)
10) More running and biking

Without Even Trying...

My journey from 210 pounds to 190 pounds took about 18 months. And, at that point I could maintain it almost without trying. Granted, there were no weight-loss speed records set reaching my goal, but I had set myself up for long-term success. Now I was ready for a new goal, and to implement some new habits.

Small Changes
Getting below 190 seemed a little more difficult by just doing what I had done to get there. In fact, I stayed close to that weight for some months. After refining my established habits, and dropping a few more pounds, my progress slowed. The new goal of 180 pounds would require learning some new habits.

It was time to go after my precious, naughty snacking. I decided to limit the snacking of sweets and desserts to after meals only, reducing the quantity, and frequency. This was going to be tougher than my other new habits had been to create. And it was. With just a little effort, though, I started making progress again. Pretty soon I was hitting 182 pounds, which helped reinforce my new habit.

Setback Time!
Sometimes negative experiences can have very positive results. The spring of 2007 I started experiencing significant low back pain. This episode eventually subsided, only to return that summer during our family vacation. Getting in and out of the car was especially painful, and driving a ski boat across choppy waves about made me cry!

We got home from that vacation, and I resolved NEVER to have this kind of pain again, if there was anything at all I could do about it. My focus turned from just weight loss, to getting strong and being in all-around good health.

Adjusting and Refocusing
Because I was addressing my back problem, I focused on core strengthening. The approach was two-directional. First, I put myself on a workout regimen that included weight training my lower body (legs and back) and core workouts using P90x, an intense boot camp-style DVD workout program. Secondly, I went to a chiropractor (a first for me) for evaluation and relief. Dr. Lance Vanderloo at Vanderloo Chiropractic helped get me straightened around. I was a little nervous about the adjustment thing, but Dr. Vanderloo was very gentle, and in a few weeks I was feeling much better.

All of my diet habits held, and I was now adding weight-resistance training to the mix. Plus, I found that walking helped relieve my back pain, too. These things all combined to bring my weight down below 180.

Weight Is Gone, Now What?
It was about this time that I started to realize that I needed some different ways to track my progress, rather than just watching the scale. I didn't necessarily want to be lighter, I just wanted to be healthier. That meant better muscle tone, strength, and lower body fat percentage. Basically, I was wanting to increase lean muscle, and decrease body fat.

This is the one I got

So, I bought an inexpensive skin fold caliper. This measures your body fat percentage by measuring the thickness of skin folds at precise locations on your body, then it uses an algorithm to make a calculation.

My hero

My new goals were coming into focus. Because of the progress I had made, I was willing to set some pretty ambitious, ultimate-type goals. First I decided that I want to see my belly's muscle definition (i.e. see my six-pack), which meant I would have to get my body fat percentage down to 7%-8% and then, that I wanted to maintain the kind of health and fitness that will allow me to play racquetball when I am 90-years-old.

Just reading these goals, and knowing I will reach them gives me a big smile!

To recap my new habits so far:
1) Reduce meal portion sizes
2) Use mind and spirit to visualize and focus
3) Weigh, measure and document progress often
4) Reduce "bad" snacking
5) Walking, core and weight training

Next time: Have You Lost Weight?

My New Habits

In my last post I wrote about how learning the habit of eating smaller meal portions started me on the road to losing 36 pounds, shrinking my waist by four inches, and then keeping those results for years. The before and after photos are a testament to the power of a habit. Obviously, some other key habits became necessary to see continued progress. But before I go into those, there is another element that bears discussing.

Great book on fitness!

Laying The Foundation
Physical appearance and feeling good are noble pursuits, but we are more than just physical beings. We have mental and spiritual sides to us, as well. The health of those aspects of our selves greatly affects the health of our physical bodies, and I don't think most of us fully realize the impact mental and spiritual well-being can have.

This one topic can (and does) fill many books. Intentionally connecting to God through prayer, meditation, and reading of scripture, and having mental discipline in how you think, and what you visualize, are vital to all-around health. When I take the time to exercise my mental and spiritual faculties, there are always physical benefits. I view it as a three-legged stool. When any one of the legs is damaged, or not functioning as it should, my whole being suffers. Balance is key.

Mind, Spirit, Body - The Trinity of My Being
There are many great resources on how to train your mental capacities (The Silva Method is one I like), or how to connect to God. An interesting observation I've had is that developing any one of the three requires the submission of the other two. For example, to work on physical development requires the mental and spiritual discipline to do so effectively. Likewise, to develop mental skills requires submission of the physical and spiritual. And if you intend to grow spiritually, your mind and body must comply.

The direct application here is that to reach my physical goals, it will require at least some mental and spiritual energy, too. I have noticed the more I develop these areas, the easier it is to get my body to do what I want!

My "Secret" List of Habits
Okay, so here are the habits I have adopted to reach the results obtained so far. Some of the habits give way to new and more effective ones, while others have not changed since day one. Each person's make-up is different, and results will vary some for each individual. I have taken bits and pieces from multiple sources, and have tried and tested different combinations of foods and activities to see what works for me. Below are the ones I've used in roughly the order I implemented them.


Smaller Meals. What's The Big Deal?
Reducing the meal portion sizes seemed like the first logical step. And it worked! I lost about five pounds right away doing just that one thing. Another five pounds came off in the next weeks and months as that habit became more established. Nothing else changed at this point. I was a chocaholic and a terrible snacker. Those bad habits continued unabated. The focus was just eating smaller meals. Period. There were no complicated formulas or plans.

Snack and Track
While I was still snacking badly, but reducing meal portions, I also began to regularly track my progress on the scale. In future posts I'll discuss some of the other tracking methods I used. The simple act of weighing myself (and recording it) helped me to be generally more conscious of what I was putting in my mouth. It was also then possible to look back at my success, even if it was just a one-pound improvement. Every little bit of motivation is helpful, and being able to see progress over time (even if it is an extended time) can be a big help for staying the course.

Next time, I'll cover more of the essential habits that helped me reach more and more of my fitness goals.

How'd you do it? What are you doing?

It's a question I hear some these days. Sometime in 2006 I was weighing in at 210 pounds, was wearing baggy clothes to hide my growing gut, and my selection of clothes that still fit me was dwindling. I was embarrassed to be seen without my shirt on, and even though I was active and played racquetball three times a week, my knees and ankles were very sore the day after matches. My general muscle tone reflected the absence of any real weight-resistance training, too.

Me in 2006 at about 210 pounds

The Decision
I made a decision. It was a small decision, but it was enough to move in a positive direction. I wanted to weigh 190 pounds.

Twenty pounds should be easy enough to lose, right? My goal was in place. Next I had to put some action to it. One overriding thought, though, was I did not want to lose the weight, only to gain it back later, as so many others I had seen. If I was going to do this, it HAD to be sustainable for the rest of my life. So I decided to start small.

One Small Habit
Using no real "diet" plan, I just chose to reduce the portion sizes of my meals. Everything else stayed the same. That's it. I knew I could do just that one thing. And that's how it all started.

Fast Forward

Now I am in better shape, in many ways, than I have been my entire adult life. My waist went from a snug 36" to 32" and I have gained approximately 10 pounds of lean muscle while losing 45 pounds of fat! While I still play racquetball regularly, I (am learning to) enjoy running, weight train at least twice a week, feel great, and look better than I have since my 20s.



Summer of 2010 (45 years old) at 174 pounds



All it took was reducing meal portion sizes, you ask? Yes. Then, once I had firmly established that habit, making it just a regular part of my daily life, another habit could be added, then another, and so on.

It all starts with the first habit, and then build from there.

In the beginning, if I had looked at a list of all the new habits I would have needed to get here, I may never have started. So I concentrate on one at a time. What are all of my "new" habits? I'll try to cover that in later posts. I'm also working on new goals, trying new habits, and evaluating all of the time.

To your better health.