1% Weight Loss Challenge - Week 8

I've been away for a couple of weeks presenting seminars in north-west Queensland where it's as dry as a bone.

Growing up in Whyalla I know what it's like living in a place where it's as dry as a bone. Since the year I was born it's averaged 10 inches or rain a year, pretty much spread out over the months. In autumn and winter it gets an inch or so a month from the south westerlies and in the summer months it gets cloud bursts fed by monsoonal rains from the Indian Ocean - though with an average of an inch a month all that Whyalla ever received was the very last few hairs of the tail of any monsoon.

The thing about Whyalla though is that there was never a drought, just a low rainfall and the local pastoralists knew that if they ran just one sheep per square mile they'd come out ahead.

On the other hand the average rainfall for Winton is around 18 inches; but here's the rub. It can vary from around 43 inches as it did in the year 2000, down to 2 inches, as it did in 2002 and down to virtually nothing in the last couple of years.

While I was away I cracked a tooth and by the time I got home I was pretty much laid up and exhausted. It took me a week to recover.

But, I've bounced back and am back in the training harness.

The stats don't look all that good and I've got some making up to do before I get back to you in a week's time.

In the  mean time stay tuned, highly tuned and spare a thought for emaciated sheep and cattle feeding off dirt and farmers at their wits end. It's a heart-breaking situation that lowering interest rates isn't going to fix.

John Miller

1% Weight Loss Challenge - end of week 4 - The Parable of the Runner

Ah! that's a better. But nothing to really write home about - only around a kilo a week over the last 4 weeks.

Last week I was getting worried but the saviour has turned out to be the NutriBullet blender which we got just after Christmas. Previously we'd had a juicer and which used to leave most of the fibre behind.

The NutriBullett mashes everything up in to a delectable (almost smoothie-type) drink. I've been using a mix of fruit and vegetables for two shakes a day, one around lunch time and one around 3pm. The latter shake is warding off the before-tea munchies. Before tea is danger time.

I've also started on cider vinegar three times a day. I think it's helping to clear up my skin, particularly the bit of psoriasis I've inherited from my mother.

THE PARABLE OF THE RUNNER

A man went out for a run.

He’d only run a hundred yards when he felt a twinge in his right calf muscle. He slowed down to a walk and then returned home. He put ice on it, rested it for a few days, started walking again and soon found that he could shuffle slowly without discomfort. He gradually turned the shuffle into a jog. Then the jog became a run. He kept on running.

Then the weather took a turn for the worse, it became cold and wet. He wanted to stay in bed where it was warm, but he got up every morning at 6.30, rugged himself up - and kept on running.

His work took him to a far off place where it was hot so he couldn’t train outside. He kept on running, inside on the treadmill in the gym.

There were times when he was tired, when he’d gone to bed late. He got up anyway, put on his shorts, tee shirt and running shoes, got outside the front door - and kept on running, one leg at a time.

Other times while he was running he felt that he couldn’t go any further. He was stuffed. So he slowed down, went back to shuffling and jogging, paced himself - but kept on running.

He had hard days and easy days, but regardless of how he felt at the start of a run - he kept on running.

When he became stale he started cross training. As well as running he went swimming and cycling and worked out on the stepper. He lifted weights and after tea did his stretches on the floor while watching TV.

His health improved, he got back closer to his ideal weight, he slept better, his blood pressure and cholesterol came down. He became as lean as a greyhound, fit as a trout and toey as a Roman sandal.

His running times improved 30%. He could run for 60 minutes. He felt 100% better.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and if you've got feet let them run.


John Miller

http://www.completefitnessworkout.com

1% Weight Loss Challenge - end of week 3 - Whoops!

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Whoops!

This weeks results don't look to good. Inexplicable. Must be something wrong with the scales - or the food intake and elimination cycle! Whichever way you look at it, it's not a pretty result. But we live in hope and there's always next week to which we can look forward.

Trained hard for 1050 aerabytes of high density exercise.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned, lay off the garbohydrates and exercise like buggery.


John Miller

http://www.hourglassdiet.com

1% Weight Loss Challenge - End of Week 2 - So Far So Good

A single swallow doesn't make a summer, nor does losing a few kilos at the start of a weight loss program amount to much more than a hill of beans, but it's a start.

Like most races it's the finishing line that's more important than the starting line.

Here's last week's results.

 

If you'd like to download the Aerabyte Fitness Tracka - aerobic fitness diary - an essential tool to accompany any weight loss program - click on the link:

http://www.johnmiller.com.au/aob/tracka.pdf

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned - and cool.


John Miller

1% Weight Loss Challenge - End of Week 1

I read somewhere this week that Sydney University is calling for customers to enrol in a fat loss research program to try and work out the most effective way to lose weight. You'd reckon by now that nutritionists the world over would know that the most effective way to lose weight is to exercise like buggery and lay off the garbohydrates.

Whilst attending Biggest Loser classes would seem to be the best shot most people will ever have to get back closer to their ideal weight, I doubt that the  Sydney University nutrition department has this form of weight loss regime in mind.

A very, very high percentage of people don't have a clue how much exercise they need to do to get themselves back into good metabolic health of which being overweight is the most visible sign.

In my (vast) experience I've never met anyone who exercised with aerobic vigor for 40 minutes a day who was in poor metabolic health and 30KG over weight. You can put down the glasses, close down the research institutes, the results are in, all cut and dried, done and dusted.

'Exercise like buggery' is not strictly a technical term, but it means getting 1000 aerabytes of vigorous aerobic activity every week.

'Lay off the garbohdrates' means restricting your intake of flour and sugar; on their own, mixed together or combined with fat - the typical junk food diet.

Anyway, to cut a long story short this week I got to 1210 aerabytes, most of it on the stepper with heart rate of 130 plus. And the results are:

But it's early days yet. Talk is easy.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned, exercise like buggery and lay off the garbohydrates.


John Miller

1% per Week Weight Loss Target

We're right at the start of 2014 and it's the ideal time to think about getting both fitter and thinner. If you're thinking about dropping a few kilos over the next couple of months feel free to download a copy of my 1% per week weight loss target from this link:

http://www.johnmiller.com.au/hgd/index.htm

Any surplus fat around your body is going to peel off quicker if you up your exercise, both aerobic and strength training. I can't think of any better guide than the CompleteFitnessWorkout.

Nor can I think of a better set of guiding principles for eating wisely in a junk food world than the Hourglass Diet.

My fitness week starts on Mondays and starting on Monday the 6th of January I'll be commencing my own weight loss program.

For aerobic exercise I'll be working out on the stepper and aiming for 1000 aerabytes a week.

You can join me on the Health Blogarithm to see how I go and join in the fun with your own reports.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and focus on losing 1% of your body weight each week.

Watch this spot.

John Miller

Painfully Tight Calves - the Unequal Burden

Do you need to warm muscles up before giving them a massage?

Probably, but when you think about it, 98.6F sounds sufficient!

When it comes to loosening stiff muscles rolling isn't the complete answer. You usually have to keep rolling.

You roll the knots out of a muscle and by the next morning the knots have come back again. It's a never ending saga; you loosen the muscle, it tightens itself back up again, you loosen, it tightens ... Is it true  that the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result?

If a particular muscle is stiff and sore it's highly likely that it's bearing too much of - or an unequal share of - the burden of locomotion because a muscle (muscles) elsewhere have pulled the skeleton out of alignment.

For instance if you're a runner and you have a tight and persistently painful right calf the cause may be tight left buttock or hamstring or hip flexor or quadratus lumborum ... that has slightly twisted your pelvis.

The level of uneven burden may be so slight you can hardly notice it - but your right calf does. You rub and roll the calf, but to no avail. It's always painfully stiff. you need the human body equivalent of a wheel alignment.

In my own case I notice it when I'm working out on the stepper. My right foot is always an inch and a half behind my left foot. I've assessed the cause of the problem as being a tight left buttock, which I work on persistently, but I'm of an age where a lifetime of rotating to the left to kick and throw (I'm right handed) might have led to permanent rotation of the pelvis.

On the other hand, my diagnosis may not be correct. I could be just plain ignorant of what's causing the pelvis to rotate and what needs to be done and would appreciate some help from readers more knowledgeable about this 'complaint' than I am. I'm more than willing to defer to a 'higher power'.

The principle then is that the cause of the pain is unlikely to be the point where it's painful.

We're fascinated by and attracted to the spot where the pain is - not where the cause of the pain is. It's why when it comes to lower back pain, radiologists want to X-ray the lower back and therapists want to rub, crunch, heat and vibrate it.

The second principle sort of follows on from the first and derives from the dualistic way we look at things. The medical industry is dogged by the fascination with the part, not the whole. Hence if you have a headache it must be because something inside your head is 'not right' rather than the whole body is not right.

So, when you have stiffness in one part, stand back and look at the whole musculo-skeletal ecosystem - chances are it's a system problem, in which case you'd take up yoga or some other form of general movement 'therapy'.

A final word; the particular muscles (and indeed whole musculature) may not be strong enough to do the job expected of it.

Rarely do we strengthen calves (or feet) in such a way that we build their capacity to manage the loads we expect of them.

My recent experience suggests that slow, very slow calf raises are an essential part of the runners/sportsperson's armoury: 5 seconds up, 5 seconds hold, 5 seconds down, 10 seconds hold. It will take 10 minutes not 1 minute.

 "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."