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Is the Question Diet or Exercise to Lose Weight?

This last year as been very successful for me as I have had the support of many bloggers out there who have help to crystallize my thoughts and processes for MY weight (read FAT) loss! While most of the blogs have inspired, there have been a few that have resonated with me to rattle my bones. These blogs have used plain English to tweak my current views on diet and/or exercise (the topic of this post). Here is a partial list of my favorites:

I encourage you to find your own favorite blogs so you can “figure out” what works for you! Try these blogs out if you have not seen them before.

In this post I will examine this idea of diet and/or exercise to lose the weight. I mean are they mutually exclusive or is one or the other more important? I will talk about my meandering approach to this over the last couple of years and the answer I have found to work for me. I will also update the first month (of my two month) experiment of journaling my calories and the affect this has had on my weight loss (I’ve reached a new low!). Here is a video about how to create a calorie deficit.

Continue reading Is the Question Diet or Exercise to Lose Weight?

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Keep a Log; Lose the Weight!

I’ve wrote about this before and even took shots at the idea one has to keep a food log to lose weight. While I think it is a good idea, I also think it is easy to eyeball the food one eats all the time and stay on the straight and narrow [path].

Well lets talk about that for a minute, is eyeballing food as good as keeping a food log? I used to think so but I’ve noticed over the last couple of years that my biggest weight loss has always come when I kept close track of every calorie.

 

In this post I’ll talk about the value of keeping a food log for a reduced calorie diet. I will point out when it is ok to “eyeball” food to stay on track and how I keep track of my calories.  Here is a video that talks about why and how counting calories work.

Continue reading Keep a Log; Lose the Weight!

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Update: Workouts and BJJ!

Have you ever worked yourself into a rut? I mean do you find yourself doing the same aerobic and strength building exercises day in and day out? There is always the danger of an extended plateau!

Well I have been trying to vary my routine more this year out of the box. I have found that I like my jogging a little too much – mostly because I can think while I am doing repetitive exercises; and I love to think.

I’ve probably put in 10 to 14 hours a week over the past few weeks with bag work, jogging, walking and weights. This weekend I introduced a couple of different activities to change things up some. Bicycling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ)!

I pumped out the bicycle tires that had lost air pressure over the last six months and went out on a (albeit muddy) bike ride! Wow that was fun but my butt is sore! I guess I have to work up to time on the bike again. :)

I decided to take a more active role in martial arts as I have lost 30 pound and I am starting to push the weight loss and diet again. I had to choice of regular karate group class and sparring on the weekends or jumping into a BJJ class on Monday nights. I chose BJJ because I remember how much of a workout wrestling was from my grade school days and I want to gain that skill set.

Well let me tell you that BJJ was everything I expected. It is a lot of work and will take some significant time to get good. I will have to be in great shape (not just round) to hang with these guys so I’ll really enjoy this! I plan on continuing BJJ for the next year or two.

Well that all for this quick update. I hope all is well with your chosen workouts and remember if things get stagnant, figure out what other activities you like and go for it!

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Have Garage? Need Health Club? – NOT!

Have you had weight-loss and fitness on your mind? Made a New Years resolution to join a gym to take off the inches? Spent hundreds on your down payment to slip into your bikini by Spring break?

Well if you are like many Americans and have a garage, you probably have everything you need to get out of inclement weather and get a good workout! What am I talking about? Surely I am not saying you have to go out an buy all of the equipment that a health club has?

In this post I will discuss why we buy gym memberships in droves every new year and will it work? I’ll show some neat pictures of my newly discovered garage setup (after the Christmas decorations got stowed) and some reasonable methods and expectations for your home gym. Here is idea of what a home gym might contain.

Continue reading Have Garage? Need Health Club? – NOT!

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Happy New Year; Weight Loss Goal!

Welcome to the new decade (2010)! I saw an encouraging report here, that stated that while Americans have not gotten skinnier, we have leveled off of the increasing obesity! That is good news!

Starting my third year of recent fitness aspirations, I have high hopes to continue what was successful last year – weight loss! If you click my “Progress” tab at the top you will see a story that showed some success the first year but a total relapse during the end of year holidays. Last year I started from 255 and got down to 228.

Well this is a new year and am starting out at 233 (some bounce ) pun intended :)

The goals for this year are to buckle back down and get into a groove again. I am adding the wife and pets into my overall plan because we have to support each other. We have started back up with the walking two miles in many evenings.

Further goals are for me to spend more time at the karate school this year, getting into better fighting shape and helping the youngins along and to continue everything last year that worked. This includes jogging, bag work, free weights, walking and perhaps some body surfing (this is kind of a risk as I might be mistaken for a whale in the surf)! :)

I will still try to update this blog every couple of weeks and visit you all out there in the blogasphere.

I hope the holidays has left you refreshed and ready to accomplish you goals this year!

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The Speed Bag Workout; Timing & Fitiness!

One of the tools in the boxing/kick-boxing gym is the speed bag. Fighters have used the speed bag but other watching it on the Rocky movies, many people might not understand what it is and why one would want to use it (the speed bag).

My workouts and over all fitness plan is going well! I’ve achieved a new low weight I’ve not seen in a while (226) and I am keeping up with the dumbbell workouts as well as the katas, heavy bag and running. I feel when I start back to my next big push (January 1st), I will be in a good position to make some new gains!

In  this post I’ll go over the basics and why the speed bag will help you achieve your fitness goals (assuming some form of pugilism is one of your favorite workouts). Here is a qick video of a gal trying some new speed bag moves.

 

Continue reading The Speed Bag Workout; Timing & Fitiness!

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Thinner; Getting used to Weightloss?

I was thinking today on my run that I have been thinner longer than I have been fatter. How come my body image is of a fat man rather than a thin man? I mean if I start thinking that I am too thin – won’t that kick-off a eating binge?

It was the weirdest thing at the end of last year when I was falling off of the wagon (the diet and exercise wagon), I knew that I was putting on weight! I remember Muata over at MrLowBodyFat.com telling me that 5 pounds was not too bad – just start doing what I know works. More on that later but here is my reconstructed weight for my life.

Continue reading Thinner; Getting used to Weightloss?

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Body Weight Exercises with Dumbbells

I’ve had to be more creative as the garage is full and I cannot get to my weight bench (that has been collecting dust for years). Part of what I’ve been doing this week has been strength training.

I am doing about half body-weight and half dumbbells. In this post I’ll talk about the exercises that are working as well as the cardio and diet. Here is a cool video I found of how to incorporate body weight and dumbbells into a workout.

Continue reading Body Weight Exercises with Dumbbells

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Back to Training after Pig Flu!

I am happy to report that I feel well enough to start up my training again. The last time I worked out was Sunday, November 8th. I did a nice run but was kind of interrupted by finding an iPhone. I had to stop and try and find the owner from his call list. That took a while but I did return the phone and got in half of my run that day.

People at work were sick all around me and my step-daughter came home from college sick too so my poor wife had her hands full (2 babys in the house).

So after almost three weeks I am going to start up the exercise portion of my fitness plan! In this quick post I’ll go over the exercise plan I outlined before and talk about how portioning has been working. I found this motivating Rocky Balboa video for your perusal.

Continue reading Back to Training after Pig Flu!

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Weight Loss = Portioning? Yes!!!

I remember as a young man watching a MacDonald’s commercial about how you could still feed a family of 10 for about $10! I was amazed by this but sure enough a hamburger, small fries and a small coke cost under $1.

When I left home at age 17, I ended up living on tips (I was a busboy at a local restaurant) and took advantage of Burger King’s 25 cent hamburger sale one month. That sale fed me for two months (I froze some burgers).

In this post I will try and explore some of what is making us as a society fat! I will try to place blame squarely where it ought to be and try to deal in reality for the other pesudo-issues that are bandied about such as the myth that fast food is “making” us fat. First to set the stage, take a look here or at the video of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s slide show about portioning.

 

Continue reading Weight Loss = Portioning? Yes!!!

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Appetite vs Hunger; That is the Question

When I was younger and my metabolism was seemingly supercharged, I did not ponder differences between appetite and hunger! They were the same in my teens and early twenties. I was an active boy/man and ate until I was full.

I also had the habit of wolfing down my food and since I always cleaned my plate (and then some), I did not ever feel full before I was finished. So what I am saying is I guess I don’t really know if I was full before I stopped eating when I was younger.

In this post I am going to try an distinguish between appetite and hunger because I have noticed that this is a continuing hurdle I am running up against. I am recovering from the flu right now and have been able to stop eating before my plate is cleaned for the first time in years! Here is a quick video of the difference between appetite and hunger.

Continue reading Appetite vs Hunger; That is the Question

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Exercise & Meds are a Good Combo!

A lot has happened in the past few weeks since my last update. The not so good but expected – right before my mother-in-law stayed with us I had regained my weight loss but then lost ground again. We had the snack attacks before Halloween and were entertaining a lot of family before my wife’s mom moved back to Florida.

Needless to say we went all out and even visited the Red Lobster to partake in their endless shrimp (and I had the endless belly to show for it)! I also was trying to impress for some reason and I baked four loves of bread! I love fresh bread but I tend to use it as a snack food for days whenever I bake some bread.

I really went to town in the exercise category before I got sick… I was averaging 10 hours a week. One run I started off just doing the two hills but figured out a way to add a third hill where I jogged up an animal trail for 25 minutes… and as I did not think I had enough… I found 45 minutes of animal trails through the grasses down the other side of the hill at twilight! That run turned from two expected hours to three and a half hours.

I’ll speak about my ideas of how to keep up the exercise in a way that makes sense for me and my lifestyle and also talk about my latest surprising lipid panels. Here is a chart of the past couple of years test results.

Continue reading Exercise & Meds are a Good Combo!

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Halloween Fitness! Some Ideas

Trick or treat to all of you in cyberspace! In the context of this blog, the trick would actually be commonly referred to as the treat and the treat would be more of a trick! What the heck am I talking about?

Well now if weight (fat) loss is your goal then a trick would be to gain weight and a treat would be to be losing weight. Well I have been having tricks lately because while I have been exercising a lot – I have also been eating a lot!

Kind of convaluted logic so I’ll just launch into to this post that I will update my progress and obsticals. Here is a season approprate video on new ways to use pumpkins for fitness!

 

Continue reading Halloween Fitness! Some Ideas

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Fat-Loss, Make a Plan, Work the Plan!

Here is a quick update on what has been happening. First off I have been trading off with jump-rope/bag-work & katas with jogging about five days a week.

Well on surprise to me is I am getting faster at running! I start out slower than a walk (in fact some walkers have passed me), and I end up the three miles (my middle run distance) almost at a flat out run!

My body is responding to exercise! Now the fat/weight loss is holding its own at about 230 as I’ve been eating a little more at the weekly dinners, our anniversary, and Oktoberfest but that is my goal for now – to hold on to the gains I’ve made this year!

Now for you business minded folk, there is a cost-benefit analysis to very equation. Should you do what you know is best for you or get carries away by circumstances and let yourself go? I’ve reasoned that my major goal at 52 years old should and is my health. Being obese is not sitting well with me so I have had to make some changes.

The first noticable change for readers of my blogs (LeanAnMean.com and MySelfDefenseBlog.com) is I am not posting as much. You see I like writing and taking my time researching a topic before I find the most interesting approach to use. Often times the process can take four or five hours of prime evening time!

Evening time is also the time I devote to working out, dinner, TV, honey do’s and keeping up with the yard word/dogs. To make matters worse I was obligating myself to to 10 post on my self-defense blog and four posts on LeanAnMean. There is a financial incentive based on traffic and paid links that is motivating too!

A new twist is I am thinking about going back to school for a second Master degree! I will probably do that as I have reasoned on the tech track at work – I will have a better job to retirement but I have just over-obligated myself!

I have a plan here though – I am only doing five posts a month over at my self defense blog (lesser to normal effort) and three to four easy (speaking about what’s happening more so than a high-research) posts.

Here are my priorities now:

  • Health – read workouts
  • Family – read don’t be a stranger to my wife
  • School obligations – not sure about this yet – trying a new college
  • Blogs – this may suffer some but the easier posts should be ok
  • Chores – this will suffer but my school program is only a year

Just in case you have not read “About,” I have a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and a Masters of Business Administration. I’m thinking about a Masters of Science in Information Systems degree to be on the technical fast track for better (suited for me) jobs at work.

That all for now – this post was completed in 30 minutes. :)

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Merry Eating Season!

I am very happy to announce that the eating season, for me, is beginning Tuesday, September 29! It is my 8th year wedding anniversary (second time around)! What do I mean the eating season has begun for me? Well that will be the subject of this post as well as my goals and progress for this “season.”

To many, the holidays are a tough time. It was for me last year not only because of the extra food around but we had just moved and had other stresses. Many people (like me) set unrealistic goals for this period and then if they fall behind – they just chuck the whole kit and caboodle!

I will speak about how to instill some realisim into your plan and how I plan to come out on top. Here is a video I found about the eating season.

 

Continue reading Merry Eating Season!

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