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Daily Update Miscellaneous Ramblings

One Problem with Being So Healthy – It Takes A While To Know You’re Sick!

Just a quick post to update my status.

I’m sick. Feel like garbage.

It started last Saturday, which happened to be a big day for a basement finishing project I’ve been working on the past couple of months (see below). My brother, an electrician and all-around guru, came over to do the circuit design and ‘home runs’, switch wiring, etc. I felt ‘out of it’ all day – couldn’t concentrate, and just didn’t have much energy. I’ve been drinking 2 coffees per day, up from my usual single Starbucks Grande Americano’ with heavy whipping cream that I have Monday thru Friday as the price of admission for leeching a seat/table and wifi from Starbucks while working. Lately I’ve upped that to a Venti (that’s the largest size) and sometimes later in the day I’ll have a Kuerig at home. Gotta cut back on the caffeine.

So last Saturday went well – my brother hooked me up, then the next day I started finishing up the wiring of the receptacles and recessed cans, etc. So far, unlike when I tried finishing my basement in a different house about 11 years ago, when I was all stressed/nervous about it and it seemingly took forever to make any progress (and it turned out to be a mess at the end), this project has gone super well and has been fun. But this week it was hard to get motivated to work on it. Didn’t know why. Until Thursday, when I woke up with a nasty upper respiratory infection. I had apparently had it for a week but didn’t realize it. In prior years, when I ate like shit and felt like shit, I would have known I had a URI within hours of its onset. And would have sat on the couch for 2 weeks as a result. Now I can still function just fine. Just feel like shit doing so.

I get these URIs at least once per year, sometimes twice. Been getting them since my late teens. It was to a point where the last 3 or 4 times, the doctor has been very reluctant to give me antibiotics to knock it out – I have become immune to the one he was prescribing. And, without antibiotics, these things never go away – I always waited a minimum of 2 weeks of pain and suffering before I would break down and go to the doc. The last visit I had a new doctor (I go to one of those ‘Medical Associates’ places where you can choose from a few different doctors, all in the same office). This new doctor told me to try this natural ‘NeilMed’ thing from the drug store, I did, and within 2 days I was cured! The procedure is really gross so I’ll leave the details out, but it worked.

I was *hoping* that, with my newfound health I would not be getting one this year, but I think the huge amount of work-induced stress I’ve been under the past few months is really wreaking havoc with my immune system.

Regardless, back to the purpose of this blog – I’m down to a steady 195lbs now. I don’t weigh myself very often these days – maybe once a week. I’ve definitely noticed my belt getting looser too. This is surprising because, quite honestly, I have been slipping lately and eating some junk here or there. In fact, the other day at SaladWorks with a co-worker, I even ate a whole ‘Healthy Whole Grains!’ roll. I smothered it with butter to counteract the ‘Healthy Whole Grains’, but still. I guess I’m so active now that I can eat some junk and still burn them off. That said, it’s amazing how radically different my day-to-day is now versus just a year ago or even 7 or 8 months ago, while I was losing so much weight.

For example, yesterday I ate McDonald’s for the first time in a LONG time. When I was really dropping weight (the first 4 months of last year I dropped about 40 pounds) I was going to fast food joints at least 3 times per week. No, I’m not lying.

  • Twice per week for lunch, to Wendy’s to eat either a BLT Cobb Salad (yum!) or I’d get the Chili and a side salad (I used to live on the Chili but haven’t had that in many months)
  • Once per week with my son, who is addicted to junk food, I would give up and take him to McDonalds to satisfy his McNuggets fix. I would always get the Grilled Chicken Caesar or Ranch salad, which sucks, but it’s the best option there.

The last 4 or 5 months I’ve basically, unconsciously, just not gone to fast food places. Yesterday, it hit me that I have not been to a McDonalds in months. How cool is that? I just realized this yesterday morning when my son started begging me to take him to McDonald’s so he could personally taste test the all-new McBites that were unveiled by the illustrious chefs/chemists that McDonald’s employs. (That job ranks right up there with working for RJ Reynolds, but that’s a post for a different blog….). Incidentally, I had the Grilled Chicken Ranch BLT salad. It was okay. I also partook in some of those new McBites. They’re kinda blah. If you haven’t seen the commercial for McBites yet – imagine if you were the deep fry chef at McDonalds and you had cooked up literally 1,000,000 McNuggets for a year in the same deep fat fryer vat, without changing the grease during that time. Then, you went and changed out the vat grease by draining it out. After it’s all drained out you have a bunch of crunchy, sludge-like ‘mini nuggets’ that are mostly just ‘breading’ at the bottom of the vat. Those are the McBites! : )

That’s all for now. I’ll be glad when this URI is gone so I can start working out again. Haven’t been to the gym much lately (which is another reason why I’ve lost a couple more pounds!). In another few weeks, hopefully with this URI behind me, it’ll be time to start getting in shape for the Summer. Thinking about quitting my gym membership and doing pure Primal workouts in natural terrain – monkey bars, trail running, etc.

Categories
Daily Update Nutrition/Weight Loss

Update, and a Big Joke

So, as previously posted, I’ve been focused on maintaining my weight loss for a few months now and I’m happy to report that it’s mostly been effortless. I am weighing myself about once a week or so, but I’m so tuned into my body now that I can tell pretty much on a daily basis if I gain fat tissue or not. I sensed that during the final week of December, with Christmas parties and candy and pastries abound. I partook in my fair share and it resulted in a 3 to 4 pound gain. A couple of days of ‘eating clean’ (i.e., nothing processed and very few carbs) and the weight flew off back to my current set point of 196lb. I have large thighs/calves, so 196 is actually a pretty good weight for me – very proportional. And I’ve definitely decreased further in waist size – another notch on my belt is free and I could probably, if I wanted to, fit into a size 34 waist pants now. A year ago I was a size 44. Pretty incredible.

Ideally I’d drop another 10 pounds and that would be probably as lean as I should ever be for my body type, but as I wrote before, my goal this year is not to focus on fat loss anymore as that problem has been ‘cured’, but to focus on fitness level. So far the fitness goal is being achieved and I’ll post more about that soon.

My wife has joined the health revolution as well. Really proud of her – she’s doing Sisson’s 21 Day Primal Blueprint and is doing really well. Anyone who has been through it knows that it is difficult to go from a Standard American Diet of 60+ percent carbohydrate diet full of ‘healthy whole grains’, etc., to eating real, healthy food. She’s hanging in there and I can’t wait until the ‘switch’ flips like it did for me (about 2 months in) and she wakes up and realizes she’s got the carb addiction beat and is well on the road to health.

Okay, that’s all for now. I’ll leave you with the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while (related to diet) – an overweight/borderline obese looking lady, purportedly an ‘expert’ dietitian, is giving negative advice on low carb diets in this video:

 


Stay tuned for next post when I share a video of a deaf guy giving a critique of the latest Coldplay album!

 

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Nutrition/Weight Loss Suggested Sites

The Rice Diet

For some crazy reason I’ve always been utterly fascinated by North Korea. The people, the government, etc. Last night I watched a documentary on Netflix named “Crossing the Line”. It’s probably not the most interesting documentary for most, but I found it quite interesting.

What does this have to do with eating? Absolutely nothing, aside from the fact that Joe Dresnok, the former American soldier that defected back in the early 60’s and is the subject of the documentary, has been living in North Korea now for ~45 years and consisting on the typical rice rations that North Koreans living in Pyongyang subside on. And, unlike the relatively skinny North Koreans (native ones), Mr. Dresnok is fat. Could it be the rice? Food for thought….

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2405878n

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Nutrition/Weight Loss Recipes

Low Carb Paleo Coconut Broccoli Bacon Stir Fry Salad

While the name doesn’t sound so great, this dish turned out amazingly well. I made it for lunch but it certainly would make for a great dinner or a side dish.

Coconut Broccoli Bacon Stir Fry Spinach Salad

Ingredients

  • Coconut Oil
  • Bacon strips
  • Butter
  • Vegetables (feel free to vary)
  • Broccoli
  • Mushroom Slices
  • Spinach Leaves
  • Coconut flakes
  • Dressing of choice (I used Spicy Dijon Mustard)
    1. In a frying pan on medium-high heat, add melt tablespoons of Coconut Oil.
    2. Add some strips of bacon. I used 3 strips. Fry the bacon until it is close to being done as you would normally cook it, but not quite.
      Continue reading “Low Carb Paleo Coconut Broccoli Bacon Stir Fry Salad”
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    Uncategorized

    Holiday Blunder

    Thus far I’ve posted mostly all successes on this blog. How I lost the weight eating great food, etc. Well, this past month has been a disaster : ( I was down to a very comfortable weight for my body type, hovering safely between 197 and 199. It sounds like a lot but I have very large thighs/calves naturally, so although I would prefer to be in the 185lb range it might actually be too skinny for me.

    Regardless of that dream….I’m now back up to 202. The holidays have been killing me – constant parties and lack of discipline on my part are not a good combination. In years past I would have eaten completely differently at these dinners/parties – as much beer, stuffing, pie, etc., that I felt like eating. After all, “it’s the holidays!” This year I felt like I was eating pretty sanely. Much more than usual, but definitely sensibly. Nonetheless, the uptake in carbs was not met with an uptake in exercise and I think that was the culprit. I stopped doing typical cardio a while back as I was bordering on the chronic cardio addiction that is so prevalent. But I then slipped away from going to the gym for a couple of weeks straight, which was not good. Add to all of this the fact that I have just not been good about learning to cook for myself, and my wife has basically not cooked a meal at home in a month and we’ve been going out to eat constantly, and you can see how this has happened.

    Tomorrow is the New Year and I have been trying to think about what my goals for 2012 should be. I’m still amazed at what I was able to do in 2011 and the awesome life changes that I achieved. I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit the last 4 or 5 months and I think it’s time to finally make the change and commit to a true Paleo/Primal diet and exercise routine. While 80% of what I do is aligned with it, I’m going to go heavier on the non-processed foods, and start following Sisson’s workout routine very strictly of moving slowly a lot, lifting heavy things, some HIIT, and sprinting. I’ve already started that this past week and now it’s time to implement the rest. So here are the key diet goals going into 2012:

    • Conform more closely to the Paleo/Primal way of eating and exercising
    • Learn to cook. Really.
    • Macronutrient breakdown goal of 65% fat, 30% protein, 5% carbohydrate
    • Organic, grass-fed, etc. as much as is practical. It’s worth the expense.

    The biggest change here are bullets 2 and 4: learning to cook for real, and going full with the organic and grass-fed stuff as much as is practical.

    I don’t really plan on ‘learning to cook’ – I plan on learning to cook my own damn food. I do a little bit of cooking – I cook breakfast every morning, and usually do my own lunch. Dinner has been a problem. My wife and kids eat mostly carbohydrate like most other family. That said, my wife is very good, when she cooks, to cook something that I can eat. So, for example, if she cooks spaghetti and meatballs she’ll always cook lots of meatballs for me to pair it up with a salad. But really, I need to just have a ‘food divorce’ from my wife  and agree to split up and I cook my own dinner. Ideally I’d like to cook for the family a paleo dinner a couple/few times per week and share the responsibility with her, but only if she commits to eating right.

    As for the organic/grass-fed foods. I’m gonna try going to Whole Foods and find a local natural food store/source and see what the true cost of this stuff is. I know it’s pricey as hell. But, and I know I sound like a car salesman here, I see it as ‘an investment’.

    So that’s it. Sorry to disappoint : ) Tonight we’re going to a friends house for New Years Eve and I’m sure I’ll have beer and some type of junk food. Tomorrow, I’ll join the legions of Resolutionaries in implementing new life changes. Onward and upward.

    Categories
    Inspiration Nutrition/Weight Loss

    My Cholesterol Test Results on LCHF (Low Carb, High Fat) Diet

    So the proof is in the pudding (no pun intended).

    I’ve been on a low-carb, high-fat diet for close to a year now and today I got the latest cholesterol blood test results back. So in this post I’ll list 3 sets of blood test results that I’ve received over the past couple of years, so that I (and for those of you interested) will have a record of the impact of being on a LCHF (low carb, high fat) diet.

    Background

    Before I reveal the results, I want to explain why I’ve gotten my cholesterol level checked multiple times in a one year period (2011). Basically, the first time was a month or two into the LCHF diet, when I still wasn’t sure exactly what the effect of a diet consisting of dietary fat as the majority of caloric intake would be. Of course, per the literature and prior *objective* scientific research, the expectation was that my HDL (good cholesterol) would go up, bad cholesterol (LDL) would stay the same or go up some, and Triglycerides (i.e., fat in the bloodstream) would plummet. But, hey, like everyone else I was always told it would result in the opposite, so I wanted to get them checked.

    I then had another set of tests done midway through the year, simply because the company I work for hosts a free annual “Health Fair” on site. Basically, a bunch of medical folks come and take over a floor of on of our buildings and they do all kinds of tests: blood tests, weight, skin tests, etc. At the end, after performing all of the tests, there is a “Health Advisor” who you meet with privately and he looks over the results of your tests and gives the good or bad news, and steps to rectify. Those results were overhwhelmingly positive, showing marked increases for the better. But, I seem to have misplaced the paper with the results so I’ll leave that set out of this post. No need as we have tests both prior and after to compare.

    So, without further adieu, here are the results of the three sets of blood tests I’ve taken throughout the year. Specifically I’ll list the cholesterol, triglyceride, and inflammation test results. For comparison, I’ll also list the blood tests I had gotten as part of an annual physical in early 2010, when I weight about 260 pounds thanks to my body’s inability to cope with the typical high-carb, low-fat SAD (Standard American Diet).

    Continue reading “My Cholesterol Test Results on LCHF (Low Carb, High Fat) Diet”
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    Book Reviews Nutrition/Weight Loss

    Tips for Maintaining a Low Carb/High Fat Diet

    Excellent video worth checking out, courtesy of https://www.dietdoctor.com:

    In the interview, Dr. Phinney stresses the importance of dietary fat comprising the vast majority of one’s diet. No surprise there (for me), but what was surprising and really quite discouraging is that if you eat an excess of carbohydrates, even over a relatively short period like a single day, and come out of ketosis then it is as if you are starting all over again. Dr. Phinney uses an excellent metaphor to explain this: it’s like walking along the top of a narrow sand dune (hill?) – it’s really tough getting there and there is little room for deviation once at the top.

    I have not read Dr. Phinney’s new book, The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-Saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable, but definitely now have it on my must-read list.

     

    Categories
    Daily Update Nutrition/Weight Loss

    Maintaining Weight Loss – Status

    Maintaining Weight

    So I’ve been maintaining my weight at 198lbs. This past week saw a 2lb gain for a few days, due almost surely from a night in center city Philadelphia with some friends, drinking beer and doing shots of Irish whiskey (not my choice) to the point of…let’s just say not feeling so well the next morning. The plan was to eat some junk food too while down there but that didn’t work out.

    Then the next day my wife and I took our son to Arnold’s Family Fun Center, which is always fun and includes a buffet that isn’t half bad. They make this Chuck E. Cheese-like pizza but it actually tastes phenomenal. I partook in quite a bit of it, along with diet coke, something I haven’t had in quite a while and typically avoid.

    It took a couple of days to ‘bounce back’ to my current weight ‘set point’ but I did with no problem. That is in addition to eating more fruit – at least one apple and one banana a day. I love fruit and due to the carbs slipping back into my diet more often I am re-developing a sweet tooth, which is concerning, but I am keeping mindful of it and want to see how this plays out. I’m *hoping* that I can eat some carbs like this, where some ‘junk’ is eaten every 2 to 3 days with no long-term gain as a result, or more importantly, not feeling like garbage. That’s a key part of eating Paleo/Primal/Low Carb – in addition to the weight loss and health benefits, you just feel great too.

    This entire year has been one big experiment on myself, to test the common paradigm of calories-in/out, exercise methods, etc. So far it’s gone well, I’ve learned a ton, and feel great. I wanna keep that up. But…I want my cake and eat it too : )

    Workout Routine Changing Yet Again!

    This week I re-thought my workout routine (again!). I re-visited the exercise philosophy on The Primal Blueprint fitness forum and my prior approach was wrong so I am switching it up. I am one of the few people that enjoys the elliptical trainer machine at the gym. I can go 30+ minutes on it now at a medium resistance level, pushing (pedaling?) as quickly as possible and still stay at the < 150 bpm level, which it turns out is quite good if you want to avoid “chronic cardio” syndrome.

    So I’m going to do that at least 3 or 4 times a week. In addition, an old squash partner has resurfaced, so that will cover my HIT day, and add to that the change from a full-body to a “high/low” weight routine and that should cover me for a month or two.

    Thanksgiving’s Right Around the Corner!

    So that’s the random update. One last thought: unlike most people who either want to lose weight or maintain weight loss, I’m actually looking forward to Thanksgiving. I am in particular going to eat all the turkey (with the great, healthy fatty skin!) I want, and I expect to eat well over 3000 calories just in one meal. Interested to see if any weight loss occurs that day. I doubt it, based on the pattern, but I know if I don’t overdo it on the carbs then I can eat all the calories I want and not gain. Oh, and the vegetables will be great too. I’ll be trying my hand at some type of low-carb (preferrably no-carb but doubtful) dessert, maybe a pumpkin pie!

    Categories
    Daily Update Nutrition/Weight Loss

    Walking the Tightrope I Think…But Still Holding at 198lb

    So, as previously mentioned, I have achieved my goal weight and have shifted my focus to becoming more toned and muscular. So far, that’s been a fail. I’ve been very busy with work and after-work family activities and just haven’t gotten to the gym this week. That said, I’ve been really active in a typical ‘primal’ way – lots of moving slowly, and I’ve done some sprinting here and there when playing soccer with my kids. But I haven’t done my weightlifting routine this week so I am going to do it tomorrow (I had planned on doing Mondays and Thursdays). I’m doing a full-body routine consisting of low reps and heavy weight. I find I enjoy it more and I definitely ‘feel it’ more in my muscles both right after lifting and the next day. I strive for 4 to 6 reps, 3 sets each of:

    • Leg Press (I’ll eventually get back to doing real squats though, as I know those are better)
    • Dumbbell Chest Press
    • Cable Row machine (the one that targets the back)
    • Pulldown bar machine (can you tell I don’t know these machines by name? It’s another one that targets the back)
    • Dumbbell bicep curls
    • Tricep pressdowns using the rope attachment to the cable/pulley machine
    I need to incorporate crunches and shoulder presses, I know. I *hate* shoulder presses and have mostly avoided them. Amazingly my shoulders are the one part of my body that are pretty damn toned, with great definition. How that happened I don’t know, but I’ll take it.
    I may try attending my gym’s squash “club night”. My gym is primarily a squash club, and one night a week the squash pros go around and pair up amateur players for friendly matches. I’m sure I’ll be the worst player there, which I don’t care about in terms of pride/ego but it is awkward because the decent/good players don’t want to waste their time playing someone like me. They’d like to break a sweat! Hopefully there will be another bad player there.
    On the eating front…as I said – I’m not actively trying to lose more weight. That said, I could definitely stand to lose another 10 pounds. I carry the 198lb pretty well (I have big thighs/calves) and people are surprised when I tell them I still weigh that much. But aside from some softness in my middle I’m pretty much where I want to be in terms of body fat. But the last few days I’ve been on a slippery slope – eating more junk than usual. Today was a doozy – I ate, for the first time in probably almost a year, white rice. Some friends offered to buy me lunch at our favorite Thai restaurant. I had the Coconut Milk Chicken soup (it was awesome), a salad with peanut butter dressing (it was awesome), and my usual Green Curry with Chicken and white rice (yes, it was awesome). I could feel my blood sugar pumping after that meal!

    And on Monday night, in anticipation of the Eagles game and after a long day of getting my ass kicked at work for things out of my control, I decided to wash away my sorrows that evening with a few glasses of Coconut Rum mixed with fruit juice. (Yeah, I’m a real man.)

    Amazingly, so far, I’ve not gained any weight back. Holding steady at 198 all week. But I can feel like I’m on that ‘slippery slope’ where I’d better reign things back in. Especially since I am going to a happy hour on Friday after work : )

    Categories
    Nutrition/Weight Loss Suggested Sites

    Counting Calories N=1 Test Comment on Wheat Belly

    Saw this on the Wheat Belly blog. That blog is excellent and I highly recommend you check it out if you haven’t already. I think history will show Dr. Davis a key in the paradigm shift in thinking/attitudes toward health and weight. He could have gone the cheap, easy way and stuck to the “it’s just wheat” line and focused on selling books, but it’s clear he knows it is carbohydrates in general and has not hesitated to say it.

    Today on his blog he posted a reader comment. The reader did some N=1 testing to see whether it is the type of calories or calories themselves that cause weight gain. It’s a simple test. I’ve done it myself. And my results are identical to his: calories don’t matter.

    Day 1 I ate 5000 calories of mostly cakes and I gained 1 pound, the 2nd day 4500 calories of a similar menu and I gained almost 2 pounds, 3rd day I cut sugar to zero but I kept my calorie intake at 4500, I overate chicken, coconut & omelettes all day long and I reduced my activities to watching movies and playing video games. I had lost 2 pounds the next day at noon.

    https://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2011/11/calories-in-calories-ooops-whered-they-go/

    At the end of this guy’s comment he mentions that someone said it’s impossible to lose a pound in a single day. As he mentions – that’s clearly incorrect. I’ve lost 2 pounds in a single day. On numerous occasions. One pound equals 3500 calories? If so, then that alone is pretty compelling that the calories-in/out theory is flawed.

    But…in keeping with my last post: my experience is mine. Yours may vary.