LLU?

[roncollins]

John -- I thought you might be interested in my dalliances with the Leanness Lifestyle University program the last few days. I ran into it through a writer-friend's wife, and being curious, contrary, and generally interested in such sciences, I decided to do and review their 5-day free program. :) I'm only up to day three, but what the heck.

Day 1: Overview
Day 2: Fun with Food
Day 3: Can you outrun what you eat?
Day 4: I second that emotion

[Leones]

Day 3: Can you outrun what you eat?

I saw that and immediately thought 'nope". :) But that doesn't keep me from trying repeatedly.

It is remarkable how few calories are actually needed for strenuous activity. A lesson learned from riding a stationary bike one day and watching the calorie counter increase oh so slowly. Only to realize that the net loss was about a can of soda! Oy! Needless to say soda cans went out of the diet that day.

A good read.

[Bill]

My family really tries to adhere to the "eat real food" portion of healthy lifestyle. We do better some weeks than others. It's easier to do this time of year when North Carolina is full of good local produce. We also plan ahead and freeze things like fruit, corn, etc... in the spring and summer for several months down the road.

The processing done to food is so extreme that I think it is hard for humans to even fathom it anymore. Even things that you think are healthy (like peanut butter and yogurt) are so laden with added sugars, oils, and preservatives that they barely resemble their original form. Even most "healthy" cereal like shredded wheat and granola is at least 15% added sugar. Other cereals can be 50% or more.

/soapbox

Good job Ron for giving it a try! Hopefully you learn (or are at least reminded of) a few things.

[roncollins]

Day 3: Can you outrun what you eat?

I saw that and immediately thought 'nope". :) But that doesn't keep me from trying repeatedly.

It is remarkable how few calories are actually needed for strenuous activity. A lesson learned from riding a stationary bike one day and watching the calorie counter increase oh so slowly. Only to realize that the net loss was about a can of soda! Oy! Needless to say soda cans went out of the diet that day.

A good read.

Sugared soft drinks are the root of all evil. :) It's amazing the amount of sugar in these things. I saw a TED talk the other day where a guy described the raw chemistry of burning fat, and in it he picked up a normal size bottle of lemon drink, and said, "this is 17 tablespoons of sugar." Then he proceeded to take a table spoon and measure out 17 of them. Remarkable thing. I mean, no one would just guzzle down 17 tablespoons of that stuff otherwise. Drink two of them in a day, and you've got ... uh ... 34. :)

[Lions]

I'm pretty sure I can outrun my sandwich. More seriously, yes you can outrun what you eat to an extent, so I agree with Ron's point that exercise has limits that our appetites can exceed, but we're not forced to eat that way. Otherwise, there'd be no hope whatsoever. That said, I have a heartrate monitor that I've been wearing while going a second time through insanity. Looking down after an hour of profuse sweating and seeing 600 calories burned feels like both victory and defeat. It's a lot, but there's also a feeling that it should be higher.

My wife and I have always made a point of cooking most of our own meals from base ingredients. Penzeys is our biggest friend as spices allow flavor control over where that flavor comes from. It also helps that a lot of the dishes we like to eat aren't readily available in restaurants, so we're essentially forced to cook it if we want to eat it. That said, I'm also far more likely to make a homemade pizza (crust from scratch and all), than go out and buy one.

The one comment I'll make on alcohol is that while it isn't good for weight loss, it does have other health benefits. My wife is a physician and has made it a point that we should drink a couple of times a week, although we never drink to excess. I rarely have more than one beer, glass of wine, cocktail, or any combination of the above in one day.

Finally, Ron... you don't look from your picture like you need to lose weight!

[roncollins]

I don't really "need" to lose weight, though I intended to drop a little (I've gotten soft lately due to various life things :) ). But I am always quite fascinated by the combination of science and psychology that goes into weight control, and I thought this would be an interesting exercise to get started.

And, yeah, there are other values to wine. I'm not an expert in any way, but the program's view is that rather than drink wine, go to the grape itself. Shrug ... we generally drink one glass a day, so I'm not worried. As long as it fits into my calorie box.

[roncollins]

Added day four. :)