One Year After...

This week is exactly one year after I started getting back on track to living a healthy lifestyle. Last year after the '9/11' event commemoration, I just decided to lose weight and thankfully I was quite successful. The reasons I did it, too many things my body was telling me to do it and my kids are still young. I used to weigh almost as much as Shaq but without the additional 11 inches and now 110 lbs lighter I have more energy than I used to have. I'm still religiously keeping a regular exercise routine that is composed of weight training and some form of spinning for cardio. 

Even though I have reached the weight I want to keep, I decided to do it further by increasing my lean body weight and lose more body fat. A month ago, I began with following the basic guidelines of 'The Abs Diet' by David Zinczenko who is the Editor-In-Chief of Men's Health magazine. It's not for everybody who wants to lose weight since the premise is really to increase your basal metabolic rate to lose fat by increasing muscle mass and that you do by a committed exercise program of weight training. Of course you can do cardio but only weight training will increase your muscle mass. An additional pound of muscle will burn 50 more calories daily. At just 6 lbs. more, you get to burn about 2.5 lbs more per month without basically limiting your caloric intake. That's a lot in one year.  Zinczenko also listed some 12 basic food groups (he calls it the Power 12) where you should basically design your meals around. I have no problems with the choices since these are the food groups I've mostly 'utilized' since I started dieting last year.

I also got a new weighing scale based on his recommendation. The brand is Taylor (model# 5571) and aside from your weight, it also measures your body fat.  I got it for only $25 from Walmart. I didn't even expect to find it there. You just input some  numbers like age, height, weight, gender, etc. it keeps tab of your progress. It can 'remember' up to four different sets of people's data. So far, I'm doing okay following the program but not as fast I have hoped for. Too much beans I guess but I'm cutting it just a little more.

Last week I have committed myself to joining a basketball tournament for 'oldies' like me. Well, for 40 y.o. and above anyway. I was very non-committal the  first time I was invited by a team to join them. A matter of fact, I haven't played 'whole court' for 20 years. The last 'half-court game I have played was just a little more than 10 years ago and it was just for a day. Well, okay probably a year ago but it was in my dreams so I don't think that counts. You can imagine my apprehensions since I was already thinking if my body especially my joints and bones can handle it. I had thought of bringing my crutches (for a sprain I suffered while visiting Disneyworld some years back and I have two sets, the second one from another foot 'ailment') and a lot of ice to the first practice I had with them last night. I did not but I'll do it next time just in case. I just ordered a pair of basketball shoes and  a pair of ankle supports. I found my old knee supports and soon I'll be good to go. Haha, this is I guess how old warriors prepare when they go to war again.

I have no illusions on what I can do now but I believe I've played better than my own expectations. Some of them said I still got 'game'. Well, thanks to the better conditioning I have now but I was definitely rusty and my timing was off (must really be the age factor). I can feel that basketball sense is still there although the body lags. I just got somebody's ire when he thought I was using my shoulders and elbows to make "gulang" on low-post plays. Well, that was how I was taught to play the game in high school by 'Bino', our HS coach and I still remember it. At least some players defended my style.

In a month's time, the tournament will start. It's only about a total of 6 games. It's a yearly event that has been going on for several years now organized for the Filipino community who still loves to play. If it was open for all ages, most of us oldies will be in trouble. This time being "underaged" is  prohibited. LOL!

Am I still going to play next year? I'm not sure yet but I'll take this new endeavor, 'one practice at a time, one game at a time' and I'll see. But I'm not looking back, I'm going to continue living a healthy lifestyle. Besides, losing a lot of weight if I have to do it all over again is NOT easy and I don't want to go that route again.