bigbassbrent's Journal

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28 August 2014

Things are slowing down for me in my day to day so I have some time to provide another tip. I think this one is very important and often overlooked.

Also, no more numbering the tips. I keep screwing that up and now I have more than 25 tips and still seem to be coming up with new things to add daily. With that being said, here is todays tip.

I wanted to list the things that I think contributed to me meeting my weight loss goals in hopes that it may help someone else. And please remember, this is what has worked for ME, your mileage will vary. I will post one tip per weekday.

Don’t be a slouch!!! I’m talking about posture. Try to be aware of keeping good posture all of the time. Tall spine, shoulders back, head up! It will help you appear more confident and will help reduce pain caused by years of awkward or poor posture. I know several women who have poor posture that stems from childhood. These women usually developed more quickly than other girls their age and because of this they were afraid to keep their chest up and shoulders back because it looked like they were putting their chest out there for everyone to marvel at. So instead, they developed a posture which brings the shoulders forward and curves the spine forward in order to hide their chest. I constantly remind the girls in my house to keep their posture. I suffer from bad posture myself, due to sitting at a computer desk all day. I tend to slide my booty down in my chair and let my shoulders and neck slump forward. Once I realize that I am doing this (like right now) I make the correction and sit properly. Fixing engrained poor posture is not very easy. There are several great internet resources to help you fix your posture and regain your mobility.

A few that I have found helpful are:
http://www.spine-health.com/wellness/ergonomics/ten-tips-improving-posture-and-ergonomics
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/07/07/6-bad-postures-that-are-ruining-your-health-and-how-to-correct-them/
http://www.wikihow.com/Improve-Your-Posture/
http://www.mobilitywod.com/lifestyle/posture/

Good luck my friends. Stand tall and proud!

(15 comments)

27 August 2014

Almost exactly one year ago my doctor told me I needed to make some serious changes or I would become diabetic. From that day forward, I changed my life. I just got my lab results back from the dr appointment I went to this past Monday. I am going to post both my old (one year ago) and new results. Overall the doctor was very happy with my transformation. He said, “I sure wish more people would do what you have done.” That made me feel good.

When looking at the old lab result numbers, take into account that I was on blood pressure and cholesterol medications at the time.

OLD NEW
Weight (lbs) 217 176
Blood Pressure 132/83 120/67
Blood Sugar 120 121
A1C N/A 5.2
Total Cholesterol 173 189
HDL Cholesterol 40 49
LDL Cholesterol 98 120
Triglycerides 173 98
Non-HDL Cholesterol 133 140

Overall my doctor was pleased with the results. Even though my fasting blood sugar is above normal, the A1C test that I requested revealed that my average blood sugar over three months was an 86, which he told me is perfectly normal. My blood sugar rises quite a bit when I go for several hours without eating. I control this by eating every 3 hours or so but when I fast for my lab tests, it shoots way up. The good news is that the threat of diabetes has subsided. Yay!!!

He noted that my good cholesterol is much higher and since I am no longer taking medications, my cholesterol panel is nothing that he is worried about. I was afraid he was going to try to put me back on meds, thank goodness he didn’t! I eat low sugar and high fat. So my LDL, although increased quite a bit, is not alarming because you will find that when someone eats very little sugar, they will have large fluffy LDL particles which are not harmful like the smaller dense LDL particles which can be found in people who eat sugar and fat together. There are special tests for particle size but they are not commonly run.

I celebrated with the family last night by dining on a Sonic double meat cheese burger and fries. First real burger I’ve had in a year. It was delicious, but it hurt my stomach for a few hours afterwards. That’s ok, I will still do it again next time I have something to celebrate!  Worth it!!

Sorry about skipping out on posting the tips lately. I still have a lot more, I just haven’t had the time to put them together and post. I’ll get one out tomorrow and Friday for sure.

I hope everyone is doing great!

(24 comments)

22 August 2014

173.2 lbs, down .4 lbs
104/70 Blood Pressure
72 Pulse
99 Blood Sugar
Body Fat Calipers 11mm, 23mm, 7mm = 13%

Week in review:
Average calories: 2791
Target Calories: 2900
I failed to reach my average calorie goal for this week. I was short by 109 averaged calories. This was due to a hectic week and me not having time to properly prepare meals.

I added more carbs to my diet this month (currently averaging near 100g) and it seems that my bood suger has actually been lower because of it. I will stay on this course for a while. The carbs are helping me lift more weights.

Speaking of lifting more weights, this was a good week for me in the strength training department. I set new personal records for back squat, overhead press, deadlift, rows and bench press. I expect more of the same next week! Making progress feels good and is motivating me to be even better.

Have a great day everyone.

Weight:	Lost so far:	Still to go:	Diet followed:
78.6 kg	0.4 kg	1.5 kg	Reasonably Well

(5 comments) Losing 0.2 kg a Week

21 August 2014

Hey everyone! Sorry I couldn't post yesterday. I had to call into work because my truck broke down 40 miles from home on Tuesday night. I was working on that stupid truck all day yesterday. Good news though. The truck is now back in business and my stress levels are back down.

I wanted to list the things that I think contributed to me meeting my weight loss goals in hopes that it may help someone else. And please remember, this is what has worked for ME, your mileage will vary. I will post one tip per weekday.

Tip 20 of 25

Try the "frequency method" to get better at things that you currently suck at!

This one was a new to me and is a little more exercise related than diet related but I think anyone can benefit from the idea. I learned about the frequency method from strengthvillian.com.

Currently I am doing frequency chin ups because, well, I suck at chin ups. Just a few months ago, the first time I tried to do a chin up, I knocked out a whopping total of 2. So for my example, I will use Chin Ups as my exercise. (This can be done with any exercise or process really, pushups, squats, lunges, yoga, speaking Spanish, whatever)

For the first week you start off by doing 1 chin up every few hours throughout the day to reach a total of 8 per day. Then the next week you do 10 chin ups per day. The next week you got to two chin ups at a time and do them 6 times a day, then do two 7 times the next week. You continually progress to more and more chin-ups spread throughout the day. I can’t believe that I will end up doing 70 chin ups just this week and when I add in my chin ups from last week we are looking at 126 chin ups in two weeks which means that I am getting better at doing them because, well, I am doing them. It takes very little effort to get better at things using the frequency method. Maybe it works for non-exercise things too! Try it!

Here is an example of the chin up program. Remember to substitute chin ups with whatever you want to get better at. Maybe it’s something as simple as touching your toes or saying your alphabet in reverse? 

Frequency Chin Ups - Every Day (Never performed to failure)
• Week1: 8 singles / day
• Week2: 10 singles /day
• Week3: 6 sets of 2 /day
• Week4: 7 sets of 2 /day
• Week5: 5 sets of 3 /day
• Week6: 6 sets of 3 /day
• Week7: 5 sets of 4 /day
• Then keep going and going and going until you are totally awesome!

(3 comments)

19 August 2014

Good day my FS friends! I almost forgot about this tip because it has become so engrained in my rituals I dont even give it much thought.

I wanted to list the things that I think contributed to me meeting my weight loss goals in hopes that it may help someone else. And please remember, this is what has worked for ME, your mileage will vary. I will post one tip per weekday.

Tip 19 of 25

Coconut Oil. Eat it, drink it, rub it on yourself, and love every minute of it! Coconut oil is a medium chain triglyceride (MCT) and cannot be stored as fat in your body. When you consume coconut oil your body must produce keytones in order to utilize the energy. Do you know what keytones are used for? Burning fat! When you go on a very low carb diet or fast for several hours (usually 6-8 hours) your body must burn fat since the supply of sugar is below what is required to function. Keytones are what your body uses to deliver fat based energy to your muscles and organs. When keytones are in your blood stream you are burning fat. Eating coconut oil forces your body to produce these keytones which in turn helps you utilize fat for energy. Some things I like to do with my coconut oil: Add a TBS or more to each cup of coffee in the morning. I also like to make fat bombs (google it!!). And I use it as a skin moisturizer and lip balm. When purchasing coconut oil always look for non-refined organic expeller pressed varieties. Go easy on it at first, as it can cause your stomach to feel queasy if you over-consume before your gut has had a chance to get accustomed to it. I typically take about 2-3 tablespoons per day in my coffee.

Have a great day everyone!

(17 comments)

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