Geezer not a wheezer...

[Edward4492]

When it comes to weight loss think food quality. WW may be a good start, reality is 100 cals of cookies is not the same as 100 cals of veggies. Your body responds in different ways, I won't pretend to know the science, but it has to do with insulin reactions and other hormones. When I've had to lose weight relatively quickly (and I'm fairly lean at my heaviest) I elimanted sugar, breads, pasta, grains, and alcohol.For your level of rowing you don't need any "fueling". For anything up to 10k, I don't even give food a thought. It is truly amazing how even small amounts of the wrong foods can sabotage weight loss. The truly evil ones are the so-called foods disguising as diet foods. "Whole grain", " mutli fiber", "high fiber", "lo fat", "sugar free". The list is endless. It really is simple. Meat, fish, chicken, nuts, eggs, any and all vegetables (REAL vegetables),fruits (REAL fruit, nothing dried like raisins, dates, etc until the weight comes off). When I'm looking to lose, I stay totally away from grains, breads, pasta, etc. Quality proteins and fats (olives, nuts, avocados, olive oil) are your friends. When you get to doing seriously hard work outs you can add in some simple carbs.As a point of reference tonight I did a steady 10k at around 2:05, according to the C2 I burned around 700 cals, given my weight (163 lbs) it was probably a lot closer to 500-600 cals. If you need the structure of WW for now by all means use it. But start thinking about the transition to daily eating and finding quality foods that you like.

[GateDad]

Thanks Ed for the advice. I have learned, the hard way, that simple carbs are my Waterloo. That innocent single Girl Scout cookie, or mini-Snickers bar is the lead in to overeating. In fact, I had to admit to myself that I am quite addicted to sugar. If you put 4 oz turkey, 1 cup mashed potatoes and 1 cup green beans on my plate, for sure I'd eat the potatoes(first). My most trying (and depressing)times are around Halloween and Christmas and Easter---2 of those 3 times are candy holidays. Frankly, I have failed miserably in trying to eliminate the candy and sweets from my diet. It has taken me most of my adult life to recognize what I was dealing with. If I simply stay away from the simple carbs I don't have (any)cravings, am often only aware that I have not eaten when someone reminds me I have to stop and eat. It is quite the opposite when I am on a sugar binge...no amount of sweets is enough to quell those desires. The saying "pouring on gasoline to put out a fire" comes to mind. Problem is that have almost 60 years of doing the "wrong thing", I am faced with having to fight and defeat a very strong and persistent habit. It can be done(and WW's certainly recommends just about everything you posted in your advice). All in all, it's a new world, if I can get myself to take it, if I can break that addiction.

Regarding the rowing, I agree, at the level of rowing I am doing, there is absolutely no need to worry about eating enough to keep up. This morning I did 30 minutes, at SPM of about 25 and HR of 130. I believe my DF was 119. I didnt have time to upload to my on line log here(and I am not sure that I have been doing that correctly)but my Polar Beat app shows a moderate workout. That's fine for me. I am still in the learning stage, allowing my body to acclimate to the stress and the heart is adapting to the additional exercise. The C2 for me is about stress reduction first and foremost, but I believe that is a critical component of getting to a healthy weight.

I am into this full swing, let's see what happens.

Lou

[Edward4492]

I know all about sugar addiction.....and addiction is the right word. For about ten years I hung in around 180lbs, I looked fairly fit and got away with my junk food habit because I was bicycle racing and burning a lotta cals. When I got into competitive erging and decided to race in the LWT class I had to get below 165. I finally broke the sugar habit. Took a couple of days, but once I wrapped my mind around it the weight fell off. I now allow myself to eat what I want from time to time, followed by 2-3 weeks of strict eating. I weigh myself daily. When I hit 166, I tighten things up. 162 or so and loosen up a bit. Just starting to discipline myself to drink 6 x 16oz of water a day. I think the trick is to tell yourself you'll be able to have some of the things you want after you hit your goal.

Don't fall into the "all is lost" mentality when you cave in and eat some garbage. Just get right back on track. When you get down to your target weight , start to allow one "cheat day" per week. Eat what you want, but don't purposefully gorge. As time goes by you'll start to do some high volume days on the erg.I go through
long stretches in the off season when I'm logging 90 to 100k weeks; and I'm eating a little more of the junk and the weight remains stable. You may be surprised, but even at these high work loads, you can't pig out. A 15k pull takes around an hour and burns 900-1000 cals. That's probably two donuts.....not a half dozen.

I'm a personal trainer and the number one thing I tell my clients is the most important......consistency! Get in the exercise habit, stay with proper eating, and you'll be successful!

[hjs]

What I have, if you eat low carb for a while your taste will alter, sweet stuff starts to taste really sweat and food with real substance like most carb rich food tast really empty. Its not for nothing we see do little people who have perfect weight. By that I mean a great bodycomposition. Modern food is simply to easy to digest. Eat real food, everything taken out its natural context will give some problems at least.
If you are addicted... Cold Turkey is the only solution.

[GateDad]

Thanks to both of you. I did lose another 1.5 lbs this week, am on track. FWIW, long ago I did not have this serious sugar addiction(plus caffeine), and it was easy to maintain my 132 lb frame. Gradually, as I aged, I lost muscle and addeed fat. Now, looking back, I see that I failed to do resistance training and allowed my sugar addiction to take hold. All the while I was doing intense martial arts for many hours per week. Regardless, there is really no way to burn off the calories from a coupd of donuts and pizza as quickly as you can put them on. At my age(60 in a few months)my goal is to get around 150 lbs. And that will not be a tight, hard, ripped 150, but it will be a lot better than the blobby 188 I am now. Of course, I was as high as 224 a few years back. I am going to look at the positive and keep on goal.

Now, to my workouts: Did a nice, hard workout Saturday, and another slightly less intense one yesterday. Woke up Sunday with a very stiff back, and I realize now that I overdid it on Saturday. Despite my best efforts to NOT overdo it, I did. Your muscles take longer to catch up to your heart's ability to process oxygen. Today I am not nearly so sore, but I took a lesson out of this weekend, that I need to be as honest as I can be. Sixty is not a death sentence , but it does come with some qualifications, such as realizing the muscles don't recover as quickly. I am about to return to my Bowflex workout in addition to the C2 rowing. I will be careful, and only hurt myself once when I tried squatting w/o understanding the process correctly.

Lou

[DanielJ]

You didn't necessarily overdo it; you just went to a certain level for the first time. Or maybe you just slept funny. Don't be scared of pushing it on occasion. It takes time to become physiologically adapted to the erg.

I really strongly agree with hjs' point on the carbs. I was about 60-70 pounds heavier 18 months ago (That thing you were saying about naturally skinny... nope. Sorry. Was always at least squishy/bulky and have a family full of fatties.) and experienced the same thing when I got rid of most of the sugars. A few times in the last year I've tried Coca-Cola, an old favourite, and was just shocked at how weird it tasted, and even salty. Just a night ago I felt hungry after a day of working for 16 hours, so I ran up to Tim Hortons and had a couple of doughnuts. They were so damn boring, and I got next to no satisfaction from them; they just kept me awake for an hour. Totally pointless. Won't bother doing that again.

I tend to nibble on raw veggies nowadays. Broccoli, cauliflower, snap peas etc... Lots of full-fat natural yoghurt too (sometimes flavoured yoghurt, as I like how that tastes with my protein powder).


But keep doing what you're doing. You're making progress and as long as you're comfortable and happy you'll keep doing so.

[GateDad]

Another workout, another day of learning the machine and about myself I guess. 25 minutes(5 of that warmup, I cooled down by walking afterwards), 3686 meters, 22 SPM, 127 HR, 439 cals/hr, 40 watts. Not sure about DF as I am still learning the PM5 and how to toggle through the various options. A little sore, in shoulders, chest and lower back(and butt), nothing to worry about, typical new rower acclimatating to the machine. These are pretty tame numbers but I am satisfied for now. Lets' see where they are in 6 weeks, my sense is that they are slowly moving towards respectability. Again though, I row for stress relief and it feels great when I am done---a lot more pep, clarity and energy overall. Losing weight will help me feel a lot better. Tomorrow is WW's weigh in and I have to admit that I am still struggling with the sugar issue. Frankly, that's my biggest demon and probably the cause of a large percentage of my struggles with weight. I guess a journey of a million meters begins with one less donut!

Thanks again for the comments. One referenced my shorter legs, and yes, I do resemble "Dorf Rowing". My legs are short and I suspect that they provide less initial push than a taller person will encounter.

Lou

[GateDad]

Finally back to the Forum. I'd been out of state for about a week, and unable to get to any C2 rower. In addition, my internet was acting up,.so when I did get a few workouts in at home I was not able to sync them up with my I-Phone and the Training log online. Nevertheless, am currently back into the swing of things. Weight has dropped a bit, but that is more or less unrelated to the physical act of rowing. Have been struggling(as my custom)with the "bad" habits. Just started reading "The Pleasure Trap", which goes into detail about the biological and evolutionary reasons we (some of us)crave high sugar/high salt foods, at the same time we avoid intense exercise. I have lost a little, but I could be better disciplined and get better results.