Started the day by monitoring my weight (118.6kg) and the sugar level (12.7 mmol/L). Uploading few songs on my bluetooth headset. Kind of AC/DC (Shook me all nightlong start wonderfully, the drum, to initiate a workout) and Mozart Requiem. Lovely but hopefully not depressing, or Vivaldi Winter, and others stuff such as Klaus Nomi or Josh Groban. Alejate or Let me fall are just wonders. Grace Jones, I’ve Seen That Face Before, will be played in loop few time, I bet. Oscar Benton with Bensonhurst Blues, or UB40 Food For Thought too. Will see what will work well to accompany the walk to come. The city will never be more than 15 min away, and a coffee along the way will certainly do.
weight
sugar
Just after the walk, checked the weight and sugar. As I drinked 1L of water during the walk, the net water loss is of 118.6-116.9+1 = 2.7kg of sweat. Blood sugar dropped temporarily by 33%
Along the way, bought drinkable probiotics. Indeed, remembered that a balanced intestine flora have an impact on the weight loss outcome. As can’t tell wether it is currently balanced or not, just took it. Fibers supplementa as well. Seems to be an important element to a diet.
As for food, I changed my strategy. Instead of setting a kcal intake first, I choosed to eat what I want, and then calculate the kcal intake it represent. Then, to look at what to change to reduce the value, if it is higher than 1’800 kcal. I’m also sticking on a 4h windows eating period, eating nothing during the remaining 20h. Really easy so far. Maybe because while walking, I’m not thinking of it. The mind goes somewhere else. To the cows I would cross, the little hill ahead, the music or the next pause, removing probably some eating habits, not linked to hunger. It’s like rediscovering what hungry means.
Food intake:
salad1 335 kcal
salad2 265 kcal
platzli 540 kcal
cashews 910 kcal
Total kcal: 2’050 kcal
Cashews represents almost 45% of the total intake. Will spend the kcal somewhere else next time. But no more hungry. That’s nice.
It took 6h for my legs to felt great again. The after walk muscles and foot pain just faded away. Now, great feeling. Few feet blisters, but nothing otherwise. Can now lazily drink tea, watch documentaries or movies, and sleep. Can’t wait to know what will be my weight and blood sugar end of Feb.
Yesterday, I was drafting an ambitious plan: Morning, walk. Mid day weight training. Afternoon, swimming.
And this morning, I started to walk. I made a first round in the forest near by. Around 10km. And during this round, I was asking myself: why would I register at the gym? Gym means indoor, boring steady cardio. Yes there are classes and the possibility to do weight training, but I’m also just starting this journey. And while having an ambitious plan may lead to quick results, it can also lead to just giving up. Walking is an outdoor activity. On the other side, a walk can be paused anytime, the nature be contemplated. Feeling the wind, the Sun or just smelling the pin tree around. And the forest being near by the city, a pause along the way in a near by shop, for a fresh drink, is always an option. And this is exactly what I did. It was really cool as it didn’t felt like exercising. Joyful! At the end, walked 17km, 22k steps, 95% of the time in the forest. In a lazy 4.5h time. Doesn’t matter how slow this is. The journey at has started.
Seems my watch is counting the total calories expenditure: metabolism (2009 kcal) and exercise (1’966 kcal). Can’t believe I could have ever burn 3’900 kcal as the watch is mentioning. Indeed, on days where I wouldn’t exercise, it will by set 2’009 kcal by default, for a 24h time period. Sounds low, given the fact that I’m overweight. Beside that, made a second walk later, to buy groceries. Just 1.7km. But no more transport. A mind switch.
The food intake wasn’t that glorious, not that bad neither: Caesar salad, 2x lentils salad, 2 cold coffee, fish, fruits, 1 bred with emmental, and a small cheese fondue. A Swiss wonder. All in a 4h window. Not hungry now. Cool, may start intermittent fasting. It seems to be the only diet (or lifestyle for some) that doesn’t burn muscles, just fat. A lot of scientific publication mention that it is healthy to eat in a confined time period, and to stay out of any food the rest of the day. For example, not eating during 20h, and eating normally in a 4h time period. Research have shows that intermittent fasting have extends the life expectancy in mice, but also, humans.
Bought few vitamins: drinkable B12, Multivitamins, Omega 3 and Resveratrol. There is quite a literature about the latter. Research showed that such anti-oxidants can slow down the aging process. Living longer yes, but also better. It does that by slowing down the natural shortening of the tolomeres, or even, reverse it. Literature mention often Resveratrol, Curcumin, Q10, PQ, Metformin, etc. as the anti-oxidants the most helping for that.
At the end of the walk, my knees and legs were a bit tired. All went back to normal few hours later, and I’m looking forward for the next walk tomorrow. With time, I will probably diversify the workout. Weight training would be great. Swimming too. It will come naturally. When my body will say “I can do it!, the brain “We got time to do it!” and maybe the heart “Time to get sexier!” To some extends obviously.
The scale haven’t get it that I did a workout today. I will look at it once a week, but curiosity may make it more often.
I want also to scan the food intake. My target is 1’800 kcal/day. I was dreaming today burning the amount of kcal I will burn while walking. Doing so, and if my metabolism really consume 2009 kcal a day, then that is 8’000 kcal every 3.5 days. As 7’000 kcal represent 1 kg of fat, it means a weight lose of about 2kg/week, 8kg a month. That would be really cool.
I heard last day a doc saying on YouTube: no matter if you eat only salad, if you consume 1 kcal more than what you need, you will still gain fat. While quality matter (vegetarian seems a must in many documentaries such as in “What the health”), the calories intake still matter. On this aspect, it can be useful to monitor the daily kcal intake. Many apps allows doing that, just by scanning the bar code on the food package. Then its just about defining a target, and choosing the food that will match the target. Some app even connect to the smart watch and add up the calories expenditure made during a workout, to the calories consumed by the metabolism, providing the net difference with the calories coming from the food. At the end, if there is a deficit, dividing 7’000kcal by this deficit will give an estimation of how many days it will take to burn 1kg. I guess there is a lot that can be done with 1’800 kcal. The salad today was refreshing and tasty. Coffee and tea concluded the day.
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
Alright, here we go, the step one of this journey was among others things, to start this blog.
A guess its all about social pressure or most probably, another way to self pressure myself, to reach my objective: get fit !
How many people are writing about this ? Probably millions. And this blog, is not different. It’s just another blog!
And like millions of us, I have good reasons to start this journey: Health, Time and .. a Lie
Health
I’m weighting 119.2kg for 1m76. That was fine for years, I mean, no health complications, until the diabetes surfaced, roughly 10 years ago.
I went on insuline, got it controlled, and then, dropped few kg until my sugar level stayed between 6 and 9 mmol/L, without any meds. And I forgot about my health condition.
Last years December, I noticed my ankle swollen, and my left arm started to get numb, down to my fingers. My vision became more blurry and I changed my reading glass from 2.0 dpt to +3.0 dpt. Obviously, something went wrong, and I knew who the culprit could be. So I bought a kit to measure my blood sugar: 29 mmol/L.
I’m not a doc, but seems its quite high. And the higher and the longer it is high, the higher the risks of serious complications and organs damage.
But I’m just back to Europe, after 6 years in a row spent in South Africa. And here in Switzerland, there are no GP that I know. And meet one can take weeks. So I tried my luck at the pharmacy, and incredibly, at least in Switzerland, the pharmacist accepted to give me 2 months supply of Metformin 1000mg. No one should never get meds without a prescription I guess, as it can be super dangerous. But I’m a responsible guy, I will monitor my blood sugar, and so, I left the pharmacy with my meds.
One month later, my blood sugar felt in a 8 – 12 mmol/L range. The meds worked, but that’s just a quick fix: it won’t solve the cause. I heard people getting ride of their high blood sugar levels just by dropping few kg and adopting a new healthy lifestyle. And that’s the fix I’m looking for. Still, beside few long and lazy walks since late Dec 2019 on week-ends, nothing outstanding. But this is about to change..
Time
I’m so lucky at the end. My contract was short, just 3 months. And it ended this week. My next job will start on March 2nd, and I find myself with suddenly almost 5 weeks in front of me, free to do what I want. And what I want is: drop fat! Exercise, eat healthy and start this journey. It’s now or never. 5 weeks in a row, can’t remember if it already happened. As many says, I can, I want so I will do it and win it. No excuses. And after all, beside health issues and time to work on it, I have another good reason to start this journey..
Lie
I left South Africa late October 2019. It wasn’t plan, but it happened. And behind me, I left my girlfriend that I was dating for 3 years. We have got up and down, but we still dating, despite the distance now between us. On WhatsApp, she sometime mentioned that I should lose weight. Not that she never told me that before, but it seems that it is something that matter to her. Maybe to avoid long chat, a fight or just because I wanted too, I ended up promising her that I will take care my health and drop as many kg as needed to get fit and slim. The problem with promises, is that at the moment they are thrown, expectations begin. That was last November. December came, and the predictable check came: Are you losing weight? Yes I did. But the truth is, that I gained 3 kg..
Fortunately, our initial plans for her to visit me during Festives was cancelled, last minute. So she haven’t get a chance to see my progress: for her the few kg I dropped, for me, the 3kg I gained. But I wasn’t proud: I lied to her, and I didn’t like it at all. It’s not me. While this journey is for me, I want now to transform a lie into a truth. Not for the sake of love, but for the sake of being honest, what I believe to always be.
One day, one of my ex told me: don’t worry about your belly. If a woman love you, she will love you as you are. And I believe in that. As it is still in my mind after 10 years. That’s why I don’t put love as a reason for me to start this journey. Beside the fact that being overweight is really not healthy, physically and emotionally wise.
Someone else also told me one day: You are still not losing weight? I’m not. What a waste! You would look so handsome.. Alright. Until now, appearance was never my priority. Maybe I even never have care about it. But today, I honestly would like to meet the guy she was talking about..
Anyway, so today is the D day. That kind of day that if it is failed, it will never happen.
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