Logical Weight Loss

What's the Deal With Maltodextrin?

So I noticed that in my new Advocate Spark (I love the grape) that it included Matlodextrin. Then I looked at their really yummy Chocolate protein drink. What did I find? You guessed it Maltodextrin. At first, I thought Advocare was trying to fool me (the box of Spark shows "Sugar-free." Then I looked at the awesome low priced Chocolate Wehy Protein from Equate (which is also delicious). What did I find? You guessed it Matlodextrin. Lastly, I pulled out some drinks from Slimgenics that I used to consume. There it was again. Maltodextrin.

So I asked, "Uncle Google" and here is what I found

If you’re trying to lose weight, you will want to avoid maltodextrin. It’s essentially a sweetener and a carbohydrate with no nutritional value, and it causes an increase in blood sugar. The levels of sugar in maltodextrin can lead to weight gain.  - www.healthline.com

Maltodextrin is a food ingredient made from starch. It is used as a flavor carrier and to improve thickness, texture, body, and taste of food products. Maltodextrin is a polymer that consists of multiple units of glucose linked together in a linear fashion. Maltodextrin is commercially made starting with a simple starch and using the hydrolysis process. It is also a main ingredient in the brand-name sugar substitute Splenda

it is controversial as it is often made from corn, and most corn is genetically modified, this Maltodextrin is GMO based. There are no known GMO versions available. A controversy has started on the internet about maltodextrin causing a spike in blood sugar. But maltodextrin is seldom used by itself as a food, but rather as an ingredient in a food, thus this isn’t a serious concern.  - Go Clean Label https://gocleanlabel.com/what-is-maltodextrin/

According to Livestrong.com

"The Center for Science in the Public Interest has recognized maltodextrin as safe and fructose as an additive to cut back on in the diet. Experts agree that sugar, no matter the form, should comprise no more than 10 percent of total caloric intake. Most Americans get double this recommendation." Source

For me, it just seems like every form of sugar isn't for you and this may show as a carb instead of sugar in your food tracking. It seems wherever they pull out sugar, they just replace it with a substitute.

21 Ways To Lose Weight

1. Forcast Your Meal, and eliminate the question, "What's for Dinner?"
2. Rein in your sweet tooth
3. Once a day eat a salad
4. Sit down when you eat
5. Find a workout buddy
6. Exercise even when you don't feel like it
7. Hope on a scale once a week
8. Get to bed at a decent hour
9. Rish, shine and eat
10. Don't rely on willpower
11. Track your steps, but watch your feed
12. Cut back on TV time
13. Double down on Produce
14. Reorganize your fridge
15. Watch the booze
16. Think: Fast, slow, repeat.
17. Stop sipping your calories
18. Make friends with free weights
19. Try a new exercise
20. Do lunch like the Japanese
21. Learn how to relax about food.

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Thanks to "the Kims" who left some kick butt comments last week, and basically saying they encourage me to keep trying, but maybe Advocare is not the best way to go. In the end its Food, Water, Sleep, and Activity that lead to weight loss. 

So I said I was going back to what I use to do. Then I had to take a look at what I am doing now and compare it to what I was doing when I lost weight. Sure, I eat a lot of chicken and vegetables, but if I REALLY look at what I do, some things have crept in. 

1. I went MONTHS without Fast food, and now I was eating Fast Food two times a month. Now I might say, "Well, it's only two, but the bottom line is, I DIDN'T DO THIS AT ALL  when I was losing weight.
2. Once a quarter I was now eating ice cream. This never happened when I was losing weight.
3. I was being more active. While I'm not as concerned at getting 10,000 steps (as I'm looking more into weight lifting), that turned into not doing much of either

So I started tracking everything I was eating, and made to sure hit my calorie goal (1900) and I did. Since then, you guessed it I started losing weight. 

Seven Minute Workout

The other thing that I started using is the app " 7 "  or you can search for Seven. As I have to be honest with myself, I realize I'm not going to go out here in Ohio in January when it's -2 degrees. So I still want to build muscle, so I fired up this app. It's free and you can purchase more exercises if you want. It has a game effect where they want you to exercise every day for seven months.  I believe this is new to the app but you can now connect with friends and see their activity on your app. So now, when you see that they did their exercise you may inspire to do your exercise. Here is a link to a demonstration video

Habit Share App

Another fun app that has a built-in accountability is called Habit Share. It takes all of two minutes to setup and you can look for friends and share your goals with them. So now they can see how good (or bad )they are doing. then you can encourage them when they are doing good, and nudge them if they seem to have fallen and can't get back up. It works on both Android and iOs. It's completely free with no ads. Here is a demonstration video

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www.ynab.com You Need a Budget

Think Up Affirmations App

 

I really liked their meal replacement shakes. Check out www.logicalloss.com/advocare

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Today I took a long look at where I have been, what works and what didn't

I lost 30 lbsa year ago. I went to a place called Slimgenics, and just about the time I was at goal weight I quit going. Why?

It was expensive. Sometimes 300-400 a month.

I wasn't sure what I was putting in my body.

So here I am a year later and back where I was. I had to ask myself, do I really care how I lose the weight if I don't damage my body? The answer was no.

The other factor is I hurt my back in such a way that I could move for two days. I thought to myself, "remember how this feels" because I didn't have that issue when I weighed less. I wasn't sick, and I had more energy.

A listener to the show told me about Advocare and how he had used it to drop some weight. I looked into it. It has a definite "Amway/Multilevel" feel about it, but I was curious about the products and the price. It isn't cheap, but then again a Big Mac Value Meal is $6 and the meal replacements were less than that (for preferred customers). They do have a lot of medical doctors on staff to make sure the products work and are safe

New Products Same Plan

So I'm going to start off the same way I did last year with a 24 day jump start to get my body ready for the nutrients and supplements I will be feeding it. The 24-Day Jumpstart™ is designed to fuel a fresh start and help set you on the path to a healthy lifestyle. You will begin with a 10-day Cleanse Phase to help prepare your body for optimal nutrition, then complete the 14-Day Max Phase where you will start to develop a routine of fueling your body with quality supplementation and a healthy, balanced diet.

When that is over, the 28-Day Optimize™ keeps it simple with the same product routine each day, flexible food choices, and daily activity so that it’s sustainable and easy to adjust based on your specific goals and needs

Then I'll be doing the 28-Day Lifestyle™ is a commitment to making a true transformation by sticking with the healthy habits you have learned up to this point and working towards a long-term routine. 

So you end up with 24+28+28= 80 days

Here is a handout to start tracking your progress

For more information check out Dave's Advocare store at www.logicalloss.com/advocare

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I want to thank Laura from Oregon for her very generous donation to keep the lights on here at the Logical Weight Loss Podcast. If you'd like to help, see www.logicallosers.com

 

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In the past, I've said one way to achieve your goals is to break them into small baby steps. If you think about it, we really just need to worry about the next meal. Yes, exercise is important, but the food is the real place to focus. So here is what I'm going to do.

My goal is 1900 calories.

If I'm going to eat three meals and three snacks, I look at it as my snacks should add up to one meal. 

1900 / 4 = 475

And if all of my snack for the day add up to 475 and I plan on eating three then 475 / 3 = 158

In using MyFitnessPal (or any of the other of the available apps) I can easily come up with meals that come in under those limits

I looked at the ingredients of what I call "The Big Salad" (for all you Seinfeld fans) 

-images on website at www.logicalloss.com/346 -

To put this in English, I need to get a potential more calorie efficient dressing, lose the cheese and instead of dumping 8 ounces of chicken (the whole bag) cut that in half and that would cut close to 300 calories. 

A typical lunch for me is

Two baked chicken thighs: 260

Broccoli and Carrots 100

and I would actually have room for an Apple ( 80 calories)

(total 440)

My Breakfast is Often:

2 Eggs: 144
Honeycrisp Apple 80

(total 224)

or 

Equate Chocolate Whey Protein Powder 180

Unsweetened Almond Milk: 2 cups 90

Banana  110

Jif Natural Peanut Butter 95

(total 465)

In the end I look at this and go, "Yeah, I can fo that."

Mind Hacking: Free Ebook

You can find the entire book at https://www.mindhacki.ng/content/write/index.html

Here again, it's the same answer we hear over and over.

1. WRITE IT DOWN
2. REPEAT what they call "Positive Loops" to Your Self - and this book says to write them down 15 times a day (I'm going to go back and try the Think Up App
3. SIMULATE - Think of yourself doing these steps
4. COLLABORATE - There are powers in working with people
5. ACT

 

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I purchased the Fitness Reality TR3000 Maximum Weight Capacity Manual Treadmill with ‘Pacer Control' & Heart Rate System on a black Friday sale. A manual treadmill means there is no motor. You make it go. Here are my thoughts:

Listen to the show here

The setup was easy. It took about 10 minutes.

It is NOT like a motorized treadmill, so it's going to feel different. When I do a lot of walking on a motorized treadmill, the bottoms of my feet and knees feel it the next date. With this, my thighs felt it ( really felt it) as you're kind of pushing the belt along.

It takes a while to get the right settings. It seemed at first that you had to have your hands on the railing to keep a consistent speed. This is bad as I have a Fitbit on my wrist, and it doesn't count steps if I do it this way (I can always put it on my shoe, pocket, etc).

Once I got the right settings, I was able to "Just walk" on it and I didn't have to think too much about it. But the days of pressing start, and grabbing a book to read, etc are not gonna happen (at least not after using it for a week). It seemed I had to concentrate on what I was doing.

I do like that it has a place for a water bottle, and it checks your pulse. It seems well made. The displays is plastic, so I would take it easy on it, but what do you expect for under $200.

It folds up east, and while it's not light, I could transport it to another room (there are wheels on the bottom of it).

So it is different, and as humans, we normally don't like change, I think the more I used this the more I will like it. I am amazed that even though I'm going slower than a motorized treadmill, I appear to burn more calories as I'm dripping with sweat.

Hello Fresh Review

I was at Podcon and was next to a Hello Fresh booth. I eventually had to order just to get the salesperson ( a nice guy) to quick pitching me. Here are my thoughts.

The Hello Fresh app makes it super easy, and even a "picky eater" can find meals.

The meals come to about $10 a meal.

They say 10 minutes for prep, and 30 minutes to cook. For me, it was more 15 minutes of prep, and 35 minutes to cook.

The one meal I've cooked so far was super delicious.

The shipping was great. There is a giant block of ice to keep everything cool, and you simply open the box, and pull the bags out and put them in the fridge.

Who Is it For?

Busy people who don't have time to shop.

People who are tired of eating the same thing over and over.

People who eat out alot.

Can I Cancel or Pause My Account?

You can pause your account via the app.

You can click a button in the app to call customer service and they will cancel you if that's what you want.

What Does it Cost?

For me, it was $59 a week for three meals. There are different plans available.

Final Thoughts on Hello Fresh

The one meal I've had so far was really good.

If I compute what I eat for dinner or lunch, it's about $5 a meal. So this is double what I pay if I go shopping and buy in bulk.

As someone who is now dreading going out into the Ohio cold, I may be willing to pay more for food if I don't have to go get it, (And I like my food choices)

At this point, I'm going to give it another week with six more meals and go from there.

If you want to try it, check out www.logicalloss.com/hellofresh you'll get $40 off your first week.

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Step Bet is Complete

I made it through all six weeks of my step bet and ended up making $9 (a 22% return on my $40). 

Still Trying to Get Back on Track

I've got over my cold but pulled muscles in my back. The bad news is I'm now really down to zero in momentum. 

I realize that the next step isn't going to be easy. I'm back to square one. I know that but I also know if I push through. 

Under Desk Baby Elyptical Not For Me

I tried an elliptical that fits under your desk, but it wasn't for me. It was the Stamina In-Motion Elliptical Trainer, and while I wasn't trying it under a desk ( I was standing on it), in that situation it just worked my calves. 

Manual Treadmills

I watched a ton of videos looking into Manual Treadmills (no motor). I liked the Fitness Reality TR3000 Maximum Weight Capacity Manual Treadmill with 'Pacer Control' & Heart Rate System because there is a place for your water bottle. It's $179. 

(Behind the scenes, this unit was lost during transit. I had originally ordered it from walmart.com) They apologized, gave me a 10% discount, and will ship me a new one. )

When You Can't Exercise

Remember that exercise is important, but in the end, you can't exercise your way out of a bad diet. So with no treadmill, I'm really watching what I am eating, and trying to find ways to stay active. 

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Committed to Weight Loss Are You?

What does commitment mean? According to Merriam-Webster:

a :an agreement or pledge to do something in the future a commitment to improve conditions at the prison; especially :an engagement to assume a financial obligation at a future date
b :something pledged the commitment of troops to the war
c :the state or an instance of being obligated or emotionally impelled a commitment to a cause

For me, it means acknowledging the importance of something and scheduling your life around it.

Here is an example (and I don't want to get into a religious discussion). Back in the early 1970's when I was growing up, there weren't many stores open on Sunday. Most people were committed to going to church. Many businesses opened later (if at all) and often closed early. The biggest reason for this was many Americans went to church. It was important. We scheduled our Sundays around going to church.

Some people say they are committed to walking a mile a day. Every day they put on their shoes and get up and go walking. Then one day it rains. One person opens the door and says, "That's too bad, I was in the mood to walk today." The other person opens the door and sees the rain, and puts on a raincoat and grabs an umbrella. One person knows how important walking is, and schedules their life, and make arrangements to keep it at the top of their priority list.

I recently went to Washington DC to speak at a podcast event. My hotel was about a mile from the event. It was between 35-50 degrees during the days and evenings. I had someone who was also at the event so we split the hotel bill. I explained I was a Step Bet, and I needed to get 9922 steps per day. I wanted to let him know that at night I me be doing laps around the hotel by walking in the hallway or using their exercise room. He suggested we walk to and from the event every day. This made making my daily goals easy. I still had to walk a bit at the hotel, but for a small amount of time. Step bet is an app where you put money in, and you have to hit your step goals for six weeks. When I started there were 598 people, three weeks in and we are down to 450 people with $23,920 that will be split by the people who hit their goal for six weeks.

Typically we hear the word commitment in regards to a relationship. When you are in a committed relationship, you don't go looking for another one.

With weight loss you are committing to a lifestyle and you don't go looking for another one. You are committed to eating different foods, and you don't go looking for others.

In the same way that "cheating" can devastate a committed relationship, cheating on a diet can devastate any progress you have made.

When Does Five Minus Two Equal Zero? Weight Loss Math

You are committed five days of the week. Monday through Friday you are committed. You've been focused for a few weeks and you are down four lbs. Then the weekend comes and you are busy, and you start eating fast food, you grab some cookies and desserts. You can be good for five days, and in two days on the weekend wipe out all your progress leaving you with zero.

I have got under 220. I'm a 217 lbs. This is partially due to staying committed. I'm eating right, exercising, and I got help by being sick. That leads me to my next topic

Why Do You Lose Weight When You Get Sick?

The real reason for losing all of this weight is dehydration. I know for a fact that being sick also requires an increased need for water. When people fall ill they do not drink enough. Water is a vehicle for every chemical action that occurs in the body. It is really important for healing and staying hydrated (obviously). Water is lost through excessive sweating when you are ill. Your body temperature runs high during a time of illness thus increasing your water loss. You need to drink an abundant amount of fluid during your illness and you will see little to no weight loss. I think that if one could make themselves eat more and drink enough during an illness they would be able to actually gain a little weight. It kind of works weird, huh? When there is a time that benefits us to eat a little extra we do not feel like doing so. When we want to eat more we really should not, but hey, that is life. -source

When you are sick, it is normal to lose a bit of weight as you’ll generally consume fewer calories, and less fluid, than you would normally consume to maintain your weight. If you are ill for more than a few days, this can be a marked weight loss. Sick for a week, it might be as much as 4-5 pounds. Sick longer and you should really be speaking with your doctor, not your personal trainer. Before we go any further, you should know that approximately half of the weight you’ll lose when sick is fluid weight, so you can expect to gain back about half of what you’ve lost within a day or two of recovering. Being sick is not a way to lose weight. That’s just dumb. -source

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This week I didn't get to my weight lifting, I go all my steps in (more on that later) but I'm up .4 lbs. I'm not going to cry over that, but I need to get back to the gym. While you can't exercise yourself out of a diet, I want to continue with my weight lifting. 

Do Fitbits Realy Motivate People?

There is a study from Harvard about using Fitbits (or any activity trackers). They had a number of groups:

• use of a Fitbit Zip, a popular clip-on activity tracker (with payment of $3/week to continue in the study regardless of the number of steps taken)
• a Fitbit plus a cash incentive ($11 for taking 50,000 to 70,000 steps each week, or $22 for more than 70,000 steps/week)
• a Fitbit plus a payment to a charity (which was larger with increased activity)
• a control group that did not use an activity tracker; this group also received the $3/week for participation regardless of activity levels.

In the end, the group that got good old hard CASH was more motivated. 

Other reports show when you work activity into a group activity or game that can boost engagement, and again, if you throw in money, that seems to get people's attention.

Shocking isn't it that money motivates people...

In my opinion, the only kind of motivation is self-motivation. 

If we can get our head inside the "big picture" we can see where WE WILL save money in the future by not having to rely on medicine, pills, and surgeries. 

If you're interested in a Fitbit, you can check them out here. If you just want a small clip-on unit, (the ZIP) they start at $59. (these might be getting discontinued as they aren't available at Amazon). 

My Old Air Fryer Turned Into a Smoke Machine

I had purchased a Power Air Fryer XL for 159 in March. I used it weekly and while I loved it the first few times I used it, I began to dislike it and eventually threw it away. Here is why:

1. Cleaning the basket chewed up your sponges
2. The idea was to keep your food out of the grease, they had a dimple in the bottom of their pan to keep the basket raised, but if you put a fair amount of chicken thighs, it weighed down the basket to where the food was soaking in great. What is the point of a six-quart fryer, if you can't load it up?
3. I don't think it was the basket or the bucket that cause the problem but the oven itself. I would wait for it to cool, and attempt to clean the roof, and there was a weird edge around the oven that the bucket/basket slid into. I saw where grease was building upon it. You had to stand on your head to see inside of the oven. 
4. It leaked grease on my counter
5. The final time I used it, I looked like I was at a Kiss concert with this thing billowing smoke that filled my apartment and set off my smoke detector (multiple times). 

Enter the NuWave Brio Air Fryer

I looked around and Walmart and Target didn't carry more than one unit, and I wanted to be able to look into the unit to see how I could clean it. I went to Bed Bath Beyond and ended up with the NuWave Brio Air Fryer (3 quarts instead of the six quarts I previously). The price was $89.  There is a six-quart version for $129. 

I chose it as the basket looks like it will be easier to clean, and there is a tab in the bucket to ensure that the basket stays out of the grease (and after using it four times it does).

It also has a pre-heat option that I like (it doesn't take too long).  The reviews seem where the majority are positive, and some of the negative reviews are interesting, "The oven was hot...." um yeah, yes it is. 

You also need to leave from any air fryer to have space for the heat coming out of the fryer has a place to go. 

Mentioned in This Show

Spryfit

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Get Paid For Walking with Step Bet

Step Bet is the sister to Diet Bet. With Step Bet you put in some money, and it reads the data from your fitness Tracker (Fitbit, Garmin, Apple Watch) and assigns you a goal. You have active days (a smaller goal) and a stretch goal. For me, my goals are  9922 steps for active days and 12, 222 for a stretch days. (Your goals will be different based on your previous days). In a week you have four active days, and two stretch days and one off day. Do that for six weeks and you get a portion of the pot. My current pot has 600 people with a pot of 24,000. If 75% of people fail that means 18,000 will be divided between 150 people with a net of $120 (minus a cut for step bet). If money motivates you this scenario would bring a 300% return on investment (as I put in $40). 

 The key (for me) is getting up a litter earlier, and at night getting my steps in before doing any other activities (or by watching TV while on a treadmill). The real challenge here is the six weeks of consistency. 

Its available on iOs and Andorid (see www.stepbet.com )

 

Understanding Affirmations

I was reading the book Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle and it had one of the best descriptions of why and how they work.

In the book Tony states:

All day long you carry on a mental conversation with yourself. Psychologists estimate that we think up to 60,000 thoughts a day and that 98 percent of these thoughts are the same ones we had yesterday—most of them negative. In a year, that’s almost 22 million thoughts!

The basis for positive thinking and philosophies such as the law of attraction is that the subconscious is amenable to suggestion. People who say that positive thoughts and affirmations don’t work aren’t using them effectively or consistently, or they’re wishing for the positive while thinking about the negative.

This is me. I would try them for maybe three days. Mixed messages

If a captain gives an order such as “Go east,” then keeps changing his mind—“No, go west … no, go north”—the ship would never get anywhere! This is also why most people get nowhere with their fitness, weight loss, or muscle-building endeavors. Ironically, the very statement “Positive thinking doesn’t work” is a negative suggestion guaranteeing that it won’t work!

Again, this is 100% me.

The conscious mind is a lot like the captain on the bridge of a ship. The captain sends a command to the engine room. The subconscious mind is like the people down in the engine room. No matter what orders come down from the bridge (conscious mind), the crew obeys, even if the orders are stupid ones that crash the ship into a rocky shore. The reason this happens is that the crew (the subconscious) can’t see where the ship is going; they are simply following orders.

Like the ship’s crew, your subconscious mind carries out every command it accepts from your conscious mind. Its sole purpose is to obey your orders, even if you give ones like “I’ll always be fat.” Frequent repetition of thoughts (mental orders) is one certain way to penetrate the subconscious mind. By constantly repeating negative commands such as “I can’t lose weight,” your subconscious will see to it that you never lose weight because that’s its job: to follow your every command literally and without question. If you program your mind with negative suggestions often enough, it will lead you right into cheating on your diet, skipping workouts, or some other form of self-sabotage.

Without a target, your subconscious simply steers you toward your dominant thoughts. The subconscious mind is always at work 24 hours a day, whether you direct it consciously or not. 

Because of how your subconscious operates, it’s crucial to focus on what you want to achieve, not on what you want to avoid.

He mentions in the book that much like weight lifting you need to give affirmations 25-30 days to sink in.  I've never been able to completely buy into Affirmations. To “affirm” something, by dictionary definition, means that you are declaring it to be true. When you say an affirmation over and over again, a couple of things happen. Your sub-conscience gets busy noticing ways to help you achieve your goals.  

Because your brain is constantly looking for clues to filter your environment and guide your actions, it will pick up on any available influence.

This could mean all the subconscious fears and doubts you haven’t dealt with or even messages in your environment.

The reason you need to repeat them is

To run efficiently, your brain strengthens its connections every time you think, feel and do.

This helps you perform tasks with less energy and more focus.

Think about driving a car or riding a bike.

It can be awkward at first when you're learning, but after you figure it out, it comes naturally.

The Tension of Repeating a "Lie" May Be the Key

One article stated, "If you feel uncomfortable about lying to yourself, you’ll want to fix it. You’ll either change the affirmation to make it comfortable, or you’ll change your lifestyle and habits to make the affirmation true.The latter action is the response that will completely transform your life for the better!"

While another article suggested adding reality to your affirmations such as:

I am frustrated by my eating habits, but I am learning to treat myself with the respect I deserve. I am learning to do better. 

I am sad about the fact that I’m still single, but I am learning how to relate with men in a more open, brave, and vulnerable way. I am learning to do better.

I am scared about handling this big, new project, but I am learning to have confidence in my ability to achieve my goals. I am learning to do better.

These statements aren’t “empty self-praise” or temporary “mood-boosters.”

They’re honest, self-respecting assessments about where we’re at, what we’re learning, and what we’re capable of becoming. They are affirmations of truth—and the truth will set you free.

One Article on Psychology Today in 2017 stated, "the process of self-affirmation changes the way we think about our tasks or goals, so that we think about our tasks in more abstract/value-related ways, as opposed to concrete, lower-level actions."

How Do You Write an Affirmation?

One study found that if you have really low self-esteem, doing positive self-esteem can actually BOOST your negative self-esteem as you argue with yourself. FULL ARTICLE 

Some people suggest a more honest affirmation.

ThinkUp Affirmation App

I found this app ThinkUp: Positive Affirmations & Motivation Daily - Precise Wellness LLC

that is super helpful, easy to navigate and guides you through creating your own affirmations. You record them in your own voice, and then pick the background music, and more. You can test it for free, and then either rent the app for $3/month or buy a lifetime license for $24.

I've used other affirmation apps, and this one is the easiest to use, and just seems more thought out and professional. You have access to affirmations from experts (for those who don't want to make up their own), and I just liked using the app. I can see me using this on a daily basis.

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So after reading the book Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto, I got re-inspired to really try weight lifting. I HATE WEIGHT LIFTING due to the soreness that always follows. So what changed my mind?

I shut up and did. I got up at six AM and went to the gym. The next day, as expected my muscles were sore, but I only notice when I move. So going from standing to sitting, sitting to standing, etc. Most of the time, I might notice a little plumpness, but in reality, on a scale from one to ten, it's about a three. Most of the day I don't notice it. I need to buckle up, suck it up and just do it.

Physically inactive people can lose as much as 3% to 5% of their muscle mass each decade after age 30. Even if you are active, you’ll still have some muscle loss. I'm now 52, which means I may have lost ou tp 10% of my muscle. This loss of muscle even has a name, "Sarcopenia." Sarcopenia typically happens faster around age 75. But it may also speed up as early as 65 or as late as 80

In the same way that almost every book I read says to eat a good healthy breakfast, they all say changing your body requires weight lifting (either via weights or body weight exercises).

How I'm Able To Tolerate Exercises I Hate.

1. I Made it a Game

I've got an app, and I'm going to use it to make weight lifting a game to see how I can compete against old workouts to see if I can make it better. When I go to the gym I've adopted an attitude mentioned in the book and that is "I don't want to go to maintain; I go to the gym to improve. And if I want to improve, then today I must aim to beat my previous workouts and do something I've never done before."

Now do be silly and over do it, but realizing there should be progress in the future it the mindset I have.

2. Made it Easy

I found an app to track and customize my downloads. While you don't need this, I wanted the documentation to track my progress (more on this in a minute)

3. Ensured Success

The first time I attempted to get up at Six AM I failed. I reached out an turned the alarm clock next to my bed off and went back to bed. On Wednesday in addition to the alarm clock, I set my phone as an alarm and put it in a place where I would hear it, but have to get out of bed to turn it off.

4. I Lie To Myself

Lifting weights for the rest of my life is depressing (although who knows as a month I might like this). So my goal is to get to 190 by February 8th 2018 (my 52nd birthday). It is an aggressive goal, but I'm committed. By telling myself, "It's only until February" I can stomach the pain as I know it's not forever.

5. I Give Myself Pop Talks

I mentioned a few episodes about using non-flattering pictures as motivation, I've also made posters with my goal weight, my goal date, and a slogan like "YOU GOT THIS" and I've put it in my kitchen, my bathroom, and other places I see on a regular basis. I've also found a cool affirmation app (more on that later).

6. I've Got Some Skin in the Game

I spent some money on some new tools (Skulpt Chisel, and some apps) so I need to get my money's worth.

Skulpt Chisel Review

I came across the Skulpt Chisel on YouTube. I saw very chiseled men singing it's praises. What is it? It's a device that looks like a plastic wallet. You spray some water on some sensors and push it against your body in different locations to get insights into your body composition (how much fat, and how much muscle). It syncs with your phone (works on both iOs and Android) and gives you an overall reading on your body composition as well as each body party. It's not shocking as a man in his 50's with a body that looks like a man in his 50's my worst area is my belly (abs only 29.9% muscle). The Skult Chisel is $99 so I bought it knowing I really wanted to track all of my changes (and I love gadgets)

A Very Rough Start

Anytime I buy anything electronic, I expect it to need to update the minute I get it out of the box. After all, how long has it been sitting on a shelf somewhere? What the PDF didn't tell me is that for me to connect to the skulpt, I needed to go into my Bluetooth settings of my phone and disconnect all other Bluetooth devices.  I sat trying and trying to connect my phone and it just wouldn't. I would find it, the device would turn green, and it would prompt me to press a button and that would then lock it up.

Thank God for Google. I was able to find a Facebook group with some clues. I turned off all Bluetooth devices, and I put it on the charger to be able to update the unit. This took me an hour to figure out.

I was really surprised that while everyone and their brother is reviewing the Skulpt Chisel, there are very few videos (and zero from the company) on how to use it. They give you a squirt bottle and a pdf. I had no idea how much to squirt on the sensors before pressing it against my body. It turns out you only need a squirt or two.

So the learning curve was pretty bad, but once I get it all setup and syncing, everything works fine. You can do a full scan (where you measure many parts of your body) or a quick scan (which scans around four parts of your body).

I did get some help with Skulpt on Facebook, who pointed me at their help desk I'm still not sure how I missed their support area, but I did.

Skulpt Chisel Fairly Easy to Use

Once I go through the initial setup and update, the Skulpt Chisel is pretty easy to use. You don't have to spray that much water on the sensors. You might occasionally have to reposition the unit to get a good reading, but so far I'm happy with it. While my Withings (now owned by Nokia) scale lets me know my body fat percentage (29.3) the Skulp Chisel said I was at 31% and let me see where the problem areas were.

The Analysis Needs Work

I liked that it lets me know I need to work my shoulders and even gives me names of exercises I could do to build those muscles. Then when I click on the name of the exercise it leads me to a page that apparently had a video at one point, but it was removed. So it's helpful, ( I can search the exercise and find a video) but it just left me thinking that they are understaffed.

Some Features Not Available

Some videos I saw on YouTube mentioned it would give nutrition advice. That does not exist at this point and time.

Overall Summary About Skulpt Chisel

Yes the setup procedure was a nightmare and they need to update their PDF, but once it's going (and since you read this article you shouldn't have as bad an experience) I like it, and I believe the graphics it generates will help motivate me to keep going.

More Information Available Here

Workout Tracking Made Easy With the Stacked App.

I've tried a few apps in the past and they seemed geared toward the bodybuilder with uber options or made shaping a list of exercises into a workout confusing (pumping weight app). The Stacked App is for iOs only at this point, and I love the fact that I was able to log in, click around and figure out how to add an exercise that wasn't listed (even though their list is impressive) turn those exercises into workouts. Then as I was actually doing the workout it was super easy to enter the weight and reps (and add exercises on the fly if needed). You can try it for free, but it's only $4.99

Key Points:

Create your own workout routines, or choose from one of our pre-made workouts for both men and women

Pay once, and you’ll get lifetime access to everything Stacked has to offer, as well as free upgrades as it improves

You’re going to love how elegant, simple, and uncluttered Stacked is, both visually and functionally.

All your information is automatically and securely stored on their servers, so you never lose it

There are no ads in the app. Ads are ugly, intrusive, and annoying, and you won’t find any in Stacked, whether you upgrade or not.

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