Lean and Hard

Photo credit: The Holy Grail

The answer is a definite YES!

As long as you are on a weight reduction plan, you are going to face the temptation to cheat. The reason is simple: To lose weight you have to burn more calories than you're taking in, and this means you will sometimes feel deprived.

I've lost 115 pounds so far, and I've been losing weight since about September of last year, so you can believe that I've strayed from the strictures of my regime a few times along the way. Once in a while I've faces temptations that, for me, at the time, were irresistible. Here's how I've managed these diversions from the path...

1. I've tried to limit the damage. OK, so I simply have to have pizza. Nothing I can do about it when the desire is so strong and so persistent. I go ahead and have some, but I eat it slowly and stop when I'm satisfied (which, since my stomach has shrunk from eating less food, happens much sooner than it used to!). Then I throw away the rest and my splurge is over.

2. I've gotten right back on the horse. Guilt and discouragement are the enemy when you've broken faith with your plan. Put your straying behind you and come right back to the righteous path. Here's how WebMD puts in in this article:

Don't let a little slip become a backslide.  It is almost impossible to be an "A" student when it comes to dieting. "Everyone slips up, and that is fine as long as you don't let one slip turn into a backslide," says Wansink. Whenever you slip up, take note of it, try to learn from it so you can anticipate it in the future, and get right back into your diet plan to avoid the temptation to throw in the towel.

If you have a lot of weight to lose, it's going to take some time, and you are going to cheat. But cheating cannot stop you if you limit the damage and stick with your plan.

Please comment below if you found this helpful or have additional tips to share!

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Believe it or not, there are still people who think the Atkins diet (and its numerous imitators) are worth trying. The no-carb fad is over, my friends. Consider these insights from Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD, writing for Shape:

Many of my clients send me their food diaries every day, in which they record not just what and how much they eat, but also their hunger and fullness ratings and how they feel before, during, and after meals. Over the years I’ve noticed a trend. Drastic carb cutting (despite my recommendation to include specific portions of “good” carbs), results in some not so pleasant side effects. I see journal notes like, cranky, irritable, shaky, lethargic, moody, and reports of intense cravings for forbidden foods. Now, a new study also indicates that low carb diets aren’t optimal health wise.

I will admit to trying it myself way back when. After a few days on the no-carb regimen I recall feeling like I would be willing to kill my best friend for a piece of bread. Those intense cravings for so-called forbidden foods can lead you to only one place... binge eating.

What about low carb diets? Keeping in mind that any fat loss plan must necessarily involve cutting calories, and that a healthy diet should have a good balance of proteins, carbs and fats, low carb diets may have the same effect. You may find yourself fantasizing about eating your way through a mountain of muffins, or a sea of ice cream. And you'll eventually attempt, albeit unsuccessfully, to accomplish one of these feats.

So what's the optimal plan? It's about quality as well as quantity. Instead of treating carbs as all the same, try slow carbs.

Slow carbs are also known as good carbs, complex carbs or low-glycemic carbs. Here's a helpful definition:

...any carbohydrate that is broken down and absorbed by the body slowly.

Simple carbs, by contrast, are usually highly processed and so are broken down and absorbed very quickly. This rapid absorption causes spikes in blood sugar, which in turn causes more insulin to be pumped into the bloodstream, which causes an increase in fat storage.

Simple carbs can do other strange things. Since they cause a kind of chemical high, they are somewhat addictive, meaning they cause intense cravings for more of the same. Your body tells you you must have that slice of cake or you'll die, that large pizza or you'll writhe in agony forever. It's irresistible.

Another awful side effect of simple carbs is fatigue. With every sugar high comes the inevitable crash. And although this may not be proven science, it's possible that an overgrowth of candida and other bad micro-organisms can poison the system with toxins that mimic the feeling of having the flu.

The way to break the addiction is to substitute slow carbs for fast carbs. Whole grains, beans, fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts, sweet potatoes instead of white, etc.

Thoughts and comments are welcome!

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How old are you? It's a simple question, right? Not really.

It's not as simple as you might think to answer this question. Most of us just count the number of years that have passed since the date on our birth certificates. By that measure I am 52. But there are other ways to measure age. Sometimes people say you're only as old as you feel. But what about your biological age?

Here's an interesting definition of biological age:

Your BIOLOGICAL AGE is the age that most normal people would be when they have a body and mind similar to yours.

Your chronological age can't be manipulated, but your biological age can be. You can, in fact, turn back the clock. You can even accomplish this at a genetic level. Consider the results of this study:

The researchers identified 596 differentially expressed genes (meaning atypical to other genes being analyzed). Of these, after 26 weeks of resistance training the researchers identified 179 genes associated with age and exercise showing a reversal of their gene expression. This means quite literally that the resistance training was not only slowing, but also reversing the aging process at the gene level. The gene expressions of the resistance trained older subjects demonstrated characteristics similar to those of the younger group. The researchers also noted that mitochondrial impairment, normally seen with inactivity, was reversing with the 6 months of resistance training.

What does all this mean? As mind-blowing as it is, it means you can actually reverse the aging process and increase your lifespan!

A related term that's more useful than "lifespan" is "healthspan." Healthspan is defined as:

...the period of a person's life during which they are generally healthy and free from serious or chronic illness.

I'm not as interested in increasing the length of time I would be considered clinically "alive" as much as the length of time I am healthy and able to enjoy living. And this I can definitely affect by the way I live right now.

Are you ready to get started with your age reversal?

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I don't know yet. I've lost 111 pounds as of yesterday. I weighed 192.2 when I stepped on the scale in the AM. When should I stop losing and start maintaining? I do have an idea about that but I'm not yet certain, simply because I'm not going by a government chart. I'll know when I've landed at my ideal weight (it's really a range, isn't it?) when I look the way I want to look. Which is: Lean and hard.

I think my ideal range will end up somewhere between 160 and 175. I'd like to have a 32" waist and look great shirtless. There's still a good bit of extra fat that needs to be burned before the muscles show through and I look cut, ripped, etc. So it's onward and downward until then. And then it will be about staying lean and hard.

Today's workout song:



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What do you call someone who won't accept a statement just because "that's what everybody says"? That's me. Why don't I believe things "everybody says"? Because everybody is often dead wrong. People tend to be lazy about demanding proof, and instead like to repeat what they hear or read with little or no skepticism. That's the word, skeptic!

If only there was a way to check these things out, to find out the facts, to research things ourselves. Hey, there is! The Internet! It's a simple matter to find out the truth, or as close to it as current research allows.

How about this one: Caffeine is bad for you. Well that's wrong. And another: Work out with high reps and light weights to tone muscle, heavy weights and low reps for getting huge. That's also wrong. Here's what research has shown...

What grows muscle is forcing it to adapt to greater stresses than it is used to. This means putting it under greater tension and working it to the point of fatigue. It turns out that you have to lift nearly the heaviest weight that you can. This from Lou Schuler, an award-winning journalist and certified strength and conditioning specialist, quoted from this article:

"The good news is that the muscle-building process creates a stronger, leaner, healthier, and better-conditioned body even when the actual increase in muscle tissue is minimal. But it only works if you try to build muscle by using weights that are pretty close to the heaviest you can lift. If the workout tells you to do 10 repetitions, for example, you need to pick a weight that you could lift, at most, 11 or 12 times. Studies show that adults typically choose weights that are much lighter than the workout calls for."

As for the fear many women have that lifting heavy will make them huge and masculine-looking, the same article has this to say:

"Heavy weights won't make you huge, but they can make you lean. Males don't have the market cornered on unrealistic expectations. The woman doing presses and rows with dumbbells smaller than her forearms is trying to do the impossible: "tone" muscles she hasn't yet built. She's worried about getting "too big," which is equally absurd. Muscle is hard to build at any age, for either gender, and it never happens by accident."

Another result of this fallacy affects men who are overweight and try to get a toned look by lifting light weights. You can't tone what isn't there, and you can't look toned anyway as long as you are covered with a thick layer of fat. That takes a combination of resistance training, diet and rest.

You know those ads for the Bowflex: You can look like this if you shell out whatever it is we're asking for! Baloney. Same for the hundreds of silly devices that promise to "tone" your abs, thighs, arms, whatever. Don't waste your money. It's better spent on a gym membership and healthy foods. 

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(Photo credit: fitsugar.com)

Many people do. So they don't do it. Some people do it anyway, but there's absolutely no enjoyment in it. Then there are those who actually find pleasure in it. They work out regularly and they truly love it. Where do you come down on this? I kind of matters, doesn't it? To your health, happiness and healthspan (as opposed to lifespan).

We've all heard the age-old wisdom of "no pain, no gain." And there's truth there, but here's my thinking: If your workouts don't give you some pleasure and enjoyment, even as they cause some discomfort, you are far less likely to get regular exercise or keep it up as a lifestyle. So what can we do to make working out enjoyable?

Accepting that achieving and maintaining fitness requires hard work, it makes sense to find an enjoyable means to that end. Some tips:

Find an activity that you love and that fits your life. It could be golf, tennis, gardening, basketball, running, walking, rock climbing or going to the gym and pushing your muscles to fatigue (that's when you can just barely complete that last repetition).

Do enough to be fit, not to be a star athlete (unless you really are a star athlete). Some people push themselves so hard at the gym that they dread going. It's a matter of cost versus benefit. Exerts tell us that the difference to health between moderate exercise and no exercise is vast, while the difference to health between moderate exercise and strenuous exercise is relatively small. And what's worse, if you push your body to the point of injury, you won't be able to exercise at all, at least for a while.

Build your fitness gradually. Muscles that are not used to any exercise will sing with pain when starting out. The soreness that comes when you work out for the first time in years is horrible. You'll walk around wincing with each step. It makes sense to start out slowly, letting your atrophied muscles have some time to adapt to the new demands of your workouts. That way you can minimize that initial soreness and feel good about keeping it going. (There's another kind of soreness that is a regular part of working out when you do it right, but this kind is actually pleasant in a weird way.)

Do it regularly and often enough for it to benefit. Don't be a weekend athlete who collapses with a heart attack trying to do things your body is totally unprepared for. That's no good to anyone.

Any other tips you'd like to share? Add your comments!

Workout song of the day...



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Some people believe that if you can picture something in your mind, or even speak it, you can bring it into being. I don't believe in some mystical power we all have to create reality, but it's perfectly logical and reasonable to think that if we can envision some state of being in our minds, we'll be more likely to be motivated to do the things that will make it happen, and to recognize opportunities to bring it about.

That's why I like to motivate myself with visions of people I want to look like, at least in terms of leanness and hardness. Here are a couple of my motivational movie stars:






What else helps motivate me? Great workout music! So from time to time I'll share some of my favorite tracks. (I hate the slow, soulful stuff they play at some gyms, makes me want to sit and contemplate the mistakes I've made in my life. There's a time for that but it ain't at the gym.) Here's one to start things off. Feel free to share your own in the comment section.

Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict a Riot


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Today I weighed in at under 200 pounds. A few days ago I wore a pair of pants that have been too small to wear for a very long time, and I found in the right front pocket this movie ticket from 1995. Die Hard 3! The child's ticket means I had taken one (or more?) of my wonderful kids. I think that year was probably the last time I weighed less than 200. Elementary, dear Watson?

To me this is a more significant milestone than losing 100 pounds, I'm not sure why. It just feels more important for some reason. So, lean and hard is now within my grasp!

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Restaurants are trying to outdo each other. Who can pack the most calories onto a single plate of food? Yes, it's true that many of them have a little something for those who are trying to be lean and hard, but easy they make it to sweep these aside in our frenzy to grab the heavy stuff!

Check out this article from USA Today Money:

If you plan to chow down tonight at a big chain restaurant, there's a better than nine-in-10 chance that your entree will fail to meet federal nutrition recommendations for both adults and kids, according to a provocative new study.

A whopping 96% of main entrees sold at top U.S. chain eateries exceed daily limits for calories, sodium, fat and saturated fat recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, reports the 18-month study conducted by the Rand Corp. and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

That's right. A single entree has more calories than the number you should be eating in an entire day. So what can you do? Never eat out? Well, many of us can eat out a lot less if we want to, saving money and our health at the same time. But meeting friends and eating out together is a special thing to do and no one wants to give that up entirely.

My suggestion is this: Limit the damage. If you resist the temporary desire for the biggest thing on the menu, you can even eliminate the damage altogether! Your opening move might be to avoid going out to eat while you feel you could eat a horse. Have a light, healthy something right before you go out. Then, when you get to the restaurant, you're not ready to slaughter a poor equine to feed your face.

A second move would be to order from the starter menu, but even then you need to be wary. Restaurants have wised up to this move, and I think many starters today are bigger than whole 4-course meals used to be. Choose wisely. Salads or soups can also be a great choice.

It's sad that eating healthy has to be such a battle in our modern, restaurant-chain swamp of a battlefield, but it is what it is. The lean and hard warrior, though, can fight and win this war.

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This is my own invention and may not be to everyone's liking, but I adore hot spices, so this one is tasty and healthy, a winning combo!

Boneless/skinless chicken thighs seasoned with chili mix powder, then browned and cooked down in chicken broth until tender. Brown rice, cooked and mixed with chopped spinach and a habanero pepper.

Enjoy!

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