My monthly fatloss report....

Today's Post:  Monday, 12-21-2015

Here’s the key news. 

1.  I gained about a pound from about 167 pounds to 168. 

BUT, the week before I was 169; and despite two holiday meals -- one at my wife’s work for lunch and a breakfast at my work! 

And I still LOST a pound!

Much to my very pleasant surprise, my doctor turned fat loss coach instead of suggesting a new drug or test or procedure!!

She challenged me to add a half hour walk on Saturdays and Sundays AND cut my calories a week by 3500 a week despite my eating healthy food starting in January.

I’ve done it! 

And, this last week was the first week it was all in place; and I not only lost a pound but did so with the two holiday meals.

(Of course, at those meals, I only ate protein such as chicken and the pepperoni only off a couple pieces of pizza and a bit of salad with no dressing at the lunch and 2 slices of bacon and 2 eggs over easy at the breakfast.)

2.  My waist didn’t go down for the measurement that was slightly tensed.  And, the more relaxed one also was the same. 

3.  My chest was half an inch less; and my hips went up about half an inch

The bad news is that there is basically no or little progress on these three key measurements. 

4.  What seems to have happened is that I did cut out about 250 calories by cutting back on wine successfully and cutting back a bit two other places in my regular eating -- one at lunch, and one at my after dinner snack.

But I got no results because I’d begun adding some molasses or coconut oil to my single cup of first in the morning coffee for about the same calories.

To reverse that and see the results of the 1750 or so calories less, I simply stopped the coffee and those two additions six days out of the week.

So I added 300 calories a week of walking or more and cut 1750 calories or so during the last week! 

(I’d done the two weekend walks twice; but last week was the first week I cut out the coffee and the extra calorie additions.)

5.  I also cut out some of the canned Parmesan cheese I’d been adding to my dinner in quantity 3 evenings a week.  The slight increase in cooked pinto beans and nonfat cottage cheese and the smoked salmon I replaced it with kept the protein intake.  But I cut the calories from those dinners AND now eat less of the canned Parmesan cheese that may have omega 6 oils due to the cows it’s from being fed grains.

I think this has cut my weekly calories about 700 more.

If these changes do help me lose a pound a week for a while, I may get back to a weight on the scale of 161—seven pounds less than now.

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

* I’ve continued to do the slow rep strength training and have made two changes that I think will speed up my progress next year AND I’m a bit stronger and can do a bit more already.

*The two added half hour walks may help heal the small stress fracture in my left foot.  If that happens, I’ll gain some muscle in my left calf. 

And, I think the two half hour walks may add some muscle to both my legs because I feel a slight pump in my calves during them.

* Since last time, my efforts to restart doing jump rope are improving.  (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.

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

It’s finally working!  My first set was 35 and 45 the last two times!  After that it’s still choppy and I have to build up to 35 or more with runs of two to eight until I get to 35 or more.

But as my fitness improves, my last two sets may go without a miss as the first one has been doing.  And, my first set of the day may get closer to or reach 70!

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.)

7.  My blood pressure medication is working decently now.  I’ve not been able to improve the readings with any significant fat loss yet.   

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

Got the at home sleep test this past Friday. 

If using the data helps me sleep better, the blood pressure improvement may be as little as 2 over 2 according to a research article I read.

But if I also improve by that much from losing a few pounds as I may be on track to do, my blood pressure readings will no longer show high blood pressure.

8.  I got the Thync device; but discovered I had to also get a smart phone to use it. 

I now HAVE the smart phone, an Apple i5s.  And I now have I have the stylus so I can actually enter numbers and characters on it. 

I got help to download the Thync ap and get a password for using it.

AND, Weds afternoon this week day after tomorrow, I have an appointment to have someone from Thync come by to ensure I can use it!

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.

9.  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.

10.  The thyroid support I added helps ensure it stays OK; but it doesn’t seem to have speeded it up any.  

11.  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!

I now use it but so far I can’t see any fat loss effects; but it does have added health benefits and helps replace the caffeine I no longer get from the cup of coffee I no longer drink.

Conclusion:

If the added calorie cut back and added walks work, I may get back to 161 on the scale in 2016.

And, if the increasingly good news on jump rope and increased muscle happens as I expect, I may lose more fat than 7 pounds and finally lose on my waist measurement!