Trying to Tune Up my Lifestyle

[ETFnerd]

Hi, thank you for letting me participate in this community. I will do my best to become a productive, contributing member.

I am a 41 year old father with two beautiful daughters. I lead a sedentary, stressful work-life behind a desk. From time-to-time (2-5x/mth) I travel by air to interview people out of town. The hours aren’t bad, but action-packed to the gills while making difficult decisions all the time.

I am 5'9" and during a physical on 11/2010, I weighed in at 255lbs. I think that this is the most I have ever weighed.

Ten years earlier I was 155lbs, a weight-lifter and a regular karate tournament circuit competitor. Then I got a high-stress job with unending hours and piled on 100 pounds from being sedentary, lack of sleep, stress and horrible eating habits. My life was spiraling out of control. I left that job and was able to pare back the hours, allowing for more sleep, but the stress and sedentary lifestyle was remained and eating habits that I had picked up over these years lingered. I was diagnosed as a pre-diabetic, had sleep apnea, high cholesterol and a host of other medical problems.

On 1/1/2011 I made a new year’s resolution to make some changes to lose weight. I went to the gym and tried running but my legs would not allow this. I walked on the treadmill for an hour until I had built up my conditioning to be able to run.

I stuck with it, increasing intensity through mid-October 2011 and today I do a 5 minute walking warm up at 4.5mph, 52 minutes running at 6.5mph and a 5 minute walking cool down at 4.5mph. That’s about 6 miles at an average 10 minute mile pace. I run about 5-6x a week (~36-42 miles/week). One of these days, I do a long run by doubling the distance and the time so 12 miles in 124 minutes. Why 62 minute increments you ask? What I read suggested that to get the maximum aerobic benefit you need to sustain your heart rate above a threshold for over 50 minutes. The treadmill is preprogrammed to stop after 60 minutes and a 2 minute cool down so I just went with that.

Doing this resulted in a 10lb loss of weight each month from January through August. I have lost 87lbs to date and I weigh about 168. By my calculations, I had 26-28% body fat when I started at 255lbs. Today I think I have 16% body fat. This means that I have lost about 50/50 muscle and fat. I like to imagine that I have lost about a 45lb Olympic plate in body fat. Since August my weight has see-sawed around 170lbs.

Around March of this year I read that runners lose a lot of upper body muscle because the body naturally recognizes that this weight is not helpful or efficient in running. I did not want to do a full weight training workout because I know that I will tend to go full out to failure on every stack and be paralyzed every morning getting out of bed, walking around the office like I have rigamortis. So I decided to work in doing pull ups. Back about 10 years ago, I was able to do 50 wide-grip pull ups without rest. I think I read in an Arnold book that this was the only back exercise that you needed. This appealed to me for several reasons:

(1) You are moving your entire body weight

(2) This is mostly a back and upper body exercise, counterbalancing the lower body exercise that is running

(3) It is not easy to do a half-hearted pull-up-you either do one or you don’t so it is idiot-proof to some extent

(4) the motion involves your biceps, triceps, stabilizer muscles, etc

(5) I did not want a huge chest as clothes don’t fit right, and it is bulk that I do not find very functional

(6) The pull up position naturally stretches and de-compresses your back.

As of last night I was able to do 50 or more in 3 sets of 25, 19 and 12 reps. I will get to 50 and then start hanging 45lb plates to a belt, probably next year.

I have been doing karate for 35 years. I don’t enjoy doing forms, but I like training for point-sparring competition. There is an area black belt sparring club, so on Sundays I work out doing point sparring for 2 hrs. Also I may do a tournament. Last weekend I won one and went to the gym later that night to run 12 miles. I use running as my conditioning base for karate competition. Point-fighting is a relatively safe sport that requires explosive speed and favors those genetically blessed with fast-twitch muscles and inhuman flexibility to create the snap that blends speed and power (think Ali’s float like a butterfly, sting like a bee). For those like me who aren’t blessed, I have to be able to move better and have better fundamentals and coordination to generate speed. It’s worked so far in the old timer’s division, but if I want to compete deeper I will have to add sprints and other training methods to improve. I don’t know if I want to make that investment right now. Psychologically it is a great advantage to know that you are in better shape than your opponent. You can execute your game plan much better.

I like running after the evening crush starting about 9:30pm after I’ve put the kids to sleep. It does take away from time with my wife which I will need to make up to her somehow. I am a night person, not a morning person. When I work out in the morning I will be fast asleep at my desk throughout the day, but whatever works for you.

My diet is fairly disciplined. I signed up early with an app to a website called myfitnesspal and I religiously track everything that I eat. They have a large database of foods with nutritional information and you can pre-compose your favorite recipes. The site is convenient in that based on your Base Metabolic Rate it estimates how many calories you need to consume in order to maintain basic body functions. It then calculates the caloric deficit that you need to meet your periodic weight loss goals. The carb/protein/fat break down is based on RDA so not that useful, but I use it to see how far I can tweak it to reach my goals. Because I have a diabetic disposition, although currently controlled by diet and exercise, I tend toward fewer carbs. I will eat sweet potatoes, bananas and steel cut oats with a low glycemic index and high soluble fiber content. I also try to stay below the RDA, but it is difficult because carbs are so efficient as fuel.

I try to eat 200g of protein a day. I eat a lot of canned tuna, fish, chicken breast, turkey and ham, but sometimes it is difficult to get enough protein so I supplement with some Whey isolate (about 2 scoops 48g per day mixed with a mixture of 1 cup of fat free skim milk and 3 cups of water). It tastes better if I add more milk, but there are too many calories and I am concerned about hormones and steroids from animal feeds. I don’t buy organic milk because it costs $7/gal whereas regular milk costs $2-3/gal at costco. I love shopping at costco. I also buy the 99% egg whites by the case at costco and make omelets every day with fresh vegetables. Fresh vegetables taste better than frozen in my experience. I also love my Misto olive oil sprayer. Just a little oil is enough. Whole foods has the best and cheapest organic steel cut oats (let me know if you know of better).

I eat half my RDA in fat. Mostly olive, flaxseed oil, oil from nuts and try to stick to unsaturated fats. I had a high cholesterol problem too which I was able to resolve through this diet.

One of my favorite foods is the subway 12†black forest ham sub on whole wheat with all the vegetables and sweet onion sauce. It comes in at 670 calories and has a little fat, but it is really delicious. It does not have an ideal nutritional profile, but I like it compared to all other fast food choices out there. Sometime you gotta eat and this is my convenient go-to fast food.

I like diet coke/pepsi. I know it probably isn’t good for me, but I don’t smoke, drink alcohol, eat potato chips, sweets, etc. I allow myself this indulgence as it makes me feel good, and the cost/benefit trade-off is better than the other stuff I listed above. Get off my back, you won’t convince me to give up diet soda unless you present me with irrefutable evidence that diet soda makes your weewee fall off while urinating.

I drink about 20 glasses of water a day to keep enough to hydrate the muscle building process as much as possible. I don’t know if it’s completely true, but I believe that working out doesn’t built muscle, it destroys it. Resting, sleeping enough, hydrating, having enough protein in your system to rebuild muscle are what make muscle grow. I also believe that your body is smart enough to make its own adjustments to the functions that you perform. So the training course dictates how your muscles will develop. Form follows function.

Anyhow, I lost 80-90lbs and hit a wall. I am no longer losing weight although my goal was originally to maintain at 160lbs. My waist went from 40†to 31†and I used to take a 50†suit jacket and I now am in a (snug at the shoulders, loose at the waist) 42†suit. I think I am gaining muscle and losing fat at this point, but I would like to improve my speed a little so I think I would like to be a little lighter (160lbs) and a little leaner (under 10% bodyfat, from current 16%).

I am thinking of next steps to take it to the next level. I am contemplating what the next level is and I was thinking some cable/band resistance work to work on first-step explosiveness in shooting out of the hole. Sort of what sprinters train in order to get off the starting block. This would help me in karate tournaments. I look forward to comments, criticism (please be gentle and constructive), and reading what you guys have gone through in your journey.

Thanks for inpiring me to be better every day.

[ebm1224]

wow - what an amazing journey you have already had! i think you have the right idea...if you want to keep making progress you'll need to switch up your exercise a bit. maybe you're diet a little as well. keep your body guessing. but, you've had much more success than i have thus far so i'm certainly no expert. welcome to the forum!

[ETFnerd]

Thanks e. I am sure that everyone has a unique set of personal experiences and I hope to learn from all of you. I love the attitude here. Using what you have, and sharing thoughts to attack these goals that you have set for yourselves. This is how I want to live my life.

[Maledictus]

I really can't offer any advice, you're much further on than I am (& accelerating from the looks of it!). Welcome and your age and starting weight are close enough to mine that I can use it as a benchmark. I come out of it badly but luckily that motivates me to go out for a jog & then go say hello to mr. heavy kickbag. Very motivating post.

[DustMite]

Very motivating post.

^What he said.

[GhillieDhu]

That's a brilliant effort! Well done

[Zelager]

Wow, incredible progress! I'm 23, and I wish I had your energy! Keep it up!

[ETFnerd]

Thanks to all and happy holidays...

[djryanash]

On 12/26/2011 at 11:36 AM, ETFnerd said:

Thanks to all and happy holidays...

Hey,

 

So how you coming along these days?  You've been a member here for many years.  You still managing to keep fit and healthy?