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.

 

The Last 3 Weeks Or So

I usually post something or anything in my blog at least once a week. It's a little more than 3 weeks since my last one and this is my first post for this month. Either there's not much news to post (well, not really), too busy (who isn't?), brain is on vacation (it seems) or maybe just all of the above.

Well, instead of writing about 10 random things about me, let me just do same ramblings and I guess that would give some insights to whoever wants to listen (or read!). This will be quite a handful.

I'm still on my reducing diet coupled with daily exercise. I was not losing much weight the past two weeks so my weight had kind of reached a plateau. I can't say it's mission accomplished since I feel I still need to lose about 15 lbs. more but it's so far so good. I just need to crank it up again. Lost 97 to date so I'm 203 lbs. now since I started this regimen September of last year. I'm back to sz. 33 pants. which was my pants size during my college days. I'm used to it now and I hope I can really maintain the weight once I reach my target. I can say that a high protein, low fat and low carb diet works for me and I can feel that my lean body weight is increasing as this was part of my goal when I started. Last month's bloodwork needed for an upgrade to a life insurance was also "spectacular" to say the least. Cholesterol at 150, the HDL to LDL ratio is very good even though I can't remember the exact figure, triglycerides way down, all other variables are inside the parameters and and are even skewed toward the better side. Blood pressure is almost perfect like a healthy teenager's. I even met the criteria for a select preferred rating and I feel much healthier!!! No more pre-diabetic symptoms and even if I started to have it, I think it was reversed. I really don't know. I haven't seen a doctor in 5 years except for a visit to the ER for a sprained ankle. On the diet part, it's a regular lean meat such as skinless chicken breast, a lot of greens, an apple for a snack with a dozen or so almond nuts in between, Kashi 'Go Lean' cereal in the morning which is not the best tasting cereal you can find but the healthiest (sometimes a low fat yogurt) with a scoop of milled cold pressed flax seed, a tbsp. of sunflower seed plus two poached eggs every other day. I guess this did the trick but honestly I was not all good. I still have a weakness for a very good cheddar so I will sometimes eat a slice of it occasionally. One thing that increased was my coffee intake. I have this 16 oz. mug and I would have 2 to 3 every day. I want my coffee strong so I add 50% more to the ratio. That's like drinking 3 cups in one seating. BAD!!! I would even have one last one at 10 pm as I usually sleep late but I would add an ounce of Irish cream to it. That would give me a good night's rest even when I also wake up early.

No matter what, I still won't miss my daily exercise regimen even when I feel sleepy. When I'm really into something, I pour a lot of heart and soul to it. When I was still in the Phils. and I needed to be at the office at 6:30 am, I would be at UP Diliman for my daily jog at 4 am, go home, lift weights and still be on time. Although it's a different scenario now, I just have to multitask sometimes in between sets and would cook and prepare meals or help the kids with their homework while still sweating it out. One thing I've learned is that I'm pretty good with multi-tasking and sometimes doing 3 to 4 different things at one time. I guess that is 'buhay America' for me at a glance. When I'm really tired but still in a playful mood, I call out our imaginary 'Inday' as if we have somebody to help us here. It can be any name you prefer but I hope I am not degrading anybody and if anybody feel otherwise, I'm sorry.

One thing I'm not sure is how far I've improved my cardiovascular fitness. My aerobic exercise is riding a stationary bike for 36 minutes daily as that's how much I need to burn about 500 calories. My Bowflex and free weights program which I do every other day is not intended for cardiovascular fitness. Yes, I added the free weights after a month of doing the Bowflex. It was just not enough and has its limitations. During my younger days, I can play two 40 minute basketball games in succession but I don't think I can do that now. More than twenty years have passed since my 'glory' days and my joints are not what it used to be. I have added stretching exercises every other day and I can now reach my toes (again!) effortlessly. Now I'm sure I'm doing at least one of Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People -Sharpen the Saw!

So much for that. I hope it was not boring. Also, Ophine and I celebrated our 11th year wedding anniversary last May 3. One thing I've learned about relationships is that it's all about choices. Randy Pausch, author of 'The Last Lecture' said and I quote, "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." I'm not a card player but I totally agree with him. However we want our marriages to work out, it's all about choosing every single action and reaction based on our principles and beliefs. Are you more of a giver or a taker? Sometimes you choose wisely and sometimes not so wisely. Anyway, we just went to 'The Ark Restaurant', our favorite restaurant for special occasions for a brunch the following day. Even though it was a buffet, I still limited my carb intake but lucky me, I love this restaurant for their prime rib au jus -medium rare among others and I made sure I got my money's worth.

During this span, we also went to three birthday parties for six people, one for a triplet, one for twins and a party just for one celebrant or the regular one. Add to that the Mother's Day Chinese buffet we had last weekend. I guess this was the reason my weight is on a standstill. Hahaha! We also brought the kids to Kid Connection one weekend for some usual kids' fun stuff. They wanted to see the 'High School Musical' show and of course it was just done by kids pretending to be the real actors but I guess they still enjoyed it. Missy is more into it than David naturally since she likes to sing the songs. After their show, the kids nonchalantly got the actors' autographs plus Elmo's, Ronald McDonald's and the Florida Panthers mascot Stanley.

I am not shooting much right now so I took the time to do some DIY stuff for the studio. I'm almost done adding some flexibility to my set-ups and instead of just relying only with monolights/strobes, I made some adaptors so I can also use interchangeably continuous lights using 5500 K compact fluorescent lamps for the different light modifiers I have. When I'm done this week, I'll end up with a max. of 1800 watts equivalent. Now that's more I like it. I'm also gearing to shoot some maternity shots next weekend which I haven't done yet. I'm preparing for one so hopefully it will turn out the way I'm envisioning it to be.

Finally, I was able to add a needed tool storage in the garage. I'm really a kind of DIY guy and having the appropriate tools is important to me. Our steel shelves in the garage is not cutting it anymore so this Craftsman tool storage was really a welcome addition. I was able to finish some home projects that was on the backburner for a while and I really found myself working faster and more efficiently. But you know, once I cross out an item in my 'to do list', another one or two crops up. I used to organize myself with just a PDA but I went back to low-tech. A large compartmentalized notebook, a small one for short day to day lists and a couple of yellow pads for different areas of concern. Just thinking about what needs to be done sometimes gives me a burn-out. I just try to if at all possible to 'EAT THAT FROG' first but still there are times I do wish there are more than 24 hours in a day.

One thing I'm happy about is that the veggie/herb garden I started doing in March is already doing fine. Since last year, I have been using herbs from pots in the garden but maintaining one was kind of hard too so I added some drip irrigation to the sprinkler system last year and then the drought came and I had no choice but to do almost everyday hand watering because of the water restriction (yes, it does happen in America). Come spring I decided to add the same herbs to a garden plot so they can grow more abundantly. I ended up making probably a 40 feet by 2.5 feet long veggie and herb garden so far around the fence. Not one time but for a period of six weeks probably giving it a few hours here and there when I got the chance. I already have basil, lemongrass, flat leaf parsley, cilantro, mint, tarragon, chives, rosemary and oregano so I added the usual tomatoes and bell peppers and a lot of chilies. I can't live without hot peppers and when I don't have fresh chilies, I have at least 5 different kinds of hot sauces in the fridge. Since I already started the veggie garden, why not add some bittermelon (ampalaya), winged beans (sigarilyas), malabar spinach (alugbati) and sweet potato (for the tops) so that's what I did. I also added a single blackberry and it doesn't need a battery. Now I need some kangkong and probably some pandan and I'd be satisfied. This is my mini-farm sans any domesticated animal. I'm probably living part of my dream to have a farm LOL. That would give Randy Pausch something to smile about too. I'll post some photos next time.

Now, I hope these birds who regularly visit our garden since I added a bird feeder will stay away from the potential harvest. Speaking about bird feeders, two years ago when we went to North Carolina with my Mom and stayed with a friend of hers, I became fascinated with one. Imagine, blue jays and cardinals regularly feeding from it. I don't think we have cardinals here in South Florida but since I added the feeder just last week, it's being visited by a couple of blue jays and a lot of the black ones, crows probably. Aside from the wild bird seeds we use, old stale bread and the like don't go to the waste basket anymore. Leftover french fries get eaten too. It has now become an efficient waste disposal unit.

I'm almost through but these gas prices are just ridiculous. It goes up every few days and it's now almost $4.00 a gallon average. That's more than a dollar a liter and I'm just wondering if it is entirely possible that it would go back to even just $3.00 a gallon. That's probably wishful thinking.

Finally, David was watching a program about the 'crystal skulls' legend last night which is what the new Indiana Jones movie is about and then he heard that if all these crystal skulls are not found by 2012, it will be the end of the world. I sort of teased him at first and asked him how old he's gonna be by then but tears slowly streaked down his face. Reassuring him, I told him not to believe everything you hear or read. Only God knows when the 'end of the world' will come. Why am I saying this? I continue to receive a lot of chain emails and 99% of them are untrue. From stuff about Art Bell's 'insult' to Filipinos (still in circulation for almost 10 years now) to Barack Obama and if only people will do a a little research before they forward anything. I've tried a number of times to correct the email senders but I'm getting tired of it.

This I believe is my longest post so far and I'm done.

At Last...a Bowflex Home Gym

After much time, research and contemplation :-$ (there goes my new lens), I finally decided to get a Bowflex and I got this Xtreme model although not their top of the line Xtreme model. What I like with the Xtreme XTLU as this is called is the small footprint. I believe that compared to the other models, this has the smallest base and I only need a 6'x8' area to work out. Not bad indeed.

I was deciding which kind of home gym to get, whether it's the Gold's gym or Weider Pro brand which has stacked weights and relatively larger than the Xtreme or just some free weights and a bench. Well, I considered safety a lot and even though I was used to using free weights so many years and pounds ago, I just don't want to gamble with it especially when exercising alone. The logical choice was then a 'power rod resistance type' of machine.

Anyway, the Bowflex was delivered Thursday and was packed in 7 boxes of assorted sizes and weights. Two boxes were really banged up and I'm not exaggerating. Thanks to UPS! Even the Styrofoam inside after opening it was reduced to bits and pieces. Fortunately, the Bowflex parts were all intact except for the plastic base that contains the power rods which has a chip. Not worth having it exchanged besides after assembling it, that part was covered up.

Missy's game face!

Assembly took about three hours but I did it all myself without any rush. That was my first workout. I was careful not to make a mistake lest I have to repeat some sub-assembles due to carelessness. The bolts alone were of different lengths and diameters. The same with the washers. There was just one caveat, there was a missing bolt of a particular size which I decided I'll just get from Home Depot. Not a big deal. One component of an assembly was installed the wrong way but it was not hard to figure out so I just reversed it. Man, American manufacturers should really learn poka-yoke (error-proofing) from the Japanese. That's why they're so much ahead in manufacturing capabilities and has almost negligible rejection rate but that's another story.

Anyway, do I need one? You bet I do. So far with diet and exercise which I started to do religiously (again!) since 2nd week of September, I've already lost 50 lbs. The only exercise machine I use was our Pro-Form stationary bike which I got probably 8 years ago and became a sort of ugly house decor and sometimes hanger rack. I'm at the point I need a machine to tone the muscles so to speak. Not to bulk up but more on conditioning and strengthening. I tried the Bowflex before in one of the Sears stores and I immediately liked it. After testing it again since I still have to make my own program, I realized this was a great buy and will certainly work to get the results I wanted considering every required variable is met.

The machine itself can be used to perform at least 65 exercises. The one I got included the leg extension assembly and the optional 310 lb. upgrade. Basic is only 210 lbs. of power rod resistance and can be upgraded up to 410 lbs. The good news is that I got this for about 50% off the retail price of Amazon.com with the upgrades and that included the shipping fee through one of Ebay's merchants. The kids seemed to like it too.

David is too serious here.