Good morning!
<iframe src="https://embed.spotify.com/? uri=spotify:user:1141241474:playlist:4DW671pVbJD85BHztiqv4I"; width="300" height="380" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe> Today's music is Gov't Mule. This is probably the best CD of 2013. Notice that all the songs are there twice. First time, it's just the band. 2nd time, they have some pretty interesting guest vocalists. Enjoy!
Phew. Yesterday was rough.
I ate SO MUCH FOOD!
It was a REAL challenge to reach my numbers, but I managed and I enjoyed it - even if I felt bad having all the foods.
Let's see...
Lunch: 8(!) fried fish filets with 4(!) slices of rye bread
Afternoon snacks: 1 whole liter of low calorie/fat free ice cream(!) 1 large protein bar
Dinner at the Chinese restaurant (change of plans) 300g of beef 200g of chicken breast 200g of mixed vegetables 2 tablespoons of oily sauces 2 tablespoons of BBQ sauce 2 tablespoons of soy sauce (all prepared as Mongolian BBQ - nothing added to it during cooking)
Dessert:
Rice a la MandePhew. That was a LOT.
So, how does all that food affect my weigh-in today? Well...
This is the very first time I have ever gone to the Chinese Restaurant and had a LIGHTER weigh-in the day after!
That alone shows that what I am doing is working.
This is something that just doesn't happen. I ALWAYS gain weight from the Chinese Restaurant. I eat too many wrong things. I retain water. SO many things. I always, always, always gain weight. But not today.
...
I am assuming that this is due to the macros being in check. It's weird, but it works. I eat at maintenance level, but I still see myself getting leaner, nice and slow. There are still no workouts allowed, so this is the best plan I have for right now.
...
Speaking of "no workouts"...
There is a MASSIVE bump in the road for me.
Here's the (short) back story:
I have always had a little bit of a heart flutter. Sometimes my heart skips a beat. It's nothing all too serious, and it never affected me.
They registered it first time decades ago, and as I was overweight it was fixed with my heart- and blood pressure medicine.
Well, now I am off the medicine, as my blood pressure is just fine.
They registered it at my first surgery, but left it at that.
At the second surgery two weeks ago, they registered it again, and we a little more concerned. They took and EKG on the spot, but deemed it "unimportant" enough to just ask me to go see my physician when I came home.
So, of course, I did.
He listened and checked, and told me that I probably didn't need to worry, but that I should have another EKG done just to make sure. He'd call me if further action was needed.
Well... yesterday he called me.
Apparantly, what I have COULD cause strokes. The risk of me having one is in no way major, but that combined with new fitness levels and all that could be bad.
So, they want to "reset" my heart. In essence, it's kinda like taking a ride on a heart defibrillator. It stops the heart, and reboots it. This should make it kick back into a normal heart rythm. There is nothing dangerous in it - it just sounds awfully scary.
I'm pretty okay with it. I want it fixed. It would be nice to NOT feel the skipping heart, and it is good to know that I can safely to my training when it's done.
Until then, though, I am benched. No heavy workouts. I can walk, but that's about all. Bummer.
I am supposed to take blood thinning medicine for three weeks, then go to the hospital to have this done. Afterwards, I should be good to go, pretty much. This will be mid-January if I'm lucky.
Until then, I gotta take it easy.
I was supposed to start on the medication yesterday, but I am seeing my surgeon today. I need to make sure that blood thinning medication isn't messing with my healing process from the surgery. I need to make sure that this is okay too. As soon as she says go, I will start. If there is a delay, I will call my doctor and figure it out with him.
This sucks. I don't really want more hospital crap. I was supposed to be done after this surgery, and having this happen is REALLY inconvenient. Then again, so are strokes, so I just have to man up and do right.
...
I was messing with the IIFYM.com calculators yesterday, trying to get a little more understanding of it.
I do see a problem with it.
If you are severely overweight, then it gives you some very strange numbers - especially if you don't know your body fat percentage.
You would have to over eat protein like crazy, and not have much allowed in carbs. CRAZY low carbs. Not sustainable, and not useful.
I am looking into this for my classes, and I see that this will NOT work unless you're reasonably close to goal. You can only have a relatively low body fat percentage, or you'd have to do crazy amounts of exercise - something that doesn't go well hand-in-hand with, say, morbidly obese people.
So what to do?
Well, I looked at the Danish Ministry of Health's website, and they have some good, general pointers.
They suggest 10-15% of your calorie intake from protein, up to 30% of your calorie intake from fat, and the rest from carbs. It sounds very reasonable to me, AS LONG AS WE CONSUME FEWER CALORIES THAN WE BURN. Combine this with a relatively small, daily calorie deficit of 500 calories, and a weight loss journey would be VERY sustainable, and very easy to do. Push harder, and it gets tougher. Losing 1 pound per week is a great goal, if you ask me. It takes time to gain weight, it takes time to lose weight. It's the nature of the beast.
...
I am looking into this because I am trying to do a new little thing for my weight-loss business.
I'm building a little class/workshop/spoken word show that I hope to go traveling with here and there. I hope I can get hired in to do this, basically go to different companies, interest groups, etc., and tell my story and get people going losing weight.
There is quite a market for it here, and I feel that I have a very different approach from what all the doctors and dieticians and what-have-you do. I honestly thing that what I have learned over the last three years - and VERY MUCH the last few weeks! - have put me in a position where I can really get people going.
The entire message in my speech is that it's easy to lose weight. The tools are there. They're simple and easy to use. Combine them with the right understanding of the mission, and you're good to go. Don't starve yourself. Make sure you eat enough. Don't go for "perfect" constantly, but go for "good enough" most of the time. When you fail, recognize and and move back to "good enough". This will make you reach goal.
...
So, how about MY goals and numbers?
Well, they're better than ever still!
Take a look:
Weight:
Day after surgery: 82.4 kg
19.12.13: 83.9 kg (up)
20.12.13: 83.6 kg (down)
Average 7 days: 83.0 (up)
Average 28 days: 82.7 (down)
Bodyfat:
Day after surgery: 07.5% (6.18 kg)
19.12.13: 08.2% (6.88 kg - down)
20.12.13: 08.6% (7.18 kg - up)
Average 7 days: 9.3% (down)
Average 28 days: 10.0% (down)
Muscle weight:
Day after surgery: 72.5 kg
19.12.13: 73.3 kg (up)
20.12.13: 72.6 kg (down)
Average 7 days: 71.6 kg (up)
Average 28 days: 70.8 kg (steady)
Fluid Percentage:
Day after surgery: 68.5% (56.44 kg)
19.12.13: 67.6% (56.72 kg - up)
20.12.13: 66.6% (55.61 kg - down)
Average 7 days: 66.1% (up)
Average 28 days: 65.6% (up)
Total Daily Energy Exp.:
Day after surgery: 3379 calories
19.12.13: 3424 calories
20.12.13: 3391 calories
Average 7 days: 3343 calories (up)
Average 28 days: 3309 calories (steady)
Abdominal fat:
Day after surgery: 4
19.12.13: 4 (steady)
20.12.13: 4 (steady)
Average 7 days: 4.3 (down)
Average 28 days: 4.7 (down) Weight is down, but body fat today is up. That's natural. What is interesting is the the averages on body fat over 7 and 28 days are still going down. I love seeing this. Body Fat today is in the 8% range, it's in the 9% range of 7 days, and at an even 10 over 28 days. Very, very nice. I hope I can keep nudging it down, nice and slow. I'm in absolutely no rush, and it's not something I am purposefully aiming for, but I would love to see it at a permanent <10% for life. That would be perfect.
Muscle weight is down today - this is more related to a drop in fluid than anything else - but average on 7 days says up, and 28 days says steady. Steady is what I want on this, so not losing muscle over the course of a month is brilliant, and much better than expected.
Fluid is down today - and this explains the weight drop - but is generally going up. This is of no concern.
My TDEE over the last month is steady too. It seems like I am just nicely settling in at 3300 calories per day. It's still a LOT of food. I still can't help wondering what happens when I start moving a little more. I will have to keep up with the intake and eat more. Phew. I'm stuffed just from thinking about it.
Abdominal fat is still showing GREAT numbers. I've been at 4 for some days, and the averages show that I might slowly inch my way to just settling there, or going lower. The number is slowly coming down, but we have to look at decimals to see the change. It's a slow progress this one, but it always is. Still, numbers are better and better.
...
So, today I am going to see the surgeons in Roskilde, at the hospital.
Boy, I hope they will let me lose the girdles. I am tired of them, they're a pain in the rear.
I'm not convinced that they'll let me, though. I still have (minor) fluid buildup, and I still need to drain it daily. I'm not sure how this goes hand in hand with it. Maybe they'll let me lose at least one of them.
I also have to talk to them about my "doggie-ear".
"What's a doggie-ear, Keld?"
I'm glad you asked.
A doggie-ear is when you have skin adjustments, and the skin creates a tiny fold where the two sides meet. It's kinda hard to explain. Imagine, if you will, that you have my stomach skin, and you cut out a wedge, and then sew the sides around it together, kind of like when you zip up a jacket. The top of the cut, the top of the wedge, where the two sides meet, will get bent in a different way than what it's supposed to do. I will create a fold. This fold is called a doggie-ear, and I am the "lucky" owner of one.
It is something that can be fixed, and I hope that this will be done. It looks silly, smack in the middle of my chest. If there is actual surgery involved, it will be absolutely minimal. It's nothing.
I want to make sure they realize that it's there though, so we can talk about it.
...
Since I'm gonna be in Roskilde - and this is where Wife is working now - I will wait for Wife after I am done. It will be an all day on my own kind of adventure, and I will probably be walking quite a bit if I can get my surgeon's permission to do so. I would think that walking is fully allowed by now, but I have to ask, of course.
I don't really know what I'm gonna be eating today. This bothers me. I like to plan ahead, especially to reach my protein numbers. I will bring a STACK of protein bars, so I will reach my numbers no matter what. Fat and carb balances may end up all screwed up, but I WILL reach my minimum protein intake, come hell or high water.
Wife was talking about either finding a "Christmas buffet" somewhere, or just getting a pita before going home. My mission is to go scope out what is there, and see what we can do. I have all day. I just hate not knowing my food plan. I like to be on track, especially now that the results are showing so amazingly well.
Of course, one day won't break anything. I won't eat more calories than I'm allowed. This one is easy. It feels like I have all the calories in the world available. The tricky thing is to make it all fit in a nice, sane way. Proteins up, Fat up enough to work, and carbs the rest of the way.
...
Speaking of carbs...
I find it VERY interesting that I lose weight AND fluid yesterday, considering I had 322g of carbs yesterday. I thought I'd be retaining water from that, but it seems that the levels I can go are higher than that. Of course, it probably also depends how I consume them, and whether they're in one sitting or over the course of a whole day.
It doesn't matter much to me, though. I don't care all that much about the water fluctuations any longer. I know they come and go. Since I am no longer fixated on the weight number, then the fluid number doesn't matter. The fluid is IMO only relevant in regards to muscles. Besides, fluid retention lowers the body fat percentage. :)
...
Today, I'm thankful for:
- Great numbers!
- Checkup at the hospital.
- Finding out that there is a problem with my heart before there is a REAL SERIOUS problem with my heart.
- Wife. The most amazing lady in the world. - Friday!
Have a great and awesome day, my friends! Life is good!