WEEK 6

MY FOOD DIARY IS HISTORY!

By Mark Clem

Week 6 is gone and so has my strict adherence to the Witch Doctor’s (WD) diet. I am not willing to modify my life to revolve around when I eat and what I eat. The diary is history too! I am going to eat healthy and eat often — but that is it. 

To compensate for this deviation, I am going to increase my cardio work on my off days when I don’t see the WD. My stamina is one area that has not changed over the 6 weeks and this increase in cardio work should help that.

Thumbs (massage therapist) has me black and blue so you won’t see me with my shirt off for a while, too hard to explain the visual effects of active release.

I am learning to skip since WD switched me from doing steps while he records my work and devises new exercises. Skipping is hard work when you are learning and probably stays as hard work once you learn because you can last longer before you either trip on the rope or strangle yourself.

The roller is getting easier so WD says he is bringing a harder one. Great! My shoulders are so weak and my weight so great that I still can’t come close to doing even one chin up but I believe I will be able to do at least 5 by week 10 (if I lose another 10 pounds).

I expect the intensity of my workouts to increase for the last 3 weeks. WD has to look good among the trainers (at my expense). I promise after the 10 weeks I will maintain daily activity 12 months a year for the rest of my days.

By August 10th 2009 I expect to have lost 39.5 pounds so the work doesn’t end after 10 weeks. Like I said so long ago, the challenge will be to stick to the changed eating habits and increased activity level.

I liked Loren’s Week 4 blog. He now has a partner to push him. I want to add to the push. I challenge you, Loren, to a race anytime on Father’s Day June 21 at Bayshore Park. The distance will be 5K. The winner gets free beer and wings at Ray’s. The loser pays. I will watch your blog for a response.

PUTTING THE ROCKS IN THE JAR

By Mark Young, Nutrex Solutions, nutrexsolutions.com/

Any trainer worth their salt knows that it is going to be a bad week when their client suddenly stops bringing in their diet record.  It is at that moment when you know that you’re going to need to have a serious discussion.

When Mark showed up on Tuesday he was up about half of a pound from last week. It wasn’t a big deal, but given that there was no diet record, I had a feeling that this was only a taste of things to come.  By Thursday Mark had gained an additional 3.5 pounds!

Fortunately, Thursday was also assessment day and we were going to have a chance to measure his progress and to have a chat about getting back on track. Below are the measures we took.

Waist Measurement
Starting measurement: 44.5 inches
Current measurement: 41.75 inches
Loss: 2.75 inches!
Despite the moderate weight gain this week, this number proved to be excellent. More importantly, this takes Mark within three quarters of an inch from his 10-week goal of getting his waist down to 41 inches.  Since abdominal fat is also highly related to cardiovascular risk, Mark is improving his longevity with each inch he loses here!

Weight
Starting weight: 219.5
Current weight: 214.0
Loss: 5.5 pounds
Despite the drop in his waist measurement, this number left a little to be desired. If I didn’t know Mark had gained back four pounds within the last week I wouldn’t have considered this a bad loss so far, but knowing that made the number a little disappointing.

Prior to this weigh in, Mark had been on target to reach his 10-week goal of weighing in between 200 and 205 pounds. Now it is possible, but will be much more difficult. He’ll really need to buckle down if this is to be a reality.

Body Fat Percentage
Starting percentage: 27.0%
Current percentage: 26.3%
Loss: 0.7%
Body fat percentage is a measure of the percentage of your body that is fat. Beyond simply using the scale, this is the single most important measure of body composition.  It is a function of how much fat you’ve lost and also how much muscle you’ve gained so it gives you a ton of information. In Mark’s case, I would have expected a greater drop this week, but since his efforts weren’t what they needed to be, it didn’t turn out quite as well as I’d hoped.

Fat Weight
Starting fat weight: 59.3
Current fat weight: 56.3
Loss: 3.0
Not too shabby, but not excellent. My guess is that this may have been closer to 7 pounds without this week’s gain.

Muscle Weight
Starting muscle weight: 160.2
Current muscle weight: 157.7
Loss: 2.5 pounds
The main idea when losing weight is to gain or maintain muscle while simultaneously losing body fat. This is what gives the fit or toned appearance that most people are looking for. In the very worst case scenario, the maximum amount of muscle lost should account for 1/3 of the weight loss.

I should note here, that rapid weight loss plans promising 30-40 pound losses in a short time ALWAYS result in dramatic losses of muscle which will leave you looking like a smaller version of your current self with the same body shape. 

In any case, about 45% of the weight Mark has lost to date is muscle so this can mostly be attributable to one of three main causes.
1. Not enough total protein
2. Not enough total calories
3. Skipping snacks and going to long without food. Definitely

After speaking with Mark it was easy to determine the root cause.  Since his nutrition plan hinges on the notion that he should never go more than 3 hours without food, this appears to be his biggest issue. 

As with most busy people, planning is the single most important key for Mark’s long term success and that was the focus of our discussion to get him back on track.

The Rock Jar
I once read a story in a book called The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that was so powerful that it has stuck with me ever since.

As the story goes, a university professor walks into a lecture hall and places a rather large empty jar on the desk and, without speaking, reaches under the desk and begins placing several large stones inside the jar. Once he is done he asks the class “Is this jar full?”

The class responds “Yes”.

Again, without talking, the professor reaches under the desk and pulls out a large container of coarse gravel and begins pouring it into the jar with the large stones. He occasionally shakes the large jar and eventually all of the gravel falls into the spaces between the larger stones. Once again the professor asks “Is this jar full?”

Having caught on to the game, the class responds “No”.

Finally, the professor reaches under the desk and pulls out a bucket of sand which he proceeds to dump into the large jar. The small grains fall between the gravel and the larger rocks until the jar is finally actually full.

“The point of this example” said the professor “is that the larger stones represent the truly important things in our lives and the gravel and sand represent those millions of other small things that keep us busy, but aren’t really that important. If you put the big rocks in first, the smaller stuff will just fall in around it. If you try to put in the smaller stuff first, you’ll never have room for all of the big rocks”.

In Mark’s case, his days are so hectic that he often forgets to eat when he should or finds himself without food at the appropriate times. Instead, I’ve asked him to plan his days ahead by “putting the big rocks in the jar” and allowing the rest of his day to fall around them.

To do this Mark will have to determine what is truly important to him and begin by putting those rocks in the jar first. In the literal sense, this means scheduling times for meals in his calendar and building his day around those.

If his health and his weight loss are truly important, these must become the big rocks and they must be among the ones that are put in first.

If you think scheduling meals is little extreme, consider the fact that people used to actually sit down for breakfast, take time for lunch each day and spend time as a family at dinner time. 

Now we’ve become so fast paced the many of us skip breakfast, wolf down our lunch at our desk  and eat a reheated dinner standing by ourselves in the kitchen before we race back out the door to some meeting or event. Maybe I’m being nostalgic here, but I personally think a little structure might just be a nice change. 

For Mark though, even if his puts the rocks in the jar to begin with, it is more important that these “rocks” are not displaced for other seemingly urgent and important things in the heat of the moment. 

After all, other things may seem important at the time, but without our health we have nothing.

Comments

[Liz]

I have to say that after reading cadet Mark's current blog that I am slightly disappointed.

I congratulate him on his efforts and his achievements thus far but at the same time I feel I have to say something regarding his seemingly wavering commitment.

He has been given a great opportunity to be trained by one of the best trainers in Hamilton for FREE. Personal training is not cheap and I feel that he should be taking this whole challenge a bit more seriously and understand the gift he has been given.

To give up on the plan that your trainer has put forth for you and to do things the way that you feel like doing them is against what this whole thing is supposed to be about. (i.e: no more food diary and nutrition plan changes)

I feel that The Spectator has given him an opportunity that many people would have killed for, to be put into the skilled hands of a reputable personal trainer and that he should do as his trainer says.

My two cents.