Your Metabolism Changes as you Age
If you have the type of metabolism that allows you to eat whatever you want without any consequences then stop reading right now – and go have yourself a pizza and a Pepsi. I used to have that type of metabolism – and then things slowly changed in my mid-thirties. I’m forty-three right now – and for the last seven years or so, I’ve still been able to eat whatever I want – but I’ve had to balance days where I ate poorly with good days where I would eat healthy. Well even that changed this past Christmas. I gained ten pounds between mid-December and mid-January – JEEZ.
Now I am not generally considered to be a fat person – not slim either, but definitely not fat. My “normal” weight was usually around 180 … and would fluctuate between 180 and 185. I considered my maximum weight to be 187 … which is easy to remember because that is the California penal code reference for homicide ;o) Whenever I’d hit 187, I’d immediately go on a diet that consisted of salads or chicken or fish or turkey for dinner … but I’d still eat whatever I wanted for lunch.
Emergency Plan to Lose the Holiday Weight
During the second week of January, I made the mistake of stepping on the bathroom scale – which I hadn’t done for months … and I weighed in at an alarming 194. Holy shit – no wonder the pleats in my pants were stretching. I immediately declared a self-imposed emergency, and directed myself to do three things:
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Re-hire my personal trainer at the gym
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Implement a major diet for all three meals
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Do both until I’m back below 180 … ideally 175 to give myself some breathing room.
My last Midlife Gym Phase was over a year ago – and it failed miserably because I didn’t have the commitment necessary to succeed. You can read from the link (Midlife Gym Phase) that my intentions were good … but the reality was that at that time, I never made it to the “personal trainer phase”. This time, however, I’m all over it – and have been working with that trainer three times each week since the first week of February.
Gym Commitment
Being in the gym after a long gap is embarrassing. I’m stiff, and I shake like Elvis when I’m doing certain exercises like ball pushups. Side note – have you ever done ball exercises? This refers to a large gym ball – the trainer has me do all kinds of exercises which involve balance as well as strength … and these exercises are REALLY HARD. And because I shake while doing them (from being out of shape), it provides a pretty good free show for the others in the gym who are “gym maniacs” or regulars. Fortunately, I always check my pride at the door when I go to the gym. Anyway, between doing cardio on the elliptical machine, and the three hours each week I spend with the trainer, I’m doing pretty well – making noticeably progress. I’m also making new friends at the gym – which is due to me being outgoing, and able to make fun of myself.
Diet Commitment
As far as the diet goes – that is what is really the hardest thing to do every day. For breakfast, I eat Egg Beaters with some extra hot jalapeno salsa on it. Sometimes I swap in garlic pepper for the jalapeno salsa – just to be different. This is a very low carb/low calorie breakfast. I chase the Egg Beaters with a single glass of orange juice, one cup of green tea, and some horsepill vitamins that my chiropractor talked me into buying from him. Before I started the diet, I would have had frozen waffles, or eggs with sausage or bacon, toast, etc. I was previously a “big breakfast eater”. I think it is important whether you are dieting or not to take some form of nutritional supplement or multivitamin – to ensure you are getting all of the necessary vitamins and nutrients you need to be healthy.
For lunch, if I’m home or working from home – I try to have either a salad with some baked chicken cut up in it … or I’ll have a turkey sandwich on whole grain bread. I usually have a piece of fruit – like an orange or an apple or a banana. If I go the sandwich route – the key is to keep the portion small … not a great big sandwich … which previously I used to go and get a big submarine-type sandwich from the local deli.
Dinner is the hardest. I love Mexican food – but there is nothing remotely healthy about Mexican food. Sometimes I’ll go and have a taco salad, but it is too hard to go and sit in a Mexican restaurant without having chips and salsa – which are bad, bad, bad. So I do my best to either eat at home … chicken, turkey, fish with just one vegetable. Or I go to a restaurant that serves seafood … and then I try to only have brown rice, or vegetables with the fish … but definitely no potatoes. Since I live with my girlfriend, I have to compromise at least once each week on the type of restaurant we go to for dinner … so my evening diets have not been completely perfect. But I’m eating a lot better than I was before the first week of February – that is for sure.
Results after Seven Weeks
As of today – seven weeks into the diet and personal trainer gym phase, I have lost 11 pounds. This “11 pounds” has been steady for about a week and a half – which means I haven’t lost any more weight in a week and a half. I think that is due to a couple of slip-ups I had – mainly the dreaded but delicious Girl Scout cookies. Have you tried the Caramel Delights? Those are so good! But I’m not buying any more of those – I don’t care how cute the girl’s moms are! Anyway – I still have eight pounds to go to get to 175 so we’ll see if I can stick with the current diet/gym strategy. I’m pretty sure I can make it. And I’m also pretty sure that the same day I hit 175, I’m going to go out and get myself a pizza to celebrate!
