“All men by nature desire knowledge. ”
- Aristotle
It wasn’t until recently that I really grasped what happens to each macronutrient inside the body. The main reason is that most articles that explain how metabolism work are biased toward a particular diet. Low-carb, low-fat, South Beach, even vegetarians put their own spin on how the body works. I didn’t know what to believe. After some selective Googling and piecing together bits of information from Wikipedia I think I’ve deduced what happens to my dinner.
Monday night we were in a hurry and I ate a Smart Ones Ravioli Florentine as I sat down to watch the new “Little People, Big World” — the one that Matt goes to court for a DUI. It has 250 calories, 5 grams of fat, 11 grams of protein, and 40 grams of carbohydrates — 12 of which were sugar. Some of these will be stored as fat and some will be used by the body but each in a different way.
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I hope to have the space and money for a versatile home gym one day. In the meantime, however, I can only plan what would go in my perfect home gym. This article outlines my ideal home gym in all its simplistic grandiose.
My view on fitness training favors simplicity. I think the general theme should favor utility and stay away from clumsy infomercial equipment.
I plan on updating this list when I change my mind but here it is for now.
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I set weight loss and fitness goals back at the beginning of the year, as many of you probably did. And a very important step of goal setting is to review.
So, here it goes.
I met my goal and now weigh 165 lbs for the first time since 2004.
That means I lost 6lbs this month. I also met my — updated — cardio and weight training goals. I did cardio at least two days a week and weight trained three. My diet continued to be the one outlined in my original weight loss goal post but I have made a few tweaks. The reward for my efforts are glimpses at my upper four abs and a yet to be determined body fat scale.
In this post I’ll detail the changes I have made to my diet/fitness plans and goals and my progress thus far.
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In the last couple weeks I’ve switched from drinking several diet soft drinks a day to water.
I’ve wanted to do this a while because of all the scary sounding ingredients in diet drinks and because the mere taste of something sweet may spike insulin levels slowing fat loss and interrupting satiety.
But I found two reasons that are new to me on the web that I wanted to share. They are not silver bullets for weight loss — nothing to get too excited about. But they are interesting little hacks that pushed me over the edge to drinking much more H20.
- Ample water indirectly ensures the liver can concentrate on breaking down fat for energy
- It takes 1 calorie of energy to heat 1 ounce of 40 degree water to body temperature
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It was this thought, that I was literally addicted to food, that made me wake up and start eating to live instead of living to eat. And I can’t imagine turning back.
Addiction - “compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance”
One third of Americans are obese and another third are overweight. So only one third of adults in the United States are at a healthy weight. The mindless eating we exhibit, I believe, can only be attributed to food addiction.
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If you’re like me you’ve read about a lot of different healthy ways of eating. Some might recommend the opposite of others but the majority will hold some key ideas in common. I’ve found that the four most common elements of healthy diets that work for real people are:
- Limit white carbs
- Know your fats
- Get ample fiber
- Strive for variety
In this post I’ll discuss why each of these is important and some simple strategies to achieve them.
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The hardest part of losing weight and getting in shape for me is keeping motivated. On the first day it seems like nothing can stop me. But sometime after three weeks — or even three days — I begin to falter. Not only does doubt in my ability to succeed creep in but I question whether the goal is even worth achieving. I think the single most effective exercise to quell these doubts is to imagine wild success. It sounds simple and it is.
This works for any goal. Define exactly what succeeding is and visualize what it would feel like achieving that goal. How would you feel? What would you do? What would people you care about say? If it is weight loss, what size clothes would you wear? Where would you shop? How would your life change? When you look back on the path you took to achieve this goal, how will you feel about it? And what would you do next?
A one line motto I try to live by is “focus on success”, which I especially try to evoke when I’m anxious. I think all of my anxieties stem from fear of failure. If I’m stressed at work or if I feel like I just can’t stick with my diet/workout I tell myself “focus on success”. And the exercise above makes me focus on just that.
Good grief, not another omega 3 article.
I’m in love with omega-3, there I said it, I’m not ashamed. Omega-3 fatty acids have a large number of proven cardiovascular benefits, they can reduce inflammation, help prevent some forms of cancer, help with anxiety and depression, and even make ladies curvier.
Omega-3 articles in the main media outlets, however, do not include information on the dosage used in the studies. Nor do they give amounts that can be found in normal foods. What I have found is that in some cases benefits were seen, and only seen, at levels much higher than what you can get eating the recommended “2 or 3 servings of fish per week”. People in general are not getting enough omega-3 and even the people that think they are probably aren’t either.
In this article, I’ll give a barebones lesson on omega-3, then provide some data on how much there is in typical sources, and how much research shows you need to see benefits.
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Eating everything you want is not that much fun. When you live a life with no boundaries, there’s less joy. If you can eat anything you want to, what’s the fun in eating anything you want to? - Tom Hanks
My wife, Stephanie, and I love good restaurants. At one time our favorite hobby was dining out and we did it three or four nights a week. But we’ve recently discovered that she is an excellent cook and that going out so much wastes time and money so we’ve cut back. We do dine out, however, every Friday and Saturday night to reward ourselves for a healthy week. And if we are visiting friends and family, or vice versa, we’ll splurge at a sit down place. People’s social lives just seem to gravitate toward restaurants.
There are a lot of alternatives to eating out if social interaction is the aim (game/movie nights, potluck dinner, etc) but sometimes it just makes sense to go to a restaurant. I’ve found that in the 9-5 environment that going out for lunch is a very important social construct and the best way to network. Inviting your boss to your apartment to play Parcheesi at lunch doesn’t go over so well.
Boundaries and limitations are needed, however, since in the U.S. portion sizes and unhealthy dishes are on the rise. Some restaurants have a section of healthy dishes along with calorie counts (like Chilli’s) but most do not. I’ve compiled 10 easy tips that will help you make sure you don’t overeat when you eat out.
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I absolutely love reading stories about people achieving their goals. But when I saw the headline “Dropping 110 pounds transforms woman’s life” I assumed it was another gastric bypass “success”. But after reading the article it turned out to be a very inspiring story about a women going from an unhealthy size 22 to a size 4 in one year.
Thirty one year old Heather Davis lives in Washington and said she had tried everything to lose weight in the past. But that one day, something clicked, she made a commitment and a lifestyle change that made getting healthy easy. I think this is very important and has only recently happened to me, I will write a future post about this light switch and how to achieve it.
My favorites bits Davis included were to get as much social support as possible but to also not let your family and friends derail you.
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