282.7

Ever had one of those days(weeks) when the plan just seems to slip farther and farther away? I started the week with a raging case of DOMS and it has just gone downhill from there. When I could use my arms again I had done some yardwork and general cleaning in the garage and in the meantime collected what I suspect was a spider bite that has swollen a spot on my wrist to the size of a boiled egg.

I have hit a bit of a plateau in my weight control plan, 282 seems to be a sticking point. I am wondering if it is time to get serious about cardio and start doing 20-30 miles on the bike every day for a couple of weeks and see where that goes. I have read some things about carb cycling, predominately here and think that it may be worth a try in the future. It is pretty complex but I think with practice it may be doable. The important thing is to do something, and keep doing it.

my food
4 eggs(320 cal.)P28F21.2C0
1 Can tomatoes and chilies(50 cal.)P2.5F0C10
3 oz. bacon(459 cal.)P31.5F35.4C1.2
Total=829 cal. macros P62 F 56.6 C 11.2

my workout-
Lawn mowing=1055 cal.

285.0

Just when you thought you were doing everything you could to eat right, there is this other thing. Fiber, dietary fiber, 35-40 grams a day. Since it does a great job of reducing the chances of hypertension and Type 2 diabetes, goes without saying that a minute of two a day is well worth it to make sure you are getting enough dietary fiber.

Oatmeal, lentils, nuts, beans, all good sources of fiber. Here is a great list from Today’s Dietitian. The one thing they do not break down is whether the fiber is soluble or insoluble, I am not entirely sure that the difference is that important as long as an acceptable amount of total fiber is taken in.

If you do decide to increase your daily fiber follow these two rules, do so slowly and increase your daily fluid intake with the additional fiber.

my food
6 eggs(480 cal.)P42F31.8C2.4
1 tsp.(40 cal.)P0F4.8C0
total=520 cal.P 42 F 36.6 C 2.4

20 oz. ground beef(1400 cal.)P95F110C0
4 tbsp. coconut flour(80 cal.)P4F4C16
total=1480 cal.P 99 F 114 C 16

bad snack
peanut butter(756 cal.)P29.4F67.2C25.2
crackers(490 cal.)P7F10.5C84
total=1246 cal. P 36.4 F 77.7 C 109.2
daily total 3246 cal. P 177.4 F 228.3 C 127.6

my workout-none, pre-event week

282.8

Aerobic activity burns fat, true or false? Yes and no. Without getting into a huge discussion about aerobic threshold and anaerobic threshold and VO2max, let’s just say that you don’t burn any fat by walking and you don’t burn any by sprinting. When you run at a speed that barely allows you to carry on a conversation, you are at an optimal fat burning intensity, keep it up.

When searching the ‘net for information on aerobic activity, be sure to vet your author!  Some sites cater specifically to performance athletes and make no disclaimer to warn people that may be new to a sport that what they refer to is for experienced athletes and they should scale down or look elsewhere.   I will call out a particularly popular HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) program here, although they have some of the smartest minds in the world contributing to their site, make no mistake, the subject matter that they tackle is for the SUPER ELITE athlete only.  If they speak of a certain method of running training, you can safely and happily ignore every word printed, UNLESS, you happen to run the mile in under 4:30 or have a series of unbroken 5k or 10k wins, this information cannot help you, it will only injure you.

I run for good health and I am never going to the Olympics, I don’t need the speed.  I need the sweat and the barking dogs at 4 am when the rest of the world is still sleeping, except for the people that own those damn dogs, I hope.  I want to wear smaller clothes, I want to eat smaller meals and I want to play with my grandkids for a long time to come.  But if you want to get technical you can, there is a guy named Joe Friel who probably wrote the book on aerobic training.

my food
4 eggs(320 cal.)P28F21.2C1.6
1 can tomatoes and chilies(50 cal.)P2.5F0C10
1 tsp. coconut oil(40 cal.)P0F5C0
total=410 cal. P 30.5 F 26.2 C 11.6

17 oz.chicken breast(521 cal.)P110.5F6C0
1 onion(64 cal.)P1.4F.1C15.5
2 jalapeños(8)P.2F0C2
4 tbsp. Hoisin sauce(200 cal.)P0F0C25
1 cup lentils(480 cal.)P40F0C80
total=1273 calories P 142.2 F 6.1 C 122.5(serves 2)

1 1/2 cups cottage cheese(240 cal.)P39 F4.5 C15
daily total=1913 cal. P 211.7 F 36.8 C 149.1

My workout- active recovery

282.4

Was that your first cognitive memory of eating at the table? Me, too. Must have heard that one a thousand times. I was a baby-boomer and you would have thought that I grew up in the Great Depression. Don’t let that go to waste, there are kids in China, over and over again. It was my first bad eating habit.

Musgo, there was another one. Everything in the refrigerator Must Go! Generally the night before the trash went out, all leftovers regardless of mark or pedigree got thrown on the stove and then on our plates. Very slimming for the frigidaire, for us, not so much.

Sammich! The Devil between slices of bread. Super processed, ultrarefined, bleached even, white bread with three of the most unnatural (food?) items ever conceived: bologna, american cheese and Miracle Whip. My favorite sandwich ever, the double decker with double cheese. Weighing in at a whopping 944 calories, over 600 from fat, Ronald McDonald would have been in awe. And I would eat 2 of these obscenities without batting an eye.

Breaking bad habits and replacing them with new, better habits will eventually lead to better health. It’s working for me.

my food
18 oz. cantaloupe(180 cal.)P3.6F0C45

4 eggs(320 cal.)P28F21.2C1.6
1 can tomatoes and chilies(50 cal.)P2.5F0C10
1 tbsp. coconut oil(120 cal.)P0F14.1C0
6 corn tortillas(300 cal.)P6F6C60
16 oz. 2% milk(260 cal.)P16F10C24
total=1050 cal.)P 52.5 F 51.3 C 95.6

16 oz. ground beef(1228 cal.)P122F78.4C
total= 2458cal. P 178.1 F 129.7 C 142.2
Todays workout- active recovery

282.8

The basic tenet of weight loss is eat less calories than your body uses in a day and you will lose weight.  Someone, a long time ago came up with the number 1800 as the number of calories you used each day.  This number did not take into consideration sex, age, height or general activity level, it was useless.  An online calculator like this one uses all of those inputs and gives you an approximation.  It says that I need between 3050 and 3250 calories a day to maintain my weight, I say ‘let’s find out.’

I decided to see exactly how many calories I need each day.  To do this I ate exactly the same number of calories every day for seven days and did the usual amount of activity that I normally do.  I carefully chose the foods I would eat each day to account for my personal tastes and to make sure that I would be getting adequate protein and fat to support the workout strategy I was pursuing.  If I skimped on protein, my strength work would be useless as the recovery process would be short-changed thus negating any gains in that area.

My weight this morning will be the ending weight for this experiment, and the formula below should give me a really good indication of how many calories I actually need each day, then I will know exactly how much I need to eat in order to lose the weight that I want to lose.  Water weight can often skew results such as the ones I am trying to get but I maintain an intake of at least 1 gallon of water every day, much more on endurance rides, typically 1/2 to 1 additional gallons, it sounds like a lot but a typical ride for me is in excess of 2 hours of continuous effort.

Part 1-  Beginning weight- ending weight= net pounds lost(we hope)

Part 2-  [calorie intake for one week+(net pounds lost x 3500)]/7=daily maintenance calories

P1: 288.4-282.8=5.6 lbs.   P2:[12,215+( 5.6×3500)]/7=4545 calories

If I further adjust this for the heavy endurance work I am doing this week, 4545-(6000/7)=3688 should hit the nail on the head.

This means that I can lose 1 pound a week by eating an average of 500 calories a day less than 3688  or  3188 calories.  I really look forward to eating something different tomorrow, as you might imagine.  As far as my choices for the ‘special diet’ went, I chose pork because of it’s excellent protein content and the fact that I could get a loin roast at an exceptional price and trim it and run it through my meat grinder and make exact portions.  Eggs and spinach, in my opinion, are perfect foods and I would not hesitate to eat them at any meal.  An onion a day was tough, so I mixed it up between the salad, the pork and the lentils.  2 jalapenos were no problem as I cooked them with the onions.  Tuna because it is simple and easy, Ro-Tel tomatoes because I like them.  Finally, lentils are a new favorite of mine, they go with anything and you can put anything in them to vary the flavor.  And they are easier to cook than dried beans, take that beans.

I would not suggest that anyone try this themselves, trust that I followed this diet as exactly as humanly possible, no cheating, not even once.  This was done for me, to prove a point and to find out something about myself.  Take what you will from the results, as much as I tried to remove all of the variables there is still room for error, it is expected to a certain degree, I just tried to make that error as small as I could.

My food
Breakfast
4 eggs(320 cal.)P28F21.2C0
1 tsp. coconut oil(40 cal.)P0F4.7C0
1 Can tomatoes and chilies(50 cal.)P2.5F0C10
total=410 cal. P 30.5 F 25.9 C 10

Protein shake
whey isolate(130 cal.)P20F3.5C6
16 oz. 2% milk(244 cal.)P16.2F9.6C24.6
Total=374 cal. P 36.2 F 13.1 C 30.6

1st lunch
2 cans tuna(180 cal.)P40F2C0

2nd lunch
5 oz. spinach(35 cal.)P4F.5C5
1/2 cup lentils(240 cal.)P20F0C40
2 tbsp. italian dressing(60 cal.)P0F6C3
total-335 cal. P 24 F 6.5 C 48

dinner
8 oz. pork loin(264 cal.)P50.6F5.2C0
1 onion(64 cal.)P1.4F.1C15.5
2 jalapeños(8)P.2F0C2
1 tbsp. coconut oil(120 cal.)P0F14C0
total=446 cal. P 52.2 F 19.3 C 17.5
daily total= 1745 P 182.9 F 66.8 C 106.1

My workout

cycling 29.09 mi. 3025 cal.  16.55 MET hrs.