New to excercise?

A good friend of mine summarized his feelings about exercise pretty succinctly: "Its great for someone else, anyone else, just not me." This is the same guy that sent me this cartoon:

He knows exercise is what he needs.

Here are some tips to get and stay motivated on your exercise plan:

Be realistic
People new to exercise sometimes choose goals that are too ambitious. By setting big goals, it is easy to get overwhelmed. For example, rather than setting a goal of an hour a day, perhaps commit to doing 20-30 minutes 3 times a week while you are settling into a new routine.

Keep track of your progress
There are a ton of free apps that make it easy. But you can also just write down what you do each exercise session.

Don't expect perfection
A huge pitfall is the "all or nothing" thinking. If you miss a workout, NO WORRIES! Just pickup where you left off.

Don't compare yourself to others
I used to be aware that I was NOT aware of my size. So much so, I had asked my spouse to let me know if I was bigger, smaller or the same size of random people that we would see in public. It is SO easy to get discouraged when you get to the gym and see all of these buff people doing their thing. Trust me - leave it alone. It doesn't matter.

Get support
Share your plans with a few people: spouse, close friends, family - whoever. They will certainly offer words of encouragement. You can also join online groups and will find LOTS of encouraging people there. You can also do what I am doing - start blogging about how it is going for you and the things you learn along the way. I have gotten a LOT of encouragement from TOTAL strangers! Thank you to all of you that have sent me words of encouragement or have founds some encouragement in my blog.

Find the fun in it
There are SO many activities you can choose from - try them until you find one you find fun. My mother (who would shoot me if I said her age in a public blog) has found a class that she simply loves. We talk 3-4 times a week - and every call includes a recap of her last class workout. She is having a BLAST!

Break it up
Exercise (like calories) is cumulative. That means that if you only have time for 5 minutes worth of activity, it still counts! Grab the time when you can - with confidence - that every little thing adds up!

Forget the past
Some people have never had success with things that are "athletic". No worries - you are just exercising not qualifying for the Olympics. Leave any past memories where they belong - in the past. Focus on the new you.

Make it convenient
You don't have to get to a gym to work out. If you have cable TV, chances are there are exercise channels - some even on demand. And don't forget, there is ALWAYS the brisk walk for a good filler workout. Even if the weather is crappy (it actually burns more calories if the weather is crappy and you slog through it).

If you have any tips that work for you - please share!

Anyone can start a diet..

Anyone can start a diet. Lots of people do - each and every day. The hard part is staying with it - even when you hit a plateau. Here are a few things I have learned along the way:

1. Keep a journal. This very blog is my journal - at least my public facing one. It helps keep you focused on what you are doing and maybe some insight of what you need to do.

2. Find a community. This can be as simple as finding a buddy or a family member to "diet with" to joining a larger community. Active participation is a very motivational thing.

3. Need a quick boost? Read others success stories. Even better if you know the person - but if not, read anyway. :)  Success stories are some of the best motivators. Remember - if THEY can do this - so can you!

What are your favorite tips for staying with your program when you hit a plateau?

Getting started on your weight loss journey

Have you been reading about people dropping insane amounts of weight? Are you getting SPAM emails telling you about what foods to eat (or not eat) to lose belly fat? If both of these things are happening to you, chances are you are interested in losing a few pounds.

Like everything that you want to be successful, you have to start off with a plan. The plan itself can be is simple or as detailed as you want - but you really should start off with a personal plan. It is really up to personal tastes, habits, etc on which works better for you. The plan itself can be written down on paper, recorded in digital form, or whatever works for you.

The first part of your plan should outline your personal goals. In business, we use the acronym S.M.A.R.T. as the criteria for good goals. S.M.A.R.T stands for:

• Specific - the goal must be specific enough to understand it.
• Measureable - you need a way to track your progress towards your goal.
• Attainable - this is one of those "be real" kind of things.
• Relevant - this means that it needs to be consistent with the environment or conditions you are in. For example, for most people, replacing all of the food in your pantry with low cal, low fat versions is not economically feasible.
• Time based - you should have dates set (don't worry - you can adjust those later if necessary). This creates a sense of urgency about the goal - it will happen by this date.

The plan itself should focus on what you are GOING to do - not what you are NOT GOING to do. I know that sounds simple - but it is a key element in being successful at weight loss. For example, don't say things like "I am not going to eat buttered popcorn at the movies". Change it to something like "I will budget 150 calories for snacks".

Most people do MUCH better (both short term and long term) if they do NOT think of this as a "diet". One way to get the word "diet" out of your head is to think about your plan as a way of life - not just a temporary thing.

Another consideration is getting in all the nutrition so that the plan itself is sustainable. I am a HUGE advocate of using supplements. Those that have read earlier posts know that I am a huge fan of Xyngular products - I will dedicate a post or two in the future on each of their products, what it does for you, etc.

My point about nutrition is one you shouldn't take likely. For your plan to work, your body needs to get all of the vitamins and minerals necessary to support your bodies function. It also doesn't hurt to eat foods that will help encourage your metabolism, regulate blood sugar, manage cholesterol, and more.

The short version of my personal plan is as follows:
Goals: I will get to 12% body fat by 6/2014. I will be able to play golf (walking and carrying my own clubs) summer of 2013. I will be wearing pants with a waist band less than 40" by June of 2013.
Plan: I have computed my BMR at 2700 calories a day. I will target 2000 calories a day. I will exercise 6 days a week - 4 days of strength training and 2 days of cardio. I will eat lean - targeting the following:

• Protein: >150g per day
• Carbs: 100g per day
• Fat: <50g per day

If you are interested in the long version, leave me a comment and I will send it to you.

Weird exercise is good

In my journey to lose weight and be healthy, I have sort of turned into a gym rat. I find that I can keep my metabolism up (and burn LOTS of body fat) by working out - daily for me.

Today, my company had a "moral" event. Our company is small (less than 30 employees total) so having an event like this pretty much gets everyone's participation (at least the folks that live close to the main office).

Our event was had at Granite Curling Club in Seattle, WA. It is one of the ~170 curling rinks in the country. Curling is one of those sports that people recognize from the Olympics but generally don't know anything about it. This post is NOT going to try to educate you on curling however! :)

The point is that I really don't know much (ok, probably less than nothing) about curling. But it was an outing and sounded like fun. Without going into detail, it was a BLAST! I highly encourage everyone to give it a try if they get an opportunity.

We curled from 10:30 AM to 2:00 PM - solid. Lots of walking back and forth between goals, sweeping the path for the stone, and of course, shooting. When we were finished, I was AMAZED at how tired I was. So I broke out my current calorie/exercise tracker application (LoseIt!) and discovered I had burned 1,370 calories! Holy cow!

Of course, being the kind of guy I am, I didn't believe the number. So after a bit of online search, I confirmed that was about right for my size (amount of calories burned in an hour is dependent on your weight).

So that got me thinking - what about other activities? What kind of calorie burn will I get? I was blown away by the calories burned in things like badminton, billiards, frisbee and more.

While I have NOTHING against hitting the gym (I go myself every day), there is a LOT to be said for just getting up and doing something. Chances are, you are going to be burning a LOT more calories than you might have thought.

Check out what the WSJ has to say...

Monday mornings

Monday's are a weird day for me - I am either excited about getting started with my week or dragging my behind out of bed. I can't anticipate which kind of Monday it is going to be until I get myself out of bed. I have had a few one of those "grumble Monday's" and it could have screwed up my plan. The "Grumble Monday's" left me susceptible for losing my motivation.

My cure is not very scientific (and yeah, a LOT narcissistic) but it helps. I pull out a "before picture" of me (in a very unflattering pose) and compare to where I am today. I will even do the whole "pose down" thing in front of the mirror. While I do see all the things that I want changed, I also see how far I have come. The numbers I have lost quit being "numbers" and get all motivated all over again.

Today was one of those kinds of Mondays. I hate changing the clocks (what a stupid idea). I really grumbled getting out of bed, and was just not ready to face the day. I have my before picture on my phone - and gave it a peek. Yes, I admit, I did the whole pose down - and realized I should feel great about the results I have gotten so far.

Then I stepped on the scale...... down a pound! Yep, its going to be a good week!

The effect of strength training

For the past two weeks, my gym routine has been:

1. Day 1: Chest and abs
2. Day 2: Cardio (swimming for the most part) and abs
3. Day 3: Back and abs
4. Day 4: Cardio (swimming for the most part) and abs
5. Day 5: Legs and abs
6. Day 6: Shoulders, arms and abs
7. Day 7: Cardio (typically elliptical or mix of rowing and stairs)

The strength training work has all been "lifting heavy". What I mean by that are sets with only 6-10 reps (depending on excercise) with a weight that is at least 70% of my max 1 rep weight. Generally speaking, I can get my strength routine done in about 40-45 minutes (including warm up and stretching). For swimming, I can get in about 25 minutes before exhaustion. Machine cardio I go 60 minutes.

I also begin every strength training with 5-10 minutes of cardio (to get blood flow up) and end with 5 minutes of stretching. The stretching REALLY helps to minimize soreness. I typically have very light soreness the "morning after" - but nothing uncomfortable. By noon the day after I have no soreness so I think the stretching is helping with recovery. I also will drink a Xypstix (either hot or cold) after each workout.

I almost always have a protein shake as a post workout meal. I generally do two scoops of Lean (88 calories, 30g protein) mixed with skim milk or almond milk. Lean is a powdered protein supplement from Xyngular.

While I have only lost 4 lbs of body weight over that time, the rest of my measurements are as follows:

• Chest - no change
• Waist - lost 1"
• Thigh - no change
• Arms - gain .5"

I am EXTREMELY pleased with the result. I plan to continue this schedule for the next 2 weeks. I have heard it is very difficult to lose weight and build muscle mass. I think I have found something that is working for me.

How I figured out my diet

Xyngular has something they call an 8 day challenge. It includes all the supplements you need for about a month of use (even though the challenge is 8 days long) and a food plan for the first 8 days. The first 6 posts of this blog have some diary like comments - I leave it to you to read about what was going on with me for those first 6 days.

The 8 day challenge diet is pretty simple: the first 2 days are lean protein only and days 3 through 8 add back in complex carbs. The company offers a money back guarentee you will lose 5-15 lbs in those eight days. I lost 13 during that time - which is really what got me hooked.

Since then, I have taken a really hard look at my diet - what did I have to do to maintain a good weight loss?

I would love to say that I did a bunch of research, carefully mapped out a plan that included protein, carbs and good fats, plenty of sleep, and a formula for getting in the water I needed. The truth is, I didn't - at least not at first. I was pretty clueless about how to turn this into a sustainable program for myself. I really hated the idea that I was "dieting" - I hate diets. In the end, I just faked it until I realized I was actually making it.

Somethings were pretty obvious - avoid calorie dense foods in general, avoid non-nutritional calories like the plague, get a lot less calories from fat, and so on. I was generally applying the common sense approach (if there is such a thing) and seeing what happened.

In January, the Xyngular company ran a contest called the "Transformational Challenge". Basically, it was 3 30day "who can transform their body the best" contests in a row - with one grand prize. The awards are not big cash incentives ($250 for the winner) but that got me to thinking "Where do I want to be?".

Don't misread this - my quality of life had already improved a lot. I was down 2 pants sizes, a shirt size, had a TON of energy and more. Even with that, I discovered a goal - a great one for me - that would help me formulate a plan to get there.

My goal is that I wanted to get my body fat percentage to around 12% - whatever the number is that gives my abs definition. For men, it looks like the body fat percentage to have "ripped abs" varies from 8% to 14%. I have no clue what it is going to take for me - but this helped me figure out a plan to get there.

I figured that 2 lbs a week is a healthy weight loss rate. January 3rd, I had my body fat measured (using the caliper method) and came in at 38%. Doing some simple math, I calculated I had about 80 lbs to go (understanding that is a gross estimate - I would likely lose some muscle mass along the way if I wasn't careful).

I also know that I won't be able to systematically maintain that 2 lbs a week weight loss - but it gave me a great thought that I could be at my goal in 40 weeks! I fantasize about being at (or at least close to my weight goal) by mid-October!

It takes a calorie deficit of about 3500 calories a week to burn a pound of body fat. So - take your weekly BMI and substract 7,000 calories and divide by 7 to get your daily calorie range. But there is a catch - you have to keep your metabalism running or you can EASILY eat too little food and not lose a pound. Also - exercise SIGNIFICANTLY affects your metabalic rate. So does the supplements I am taking (in a good way). So - cutting to the chase, I decided on a target calorie range of 1800-2000 per day.

My typical day looks like this:
Breakfast: either steel cut oats (never instant oats) or egg whites. Some kind of fruit, and if eggs, some veggies like peppers and onions.

Mid-morning snack: protein shake or food bar (minimum 15 grams of protein)

Lunch: 5-8 oz of lean protein. Sometimes will add low fat cheese. More veggies like peppers, cucumbers, etc.  I do like salads with spinich and kale as well. Non-fat dressing only (and even then, a small amount - usually half a serving). I eat a 6" Subway sub a couple of times a week.

Mid-afternoon snack: jerkey (beef or turkey) or almonds (sometimes a protein shake or food bar)

Dinner: 6-8 oz of lean protein. I get in at least 3 meals of fish a week (prefer salmon or tuna). I generally eat a cup of steamed veggies (or a salad)

Post workout snack: Protein shake (30 grams of protein)

Measuring my success

I have been on just about every diet there is. One thing that EVERY diet plan had in common was to write down what you put in your mouth. I suspect one of the reasons why nothing worked for me is that I just could never get in the habit of writing down what I ate. And even when I did, I just never had the time to go figure out what the calorie or other nutrition information I was counting.

One of the trainers at my gym pointed me to the iPhone app LoseIt! back in early January. I started using it for recording my daily food intake - just because it was easy. I always have my phone with me so it was easy to just record what I ate at the time.

At the time, I hadn't done any research on this type of application, so I really jumped in somewhat blind as to what was available. Since then, I have been trying several of the iPhone food diary/calorie counting/excercise tracking applications and will post my comparison findings in a future post.

I have been using LoseIt! since January 3rd. Setting up/configuring the app is very simple and straight forward. The app will make a recommendation for daily calories based on information you tell it: things like current weight, height, number of pounds you want to loose, etc. In my case, I told it I wanted to loose 2 pounds a week. LoseIt! suggested a calorie target for me and that was that. As you lose weight, LoseIt! will recaclulate the suggested calorie intake so that you can stay on the plan you have based on your weight recordings in LoseIt!

The app is free but there is an in app premium offer. I haven't bought the premium offer - so I really can't say anything about what it does for you. The free portion is pretty simple to use and has made it really easy for me to track what goes in my mouth. The app also allows you to track the calories you consume while excercising.

One of the features I like about the product is the ability to scan bar codes and get the nutritional information from the package itself. It turns out that is a necessary feature as the food database LoseIt! provides seems to be very small. You will have to bar code scan a lot of food items (or manually add the food items to the local database) because there is such a relatively small set of foods that are in the general database.

The app also has entries for a number of resturaunt chains. This is pretty helpful - but the numbers LoseIt! reports for the food items don't always agree with the nutritional information posted by the resturaunt.

Similarly, even food items that are specific to a specific brand are occasionally different from what LoseIt! will show. Fortunately, the discrepencies are not large.

Logging excercises in LoseIt! is pretty easy. Pretty much select the activity, list how much time you spent doing it, and record the intensity. It isn't clear where LoseIt! gets the "calories burned" information - there appears to be some discrepency between what LoseIt! reports and various other online databases. Again - the numbers are not wildly different so LoseIt! still works as a guide.

My biggest pet peeve about the LoseIt! app is a combination of the small food database and the search functionality. When you do add your own foods (either by scanning or manually keying them) you need to remember exactly what you called them OR be sure to switch to the "My Foods" tab when you are recording what you ate. Spelling matters (as readers of this blog will attest, I need to invest in a spell checker).

In short, the price is right (free) and in spite of my nit picks, the app does help you record what you eat.

Curbing urges the easy way

A common problem most people have when they start eating "clean" is curbing urges. I have two "hot spots" when it comes to urges (some people call these comfort foods). One of them (which I have already talked a lot about) is beer. The other is pizza. Hmmmm..... I sense a pattern here! :)

Others may crave things like salty snacks, fatty snacks, sugary delights, or whatever your preferred poisen is. Curbing urges doesn't need to be complicated (or all that restrictive).

Food urges can be caused by a lot of different things. Stress, mood (in particular for me, anxiety), low blood sugar and more. While I don't think it is critically important to understand exactly what your trigger points are, having a clue where the urge comes from is always helpful.

I manage both my stress and mood with the help of some supplements and excercise. Of course, foods I choose in my diet are a key part - but I really don't adjust my food based on my stress level or my mood.

One of the supplements I take is called Xyng (pronounced zing). It is one of the products made by the Xyngular company. Xyng is an all natural energy pill - but it has some additional goodness as well. It has both an ingredient that helps with blood sugar as well as an ingredient that helps elevate your mood. All of the ingredients for Xyngular's products are food based, all natural. The energy from Xyng is an all day thing - so I take one or two in the morning and I am set for the day. There isn't a "rush" or a "crash" - just a good day of energy and "feel good".

Another supplement I take is called Cheat+. I take it about 30 minutes before I eat a meal (3x daily) with a full glass of water. I will write more about this stuff later - but the short version is that this product will help you control your calorie intake in every meal AND help manage your blood sugar.

While I don't change my diet to address stress per se, I typically eat steel cut oats for breakfast or have some other whole grain product during the day to help control blood sugar. For that matter, any low glycemic food will help manage blood sugar.

The when you eat is probably the hardest thing to manage for a lot of people. It still remains a challenge for me - but I have just surrendered myself to the fact that I really have to eat something 5 times a day. I will write a lot more about diet (food choices) in future posts, but the when I eat helps me curb food urges. My day consists of:

• Breakfast within an hour of getting out of bed
• Morning snack 1.5 to 2.5 hours later
• Lunch 1.5-2.5 hours after morning snack
• PREFER to have afternoon snack - but if running late on meals, will skip lunch snack
• Dinner somewhere between 6 and 7:30 PM
• If I skip an afternoon snack, I will have a post workout snack (I generally work out in the evenings).

The excercise component really lifts my mood and manages stress. Especially in conjunction with the supplements I already talked about. I will be writing more about excerise in future posts - but just know that even a little bit of excercise goes a long way. Also - excercise is cummulative. That means that if you only have time for 15 minutes of stuff in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening - that is the same as 30 minutes of excercise! I love it that excercise kind of works like calories!

So - even with supplements, excercise and planning I STILL have my favorite foods (and the urge to eat them). When that happens, I just make it a point to find healthy choices that fit my nutrition goals. Last night, I had half of a California Pizza Kitchen thin crust hawaiian style pizza. It is about 141 calories a slice (with the thin crust) and I had three slices. I THOUGHT about having a beer with it - but chose to not. It was still AMAZING!

Thats all for today....

Ups and downs of weight loss

Since I started my journey, I have been keeping meticulous records on just about everything I could measure. Things like the complete nutritional information of everything I put in my mouth (more on this in a future post) to weighing in daily.

One of the most FRUSTRATING things for me was the scale fluctuations! I would hit a new "low weight" on Tuesday and find that Wednesday I had gained back 2 pounds! What was going on?

It turns out that this is a pretty common thing - and pretty much happens to everyone. The reason being is that there are SO many different contributing factors involved. Even so, for people like me, it drives me nuts.

To start with, weight and size measurements should be at the same time of day. Your body is going to fluctuate like crazy throughout the day - not only because of what you ate/drank but also because of what you have been doing. I recommend taking all measurements as soon as practical after waking up. While there are still a lot of variables involved in causing your scale fluctuations, you will have mitigated SOME of them.

The next point I learned is that I REALLY need 7-8 hours of GOOD sleep. I am one of those kinds of people that can work quite late - and get up early the next morning ready to do it all over again. Not getting a 7-8 hour span of quality sleep can cause me to show a scale gain of 2-3 lbs easily.

Another key part is eating ENOUGH food of the RIGHT food. If you miss your calorie goal (or eat the wrong foods) you are almost certain to see results (and not good ones) on the scale. For me, my target calories is currently 1800-2000 daily. If I miss some meals, get a large percentage of my calories in one meal, or overshoot my goals I will not see good results. Note this doesn't mean you gained back body fat - it just means you either tricked your body to holding on to waste longer OR you haven't processed all the food you injested. This is SO hard to dial in - so just EXPECT weight fluctuations.

Some people recommend only weighing in on a weekly basis - so that the rolling average takes care of itself. I prefer to weigh and measure daily - I just had to learn to not freak out over the variances.

There is a LOT more I have learned about this topic - so will have another post in the future that shares more of what I have learned. But before I sign off for today - I want to stress that water is probably the most important factor in minimizing fluctuations (but certainly not the only factor).

A good rule of thumb is to drink half of your body weight (in ounces) of water every day (up to 120 ounces). Liquids that have SOMETHING ELSE in them (like coffee, tea, diet soda) ALL have stuff your body needs to deal with as it gets the hydration it requires. Turns out that plain old water is the best stuff. Getting your water in (earlier in the day is better so you won't be awakened with full bladders) is a great tactic to help minimize scale fluctuations.

Catch up

Sorry to be so slow in updating my blog. Things have been a little (ok, a LOT) crazy for me in my weight loss journey. Seems that life sort of got in the way of me blogging.

I finished the 8 days - and lost a total of 13 pounds! I felt FANTASTIC! I was so impressed, I went ahead and paid the $19.95 to become a distributor. I did it to lock in the lowest possible price for the products (I decided I loved all of them) and because people were already starting to ask me about my diet, the supplements, etc. More on this later.

On the ninth day, I did indeed have that beer I was so jonesing for. I went out for Mexican food - and ordered an ice cold Pacifico - perfect for the beef and cheese enchiladas that I had ordered. I had already taken the Cheat+ pills - so was ready for my food.

Before I continue, I should explain a little about how the Cheat+ (and the Cheat) product works. First off - the products are identical except Cheat+ is in pill form and Cheat is a sprinkle. It is made from a Japanese root called Konnyaku. It is a 100% natural fiber that works with water to regulate the absorbtion of macronutrients including fats and carbs. It literally binds with the fats and carbs and creates a non-digestable gel like material that your body just passes.

So anyway - I was READY for my beer! The funny part is that Cheat did react to the beer and I was FULL after about half the bottle! WOW! I ended up getting my enchiladas boxed up to go - between the chips, salsa and half a Pacifico - I was finished eating for that meal.

Anyway - lots has been going on. I have lost a total of 55 pounds so far (just under 2 lbs/week). I will continue adding to this much more regularly!

If you would like more information on the products, please visit www.ignitewithruth.com. There you will find product information, other peoples testimonials and more.