EPIC FAIL!!!!!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

OK, I'm pretty pissed off....at myself.....at the world in general.....at so called experts.

Here's the deal;

I had my annual physical done on Friday. Tuesday I went in and gave them a few liters of blood so they could have all the labwork done when I sat down with the doc.

Fast forward to Friday....everything is checking out just fine...hearing, eyes, weight, blood pressure. Even the doc takes a look at me as I walk in and says, "Hey you look great!"

Then we get to the labwork.

Cholestrol is 300!

3 - FRIGGIN - HUNDRED!!!!

Now for the last 25 years my cholesterol has beeped and bopped between 180-210....last year this time it was 202.

So what the hell happened?!?!

Well in my zeal to adapt to a ketogenic diet, I lowered my carbs down to below 50gms/day. Most days I am below 30 gms/day. All the reading I have done tells me I should be in ketosis, that is, switching from burning carbohydrates as a primary fuel to burning fat.

To fuel your new metabolism.....SO THE THEORY GOES....you need to increase your fat intake....of all kinds....mono to saturated fats.

And I did so. For 5 happy months I stopped eating sugars and breads, starches and rice. I watched my waistline and belly tighten & shrink. I saw my bodyfat drop 4-5 percentage points. I started having fresh eggs for breakfast, I ate steaks with the fat, I put butter on my veggies, had bacon every chance I got.

For months I had been waiting for this physical, imagining that I would be the poster boy for this year's "Patient of the Year" award.

Instead the doc had a serious talk with me about starting a regimen of statins to lower my cholesterol!

I confessed to her my recent experiment of increasing my fat intake as I limited my carbs.....she just stared at me and again asked when I wanted to start the statins.

I pleaded for another 3 weeks to readjust my diet....this had to be an anomaly....either that or they switched my blood samples in the lab.

Now I'll admit, everything else looked great.....HDL was way high.....my glucose readings were great (apparently they have the ability from one sample to know what your levels have been for the last 6 weeks....amazing!). Apparently my risk of developing Type 2 diabetes is wicked low (which was my goal).....but I set off the medical alarm bells and warning lights for a potential heart attack!

Needless to say SWMBO was pissed. She gave me the "I told you so" stare. We spent Friday night walking around the beach figuring out how to fix me.

So I've been on a massive re-evaluation these past 2 days.

I think the low carb thing works for me.....I don't think that correlates to increasing my fat intake....definitely not saturated fats.

I track every damn thing I eat, so I'm going to have to do a little chemistry mixing to re-adjust some of my nutrients.

Yeah, I'm pissed, but I've come way to far too screw around. I've been making all sorts of changes in my diet and health these last 2 years on SP and I'm not about to chuck it all out the window because of this. It just means, yet again, a massive re-direction in how I think......how hard can that be?!?!?

More to follow.....have a great night Spark friends!

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Endurance Strength Training.....the recovery spin class

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Well needless to say, after yesterday's endurance strength training session, I was a tad sore this morning. ( www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_jo
urnal_individual.asp?blog_id=5094529 )

Don't get me wrong, it was a good sore, the kind of sore that reminds you that you have muscles in all sorts of weird parts of your body. It's the kind of sore that says, "hey dumbass, why did you decide to start using us after all these years, we've been pretty happy atrophying away down here!"

As the morning wore on, I wasn't shaking it off, so I made secret plans to duck out at lunchtime and sneak in a spin class under the guise doing some "management by walking around"

Quite possibly the smartest thing I did all day!

Now when I'm in town, it's tough to break away during the day to hit the gym. On the road at conferences and other meetings I have to attend, I've got more opportunities. But this week has been fantastic!

At last week's scheduling meeting, I told my front office staff to leave me wide open this Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday....miraculously, they listened and did just that! Tons of white space on the calendar....I don't think I have been so productive in months. I knocked out tons of things on my never-ending to-do list, got caught up on a bunch of professional reading I had let slack off, prepared a bunch of reports that needed some undivided attention, knocked out tons of correspondence, and basically networked like a madman.....plus I got in a lunchtime workout Tuesday & today.

I strolled in to the spin class today still feeling a little wobbly from yesterday's lower body endurance workout. As I got on the bike I seriously questioned my own sanity and wondered if I hadn't made a monumental blunder attempting a hard cardio session after a tough ST workout.

But once curvilicious instructor gal started pumping up some Black Eyed Peas ("I got a feeling") the world seemed just right and next thing you know I was revving it up past 90 RPM and steadily pushing up the resistance.

And then my legs started loosening up and it felt as if some biophysical miracle flushed out all the leftover lactic acid from yesterday. Hill climbs, sprints, intervals, you name it, I was all over it. 50 straight minutes of pretty damn hi-intensity cardio on the bike, punctuated by 30 second breaks to towel off the sweat and chug down a few gulps of water.

Yeah, so maybe there is something to this endurance strength training after all.....sheesh!

Have a great night spark friends!

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Endurance Strength Training....love it....hate it!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

So I really enjoy my workout schedule. I try to get in 3 days of ST plus 3 days of cardio in any given week.

Cardio varies between riding my bike (my supercool Trek which is also my avatar), working out on the elliptical, taking a spin class, and any other activity to get my HR up to 80-90% of max

For ST it's a little more complicated.

Now I freely admit that I've been working out with a trainer for these past 3 years (I'm pretty sure he received some Sadism 101 training as an East German Stasi agent or quite possibly was a Russian Spetsnaz animal cruelty specialist). He changes up routines on me periodically and definitely pushes me past what I would normally do on my own on a regular basis.

We basically alternate doing a heavy weight/low rep workout, followed by the same routine with medium weight and higher reps.

For example on squats, I do 240 lbs for 5 reps (4 sets total) on a heavy day, then do 165 lbs for 15 reps (4 sets also) a couple days later.

You would think the heavy weights are the tough days.

Oh No! No, no, no, no, no......the tough days are the medium weight/hi rep days. "These are the days we train for endurance", says Stasi trainer guy (imagine Arnold saying this).

Today was such a day!

Now I consider myself a fairly tough-minded Mo-Fo. I can endure all sorts of privations & pains. I've run marathons, spent days in the woods eating only what I can catch, and all sorts of other weirdness.

But endurance ST is a whole other ballgame.....I don't think there's a tougher thing I do (at least I think that right now, at this moment, today)

Right as I get to 8, 9, 10 reps, I realize, "Scheisse, I still have 5 more of these to do!"

Meanwhile, my glutes, hamstrings, & back are screaming, and I am getting an incredible aerobic workout as I am huffing and puffing for all I'm worth (Stasi guy says it's technically an anaerobic workout...."Screw you Stasi guy" I mutter to myself as I focus on reps 12 & 13)

Man, oh, man what a combination though...strength training and endurance. I used to think endurance meant running (or biking) for long distances, usually measured in hours. In the ST world it's about how long can you stretch out that time where you are stressing your musculature with repetitive movements while bearing a load. Yes each set is over in under 2 minutes, but it sure feels like hours to me!

But I've come to believe that you have to do both. Doing heavy weights is good to build muscle and strength, but I know a lot of folks that do just that, and are explosively strong for a minute or 2, but ask them to do something repetitive and they're out of Schlitz pretty fast.

Lifting less heavy weights for a higher number of reps is also great for building muscle strength & tone, but also helps build mental strength where you learn to recognize the fatigue and work through it as well as building up your stamina, which may be a better measure of overall health than just the amount of weight you moved in a day.

By Jove, maybe I've got it....maybe I can fire Stasi guy, quit my day job, and become a Personal Trainer myself!

Have a great night spark friends!

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Just exactly what is Maintenance???

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

OK, I freely admit, these days I've been a blog slacker. No real good reason....it's not like I lack things going on....I'm mostly on a pretty stable glide path working, eating, exercising, life, yadda-yadda-yadda.

I've read a lot of blogs & commentary lately on people in maintenance. Hmmmmm......maintenance.....exactly what is THAT?

I've been a pretty steady 178 - 182 lbs now for 4-6 months. I'm wearing 34 inch jeans....but need a belt to hold them up so I don't look like this


I work out because I enjoy it and feel better when I do. I don't view exercise as a tool to counteract the food I eat....this is a pretty huge mental shift. I recently re-wickered my food plan to significantly reduce my carb intake and feel tons better for it.....I feel in control of my appetite for the first time in......DECADES!

So what the hell is maintenance?!?!?

I don't know, mostly because I don't think I've thought my way through it yet.....most of the stuff I've read from folks in or approaching maintenance have said it's pretty much an extension of what they've been doing to get down to their goal weight anyway......I don't think I'll plant a flag, stake my claim, and say, "Today I declare that I am in MAINTENANCE"


In any case, life goes on and thanks to SP, I can handle all the many minefields out there much better today than I could before I joined. This week I've got a dinner event on Thursday night, a going away luncheon on Friday, SWMBO and I are hosting a backyard party for about 30 folks on Saturday afternoon, and Sunday.....

....I fly to Hawaii for a week!


I got a call from the corporate leadership a few days ago and was told I HAD to attend this meeting in Honolulu.

Oh alright, if I really HAVE TO!

Maybe I'll have an epiphany about maintenance as I sit on my breezy lanai, sipping my morning Joe and gazing out upon Diamond Head


Have a great night Spark friends!

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Istanbul - I need a vacation from my vacation!

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Ahhh, it's nice to be back home! Here I sit on my favorite chaise lounge, looking out our windows onto the stormy seas as I get caught back up on logging food and blogging adventures.

I got in last night after a surprisingly uneventful flight with stops in Paris and Atlanta (yes Fangfacekitty, I had a nice experience with Air France....good food, lots of decent movies to watch, and friendly flight attendants)

But man I need a vacation from my vacation!

I arrived in Istanbul on Saturday 22 Sept. Checked in to the Renaissance Istanbul (owned by Marriot) which apparently opened up only a few weeks ago. My room had a great view of the bridge over the Bosporus and to my incredible delight, the gym was equipped with the latest Lifecycle bikes, treadmills, & ellipticals.

They even had a squat rack with free weights, a TRX room, a pilates room, and some concept 2 rowers! I was in heaven! I got in a good workout to shake off the transatlantic flight, then went to visit the rest of the family who was in the thick of wedding planning.

Sunday was great....the wedding went off without a hitch. They picked a beautiful spot in a little boutique hotel (Hotel Les Ottomans - www.lesottomans.com/ ) right on the water.
.
Yours truly danced a good part of the night away with my sister (mother of the groom) and any bridesmaid within reach, then promptly logged about 120 aerobic minutes into my spark tracker later that night.

Monday was supposed to be a recovery day, but after I complained that all of my clothes had suddenly become all baggy this year, my sister insisted on taking me shopping to some of her favorite spots. We may not actually be brother and sister....somehow she has the genes that actually enjoy shopping.....mine are recessive.

She hauled my ass over to a bunch of Euro-boutique men's shops and no matter how difficult or picky I was, just kept hauling sports coats off the racks and telling me all about them ("See this stitching on the lapel, that's done by hand!") After 4 hours of this madness (and the realization that she wasn't going to stop until I picked out something), I settled on a sporty looking dark number with subtle azure stripes that I'd be comfortable wearing on casual nights out.

Tuesday my 35 year old nephew (her other kid) took the day off and we did the grand Istanbul walking tour. We started at one end of the Golden Horn, winding our way through twisting alleys, until we hit the waterside, crossed the bridge across the Golden Horn, wound our way through more streets until we hit the maze of the spice bazaars



Once our noses couldn't take it any more we hit the grand bazaar where I picked up a few trinkets for my front office folks


We found our way out after a few wrong turns, stopped for some tea, then picked up the pace to hit Haga Sophia before a big crowd of German tourists got ahead of us.



Being a history buff, I took every opportunity to school my nephew at every historical monument from the importance of the famed triple walls of Byzantium, to the 1000-year old sword carved initials into the railings of Haga Sophia by Vikings hired to guard the Emperor, to how the first use of cannons in a siege took down those same walls in 1453. Amazingly, he listened and enjoyed my lecturing!

Then we decided to rest, and so took a ferry ride to the Asian side where we walked another 5 miles through twisty streets and seaside vendors as we gazed back upon Europe!


According to my Bodymedia Fit, we walked 35,000 steps that day, which roughly equates to about 17 miles. And if that wasn't enough, we had reservations for dinner that night to take my sister out for her big 60th birthday! We did it up nicely. Nephew found a cute little spot in a high rise where they converted the balcony into a dining area with a view of the Bosphorus.


Anyway, the rest of the week was just as hectic. Wednesday I took my mom for a ferry ride out to the Princess Islands for lunch and a horse & buggy ride, Thursday nephew and I did another walking tour, though this one only logged 18,000 steps, and Friday I took myself out for another adventure where I could just relax alone.

In the meantime, I got in 3 good days of ST at the hotel, stayed relatively carb free (except for some very excellent chocolate cake on sister's birthday and a serving of baclava to die for at the wedding), and felt quite fetching as the good-looking, wide-shouldered, flat-bellied, 52-year old who can still dance up a storm when the music is right!

Have a great night Spark friends!

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