Determined To Succeed

I don’t know what it is these days. I just can’t seem to get out of bed. I fully admit there are times my sleep is thrown off because I am stupid (OK, maybe not stupid), like when I fall asleep for a couple of hours in front of the TV after eating. But mostly it’s because bed feels good and warm and I don’t wanna crawl out of it (wow, did that sound whiny or what?!). So, after convincing myself that the cinnamon and brown sugar oatmeal was a great reason to get out of bed, I finally did it and am now planted firmly in front my computer.

Yawn…

I can usually operate on a few hours sleep. Remember me telling you about my year of hell (working three jobs and getting four hours sleep a night for a year)? While those days are long gone I do find that getting good sleep does help. It doesn’t have to be 8-10 hours but it does. The interesting thing is that sleep is also important in losing weight…and lack of it might make you gain weight.

Think about it: If you’re feeling sleepy at work and are running on low energy, you may be tempted to reach for a cup of coffee (or several cups or really big ones like me – extra crunchy with sugar) and a doughnut (mmmmmmm, doughnuts)  for a quick shot of energy. Later you may skip the gym and pick up takeout on your way home because you are too tired and/or have no time to cook. When you finally find yourself back in your bed, you are too wound up to sleep.

What does this all mean? You may be able to fight off sleepiness, particularly at work, however the ultimate result is unwanted pounds from poor food choices coupled with lack of exercise. This sets the stage for obesity and further sleep loss. Think about it more: Sleep debt is like credit card debt. If you keep accumulating credit card debt, you will pay high interest rates or your account will be shut down until you pay it all off. If you accumulate too much sleep debt, your body will crash.

Exactly how lack of sleep affects our ability to lose weight has a lot to do with our nightly hormones.

The two hormones that are key in this process are ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin is the “go” hormone that tells you when to eat. When you are sleep-deprived, you have more ghrelin. Leptin is the hormone that tells you to stop eating. So when you are sleep deprived, you have less leptin. In other words, more ghrelin plus less leptin equals weight gain. You are eating more, plus your metabolism is slower when you are sleep-deprived.

Yawn…stretch….

So what can you do about sleep deprivation?

For starters, avoid any caffeine in the afternoon because it will keep you in the lighter stages of sleep — which are associated with poor sleep — at night.  Exercise also helps improve sleep quality (which is awesome for me since today is martial arts training – yea!). Watch what you eat before bedtime and don’t eat a big meal too close to bed time. Heavy, rich meals before bed can also increase risk of heartburn (which will certainly keep you up all night – remember the “IN-DE-GESSSSSSSTION commercials).

Ah, now I am awake. I know I’m gonna have more cool stories about today’s martial arts lesson (and the soreness I will surely feel) but it’s all good. I have eaten my oatmeal to jumpstart my metabolism. I will be working out today. It’s a good day, indeed.

Now if only I could do all this waking up and being energized earlier…

Did you guys happen to see last night’s Stanley Cup game? Damn, I think my nerves are still shot (no pun intended) and my blood pressure is still through the roof. But what a series it was and what a final game. I am still jumping up and down for my Chicago Blackhawks! Woohoo! That was awesome! Congratulations, fellas! Well done and well-played. But also my hat’s off totally to the Philadelphia Flyers. They played great hockey (and were a far more aggressive team, especially in the third period) and I can see why they deserved to be in the Stanley Cup finals.

All that being said I am a tired wreck today. What am I, getting old? Used to be I’d get four hours of sleep a night (10:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m.) then get up to go to work at one of the three jobs I used to have – my “day job” of producer/board operator at WLS-AM Radio from 4:00 a.m. (or 3:30 a.m. depending on how much I had to do before the show I worked on started), my internship at 20th Century Fox from noon until 5:00 p.m., followed by my market research job from 5:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. I kept that insane schedule five days a week for a year. It was so horrendous that I, during that time, would only have one 24-hour period in my week where I didn’t have to wake up to go to work. I called it my “year of hell,” and thank God I was 22 when I did it. I’d fall over today, wave a white flag and surrender if I had to keep that schedule now.

That got this 39-year-old thinking lots about metabolism and how jealous I am of people who seem to have one. Why is it that I feel slower now at almost 40? Why am I so damned tired after just watching a game on TV (albeit an exciting-as-hell one)? And what the hell is metabolism, anyway?

Most of us think of metabolism as the rate at which we burn calories, but that only part of it. According to Christopher Newgard, director of the Sarah W. Stedman Nutrition and Metabolism Center at Duke University Medical School, “Metabolism is the breakdown of metabolic fuels we have in the diet. The primary nutrients in foods can be classified as fats, proteins or carbohydrates. Metabolism is the way the cells, organs and tissues in our bodies handle those kinds of fuels. In other words, it’s not just about burning up the food we eat, but about how the various nutrients from that food help us maintain a healthy body.”

OK, so then why do I just feel like I have to work so hard at losing and maintaining weight while some can eat whatever, whenever, and not have it affect them at all?  Bastards. So I wondered out loud – does metabolism really slow down as we get older (er, sorry – better) or do we?

Both (dammit). The slowing of metabolism is a real thing. Mitochondria, the little energy factories that convert nutrients to power in cells, slow down with age. And that’s not all. Barry Stein of Wake Forest University School of Medicine explains, “As we age, we are subject to sarcopenia—muscle wasting. Since muscle burns more energy than fat, this means the metabolic load goes down and metabolism reflects that.” That is, if you do nothing about your loss of muscle with age, it will take you longer to burn off a candy bar at age 60 than at 20.

I’d better start watching those good-tasting plain Hershey candy bars then, eh?

Also (and I knew this one), our bodies are built to store fat. When our bodies sense food is becoming nonexistent or scarce we have pathways that allow us to store what we need to be ready for those times. But, the more we eat, our bodies can’t burn that overload of calories and our bodies burn fat even less efficiently. Therefore, all the calories that aren’t used get converted to fat for storage—all in preparation for the famine that never comes because we keep consuming.

Then add to this the fact we tend to become less active as years go by (like not being able to function as we once did when we were, say, 22 and working three jobs), and we can see why the inches start to gather around your (and my) waist. So how does a well-meaning, late-thirty-something slow the slowing? Well, there are things we can do to keep our metabolisms efficient.

Start with Exercise.

“Exercise actually increases the number of mitochondria. And also increases their metabolic activity,” explains Newgard. Exercise also burns calories, especially cardio mixed with weight training. Cardio activity burns calories while you do it but tends to stop when you stop. Strength and weight training is great because it keeps burning long after you’ve put down the barbells because muscle burns more calories than fat while you’re at rest.

Eat balanced meals

It may sound simple and boring, but there’s good reason that balanced diets are what the nutrition experts always recommend. “Each of the primary food fuels has important individual contributions to make to the whole metabolic scheme,” Newgard says. Fatty acids are important in the synthesis of cell membranes. Carbs are a quick energy source and used for a whole plethora of biochemical reactions, including building DNA. Amino acids build protein—the structural basis of our cells. Again, all of this is part of metabolism—converting and using nutrients to maintain healthy cells, organs and tissues. Diets that eliminate an entire food group will take a toll on the body in the long run.

Don’t skip meals

When you skip meals your body gets smart and starts to conserve fat. Also, skipping meals can lead to overeating because you’re hungry and you binge. And the calories you do take in are extra calories when your body is starting to conserve and store.

Drink water and green tea

Drinking water helps with digestion and metabolism efficiency. Plus, when you are dehydrated, you feel lethargic and you move less. Water is also healthier than other drinks, like sodas.When it comes to green tea, on the other hand, drink up. Studies have indicated that drinking about five cups of green tea a day may increase metabolism slightly. Plus it’s a great source of antioxidants.

So you see? We can fight off the effects of aging, at least some of them. The wrinkles, bags, sags and other stuff may not go away but we can help ourselves ward off being overweight and boost these things we call metabolism. It’s like one of my old employers once told me when I was that young, energetic and cocky 22-year-old, “you get out of the job what you put into the job.”

And my friends,that is so true.  If we do take the time to work hard at it, knowing we are worth that hard work and energy, we, too, will win our weight loss battles and hoist a really cool, big and heavy cup over our heads in victory (figuratively speaking, of course)…

…unless you are one of the 2009/2010 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks, that is.They got to do that for real. And I’m sure they burned a helluva lot of calories last night just partying afterward.

Say, do you think they might read this blog? Hmmmmmm….

There are certain songs that will live forever. FOREVER, I tell you. Songs that make you tap your toes, chair dance in your car (c’mon, you know you do that from time to time) and sing along to when they come on the radio (or “shuffle” play on your iPod).

One of those songs for me is from what is arguably the greatest soundtrack ever, “Saturday Night Fever.” On that record (CD, MP3 download…whatever you kids call your new-fangled listening device of choice these days) is “Night Fever” by the Bee Gees. It has been well-over thirty years since that soundtrack was released and I still don’t quite know what Barry Gibb (the bearded one) is saying/singing in his high falsetto disco anthem. Hell, when I try to “sing” the damn thing all I end up doing is trying to imitate the high-pitched notes not sing the lyrics. I don’t even think dogs can hear singing that high. But tt’s fun, goofy and cheesy, like me. It’s got a great beat and I can dance to it. I give it an 87.

But something struck me last night as I ate a pretty late dinner – I have an eating problem. I’m a night eater. So sing it with me. “Night eater, night eat-tah. He’s got a way to chew it…”

Seriously, though, night eating is a problem for me. Even when I eat dinner at a reasonable hour there is something in my head that makes me want to eat late at night. I’m not even really that hungry. I just want to eat something. Anything. It could be chips, granola bars, ice-cream (which is deadly), leftovers, a Lean Cuisine, cookie, fries, bagel, cinnamon roll…anything. If it’s within reach, it better watch out ’cause I’m gonna boogie my way over to it, do the Tony Manero finger-pointy dance thingie, grab it and consume it.

But that can be bad, very, very bad, for two reasons.

One, according to Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., some research has shown that way that that food calories are distributed may affect hunger—and that, in turn, could affect weight gain. A 1999 study in the journal Appetite found that when lean, healthy men spread their meals evenly throughout the day—as opposed to eating larger meals more infrequently—they were less hungry. Other studies have shown that people who skip breakfast, or who delay eating earlier in the day, are more likely to binge later.

Going for long periods without eating creates a state where the body is low on fuel. Metabolism may slow to preserve energy, and the body may be more sensitive to the calories that come later—it may be more likely to store those calories as fat and not use them. Irregular eating usually leads to eating larger meals to make up for the energy deficit. A big meal may overload the body’s capacity to use those calories, and the extra may be more likely to be stored as fat.

Irregular eating is probably more of a problem than night eating. People who skip breakfast often shift their caloric intake to later in the day, eating the majority of their daily calories at night. Many obese people (like moi) display eating behaviors that often involve skipping breakfast (something I have been truly guilty of in the past). Further, since the body slows down in the evening, calories consumed at night may be more likely to be stored rather than used. Not only is a person less active, but all cells operate according to fluctuations in their patterns of activity throughout a 24-hour period. Body processes—such as gut motility in digestion or the absorption of nutrients from food—also seem to operate on a kind of body clock showing decreased activity at night.

Very interestink (said using a very bad German accent).

Two, eating late gives me weird dreams, man. I mean weird (but that’s a whole other blog for a whole other day)

So how can I (and you) curb being a “night eater, night eat-tah…?” Let’s all try these simple steps:

• Most people try to eat too few calories during the day only to binge late at night. Eat 3 good meals during the day with 1 or 2 between meal snacks. Eating more frequent, smaller meals will prevent you from feeling hungry throughout the day. And if you’re eating fiber and proteins and drinking enough water, you’ll actually feel fuller for longer periods of time and will not have the urge to snack so often. Here’s a sample eating schedule you (and I) can adopt:

1. 7:00 a.m. – Eat breakfast
2. 10:00 a.m. – Eat a light snack
3. 12:00 p.m. – Eat lunch
4. 4:00 p.m. – Eat a another snack
5. 7:00 p.m. – Eat a small dinner with a treat

• A good insurance policy is to eat most of your calories before 6 PM. Generally, the rule of the thumb is to not eat anything within 3 hours of your bedtime. And, if you must eat, then eat something healthy like a piece of fruit or a very small handful of nuts.
• When you feel the urge to eat late at night, try drinking 2 or more cups of water. You can also make a cup of herbal tea sweeten with honey or artificial sugar. Hot liquids have a soothing effect on emotions and appetite.
• Remind yourself that it’s normal to feel hungry late and that night eating, night eat-ting comes from habitually eating late. Breaking this habit is like learning to quit smoking. Remind yourself of your weight loss goal and one of the keys to losing this weight is to STOP late night eating. The temptation to snack late at night will not be as great if you don’t give into the urge for several weeks.
• Much late night eating after dinner can be avoided by hiding the junk food. Put foods that you’re prone to eat late at night out of sight. Better yet, don’t buy junk food at all and keep healthier snacks in da houze.
• Tell yourself to “suck it!” Suck on hard candy. Most hard candy have only a few calories and they give you the satisfaction of snacking.
• Keep a written copy of your eating diary (if you keep one) in view, which will keep your goal of losing weight firmly fixed in your mind.
• Some people have great success by simply brushing their teeth late at night. This method has been known to curb late night eating for many people.
• The most vulnerable time for eating late is 1 hour after dinner right up to bedtime. Keep your life interesting by working on a favorite hobby (like Disco dancing, or finding out what the hell Barry Gibb is actually singing when he sings “Night Fever“) and NOT watching TV. The ads on TV can subconsciously trigger the impulse to eat. Boredom is your biggest danger to late night eating.

That’s it. I start my Tuesday a half-pound up from yesterday (grrrrrr). But, as I am always fond of saying “I will work it off,” and I will. And later on,  when it gets to be about the time I lay my head down to sleep I’ll I will keep these tips in mind…

…especially the one about occupying one’s mind with other things, for I would rather have a Bee Gees song stuck in my head all night rather than stuff my face and gain weight back.

It’s Saturday. Welcome to the weekend. As I sit here trying to think up stuff to write about I find myself looking out of the stop sign-sized window next to my desk and daydreaming. It’s so easy to get all distracted by the sights of the coming summer – the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees. Hurmph. Sigh. I really shouldn’t be daydreaming, though. I need to get my ass moving today because, even though it is the weekend, I have lots to do. First and foremost, I need to get back to my routine and get back on track.

It’s good to be back into what would be my normal weight loss routine both in terms of eating and (what will be) exercise. Yesterday, I ate a good amount of protein and veggies. I had sausage, egg and cheese for breakfast (minus the English muffin that came with), for lunch I had a Lean Cuisine and for dinner I had grilled chicken and veggies. Very healthy, indeed (at least healthier than what I had been eating).

Now, to keep that rediscovered momentum going I have to get moving to the gym and begin my exercise routine again. Am I looking forward to it? Yes and no. No, because who does after being away from it for a while? The conference in Atlanta took the energy out of me and I am just now getting it back and part of me would much rather expend it looking out of my stop sign and watching birds. Yes, because my body does miss exercise, and I know once I get to the gym and sweat a bit and get the blood moving it will feel awesome.

Many people get off track for a while. For some it can mean you stop losing weight due to a plateau or a holiday, or because you are on holiday (or like me at a conference) and either voluntarily or involuntarily take a break from your routine. No matter the reason, getting off track is very easy to do and can snowball before you realize what is happening. One bad meal can easily turn into a bad day, a bad day can turn into a bad few days or a week, and a bad week can turn into a bad month of poor eating choices before you know it. And while it may not be easy, getting back up sooner versus later is the best thing to do. With that in mind, here is a refresher checklist of things to remember as you (and I) get back on track:

• If you keep a food or weight loss journal reread it to remind yourself of your goals and weight loss progress in the past. What were you doing that worked? How did it feel?
• Set new weight loss goals. Like me, having gained back a few pounds means having to re-lose those pounds and that means resetting my goals of losing a pound a week. So devise a new plan with a new goal in mind and write it down.
• Choose how you will reward yourself and how often. For me, yes, it is having an ice-cold Coke every now and then. So track your progress, give yourself a small reward for every five pounds lost and a bigger reward for reaching each 10 or 20 pound goal.
• (Here’s one I need to keep in mind for today) Don’t expect to be able to do the same amount of exercise you ended with before. Start off light and work to rebuild your program gradually to avoid injuries.
• Resistance and weight training is a big help when getting back on track because of weight training burns fat. Also, muscles you developed earlier will get toned faster because the muscles remember the repeated movements and respond well to it.
• Get back on track with the foods that worked with your body losing weight. For example, for me that was having grilled chicken and veggies. That kind of protein worked great and helped me drop that pound a week. So make sure you re-incorporate your “good” foods  and remove your bad ones.
• Remember your water! Water helps flush your system and keeps you hydrated. You should also drink a glass of water 10 or so minutes before a meal to feel fuller.
• In addition to going to the gym and engaging in an exercise routine, try to find ways to work in exercise throughout the day to fire up your metabolism and burn more fat. If you’re going to lunch, walk to get your food if you can or do a walking cycle around the office, parking lot or around the block.

See, that’s not so bad, is it? Nah. It motivates me, that fer sure (like totally). Oh, and that reminds me. I think I will work out to good 80s music today during my workout. How fun is that? Especially when one of my favorite 80s songs to listen to is a one hit wonder from the group Breakfast Club called…wait for it…”Right on Track.” Check it out and I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow.

Oh, to have the metabolism of my younger self again.

If I did it would mean two things. One, that I would have again the cast iron stomach I used to have which would take everything from apples to zucchini and not blink an eye (or flap, or valve or whatever a stomach blinks). Two, it would mean the calories I consumed would be burned very quickly and weight loss would be that/much easier.

I’ve always said that if a scientist wanted to make a gagillion dollars (that’s lots and lots of billions) they would find a way to harness that energy, that metabolism, in kids and inject it into us overweight adults with the results being we become thinner and far more energetic in the process. Sigh. If only wishes were fishes…

The fact of the matter is I ate like crap last night. I ate like crap for two reasons. One, I had done some lifting and running around yesterday, was hungry and thought I might have burned off lots of calories doing what I was doing. Two, because I had been good, for the most part, all weekend I thought dinner last night (don’t even ask me about the delicious brownies) would be OK. When will I ever learn?

Sigh again. If only I had my youthful metabolism.

It’s not that I ate until I puked or anything. It’s just that since losing weight my stomach acts and reacts differently these days to certain foods, meaning it may or may not like them, churn for a bit and remind me ever so Pepto Bismol gently that I should not have a food or combination of foods. One of these days I will finally wise up, act my age and remember these instances when again faced with eating choices that aren’t so, shall we say, adult friendly.

Can you imagine what a world would be like if adults had youthful metabolisms, though? We would be running around constantly like water molecules  suddenly heated up to a boil. We would finally have flying cars because our minds would be running at that speed and ground cars like a Ferrari just aren’t fast enough. We’d invent something faster than the internet, 4G phone networks and Fios. E-mail would seem like snail mail and Twitter would be like rolled-paper faxes (sheesh, remember those). The slowest plane on earth would be the now-retired Concord. All this and more. That’s what adults would be like. We would get so much done and we wouldn’t gain weight in the process, like Michael Phelps training for the Olympics – burning calories faster than the speed of light.

Well, an overweight adult can dream, right?

Truth is as we age our bodies slow down, whether we like it or not. And while this is a fact we can still choose to stay as active as we want while eating foods that will go along with this ever-changing state of affairs in our bodies. And the truth is I can’t eat like my youthful self anymore. As much as I’d like to and as much as I sometimes can, I simply cannot.

So there is one good thing about slowing down and getting older…we do get wiser. And it’s that wisdom that helps bring about true change, in the world and with our own bodies.