My monthly fatloss progress report....

Today's Post:  Monday, 12-23-2013

This report is no fun to write as it’s bad news this time—again!

This is another mixed review report. (The bad news this month is in Part I.)

And, the likely results I’m headed for are still promising!  (Why is listed below in Part II.)

Part I:

The bad news first:

Last month I gained 3 & a half pounds. 

This month I gained another 2 pounds. Ouch!

 Now I’m at 3 and a half pounds over my goal weight.  And most of the 10 pounds I gained since I was 6 and a half pounds under my goal weight has been fat.  I can tell when I look in the mirror.

I did continue the strategies I’ve continued to use that lost me the 30 pounds to start with.

BUT, I did allow myself a LOT of Christmas cookies during the last part of the week just past.  Plus I’ve been under some extra stress.  (I do NOT do that often!  But I made the mistake of tasting a several kinds of the cookies and then having seconds of the 3 kinds that were that good.)

The surprise was that I did NOT gain any on my waist this month.  The extra fat seemed to go on my bottom more this time.

(And, I may have gained some muscle as except for my bottom and waist, you can see my muscles more everywhere else from my super slow strength training.

BUT, the bad news is I’m still about 5 inches or so too fat on my waist!

THIS is the key measure for me. 

Based on the lack of what the bodybuilders call high definition and the small visible rolls of fat on my belly and “love handles” and hips and the equal amount of excess visceral fat likely inside my belly, I think I do have that much fat to lose. 

There is better news on my gaining more muscle. 

But at my age, even with that good news and a shot at gaining maybe 10 pounds of muscle -- to lose my fat belly, I still need to directly lose 24 pounds of fat.  When I gain that muscle it likely will help.

But in case it winds up being more like I become much stronger but only gain 2 or 3 pounds of muscle, I still need to directly lose about 20 pounds of fat at least.

So, I’d best do more with my food choices to get there!

Part II.  The good news!:  Why the likely results soon are better!

a)  First the added muscle is looking both like it will add fewer pounds but those are becoming far MORE likely.

My left shoulder is still not 100%.  But it is enough better that I CAN and AM beginning to use more weight on my shoulder exercises.  I also am just about to add a way to increase the weight I use on the corrective exercises the physical therapist gave me.

In fact, by adding wrist weights from one to four pounds, I can much more easily get stronger by making smaller but more frequent progress in ALL my at home exercises with dumbbells. 

(It can be too big a jump to go to 5 pounds more on each hand.  But by adding one pound a week, I think I can make faster progress without having to do that now.)

Since I am doing better at home already and am also getting stronger on the Nautilus machines at the Perfect Workout super slow gym and personal trainer I’ve been using, I’m beginning to be more optimistic about adding muscle by getting stronger. 

But their high tech scale says I’ve only added about half a pound of muscle so far.  So instead of gaining a pound a month of muscle, a pound a year may be more what’s doable.

So, I’m both encouraged by the progress and likely improvement, I’m much more motivated to find a way to upgrade my eating program.

b)  This month’s big news is I just DID that!

Here’s the story:

I’d seen Dr David Perlmutter’s expertise before in his Better Brain book.

So, when I saw publicity for his new book:

Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers by David Perlmutter, MD

I thought it was likely an important book I should check out.

But I’d not expected to find that I should make changes that much in what I eat because I have removed all wheat 99% of the time and eat very little grains now.

So, I got his new book and began to read it.

Much to my surprise, I discovered that some of the fruits I’ve been eating and the rolled oats I’ve been eating every other day, were still too much!  So much so that by cutting them in half and cutting the no sugar applesauce I’ve been eating by 90%, I may have a shot at losing about half of my 24 pounds of fat.

That one I’ve already begun to do.  If I’m doing enough with his information, by next month of the month after, we should see some results.

If what I do works, I’ll provide more details next time or the time after that.

I’ve found his work very well researched and very convincing!

If you have fat to lose yourself or want to lose your holiday fat gain after the holiday, do read and use his book!