Treadmills, Sweat and Dieting

Some things I just don't understand. This week I ventured into the fitness room on the campus where I work to run a couple of miles during my lunch break. It's a beautiful facility for a community college. The treadmills and other equipment are in great condition. The treadmills all face large picture windows, which is nice. I can't really watch tv on a treadmill without risking falling, so staring out the window is okay.

I don't understand why every facility keeps their heat up so high? It was easily 70+ degrees in there with no fans available. I am a world record holder for sweating. It flies off my body like spray from Niagara Falls. In just two miles of running my shirt, shorts, socks and sneakers were soaked. Disgusting.

The heat seems to be high at most fitness facilities. It makes no sense. You are working out, a little cool air won't hurt anyone. Maybe the philosophy is most people don't stay on aerobic equipment long so the facility managers think it has to be warm for weightlifters? I don't know. The YMCA was the same, a small local gym was also the same. People would move away from me when I got on a treadmill. Give me a fan or turn the temperature down darn it! This is why I work out at home a lot. That and I hate people. Germy people. Yuck. I don't want their sweat near mine, that's gross.

I began what seems to be my annual late January diet. The last three years I have had some type of injury that slowed down or entirely cutoff training for a couple of months. Each time I managed to gain a minimum of ten pounds. This time I even cut drastically back on my alcohol consumption. In my first two days of really trying to diet I gained 2 pounds. Not exactly the direction I want to go in.

I was getting dressed for work yesterday and couldn't do up the belt I usually wear. WTF? One hole was too loose, the next one squeezed me in so much I couldn't breathe. Jan thought my tantrum was hilarious. I was not amused.

Maybe the key for me is to keep drinking alcohol and give up more food?

SalsMiles Diet Plan

Bob Harper's ( a personal trainer from the television show, "Biggest Loser") book "The Skinny Rules" has a number of rules for a healthy method of eating to lose weight. In addition to advice he also has a number of recipes.
I began reading the book in secret when Jan was visiting our granddaughter during April. I quickly realized strictly following all of his rules and food to eat wasn't going to work for me. Either I wasn't confident about cooking the food his way or had no desire to eat his choices. Fish, fish, fish, is a big part of many of Harper's meals.
If it isn't a tuna fish sandwich or casserole, or deep fried, I don't want to eat fish. Sorry, not happening.
But I have adapted a few changes to my diet and in 5 weeks lost 5lbs and 1/2 inch from my waist, which is good steady progress. My goal is to lose another 5lbs and at least an inch more from my waist. Besides looking better (less stomach roll over my swimsuit) maybe I'll run a bit faster. It's not always easy to suck in my gut or cover my waist with a towel at the MCC pool when all those young, fast swimmers are around. Bad enough I'm bald(ing?), wrinkly and slow in the pool.

For those of you desiring to follow this soon to be world-renown diet plan, here are some of the major points;

1. Keep it simple. Read all the diet books you want, but a balanced diet will eventually be more successful.
2. Find healthy foods you like to eat. I am not going to drink a green smoothy, just isn't eye appealing. I'm not going to eat bananas in a smoothy, the taste is yucky. Find alternatives that your taste buds enjoy having.
3. Try and be patient. This is a work-in-progress for me. We aren't on a television show, it's real life. So what if you only lose a pound a week? In 20 weeks that is 20 pounds, that's a lot of weight and inches off your body.
4. If you are working out a lot, weights, running, biking, etc, you need protein, much more protein than the average American. You can't exist on an almost all carbohydrate diet, which I tried to do for years thinking it was the right thing when training for longer distances.
5. Drink 8 ounces of water within a few minutes of waking up in the morning. (Bob's Rule)
6. Drink 8 ounces of water before every meal.(Bob's Rule)
7. More protein, less carbohydrates, more fruit & vegetables (Bob's Rule)
8. No snacking after dinner. (My rule, I'm a cookie hound and really need to watch this weakness)
9. Now that I can run again after three months of being injured I'm trying to workout at least 10x a week instead of the previous 5-7. I want my minimum daily average to be at least an hour of exercise. For everyone else, even taking a 10 minute walk at lunchtime, or doing planks and pushups for a few minutes in the morning, will help in addition to your regular exercise routine.
10. Less bread, pasta, rice, potatoes. If you are going to eat these foods, be careful about portion size and choose whole-grains. Eat pasta with extra protein, there are several brands that sell this.

Those are the basics, a sneak preview of the e-book I'm sure will be an internet sensation. Keep your eyes open for it.

I am a Puffer Fish!

Puffer Fish have several unique qualities, including a toxin mainly found in the liver and a bit in their intestines and skin. One of their best defenses though is the ability to puff up... "to fill its extremely elastic stomach with water (or air when outside the water) until it is much larger and almost spherical in shape" (Wikipedia, 2015).

In the last year I found the amazing ability to also puff up. In high school I desperately wanted to gain weight. I was around 150-160 lbs, 5'10ish as a junior and 6'1" as a senior. I thought gaining strength and weight would help with football. My gym teacher, probably my favorite teacher in high school, Mr. Beaney, used to give me passes so I could come to his office and eat another meal in attempts to put on weight. I would stay after school to lift in our new weight room.

It didn't work. After college I became a runner so being skinny was okay, except to my Mom who thought I was too thin. It was nice being able to eat anything and not gain a pound. Over a couple of decades my weight crept up a bit, into the 160's, still pretty light for 6'1" though, so I wasn't concerned. Then last year I fell and couldn't run due to shoulder surgery. I eventually ended up at 190!! Insane what sitting on the couch, eating and drinking could do over time. As chronicled in earlier blog posts, I eventually got down to around 175, which I could deal with.

I just weighed myself yesterday. My puffer fish elastic stomach has filled up, but not with air that can be instantly blown out to get skinny again. The dreaded November-December weight gain, due in part to not running much with the injury and falling but also to cookies, Southern Comfort, wine and double servings of food, seems to have taken hold. What happened to being 17 and not being able to gain a pound?

So the diet begins...again. The goal is six-pack abs, and not because I'm holding a six-pack of Sam Adams beer to hide my bloated belly.

Eat Like a Rabbit

It seems like every celebrity or want-to-be celebrity has a diet and/or cookbook out now. Even Cameron Diaz has a new book, "The Body Book", in which she states "Personally, I love the gym. I love being around people who are sweaty and pushing themselves. Who are all focused on the same goals. I love being in a group like that."
Maybe she'll run on the canal path with Sals?
 

Probably not. Instead I have begun my Eat Like a Rabbit diet. Around our suburban home is a virtual cornucopia of animals. We have rabbits jumping everywhere, eating the grass and garden plants. Squirrels are in abundant supply, stupid little ratlike creatures people think are cute. They are a nuisance, digging holes everywhere looking for lost nuts. Eating any bulb I plant. Running along the wires and rooftops. Then we have birds, which are okay except for the crows that come out on garbage day caw-cawing most of the morning.

How do crows know Tuesday is garbage pickup day?

 

After watching some of these animals I have come up with my own diet plan;

1. Like a rabbit, eat often and in small portions.

2. Eat more green vegetables, especially the fresh, organic homegrown varieties, like when the rabbits eat my plants.

3. Keep a supply of good food in the house to snack on, instead of junk food, but unlike a squirrel remember where you put it.

4. Cook enough to have high quality leftovers, thereby saving on food costs. Obviously crows don't mind leftover food and neither should we.

5. Keep exercising, endlessly. Watch the squirrels, do you ever see one sleeping? No. They are running along wires, jumping from trees, scampering across the lawn. We need to do the same (not running on electrical wires, that would be insane).

 

That's it, five simple steps to diet success. I guess there won't be a Sals 200 page diet book coming out anytime soon.