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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Mid-Night Revelation


Sometimes when the wind is howling through the mountains it is hard to sleep at night. I woke up around mid-night and had a cup of sleepy time tea. That clearly does it for me. As I sat here sipping my tea I thought about a report on Denver TV I had heard last week. It related to all the sugar we consume in about everything we eat, especially processed foods. They said 4 grams of sugar is the equivalent of a tea spoon of raw sugar.

Then as we were watching that report Carol looked at the 'fruit on the bottom yogurt' I had just eaten and it had 32 grams of sugar. That sugar is all hollow calories that end up being fat. So after my cup of tea I went in and weighed myself. OMG, I'm 20 pounds over my normal weight which is 180 lbs. I must have fallen asleep at the wheel to let that happen. That means every time I get up from my chair, out of bed, walk anywhere, I'm carrying an extra 20 pounds along. I can't get away from it!

That led to the acknowledgement I am not lifting weights now and had my weight bench and weights up for sale. Maybe it is time I used them instead of waiting for a buyer. I had stopped last year when I had hernia surgery. I have been lifting weights all my life and need to get back into the habit. Instead of bench pressing 245 lbs. I need to do less weight and more repetitions so I don't bulk up which would totally defeat my wanting to lose weight. Muscle weighs more than fat so I don't want to exercise and gain weight.

So I'm going to cut out as much sugar as I realistically can which means no deserts, no evening snacks unless it is trans fat and sugar free and resume my weight lifting routine. At my age I don't need to go for the heavy lifting as much as the fat burning reps. So I figure if I get back on my life long routine of lifting weights, cut back on sugar and trans fats (excluding an occasional chocolate drop) then in four months I should be back to my normal weight.

The photo above is not me but one I borrowed however it sure could be me. 20 pounds in 4 months is 5 pounds per month, and not drastic reduction, but gradual at 1.25 pounds per week. I will let readers know if that works or not. I realize that there are diets that people use that work but I hope my approach is a common sense one that takes an extra 20 pounds off my hips, knees, and feet so they hurt less. With the regular walks, shoveling snow, cutting/splitting firewood that is all good exercise but more needs to be done.

So stay tuned for monthly progress updates. I know better than to get on the scales to often as weight fluctuats and I don't want to become disappointed. I will do it once a month. I've never had 6 pack abs as I think that is not normal, and even though I lift weights and work out, that is the extreme. I'm not a body builder, but do enjoy working out with weights. It would be more fun if I didn't live remote and had someone to work out with like in the old days. I have always been fortunate to work out with those who were professionally trained on weights because if you end up doing it wrong you can hurt yourself very easily which would defeat my goals to lose weight. I do hope to work on specific muscle groups however and replace some of that unwanted 20 lbs, with more muscle. So I will try to post my success or not once a month.

4 comments:

Carol said...

hmmmmmmmmm, guess that will cut down on my baking!

Barbara J. Galasso said...

Geez Bruce, I thought with all the exercise that you get from living among nature that you'd be a specimen of good health! Looks like the older we get, the less we can take for granted.

Bruce said...

I think we are all subject to gravitational pull and slackness sometimes. Now is my time Barbara, and I aim to do something about it. Sure not one for those fad diets though, and figure if it took the last year to pack it on, then 4 months concentrated effort to take it off will hopefully be enough.

Patricia said...

I wish you luck in your weight loss goals. I have found that since my throidectomy and subsequent need for synthetic thyroid replacement therapy that weight loss is near impossible. However, the doctors keep "adjusting" my meds; maybe the latest will be an improvement.