Sunday, April 27, 2014

BMI and my quest for my college body

I just calculated my BMI this morning and it came out to 27.4 which puts me smack dab in the middle of overweight according to the guidelines. I currently weigh a 180 pounds at 5’8”and that isn't the most I have weighed. I once hit 196 post knee surgery and recuperative two month carb fest.

Sadly I am overweight. Based on the calculations I should weigh 163 pound to squeeze into the normal category. The last time I weighed that was in college in 1982 and I was in my twenties. I was playing college hockey and on the ice about two hours a day. I also weighed in the 160’s in high school.  When I weight lift I usually weigh in the mid 170’s. I am conflicted because I feel great and looked great at 175 pounds but that still puts me in the overweight category. I am also ravenously hungry at 175 pounds.

It got me thinking that maybe 175 pounds was too much for me and I did not have to carry all that extra muscle and feed that extra muscle and lighten the load on my knees. For every extra pound you weigh it amounts to an extra leg load of five pounds when walking, running and hiking. That means 20 pounds is an extra 100 pounds on my knees. I can do without that. I imagine that most adults could lose about twenty pounds or more. My personal benefit is that I love to hike and I would love to save my knees for a few more years.

So I plan on getting to 24.8 BMI in eight weeks. That would require me to go from 180 to 163 and lose 17 pounds. Basically in order to drop my BMI 9% I have to drop my weight 9% and lose a little over two pounds a week. So here is my strategy:

1.     Eliminate Sugar: This will help me drop the first 10 pounds within two-three weeks.
2.     60 minutes of cardio which I truly hate. To make it more palatable I will ride the stationary bike if I watch TV and hit the StairMaster while watching a TED Talk. The Ted Talks are great as they average around 15 minutes.
3.     Daily: Air Squats building up to 150 a day (50 three time a day). 25 Push ups building up to 100 (25 three times a day). I have to be careful when I lift weights as I tend to gain muscle mass and stagnate on the weight loss.
4.     Go low carbs, medium protein and high fat. This provides the greatest satiety and prevents binging.
5.     Reduce stress with prayer and mindful meditation. Reduce my cortisol and cravings.
6.     Get 7-8 hours of sleep. Again reduce cortisol and carb binging.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Sugar free no more? Intentions and follow up.

    I am sitting at McDonald's and realized that summer is almost here. Eighteen months ago I made a decision to stop eating sugar but I did not blog about it. I was successful for about three months, lost 20 pounds and felt better than I can ever remember.

    But at month two I dislocated my shoulder hiking and then in month three I had my appendix out. No big deal right? Afterall, by month three my diet was solid and I no longer had the sugar craves. I thought I could test the waters again with a little sugar. Boy, was I wrong! Since then I have not been able to put any sugar free time together. I have not been sugar sober for more that three or four days at a time without massive relapse. It does not help that I love to cook and bake and take food photos and post on Facebook. I am sick.

    Today I checked out my blogs and saw a very common pattern of intentions with no follow up. I call it Monday Self-Help Blues. I hit a big motivational seminar, listen to motivational CD or maybe walk on some fire and I feel like my life is going to change forever but sadly as soon as I get home it is business as usual. Did I waste the money? Was I defrauded? Was is a big hype and scam? Or did I not execute? Maybe I did for a day or a week or a month but then I quit. What would have happened if I just did not quit? Was Bill Gates a quitter? Steve Jobs? Thomas Edison? Colonel Sanders? How about the NASA engineers trying to get a man on the moon?

I just had a McDonald's chocolate dipped cone and two cookies. The cone looked so good I gave him the money and forgot to get change. Now I am eating a quarter pounder and fries and a coke. If you hang around the barbershop you're bound to get a haircut.

I remember the first week of sugar detox and it was not so fun. I admit it felt bad. But it was only a week or two and I was fine after that. Sure, I missed it once in awhile because after all I have been addicted to it all my life. I know how bad I feel on sugar and realize I must quit so I am going big tonight and then starting new tomorrow! It is over! My name is Paul and I struggle with sugar.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

My pre-New Years Resolution: How I will lose at least 10 pounds over the holidays.

Happy Holidays,

Eat up my friends! Have another cookie. Have another appetizer. Have another chocolate. Have another drink. Potluck till you bust. And then there are leftovers. If there is a time for the eating Olympics it is during the Christmas Holiday Season. I routinely gain about 10 pounds every December. Sometimes I gain more but it is sure thing that I will be busting out of my clothes come January and making a resolution like I do every year. I can't think of a more challenging time to maintain dietary discipline than over the holidays. Besides, I love to cook and I love to eat. I make new things and can't wait for the LA Times Cookie list so I can make at least  half of them. The See's candy is everywhere and I know ever piece by sight like the old TV Show Concentration. In a word: Doomed.
Except this year. I came into some good fortune and I will be hiking the 22 mile round trip Na Pali Coast trail in January 2013 for next to nothing and I want to be down 10-15 pounds in the next six weeks. So the "Reason" is going to trump the "Season". The only way this is possible is if the reason is bigger than the season and I can tell you it is. To be sure, I want to enjoy the food and the new LA Times cookies and I will make them but I want to be lighter so I can hike longer and since I will be overnighting for 3 days I need to carry more in my pack. I will lose the weight to carry a little more weight.
So what is the strategy? First, I will cut out sugar for the next six weeks except at the Christmas Day and New Years Day. Those will be "treat" days. I most likely will end extending a day before and after with leftovers but I will will discipline myself to portion size.  These special days are a week apart which will actually trigger a renewal of the hormone Leptin which is a fat burning hormone that apparently drops when you lower your caloric content. I will bump up my fat content which has more density and is more satiating. I will eat light at night and limit carbs especially at night to trigger more fat burning while I sleep. I will do 20-30 minutes of cardio each day and hike each weekend 10 miles to get ready for the 22 mile round trip hike. I will hit the gym for a weight workout of 40-50 minutes at least 3 times a week. Sound tough? What's tough is trying to suck my stomach in to button my pants in January. Sounds like a win win to me. Happy Holidays.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Recycle your pumpkins!

Greetings fit people!

 I know this has nothing to do with my blogs but this is the only way I could figure out how to add this to facebook.

Not feeling so fit right now and this is always a tough time with all the holidays and sweets. Live it up!
Try these recipes especially the Pumpkin Crunch. I have only made that one but I plan on making all of them with our recycled pumpkins.

Recycle your pumpkins. Read this and try one or more of the recipes below.
Around 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkins are grown and sold every year. The majority of pumpkins are sold for Halloween in the United States. Three quarters, the vast majority, of 28,750,000 pumpkins is 21,562,500 pumpkins. Multiplying 21,562,500 pumpkins by 13 pounds per pumpkin equals 280,312,500 pounds of pumpkin that gets wasted every Halloween season. That's about one pound of pumpkin per person living in the U.S.A. Why not recycle?
Silver Palate Cookbook
Ginger Pumpkin Mouse easy recipe to make
4    eggs
7    Tbsps granulated sugar
1    Tbs unflavored gelatin
1.5  cups pumpkin puree  *instructions at bottom of file
¾  tsp  cinnamon
½ tsp freshly grated ginger
¼ tsp grated nutmeg
1    cup heavy cream
minced crystalized ginger (garnish)

1) Beat eggs with sugar until mix is light colored and thick.  Add gelatin
and beat to blend well.  Mix in pumpkin puree and spices and chill mixture
until it begins to set up.

2) Whip cream into soft peaks; fold in pumpkin mixture.  Pour into
  4-6 dessert dishes.

3) chill for 4 hours.  Before serving, garnish with crystalized ginger
Silver Palate Good times Cookbook 
 Smoky Pumpkin Soup
  • 6 slices bacon diced cooked crisp, fat reserved
  • 4 Tablespoons butter  unsalted
  • 6 cups peeled cut-up pumpkin one inch pieces
  • 6 cups soup beef or vegetable soup stock
  • 1/2 cup Marsala
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • salt and fresh ground pepper
  1. Heat bacon gfat and butter in stock pot over medium heat.
  2. Add the pumpkin and sauté about 15 minutes, stirring so the pumpkin cooks evenly.
  3. Pour in the stock and simmer covered until the pumpkin is very tender, about 30 minutes.  Remove from heat
  4. Add the Marsala, thyme, salt and pepper.
  5. Process the soup – meaning, blend it until smooth.  I used my handy dandy Braun Handheld Blender and did it right in the pot.  Whatever you do, be careful because the soup is hot.
  6. When the liquid is all smooth, stir in the bacon and simmer about 10 more minutes.

Pumpkin Crisp This came from Shannon at Roche IT Support

This is an easy to make and awesome use of canned pumpkin. Let it cook the full time so it sets up.

  • 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted
  • 1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin puree or 3 ½ cups of pumpkin
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 2/3 cup evaporated milk
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • Cool whip or whipped cream

Directions

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Set aside 1 cup cake mix for the topping. Combine remaining cake mix, 1 egg, and melted butter or margarine. Pat into a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2.      In a large bowl, mix pumpkin, 2 eggs, spices, 1/2 cup sugar, and milk. Pour pumpkin mixture over the cake mix crust.
3.      In a small bowl, combine 1 cup cake mix and 3/4 cup sugar. Cut in 1/2 cup softened butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle mixture on top of pumpkin mixture.
4.      Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 55 minutes. Shake the pan slightly and make sure it set.
5.      Let cool and cut in squares and top with cool whip.
Spinach and Pumpkin Curry from Food.com  for the really daring. Sorry but you will have to do some metric conversion.

Directions:

1.Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat; add the mustard seeds and cook until they start to pop; add the chillies, curry leaves, turmeric and (optional) fenugreek seeds, if using; cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
2.Add the onion and cook for 3 minutes or until it has softened; stir in the tomatoes, coconut milk and pumpkin; bring to a simmer and cook over a medium heat for 15 minutes or until the pumpkin is tender.
3.Chop any large spinach leaves; add the lime juice and spinach to the curry and stir until the spinach leaves have just begun to wilt; serve on a bed of rice, topped with a dollop of yoghurt and mint leaves.

Lastly substitute pumpkin for banana in banana bread and add a little to sugar to taste as it is less sweet if you like. I add some to pancake batter with some cinnamon.


Monday, February 27, 2012

Do something every day

It is so easy to get caught up in the day and then it's late and you haven't exercised at all. Best plan is to workout in the morning. I try to get up by 6 and get to the gym for about 20 minutes of weights. I sometimes will put in more weight time but even just 20 minutes really feels great. You can get a body part of two like chest and back in 20 minutes if you speed up you reps and don't rest much between sets. It doesn't feel like cardio but you get a great pump.
If I can't get to the gym I will jump on the Life Cycle or bike at home; two great investments I have made that give me no excuse when I I don't want to go to the gym
Tonight I had some computer work to do and stayed focused for a bit and felt like I deserved some ice cream. I had alot of support from the family but instead I worked out with youngest son who is battling a weight problem and then played ping pong with my other son.
What a great choice! I feel euphoric and have no guilt. I like this feeling much better.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Are you wasting time? Stop googling and start living.

I waste a lot of time. I google trivial things. I read google news. I know a lot of stuff. Useless stuff. . Time is so precious and yet I just squander it away. It didn't matter that much when I was young because time just didn't fly by like it does now. Weeks feel like days now.
I figure now that I am 50 if I am lucky I could make it to 75-80 based on my family tree. I have longevity on my moms side but my mother has Alzheimer at 73 so her quality of life has dropped significantly. My dad's side all live into the late 70's or early 80's. My math says I have used up about two thirds of the quality years. Hey the facts are friendly!
I feel pretty healthy and I am more active than most people half my age. I work out and I love to hike on weekends. Funny thing; when I hike on weekends I see a ton of people much older than me hiking so I know I can hike for a long time as long as my knees hold out.
It is easy to blow several hours a day watching TV and surfing the web. When I do that I feel like I have to catch on business stuff and I end up doing that on weekends which then blows my weekend. Instead I am going to get my work done during the week so that I can do more on the weekend. No more wasting time. I want to write a book and yet I never write. Instead I google!
No more wasting time! I can do that when I'm dead.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Fat at fifty?

Ok my birthday came and went on April 7th and I am not fit. I guess I am part of the majority so I shouldn't feel bad. I am pretty bummed though as I had great plans to take the torch for the middle-agers and show everyone how easy it is to get fit.
I did not expect to have knee surgery at the end of December 2010 or do the Efudex treatment for skin cancer in January 2011 or get super busy with my job. None of these reasons are good enough to stop me from getting fit.
Knee surgery prevent me from hiking and stair stepping but not for weights and situps.
Efudex prevented me from feeling good about going to the gym and being around people. Could done sit ups and home and went for a walk with my wifey.