One For Two

Well, I’m not sure what came over me, but today (this morning) I went out for my first “slog” (ssslllooowww jog) in ages.  Two(2) miles in 36m 57s.  Yeah, I know, pretty slow…  But, hey, I’m 64 years old and this is my first time hitting the pavement in ages (pretty much since last year and it is November).
And so it goes…
Are you a runner?  Did you run yesterday or today?  If the answer is “yes”, you are a runner.  And, it doesn’t matter how fast (or slow) you did it.  (No, tomorrow doesn’t count.  We ALL plan to run tomorrow!)
Oh, and just for chuckles, 22m 30s gets me 1 (single) point (out of 100 possible points) on the Army physical fitness 2-mile run test.  Only 14m 27s to go…  I guess first I’ve got to start “running” – and then maybe lose 20 years (LoL).
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On This Day In:
2018	The Worst
2017	#DonTheCon In The Oval Office
2016	Are You Like #AmnestyDon And Sarah Palin?
2015	Begin Today
2014	Look Again (At Life’s Illusions)
2013	None Knows
2012	Yet
2011	No End In Sight
2010	Back At It…

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I’m Still Looking

No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training.  It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.
―  Socrates
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On This Day In:
2018	I Choose Love
	Courage Can Be Contagious
2017	Scary And Wonderful
2016	#AmnestyDon Hears The Polls
2015	Dare The Improbable
2014	All Together Now!
2013	This Road
2012	Profit
2011	God Is Personal
2010	Playoff Fever Gets the Best of Me…

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30 Day Health / Weight Update

On September 16, 2019, I switched from my 18 days of “juice / blend” fasting / diet to an Intermittent Time Fasting (ITF) “Diet / Lifestyle”.  My starting weight on 29 August, for the juice / blending fast was: 373lbs.  My starting weight for the ITF was: 356lbs.  My current weight (this morning) was:  347lbs.  Basically, I’ve lost 26lbs from the end of August and 9lbs from the start of the ITF.  There is need to mention two minor qualifications.  1)  My initial weigh-ins for both starts (juice and ITF) were barefoot and with shorts on.  My weight this morning was with sweatpants and cross-training / “fake” leather shoes.  I would estimate the “extra” weight to be between 3-5lbs.  Having said this, I did not subtract this from the morning’s weight.  And, 2) after the end of the juice / blend fast, I regained 11lbs the first week – which I’ve had to re-lose under ITF.
Calories Chart from start of ITF
The observant among you may notice in the above chart, I had four(4) days where my calories-in exceeded my calories-out…
When I switched to the ITF, I also began using my FitBit (FB) to begin tracking my food and gauging my calories-in versus my calories-out.  I’m not sure why, but the FB has set my calories-out “objective” at 3,800.  The on-line BMR calculator I use says my BMR is roughly 2,400 calories.  This means I have to burn an additional measure of 1,400 calories during my waking hours to reach the FB objective.
BMR on 16 Oct 2019 at 347lbs
Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) is defined as 220 beats per minute (BPM) – your age (64).  This makes my MHR equal to 156bpm.  “Elevated” heart rate is defined as 70% of MHR.  In my case, that would be 109bpm.  According to my FB, my active time (i.e. “elevated heart rate”) per day is 71 minutes (on average).  I’m not sure how this level is met as I only walk my dog for 30 minutes per day and 45 minutes (maybe) 2 or 3 times per week.  My FB “step target” is 7,500 steps versus the 10,000 “normally” recommended.  I miss my step target about once every couple of weeks.  I can only imagine my AFib is raising my heart rate at various points during the day and this is being read as active time by the FitBit.
Anyway, the top chart shows I have a calorie deficit of about 1,300 calories per day.  That times seven(7) days is 9,100 calories.  Divided by 3,500 calories (1 pound of human body fat) equals to 2.6 pounds of loss per week.  My actual weight loss over the last four weeks is 9lbs.  Divided by four(4) is 2.25lbs per week.  (If we subtract the 3lbs for the shoes worn in this morning’s weigh-in, the result is 2.75lbs per week.   Just saying…)
The goal of my long-term weight loss is to drop 1.5 to 2 pounds per week.  In theory, this will prevent the two worst part of extreme weight loss:  a permanent drop in BMR (which makes it easier to regain lost weight) and a large amount of floppy / saggy skin (pure vanity, it just looks terrible).  It looks like I’m off to a promising start.  IF I can keep this up, I should be under 300lbs for my 65th birthday at the end of March 2020.
Equally important:  how does it feel?  Today I was able to get into my wife’s Toyota Corolla without having to put the seat back-rest almost flat and contort my body to get into her car!  So, yeah.  It feels pretty good.  🙂
My secondary goals going forward are to work towards smoothing out the “calories-in” numbers and to eat more healthy on my one-meal-a-day / all-you-can-eat day.  I won’t say I’m “abusing” the OMAD opportunity, but…  Okay.  Yeah, I am ABUSING it!!  And, I know better.  At least two of the days, I ate beyond feeling stuffed to the point of feeling sick.  So, yeah, I can do better there, too.  Slowly, slowly…
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On This Day In:
2018	One Of The Great Ones
2017	Mirror In The Oval Office
	True Courage
2016	What’s Your Excuse?
2015	Some Meaningful Resemblance
2014	Bloom
	Orange October (VII) – The Giants Win The Pennant!!
2013	Walking The Walk
2012	Legacy Of Star Trek (TOS)
2011	Tolerating The Intolerant
	Passionate Germs
2010	Giants Win Game 1 In Philly (4 to 3)!!

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A Dynamic And Adaptable System

[The following are two excerpts from an article I recently read on the benefits / effectiveness of increasing exercise on long-term weight loss.  I highly recommend clicking on the links to read the original article(s).  —  KMAB]
University of Alabama obesity researcher David Allison sums up the research this way:  Adding physical activity has a very modest effect on weight loss — “a lesser effect than you’d mathematically predict,” he said.
We’ve long thought of weight loss in simple “calories in, calories out” terms.  In a much-cited 1958 study, researcher Max Wishnofsky outlined a rule that many organizations — from the Mayo Clinic to Livestrong — still use to predict weight loss:  A pound of human fat represents about 3,500 calories; therefore, cutting 500 calories per day, through diet or physical activity, results in about a pound of weight loss per week.  Similarly, adding 500 calories a day results in a weight gain of about the same.
Today, researchers view this rule as overly simplistic.  They now think of human energy balance as “a dynamic and adaptable system,” as one study describes.  When you alter one component — cutting the number of calories you eat in a day to lose weight, doing more exercise than usual — this sets off a cascade of changes in the body that affect how many calories you use up and, in turn, your bodyweight.
…
There are three main components to energy expenditure, (Alexxai) Kravitz explained: 1) basal metabolic rate, or the energy used for basic functioning when the body is at rest; 2) the energy used to break down food; and 3) the energy used in physical activity.
We have very little control over our basal metabolic rate, but it’s our biggest energy hog.  “It’s generally accepted that for most people, the basal metabolic rate accounts for 60 to 80 percent of total energy expenditure,” Kravitz said.  Digesting food accounts for about 10 percent.
That leaves only 10 to 30 percent for physical activity, of which exercise is only a subset.  (You can read more about this concept here and here.)
“It’s not nothing, but it’s not nearly equal to food intake — which accounts for 100 percent of the energy intake of the body,” Kravitz said. “This is why it’s not so surprising that exercise leads to [statistically] significant, but small, changes in weight.”
—  Julia Belluz and Javier Zarracina
From the article: “Why You Shouldn’t Exercise to Lose Weight, Explained With 60+ Studies“
The article appeared in (on): “www.vox.com“
I found the article at: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-you-shouldn-t-exercise-to-lose-weight-explained-with-60-studies
The original article appears at: https://www.vox.com/2016/4/28/11518804/weight-loss-exercise-myth-burn-calories
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On This Day In:
2018	Speak Your Mind
2017	And I Thought It Was Just Me Getting Old
2016	One For Whole
2015	A Good Present
2014	And Your Point Is?
2013	Our Never-Ending Task
	Furloughed
2012	More Mature Than I Thought
2011	Outlaw’s Music
	Can Do!

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Promises, Promises

Here’s the thing you need to remember: your goal is to start burning your own fat for fuel.  The ONLY WAY to tap into that stored fat is to STOP running on glucose / glycogen.  You can either be a fat-burner or a sugar burner.  The end.  Making the transition from a sugar-burner to a fat-burner is the hard art, but once you do it, you will be AMAZED at how good you feel.  I promise.
—  Gin Stephens
From her book:  “Delay, Don’t Deny“
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On This Day In:
2018	You Mean There IS Something Else?
2017	Be Good
2016	Raise Yourself
2015	A Kids Movie Rip-Off
2014	Ready, Action!
2013	Responding To Challenges
2012	Abnormal, adj.
2011	Large Families
	On The Brink

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Day 17/18: That Didn’t Take Long

This is a long post!  (You’ve been warned…)
The end of day seventeen and the morning of day eighteen…  Elvis has left the building, folks…
Morning weight: 348lbs.  (on Day 18)
I am down / down “5/25”.  As in, 5lbs down from yesterday and 25lbs down from my fasting start weight: 373lbs (the morning of Day 1).
Yesterday morning (the early morning hours of Day 17), I didn’t sleep well.  I got out of bed a little before 3am and by dawn I’d “cheated” on my blend fast by having a two handfuls of nuts.  The rest of the day I was able to stick with my juice blend and felt pretty good in saying the cheats were aberrations and I was continuing my fast count.  Well, today the desire to chew (and taste something different) got the better of me and I had two slices of toast and two slices of pizza.  I said (in yesterday’s post) if I cheated again, I’d have to call the blend fast done, so that’s what I’m doing in this post.
The “interesting” thing is I’ve now had two five(5) pound changes in the last week.  I gained five pounds overnight a few days ago, and between yesterday and today, I’ve now lost five pounds.  It is routine to lose 5 to 7 pounds in the first day or two of a fast.  This is due to loss of stomach contact and some initial water weight loss (due to decrease of sugar and salt in the diet).  It is not common (in my experience) for this to happen after the first week without some significant change.  I have not restricted water or exercised excessively, so I have to assume there is “something” else going on in my body which is beyond my experience.  As such, and because of my prior comments about “cheating again and ending the fast”, I’m going to modify my behavior to more moderate eating habits (i.e. I’m going to start consuming / chewing food).
Below are the images from my scale to mark the end of the fast:
High end of Blend fast (348lbs) Low end of Blend fast (343lbs)
As per normal, there is a five(5) pounds variance between my “high” and “low” weights.  As explained in previous posts, the high is from me pressing my toes and the low is from pressing my heels.  When I last took my weight on a digital scale at my doctor’s office, their scale showed two(2) pounds less than my low for that day.  I wasn’t pressing forward or backwards.  And, again, I don’t know if their scale is programmed to subtract estimated clothing weight (or how much they might have subtracted).  As I’ve been using the “high” weigh-in, I feel I’m being conservative (and fair).
To summarize:  I started my “blending” fast with the parallel goals of completing one week without chewing while sticking to a plant (vegetable, fruit and legume) based liquefied diet; and, to jump-start myself on my Alternate Day Fasting (ADF) diet which I had started way back in February, but had not stuck to fairly.  I’ve ended up completing the first of the original goals and, in fact, doubling the time to two full weeks.  I said at the end of the second week, I’d like to push through for a third full week, but I was considering the process as “day-to-day” from there on.  I ended up making it through two days (Days 15 and 16), and now have cheated on two consecutive days (Days 17 and 18).  At this point, I’m calling the fast done and moving on to the second goal: switching to the Alternate Day Fasting (ADF) or a “Modified” ADF or to a Intermittent Time Fasting lifestyle – maybe trying “One-Meal-A-Day” (OMAD).
So, which will I choose?  I don’t know…  I’m not sure I have to choose one over the others.  With the exception of having a defined protocol, I’m not sure there is any advantage to picking one of them over the others, so for the time being, I’m leaning to trying a bit of a mix and match to see which “works” for me.
Having said that, what will be my criteria:
1)  Although only specifically stated for the ADF protocol, I believe it is necessary for me to establish a longer and more consistent sleep period and schedule.  I’m therefor committing to trying to get a minimum of seven(7) hours each night.  I will set my start time for 11pm and end to 7am.
2)  A “strict” ADF or MADF has a low-calorie day and a normal-calorie day, with both tending to use windows to extend the daily fast time period.  The preference is to wait until 10am or 11am to break the fast each day and to close the window for eating (and drinking) at least three hours prior to going to bed.  For me, this would mean, no more eating or drinking (the exception being the water required to swallow my heart pills and vitamins before bed), after 8pm.  This will give me a fasting period of 15 to 16 hours each day, with eating windows of 9 to 8 hours on both the “fasting” and “normal” days.
3)  No matter which day or time period, water, black coffee, black tea and green tea are allowed —  EXCEPT during the three hours before bed, when I am only allowed enough water to take my heart medications.
4)  On “fasting” days I will try to limit myself to between 700 and 1,100 calories per day.  These numbers are fairly arbitrary:  the low end is the “recommended” fasting number for adult males doing an ADF.  The upper number is from my prior experience using the “Fat Smash Diet“.  This “high” number is not a caloric limit that many people could live with for very long.  I no longer believe dieting is simply “calories in < calories out = weight loss”.  I now believe limiting “calories in” too severely, over too long a period of time (one or two weeks), simply tells the body to lower your normal basal metabolic rate (BMR – how many calories you need to sustain life in a state of coma).  This makes it difficult to continue to lose weight and even more difficult to continue to keep the lost weight off.  It has also been shown that it is much more difficult to restore or raise the BMR to a previous level once you have lowered it than it was to lower it to start off with.  Basically, we must somehow lose weight while not lowering the BMR.  This means your body must not sense it is ever in a prolonged period of caloric deficit.  The “trick” is to lower the average caloric input over time while convincing the body you are never “really” dieting.  This is the goal of the ADF and the ITF methods.  On ADF, you eat as “normally” as you wish during your eating window.  On the ITF, you not only can eat as much as you wish, you can eat anything you wish – as long as you stay within your eating window.
5)  I must also maintain a reasonable protocol for increasing and maintaining my “calories-out” portion of the formula.  I currently walk my dog each day for 30 minutes (about 1 mile).  I also swim a couple of times a week for 60 minutes per session.  Our local pool will be closing for the winter soon, so I will need to commit to using a “gym” more frequently.  Swimming has a natural advantage over typical gym workouts.  I believe the three main ones to be: swimming tends to be a continuous whole body workout; swimming tends to be less damaging to the support joints (feet, ankles, knees, hips, and spine; and, finally, water transfers heat energy significantly faster than air, which means you will burn more calories to maintain your own body temperature in water than you will do in air of equal temperature.  The combination of these advantages means I will need to go to the gym more frequently and stay (exercise) longer than I would have to by swimming.  The only advantages of the gym (that I know of) are: you can increase your muscle mass to body weight ratio and you can increase your flexibility.  Swimming tends to make bodies long and lean, but not strong and flexible.  Weights and calisthenics will tend to increase muscle density, muscle size and flexibility (if done in conjunction with proper stretching), but not provide a long and lean appearance.  Bottom line:  go to the gym 4-5 times a week and stay for 90 minutes, including weights, stretching and cardio work in each session.
6)  My new protocol will be a rotation of fast day, eat day, OMAD day.  All three will be time restricted, but the window will vary between days: fasting(8 hrs), eating(6 hrs) and OMAD(5 hrs).  Most fasting days will be two eggs, beans(1 can / 1.5 cups) and rice(1/2 cup), and fruits and veggies(no limit).  Most eating days will be two eggs or oatmeal, salad or fruit(no limit) for lunch, normal dinner.  Most OMAD days will be egg(1) and fruit, large dinner (all I can eat / anything I want); if I want a “snack / desert” on my OMAD, it must be eaten 75 minutes to 1 hour before the daily eating window closes.  Water, black coffee, and black tea are any day / any time.  Fruit juice or veggie-fruit blends are only allowed on eating or OMAD days and only during the windows.
I will begin the protocol tomorrow.  I will continue to post images on my MADF page each day and my weight on my “Sweat Equity” pages, but I will not be creating a daily post specifically about this protocol.  I will try to update (via posting) a couple of times a month if I have anything interesting to say.  If I have any significant health changes as a result of the protocol, I will post about those.  And, so it goes, a “lifestyle” with the simple acknowledgement that vacations, holidays, birthdays, and exceptions will happen…  And, you just deal with them.
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On This Day In:
2018	I’ll Trade You…
2017	Luv Me Some Meat Loaf
2016	Unless Your Name Is #AmnestyDon
2015	A Tentative First Step
2014	Making People
2013	On Reading Books
2012	On America
2011	Shiver, Me Timbers!
2010	Fiduciary Breakdown

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Day 16: Cheat Day

The end of day sixteen and the morning of day seventeen…   Last night / this morning was my first cheat day.  😦
Morning weight: 353lbs.  (on Day 17)
I am down / down “2/20”.  As in, 2lbs down from yesterday and 20lbs down from my fasting start weight: 373lbs (the morning of Day 1).
The three(3) pounds I had gained two days ago to yesterday is mostly gone.  Two(2) pounds of it, anyway.  The “high” weight was a loss of 2lbs.  My “low” weight was a loss of 1lb.  Whatever it was that caused the three pounds gain appears to be sorting itself out and I’ve started going back down.  Since I had coffee the last two days, it seems unlikely the coffee (or caffeine) is what caused the uptick.  If the weight keeps dropping for the next few days, I’ll just have to leave it as an unresolved aberration in the weight loss pattern.  If I spike (bump up) again, I’ll have to consider the cause may be something else.  My weigh-in was performed before my “cheat(s)”.
So…  The problem wasn’t really yesterday (Day 16), as much as it during the night / this morning (Day 17)…
I woke up at 2:30am last night and couldn’t fall back to sleep.  After laying in bed for awhile, I got up and went to log on to my computer to read my ever-growing backlog of emails.  Normally, I get up, weigh in, take my BP / HR and walk the dog (1 mile, 30 minutes).  Then, I prepare my “daily” blend.  “Prepare” means I pour my saved blend into a larger bottle, add two or three goblets of ice cubes and then top up the bottle with fruit or vegetable juice.  The “vegetable” juice is “V-8” brand or “Naked” brand, depending on which I have available and my taste for the day (saltier or sweeter respectively).  Our neighborhood is not very well lit by streetlights, so we don’t normally walk the dog in the dark.  It’s too difficult to see if we’re getting up all of the poop.  This morning, that meant waiting until dawn to walk the dog.  As it is not practical to drink loads before going out to walk the dog, I was going to be stuck for some time just feeling hungry…
To make a longer story a little shorter, I had a couple of cheats during the wait.  I had a palm-full (8 to 10) of almonds about 3:15am and then another about 5am.  I walked the dog a little after 6am.  So, technically, my blending “ONLY” fast is broken.  😦
However, being the forgiving person that I am, I’m going to let it slide and pretend it didn’t happen.    IF it happens again, I will face up to the “fast” being over.  Until then, I’ll just keep counting the days as fasting.
So…  How did yesterday go?  Not too badly.  I am still (after two weeks) missing the act of chewing.  Yesterday, I was mostly missing the taste of eating.  When I make a week’s worth of blend, there simply isn’t much variety in the taste from one day to the next.  (To me, this taste variety is THE main benefit of preparing your juice prior to drinking it or in the morning for that day.)  This is why I vary the “juice” I add to the daily bottle a more “straight” fruity juice (apple, pineapple, grapefruit, cherry, etc.) and a more “veggie” juice (the various types of V-8 and Naked juices).  Other than the mixture, the only variation is the amount of ice I add over the course of a day.  As mentioned above, I start with three 16 ounce goblets of ice cubes, then, depending on the day’s temperature, I will add another one or two goblets of ice.  Yes, this makes for a very watery drink for most of the second half of the day, but it has two benefits:  1) it keeps the drink cold; and,  2) it dilutes the sugar and acidic content of the drink.
The benefit of a cold drink is two-fold:  1) it cools you off on a hot day; and, 2) your body has to expend additional calories raising the fluid’s temperature up to your body’s temperature.  It may not seem like much, but every little bit helps in the weight-loss process.  The benefit of diluting the sugar (by volume) content is obvious.  The reduction of acid may be less so to the average person.  I have no scientific “proof” of this, but my teeth “feel” different when I go all day drinking an undiluted blend than they do when I drink with continuously adding ice (or chasing with plain water).  When I run my tongue over my teeth, the teeth feel cleaner or “rougher” depending on which I do.  So, I either dilute during the day or I keep an extra (small) bottle of water and “sip and swish” the water after drinking some of the blend.  I also have a separate brand of mouthwash (which I use every second or third day) which is supposed to rebuild / reinforce the enamel on my teeth.  (This was recommended by my dental hygienist who said you cannot “repair” lost / damaged tooth enamel, but you can help “remineralize” your teeth with proper brushing and gargling.  She relayed the products recommended by the dentist’s office.)  I alternate the mouthwash because I am a creature of habit and my regular mouthwash makes my mouth / teeth “feel” cleaner.  The “recommended” mouthwash doesn’t have as much alcohol content, so it doesn’t give me that “burned” cheeks, tongue and gums feeling I’ve grown used to over the last 45-plus years.
And, now you know more than you ever imagined you would ever know about my dental hygiene.  And, admit it…  You are a better person for it!  (LoL)
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On This Day In:
2018	The Children Are Our Future
2017	And Three
2016	Nine Parts Mystery
2015	Little Or No Common Ground
2014	Just Between Me
2013	Beyond The Strings
2012	Saving The Union
2011	Still And Too Often

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