My monthly fatloss report....

Today's Post:  Monday, 2-23-2013

This month’s report is a mixed review with some positive and some negative events to report.

I both gained some leverage and lost some. 

That status seems like AND IS where I’ve been stuck for some time!

My hope of course, is that I’ll gradually make progress by relentlessly continuing the things that have lost and kept off the fat I no longer have;

Having the things I’ve added get traction and gradually help lose some more fat;

-- AND find things with more leverage that work well when I try them -- and then keep doing them also! 

(See the news at the end of this post.  I have found a new way to remove extra belly fat that might work!  And, I found a previous post with another one that was tested to work that I’d forgotten about!

And, there is yet a third one this month! 

I can’t yet afford the first two. 

But I’m being forced to do a version I can afford of the third one, because it is essential to protect my health!)

A.  Here’s my immediate progress section first:

As I suspected, about a pound and a half of the two pounds I gained last time was just that day and was not typical either before or after

The news this month is likely temporary too; but it IS GOOD for the pounds I lost!

In addition to losing the extra pound and a half, I lost four more pounds!

So I’m now only 4 pounds over my goal weight!

What happened?  And why might it be temporary?

We moved!  And, I may have burned as many calories in those two days carrying boxes and small items almost nonstop for one day and part of a second than I do normally in TWO weeks of exercising. 

I don’t think I’ve eaten enough more to change that. (It helps to eat in a very patterned way so that extras and additions stand out.  And with one exception, that didn’t happen! Plus that one exception happened BEFORE I weighed myself.)

It might be temporary because over a few weeks my appetite regulation might add much of that fat back. But it might not too!

BUT, my waist, THIS TIME, went UP by from ¾ of an inch to nearly an inch!

I have two possible explanations for that:

1.  While my amount of exercise went up hugely during our move, so did the amount of unrelieved stress I was under even though our move did go surprisingly well.

So if extra stress did cause me to release way more cortisol and that causes more fat to get deposited on my belly as it does for other people I may have lost fat elsewhere and added that much to my belly fat!

2.  Two or three months ago I wrote:

“Apparently, the progress in my new PACE or high intensity cardio session of 5 sets I added of abdominal exercises -- both toned my muscles and tightened them up or maybe added some of the three pounds over the last two months as muscle.

I’ve now gone from 14 reps to 90 of the 98 reps I plan for each of the new 5 sets!

Clearly it has helped me to gain muscle instead of fat.  I may well be burning 300 calories or more each week than I was a few months ago.”

Since we moved and slightly before, everything is so changed and cramped, to get to work on time, I’ve had to almost eliminate that whole extra cardio program!

I clearly CAN ramp back up to the whole thing at full strength.  And, I think I will once I become more skilled and efficient in our new location.

I’d better; because I’ve had to scrap my fourth high intensity variable cardio session as there was not room to keep my Nordic Track.

3. I have kept up the added vegetables.  I’m actually doing well with maintaining it each week!

Losing enough more fat to cut it from my belly fat as I want to do will mean adding even more vegetables than I eat now as Vitamix drinks.

Several months ago I bought and read a book that suggests that both adding even more vegetables AND taking one week in four where I also eat less of many other foods – other than vegetables, may produce net and sustainable fat losses.

I’m still limited in what I can do now.  BUT, I am on the right track and will do what I can get to now and plan for much more when I can.

(Possible change in this one!  See the last piece of news at the end of this post!)

4.  As I mentioned above, one of the continuing good news stories is my strength training.  The progress is still VERY slow but if I continue getting stronger every week or two AS I HAVE BEEN for the past several months and continue for another few years and am able to add back more safe to do leg exercises and make that progress with them, I will keep adding muscle when most people 15 years younger than I lose that much muscle or even more in the same time period!

a) Much to my great shock, I’ve actually gotten stronger on a few upper body exercises despite the disruption from our move!  Hooray!

b) Did have a small setback on healing the stress fracture in my left foot.  This is understandable from the need to carry so many boxes and focus more on getting the job done than being careful with it.  I’ll just pause my rehab a week or two longer.  I’ll get it healed and strong again eventually. It was already a several month project.  So adding a week or two won’t make that much of a change.

c) Overall, my muscles LOOK a bit bigger, particularly my arms and shoulders; and though my middle is still fat, my thighs have some definition and are clearly hard and toned.

So even though I’ve not gained enough muscles in size or weight to increase how much they weigh and the calories they burn as I’d like to do ---  After another year or so, I may gain a pound or two of muscle at an age when most people lose 5 pounds of muscle instead!

5.  It’s just a matter of time too to the day I can get and use the Vitamix to boost my vegetable intake enough to lose some fat that way.   

And, I did just find out that removing a few things for a week once a month may enable me to lose fat that week every month.

And, by maintaining the extra vegetables all month, that plus the continuing improvements in my exercises may really get me there.

So the conclusion is that despite being hammered more than usual by outside negative influences, I’m still maintaining most of my efforts that lost fat for me to begin with.  AND, I’m still adding promising new things that are working already or might work.

AND, I plan to both continue doing that and have even more in the pipeline for as soon as I can manage to add them.  

B.  New recently & this month:

1.  One of the health emails I got had a new supplement that you had to pay to get and get information on that promised to almost wipe out the effect of stress on abdominal fat.

This sort of thing usually is smoke and doesn’t work in practice. 

But it WAS a potential solution to the exact problems I have.  If true, it would enable me to lose as much as the entire 24 pounds of belly fat I’m still carrying.

I then looked up the information that WAS in the ad on Google to see if there was more information elsewhere for free.

Here’s what I found: 

The effect may in fact be real but not enough by itself to do more than half the job without adding a safe way to boost my level of growth hormone closer to my youthful levels.

(And the existing supplements using it have other ingredients to help it boost heart health which I’ve already done.  So not only are those likely a bad fit for me, they might not be entirely safe as my heart indicators have almost gone past optimum now!)

However, this class of active ingredient is in lemon and orange peel. 

And, at Whole Foods I can get the organic lemons and oranges that would make them safe to add to my Vitamix drinks often enough to at least lose 12 pounds of belly fat.

This is VERY interesting to say the least. 

Last month while eating at a restaurant, I got a fish dish and ate most of the lemon rind.  I found this easier and far less sour than eating the main part of the lemon!

And, I got some organic lemons and an organic orange at Whole Foods to try in the next few days. I was also able to eat the peel for those with no trouble eating them.  But the set up was a bit more time to do than I have had since.

I suspect that I need the Vitamix to add enough EVERY DAY consistently enough to do much. 

And I think I may be more in need of the safe growth hormone boost I don’t yet know how to get.

But I’m experimenting with what I can do by eating a few each week.

If it only helps me cut 3 pounds of belly fat instead of gaining them in the next few months, I’ll be very pleased.

(Our preparation for moving into a smaller space PLUS the flu derailed my plan to add this every day since my last report.

But when I can get back to it, not only it may have the effect in the study and cause some belly fat loss, I may be able to eat the organic lemon or orange rinds instead of a slice of Irish grass fed cattle cheese that has more calories.  So it might also help me lose a pound or so overall.)

Then when I do add the Vitamix and more frequent consumption, I may lose another 9 pounds of belly fat.

The other possibility is that adding back the two faster recovery supplements might enable me to do more on my strength training and get some growth hormone boost and lose more belly fat from that.

2.  Wow! I’d forgotten a post I’d written on a natural compound that acts as if it was an anabolic steroid but has NONE of the expense or lack of safety or side effects of anabolic steroids!

Ursolic acid is the compound.  It seems to make the growth hormone and fat removal hormones you already have much more effective. 

This was so true in the tests, it looks like it may make you stronger, your muscles bigger, and make you less fat even without exercise.  (This was thought by the researcher to be possibly a way to help cancer survivors and people in nursing homes who can’t currently exercise maintain to their muscles.)

Needless to say when added to a decent strength training program, it likely would be a massive help.

A month’s supply of the supplement costs $89.95!  So it was out of reach for me at the time and now.  But there is some in Brewer’s yeast and the oregano and basil I add several days a week to my dinners.  I’ve been making do with that small amount as what I could then and now afford. (The richest source is red apple peels.  But it is extremely hard to get apple peels – even those listed to be organic – that haven’t been sprayed with something you’d not want to eat tons of.)

BUT, now I’ve been reminded, I will try the supplement when I can afford it!!

3.  There are two vegetables that when juiced at the level of the Vitamix, cause drops in blood pressure comparable to the drugs for high blood pressure or even better but which have ZERO side effects if the vegetables are organic!

a)  Celery for those not allergic to it, has an ingredient that does this.  But in order to work, you need to eat the celery itself to get the ingredient in massive and affordable doses AND along with the cofactors in the celery it needs to work!

b)  Juicing beets also has a similar effect with a big extra work out boost!

It seems that to get the boost in nitric oxide that relaxes your blood vessels and improves the health and flexibility of your endothelium, the insides of your blood vessels, you need to get nitrates from vegetables in contact with the saliva in your mouth.

The workout bonus is that besides the much better blood flow, this also may boost growth hormone levels after your workouts!

In fact, beet juice has been tested to show performance enhancement!!

So, I’ve long planned to add this one!

But I’ve no funds yet for the Vitamix for either one.

c) Here’s the brand new news!

I’ve got to make do with what of this I can do with our existing blender if I want to avoid taking drugs that will ruin my quality of life because our recent move’s stress drove my blood pressure up enough it will harm my kidneys if I don’t do that OR get it done with this!

And, I CAN afford the organic celery!  Plus, I CAN afford the nitrates plus not have to have the mess of beets!  The superfood dark greens like kale and cabbage and water cress I already should be eating more of ALSO have that level of nitrates.

I plan to have a positive report on that next time!

So, the conclusion is that some of what I’m doing and will keep doing is working.  I’ll keep doing them all!

And I have several planned improvements likely to work and these new and very promising things that might – one of which I’ll try before next time.