WHICH WEIGHS MORE, A POUND OF FAT OR A POUND OF MUSCLE?

You see it on every weight loss plan, but it bears repeating.  As we lived our sedentary lifestyle, our body realizes that our muscles are not being utilized and the tissues becomes scavenged for resources.  However, when we begin to exercise again, the body rebuilds the muscle tissue.  When this happen, the scale will show you gaining.  The thing to keep in mind is that a pound of muscle is more dense and therefore takes up less space than a pound of fluffy fat.  In the beginning, let your clothes and not your scale be your guide.  If your clothes fit better despite what the scale says, be assured that the unwanted fat is going away.  Be patient and your scale will catch up with what the holes in your belt are already telling you.

Choosing the Right Music

     It is just a week until I decided to add a running component to the walks I have been doing and I'm trying to figure out how to overcome my problem of "Out running my lungs."  Here is what I mean by "Out Running My Lungs".  The human heart is a small fist like organ that is required to beat 24/7 for your entire life.  It's job is to bring oxygen to your cells and remove carbon dioxide.  The heart pushes out about 70 mL per beat.  That blood must get from the heart to its destination, swap gas loads, and return.  Now for every pound of body fat that you add to your body, your body must add 7 miles of blood vessels, most of which are cappilaries.

     Now, if we put it into different terms, think of oxygenated blood as gasoline in a gas tank.  If my car gets 30 miles per gallon, I should be able to drive 300 miles on one tank of gas.  Now, if I have to travel less than 300 miles, I won't run out of gas.  Now with increased body fat, the destination is now much further away and I may now not be able to get to the end destination before I run out of gas.  The same works with the heart.  If the pathways are too long, I may not be able to get the blood to my working muscles and that is why I become totally gassed.  (Pun definitely intended.)

Now, the trick is to increase my workload without putting my body into an oxygen debt; causing me to take multiple breathing breaks.  Part of the problem is the choice of music on my iPod.  I like hard driving rock songs, but they typically play at  150-200 beats per minute.  So, what does that look like?

Slow Walk- 3mph-20 min/mile

Military Cadence - 3.4 mph - 17.64 min/mile

Fast Walk- 4 mph - 15 min/mile

Double Time Cadence - 5.1 mph - 11.76 min/mile

Slower Rock Music -6mph - 10 min/mile

Fast Rock Music - 10 mph - 6 min/mile

Speed Metal - 12 mph - 5 min/mile

In an effort to run at a decent pace without blowing my lungs to pieces or dropping dead on the road, I have been looking up military cadences.  This should get me to a steady and managable pace until I can run steady to my rock music.  There are a few hip-hop cadences that follow the military cadences, but are catchy to listen to such as Motava8. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhlR6hQpd7o

IF IT WORKS FOR THE BEST-

IT SHOULD WORK FOR ME.

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT AIN'T TATERS!!!!

So today I'm craving some really down home cookin' with meat and potatoes, but those starchy little buds are not so great for the waistline.  Thinking to my self, "Self, how do we deal with this potato dilema?", I remembered something I read.  Rushing to the store with utmost haste as I was having a craving, I bought the required components to confuse my brain and my belly, but satisfying myself all at the same time.  An what are you asking did I bring home from the produce section of Jewel/Osco?  Cauliflower.  This is a modified recipe that I found in the South Beach Diet Book, but it is all about taste.

Caulifower  x 2
Fat Free Half-n-Half
Skim Milk
Cayenne Pepper
Black Pepper
Red Pepper Flakes
Parsley
Garlic Powder or Fresh Garlic
Salt
French's Fried Onions

Clean and cut the cauliflower into small chunks and steam them until soft.  In a bowl, place the cauliflower and enough half-n-half to get them to the consitency of mashed potatoes.  Mash the daylights out of the  cauliflower in your best effort to get them to look like mashed spuds.  Add all the other ingredients to taste and serve hot with a sprinkling of French's Fried Onions as garnish.

Enjoy and Good Eating

Kind of looks like taters.

If you doctor it up right, it taste almost like mashed potatos, but you can eat a big helping and eat it guilt free.

Brush Yourself Off

TWIZZLERS BE MY DOWNFALL!!!!!!  Well, that didn't take long.  Last night the first bad craving hit and the Twizzlers got me.  I thought I could handle just four and be good, but I slipped and devoured nearly the whole bag.  Now, with nearly all of my WeightWatchers flex points  depeleted, lets reevaluate the sitation.  Let's see where I went wrong and how to fix it.

1. Flex points are flex points.  It would  have been nice if I used them for something a bit healthier, but oh well.
2. I talked about brushing your teeth after eating, but I didn't and allowed the delicious taste of Twizzlers to linger and BAM!!!!!!!......I go crazy for Twizzlers like a tween at a Justin Bieber concert.
3. I was dehydrated.  I know I didn't drink enough water yesterday and the human brain is a tricky little beast.  When we get dehydrated and fail to drink, the brain tricks us into feeling hungry knowing that our tendency is to also drink when we are snacking.  (Drinking my water even as I type this.)
4. Don't listen to my brain when it tells me that I can handle a 1 pound bag of Twizzlers in my house.  Next time I will  just buy a package from a vending machine and set it asided for when I really want a little something sweet.

So, I guess the moral of the story is to lo brush myself off and learn from the Twizzler attack.  I know it won't be the last time, but with time and careful planning, perhaps I can reduce them to a minimum.

Be careful....it is coiled to attack like a vicious cobra and always on the hunt for fat guys.

No, no, no...They Can't Take That Away From Me.

So, I hate diets.  Well, who actually does like them?  Everything about them is totally wrong, because they are all about denying you things; things that you eventually crave so bad that you go totally nuts and fall off of the diet wagon.  So, I have come up with a new rally cry, slogan, mantra, whatever you want to call it.  My new philosphy is, "Don't deny, just modify."  Now, I know what you are thinking......how corny can you get?  Now, imagine it on a high quality Under Armour T-shirt with the words "Don't Deny...." on the front with a picture of a huge fat guy and on the back the words "Modify" with a picture of a ripped, hunk of a man.  Now, what are you thinking?  I'll bet you would buy that for $20 bucks.
     Ok, so I guess I should get to the point.  I have been craving one of my guilty pleasures....a Salted, Carmel Mocha.  As the name suggests, it is a bit on the high calorie side, but I wanted it.  I mean look at it, how can you deny it?

Looks delicious, doesn't it?

 
So, I decided early this morning that I needed and wanted one of these when I got home from work.  So, before I even left, I hopped on Weightwatchers and entered it into my points plan.  Now, the whole day, I work around my guilty pleasure.  So, I'm going to eat two salads today, but it is worth it.  So, I guess the moral of the story is really not to deny yourself while dieting, but figure out how you will modify things so you can have some of the things you want by eating less, eating healthier, or exercising a bit more to earn the treat.  I hope this helps some of you and enjoy life.

See, it is already on the "Fat Man" tally sheet.