Activity & Weight Tracking is part of a Healthy Lifestyle Plan that I am adopting. I want to emphasize, I am not on a diet. I do not believe in diets as a pathway to getting to and maintaining a healthy weight or lifestyle. I do believe that enjoying a healthy lifestyle as we age is far easier if, all things considered, we are close to our own individual optimal personal body weight.
On May 29, 2022 I began daily intermittent fasting, 16-hours, from 2:00 pm to 6:00 am. Over the course of the coming weeks and months I’ll track activities I see as promoting my personal desired lifestyle. One very important measure is allowing my body to tell me when I have reached my optimal personal body weight.
Specifics and references can be found in Notes at the bottom of this post. Comments are very much welcome, thank you.
Start of what I hope will be a full month dedicated to establishing a better overall health. I’ll look for improvements in weight – bmi=24.9 –, blood pressure, average steps/day, strength, flexibility, balance and mobility. I’ll have feedback on a lung infection and get a good set of blood tests when possible.
Activity & Weight Tracking is part of a Healthy Lifestyle Plan that I have adopted. I started with a month of intermittent fasting, see Activity & Weight Tracking. I intended to continue with monthly updates, still tracking daily weight & activity except no longer fasting. Sometimes life gets in the way, it did for me. Starting with the day below, I’m trying again.
As mentioned before, I am not on a diet. I am looking to maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle. What that is for me is almost certainly different for you and everyone else. Some of the reasons I have gap in this process is that I have had personal health challenges. I’ll mention those if I feel numbers recorded here are effected.
With that I’ll begin again. Comments are very much welcome, thank you.
Start of what I hope will be a full month dedicated to establishing a better overall health.
I have a lung infection and asthma. A couple weeks ago I saw a specialist and he took me off two fairly serious drugs that my pulmonologist prescribed. Along with other side effects, my blood pressure during my fasting month was higher than normal for me. The recording above is more typical, hopefully that continues.
My weight this morning is somewhat higher than the 190.0 that I feel was a baseline at the end of my fasting month. We’ll see how that goes. The photo shows a typical breakfast with the exception of the bagel and cream cheese. The egg, avocado, berries, walnuts and fermented sauerkraut is part of most mornings.
The weight has a lot to do with retaining fluids. Some medical conditions are effecting this, I’ll work on it. Another typical breakfast, a couple times each week, includes oatmeal. Very high in dietary fiber, essential to a healthy diet and easy weight control.
Key elements to my approach to a healthy lifestyle: Intermittent Fasting; Why I chose 6:00 am to 2:00 pm to eat; Daily Tracking; Base Lines; My daily fasting routine; Why I do not count calories; Walking, Yoga & Strength; Daily meditation; Flexibility with routine.
Intermittent fasting (IF) is currently one of the world’s most popular health and fitness trends.
People are using it to lose weight, improve their health and simplify their lifestyles.
Many studies show that it can have powerful effects on your body and brain and may even help you live longer.
That’s powerful stuff. I’ve had numerous health challenges over the past couple years. All but my current one, a lung disease called MAC or MAI, is either completely remedied or under control. The medications I’ve been prescribed have seriously affected every aspect of my lifestyle and caused my weight to trend significantly higher.
Intermittent fasting is allowing me to reverse my weight trend and simplify my overall health and fitness. I find I am not usually very hungry anytime in the fasting period. I also find that, as I walk past where I keep nuts, dried fruit, dark chocolate and health bars, I’m thinking about grabbing something. Being part of the IF period, I see this as being in training to avoid constant grazing.
During the IF period I always allow myself something, but try to do it after a little check-in. Keeping some things that are high in fiber, very low or 0% added sugar, low sodium is what I do. A favorite is adding NuttZo to a crispbread, I find it very satisfying:
I love my breakfasts, most of mine are big. It only makes sense, to me, to pick a period that covers a traditional breakfast/lunch or lunch/dinner. I live alone, easy choice for me. Everyone’s circumstances are different. If you have a partner, she/he may or may not want to join the fast. Do whatever works best.
Daily Tracking
I’m unlikely to see big changes from one day to the next, but I track daily for a number of reasons. On my Weight Chart, I’m looking at the moving average trend and identifying what I call Base Lines. Some days I am might expect to see my weight drop some, only to hop on the scales and see a gain. I note what it is I ate. Pasta days can add, but that’s okay, we’re interested in this for the long haul. I record my weight each morning, before having any food or drink, totally naked. My digital scales are accurate to 0.2 lbs. If you do not have digital scales, I suggest to estimate to either 0.25. That might not seem like much, but I’ll show how it’s important later.
Base Lines
About 3 years ago I was borderline obese. I’m 6’2″ and weighed in at close to 250 lbs. I was disgusted with myself and decided to seriously limit my food and alcohol intake, and created monthly spreadsheets with graphs. I wasn’t fasting, but I would make a blender drink every morning with Spiru-tein, which contains 100% of about every vitamin and mineral a body needs to live. Long story short, about 8 months later I was not only below 200 lbs, I was about 192 lbs.
When I looked at the the graphs I saw 4 to 7 day periods that were basically flat lines. The I would trend down, maybe a week or two, and see another flat period. I’m expecting to see those again, they are what I’m calling base lines.
I’ll back edit this in the coming weeks and up what I see as the significance of base lines. Eventually, we’ll hit a base line and our weight will just continue to fluctuate between that base line and the previous one. That’s when we no longer need to continue Intermittent Fasting, we have reached optimal personal body weight.
My daily fasting routine
I try to prepare most of my meals at home. When shopping I essentially only buy organic and pay attention to the Nutrition Facts. Low sodium and sugar, high fiber and the ‘good’ fats. I’ll have more on this, with references, in the coming weeks. For your meals, pick quality that you love. Eat until you are full, have a nice piece of homemade pie or a dish of ice cream, just don’t go overboard.
I see the fasting hours as a training period. I was tending to graze way too often. Now I stop if I am about to reach for a snack, ask myself, if I’m really hungry. The answer is almost always, “no”.
Why I do not count calories – Not a Diet
Ask yourself if you’ve ever seen anyone that has cut calories and lost a dramatic amount of weight and stayed there? I suppose some, but very very few. Each of us is totally different. Some people my height, 6’2″, might be at their optimal personal body weight and be 220 lbs or 170 lbs. I’ll back this up soon, but you’ll never need to count calories to maintain the weight that’s right for you.
Walking, no matter how many steps, is not going to lose anyone much weight. Sadly, many of our friends and family just can’t do much. For those of us that still can, it should be an essential part of our daily routine. As I begin this, it’s a formidable challenge for me. I’ll post more soon, the 7600/day steps goal is scientifically selected, I’ll supply references.
This post and Notes on Activity & Weight Tracking can be references to a number of articles prepared to be submitted for publication. Here are some thoughts for titles:
Intermittent Fasting, 4 Weeks to Better Health
Intermittent Fasting, 4 Weeks Toward Finding Your Optimal Weight
Intermittent Fasting, 4 Weeks to Good Nutrition
Intermittent Fasting, 4 Weeks to Uncover Your Hidden Health Issues
