What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been

Wow, it has been over a year since my last post. Why? Well, a LOT has been going on and it just hasn't been a priority of mine to write anything. I can't say that this will change, but something has been percolating in my brain for the last few weeks and I just want to pour it out...

To kick it off, I need to give you that song... Of course, if you are even slightly familiar with "The Dead," you know that the title of this post came from The Grateful Dead - "Truckin'"

I have been a member of a website/app called Fitocracy for more than a year, now. The site is sort of the facebook of fitness. Basically, members post the workouts that they did for the day and share that information with their 'friends' on the site. Largely, friends encourage each other to improve their health and wellness. When I joined, I was very active. After a couple of months, things tapered off and I wasn't able to exercise as much as I had been. As well, I simply stopped visiting the site.

Recently, I have a renewed interest (and time) to improving my physical well-being. I started going for walks and doing some basic exercises. I also started using Fitocracy again.

Today, one of my fito-friends posted a question:
"Rest days question. - Currently my main aim is to lose weight, i.e. to burn as many calories as possible. Therefore I eliminated some rest days. Do you think this is ok?"

It made me think... What is considered rest and at what point would you be exercising too much?
...Time for me to share my history...
- When I was in high school (and jr. high), I had a paper route. I walked or rode my bike to deliver the paper for about 10 miles per day, 7 days per week.
- My school was too small to have a football team but playing football was one of my goals and dreams. So, I joined the track team to help me get into shape to play football in college. I was never much of a runner, but my goal was to be the next John Riggins (Washington Redskins, #44, running back). So, I figured that I could run the 100 yd. dash and throw the shot put on the track team. During track season, I went to practice 5 times per week unless we had a meet. This was added to my paper route.
- I joined a gym that was in the next town. It was about 12 miles away. I tried to get to the gym 2 or 3 times per week during the off-season - trying to stay in shape for track and - eventually - football.
- I was also a bicycle fanatic. I had a 12-speed bike (mountain bikes didn't exist back then...) that I would ride on the Rail Trail - I trail that used to be a railroad track - fairly frequently.

I was pretty active in high school. Even with all of this, I still maintained my 6'2", 220-230 lbs. physique. I just couldn't drop the excess fat. Granted, I didn't eat a spectacular diet...

When I went to college, guess what? I joined the football team! I went to campus three weeks prior to the semester for football 'doubles' - this is when you spend the morning training on the field, afternoon training on the field, and evening training on the field (shouldn't it have been called 'triples?'). In addition, you would hit the weight room to exercise. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner was always a buffet where we would eat enormous amounts of food! In those three weeks, I achieved the best level of fitness that I have EVER had - muscles grew, fat burned, and aerobic fitness improved!

Why am I sharing this? Well, the posted question made me think... At what point is it considered 'overtraining?'

My recent return to Fitocracy has me motivated to exercise. I am currently trying to walk every day for at least 30 minutes per day. Additionally, I am doing some body-weight exercises 3-4 days per week - sometimes more. Some days, my exercise is more intense than others but I will never be the next Arnold Schwarzenegger (for more reasons than one).

Personally, I think that each one of us has to 'test' our bodies to determine what we can handle and not be overtraining. Like anything else, as we work on something - whether it be weightlifting, walking, running, or other skills like writing, painting, playing an instrument - our skill and capabilities improve. If I was doing the level of exercise that I am currently doing, say, 5 or 6 years ago - I would definitely be overtraining! Now, I am more capable of handling the efforts I am putting in and I am not worried about it.

Either way, I intend to keep on truckin'...

A-Z Challenge - 'L'

Like 'J,' 'L' was another tough one to find a topic that fit with the theme of my journey to wellness. I think that I was trying to be too specific. What I finally came up with is 'liquids.' Proper hydration is a key to wellness. Often we hear the recommendation to "drink eight 8 oz. glasses of water every day." That is not the easiest thing to do.
While it may be a valid recommendation, drinking that much water every day is not as important as consuming enough liquid. My point being that the liquid that you ingest does not have to come via an actual glass of water - milk, juice, and other liquids present in foods do count toward your total. Additionally, the signals produced by the body indicating dehydration are often confused for hunger pangs so proper hydration can prevent overeating and can be a factor in weight loss.
It is important to remember that not all liquids are created equal when it comes to hydration. One reason why water is recommended is because it doesn't carry any unwanted calories. Beverages that include caffeine or other diuretics can cause the body to eliminate more liquid than they provide so coffee, cola, and tea may not always be the best choice to quench your thirst.

Personally, I almost always have a glass of water within reach. We installed a faucet-mounted water filtered several years ago and it has turned out to be a major savings over bottled water. You can check out my analysis of it in an article I wrote 3 years ago - The PUR Vertical Faucet Filter with Three-Stage Filtration.

Here Comes the Rain Again.

I am not sure why, but my motivation to write a new entry has been at an all time low since last week.  It isn't because I have nothing to say - in fact, I have quite a bit to update - I just haven't really felt like writing...

I ended my first bout with The Master Cleanse on Sunday, 10 days ago.  It was a bit more abrupt on an ending than I was planning on, but the timing was right.  My tongue was not completely pink, but other factors just made it the right time for me to revert to a normal diet.

One thing that I was looking forward to eating once I went off the cleanse was my version of miso soup.  I have since made the soup four times and each time it just got better!  For the first attempt, I simply sliced some celery, carrots, and green cabbage (thinly) and added them to the vegetable broth while it heated up.  After it reached the desired temperature, I removed the soup from the heat and added the miso.  It was pretty good, though I am sure that the fact that I hadn't eaten anything for more than two weeks other than the lemonade had something to do with my perception of the taste.
The second attempt found me adding some diced onion to the complement of vegetables.  I also lightly sauteed the veggies in some butter prior to adding the broth.  I started by melting the butter in a sauce pan - just enough to coat the bottom of the pan.  I then added the onion and cooked them until they just turned translucent.  After that, I added the carrots and celery and sauteed the mix for a little longer before adding the cabbage.  Before the cabbage started to wilt, I added the broth and brought the soup up to the desired temperature.  I did not allow it to boil.  Again, I removed the soup from the heat and added the miso.  Oh My Goodness!  What an amazing improvement!  The first attempt was good but the second attempt was excellent!  I am not sure if the addition of the onions accounted for the improvement or if it was the fact that I sauteed the veggies first.  Whatever it was, it was worth it.
My daughter saw (smelled) me making the soup and wanted to try it.  The 'food critic' loved it!

My intent to begin with phase one of The Maker's Diet fell a little short, however.  I am still sticking to The Maker's Diet, but I have been eating some foods that should not be consumed until phases 2 and 3.  Overall, though, my food choices have improved.  As well, thanks to the cleanse, I am definitely more satisfied with smaller quantities of food.  Eating due to true hunger vs. eating on impulse or because society dictates three 'square' meals was also something learned by the cleanse.  We simply do not need to eat the quantities of food that we have grown accustomed to eating!  As a simple comparison; the equivalent of one regular McDonald's hamburger and small order of  should be enough food to satisfy hunger.  (Of course, the nutritional content of that meal is suspect, but the quantity is what I am trying to illustrate.)  Instead, we favor the Quarter Pounder or the Big Mac and a large order of fries.

In a previous post, Mom Always Said..., I talked about three things that mom really did always say about eating.  Of these things, I am really focused on implementing two of them - taking smaller bites and chewing each one more thoroughly - as I was when this whole thing began.  Because I am already eating smaller portions, I am not too concerned with leaving some on my plate.  These rules are things that I constantly have to remind myself of.  It is far too easy to revert to swallowing large, partially chewed bites.  When I enjoy a meal, my tendency is to eat quickly.  Rather than savoring each bite, I tend to stuff myself.  Really, it just makes more sense to chew slowly and truly enjoy the food.

Today, I started to precede each meal with a small serving of plain, whole milk yogurt.  Well, any meal that isn't primarily consisting of yogurt, that is.  I figure that regularly supplementing with the probiotics found in the yogurt prior to eating would do wonders for my digestive system without spending any money on other supplements. 

As it is Wednesday, I found myself alone at home all day.  Weather prevented me from any outdoor activity - hence the title and the song reference, Here Comes the Rain Again, Eurythmics.  Instead of getting outside - except to walk Ginger - I got some exercise on the Wii Fit Plus.  Today also marked the first day that I have weighed myself since ending the cleanse.  As expected, my weight loss was considerably less dramatic.  Since ending the cleanse, I have only lost half of a pound.  However, this 0.5 pound weight loss puts me at exactly 76 pounds lost year to date.  Not bad for a 10 month total!
After my workout, I sat down and watched The Future Of Food.  I had started watching it a few weeks ago, but didn't have the opportunity to finish it.  If you are unfamiliar with it, the movie/documentary is focused on genetically modified food and Monsanto.  I highly recommend watching this one.  In fact, I have made it easy for you (at least for as long as it is available to watch online).  I have it posted right here for you!  Please, take a look.  (When I watched it, I found it ironic that one of the sponsors of the movie was Lean Cuisine...um, really?  A movie about genetically modified food sponsored by a company that sells processed food?)

Still A Whiter Shade Of Pale

It is day 14 of the master cleanse and my tongue is still white (Song: A Whiter Shade of Pale, Procol Harum), though it does seem that the tip and the sides of my tongue are beginning to turn pink.

On the way home from the YMCA today, I stopped at It's Only Natural to pick up a couple of things.  Primarily, I wanted to get some miso to use in the vegetable stock that I made earlier in the week.  I had tried to find some at the grocery store, but they only had a dried miso soup mix that had a whole lot of undesirable additives.  While I was there, I checked on their organic lemon prices.  To my surprise, their prices for organic lemons was actually less than Stop & Shop's lemons - and Stop & Shop's are not organic!

Things are still going well on the cleanse.  The only thing that has really begun to bother me is the frequency of squeezing lemons and the clean-up afterward.  It really isn't a major problem, though.  It just seems that I am spending a lot of time in the kitchen!  On the positive side, I am certainly generating a lot of materials to add to the compost pile.

Weight lost on the cleanse now stands at  16 pounds in 13 days (as of yesterday - I haven't weighed myself today).

Living In The Past

In a moment of spontaneity yesterday, we found ourselves heading off to visit the CT Renaissance Fair for a second time this year (See: I Won't Back Down to read about our first trip to the fair this year).  A family friend called us and asked if we would like to accompany them to the fair.  After a short deliberation, we decided to go along.  It turned out to be a great day!  Of course, the song here is Jethro Tull's, Living In The Past as an homage to the Renaissance Faire's celebration of history.

It was a bit of a challenge for the master cleanse, however.  The previous night, I had taken a full, 4 capsule dose of senna and I had done the salt water flush about 60 minutes prior to the call.  I was not really in a position to be too far away from a bathroom!  Fortunately, it didn't take too long for the flush to do its work.  I didn't have time to prepare any lemonade other than my morning glass, though.  As such, I didn't have any to take with me to the fair.  I ended up buying a bottle of water at the fair, but that was all that I consumed while we were there.
While at the fair, we got a chance to see another performance of two of our favorites, Dextre Tripp and Jayna Lee.  Over the last 10 years, we have seen both of them perform several times at the NY Renaissance Faire and Jayna at the CT fair both last year and this year.  This was the first time that we got to see them perform together!  Jayna had a show at 1:00 PM with Dextre assisting and Dextre had one at 2:30 PM with Jayna assisting.  I also had the privilege of assisting Dextre with his act!

After the fair, we headed home and I was able to resume the cleanse without a hitch.

Today marks my 12th day on the cleanse.  My tongue is still white, so it appears that my body is not yet ready for me to resume my normal diet.  I was running low on everything so I made yet another trip to the grocery store for supplies.  I opted for Trader Joe's in order to get some grade B maple syrup.  They also have a great deal on organic lemons and their cayenne pepper is non-irradiated, so it really was my best option.  I mentioned in a previous post that they offer two varieties of grade B syrup but were sold out of one of them last week.  This time, they had both in stock so I opted for the 32 oz. choice.  While I am sure that I will be ready to shift to a normal diet soon, I bought two bottles.  I fully intend to follow the master cleanse again within the next few months, so my plan is to be better prepared for it.  Rather than shell out a considerable amount of money just prior and during my next cleanse, I will build up a stock of the maple syrup over time so that I will have enough before I begin.  Of course, I will still need to buy the lemons as I go.
En route home from Trader Joe's, I stopped at The Vitamin Shoppe to pick up an alternative to my herbal laxative.  While the senna is working fine, I wanted to boost the benefits of the cleanse.  In his book, Tom Woloshyn talks about doing a parasite cleanse as an adjunct to the master cleanse.  While I have no evidence that I have a parasite problem, there is also no evidence that I am parasite-free.  Either way, it really can't hurt to take the extra step.  Three herbs that have anti-parasite properties are black walnut, clove, and wormwood.  Some effect the eggs of the parasites, while the others effect the adult parasites so it is best to use them together.  I was hoping to find the individual herbs, but the only one the store had in stock was black walnut.  They did have a single product that included all three, however.  It also includes senna so I can use this in place of the senna that I was using.  This is designed as a 7 day cleanse, so now that I have more lemons, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper I may just continue the master cleanse for the same 7 days - bringing my count to 19 days.  The other option - depending on the appearance of my tongue - would be to continue for three more days and then ease in to phase one of The Maker's Diet over the remaining 4 days.  I'll see how things go...

My current weight loss total for the duration of the cleanse stands at 13 pounds.

My Little Marathon

OK, so it isn't even close to running (or walking) a marathon (Song: Rush, Marathon from Power Windows) - perhaps it is more like circuit training, but I squeezed in two exercise sessions over the course of 3 hours.  Using the Wii Fit Plus, I spent about an hour doing various different activities, mostly cardio-related but with a little bit of other stuff mixed in.  According to the 'game,' I burned just under 400 calories during that time.  The Wii Fit Plus allows you to set calorie burn goals.  Whether you reach your goal in one session or not, it keeps track of what you have burned each day.  My current goal is set for 455 calories.
After my hour of exercise, I decided to take a short break.  I took Ginger out for a brief walk - it was still raining and she doesn't like to be outside in the rain - and did some chores around the house.  Using one lemon, I made another glass of lemonade and cleaned up after that.  This was a particularly juicy lemon that yielded 5 Tbsp. of juice, so my glass of lemonade actually turned out to be 2.5 servings worth.  While I know that it is better to consume the juice immediately after squeezing it, it is a little annoying that one lemon can yield so much juice while another might barely be enough for one serving - even if they are the same size!  It definitely leads to the question - is it better to drink a larger portion of lemonade fresh or to reserve the excess for another serving at a later time?  My gut feeling is that it is perfectly acceptable to drink more than one serving at a time.  Considering that the recommendation is a minimum of 6-12 servings per day, if you consumed one serving per hour, it would take 12 hours for the upper end of the range.  If you squeeze, mix, drink, and clean up after each serving, that is a lot of time spent to get 12 individual servings of lemonade.
I guess that it is all about the results, anyway...

Due to timing - wanting to have showered prior to the family coming home - I decided to spend another 30 minutes exercising.  For lack of a better option, I turned the Wii back on and finished off my calorie burn goal.  I decided to do another weigh in to see what my progress was as well.  Normally, I wouldn't bother weighing myself this often, but the fact that I am following the master cleanse and that I already had easy access to a scale it just made sense.  It turns out that I have now lost a total of 8 pounds since beginning the cleanse.  According to my BMI, I am now, no longer considered obese!  Now I am just simply overweight...  Still some work to do on the weight loss front.  Not that it is currently a concern for me, judging obesity/overweight/normal weight just by BMI is a little skewed.  To truly get a picture of weight v. norms, you should also factor in body fat percentage.  In my case, muscle mass in not currently doing much to tip the scales, so BMI kind of works for me at the moment.  At least it does take height into account.

Everybody (or Every Body) Hurts Sometimes

Day 5 began with me feeling the worst that I have since beginning the master cleanse.  The lyrics of R.E.M.'s song, Everybody Hurts, might be a bit over the top compared to how I was feeling this morning, though.  The song talks more of an emotional hurt that brings on thoughts of ending your life but encourages you to 'hold on.'  Besides, it is not The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).

The pain I felt this morning was centered right in my abdomen.  I can only guess that people on the cleanse that feel this pain might very well consider stopping before the 10 days have lapsed, but it really wasn't bad enough for me to consider it.  Besides, I know exactly what caused it.  While on the master cleanse it is recommended that you use a laxative herbal tea to help get things moving.  The lack of solid food causes the intestines to take a break - peristalsis kind of stalls - because there is not much going on.  Unfortunately, your intestines have grown used to the built up wastes and no longer consider the need to evacuate it.  The master cleanse is designed to do that very thing, though.  Using a laxative of any sort - herbal or otherwise - essentially irritates the intestines.  It causes peristalsis to occur and encourages the built up wastes to move.
Not being a tea drinker, I opted to use a laxative in the form of a capsule.  Senna is one of the most common herbal laxatives on the market.  It is sold as a tea, capsule, and even as a syrup.  Tea is recommended so as to avoid any additional ingredients such as binders (tablet) or cellulose (capsule) but, as long as those are minimal, the alternatives are better than nothing.
I had previously used three capsules of the senna but it didn't really have much of an effect (the brand that I purchased recommended 2-4 capsules, once or twice a day) so I upped the dosage to 4 capsules last night.  This dose was certainly more effective but it accounts for the pain that I was feeling.  The only downside - if it really is a downside - is that I didn't do the salt water flush this morning.  The flush would certainly help clear out the wastes that the laxative-induced peristalsis freed up, but I just didn't think that I would be able to ingest that much water with the pain that I was feeling.  According to Tom Woloshyn's book, The Complete Master Cleanse: A Step-by-Step Guide to Maximizing the Benefits of The Lemonade Diet, the salt water flush need not be done everyday during the cleanse.

I'll Not Fade Away

As day 4 of the master cleanse comes to an end, things are going really well.  I made it through today without any temptation to eat anything even though my daughter made dinner and it smelled really good.  I even sat at the table while everyone else ate their food and wasn't even tempted to taste it.  The potential gain from sticking to the cleanse is just too great for me to stop now.


After dinner, I did a short workout on the Wii with Wii Fit Plus.  I put in about 30 minutes total with Wii Fit Plus and about 15 minutes without it.  Because it was convenient, I also weighed myself.  It turns out that I have dropped 6 pounds since I started the master cleanse!  I can't helped being pleased about this - even though it is not my primary goal to lose weight.  Sure, I want to lose weight - it just isn't my number 1 reason for doing the cleanse.  Since starting the cleanse, I have stepped up my efforts to exercise.  I want to be sure that any weight that I lose is not from muscle.  No matter how much weight I lose, I'll not fade away (Rolling Stones - Not Fade Away).  The nice thing - and somewhat unexpected - is that I actually have the energy to do some exercise.

The only downside to the cleanse so far is that I need to make yet another trip to the grocery store - more lemons and maple syrup!  I don't want to stock up on too many lemons as I don't want them to go bad sitting on my counter, but I should have bought more maple syrup than I did.  Tomorrow, I plan to check out a couple of options for syrup, though.  The two stores I have been to in the last week only sell grade A syrup.  Grade B syrup is recommended for the cleanse due to its higher mineral and vitamin content.

A new goal.

I began following The Maker's Diet on January 8th and while weight loss has not been my primary focus I have been losing quite a bit.  As reported in my previous entry, I have lost more than 30 pounds since January 1st - actually, as of today I have lost a total of 36 pounds.  As March 1st approached, I began toying with the idea of setting a new goal for myself.  My birthday falls on March 20th - the first day of Spring! - so I was thinking that I might like to set a specific weight loss goal for that day and essentially give myself a present.

As a result, I decided to set a goal of 250 pounds by March 20th.  That gives me 17 days from today to lose 10 pounds.  Given my current trend, it really should be a reachable goal.

I haven't really even considered what my ultimate weight goal will be.  Before I started experiencing symptoms, I had weighed 205 and was in the best shape of my life.  The Wii Fit Plus tells me that my ideal weight is 174 pounds putting me at a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 22.3.  BMI is a measure of weight as compared to height.  A BMI of 18.5-24.9 is considered to be the 'normal' range.  I cannot imagine weighing only 174 pounds!  I would be pleased to get down to 200 pounds - a BMI of 25.7.