It’s been a while since I posted an update. Like previous years, I slacked off again the last winter and put some weight back on. I didn’t slack so much in my diet than I did activity level. But looking back a little further, I did kind of mail it in from the end of 2011 through the beginning of 2013.

I didn’t slack on my tracking however. I’m a quantified self‘ers dream. I have my weigh loss down to a science, where I can dial it up or down. I wish I could do the same with winter motivation.

Now I’m back on track in a really good way. I think I finally put everything together diet wise–as far as restricting what’s bad and eating a lot that’s good, not just restricting calories. This includes a good balance of carbs, fat (yes fat!) and protein. More than enough veggies. The newest revelation to me was that in the past my diet was too fat-phobic. Fat (healthy fat) is good for so many reasons.

I’ve been sticking to my original (yet ever evolving) healthy living checklist:
http://mattsoreco.com/healthy-living-checklist/

I have a hot and cold relationship with jogging. I’ve done the C25K year after year. I unenthusiasticlly got most of the way through the program before deciding to hit the elliptical at the gym instead. That’s where I’ll be doing cardio until jogging starts appealing to me some more. It’s good I’m getting to the gym, which I’ve been paying for anyway. This year, I want to finally get resistance training and hiit incorporated. Those have eluded my since day 1. I need the gym for the weight training.

You can see where I was 4 years ago. Although I did have ups and downs, the net continued to be lower. I was very close to my goal in 2011. I’m well on my way now. Actual weight withheld until goal met.

So people have been asking me what my secrets are in losing so much weight this year. I was going to write out a similar post at some point anyway, but it’s now time. That’s because it’s difficult to explain how I did what I did seemingly effortlessly (and surely healthily). My healthy living checklist wasn’t checked off all in one day. Maybe I’ll refer them to this post.

What I mean is if I explained to anyone a-z what I have done, cumulatively it’s a lot to digest, confusing, and perhaps intimidating. I would not have succeeded if I had thrown all of the changes I incorporated all at one time. For one it would be frustrating as it’s a lot to think about. Also, I think physiologically things more naturally fall into place the way I phased things in. For example, my body might not have been ready for “phase 5″ things in the beginning.

Still, this might not work for everyone.  Everyone’s fitness levels, body composition, and a million other factors can differ from me. But there should be no debate on the foundation, which is eat very healthy, exercise, and get enough sleep. Also, I never had a real tough time eating too much cake, candy, cookies, chips, etc., which should be at the top of the list for anyone.

There are debates out there about long slow cardio vs. shorter and higher intensity cardio. I actually favor high intensity, but that depends on where you are starting. It’s easy for an in shape fitness guru to push high intensity. Plus considerations on growth hormone and testosterone levels are really next level things that you should not be distracted with in the beginning. You can’t lay that on someone who is very out of shape. That’s not the time for it. There is low hanging fruit to pick off first.

The bottom line is I used long slow cardio in my endeavor and did not sacrifice lean body mass. Actually I’m still deemed overweight by the BMI standards because of my lean muscle mass. I haven’t done a body fat composition test yet, but I would bet anything I’m in a very healthy range.

Ok, so here are the phases. 1, 2, and 3 are fairly basic and should be phased in within a few months. There are really no dependencies other than getting the habits down pat. Phase 4 should come when you are seeing success and ready mentally, but that should not prevent you from incorporating it a few months in even if you are still far from your goal. It’s my opinion that the next level stuff is not effective without everything else being optimized and firing on all cylinders first, so save it.

Phase 1 (get calorie balance under control, start exercising, sleep more) :

• Use MyFitnessPal (or other BMR or calorie tracker) to track calories and set calorie target for weight loss goal per week. I started at a goal of 1.5 pounds per week.
• Do cardio exercise. Long  and slow at this phase. I recommend couch to 5k (c25k).
• Drink more water.
• Take vitamins. I take a multi, fish oil, and some vitamin d.
• Sleep more.

Phase 2 (start making better diet choices):

• Keep with Phase 1 items.
• Consume less sugar (even juices, which are unnaturally concentrated and sweetened).
• Eliminate anything with high fructose corn syrup.
• Reduce salt intake if you are taking in too much (others may not have as I had been).
• Try to eat leaner proteins (chicken, turkey, eggs, higher quality beef).

Phase 3 (really start to eliminate and replace in the diet):

• Keep on with Phase 1 & 2 items.
• Take out something bad and replace it with something with good.
• Eat a lot more fruits and veggies. A lot. Everyday.
• Eliminate all artificial sweeteners.
• Increase cardio. Still stick to long and slow for now.

Phase 4 (up the  optimization):

• Keep on with Phase 1 & 2 & 3 items.
• Eat whole foods as much as possible (e.g. natural peanut butter vs. skippy with artificial ingredients). Really start to look at ingredients of things. If the list is long, avoid it. Peanut butter’s ingredients should be peanuts and nothing else (besides salt if you like it salted).
• Prepare your own food. Look for healthy recipes online and start playing around.
• When buying fruits and veggies, incorporate the rainbow (red, green, orange/yellow, blue/purple, white).
• Eat healthy snacks like nuts.
• Be careful with portion size as nuts are calorie dense.
• Also stick to dry roasted nuts.
• Bring calorie intake to a balance (depending on how close you are to your weight loss goal).
• Start incorporating some resistance training (also depending on how close you are to your weight loss goal).

Phase 5: (Next level):

• Incorporate new things to further optimize, such as:
• Green tea
• garlic
• turmeric
• probiotics
• Increase level of resistance training.
• Cycle in more higher intensity training (e.g. sprinting) and reduce long slow cardio.

STILL! My challenge is to keep the weight off this time around as I had some success the previous 2 years. BUT! So far so good this winter as I’ve carried the healthy living and lifestyle parts past Thanksgiving (where I started to fail before). So far a cold has kept me out of the gym, but I’ll be back there tonight. I will declare this entire thing a success the much longer I stick to it.

After 4 rounds, we have a decision.
Judge 1 scores the bout 39-37 Soreco
Judge 2 scores the bout 38-38
Judge 3 scores the bout  39-37, for the winner by majority decision… Matt “the antioxidant” Sorecoooooooooo

Matt, what do you have to say about the bout?
“If I can change…….., you can change…………, everybody can change!”

So my last post I said that the start of a cold would prove the effectiveness of healthy living on my body’s response to the cold that was forming at the time.

I know no matter what you do, there is no way to completely guarantee getting sick. Especially being in a house with 2 others who are sick and one being a 3 year old coughing in your face all day. Rather you can reduce the number of times and minimize the effects.

I felt I had a cold, no doubt about it. But It didn’t slow me down one bit. The “judges” all gave one round to the virus. Last night, I kind of felt worn out a little. I was getting a little nervous. Perhaps the cold was in its death throws, because I woke up this morning feeling good. Not 100%, but good.

Bottom line. I attribute my mild cold on having everything healthy lined up. Hydrated, healthy eating, plenty of rest, etc.

Taken from my desk this morning. I’ve upped the ante. Green tea, fruit/berry/veggie smoothie, and plenty of vitamins (multi, fish oil, and vitamin d):

My poor son has been battling a cold/ear infection for 3 weeks. My wife has been stricken with the same cold for a few days now. The result is my house has become a petri dish for the common cold.

I have been adhering to my healthy living checklist militantly. Is it enough to ward off a cold while living in a common cold incubator?

Yesterday my son seemed to take a turn for the worse (he has a doctor’s appointment today!). So I took the day off of work rather than send him to daycare (I wish other parents did the same but that’s another story/blog post). At about 2pm, I said to myself that it will be a minor miracle if I don’t catch something. Even the most impenetrable immune system can only withhold so many times of being coughed and sneezed on.

I promised all of you (my 2 loyal readers)(hi mom!)(hi random passerby!), that I would give extensive reasons to all items that go into my morning smoothie, as well as the rest of my diet as well. I promise I will one day. Long story short, I try to get the most amount and widest range of antioxidants possible (and conveniently). Besides a berry, fruit, and veggie smoothie in the morning, I also drink green tea throughout the day and try to get garlic, tomatoes, and other well researched foods into my daily/weekly meals. Besides fighting and preventing inflammation (which is thought to cause/prolong/intensify a lot of common diseases), antioxidants are said to aid the immune response (which is also related to inflammation).

Even armed with a pristine diet (as well as lifestyle too–e.g. sleep), I think I succumbed to the inevitable. I woke up this morning with a scratchy throat. BUT! This war isn’t over! So far my symptoms are extremely mild–proving the healthy living is effective in immune response. {knocking on serious wood}

So in closing, I’d like to say, “Dear cold, I will win. You will lose.”

Over 2 years ago, I wrote how I used to suffer from back spasms (which manifested themselves as stiff necks). After identifying what I thought were the causes, I reduced both the frequency and intensity of them. I’m knocking on serious wood here (karma bit me a few times after writing blog posts like this), but since adding 1 more thing to the list, I haven’t had one single episode.

Originally, I identified some causes:
1) Falling asleep on my couch, which is soft and offers no back support.
2) Drinking too much caffeine.
3) Stress.
4) Being run down. From lack of quality sleep, or colds, or running around too much.
5) Being dehydrated.

Usually it would take a combination of some of those to trigger spasms. If all 5, I used to call it “the perfect storm.”

One of the many things that inspired my smoothie/juice endeavor was reading about kale (an ingredient in my “staple” blends). It is high in magnesium, potassium, and calcium. A smoothie/juice was an easy way for me to get kale in my diet regularly. Those three nutrients are important in preventing muscle spasms and cramps. I’m not sure if I was deficient of those nutrients before (I probably was), so with kale (and bananas) I think I’m getting enough and what I think has made a big difference.

So…
6) Get adequate amounts of magnesium, potassium, and calcium (sodium too, which I definitely always got enough of).