Changing time

Stupid @###$%*(&? government, they can’t even see that time change screws up people.

Oups pardon my French, I’m usually so much more proper, but it has been the 110^th times the clock has been moved back and forth in my lifetime. I’m so sick of that bullsh**.

My wife is trying to shove a spoonful of sugar in my mouth because she thinks my sugar level must have plunged! This is not the case, I can assure you.

My issue is with sleep. All my life I have had difficulty sleeping. If you look at my previous posts, some of them were submitted in the wee hours of the night.

I can easily fall asleep in 15 seconds, but lately I wake up after 3-4 hours of sleep. As far as I can remember, I have had difficulties sleeping. There is nothing keeping me awake; I have no particular stress (other than not sleeping), I have no worries, I eat right, I exercise, I NEVER drink coffee past noon.

When I was working, I would go to bed and wait for sleep to come. After a few hours, tired of laying down, I would get up and watch TV. The more I looked at the clock, the more stressed I became which kept me awake even more and there would be no use in going back to bed. I would eventually go to bed around 5:00 AM and my clock would wake me up at 5:30.

Where we live right now is ideal for a good night sleep. There are no exterior lights, no noise, just a nice place in the middle of nowhere and yet it doesn’t matter, I still have problems sleeping.

I read health books; to be healthier, they recommend to eat well, exercise and get a good night sleep. WHAT THE HECK… Eating better, exercising, I have full control over those two, but sleep? People who write “get a good night sleep” just annoy me so much that I dream about making voodoo dolls of them and when I can’t sleep, I could poke them!

Back to the subject at hand, sleep being a big problem for me, I think it’s insane to move the little hand back and forth every year.

Did you remember to set your clocks? Maybe one positive thing coming from this nuisance is most fitbit will record the steps of millions of people going around their house to change their clocks.

Mental Attitude

As part of my journey to get healthy, I’m reading several blogs to learn how other people have successfully achieved their goals. I also read them for inspiration and motivation, and through the exchange of comments, to share with each other our experiences.

I just started reading Christine’s excellent blog about her journey to lose weight. She is a petite woman. It has not always been this way, she was a “fat girl” (her words) her winning scale number was: 262.4 lbs. She got all the way down to 146.5 lbs. Talk about inspiration! You will want to read that post, just click here.

The honest and well delivered lessons from Christine are: 1. put your health first and 2. “Eat good foods, not as punishment, but because you deserve it. You aren't a piece of crap, don't shove crap in your mouth. You matter too much to do that.”

I think that post was a real and definitive turning point for her. This is the kind of outstanding rational outlook that we all need.

It’s really our mental attitude that will guide us when there is a storm where all kind of junk foods is flying in our air space; when we feel like we are not moving forward because looking down at the number being displayed on the scale is less than what we were expecting. If we believe we matter and deserve to be healthy, to the point of needing to be healthy, we will make it, we will reach our goal and exceed it. There will be no room inside us for all that fat that has been taking too much space in our life.

I hope everyone has a good day and is on track by making the right choices. You can do it and you know it!

Pushing-up numbers

By now we should all know how much calories we need to just maintain our weight. When reading a table that determines that amount of calories, it’s important to keep in mind it is based on people who are in relatively sedentary occupations.

Let’s say your number to maintain your weight is 2400 calories a day, on average, you are burning about 100 calories an hour. But really, are you burning that much calories while sleeping? No! You might be burning 60 calories while sleeping for 7 hours and the remainder of the calories the rest of the day. I’ll save you the calculation, it would be about 115 calories while awake. Those numbers are by no means scientific, I can’t really say with exactitude but it will do just for the purposes of this post. However, if I had to put money on that, I would!

I’ll use the table you can find on this link for the next paragraphs: http://www.nutristrategy.com/activitylist4.htm

The table shows that if you weight 205 lbs and walk at a 3 mph pace, for a whole hour, you will have burned 307 calories.

Now on this walk there is a bakery, you were walking toward it and the wind was in your direction… the smell made you want to speed up the pace to get there faster. You entered, you are not disappointed, there are shelves and shelves of every things that your dreams are about. It’s the only bakery in the world where they don’t put the price tag on the pastries, they put the calories.

You just burned 307 calories, and it happens there is one at 307 calories. “If that was not a sign, I don’t know what a sign is!’ you rationalized. Should you take it, it will be just too bad for this day’s work out, you are telling (or more likely your tummy is telling) yourself.

NO! walk out of the bakery right now, don’t look back, walk away and make sure the wind will not carry the aroma. What we all forgot, you burned 307 calories but if you had stayed home, you would have burn 115 calories. If you had taken that pastry from hell, you would have gained weight. In fact it would have been more beneficial weight wise to just stay on your couch and not eat a pastry because you would have burned 115 calories instead of taking an extra 115 calories! How about that!

At this rate, you would gain a pound in a month. Often, it’s the small stuff that gets you.

This “errors” is also something that I’m aware of with gizmo like Fitbit, it gives you the number of calories at the end of the workout. It’s not a license to increase your daily allowance consequently.

My strategy is to eat healthy, that is, my balance weight minus the number of calories I need to burn to lose 1.25 pound a week. Whatever activities I do, I’ll put those calories in the bank (I don’t mind if the bank account gets fat). If I want to indulge, I’ll plan it and not associate it with my activities.

That’s it, I have no more number to push-up, the next time I post something about a more technical side, it will be about food research.

Darn now I want a pastry!

I hope everyone is doing great with their goals. I’ll tell you a secret about myself, when I’m writing my post or comment on your blog and you are doing great, I can’t help myself, I have a smile in my face and in my heart. So pleeeease keep me smiling :) life is just too enjoyable to be miserable!

Arithmetic 101

Far from me to brag about how good I was in school. My grades were average, my motivation non-existent and the best time was recess.

The only subject I enjoyed and was a bit better than average: Maths! You could count on me!

I had stated on an earlier post that my goal was to lose 75 pounds. It was a journey to go from a 215 pounds obese man to a fit and healthy 150 pounder. NO ONE said anything…

I was reading my new blog friend Beth Ann and noticed she had a gadget on top of her page that keeps track of her BMI and weight lost to goal. It’s a small gadget from TickerFactory.

So I added the gadget to my header. It’s accurate from my Feb 22^nd weight. When I looked up at my own page, the ticker’s goal was for 65 pounds. “What’s up with that?” I questioned myself. The ticker must be wrong. I must have entered the wrong weight.

NO arithmetic 101 - if you remove 150 from 215, you have 65 left over, NOT 75 like I had mentally calculated earlier.

It means: I just instantaneously lost 10 pounds off to reach my goal. At a pound a week, it’s 10 weeks, folks! I’m so excited, I might just take a 10 weeks break right now! Just kidding!

To attain the goal I had set, I was to first lose 1 pound per week for 40 weeks and then re-evaluate. Would I continue on a 1 pound per week or readjust and go for 0.75 pound or 1.25 pound a week or whatever. I didn’t set a date for when I wanted to reach my final goal.

Now with 65 pounds to lose I have decided to go for a one year term. I started this journey Feb 1^st 2015, I must reach my goal by Jan 31^st, 2016. No alternative goal, it’s a loss of 1.25 pounds per week (you can trust this calculation, I used my computer calculator).

I am so excited; this is a huge boost to my motivation that was already very high. Have you ever got excited with a mistake you made?

Painting by numbers

Just a reminder, I’m not a doctor or a dietician. My knowledge is from years of having 3 meals a day (and sometimes more). My principal source of information is available on the internet. 
 

After this disclaimer, back to your regular programming. I’m painting a master piece, one number at a time. When this chef d’ouevre will be completed, it will be 65 pounds lighter than when I started on this blank, over-sized, canvas.

The first number is 3500

From most sources, it is the number of calories you need to burn more than you take to lose 1 pound. It doesn’t care if you are thin, large, men, women, nor your nationality or the color of your skin. – 3500 calories = - 1 pound or as what has been my problems for years + 3500 calories = + 1 pound

Let all be just negative here, no one is allowed to gain weight while reading my post today!

Time has no impact, if you have a 3500 calorie deficit and it took you a year or a month or a day, it does not matter, you lost 1 pound.

When I turned 50, I thought that I would lose a pound a month and that would be easy. In 5 years I would have been getting close to my goal. Didn’t happen! Perfect plan but not enough of a challenge to stick with it.

Now at 55 and with all the wisdom I have now *cough* *cough* I am challenging myself to lose 1.25 pound a week, which is 3500 + (.25 * 3500) =  4375. From Monday to Saturday, I will do nothing to lose the weight and Sunday I ‘m going to burn that 4375 calorie. Of course I can’t do that, it would not be feasible. So the recipe for me is to lose 625 (4375 / 7) calories per day. This is exactly the same number for anyone who wants to lose a 1.25 pound a week. That number by itself is exciting but you will not get anywhere if you don’t know the number of calories you burned in a balanced (no gain no lost) day.

Let’s all sit down. That is where it gets a little bit complicated. Anyone just sitting is burning calories, the rate they burned them will greatly varied from one person to the next. It will vary with your metabolism (age), your size and your gender. So if you extrapolate this to a whole day, every one will be burning calories but not in the same amount for similar days.

The second number for a male, 200 pound, 50 years: 2600 calories

The second number for a male, 200 pound, 60 years: 2480 calories

The second number for a male, 180 pound, 50 years: 2450 calories

The second number for a male, 180 pound, 60 years: 2350 calories

So in my case I’m 55 and around 200 pounds so my number to not gain nor lose any weight is between 2600 and 2480 calories. It means that for me, 2540 calories is what it takes to have a balanced calories, in and out. In 20 weeks when I reach 180 pounds, my balanced calories amount will be 2380 calories. It’s a difference of 160 calories per day. So if I eat the same amount when I reach 180, I will be slowing down my losing weight rate.

If you want to learn about your own balanced calories amount, you can go to the following link. The first table is for man and the second for women, the tables assumes you are in relatively sedentary occupations:

http://www.jrank.org/Staying-Well/pages/cmxyqyx3bu/calorie-balance-scientific-reducing.html

Let’s put the formula together:

Balanced amount of calories per day minus number of calories needed in a day to lose a pound a week equal number of calories available to eat in the day

My number: 2540 – 625 = 1915 Now how many Big Mac is this?

If you have problem understanding the tables and you want some help, let me know, I’ll be happy to help. All I’ll need is your HONEST age and weight, I’ll be discreet.

This is far from the end of the numbers game. Next time, I’ll look at the activities numbers.

Could you let me know if any one else was clueless about their numbers and if reading my technical post was of any help.

Snack Attack

Yesterday was a struggle, I felt like I was hungry most of the day. My mood was not at its best. In the evening, I had a breakdown, I took a second snack. I’m so disappointed with myself (not!), I tried to resist but I couldn’t anymore, I took a glass of skim milk. Hopefully this will not throw all my good habits out the window and send me to the fridge and cupboards in the coming months.

Seriously, last night if their had been chocolate or chips or any other unhealthy snack that I’ve enjoyed for the past 55 years, I’m not sure I would not have found a way to reason myself to having some. Nothing wrong with having some, sometime. But I’m not mentally ready yet.

If it had been a need, I would have had to put on my winter clothes, walk ¼ mile to my car, on a snowmobile trail and drive to the store. This is just not convenient. My lesson for the day: DO NOT KEEP the s-h-i-t AT HOME!

I’m asking myself why was I so hungry? I can see 2 possible answers: 

1. the lunch was a soup with some grizzol stick and just a bit of cheese. Right after lunch, I felt like I was not satisfied.

2. Because I was reading a lot of blogs, researching about food and I was seeing a lot of pictures that made my heart rate go faster and my tummy ached for it :)

I’m a neophyte about nutrition, mostly because consciously, I wanted to keep my innocence. If I didn’t know better then I had a license to do and eat whatever! Every blogger seems to know what sugar, carbs, starch, etc. are, and how they affect your body.

In the following months, I’ll do more research and post about my findings; nothing too technical, just something that could be of help to someone like me. I know the first thing I’ll be talking about is sugar. Boy I should have been more aware about that poison!

I will also look at different diets, not the one that have you eat only-lettuce-for-2-weeks-to-lose-10-pounds type of diet but as a lifestyle that would be feasible for me. I might just combine a few to get where I want to go.

Yesterday, I went for a walk. I counted my steps. I’m this dedicated! A loop here is about 2,ooo steps. I did 2 loops, so 4,000 steps. Workout wise, walking in the snow with all the weight of the clothing, and fighting the cold and the wind, I’m more than happy with that. I’m still debating a Fitbit purchase… 

Water-gedon

It drains my energy to drink 8 glasses of water a day, I can even say that I’m drowning in H2O. I’m just not a water drinker.

According to almost everyone, we need to drink 8 glass of water a day. This calorie-free, alcohol-free, tasteless, beverage is what our body need to stay properly hydrated. As our Brits cousins would say, RUBISH!

My oldest daughter made a comment yesterday saying it is a myth, we don’t need all that water and she gave me 2 links to support her point of view. I’m sharing them here, but in a nut shell, you should let your thirst guide you. I know that when I play sports or it’s hot outside I drink water. I don’t look at it as a mountain to climb.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/8-glasses-of-water-a-day-an-urban-myth-1.1196386

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/8-glasses-of-water-a-day-myth-or-fact.html

I don’t know about you but it blows my mind. I don’t know how many times I’ve read that we should drink more water and we won’t eat as much… that doesn’t do it for me.

In 2012 I had made a similar health change and even then I had problems with water. Here is a post I wrote on another blog in 2012, I was still working at the time, and you will see I wasn’t then as I am not now in the pro water group:


I have a drinking problem. Yes you read it right, I do have a drinking problem. I think one of the first step in solving a problem is to admit it. This is hard to do. Some would say that you have to hit rock bottom first.

I don’t know all the steps but one of them is to get right with God. I’m not too sure about that one. According to several witnesses, he turned water into wine. How can I relate to that?

If you are serious about solving a problem, you have to look at where and when the problem occurs. Knowing that my boss is on a holiday, on a beach, somewhere warm and is unlikely to read this I will admit that most of my drinking happens at work. As far as I know, it doesn’t interfere with my work, but maybe I’m not the best judge for that.

I know that I need help; I might look for some meetings around here. I might have to attend them everyday at the beginning, this is when I need as much support as I can get. Maybe in a few months, I could get by just going a couple of times a week.

Please if anybody knows where I can attend a WA meeting, let me know. The Water Anonymous meetings are just not easy to find. Meanwhile I’ll start practicing: “Hi my name is Richard. I have a problem. I can’t drink 8 cups of water a day!”

The last step I should consider is to make amends to those who were harmed. My cat gets more water, I record only 4-5 cups a day in Spark People and my youngest daughter threatens me with increasing my water intake. Nope! I don’t see anyone who has suffered!

Those pictures of myself are from 2012, I'm about the same size, just 3 years more mature.

I know I can, I know I can

One down three to go

NO one say I have to swallow it

 

 

 I don't know if the cat will notice!