The BLF Get-in-Shape Thread: (formerly, "A Newer, Thinner Rusty" Thread)....

I’m still on the program too…I need to start measuring my weight losses as well

And yes…I need to exercise as well

Down 14lb since starting in earnest as of the 9th. Still working out the kinks, but it's nice to see the change on the scale.

Biggest thing I'm having difficulty with is sticking to only water in between meals... keep cheating with drinking 2-3 cups of coffee, with cream and sugar, or a cup of juice during the day.

Try making that water with crushed ice…ice water smoothy! :party:

Want the best way? If you want the BEST cardio, nothing beats it…

Get your ipod and go to audible.com and download any audio book you’ve been wanting and put on your headphones and walk at a good pace for at least one hour. Don’t measure distance, just time. One full hour of constant, consistent walking. It only takes one hour of your day and you learn something. Do that at least 3 times a week. Of course, music like that is great, too.

Just joined audible, figure I'll give it a shot... listening to music while walking is great, but it's starting to get annoying to hear the same things often.

recommendation on books/site for these audio books sir?

And thanks! I need to get off my duff…I am so stagnant…I work in a cubicle…get home, go to sleep, get up…get on the computer…lather rinse repeat…uggh

I work nights so my days are literally flipped upside down…while I am working everyone is sleeping, while I am sleeping everyone is working…bleh

Good job Rusty!

What you said about how it’s amazing how much you can accomplish when you are ready is true. Once you have the will to change, it’s pretty easy. It’s much harder to eat right or exercise when you have no real motivation to change.

A lot of times it takes a drastic event to make someone change their life. A heart attack, mid-life crisis, getting arrested etc. The reason they refer to it as a “wake up call” is because it wakes you up from a dream like state where you have no reference of time or self awareness.

I was married for 12 years and I didn’t realize how unhappy I was until a couple of months ago when I decided I wanted a divorce. Within two weeks, I started feeling like my old self. It’s been about two months and I’ve lost weight, quit smoking, exercise more and eat better. I’m sleeping better and feel better overall. Sometimes I’m a bit lonely but that’s a small price to pay for all the freedom and benefits. I’ll never marry again and prob won’t even let a women move in ever again.

Thanks. And way to go on moving on. Been there, done that. Gotta keep moving forward; it’s either that or backward. No third direction.

In lieu of walking 1 hr session, have you considered 1 minute session of High-intensity Interval Training?

High-Intensity Training

A lot yes. I'm very lazy so the less time I have to spend doing things I don't really like the better.

I've been doing a bit of reading on the subject, and there is a ton of evidence that supports the benefits of shorter high intensity exercise over longer, low impact less stressful activities.

The key factor to consider though, is that the people used for these studies are usually "healthy" to begin with. Speaking for myself, at least with regard to cardiac health, and strength, I'm definitely not "healthy".

Still, on my walks I've been trying to work in a faster pace, building to a jog, and flat out running, 1-2 times for very short times. Not really intentionally, just felt like it.

As I lose more weight I'm hoping to be able to do more intense exercises. Would be nice to be able to burn off a larger amount of calories faster. Walking at 3-3.5mph according to the calculators I can only burn 400-500 calories. Jogging at a moderate pace (5pmh) that number shoots up to over 1000 calories, and goes up from there with speed.

It's been years since I've gotten on a bike, but that is definitely something I'm considering. It would be nice to be able to cover more of the parks quickly.

It's also getting kind of hot outside, so I'm tempted to join a gym, but that's also not really a budget friendly option.

All in all walking is the most pleasant and safest exercise. With walking often you even have time to contemplate becoming a philosopher! The one good advice I got was to swing the arms whenever you feel doing more.

Congratulations, well done

So it took me 6 days longer then I planned.

3 birthday (including steak dinners and heavy drinking parties), becoming an uncle (and four crazy days helping out), camping, July 4th bbq, and two other parties set me back a lot.

Started at somewhere between 300-310lb, and happy to say, 66 days in I'm down 31lb, showing 268.8lb on the scale this morning.

Definitely also a bit healthier. Where at the start I was dying after an hour of walking 3-3.5mph, I'm now able to do 4mph, on an incline, and recover much faster.

The new smaller diet, and consistency in going to the gym are still very very hard. I tried sticking to one meal a day, and very consistent hours when I eat, but can't really do it. What I can do is eat two smaller meals, really watch closely what/how much I eat, and stick to two meal windows. Occasionally also skipping a meal. I also tried intermittent fasting, and still do it, but not on a regular basis. The reason being is, if I don't eat anything, I notice myself having a much much harder time working out. Even 500-800 calories is enough to leave me with energy though.

Hoping to hit between 260lb by Labor day, 250 by mid September, start weight training after that and get to 200-220 by new years.

Congrats IE. Nice accomplishment. Best wishes on continued success.

Funny timing. I fell off the wagon. Not totally, I was still getting dragged behind it. I started by eating small snacks once in a while (at first at social events) and they grew into more snacking and then small meals now and then. Then almost every day I ate an additional meal or two. It was gradual and then just last week I realize I wasn't feeling good anymore. I had gained back 5 or 6 pounds of what I lost.

So just 3 days ago, I started back on the program. I'm just now starting to get over the transitional period again and starting to feel better. Unlike you, I have trouble rationing. So I need to follow the original Rusty Joe program for it to work for me.

Gratz. I been skinney my whole life- high metabolism but my dad got really big near the end and had a really hard time losing weight in his 60s. I guess it gets harder as you get older.

I don’t know why I find this so funny… I wish my dad was around to see it, he might have put down the sandwiches cold turkey

Good to hear you are still on the program. For a while there assumed you got off the program from the lack of news. As I recall there were 5 or 6 got on the program. Wonder how they are faring now.

I will just chime in too.

I started doing this diet about 10 weeks ago and have strayed from the narrow path many times.

I have small children who I will never have sitting alone at a dinner table and watching dad not eating...

So at weekends I eat 2-3 meals a day. Occasionally substituting morning meal with a cup of coffee and still have that cosy "we are a family together" feeling with them. I do watch myself though.

And on tuesdays I have a recurring social duty that makes it impossible to not eat anything. I watch myself though.

And then birthdays and other social events I will eat more than 1 meal a day and also drink my share (and your share too if youre not quick about it) of alcohol. Hey! I'm Danish. Whaddid you expect?? LOL

But I have lost 11 kilos so far so thats about what? 24 punds or there about?

And I am feeling ok now. But I must say that this diet is hard to follow for people who has physically demanding work and like to move it when off duty.. It is normal for me to be hungry an hour before noon and sometimes it is a killer.

Anyway. Thank you Rusty. It is helping me and sure is easier than other diets I have followed.

Thanks for the kind words guys. I wouldn't say I'm on the program as Rusty outlined it, more that I'm just generally watching to make sure that I have a high calorie deficit whenever possible, and keep track of calories on a day to day basis.

The rationing is very hard, part of the way I do it, is I force myself to chug a 16oz bottle of water before I eat, I have at least six bottles like that per day total, and most of all, everything I eat, I view in terms of what I have to do on the treadmill, or bike to burn it off.

The bike is fantastic at burning off calories... do 18-20mph for half an hour and that's 800 to a 1000 calories right there. My only problem is, I started off doing too much, and my knees got very sore, so I keep it to just half hour, 40 minutes on the bike per session, and spend more time on the treadmill now. My goal is to burn off at least 1000 calories extra, five times a week, on top of my metabolic rate, which is ~2500.

Treadmill is slower... you can increase the pace at which you burn calories by increasing the incline... figure on about 10% increase in effort, for every 3 degrees you raise it. Doing 4mph, at 9 degrees for 10 minutes leaves me very out of breath, but a lower incline like 3 degrees is doable for a while. Found out that a decrease, going downhill also burns more calories... and you can go faster.

I also fell of the wagon a for a bit... went to a buffet I used to go to a lot, and had a lot to eat. Felt completely like crap the next day, wiped out at least 4 days of work. Only option is to just keep going though.

Congrats, all. Everyone seems to have taken a step or two up instead of down—some setbacks notwithstanding. I’m royally glad to hear it.

As most of you are now finding out, you have to be careful jumping off and back on OMAD. You will very easily make that a habit, and of course, when that happens, you will have to re-adjust back with great discomfort.

Adjusting back to one meal isn’t all that difficult without the common trigger foods. The trigger foods (cakes, candies, chips, etc) make things insanely hard, which is why it is advisable to give them a total no-go while you are in the prime losing phase (remember, they do NOTHING for you at all, so there is no sense in allowing them a place). You can bring them back in sure enough in maintenance (see below), but even then you have to be careful.

It is easy to see old habits re-appear. Just like that alcoholic friend I once had. He did so well for six years. And then he relapsed. Those jaudicey, yellowing eyes quickly returned, he was again arrested for public intox, and before we knew it, he had crawled into a drunkard’s grave. Once you toy with being out of control, it is hard to take that control back. Once gone, the momentum seems hard to get back. Sure, it may not seem to matter as much with food as opposed to substance abuse, but what you do today affects the you of tomorrow, and you keep putting off your long-term goals when you jump back off and say “this is good enough for now.” Get to where you want to be and then have a solid plan to stay there (again, see below).

My personal update: My current weight is 186.4 as I enjoy maintenance mode and continue to add back lean muscle. The easiest way to maintain weight with little OMAD form-factoring is actually quite fun and pliable; I now do 3 days strict OMAD with the other 4 as “eat anything you want when you want” days, and it all levels out. The times I am around my family or friends, I just eat when everyone else eats. It works out nicely, although my body still prefers to eat once and I often have to remind myself I need at least several big splurge days to keep where I am. This involves me going for “junk”-ish foods, if for no other reason, then to make up for some not-so-big eating days. Amazingly, even with trigger foods, I still find it hard to want to really chow down again. I add in Chinese foods and all sorts of fast foods on peak eating days just to get back those needed calories. If I top out at 4,500 calories, it just levels things off and I’ve got muscle-building tools + lots of extra energy. Lasts for several days, actually, and I have trouble wanting to follow up with another two splurge days.

My activity levels continue to stay high—with the occasional rest day due to some moderate arthritis that has developed in the knees and hips. But if I make a deal with my body to hit it hard consistently and then hike no more than, say, 3 or 4 miles the next day, plus the weights, I recuperate well enough to be just fine and functional after an 8 to 10-mile hike and/or heavy weight routine the next day following. My body continues to get used to rigorous activity. Since I am 40+ now, I do have to take it a bit easier on running, but not really. Just because of the jarring of the body in the process, I save that and do it when needed as opposed to for recreation (and I never really need to).

But for maintenance, it is easiest to work the scale with 2 or 3 days strict OMAD vs 3 or 4 days on unregulated eating. We evolved to go between feast and famine, feast and famine. It just works beautifully to stay in control this way. I finish off each week with two strict 1,200-calorie OMAD days and that takes me quickly back down about 8 or 10 lbs to where I stay where I want to, but if I need to change things up further, I always can and still be in control. The body really likes losing when there are several top-off days in calories. And if I don’t watch it and make sure to get a good amount of eating done on the unregulated days, I will actually lose more weight. This is kind of fun…it’s like a mini-polar bear expedition where I mini-lose and mini-gain and my body gets extra-ready to not make me suffer when I have to go lean again. As with weighing, it is so very easy to track things over the week as opposed to longer time intervals.