Well, I'm packing up and getting ready to go. I have a 1 AM flight out to LA.

One of the problems of traveling when you want to live a healthy lifestyle are the limited choices. Many areas are better ... even McDonalds is offering some half'way healthy salads now as part of the menu ... but there are still limitations.

One big limitation in international travel are the limitations on foods you can bring across borders. Most fruits and vegetables are not allowed, so you can only bring enough healthy snacks to last you at the airport and the flight. Once you arrive in your new country, you are on your own.

In my case it will be a problem. I fly from guayaquil, Ecuador to Houston, arriving about 6 AM, but only have 90 minutes to go through customs before catching my next flight to LAX. Then I'll arrive in LA at about 10 AM. So I'll be on the run for 10 hours.

I'll let you all know how it goes.

Today it’s back to working hard after a couple days of light work. I’m going to try to get some real good work outs in Thursday, Friday and Saturday because I know with my travel on Sunday and Monday there’s not much I’ll be able to do.

This AM I’ll do some light cardio, then a hard lower body workout this evening. Then tomorrow it’ll be another light cardio with a strong upper body workout in the PM. Finally, Saturday I’ll finish off the series with a strong cardio on the treadmill. That ought to get me just perfect for that Saturday night redeye to LA.

Most professionals would agree that the best way to lose pounds is not a fad diet, crash exercise programs or other type of radical dieting. It is a sensible program that centers on a healthy diet and reasonable exercise.

That is one thing I've tried to keep in mind. Of course, a lot of the things I do are not in this ideal. I do try to eat intelligently, but my exercise program is much more intense then what most professionals would sanction. But that's okay. It is something that keeps me challeneged and motivated. It is an approach that has allowed me to lose over 50 pounds in six months and I'm still heading towards my end goals.

But even though I do wander from healthy weight loss principals I know why I do them and for, what I think, are good reasons. But it's a very good idea to know those principals, and I mean REALLY know them, before you decide not to do them.

A great article on some great principals are at netdoctor.co.uk . It's a great approach that you can't go wrong if you follow it.

I'm heading out for a 30-minute jog right now. Go have fun, and be healthy!

I've adjusted my workout schedule to make it easier to do. The crowds at the gym, especially in the early evening, have been crazy. I've been wanting to do a split workout to maximize my effort to reach my next weight-loss goal. I was doing mostly cardio in the morning, and wanting to do resistance training in the evening. But in the evening the wait for equipment was terrible.

So, I changed to resistance training in the morning and cardio in the evening the last couple days. It has been much better. This morning I did a hefty lower-body workout and never had to worry about waiting for equipmewnt or people waiting on me. Yesterday evening I hoped right onto a treadmill and did a nice 30-minute session.

Tonite, I'm going to push myself hard on a 30-minute treadmill session. I hope to work up a good sweat, burn off some calories, and set some personal bests in time, speed and distance.

Wish me luck!

A new study does a fantastic job of explaining how a high-fiber diet can help promote weightloss.

It´s reported from the American Dietetic Association in China Daily and it tells how a diet rich in high-fiber, whole grains increases the intake of essential nutrients, and increases weightloss. It also repeats what we already know, that people who exercise and eat a healthy diet will lose more than just exercising or just dieting alone.

See the article here.

This week I started my morning off right. After kissing my wife off to work (she has an early 7:30 a.m. class she’s teaching right now) I walked to the gym and did a 30-minute cardio workout on the treadmill. This was at a mild pace, just designed to burn some fat and get the metabolism going for the day.

Today, was a double workout. It was actually finished with a “date” with my wife at 8:00 pm. A date at a gym? I know, how romantic this guy is!

The one problem with evening workouts, though, is the gym is so crowded. Even at 8:00 it was packed. I had to wait in line to get weights, so I ended up using the machines to do an abbreviated upper body workout… chest press, flies, seated rows, shoulder press. It was really the minimum I wanted to do, but seemed to take forever.

I had planned to do a tough upper body workout followed by a short cardio session… either aerobics if something was available or most likely a short session on a bike or elliptical machine. Instead I tired of waiting in line for machines and cut back on the weights. I headed upstairs to do more treadmill. I ended up doing 25 minutes, which combined with my AM session means I did 55 minutes on the treadmill today, with just a portion of the upper body workout I’d planned.

Overall, I’m happy with the cardio side. I really worked hard today. The resistance training, though was a big disappointment.

To adjust, tomorrow morning I’ll do the rest of the Upper Body I didn’t do – arms and shoulders, then follow that with a light lower body workout. I’ll forego the morning cardio to the afternoon, when I had planned a short session at 2:00 pm. Instead I’ll do a bit longer and more intense treadmill session.

Wednesday is an off day for resistance training, although I plan for a hard cardio push. Then Thursday will be another hard cardio day with a hard upper body workout. Friday will be no cardio but a hard leg day.

Saturday I hope to do some soccer with some friends from work. If not, I’ll do a light cardio workout. Sunday is an off day.

I just have to remember to stay flexible in my planning. Like today, when what I’d planned didn’t work out I could switch my activity to one that benefited my goals.

So far I’ve lost 53 pounds. I have 15 more to go to my short term goal and 50 to my long term goal. I’m more than half way there.

Wish me luck!

I’ve talked to my advisors and gave it an ample time to consider. Since I’ve met my recent short term goal it’s time to set some new ones, and to lay down a plan of how I’m going to get there.

First, since I’m now at 250 pounds, I’m going to set my next short term goal at 235. This is do-able within ten weeks if I keep to eating a healthy diet and make an exercise plan to fit my goals.

There won’t be any changes to my diet, except I’ll need to reconsider what I eat and how much I eat considering my new, lower weight.

For exercise, there will be more changes. With my weight finally going below 250 pounds, it opens up a larger range of exercises, especially cardio exercises, that I can do without as much worry of injury. In the previous months, when I started at over 300 pounds, many cardio exercises were not an option to me. Partly this was because my fitness level was too low to consider them. But also my history of knee injuries meant I needed to be careful about the stress I put on them.

Less weight means less stress on the knees. And in fact, I’ve had much less problems with knee, hip and back pain since the weight has been coming come off. So, I’m going to start doing more intense aerobic workouts, and hopefully start getting involved in more daily sports to bring variety to my exercise.

To compensate for this, I’m going to do some minor tweaking to my weight training. In the past I’ve been a little more intense on the lower body workouts and less intense on the upper body workouts. This was in part to take advantage of the exercises you can do to larger muscle groups in the lower body workouts. It was also partly to baby the elbow I had surgery on eleven months ago. But the elbow has been responding well. It seems ready to work harder, so it is time to take advantage of this.

So the exercise program will:

::: Increase the amount and intensity of the Cardio program as well as add more variety to it.

::: Either keep the same intensity or slightly decrease the intensity of the Lower Body workouts so as not to overstress the legs.

::: Increase the intensity of the Upper Body workouts.

In three weeks, we’ll check again to see how everything is progressing.

SUCCESS!!! SUCCESS!!! SUCCESS!!!

It’s always great when you reach a goal. Today, I did it.

But first, a little catch up.

I haven’t blogged lately because of my horrific schedule. I’ve been teaching classes and I’ve also had a number of writing assignments that have been keeping me up for long hours. So here are three weeks in brief.

My current short term goal is 250 pounds. By August 10 I was hovering at 252 pounds and I stayed there for two weeks. This is frustrating, but common in weight loss. Your body weight drops to a certain level and doesn’t seem to budge, no matter what you do. Well, the experts tell us our bodies have adapted to what we’ve been doing to it.

There are two ways to break this impasse. One is time: if you are exercising and eating properly according to your weight-loss goals, then after a few weeks the weight will again begin to go away. The second is to do something to break the impasse, usually some big increase, temporarily at least, of exercise to charge up the body’s metabolism.

I chose a more difficult, third way. Well, I didn’t “choose” it. It just happened.

One thing I try to do with my weight-loss program is to be sensible in my exercise and eat using healthy principals, but I am also unwilling not to enjoy myself. I refuse to “punish” or “deprive” myself. To me, that means I am willing to occasionally “stray” just so long as I don’t get myself down. One mistake so many dieters make is if they “go off the wagon” and eat something they shouldn’t. Then they become depressed and get full of self-loathing because of their “failure.” Then they abandon their plan and soon they are gaining weight again.

Well, I know I’m not perfect and I WILL sometimes do something stupid. I’ve just come to the decision that I won’t feel guilty about it and I’ll work harder next time.

So I was all the way down to 252 pounds, only two pounds from my short term goal. But my wife and I were going on an all-inclusive tour to Cartegeana in Colombia. The all-inclusive means that everything, drinks, alcohol, food, snacks, everything is included. Well, some might have tried to keep their diets while on a trip like that. But that option won’t work for me. So I decided to give myself permission to break from my diet and exercise for a week so I could enjoy the trip.

I did promise myself that when there were different options to eat, I would chose the more healthy options. I just wouldn’t stress about it if it was a problem. And I didn’t stress over it. Sometimes I ate very healthily but sometimes I didn’t. There were some chances to exercise, including one memorably brilliant time doing aerobics on the beach at Santa Marta, sweating to some fine salsa music. But I did not exercise near as much as I do normally. So, while I was gone on the trip I gained five pounds.

And I didn’t feel guilty.

But, of course, I was now at 257 pounds, seven pounds from my goal. I had backtracked. But instead of getting discouraged I told myself I now had more work to do.

So back to a healthy, everyday diet. Back to exercising. And between the little break and then my renewed vigor at the gym I am now standing at 250 pounds. I’ve dropped 53 pounds since I started, in a healthy manner free of injury. I’ve attained my short term goal and I’m well on my way to reaching my long term goal of 200 pounds.

Next up, I’m going to continue what I’m doing for right now as far diet and exercise. But I’m going to establish new short term weight-loss goals and develop a plan to take me there.

Congratulate me on what I’ve done! And wish me luck on the future.