GO! RUN! MOVE! POST! Eat?

Stan Van Gundy, dress code instigator and a favorite motivator.

                    I wish I had posted more often before this, as that might make posting seem less like an epic endeavor and something that was more an autopilot behavior. But as this now slightly less corpulent, but no less invested and intense man above us often has barked, yelped, and shrieked: "YOU WANT THIS TO BE EASY! IT'S NEVER EASY!" And so here we are, back on the blog because nothing that's worth doing is ever easy. Before I continue, props to Coach Stan for his own fat loss (Orlando Sentinel with the story), and probably fitting into a smaller size shirt, since Commissioner David Stern and his lackeys forced coaches to wear collared shirts on the sidelines. 

               January was a pretty solid month after the holiday blowup, even with having to fight off some illnesses that forced me to rest up and take more days off than I would have liked. I'm more than eager to share the past month of my training, but right now I want to highlight the fact that my nutrition plan was nearly spot on everyday starting from January 3rd. Not saying I was on some Bernard Hopkins haven't eaten a donut in decades tip or approaching a Steve Nash level of intuitive eating. (Definitely a must read on his diet here from NBA.com.) For simplicity's sake, I mean to say that this past month I maintained a caloric deficit all those days, consumed enough protein to maintain lean body mass, and averaged a healthy daily intake of vitamins and minerals.

              Maintaining a caloric deficit is the only way to lose weight besides maybe severing limbs; you can drink nothing but protein shakes and eat Papa John's, but if you consume less calories than you burn, you will lose weight, and maybe find yourself some new health problems. Conversely, you can eat completely organic food found naturally in the earth, eat lean meats and fish, and if you consume more calories than you need, even from these sources, you will eventually become a fat human being, albeit probably a healthy one. There is a difference between eating for health, and eating to cut body fat/lose weight. Last month I think I did yeoman's work in doing both. I do count my calories (tip of the hat to caloriecount.about.com) because it works for me: it reinforces accountability, lets me know my macronutrient and micronutrient breakdown, and if I really am maintaining a caloric deficit. Quick mental shorthand: macronutrients are proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, and micronutrients are vitamins and so called trace minerals that we need small amounts of. This is becoming an early theme, but I'll or we'll probably discuss counting calories vs. not counting them/eating intuitively a la Nash in later posts.

              There was a time, however, when I didn't know the first thing about the energy in vs. energy out equation regarding energy expenditure, and I still lost weight. The summer of junior year in high school I topped out at about 220 lbs, close to 225. My sister was going to try something called the "Six Week Body Makeover" from Provida Life Sciences, and we ended up trying it out together. I recall answering a battery of multiple choice questions and eventually learning what body type I was so the program could prescribe an eating plan. Although I didn't know this then, what this type of nutritional plan does, just like any of the latest fad diets or miraculous as seen on TV breakthroughs, is that it makes you eat less calories than you burn, even if you aren't being told it (in fact, the whole not counting calories becomes another selling point.)
              
                    Armed with willpower and, really, a wtf not attitude, I remember eating egg whites, oatmeal, fruits, vegetables, potatoes, and a lot, a lot, a loooot of chicken breast. If you've read about Steve Nash's diet, he'll probably tell you that it's pretty damn difficult to gain body fat (i.e. enter a calorie surplus) from eating those types of minimally processed, whole foods. Ironically, in the early stages I distinctly recall feeling stuffed, because I was eating every 2.5 - 3 hours. My compliance was helped in large part because of my sister who supported me, prepared everything, and mixed it up so it wasn't always the same flavors. We did have "cheat snacks" or maybe even a day off every now and then, but I remember the regimented, routine nature of that time. It was almost like Ray Allen shooting off a screen--automatic. Ultimately, I think I got down to around 170-180 lbs when it was all said and done. And the only muscles I consistently used were probably the ones in manipulating a Super Nintendo or PSOne controller, and the ones that lift food from a plate or container to my mouth. (pause)

                Well, this is from memory, and it is getting late, but if that summer was like most summers, then I probably at least helped out with my father's volleyball camp, so that's at least one day a week where I got to engage in some physical activity, but I definitely didn't consistently strength train or do cardio, and still lost the weight of a young child. Unfortunately for me, I got satisfied with that at the moment, didn't really learn much that would shift the paradigm of weight loss through "dieting". Basically, my mindset was, that was tough, I'm glad I did it, but now I'm going to go back to eating like I was used to. A "diet" was not a lifestyle change, but more of a phase. And I would pay for that in college and beyond. But again, that's maybe for another time.

                 Back to a successful January--on the 3rd day of the month I weighed in at a bloated 151.2 lbs with a body fat percentage of 23.1% and body water percentage of 52.8% using the same scale I've had for the longest. (I don't know how accurate it is, but if you use the same device to track anything, even if it's not completely accurate, you can still use it to track change given it's always making the same mistake.) This morning, February 5th, I weighed in at 137.2 lbs, 18.2% body fat, and 56.1% body water. Undoubtedly a lot of the weight was water weight, but 5 percent body fat is 5 percent body fat. If you look at my food log from the month, you would find a lot candy (definitely not healthy, I know, and I don't encourage it even if you can afford to eat it calorie-wise), Ferrero Rocher (too classy to be called candy), trips to KFC, Johnny Rockets, and Nathan's. Yet on all those days I still remained in caloric deficit.

               You would also see a majority of of "clean" eating: I live off of vegetables, fruits, chicken breast, ground turkey, whey protein shakes, and sweetpotatoes. I did enjoy a lot of steak looking back, but that's also because it was on sale a lot, and obviously, it fit into my calorie budget too. Stan the Man knows that worthwhile accomplishments do not come easy, and for many the nutrition/"calories in" aspect of fat loss is incredibly difficult. I'm not overly prone to use war metaphors, but in the fields of athletics, fitness, and fat loss, it's often stated that war shifts in one's favor if you win the battle in the grocery store. As an old web mentor once wrote: "Eat Less/Move More is not a 50/50 Proposition." You cannot outrun, outlift, outGOHARDORGOHOME a caloric surplus, if you are trying to lose weight and cut body fat. The following video provides a nice illustration of that point, and conveniently, also features the man whose exercise program I just completed today.

Tip-off

We are two old friends who are dealing with our physical vessels and attempting to squeeze the most out of our athletic prime while trying to balance the rest of our lives.  We've got a lot of work to do and a long way to go. Sometime early on we'll provide as much backstory and context as we feel like, but ultimately our aim is to use this blog to hold ourselves accountable in our fat loss journeys.

While our life paths intertwine and our interests overlap, our fat loss oddyseys are at different stages. If I were to put in terms of the eponymous literature from Homer, I'm probably a lot closer to handling my business on Ithaca while my counterpart is still somewhere in the Iliad, dealing with his own Trojan War. That's enough convoluted conceit lest I lose you and tempt my fellow blogger to make clumsy references to Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom.

At my highest weight and arguably, my lowest point, I was either 16 or 17 years old and around 220 pounds on a 5'6" frame with a body fat percentage too high to be measured by any means I could have afforded at the time. At some later juncture, I had bought a scale that provides a body fat measurement, a device which informed me after countless readings of "Err-H", that its upper limit was 45%. Even though I was mostly composed of fat, I guess I "wore" it well, people probably thinking I was 20 pounds lighter than I actually was. What I couldn't hide was how terribly out of shape I was. Outside of P.E., I never lifted weights or ran. At that point, I could barely negotiate my own body; I couldn't do a single pushup or pullup.

Flash forward about 6 or 7 years, late March 2010, I weighed in at 128 pounds with a BF% of 14.6. My consecutive pushups total was nothing to write home about, probably around mid 30s to 40. My consecutive pullups (palms away from you) total was a little more impressive (if one understands how difficult a pullup can be to execute properly); it's almost been a year and I would have to check my written logs, but at my peak I was approaching 13 nonstop pullups done with proper form. (None of that kipping nonsense.) The stops and starts from 220 to 128 pounds will fuel many posts, and definitely couldn't fit here.


It was through blogs and the internet that I managed to learn what I needed to know, where else to look, and what else to read. Desire and will can only go so far without knowledge. As we experiment with how this blog keeps us on the right track, I hope that anyone reading it finds something of value. If you've been a fan of the NBA in recent years (I recommend it), you probably know that our title derives itself from an ad campaign that recently has been replaced after its permutations were exhausted by whoever handles the League's marketing. With that said, expect some NBA stylings mixed in with our own. Many serious athletes keep some sort of log of their routines so if nothing else, we'll at least try to keep each other posted here on our training progress.

Accountability still is King, (no Lebron), so don't be surprised if we post about our compliance (or lack thereof) with our eating or nutritional plans. I have been using a calorie logger for a while, since in weight loss, the calorie is king. Though accountability reigns supreme,  I reserve the right to be as indulgent as possible, if not in my consumption, then in the ongoing creation of this blog. It's been a labor even to put this post together, gestating in my brain, spanning a couple of NFL playoff games, and I finally can hit publish while watching the Knicks and Lakers. Apropos that this blog becomes official as Kobe stalks the court while Amar'e shoots free throws because Black Jesus, Lord Knows, we're doin work.