Fitness!

Sorry I've been MIA here for a bit, it's been pretty crazy at home and at work. Way to go in September everyone! We had 4 people with over 33 hours of workout time, that's insane! Most other months we don't have anyone who hits that mark. Leading the way was @LiamGallagher’sBucketHat, congrats on back to back victories 🏆 🏆 ! Who's going to stop him from three-peating in October!? Looks like @debianlinux is edging him out by 30 minutes so far. Here are the final standings for September:

1. @LiamGallagher’sBucketHat - 40:42:00
2. @bfly - 36:55:31
3. @ByersVinyl - 35:17:40
4. @debianlinux - 33:40:00
5. @mrjoshuamccormack - 21:09:08
6. @Corycm - 17:25:00
7. @RowBearToe - 16:21:33
8. @Kris - 6:17:29
9. @trickyseven - 6:00:37

Looks like we only have 8 folks signed up for October so be sure to accept the invite and join in on the fun (*cough @Kris *cough)!
 
I probably won’t be three-peating as I’ll be in San Diego and then Disneyland at the end of the month and exercise is going to be the furthest thing from my mind. 😁

I’m still being consistent with my calorie tracking and I’m down 21 pounds(242) as of my last weigh in on 10/1. I’ve said goodbye to all of my 2XL t-shirts. I even think my moobs are getting smaller. 😂
 
Sorry about September everyone. Ida really messed up my workouts for the first half of the month, but I'm back! I've really been enjoying ending my week with a seventy five minute yoga class. I'm thinking of adding another workout during the week since I've consistently not been able to go to a Thursday class (thanks work).
 
Sorry about September everyone. Ida really messed up my workouts for the first half of the month, but I'm back! I've really been enjoying ending my week with a seventy five minute yoga class. I'm thinking of adding another workout during the week since I've consistently not been able to go to a Thursday class (thanks work).

One of these days I’m going to try that yoga thing.
 
Not necessarily fitness, but nutrition. I've been doing research on obesity and why it happens for a while. I notice that when I eat low carb with more fat and cut out sugar, I feel much better and I lose weight. If I don't cut out sugar, I'm never going to lose weight. I had been doing research on things like insulin response and resistance and the leptin cycle. Thus, this "new" "revolutionary" theory isn't really all that new or revolutionary, but at least the main stream medical community is starting to accept the overwhelming science regarding sugar. In the past, sugar producers like Coke paid off researchers to not look into the link between sugar and obesity (this was in the 1960's, as reported by JAMA a few years ago).

According to a commonly held view, the obesity pandemic is caused by overconsumption of modern, highly palatable, energy-dense processed foods, exacerbated by a sedentary lifestyle. However, obesity rates remain at historic highs, despite a persistent focus on eating less and moving more, as guided by the energy balance model (EBM). This public health failure may arise from a fundamental limitation of the EBM itself. Conceptualizing obesity as a disorder of energy balance restates a principle of physics without considering the biological mechanisms that promote weight gain. An alternative paradigm, the carbohydrate-insulin model (CIM), proposes a reversal of causal direction. According to the CIM, increasing fat deposition in the body—resulting from the hormonal responses to a high-glycemic-load diet—drives positive energy balance. The CIM provides a conceptual framework with testable hypotheses for how various modifiable factors influence energy balance and fat storage.


The important word here is "causal". They are proposing a definitive model that addresses what obesity researchers talk about all the time, that once you deposit enough fat in your body, it starts impacting your hormones--because the fat in your body acts sort of like an organ. It's not just static storage. It actually impacts your ability to lose the weight, and if you continue to eat foods with high glycemic load, it will continue to monkey with your insulin response which in turn messes with your energy levels. I have long thought that obesity is just one piece in a larger epidemic of metabolic disorder due to our eating foods with high glycemic index--because there are very few high glycemic index foods that exist in nature.
 
That’s interesting stuff. Not super surprising re:sugars. There’s been a lot of discussion about that since the rise of HFCS (basically it takes 2x as much syrup to achieve the same sweetness as sugar, but it’s cheaper/subsidized).

Unrelated: I’m bad at food.
I absolutely cannot get my caloric intake right. Workouts are going well, seeing incremental strength increases, but I’m still losing weight and having intermittent low energy days which all points back to a calorie deficit. Not having a ton of luck determining my *actual* needs vs. intake which is super annoying.
 
Tangentially related: does anyone do preworkout or get a little caffeine boost before they work out? I work out in the evenings after work and tend to be a little draggy even on my best days, but trying to figure out how to goose my energy levels a little to get more out of my workouts.
 
Tangentially related: does anyone do preworkout or get a little caffeine boost before they work out? I work out in the evenings after work and tend to be a little draggy even on my best days, but trying to figure out how to goose my energy levels a little to get more out of my workouts.
I usually work out in the morning because I'm so mentally tired after work.
I don't really do caffeine because of my heart, but I have some chaga mushroom powder that I use for a quick jolt. I like the stuff from Lunar Logic Apothecary : ACTIVISM / Golden Mylk Superbrew

But a mushroom guy just set up a booth at the farmer's market and he's also selling chaga and cordyceps powders so I might try his stuff.

I have also gotten mushroom brews from four sigmatic, and they have some pre-workout non-caffeine mushroom powder too, but I warn you, mushroom powder on it's own is not all that tasty. Cordyceps Elixir
 
Sugar, specifically chocolate is my biggest weakness. Besides focusing on being in a caloric deficit, I’ve really tried to focus on my sweet tooth. This time of year is usually a smorgasbord, but I’m definitely going to try and be mentally tough. If I do buy chocolate, I’ll get things like the dark chocolate peanut butter cups from Trader Joe’s and only eat the recommended serving size. If I get a craving for ice cream, I get Keto ice cream bars from Costco.
I also picked these up when they were on sale and they’re very satisfying for when I want something sweet.

055F756B-3B14-4E32-A7C8-9E87E15CAC37.jpeg
 
Back
Top