Exercise

How I am losing weight

Amazon: The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram Your Genes for Effortless Weight Loss, Vibrant Health, and Boundless EnergyI recently posted about losing weight and its impact on my foreskin restoration.

For those that wonder what I have been doing to lose weight, I owe a lot to the Primal Blueprint at Mark's Daily Apple. Mark Sisson offers a free program on his website and he has a book (shown on the right). I just read his blog and downloaded his free materials. Either way, he offers a lot for those looking to learn a better way to eat and live.

After reading a lot of his material, the first thing I did was start doing his "lift heavy things" exercises. These exercises are simple, but effective. They use bodyweight for a whole body workout. The exercises are pushups, pull-ups, squats, overhead press, and the plank. I do them in my office after workhours. Two sets of the five exercises takes me about 30 minutes.

I thought I was in halfway decent shape. I was wrong. A person in shape should be able to do 50 pushups. I could not even do 20 without stopping. I knew I would have trouble with pull-ups. I never could do them well.

Squats I thought would be easy. I love doing squats in the weight room. But these squats were different. An in-shape person should do 50 squats without a bar, just body weight. Deep squats. After 30 squats my legs were burning. After 40 squats my legs were on fire and I was panting. After doing 50 body weight squats I was breathing like a freight train going up a mountain.

When I started, I was pathetic at the 5 exercises. But I do them faithfully and I am progressing. Read more . . .

Weight loss and foreskin restoration

Everyone knows that losing weight is healthy and good for you. Right?

Seven years ago I started my own business. I was a little overweight at that time, and the stress of running my own business and the lack of time to exercise and play ensured that I stayed overweight. I even gained a couple pounds a year over the last five years. I was not satisfied with my sedentary lifestyle and my slowly increasing body girth.

This spring I found Mark's Daily Apple, a website that promotes primal living. I always liked eating low carb and high fat food. I felt full and satisfied eating that way, not at all like when I ate a low fat diet and was always hungry. I first started eating low carb, high fat about 13 years ago when I was on the Atkins Diet. I followed it for a couple years, but I grew lax about following the program. The pounds returned as my eating habits leaned more toward high carb and processed foods.

Reading Mark's Daily Apple inspired me to watch what I ate and to start exercising in earnest. I became better at strictly keeping my carbs low. Controlling my eating habits helped me lose weight and the exercise has made me feel more alive. I have been losing about 1 to 2 pounds a week for several months. Read more . . .

Barefooting!

Barefoot feet ready for barefootin'Facebook is great. I learn about lots of new things from my many friends. A few weeks ago I read a comment from a facebook friend about running barefoot. Huh?

I never heard of running barefoot. Sure, kids do it all the time. But adults? On roads? On trails?

A quick Google search and a lot of reading taught me that there are many benefits to being barefoot.  There are even those that claim that modern shoes are over-designed. The cushy shoes, particularly running shoes, are more suitable for marketing than anything else. They are also claimed to be major contributors to injuries.

Since I am an alternative type of guy, the whole barefoot thing appeals to me. I ran track and cross-country in the early 70s. I continued to run after I went to college and after I began working. As I earned money, I could afford some of the "better" and more expensive shoes. As I worked more and more, my running dropped off.

I like this quote because, lately, running has not been fun: If you aren't having fun running, your technique is wrong. ~ Barehanded Matt Read more . . .