My monthly fatloss report....

Today's Post:  Monday, 11-23-2015

[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! ]

Here’s the key news. 

1.  Last month, I don’t know for sure what occurred; and a new scale is coming shortly!

IF it’s accurate, which I no longer believe it is, I lost a pound.  (My weight reading I go by as a “normal’ weight and compare month to month is my weight before breakfast + my weight after breakfast divided by two.)

The reason I think the scale needs to be replaced is that it seems to get stuck and not show small changes in weight. 

This month on my monthly weigh in where I do both before and after breakfast and measure my chest, waist, and hips, both my before and after breakfast weight readings were the same. 

(If it was the same, the average I use went down by one pound.  If I gained the pound or two I usually gain at breakfast I might have weighed the same as last month or a half pound less.  But NOT the whole pound.

It was possibly accurate as I took a dump in between too. But in all the time I’ve been doing this, that’s never, ever happened before.  I’m typically one or two pounds or 1.5 pounds heavier after breakfast than before.

Also recently, I weighed before a dump and after and ALSO got the same weight when I clearly was lighter.    So, I’ll be replacing the scale soon! 

(The better news is that I did add some things that over time will remove fat and so the half pound or pound loss might have been real.)

My waist didn’t go down for the measurement that was slightly tensed. 

And,  the more relaxed one also was the same. 

My chest was the same; and my hips went up about half an inch.  (That might be muscle as I’ve added an exercise twice a week, holding a 50 pound dumbbell while I do 7 super slow full squats  -- about 10 seconds down and 10 seconds up.  Those are called goblet squats.)

The bad news is that there is basically no or little progress. 

 The good news is that what I’m doing is consistent enough that I’m not losing ground either.

That leaves the promise that if I can upgrade my efforts effectively, I’ll be able to keep the progress I get.

2.  The MUCH better news is that last month I DID upgrade my efforts effectively.  And, best of all, this time I’m actually sure it is sustainable!

As I’ve posted about recently, trying to cut back on my red wine intake at dinner has never been sustainable for me before. 

Because then I’d try to force myself to drink a half drink when I badly wanted a whole one. 

Now I always get the whole glass of red wine I want.  But instead of doing that both before dinner and after as I was doing, NOW I simply only do it BEFORE dinner.  Then after dinner when I’m feeling the effect of the full drink before dinner, I’ve found I can and do easily pass on ANY wine after dinner.

The four weeks previous to this month, I drank 40 & a half drinks of red wine.

But using that method, THIS past month I only drank 31 drinks of red wine.

Nine and a half drinks less in 4 weeks is 2.375 drinks a week less.

And by being able to sustain it this time, the 1.5 pounds of fat per drink a week conversion means that I WILL remove 3.56 pounds of fat that will not return!

That’s nowhere near the 24 pounds of fat I believe I need to lose of course.

BUT it IS a seventh of it.  And, by adding 6 more methods that good it will be gone.

AND, of the 7 pounds over the weight I want to see on the scale, it’s a bit over half!

(I added a lunch time change I think may cut another pound or two of fat that is quite sustainable so far.  So between the two I may be on track to lose all the 7 pounds I am over my goal weight AND over a fourth of the 24 pounds of fat I want to lose.)

3.  The foods and supplements that I had hoped would help with increasing my muscle and strength seem to be still working.  I did get slightly stronger since last month and I kept my other gains. 

4.  I also continued the two things that may have been as important, or more so, than the foods and supplements. 

The Perfect Workout information was that optimum progress came with slow repetitions of 10 seconds up and 10 seconds down.  I had been doing much faster although slow reps; but when I re-read that 10 seconds each way is best, in one of my two weekly strength training sessions I have been doing just that.  It does seem to be working.

And, I read a study that people doing strength training who were given a placebo they thought was anabolic steroids increased the weight they used right away to levels the people not given anything were doing!

So, I thought, what if I just boosted the weight in a comparable way?  I did so.  And it seems to be working!

I’m doing more reps with the now heavier weight on dumbbell triceps extensions; and in one exercise, the one arm dumbbell curl, I may be able to add 5 pounds soon from 35 to 40 pounds.

There is also better news.  I’ve discovered that when I can get to a gym with heavy barbells and resume doing the deadlifts I did when I was last lean at my goal weight and increase the weight to what I did then or close to it, there is strong evidence I’ll gain enough muscle in my lower back, buttocks, and legs to remove at least half and maybe a good bit more of my excess fat!

And, at a gym in the two exercises where I can do more weight easily than I have at home, the dumbbell row with one hand braced on the bench and the shoulder shrug, I’ll be able to use more weight.

*And, there may be a gym I can get to often enough to do this before the end of the year.

(My recovery from my Achilles tendon injury on my left leg is 100%; and the repair of the stress fracture in my lower left leg seems to be standing up still to the very slow building back program I’ve been on.  And, I’m getting close to a level where I may be able to speed my progress a bit.)

So I wrote last time; but the progress has stalled due to how weak the muscle got.  And, it’s not responding as well as I’d hoped – at least not yet. 

Also the stress fracture, though not seemingly cutting my strength increases, is not quite healed after all this time. It’s a bit off to one side of where most of the effort comes from.

My hope is that by the time my strength returns, the increase in circulation and growth hormones will also finish healing the stress fracture too.

* Since last time, my efforts to restart doing jump rope are improving slightly.  (Even tiny amounts build fitness extremely well.)

I was able to reduce the length of the jump rope in a way that makes it more normal to hold instead of having to hold bunched up sections to make it short enough.

And, even though I’m not quite fit enough or skilled enough to do consistent sections of 10 or more, I am getting sections of 7 to 11 without having to throw my right shoulder into a injury to do it!

I also got coaching as to holding my elbows in a bit once I have the rope moving which has helped.

Despite the low rep start, it now looks like persistence will get the job done!   Hopefully by a month or two from now, I’ll be able to report even more progress.

My best set without a glitch now is just 11 most times AND yesterday the total was 83 over my several attempts: and the one before was 87. That’s almost twice what it was last month, 47!

My goal is to do 70 and rest and 70 and rest and 70 more.  The elapsed time is just 90 seconds of jumping because I jump fast enough that 70 only takes 30 seconds. I know because I did 70 of the as if jumps without the rope in 30 seconds with my temporary jump rope coach.

When I can do that, I’ll be quite fit for sprint type of exercises and this may cause some fat loss from calories burned for a few hours afterwards according to what I’ve read.)

4.  My blood pressure medication is working decently now.  I’ve not been able to improve the readings with any significant fat loss yet.  But when the hot weather leaves I may be able to double the diuretic dose safely which was giving me good results before.

I thought that initially; but the drug may have some negative heart risk effects as measured by actual tests I took.  So I may add a relaxation session and cut the dose in half instead.

If the extra turmeric with black pepper I added measures as reversing the heart risk effects, I’ll keep the diuretic the same and expect my blood pressure to go down a bit from the relaxation session I’m about to add.

My sleep is better from stopping wine after dinner and stopping caffeine at about Noon instead of 3 PM.

And, my at home sleep test will be about the time of my next report.  By a month to three after that, I may have better blood pressure to report from sleeping even better.

5.  I got the Thync device; but discovered I have to also get a smart phone to use it.  I’ve delayed getting one; but will do so if only to use the Thync device on it.

Since a month ago, I now HAVE the smart phone, an Apple i5s.  With luck, now that I have the stylus so I can actually enter numbers and characters on it, by a month from now, I’ll be able to use it well enough to try the Thync!!

It looks likely that the 10 minute session of the calm setting that I can do other chores while I wear it will de-stress me enough that I’ll sleep better and likely will have slightly lower blood pressure AND that may cut my cortisol enough to cause a bit of belly fat loss too.

In addition, I may be able to make just a bit more strength progress by using it on its energy boosting setting before my one heaviest strength training session each week.

6.  My hopes for the cooling packs to lose fat are much lower than they were when I first wrote of them.

In fact, despite it now being the right time of year to try them, I find just adding the Thync and keeping up with my normal schedule is about all I can add just now.

Perhaps in a month or two or next fall, I’ll try them.  I certainly still have them. And the packs are in the freezer still.

7.  Because I have cut back on salt and no longer use the iodized and processed salt at all, my only iodine supplement has been the 150 mcg in my multi.  I read it may boost my thyroid enough to give me a bit more energy and maybe burn more fat, to get closer to 500 mcg a day of iodine.  I found a kelp supplement that has 400 mcg.  So by adding that I’ll get 550 mcg a day.  I now do it each day!

Since I’m only 6.2 pounds fatter than my weight on the scale goal, if this removes 2 to 6 pounds that could help!

And, there are times during the day having even 5% more energy would help!  

And, in a related effort, I posted recently on the fact that adding a serving a day of organic, ceremony quality, Matcha, green tea might boost my metabolism enough, perhaps by 5%, to remove about 7 or 8 pounds of fat over a few months.

It has health benefits.  So it’s winning strategy even if no fat leaves me!

AND two days ago I started doing it!  By next month, I may see some fat loss from it.

Conclusion:

AND if drinking the matcha green tea does remove that much fat by next year, by also drinking less red wine successfully; lowering my cortisol and stress with the Thync device; and the successful increase in calories burned from jump rope and muscle gain, I’ll be at or below my goal weight of 161 pounds AND with a fat loss of at least half of my 24 pounds I want to lose.