Jumbo Rider’s BodyBlog

Two friends just told me that their marriage fell apart within a few minutes of each other.  One marriage was 16 years old and the other 31 years old.  In one case it was the man that left the woman and in the other the woman left the man.

Why am I writing about this in a bodyspace blog?  Because marriage, significant others, unions, deep friendships are extremely precious and fragile.  When those relationships are running like a top you can take on the world.  You can lose 100’s of pounds or win the Arnold.  No, you don’t have to have relationships to do these things, but a good relationship really helps you achieve your goals.

When a relationship falls apart it throws all concerned into a deep tailspin that can take years or decades to pull out of, or in some cases people simply crash and burn.  No one is immune to a relationship falling apart.  It does not matter how long you have been in the relationship, what your religious beliefs are, or even how great the relationship might be at any given time.  It does not matter how hard one person in the relationship works to keep that relationship working.  Relationships are a dance of two and both parties must put 110% into the relationship to simply keep that relationship alive and thriving.

I talk a lot about living in the NOW.  Now is the only place a relationship exists.  It does not matter what happened in the past or what might happen in the future.  Now is the only time that a relationship lives.  If you have that special relationship with someone I implore you to talk about this.  Talk about the need to work hard at the relationship every day.  If you don’t it may be better not to be in that relationship because the pain and devastation can be great.

Dave Tate brings up a great point about the egg that appears to never change until the chick begins to hatch.  I would just like to add a bit to the analogy.

That egg is filled with a great deal of fat and a bit of protein.  As the chick begins to grow it consumes both the fat and protein making the chick bigger and stronger.  You don’t see this from the outside of the egg.  You simply see that hard shell.

You can look at two eggs.  One egg is fertilized with a chick growing inside and the other is not fertilized.  Both eggs start out with roughly the same fat to protein ratio and the same calcium shell.  Both eggs look equally healthy from the outside but one is in the process of metamorphosis.  In the end one egg has changed that fat and a bit of protein into lean muscle while the other egg remains filled with fat and a bit of protein.  In the end one remains an egg while the other becomes a living being.

As I shed my fat and a bit of protein I too am becoming a living being.  Think about this if you are fat-fat or skinny-fat.  In the end it is not about the scale numbers but what you do with your body that counts.  Are you strong or just an egg?

I have always tried to use the lessons “Under the Bar” to teach many of the same lessons in life. Many of these lessons we miss and forget about. It is not that we do not know them we just get caught up in all the other stuff.

Last week after having my bodyweight stuck for more than 6 weeks (dropping Kcals by close to 1000 per day, plus adding in cardio) I relearned a very valuable lesson.

There was NO reason why my weight should not have dropped. Since day one my Kcals have dropped from 10,000 all the way to 3500. My weight dropped during the first phases from 297 to 270 and then held on regardless of what we tried to do with my diet. I even changed my training program twice. The one thing I forgot to change was my internal belief systems.

You may think this is some crazy made up crap but it is what it is.

My weight got stuck exactly where knew it would when the process started. My bodyfat also stopped right where I knew it would get tuff.

My internal beliefs were set to stop at 270 and was never changed. This was because while I knew where I wanted to go (8%) I lost sight of what was going on right in front of me.

After six weeks of this BS I changed how I thought about the weight (I convinced myself that this was a mental game and changed the way I began thinking about it).

Today I weighed in at 264 (JB’s note: down 6lbs in 6 days).

Now, I do not see this as a 6 pound drop over the past 6 days but a 6 pound drop over the past 6 weeks.

I just heard a great story about an egg.

If you look at a fertile egg and watch it over time you will not see anything happen. This goes on day in and day out. You expect to see something, anything, but nothing changes. Then one day the egg begins to shake and a chic pops out. While the egg sat idle things were changing under the surface.

We all spend too much time looking at the outside of the egg when we should stop and think about what is going on inside.

We all get frustrated with lack of progress, slow strength gains, injuries, and the 100 other things that never come as fast as we like.

Many times busting out of these slumps does not take external changes (special exercises, new diet parameters, supplements, programs, money) but how you are internally programed.

What internal beliefs do you need to change?

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This is an excerpt from Dave’s Blog at: http://asp.elitefts.com/qa/default.a…=43454&tid=124

A few posts back I wrote about the 350 barrier and that I felt my body stalling.  How can I describe that or explain how I ‘felt’ my body resisting weight loss?  I really can’t, but I know it is true.

My nutrition plan has been solidly in place since November 2007.  Prior to November I had been simply watching caloric intake.  Things that I now have a handle on that was foreign to me just a year ago:

1. I know when my body is thirsty.
2. I know when my body is in need of specific nutrients
3. I know when my body is fatigued and needs rest
4. I know when I have pushed too far during exercise
5. I know when I need to get activity in or backslide

Each of points above deals with physiological>unconscious>conscious communication.  I can honestly say a couple of months ago this communication was completely broken.  Worse, the communication was giving wrong messages.

The wrong messages came from a bunch of causes.  My blood glucose was severely out of whack.  High blood glucose would make me tired and weak, and low blood glucose would make me crabby, hungry, and weak.  I would rarely be at a good blood glucose level. The blood glucose roller coaster was a wild ride that left me literally sick, tired, weak, and ever getting fatter.

Another wrong message bearer was chemically induced by what I was drinking.  It was normal to pound down 2-3 2 liters of diet Pepsi in a day.  The Pepsi had a double whammy of caffeine and Aspartame. The caffeine made me edgy and placed me in a foggy state of non-sleep.  The Aspartame messed with my blood glucose and there are multiple studies showing that Aspartame inhibits weight loss and affects mood.  Drinking all day long you would think that I wouldn’t be thirsty, but I was in a state of waterlogged dehydration.  The caffeine and salt in Pepsi stole any hydration from the drink that may have been available.  That dehydration was mistaken for hunger.  That hunger was never satisfied by eating because I really wasn’t hungry but thirsty.  This led to binge sessions, which led to more weight, which led to more depression, which screwed with my blood chemistry making the whole matter even worse.

Chemicals in the form of anti-depressants mess with the bodies communication system in a big way.  The fatter you get the more your dopamine receptors are reduced.  Dopamine of course is the ‘feel good’ chemical your brain makes when stimulated by certain activities like feeling full.  Dopamine receptors are the things that take in the dopamine to give you that good feel.  Scientists are not sure why the receptors die but they postulate that it is caused by an overabundance of dopamine being released with all of the dopamine in the system the body tries to gain equilibrium by reducing the receptors.  The exact same effect is seen in drug addicts.  The lack of receptors of course means that the body seeks an ever increasing amount of dopamine creating stimulants, more food, increasing the cycle.  The same thing may be happening with serotonin and the common anti-depressants are SRI’s which increase serotonin levels.  Normally serotonin leads to a decrease in appetite but  people taking SRI’s  are shown to have a huge problem with weight  gain and  trouble with weight loss.

Every item I have mentioned leads to increase weight and a decrease in energy.  This makes exercise very difficult.  It is like a 5 pack a day smoker trying to run wind sprints.  A lack of exercise makes it harder for the body to lose weight but also creates a messaging problem in the brain.  Remember those dopamine receptors?  Guess what?  Those receptors are rebuilt by exercise!  Rebuilding those receptors in a big key to getting the body chemistry in line, but if you have no energy and weight too much to exercise at a level sufficient to create change you will never replace the dead receptors.

The lack of solid nutrition also sends wrong messages in your body/brain.  If the body does not get the nutrients it needs it craves more.  With my body out of whack that craving is seen as simply being hungry.  The problem is that if my body needs vitamins from a vegetable carbohydrate source but I give it a tub of Rocky Road that body will scream that it is not satisfied and wants more.  This is true even when you feel full to the point of sickness because of the volume eaten.

Another problem we find is that we through a ton of chemicals in our body trying to "figure" out a way to break the cycle.  This can be quality fat burners or protein powders that work well when all things are equal but only increase  the miscommunication going on in the system.  Think of a traffic light that is working properly.  A fat burner may be like making the green light stay on a bit longer to allow more traffic through.  If that light was flashing red and that same fat burner was used you would have a flashing red light and a solid green light on at the same time.  What a mess right?

All of this messed up chemistry produces a body that is quick to get sick.  The immune system is confused at best and failed at worst.  I can not tell you how often I was sick or how bad my allergies were prior to eating a sound, nutritional diet.  Being sick led to me taking more chemicals, drugs, which further confused my body’s chemistry.

In my next post I will begin to tell you how and why I was able to correct my body’s communication and why I think people who lose a great deal of weight wind up in the same predicament in a few years in my next post.

Today was a long day.  Sleep was hard to come by going to bed at midnight and getting up at 5.  Then work was nothing but problem after problem and meeting after meeting causing me to miss a 3 hour feeding and supplementation round.  The meetings dragged on well past my normal workday close.  I love my job and don’t mind this type of day.  It is so much easier than a day in Iraq.  The reason I mention it here is so that you understand why I didn’t feel like following through with my workout.

It was my wife’s day off of work today.  We have been meeting at my office after work to do my workout.  It has been great.  It gives us time by ourselves away from the day to day house chaos.  As I left my last meeting I went back to my office to find my wife  sitting on the floor outside my locked office door.  I felt bad that she had to wait on me, bad that she came to my office on her day off, and bad that I was thinking about how to break it to her that I just wanted to go home and watch tv.

She saved me from myself tonight.  I survived the workout and even though I am wiped I have a bit of pride in the accomplishment.  This workout was due entirely because of my wife’s love for me.

If you have a significant other, best friend, or workout partner that helps you on these types of days do something special for them.  At the very least let them know when they save you from yourself!

“Many of us respond to fear with avoidance. We take refuge in our potential. As long as there is something we are going to do (e.g., lose weight, stop drinking, etc) in the future, we can safely perceive ourselves as physically fit, sober, etc. When we choose to take action toward a goal, the dream of our potential is in danger. By being proactive, taking the necessary risks, we have to face the comparison of our dreams to reality.”

–Thom Rutledge, from Embracing Fear

All I can say is that this is my life.

Ok guys and dolls..oh and SCT,

I have been in a bit of a funk lately.  My fellow contestants all look to be so amazingly strong in their workout videos.  This is especially true compared to mine.   I know, I know.  Don’t compare myself with others…we are all in our own  place and blah blah blah.  The problem is that my mind remembers another me.

It seems such a long time ago and again just yesterday that I was a hard charger.  Jumping out of helicopters and moving through forced marches.  Never an athlete really, but strong and capable.  These legs and lungs would take me anywhere I wanted to go.  Now I am getting my but kicked by rubber bands.   — Yes, I know I am doing the best thing for my body now and that I need to live in the NOW.  But I think I understand life a bit more than I did when I was kicking ass instead of having my ass kicked.

So in the now I am not that hard charger.  In the now I am burdened with 150 extra pounds, older, and weaker.  That is why I am working to get rid of the pounds and fighting those damn rubber bands until they no longer kick my ass and once that happens I will ask Coach for a new routine to kick my ass some more.  Then I realize that I am a hard charger in a different way.  A hard charger of change and improvement.  When do you cross the finish line?  When do you stop seeking improvement?  If you are worth anything you never stop until your dead and gone!

So look at me and look at my pictures.  You see a guy that is terribly out of shape and weak by comparison to others.  You also see a guy who is in charge and charging.  You see a man that has had enough.  You see a man living.

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Today I had a meeting with a remarkable woman who happens to be wheelchair bound.  She too remembers the woman she was before, a woman standing on two legs.  Hell, she has far more right to whine about not being who she was before than I but you will never hear a complaint from her.  Do you know why?  Because she is a hard charger even though she is in a chair.  She is not the chair, but she uses that chair to live life.  She is who she is just like I am who I am.  There is a difference though….

I have an opportunity to change my situation.  It takes time and it takes work, but it will happen.  That lady would be thrilled to have 15% mobility back in her legs with the promise of full restoration within 2 years.   That is where I am and the promise I have.  I have lost 15% of the weight I am shooting to lose and there is no way I will not lose this weight and get back to full strength in 2 years.  So forgive me for whining and forgive me for being impatient.  Finally, thank you Denise.

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I am a jokester.  I have always been a jokester.  When you get to a certain point of obesity you try to joke about your plight before others can get the first crack at you.  Often I would lie to myself saying, "I am just putting people at ease."  Nothing could be further from the truth.  What I was doing was trying to take the sting out of their future taunts by smacking myself numb first.  You know what?  That is a stupid strategy.

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What did Jumbo Eat and Supplement?

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Being morbidly obese brings with it many medical conditions that you don’t really want your body to endure. One of these conditions is type II diabetes. I found out that I had type II diabetes a few years ago when I went in to the hospital for a hernia surgery. My fasting blood glucose was pushing 850 and the docs were worried that I may be looking at diabetic shock. Now I didn’t feel any worse than normal but they kept me in the hospital for a few days to get my blood glucose levels down before they operated on my hernia.

After the surgery I really did nothing about my diabetes. It was not like I was missing a leg and while I felt bad I always felt that way so I didn’t really notice it affecting me. My wonderful doctor scolded me a year and a half ago when my A1C came back a 9.9. Normal for an A1C is 4-6 and they try to keep diabetics under 7. Obviously I was in trouble.

Guess what? I still took no action to get my blood glucose under control. Binging, sugar, past, you name it I ate it. Exercise was getting up from the couch to go to the john and wiping my butt. Phew, what a work out. Then life changed and I began to live again. That switch in my mind went off. I didn’t have to die early and there was a reason to live fully.

Last January my A1C was 9.6. This is the beginning of my focus on health. I was taking baby steps. Parking the car a bit further out. Ordering a bicycle that I could barely ride around the block. In April my A1C was down to 7.6. That kept the Doc from spanking me, but she was not yet pleased with me.

Over the summer I lost weight to below where I am today but gained it all back plus a few added pieces of luggage I apparently had hidden. Even with the weight I was still active. Well I was active for me, it’s all relative after all.

November I seriously took control of my nutrition and started following JB’s ‘One size fits all’ plan. I refined that plan a bit by eliminating grains from my diet all together. I just got off the phone with my Doc and I have never heard her so giddy. Normally my A1C report is given to me by a nurse from a recording, but this was my doctor’s voice.

6.3 with an early morning fasting BG of 135.  This is great news and the news will only get better.

I hope you are all following the bb.com 2008 Transformation contest.  Five fine competitors, including myself, are working for weight loss and overall transformation.  You can read about us here.

Today I am asking unabashedly for your comments.  Your words of encouragement go a long way to strengthen my resolve.  So, if you are following the contest and have not posted a comment  I ask that you do post.  It means a great deal to me and to the other competitors as we put it all out there for your review.