Sweet succulent success! It tastes better and is more satisfying than any food. The pleasure of eating for health and achievement far outweighs an obsession with immediate gratification.
My initial goal of 210 lbs., ambitious and inconceivable as it was, has now been reached. I am only a couple months behind my aggressive time line of 1 year. It would not have mattered if I had taken 2 or 3 years.The goal is worth all effort, sacrifice, and persistence. Now within reasonably healthy margins for height and build, I can move on to the secondary concern of appearance. It was not until the last 20 lbs. or so, that the more stubborn fat areas (abdomen especially) were significantly improved in appearance. I know that the next 20 lbs. will be very fruitful in that regard.
My new goal is 190! I cannot recall the last time I was that light. It was back when there were no extra pounds to worry me, and the focus was on what activities I wanted to pursue, not on appearance or weight. I look forward to returning to those days! I will have completed my transformation from a Kobe-gyu into a young Sika buck.Though the lifestyle of sake, beer & massages was indeed pleasurable ;), I may now hope to garner the respect given to the lean deer of Miyajima!
My prior post details the techniques. Educate yourself on proper nutrition. Find and acknowledge the facts behind the fads, but do not embrace fads as solutions. Build an arsenal of approaches and information. Adapt and persist through the challenges. Be slow and methodical most of the time, but aggressive at the times when you can. Give up a little ground when it serves to build up, prior to your next push. Never, ever, listen to the voices of failure around and inside you.Embrace your success, without guilt. Hold yourself accountable, but don't get caught up in blame or shame. Avoid the emotion and rewire yourself to the results.
My most recent shedding of pounds, was through traditional low-fat within low-calorie framework.It was the most dramatic even though I am in the more difficult zone of nearing ones target. I have lost weight with diet alone (when exercise was too difficult), with periods of carb restriction and management, with an excess of exercise while keeping calories high, with low-fat/high-carb, with brief extremes and with slow methodical persistence. It is not a single technique that worked, but the whole of them.The central tool is knowledge.Knowing what is in every food, knowing what is going into your body. Observing how it is affecting you long term, by tracking your own intake and behavior objectively.
Once put into practice, you will build tangible pleasure simply by following your plan, having confidence that good results await you in the future. The pride in your increased self-control will overshadow immediate gratification, and formerly bland foods will become a joy to eat (well, almost). Surprisingly, healthy foods will become your desire, and the occasional treat will again bring true sensations of indulgence, rather than the hope and failed promise of a remembered pleasure. Indeed, success is the sweetest of all pleasures, and to achieve it, one must detach any guilt from it.
As you can see from my graph, I've been making pretty steady progress. There have been a couple of plateaus, but they are relatively short lived and minor adjustments have allowed me to break through them.
My basic techniques & recommendations are:
1. Log everything you eat, I mean everything! This is critical to understanding what is going on with your nutrition -- but is also key to making you aware of your choices and actions. It puts you consciously in charge of your eating, which is absolutely essential. This routine becomes fun, and helps you through the times when motivation naturally wanes.
2. Cycle your methods, rather than applying them 100% of the time. This means, if you are doing a low-calorie diet, take a break and eat more for a day or two out of a week. I usually choose the weekend for this. Or if you are doing a low-carb diet, give yourself a break from that periodically so your body doesn't adapt and diminish the effect of the diet technique. Just like you rest your muscles every now and then, rest your metabolism too. Don't overdo it, so as to "give up ground", but give yourself a modest amount above your maintenance calories every now and then to "reset" the metabolic rate.
3. Even little efforts count: Start small if you have to, and don't feel bad about it. Walk around the block if that's all you can do. You will soon surprise yourself as your endurance increases. Tired muscles can sometimes surprise you too. On a day when you don't feel like you can exercise at all, still give it a try. Sometimes you'll fall right into your normal routine even though you start out tired or slow. On the diet side, if you stick to your calorie limits a couple days of the week, that is better than none! And as you get better at doing it, you will soon be making and seeing progress.
4. Be patient. (Safe) Weight loss is inherently slow. Though it's hard to get excited by losing 1 or 2 pounds, by keeping a consistent log, you will build a graph the you can look at and find true excitement. There is a fine line metabolically, that will take some effort to find. If you push too hard with the weight loss, you might find yourself feeling sluggish and making it difficult to exercise and keep calories on target. Your metabolism will slow to match a lower intake too. Take breaks from the low-calorie and/or low-carb diets, and make sure to do whatever exercise you can manage. Both will help to keep your metabolism up so it's not fighting you as much.
5. More carbs in AM, less in PM. This helps to make them available when you need energy and are otherwise more active. If you're getting sluggish, go ahead and up the carbs for a couple mornings and see if you can pick up the energy level. It might even be worth going over your daily calorie target for a few days if that is what it takes to recover your energy. Remember exercise will also make you feel more energetic too. Even if you simply add extra carbs that cancel out the calories burned off in exercise, you come out ahead overall. You have told your body to increase it's metabolism, you've worked your muscles (maybe stimulating growth), you've improved your mood, and you've done an activity to be proud of.
6. Maximize "slow" carbs. Whether you are or not, eat like you are diabetic! Cut down on sugar and other refined foods. Maximize the fibrous carbs. I happen to love spinach! Find some that you love and make them a staple. Also, increasing protein (and even fat in moderation) can be better than having simple sugars in your diet. Try to associate whatever fast carbs you eat with exercise, either before, during, or immediately after (which helps get nutrients into muscles for replenishment & growth). I happen to use Agave sweetener since it has a lower glycemic index.
I also use and recommend "extended release" style protein powder on a regular basis. There are some that are reasonably priced if you shop around. It is a blend of slowly (caesin) & rapidly (soy & whey) metabolized proteins which means protein supplies will remain available in your blood for more than the 2 hours which is typical after a regular meal. 3 times a day (perhaps between meals rather than on top of them) works great for me. It's somewhat filling, satisfying, and keeps muscles fed if they are trying to regenerate after exercise. I usually have it before sleep, which is when much growth occurs. It can prevent "canibalism" of muscle tissue too which helps in the fight to be lean (less fat more muscle) and the more muscle you keep, the higher your metabolism will be. Any weight loss will include some muscle loss, so you must counter this as best you can. Some recommend a modest bit of weight training too, though aerobic/cardio is where the bulk of calorie burning will be.
I have my staple foods, but I also eat a great variety of things mixed in. By tracking every detail honestly, I allow myself to eat whatever I want, but remain aware of it's impact on nutrients and calories so I can compensate with diet and exercise elsewhere. In this way, nothing is off limits for me and I don't feel restricted, but one must be ardent about tracking everything and ensuring an overall balance.
Hope these tips help. I am having success with them, though the bottom line is to keep to your average calories within your target range at the same time as following the above guidelines. Soon I will have shed my former sumo self
I've updated with current data & will be tracking more often now. Back trouble has held me back recently but it's slowly getting better and I can resume more exercise.
I admit my goals are ambitious. Having a successful career as a Sumo champ has left me feeling a bit used at this point. I should have negotiated a better contract for myself to cover my future, but I was just caught up in the glamor... the whirlwind of food, sex and drugs, and more food.
The pressure to break the rules in order to remain competitive in the world of Sumo is tremendous. Mostly I used the appetite increasing effects of Cannabis to stimulate a constant state of "the munchies". Occasionally, I was able to purchase through underground pharmacological sources some of the various designer weight increasing drugs -- combined with the usual athletic steroids. At this point, I'm not even sure what the total damage I have done to my body is. I can blame nobody but myself for this, but I do know that the fame and constant stream of "groupies" went to my head... causing me to do many things out of my normal character.
At this point I can only apologize for the many women that I have hurt over the years. Not only the broken hearts, but also broken bones and internal damage (I was also freebasing a deadly blend of so called "enhancement" drugs). For this I am sort of sorry. Well not really, but let's just say I know it was wrong, oh so wrong.
Long story short. I am now approaching middle age, my career and fame have long passed me by and I'm looking to make a new beginning. Ironically, my childhood dream of being a champion jockey doesn't seem so far away now. I've already lost 5 lbs. (where's the toilet plunger when you need it ;) and the next few hundred can't be that much harder. I plan to start with elephant races, and progress through racing smaller and smaller animals until I can eventually participate in the Kentucky Derby (this time as a rider).
I guess my point in posting my progress publicly is to help you more than me. If you think you have it tough, just picture me!
