On Diet and Health
I almost posted this as a status update on Facebook, but realized it deserved a real post so here I am on Livejournal! I've noticed that more people are posting here again, which makes me happy. Of course, this will automagically get sucked into FB as a note so people who've abandoned LJ will sill get to see it.
I've finally gotten serious about losing some weight. I went for a hike a few weekends ago that nearly killed me. It was a bit of a climb, but nobody else was having much trouble with it. It kind of scared me and after talking with my very fit and healthy friend Megan, I took a nutritional typing test (http://nutritionaltyping.mercola.com) which told me that I'm a "protein type". I also did some reading about nutrition based on blood type (I'm type O) which gave similar results. Neither of these is particularly scientific, but they do match my own observations, e.g. if I eat a high protein, high fat meal, I feel satisfied much longer and if I eat simple carbs (especially in the afternoon), it puts me to sleep. The nutritional typing plan called for the elimination of gluten which I tried for a while, but have since gotten less strict about.
I also read _The Hacker's Diet_ which I will overly simplify as use a spreadsheet to track your weight (including a trend line that smooths out daily fluctuations) and use that feedback to adjust your caloric intake. I've got a Google spreadsheet I can share with you if you want to try this.
I'm still fine tuning my approach, but the basic ideas are
- eat less calories than I burn
- avoid simple carbs (including artificial sweeteners) (i.e. high protein diet)
- exercise every day
The first one is of course the only diet that really works and the others just help me achieve it..
I'm using an app on my iPhone called LoseIt to track my caloric intake and exercise. It's free and works pretty well. I've tried half a dozen other food logging apps in the past, but never kept it up for more than a few weeks so it remains to be seen if I'll stay on top of this. If you use LoseIt, you should friend me there :)
I'm also exercising regularly. So far it's just been riding my mountain bike, but in the short time that I've been doing this, I can already see a decent performance improvement. I've been riding on the flat trails on the bay near my place, but am going to my favorite hilly place to ride later today (Fremont Older Open Space Preserve). I have always like bike riding so it's not too hard for me to find time for it. I plan to start going to the gym 2-3 times per week to get some resistance training in as well.
I've been tracking my blood pressure as well. Not surprisingly, It's a bit high right now (around 125/85), but I'm expecting that to change as I get in better shape.
I've been at this for about 2 weeks and have lost a bit over 10lb! Yes, I know that's mostly water weight and the rest won't be nearly as easy. I've got my numbers dialed in for losing 1.5lb per week. It took years to get this fat so I know it's going to take some time to get back in shape.
Gotta run - time for my bike ride!
I've finally gotten serious about losing some weight. I went for a hike a few weekends ago that nearly killed me. It was a bit of a climb, but nobody else was having much trouble with it. It kind of scared me and after talking with my very fit and healthy friend Megan, I took a nutritional typing test (http://nutritionaltyping.mercola.com) which told me that I'm a "protein type". I also did some reading about nutrition based on blood type (I'm type O) which gave similar results. Neither of these is particularly scientific, but they do match my own observations, e.g. if I eat a high protein, high fat meal, I feel satisfied much longer and if I eat simple carbs (especially in the afternoon), it puts me to sleep. The nutritional typing plan called for the elimination of gluten which I tried for a while, but have since gotten less strict about.
I also read _The Hacker's Diet_ which I will overly simplify as use a spreadsheet to track your weight (including a trend line that smooths out daily fluctuations) and use that feedback to adjust your caloric intake. I've got a Google spreadsheet I can share with you if you want to try this.
I'm still fine tuning my approach, but the basic ideas are
- eat less calories than I burn
- avoid simple carbs (including artificial sweeteners) (i.e. high protein diet)
- exercise every day
The first one is of course the only diet that really works and the others just help me achieve it..
I'm using an app on my iPhone called LoseIt to track my caloric intake and exercise. It's free and works pretty well. I've tried half a dozen other food logging apps in the past, but never kept it up for more than a few weeks so it remains to be seen if I'll stay on top of this. If you use LoseIt, you should friend me there :)
I'm also exercising regularly. So far it's just been riding my mountain bike, but in the short time that I've been doing this, I can already see a decent performance improvement. I've been riding on the flat trails on the bay near my place, but am going to my favorite hilly place to ride later today (Fremont Older Open Space Preserve). I have always like bike riding so it's not too hard for me to find time for it. I plan to start going to the gym 2-3 times per week to get some resistance training in as well.
I've been tracking my blood pressure as well. Not surprisingly, It's a bit high right now (around 125/85), but I'm expecting that to change as I get in better shape.
I've been at this for about 2 weeks and have lost a bit over 10lb! Yes, I know that's mostly water weight and the rest won't be nearly as easy. I've got my numbers dialed in for losing 1.5lb per week. It took years to get this fat so I know it's going to take some time to get back in shape.
Gotta run - time for my bike ride!