My Regimen

Prime_Rib

Hello,

I am going to tell you what I am doing. I am not sure why except that I am achieving some great results quickly.

OK, for openers, I am a month away from being forty-seven and I am male. I am accustomed to being thin without really having to exercise a great deal. Once I hit forty, I started to pack on some weight and light exercise took care of it. But I really didn't have a fitness regimen and I largely ate what I wanted. Given my penchant for hamburgers, that meant a lot of ground beef and a lot of refined white flour. Fine, whatever. I used to drink more, but, as I have gotten older, I drink less and less.

In 2016, my mother required knee surgery so I came back home to help her out. I am self-employed, so I work wherever. But from a health standpoint for me, this was a bad idea. I don't know what it is about this damned city, but the air must be made of canola oil. I started really packing it on. Worse, I didn't even notice. I went from about 220 to—well, I don't want to say yet.

OK, my mother is sixty-eight and she is about five foot one and was about 250 pounds. She weighed more but the knee surgery and subsequent PT helped her drop about twenty. Before Christmas last year, her cardiologist said he cannot care for her unless she has bariatric surgery. He doesn't want to surgically manipulate her heart without significant weight loss first.

I discussed this with Mom and said that surgery is the worst damned thing ever. Fewer than 25% keep the weight off after a year. And, no matter what, she'd have to learn how to eat properly. This is something she has resisted.

So for Christmas, I bought her a year of NutriSystem. I had bought her a recumbent bike also because Mom had DVTs after her knee surgery and they were not caused by arthroscopy. I said do the diet and the bike and she won't need heart surgery. She loves the food, she exercises, and, after seven weeks, she has lost eighteen pounds. It's a great start and she doesn't feel like she is dieting.

I said I would diet and exercise in solidarity with her. Now, I was a trained chef, so I know how to cook. The nutritional aspect is known to me.

But my plan is simple: Eat 1,800 calories a day and go to the gym six days a week. I have been doing so since 20 January.

Now, I eat whatever I want. When I hit 1,800 calories, I stop. So if I know I am going to lunch with a friend, then I won't have dinner. That way I can garbage up.

OK, I said I started on the 20th, but that is a bit of a mistruth. I kept track of my calories and my weight the week before. I wanted to see how much I was eating before I started dieting. I found I was eating between 1,800 and 3,000 calories a day. The lower days were due to my love of veggies. Eating a three-pound dinner that was all sautéed veggies was both filling and low calorie. If I went out to lunch and ate whatever, then I had a big calorie day.

I came up with 1,800 because that was the low end of my week's worth of data.

Now, 1,800 seems like a lot or not. Here is my trick: I fast on Mondays.

I read a lot by habit and I have read a great deal about the medical benefits of fasting. I know it is fashionable right now also. I have done Master Cleanse for 35 days, so I am no beginner when it comes to deprivation.

I decided to fast for two reasons: first, because I want to be able to eat what I want. Second, because I like the spiritual aspect of denial.

If I ate all seven days a week, I'd need to eat maybe only 1,500–1,600 calories a day to reach my goal of returning to 180 pounds.

Oh, did I mention I was 293.4 pounds? I looked like Orson Welles swallowed Elvis Presley. And I am of Northern European extraction, so my legs, always in shape, still look great. My wrists and hands are thin. All my weight is in my torso. It is quite odd. But that's genetics. I also think it is why I did not notice my weight gain. My waist didn't balloon. I could get pants on for a long while before it got tight. Obviously, there came a point where I just stopped going out because I was ashamed. Worse, I considered myself weak for having given in to self-pity and continued eating poorly and being sedentary.

I digress.

So, for me, because it is easier, I prefer fasting on Mondays. This way I have real options when I eat the rest of the week. Monday is also my rest day from the gym.

My breakfasts are huge. I generally have a big bowl of fruit with yoghurt and honey. Then there are eggs and bacon and cheese. I love kale and sauté some of that. Breakfasts are usually about 700–800 calories.

But there is method to my madness. I go to the gym after I eat. I do forty-five minutes of cardio every day. I started with the treadmill. I was doing 3.0 miles per hour and got up to 3.3 mph. However, after a month, I started splinting. I've always had problems with my legs and have seen podiatrists for years. I wear orthodics. I have to literally remember to maintain posture when I walk. If I run, I have to maintain perfect form or I splint immediately. But the splinting got to be too much so I switched to the bike.

This I love. The upright bike is fun and I watch TV shows on my tablet and Jesus wept. I started on Level 8 (whatever the hell that means) and was averaging about 15–16 mph. I am now on Level 9 and doing between 17–18 mph. I did have to buy a gel bike seat though. I call it a Pillow of Fat Shaming. But that bike was killing my *kitten*. I don't know what Torquemada invents the seats at Cybex, but those things are murder on by bony buttocks.

With the help of a trainer, we set up a plan. One Wednesdays and Sundays, I do core exercises. These are: back extensions, leg raises, butterfly kicks, and planks. The reason for this was I was complaining of back pain whenever I was on the treadmill or I cooked all day, etc. Come to find out, my back was literally holding me up since my abdominals were shot. So after a day of exertion or cooking all day or whatnot, my back muscles had had it. On the core days, I also do two exercises on the weight machines: rowing and lat pulldowns. Three sets of ten. I started with fifty-five pounds. I am up to sixty-five pounds.

Fridays, I hit all the Catherine Wheels of Fat Shaming: Chest Press, Pec Fly, Shoulder Press, Rear Delt, Tricep Extension, Tricep Pushdown, and the dreaded Arm Curls. With the exception of arm curls, I just raised the weight ten percent. It took a month to get there.

Now, I eat what I want. As I said, my breakfast is Elvisian. There is a lot of fruit sugar and more sugar from honey. I also make my own Gatorade for the gym. I squeeze oranges, lemons, and limes. I mix it with honey, salt, a solution of calcium and magnesium, and filtered water. I like this better than drinking some chemical-laden concoction that is colored blue. It also costs about the same per serving. I drink it while I am on the bike. Because I push myself, I guzzle the whole thirty-two ounces. And I do push myself. I was doing about 350 calories on the bike and now I am doing about 450 calories. This is over the course of a month. Remember, I started with the treadmill.

The bike is nice because it is low impact. It is solitary. I am not the joining type. Never have been.

Fridays are a biyatch. But I do try to get that extra rep in. I try to improve. I don't try to coast.

Lunches are about 600 calories and are usually big salads or a big meal of vegetables. I weigh everything. I weigh my salad dressings. I weigh my cheeses. I like my cheeseburgers still, but they are 93% lean and I use a 100 calorie English muffin with them. If I am lazy, the Celeste Pizza for One clocks in at 360 calories. I do tend to keep to four ounces of meat or fish when I prepare my food. Aldi's has great frozen tuna, haddock, cod, salmon, tilapia, and flounder. They are fresh-frozen, and they are all in four-ounce portions.

Single people, here is a great suggestion: buy a Breville convection oven. The hardest part about cooking for one is that damned oven. It's so huge. Spend the $250.00 and get a good countertop convection oven. It makes small portions a breeze. You'll find you probably don't even use your oven except at holidays and then only if you have people over. I get a nice one-pound pork tenderloin at Aldi's and bake it with a potato. Sweet delight. And so much more convenient.

Dinners are between 300–400 calories and are all lean meat and some veggies. I like eating early, around five. My dinners are below 10% carbohydrates. I try to get all my carbohydrates in the morning and afternoon. If I am really lazy, I made these energy bars I got off of the Food Wishes blog: http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2016/06/chocolate-energy-bars-looking-goodmaybe.html I really don't want to eat chemical-laden energy bars. Also, being male, I avoid soy. These are great and a batch costs about $15 to make. This is better than paying three bucks for a Luna.

So, to reiterate, I fast on Mondays. I eat a lot for breakfast, less for lunch, and even less for dinner. I get most of my carbohydrates in the mornings and I eat almost none at night.

Unless I ate little enough to have some Ben & Jerry's at night. Or a glass of whiskey. And that is what the fasting affords me: real flexibility. If I know I am going to watch a movie in the evening and will want some ice cream, I take it down a notch during the day and I have room for that 300 calorie bomb. But if life intrudes and I had a 2,000 calorie day, well, I still fast on Mondays. I know not everyone can do a day without eating. I can and so I do. I'd have real problems if I ate 1,500 calories a day, especially exercising.

And being in the northeast, do you know how much I am shoveling this winter? No, I don't miss the gym because I count shoveling as my cardio. If I make little excuses like that then I'll just stop going to the gym. Nope. I just go later in the day to get my wind back.

Now, after all this, where am I at?

I started this whole thing at 293.4 pounds and I want to get to 180 pounds. Now, I wasn't even 180 pounds until my thirties (I am six foot two). So to be this heavy is crazy to me. I can't even comprehend it.

But in seven weeks, I have lost 30.1 pounds. I'm sorry, that is damned good. It also means what I am doing is working.

And that is why I wanted to share this with you. Not because my way is the right way. I really don't think most people could take a day off of eating. And being self-employed makes hitting the gym a breeze. I have some advantages there.

The calculus for weight loss is simple though: burn more calories than you take in. I want to be at my goal weight by September and I am sure I will get there. I'll be in Europe for three months this fall and you walk everywhere there, so being fit and their eating style will make it easy for me to stay lean.

I wanted to share that it is possible. I can't believe that I have dropped thirty but what I still can't believe is that despite this, I have another seventy to go. I am more worried about size than weight. One-eighty is a goal but I might end up 190 and find I am back to form. Since I don't intend on bulking up in muscle, I am not going to hit 200. I liked being skinny and I want to be that way again.

The key is to figure out what works for you. This works for me. I am never hungry. I like my routine. I know it is working for me. Next month, my trainer is going to change my routine. I'll have dropped another fifteen pounds by then. Of that I am sure.

My friends and I are going out on my birthday. I know I am going to drink booze and eat onion rings and chicken wings and chili dogs. Whatever. You know what I am going to do? The same thing I did when my friend and I hit Chili's one day and I ate 2,300 calories. I am going to do cardio twice a day and take off 100 calories each day for a week. That's all.

This is really pretty easy if you play the numbers.

So that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. I will write again in a couple months, maybe before the summer. We'll see how things are going. I am thinking about dropping to 1,700 calories a day. I am excited that I nailed thirty pounds quickly. But one day at a time. Right now, I am recovering from shoveling a foot of snow. Then the plows threw in another couple feet over the entrance and sidewalk. I shoveled for an hour and forty-five minutes. Good gravy. But I am still going to the gym, just at four o'clock.

Good luck, everyone. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

toxikon

Congrats on your progress so far. That's all there is to it - "Playing with the numbers" and finding methods that work for YOU.

I'm also a big fasting fan, both intermittent and extended. It's just another way of balancing calories over time. Working with a weekly calorie goal instead of a daily calorie goal opens up a lot of possibility.

I'd be miserable eating 1200 calories a day, but if I throw in a couple fasting days and get to eat a lot more on my non-fasting days, it becomes a hell of a lot easier.

It's all about striking your own balance.