Marks new "Getting Healthy" thread.

Mark Wein

Grand Poobah
Staff member
Had a small health scare last week and the doctor basically told me everything I already know....poor diet, over weight, not enough exercise, not enough sleep and so on...

A couple of immediate fixes - the only caffeine I'm allowing myself to have is from either coffee or unsweetened tea. I quit energy drinks a few years ago but I can guzzle diet coke like nobodies business. Soda with all of the chemicals and the ease of drink is out. I'm not the biggest coffee fan so a cup in the morning and a cup in the afternoon or an unsweetened ice tea and I've been good now that I've adjusted to the lower caffeine intake.

That helps with the sleep issue as well...I've been getting to bed around midnight and waking up at 5 during the week and sometimes not falling asleep at all. The Dr suggested Melatonin to help with the sleep but its been making me groggy in the morning. I've now been getting between 6 and 7 hours of sleep. He seems to think that the sleep deficit is one of my biggest problems.

Exercise is something I enjoy but don't always get around to. Now its 30 minutes of some sort of physical activity every day. Mostly riding my bike since I enjoy it. I've revived my biking thread: http://markweinguitarlessons.com/forums/threads/the-biking-thread.42304/

Stress is something that I work on but with a small business and a youngish family that is difficult sometimes.

The absolutely hardest part for me is discipline with my diet. I know what I should be eating and in what quantities but if I have some sort of coping mechanism when I'm stressed I tend to overeat. With the help of Mrs W I've been getting back on track with that. Since she is allergic to gluten (and is smarter and more disciplined than I am :embarrassed:) I've been trying to emulate what she eats as much as possible. She is incredibly healthy since they discovered her gluten issue.

I got a new Withings scale and blood pressure monitor that I'm using with the Health app on my phone to monitor my progress as well. I've gone from 272 to 266 in the last week and the plan I guess is to have me at around 225 or 230 by September. Its always been easy for my to lose weight fast and then put it back on so I am really trying to do this in a sensible manner..we'll see how it goes.

Anyhow, you can probably find a ton of these threads from me in this forum over the last 7 years but this is the current effort. My username on MapMyWalk (which is what I'm using to track my bike rides) is Mark64868426 if anyone wants to connect that way.
 
That's a very achievable goal and I hope that you get there.

This time 2 years ago, I was in terrific shape. Then came more surgery and more treatment... I haven't been to a gym since October of '13. Lately, I've been feeling gross and not myself. I'm planning to start working out next Monday.
 
That's a very achievable goal and I hope that you get there.

This time 2 years ago, I was in terrific shape. Then came more surgery and more treatment... I haven't been to a gym since October of '13. Lately, I've been feeling gross and not myself. I'm planning to start working out next Monday.
Thanks.


When I was younger it was very easy for me to drop 30 lbs, lift some weights and be in great shape. I'll be 45 in a couple of weeks and I'm having to face a new reality with this shit. Such is life.
 
Looks like a solid plan, Mark. :thu: Large framed mesomorph guys like you will always have a harder time than people with other body types.

The eating is the hardest part (new Tom Petty song?) for me. Most of my life I could eat what ever I liked without much of a problem unless I wasn't active. I just lost weight on purpose for the first time in my life and I barely managed to hit my goal of 14 pounds last last Friday. That may not sound like much, but it is a healthy rate of loss and achievable without severe dieting. Overly strict diets aren't easy to stick with. It took 12 weeks and quite a few alternative yet tasty food choices, plus riding. As long as your activity is fun, it will be easy to maintain.

Oh, and
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Good job Mark! Just keep at it! To me the way I feel when I am taking care of myself is worth the price to get there.

I'm coming off about 6 weeks of under exercising and a two weeks of nothing due to a minor surgery. Getting back into shape sucks but I have a race in one month so I kind of have to get there.

I am struggling with the diet thing as a newly single person. Luckily I'm broke enough that I can't eat out very often. One thing I did to try and kick the soda habit (and I have been pretty much soda free for about two years, I drink it maybe once a month) was drinking La Croix sparkling water ( or the generic alternative). I get the naturally flavored ones. No calories, no chemicals. But you get the carbonation. I'm just not a big veggie eater and I know I need to eat more. Plus when I am in training I tend to get hungry a lot so I have to fight the urge to have much junk of any sort around the house. I try to stay stocked with apples, bananas, citrus, etc.
 
Best of luck, Mark. :thu:

I can relate to a lot of that...recently I have been having issues sleeping. I haven't tried melatonin yet, need to I guess.
 
Oh....and I can totally relate to the sleeping thing. Unfortunately Melatonin does absolutely nothing for me. Nor does Valerian. I have yet to discover anything natural that works and I refuse to take any prescription drugs for that.
 
Good on ya, Mark!
The sleep thing is a bitch for me too. I take a Benadryl and a Melatonin every night.
I had my first really good workout today after the two weeks of bronchitis, followed by a weekend of food poisoning. Last week, I was worthless.
My shoulder is fucking killing me, though. I think it's time for cortisone shot #3.
 
Mojo Mark. I have a lot of the stress-related eating issues, so I know exactly what you mean. Just try to remember that you're going to slip sometimes and deal with them as isolated incidents rather than piling down on yourself and making it worse. Melatonin used to make me drowsy as well the next morning and valerian root made me feel almost hungover. There are other herbal remedies that have had a much better effect, but neither of our states seem to think that's okay...:embarrassed:
 
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Following my quad bypass two years ago I was sent to a stress management doctor, a psychologist really. He taught me some visualization techniques and gave me two things that help me sleep at night without waking every two hours thinking about work. The first is make a list every night at six o'clock listing everything you have pressing for the next day. You write it down and forget it. Takes some practice. The second was to take a single benadryl a half hour before bed. I take a half a benadryl and that works pretty well.
I started walking every morning with my dog. A mile at first, and now we do two and a half miles every weekday and three on weekends. It's great exercise and a great stress reliever. I use Map My Walk as well as a fitbit to keep me motivated.
 
I've been sleeping like a drunk baby since I went on Lexapro, and my life has improved immensely since then.

As for eating, the best strategy I've found is eating TONS of the stuff that's good for you (I like salads, myself, but everyone has a few healthy foods that they love) is a lot easier than focusing on what you CAN'T eat. If there's room for an Oreo after I've eaten a head of lettuce, I'll eat an Oreo, but more often than not, eating real food that I like turns off all my crave switches.
 
Just try to remember that you're going to slip sometimes and deal with them as isolated incidents rather than piling down on yourself and making it worse. Melatonin used to make me drowsy as well the next morning and valerian root made me feel almost hungover. There are other herbal remedies that have had a much better effect, but neither of our states seem to think that's okay...:embarrassed:

Well my state is ok with that one. My work is not however. And given that I will be job hunting soon it is best that I just not sleep instead.
 
Good luck Mark

If you get into it riding can be a great way to control your weight with minimal stress on the body. As you know I was able to ride 2 weeks after knee surgery that gives you some idea of how little stress there can be riding and yet you can burn in the neighbourhood of 500 cal/hr

Just try and remember if energy expending > energy input (eating) you will lose the weight.
 
Good on you for challenging yourself, Mark.

Around June, I expect to get an earful from my doctor. She wanted me to lose 35lbs before my next physical; that is still 35lbs away. I exercise 5 days a week, no high BP, cholesterol borderline high.
 
Mojo and good luck, Mark :thu:



I may or may not have told the story before, but about 7-8 years ago, I had an "incident" where I was damned sure I was having a heart attack. My pulse sitting still was above 200 at its worst. I didn't have any real pain, but a real chest heaviness, and was scared out of my shit. Went to the ER, and they checked me out, and told me I was fine. Same with my regular doc. Had two more of these episodes over the next two years. Found out it was stress- and heartburn-induced panic attacks (started right after my sister-in-law moved in with us :annoyed:). Since then, I have only had one or two, and know enough now what they feel like not to get too worked up over them.

The best thing I did over 5 years ago was quit smoking - since then, the only two or three cigarettes I remember was when I was drinking at some gathering in the hills :wink:. I also having been riding my bike over the last several years to varying degrees. Now, it hasn't ALWAYS been successful, as I ballooned up to 239 in December, but that was more due to eating too much crap again, and not as much lack of exercise.

The best thing I did for myself this year was on January 2, starting the My Fitness Pal app. I tell you, not only is it addictive as hell, but has been THE #1 thing that has kept me on track so far, and along with near daily workouts, walks, bike rides, or a combo of those, I have gone from 239 to right now 211. Mu goal is to get to 205, which is the weight I was at when I exited the military about *insert year from LONG time ago here :wink: *.
 
It seems like the older we get, the more we all have this story to tell. Business and stress of life make it tough to eat and sleep well for sure. I think you are definitely on the right track with following your wife's diet as much is reasonable. Definitely healthy. And definitely on the right track getting rid of the soda. It is my biggest demon. It's like a gateway drug for me. I can get going on eating well but if I dont quit the soda, I cant stick to the plan. I crave junk. As soon as I can quit the soda, it's easy again.

As for exercise, check out You Are Your Own Gym and see what you think. It is a body weight workout plan. He has books and videos but I just grabbed the app and it has tons of exercises but also has ready made plans that are scaled. I've been out if the gym since my shoulder surgery so I started with the basic but my understanding is it can get quite challenging the farther you go. Workouts are 30-45 minutes so far. They are all timed and it talks you through the whole thing. And you dont really need any equipment from what I can tell. I am a believe that strength training is the best bang for your buck although I try to get out and do a little walking or something also.

Stick with it and keep us posted. I need all the inspiration I can get.
 
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