Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness Support Thread

Parent Cafe
3961

<p>Back when we played tennis in the summer in GA, we used to take a gallon plastic milk jug, fill it halfway with water, and freeze it. Then, take it out, fill it up with water, and take it to the courts. Drink copiously at every changeover to stay hydrated. Quit immediately when you start feeling chilly.</p>

3962

<p>I use an old powerade bottle and fill it in the office when I get in with filtered water and the vitamin packets and put it in the freezer. It usually winds up as slushy when we get to the courts. On the weekend, I try to put them inq the freezer the night before. Sometimes it is a block of ice which is not that helpful.</p>

<p>Hydration and electrolytes are a big deal to avoid bad stuff on the court and when running. The example of the lady that died while running a marathon because she drank too much water and flushed out necessary stuff is a reminder to mind the electrolytes.</p>

3963

<p>Oh, I forgot to mention…</p>

<p>Assuming I don’t bounce back the wrong way tomorrow, I hit two more milestones today. My ninth time loosing five pounds for a total of 45 pounds to date. And, I officially ducked under the 30% body fat threshold, coming it at 29% on the button.</p>

<p>My blood pressure has sure taken a turn for the better. I started testing it throughout the week back in April and, for the first week, averaged 132/75. I thought that was pretty good for an overweight ex-smoker. This week’s average so far is 112/64. And, yes, I salted my salmon for dinner!</p>

3964

<p>Very good numbers.</p>

3965

<p>idad, that’s what it’s all about!! A smaller pants size is nice, but it’s all about your health. Congratulations.</p>

3966

<p>idad that’s great! Looks like you’ll be in fine shape for your upcoming Adam concert (he was sooo good last night). This is day three of walk/run for me, if I can get myself out there. My legs are asking for a day off, but I don’t think my son, who runs cross country, will let me off the hook. He nagged me out the door yesterday, but that was a good thing…I guess.</p>

3967

<p>You probably got a bonus workout at the concert!</p>

<p>One of the things that really helped me was having a workout schedule from the iPod nazi. Inititally, iPod workouts on Monday - Wednesday - Friday plus light cardio on Tuesday or Thursday, plus optional walking or something on Saturday or Sunday. That fixed three days per week mandatory schedule has taken all of the “should I” or “shouldn’t I” out of it.</p>

<p>I do vary the cardio days. Lately, I’ve been walking three days a week, mixing it up in terms of length. Seven days in a row is too much for me. My body starts to wear down without a rest day.</p>

3968

<p>Congratulations, idad!</p>

3969

<p>How do you figure out your body fat ratio? Also, I have always been resistant to taking vitamins because those large pills make me nauseous in the morning. Does anyone know of a good multi vitamin that is smaller in size?</p>

3970

<p>This thread is incredibly inspiring! When I look around, it seems very few people I know have succeeded in losing weight, and it is great to see so much success here and everyone using such healthy methods. </p>

<p>My goals and achievements have been a lot more modest than IDad et al but I am still pleased. I have lost about 15 pounds since January, most of it when following the Mayo Clinic Diet (which is not the grapefruit diet, but an actual diet plan put out by the clinic). The journaling (Mayo clinic sells a great journal to go with the diet plan book) helped me a lot and the diet plan was in general exactly the way I like to eat - lots of vegetables and fruits, some carbs but not too many, much less sugar than I would ordinarily consume and no room for junk food. This plan helped me establish much better habits and I have had no trouble keeping the weight off for 3 months or so. I think(knock on wood) I have succeeded in permanently breaking the snacking habit with the exception of fruit, which I am okay with. I know some people like healthy snacks, but for me snacking always bothered me and I feel much better and somehow very free, without it. </p>

<p>I would like to lose another 15 pounds so I may go back to the journal. I do weigh myself every day which for me is critical. For exercise, I have found that moderation and building up very slowly works best for me as I can avoid the appetite surges that have sabotaged past diet efforts. These days I am swimming almost everyday and have started yoga. I plan to add some bike rides on the weekends and perhaps some mild strength training (although I think yoga does a decent job of that). In the fall, I will probably go back to walking with 2x a week swimming. </p>

<p>Keep it up guys!</p>

3971

<p>EPTR: I take adult gummies from TJs. I hate those “horse pills” too. Only problem is that taste TOO good so I don’t keep them within easy reach. </p>

<p>I supplement with calcium, magnesium, D3 and fish oils.</p>

<p>idad…congrats! And wow. You are really on the right path here.</p>

3972

<p>There are about 8 billion ways of calculating body fat, none of them terribly precise.</p>

<p>The easiest way would be this online calculator which uses your weight and waist size:</p>

<p>[Body</a> Fat Calculator](<a href=“http://www.freedieting.com/tools/body_fat_calculator.htm]Body”>Body Fat Calculator)</p>

<p>The easiest way to track it would be one of the bath room scales that has a body fat function. They pass a slight electrical charge through your bare feet and use the impedance of your body to compare to tables stored in the scale’s computer for your weight and height. Tanita is the best known of these scales. The scales are good for tracking changes over time, not quite as good for giving you an exact number as they vary by as much as two or three percent body fat over the day. They read highest first thing in the morning when you are dehydrated, lowest at night after dinner – just the opposite of weight fluctuations during the day.</p>

<p>The bigger problem is that the body fat charts of where you “should be” are all over the map. The government’s BMI (body mass index) charts are a particular joke. Those are the ones that have Barack Obama being borderline overweight. They say that for me to not be “overweight”, I would have to weigh less than I did when I graduated from college. The goverment’s max weight for me to not be officially “overweight” would be 9% body fat! iPod nazi is 7%. That’s like professional tennis player or professional soccer player territory. I’m a 56 year old guy. I’m not getting to 9% body fat.</p>

<p>[Rafael</a> Nadal photo](<a href=“http://plugginaway4him.files.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2009/01/nadal.jpg]Rafael”>http://plugginaway4him.files.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2009/01/nadal.jpg)</p>

<p>If that’s the standard, then I’m just going to have to live with the government calling me fat, because I’ve accepted that I’m probably not going to look like Rafael Nadal as I approach age 60!</p>

<p>Here are the World Health Organization body fat charts, which at least take into account age. These look pretty reasonable at least for me:</p>

<p>[Body</a> Fat Percentage Charts for Men and Women](<a href=“http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/library/blbodyfatcharts.htm]Body”>Body Fat Percentage Calculator: Check Body Composition at Home)</p>

3973

<p>Very interesting stuff. I used your calculator and it returned 17.44%. I would have guessed that it was moderately higher given the amount of weight that I want to lose. It also shows me that I will have to lose quite a bit of lean weight to get to my ultimate target.</p>

<p>I plugged in my college info and it returned a little under ten percent. I used to workout 20 hours a week and was very, very skinny.</p>

<p>The calculator shows my ultimate goal as 10% bodyfat. I got pretty close to that back in my late 30s when I dropped forty pounds. I have a fair ways to get to that goal and I look at it as a multi-year process. It may be completely unrealistic - we’ll see.</p>

3974

<p>I read that Nadal lost upper-body muscle in the past year to help to reduce his propensity to injuries. Nadal has been plagued with knee problems given his style of play and his high upper body mass and lowering upper-body muscle mass would reduce the pounding his knees take. It seems to have worked quite well this year given his victories and lack of injuries at this point in the tennis year.</p>

<p>Take a look at Roger Federer’s left arm: [Google</a> Image Result for <a href=“http://macau.a2zcasino.eu/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/roger-federer-macau.jpg[/url]”>http://macau.a2zcasino.eu/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/roger-federer-macau.jpg](<a href=“http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://macau.a2zcasino.eu/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/roger-federer-macau.jpg&imgrefurl=http://macau.a2zcasino.eu/199/the-venetian-macau-welcomes-federer-and-sampras/&usg=__NebfxMCxuORx4Q3kQiPt9dIuli4=&h=389&w=398&sz=58&hl=en&start=0&tbnid=TV8d8v-zr0ABXM:&tbnh=159&tbnw=157&prev=/images%3Fq%3Droger%2Bfederer%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DWYs%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1243%26bih%3D947%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=630&vpy=273&dur=2434&hovh=222&hovw=227&tx=118&ty=121&ei=0r5RTJ6-LIr6swPz6c3iCw&page=1&ndsp=31&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:0]Google”>http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://macau.a2zcasino.eu/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/roger-federer-macau.jpg&imgrefurl=http://macau.a2zcasino.eu/199/the-venetian-macau-welcomes-federer-and-sampras/&usg=__NebfxMCxuORx4Q3kQiPt9dIuli4=&h=389&w=398&sz=58&hl=en&start=0&tbnid=TV8d8v-zr0ABXM:&tbnh=159&tbnw=157&prev=/images%3Fq%3Droger%2Bfederer%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DWYs%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1243%26bih%3D947%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=630&vpy=273&dur=2434&hovh=222&hovw=227&tx=118&ty=121&ei=0r5RTJ6-LIr6swPz6c3iCw&page=1&ndsp=31&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:0)</a></p>

<p>It’s very thin compared to his right arm. Federer has been called by many as the greatest player of all time in tennis. His mobility is part of his greatness. In tennis, your left arm strength is not that important, especially if you use a one-handed backhand. Federer’s strong right arm and weak left arm could be considered an optimization to maximize mobility and minimize injury.</p>

3975

<p>Yes, I was under 10% in college. Most college-age boys are scrawny little things.</p>

<p>BTW, at least for guys using that calculator. You should actually measure your “waist” at the belly button with a tape measure. It is likely NOT the same as your pants size.</p>

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</p>

<p>I woudn’t do that unless I were a retired NFL player or body builder who had artificially bulked up and were looking to return to a more normal body. For most of us, lean muscle mass is our best friend. The big problem with crash dieting is that it reduces lean muscle mass, which lowers metabolism, and kills our ability to maintain weight down the road. That’s why strength training is so essential. Just pounding out cardio miles will start to eat up lean muscle mass.</p>

3976

<p>idad, congrats on the awesome milestone! When I started this whole thing, I knew I had to break the weight loss down into smaller goals, so I picked 20 pounds. I’ve celebrated losing 20 pounds 3 times now. If I had chosen 5 pounds I could have celebrated 14 times!</p>

<p>Saw my trainer this morning for the first time in over a week (he was on vacation). I was really looking forward to seeing him and now am feeling mildly sore and happy. Does this qualify as Stockholm Syndrome?</p>

3977

<p>Hmm, that body fat calculator is interesting, i-dad. By the more standard calculation, my BMI is around 20, which would be considered low. But using that website, it comes to 28. Reason – I am thin, but my waist has always been thick. I once had someone calculate my bmi using calipers; don’t remember the number but it was closer to 28 than 20. The only way I could lower it would be losing inches off my waist – something I’ve been trying to do for decades with little success.</p>

3978

<p>No wonder you missed your trainer. You see the benefits every day in the mirror and it gives you motivation to keep doing it. It’s definitely a big help to push yourself, whether it’s a trainer or an iPod workout. Maybe a little Stockholm Syndrome, too, of course!</p>

3979

<p>We all put on fat first in thighs/hips (women) and belly (men and older women). So, if we want to lose the fat in those places, we have to lose all the other fat first, then continue losing body fat to get the belly. So, I don’t have the luxury of saying, “You know, I don’t mind a little extra fat around my shoulders, I’m just going to lose the belly fat…”</p>

<p>That’s why it takes 10% body fat or less to see your ab muscles. You basically have to be totally lean. Hence, all the men you see who look perfectly fit, except for the beer gut or the love handles.</p>

3980

<p>I was diagnosed with T2 diabetes at the end of March. At that time my HBA1C was 9.9. I put myself on a low carb diet, started using a BG meter, and began paying more consistent attention to regular exercise (I had already improved my exercise regimen months before). Yesterday I got the results of my second HBA1C: 5.2! My doctor was ecstatic. :slight_smile: I’ve lost 23 lbs, and have surpassed my initial goal of losing 10% of bodyweight by the end of July. My next goal is to lose 6 lbs more, which according to a lot of BMI calculators–not Idad’s, because I do not have much of a waist, no matter how slim, and I do NOT put weight on my thighs and hips first-- will put me in the “normal” range. In reality, it would probably be good to lose 10 beyond that, but I’m keeping my goals achievable. </p>

<p>I just realized at the gym yesterday that in another week I’ll probably be putting the big weight on the scale at the 100 lb mark instead of the 150 lb mark for the first time in about 20 years!</p>

<p>When I started this low carb thing, I was constantly hungry. I was also reading a lot about how high blood sugar made you hungrier, and how carbs tended to create cravings for more, and so forth. No doubt in my mind that it is all true, at least for those of us unlucky enough to have the genetics for diabetes.</p>