Self-Examination: Identifying Weight Gain Issues

“You may ask yourself: Well, how did I get here?”
– David Byrne of Talking Heads

Identifying your weight gain issues may help your journey toward a healthier future. Self-examination is harder than it sounds. Here’s a little help.

Self-Examination

We likely have more than one reason our figure betrayed us. We expected it to keep its healthy figure despite the pitfalls we experienced or the trials we endured. Does it go back to childhood or was it habits that started in college, when we left home and went from home-cooked meals to fast food substitutes? A desk job can feel exhausting. A boss who brings in doughnuts every Friday, depositing them right near your desk? Awful. Then there’s late night snacks or the pizza craving that arises every Friday. You know, the one that attacks you and is stronger than a pregnant woman’s hunger. Were there just days when you didn’t care about your weight? Stress and anger can lay havoc on our willpower.

We often don’t notice subtle changes. We ‘forget’ how many times we have given in to our craving over the last few weeks. We remember exercising ‘just the other day’ when it was really eight days ago. I don’t think the majority of us are going to sit down and write out our thoughts and the path that led to our weight issues. It is a great idea. A lot of people suggest it. But, I think many of us will say, “Look. I’ll workout for an hour every day. But, I’m not going to sit down and write a journal about how I got fat in the first place.”

You can, however, focus a bit on your shortcomings. It may not feel valuable to identify your past issues. Someone may have issues that go back to childhood. When they were sad or angry, candy was the answer. For others, it is mindless, constant snacking in front of the television. For many, there is nothing healthy to eat at home, except for that frozen organic turkey breast. But, it isn’t defrosted and it would be four hours until it would be ready to eat. Then we find a bag of potato chips. Identifying how you got overweight can help you find better ways to resolve or cope with those weaknesses.

What’s the Advice?

Let’s examine some common advice and find some application or value in them. Everyone can create good habits. With practice and planning, you can overcome the pitfalls that may plague you.

“Eat what you are craving. Sit down and enjoy it.” In other words, give in rather than fight it for hours or days. Then the craving will allegedly disappear. This is poor advice. Some suggest the compromise either where you buy one slice of pizza or buy a bag of those miniature 100 calorie sized portions. It would be a good start. I tend to eat several bags. Try to think, how long is this craving going to last? Hours or days? Is there a healthier alternate? To be honest, I do keep a little chocolate at home. But, I often make hot chocolate with cocoa powder and skim milk without any sugar or just half a teaspoon. The alternate is a bag of M&Ms that I tell myself, “I will stop halfway.” I also read ‘palm oil, corn syrup’ on the label and stop myself from buying it.

“Eat broccoli every time you crave junk.” Great advice. Sounds like something Mom would say. Grandma would at least bake you a pie. And maybe the smell of warm apples with cinnamon was more satisfying than candy or fries. You can microwave an apple with cinnamon. It smells glorious and doesn’t have the fat and sugar trappings of store bought pie. Need crunch? Most pretzels are fat free or low fat. Try mustard dip instead of cheese sauce. I make not-fat Biscotti (3 eggs or just two eggs and a tablespoon of yogurt). They have sugar, but I sometimes need that crunch. Add almond flavor, anise, or gingerbread spices and you have a satisfying occasional treat. Or eat broccoli.

“Escape.” Dr. Oz suggests you turn off the television or computer and go outside. Breath deep. Relax or jog. Get out of the kitchen for a few minutes and occupy yourself with something. Clean your car. Or clean mine? Someone said my car looks like a homeless person lives in it.

Identify Bad Habits. Exercise during commercials instead of hunting for snacks. What do you do when you first walk in the door from work? Do you have healthy snacks at home? Air popped popcorn? There’s a lot of frozen smoothie fruits with little bits of kale. I make a frozen cherry shake with cinnamon and cocoa powder. Yum. If evil lurks in your cabinet, have a cabinet to keep your spouse’s or kid’s Pop-tarts, nacho chips, etc. This is a very difficult situation to deal with. But, you have to allow others in your family to live outside of your diet. The main problem is that you know it is there when you are depressed or stressed. Believe it or not, I know someone who put a lock on the candy cabinet.

Mindless eating advice: sit at the table, not in front of television, computer, or while updating your Facebook, Instagram, etc. Turn the phone off. Eat on a plate, not out of the container.

‘Fight your craving’ advice: one site says you should hold and melt an ice cube in your hand. Another says to drink a cup of black tea. Try massaging yourself. How about watching a Zwift race on YouTube? I tried some ginger. It is dried with a good bit of sugar. But it has a bold flavor that can knock out some hunger pains. Kiwi is a great snack. Try it with a dab of yogurt. Some people find if they concentrate on a puzzle that it helps get their mind away from demanding junk food. It is often our mind or heart steering us wrong, and not our true hunger driving us to eat.

I found one app that gives you reminders to avoid your nemesis snack foods, share accomplishments on social media, and keep track of your eating habits. It is called CraveMate, costs 99 cents and has good reviews. If it sounds like it may fit your needs, give it a look. It only costs the price of a small candy bar.

Let me know what works for you. You can always find me on Facebook at our ZwiftOff group. You’ll see our next scheduled group ride for burning fat off with Zwift. Come on and join us!

The Open Pro: The Anatomy of a Solo Pro Training Camp

Editor’s note: Jordan Cheyne’s “The Open Pro” series details his experiences with high-level Zwift training as a rider in the pro Continental ranks. You can read his past posts here.

I completed my first ride back on Zwift this week after over 3 weeks training in the glorious warmth of the Arizona desert. Any gains I had made in fitness during my intensive training camp were immediately put to the test on the steep ramps of the new Surrey Hills loop on the London course. I am happy to say that I immediately felt more powerful fighting the plentiful resistance supplied by my Kurt Kinetic smart trainer. Everything felt better and easier: more power, lower heart rate and a much smoother pedal stroke at high and low cadences. I haven’t fully recovered and absorbed the massive outdoor training block I am sure, but the signs are positive that the dose was correct and the response will be good.

As I wrote in my last installment, I planned a solo camp in Tucson, Arizona to kick-start 2018 after a few weeks of foundational work on Zwift in December. I wasn’t completely alone in the venture, I had my wife Emily for company and as it turns out a crew of friends and training partners in the neighborhood. Tucson is an affordable, no-nonsense city and the guaranteed weather and endless desert roads make it a popular spot for Pros in the winter months. The motivation of seeing teammates and competitors on the road is a nice bonus when it comes to pushing through hard days in an early season camp, still months away from the motivation of upcoming races.

Starting Out

The first couple days on the road were a bit uncomfortable as my body acclimated to the rigors of riding for 4+ hours after shorter stints of Zwifting and cross training up to that point. It usually isn’t the legs that slow you down in that period; it is the supporting musculature in the back, neck and shoulders along with tender area of the body touching the saddle that cry out for moderation. Fortunately, I adapted quickly and within the first week I was managing 4-5 hour, 250+TSS days with relative ease. The miles started flicking by, the fridge started to empty at a much faster rate and I started to feel like a professional again, going to work day in and day out.

The Plan and Progression

My coach had me on the usual early season diet of zone 2-3 intensities with small volumes of low cadence work and explosive efforts to round out my strength base. As time went on we added long tempo intervals with small sections at FTP to work on lactate tolerance and repeated, sustainable power.

I surprised myself with what I was able to absorb and recover from and was able to put in blocks of 3 days on/1 day easy for the duration of the trip without a hitch. In the past I would have been able to handle that structure at such a high volume load for 1.5-2 weeks at the most before needing a 2-3 day recovery block. On this trip I was able to power through all the way to the end and even ride well in Tucson’s famous Shootout training race ride each Saturday. It was really encouraging to be able to throw down with some top guys after riding tough 4 and 5 hour sessions in the preceding days. That durability is a large part of what stage race success is made of at the professional level.

Fuelling Improvements

I attribute my improved training capacity to a couple factors. First, I have had a carefully managed increase in volume and intensity since starting with my coach in late 2014 and in general my Chronic Training Loads (CTL) are up 30-50%. I think that these hard yards, both from training and high level racing all add up and sometimes the results appear in a rapid and unexpected improvement like they did in my Tucson camp.

Secondly, based on experience and good advice, I have forced myself to eat a lot more quality calories during these big training blocks. I have a fast metabolism to begin with and to support 4-5000 kj training days, the food needs to be plentiful, nutritious and easily digestible. I didn’t keep track but a conservative estimate would be at least 10 lbs of dry oatmeal, 5 dozen eggs and a pint of coconut oil consumed during the trip in pre/post ride meals alone. There was a fair amount or coconut ice cream, local Mexican delicacies and dark chocolate disposed of as well. I view those as necessary resources in maintaining a strong mental state as well as in meeting daily caloric demands. With this consistent fuelling and plenty of sleep my glycogen stores stayed stocked, my muscles stayed strong and I still lost at least 5 lbs of winter weight.

The Results

All said and done I managed 2,800 kilometers, 35,000 meters of elevation, and over 4,500 TSS in 82 hours of training over 24 days. The goal was to come out of camp with a big start on my 2018 base and feeling stronger than when I arrived. I am happy to say I accomplished that and I am bouncing back well. I will be back on Zwift and back on my snowshoes climbing mountains for the next 4 weeks or so before heading to Elevate-KHS team camp in mid-February. The prologue to the 2018 racing season will be finished before I know it and it will be onto racing and striking out for big results with my new team.

Winter Training: The First Group Ride

Editor’s note: Dr. Nick Green is writing a series of posts documenting his winter training progress as he works to drop weight, build power, and be ready to take Strava KOM’s when spring rolls around. Browse his past posts here.

It’s a Saturday that I have to work, so a quick early morning ride is in order. The hour long ride before work averaged a respectable (for me) 178 watts, 33.2 km and 173 metres of elevation. I don’t think this is too bad for a little rip just to get the legs moving.

Following a full work day, I had the opportunity to get on the bike again after supper.

Signing into Zwift I happened to see there was a group ride starting in 4 minutes. Billed as a
“Fitness Recruit’s Social Ride” with power output of 1.3-1.5 w/kg, I figured it was a good place to dip my toe into the group ride scene.

Harder than Expected

It was nothing short of surprising that I watched a group zip away from the front, leaving me pumping out 3.8 w/kg in order to keep with what became the second group of the break away. The entire ride was an interesting mix of bridging gaps, pounding up hills, hanging on to drafts and generally working a lot harder than expected, especially for the second ride of the day.

Follow the Leader

Here is where I need to apologize to the group leader. Unfortunately I was too busy dripping on my handlebars to think about taking note of her name. She was gracious, even while trying to get the group to come back together–attempts that were ignored by a large number of riders who were pushing way above the ride’s planned power output.

Not being familiar with the etiquette of group rides, I spent much of the ride debating about slowing to join the crowd, or continuing to fly through the 30 km. This was compounded by relatively little information from Zwift. It was only after the ride that I figured out the group leader has a marker on the mini-map, and a chevron beside the group leader’s name in the ‘Riders Close’ list. Unfortunately by being dragged along by the power riders I didn’t actually see it during the ride.

Max heart rate of 150 – not much of a ‘social ride when my max is 160.

Notes for Future Reference:

1. Don’t get sucked into the competitive nature of a ride. Honestly I’ve told myself this 1000 times and fail every time!
2. Despite the prescribed wattage of a group ride, it is possible to go much harder.
3. Riding with a group is great fun. Large groups to draft with and the nature of them being spread out on the road can bring some interesting opportunities to push yourself. Of course, this is very similar to a real group road ride.
4. Apologize to the group leader BEFORE signing out of the ride, regardless of how hard the effort became.

By the time the 30 km ride had finished, the 1.3 – 1.5 w/kg ride had become a 2.43 w/kg effort, with a maximum effort of 5.09 w/kg. The lesson for today: Zwift is close enough to real life to spark the competitive nature, even when it shouldn’t!

The Vegan Monologues: Weight Loss and Veganism

To be clear: vegetarians do not eat meat. Vegans take this further and also forgo eggs, dairy, and even honey. Some people flip back and forth: I have friends who are weekday vegans.

This article will look at some common arguments for and against veganism. You vegans don’t get off easy though: there are a number of doctors with great concerns for vegan patients.

Note: this is a look at the main issues, not a forensic examination. We can probe the height, width and depth of this in another article.

What’s Wrong with Meat?

There’s plenty to worry about with your meat, particularly its source. Hormones and antibiotics are a great concern to vegans. Reports indicate a definite link from red meat to prostate cancer and arterial clogging. There are claims that animal proteins cause inflammation and water retention. Much of your meat source is fed corn and even sugars to fatten them up quickly for sale. (The television show Dirty Jobs once showed how dead cattle were ground up and used to make chicken feed.) Thus, many meat animals are unhealthy.

Is there proof that meat is the villain here? Do studies differentiate from lean meat and processed meats, like ham, bacon, sausage, and deli turkey? Does it matter what type of meat is consumed?

There are three things worth observing in my opinion:

1. Avoid all processed meats, including frozen prepared meals and meat with chemical additives.
2. Avoid fried and grilled meats. Carcinogens are believed to be from high temperature cooking. Slow cooked meats may avoid this danger.
3. Look for the best meat you can find and afford. As Newsweek magazine once showed, cage-free and organic are terms that do not describe the packed conditions often present. Real free range is healthier as they can move around, as well as be outside. I recently purchased free range, natural grass raised venison and elk. A serving had 4 grams of fat. Dare you look at the amount of fat in the average steak or hamburger? Lean 90/10 beef has four times the fat of venison.

What’s Wrong with Dairy?

The main concern appears to be Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH). Like MSG, there are sure to follow similar chemical compounds that will establish similar results but with various substitute names. More and more milk labels read “No BGH.” A cow given BGH reputedly produces twice the amount of milk over its lifespan… hard to resist for farmers, impossible to resist among corporate-owned industries.

Other objections to dairy includes possible links to cancer, lactose sugar impact, and resistant infections from antibiotics. Low level reactions, such as indigestion and headaches, can occur until a dairy free diet is introduced.

Proponents of dairy products see little issue with this. Again, many dairy cattle never get outside the barn in the modern milk industry. You may see a study where those who eat dairy are much more likely to die of a heart attack. Again, are they comparing people with a healthy diet that includes dairy or an unhealthy diet with dairy? Do they compare vegans to vegetarians who consume dairy? Can they differentiate the type of dairy consumed, such as fat free versus those who consume whole milk and cheese?

With dairy, try a brief change to check for intolerance to lactose or casein. We can conclude that fat-free is your best option. Some with mild issues can consume lactose free milk, yogurt, and fermented cheeses without complications. Look for grass fed organic milk. Note that 1% milk is 20% calories from fat while 2% milk has 38% of its calories from fat.

What’s Wrong with Veganism?

Vegan heart attacks? Yes, indeed. The issue includes vegans who eat junk foods like potato chips, french fries, even stir fried vegetables. There is a lot of vegetable oils that are considered dangerous to your health, especially hydrogenated oils and trans fats. Many oils lose their nutritional value when heated to high temperatures. They may even endanger your health. While coconut oil has been touted by the coconut oil industry as having health benefits, it is extremely high in saturated fat (coconut milk gets 63% of its calories are from fat.) Why avoid saturated fats in meat, then get it from coconuts? The danger is there. Doctor Michael Colgan is one of the experts who has staked his reputation against coconut oil from the very beginning.

One study said that eating meat causes inflammation… obviously vegans avoid this. However, other studies showed much inflammation from gluten (another diet altogether.). A better study showed inflammation occurred in those eating meat fed a corn-based diet, but not in the group with grass-fed meat. I only trust studies with real people. Mice and rats are not humans. Besides, the test changes the proportion of the amount that a human would consume. In other words, don’t test mice with the equivalent dose of twenty servings a day for a human.

You can definitely gain fat on a vegan diet. If you currently eat a lot of fatty meats, cheese, and ice cream; then you will lose weight on any diet where you eliminate those items. There are a good number of vegans who simply want to save animal lives. Extended time as a vegan will reduce the flora in your intestines that aid the breakdown of those proteins. This is probably why vegans who return to a meal with dairy or animal proteins usually feel awful after. Go back slowly and take probiotics if you are vegan for several months.

What Are My Best Choices?

Oil-free cooking may be your healthiest choice. It will immediately reduce the amount of fat in your diet. There are a number of companies providing non-stick enamels that can truly do what they promise. They are safer than Teflon and durable.

Protein powders can help you break the bad meat habits that are currently clogging your arteries. We can all benefit from eating healthy greens, like spinach and kale. Proteins from lentils, peas, and all the beans are worry-free alternate sources of the proteins you need. Choose fat-free dairy products. Limit cheese severely or eliminate it altogether. Despite the convenience, steer away from processed foods. Processed soy products have little nutritional value and can still have high fat levels. Consider a better soy option such as Fearn Soybean Soy Flour. Give yourself time to adjust to a new diet completely. Don’t give up if you fail from time to time.

I have been pleasantly surprised how many people have made half of their weight loss goal with Zwift. Daily exercise can do wonders. Share your story with us or join your fellow Zwifters currently riding off the pounds, kilograms, and a few stones. Join ZwiftOff on Facebook.