My monthly fatloss progress report....

Today's Post:  Monday, 2-17-2014

This report is another mixed review.

Since last month, I was under some extra stress AND had a birthday party and a family dinner out AND some less than OK healthwise Chocolate Birthday cake.

I only gained about a pound and my waist stayed the same.

I ate well  for health otherwise and even at my birthday party and the family dinner, I was able to eat far better healthwise than I once knew to do.  So I gained about one pound instead of six!

 Now I’m at 4 and a half pounds over my goal weight.  And most of the 11 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.  

So I do still need to add muscle and reduce fat enough to remove 12 to 20 pounds of fat.

The adding muscle section is next. 

But first, there is one other bit of good news.  While other men my age typically gain a pound or more each year, my efforts HAVE resulting in my weight this year being almost exactly the same as it was last year.

The best news is on the added muscle side.  

More progress on the added muscle side is beginning to happen!  And, I have a plan to make more progress on the eating to lose fat side.

(I'll cover my food upgrade plan after my good news on exercise.)

1.  My exercise program IS finally getting better!  

I used the wrist weights to begin to force progress at home on my dumbbell exercises and it is working so far.  I've been able to work enough harder to make my muscles feel better exercised.  

I’ve been able to do as well at the heavier weights as I did before with the lighter ones and may be able soon to do more repetitions.

(Now I am able to jump from one dumbbell weight to 2 pounds more -- and once I've mastered that, I can then go to 5 pounds heavier and then add the 2 pound wrist weight etc.  I found the 5 pound jump was too big to be able to use to force progress. )

And, I've made enough progress on the chest press machine at my once a week The Perfect workout to do 9 superslow pushups at home up from 6 or 7.

My at home calf raises on one leg at a time with 35 pounds have gradually gone from just barely 5 to close to 10 full reps on each leg.

Tomorrow I’ll add the 2 lb wrist weight and see if I can do five or more.

So, the likely results I’m headed for are more promising!  

After being stuck at 25 pound weights on my key dumbbell exercises for years, I'm now at 32 pounds on arms and about to go to 37 pounds on calves.  

Once I get to 52 pounds for arms and 62 pounds for calves and get that much stronger at my machine exercises at The Perfect Workout, I'll add at least 5 pounds of muscle.  And, I've read that will reduce my fat by 15 pounds.  That would begin to do it as I'd lose 10 pounds on the scale.  And, my waist will be at least an inch or two smaller.

Even adding 1 & a half pounds of muscle will lose 4 & a half pounds of fat and 3 pounds on the scale.  That will cut my waist by half  an inch to an inch I think.

In addition, my shoulder exercises have worked well enough that my left shoulder is beginning to heal and my right shoulder is beginning to heal too.  Plus, I'm now finally beginning to make progress on my jump rope without making my shoulders worse.

RECENT NEWS:  My shoulders have been slowed by the minor injuries from my jump rope sessions.  One of the other trainers other than the one who trains me  at The Perfect Workout noted that I was not keeping my elbows in tight at my sides when I described and modeled my efforts  which helped cause excessive use of my shoulders in starting and doing the jumps. 

So I’ve now used his suggestion twice.  So far I’m not as good at that style in terms of doing my sets without a miss.  BUT I came much closer the second time.  And, my shoulders DO seem less bothered by doing the jump rope.

That may help me make progress on several of my upper body exercises since many of them have been held back a bit by my shoulder discomfort.  And, even before this upgrade I’ve made some progress.

I’ve also working on using a fifty pound dumbbell in my at home superslow full squats since my leg press weight at The Perfect Workout is so much more.  It’s almost working.  My legs can do it easily while at the beginning doing it with 35 pounds was challenging.  But last time, I did begin to have a problem holding the fifty pound dumbbell.

I have an idea that may patch around this problem using a backpack for added dumbbells. But I may need to stop with the fifty pound dumbbell in my at home workouts and find a way to get to a gym once or twice a month.

I've still not had time to add the yoga sessions I'd hoped.  But I did at least make a starting effort last month.  

2.  My food results and upgrade plan:

Last month I again followed Dr Perlmutter's advice and cut out 90 % of one fructose source and half of another.   I was mildly disappointed because I lost no weight.  But I did add a few grams a week of lentil and bean protein and ate well volume wise AND I did NOT gain weight beyond what I expected from my birthday cake, etc.

Just a few days ago, I began taking a cranberry extract with cold water every other day and only drinking cranberry juice every other day.  That will cut my calories from fructose by 280 calories a week.  That will help cut my weight by at least a quarter pound and maybe more.  (I’d already cut my juice calories in half by switching from grape juice at 160 calories a day to cranberry juice at 80 calories a day.)

I had cut my usual wheat intake to once every two weeks as wheat germ with my oatmeal on every other Weds morning.  But I just read that a component of the wheat germ specifically may cause inflammation and fattening.  So, starting this week, I’ll go to zero wheat on a regular basis and toss the remaining wheat germ.

I have simply been too busy to even research the next idea I had last month.

And, I read of a new possible health problem with shrimp.  So it will be a bit before I try it and when I do, I may use mushrooms and bits of grass fed cheese instead of shrimp until I can be sure my shrimp supply is safe.

This is what I wrote last month.:

My next effort will be to replace one of my oatmeal breakfast's a week with Wakame seaweed and shrimp and for 3 weeks a month AND do it the whole week one week a month.  The idea is to eat less milk and the low glycemic grain without cutting protein or fiber too much.  

My hope is that this will remove the 3 pounds I am over my goal weight without losing any muscle or muscle gain.

That one will have to wait for a bit on upgrading my income as it will cost a good bit more a month than what I'm eating now does.

At that time, I will price each of the shrimp and the Wakame to see exactly how much this will cost.

The combination I think will finally begin to do the job!   

Hope I can get to it at some point or do something like it that’s less complex to buy.

Meanwhile not having any birthdays between now and next month and my cut back on juice and my increases in what I can do in my strength training may get better results by next month.