As for the secret to losing weight?

New England Journal of Medicine, whose findings confirm what a growing body of weight-loss evidence has already suggested: one diet is no better than the next when it comes to weight loss. It doesn't matter where your calories come from, as long as you're eating less. "We have a really simple and practical message for people: it's not so much the type of diet you eat," says Sacks. "It's how much you put in your mouth."

It's a useful lesson for American adults, two-thirds of whom are overweight or obese. Long-term weight loss has proved frustratingly elusive for many obese individuals, but study after study has shown that community and peer support help people take off weight — and keep it off. In this study, the participants who took advantage of group and individual counseling offered as part of the diets had far greater success than those who chose to go it alone. Over the course of two years, participants who went to at least two-thirds of the counseling sessions dropped about 22 lb., 13 lb. more than the average of the entire study population. "Losing weight and sustaining it for two years is difficult," Sacks says. "To help people do that, they need some level of support to keep their motivation and focus."

As for the secret to losing weight? There is none. "It's basic physiology," Loria says. "Eat fewer calories than you expend."

Read the whole article here

I did not know that...

Did you know there are now more than 2 MILLION people in the U.S. who are considered "Super Obese"?
That means 2 million people weight MORE THAN 500 pounds!

Ben Burr Trail

Exercise:
This is a shot from this mornings hike on the Ben Burr trail. I couldn't wait to get out and enjoy the sun, even though I feel a cold trying to attach itself to me. My stamina and former cardio level of fitness is quickly returning. I even jogged with Kona early this week. But I am purposefully aiming at taking things slow...I am really trying to be disciplined with maintaining a manageable and regular fitness level. Mornings like this make it easy.

Diet: Maintaining my caloric boundaries and losing the weight at my predetermined range (2-3 pounds per week). We bought a new scale that measures more accurately than the last cheap one. It also measures, BMI, Bone density and water hydration; its pretty cool.

So I am currently 249 according to this scale.

Monday: 2-23-09

Exercise: 40 Minutes, Ben Burr Hike & Upper South Hill
Diet: on track

I was looking forward to getting back to my exercise routine today after the weekend break. I've been working hard at disciplining myself to maintain a steady, reasonable exercise plan. One that anyone can follow. One of my goals as a pastor is to make my path doable. If it's extreme, its not inviting for too many to tackle. That was my last exercise plan's problem...I went into a fitness berserker mode and reveled in the extreme nature of it and the pride that came from standing above the other fitness fanatics that couldn't or wouldn't discipline themselves. It's amazing how flesh weasels its way into every good endeavor...the human heart is so self centered.

My diet and exercise path is within anyones ability to do, minus extreme cases. When I was running 6 days a week and burning 1000 calories a workout and cutting my caloric intake down to 1500-1800 per day...it was leaving me exhausted, undernourished and dangerously close to hurting my body. Well, when I did piss blood...I guess my body was screaming stop and the fact that my inner voice was murmuring about its hatred of what I was doing to myself. I set myself up for failure even though I was aiming at moving myself to health. It amazes me how the biblical truth of "lack of Knowledge destroys" is so true.

I am working real hard to become Fit4Life not just till summer.

Drinking water...

Getting used to drinking water throughout the day, has been one of the more difficult disciplines to put into practice. But it helps with feeling more full, reduces hunger pains, helps with getting the body flowing and enables you to discover every bathroom on every block, multiple times an hour...

I hate that.

One of the Fit4Life folks said that drinking water is like pouring water on a dry piece of ground...at first, it splatters on and off and runs over it...but as it is saturated, it eventually begins to be soaked in and up. I'm seeing that more and more and visiting the bathroom less...but I still think its a hassle.

But all the health and weight loss benefits make up for the inconvenience.

Are you eating the rainbow...?

I've been putting into practice one of the nutrition principles taught in our Fit4Life class. Sharayah, our personal trainer to be, mentioned a couple weeks ago; "To think of a rainbow when selecting your various food choices through out the day". So I've been using that simple visual concept, as I measure what is going into my mouth...is it full of diverse color?

Choosing to eat colorful is a major adjustment to this bread, meat and carbohydrate prone junkie. I've never been a huge fan of vegetables or fruit...but now I am realizing its because my taste-buds have been saturated with foods that dull the natural enjoyment of taste. By being so jacked up on sugar, the nuances of flavors has been overrun by the processed stuff. Which of course is always a punch in the mouth of flavor....but its a high calorie sabotage. It offers a cheap and hollow enjoyment that ends up producing a craving monster that wants more the more you feed it.

In fact, the longer I have been on this diet reconstruction; the more I am realizing I am becoming less hungry, require less food and enjoy the flavors of foods a heck of lot more. . It's strange to me how a few simple changes have unearthed some pretty potent observations about my diet and cravings.

Friday update

Exercise: 5 days this week, which is my goal.
Diet: Clean, colorful and under my allotted caloric level for reaching my goal.
This is a picture from spring of 2006...I've got it in my sights...and with God's grace and discipline, I can reach it.

yup....

There's a lot of nonsense floating around regarding exercise and weight control. The only way to lose weight is to eat less than your body burns. Period.

Fitness update 2.18.09

Exercise:
I was struggling with feeling lazy and busy today, but I dialed in and hammered out a 30 Day Shred workout. I can see the endurance building but it still is a workout. Feels good to have it done...I still enjoy walking though, because its more of a hike up and around the Ben Burr Trail with plenty of steep terrain to climb. I am wanting to do more cross-country exercise because one of my main goals for this Fit4Life class is to get in shape for a trip into the Enchantments above Leavenworth WA. It's a long and arduous hike and I want to be ready to tackle it and sit right here....


Diet:
Weight: 250
I have been growling hungry today!!! I tried to eat more calories at the start of the day and I think that kicked my inner furnace on high or something...becasue I have been ravenous. But so far, I am under my 2,100 limit, I've got 981 left for the evening.

Photograph Copyright© 2005 by MoonFoto. All Rights Reserved.

How many calories should you eat....?

Here are a couple sites to help determine how many calories you need to be eating to maintain, gain or lose weight.
How Many Calories Should I Eat a Day?
and here is another site that does the same thing but with an easy fill in the blanks format. Both are based on a little different calculating system but with both you can pinpoint the number pretty good.

Trailguru...

This is a map from my Trailguru app that is on my iphone. It maps my route via cell/gps signals and tracks miles, speed, times, elevation, steps and allows you to post to your trailguru page...or gives you the embed code to post on your other sites, like this one. Pretty cool huh?

Today, I took Kona for another hike and weaved around in a big 2.10 mile circle for a 40 minute hike...I can feel the calories burning! Great to get out, breathe the fresh air and sweat out the stress. The only downside is that with a dog, at this time of year, everything is starting to melt and she gets muddy. So I have to clean her off after we get back, but she needs the workout...she's a tank at 99lbs.

Fitness update...

Micah and Kona walk
Originally uploaded by ericblauer

Exercise:
Today's exercise involved hiking the Ben Burr Trail, at the half way point, we headed up and over the trail on a residential road and cut back and around to Underhill Park. All in all, it was a good 35 minute hike in the semi-warm sun with various extreme up hill points and running down the forested hill chasing Koan and Micah. When I got to the bottom, i realized I wasn't out of breath or even breathing heavy...that surprised me.

Food:
It's almost 7PM and I have 897 calories left to eat tonight if I so desire and that's after having dinner already. Oh the choices....

The state of America's health...

Read the article here.

In defense of food.

What I am reading...

Main thought: Eat food...not too much and eat mostly plants.

More laughs...

Update

5 Pounds down and 50 to go...

Weight chart....

Fitness Update 2.13.09

Doing fine eating within the boundaries of my diet and I did another day of the 30 Day Shred today for my work out.

Fast food...

"If you are what you eat...than I am fast, cheap and easy."

LOL, I saw that on a coffee mug the other day at Huckleberries, it made me laugh. But I saw this on the way home...The 380 calorie Filet-O-Fish contains pollock or hoki fish meat, both of which, though not exactly seafood superstars, do qualify as actual fish. It contains half a slice of processed cheese. What else does the Filet-O-Fish contain besides the fish? 18 grams of fat and something called a "foaming agent" dimethylpolysiloxane. But of course you could get the new "Double" and slurp down 530 calories in one growl.

Oh my, it looks so delectable, juicy and...a heart attack waiting to happen. The yummy grease that would soon seep out of your clogging pores would taste of butter and grease, but the bloated feeling afterwards would make up for it...not to mention the cramps and late night visits to the cold porcelain. Add a medium Fry with 450 calories and a small coke drink with 150 calories...and who doesn't get a small drink at McDonald's right...? And you can leave there having eaten 1,130 calories.

Now on my plan, I can eat 2, 131 calories a day, so subtract that one meal and I can eat 1001 the rest of the day. You can see why its so east to over eat today, the food we consume and the calories they contain far outweigh the amount we burn in a day.

The result...we gain weight.

And I have, easily by eating this kind of food. I love fast food but I dont love how it makes me look or feel. Even if you eat something that is within the range of normal caloric doability...it's still processed food that is clogging you up and taking life away from you. I ate a couple chicken soft tacos from Taco Bell yesterday with my son Christian...and even though they were only 200 calories each...my body had a fit; Last night and all this morning, me and the bathroom were spending a lot of time together.

Crappy food..makes you feel like crap.

Fitness update: 2.12.09

Exercise:
Did another round of Jillian Michael's 30 day shred today for my workout. I noticed a little more stamina this time, but oh my some of those exercises burn baby, especially the push ups and abs.

Diet:
So far this week, I've been able to maintain my daily goals nutrition wise by staying under the level needed to burn the right amount calories for a two pound a week loss and eating clean. I had one meal that was more calories than I needed but that was dinner at a friends house and who can say no to BBQ Ribs??? Not I.

Feel good today. One cup of green tea in the morning and no headaches or mid day crashing going on. I notice my energy level rising and I have not needed to juice myself with caffeine to get through the day. Much more even energy and mood.

Fitness Update

After yesterday's 30 Day shred video...I am sore, not immovable but tender for sure, so today I walked Kona for 37 minutes and covered 2 miles. I've been using my TrailGuru iPhone app to track my route via GPS, it monitors my steps, distance and speed as well as mapping the route to post on the internet (I'm still figuring out that part though).

I feel real good today and surprisingly not very hungry, same as yesterday. In fact I had left over calories to eat last night and at the rate my hunger is today, I imagine that will be the case to. I am drinking water through out the day and I think that is satiating my hunger, or just revealing that most of the time I snacked...I was really thirsty. Go figure.

I'm also down to almost no coffee and I dropped the diet soda a while ago...now I'm trying to predominantly drink green tea, Cascade Ice(a sparkling water/juice) and water.

Simple, slow and consistent is my pace and goal...so far all things feel manageable and realistic; which is what I am shooting for...I'm down 2 pounds this week, which is right on track.

30 Day Shred

I did Jillian Michaels 30 day shred, level 1 today for my workout. It's 20 minutes, no rest...circuit training exercises, no weights needed, it's a good workout. It's tough but you can modify by following one of the other ladies in the video. I have ordered the video but this week I am using the Comcast episode that is for free when you go to the Fitness section under the ON DEMAND section; they have Level 2 on there as well. 3 of my kids did it tonight as well, they liked it. If you are interested you can listen or download her radio show here.

iPhone Health & Fitness APPS

I am currently using these Health & Fitness apps on my iPhone : Trailguru, Goalkeep, Lose it!. iFitness& the BMI...lator.

So true...

You know its time, when....

Salad...is a promissory note.

Is fatter what is really a matter...?

Motivations in pursuing health and fitness are often more elusive than the pursuant is aware.

For many, the body is threatening that it's going to shut down all kinds of systems if you don't start taking care of it properly. The warning dash light is on and its time to get in shape. For some people they are choosing life but wrestle with the battle of also trying to unravel and get free from self-hate or body-image bondage. They are trying to fight off the cultural deification of thinness as defined by the ever unattainable pixies. In fact, most of the health and fitness industry really is just madness; it's consumeristic, capitalistic oppression, blatant self worship and flat out lust.

It can easily breed body idolatry.

Coming to accept the natural results of aging, sickness and disease, life change or birthing children; is part of accepting God's design for our bodies and lives at different seasons. I say good job for anyone who can shed little tears or mental energy over it. It's rare, especially for women, but men face it too.

I think there is a danger in embracing a spiritualized apathy or lack of discipline that attempts to turn our vices into virtues. I see it when people embrace the "grace of God message" and turn it into a license to sin. The flesh is a tricky combatant. In the end being overweight can kill you. Suicide isn't a godly virtue...and many of us are killing ourselves with our forks and couches.

In the end we are all imperfectly seeking to walk out what it means to "worship God" with all of our lives...and for many, their bodies are more a testimony to fleshly lack of control instead of the fruit of the Spirit called "self control". The church is praying more and more for healing and yet being conformed to death in her values, choices, lifestyles and mentalities. It's a subtle victory for death to get us to pray for supernatural means while continually undermining the end result through natural means. Death is our enemy, the very last one that Jesus will bring under His feet. Fighting against death is to resist the enemy of God. Life is what Jesus brings, not death...in fact, Jesus expanded the idea more by calling for "abundant life".(Jn 10:10).

Of course the world would love to define that "abundance" for us and focus on designer clothes, breast size, hot or not labels, a certain age, a number on a scale, or a look...etc.

But being healthy is much different than being a certain number on the scale...or being able to wear a tucked in shirt or a thong. Beauty can be found in the breast cancer survivor or among the Eskimo women of the north. True joy isn't on a rack of jeans or in the amount of hair on your scalp. Confidence isn't rooted most securely in the changing outer life. If it is...your going need a lot more than a wonder bra after those babies take out their hunger on your chest! No pill from some smiling Bob is going to turn any man into a better lover...if anything it will make a bad night...just longer. You can reach a certain "ideal weight" through starving yourself, taking diet pills, smoking or vomiting up your last meal...but in the end you are still out of control....and ugly.

For me losing 30-50 pounds is about quality of life and the desire to live longer, more productive, with more energy and in a way that honors God with what He has given me to steward. I fail at this so much...but His grace is present, His power is available and wisdom is gained through the journey. Legalism is alive and well in the health and fitness world. Its a cruel master that can exert a power that is as much slavery...as the undisciplined life.

My prayer is that: "We would prosper and be in good health, just as our souls prosper." (3 John 1:2) and achieve it in a God honoring way with grace, patience, wisdom and joy.

February 2009

Well, here is my "Before" shots for my Fit4Life health & fitness class at our church. It's uncanny that I am posting these February pictures at my worst weight and the pictures below were in February at my best. I am currently 6'3'' and weigh 254 pounds. I started my official diet and exercise program 5 days ago on February 4th. For Phase One of my program my goal is to lose 2 pounds a week by pursuing a healthy diet and walking briskly for 45 minutes a day, Monday through Friday. After I acclimate back to exercising, I will include weights 3 days a week or a aerobics/strength training video and in Phase 2 move back into running.
I am choosing to aim at doing all of outside a gym. My intent is to incorporate my family in the overall goals of health and fitness as well through better eating and more active family time.

Back in February 2006

These are pictures of me in February 2006 at about the end of my first weight-loss/running program...I was 218, down from around 250 when I started in November of 2005. I would burn 1000 calories in the gym 6 days a week and I changed my eating habits too. I would run on the tread mill or use the elliptical machine at the YMCA in the Spokane Valley, every morning around 6am.
I was working through a lot of personal, family and ministry issues at this time. I used the gym as a battering ram to hammer out my inner life, my health and the future path for me in ministry. It was a brutal time but God met me in the gym. Unfortunately, the work out means I was using and the pace I pushed myself at, was unsustainable.

I ended up pissing blood after one of my workouts in I think March. That freaked me out, so I backed off but the damage was done. I had burned myself out in my focused obsession with reaching 200 lbs and in the end my body and inner mental gears burned out. I almost reached my physical goal but the whole experience propelled me out of the funk I was in; and helped me to regain my perspective, my inner equilibrium and refocused and rechart my course ahead in ministry. It wasn't a perfect plant but it was a start...unfortunately because I didnt work out in a smart and sustainable way, after I stopped running...I gain the weight all back in about as fast as I lost it. Talk about major bummer, all that hard work for nothing...except, I learned what not to do the next time.