Thursday, January 31, 2013

the un-Carboniferous Period

As of nearly three hours ago, my life changed: I am no longer consuming carbs. From here on in, I am a disciple of Gary Taubes.

I'm going to supplement the change in my diet with a change in lifestyle, and I'd like to put up some sort of regular update on this blog, but I've yet to decide just which metrics to post. Weight? Obviously, yes-- probably weekly. What about workouts? A few candidates:

•miles walked (with elapsed time)
•pushups done
•crunches done
•pullups done

I've gone to my apartment's little gym and have taken phone pics of the facilities to help me decide which exercises I can do. On my phone, I've got several exercise apps ranging from simple to highly advanced. Perhaps the most advanced app I have is the JE Fit program, which offers a muscle-group-by-muscle-group breakdown of just about every conceivable exercise that can be done on a universal. I'm going to study the photos I took of the weight machines in our little gym, determine where the gym's equipment overlaps with the JE Fit exercises, then design an exercise program from there.

More on this as it happens.


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6 comments:

Charles said...

Woohoo! Let's get this party started!

Aaron said...

As Blind Willie McTell would say, "Kill it, kid." Good luck!

Also, where exercise is concerned, dare to think outside the gym:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-fitness/workout-of-the-week-archive/#axzz2JZKeALPm

Elisson said...

My suggestions:

Eat small amounts frequently... you should be putting something into your pie-hole about every three hours.

Some carbs (whole grains only!) are OK, as long as you consume an equal amount of protein along with them.

Green vegetables are your friend.

More fish, less red meat. Lean protein is good for you!

Drink plenty of water.

Good luck, and Godspeed on your quest to become a Not-so-Big Hominid!

Kevin Kim said...

Elisson,

Thanks.

Aaron,

I'll likely taking up walking again, and will avoid the treadmill in my tiny gym. Walking is what got me healthy way back when I was living in Switzerland. I do pine for those glory days.

Sperwer said...

I think I've got not only some theory, especially Taubesian theory, on board, but some serious street cred, so herewith a couple of recommendations at al.: (i) never mind the frequent feeding notion suggested earlier; marry the high protein/low carb approach with the intermittent fast protocol, which (much less intimidating than it sounds) only means extending the conventional nighttime fast for a few hours either side. The idea is to stretch it out to at least twelve hours by stopping eating early in the evening then not starting again until late morning. The rationale is that once you start eating you will stop burning fat for energy thus slowing fat loss; and by not eating during a significant portion of the time during which you are active, you will achieve more fat loss than when you are asleep. Adjust as needed to your schedule. (ii) in order to control cravings, eat all your permitted carbs (20-30 grams?) in one slug as part of your first meal, and make sure its low glycemic stuff (I like 30 grams of oat powder from Prescription Nutrition in a couple pints of water), then make sure you have adequate slugs of (fast-digesting) protein before and after any exercise (I do hydrolyzed whey and/ or casein powder in a couple pints of water - again PN has some decent tasting stuff. Follow up your post exercise meal with your real food meal, which again will be predominantly protein along with a variety of colored vegetables of negligible carb content but with a lot pf phyto-nutrients. The net result is in a way, more frequent meals, but only within the dramatically smaller window creted by the fasting period. (iii) keep a record: see http://www.myfitnesspal.com/. You'll be shocked at how easy it is to eat more than plan. (iv) it's not critical at your stage, but consider trying to implement now what, despite Taubes' strictures about the inapplicability of the Second Law of Thermodynamics to understanding fat creation, becomes essential in practice later on in fat loss - eating significantly below maintenance calories. I'm now at around 12% body fat and have an indicative caloric maintenance level of ~3000/day. But I need to lose 20 pounds of fat by May in order to get ripped enough to "get my thong on" and compete in the Masters' Division of Mr. Seoul 2013 @ ~8% BF, and that is only going to be possible, even considering that I am only eating about 30-50 grams of carb/day, by cutting my overall caloric input from all sources to ~1500. FIGHTING!



Kevin Kim said...

Sperwer,

Thanks for the advice and good luck as you vie for Mr. Seoul!