Essen

Okay so far we have learned that the Human was designed to run across various terrain for long periods of time. Also, our brains have constructed devices to put over our feet that render the amazing running ability null to some humans. All in the name of comfort and safety.

So moving on to a leap that probably I should not make... How are people supposed to eat?

Hunter-gathering-farmers with a brain capable of innovations such as preserving food for later, is really damn versatile. It is easy to imagine gathering stuff to eat and running prey to death, using tools and traps to speed up the process. Learning what seeds are and how to use them.

You get the idea that our brain keeps working to take the hassle out of survival...

"Wow Thag, we just ran that elk to death and it took four hours! I wish it did not take so long and so far!"

"Hmmm, what if we run it into a canyon and throw rocks on it from above?"

"Good Idea Charlie!"

You would think that we would get hungry, eat until we are sated then move on to another project. But, that is not really what goes on. Instead we are eating at intervals that suit our surroundings. Plus, we have that food preparation (I do not mean microwave).

I guess it kind of kills off the instinctual. It does make it easier then going hungry for a few days then coming across a carcass...

So convenience, lack of hassle and subscribed intervals have dampened whatever other stuff we had programmed into our heads and allowed us time to make shelter, medicine, clothing, transportation, plumbing, cheese in a can, Air Conditioning and World of Warcraft.

Not a bad trade off in my mind. Although, there is that nagging oh look how awful we have become notion, that public school, no doubt, has brain washed into me. It has also allowed the creation of the Diet and Exercise industry.

And still we eat when we do not need too and way more then we should... I keep hoping I can re-develop that God given trigger that says: "STOP EATING"

Ah well... At least my brain is allowing me to count calories in the meantime...

The bounce

As common sense would tell you, the holiday celebrations can make you gain weight. In my case there was not so much gain as stagnation. I have a few weight loss goals. My first goal is 193 pounds which I am very close too meeting. Using a formula by Dr. GJ Hamwi For men: 106 lb for the first 5 ft; 6 lb for each inch over 5 ft For women: 100 lb for the first 5 ft; 5 lb for each inch over 5 ft . These formulas are designed for a person with a medium size frame. Dr. Hamwi suggests that the results may be reduced by 10% for a person with an obviously light frame, and increased by 10% for a person with a heavy frame.

So for my height Light Frame: 158 lb. Heavy Frame: 193 lb.

To figure your Frame size they like the wrist measurement.

(for men)

large: wrist size over 7.5"

medium: wrist size 6.5" to 7.5"

small: wrist size 5.5" to 6.5"

In my mind I feel 185 is my ideal weight. While it is a goal, I am more interested in finding out my body composition (percentage of body fat). The problem there is locating a local way to measure that via submersion (considered highly accurate).

Over the last few weeks I have been bounding and rebounding between 197 and 207. Mostly by my own indulgence, well... I guess ALL by my own indulgence.

So this week I hardened my resolve and started being systematic in my calorie counting.

My Spoon is too big

Well my clothes are actually...

I grabbed a favorite shirt of mine and went out to eat recently. This particular dinner has been blogged about below with pictures. My shirt looks like crap on me, because it had been on a much larger version of me.

All my old shirts are too big. This, is very annoying to me for a couple of reasons. I LIKE my old shirts but when you put on a dress shirt and its like tucking in a spinnaker sail IT LOOKS LIKE GATHERED CRAP!

It was bad enough that my Briefs had turned into Boxers (I do not like boxers). Now my shirt collection is requiring being purged! Tee-shirts can be worn big. It is even comfortable. Sweat Shirts I prefer big. It turns out there is something to be said for work shirts that fit.

Do NOT get me wrong. I am well pleased that for the first time in 30 years I am below 200 pounds. I just never took into account that my wardrobe would become obsolete.

Silly me...

Okay, I feel better (until I look at my FORMER shirts again)... So anyways. I went to the Doctors today. My NEW doctor. My old one saw the writing on the wall and opted for early retirement then face the Government Rationed Healthcare system that seems to be coming our way.

This new doctor was not born in the USA. No big deal, but I am starting to wonder if there are ANY new doctors being born in the USA... And I got a bit of a life shock, this may or may not make sense\be funny to anyone out there depending upon your age and experience.

THIS DOCTOR IS YOUNGER THEN ME! For the first time EVER! yes, it was a fundamental shift in my universe. Shocking to say the least. Doctor baby face was nice enough, he apparently enjoys his laptop computer as he spent much more time looking at it then at me. I was anxious to hear how my blood work went. Being Type II, and having shunned 88 pounds, you can understand.

He starts explaining things, with an increasingly confusing loop the loop of information:

Doc: Okay your blood test results are excellent, your numbers are at the upper range for normal.

Me: Wow, Normal? Great I was hoping to get off my medication.

Doc babyF: Well, your numbers are normal for a regular person.

Me: I have daily bowel movements, I am not sure what that has to do with...

Doc babyF: No I mean your blood work would show your not diabetic in a normal person.

Me: I'm not a normal person?

Doc babyF: You have Diabetes.

Me: Yes, but with my weight loss I was thinking I would be able to reverse that. Now you say my numbers show my blood sugars are normal! That means I'm Cured!

Doc babyF: No, it doesnt, you still have diabetes. If you Did NOT have diabetes your blood test would be normal.

Me: Did the numbers before show I had dabetes?

Doc babyF: Yes, most assuradly.

Me: and now the numbers show my blood is the same as a normal, non-type II person?

Doc babyF: Exactly correct.

Me: So the only reason I am not cured NOW is because I was diagnosed earlier?

Doc babyF: Yes, that is correct.

Me: ........................................wtf?

Anyways. My BP is phenomenal! My Cholesterol is Excellent! My weight is a tad high (according to a highly flawed calculation called BMI, but so be it).

All in all I am a much healthier human being, just in time for Christmas! Now if I just had something to wear!

And again

Sabotage? Possibly.

Weeks and weeks of calorie counting and exercise and I got sick and tired. I did not do the stuff I needed to do, as much as I hate to admit weakness.

I let the weekly calories sneak up to a sustainable level for my size. I have some doubts to the RMR .vs. my true blue RMR (which I understand can be actually calibrated). While I have not gained massive amounts, I had stopped short of my goal.

So I gave up for a week and just ate. Overate, as well. My system seems to have revolted a bit. Gastronomically I just do not feel all that great. As fun as that was, now it is back to the counting and loosing. I put in quite a few miles walking this week even with the gluttony.

I scrubbed my spread sheet and I am starting it up again today for a 10 week run that will have to take into account Thanksgiving and Christmas. At least I will have some challenges eh?

This is my route to work. I walk to work, home for lunch, back to work, home at the end of the day. It not quite a mile, however there is a bit more to this then a flat map shows.

The minimum elevation is 449 feet (above sea level). The maximum elevation is 607 feet. This puts my walk at a vertical 128 feet with a -184 foot decent (you reverse those for the walk home).

Typically it takes me 10 to 15 minutes depending upon my walking speed. With wind sprints included I am around the 8 minute mark. I figure that is 400 calories a day burned walking.

Tops Day Info

Weight 202

Calories this week: 11,786

Calculated RMR: 15,229

Should have lost ~ 1 pounds

Walked 15 miles.

Biked 15 miles.

Red Plus blud letting

I'm a car carrying donor of the Red Cross, I would post my ID but I am fairly sure thats top secret, need to know... umkay, maybe not. But I do give regularly and today was another blood letting.

Now the cool thing about giving blood is that they take your Blood Pressure and write it on the card. Any given day any given blood pressure can be up or down. It is a trend over time you are looking for.

So with my weight loss earlier this year I was wondering how my BP was looking.

1-2007 122/88 (I am around 270lbs)
3-2007 134/80
5-2007 138/88
7-2007 138/74 **you get the idea**
Moving forward
3-2009 132/80 (When I started loosing)
5-2009 118/68 (around 230 lbs) Walking to and from work.
7-2009 114/72 (around 211 lbs) Starting to ride my bike.
8-2009 118/70 (around 208 lbs)
10-2009 112/58 (around 200 lbs)

Well, anyways I was pleased.

Tops Day Info

Weight 208

Calories this week: 11,500

Calculated RMR: 15,528

Should have lost ~ 1.15 pounds

Walked 15 miles.

Biked 15 miles.

Monday Errands

It rained last night. It had cleared up by morning. So I decided to run errands. By Bike!

9:00 AM I headed down our hill and over the next, through downtown and across the Umpqua River. Harvard Blvd. heads out of town West and leads to the more rural area's of our county, and heads along the river. The houses across the road all have large picture windows (for obvious reasons). It was surprisingly warmer then the cloudy sky would indicate. Next to no wind could be felt and while my cheeks got cold it was a pleasant sensation. Fall colors abound and littered the black asphalt with a mosaic that hinted at traction danger. At this time of day, on this route, I was the only person on the planet. There is an underlying noise that a lazy river makes. At the fifteen minute mark I stopped to re-hydrate and stood at a slight bluff overlooking millions of gallons of slow moving water. Wonderful, sounds, sights and smells was quite the reward.

Onward I started the loop back into Roseburg. This goes past our local farms, surprisingly busy at this time. As Garden Valley is a more popular route, I started seeing more cars. (I should note that in my town more cars are in the tens). Now was a climb into town. This bluff, at this time, thirty minutes into my journey. Second water break at the top of the hill, also a reminder that getting into shape is a journey, not a destination. The bummer is after all that climbing the downhill was nil. Just as well as I am working, which is a good thing.

Now for the Errand, locked the bike and returned some items. Then to the bank and finally buying some groceries. We are having a tight week, having paid some medical bills. So I got a 10 lb bag of potatoes, 5 lbs of carrots, a jar of sauerkraut and veggie dogs. Get that? Approx 18 pounds of food to strap on my back. It was a step backwards in weight loss.

The final leg was through the city park and along the river again. Something of a theme for this trip. For one of the first times in a long time I was not able to make it all the way up the 150 foot climb to the house and had to walk it a little. Still it was a nice ride.

14. miles. 235' ascent. I made a map link thingy of my ride. I hope it works.

Fat Head

I'm nearing the 200 pound mark. Which means I weigh less now then when I got married. I had not really thought about the fatty tissue below the scalp. I guess it is obvious, but I was a fat headed guy.

Let me 'splain!

I like hats, I have a really nice Fedora, Fisherman, Russian hunter, Cowboy and a Pork Pie Hat.

I really do not like base ball caps, although I do have and wear them as well.

I wear my Fedora and fisherman's during summer walks to work. The cowboy and Russian during the rain or winter (respectively). Some time ago I found the cowboy and pork pie had shrunk. That is to say, they were smaller from my perspective. So I put them up on a shelf and went on about my business. What I did not realize was my head had grown.

So last week when I knocked the Pork Pie down from its perch I tried it on, only to find it fits wonderfully. This might explain why my river sandal straps do not tighten up enough. I think I should break out my old roller hockey skates...

Preaching about weight loss.

On March 9th 2005 with the shrewed information about Resting Metabolic Rate from my friend Jack, and how to utilize. I went from around 268 down to 208 (as seen in the above collage).

A few odd things of note. Your mental image of how you look does not always agree with the real world evidence. Also, certain activities have a mental lock of acceptance that will not jibe with reality either. A persons relationship with food, while highly intimate, is easily regulatable. Being hungry and wanting to eat are two very different events. Finally twenty pounds is a lot of difference.

I periodically note that in looking down my vertical is unimpeded by my girth. It is actually a bit disconcerting, the lack of shape with given clothes. Also, a glance at the mirror with give me a second take as my face is not immediately recognized.

Things like bike riding and dancing require a certain amount of strength and stamina. Moving an object via chain, sprockets wheels and pedals becomes easier with less weight. I am starting to believe there is an actual "proper weight" that makes these various movements not only desirable but fun. Like an early morning mile walk to Wal-Mart might become a run. Dancing over the weekend, I was fully expecting to have to sit one out, or to keep a certain pace. I quickly found that any given output of energy was sustainable and I kept. ramping up. This lead to a final conclusion that enthusiasm can make for lots of aches and pains afterwards. Thank goodness for over the counter pain relief meds.

I know I have a fear that I will eat a meal and still be hungry afterwards. It is not rational as food literally surrounds us with its availability. The fact that I can recall long periods of not actually feeling hungry is disconcerting in retrospect. The eating habits of humans have changed while the physiology has remained the same. Three square meals a day is an unimaginable luxury on another part of the globe. Now I have a set point of calories I aim for. I am getting pretty good and recalling calorie counts and the Internet is a great resource for quick look ups.

Finally, it just does not matter how much you eat at one meal. Lets say its your birthday and you just pig out on high calorie, high fat, delicious rich food. Lets say you down 3000 calories (which is a lot of food) for that meal. As long as you eat within your proper range over then next two weeks it will all burn off. If every day is your birthday your putting out pounds.

As simply as I can put it. You burn X calories a day if you just sit around. If that is your average caloric intake and you stay around that weight. If you add calories you add weight, if you subtract calories you loose weight. It is a ten week thing, not a daily thing. Oh and 3500 calories is a pound. (that's 500 a day over a week).

sixteen pounds is just a little less then two one gallon water bottles (the kind with the handles). If you carry those for a mile you will notice in the difference in your gait, knees and endurance. Likewise if your riding a bike. Fun Fact, Lance Armstrong's Tour De France bike weighs less then two gallon jugs of water.

Oh yeah, if you are interested in loosing weight, talk to a doctor for any risks.

Umkay just maybe...

I posted some time back my thoughts posed by the inquiry "How do you feel". Which seems obligatory when discussing weight loss. The canned answer is "Why yes, yes I do!"

I don't, or didn't.

That may have possibly changed. Several decades back, I enjoyed climbing things, running up things, etc. This has actually become a named activity Parkour. There was a certain thrill, a rush, if you will, around this.

While walking with my wife the other evening, on a whim, I jumped the large roll off bin the neighbors had left out. I cleared it and re-opened sections of my memories in the process. My bike rides of late have not been the tedious affair of the past either, where I would lament the piston like energy my legs had to produce over and over to get me to my destination.

Quite the contrary. Now it is more that old flying sensation. Bunny hopping curbs and grinding up over the hills at speed. Even when my quads are starting to scream in protest the sight of the top propels me upwards. When I am sitting on the couch watching the tube I will (for fun), flex up and see the definition. It does have a good feeling.

Still, a part of me is getting way tired of 1400 calorie days when I know in my mind I have another 700 I can eat. A part of me wants to re-establish some muscle tone.

My main goal is to eliminate the prescription meds for my Type II. I have a blood test request sitting on my desk waiting. When I drop below 200 I will start to figure out when to go.

My last doctors appointment I was 228. If I am at 198 the next one, just maybe that will be low enough. I hope so anyways.

So I do have moments of feeling great that is related to my weight loss. I catch my reflection at times and do a doubletake. Its weird.

Fooderiffic

Finding a good amount of food with each undertaking being around 200 calories has been interesting.

Yoplait Light fat free yogurt is 100 calories zero from fat. Add two carmel flavored Rice cakes (50 calories each) and thats good enough to tide me over till lunch.

So lunchtime comes and a sandwich made with Franz 40 Calorie a slice whole wheat bread, two slices of Yves Meatless Salami (20 calories a slice) with some good hot mustard and veggies.

Lettuce, onion, dill pickles are minimal calories so your looking at 130 calories. Add to that a bowl of cabbage soup (30 calories) and a Big dill pickle.

Soup is made from:

- whole cabbage head

- 6 green onions (scallions)

- 28 ounces of crushed, canned, or whole fresh tomatoes

- 2 bell peppers (green)

- 1 bunch of celery

- 1 veggie bullion

- Black pepper to suit your taste

- Herbs to suit your taste

- Small can of V-8 juice

Last night I used a three bean recipe from my sister (black, pinto chili) with a 80 calorie tortilla. This needs some work at upping the flavors but at 190 calories, not bad.

Bisecting the Bicycle

Last weekend I had a period of four days were I went over my self imposed calories by a considerable margin.

I actually ate above my (reseting metabolic rate) RMR, for a four day period of time. Being the agent of change of my gravitational field, I opted for some extended calorie burning.

Monday, Connor has special olympics day camp. Rather then have him head to work with Tina and be bussed from there. We hooked up the swing bike and rode the three something miles. After I got him situated with his partners, I had been charged with some computer repair work at our church. Anita was not at the church but would return. The swing bike is not great for solo riding as it bounces something fierce with every bump. Tina's work is about a mile away so I headed down the road and stored the swing in her van and dropped of Connors helmet.

Tina had set up the computer repair and somehow I did not get the time, so I was not expected for another 1/2 hour. So I took the oppertunity to ride one time around our city park. This is about a three mile course. After which I spied on Connor's day. He was having a great time. I got the computer fixed up and rode the three miles back home. Approx 12 mile bike ride.

Or 600 calories burned. That makes for a nice dip in the week calorie wise and as a bonus a good feeling, mostly because it was quite a bit of fun riding around, something that has not been that much fun.

In otherwords riding a bike at 210 lbs is much more enjoyable then riding the same bike at 260 lbs.

Website review

Redundantly, I am actively loosing weight. Because I live in the real world, and that means going out to eat every so often. Which means finding out, calorically, what I ate after the fact. This is daunting and suprising.

So Mens Health has this nice website. It's based on the book "Eat this not That"

Now you can look up the resturant (national chains), and find out in advance what options you have and the calories, sodium and fats involved are.

I found some of the look ups fun to know as well:

Baskin Robbins Large Chocolate Oreo Shake
2,600 calories
135 g fat (59 g saturated fat, 2.5 g trans fats)
263 g sugars
1,700 mg sodium

We didn't think anything could be worse than Baskin Robbins' 2008 bombshell, the Heath Bar Shake. After all, it had more sugar (266 grams) than 20 bowls of Froot Loops, more calories (2,310) than 11 actual Heath Bars, and more ingredients (73) than you'll find in most chemist labs.

"Head!" Pants, NOW!

Today I am wearing 20 year old pants that are brand new. About the same time Sgt. Pepper was teaching the band to play, my wife went to the Broadway and purchased me some Dockers. Unfortunately I had gained too much weight to wear them.

They were nice pants and we opted to put them in the closet till I lost the weight. I guess that was till now. At 218 they fit nicely and despite the fact they hid themselves quite well, Tina was able to wrest them from hiding into viability.

I'm pretty sure this is the longest something of mine has gone from purchase to useage.

Healthy Wealth and wise.

Physical fitness is defined as "a set of attributes that people have or achieve that relates to the ability to perform physical activity" (USDHHS, 1996). Fitness is made up of five main components:

Cardiorespiratory endurance is the ability of the body's circulatory and respiratory systems to supply fuel during sustained physical activity (USDHHS, 1996 as adapted from Corbin & Lindsey, 1994).

Muscular strength is the ability of the muscle to exert force during an activity (USDHHS, 1996 as adapted from Wilmore & Costill, 1994).

Muscular endurance is the ability of the muscle to continue to perform without fatigue (USDHHS, 1996 as adapted from Wilmore & Costill, 1994).

Body composition refers to the relative amount of muscle, fat, bone, and other vital parts of the body (USDHHS, 1996 as adapted from Corbin and Lindsey, 1994).

Flexibility is the range of motion around a joint (USDHHS, 1996 as adapted from Wilmore & Costill, 1994).

The dieting blues

First off my wife and our TOPS club is amazingly supportive.  Even my blogger friends are great support as well.

On 3/9/2009 I started loosing weight after a great conversation with an old friend.  By 5/1/2009 I had created a 69,472 calorie debt in my food consumption.  That is just under 20 pounds of loss in eight weeks.

Now I am five weeks into my next set.  The original was very restrictive calorie wise.  24,006 deficit so far. Which is 6.8 pounds of loss. 

When your tracking your calories, odd things happen.  Food takes on it own personality and agenda.  You find yourself stopping to grab something and wondering how many calories is this and how will you compensate for it later.  Also, diet drinks occupy a more important spot in your gastronomic day, giving that full flavor with no calories to jot down.

At one point you really want to say "screw this" and go get something that will break the bank.  If you give in, you will feel bad and if you dont give in you can end up with the blues.

There are lots of positives about loosing unhealthy weight, blood sugars normalize, you reduce the strain on your internal systems  (heart, joints, etc.).  You can just google benifits of weight loss to get a listing.

And yet, a large frito pie would be just wonderful about now.  *sigh*

Exercising diminishing returns.

So person A walks distance C five days a week.  They walk at a brisk pace and burn approx. 500 calories.

Person B starts riding a bike distance D five days a week.  He rides at a decent pace and burns approx. 500 calories.

Person A has developed a certain amount of muscle mass to allow this activity.  

Person B is going to experience muscle change, glycogen stores will increase,  the muscle will respond to the additional work load being called upon.

At some point you get an equilibrium, the muscles are going to maintain instead of build.  So my question is this, do you burn less calories as your muscles become more efficent?  

If you are exercising, in part, to eliminate excess fat from your system, by creating a calorie deficit, are you becomming counter productive?

When I walk to and from work, I keep a steady pace.  There are two hills that I climb on the way home. One that I climb over to work.  I figure these about 70 foot.  Getting to the top became easier at a brisk pace over time.  I was at a point were the only way to increase my speed was to jog.  On a bike, I have considerable more options to increase the speed.  The gears alone increase the load on my legs or decrease.  My mindset is to such that I want to get to work and home in the shortest time possible.  So on a bike I continually try to push myself to be a litte faster, keep in a higher gear etc.

Weighty Questions

Someone recently inquired in regards to how much better I feel having lost some weight (I tipped the scales at 285, currently I am 220ish).  My recent loss of 40 pounds should have some positive effects right?

Do I feel any different?  Not really...

Do I have more energy?  Not that I have noticed, seems about the same.

Am I sleeping better?  Maybe, my wife says my snoring has stopped.  Then again, I have never needed oodles of sleep.  As it is, I still wake up around 5:00 AM and lay around until I either sleep or 6:15 rolls around.  

What have I noticed?  At the upper ends of weight sitting in a chair and tie my shoes would require me holding my breath as I tied.  My belt appears to be getting longer.  My pants are more likely to creep downwards.  I was able to get up and over Douglas hill on my bike after two days .vs. the week it took last time. 

When I look in the mirror I do not notice any change either.  In fairness this is a smaller rectangle mirror that is to my left side in the bathroom.  I generally do not look at any other reflections.  My blood work was good, per my doctor.  

I was expecting Doc Rose, to comment on my weight loss (245 down to 228).  He was reading and asking me some questions about my current state.  I decided to point out the loss.  He corrected that my weight was written as 240.  A trip back to the scale told the tale.  All my blood work is great and even my insulin intolerance (read Type II diabetes) is trending downwards.  Good BP and pulse as well.

My next goal is to get in the 2 hundred 'teens'.   After that it is to drop down to the 190's

I have been doing the royal court of exercised (three body weight).  I wish I could be more diligent but I cannot seem to do it that way.  So it has been hit and miss.  Due to an injury on the arch of my right foot I have gone from walking to biking to work.  So I had to modify my route to try to keep the same calorie burn.

Currently I am averaging around 1450 calories a day. According to my RMR that puts me at a 6000 calorie per week deficit.   This is week four of a ten weeks (Ends July 18th).

I guess I should be feeling "better"  maybe there are more positives I would be noticing however things like our country going down the toilet under the current administration, no jobs, massive government growth and spending is kinda stressful.