F@Camp

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, con a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

- Robert A. Heinlein

At it’s core, my philosophy is pretty simple. Our bodies were made to move, and to maintain them in peak condition we need to let them do what they were made to do.

In my case, this basic tenet (upon which my entire training program is based ) takes the form of an hour-long daily walk over varied terrain. Rain, sun, snow, heat. It doesn’t matter. This is the core upon which everything else I do is built, and I can’t afford to skip this crucial step.

Do I ever miss a day? Sure. But I try not to get into the habit. It’s just too important to let fall by the wayside. Plus, I really love the way it makes me feel – not just while I’m doing it, but for hours afterward.

Move Intensely Once In A While

I don’t believe in doing long, drawn out cardio routines. For one thing, they are boring. For another thing, I bloody well hate doing them. But above those two soul-crushing points, cardio simply runs [no pun intended] counter to my goals.

I want to build real strength, explosive strength. And I don’t want to risk losing any of the muscle I’ve gained because I cardioed my body into cannibalizing muscle tissue or risk injury from the constant pounding repetition that heavy cardio demands.

The simple fact is, short intense intervals can be just as effective (or more) as hours of steady cardio. The key word here, of course, is intensity.

So, instead of hour-long runs, I sprint. Usually over the same varied terrain that I walk. I sprint uphill, downhill, over flat stretches, around bends, through straightaways . . . you name it, my fat arse has sprinted it. I sprint, drop to a walk, and sprint again.

I don’t do this every day. In fact, I usually only do it one day a week during my regular daily walk, but man has it ever made a difference.

Play When You Can

I am not a gym hound. I don’t get a giddy endorphin high from working out. So as much as I can, as often as I can, I try to make my workouts fun. And one of the ways I do that is to actively seek out fun.

Now, I’ll admit this may be easier for me than it is for many of you because I have three young kids and a young-at-heart wife who are always up for some good active play time.

And you know what? I get a good workout without hardly noticing it. See, playing isn’t just about working your muscles or getting your heart rate up, it’s about having fun. It’s relaxing, stress releasing, freeing.

Engage Your Whole Body

This concept is what finally flipped the switch in me from hating workouts to bloody well loving them.

Seriously.

I came up in the era of isolation exercises. If you want big muscles, better make each individual muscle do its own individual work.

Trouble is, our bodies don’t really work that way in the real world. Honestly, when do you ever really do a curl other than at the gym? When bringing a fork to your mouth? We don’t move that way.

When we move in the real world, groups of muscles move together engaging their connecting tendons and stabilizers to get the job done.

I can’t begin to tell you how much I loathed isolation exercises. Yet I absolutely love exercises that engage the whole body. I like doing squats. I like doing push ups. I even like (gasp) running. And don’t even get me started on how much I love my kettlebell, sandbag, slosh-tube, and other total body workout equipment.

Lift Heavy, Lift Hard

Since most of my routine is bodyweight exercises and I still weight close to three hundred pounds, lifting heavy is the rule of the day. I haven’t got much choice. When I go, I go heavy. But I also like to go hard.

I only work out 1-2 days a week (with 4 days of rest in between) but when I work out I treat it just like my sprints. I pour as much effort into 30 minutes as I can and then I stop.

That’s it. Half an hour a day; 1-2 days a week.

Because I do want to build strength. So I don’t just tear my muscles up every day, I leave them time to recover.

Hit The “Core 4″

I get in a lot of compound movements with my kettlebell and sandbag, and those are important, both for their intensity and their effect in strengthening my joints, tendons, and stabilizer muscles. But during my bodyweight exercises I always try to make sure I hit what I call my “Core 4″ movements.

The Core 4 are Pushing, Pulling, Squatting, and Lunging. Yup. Two for upper body, two for lower. Pushing is usually accomplished via some variation of the push-up. For pulling I do assisted pull ups and kettlebell rows. Squats are pretty straight forward. As a fat man my legs are used to carrying a load, so this is one exercise I can do til the cows come home and at this stage I usually do them moderately weighted. And finally lunges. Lunges are great for balance and explosive lateral movement. I do forward, backward, and sideways lunges and often incorporate a bit of plyometrics in what I do.

So where are the “core” exercises in the Core 4?

Everywhere.

When you engage your whole body nearly every exercise you do engages your core muscles – even walking- so I almost never do exercises that specifically target and isolate my core.

I absolutely hate to see advertisements for “ultimate ab workouts” of any kind. In point of fact, your abdominal muscles are actually very small and need little working out.

Honestly, do you really want six pack abs? Then drop down below 10% body fat. Want 8-10 pack abs? Drop waaaaay below 10% body fat.

The truth is, you already have six pack abs. You just can’t see them because they’re stored in your cooler. Peel back that insulation they’ll be prominently displayed.

Rest

I can’t emphasize this enough.

Your body needs rest.

And don’t wait for the seventh day, either. That kind of schedule is reserved for tireless, universe-creating gods. Get plenty of rest every day. Your hormones are most active when you are unconscious, when your body can divert the resources you burn up during an active day. That’s when muscle repair and building occur.

Without rest you won’t see the muscle or strength gains that you could be seeing, so respect the time you have and use it effectively.

Eat With Whole Foods

Whole foods are the cornerstone of good nutrition. Foods in their natural form, unprocessed, unaltered. Nothing added. Nothing taken away. Whole.

Fresh whole vegetables and fruits form the cornerstone of my diet. I don’t omit any edibles from the plant kingdom, but because of my diabetes I am very mindful of how much I eat in the way of tubers, legumes, and fruits.

In other words, if it is likely to jump my blood sugar and bring on a surge of insulin I generally stay away from it save for the occasional rare treat.

For the most part,   I don’t eat grains at all, but when I do eat them I choose high protein grains (like barley) and I eat them in their whole form, steamed or boiled and added to soups and stews.

But from the plant kingdom, leafy green vegetables, onions, cucumbers, summer squash, zucchini, sprouts, tomatoes, peppers, lemons, and limes form the vanguard of my carbohydrate intake. I’m even learning to enjoy olives (if they’re cooked in something and not so briny) and avocados.

I generally eat at least one monster salad a day as a meal and often have a second salad with my hot meal. I love my daily salads and blame/credit Mark for getting me hooked on them.

For protein and fat I am now eating plenty of animal meat, roasted nuts, and olive oil. Occasionally I still eat dairy. I use butter and whole milk to cook with and occasionally add a bit of hard, dry-aged cheese as garnish.

40-60% of my daily calories come from fat.

This is a new development, and I’m losing weight without going hungry.

Implement Single Ingredient Shopping

If whole foods are the cornerstone of my eating plan, then doing my own cooking whenever I can, using fresh, whole ingredients, is the firm, steady infrastructure on which all else hangs. To that end I practice what I call single-ingredient shopping. Pretty much everything I buy at the store (or farmers’ market) is a single ingredient item.

Single ingredient items are fresh fruits and vegetables; whole, unprocessed grains, beans, and nuts; whole spices (I make my own spice blends, dry rubs, and marinades); whole fish and fresh cuts of meat.

My exception to the rule is canned and frozen vegetables and frozen seafood (if you aren’t going to use it that day, buying fresh seafood is a waste of money. You can get it cheaper frozen and if you buy seafood that was frozen at the source – on the boat – the taste difference is non-existent). I will also buy canned seafood (tuna, salmon, etc).

Those are usually two-ingredient items, with the second ingredient being salt.

Other than those few items I don’t even venture into the middle of the grocery store for food. Everything I need can be found around the perimeter.

Eat Regionally & Eat Seasonally

I live in a seasonal climate. We have snow in the winter, rain and flowers in the spring, heat and growth in the summer, and falling leaves in autumn.

So I am very aware of the season and I love to get fresh food when it is at its absolute freshest. I only buy cod in the winter, because the summer fish have parasitic worms that can’t be killed by freezing or cooking. I buy lots of berries and young greens in spring. I buy melons, stone fruit, tomatoes, peppers, and mature greens in summer, and I buy apples, pears, squash, and root vegetables in autumn.

And as much as I can, I buy local.

The food is fresher, it is a part of the environment I live in, and it uses less energy in transportation.

What About Calories?

Conventional Wisdom tells us that you have to create a calorie deficit to lose weight. Some new evidence suggests that what you eat is more important than how much you eat.

I prefer to take a balanced approach, making sure I eat the right combination of foods in the right amount.

And Macro Nutrients?

How important are macro nutrients – Protein, Fat, & Carbohydrates? What role do they play in running the body and weight loss?

It seems odd to me that we know how human bodies store fat. It is one of the few actual facts in the mountain of fat data that has never really been disputed.

2 key ingredients are needed to store fat. Simple sugars and insulin. When we eat, our blood sugar goes up signaling the body to produce insulin. Insulin acts as a key to open cells allowing the sugar in your blood to be used as fuel (in the muscles) or to be stored as fat.

Eating Fats and Proteins does very little to trigger an insulin response. Eating carbohydrates will always trigger an insulin response. The more fibrous the carbohydrate (simplified version here) the longer it takes to digest, the lower the insulin response.

[You can check the GI (Glycemic Index) database to see what kind of insulin response you're looking at (the higher the GI the higher the insulin response) in a particular food].

The thing is, while the door is unlocked and open for fat storage, the door is barred and closed for fat burning.

But when you don’t have raised levels of insulin in your system, the body is primed and ready to burn fat. It has to. If you aren’t burning carbs your body needs to turn to its survival fuel source.

Embrace Intuitive Eating

I’ve been on many diets that recommend you eat every 3 hours or so to regulate insulin and stave off hunger pangs. And if you are on a low fat diet it is kind of necessary to do so.

Eating the amount of fat and protein and fibrous vegetables that I eat now I find I’m not hungry every three hours because my body is still digesting what I gave it. Most days I only eat two meals. Some days only one. Some days not at all.

And I don’t go hungry.

Is breakfast really the most important meal of the day? If not eating breakfast is going to make you binge halfway to lunch, then yeah, I’d say it’s mad important. If you are on a low fat diet it is probably absolutely necessary.

If you are eating plenty of fat and protein and nutrient rich fibrous veggies – meh. It is the meal that gave me the most trouble (deep down inside I’m still a toast and cereal junkie) and it is the one I most often skip. I keep a handful of nuts in a baggie in my pocket in case of hunger but I almost never eat them before lunch anymore.

And I don’t binge at lunch. I eat my monster salad with whatever protein was laying around leftover in the fridge (now that grilling weather is here, BBQ chicken is my new favorite salad topping) and I’m good until dinner.

I love the idea of intuitive eating. Listening to your body. Deciding if you are really hungry. Thinking about what your body is really asking you for instead of just reaching for the usual craving.

No sure if you’re really hungry? Drink a big glass of water and see if the craving passes. We’ve become so accustomed to drinking half our calories each day via sodas, smoothies, monster mocha whipped cream lattes, and even innocent fruit juice that I think we often mistake a call to drink for a call to eat.

I’m kinda new to intuitive eating, but it’s getting easier with practice. I’m less likely to cave to the cravings than I once was and more likely to choose something that really satisfies.

Macromanage Instead Of Micromanage

So, what about counting calories?

Honestly, I’ve never had the patience for it.

Enter: Intermittent Fasting [IF] – calorie control without calorie counting.

In a nutshell, intermittent fasting is calorie control over the long haul. Instead of counting calories at each meal to create a deficit you fast one or two days a week and eat your normal meals otherwise (ie – you don’t stuff your face after a fast to make up for lost time).

Some days I only fast through breakfast and lunch and then have my regular dinner.

So far it has worked surprisingly well.

Water

The whole “8 glasses a day” recommendation is kinda arbitrary and has no root in real science. That said, the human body is 60% water, so I figure it can’t hurt.

I am finding, however, that I am less thirsty these days as I’m getting my diabetes under control. Probably because I am no longer pissing it all away.

Before & After Gallery

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This is me back in October 2008. I weighed 318 lbs. At my heaviest I weighed nearly 350 lbs, but I have no pictures of myself from that time.

This is me now (May of 2009) at 301. Seven months and Seventeen pounds down I don’t look all that much different (except now my pants won’t stay up and I’m a half turn away from subjecting everyone to unsightly plumber’s crack).

Ooh – and my wedding ring fits again . . . my wife is happy about that.

Of course, that’s the trouble with being really fat – you can lose 20 lbs and you’re still really fat. Still, I know I’ll get there eventually.

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And, for those of you who are interested :: My Stats

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