About my diet

I haven't posted much of anything here about my diet thus far. The details of my eating habits are not, I think, crucial to understanding my own health or even the more general topic of this blog, i.e., health and fitness at age 50 and beyond.

Still, in the interest of full disclosure, I feel I should offer a few comments about my diet. Thus, the following.

I have been what might be most concisely termed an ovo-lacto-pesco vegetarian for many years--going on 25 now, actually. So in many respects I've been for the most part observing a pretty healthy diet for quite some time.

In case it's not apparent from the terms I've used to describe the diet concisely, what they mean is that I do not eat red meats and poultry, though I do incorporate other animal products into my diet--namely eggs (the ovo part), milk and dairy (the lacto part) and fish (the pesco part). I must observe that lately, in an attempt to address some digestive issues, I've cut way back on the dairy part of the diet, so I'm presently eating very little in the way of lactose.

My diet does vary during the year to some extent, there having been periods when I've followed more what might be called a vegan diet, i.e., one with virtually no animal products. But I have, with advancing age, been trying to vary the diet less and less and trying to and eat more of the same types of things throughout the year

I did not actually adopt this diet for any kind of health reasons--though I do think it has had much to do with my steady weight over the years. Probably it has played a key role in the pretty low cholesterol readings I've had as well. But that was no my intention when I started eating the way I do.

No, I actually eat this way for religious reasons. I led a fairly intense religious life for some years, and in the setting where I did that, an ovo-lacto-pesco vegetarian diet was what we followed. Though I left that life quite a few years ago, I continued following the eating prescriptions even down to today.

I have to say that I really do not recall missing red meat in my diet. Perhaps toward the beginning I had an occasional craving for red meat--I just don't remember. But I can say with confidence now that I don't feel any sort of craving for meat. I have tried a bit of meat here and there during the last quarter century, just to see what it tastes like again. But I've had no desire in those instances to go back to eating it.

That said, I am a fairly ruthless pragmatist. So, if I decided that red meat would be a good thing to have in my diet, I'd have no qualms about eating it. But so far--low-carb and paleo diet trends notwithstanding--I just haven't seen any compelling reason to go back to it. But I am keeping an open mind, and if I thought a change in diet would address some of my chronic health problems, I'd definitely be amenable to some experimentation.

That said, I wonder as I write this what my health and physique might be like now had I not given up eating red meat all those years ago? Hard to say. But I do feel like I must assign some degree of credit, given what I believe to be my unusually trim and athletic build for a man my age, to the dietary rules I've followed for the last two decades and more.

So, there you have it. If this entry will be of help to someone pondering their dietary habits, I'll be happy. If anyone has disagreements to voice or advice to offer, please feel free.

A new evolution in our fitness regime: using lists

This is sort of another ho-hum contribution. But I want to write about it anyway in case it may benefit anyone else. It will also help me to remember the stages of progression in our fitness pursuits.

Lists. Yes, I've been hoping for some time now to get away from the DVD's we're using for our strength-training sessions and simply to work from a list of exercises. Why?

Part of the reason for this is that I get tired of watching--and hearing--the same thing over, and over, and over, and over (etc.) again. But I also see it as a small step in progressing beyond canned fitness routines to something I devise myself. We've now made some actual steps in that direction.

For now, I've simply made lists of the exercises, in the order in which they occur, from the DVD's we use. Not too creative, but it's a first step. So, rather than popping in, for example, the Arm Toner DVD when doing our strength training during the Arm Toner phase, we just consult a list of the exercises done on the DVD as we go through the routine.

There are a few reasons--aside from the fact that I think it will help us to progress in our fitness undertakings--this has turned out to be a good approach. One is that we can play our own music while exercising. That's a relief after listening over and over again to what's being said on the DVD's (and we even get in a little extra exercise by dancing during "stretch breaks" :) ).

But, as I said, the main reason we're doing things this way now is to try and progress closer to a point when we can, by picking and choosing from exercises we've done, design our own routines. Once we're able to do that, we will likely have minimized the drudgery that usually accompanies regular fitness pursuits--also called, not surprisingly, "routines."

We'll undoubtedly still pop in, and work out along with , a DVD from time to time. That will help us to ensure we're using proper form. But I assume we may also notice nuances in the routines that had escaped our notice with repeated viewing.

In any case, I'll be offering updates on how things are going with our new approach involving lists. Stay tuned for those.

The challenge of low-intensity workouts

The title probably sounds a bit self-contradictory. But it's accurate--at least in my experience so far.

What do I mean? Well, this entry is a follow-up to my last entry, where I discussed a new experiment I'm trying--one in which I'll be doing most upper-body strength training sessions within a given phase at a low intensity, while doing just a few sessions at the end of the phase at full intensity. I'm hoping thereby, as I said, to introduce some further variation into my workouts.

Ok, so I'm going easy in these last few sessions. What's the challenge in that? Well, I've found it challenging to restrain myself from ramping up the intensity. I start doing reps with the resistance bands and think to myself unconsciously, "this is too easy, I'll have to use less slack next time." As you may have noted from my last entry, that's the first step toward getting into competition with myself--something I'm trying to avoid during this low-intensity segment of the experiment I'm doing during this phase.

So, it takes some conscious effort to ramp down the intensity. It's something I'll probably have to work on continuously.

And it brings up some interesting possibilities. I'm perhaps more engaged in the routines mentally than when I'm just trying to go all out in my efforts. So, what will be the effect--if any--on my efforts when I come to the high-intensity segment of this phase?

Might I be able to break through some barriers that I've confronted thus far while being in full-throttle-mode for most workouts? Might I, for example, be able to do more push-ups than the maximum I've been kind of stuck at for a year or two? Do more reps with a given amount of weight?

I'll have to wait to find out the answers to those questions. And, interesting as those answers will be, I can't say that an answer in the positive is terribly important. As I said, I do this for health reasons, not to win any sort of competition or anything.

But still, it will be interesting to see what are the effects on performance. I am--in addition to trying to maintain god health--out to learn, after all.

I'll be posting results as they become available.

Dullard's revelation: does variation in workout intensity = fitness variety?

It's an enigmatic title, I admit. But I don't think it'll take you long to figure out what I had in mind in formulating it. So please, read on.

I'm slowly coming to grips with the fact that my existence has been a series of moments of intellectual density interspersed with occasional flashes of brilliance. That's a change from, say, 30 years ago, when I might have thought the reverse--viz., a succession of brilliant moments disrupted by occasional bouts of density. And, yes, it's taken me that long to realize the truth of the matter. But I digress.

In this entry I just want to write about a "revelation" I had the other day for introducing further variation into my exercise regimen. And, as I consider how to write about it, I realize that it's something that should have become evident to me some time ago.

Put simply, I've finally figured out that a good way to further vary my regimen is to introduce periods of lessened intensity with periods of heightened intensity. Same exercises, but a slightly different approach. And, as I write these lines, it further occurs to me that we already do this with the staple part of our regimen--the cycling part. Guess I just never thought about it in this way before.

Now, bear in mind that, as I've written previously, I believe that variation in the fitness routine can help us maintain our regimens by breaking up the monotony of doing the same exercises over and over, week after week, and--hopefully--year after year.

What I mean when I mention the role lessened intensity has played in our cycling regimen is that, as readers of this blog (yes, all 0 of you) will be aware, we ride stationary bikes during the part of the year when on-road cycling is not possible. And that we take it a lot easier when doing that than when we ride on the roads. So we have a period of lessened intensity built into the mainstay of our fitness regimen, one that corresponds to cycling season.

Ta daaah!

And, of course, there have been times when I've taken it easy when doing the upper-body, strength-training component of our regimen--mostly on days when I'm not feeling too well--as well. But I never thought of doing something similar to what we do with respect to cycling when it comes to our strength-training routines, i.e., having periods when we work out with less intensity. Nor did I, for some reason, think of that as a way to introduce further variation into our fitness regimen. But now I have.

So, how comes this revelation? Well, there are a few contributing factors.

Perhaps first and foremost is the fact that we're now going into our 4th year of having a regular, year-round exercise regimen. And we've been using some of the same upper-body routines for some time now--some we've done for 3 or 4 cycles already.

And believe me "muscle confusion" has not worked as advertised by the P90X folks (no great surprise to me). That is to say that the exercises, despite the variation we have over the course of the year, cease to have the sort of impact they used to. No longer do I feel sore for days after a hard workout: no, sometimes when I've gone really hard and am expecting the soreness I used to see, I'm pretty well recovered after only 36 hours or so: not much soreness remains at all.

And I find myself "hitting a wall" as well. For example, it's just as hard for me to do 10 push-ups today as it was a year ago. I'm not gaining much in that department--owing, certainly in some measure, to advancing age.

But at the same time I'm not out to win any push-up contests. So, though I wonder about the seeming lack of progress, I can't say it's something that is especially bothersome.

But this sort of thing can, it must be recognized, detract from morale. The seeming lack of progress can make one wonder whether what they're doing is really worthwhile: haven't we all come to that (faulty) conclusion at some point(s) in our fitness journey(s)?

Then, there's a related issue I confront. I tend to get into a sort of contest with myself, always pushing to outdo some previous mark I've made: a larger number of push-ups, more repetitions with a given amount of weight--that sort of thing. That kind of attitude can further erode morale when the hoped-for results are not quickly attained.

But there is really no contest here. I'm deluding myself to some extent in pretending that there is. I'm certainly not going to enter--much less win--any push-up contests. I'd be blown away by just about anyone who's serious about fitness and is even as little 10 years younger than me. So there's a bit of delusion involved in these imagined competitions.

No, the only thing I'm really aiming to achieve in all these fitness pursuits is a good health. So why the contests? No, I think I need to get away from that mentality more. Being intense at times is good, but being in a competitive mode all the time is not and, in my experience of exercising on my own, is even likely to contribute to burn-out.

So, what's needed to counteract that is to deliberately lessen intensity. At least a certain part of the fitness year as I've conceived of it, should be conducted at a lessened intensity. And I plan on that portion being the majority of the year. Yes, intensity in my upper-body strength training is henceforth to be limited to short intervals during the course of the year--as I'm now conceiving of it, to just several sessions of each the phases into which we divide our annual regimen.

And an added benefit to deliberately lessening intensity of upper-body workouts will be to introduce a bit more variation into our regimen. True, we're doing the same exercises. But my speculation is that lessening intensity during most of the period during which we're doing these exercises is going to make them seem somewhat different. And preliminary experimentation proves this out.

Ok, so that's the theory. Now, how will it be implemented?

As I mentioned, I have a habit of getting into competitions with myself, trying always to push harder and outdo myself--often unsuccessfully. So, how can I get myself to "take it easy" for most of each of the phases into which I've divided my fitness year?

My lone experiment thus far was conducted using a resistance band instead of weights. That way, I had only one resistance level--and not a terribly difficult one at that.

It worked pretty well. There were a couple of logistical issues--mainly related to hairy arms and the bands ripping out hairs when performing certain exercises. But I did find using the band to be a fairly effective way of restraining myself.

Another way to introduce restraint would be, of course, to simply set out only lighter-weight dumbbells for use in a given routine. I'm not sure whether I'll use the resistance band or the lighter weights, but either should be equally effective in lessening the intensity of my workouts.

So I would use that band or those lighter weights for most of a given cycle or phase, then, for a certain number of sessions in that cycle, I'd allow myself to push hard--to get intense--to my heart's content. I haven't decided for how many sessions that should go on, nor have I thought much about at what point during the phase those heightened-intensity sessions should occur. Offhand, I presume something like 6 - 8 sessions per phase, and as I've thought about it thus far, those would probably be grouped together at the end of the phase.

But these are matters I'm still considering. Likely I'll have to experiment a bit to see what works best. But that is probably what I'll try to start off with.

So, stay tuned for my reports on how this new form of variation is working and whether, as it seems to me now, it comprises a worthwhile adjustment to my regimen.