Losing Now

The ache in my quads and glutes brings me back to my sophomore year in high school.  Gym consisted of an elected weight-training course.  I was not athletic and never lifted weights before.  The day after my first day I could not bend my arms.  Yes, I was in pain all over, but what scared me was that I could not bend my arms.   I swore to my mother that something was wrong…. Maybe I was paralyzed.   I had heard about people lifting too much and hurting themselves.   Man, to look back at those naïve days today.

Mom forced me to go to school and helped me get my shirt on that morning.  I go to talk to the teacher and he told me to move closer to him.  Quickly he bent both of my arms at the elbow for me.   Agony, but I could bend them again.

I can bend at my knees without the help of coach….. can’t remember his name. The joy of feeling my muscles growing is a feeling too long forgotten.

Well, I made a mistake that I hopefully learned a good lesson. Do not miss meals or eat fewer calories than planned when you are restricting calories in the first place. The other day I just was not feeling very hungry, and frankly just forgot to eat. Later I went on a 12 mile bike ride at a 12 mile per hour pace. At my size that little ride burned through a lot of calories. While I ate 700 calories out of a 2100-2500 calorie diet prior to the ride, the ride burned roughly 1000 calories. I was at a huge deficit by the time I got back home late in the evening.

I am an old guy that gets up at 4 and goes to bed at 10. The bike ride had me get home after 8, which is late for me. It took me an hour to completely cool down and then I was starved. I suddenly realized that I had under eaten, under fueled for the day. I was low on protein, carbs, and fats. But it was close to my bedtime and I wanted to eat smart, even if it left me light on calories for the day. So I drank a protein shake. My body demanded more…and more…and more. I went to bed hungry even after adding 2 peaches and an apple to my fuel tank.

I didn’t sleep that well. I never sleep well when I go to bed hungry. The next day I woke up starved. My normal breakfast of bran, nuts, and raisins did not come close to satisfying me. I moved my second meal up by two hours and made it a main meal instead of a snack. The hunger continued. No longer in complete control I started sucking down carbs. At first I kept the carbs to good, nutritious items, but soon went for quick, bad stuff. Pizza.

So the one-day of not eating enough led to another day of eating to much and eating stuff that is not good for losing weight and missing a workout because I had no energy. I still lost 2 pounds for the week, but it could have been bad, especially when you consider that pizza is one of my binge trigger foods. It is probably a lesson worth learning; a lesson that did not cost me a weight loss setback.

Main Entry: ad·dic·tion
Pronunciation: &-’dik-sh&n, a-
Function: noun
1 : the quality or state of being addicted <addiction to reading>
2 : compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly : persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful

Webster’s Dictionary

My personality is prone to addictive behavior. When I was younger I drank to excess every time I drank. I do not know if I could be classified as an alcoholic, but it took my four year old son to tell me he hated me ‘like last night’ to stop drinking. After that day I stopped drinking, but there are times I still want to get that old buzz. It is only the knowledge that my drinking hurts my family that keeps me from drinking again.

It is not just alcohol, AKA drugs, which I have found myself addicted. World of Warcraft, a computer game, took hours, days, and months from my life. An innocent computer game that many play in moderation pulled me away from reality and living. After I watched “We Lost 800 Pounds“ (blog post here), myself I quit playing World of Warcraft. Not only did I quit playing, but I deleted everything pertaining to the game to avoid playing it again. There are still times I crave playing the game.

I am also addicted to food. Unlike alcohol and video games, I can not quit eating. In emotional situations, times of boredom, and when I smell or eat certain foods I go on an eating binge. These are triggers. These situations trigger an abnormal eating response and in the end I became obese.

Scientists have discovered that a chemical, dopamine, is released by our brain when we smell or eat food. The dopamine reacts to dopamine-receptors in our brain to cause a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction. It has been found that obese people have fewer dopamine-receptors than non-obese people. The lack of dopamine-receptors leads to the ingestion of greater than normal food to gain that satisfaction feeling that comes sooner to those with more dopamine-receptors. This becomes a vicious cycle because the more our brain is saturated with dopamine, the more we lose dopamine-receptors as our bodies try to maintain an equilibrium. This is the very same thing that is found happening in the brains of drug addicts. You can find information about these studies here.

Does this mean there will soon be magic pills to make it so obese people don’t overeat? Scientists are working on this type of cure for addictions of all kinds, but they are nowhere close to finding a solution. What it does mean for the likes of me is that I now know that there are situations that can create a physiological situation that is resolved through overeating. We need to learn our trigger points and avoid them, or replace them.

The Historian talks about replacing peanut butter, a trigger food for him, with a peanut butter like food that does not cause him to binge. Spaghetti is one of my trigger foods. Once I start eating spaghetti I simply can not stop eating. I have not found a replacement food for spaghetti like Historian did for peanut butter, so I simply avoid it.

Are we doomed to struggle with this overeating because we lack dopamine-receptors? I have both good news and bad news for you. The bad news: there is no real understanding or cure for those of us with this problem. The good news: there is a known treatment that requires no medical insurance.

Exercise is the key to the dopamine situation. Exercise releases dopamine in our system and has been shown to build dopamine-receptors. This is a double bonus wrapped up in one activity. When you find yourself having triggered a need to binge you can exercise instead of eat to acquire the dopamine your body seeks. The more you exercise, the more dopamine-receptors you will have, meaning you will need less dopamine in your system to gain the pleasure or satiated feeling you seek. If you feel sad, go ride a bike. Do you feel happy and want to celebrate with cake and ice cream? Go for a vigorous walk and meditate on what made you so happy. You will avoid the binge, burn calories, and feel much better for doing the exercise.

Don’t let more than one day go by without exercising your body. Keep the dopamine in your system and build those receptors.

My first ride on Big Liberty Blue (BLB) ended in a tip-over.  It was not a crash, but a slow fall to the side.  As I turned my seat, saddle, twisted in the seat post throwing my balance off.  I could not remove my foot from the pedal fast enough to stop the bike from falling to the ground.

My second rid on BLB came after I fixed the saddle issue.  I rode a quick mile before pulling her into the garage for the night.  BLB road wonderfully, but I am rusty.  My center of gravity felt strange and the extra weight on my body was difficult to control.  My back and stomach muscles strained to maintain my body in a proper balanced position.  What fun I had that ride.

My third ride was a little over 2 miles long.  Again my back and stomach muscles were a bit sore after the ride and the top of my thighs burned from being used.  I will repeat this 2-mile jaunt several times as I get used to riding again.  The ultimate goal is to commute to work, a 20 mile round trip, July 10th.

The Historian, AKA Neil, has written a post in the bike forums concerning  “Core Muscles” and how to strengthen them.  This post is well worth your time.  Neil also writes an excellent blog about his cycling escapades and life in general, Historian on 2 Wheels: From 0 to 100.

I mentioned earlier that I was going to start riding a bicycle as part of my FUN and exercise. My eventual goal is to commute to work, a 20 mile round trip endevour. Yesterday I finally finished putting my new bicycle together and took it out for my first ride. What utter joy it was to have the wind in my hair again, allowing me to utilize old cliché’s.

My bike is built from a Surly Long Haul Trucker road frame that is a wonderful steel blue color. I had the wheels hand built to extra strong specifications to make sure they supported my weight. She rides as if floating through time bringing me back to days before worry and stress. She liberates my soul as I we ride together. She is my Big Liberty Blue.

Another milestone was reached today. I began walking on our treadmill, formerly known as the place to pile cloths, when I began my current quest to begin losing weight. The treadmill has a feature that monitors your heart rate and keeps it in a targeted zone. You can set the zone for the best exertion level to lose weight. The treadmill will then adjust incline and speed accordingly to maintain that exertion level for the entire period of the workout.

This feature is terrific. One of the problems I encounter with my current mental understanding of my physical abilities is that I don’t know what is exercising too hard or too light. If I exercise too hard I may not continue to exercise due to fatigue or even injury. It is important to continue to steadily exercise for best affect. If I exercise too lightly I am just wasting my time. Too lightly here means not enough to burn more calories than I normally would have without performing the exercise.

The first day I walked on the treadmill using this feature I walked for 30 minutes at 2.5 miles an hour. Before the 30 minutes were concluded my speed had been reduced to 1.7 miles an hour to keep my heart rate in my target zone. That first day was May 1st, 2007. Today I just finished walking for1 hour at 3 miles an hour with a 3-degree incline. My speed never decreased and my incline only dropped one degree. More impressive to me was the fact that I am growing more aware of my body’s stress levels and needs. I knew when I was out of the zone without looking at the output screen and could slow my heart rate a bit by focusing on breathing control. This is fantastic progress and I am quite proud of the accomplishment. I did not achieve this change in physical ability by over exerting myself. I kept a consistent exercise going for several weeks while slowly increasing duration and intensity. Don’t kill yourself. You will just quit, and quitting will eventually kill you yet again.

If I can do this you can too. Even if you don’t have fancy equipment just monitor your time and distance. Every 5 minutes check your pulse rate for 15 seconds and multiply by 4. If your heart rate is higher than you want, simply slow down. If your heart rate is lower than you want, pickup the pace.

Here is a good link about heart rate training and how to find your target zone.

Here is an article that does not believe that heart rate zone training is the best thing to do.

Obviously I do not agree with the article that does not promote heart rate zone training. It is obvious that you will lose more calories with higher intensity training. More calories lost means that you will lose more ‘fat’ calories than you would with a lower intensity workout, but you lose other calories from your body as well. Calories are just units of energy and all energy needs fuel. If you are not using fat for the fuel you are using protein and that means muscle or useful tissue. The other downside to exercising at a great intensity is that you may fail to stick with it. Consistency is the key to losing a great amount of weight. We are not in a sprint. We are in a marathon. This is why I train in a target heart rate zone best suited for losing fat.

I have dumped quite a bit of cash preparing for my bicycling life. My 19-year-old son is doing his best not to allow his eyes to roll around in his head as I yap excitedly about my bicycling dreams. The poor guy has heard it so many times before. The habit of hyping my near future endeavors has taken its toll on my credibility and my son’s patience. Thankfully my wife sees a new spark in my eye and is willing to believe this one more time. (more…)

So we were talking about exercise the other day. What exercises should you do? What you like silly. (more…)