Changing My Tune ...

So I wrote how much I hate protein bars in an earlier post. I still do. But I was finding that getting enough protein everyday in 5 or 6 small meals was tough. I would eat tuna and carrots for my 4pm meal and it was getting painful. A friend introduced me to Pro Blend 55 protein drinks. I researched and the reviews and ingredients seemed really good. The main thing for me is they blend well in the indivdual serving bottles you can buy and they are relatively thin and go down easy with water. I can get one down in 20 seconds easily and that is 55g of protein. I am now taking one after my morning cardio and one after the afternoon lift. I am finding the convenience and amount of protien is hard to pass up. We will see how it goes. I got a bunch at the Viamin Shoppe for relatively cheap.

Born Again

This weekend I was grocery shopping with my wife and some health-conscious comments came out. "Do you know what I read the healthiest fruit is?" ... "Dark Chocolate ... Green Tea ... all have some good health beenfits" ... blah blah. I have been feeling good and just felt like sharing new knowlege. I could tell my wife was a bit annoyed. I asked why and she said "you sound like a born-again Christian". How true. The comparison is pretty accurate. It is hard to not sound annoying by "preaching" ideas about health and wellness. I have decided it is best just to keep my mouth shut unless asked. :-)

Shin Splints

In an earlier post, I made a reference to my shin splint problem. They have plagued me ever since high school. During basketball season, by the end of the year I would be suffering pretty bad. The pain was right up the middle of the front of my shin. It would feel like the bone would split into two like wooden chopsticks.

Now, I get shin splints from jogging. This shin problem is the posterior-type (inside of the shin up and down the lower half of my shin). From what I have read, this is the most common. I spent a lot of time researching them and trying to understand how I can fix this problem. Unfortunately, I am not there yet but I feel i am getting close. Here are some things I am finding are very important.

• Genetics. There is obviously a genetic component and I am susceptible. I have accepted it and decided I just need to be more careful than most. I am jealous of people who can run long distances without this pain because I actually enjoy how a good run makes you feel. It is a workout that makes me feel like my body was designed to do this and it feels great.
  
• Shoes. Every site will tell you this and it is true. I do not pronate too much (my shoe wears evenly and I land with a fairly straight foot), but I wear a high-stability and cushioning shoe. I currently use the Brooks Beast while I weigh over 200 lbs. and I build up endurance this time around. Those shoes really are beasts ... they are huge and heavy but make for a solid run with minimal pain at my current weight.
• Watch Your Arches. Checking the arches and arch support is very important especially if you are heavier like me. Measure your foot while you are sitting down and your foot is relaxed. Then measure it while you are standing up. If there is a 1/4" difference or more, you have very flexible arches and will need support (if you dont see any change, you need high cushioning). I fall into the "flexible arch" category. I purchased orthotics online and put them into the Beast shoes. The orthotics the doctors made have very firm arches.
• Surface. If just starting, really wait a long time until you hit the pavement. I am restarting with a treadmill/trail combination. I used to run exclusively on pavement and as I aged, it really showed.
• Pacing. I am really giving this one more consideration in my case. Many sites say that pacing or overstriding can cause shin splints. But in my earlier post about "the morning run" with my wife where we pull the pace back significantly but still get some distance, I feel almost no effect at all. I think I tend to pick up pace too quickly when my heart and lungs start feeling good.
  
• Care Between Runs. Heat seems to be the biggest help along with massage. When I feel that dull pain starting to form, I find that keeping my shins warm (I wear some McDavid shin wraps) makes a big difference. The shin pain is a result of the muscles tightening and not relaxing, so the heat really helps. And there is one massage that I have found to be extremely helpful. I found it one day doing a search for relief of shin pain and this is the best. Sit in a chair, fold one leg onto the knee of the other leg so that your lower shin and foot are suspended in the air. Start to slowly rotate your foot. Now put your thumbs together and start pushing along your shin towards your foot where the pain is located. Go up and down the length of the shin where you feel pain. Push down hard when your foot rotates downward and let up when your foot rotates up. If you currently have shin splints, this can feel very uncomfortable at first especially when you push down hard. But after a few minutes of doing this, you will notice the pain going away. From a long-time sufferer of this pain, I was really amazed how well this worked for me.
• Exercise. Other cardio exercise in-between runs helps the healing. I find that stairmaster exercise when available helps. It is like a little massage of that area. The increased blood flow as well really helps
• Ankle Wrapping. The jury is still out for me on this. I currently support my ankles with a light brace (again from McDavid). At times, I have used ace bandages. I started to notice my ankles might be a source of trouble so I decided to wrap them. It does help.
• Diet. I have read in a couple of places that sulfurous foods like onions and garlic help. Not sure about that, but I try to eat them more. What I think is most important is a balanced diet of protein, complex carbs and good fats. The idea for me is to get leaner but maintain all of the muscle mass I can especially when running long distances. I have noticed improved lower body strength and maintenance since eating more lean protein.
• Weight. This is a personal one, but certainly carrying around 20 to 30 pouns of unnecessary blubber makes my lower body work that much harder. That is why I am taking it easy on the pace of my runs, watching diet and exercising (cardio and lifting) so much more. The pounds are coming off and the muscle is staying and that can only help.
  

Moderation and Common Sense

It has really taken me years to figure this out. I was never the most critical thinker growing up and I took a lot of things on faith. I respected my elders and usually did as I was told. I could easily buy in to a well done presentation and accept what I was seeing because "why would people lie?". I spent many years of my life heavily invovled in a religion when I was younger which I no longer participate. I pretty much blindly followed the leaders.

I think a much healthier attitude is "most people are selfish assholes and want to control everything". Certainly there are honest, fair people in the world. I am drawn to make friends with these types of people. When I hear people talk about religion or computer technology or their philosophies on exercise or life or whatever, I have to take a step back and use common sense. This flies in the face of much of what I have been taught growing up. But you have to ask yourself "does this jive with what my gut tells me? are there solid facts to back it up? what is this person's motivation?".

How this relates to exercise is how people grab onto a certain diet or certain exercise regimen and preach it as religiously as a missionary talks religion. I have read a lot of articles online and a few diet/exercise books. The one I like the best is an e-book called Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. It speaks well to my common sense (at least 90% of it does). The basic ideas are some I have mentioned before ... everyone is different (body types, how they process food), balance is key, real food (vs. protein shakes and the like) is the way to go, exercise should be cardio/lifting combination, eat frequently with natural foods, etc. From experience, this really seems to make sense.

Some of the things that I don't completely buy into or have to ask some more questions are about long-term effects. What is the real goal? Is it ultimate health or lowest body fat%? The book stresses how to burn fat ... lots of it. And I know the methods work. But I wonder if beyond a certain point, health takes a hit? I don't know the answer but common sense tells me the principles of eating lean protein with complex, unrefined carbohydrates and good fats are dead-on accurate. The problem is do being too lean cause problems? Programs like this where meals are small and frequent, if you end up eating 3 chicken breasts a day to get lean are you better off healthwise?

The author, Tom Venuto, stresses the importance of planning and balance. I think that is key. I think mixing a lot of greens into the diet is important. I think other things like tea should be stressed for health purposes as well. I have read the menus of some readers that they follow and although they lose fat, I am not sure they have enough balance. But getting 5 or 6 small, balanced meals is tough. Much harder than going to the gym. It takes real effort.

But life isn't all about losing weight. I do it to be healthier long-term and I write about it because it helps me stay motivated.

Finding Foods That Work For Me

Trying to stick to the lean protein/complex carb/good fat meal plan takes work. To do it in a well-balanced way really takes time. So while I am getting started, I am realizing that certain meals that you can eat anytime and fit into the schedule are worth their weight in gold.

For me, the current MVP is cottage cheese and green apples. Cottage cheese and a banana doesn't work. Cottage Cheese and oatmeal doesn't work ... but I can eat 3 servings of 1% milkfat cottage cheese (Borden "blue" brand only) which has a total 39 g protein, 240 cals and 15 g carbs and 3g fat (only 1.5 saturated). Very high protein and the sour apple is a perfect combo. I cannot expain it but everything goes down so easy. I can eat that for a meal anytime. I think the roughage from the rind of the apple helps me feel full and the sweet/sour combo of the apples flavor makes cottage cheese seem like it has a nice taste. I have eaten that meal once a day for over 3 weeks and I am not close to tied of it ... Tuna and carrots on the other hand.... ugh, I need to work on that.

Most people I know cannot stand to look at cottage cheesebut can down protein shakes like they are ice cream. To each his own but that one works for me.

The Morning Run

So for a long time my wife has asked me to run with her. She is a great athlete but is not a good runner in the sense she really goes slowly. I am not a great athlete but a decent runner when training so our problem was always I would want to take off at a fast pace and she would linger around a 12 or 13 minute mile pace. Well, she wanted to start again so I decided to just follow her no matter how slow.

My fear has always been that running slow liek that would be hell on my shins. I have suffered from shin splints all of my life and I thought the slow runs would be wasted time of minimal cardio benefit and lots of shin pain. To my surprise, it hasn't been either. I am now rethinking the way I build up to long-distance running by starting at a much slower pace. My shins have been fine. I could definitely stand to go faster to get more cardio work in, but I think this is a good start and the wife is really happy too.

The Everyday (Gym) Joes

Another motivating factor for me to really make a push to change my diet is the group of guys I call the gym-joes. And I am one of them. Basically, it is the same set of guys you see that the gym year after year and they do not look incredibly fit or any different than the first time you saw them. They all have my characteristics ... 35-50 years old. Unfashionable gym clothes. Do some cardio/some lifting at the gym 3+ times a week and build up a really good sweat ... but basically look the same. Probably take a couple weeks off here and there and weight cycles up and down +/- 5 pounds from their average weight. I am not dissing this crowd because doing what we are doing makes life so much better. Health is better ... sleep better ... less stress. All those things they publicize about exercise are true. But our metabolisms have slowed and the fat lingers around. I have not interviewed these guys, but I know myself and it all comes down to diet. If I can do what I am doing at the gym right now (cardio 3+ times and heavy lifting 3+ times a week) and I could I look a hell of a lot leaner ... why don't I? Why don't I make a lifestyle change and feel even better and look better and feel more confident? It all comes down to diet.

I win. My family wins. That motivates me.

The Candy Jar

There is a really nice lady who works in a cubicle beside me that keeps a community candy jar. And it is not just mints and candy corn. It is stocked with the real stuff. M&Ms, Snickers, Double Bubble, Butterfinger, Kit Kat, Tootsie Rolls ... you name it, it has been in there and it is always refilling quickly with new goodies. She keeps it completely stocked at all times. It has become the company candy jar. People contribute money and/or candy donations to be shared with all.

I have partaken and contributed to the candy jar. It used to be that I would go there twice a day at least and get something small. Sometimes, after eating a heavy lunch out with friends or my wife I would get a fierce sweet-tooth and eat three Snickers or something. That didn't help keep my weight down even if it only is the snack-size bars.

So I made a commitment two months ago to NEVER eat from the candy jar. Actually, that has been easy. I just told myself is it not even an option and I haven't even had so much as a piece of gum. I find it is easier in a case like this to just remove that completely from my life. If I had said "once a week is OK" I think it would be harder to keep the commitment. It also helps that I am eating fairly low-glycemic meals most of the time so I do not get that intense need for sweets. I think having weekly cheat meals and stuff like that is perfectly acceptible in a healthy lifestyle, so "once or twice a week" deals with yourself are normal ... but in the case of this jar, it is best for me to remove it from my brain completely. And it has been much easier than I originally thought.

I may toss in a few bucks to contribute for the office, but I won't be making any withdrawals.

Protein Bars Suck

Knowing that eating 5 or 6 meals a day is tough, I went and did some research on protein bars. I don't want to take any protein bars or drinks during my quest to drop the fat, but I relaize in certain instances they can help. So I tried a couple this weekend that aren't too bad ... they actually taste good. They had some decent reviews in terms of ingredients and taste, so I bought a few.

I am sure I will eat them from time but I have made it my commitment that they are only a last-resort meal. As I ate a couple this weekend, I just got this overwhelming infusion of common logic and it told me that there is no earthly way that these bars are good for you or provide what they say they can. There is such little regulation and intense competition within the food supplement industry that companies will claim anything. It is also extremely hard to find objective opinions about these supplements online. Even sites that claim to be neutral have ads for supplements on them. There is also substantial research to show that companies in this industry under-report carb content and overstate the types of protein. So there it is ... real food is the way for me unless a protein bar is all I have.

We'll see how it goes.

Frequent Measuring

One of the points I have read in the main book that got me focused on my diet (Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle which I should comment on more later) is the idea of frequent measuring (weight, body fat%, waist size, etc.). In the past, when I have been serious about getting to a particular weight, I would usually measure weekly so as to see the progress. I know that weight can fluctuate on a dialy basis for any number of reasons, so I tired to keep it weekly so as to see the progress. Well, I think it is important to note the daily changes and notice the trends. For me, it is motivating even though one day you might be heavier than the previous day. You just gotta keep working.

Recording the measurements is important, too, because you see so many numbers during this process that you start imagining things. For example, the first weight I recorded was 205.6 but I kept thinking "207" in my head. I don't know why. I got down to 204 pretty quickly and wondered if I was I losing too quickly (yeah, like that would ever happen). Anyway, knowing the body fluctuates a pound or two from day to day (I weigh myself first thing in the morning without clothes and after the morning wizz ... as good a baseline as I can think of), you can lose track of where you are vs. where you came from. So on 5/9 I was 205.6 and on 5/22 I am 203.2. Body fat has gone form 25.3 to 23.7 (the body fat counter on the scale is even more hokey than weight so I don't think this is exact at all). Anyway, I see the trend. The last 8 days went something like 204.8, 205.0,204.6,204.0,204.6,203.8,203.2,203.2. On the days I go up a pound, I get a little miffed but on the days I definitely crossed a marker (like getting under 204), I felt really good.

So in 13 days, I am down 2.4 pounds and I feel like I have maintained muscle mass so that is a good sign.

Some more motivation

Other things that motivate me are just the attitudes I receive from people (most who are assholes to begin with). For whatever reason, because I am a bit soft and generally quiet people either ignore you or make rude comments from time to time even though they are not conscious if it. I don't treat people with such disrespect and cannot understand why other people do.

Fuck them. They aren't worth my time and I need to harness those negative feelings and use them as motivation. Brother-in-law says "take a look at yourself now ... you are the skinniest you will ever be". You wouldn't think that was all that bad. But it was a backhanded compliment. I had lost some weight and was feeling good about it. I had on a surfing outfit and he made that comment. Basically, it was obvious to him I had lost weight but instead of a compliment, he comes with a back-handed one saying, essentially, you can expect to look like sh*t from here on out or "you have peaked". If you knew the guy, you would know what I mean. Anyway, fuck him. In a way, that really motivates me to spite comments like that. Another one was "... George is starting to look good ..." ... this was from a sister-in-law. I cannot explain how back-handed that one was. Again, in a different context, this comment is completely fine and normal. But with me, it was intentional to be rude. Basically, it was directed at my wife while I was there. She is so competitive with my wife that she has done some of the lowest, most demeaning things to her that it is hard to be around her at times. Eh, fuck her. Her opinion is sh*t, but it is things people say like that that prevent people from breaking through in my opinion. I haven't broken through yet but I will. Writing down feelings like that seem to help. They seem to help at those times I don't want to eat the 4 o'clock meal or get up and do cardio in the morning.

It doesn't stop there, though. Even in my own family there is a lack of motivation to get healthy. And that permeates a bit with me. I grew up around it and it is something I will always battle. I believe it is a winnable battle.

Getting Serious About Fitness

My entire life I have been moderately to very overweight. Never once would I have ever been considered "cut" or looked like someone who is an athlete or avid gym-goer. I have been going to the gym on and off for years. The last three years, I have been going regularly. And even though I have stabilized at a pretty good weight ... I still have a ring of fat across my midsection and no definition. My gym workouts have been getting progressively better ... I have gained some muscle size and some small definition changes. it is frustrating, though, that I could have a much better appearance gains if I could control my diet. That has been my area of focus the last week and will be from here on out.

About a week ago, I read an article about changing your self image and the need to do that to really get yourself where you want to be. You write a goal in the present tense as if you are living in that state at the time you want to achieve your goal. Mine is a 6 month goal. In my case, right now I am 205 pounds with a 37.75" waist and some muscle mass but very little definition. I wrote my initial draft of where I want to be in 6 months time. Just doing that has kept it in my mind. I keep a copy in my wallet and I read it when I thin about it and I could stand to read it more ... but I need to expand upon it. Here is what I wrote ...

"November 15, 2006
I am so happy. I have reached my goal of 9% body fat and weighing 180 lbs. and I feel great. I have clear muscle definition and I can see my ab muscles. People don't recognize me and I inspire people to ask how they can do it too. People who haven't seen me in months can't beleive it. I have defeated my weaknesses, my DNA, my mind and what people expect from me. I am an example to my kids for all time. My clothes fit well and I can get any clothes I want to wear. 32" waist."

This may need some revision as I go forward, but it is a good start.