Nyx (left - sister) and Nox (brother - right): my cats
Fluffy (black) and Bubastis (tabby): my sister kittens
I let the kittens and cats out to play for awhile, and about a half-hour later with the cats back in the house I hop in my car and drive three minutes to the Riverwalk, a beautiful walkway that snakes 1.7 miles from end to end with tenth-of-a-mile markers along the way. Since I walk to the end and back, it's almost a 3-1/2 mile walk, and since it's rare that I can find someone to walk with at 7 am, I bring a book with me.
I use the wooden fence to my right as a guide, and when other walkers stop me to ask how I can read and walk at the same time, I tell them as long as I'm not walking into the fence, I'm doing fine. The reading entertains me, takes my mind away from counting tenths of a mile, and if I need to process something on my mind that requires some inner dialogue, I leave the book in the car. Of course when I do, the other walkers say "What, no book today?"
On one of the outcropping towers to the left during the summer months, a wake of turkey vultures perch on the metal railings to air their feathers and crap on their legs (which actually provides a cooling effect called urohydrosis; thanks Wikipedia!) Besides wondering whether the one vulture perched on a pole in the center is some authority figure and watching their impressive wingspans as they ride the thermals high above the river, I also wonder if anyone were to drop in their tracks on the track whether those scavenger birds would happily descend upon the hapless pedestrian and pick them clean, giving us all incentive to walk and keep walking. Carry on, carrion! ('cause nothin' really matters...)
Anyway, after my morning trek I head home, get ready for work and make a couple of sandwiches (three slices of ham and one Swiss with mayo and mustard, or tuna and mayo, on whole wheat bread; found out the hard way when I started brown bagging it how quickly white bread can spike your blood sugar). My breakfast is a wheat bagel with butter, lunch is said sandwiches with a small bag of barbecue or sour cream and onion chips, and for the afternoon slump around three, I grab a granola bar from the vending machine. For cost effectiveness, I bring a two liter bottle of diet cola to work with me to wash it all down with.
When I get home in the afternoon, it's time to feed my familiars again and give them some pets, love and fresh air before the sweats go on and the cats go back in the house for their own protection. Then it's back to the Riverwalk, but depending on which circuit I'm doing that evening at the gym, I walk half or all of the track and back six days a week.
Before I head to the gym, let's have a little lesson in workout words so some of you will know what I'm talking about. Very basically, my exercise routines consists of repetitions (also known as "reps"), and a rep is one full range of movement (for example, one rise and fall of a push-up is one rep). The number of reps you do before you stop to rest is known as a "set." If you do 12 push-ups and stop, you have done one set of 12 reps. All of the sets of different exercises you do in one workout session is known as a "circuit." That's all you'll need to know because that's all I wanted to know.
On the nights when I do a full upper-body circuit (3 sets, 12 reps each of four exercises each for chest, back and shoulders and three exercises each for biceps and triceps), it takes me about an hour and a half so I only walk 1.6 miles on those nights. The next night, I do a leg and stomach circuit (3 sets, 12 reps each of 8 leg exercises and 3 abdominal exercises) which takes about 45 minutes, so I walk the full 3.4 miles on those evenings. I need to alternate these circuits every other day because the goal when you are weight training is to work the muscles to exhaustion in order to tear their fibers and then, as you rest those muscles for about 48 hours before your next workout, the fibers heal back stronger and the muscles develop. Another little lesson in case you didn't know.
These last two paragraphs were learned from Idiot's Guide To books and exercise routines I was given by a trainer when I finally joined a gym about five years ago, and I'm hoping to make this blog informative to those just starting out with weight loss or exercise as well as entertaining to everyone. The first time I lost weight, I followed someone else's food plan. The second time, I added walking to the mix and created my own food plan. This time around, hopefully the last time, I added weight training in hopes of maintaining my weight when I reach my goal of 300, tightening up my skin and gaining some muscle which actually burns calories at rest!
So, after about two hours of walking and weight training, I haul my sweaty self to the supermarket. I shop on a nightly basis since I'm never sure what I'm going to want for dinner. I tend to buy a lot of prepared or pre-cooked meals because when it's 9:45 and I haven't eaten yet, these foods or whatever was on the rotisserie that day is ready to heat and eat when I bring it home. I know I'm going to want meat; some kind of noodle, rice or potato; a vegetable in a low-fat butter or cheese sauce; and some sugar-free ice cream with or without sugar-free hot cocoa mix to add flavor and texture. The ice cream gives me a treat at the end of a long day and has been a staple of my weight loss efforts since WW '91 (see first blog entry for reference).
Tonight's dinner was beef tips in gravy with wheat egg noodles and a microwave pouch of Brussels sprouts in butter sauce, and I just got up and ate half a container of sugar-free Edy's Fudge Tracks ice cream: yum. One of my favorites is turkey meatballs, which are lower in calories than beef meatballs, heat in about two minutes and can be added to noodles or pasta, eaten on their own or as a cold snack before a workout on nights when my energy is flagging. Pre-cooked sliced chicken is also versatile and easy for the same reasons.
So, here is one Big Bear's exercise and food plan that has lost me almost 50 pounds in the past five months. I may eat more than some people, but I also exercise more and there are benefits to being a guy when it comes to weight loss. As long as one counteracts the other and enables me to lose a couple of pounds a week until I reach my goal by the end of this year, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! If someone is shocked by what or how much I eat or thinks I could improve my plan in some way, I tell them they are always welcome to give me some of their unsolicited advice. All they have to do first is walk the 5 to 7 miles and work out for 1-1 1/2 hours with me. Haven't had anyone take me up on that offer yet.
In the interest of full disclosure, I gained two pounds two weeks ago and still knew where to find them during this week's weigh-in. With a stomach bug that required a trip to the ER, a cold rattling my chest and a vacation that threw off my regular routines, my energy has recently gone into rest and recuperation.
Sometimes, when I'm upping the weight on the plate machines (those torture device-looking machines where you put a metal peg under the amount of weight you want to lift during the exercise), or adding a couple of reps to each exercise every six weeks to progressively challenge my muscles, or had a larger than average weight loss the week before, the scale doesn't budge the next week. Sometimes, you just need a night off, whether you need to relax, get some extra sleep, have a prior engagement or just need to have some fun. Sometimes, you just need to get some takeout, or your mom cooked your favorite meal and you want thirds, or you're out to dinner with friends and those boneless wings look damn good!
Those are the times you are allowing a necessary release of pressure, giving yourself a delicious or relaxing reward for all of the discipline and hard work that you've been putting into yourself for weeks, and giving yourself some perspective. It's been my experience that if you don't allow yourself such freedom every once in awhile, you run a risk of self-denial and resentment that can bring your efforts crashing down as hard as your ass falling off the wagon. The Greek God Apollo tells us to "know thyself" and "be moderate," but every once in awhile you need a night out with Dionysus, too.
Until next time...Good Night, Woof, and Blessed Be.
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