The Shrinking Man

Well, you have all of these wonderful plans … and then life pops up.

We’re dealing with an out-of-town family emergency right now. Everything’s getting better, at least. But I’m probably going to be a bit “off” on the ol’ program (although I already had my 30 minutes of cardio this morning).

Oh well. When life throws you a curveball, you can still smash it out of the park. You just need to know how. Now that I know how to, this won’t be a big deal.

BTW - it will probably be early next week until I’m able to post again.

Well, weighed in at Smart for Life today. I came in at 258, which is a 4 lb. loss. Pretty good. What’s more, my morning weigh-in (the number I really keep track of) was at 257.

Weight, what a funny thing. A constantly moving target. You never truly know what your weight is, which is why you need to do your “keep track” weight at the same time when charting it/remembering it/whatever. Usually that’s first thing in the morning, after you’ve done any bathroom business you need to do.

This week was week 1 of the multi-layered week, in terms of what I’m doing exercise wise and nutrition-wise. To sum up:

• Exercise: Turbulence Training Introduction program for bodyweight/resistance and Pace Fitness for interval training 3x a week; slow-go cardio for 30 minutes the other 3 days
• Nutrition: Smart for Life w/1 extra protein shake daily; Eat Stop Eat 24 hour fasting for 2 periods; Thintuition to know when I’m hungry and how much to eat

I’ll keep this up (while switching the TT program to the Beginner’s program probably the week after next) for … well … for as long as it works for me. Hopefully, that’ll be for a really long time, as I really like doing all of this.

Another bit ‘ good news. When I weighed in, the S4L doc (a great lady, BTW) weighed me on the extremely high-falutin’ Tanita professional scale (that could help you hack into the Pentagon). While I don’t remember the percentages, my body fat was down from a month ago, but my muscle mass was up! This means I’ve lost even more fat than what the overall “scale” number indicates — which is why I hate our society’s over-dependence on the “scale” number. It’s extremely inadequate.

I may even have to add another protein shake in during the day, which would be cool. I think that it would spike my metabolism even more. I’ll give that a week or two, though.

She even said I’m “ahead of schedule” in my weight-loss efforts. Cool.

So all in all, a great week! Looking forward to another one this week, especially now that I’ll be working out in my home.

… I always hesitate using the word “big” in a blog about weight loss  ;)  .

Any-who, the big news is I’m going to join the Transformation Contest when it starts back up. Cash and prizes, plus the ultimate in accountability (a contest!) — you can’t go wrong. I’ll post details as I come across them. Click on the link to see the winners from the last contest. The winner is kinda hot, too.

Coming up tomorrow or Sunday … an update on my weigh-in this week — the first full week of Turbulence Training with some Pace Program tossed in, with side dishes of Smart for Life and Eat Stop Eat and a dash of Thintuition. Could I fit more things into my life right now? Eh, maybe. But for now, this’ll do, reader, this’ll do.

BTW - the weigh in? Let’s just say I have a really good feeling about it. After all, I’ve had a sneak peek at week-to-date results.

Thought I’d update quickly, especially because this marks the first time in 3 weeks it has been a Wednesdy and I haven’t been in the midst of a gout attack. Can’t tell you how happy that makes me.

Anyhow, I’ve exercised every day (Sunday and Tuesday “heavy days,” Monday and this morning “low-and-slow cardio), and am feeling fantastic. I’m down to 261, but if my lower-end Tanita scale is to be believed, I’ve lost more fat than the overall weight number indicates. Which is good — I’m about losing fat and clothing fitting even better more than watching one dumb ol’ number that doesn’t even directly relate to how I’m doing with losing fat. Yep, I feel pretty strongly about that.

To help us out with tracking more than just overall weight and fat loss, I bought a high-falutin’ Tanita scale — the Tanita Ironman BC554 (scroll down to see it). Let’s just say that this scale is so advanced, if you put jet engines on it? Yep, it’d fly.

We also took all of our tax refund (plus a little extra, but not a lot), and bought an elliptical for the house. With this, we’ll be able to dump our gym memberships and save money in the long term. Plus it’ll save us travel time in the morning, which, if you live in DC or have heard about our traffic, can be considerable.

We got this bad boy: the Octane Fitness Q47e. If you could exercise and sweat your you-know-what off and do it all in a Cadillac at the same time, this would be the machine that would do it. Oh. My. God. I’ll tell more about its virtues after we get it delivered. 

Quitting the gym isn’t a big deal, though. Since I’m doing Turbulence Training, it’s all bodyweight and dumbbells, and we have those already. Don’t need a gym for that. And when my wife’s knee gets better, she can either do TT or combine our old Bowflex with the Q47e.

Sweet!

By the way, we’re Eat Stop Eating again tonight. Wish us luck!

Wanted to quickly update on my experience with my first fast, via the Eat Stop Eat program. And I’ve gotta say, wow!

I didn’t think I could make it. But with just 40 minutes left, I can say it was easy. The key to success is to time the 24 hour period so that you actually are eating every day of the week; you’re just fitting the 24 hour period in around it. So, for example, we started at 6 PM yesterday (and essentially skipped dinner), but we’re picking up today after 6 PM (and eating dinner). So we only truly fasted 16 hours, as we slept for 8 of them. And even though we “fasted” on Sunday and Monday, we ate on those days, too!

Another key is to eat normally (whatever that is for you); don’t gorge yourself before or after the fast period.

Brad explains it all (and explains it well) in his book. And it doesn’t cost a lot of scratch, either. I don’t want to give away too much here, because he’s a good guy and I want to see him succeed with this book. So if you’re interested, I suggest you go to his site and buy it. I get no money for referrals, either — I’m just happy to help. Seriously.

Just wanted to quickly alert y’all to a comment in the post immediately below this one (here’s the link to it, in case you’ve stumbled across this post and not the whole blog). It’s from Craig Ballantyne, the guy who came up with Turbulence Training. I’ll let the post explain it all. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Well, aren’t I becoming *the* magnet for health, workout and nutrition celebs! First, Craig comments at this blog. Then I get a comment from over at the ttmembers.com message board from Eat Stop Eat writer Brad Pilon. I’ve actually put that comment in the comments section from the above-referenced posting, since it directly relates there.

So, this blog post has been upgraded from “Niiiiiice” to “Very Niiiiiice”!

First, weigh in. I weighed in at Smart for Life at 262 - I’m essentially at 65 lbs. lost. Pretty snazzy. I’ve got to admit, though, the weight is getting tougher and tougher to drop. I’m wondering if this plan has run its course with me, in terms of effectiveness. My body really needs different stimuli to “shake things up,” and I think that 5 months on S4L may be the max for it. Believe me, I love S4L and would recommend it to anyone. But as you read so often, “No diet works 100% of the time,” and you need to do the ol’ “Shake things up” thing.

Second, Eat Stop Eat. My jaw almost dropped to the floor when my wife said, “yes,” she’d do it with me. So we’re doing the fasting thing as a trial. We’re starting today at 6 PM, and not eating again until Monday at 6. Wish us luck! I’m also hoping that combining this with S4L will be the “shake up” thing I need the next few months. I’ll update how it went tomorrow night.

Third, Turbulence Training. I’m back on it as of today. I’ll be going to work out this afternoon, marking my return to my original schedule of 2 heavy days (Sunday and probably Wednesday) and 4 light days each week. Don’t want to burn myself out! After a few weeks, it goes up to 3 heavy days a week. Can’t wait for that. Seriously!

Smart for Life cookies + Reynolds Handi-Vac = crazy delicious! **

Seriously. Now that the cookies are better again — not quite what they used to be, but better nonetheless — I recommend using the Handi-Vac bags to keep your cookies. They’ll stay fresh longer, even though S4L is back to using the packaging with the little windows that re-seal.

This helpful hint brought to you by the letters S and L, and the number 0.

** If this line sounds familiar but you just can’t place it, it is based on a Saturday Night Live Digital Short (Wikipedia, do your magic with an entry on the video) a few years back. The real line is “Mr. Pibb + Red Vines = Crazy Delicious.” You’re welcome.

What really sucks about gout attacks is the “no-warning” aspect of it. I had all kinds of plans for today: get up early, work out, fast all day and continue on my way to a healthy weight.

The throbbing pain in my left-hand food (just below my big toe) put a friggin’ screeching halt to all of that.

So now I’m back to the “colchicine diet,” as I call it. Not a good diet, to be sure. Plus, two attacks in two weeks has me worried, so I’m seeing my doctor on Friday. I probably won’t update until after that. Thanks for the comments and support!

Eat Stop Eat … ? I’m seriously thinking about it. Have to get it past the wife unit (who is also S4L’ing with me).

The bigger question is, can I fit all of these different philosophies into one way of life? Actually, I think I can!