Dear Friends,
Just got back from the gym after a 6 week lay-off. Actually, we went Monday as well.
Played 3 games of Racquetball, Sauna and cool shower. Whew! I'm beat!!!
Dinner is grilled chicken, Broccoli and Quinoa.
Keeping a food journal is going to be really easy/boring. We're taking the advice of having a few standard meals over and over again.
Last night, it was mixed veggies, Seafood medley and Quinoa.
Breakfast is eggbeaters, some kind of dark green veggie and black beans with a tablespoon or so of salsa.
Lunch is generally some left-overs or a couple of no-nitrate hot dogs.
No wheat, no flour, no sugar, no sodas (we didn't drink any anyway) Lots of pure water.
For a snack, I'll have a handful of raw nuts with a few raisins (very few) and maybe a stick of string cheese, or a small bowl of low-fat cottage cheese.
I probably ought to add more fresh fruit, and more salads.
Next week, we'll be starting to lift weights (it's hard because the racquetball is such fun, great stress relief and we really enjoy playing together). On the other hand, the weight lifting is crucial to our long-term success.
I got on the scale Monday and was 302, so there's some progress - but most of that is just water.
My edema is improving remarkably, which feels great.
That's about it for now,
Erik
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
First Week's Experience...
Dear Friends,
I'm here to report on the first week's progress.
To review: Heather and I have modified our diet to a "Slow-Carb" configuration. That means no bread, pasta, tortillas or anything with flour or wheat.
Our breakfasts have been as follows:
Egg-Beater (approx 3 eggs), Nuked chopped spinach (handful) and 1/2 cup of organic black beans. Topped with 1 tablespoon of sour cream and liberally splashed with hot sauce.
This is surprisingly good, and feels great in your tummy. For those worried about becoming a methane factory, I've got good news: after a few days, your intestinal flora change to be able to accommodate the legumes and we've had no problems at all.
Lunch is generally a salad with some leftover meat of some kind, grilled pork, chicken or whatever is on hand.
Snack of 3 low-fat mozzarella string cheese, handful of raw almonds and an apple.
Dinner is skinless grilled chicken, roast pork loin or fish. Sides of green beans, broccoli or edemame beans. No dessert.
Lots of purified water, at least a gallon a day for me.
So far, I'm finding a significant reduction in my edema and somewhat elevated energy levels.
I did find that I'm more sensitive to blood sugar fluctuations, and am having headaches. I'm assuming it's from detoxing and will fade over time. I'm not taking any aspirin or painkillers, just more water.
Often I'll have a glass of wine in the evening, but this week it just makes me feel terrible, so I've stopped.
Exercise was going for a walk a couple of times, but tonight we hit the gym for real (Yea!)
We'll be focusing on Static Contraction lifting and I'll be on the exercise bike for 15-20 minutes following.
My thinking is that the weight lifting uses up the glycogen stores in the muscles and primes the cardiovascular system. By the time I actually get on the bike, the glycogen stores are depleted and the muscles will have to shift over to burning fat right away.
I don't know that this is true, but from my limited knowledge of cellular respiration and androgenic cycles... it sounds good so what the hell!?! If I'm all wet, please correct me.
My goal is to avoid the normal 15 minute "warm-up" that conventional wisdom states you need in order to start burning fat with your aerobics. There is nothing quite as boring as sitting on an exercise bike watching Jerry Springer re-runs.
I'll be weighing in this evening so I can share all the gory details with everyone.
That's it for now,
Erik
I'm here to report on the first week's progress.
To review: Heather and I have modified our diet to a "Slow-Carb" configuration. That means no bread, pasta, tortillas or anything with flour or wheat.
Our breakfasts have been as follows:
Egg-Beater (approx 3 eggs), Nuked chopped spinach (handful) and 1/2 cup of organic black beans. Topped with 1 tablespoon of sour cream and liberally splashed with hot sauce.
This is surprisingly good, and feels great in your tummy. For those worried about becoming a methane factory, I've got good news: after a few days, your intestinal flora change to be able to accommodate the legumes and we've had no problems at all.
Lunch is generally a salad with some leftover meat of some kind, grilled pork, chicken or whatever is on hand.
Snack of 3 low-fat mozzarella string cheese, handful of raw almonds and an apple.
Dinner is skinless grilled chicken, roast pork loin or fish. Sides of green beans, broccoli or edemame beans. No dessert.
Lots of purified water, at least a gallon a day for me.
So far, I'm finding a significant reduction in my edema and somewhat elevated energy levels.
I did find that I'm more sensitive to blood sugar fluctuations, and am having headaches. I'm assuming it's from detoxing and will fade over time. I'm not taking any aspirin or painkillers, just more water.
Often I'll have a glass of wine in the evening, but this week it just makes me feel terrible, so I've stopped.
Exercise was going for a walk a couple of times, but tonight we hit the gym for real (Yea!)
We'll be focusing on Static Contraction lifting and I'll be on the exercise bike for 15-20 minutes following.
My thinking is that the weight lifting uses up the glycogen stores in the muscles and primes the cardiovascular system. By the time I actually get on the bike, the glycogen stores are depleted and the muscles will have to shift over to burning fat right away.
I don't know that this is true, but from my limited knowledge of cellular respiration and androgenic cycles... it sounds good so what the hell!?! If I'm all wet, please correct me.
My goal is to avoid the normal 15 minute "warm-up" that conventional wisdom states you need in order to start burning fat with your aerobics. There is nothing quite as boring as sitting on an exercise bike watching Jerry Springer re-runs.
I'll be weighing in this evening so I can share all the gory details with everyone.
That's it for now,
Erik
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
A Fresh Start...
As of Monday (yesterday) I have embarked on a new series of health-habits.
I will be detailing some of the highlights and (probably) lowlights during the next 90 days. After the 90 days, we'll have a review and I'll share what I've learned.
Some vital statistics:
I am 5'11" with a moderately heavy bone structure.
Currently, I weigh 312 pounds. I'm "Apple" shaped and carry most of my excess around my middle.
My resting blood pressure is around 170/130... with Meds!!!!
I currently take:
Clonidine .4mg 3x day
Hydroclorcothyizine 25mg 1x day
Furosemide 40mg 1x day
Exforge (combination of 2 meds) 10/320 1x day (morning)
Exforge 5/160 1x day (evening)
Klor-Con 10 1x day
Yuck!
For most of my adult life, I've never been on any kind of medication; preferring to seek natural methods of healing. However, I ended up in the emergency room with BP of 265/172 and nobody could figure out why I wasn't dead.
Interestingly, my BP has fluctuated quite a bit over the last several years. When I first moved to Charleston, I was definitely on the high side.
But with a regular exercise routine, consisting mainly of lifting weights 3x week and exercise bicycling for 25 minutes directly afterwards, my BP went down to 130/90 without any meds... though I was taking "Quinn's Blend" herbs.
This is a combination of Cayenne, Garlic, Hawthorne and some other stuff.
Then, two things happened:
I started focusing more on bicycling and aerobics...
And I added moderate alcohol back into my diet.
BANG! up it went.
Hmmm...
You'd think that alcohol would relax the blood vessels, thus lowering BP. But apparently not. So now I will have one glass of wine with dinner, maybe once per week - if even that.
I've been procrastinating getting back into the gym for a very good reason... I'm being petulantly lazy.
Let's finish with a small talk about diet. I'm probably one of the worst examples of typical "American" diet there is. I am a firm advocate of the "Fat=Flavor" school. My mother always said, "Dog turds would taste pretty good if you added enough butter".
I have a deep weakness for really good hamburgers and hand-cut French fries. The best I've ever had was in Seattle from a weird little stand named, "Dick's". The closest I've found otherwise is Wendy's.
Frankly, I'm squashed in the middle of a little paradox: I love fresh veggies from the garden, but don't have the time, nor the space to grow one. Because I know how glorious these are, I pretty much disdain grocery store fodder. I never claimed to be reasonable. Even organic foodstuffs aren't close. But I'm working on it.
So, ok... enough of the background
My activity level has been almost nil for the last 6 weeks, but before that I was very regular in working out at least twice per week.
Yesterday, being my big start - I immediately got up and put off going to the gym. Seeing how well this went, I proceeded to diligently skip my 20 minute walk, and followed up by a long session of not stretching.
However, in a fit of weakness, I did drink over 1 gallon of water with lemon juice and chlorophyll which made me end up feeling like an intermittent fire hose.
Topping the day off, I noticed that there was some left over Ben and Jerry's in the freezer and since I didn't want to leave it there for temptation; I ate it.
I was, however very dedicated in most other forms of dietary discipline.
For Breakfast, I had egg-beaters, spinach and black beans with a tablespoon of salsa.
Lunch was a green salad and 2 hotdogs (theoretically good hotdogs without a lot of nitrates and crap).
Dinner was two grilled chicken thighs and a big handful of non-salted trail mix.
I had one glass of mediocre red wine while sitting at our fire ring in the back yard while giving Nicholaus tips on the fine art of Pyromania.
Life was good.
I will be detailing some of the highlights and (probably) lowlights during the next 90 days. After the 90 days, we'll have a review and I'll share what I've learned.
Some vital statistics:
I am 5'11" with a moderately heavy bone structure.
Currently, I weigh 312 pounds. I'm "Apple" shaped and carry most of my excess around my middle.
My resting blood pressure is around 170/130... with Meds!!!!
I currently take:
Clonidine .4mg 3x day
Hydroclorcothyizine 25mg 1x day
Furosemide 40mg 1x day
Exforge (combination of 2 meds) 10/320 1x day (morning)
Exforge 5/160 1x day (evening)
Klor-Con 10 1x day
Yuck!
For most of my adult life, I've never been on any kind of medication; preferring to seek natural methods of healing. However, I ended up in the emergency room with BP of 265/172 and nobody could figure out why I wasn't dead.
Interestingly, my BP has fluctuated quite a bit over the last several years. When I first moved to Charleston, I was definitely on the high side.
But with a regular exercise routine, consisting mainly of lifting weights 3x week and exercise bicycling for 25 minutes directly afterwards, my BP went down to 130/90 without any meds... though I was taking "Quinn's Blend" herbs.
This is a combination of Cayenne, Garlic, Hawthorne and some other stuff.
Then, two things happened:
I started focusing more on bicycling and aerobics...
And I added moderate alcohol back into my diet.
BANG! up it went.
Hmmm...
You'd think that alcohol would relax the blood vessels, thus lowering BP. But apparently not. So now I will have one glass of wine with dinner, maybe once per week - if even that.
I've been procrastinating getting back into the gym for a very good reason... I'm being petulantly lazy.
Let's finish with a small talk about diet. I'm probably one of the worst examples of typical "American" diet there is. I am a firm advocate of the "Fat=Flavor" school. My mother always said, "Dog turds would taste pretty good if you added enough butter".
I have a deep weakness for really good hamburgers and hand-cut French fries. The best I've ever had was in Seattle from a weird little stand named, "Dick's". The closest I've found otherwise is Wendy's.
Frankly, I'm squashed in the middle of a little paradox: I love fresh veggies from the garden, but don't have the time, nor the space to grow one. Because I know how glorious these are, I pretty much disdain grocery store fodder. I never claimed to be reasonable. Even organic foodstuffs aren't close. But I'm working on it.
So, ok... enough of the background
My activity level has been almost nil for the last 6 weeks, but before that I was very regular in working out at least twice per week.
Yesterday, being my big start - I immediately got up and put off going to the gym. Seeing how well this went, I proceeded to diligently skip my 20 minute walk, and followed up by a long session of not stretching.
However, in a fit of weakness, I did drink over 1 gallon of water with lemon juice and chlorophyll which made me end up feeling like an intermittent fire hose.
Topping the day off, I noticed that there was some left over Ben and Jerry's in the freezer and since I didn't want to leave it there for temptation; I ate it.
I was, however very dedicated in most other forms of dietary discipline.
For Breakfast, I had egg-beaters, spinach and black beans with a tablespoon of salsa.
Lunch was a green salad and 2 hotdogs (theoretically good hotdogs without a lot of nitrates and crap).
Dinner was two grilled chicken thighs and a big handful of non-salted trail mix.
I had one glass of mediocre red wine while sitting at our fire ring in the back yard while giving Nicholaus tips on the fine art of Pyromania.
Life was good.
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