Category: Fitness

How to Lose Weight Consistently Without Starving

Posted on by Jeff Cassman

On January 1st, I decided it was time to address the issue of my weight gain over the last three years.  The cause of my weight gain was simple (I stopped running, stopped lifting, and ate and drank everything I wanted), so the solution was simple also.

In six weeks I’ve lost approximately 15 pounds and dropped two pant sizes.  My BP has dropped from, shall we say, “Go to the ER”, to ‘high normal’.  I still eat almost everything I want.  If I got serious I could lose another 15 pounds in 30 days, but because of my lifestyle choices, the number of birthdays we celebrate and various other excuses, I will probably take 60 days to lose the next 15 pounds, and I’m okay with that.

I’ve done this before and it works, so I have confidence and patience.    It helps that my Wife usually prepares my meals for me.  It doesn’t help that my children enjoy surprising me with martinis they’ve made for me to see whether I can tell if it was shaken or stirred.

My point is:  this works.  I did it before to lose 60 lbs successfully.  Go off the plan, and I can put it all back on.

Note:  Google has asked me to put a disclaimer here.  The disclaimer is:  these results are not typical.  I can’t promise you will experience the same results.  You may lose more, faster, if you have more to lose.  You may lose less and more … Read the rest

3200 Calories a Day

Posted on by Jeff Cassman

Four years ago, I lost 50 pounds in four months.  It was pretty easy; eat little and run often.  I ran 2 to 3 miles a day and took up

tennis.  Eventually, I got tired of being skinny.  I started lifting weights seriously.  However, the diet available to me didn’t provide much in the way of protein.  I managed to put on about 10 pounds in 18 months without changing pant sizes.

My circumstances are different now, and so I wanted to experiment with a dramatic reversal of what I did for several years.  I all but eliminated my cardio, running no more than one mile at a time, and that only occasionally, just so I wouldn’t get out of breath walking up the stairs.  I also reduced the frequency of my workouts, from 5-6 a week to 3 to 4, and dramatically changed my approach.  Instead of 60 to 90 minute sessions, I do about 45 minutes.  Instead of 3 minute rests between sets, I do no more than 60 seconds, and I do 4 sets of 6-8 reps rather than 3 of 10 to 12.

I abandoned any attempt at restricting what I ate or drink, except to limit my intake between noon and 8pm.  This is called “intermittent fasting“.  I also leaned heavily towards paleo, usually eating meals consisting of meat and green vegetables.  I didn’t always stop eating at 8pm, I didn’t always stick with the paleo diet, and I ate breakfast on … Read the rest

Help Me Reverse the Trend

Posted on by Jeff Cassman

Nine months ago, on the hottest day of July, at 2:47pm, I ran a 6:09 mile.  I had not run a mile at any reasonably respectable speed since the fall of 1993, when I ran a 5 minute mile on the tarmac at Goodfellow AFB.  Back then I was single, weighed 160 pounds, and had yet to discover alcohol, sushi, second breakfast, and a great many other vices that can impede performance.

Anyway, I would not have run nearly that fast last July had I not had a compelling incentive; there were 11 members of the Mexican Mafia of Marion at the track, ready to enforce the outcome of the event.  You see, I was racing against one of their own.  El Conejo was 22 and very eager.  I suspect he had never had the straight-up opportunity to beat a white man at anything.  He drank a contraband energy drink before the race and was bouncing around the track.  I was stretching and drinking water.

If I won, which they all deemed highly unlikely, then a friend of mine who had gotten himself into debt with the MMM (and had no easy way to repay), would be released from their grip.  If I lost, then this friend of mine would become the, how shall I say this, the ‘servant’ of the MMM.  It was imperative I win, and so I had skipped my normal morning weight-lifting and scheduled the run at the hottest time of the day.  You see, … Read the rest